Daniel Jones To The Vikings Is A Win For Everybody

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Tomorrow's Thanksgiving. This is the Rich Eizen Show. Let me break it down for you again. Live from the Rich Eizen Show studio in Los Angeles. He was asked if it's crazy to think about giving Mike McCarthy a new contract and there it is his answer.

I don't think that's crazy at all. You pointed at who for this year's four and seven. Got to start at the top, right?

Yes, you do. Today's guests, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero, Browns quarterback Jameis Winston, Fox Sports college football analyst Bruce Feldman, Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson, and now it's Rich Eizen. That's right, Jameis Winston's on the show.

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Okay, let's just jump right into it. Daniel Jones has found a new home. He's found a new home and it's a spot where he should feel right at home. You know, we frequently do the pop culture thing around here and every single time a situation like this comes up, not to equate the Minnesota Vikings to a psychopath like a Dr. Hannibal Lecter, but you do covet what you see, right?

They covet. And what they once upon a time saw in the Kevin O'Connell breakout first year as HC in Minnesota, they saw one and done. They saw their last hurrah with Kirk Cousins, essentially. And they got one and done by a Giants team quarterback by Daniel Jones. I came into this studio after that, the wildcard playoff game, and I said Daniel Jones looked just like Colin Kaepernick against the Green Bay Packers, where he ran it, you couldn't stop him, and he threw it and you couldn't stop him. And anytime he wasn't running it or throwing it, he was handing it off to Saquon Barkley and off he went. What a difference two years makes because it was off of that playoff win that the Giants signed Daniel Jones to a 40 million dollar a year four-year contract that wound up just less than two seasons later or into it, too expensive for them to even play him and keep him based on his level of play.

Certainly this year without Saquon Barkley, who is the MVP of the league? Yada yada yada. Daniel Jones gets released and he's now a Minnesota Viking and he's going to be signed to the practice squad. And by doing so, all they got to pay him is a hundred thousand dollars.

That's it. Giants are on the hook for the remaining 11.8 million. He gets a little bit more scratch if he's moved to the 53-man roster, which I assume will absolutely happen by the time mid December rolls around. Because the reason why the Vikings do something like this is if Sam Darnold gets hurt, Nick Mullins is the backup. Big Nick has performed well, but Big Nick doesn't have a playoff win under his belt like the one that Daniel Jones had against Minnesota. And Daniel Jones has a ton more experience playing quarterback in big time games and just period than Nick Mullins and has a physical skill set that Nick Mullins does not possess. And for Daniel Jones, he gets to go to a spot in a quarterback room that has Josh McCown in it and Kevin O'Connell comes from the Sean McVeigh tree. And that's exactly the tree that Baker Mayfield sat under. And look at what happened with him after he had a few weeks in the Rams system.

Obviously he played Daniel Jones. If everything works out for the Vikings, well not. But even for him to be exposed to that and Sam Darnold's not under contract there next year. The only contract, the contracted employee they have at the quarterback position for next year is JJ McCarthy coming off a knee injury. And if Daniel Jones wants to be the bridge quarterback there in a way that maybe Sam Darnold would be uncomfortable doing, certainly if he goes deep, and it's a win for everybody.

Except for the Giants. Because it's kind of crazy how Daniel Jones, who's being equated to Dave Brown in the Giants quarterback lore, guy comes from Duke. Everybody's wondering why are we drafting a quarterback from Duke?

And why are we placing all the eggs in that Duke quarterback's basket? And Dave Brown had as much of a successful run as Daniel Jones. With the exception, Daniel Jones did have that playoff season and that playoff performance that caused Minnesota to say, we'll maybe turn you into the Jeff Hostetler. Can you imagine if Daniel Jones gets some serious action in a playoff game for this Minnesota Vikings team and performs well? Let me just tell you, whatever the Giants are feeling because of how well Saquon Barkley is playing right now, that would be the ultimate freaking nightmare is that they just let him walk and he winds up winning playoff games for the Minnesota Vikings.

That'd be pretty shocking. But in the meantime, maybe, you know, the Vikings should just go ahead and find out, you know, the trade deadline's gone. If they could somehow, some way acquire Zach Wilson just to collect all the cast off quarterbacks from New York. You know, Darnold Daniel Jones. I mean, Geno Smith could be a free agent. Geno Smith. Is Ray Lucas available? I don't know. Jed Pennington probably still has some throws. Let's keep going.

I mean, right now they just have a menagerie of quarterback cast offs from the New York area. This is great. What's Vinny up to? I don't know. We saw, I saw him at the Fanatics Fest. Oh yeah, we saw him.

That's right. He looked great. He does.

I don't know, his Achilles looks repaired. Good Lord. It's that Sanchez out of the booth. Can't make this stuff up. Can't make it up. Sam Darnold is atop a quarterback depth chart with Daniel Jones below him for a 9-2 playoff bound team in 2024. If you had told me that going into the 2023 season, I would have said, you're out of your freaking mind. But this is a great setup for the Vikings.

And it's unbelievable. In 48 hours, Daniel Jones went from gotta get him out of the giant system to not a bad pickup type quarterback, right? And a mini Daniel Jones free agency period nobody saw coming in between weeks 12 and 13, you know?

And well done Minnesota. And if Daniel Jones does get in there and say Miami or Baltimore or heaven forbid any of these playoff bound teams lose their starting quarterback and then are left wondering what we could have done with Daniel Jones right here as the in case of emergency break glass guy. So the Vikings get some much needed cushion for Sam Darnold. They get a guy who's played in the playoffs, who's only going to cost him $100,000, who they know can perform in these situations because they once upon a time lost to him. And Daniel Jones gets to go to a spot where he's playoff bound and can learn in a quarterback room or at least show the rest of the league when he's a free agent in 2025, if that's his future, I'm better for it. Tom Pelissera will join us on that. Before we throw to our break to get to Tom, because there's tons to talk about with him, the college football playoff, now it's real with the college football playoff committee, with one regular season weekend essentially left.

And this is where you know where the pieces begin to fall, what's up. And conference championship games may screw things up also for people when they don't have to, it might be beneficial if they don't play in one, right? Like Penn State could fall directly into these college football playoffs and Indiana too, because we were talking about should they be in it and the college football playoff committee says not only should they be in it, but we should make it a big 10 game in the first round, let's send Indiana to Penn State. They did not play each other this year if I'm not mistaken.

You're correct. And so the two teams that don't make it to the big 10 championship game might just make it anyway and play each other. And Penn State gets a home game. Now, Ohio State and Oregon we assume will play for the right to be the one seed. Right now Oregon's sitting in it. Texas is sitting at two, Texas A&M which is not currently in a playoff spot could knock Texas straight out of that. How about Georgia and Tennessee as a first round game, an SEC match up there. Arizona State's currently sitting in that spot for a, yes, big 12 team.

Colorado's loss to Kansas last week was painful for them. SMU taking on Notre Dame, which is here in Southern California this week and in the Coliseum. The Trojans can really stick it to Notre Dame. They need to win that one. What do you guys make of Boise State sitting in a bi-week spot saying that we'll just advance the Blue Turfers to the next round?

That one is a tough one to swallow if you feel like others have had more stiff competition and have been tested. Obviously Ole Miss outside looking in right now. Alabama outside looking in. And you may say what you say about Clemson too outside looking in. Alabama and Ole Miss have three losses.

And you know, they're not going to be able to get in. And Clemson and Arizona State, look, I mean, you're not going to have two ACC teams in, are you? The same way you're not having two big 12 teams in. Arizona State is currently leading your big 12 right now. That nine and two, that gets them in. And I mean, Boise State's 10-1 and Indiana's 10-1.

I mean, say what you will. Say what you will about Indiana not showing up enough at an Ohio State, but those first 10 wins count for something. And it's a better record than a nine and two and an eight and three team. At least Boise has like maybe the Heisman Trophy winner. There's that. So, you know, there's something to nitpick here and there. And the college football playoff committee has spoken into the final regular season week.

And then obviously conference championship play has a lot to say on all of that. We'll talk to Bruce Feldman in that regard. Jamis Winston, top of hour two.

Garrett Wilson, hour three. I do have my power rankings. We've got a lot to talk about. 844-204 Rich, number to dial. We'll talk playoffs or what for the AFC teams. Lots to get to before we get out of Dodge for Thanksgiving.

Tom Pelosaro next. This is the Rich Eisen Show. For business owners like you, the American Express Business Platinum Card works just as hard as you do to help you pursue your passions. With its world-class business and travel benefits, you can get more for your business wherever it takes you. The Amex Business Platinum Card offers a flexible spending limit that adapts with your business, enabling you to flex and adapt as your business evolves. And you'll earn five times membership rewards points on flights and prepaid hotels booked on amextravel.com so that going that extra mile for your business is even more rewarding. See how the Amex Business Platinum Card gives business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love. Not all purchases will be approved. Terms apply.

Learn more at americanexpress.com slash Amex Business. Let's talk sleep number, people. There's a reason why sleep number is the official sleep and wellness partner of the National Football League because in the NFL, there's no margin for error. One mistake can change the outcome of a game and science proves quality sleep can help boost reaction time, recovery time and overall athletic performance. Imagine what it can do for you. I know about it. My sleep number setting is 60.

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Get the parts you need when you need them at AutoZone or AutoZone.com. Restrictions apply. Back here on the program, you guys talking about what show are you guys talking about? We're talking about Linus.

Linus on Paramount. How many Taylor Sheridan shows are there? There are four currently. Are you watching Landman yet? We have not gotten to it yet, but we are having some of the stars of that show come in in December. Fantastic. I'm looking, Susan, I really want to see it. It's good.

Again, the limited amount of time you have with multiple children who you all love the same. But not really. Um, you know, uh, to just like we found a time last night to catch up on the latest Yellowstone. Okay. I'm not caught up on you.

I'm a few seasons behind. Well, you think it's, I don't know why they set it up this way. Like you have to watch it live on Paramount network. And if you don't gone, like there's no, there's no archive of it.

You have to go to prime video and buy it. Oh, that's one way. That's one way to get it. It's really weird how they're doing it. They've already, they've always done it in a, in a weird way. Well, it was like live on Paramount, but then you go to peacock, but that's got to be over when they, that's when they get it to watch it in season.

If you're not watching it live is not easy. It took us an hour and 40 minutes to get through the one episode. Cause it was a nonstop coming in and coming in and coming in mom, dad, everything.

We love the children all the same, but it's good, man. Yellowstone is just, I mean, I'm excited for you to get the land, man. It's just a peak Billy Bob.

It was written for him, Taylor Sheridan said in his voice. It's just perfect. Can't wait. We'll get into it. Just three episodes in right now. So far three.

Can you, can you binge them or are they all on it? No, no, no. It comes out every Sunday. Okay. That's the other thing too. Same thing with, same thing with peak, uh, with, uh, um, Yellowstone. You gotta wait.

I mean, football season. I know first class problems. First class, all of them for sure. Back on the rich eyes and show radio network, sitting at the rich eyes and show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call click ranger.com or just stop by. Lots going on. National football league.

Thanksgiving day around the corner. Daniel Jones is a Viking is a Tom Pellicero already. Yeah, buddy. Yeah, he is joining us.

Now is our good friend, Tommy P. Tom Pellicero is back everybody. Is that good? Oh, I thought that was great. It was great.

Really good reception. Yeah. Yeah.

Good energy. Yeah. Yeah. It's like norm walking into cheers.

All right. Uh, Tom walked me through how Daniel Jones wound up in purple. There were a bunch of teams that reached out to Daniel Jones. Um, once it became, uh, public that he was going to be waived by the giants, uh, there were teams actively recruiting him.

There were a variety of people from organizations talking directly to Daniel Jones and, and trying to sell them. But, you know, the fit in Minnesota always made a lot of sense for a variety of reasons. For one thing, the Vikings saw the best version of Daniel Jones that we've ever seen his one playoff win with the giants was in Minnesota when they, uh, upset the Vikings two years ago. So they know that it's in there from, you know, the Vikings perspective too, you look at their backup quarterback situation right now, they've got Nick Mullins. He can play in a pinch. He knows the offense, but.

You know, the upside is probably limited. If something were to happen, the Sam Darnold, as you're trying to make a playoff push here, you also only have one quarterback who's even under contract for 2025. So effectively you get a dirt cheap look at a former top 10 pick at quarterback, who you think does have some talent much in the same way that, you know, Sam Darnold was kicked around and was a punchline for a long time.

You're hoping maybe you can get something similar out of Daniel Jones for Jones's or from Jones's perspective. Now he's going to start out on the practice squad, which means that, Hey, somebody on another team tears their ACL this weekend, a team that's in the playoff chase. He could go there if he wanted to and start, he can sign and then the Vikings couldn't stop them. But also probably more importantly, this is about the development for Daniel Jones. He can go to a team that has a really good reputation for developing quarterbacks with, you know, not just Kevin O'Connell, but Wes Phillips and Josh McCown and the rest of the game that they've got in the building there. He gets to learn an offense, Rich, that a lot of teams in the NFL run. When you talk about the, you know, for lack of a better term, the Shanahan McVeigh style of offense, the outside zone, the play actions and all that.

Daniel Jones hasn't really been in that type of an offense here. So in the same way that Sam Darnold going for a year with Kyle Shanahan last year in San Francisco, this is kind of a microwaved version of that. Where Daniel Jones, when we come out on the other side of this, and let's say he stays with the Vikings for the rest of this season, doesn't actually see game action, which will be kind of how things transpire here. But at least then it's, hey, I've been trained by one of the best guys in this offense.

I'm going to be ahead of the game. What Daniel Jones is hoping to get is an opportunity to compete somewhere to start in 2025. Maybe there's a scenario where that ends up being in Minnesota because they only have J.J. McCarthy under contract for next season. McCarthy's missing his entire rookie season because of the meniscus surgery.

You know, nothing is off in terms of his timetable. He did have that recent follow-up procedure just to make sure that everything was in good shape with the knee, but full expectations he's ready for camp. I've said it before, Rich, I think on this show that I don't think realistically when you're talking about a rookie missing his entire first season, which there's not a lot of precedent for, I don't think you go in and just say J.J.'s number one on the depth chart and there's nobody else in the building next year. Whether it's Sam Darnold, who is making himself more and more money every week, or it's Daniel Jones or it's somebody else, they got to have somebody there.

So again, it's a free cheap look. If eventually Daniel Jones ends up on the 53-man roster, the Vikings also could collect a compensatory pick for him. There's a lot of reasons this made sense for all parties and Daniel Jones should be in Minnesota soon. Win, win, win, win, win.

A lot of checking of boxes right there. Who else was in on it to try and tell Daniel Jones, you get the win-win coming to us too? There were a lot of teams that showed some level of interest. I think some of them have been reported in terms of Baltimore and San Francisco. Miami would have made some sense as well. I know somebody said Buffalo. I never got the sense that that was going to happen based upon their quarterback room.

But I mean, think about it. How often does this happen that a former high pick with that much starting experience becomes available is getting paid $11.8 million by the Giants, so you owe them nothing. It's just a completely cheap look at a backup quarterback. So there were a bunch of different situations that potentially would have made sense, but it really came down to just a couple of teams.

Minnesota was always, I think, the favorite going through the process. They also recruited him hard. We'll see how long it lasts. Again, he could leave next week if he wants to, but the mentality going into this, from my understanding, is he's going to be there for the next couple of months. He's going to learn. They're going to get a look at him. Maybe there's a partnership that goes into 2025, but if not, then no harm, no foul.

It really didn't cost anybody anything. Let's talk about the Giants side of things, Tom, because everything you just said there is about how attractive Daniel Jones is or has been. Well, I know. I get it.

No, I understand that. But also, you know, hey, let's just say it. I mean, with all due respect here, Nick Mullins didn't think he's going to catch a stray, but this is Nick Mullins' insurance. You know, it's Nick Mullins' insurance.

You know what I mean? Like if Sam Darnold goes down at any point in time over the next few weeks and the Vikings have a shot at the Super Bowl, Daniel Jones is a better choice than big Nick Mullins. I mean, you could make that case, but long story short, is Daniel Jones being viewed as valuable over the last 48 hours, and then Saquon doing his deal on a Sunday night when Tommy DeVito falls completely flat, and now here the Giants come in front of their biggest audience of the entire year, hands down, the Thanksgiving, middle of the afternoon, early evening audience, depending on where you're watching, against the Cowboys.

And so let's start just micro and then go macro. Micro is who's starting. Who's going to be starting for this team for the Giants on Thanksgiving? It does sound like it's going to be Tommy DeVito unless he just flat out can't go. They'll get a better feeling in terms of, you know, how his arm feels. I mean, DeVito talked to his locker yesterday. I saw, you know, Brian Davil had said, well, his forearm hurts and DeVito was like, yeah, it's also my neck and every other part of my body, which makes sense if you watch that game.

I mean, he got absolutely bashed around. So now a short week coming back, Drew Locke got some of the first team reps. Again, it sounds like they anticipate at least going into this, it'll be Tommy DeVito, but if he wakes up not feeling good or if he doesn't look good when he gets out there, then we may get some exposure to Drew Locke here. You know, I think the calculus was different at this point for the Giants. You know, it would have been toxic, frankly, to put Daniel Jones back out there and not try something different. Tommy DeVito's the one quarterback that got under contract for 2025, so you wanted to get a look at him. You didn't want to run the risk of Daniel Jones, who has been hurt a lot, suffering an injury down the stretch of the season, then being on the hook for even more money than you already owe him.

I think they're two separate issues here. You know, and back to the point you made on Nick Mullins, when you go into the playoffs, I would think that every team is going to want to have three quarterbacks in uniform and utilize the emergency third quarterback rule. So for the Vikings, yeah, there'll be a decision that needs to be made down the stretch of is it Daniel Jones or Nick Mullins designated as the two. I would fully anticipate Mullins as the guy this week, probably next week. It's going to take time for Daniel Jones to get up to speed, but, you know, if we get into January and the Vikings have a playoff game, you know, who do you trust more in that scenario? You can't use the emergency third quarterback unless the top two guys both get hurt and are ruled out for the game. So there's a lot that'll kind of play out on that front, but from the Giants perspective, I mean, they're not going anywhere anyway, frankly, here, and it's going to be an uphill battle for them against a Cowboys team that's trying to break a really long, bad streak at home on Thursday.

Well, let's just put a pin in the Cowboys for a second and put a pin in the Giants equation writ large here. When you said it would be toxic to put Daniel Jones back out there, what gives you the impression that it would have been toxic? Because some of the players were definitely, you know, lamenting Daniel Jones's departure.

And then obviously after four quarters of cutlets, we heard what Malik Nabors was saying. And so what gives you an impression that sticking with the Jones program would have been toxic for the Jones? What I mean is the fan environment from everything I understand there is so brutal right now. And so coming off the buy saying, we're not making any changes, we're sticking with Daniel Jones.

The moment he would throw an incompletion, he'd get booed being introduced. That's what I mean. At least with Tommy DeVito, you know, right or wrong, you have some level of hope because it's a fun story. And you were three and three with them last year. I mean, they were a bad football team, Rich. That's the thing that I think everybody overlooks here.

There were, I think, three and 13 since the start of 2023. No question about it. And that's why I wanted to follow up because, you know, at least you're, I totally hear you when you're talking about the fans. It would have been toxic with the fan base because without a doubt, all the Giants fans that call this show and that I know personally, and even those who don't have sort of a fan dog in the hunt, like say Brockman, have been 100% advocating for a house clean. And I didn't get that sense in Munich that the ownership was in any way, shape or form interested in that. But if it's as non-competitive as what we saw against Tampa on the beachfront property of Thanksgiving, and it doesn't improve when, you know, the Ravens wind up coming to town next for the Giants or after this game for the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving for the Giants, it's New Orleans coming into their house. I mean, you see where I'm going with this.

What is the sense that you have about a house clean and the gigs of both Dayball and Joe Shane right now, Tom? Well, that's the other reason that I say it would be toxic. It's not about the locker room because Daniel Jones was beloved by teammates. You know, there's not every quarterback when he gets cut, you have all these players posting photos of the quarterback like hanging out with them and being one of the game.

That doesn't happen in every building. So those guys like Daniel Jones, they just they weren't a good enough team with him on the field. So when you hear Brian Daybell talking last week about, hey, we're looking for a spark with Tommy DeVito, I'm sure that there's, you know, the tank heads out there who are going, why do you want a spark?

Go to the bottom. You would have the number one pick if this thing ended today. But you're sitting there thinking, we've got to show that we've got some progress.

We've got to show we've got some positive momentum. And I would say this, you know, for Brian Daybell and Joe Shane, they get the cupboards, not bear right now with the Giants. You finally got to find, it seems like in Tyrone Tracy, you got a really good wide receiver in Malik neighbors who, yeah, he's calling out the team and calling out his lack of targets.

That shouldn't surprise anybody. If you know what his mentality was at LSU, it's what you love the most about him. It's also what is going to cause that stuff to bubble to the surface when he's not able to impact the game the way that he wants to. Defensively, Dexter Lawrence, if the Giants weren't, you know, didn't have a horrible record, he'd be in the defensive player of the year conversation. That's how good Dexter Lawrence has been through the course of the season. You know, the Brian Burns trade was not a huge investment and they believe they've got a really good player at that position. So they're not, you know, it's not like you've got the worst roster in the league right now, but you don't have a quarterback.

And that's become abundantly clear. And your sell point, if you're the Giants right now, if you're Joe Shane and Brian Dabel, to John Merritt, to Steve Tisch, to the decision makers in New York is, listen, we're going to get that part of it right. Yes, it was a bind last year. Yes, you're hearing from everyone you know about why you let Saquon Barkley go. We tried to get a deal done with him three times. He put us in a tough spot. We extended a quarterback who had just beaten the team, Rich, that signed him today. It's not as if everybody just thought this was completely done with Daniel Jones.

It's a hindsight, you know, and outcome based analysis dictates a lot of this stuff. But you can understand the thread of how we got there with this Giants team. If you get the right quarterback, you got a high pick, you got the number one pick. You know, you could have some interesting conversations about if it's Shidoor Sanders, whether Deano wants to let him go there and all that other fun stuff.

That's a ways down the line right now. You're just trying to show, hey, we got players on this team. We don't have a quarterback. Let's just find a quarterback who can function at a little higher level. Try to squeak one out against, you know, even on Thanksgiving, Rich, the Cowboys have more to play for because they are still in it. And they can feel like, hey, if we get to five and seven going into the mini buy, we get a little bit healthier, maybe get Dexter Lawrence back or DeMarcus Lawrence back. Maybe we've got something down the stretch here, but this is still a team that on paper, you shouldn't be sitting there going, we got absolutely no chance against them. I think it'll be a competitive game on Thanksgiving.

If it's not, then there's going to be certainly some interesting analysis come Friday morning. So let's now remove the pin on the Dallas Cowboys, Tom, because the Metroplex abuzz on Tuesday when Jerry Jones was asked in his weekly convo on the local radio there, if it was crazy to extend, to think that he would extend Mike McCarthy. And he said, it's not crazy at all. McCarthy had some fun with it in his press conference as well. What's the scoop here, Tom?

I think that there's a couple sides to this, Rich. And first of all, I love that Mike McCarthy, who for years when he was in Green Bay, I would tell a man like, you got to be this guy that we talk to when you're not at the podium, because he would be so stiff. He gets it.

There's a buy play, there's a give and take. It's good to see Mike at this stage in his career having fun. But with Jerry Jones, you remember last year, Rich, the Cowboys are on their way to 12 and five and hosting a home playoff game. Set aside what happened in that home playoff game. But Jerry Jones through the late part of the year and the start of the playoffs, there were a bunch of occasions where he's being asked on the radio about changing his head coach and he wasn't slamming the door. This was a team that was one of the best in the NFC.

Why? A conspiracy theorist or someone who's just familiar with the past 30 years of NFL history might say, Jerry likes when people are talking about him. Jerry likes when he says the thing that's not the common opinion and ruffle some feathers and get people talking about the Cowboys, which, you know, good or bad, Jerry's philosophy is as long as they're talking about you, you're doing your job. The second part of it to me is and sorry that we're ISOing on TJ here. We've been through a lot over the past several months. It's a TJ cam while you're talking about his team. Go ahead, Tom. I don't think that this is crazy either.

And I say this for a bunch of different reasons. Obviously, Mike McCarthy's track record, you know, even in Dallas, he's won about 60 percent of his games, OK? And this was a Cowboys team that had to do a lot in terms of changing the culture and straightening out some things that were going wrong within the building.

The covid season in 2020, when you really couldn't implement a culture, set that aside. He's won like 70 percent of his game since he got there. He's won a Super Bowl. He remains one of the top play callers, one of the top head coaches in the NFL.

Jerry's 82 years old. He just paid his quarterback Dak Prescott on a record deal for four years and 240 million based on what he saw from back last season in his first year with Mike McCarthy called the plays when Dak played the best football of his entire life. There were a lot of things that went into the Cowboys slow start. The fact that it took them all of training camp to get the CD Lamb deal done and there were no reps between Dak and CD definitely impacted them early in the season here. And by the way, as you go into 2025, you're looking at a potential another offseason long standoff with another one of your stars because Micah Parsons is going to want a new contract and that's going to be a complicated one to do. And there's incentive for Micah Parsons to wait until all these other pass rushers who are due for new deals get theirs. So, I mean, there's big organizational decisions that the Cowboys are going to have to make.

Their history would suggest they'll find a way to pay all their top players. I would say even with the salary cap spiking the way it is, having a 60 million dollar quarterback, a 35 million dollar receiver and a 40 million dollar pass rusher on one team is really stressing you from a budgetary salary cap perspective. But the point is, if you're Jerry, I think that you can convince yourself that there were a lot of external factors, part of it your own doing, because you re-signed Zeke Elliott and didn't do anything else to help the offense in the offseason. You lost several offensive linemen. You were starting five rookies.

You had both your pass rushers get hurt in the early stages of the season. You convince yourself, you know what, let's take one more run at this. I'm not saying that's what's going to happen. You know, this is Jerry Jones we're talking about. He is going to be diligent. He is going to examine all of his options. And Mike McCarthy also, his contract's up, so he could choose to go someplace else at the end of the season.

But is it crazy? Is it crazy to suggest, especially if they finish strong and they, you know, they get to nine wins and stay in the playoff chase till the end, you extend Mike McCarthy? I don't think it's a long-term deal if that were to happen, but it wouldn't be the first time that Jerry let somebody coach out their deal and then brought them back.

It happened with Jason Garrett. We'll see come January how this entire thing shakes. All right, before I let you go into your Thanksgiving weekend, Tom Pelosero, last one for you. I set the line at two and a half teams, two and a half teams. You take the over or the under on the number of teams that will reach out to Bill Belichick and say, do you want to coach our team? Tom Pelosero, your Thanksgiving week shot call. You're saying, all right, I want to, I want to make sure I'm understanding.

Of course, I don't give Betty an advice, but I'm trying to understand the prop here. This is two and a half teams that offer Bill the job or two and a half teams that want to talk to Bill about the job. Two and a half teams that want to talk to Bill about the job, because if I'm not mistaken, that was more than he got last year. That's for darn sure of two and two and a half teams will make an announcement. Bill Belichick is coming in to talk about our job, which means, OK, which how about that?

Because that's a construct. It's teams that want to bring him in and teams that he's like, OK, I will talk to you two and a half. And that's over under. There will be including back channel, not formal conversations. Rich will be over.

In fact, I would I would give you an educated guess that it's already over on that number, that there have already been back channel conversations. So everybody wants to everybody wants to it's arguably the greatest head coach of all time. If you think you're going to have a vacancy or you do have a vacancy, why would you not be at least understanding where Bill Belichick is at at this point in his life, where he's willing to go geographically, where he's willing to go from a programmatic type of a perspective here? You know, Bill Belichick, you know, he's a guy who had a lot of success in New England setting up a program and having it in place for twenty five years.

You know, as much as Bill has a certain way that he's going to want to do things and he's going to want to bring in a lot of his people to help execute those things. When you're you're in your 70s and you're trying to get the wins record, which is going to take you two, three years, this is more of, I would say, a hired gun type of a scenario here. And it might be a team that nobody's talking about moving on from their coach that maybe ends up being the best fit for Bill Belichick.

I don't I don't foresee him being on the tour and there's four or five teams that are announcing we interviewed Bill Belichick for the job. You know, with the Falcons, that didn't even need to happen either. I first reported that Bill Belichick and Arthur Blank had met last year, and that wasn't like a formal in the building interview.

That was like on Arthur Blank's yacht. And they just like got together and talked. And then it became, OK, well, everyone else is going through this process based upon the rules, based on fairness.

You should also come and do the rest of the process. And so Belichick came in and he went through the same stuff that, you know, Raheem Morris and Mike Vrabel and Bobby Sloake and Anthony Weaver and everybody else they interviewed went through here. Again, I don't see Belichick doing that with a bunch of different teams. I think that he will be, you know, he definitely wants to coach. He's definitely preparing to coach. And when it comes right down to it, by the time we get to the end of December, early January, Bill will have a good idea what the possibilities are for him and other teams will have a good idea on whether or not Bill Belichick is a good fit for their organization. The only reason why I listed it at two and a half, Tom, by the way, in terms of Atlanta, there's one other coach that they chatted with and he's coming back wearing a lightning bolt this weekend with Jim Harbaugh. That's going to be an interesting one coming up on Sunday. The only reason why I set it at two and a half is don't forget Vrabel's going to be out there and Ben Johnson.

I mean, everybody's going to want to wait and talk to him whenever that's available, depending on how long the Lions season talks. So, and those are, you got a young guy who is as red hot as they come. And then you got Vrabel, who's in between, you know, age-wise of Johnson and Bill. And then you got the legend, you know, so those, and those are just three. Then there's the other hot coordinators that might canal us their way into a gig.

You know what I mean? So remember, remember this though, Bill Belichick and Mike Vrabel were both available last year. And I think the Vrabel one came as a little bit more of a surprise to people. So maybe that was a little bit behind in the cycle, but neither of those guys got a job offer last year. And my theory, and I think we've talked about here before, Rich, is there was, when you saw teams like D'Amico Ryans and the Texans winning, Dan Campbell and the Lions winning, the theme in hiring last year was the positive reinforcement guys, the ones who are going to be inclusive.

We're all in this together, bring it in. Owners, you're a part of this and not the negative reinforcement culture, you know, divided line between football and ownership. Those coaches weren't in vogue. Now, you know, a year later, you can look at all last year's hires. Some of them are succeeding immediately.

Some of them, it's been a little bit bumpier out of the gate here. Do Bill Belichick and Mike Vrabel get jobs in this cycle? I would certainly say at least one of them, I believe, will get a job. It's quite possible we get two of them. With Ben Johnson, he's going to be very selective.

It's not, as I said on game day morning when I was hanging off that catwalk over your head there, Rich, on Sunday. He's not waiting for the perfect job, but he wants a place with alignment and the opportunity to be set up for long-term success. If there's seven openings in this cycle, there might only be one or two jobs that Ben Johnson's even interested in.

He's not going to do what he's done in past years and interview for three, four, or five jobs. It's going to be very selective and if that job isn't out there that he feels really good about, he'll stay in Detroit where he makes really good money and has a job he loves and he loves Dan Campbell and he, you know, he enjoys winning. Mike McCarthy, his contract is set to expire.

That's another name you'll hear prominently in this marketplace. I don't think you've necessarily heard the last of names like Pete Carroll and John Gruden that could pop up at some point through the course of this cycle and then you do. I mean, you've got some of those other older coaches like everybody will keep banging the drum for Steve Spagnuolo until he gets another opportunity. Cliff Kingsbury, despite some of the offensive struggles in recent weeks, quite possibly will be back in this marketplace.

Did somebody interview Robert Solom given the fact that the Jets have somehow managed to pour gasoline on the dumpster fire since they fired him? Could he get at least an interview once again? Then there's a bunch of those young guys, Bobby Sloake will be back in the mix again, Anthony Weaver who was really impressive in a couple of interviews that he had last year. I believe that he's going to be right back in the mix, but you're right, the big chess pieces in this cycle, setting aside things like Mike McCarthy that that's going to be more fluid, it is going to be Belichick, it is going to be Vrabel, it is going to be Ben Johnson, but I can't sit here and tell you all three of those guys are going to take jobs.

In fact, I'd say if I had to guess sitting here right now, I would say less than two of them end up taking jobs. We'll see though. Every team has different criteria. Everybody's going to be looking for something different.

The teams that want to hire Ben Johnson are probably not the same teams that want to hire Bill Belichick. And so it's going to be a fascinating cycle here. We've got two openings.

We know there's going to be more. The average is, you know, there were 50 openings over the last seven years. So we're on an average of seven. I would guess there'd be more than that this year. There could be eight or nine.

And it'll be interesting to see where people find that many coaches. Have a great Thanksgiving. Tom Pelissero, thanks as always. We'll chat with you next week. Happy Thanksgiving, Rich.

Tom Pelissero, everybody here on The Rich Eisen Show. Wow, so much to talk about, man. So much happening right now.

And, you know, nine openings, 10 over like a third of the league. I know you say it all the time. I try to tell you guys. You know, listening to him talk about Belichick caused me to think a little bit. And when we come back, I do have the potentially ideal spot for him. Talk about that. Jamis Winston, Bruce Feldman, Cleveland Browns football, snow globe game, college football, our two and you coming up.

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That's B O M B A S.com slash listen and use code listen at checkout. So again, you know, Mike McCarthy has been kind enough to zoom into this show every now and then, right? And you just even heard Tom Palacios say, whenever you meet Mike McCarthy, it's just like, where's that guy at the podium? Like be more of that guy at the podium. You've seen Bill Belichick all over the place right now. Never was that guy at the podium unless you asked him about like, Hey, let's talk about Zeke Moat. What he meant to you, you know, long snappers, left handed long snappers, your thoughts on that bill.

And he would just go on some 10 minute dissertation history of the trap play. So McCarthy at the, at his podium at his press conference yesterday was asked about the comments from Jerry Jones on 105 three, the fan, when he was asked if it was crazy to give McCarthy an extension. And Jerry said, it's not crazy. And that was brought up to McCarthy. Jerry Jones said it wouldn't be crazy for you to get a contract extension. Why are you laughing?

Crazy. I mean, this is for us that we're still talking about this and here we are in late November, you know, about your future and that kind of thing. Well, I mean, I really haven't talked about it all year, so I mean, definitely not going to start on a short week in an important division game. Um, so, but I'm not going to throw away positive vibes either, so I'll keep them coming. That's all good.

But, uh, no, yeah, it's, that's not, that's not, that's not something I'm really focused on. I mean, that's the guy that you meet when the styrofoam cups filled with something stronger, the combine, you know what I mean? Like, that's the guy you meet, like, what's so funny?

Yeah. Why are you guys laughing? You act like I haven't won 12 games, uh, three years in a row. Isn't it amazing what one win can do to somebody's tenor, mood, approach. And that, and that's why we talk about all the time, as we finish the TV block here, that's why NFL is so special, man. It's one week and when you lose, it's a real miserable week.

And when you win, it's a great one. I know. Mike McCarthy, we just played in our Roku only segment there, his response to, you know, Jerry Jones saying, is it crazy for you to give him a contract? And he's just like, why? Somebody brought that up to him. And he's, he said to the press, why are you laughing?

Funny. Sleep number, go to a sleep number store near you right now. Certainly, if you're in the market for a new bed, you should walk in there, tell them the Rich Eisen Show sent you and told them, told you about what they can offer you and what they offer you immediately on the spot as they assess your body's pressure points, recommend a bed at every price point that is right for you.

So at this time of year, certainly if you're in the market of a new bed and everything that's going on at a sleep number store, check it out and tell them I sent you. Listen, one thing that nobody in this business ever wants to do is talk for Bill Belichick, ever. Nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody. The guys can talk for themselves. You just heard Tom Pelissero came on and I asked him over, under two and a half, what's the number of teams that'll send out a press release saying Bill's coming in to talk? Meaning we want Bill and Bill's interested in talking to us. And Tom Pelissero said he thinks that the overs already hit. Back channel conversations with Bill.

All righty. That number's hit. So I think he's going to wind up in Jacksonville. If there is a job open in Jacksonville, there currently is not everyone's assuming that there is Doug Peterson is getting ready. He's getting ready for the Texans this week. He made it through the pot.

He did. Usually that's when coaches get got and Trevor Lawrence is coming back and Bigsby's back and, and Travis Etienne's back. And maybe they can get the good times rolling, but if there's a job open, that's, that's a spot. But, you know, would he be able to set up shop completely the way that he likes it? Will he have to work with a couple of people that's already there?

Word is he would work well with Trent Balke, right? But what do you want if you're Bill? You want a spot that is, gives you a chance to succeed now. You want to have players that are already there. You want to have the ability for, you can bring in your whole staff. You can, if you will, bring your entire mentality and you bring the Belicheck way and the owner gets out of the way and says, you do you, Bill.

And that the owner is in a position where he or she feels it necessary to hand the store off to Bill. Don't you think that's the way to go? I think so. Okay.

And they got a new stadium, new facility opening up soon. Well, I'm just saying in general, I'm not just talking about Jacksonville. I'm just talking about in general, this is what you want to see in general.

This is what you want to see in general. And if you can, if he does have the wanting to stick it to New England in him, if that does mean, if that is a metric, that would be the cherry on top. That's not the way he's going to make his coaching life decision here. And in that regard, the best job open for him is the New York Jets. Honestly, honestly, they're going to, the whole house can be clean and they are in need, just like when Parcells came, of a total remodel, please tell us how to run a football operation.

Please. I mean, the owner is reaching out to the 33rd team right now, which is definitely filled with some highly qualified former general managers to help in the search. But back in the day, they begged Parcells, please, the previous owner, please come and tell us how to run a franchise because we're causal it and co-tied it out of here.

And. You know, maybe what he's pitched to him is like, listen, Bill, I know you can't stand the side of me based on everything that you say about me and the shots you take at me and every possible opportunity. I know, I know, I know the reason why you wrote down, you're not the H.C. of them. The reason why you didn't take the job when you had it contractually obligated to you is because you didn't trust my ability to run this team.

And sure enough, over the last few decades, I've kind of proven you right to be very I'm being blunt here. But hey, Bill, you come in here, you shape the roster, you run the team as you see fit. And if you don't want me around, guess what? I'm not going to be here anyway.

Meet my meet my brother. You want to get along well with him? You know, honestly, I'm not going to be here.

You are the one who is here bring your staff, bring your whole thing. You run it and you can finish up your coaching career in New York. I know you don't want to kind of follow in the footsteps of Parcells. And again, you hate us. You know, we took Mangini, the whole spy game.

I know you hate us with a passion. But that's Garrett Wilson, who's an hour three. That's Breece Hall. Who's the quarterback? I don't know.

Let's figure it out. We're going to have a high draft choice. And let's go get you a veteran that you kind of dig right now so you can get closer to Shula.

You can beat the Dolphins twice a year, you can beat the Patriots twice a year. How about you? How about it, Bill?

Again, there's some property somewhere, figuratively, that would have to freeze over like the Fortress of Solitude on top of Antarctica, on top of the Arctic for this to actually happen, I believe. But tell me, where's a spot where they're like, we need a culture change. We need a general manager. We need a coach. We need to win. And you want to come work for an owner that's going to be absentee.

Or we're assuming. Tell me, tell me a better spot. Tell me a better spot. I don't know. Just throwing it out there. I don't think that's ever going to happen, but the things are there. Maybe if he does dig, Rogers. Hey, Aaron, stick around for a year. We need you as a bridge quarterback. You trust me. I trust you. Win me some games. Get me closer to Shula via Condios.

He didn't want 40 year old Brady anymore. I get it. That's true. Crazier things. Actually, no, this is the craziest thing. Throwing it out there. Thanksgiving food for thought. Jamis Winston coming up. Yeah, I just think I would be shocked if it's anywhere but Jacksonville.

But Jacksonville may not be open. We're all assuming. Maybe not. Yeah, maybe not. I don't know. Well, we are assuming that. We are assuming it. Well, Tom said there's going to be nine openings.

Nine. There's always a couple you don't see coming. I've been trying to tell you guys that. By the way, do you like how I use Canalis as a verb? That there's always going to be some coordinator you don't think can Canalis their way into a job. Yeah. Dave Canalis was definitely not on anybody's bingo card other than the fact it's a nice job in Tampa, you know, in your first time.

Yeah. I did it back to back years. He did with Gino and then he did it with Baker.

And now, you know, doing a very nice job and finishing up strong in Carolina. After your impassioned speech right there, I kind of want Belichick to the Jets. I do not. Because, you know, the quote, you know, Brown, money talks and BS runs the marathon. You had a man, a check that's blank in one of these little feather pens and say, fill it out yourself.

Yeah, that could change a lot of what he's got it. Think about some of the reunions we've seen lately. What do you think 30 million a year? Hey, Bill, you know, throw in some shampoo on top of it. I don't know. Soap Johnson and Johnson money is being thrown around in New York. His lady friend. I know all the hot. This guy. What are we doing now? How dare you?

Concrete jungle. Hey, it's Rich Eisen here. Join me and my compadre, Chris Brockman, every Monday on the overreaction Monday podcast, which Jamis has taken the brows to the playoffs. Dude, why can't they win seven, eight games to finish the year? Why not? I'm not saying there's no why not, but this is a definitive statement. That's clearly an overreaction and it's perfect fodder for a show like this one. I appreciate you coming out of the gate hot. Come react or overreact with us overreaction Monday, wherever you listen, it's game over, over, man.