Stewart Mandel: This Is The Most Exciting College Football Season

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Read the vehicle owner's manual for important feature limitations and information. This is the Rich Eisen Show. So far, so good. With guest host, Kirk Morrison. I like it.

Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Did you get a jersey yet? I'm not going to get an eight. I don't wear jerseys. Yeah, who's got a kid?

I don't. They're rich kids. They're Patriots fans.

They're not putting on a deaf jersey. Earlier on the show, Broncos beat writer for The Athletic, Nick Cosmiter. Coming up, college football editor-in-chief for The Athletic, Stewart Mandel. Commander's beat writer for The Athletic, Ben Standish. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Kirk Morrison. Oh, man.

Our number two, hut, hut, hike. I'm excited to be pumped up, baby. Woo.

First weekend of college football upcoming. Oh, man. And then, you know, during the break, I always said the exciting part about our show is not missing some time in the show.

It's outside of the show. It's the in-break conversations that we have. Brockman's over here bringing up my 2005 draft class. The 2005 draft is crazy. In the last hour, we've got to break some things down in there because I was just mentioning for all the people who are just tuning in right now, the last link for me in the National Football League is Aaron Rodgers, who's my draft classmate of 2005. When he retires, then my career officially retires from the NFL. Not as an analyst, but as an NFL player. So as long as he keeps going, I'm going and I'm representing that. But a guy who I respect, a guy who I love his tweets and I love his sarcasm sometimes, his criticism, but it's just his information.

Great follow on X on Twitter. At SL Mandel, he's my guy, Stuart Mandel, editor in chief, college football for the athletic. Are you just as excited as I am, Stuart, that college football is here? We don't have to talk about litigations anymore or suspensions.

We could just talk about the play on the field, Stuart. I'm so excited. First of all, because of what you said, I've been I feel like I've been writing preview articles for four months. And of course, half my predictions will come out completely wrong.

So I'm looking forward to having actual games to write about. But also, this is the most exciting season in my lifetime because of the two huge changes to the sport, the 12 team playoff and this most recent round of realignment, which is bringing Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC and for West Coast schools to the Big Ten and so on. You know, Stuart, it's unbelievable. I was at our ESPN college football seminar a couple of weeks ago and it really dawned and it hit me. And I never thought about it in this way, but I said, this will be the longest college football season ever. And I'm like, wait, what?

And you think about it. It is ever. It starts this Saturday, August 24th, and we're going all the way to January 20th. Probably the biggest day ever in the history. I think you have a coronation going on.

No. What's going on that day, by the way? Martin Luther King Day. King Day. Inauguration. Inauguration. National Champion. And national champion.

And no, by the way, the kids are off of school. The biggest day. But I never thought that college football would be this long. Wasn't wasn't college football supposed to be like a seasonal four or five months and you get out now? It's now turned into two basically semesters. It's almost a year round thing now.

And we get a chance to go. It starts on Saturday. It's not much shorter than the NFL.

Exactly. The championship games. They start around the same time. Actually start a week earlier. And championship games on January 20th, which is only a couple of weeks before the Super Bowl. It's it's great if you're a college football fan.

If you cover the sport and it's your job and you have a wife and a kid, like in, you know, I'm a little bit nervous for how the season is going to play out. But, you know, the biggest effect I think it will have is it's going to restore a lot of interest in the postseason. I think it had become very stale, especially because there's not a lot of importance now placed on all the other bowl games. So it basically 14 playoff. You waited a month for those two semifinal games and then the championship game. And it's fun watching those those early bowl games, but they don't they don't have that much impact. Now you're going to get the conference championship.

It can be a week off and then the playoff starts and carries you all the way through the next month. You know, Stuart, you are a football enthusiast like me, especially in the college game. And I've always said that I've done FCS playoff games and quarterfinals and championships. And I'm saying the model works and watching guys go out and prove it on the field in an expanded playoff. Now with the college football FBS or the subdivision going to the 12 team playoff, I feel like we're going to get more exciting matchups that one loss teams are OK. Two loss teams, maybe even more so. OK. Where before it was you had to be perfect or if you had one loss, when did you get that loss? Was it beginning or the end or sometimes be undefeated?

Does this take all of that guesswork out of it and will finally have a true champion on the field based on this new format? I thought it was very symbolic that in the last year of the 14 playoff, Florida State went undefeated and got left out. That will that will never, ever happen again. If you go 13 and oh, I don't care if your quarterback are hurt or not, you're going to get a chance to contend for the national championship.

Same thing. How many times did we see a group of five team like since like UCF, the Boise State teams way back when go out and not get a shot. Now, that team would certainly get a shot because they'd be the highest ranked group of five champion. I don't know that it's going to change so much who wins the national championship. At the end of the day, those teams are the best teams in the country. And, you know, there's usually a separation between those teams and like the number 11 team. But I do like the idea that more schools, a bigger net of schools will have a shot in the in the 14 playoff. Oftentimes you get to mid November and there'll be six schools left playing for four spots and everybody else was playing for a ball game. And now we will get to mid November and there might be 20 schools still alive. And some of them will be, you know, teams that you never be on that stage, whether it's a group five team or let's say Iowa State wins the Big 12 this year. You know, that might not have gotten to the playoff in the past.

It will now. He's the editor in chief for the college football for the athletic. Stewart Mandel joining the Rich Eisen show.

Kirk Morrison here filling in for Rich. So we've talked expansion. We've talked about this longest year in college football we've ever seen. Other than that, the biggest storyline that you have going in, is it a coach?

Is it a player? Is it the Heisman? What are you focused on as we begin this college football journey this year?

I think the most interesting team is Ohio State because they are the poster for this new era of college football where you can try to buy yourself a championship. They spent there's nobody knows exactly what. But we've heard anywhere from 13 million to 15 more on both retention of all these guys that could have easily turned pro.

And bringing in a few really high profile transfers. Caleb Downs was a freshman All-American at Alabama. Quinn-Shawn Judkins was an All-SEC running back. Those guys did not come to Columbus for free. We don't know what they got exactly, but it was probably significant. And so they basically just decided we're sick of losing to Michigan. We can't believe Michigan won the national championship. We want ours. And so what that means is they will be really good.

Nobody doubts that. But it's kind of like national championship or bust. At the very least, Ryan Day better beat Michigan or I don't know if he'll be allowed to coach in the playoffs, even if they make it.

So it's an interesting situation that would only happen in the NIL era. Well, I would say this, too, because Stuart, if you didn't know Will Howard, you better know him now, right? Will Howard is the starting quarterback at Ohio State. I feel like this is, and I've been talking a lot with my broadcast teammates, that every single week, I don't care. We have to continue to keep telling the viewer about the new players for this new team, because every year it's changing so much. It's to a point where I cover the game and I'm like, wait, oh, I forgot he went over there. Oh, I forgot that this team over here. I'm looking at Texas' roster and I'm like, wait, Silas Bolden, he was at Oregon State. He's here now.

Bond was in Alabama. This is so confusing. I feel like that every game we must have a time in which we tell these are the new incoming guys and these are the guys who are no longer here. Yeah, and that stretches down the roster, right? I mean, yeah, everybody, I would imagine even a casual fan knows that Caleb Downs is at Ohio State now, that Will Howard, like you said, will be the starting quarterback. The Dylan Gabriel, Oklahoma's quarterback the last two years, is now at Oregon. But there are going to be guys that you're not all that familiar with who transferred in from a school and are now suddenly the leading receiver for that team or the leading tackler. And some of them, by the way, aren't coming from high-profile programs, like Jared Vers at Florida State the last couple of years, who ended up becoming an absolute stud pass rusher, came from Albany.

We see that all the time now. A lot of the best transfer portal guys come from the lower levels. So you're right, Kirk.

You're tuning in to watch a game. You got to put that graphic up at the beginning. Here's who they got in the portal this year and here's who left. Yeah, see, we've been talking about it here on this program as well. We can't put too many names up there because we don't want to confuse the viewers in the bars or at home who are watching on mute. So we got to make sure we got enough names that they can see it clearly, like, hey, these are the big names who are incoming.

These are the ones who are outgoing. Stewart Mandel, editor-in-chief, college football for the athletic. So you already know it's August 24th will be week zero. It starts, but I always have to ask because I didn't think that last year Jayden Daniels would have won the Heisman Trophy and yet he did. And so as we enter this 2024 season, who are the two early candidates that we can possibly see represented at that downtown athletic club when it's time to announce the Heisman?

The guy I'm really high on is Jalen Monroe at Alabama because, I mean, first of all, he was in the top 10 Heisman votes last year. Obviously everybody remembers the Iron Bowl in the fourth and 30. But that was a very limited offense he was playing in last year. They didn't trust him to do much other than throw it deep.

Now Kalen DeBoer comes in there. Fantastic offensive coach. You saw what he did at Washington the last couple of years. And I think he's truly unleash him for a team that should be a national title contention. And we've seen Jayden Daniels an exception to this last year on a nine and three team. But for the most part, the Heisman has become linked to the playoff race and the winner is usually on one of those contending teams. And, you know, obviously there's some uncertainty about Alabama this year because you just lost the greatest coach in college football history. But that's still really good. I actually think that team will be better. They will be better than last year's Alabama team. Wow. Okay.

Carson Beck is another name I know that's out there as well. We'll see him with Georgia and things like that. But I want to ask you a story because I don't think people ask enough about this. How do you view college Saturdays? What is your routine? Because I know you're like you're writing, you got your thoughts going, but you're trying to watch, I don't know, was it 10, 15, 20 games on a Saturday? Take me through the Stewart Mandel process on a normal college football Saturday.

It's not as glamorous as you might think. You know, first of all, I don't go to as many games as I used to because of what you write a column on Saturday night that sums up that tries to get into as many different games as possible. So it's important to watch as many as you can. And some people are like, oh, you got to have you must have like five TV screens going. No. Personally, if I feel like if I'm trying to watch too many games at once, I don't end up paying it.

I don't pay close attention to any of them. And I don't know what just happened. So I like to work the remote because it's like very active. You know, like I got to make an effort. I got to be mindful of which game is going into a commercial break and which game is the team driving down the field. You know, I don't I can't say I never miss a big play.

Of course I do. But I try to, you know, at least like the three or four biggest games in that window be switching back and forth as much as possible. So you just like me back in my junior high days, working that previous channel before my parents would come in. Remember that that last got to hit previous channel. What you stand up late for?

Like, oh, I was watching something else. And I know, OK, I'm making sure Stewart Mandel joining the Rich Eisen show here on the rich. I mean, Kirk Morrison joining here for Rich Eisen. The one thing I would ask you is I'm watching the National Football League and I'm seeing how the NFL, Stewart, has expanded into sort of international waters. You're going to have games, obviously, in Germany.

You've got a couple in London. They'll be going to Brazil when the Packers and the Eagles in week one. Now, this game in Ireland coming up, Florida State, Georgia Tech is one. And we've seen it kind of over the last couple of years where Notre Dame was a part of it. Do you think that this may be what college football will start to do now in terms of these offsite neutral site games that with an expanded playoff, we can play these games that gives us more exposure, that may gives us more of a fan base in other areas? Are these opportunities now going to start to show up more and more on the college football slate? You know, the Ireland game has been going on for a few years now and it's gone really well. The Big 12, their commissioner Brett Yormark has talked about possibly doing a game in Mexico.

They haven't actually announced one yet, but I do think that will come. But for the most part, I think the difference with colleges, you know, you have these on campus cathedrals, these these enormous stadiums, and you only get to use them seven times a year. Right. So I don't think anybody's eager to give up home games to go play. Now, we have seen obviously USC is playing LSU in Vegas.

Right. There have been like three or four of those kind of traditional or those annual neutral site games. But even those are starting to fade a little bit. Attendance has been as popular as the sport is. Attendance has been on the decline for a while, especially with students. And I think the schools are trying to realize, you know, you can't just schedule an FCS team and a Sunbelt team and expect one hundred thousand people to show up. So what we are starting to see, Alabama is a good example of this. For about a decade, they always played in Atlanta or Arlington to open the season. But now they're starting to move back to home and home. They just did one with Texas the last couple of years. They've got, you know, they're playing at Wisconsin this year and then Wisconsin will come to them, I believe, next year. So I see it actually moving in the other direction toward more getting more games back on campus.

Last question for you, Stuart. Before we start this football season, obviously you already got your name to the top. You know, I've seen the preseason top fives and top tens. Who is a team outside of maybe the top 10 or even the top 25 of these early preseason polls, which I still just would love to get away with, by the way?

We just go play the games first. That's not the number four team in the country or a number one team. Let's let them play it out for a couple of weeks, then we can rank them. But anyway, either here or there, who is a team right now that no one is talking about that we'll be talking about at the end of this college football season? I think that the ACC has a good chance to produce a surprise champion. And Florida State will be my pick going into it, but they lost a lot of guys from that great team last season. So Miami is a team to keep an eye on. Obviously, they've been disappointing for a long time now, but they have Cam Ward, their quarterback, coming in from Washington State.

Damian Martinez, phenomenal running back from Oregon State. It's not a very hard conference, right? So if they can click on offense like that, I think they'll be really good. And then one that is not even ranked is Virginia Tech, who has been off the radar for basically since Frank Beamer retired. They changed quarterbacks mid to last year and they took off.

Chiron Drones is a great dual-threat QB. They can run the ball. They're starting to play really good defense again. So that's a team that I don't know if they can make the playoff, but if they could rise up and win 10 games, it would be a really good season for them. And then we can't forget about the Kyle McCord revenge tour, right? Yes. Syracuse. Syracuse, yes. Yeah, he's going to let everybody know that, hey, Ohio State, you should have paid more for me.

So we shall see. Stuart, I appreciate all of the time. My man, I know you are, the hectic time of the year is approaching, but I'm always following what you've got. So, man, I appreciate all that you do for college football and can't wait to catch up with you again. All right, Kirk, thanks so much for having me.

Thank you, man. Stuart Mandel, editor-in-chief, college football for the athletic. He's a great follow, by the way. At SL Mandel on the Twitter, on the X, man, I'm telling you, he going to up the date you throughout the day. And he'll, you know, sometimes you're watching the game and then you're like, Stuart's tweeting about this. You're like, oh, let me go school it over here. So you're going back and forth of what's going on because you don't want to miss anything too.

That's what happens. We're focused on this game. But look, I will still, you know, I'm going to take a break because I'm going to sit back and I'm going to look at all the channels that you may need for college football this year.

Oh, baby. I think we need to help out some people because I've seen some channels. Trust me, I saw that the other day with the WNBA. Didn't know I even had ION. Is that it? ION? ION. Yeah, didn't know I had it. ION, no idea. You learn stuff. Like, wait, this game is on.

What ION? Do I have? Ah, dude, didn't know I had it. So, yeah, we're here to help people. That's what you're here for, the Rich Eisen Show.

With Kirk Morrison filling in for Rich, go figure out all the channels you need to watch college football. 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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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. There he is! How are you as a ref, though? I'm strictly what's called an AR, assistant referee. So I'm the guy who runs on the sideline with the flag.

I thought AR meant ****hole ref. The shorts are pretty short, too. I mean, they're stocked in length right there. Look at that ample thigh. That's a ham hock right there. Look at that. That's ready for market. You might want to smoke that for a couple days. You guys want a slice?

Put some hickory around it. You know what I would genuinely love for you as a second career, if you ever decided you want a second career? Finally, be a broadcaster. Be someone who's calling color.

Right? Rich, maybe you could give me a break. I mean, that would boost ratings for whatever sport you were talking about.

What if I took over the Rich Eisen Show? Ron Burgundy did help announce the national curling finals in Ottawa, Canada. And they had all these ads for Tim Horton's Coffee, which is a big coffee chain for our Canadian listeners. And I just kept saying, all this signage, I'm like, who the hell is Tim Horton?

Who does he think he is? Is there any possibility that we see a Step Brothers sequel? We haven't ever talked about this face-to-face in public. No, we haven't.

Let's break some ground here. Are we going to do Step Brothers 2? I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think it's going to happen either.

That's what I thought. We'll put up the Photoshop anyway. Oh, you make sense in that world somehow, Rich. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, Kirk Morrison here filling in for Rich. And yeah, we got a lot to talk about with this 2005 NFL draft class. I'll be bringing that up a little bit, I think a little shortly.

Yeah, I got some things on here. But I'm going to go to a phone call here. We've got a couple of phone calls on the line.

Let's start with Chris. I imagine he's in Pennsylvania somewhere. No, West Virginia. West Virginia.

There we go. Chris over in West Virginia. What's going on, Chris? Hey, how you guys doing? I'm doing great, man.

What you got, Chris? Hey, I called in a few weeks ago. I did the Steelers prediction with you guys. And I messed up a little bit on my prediction because I was waiting so long.

I actually left my thing that I had written down. And I wanted to correct that. And I also had a couple predictions. But first off, I just wanted to say everybody's kind of ragging on the Steelers because they kind of had a bad few preseason games. And I just wonder why no one's talking about that Mason McCormick kid. He supposedly is a really good lineman. And I also wanted to predict Peyton Wilson will be the NFL defensive rookie of the year. Yeah.

I believe that Peyton Wilson's in concussion protocol at the moment, though. So he's going to have to wait for that one. I do have your predictions up here, by the way, Chris. 13 and 4? Hold on, hold on, hold on. The Pittsburgh Steelers 13 and 4?

Like, really? I think 14 and 3. Chris, what are we doing now? 12 and 5. So is this the update?

Should I make this correction in the book? I'll put it in blue. I'll put it in blue. 12 and 5 now. Which game are you changing?

I'm sorry, which game are you changing? Because I've got W's against Atlanta, Denver, the Colts, Cowboys, Raiders, Jets, Giants, Commanders, and then I always say the Murderers Row of the schedule when you play against all three teams in the division, six games. Ravens, you do have a loss against the Browns in the first one at Cleveland, but then you're winning everything else besides the Eagles game and the Bengals game. So which loss, which one do I need to change here, Chris? Come on.

It's the Ravens when we play them at Baltimore. Okay, there we go. The Saturday night, December 21st, I will, in parentheses and in blue, I will put a, yeah, put in parentheses, there you go, a loss now. So the 12 and 5, okay, I got it. All right, Chris. And I'll say one other thing real quick.

What you got? You know, about this quarterback thing, I think we got two good. I know Russell's at the end of his career, but I think he's the man for the job starting off. But Justin Fields, I think, could be almost as good as Lamar Jackson.

I believe that. I think he's under the right tutelage now, and I think that everybody's quick to just get rid of people to be normal for a quarterback to sit around. I think with him sitting on the bench making him hungry, he's the future of the Steelers. And I think we're going to have, if not the best, one of the best defenses in the NFL.

So, Chris, I'm going to leave you with this. The NFL, as I've learned and been and played, is a production-based business. If you produce, you will play. If you don't produce, you will not play. Gone are the days of, oh, I can stash a guy for two, three, four years and hope that he develops into what you want them to be as a player. Today's NFL, we don't have that luxury. There are now deadlines. There are now years of service that you have to show something, or I need to have you off my roster.

There are now salary caps that we've always had, but there's a number now. And no one wants to carry dead weight. No one wants to keep a guy because, oh, we're hoping to develop. I will tell you this. When you get a job as a head coach, you have to win yesterday. Not today, not tomorrow.

You've got to win yesterday. There's no patience anymore. There is no time to develop. I don't have time to do that.

Either you got it or you don't. And like Mike Tomlin said, I watched his interview the other day, Mike Tomlin. Look, last year you were a rookie. This year you're in your second year. I don't have a tolerance for rookie mistakes anymore.

So that's what happens now. Justin, that was a wide-open touchdown he missed, God, in the preseason. I just want to see more consistency from him. He's a good player. You want to see him produce. You want to see him in the right offense with Arthur Smith. But I feel like we're going to be seeing a lot more Russell Wilson because I feel like you start Russ and then you fall back on Justin. I don't know if you start Justin and then fall back on Russ, if that makes sense.

Black and gold. There we go. That makes a lot of sense. But you know what else, too, is, you know, there was years when Brady won Super Bowls and they're talking about we don't have receivers. And he actually made some receivers better than they were, I believe.

And I think that's kind of our case now. I would love to have IU, but I don't think we absolutely need him. All right, Chris, I appreciate it. He would definitely help, don't get me wrong.

I appreciate the phone call, Chris. And I will just throw this at you is that those Brady teams in the early part of his career were defensive-led teams. It wasn't like, if you look at the Brady early years, he wasn't throwing for 300 yards and four touchdowns, right? Like those Brady numbers, especially when he won Super Bowl MVP, what game was that? Was that the game against the, was that the Rams game? Which one where he threw for under 200 yards and won the MVP? In the Super Bowl. In the Super Bowl. Against the Rams. It was the Rams. The first one. The first one.

2001. Like, come on, man. Like, let's be real. Also, if you look at the Patriots' defenses, like you said, Hall of Famer Ty Wall, Hall of Famer Richard Seymour, Vince Wilfork should be in the Hall of Fame. Teddy Bruschi has a case. Willy McGinnis has a case. Correct. All of these defensive greats.

So, yeah. The thing about it was, I think, what people fail to remember was that this was similar to what Russell Wilson's career actually looked like in the beginning. Russell Wilson went to a team that we know was called, labeled the Legion of, Legion of Boom. I was going to say Legion of Doom. I was going back to our WWE day.

You know what I'm saying? The Legion of Boom was what the Seattle Seahawks were most known for. And then it was a transition. Russell Wilson became the actual leader, the quarterback of the team. And it wasn't just led by the defense anymore. It was led by Russ. But we saw that it just didn't work out.

You didn't have that same success toward the end of the Legion of Boom and then after the Legion of Boom. And now Russell Wilson goes to another team and he's still not showing that he was that guy where Tom Brady goes to another team. They instantly go to a Super Bowl and they go to three.

Actually, the Buccaneers with the three straight appearances in the playoffs under Tom Brady after having just horrible luck in the previous years. I think, too, when you talk about the Steelers and what they're going to do a quarterback, Russell Wilson is going to start because his floor is higher than Justin Fields. Even though Fields' ceiling is probably higher at this point.

Correct. So you want to minimize mistakes. If we know anything about Mike Tomlin, he wants a veteran who's going to make the right decision a majority of the time.

And I think at this point, it's Russell Wilson, even though it's probably a lot closer than we think. You know, everybody has this one thing that they do and you're like, why does he do that every day? But it's just fascinating to you. You know, one of my things that I do, that's just what I do. I listen to every Mike Tomlin press conference. I just love it. Yeah, because you learn so much even as a former player, as an analyst. I just love to hear his perspective.

We're not going to apologize for winning. He gives banger one-liners, man. Bangers. CQ. Stay by your phone, man.

I may need you. CQ or QC, however you want to. And that's Quarterback Center Exchange. So we need better quality QC.

So people are like, oh, what are you? Tinder, Love & Care. What's the TLC? Yeah, TLC. QC, Quality Control. Yeah, Quality Control.

Well, we need better CQ appropriations. So I'm like, all right. Quarterback Center Exchange, which is what we saw Justin Fields struggle with at times.

Ball on the ground. You can't do that. But anyway, I digress because you have some of my 2005 draft class. I was speaking about earlier with Aaron Rodgers, who was now the last player, still playing, last active player from that 2005 NFL draft. There was a lot of guys in that draft. I was looking through this, and I was looking for some nuggets.

So the 2005 draft class, Alex Smith goes number one to San Francisco. I feel like I had a piece in that helping him out. Really? Yeah. Did you play against Utah that year?

I did. Should have been. Did he light you up?

Oh, he lit us up. There was a hit in that game on Alex Smith. I don't know if you'll ever find it. Alex, we've talked about it before.

This is before there was targeting in college football. You got him? Oh, I got him.

And I'm talking about crown of the helmet, like textbook. What you do not do. This is like one of those hits. This was one of those hits that you didn't even need a review. You know how to say, hey. Hey, come on, man.

Why'd you do that? 15 yards. Targeting, subject to review. This wasn't even, didn't need a review at the time. That's how bad it was. He was an outstanding player going against that Utah team that went undefeated that year, that played in the Fiesta Bowl. So I feel like I had a piece in the success of Alex Smith, but he went number one overall. Yeah, he went number one overall.

And then talk about things that will never happen again in the history of the NFL draft. Running backs went picks number two, four, and five. Three running backs in the top five of an NFL draft, TJ.

Things we'll never see again. We talked about Cadillac Williams earlier. He was offensive rookie of the year that year. Ronnie Brown went second. They were teammates at Auburn. Two teammates running backs in the top five. Cedric Benson, rest in peace, was fourth overall. Braylon Edwards was third overall.

Remember how dominant Braylon Edwards was at Michigan. Some other things in this draft class I was looking at. One Hall of Famer so far.

So far. Aaron Rodgers obviously to get in. And much to my dismay, Frank Gore will get in at some point. Eleventh pick overall, Demarcus Ware. TJ, one of your all-time favorite players. 138 career sacks.

This draft, I just couldn't get enough of that. Roddy White ends up being the best receiver in this draft. He was 27th overall first round pick. Almost 11,000 career yards.

63 touchdowns. The late Vincent Jackson was a second round pick. Richie Incognito to the St. Louis Rams. Richie Incognito in this draft. Third round pick, 81st overall. I was actually drafted before Richie, so we still joke about it all the time.

Yes, I was going to ask you before I get to that one. Ryan Fitzpatrick was the 250th overall pick. Seventh rounder, 35,000 career passing yards. The last player selected in the third round. Who was the last player selected in the third round? Maurice Claret. Maurice Claret. Running back. I don't even know if he had an affiliation because remember he didn't play that previous year. So you could say Maurice Claret of Ohio State, but remember he didn't play that year because he was trying to come out after his sophomore year. He and Mike Williams were not allowed to play, so they came out the year after. Kirk, do you remember who was taken one pick before you and after you?

Wow, that's a tough one. So you were 78th overall to the Oakland Raiders. Yup. Number 77, any of you remember that? Just give me the team. Philadelphia Eagles.

Oh, was it like a lineman? Running back. Ryan Motz. Motz, La Tech. From Louisiana Tech.

And then right after you, the Panthers took Evan Mathis. Oh, and he had a great career too. He did. Yeah, he was a baller. Made two pro balls. He went to Alabama, right?

Made an all-pro. This is when Alabama wasn't even Alabama back then. In 05, Alabama wasn't the same Alabama today. Not that we know now.

Not that we know now. Nick Saban was the head coach. Saban was probably at LSU then.

I didn't know who the coach was at that time at Alabama. But, when you talk about going through these drafts too. It's so fun to go through and look through all these guys to see. You know, I was looking at 15 players from this draft made first team all-pro. There was 20-something guys who ended up being pro bowlers.

It's really fun. Justin Tuck was in this draft. Justin Tuck was.

He won a few picks right before you. Mike Shula was the coach. Mike Shula. Mike Shula.

And he went 10-2 that year. Oh, Logan Menken's in this draft. The way Chris Henry was in your draft, I don't know if you mentioned him. We got a lot. And then, I would also say this too.

Because, this is just how different. You brought up, there were seven quarterbacks that really played extensively throughout their career. Obviously, the top two we're going to talk about.

Obviously, is Aaron Rodgers and Alex Smith. But, do you think about the career that Ryan Fitzpatrick had? Who was drafted almost. Was he missing? He was close to being Mr. Ryan Fitzpatrick. No, he was 230.

Sorry, pick number 250. Yeah, he was close to being Mr. and relevant. Almost.

Almost. But, he was there. Charlie Fry was a quarterback on that long list of the Browns' quarterbacks. People forget that it was like Jake the Snake. And then, after Jake the Snake, Plummer was Kyle Orton in Denver. Earlier, we had Nick Cosmiter from the Broncos. Well, the Broncos beat Ryder for the Athletic. That starts that whole lineage of quarterbacks after John Elway.

We could talk about Peyton Manning. But, Peyton Manning was really only there for, what, three and a half, four seasons? Yeah, I think four seasons.

Yeah, four seasons. And then he was hurt during the Super Bowl year. But, if you think about it, you remove Peyton. They've been trying to find the quarterback for a long time.

So, you add in... They're kind of like the Dolphins. Like looking for the quarterback after Marino. The Broncos have been looking for the quarterback after Elway forever.

Hope they have it now with Bo Nix. Jason Campbell in this draft. Jason Campbell had a good career. At the end of the first round.

Yup. Derek Anderson made a pro bowl. Ah, I forgot about DA.

The one year he lit it up for Cleveland. I picked off DA, that's why. And then someone, TJ, I know you love that we see on TV all the time.

We do. Dan Orlovsky, a fifth round pick. My guy, D.O.

The pride of Connecticut. A lot of those guys, you just watched him. Um... Marion Barber. You watched him. Marion Barber, good one. He was a beast.

Think about this. This guy... Brandon Jacobs. Never started a game at USC. Never started a game at USC. This is probably one of the great stories and he deserves his own documentary. 30 for 30.

Whatever you want to call it. Didn't start a game at USC. There was a guy named Leinart there. And then before that was a guy named Carson Palmer was there.

He was just the backup guy. Yet he still found a way to get drafted to the NFL. Because a coach saw something in him. A legendary coach saw something in him. Seventh round pick. And they went on to have a lucrative career in the National Football League. Matt Castle, backup quarterback at USC. He gets drafted to the Patriots because Bill Belichick saw something in him. Allowed him to develop. You never had a coach, Joe Avizano.

The great Joe Avizano was special teams coach for a long time for the Cowboys in the 90s. Gave me one of these, you know, one of those words of wisdoms. He always said, you know gentlemen, you don't know when it shall turn.

That was his thing. You don't know when it shall turn. Because I look at every one of you in here, you don't know when it shall turn. I say that because we go to the field, something may happen and guess what? It is your turn. You're one play away. I can't tell you when it's going to happen.

But something can happen and boom, you're right in there. Tom Brady in the opening game of the season against the Kansas City Chiefs. Like five minutes into the game.

Boom. We talk about Aaron Rodgers losing, I mean losing out on the season quickly. Tom Brady lost the season. They tore the NFL up so bad they changed the rule. Also, not just any season. The year after they went undefeated.

And they have the whole same team back. And they're like, well, okay, are they going to make up for losing in the Super Bowl 18-1? No. Five minutes. Boom. Over.

It's over. Dirty hit. Yeah, my guy Pollard, man, went down. I mean, he took a lot of grief for that. But he went low on Tom Brady trying to get a sack. Matt Brady tears his ACL out for the year, enters Matt Cassel. Didn't know it was his turn, but it became his turn. And led the Patriots to an 11-5 record and did not make the playoffs.

But he did make Matt Cassel one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL. So much money. One year.

One year. Another thing, just to look at the sad part about it, because as you're reading this, you said this word way too often, which is late. There's way too many men in this draft class who are no longer with us.

And this hasn't even been 20 years. We've said at least four or five men who are gone right now. That's insane to me.

It's a lot of guys, man. It's just, I think, you know, Pac-Man Jones is the sixth overall. Adam Jones.

Adam Pac-Man Jones, sixth overall. It's the National Football League, man. In 20 years, I think we've all lost people along the way. But it's always great for me that sometimes I get a chance to just reflect and see how much the game has changed. I will tell you this, the game is safer now than it was back in 2005. No doubt. Think about all the rule changes.

No doubt. That's what people get upset about. It's like, oh, they're taking away the game that I love.

And I'm like, no, they're making it safer. You know, we don't have to go out there and practice six days in a row in full pads and go up there and hit heads. I mean, they didn't have guardian caps. If I wore a guardian cap in 2005, they would have banned me from the NFL. You would have gotten laughed out of the week.

It's required. You go low on a quarterback, you're not playing. You're suspended for multiple games.

Or you hit a guy high in the head, you're suspended. The game is cleaned up. The game is much better. The game is, I would say, it's more offensive-led because of some of the rules.

But at the end of the day, it's more entertaining now than it was before. You said it, man. Three running backs in the top five of an NFL draft.

That's insane. I'll just say that again. Three running backs drafted in the top five of the National Football League will never happen again.

Never say never, but never. There you go. Thanks, Mike Thomas. If you get one in the first round, that's a good draft.

Let alone three in the top five. Whew. That's a lot. So thanks for the memories there. Wow, it was fun. It's fun to go back. TJ, you like to do this all the time, too.

Oh, all the time, man. It's so fun to go back and look at old drafts. Just to see the Hall of Famers or the Pro Bowlers. Like, if you just look at the next year.

Just to play the results. The next year, 06. Oh, don't go 06. That's Reggie. That's Mario Williams. That's Mario Williams or Reggie Bush.

But if you look at quarterbacks, one quarterback has over 10,000 passing yards. One in that draft class. 06.

06? And we're talking about... Speaking of a former Bronco, Jake Cutler.

Wow. One quarterback over 10,000 yards in that draft. So no Vince Young, no Matt Leinart, no... Vince Young got the 9,000. Matt Leinart got the 4,000. A what-if career for both those guys.

4,000 for Matt Leinart? Yeah. Wow.

Okay. It's crazy. It's crazy.

It's crazy. There's some little news and notes I want to get to in the National Football League. Things are kind of maybe under the radar, but this is the time where people start looking at depth charts and they're saying, hey, your third right receiver can make our roster because we don't have what you have. So it's been a lot of trading going on. We'll update you on a couple trades that went down.

Also, this contract for AJ Terrell. Corner's getting paid back here at Rich Eisen's show. Thanks for joining us. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Thanks, Matt. We'll be right back.

We'll be right back. I think Patrick Mahomes is going to lead you onto the field next year. It's going to be weird getting into a huddle without Alex Smith, too.

So that was where Mahomes was out there. What are your feelings now that Alex Smith has been unofficially traded away, to use your phraseology here? It's awkward. It's awkward.

I honestly don't know how to really accept it. I mean, through my entire career, you can't say Travis Kelce without Alex Smith. He's been my quarterback.

He's been the guy that's, arguably, I owe a lot of my success to him. So it's going to be awkward going into a huddle, like I said, with anybody but Alex. But I know Pat is ready for the opportunity.

Sure. He's taken a lot of mental reps and a lot of notes from Alex and how this thing should be ran. Alex ran it to an absolute T this past season.

Obviously, everyone's excited to see what he can do. We had Chris Harris of the Broncos on game day morning in the playoffs. And he said, when he was looking at film of Mahomes and he played a couple of series against him, he says, this kid's got some serious ability. Broncos said that.

Have you seen anything of that note yet? Without a doubt. I mean, what he does in practice, it's fun to watch him in practice because he's on the scout team just being a backyard quarterback, throwing it every way imaginable. You can think of sidearm, underhand, putting the ball anywhere on the field. So it was definitely fun watching him in that regard. And when he played against the Broncos, he had a lot of footballs where he put it right on the money and in crucial times and crucial moments.

So, like I said, it's going to be exciting to see where he can go with it because the expectation is definitely high. Welcome back to 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. So call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. I told you I keep the notifications coming all day long. You wake up in the morning, see we're on the West Coast and I always tell my wife, I said, why do you wake up so early and check your phone? I said, because we're three hours behind. Three hours behind, man. So I'm waking up at 6 a.m., 5.30, 6 a.m. East Coast is popping. Trust me, on the East Coast, it's going.

It's moving. And you get that big breaking news. It's like, what? And then you read it and you're like, two hours behind. So now I've got to get caught up on the stories, what's going on.

The first notification I got today, I'll start with this one first, was the A.J. Terrell, the cornerback for the Atlanta Falcons. Really good young player, really has come into his own. He signs the second highest paid, or he's the second highest paid cornerback ever. David Molageta, by the way, that's your agent, you're going to get the bag. I'm just saying, you're going to get the bag because he is getting his guy's top dollar, a four-year extension for one of those cornerstone pieces for the Atlanta Falcons. So kudos to him, an outstanding player, and maybe we'll see him continue to grow and be a lockdown guy for many years to come in Atlanta. But I said, we are in that time of the preseason where you start to inquire.

That's the word I want to use, inquire a little bit. Hard Knox gave us a little behind the scenes of that this week, and Ryan Pols, the general manager of the Bears, and his conversations with the Patriots. And they thought that they were in on the Matthew Judon situation, but at the end, Judon said, no, I want to go to Atlanta.

I'm not going to Chicago. That may have bitten him. We'll see how that plays out this year. But there has been a trade.

This was one that's kind of peculiar. As I know in the top of next hour, we'll have Ben Standig, who covers the commanders for the athletic. But the commanders are trading away Jahan Dotson. Jahan, Jahan. He's going to the Philadelphia Eagles, E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles. So Jahan and a fifth round pick in 2025 for the third round pick of the Eagles in two sevenths in 2025.

This is one that I'm like trying to figure out, trying to understand. We talked a little bit about it. A.J. Brown is the one. Maybe 1B is obviously Devante Smith.

Still think Dallas Goddard has a look at that. Saquon Barkley. Is there really a role for Jahan Dotson in this offense?

Like, let's be real. We're talking about a guy who may now be the third receiver, possibly even the third receiver, but maybe the fourth or fifth option on that team. Is that how far the rabbit hole they're going down in Philadelphia?

Don't know. Never have too much offense. Never have too much talent on that side of the ball. If you look at who the Eagles' other receivers were, again, all due respect to all these fine young men. You're talking to Paris Campbell, John Ross. These guys are on their second and third teams. Johnny Wilson.

Just not blowing your socks off, you know. Saquon Barkley, such a good receiving back. Kenneth Gainwell. Will Shipley is in the mix now there as well. He's going to get some touches. Dallas Goddard.

He's got the red Q next to his name. He'll be working on the depth chart, so he's banged up. He's been banged up in the past.

He'll be ready to go week one. He's good. Albert Ocobocca.

Sorry, I can't pronounce your name. Albert O from Denver. He's on another team, but he's a big, big pass catcher.

Eagles' offense is going to be loaded. Now Kellen Moore is running the show. I expect him to be much more vertical. We've seen Jason Kelsey's gone. The offensive line, it looks different.

A little more pass the tie. A little more pass happy for Jalen Hurts. He finally threw an interception in practice. I saw that.

So, you know, the long national nightmare is over. We're charting a guy not throwing interceptions in practice? Some people on other networks thought that was such a big deal.

It's not a big deal. I mean, he's not taking any chances. You throw in practice to know where you don't throw in the game. If Patrick Mahone threw five interceptions in a practice, am I going to be upset?

No, I know he's trying to find what he can do and what he cannot do in certain situations. So I get that. Another trade came down too, I just saw. Looks like, what's the other trade? Pop the other trade up we just had. Oh, there it is. Seattle. They're trading another linebacker. Here we go. They made a trade with the Carolina Panthers for rookie linebacker Michael Barrett. So they'll have another Michigan guy coming over in exchange for cornerback.

Michael Jackson. All right. Nice.

You like that? By the way, Johan Dotson just got drafted in our draft right before us. No, see that's like the pick before us. That's why you don't draft until Labor Day.

So we're in the thing about this league, Kirk. We have seven hours to make our pick. Seven hours to make your pick? We'll explain it in the Roku only, but we are in the middle of this crazy best ball draft that I will explain in a second.

Yeah, I need, I'm trying to figure out, I'm debating. I got to sign back up. I'm usually an auto draft guy.

Auto draft? You just don't have time? No, because I like to just talk stuff because I'm going to win maybe four or five games that I shouldn't. And I just like to just mess it up for everybody else. I'm like the underdog that comes in and starts messing things up.

You know what I mean? And I talk crap like, I'll auto draft and I can beat you. You can't beat in my league.

Talking commanders when we come back here on the Rich Eisen show. Oh, and Justin Fields just went. So we are in this crazy best ball league with Joe Attrulio from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. You may have heard of him, Paul Rudd, Jon Hamm is in this league, Rich is in this league.

And then a bunch of other, you know, random kind of LA industry people. Eight hours between picks. Literally, we've been drafting for a week. Eight hours between picks. The draft takes about ten days. It's absolutely insane.

And the other crazy thing about it is, whoever you draft, that's your team. That's it. There's no moves. There's no trades.

There's no waivers. There's nothing. I kind of like this, though. Literally, your draft is your team for the year. That's it. I think I like that.

That's a concept that I haven't been a part of, but I would love to because. And it's best ball. So you don't have to set a lineup. It automatically knows who your best lineup is during the week. And that's your team.

I mean, I'm not trying to give this company, I guess, extra advertising here, but I kind of like this idea. Because I'm one of those guys, I'm not going on a waiver wire on Tuesday. I'm not looking at this.

Oh, I am. I want to just draft my team. I want to draft my team.

What are those infomercials I watch late at night? I want to set it and forget it. You know what I mean? That's how I like with my fantasy.

Set it and forget it. We're going high upside. Our quarterbacks are C.J. Strout and Caleb Williams. T.J. and I are sharing a team. I like that.

I like the little young stallions. Because they're going to play. And we did a double stack. We have C.J. Strout and Nikko Collins. We have Caleb Williams and Roma Dunze. Double stack.

Huh? Keenan Allen, man. You should have got Keenan Allen. He's going to be the number three soon. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show coming up next here. Hart Morrison filling in for Rich. We'll see you next time.