Andrew Whitworth: There's A Different Feel To The Bengals

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Okay. The news we've been waiting for. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

CD lab, four-year, $136 million extension, $100 million guaranteed. Earlier on the show, Jets defensive tackle, Quinnen Williams. Coming up, Super Bowl champion and prime video Thursday night football analyst, Andrew Whitworth.

Minnesota Timberwolves all-star, Carl Anthony Towns. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number two The Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Great chat with Quinnen Williams. Talked all about the Jets with him. It was great.

Got a lot of great answers to some of the questions I've had. So many Jets questions. So that was our number one. We just finished up with an in-depth analysis that you didn't think you'd need, which is which quarterback do you think is the best in an elevator if you're stuck in it, like Justin Herbert? Which is the best system quarterback for that. Who's got the ability to maybe get you through the ceiling when you need to get out? Who can keep calm in the pocket?

Who can keep everybody focused, leadership? Didn't mention Jalen Hurts, who, as you know, is Mr. Push. Like, he can give you that push, right? He's getting pushed. He's getting pushed, but he can also give the push. You know, if you need to hit that button. If you're one of those people that maybe it's not working because you haven't pushed the button hard enough, you want that guy.

Because he can maneuver himself through spaces. No doubt. No doubt. At any rate, if you missed it, don't worry.

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That's basically what I'm saying. Nice chat in our green room with Andrew Whitworth of Prime Video. He's going to be coming out here shortly. He wants to talk about LSU USC this week. Ooh.

In Vegas. Apparently he's been talking smack with Reggie Bush. Nobody's talking about that. Because that was a split title he was talking about back in the day.

Oh, interesting. In the same way I go out with Will Compton with that split title with Nebraska. With all of our hall of famers like Charles Woodson and Steve Hutchinson. And that year we beat Ryan Leaf's Washington State team.

Nebraska didn't lose a game either. And let's give Tom Osborne a gold watch before he leaves and we'll split the title. You're sticking to that. Oh god, please.

How you feeling? Give me a break. Wow.

Charles Woodson one of the greatest college football players ever. Wow. This is a fact.

You're going to beat him. Got it. Okay. Long story short, I'm biased. Hey.

Carl Anthony Towns is in a car making his way here as well. It's exciting. Stretch limit? Stretch limit for the big cat? No. No.

Okay. I don't think he needs that. Well, he's seven foot tall.

We didn't put him in a sedan. Let's put it that way. Eight four four two oh four rich number to Don before we get to Andrew Whitworth. And overreaction Monday on a Tuesday. Tuesday. Go for it Chris.

I'll give you the honors here. Who are we taking? Who are we taking?

All six lines are lit. Let's see. Let's see. Let's do Jason in Columbus. Jason in Columbus. You're here on the Rich Eisen Show. What's up, Jason? How you doing, Rich? Nice to be on the show.

I'll give you the old adage, first time, long time. Hey. Let me ask you this question. Columbus, Georgia or Ohio? I'm in your favorite Columbus, Ohio. Hey.

It is my favorite. I have some great memories of Columbus, Ohio, like two years ago, you know? I'm actually originally from New York.

Grew up in Queens. Moved here for my job and basically was indoctrinated with all the Ohio State things as soon as I moved here. Oh, good. Good for you. You're going to have a really good season, I believe. So, listen.

What do you want to do, Jason? I actually wanted to do a little bit of win-loss with the Atlanta Falcons schedule, especially given the fact they picked up to some defensive help. Yes. And I thought it would be fun to kind of run through the schedule here a little bit.

I'm always a hopeful Atlanta Falcons fan with a touch of cautiousness. Ah. A touch of cautiousness. Is that an album? It's not bad.

What is that? That feels like an album. It is a touch of cautiousness. Steely Dan, right?

Steely Dan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Listen, how does a guy from Queens who takes a gig in Columbus want to play an Atlanta Falcons win-loss game?

How do we do that? So, my family's from Italy, off the boat. They never really watched American football. I kind of grew up loving football.

Obviously, I have friends that were Jets and Giants fans, but honestly, my favorite player growing up was Neon Dion, so I became a Falcons fan. Okay. Good enough. That makes sense to me.

Sold. Perfect. The Atlanta Falcons start with the Pittsburgh Steelers. What happens, Jason, in Columbus? I'm going to give them a win on this one. I think they go after their old coach and get the W here.

At the Eagles on a Monday night? If you look historically, Atlanta never wins in Philadelphia, so I'm going to give them the loss there. Well, then that's a problem with the Chiefs coming into town next week.

Yeah, I'm going to give them the loss there, too, unless they could show me that they could play with the big boys. I'm going to give them the L. One and two home with the Saints. I think they win against the Saints. And they turn around and play the Bucks four days later.

I think they got the Bucks this year. I think that's a win. Three and two at the Panthers.

That's a win there. All right, we're rolling into a home date with the Seahawks. I think they lose this game. I think they overlook the Seahawks and the West Coast trip kind of affects them a bit. Four and three, and you wrap up your series with the Buccaneers.

I think they sweep the Bucks this year. Five and three, home for the Cowboys. I'm taking the win here. Oh, you went high register, though.

You had to go high register to believe it. Six and three at the Saints. I'm going to give them a loss here because they don't really play well in New Orleans for whatever reason. Six and four at the Broncos. I think I'll give them the win here. Into the by, seven and four against the Chargers at home. I think they lose this game in L.A. Seven and five at the Vikings. I'll take a win here. Eight and five at the Raiders on a Monday night.

I like the Monday night. I think they're going to ball out here against Vegas. Nine and five, home for the Giants. I think they win against the Giants. All right, finishing strong. Ten and five at the Commanders.

I think they overlook the Commanders a little bit here. I think Jayden gets them. And then home for the Panthers. I think they finish out the year with a win. Jason in Columbus has the Falcons 11 and six. I think that's a fair counting, don't you think, 11 and six?

I like 11 and six. And let's get this right, so that would be splitting into the Saints and sweeping the Bucks and the Panthers. 11 and six being four and two in division might get it done. Or five and one in division. That would get it done. That wins the division, for sure.

11 and six. Jason in Columbus, thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Call back.

That's first time, long time. Let's keep them on the string. Andrew Whitworth of Prime Video in our green room. Overreaction Monday in your RSS feed. We recorded it yesterday. It's time for an overreaction Monday on a Tuesday. That was terrible. That was crap. That was garbage. This place sucks.

Overreaction Mondays on a Tuesday. Okay, very good. I like that drop.

Glad you like it. Very funny. What's up, guys? Everybody good? Good.

It's crack. Did you write that down for Susie? Was that in your notes for what's more likely?

Which part? No, she's a professional. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Did you say hello?

What's up, guys, on Friday? No, I did not. Because she did give you a shout-out. She knows what time it is. I'm not accusing her of eating notes. You're going to get me in trouble. That was the plan. Yes, that was the plan. No, I just wanted to make sure you give me a shout-out.

Sounds like a Brockman move. Whoa, I take offense to that. You should. I'm just trying to cover my tracks of sounding offensive to my wife by being overly offensive to you. So just back off and give me my first subject, please. I don't care about that.

Thank you. Did you see what the NFL announced today regarding the chain gang? Yes, that they are going to continue to move the sticks.

That's the sound of the band. So Daniel Jeremiah with a one-year reprieve, because they might remove the sticks next year. It's a giant mistake to not use the laser first down tech this year. What are we doing? We have the tech.

We did it in the preseason. It worked awesome. Did it. Get rid of the chain gang. What are we doing?

Did it. We know it worked awesome in the preseason. I was watching several preseason games where they used it. You were not behind the scenes hearing how it could have been a scramble. They could have been scrambling to get this right. Not right. Great. It looked great on TV. They, they do it on the tennis.

It's literally happening right now at the U S open. You got it. Use it. This is dumb.

Let me tell you something, Chris. This is year 22 for me in the national football. Yeah. I'm a Smith here.

Yeah. And the way it works in the NFL is it's mentioned and immediately rejected out of hand, sort of, sort of like when Susie and I make a suggestion to our children and we will learn with cage, you and Sarah make one suggestion to cage at a certain age, reject that out of hand. Cause it's coming from you. So and then you got to try it again and try it again and try it again. And then when they finally say yes to the idea that you have, it takes at least a season, if not two until it's implemented full time. Cause the last thing the league wants is somebody like you going out there and flipping out when it's all on the line for a spot in a big playoff game.

And where are the chains? Cause that never used to be a much of a mistake and this technology wait for it. How do you trust it? It's not just somebody, some, you know, like Tim Donaghy's not running it. So they need to make sure everything is buttoned up.

It's like a tanker. It takes forever to turn around in the NFL. This is not a surprise to me.

It's almost like stubborn old rich men are in charge. It's not a surprise to me. And so the answer to this question is you're overreacting. We don't know exactly. You know what? Because Walt Anderson, who is now, you know, the media representative on behalf of the league for matters in terms of operations and officiating, we're going to have them on Thursday's program. We'll ask him, we'll ask him why idiotic.

Just do it. What else? We know it works.

What else? Maybe they're trying to give the chain gang one last year of work before they do away with their jobs. The chain gang should be cut. The chain gang will always be there. We'll still have chains. They're back up. Casey. What else, Chris?

Technology works, people. Last year, which team had the biggest bandwagon heading into the season? The Detroit line. Okay, sure. Right. Okay.

Yeah. This year, no bigger bandwagon right now. Than the Bears. Than the Houston Texans. Oh, get out of here.

What? I don't think there's a lot of team people. I don't think there's enough people on their bandwagon.

How's that sound? You literally just said they're the top team to take out the Chiefs. I said they're going to be mentioned. The biggest bandwagon. No, the biggest bandwagon belongs to the Chicago Bears. You're riding it.

You're actually driving it. I'm the only one who's really talking up the Bears. Dude, they're on hard knocks. They're going to be everywhere.

They were the only choice for hard knocks. Come on. Texas bandwagon is through the roof. I don't think there's enough people on their bandwagon.

How does that sound? I think the bandwagon's real. So the Bears are the ones who have, oh, you're the one who's talking nonstop about their playoff hopes. Everybody, all Bears fans are kind of apprehensive, but I think that's just for show deep down they're flipping out. They've never known happiness. I think you asked most people are the Bears going to be good this year?

They're like, look out. Oh, I completely disagree. Maybe I'm off, but I also think that that's an offense.

Their bandwagon means that they don't deserve to have the bandwagon. Well, I think there's going to be some sophomore slumpage during this season. Daniel Hunter has just been added to this mixer on defense. That guy, Al Shaheer, is one of the best sideline to sideline linebackers that nobody talks about in the NFL, and he's on that team. The Texans have the sixth best Super Bowl odds.

The hype is real. Because they did what they did last year, and they added, they actually supplemented. That's how you go all in. They actually, go figure this, a team in the state of Texas did that. Now obviously the Cowboys would push back and go, what are they paying their quarterback? That's a good point. What else? That's reasonable.

They need to pay them. All right. What else you got there, Chris? Talked a lot about wide receivers this off season.

We know that C.D. Lamb got the bag. Justin Jefferson is the highest paid receiver. But next year, you got to look what's coming down the pike.

What do you got? Garrett Wilson will be the first $40 million a year wide receiver. We got to see a big, big, big, huge season from him to do that. I think we're all expecting that, right? No, I mean, guys put up super star numbers.

Are you really doing that? You're, you're the King of Rogers is 40 and people are over hyping him. I think I'm one of the few people who doesn't think he's going to be good this year. It seems like the majority feel like they're super contenders because of Aaron Rogers.

He's going to be healthy the whole year. Garrett Wilson could be offensive player of the year. You know how I feel about Garrett Wilson, correct? He's put up huge numbers with arguably the worst quarterback situation. CeeDee Lamb last year, first in targets, receptions, yards after catch, and the longest reception of the season. That 92 yarder against the Lions, second in the league and receiving yards, receiving touchdowns, receiving first downs and receiving percentage per target. He was also second tied for it in a hundred plus yards receiving games, eight of those and first in terms of receiving yards in the first half. Garrett's got to do that to make the claim of a $40 million a year wide receiver. It's like the plus up Justin Jefferson by five. That's an overreaction and I love the guy and I hope for Jets fans sake that he's due after this season.

I know he's due, but $40 million is a large leap. What else? We talked a lot earlier in the show about the toughest divisions in the NFL. We'll put up that new poll in a minute. The North divisions, both combined AFC, NFC. Six playoff teams? Five. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll say that's good. I'll say that's good.

Five playoff teams from the North. I think, you know what, you could set the over underline if there's such a thing. Four and a half. Four and a half. So you'd say take the over on that? I think so. I don't think that's an overreaction. You want to name him?

Want to call your shot? No, I don't. I don't, but I, I wouldn't be surprised if three make it from one of those divisions. Just like three made it from the AFC North last year, which means some other, well the other division would just have to contribute to, and that makes sense. I don't think that's an overreaction.

Could they get six? Oh man. Now that's a tall order.

I mean, it's not like the rest, it's not like the rest of the, the league is just a bunch of slappies. I know. What else? Okay.

All right, Mike, you can switch music. Oh, fantastic. We've got Carl Anthony Towns coming in later. Oh, how about this?

Yeah. Talking about the Western conference. The last two representatives in the West, Mavs, Nuggets, neither of them will make the NBA finals this year.

Oh, I think that's not an overreaction either. Oklahoma City could take a step up. Cats, Minnesota Timberwolves could take that step up.

I don't know, your Clippers might fall off. I mean, I don't, I think they'll be better than people think, but I, is there any shot that the Phoenix Suns can actually utilize that, that they're like, what's up with that? Let me tell you something though, right? Devin Booker's game evolved before our eyes during the Olympics. He took, he took a supporting role, kind of deferred to other guys, still stepped up and his shots played defense. He and KD had some time to work in and groove a little bit. Who knows, man? Maybe that was the thing that can take the Suns team over the top.

I mean, I thought you were going to go even crazier that neither the Mavericks or Nuggets would make the Western conference finals, Western conference finals because the Nuggets didn't make it this year. What do you think about that one? I think you could make the case that way too. All right. Last one, last one. And just because this dude is on such a best right-hand hitter of the 21st century, Aaron judge. How do you, how do you say no to that right now? Just say it. Albert pools.

I got it. I'm just saying Aaron judge is got 51 home runs and he's hitting over three 30. It's not just like home runs and he's striking out 1200 OPS out of his scope. It's unbelievable. Giancarlo Stanton had the soundbite of soundbites this week saying Aaron judge is playing a video game.

The rest of us are just grinding is what he's saying. And you've got, and last night he didn't hit a home run. He didn't hit a home run last night. He took one away and, and, and doubled, doubled up a runner off of first from deep centerfield. He is truly one of the greatest baseball players I've ever seen. And clearly, you know, I am biased when it comes to him and the Yankees, but the, what he is doing right now is stuff that not even Barry bonds did when he was on his heater back in the day.

That is true. The, what he has done over the last 100 games, you take a look at those numbers and he is, you can't remember. His April was terrible. He had started slow and he's now on the dreaded, if you will, pace for 62 Oh, Tony, you got to give it up for him as well. We didn't discuss this yesterday, how he was one stolen base and one home run shy of the 40 40 club becoming the sixth guy in major league baseball history. And he got the stolen base early on Friday night and then walked it off with a grand slam me to complete the 40 40 he's unreal.

And then started pitching off a mound the next day, throwing no, and he started throwing off a mound the next day. So, but judge, I don't think that's an overreaction. Good stuff. Thank you, sir. Let's take a break. When we come back, let's get Andrew Whitworth out from the green room. That's next.

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Just go to linkedin.com slash direct and get started. Back here on the rich eyes and show sitting here on the Roku sports channel radio audience will rejoin in a moment. Look who's back.

Everybody, our buddy wit prime video, everybody. So you and Carissa drew the straw to go a pre-seasoning with Alan and Kirk and look any couple days spent with Al was always worth it. I mean, the guy's so entertaining, but we did, we had a blast. Did you take air Al?

We did. You took air Al out there. Air Al. It's not really the short straw.

It's more of the convenient straw. You're close by. Was Chris on air Al too?

She was. Oh, what up? Okay. That's it.

I took some air Al's, uh, when he was doing Thursday night for NBC. Yeah. It was great. Yeah. There's nothing like it. Just listening to him opine and he will opine on pretty much anything.

He will. It's the best. It's the best. It is the best. Every time I get home, my wife's like, all right, tell me the Al stories.

Tell me, tell me whatever Al talked about. That's all I want to know about. Is that right? Oh yeah. It is the greatest. He is the best. He is the best. And he's just, I mean, I will gush about him, but that's pretty cool. Yeah. It was fun.

It was actually great. And obviously played in Cincinnati for 11 years. It was great to go back and have some good dinners and enjoy a little good time seeing a lot of the folks I spent a lot of my life with. It's Collinsworth's town too, right? Oh yeah. I saw him too. I saw him as well. He was over at Jeff Ruby's, you know, everybody's got to go to Ruby's and have a steak when you're in Cincinnati.

When you're in Cincinnati. Yep. So I got to go see him and the family. Fantastic. All right. It was good. So we've got Andrew Whitworth here.

The first, let me see, your first game is a good one too, right? Really good one. Yeah. You've got Buffalo in Miami. In Miami, baby. Let's go. Boy.

Gonna be a good one. South Florida. And then you're in New York. I'm trying to think of the four seasons for Al's if that makes him happy.

Yeah. That's really the only thing you got to do with our schedule is check the hotel situation. Where is Al staying?

That's all you want to know. We need him happy. We need him Al happy.

The greatest of all time. 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 clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Karl Anthony Townes on his way. Look who's already here.

It's Andrew Whitworth of Prime Video. Good to see you here, sir. This is year three, right?

For you? Year three, baby. I'm the paparazzi. I'm officially media now. I guess I'm like official.

Don't say it like that. Am I officially media? I guess I am. You are. Wait till, wait till, wait till you're, cause you're so good at this.

So you will have this opportunity as long as you wish to keep doing it. Wait till you're going to run into some people of an age who just like, you played? Oh yeah.

Wait till that happens. Yeah. I get a couple now and then I'll text some guys, you know, that I still have, you know, relationships with playing and be like, Hey, is this, are you asking me like a, is this a question you're going to say on air? And I'm always like, don't do that to me. I'm just talking to you. Don't, don't reply like that. Is this something you're going to say on, no, I just asked you how you're doing. That's it. They think your intentions were not.

No, they just want to know, they want to know if this is, you know, can I fully share? On the record. Right?

Am I on the record? Gosh. Speaking to my cuff links. Man. Oh my gosh. Yeah. You know, Jeffrey Hobson in Cincinnati, he still uses the old little silver recorder, you know, and anytime he talks to you and then he kind of like just kind of wiggles in his pocket, he's like, okay, now I'm on the record, now I'm on the record.

How does Burrow look? What do we got here? Good. You know, I had a good conversation with him, ready to go, you know, this now with these three preseason games, taking away that fourth, these kind of two week window here, I think as fans and everyone watching and covering the game, you're like, let's get to the games. And I think the players feel the same way.

I was talking to him about that. He's like, you know, you finish this game and it's like, I mean, you're looking at it. There's still two weeks till we play our game when we were there last week on Thursday. So this is a long drawn out, hey, two whole weeks to get ready. Even more time than you have to think about when you have a bye week in the season that feels long.

This is even longer than that. So guys just are itching to play and that's what he was like, you know what, there's a couple of things to get ready. I'm ready to game plan. I'm ready to focus on one opponent and say, hey, let's go play in a game and try to win, get past this camp stuff and let's go. Is it true he can't throw three days in a row?

You know what, that one, I don't know the answer to, but I do know this. He is locked in and there's a different feel to their team. I mean, I've been around them the last few years.

What do you mean? You can tell defensively, like talking to Lou Annaromo, I think last year, you know, he didn't feel like they communicated as well as they probably could have. And it wasn't what he was used to losing Von Bell losing, you know, Jesse Bates, some of those guys in that secondary. When you start to do that, it's just like offensive line play a lot of time for those guys, communication, a feel for one another, being able to kind of know how to play off of each other this year, getting mom back, you know, obviously, you know, they've upgraded there with Gino Stone.

They feel like this year he felt like already in camp. He sees elite communication. He sees a group that he feels like he can call the kind of game he wants to call. So just not just Joe Burrow, but really defensively how they feels an offense with a Marius Mims now, you know, Trent Brown there, I feel like they think this team feels like they got a chance to go win this this conference and represent in the Super Bowl again.

And you can kind of feel that in the aura they're walking around with. There feels like a presence that, you know, what you think of the last couple of off seasons, I mean, training camps, they come with Joe Burrow has been hurt. He's had surgery.

He's had a calf. He's always saying when they're walking into week one, they're not real sure who they are. They felt pretty confident who they think they are. And the other team that was there that night is got another quarterback who had an injury marred season ending injury last year in Anthony Richardson, we had Shane Steichen on the show yesterday. He's just he's the best dude.

He was like jumping through the screen like it. And and last year, you know, first year as a head coach, he was kind of a little bit more close to the vest. We saw a side of him yesterday where he and he was just gushing about Anthony Richardson, who who had quite a night on prime video were nice drive and then a pick six.

So what do you make of Indianapolis's chances, because that changes the tenor of the AFC South if they're very good. I think Shane Steichen is crazy impressive. You know, I got a chance to visit with him some. And even after the game, you know, to the same thing, he kind of like I just went up to say, hey, it was good seeing you again. But why?

And he like walks over and I'm like, well, you know, this like it's like, hey, I get you on the set. Right. Right. Yeah.

But yeah. And he just kept talking about all this is great. So it's like kind of getting a chance to hear him how pumped up he was to get his guys out there. But I think with Anthony Richardson, it's just going to take time. I mean, you know, you look how quick and short his really his first season was.

But we started to see glimpses. You look at that Rams game down 23 nothing, bring him all the way back, getting into overtime. You saw some of the effect he can have running and throwing. I think with me, like it's more about seeing him progress like all young rookie quarterbacks playing the game from the pocket, playing the game in those situations when people kind of figure out what you're good at and take it away from you, how you adjust. And then the biggest thing that I was concerned and I said this last year when Chris and I were flying over, I was like, do you remember last year we were going we actually had the Colts last year in the preseason in Philadelphia and I was watching the tape of him against the Bills in his first action and he runs in the end zone in the corner of the end zone on one of the plays. And it's kind of one of those plays where you're about to score and you're going to get hit, but it's going to be kind of you've already gotten in the end zone for sure.

There was no dilemma in that. And he took the shot square. And I was like, oh, in this league, you've got to learn you can never take those shots. Lamar Jackson's an artist at you always think he's about to get hit hard. He finds ways to get down to get underneath tackles and hits. Josh Allen, he has his own style, but the jumping and the leaping and all the things he does, you're actually avoiding the big high impact when you do that as well. And the fact that he took that shot, it made me concerned for him because you've got to have a feeling for that in this league. If you don't avoid those shots, you're going to get injured a lot. And so he's got to figure out, too, when he gets out in space, how do I stay available for my football team more so than just every little yard on the field?

Use your feet, make plays, but also find ways to get down. Andrew, we're at the prime video here on the Rich Eisen Show. So in one week from Thursday, it's the season. We're kicking it off in Kansas City. Week after that, what a week to kick off. Because last year, Miami, not holding serve at home against Buffalo, not only costing the division, it earned them a trip to an igloo, right?

And in terms of needing to operate to the best of their ability, clearly 70 degree weather, that's the winner for them. And so it's them hosting Buffalo again, right off the bat. This is after they start the season with a game against Jacksonville.

And so this is it. They start off with two home games, going 2-0 in five days would make the world of difference. What do you make of this game all the way in advance? Because it is one of those division games, you got to win them at home. And for Buffalo to kind of overcome, again, when we talk about narratives, it's stuff we talk about.

And that's why it's important to us, might not be to the guys in the locker room. But truly, a lot of people think Buffalo is ready for the getting here. So what do you make of this game? Yeah, because I think it's interesting because you look at this Dolphins team, they've had these outputs that just blow us all away offensively. And last year they have one against Denver and they play this Buffalo defense and Buffalo shuts them down and wins the game the next week. You've seen what they've been able to do to them. Now, I think this is a different situation, not really because of anything Buffalo's changed on the offensive side, but you look in camp, they've been banged up in the secondary.

Matt Milano's gotten hurt again. They're kind of going into this game, not limping into this thing. I think this Buffalo team is going to be great, but they haven't really had all their guys and had the opportunity to prepare probably that they wished for going into this game. So I think that plays into Miami's favor. I think Miami has listened to the fact that they are great and they've become kind of a Cowboys narrative, right? A little bit of what we always talk about the Cowboys. The Cowboys is much longer, but with this short span under Mike McDaniel, it's been man, great regular season, great beginning to the regular season, crazy explosive. Now show us a playoff win, right? And that's really kind of become what we've talked about, the Dolphins the last few years.

So it's, Hey, can you do more than the month of September, October, when we get into November and December, is this the same football team? And that to me is what really will tell the story of Miami. I think that they really need to take advantage of this start. You got Buffalo has been struggling a little bit in camp with injuries in the secondary.

You got to get after them. You got to get off to a fast start. But then when we get to the second half of the season, what is your foundation built in? And I think that's always going to be the concern with the Miami Dolphins.

It's built in. The ball's got to come out really fast. We're going to spread the field and we're going to be crazy speed everywhere. In the month of November, December, football players aren't moving as good as they do in the beginning. And the ball coming out fast in cold temperatures when you got to run the ball and play defense is always going to be a struggle. So they've got to show, I think, that there's other levels to what this offense can do than just that.

And that's going to help them take that next step. And then you got the other two AFC East games the next week with New England at the Jets. A lot of the same high hopes a lot of people had for the Jets last year have returned because Rodgers looks healthy and things of that nature.

You've got the AFC North, which is part of our poll question of which is the most tough division in football. Who would you peg as the team that could derail a Chiefs third straight Super Bowl appearance? I think that's the best thing, the best thing of this whole entire season is that not only the Chiefs possibly going to win a third Super Bowl, but nobody's willing to really step out there and say, is there anybody that's better than the Chiefs right now?

So it really looks like all year long, we're going to think this is a possibility. I look at the AFC North and probably, you know, to me, really what I said about Cincinnati, I feel something special there. I think in Cleveland, we've got to see Deshaun Watson do more, you know, to really think they're a contender. But I think that division is going to be really good. I think the Baltimore Ravens are going to be special again. So I think it's going to come down to Cincinnati and Baltimore.

And I think the winner of that division can unseat the Chiefs. I really do believe they can. And I think they're built to I think Cincinnati, obviously, you know, over the last few years has gotten the best of them in the totality of the matchups. And I believe that they think they can beat them.

And there's obviously a lot of animosity between those two. So I think Cincinnati can do it. I also think that we're going to see from this Jets team, you know, what their health situation looks like. And I don't think it's just about Aaron Rodgers to me. You know, I saw the clip in practice a few weeks ago for our last week for the Giants. You know, he's throwing a goal ball down the sideline to Garrett Wilson for a touchdown.

And people are like, oh, man, this looks awesome. What I actually noticed of the play. The protection? You go watch the protection of that play. Watch what Tyron Smith does to Brian Burns.

Watch on the right side what they're doing in protection. When I watched that clip and I saw that, I said, all right, this team could be one of the top teams in the AFC, because if those guys are healthy and they're protecting him like that, they're going to be a really good football team. Well, I mean, their defense, if you give the if you give them 21 points, they might just hold serve, man. I mean, you look how good they've been with how bad they've been on offense.

That's what a lot of people don't give credit to. It's really hard to play good defense when you're continually put in bad positions, bad field position, turnovers in your own territory, all those things. They have continued to be great on defense, even with all of that. So they put up that kind of defense again, and he's got a line that's protecting him and they're running the football effectively. This Jets team's as good as anybody in that conference.

What about the Texans? You know what? Here's the thing. I think everybody's on that bandwagon. Right.

That's what Brockman said. That is the top bandwagon of the season right now, and inevitably that usually doesn't end up well. I just I don't like bandwagon. So I think that even time we're this excited before the season starts, it just feels like many people.

Is that what you're saying? Everybody's in. And I just, I worry now, I will say this, you know, obviously, you know, the Rams just went down and scrimmaged them and every single person walked away like CJ Stroud is the man. This guy is the real deal and he is special. And when you got a special one at that position in this league, you were always in contention to win it. And so I think they have a really talented roster. I think that, you know, CJ played awesome last year. I think inevitably there's going to be a team that has an answer for them. I also don't think that division was that strong last year. So I think that division is going to be a little better. I think Jacksonville is going to have something to say and give them contention. And I think they're going to get better shots because targets matter in this league. Whenever a team knows that you're good and whenever they say, oh, this is the team that's supposed to be the best, you get a different performance every week. I think the Houston Texans this year, CJ Stroud this year will get a different level of respect and a different performance from every team they play. It's going to be a much tougher road than it was last year.

But you're not wrong, though. I mean, it's been 20 plus years since we had a three-peat opportunity. And it was that Patriots team that made it to the divisional round. The Chiefs look great. I know they lost, Lagerius sneed, but they do regenerate and they're faster on offense. They are faster on offense. And Kelsey, still Kelsey, and Mahomes has the ability to do what Jordan does, which is to take any slight and ball it up and spit it back at the rest of the competition.

Him being chosen fourth overall in the top 100 list, even though most of those votes occurred during their offensive drought of November and December last year, I don't think there's going to be any distinction made in his mind about being pissed off right now. His ability to lead and have a self-belief about his football team. You look at last year, everything they went through and how every week he stood up there and said, these guys will make the plays.

I believe in my skill, guys. I believe in them making the plays when the times come. Even when he had the very uncharacteristic explosion on that offensive offsides on Kelsey that wiped out the win over or the go-ahead play on the Bills. I took that to mean like, I'm not going to go.

Kelsey was the one who made that play. It was Kadarius Toney who lined up offensively offsides. I took that to mean like, I'm not going to yell at my guys.

I'm mad at them and I'm pissed off at what's going on. I'll just outwardly rip the refs and be uncharacteristic and in shaking Josh Allen's hand. Like that was when I thought to myself, wow, this is something really getting to Mahomes. And then we got our answer, you know, I think he's one of the more special leaders at that position in this league. His ability to make people around him better, to inspire people around him, to continue to be the guy who takes the brunt of everything for his team is really rare.

You don't have to spend much time with him to realize that. I got a chance to go to his foundation event this offseason and spend some time with him in Las Vegas. And what a special dude. And you can see very easily why that football team fights for him the way they do. And they just got Juju Smith-Shuster back. He got cut loose by New England and they just literally during our conversation waved Kadarius Toney. Yep.

That was a shocker. So that's that. Let's take a break. We'll talk NFC when we come back. Sure. Let's do it.

All right. And then Andrew Whitworth is here. Karl-Anthony Towns after him. We've got our breakdown of the NFC North.

We'll predict that top of our three. That's how we're rolling into this break on The Rich Eisen Show. Listeners, please welcome a real finance nerd from our sponsor, NerdWallet. Hey, Sean. Hey, Rich.

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So much more. Even for credit cards, it's not the basic this card versus that card. With us, you can filter for features you want, add your top cards to a comparison table and get access to exclusive offers. Smarter tools, smarter financial decisions.

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NerdWallet Compare Inc. NMLS 1617539. Three, two. Hey everybody, there's a great new podcast that just launched. I want to tell you about it.

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Follow and subscribe to Throwbacks on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we're back here on the show. Big Whit still here. Andrew Whitworth, you're going to Vegas this weekend, correct?

I am, Rich. Why are you going to Vegas this weekend? We got a little LSU-USC rivalry to handle this weekend, baby. What a game. What a game. Why is that game being played in Vegas? Kickoff Classic in Vegas, I don't know. I don't know what the reasoning is, but you know, waiting to create some hype. Nice neutral sight. I'm okay with it. It's an excuse to go to Vegas. I know, right?

Yeah, twist your arm. I'll survive. Okay. So what do you think?

I'm pretty excited about it. We've been waiting for this one, Rich. One and three national championship, the first national championship that Nick Saban won at LSU. We were the BCS national champions, which they actually give you a trophy for.

So it was a crystal ball trophy they give you. And thankfully to Michigan, who really messed it all up, they let USC blow them out in the bowl game. And then USC got voted the USA AP poll national champions.

I'm just saying it's really, it all comes back. Michigan makes the whole world go round. So it's really always Michigan's fault. So basically they got the AP championship. We got the actual trophy. So I called them the paper champions and we got the real trophy. So you know, this weekend we get to settle it a little bit. Who would have won between LSU and USC that year?

Oh, I mean we go tigers. You kidding me? No doubt. You would have road graded them? Oh, we would have won. Listen, here's the thing. I would say this. We'd probably give them the skill positions.

Okay. So I would say Reggie Bush was a really special player, Matt Leinart, great player. No offense, Matt Mock, LSU quarterback and Team Dennis of the Denver Broncos.

But funny story. But I would say that up front, I mean the majority of our entire offensive line played in the NFL. The majority of our defensive line were first round picks in the NFL.

You would have won the trenches. So we had a pretty good football team. So the reality is I think we've been pretty good.

Not to mention most of our corners on that team played in the NFL as well. I love it. That's coming up.

I think it's a good debate. This weekend. I love it.

But this weekend we sell it out in Vegas in the desert. LSU and USC in the desert, Andrew Whitworth here, he's going to that game. What's the most pissed off you ever made Nick Saban?

Oh boy. My freshman year in college, I might have gone out a little bit too much after the game and we had film sessions at 6 a.m. or something and I showed up late and he would always wait at the door with his glasses, you know, doing his little thing, just waiting for every guy to walk in there and I was one of the last ones and it was the last time I was ever late to anything in my life. What did he air you out? Oh, Nick could air you out in the best, you know, this is not older Nick than he is now. This was like young Nick and when he went then it was, there was no holding back and so you, you know, I've seen guys cry.

I've seen guys in the room. I mean this guy, when he let into you, he was so good at it but what people don't realize about Nick is everything's thought through. He knows exactly how far he's going to go.

He knows exactly how to push all the buttons. He's a sports psychology guy, always was. We'd meet with sports psychologists, like the captain's group on the team would meet with a sports psychologist and, you know, you'd have these meetings like that guy's not telling Nick everything you're telling him but probably isn't. Maybe he's not.

He's not supposed to. Maybe he's not but you would meet as a group with him and you'd have these meetings, you know, how you could talk to coach about this or that and those kind of things. You're kind of like, this feels like maybe coach is putting all these questions up here but I'm not saying he did. But he's big in the sports psychology, he always was and so he, there was always a thought process behind everything he did.

Even if there was somebody from the university that came in to say, hey, you know, you guys, class checkers, those kind of things like, hey, you guys aren't going to class, blah, blah, blah. He would go after them if they were wrong or maybe they didn't have the information right about whether it got missed because he wanted to show his team like, hey, I always, I'm going to be hard on you but also always have your back. And so he was very unique in that way. There was always, you always felt like, man, he's thought through every reaction.

Everyone sees these as like anger tirades but no, this is part of the process. He's developed a process for how he thinks he's going to, you know, achieve you becoming a championship football player and being a lead at what you do and this is just part of it. And so he kind of has thought out exactly how he's going to do things. And so I walked in late and he made sure, it was me and another freshman, he made sure that we knew we would never walk in a meeting late again and we did not ever come in a meeting late again. When he aired you out, he probably comes up to your chest though, right? Yeah, but Nick Smart, again, always thought it through.

Nick's tirades always happen in front of everyone and in front of all the staff. Where there's always like, you would never get out of line because it's like, all right, everyone's around or the coaching staff's around. So I got, you know, I'm going to keep my, he would never do that. Like in his office, in his office, you'd get like, how are you doing? You know, are you doing all right?

Like how can I help you be successful? You weren't going to get the tirade in person. You weren't going to get the tirade in front of the group. So he's always thought that through. Next level. He's good. He's good. He's the best. Yes, he is. He is.

Andrew Whitworth here from Prime Video. So we were going through the schedule. Your third game is Dallas at New York with the Giants. Back to back New York trips. Yeah, I know.

Well, Al's probably going to stay in the same room in the four seasons for the whole week, I imagine. So when it all comes down to it, your, your opinion of the Dallas Cowboys is what? I think it's been an interesting, you know, I think everyone's kind of given their opinions on the CeeDee Lamb thing. I don't understand really honestly how this one got this far down the road. But that's what they do. It's what they do. And it always feels like sometimes it becomes just this power thing like they like we could do this. So we're going to do this this way because it just feels like from a team camaraderie, you know, the culture, like that's really what you're thinking about.

This should have been done far and away. But does it really? You know who's your best offensive player?

Does it really matter though? Like when it, when it, when you're there, when it's week three and it's go time, right? Let's just say they don't sign until another issue comes up and because players, what they don't understand is players start to treat that the same way we treat it.

That's how your own team treats it. And they go, you know what? Here we go again. Y'all are going to do this with another one of our guys. Or I'm in the situation, y'all are going to do this to me. You start to create this underlying animosity to anytime these situations come up, you're not going to just do the right thing and take care of the guy. You're going to make them go all the way down through the whole carousel of like, you know, you're bad being, you're being selfish and we aren't ready to do this and blah, blah, blah. And then weeks from now though, when they're playing the Johnson, New York, it's going to have nothing to do with their football season. But what about, but, but what, that's, that's the question.

The I don't mean to interrupt, I'm sorry, but no, you're great. All in. That's the concept. This is what stuff you're going to, you'll be talking about it on your week three pre game set. Whenever you in your post game talk about the rest of the week, because again, I know you're required to do that because we were for all those years for Thursday night football, there is a full segment about what's coming up. Dallas will be on your plate 90% of the time about what's coming up and the concept of the all in Mike McCarthy doesn't have a contract. It's possible. Dak won't have a contract. Micah Parsons will be do something. Does that matter? Does it come home to roost in any way, shape or form during the playing season?

If does it put more of a lid on a boiling pot? If they're three and four, if they're a hundred percent, the first big loss they have, it's going to be, uh, it will be a navigation through that entire week. You will be in a very fragile phase of, Hey, this guy doesn't have his contract. He doesn't have his, the team's a little agitated that they've got to deal with that because here's the thing. We're only talking about the guys who are getting paid. The rest of the guys on the team feel that too, because they're going, Hey, this is my guy or I believe in this guy where I see this guy do it the right way all the time.

Look at Dak Prescott. Dude's a tremendous human being, how he goes to work, how he does everything. Every guy on that team's watching that and going, wait, why would they do that to that guy? Like all he does is do it the right way. So if they do it to him, then for sure I have no chance. So you create this attitude where one guy's pick a side.

I either think that he's right or that dude needs to just play football and shut up and stop worrying about his contract. And so you create that conversation with, with amongst your team. It's no different than any other company. Peers have a feeling or an opinion about it's, you know, somebody else they work with situation at that company. We're human beings too. And so those guys start to create that. And so you can't say that you're not eroding the culture a little bit when you continue to go down these roads and make it nasty and make it a fight when you're doing something like this.

It just, it's just a fact. You create that animosity within your team. So how far do they go in relation to who you think might go further or not at all? Like that's my, my, my, I think the way it affects them is if they don't get off to the start and success doesn't happen early, you're going to see it really affect this football team. Multiple reasons. I think that, you know, when you look at defensively, they bring in Mike Zimmer, who's a really intense, you know, probably what you would consider nowadays a little bit more or not little, definitely an old school coach and that mentality of how hard he's going to push guys and he's going to be tough on them and those kinds of things.

So that's not this lighthearted environment, right? And then, you know, you look at the stress Mike McCarthy's under to produce winning wins in the playoffs and making some kind of run at a Super Bowl. They're under lots of pressure and they don't have these contract situations figured out with not like guys were guessing, do you want Micah Parsons on your team? Yes, you want Micah Parsons on your team, you know, do you want Dak Prescott?

Yeah, you want Dak Prescott. But you want these guys in a situation where we've already taken care of them and now we have money and opportunity to go get other guys. You know, we're not hearing about them adding a bunch of great players. We're talking about whether or not they want to keep their three best.

So it's like, you know, what is the conversation about? And so I just think it's going to be a struggle for them because also let's talk about Tyron Smith's in New York. You know, I think that they've got a chance of having, you know, obviously interior, they have a really special line, but they're going to have a rookie playing left tackle in Guyton and so he's going to make mistakes. So they're going to be a little off and there's going to be a struggle and there's going to be development time for him as well. So this team is, in my opinion, are they going to be good? They should be good offensively, but they're also fragile.

One little thing and they can start to go downhill fast. The 90 seconds I have left is, is this the Lions and Niners conference or the Eagles pop in? Anybody else in the north pop in?

What do you got from Atlanta? I'm interested to see the Eagles. I want to see if these coaching changes have fixed them because that roster couldn't be more talented.

But you know, Rich, I'm going to be a homer and say, I think people need to watch out. If the Los Angeles Rams are healthy up front, I think they're going to make a run at it. I think this offense could be really, really special and I think the, the two young draft picks they got in the first and second round, you know, Brandon Fisk and Jared Vers are the real deal and I think they're going to be really good football players. So if you look at what they did with Byron Young last year and Kobe Turner, I think this defense is going to be really, I think there'll be a lot better than they were last year. I think last year is a lot of inexperience other than AD. I think this year they got some talent and more experience. I think they're going to be better and I think they're going to be right there fighting San Francisco for this division. You think so? I do.

Okay. I mean, that's a big, and plus in terms of, you know, playoff positioning and what have you, that's a huge week one game at the Lions. I mean, Rams and Lions.

It is. Rams, Lions start from the start. It's going to kind of tell us where these two teams are in the NFC of chasing the Niners down and representing them. So exciting. Let's go. Football's back.

I know, right? I want to start playing now. We have to wait though.

Everybody, check out this man and the rest of the awesome Prime Video crew on Amazon. We're back with Karl-Anthony Towns in a sec. Still here. And then another reason why the Rams offense is going to be terrific is not because Stafford is great and you got the Puca and I think people are still- I know what you're about to say already. Oh, yeah.

I'm going to be a big, long windup. Cooper Cup. They drafted, honestly, one of the greatest players offensively in the history of the University of Michigan. I'm not kidding you. And him and Karen Williams look like twins when they have football. It is crazy watching them run. He and Blake Coram. I think Blake Coram and Karen Williams literally look like twins when they run the football and it seems like he's going to be a big part of this. How much is he going to get out there? I think he's going to play.

I think him and Karen both. I mean, this team, you look at what they invest in the offensive line. The plan is to run the football. I mean, they're going to try to run the football and be a physical team like they were the last half of the year last year.

Because that's how the rest of the passing game works, right? I mean- And that's what they, under McVay, when they've run the football well, that offense has been really hard to stop. And so I think for them, that's what they did the last half of the year and Stafford was on fire. And they feel like they've got Cooper Cup back where they really, you know, feel really confident in his ability to affect every team every week.

And Pukunakua seems like he's going to be fine for week one. So I think they're excited about what they can be offensively for this season. Okay. Maybe you're going to hold onto your tickets? Don't get rid of those tickets yet. What are you looking at me for? Please. Because you sell them.

Because you, honestly, you do it all the time. He's going to be proof that I'm going to be there Thursday night because I'm going to yell at them because my seats are right where their seats are going to be. I have gone to pre-season games two years in a row.

Exactly. That's a fan. I will go to that game. That is definitely a fan. I'm off. Thank you, Whit. See? Me and Brockon, the craft was baked. As soon as he leaves the studio, you're literally going to put tickets for sale.

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