Tom Pelissero: Bill Belichick has buyouts to return to the NFL

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Visit Amazon.com slash Prime to get more out of whatever you're into. This is the Rich Eisen Show. This ball's picked. Intercepted at the goal line. Darius Williams goes to get it and L.A. has the first takeaway.

Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Happened with De'Andre Campbell. He didn't play. He went into the locker room at some point. Yeah, he didn't say he didn't want to play today. I wish I would have heard about on the field, but I didn't.

I tried to win football games when someone doesn't. Today's guests, NFL Network insider Tom Pellicero, comedian Nate Bargetzi. And now it's Rich Eisen. You know, I love doing this show and I love having the opportunity to welcome in so many guests. And I'm always excited to have guests that are kind enough to take time out of their busy schedules to come here. But throughout last night and this morning, I'm like, Nate Bargetzi's coming to the studio today. And I'm just genuinely fired up for this one, man. Yeah. He's one of my favorites. He's as funny as they get. He's as red hot as they get.

Yeah. You know, and he's in studio hour three. I feel the same way every single time Tom Pellicero joins the program as well.

I'm not just saying that because he's listening and we're about to bring him in here. Tommy P. I really feel that way. Tom Pellicero. My boys in the studio. You know, feeling great today, Tom. Tom still has got that Elvis album behind his right shoulder. I'm not going to order a second one. We've got what, uh, 12 days till Christmas.

Um, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna leave them back. I saw Nate. I saw Nate Bargetzi in St. Paul last year. He opened up with a five minute bit about how he never understood why it was called the twin cities. But then he went to St. Paul and it was the funniest thing because, you know, he just thought it up. Like he got there and he was like, Oh no. Oh, now I get it. And that was the whole bit. And the place was rolling.

I mean, he's one of the funniest people alive. That's awesome. He's coming in.

Yeah. He's uh, I saw him at the Hollywood bowl, um, when he was with, uh, Jim Gaffigan and Sebastian Maniscalco and Jerry Seinfeld. And it was a brilliant night and yeah, he's coming in an hour number three.

Good to see you, Tom. Uh, what is your reporting on what happened with Devondrae Campbell last night? Was it as just as him not being happy that Dre Greenlaw was back and eaten into his playing time?

Is that what happened to him? It sounds like, I mean, it's, it follows a lot of the same patterns as what happened with Deontay Johnson a couple of weeks ago, which is, Hey, I haven't played. It's cold. It's crappy out.

It's rainy. My, my muscles aren't loose. And you're telling me now I'm going in the game. No, you're not allowed to do that. And I don't know that, you know, you didn't have the same type of comments after the game about Deontay Johnson that you've had about Devondrae Campbell. I mean, George Kittle going off and basically saying it was, it was immature. Um, you had, um, Travarius Ward using words I can't use on here, but, um, you know, really calling him out and, um, Kyle Shanahan flat out saying, I don't think we need to talk about him anymore. Uh, that's a hard one to, to walk back into a locker room.

You know, everybody out there is miserable in that weather and it's just a, an ugly type of a game. You lose a couple of linebackers, you know, because they had, um, you know, D winters got banged up. Uh, I think they had a Flanagan fouls got banged up too.

So they had nobody left. And then for Devondrae Campbell to, you know, basically tell the coaches, no, I'm not going in. I'm not going to say it's surprising rich because Devondrae Campbell's a very talented player, but also one who had multiple stops now has worn out as welcome for one reason or another, um, a suspension, maybe the most likely thing here. Um, but even then it's hard to imagine that, um, that that guy's coming back to the 49ers. Well, at the Niners losing last night and essentially being eliminated from the, uh, the tournament in which they had designs of defending their conference championship, Tom, the next decision for them, we all know is going to be what to do with Brock Purdy and the, let the debate begin.

I can already see it crossing my screen amongst a lot of my competition this morning. It's a, it's the next order of business for the 49ers and he shouldered a lot of the blame last night. Some of his teammates said it's not all on him and they love him.

Um, is he going to get the generationally enriching contract because it's his turn next or will the Niners sit here and play a bit of hardball if not even think about maybe moving on to somebody else? Like, what is the Brock Purdy question is we now have seen this season play out, Tom? Well, first of all, I would say that was not a night that was kind to anybody playing quarterback Matthew Stafford through, I don't know how many balls directly to 49ers defenders and they didn't catch him. Like when you're playing in that weather, you're probably going to miss some throws. There's obviously some there, uh, the Brock Purdy wants back, but he also hits Deebo in the hands on what should be a long touchdown and Deebo who spent last week saying, Hey, the problem is not me.

The problem is I'm not getting the ball repeatedly got the ball and didn't take advantage of it last night. It was a confluence of circumstances here with Brock Purdy. I think you have to look at it in the aggregate here. It is in his short career because he took over, you know, as a seventh round pick and took over late in the 2022 season. He's already got 13 games with 120 passer rating, which is the most of any player ever, uh, over their first three seasons here, the efficiency numbers are really strong on him.

And he's been a part of four playoff wins. I mean, the last two guys to reset the market were Dak Prescott and Lamar Jackson with four playoff wins combined and wins are not a quarterback stat, but the point is they found a way to win a ton of games with Brock Purdy. So the situation is this he's eligible for contract extension starting at the end of the regular season, which is in all likelihood at this point, going to be the end of the season as a whole, uh, for the 49ers, he's a seventh round pick. So there's no fifth year option. So next year is a contract here. If a deal is going to get done, I would anticipate it is at the top of the quarterback market for all the reasons that I just said right now, that stacks number that is $60 million per year. Are the 49ers willing to go to that? Or are they going to be in a situation where you could have a standoff with your starting quarterback into the off season here?

I mean, there's, there's a lot of questions that still need to be answered here. There's no reason really for Brock Purdy to take a sub market deal at this stage. You know, the worst case would be, you know, he could always play it out. Lamar Jackson did that once upon a time, you gain even more leverage by doing that. Brock also hasn't made as much money as Lamar by virtual being a seventh round draft pick, but I don't think this is a, you know, Hey, we're going to make you the 10th highest paid quarterback and Brock Purdy just saying, Hey, where do I sign? Um, he's, you know, based upon his production, based on the playoff success, um, I'm sure he feels like he deserves to be paid at the top of the market. And then that raises other questions for the 49ers, which is you've got a pretty expensive roster. They got like six or seven guys who are all do at least 15 million in cash in 2025. So what other things potentially could come because you've got a very veteran, older, uh, expensive core on that football team.

One of them, one of the names we're gonna be talking about is what's the future for Deebo Samuel. He's on the books for about $17 million in 2025. We know the 49ers, um, got calls on him in a potential trade back before the draft. They were not at that point willing to part with him unless somebody gave him up just a crazy price for him. Uh, but, and he's one of Kyle Shanahan's favorite players of all time, maybe the favorite, but he's in a contract year. He's making a lot less money, you know, half the money of what the top of the wide receiver market is at this point. Can they get another big wide receiver deal done or, you know, potentially could Deebo Samuel be on the move?

Um, if Brandon, I, you hadn't gotten hurt, we would have real conversations based on how everything transpired of one year after they finally got the deal done with IUC. Do they even, you know, answer calls if somebody called for trade for him, that's not going to happen now because of the knee injury that he suffered. But there's a lot of moving parts for the 49ers. They're always going to be well coached with Kyle Shanahan, but this is just the nature of when you invest over and over in your best players and they're getting older and they become more and more expensive.

At some point there's little pivots that have to take place. And certainly, you know, the number of games missed by IUC, by Christian McCaffrey this season, by Nick Bosa, I mean, they're your best and most expensive players have to play their best to win a lot of games in the NFL. The 49ers haven't won a lot of games and they're a prime example of it. Tom Pelissero here on the Rich Eisen Show.

It was one week ago in this very segment. I'm like, so Bill Belichick in North Carolina, what's he going to do? Really, really take that job and get ready for Wake Forest. And sure enough, here we are.

The answer is yes. He's now officially the UNC HC, Tom. What's the general sense of people that you text with, talk with about this wild fact, Tom? Well, Rich, first of all, I've had a full week to rethink the phrasing that I used on the show based upon what I was being told at that time. I said it's highly unlikely that he's going to end up in North Carolina. And the reason that I said that, besides the fact that it is a wild idea to say Bill Belichick is going to end up in North Carolina, but they were not close on all the things in terms of the salary, the investment that would need to be made in a coaching staff, the investment that they would need to make in terms of the revenue share and everything else. They were not in the same ballpark, but they got to a place over many conversations where Bill Belichick felt comfortable going into North Carolina and taking a shot at this in 2025. Now, there's still a ton of unanswered questions in terms of what is the staff going to look like for Bill Belichick. We know Mike Lombardi is already there to be the general manager of the team. They got 13 million in the revenue share, which is a big chunk when you're talking about a historically basketball school like North Carolina, but it's still less than the Clemsons of the world.

So how well are they going to be able to compete from a monetary perspective? There's a lot of staffing questions that still need to be answered at this point. I think that the assumption by a lot of people was that Bill would basically get the whole band back together and they'd all be headed to North Carolina.

I don't get that same sense. You may see some familiar names, but there may well be a lot of people named Belichick or Lombardi who end up being on that staff. Steve Belichick, of course, Bill's son, who's the defensive coordinator of Washington, he's got a buyout that's in place through January 1st.

Washington still has a bowl game coming up. So if in fact Steve Belichick is going to end up in North Carolina, which nothing's done on that front, but I would say based on my understanding, I think that it's more likely than not that he ends up there. That's something that's going to be a few weeks away, but Belichick is still doing meetings and figuring out who's going to come in and help him with the scouting side of things, both at the college and the high school level.

Who's going to fill out some of those important spots on the rest of his coaching staff? I think the other interesting part of this is the way, and other people have pointed this out, the way that the buyouts in Bill's contract are structured because there's a $10 million buyout in place through June 1st of 2025. That's clearly there to reduce, never say eliminate, but reduce substantially the possibility that the NFL cycle picks up in a month here and somebody whiffs Bill away, even though he says, I didn't come here to leave. The $10 million buyout at least goes a little ways toward preventing that, even though Bill was making $25 million a year by the end of New England, he's probably got plenty of money to do whatever he wants to here. That buyout drops to $1 million starting next June 1st, which clearly keeps Bill's options open for what he wants to do if the NFL comes knocking again next year. Why did he decide to jump on this job when his focus and a lot of the conversation for the past year had been about staying in the NFL and going after the wins record? A lot of it, Rich, from my understanding, goes back to the way that things played out last year when there were, I think, seven jobs open. Only one of those teams, the Falcons, was even willing to interview Belichick for the job.

He has the initial conversation with Arthur Blank on his yacht. He thinks at that point everybody seems to be on the same page, but then based on the rules that the NFL has in place and all the things they do for diversity and equity, it was, Bill, you got to come in, you got to go through the same car wash at the facility that we're doing with 15 other people. Bill Belichick, who shouldn't need to type up a resume, much less go through a 10-hour interview, has to go through and meet with all these different people and then wait while they're doing additional interviews. Belichick, up until the day that the Falcons hired Raheem Morris, still believed he was going to be the Falcons' head coach.

There was a part of that that, I think, scarred Bill on some level. He had to think about why that played out the way that it did. And I never got the sense that he really felt great about going through this same process and, again, having to do the same things and waiting and going through, as teams satisfied, the Rooney Rule. And as they talk to various candidates, the league encourages everybody to drag these processes out.

I don't think that he really felt like he wanted to do that. As opposed to at the college level, they just go, we want that guy. We want Bill Belichick. And it was really the donors and the boosters, from my understanding, who got this thing rolling. There were some people that Bill has known for a long time at North Carolina. They came to him about it.

He was intrigued enough to have those initial conversations. And it progressed to a point where he's sitting there wearing Carolina blue and smiling 500 percent more in a press conference than he ever did in New England. And we'll see exactly what that means in terms of what they put on the field in 2025.

And in turn, does that set up Bill for a two-, three-, four-year runway at North Carolina? Or does it propel him right back into potentially being in the conversation in the next NFL hiring cycle in 2026? Tom Pelissero, you just gave a ton of information there. But the one thing, I actually turned to Brockman and T.J. here in the studio going, wait a minute. Bill was making $25 million a year coaching the Patriots by the end of his contract. Their time?

Really? Bill's contract was always somewhat of a mystery during his time in New England because he would never leak it. The Patriots would never leak it. It was thought for the last decade that Bill was the highest paid coach somewhere in that upper stratosphere. I mean, there's a bunch of coaches now, Rich. There's about a half dozen coaches who are making $17 to $22 million. Bill, from my understanding, what I heard, and Bill has not confirmed this directly to me, so I'll add that grain of salt, but my understanding was the last deal he did was $2 and $50 million with the Patriots. When they redid his contract, it was essentially a one-year deal and then sort of a parachute for him.

They obviously parted ways last year. He's making now $10 million at North Carolina. He's got all kinds of incentives for things like the academics and the GPA, Rich, which again, when I'm reading the whole contract, was just hilarious. It's like, so Bill's sitting there going, boy, guys, if we can get a 2.8 GPA, I get an extra 200 grand.

It's just, it's a strange thought. He's a great, great football coach. But for all the comparisons to Deion Sanders, and I've heard plenty of those, but remember this? Yeah, Deion became instantly, Colorado became this national story.

It's got the same thing at North Carolina. Deion went four and eight his first year with two of the best players in the country on his team. Bill doesn't have those guys coming in. Let's see who he's able to add.

You can be the greatest coach at the college level, even in the ACC, it's still about what's the talent level that you put on the field. And we'll see how him and Mike Lombardi decided to deploy those resources. All right, last one for you. Tell me, on the scale of one to 10, or one is smoke, 10 is fire, what's going on in the locker room in Philadelphia as they have a nine-game win streak taking on the Steelers? One is smoke, 10 is fire.

What do you got? That's the thing is I just can't get over this, Rich, because obviously last season ended the way it did, right? From the middle of 2021 through the middle of 2023, nobody won more games than the Eagles. Then they hit the slide down the stretch last season. They lose in the playoffs. We're sitting here talking about Nick Sirianni, three years, three playoffs, and should he be fired? Then they get off to a two and two start this year. It's bumpy on offense.

They've got another new coordinator, and it's what's going to happen with Sirianni. Now they're on a nine-game winning streak. Everything seems to be headed the right direction, other than obviously they've stumbled a little bit in the passing game. And A.J. Brown made a comment about it saying they got to improve in that area, but a big part of that's because they're running the crap out of the ball.

I think they're still the number one rushing team in the league. So why wouldn't Brandon Graham, who's on injured reserve, go on local radio or a podcast or whatever it was and start talking about the quarterback and the receiver aren't friends anymore? Like this isn't an only in Philadelphia type of storyline.

It does, listen, it does mirror a lot of the stuff, whether they were rumors, facts, whatever, that was going around last year about Jalen Hurts, his connection to the locker room, his connection to specific teammates. I had not heard quite honestly that there was anything that was a miss on that front this season. I think that, you know, you go to any big time receiver in the league, if they're not getting the ball the way that they think that they should, they're going to be frustrated about it. Wide receiver is a uniquely dependent position. You can be winning every one of your routes. If the ball doesn't come your way, you know, you're going to feel some type of way about it because you're doing your job and maybe, you know, maybe the quarterback's just going somewhere else. Maybe he's not seeing you.

I don't know the progressions and all that type of stuff. I haven't gotten the sense that this is like a boiling point type of an issue. I know Brandon Graham, who's a great guy, by the way, always willing to talk, which in this case, slightly problematic, but great guy.

He immediately tried to walk that thing back and say, hey, I really didn't know what I was talking about. I definitely shouldn't have said that. But once again, you have this strange Paul over the Eagles who are like a game back of the Lions for the top seed in the NFC or two games back, whatever it is. The Vikings, of course, are in there as well, although they're gonna have to overtake the Lions within the division. This is a team we should be talking about as, you know, are they the best team in the NFL right now? We'd probably be having that discussion more if the Lions weren't doing what they're doing. Instead, we're talking about, you know, the injured reserve linebacker on a podcast. It's just, this is only in Philly. That's all I can say. I know. And I appreciate the nuanced informational answer, but this is sports talk radio. So you have to answer the question. One is smoke, tennis, fire. What's the number?

What do you got? I mean, in terms of the friends thing, I mean, No, it's a problem. It's something that, let's just say, not a problem. So a lot of this stuff has been addressed. A lot of it's been addressed was in the off season. And Jalen Hurts, by all accounts, has been better. You know, he's played better. The leadership has been improved as well. I just don't sense that this is like a front burner type issue.

You would think, Rich, if it were, we'd be seeing a lot more evidence of it on the field. Tom, greatly appreciate the time. Thanks so much. I'll see you on game day morning on Sunday. You and 50 other people. Did you see from the NFL media? That's not even the wildest one. We had one earlier.

It was like 50 faces all the way across. I might have been back in training camp, but yes. Insiders, Ian Rapport and Tom Pellis. It looks though that you've got shoulder on your two insiders. Kurt and Ian have shoulder on me.

That's the most important thing is who has shoulder on whom. Yeah, but you're smack dab in the middle. And you're so tall. I think they know how I feel about the shoulders, so they made me middle tall. But I'm just happy that I've gone from my eight years at NFL Network. I've gone from not on the graphic to like the very edge where they use like the side profile picture of me just kind of ducking in. So now I'm like, I'm two steps away from greatness here.

So I appreciate you saying that. And you used to be on the very periphery. Now you're right there in the middle. He's all grown stuff.

That's what happens when you're on NFL Plus in 2024. That's what happens. Look at Mooch right there. By the way, that photograph from Mooch is quite literal. Was Obama president when he was... I do know that our heads are still smaller than the font that says Lil Wayne and Pat Matthew. Well, I just I hope Lil Wayne comes in studio this time around so he can start drinking the waters and Coca-Cola's that they put. Oh, they're still there? They're in crispers in the in the green room refrigerator saying Lil Wayne's. That was three weeks ago that they were in there, right? It's still he's he's been on remote the last two weeks. Still good.

They're still good. Tom, thank you, sir. Appreciate it. We'll see you soon. You guys. See you, Tommy. Be good brother, brother.

See you, everybody. Let's take a break. That number is insane. 25. We'll take a break right here on The Rich Eisen Show. 844-204-RICH number to dial when we come back.

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Game time. What goes through your mind when you hear everybody wants one of you? You know, it's flattering and humbling Rich, but it's a result of the success we've had as a team. And you know, it's just like, you know, but it's, but you know what though?

It is true though. Like we got great coaches on our staff. We got good players. It's a, it's a great reflection of our organization and what we've done. And I think, you know, that's the biggest thing. And to see guys that we've worked with over the last couple of years, get opportunities with Matt and with Zach Taylor, you know, they're deserving of it because of what they've done on their own merit. And when they go in and compete for jobs, people say, man, we can see this guy leading our organization.

And, you know, I'm looking forward to seeing those guys thrive. Have you told Kingsbury that he has a job because of you too? No, that's the, Cliff got his deal on his own.

Okay. No, I'm sure he did. I mean, you had, you, you know, you were, you were, you were knocking on his door too, to join your staff.

I know that. So you're, well, you passed him according to you told that to Schefter that you totally, what did you do to him? Well, uh, basically, you know, we, uh, he, he obviously has a preexisting relationship with, with Patrick Mahomes.

He was out here doing some things and Cliff was, was having dinner with him in a group of people. And we have a mutual friend and I tricked him into thinking that, you know, he was tampering and that he was gonna lose some picks. It was what you changed. Somebody's name and your phone to Roger Goodell. Our mutual friend, he, uh, I couldn't let this go on too long. So our mutual friend, a guy named Chaz Gessner, we put, I put his number in my phone as Roger Goodell and had him send me a text that said, you know, Hey, this is tampering, you know, better than this. You guys are both, you know, and, and I showed it to Kingsbury and I said, you know, Mr. Goodell, he never texted me. I said, you better call Steve kind of right now and his face, he was like, he said, I thought I was going to throw up. He's like, that's wrong. I mean, I couldn't let it go on for more than 30 seconds.

It was, uh, it was a good, but a bad joke, man. I mean, he's like, you ruined dinner, man. The great Sean McVay, his appearances are on our YouTube channel back here in the Rich Eisen Show radio network, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call click Grainger.com or just stop by. I'm sorry. When Tom and Tom was saying, you know, when at the he's, Belichick's making 10 million a year, 5 million for 50, five years for 50 million. And, um, basically insinuated it was a cut rate by saying that bill was making $25 million a year by the end of his contract in New England. I'm like, wait, wait, what?

Woo. 25 milli per in New England. That's a lot of money. And then he said many coaches are currently making 17 to 22.

I mean, well, he said a handful. So obviously let's guess, let's guess, Sean, Sean, Andy, Andy Reid's got to be making that much. He just, Hey man, he was going to, he was talking about retiring.

Remember that that was, he's going to walk off and he's like, no, I'm going to keep coaching. But did they announce a new deal for him? Andy Reid is going to, is making that much money back to back super. I bet you Tom, and he just got a new deal. I bet you that's how much he's making Sportico has Andy Reid.

We never find out what the coaches are making. He signed a hundred over five. So Andy Reid's at that 20 mark. Yeah. Right. Who else?

John Harbaugh, I bet you he's making that much. Oh yeah. Jim is making set like on the lower end of that, right? 17. Probably for sure.

Who else? Let's keep going. I don't know. He only said a handful. So I bet you Sean McVeigh's there. I bet he's close.

Talking like he was talking about going to Amazon Prime. I'm kind of running down. Right. I bet you, I bet you Kyle's there. I bet you got Kyle's there. Yeah, Kyle's probably there. Matt LaFleur might be there.

You think so in Green Bay? That's probably about it. Okay. You know who's heading there?

MCDC. Dan Campbell's heading there. Yep. Yeah.

They make the Super Bowl this year for sure. I don't know when his deal's up. I don't know, but that's nuts.

That is wild. I mean. Is Mike McCarthy there? I mean, look, Mike's hanging on, dog. I think Mike's going to be back there. You know, hanging on. I feel like Mike's going to be around next year. You think so? Yeah.

It's not Jerry's style. But to re-sign him, if he had years left on his deal, I'd get it. But to basically say, we're going to sign him back?

Folks like him will lose their mind. But this is the thing that you guys say back to me when I say, oh, just fire this guy. Who are you going to get? Oh, come on now.

No, in this case, though. Come on now. Who are you going to get? Who are you going to get? Who are you going to get?

Oh, Grable is going to be red hot. Ben Johnson's another red hot. Why wouldn't you see Aaron Glenn? Why wouldn't you go see what Aaron Glenn's up to?

Right? Come on now. This is an offensive league. That's also true. You've got to be able to score. You've got to be able to score points and move the football. That's why you go get Ben Johnson.

That's a guy. But again, like I said a few weeks ago, does Ben Johnson bring the Sun God with him? Does he bring Gibbs with him? Does he?

I know we have C.D. Lamb. I know. But so go get go get those guys for him.

The Lions had to go draft and get it. I'm just saying, Jameer Gibbs don't grow on trees. Well, there's one guy who's not making twenty five million a year.

He's making more than that. You see, he's getting fat ready. I can't believe you resorting to face false of all fat shaming this man. That is because that is a sign. I just think it's really funny that somebody at B.R. walk off or someone at B.R. went ahead and and one hundred percent just made him a little bigger, made him a little bigger. One is just like, what?

What has happened? All right. I see. He didn't look like that in the World Series picture.

I sent Hoskins, which we probably won't pop up with him in the pool when he'd signed with the Mets and they were pouring drinks on him. There is no belly on. That's correct. I mean, look, that is correct.

Layers on. That is correct. Yeah.

So stop. That is correct. Yeah.

Hoskins doesn't have that. Oh, man. It's not at the ready. Oh, we can't even.

It's not getting. Was he FaceTiming with somebody? Right.

Do we celebrate? Don and Mitchell. Was that what that was? Yeah.

Well, his brother, I think, was actually recording him in the pool. And yeah, we've seen James Harden gain like ten pounds. Steve Cohen, Pam and honey buns. If I signed for seven sixty five, I'm going to eat a couple of good steaks. I'm probably going to put, you know, and then he'll be ready by the end of the season.

Start worrying about my man. And by the way, like in a month, shout out to all the big boys that do play baseball. Shout to Greg Bullard, Greg Lusinski and Pete Incavilla and John Kruk. You know, I'm saying all the big boys. There's a new there's a new war better.

Yeah. That's a different era of the game, man. Who are better?

He didn't give you was Jack. He was still one Soto or Grimace. Who are better? Let's do a split and body type on the B.R.. Somebody somebody a bleacher report.

Can't believe we've decided to use tactics. And somebody just if I'm if I'm a B.R. right now, I'm walking through the halls and I'm saying, who's the Yankee fan around here? Right.

There you go. Who are better? Who are better? Well, I mean, Grimace is probably a better fielder. You guys about to say you better hope Soto's got a better win streak in him than Grimace. Grimace is a better fielder. Grimace had a great one.

I know. Soto better deliver more. I'd be happy if he can match Grimace's win streak. Can he use Grimace's glove?

That thing looks big. Well, he has to catch more. Grimace sets the glove on the wrong hand.

That's the whole thing. I can't wait till that happens in right field. It's going to happen. He'll be D.H. and boy, when he's going to happen, hitting bombs, you're going to be mad and, you know, but you're mad now.

You and all your fans. It's a Friday right here on the Rich Eisen Show. It's a Friday. So it's time for What's More Likely? Hit it. Hit it. What's more likely?

Never say never, but never. All right, Christopher, what do you have over there? Hey, what's up, everybody? Happy Friday. Pretty good. I'm great, Chris. I know.

I know you're doing awesome. Yeah. Hey, speaking of money, who's more likely to get the bigger contract this offseason? Brock Purdy or Sam Darnold? Oh, it'll be Purdy. Sam Darnold will probably get the Baker deal.

You know, three years, 30 per three years, 35, 40 per. That's what Purdy should be getting. I know what you're saying. I mean, well, how about this? It's too soon to say. Interesting. It's too soon to say. Do you want to see how it finishes for Sam? That is correct. That is correct.

What if Sam goes to the NFC Championship game? Then now, now we're talking. Yeah.

Now we're talking to see if your other, if your overreaction Monday subject matter comes into play. Trade JJ McCarthy to the John McCarthy to the Giants. Yeah. Or, or the Raiders or another team that's eager to get a 22 year old prospect. Right. Championship caliber quarterback.

Give Sam the bag. It's too soon, but right now I'll go with more likely Purdy gets. Don't forget Brock Purdy was in, was in overtime against the Kansas City Chiefs nine months ago. One game, one game, one game after three playoff wins. The Purdy, the Purdy excuses. I might brush them out of my vise.

Okay. It's coming down the crunch time for rookie of the year guys. Rookie of the year contender to separate themselves on Sunday, Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix. Oh, I'll go Jayden Daniels. Jayden Daniels going in into the bayou. He's back some of his college stomping grounds coming off of a buy. Bo Nix is coming off a buy too. They're both coming off buys.

They both look really good. We'll see if the Saints are still that plucky team. How does Derek Carr got a broken hand and concussion protocol and it might still play? Or is that just them basically saying, we're just going to mess with the commanders. You think the commanders are walking around going, Oh God, let's, let's grind tape on Hainer or Carr. Like that's going to really hamstring them. I, you know, the Saints have played as well as any team has under an interim head coach yet this year. Yeah.

The bar is very low there since the bears got blown out and Thomas Brown's first and Jeff Ulbricht has only won once since Woody was looking for that spark in week five. So I'll go Jayden Daniels, nonetheless. Can we stop jumping over guys? Can we stop trying to do that? I think he only knows one speed bro.

I think he broke his wrist jumping over a dude. That's correct. All right. Six and seven road team to stay in the AFC playoff mix. Cults. Cults or dolphins?

Cults. Really? Why not? Why not?

It's neither really, I think. But I'm, I'm, I'm looking forward to Colts Broncos. I like dolphins. Texas is fun too. Little breadcrumbs for you.

My top five list to come of other games that intrigued me in week 15. What else, Chris? Okay. Okay. Okay. What's more likely guys? Wouldn't you agree?

Wouldn't you agree with that or no? I like the way Miami's playing a little bit better. Okay.

All right. What's more likely Joe Burrow gets his fifth straight 300 yard game or Saquon Barkley gets his fifth straight 100 yard game. These guys are balling. I'll go Burrow's fifth straight 300 yard game. I'll go with the Cincinnati Bengals being in Tennessee. Saquon going against that front for the Steelers. Plus they're going to feed AJ Brown, right? I mean it's not what, it's not what this is all about. Yeah. You know. I actually think this game's not going to be close. I think he really got the grease in San Francisco Thursday night.

It's just that he dropped it. Yeah. I think Philly might blow out the Steelers.

Oh God. That's ain't no way. Listen, if it's, what's more likely the Steelers get blown out or the game's close.

I'll go close, sir. Offense is different without George Pickens. Is he not playing for sure? Seems unlikely. Okay. Yeah. Sounds good.

Yeah. What else? What's more likely guys? The chiefs win another close one. Thanks to something incredibly lucky or the Panthers keep trending up with a win over the Cowboys. I'll go Panthers keep trending up with a win over the Dallas Cowboys. I'll go the Chiefs if I may.

I'll go Panthers keep trending up with a win over the Dallas Cowboys. I think that they are coming into this game as the better team. How about, I mean, I guess Munich, although you weren't going to say that going into the Munich game against the giants, is this the first time Bryce young comes into this game as the hotter more reliable quarterback, the one that is better. How about that after losing after winning in Munich, Carolina and Bryce young have gone against my homes Baker and Jalen hurts. Now here he is coming against Cooper rush. So the confidence level that he has, I think is only going to get boosted more, certainly off of nearly winning in Philadelphia, man. So yeah, there was that. And if they can city chiefs want to I'm here.

I don't think, I think it'll be close, but I don't think they're going to win. Cause they're lucky in Cleveland. Cause if they certainly had trouble protecting the homes against the chargers at home, here comes the grim Reaper in his home. What else?

That's a sneaky fun game. More likely to win team to get a home win this week, giants or Raiders. Come on. Really?

The giants and Tommy cutlets against the Ravens team coming off a by licking its wounds based on the loss just before it or the Raiders welcoming in Kirk cousins, licking his wounds off a four straight I'll go Raiders. You talked it out and answered the question. I did talk it out.

Thank you. I didn't even have to phone a friend. That was a very millionaire type answer where I talked it out. I was here for you though. It was 50 50.

If I had phoned a friend, would you have, would you have agreed with me? Absolutely. And then let's lock in my final answer. There you go.

All right. A couple more more likely to win a playoff game this year, bucks or chargers. I'll go bucks. They're going to be home if they make it, they're going to be home and they're going to be taken on.

What did you say? The Vikings. Yeah. You don't think Baker could beat the Vikings. You don't think Mike Evans and Baker and that running team running back in the defense. I think the Vikings, the cannons firing.

I think they're much better than the bucks. Vikings. Okay. Uh, I, I, I would say bucks at home over Vikings rather than what chargers at Going into Houston, maybe. Hmm. No, I think Houston's is the Houston's going to wind up the four, right? Pittsburgh chargers in Pittsburgh. We already saw that.

Although Herbert was dealing with a high, high ankle situation. Um, food for thought. Just throwing it out. I know.

That's what, what's more likely is all about is thought food. Do you got one more over there? Yeah. Uh, more likely to be a super bowl preview on Sunday, lion's bills or Steelers Eagles. Oh, I'll go lion's bills. Since it involves one of the two teams I said prior to the season would make it.

So just to be consistent, I will do it. And plus out of the four teams that are playing in this scenario, one of them actually matches the color scheme of the, uh, super bowl. The bills have a little bit of red in them. Oh, so I guess the Steelers, one of the diamonds in their logo is red as well.

Cause that's the way it goes, right? They, the chiefs, that's been a color scheme is the, the color scheme of super bowl 59. It's been a thing. It's the color scheme of the chiefs and the Niners.

See how, how good that worked out for the Niners. By the way, rich, those aren't diamonds. Those are hypocycloids.

Oh, is that what they are? Yeah. Okay. We need one more. All right.

We'll get one more. Um, can you work in a hypocycloid into this one? I wasn't even prepared for the dude. Look at you, man. Is that what being from Pennsylvania is that you, you, you know, it's a, it's not a dime.

It's a hypocycloid. Ohio steel and the Steelers to be the logo. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, being from there and watching hard knocks, just real. Okay. Exactly.

I saw that on hard knocks this week, too. I knew it before that I'm more likely to win a national championship first guys more likely to win an Addie first bill Belicheck Dion Sanders. Come on, man.

Get out of here. Dion's got a headstart pal. I told you five years.

You got a five star kid playing quarterback. All that business that Dion's going to follow his son. So Dion is setting up Colorado for the next guy.

Is that what you're saying? Come on now. Come on now. One guy's got that one guy we know is going to be a college coach next year. And the other guy we don't. Oh, okay. That's why there's a $10 million buyout and Belicheck's contract right now that he's not going to sign a cocktail napkin.

I'm I'm now the HC of the CHI. I'm saying Dion is still in play. Okay.

All right. I'll go Dion. Dion's closer.

Dion was in the running for the Big 12 Championship appearance. Bill's just getting there. And right now he's got Lambo pounding the pavement.

Dion's already got two years head start. And he's got the blenders, not the bifocals. And he's got coffee. The blenders make bifocals.

That'll be amazing. How do you know Bill doesn't wear glasses? Did he have glasses on yesterday at the conference? Did we ever see him wear glasses? Listen to me.

There's no doubt in my mind when it comes down to him needing to read some some sort of document or a playbook. Come on now. Have we seen it? I don't think we've seen it. I've never seen Bill wear glasses. Okay.

Well, you could see a tablet and throw it down on the ground without putting on glasses. Definitely concede. All right. Let's take a break. We'll wrap up this second now.

Nate Burgett, he's making his way to the studio folks for hour three. This is a mini meditation guided by Bombas. Repeat after me. I'm comfy. I'm cozy.

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Shopify.com slash Westwood one back here on the rich eyes and show show me that graphic one more time from the NFL media department. And I found that work media PR department. There's a full thing. I'm learning a few things here. You big dog, right?

Hello, Wayne and Pat McAfee. Can we fix Tom's photo shot? His head is so small. Is it? Yeah, it is. They got to. Yeah. Like compared to Ian. Yep.

I mean, well, I mean, like, again, I'm, I'm. Yeah, it's true. Height doesn't matter to me. Shoulder does. I would take shoulder over height.

Why would you take shoulder? You are the top of the mountain in that picture. You have seven people on your left.

Seven people on your right. And you're elevated. How could you not think you think, yeah, you think Kurt would have a problem, but I'm taller than him in this. I would, if I were him.

Why? Because he's got shoulder on me. Yeah, but nobody cares. Got shoulder on everybody.

Well, Gerald's a big man. This makes you look six, eight. Like you should be very happy with that, right?

Yes. This makes you look like you've done. NFL network uses a, an eight year old photograph of me.

Like and Mooch's photograph. He literally, it's been years. Well, I mean, Kurt's got a beard. Years since he showed up without the paint, the coat of paint as Dan Patrick would call it.

Right. Where he just went full Bob Barker. One day he's not gray.

Next day he walks into work and he's gray. I mean, Mooch hasn't looked like that in forever. That looks like a newer Ian photo. Ian's got a Google elite.

Are you saying Ian's people are on it? You know, I have the same people. Do you need a new picture, Rich? Do you need my first Cheryl to come in again? I don't know what I need. I need shoulder. I'd rather have shoulder. No bro. Look at you.

You're tight. What if you got shoulder and you were like on the front left. You want to be okay with that? You want to be front and center, not back and center.

Not back and center. You're the tallest. First thing people see. I don't know about that.

You're looking at this all wrong. Game time tickets. Everybody get the app on a mobile device and start buying tickets. And the best part about it is when you open up the app, the game time picks feature that is new, filters out everything that you need filtered out only incredible deals on great seats.

That's all you see. You don't have to waste a single second searching through thousands of tickets. And then you don't have to waste any time going back. After you buy the ticket, you start the process of buying the ticket because the price when it's time to check out is more than what you saw on the app. When you started the all in pricing feature, you get to see the entire total upfront, zero surprise fees at checkout. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time right now, download the game time app, create an account, use our code rich $20 off your first purchase terms apply. Visit gametime.co for restrictions.

Again, create an account, redeem our code, R I C H, you get $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? Game time. Nate Bergetzi making his way to our studio as we speak. Kyle Tucker trade talks are heating up.

Are they? With the Cubs and Yanks or what? Cubs and Astros. I know where the Astros, but the Cubs and Astros.

No, Cubs is a front runner here, according to John Maros. That would immediately, if Kyle Tucker winds up with the Yankees, immediately remove any concerns I have about losing Soto. Yeah. To get freed and Tucker. Yeah, for sure.

And then maybe add one more. Absolutely. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.

For sure. He's being facetious. You're being serious. I'm being serious. Kyle Tucker's really good. He sure is.

And he's younger than Soto by maybe a minute. Listen, of the Rich Eisen show productions, whatever you want to call it, the RE services here. You have the phrase that you have, the drop? It's okay. I didn't plan that. The best thing about us, though, it's about us. For our consulting group that we formed years ago out of, I would love to say, years of planning, but completely on the seat of our pants, on the spot. It was a random thing. It really was. Something like how I got married. That's how we do it.

Well, RE consulting has worked out better. We're not throwing Emmys at each other. Well, we'd love to have Emmys thrown at us. Eventually we'll get there.

You think so? I promise never to throw one at you. I can bring one in. Thank you. All right.

I think our most important service is to be there for others and help them through their stages of sports grief. Yeah. And in that regard, we say hello to Turzo from Iowa. Our resident 49ers faithful. What's up, Turzo?

Rich, I've never been this disappointed in my team. Wow. For kind of several reasons.

Okay. When Greenlaw came back on the field, that defense was playing different. Buzzing around. They were getting to the ball.

They were swarming everywhere, right? Hifanga in the back, Greenlaw running side by side with Warner, Bosa up front, felt like nine months ago for a split minute. Yeah, it really did.

With Hifanga in the back, it was great. And then as soon as Deebo dropped that pass, I texted my cousin and I said, well, I think we just lost the game. And reason being is you see him go over to the sideline and the whole entire team just looks deflated. And to know that Campbell walked off the field, you know, inexcusable. You can't do that to your teammates, man. Like, no matter where you are, you can't give up on your team.

And with Deebo, it's like you're supposed to be the man. And then Brock's just trying to force the ball to him and nothing came of it. And so the disappointing part was just watching the team crumble, but the turmoil that we've been through all year. It was pretty disappointing to watch that game last night.

Well, let me just say this. You just got to look moving forward and I still believe you got the right coach and the right general manager and the right owner. They're not going to do anything on that front. Like some other teams would just get angry and owner would be impetuous and just blow it up. That's not going to happen. I'm wondering if Deebo is going to be on this team next year, you know, and it will be the Jennings and Ayuk show. We'll see what they can do. Obviously, the run game is not of concern.

Obviously, McCaffrey, you'd like to get him healthy. There's still a ton of talented people and the right people to make the right decisions. How's that? Is that, did I perform the right service?

So here it comes, Terzo. Arms outstretched. You always, always buddy.

Here it goes. We're going to hug and embrace, tap, tap, then we back away. I appreciate it, Rich.

Appreciate you guys. See you, Terzo. Terzo, don't fret. This season didn't go, it didn't work out for you. Sam Darnold's coming to save you, buddy.

By the way, let's put it this way. In the minute we have left here, Terzo, do you want Purdy if it costs you $55 to $60 million and it messes with the cap in that regard? Man, so I've been waffling back and forth with that, Rich, and we've talked about it quite often. I think he's a heck of a quarterback.

I think last night was not necessarily squarely on him. Obviously, he didn't play well, but I would really like to see him take a little bit more of a team-friendly deal just so we can supply him with other weapons. And knowing a lot about Purdy and where he's kind of come from, I wouldn't be too shocked if he did that. I'm going to kind of go against what Palacero said earlier, and I, you know, I listen to what Tommy P. always says, but I think I'm going to push back a little bit, and I think Purdy is going to take a little bit more of a team-friendly deal. Thanks for the call, Terzo.

Appreciate it. Yeah, he would sit there and go, I'll take the Tua deal, just a penny more than Tua, penny more than Goff, penny more than Trevor Lawrence, or it'll be like my market is this. It'll be interesting. Will it all fall apart because the Niners wouldn't give him a suite for his family?

Yeah, because that's what people who reach in with both fists want. Unless George Kittle doesn't call them. That's RES Consulting. We're doing our jobs. Yeah, and we're not bigger.

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