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Learn what Amazon Q Business can do for you at aws.com slash learn more. It's the final hour of the program, but still plenty of time for you to get involved, although I realize you might have different priorities. It is Christmas Eve after all, Hanukkah looming tomorrow as well.
So if it's more convenient, why not shun your family on Christmas Day tomorrow? Give me a call then. 844-204-7424.
I've been doing it for decades and I seem like a well-adjusted middle-aged guy, right? Do not respond there with a phone call or via Twitter. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. Our thanks to Joe Vardon. That was an excellent NBA conversation. If you thought, hey, radio man, why are you talking basketball?
I can rectify that now. Nothing but football in a remaining hour together today and then back with you tomorrow. And of course, the NFL is going to drive the train because one hour into the program, toe meets leather in Pittsburgh. We have the Chiefs and the Steelers, the Ravens and the Texans.
Remember, for example, Kansas City and Pittsburgh being asked to play three games in the span of 11 days. Ben Roethlisberger has weighed in. I'll give you some of his thoughts I just found on the X platform coming up in 40 minutes. We'll take you across the NFL in addition to what I'm going to handle presently when we have a conversation with Eric Edolm of NFL Media.
You read his outstanding work on NFL.com. And on my notepad here, because I'm old school and I write stuff out. Hey, kids, if you write it out, you might remember it. I know it's all got to be on your phone these days.
I have a note. Ask him about Chidor Sanders, because Eric is somebody whose opinion I respect when it comes to the NFL draft. He watches a ton of college football and follows player evaluation all year long in 20 minutes. We'll put college football together with the NFL. The ratings are in for round one of the college football playoffs. As you might imagine, few games did extremely well, although nothing surpassed the rating generated by the SEC championship game. Georgia's victory over Texas.
Still, I'll give you what I think objectively can be summed up as a mixed bag as much as the college football playoff honks want to run with the big numbers put up by Ohio State beating up Tennessee on Saturday night and Notre Dame in prime time on Friday in their beatdown over Indiana. I'm going to give you some context when we address that in 20 minutes. If you were with me closing out the last hour, and if you're new to the program or this hour where you been, I'm Brian Weber in for rich eyes and 844247424 back with you live again tomorrow. And if you enjoy this act to any degree or you're a shut in and have nothing else to do on New Year's Day, I'm live again, which speaks to Mr Eisen's commitment to you, the audience. I am a radio veteran now more than ever budgets matter. A lot of national shows go best of play the tape, not rich because he wants me here live with the ability to react any breaking news.
And let's be honest, the difference between a radio show and a podcast is it's live. I know you can watch some of the gimmicks on YouTube, but hopefully get the point I'm making overall. So I forward promoted a tease as we say in the industry. How many different ways did the Packers make history last night with that curb-stomping 34 nothing win over the Saints.
I'll be totally transparent with you. I watched the entire first half. Then I made it my second screen experience. I had it on just to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Every time I glanced over Spencer Rattler was running for his life or the Packers were picking up another big chunk of yardage on their way to 39 rushing attempts for a buck 88 and three rushing touchdowns 34 nothing. The final score Packers lock up a trip to the postseason with emphasis and here's how they made history 30 points or more shutout check 400 or more yards accumulated by the Packers while allowing the Saints fewer than 200 check. No fumbles committed by the Packers check no sacks allowed check no miss kicks pats or field goals, according to MB let's see where NFL research first time that confluence of factors has ever occurred in the history of the National Football League, it makes it sound like it was a compelling watch, but it was anything but as I mentioned once we got the halftime I started flipping and I watched about half of and of course, I'm very current on social media and what's going on in pop culture the M night Shyamalan movie that came out on a year ago. I'm glad I didn't go to the theater but I don't feel like I missed anything by not writing down the play by play the second half because the first half was just so thoroughly dominated by the Packers showing off all of the planks and their foundation to make a deep and significant run in the postseason at least matching last year's performance when they made it to the division around in part because the Cowboys simply did not show up at home. But I'm trying to be positive on Christmas Eve. After all, let's accentuate the positive Packer fans have to like the efficiency of Jordan love after that period in which he was just throwing way too many interceptions and I know interceptions can be misleading.
You got to look in the category of tips or under pressure. It's not just the raw number. But since I watched the red zone, my job after all, just about every Sunday for seven hours if you saw love contending with that rough patch. Those INTs were just grotesque. It was just terrible decision making feels like he's cleaned that up.
I alluded to the stellar ground game. In fact, it was such a team effort Josh Jacobs didn't have to carry the load as much as he typically does and the defense they had issues at the beginning of the year. If you're talking about Green Bay's show me situation here remember they lost to the Eagles in the opener in Brazil on a crappy field so it's hard to come up with strong takeaways from that game because everyone was slipping and sliding. It was, I think, problematic for Green Bay, not only that game but the first four to six games, the defense was giving up too much shortage and being too flexible. They have tightened that up as well so a lot to like about the Packers. The problem is, for all those positives, not only in terms of the standings but the eyeball test and perception.
They're the third best team in that division, reflecting just how deep and talented the rugged NFC North is this year. I'm Brian Weber infrared chosen, you can throw me an opinion on social media it's BW Weber Weber with two B's I mentioned I was on the x machine. And I saw this from the mysterious dove climate account. I will not get into the entire backstory there but if you're bored at work and want to mail it in, and you have my permission.
Your boss is not working on Christmas Eve so you're there, you've checked that box you can mentally tune out if you want. Google dove climate and try to figure out who this mystery guy is and what this account is all about it's a aggregator and riches has had many compelling rants about what motivates whoever this is and perhaps the lack of authenticity to the account but because he gave attribution he got this from Steelers depot and Ben Roethlisberger now has a podcast and let's just pause there. I'll give Ben credit for growing up. We're all entitled to do that because his decision making off the field was horrendous in his early 20s seems like he's arrived at a different station of his life now and I'm good with that and I'm glad to see anybody evolve and mature. Ben also really doesn't care about offending the Steelers, nor the league because he's got boatloads of cash and he can do whatever he wants so I'll give him credit for coming with a strong take.
When asked about the Steelers and the Chiefs, go back to the combination of the teams we're seeing tomorrow, it's a Wednesday and let's just have a quick thought about Christmas football, middle of the week. I was with you, a year ago, when the NFL said, No, no, no, this is a one off. We're not going to do this every year, because we understand the challenges to the players asking them, especially at this stage of the season we're almost done with the long and arduous physical toll that comes with playing 17 games which is going to go to 18 very soon.
You guessed it to generate more cash. The official stance of the NFL last year was, this is an anomaly. This is not going to happen every year.
When Christmas lands in the middle of the week, and guess what changed. Ben Netflix wrote them a massive check. So, we're asking the Chiefs and the Steelers and the Ravens and the Texans to go through a gauntlet, just to entertain us tomorrow, so we don't have to deal with our families, and then I agree with the essence here on his pad podcast weighing in on what the Steelers and the Chiefs for example have to go through. They're being asked to play three games in 11 days Ben saying quote, it's miserable. It's a shame that the league does this. It just shows it's all about money. And this is a way they can you know make more money and figure this thing out because it's not fair for the players and quote.
Ben thank you. I don't know that it's that earth shattering or groundbreaking to come up with that observation, although many former players I'll take it behind the scenes here. Make a nice payday by being ambassadors for their former teams now Ben's not calling out the Rooney family there, but Ben has been critical of the quarterback situation I think also because it makes him look better.
Aha, they really do miss me. Kenny Pickett can't play. We found out again on Sunday, even though he was wearing the Kelly green of the Eagles this time, but any fair minded person would say, we're asking professional football players to be gladiators once more. They are beat up in late December. The NFL has a hundred percent injury rate, everybody is hurt to a degree, especially now that they played 15 freaking games, and we're saying, hey, don't worry about it.
Put some dirt on it, put an ice pack on it, or the thing we never talk about, take the needle, take some painkillers, get out there because we need entertainment. There is no reason for the NFL to be playing games tomorrow. They should be intellectually consistent and follow their own logic and say, it's unfair. There's also the competitive balance argument if you care about that, but let's just talk about physical wear and tear on actual human beings. It is grossly unfair to ask these guys to do what they are being mandated to do. They didn't volunteer for this.
Nobody said, yeah, I really want to play three games in 11 days. The league did it because they got a massive payday from Netflix and it is all part of the overall strategy and you don't have to be a business school professor to figure this one out. The NFL has always been very astute in creating multiple bidders. So, think about old school TV.
What changed in the 90s? Fox came in, wrote a massive check, CBS was on the bench for a long time. Now we have CBS, Fox, and NBC as they created the Sunday Night Package that they ripped away from ESPN decades ago, and now Sunday Night Football on NBC is the top rated program in all of linear television. So, what is the NFL doing now? Replicating that strategy. They went all in with Amazon.
Why? Because they wrote them an insanely big check for Thursday Night Football with crappy games, although the schedule was enhanced this year. I think just to keep Al Michaels from complaining about it on the air, and now the NFL wants that same dynamic as they've had for decades with the traditional networks bidding against themselves to have leverage at all times. What do you know? Here comes Netflix, which has mountains of cash and a global footprint. Now they have two games coming up on Christmas Day because they backed up the Brinks truck. What's coming?
Roger Goodell has told us what's coming. It's all about international games. They're going to expand the current slate of games in the UK and Germany. They're going to beef it up to 16 games being played year round, and they're going to sell that package separately to another streamer. And maybe it's Netflix who's auditioning tomorrow and hoping they hired 400 more engineers and beefed up the servers so they don't have the same debacle as they did for that farce of a fight between, I can't even believe I called it a fight, that sham between Mike Tyson, who had no business being in the ring, and Jake Paul.
If you were able to actually watch that sham, I give you credit because, like everybody else, I had the buffering issues. Also, are you aware Beyonce is doing the halftime show tomorrow? You think several million people, let's bump that up, hundreds of millions of people around the world, Beyonce Nation are going to be out there watching The Queen Be?
So you put it all together, Netflix better be buttoned up tomorrow. People will endure crappy coverage of a meaningless exhibition that should have been a sideshow between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. They will put up with that. They will not stand for buffering or frozen screens when their teams are playing tomorrow on Christmas Day in games that should not exist. The NFL should just be straightforward and say, yes, when?
It doesn't happen that often, right? We have seven days a week. On the rare occasion that Christmas falls on a Tuesday or Wednesday, we're not going to play. But this league has proven over and over again, the only thing they care about is money, and they monetize everything better than any other economic enterprise in the United States. It's them and Nvidia.
You can buy Nvidia, get it all the markets close, short day due to Christmas Eve being upon us. And I'm not just sitting here as a film host trying to yell at clouds and take out the mighty NFL. I realize I'm fitting in where I get in by guest hosting for Rich Eisen, who's the face of NFL Network. But I'm laying out what I truly believe, and someone gave me advice decades ago, especially in radio, which is such a personal medium. It's just me and you. If you say what you mean and mean what you say, you don't have to worry about being consistent with what you said the day before.
So if you're not being hot take Johnny and you're speaking your mind from your heart, you're going to be consistent. And I said this last year when I was filling in for Rich on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, it is grotesque these games are being played. There's no need for this other than we're addicted to football and the NFL is going to cash in on that. And it was all motivated by Netflix writing him a very big check let's just hope I'm not talking about buffering, because I'll be on the air and the first half of that game between the Chiefs and the Steelers tomorrow if you hear me saying buffering, not a good day for Netflix 8442047424 our technology works well, you can pick up the phone or hit me up on the X platform it's BW Weber Weber with two B's 20 minutes from now more NFL analysis provided by Eric Adam of NFL com straight ahead we put the NFL together with college football they went head to head on Saturday.
I'll give you the fallout from the college football playoff ratings and how much of a blunder potentially miscue or bad strategy was it to have the triple header on Saturday instead of being a little bit shrewder and realizing crappy matchups that we knew in advance, based on the way the format is structured and the NCAA ranks, although they have nothing to do with that let's just say college football versus the juggernaut of the NFL was going to create issues and I can give you verification of that coming up I'm Brian Weber getting off the soapbox. The goal is to have fun after all, and it is a delight to be in for rich, we roll on on this Tuesday edition, live on Christmas Eve here on the rich and it's a really helpful service even better because they're in the business of keeping your car on the road and the parts knowledge they have. It's all you need for your maintenance and repairs. They've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock either in store or online.
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Terms and points can't apply. Learn more at American Express dot com slash Amex Business. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. I'm Brian Webber and I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.
Call click Grainger dot com or just stop by. Jot down the number because we're closing the lines right now. Everything must go. But I'm back with you tomorrow in a festive holiday move. I will not have a rant about it's a sports crime that we have NFL games on a Wednesday.
844-204-7424. And if I'm just being self interested, what a gift it is from the league to hand me two games, one of which I'll be on the air during to talk about. But it's not about that.
It's about what's fair in my mind. B.W. Weber Weber with two B's is the X handle in 15 minutes. Looking forward to our latest football conversation with Eric Edel of NFL dot com. If you have not taken the time to review your sporting options, I got bad news for you folks.
Ain't much on the tube today. In fact, there's only one crappy meaningless ball game. The Hawaii Bowl, South Florida against San Jose State. Now, if we're going to do a hacky radio, I could use this as a pivot to finally demonstrate that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Because remember, there's a scene in which you can hear in the background Notre Dame is playing USC. How to have been the Aloha Bowl back in the day.
But we're not doing that. I am going to watch actually write down things that I want to do later in the day. Yes, I have a riveting social life. I'm going to watch the Aaron Rodgers documentary tonight.
I'm not going to do a detailed review tomorrow at the movies with B web. Maybe I'll pitch that podcast to Rich. He has a growing podcasting empire. But since I'll be talking Aaron Rodgers tomorrow, I'm tracking what's going on on X. Rodgers never met a microphone he didn't like after his latest paid appearance on The Pat McAfee Show talking about wouldn't it be fun to be cut by a teenager, a direct shot in his own ha ha ha light hearted sarcastic way, reflecting the expose in the athletic that Woody Johnson's teenage kids. Among them, a freshman at Harvard allegedly have direct input to the old man on player personnel matters. Rodgers media availability going on as we speak. Rich Tamini, longtime beat guy for the Jets for ESPN with this quote about Rodgers future. Rodgers speaking here, quote, I mean, they'd have to see me as an important part of helping the culture. When asked about what it would mean to him if the Jets won him back next year. The changeover, whatever they do with head coach and helping the next wave of the New York Jets. He also said he is going to need time to assess his desire to play, even if the Jets want him back.
And I'll do this more in detail tomorrow. Aaron Rodgers is the very definition of passive aggressive. Make up your mind. I think he's trying to either get the Jets to break up with him in advance. Right. So we can say no, no, no, no, no to his buddies.
I got them to break up with me so I can leave looking like the good guy. Or he's just out of his freakin mind. But I'm going to save this for tomorrow. But every day seems like he says something contradictory. My only thought would be and I used to be an enormous Aaron Rodgers fan is can he really go out the way he did this year? Unless he truly knows and we only know what we see.
He knows without even needing a darkness retreat. Presumably what he has left because he's looking much more like the typical 40, 41 year old quarterback that we saw for decades. Tom Brady distorting everything.
There was a reason why people hit the wall at 35, 37 playing that high leverage kind of position. But Rodgers yesterday saying he'd like to continue playing. Now he's also admitting he's torn between dealing with his body because he told the media he's got an MCL injury that in no way is going to prevent him from playing this weekend. But he's torn between his goal of extending his career and his inner monologue. As I just said, needing time to quote unquote assess his desire to play. Aaron Rodgers is exhausting. I don't know why I'm watching this thing other than it's my job.
And yes, I am sacrificing my Christmas Eve for you. Let's make the move to college football. The ratings are out. And you might have seen the headlines if you're so inclined to get involved with the details of the TV business. Splashy headlines from the television partner of the college football playoff ESPN that they pulled in big numbers in primetime.
No surprise. Notre Dame playing stand alone on a Friday night. Better than 13 million viewers in that dismantling of Indiana. Tennessee, Ohio State was billed to be the most competitive of the four games.
Not the case. That was a rump at the horseshoe. It feels like Ryan Day figured out, hey, maybe I should coach aggressively. And take advantage of the talent difference that I have against even a team from the SEC after he failed to do either of those things. And that embarrassing loss to Rich Eisen's Michigan Wolverines for the fourth straight year.
14 million watched Ohio State at Tennessee, which is a solid number considering how lopsided the final score is. So that's the positive. Here's the context. Both of those games I just mentioned were simulcast on ABC and ESPN, right? So just to use the easy vernacular, they're double dipping there.
But they occasionally do that with these supercast. I'm not going to get too wrapped up on that. Here's the larger point.
While those are very good numbers and let's also provide additional background. It was the weekend heading into Christmas. That is meaningful. People have lives.
Even if they're addicted to football, they might get away from the tube. But context matters. Neither one of those playoff games could match or surpass the rating generated by the SEC championship game.
Georgia, Texas. Now, in fairness, that was a thriller, right? The first SEC title game ever to require overtime. But that classic did a 16.6 million viewer rating. So I can understand ESPN wanted positive spin. They have a massive financial investment in this property. But those numbers don't blow me away.
And then you take the further review. The games they sold to Turner, which was weird because they still had ESPN broadcasters and ESPN's graphics. But I think you can understand the logic for ESPN to sell those games, which was clear heading into the matchups. They were going head to head with the NFL. It didn't help that SMU was blown away by Penn State. That game was competitive for about five minutes. And it was clear just watching on my couch that Kevin Jennings, on his way to the three picks, two pick six in the first half, was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the moment. And you chase that with Clemson at Texas.
Yeah, Davos Sweeney's team showed up in the second half. Although I think mostly that was a reflection of Texas losing their focus. Still a double digit margin of victory. Texas Clemson had eight and a half million viewers. Penn State, SMU, only six and a half million.
Here's what's missing. I don't have the NFL ratings yet. Might be a function of the holiday week.
But I can tell you, not even guessing, just from having a brain that's still halfway works. Houston and Kansas City on NBC did a absolutely huge number. Pittsburgh, Baltimore, equally attractive matchup. On Fox, traditional broadcast television both crushed anything comparable, I would think, to what happened in college football, which leads to this question. When things are reevaluating the offseason, the first obvious glaring fix that has to happen is changing the seeding process.
It is a joke and I know why they did it. And remember, the format we have was formulated when we legitimately had five power conferences. RIP, my beloved, Pac-12.
So we're getting the byproduct of the seismic shift that happened after the agreement. Conference champions were designed to be rewarded. I love the story of Arizona State. Kenny Dillingham, to me, is the coach of the year, although I have appreciation for what Kurt Cignetti did at Indiana.
A little asterisk there. He took 15 or so of his players from James Madison. I'm not beating up on Arizona State, but they have no business being the 4th seed because if we were going by the rankings, they would have been the 12th seed, last team in. The whole goal was to make conference championship games meaningful.
Why? Because of the money involved. Because if we say these games are meaningless, how many people are going to show up? We're talking butts in seats. And more to the point, how many people are going to watch?
We're talking TV revenue. Same story for Boise State against Penn State. And I'm a huge Ashton Gente fan. If I had a Heisman vote, I would have given it to him. Because Chidora Sanders was the best player on Colorado.
Travis Hunter, if he's not his team MVP, even as a two-way star, how can he be the most outstanding player at all of college football? So the buys have to be eliminated or go to the four top-ranked teams. They've got to re-seed and I think they have to re-think because the NFL was not moving off that Saturday.
I think they've got to go to a doubleheader on Friday, which is fine. We would have watched. The reason that most networks or platforms, I guess I have to be more vigilant with my language here, most outlets, how about that? Avoid Friday is, that is typically the worst night of TV viewership because believe it or not, some people have lives and they're not sitting on their couch like me and you, like I will be on Christmas Eve.
I feel like this is a homework assignment. You know, I'm in charge of my rundown. I could change this. I'll watch the Rogers thing. Put it this way, I can't promise I'm going to watch all the episodes, but I'm already bashing him based on his body of work and the clips I've seen and the ludicrous things he's saying. At least I owe him the fairness of hearing the words come out of his mouth, but I know we're going to be talking about ayahuasca and darkness and other stuff I just don't want to deal with. But ho ho ho, Uncle Brian is paying the price.
Yes, a significant burden on digging ditches, metaphorically watching a documentary from the luxurious confines of my one bedroom apartment. Coming up, we'll wrap it up talking NFL. I mentioned all four teams we're going to see tomorrow in this new doubleheader created for Netflix have the challenge of playing three games in 11 days. I'm most interested in Kansas City because this fits their profile.
Is their year of living dangerously finally going to catch up with them if not tomorrow against the Steelers? Come playoff time, looking forward to checking in with Eric Edholm of NFL.com. That's next. Keep it where it is.
I'm Brian Weber in for rich right here on The Rich Eisen Show. If your identity is stolen, their U.S. space restoration specialist will fix it. Guaranteed or your money back. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with LifeLock.
Save up to 40 percent your first year. Visit LifeLock dot com slash podcast terms apply. This year, Santa's bringing the power of Energizer into his workshop. Whoa. The Energizer Bunny's got so much power. He's powered up all the toys. I think that means we're done for the year.
I love this bunny. He's the hardest working helper the North Pole has ever seen. And he wants all your gifts to have the power of the number one longest lasting double A battery.
So this holiday season, stock up on Santa's and the elves favorite battery energizer ultimate lithium. I'm Brian Weber in for rich eyes and we'll do it again live tomorrow, taking you through the early stages of the NFL doubleheader and to get you fully lined up. It seems fitting because Rich is the face of NFL Network to be joined by one of his colleagues and one of the more insightful football journalists out there. It's Eric Edholm.
Check out his great work on NFL dot com and across NFL media's platforms. Eric, it's been a while since we had the opportunity to check in. How are you and happy holidays. Yeah, happy holidays to you as well.
I'm doing very well. And yeah, I'm excited for last couple of weeks here before the real playoffs, the real games begin. And you know better than I do. Think about this week with the embarrassment of riches, with NFL football wall to wall all the way through Monday night. Normally coming off Monday Night Football aircraft would say, what are your takeaways of what we saw last night?
But I think what we saw is self-evident. It was an absolute beatdown applied by the Packers and tough to gauge meaningful takeaways because the Saints are in disarray. So since you're spinning it forward for us and looking ahead to the postseason, where would you slot Green Bay amongst the teams that you believe in the NFC have a legitimate chance of reaching the Super Bowl? Yeah, I mean, I think the one thing that's holding me back with the Packers and they'll obviously have their shot with Minnesota coming up, but it's that sort of feather in their cap victory against a great team. You know, they came against the Vikings the first time, close against the Lions. And you know, I think Packers fans know they have a good team. Do they have a great one or a potentially great one or something close to that?
You know, there have been moments where Jordan Love looks exceptional and those makers, they have an abundance of them. You know, Josh Jacobs, tone setter, when he goes off in the first half, it's going to be a good day for the Green Bay Packers, but they haven't yet, in my opinion anyway, done it against one of those top tier teams. So this next game obviously has a lot riding on it, not just from a standing standpoint, but also from a, yeah, we can do it against one of these clubs and Minnesota's the top of the top right now.
And I brought up those exact same thoughts in the opening monologue because go back to the season opener against the Eagles and yes, the Brazil factor in a lousy soccer field might have been a variable, but the losses to Detroit as well. So I'm with you, a little bit more of a show me need from the Packer perspective. You hit on the Vikings, beyond the details of that game coming up next week, I'm fascinated by what's going to happen to Sam Darnold. Now a lot of that presumably is going to be contingent on how he plays individually and how the Vikes play in the postseason. But if you were Minnesota, do you think the franchise tag would be the most likely way to handle his approaching free agency?
I think it makes a lot of sense, right? I mean, obviously you can just let him walk, you'll get your compensatory pick in a year and you can start getting J.J. McCarthy ready for the starting role and all that stuff. But having seen what Darnold's done and I think just how his teammates have reacted to him, responded to him, embraced him, you know, they've become a believable contender under his watch. It's hard to say, okay, just let him go. Now, they did not – I don't think the Vikings foresaw this scenario coming up the way it's come up, but you know, you have to be flexible.
You have to change plans. You can't assume that McCarthy, who already came in with some questions about whether he's a true NFL quarterback, although he was heating up before the injury, you know, is he going to be ready? The MCL is probably fine, but is he that guy to take the team?
And can Darnold do something for you in the interim that takes you to an even higher level? I don't know that they could just let him walk. I think franchising makes sense. It'll take some creative cap maneuvering as far as what their plans were and what they might be going forward.
But that would be the way I would proceed. As you pointed out, I mean, if he flames out down the stretch and plays horrible footballer, you know, that could change things certainly. But the consistency we've seen from him, even with some hiccups along the way, has been remarkable this year. And it's really, you know, it's given him a second life in the NFL. Talking football with Eric Edholm.
Check out his terrific work at NFL.com and all of NFL media's outstanding platforms. So we have covered the top of the NFC. It's the time of the year when we look at the bottom of the standings.
Giants have been a disaster, but sometimes losing is winning. They have the inside track and getting the number one overall pick. I really appreciate your analysis of draft prospects because you pay attention to college football year round.
How much separation do you see between Shidora Sanders and Cam Ward in running to be the number one overall pick? Yeah, and, you know, there are some teams who I think would consider them in that range. Obviously the quarterback, needy teams, the Giants would have to be among them, right?
You know, depending on how all shakes out and everything. But, you know, if we, for instance, stack those guys in with this year's rookies, including McCarthy, who we haven't really seen. You know, that would be interesting to see how would we fit those guys in. I don't believe they would be in the Caleb Williams, Jayne Dale, Drake May discussion. I think we would have been putting them in the same sort of category that we were. McCarthy, Pennix, Nix, and having that debate in that kind of second tier. So, are those guys perfect, typical, sort of, you know, the exciting top five type quarterbacks that we normally see?
Maybe not. But there is some real intrigue in both. And it kind of depends on what sort of offense you want to run. I mean, to me, Sanders is still a pocket quarterback who can run, whereas Ward I think has a little bit more versatility and athleticism in his game. So, both have their exciting qualities.
Both have some drawbacks. But it really is going to be fascinating to see how the Giants, the Raiders, a few other teams in those positions at the top of the draft, bottom of the standings, how they navigate their quarterback needs going forward and if the draft is going to, especially if Darnell returns to Minnesota. The veteran options are real lean. The rest of the draft class has a lot of questions for some talent. I think there might be a drop off from those two down to the next group. So, that naturally pushes them very, very high in the draft. And, you know, if the Giants get that number one pick, they're in a power position. Eric Edholm is our guest.
I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen on this Christmas Eve edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Well, no quarterback questions other than Patrick Mahomes, quote, unquote, high ankle sprain. He looked, and I'm not in any way saying that it was exaggerated. But Mahomes is a gamer.
He showed up and balled out once more against Houston. So, as we look ahead to tomorrow's game in the playoffs, Eric, where do you come out on the Chiefs living so dangerously with all of these one-score games and the doink for the division title? Do you believe in the law of averages kind of outlook that at some point this has to catch up with them? Yeah, I mean, certainly that's been the mentality I've carried through most of the season. When I dropped it, I do the power rankings, and I dropped them out of the top spot and put Detroit up there and then put Philly up there.
And, you know, guess where I landed back today. You know, I ended up putting the Chiefs back at one. You know, 14 and one does sort of speak volumes, even if we are talking about 11 close games in that stretch, you know. And, yeah, I mean, that's the thinking is that in a one-possession game, the other team, you know, if they had the ball one more time, would have the chance to tie, take the lead, go ahead, you know, whatever. So, that said, they've built up so much equity and so much trust, I think.
Their body of work goes back now five-plus years. Obviously, multiple Super Bowl titles going for a record third straight. And seeing Mahomes just on that opening drive, I think even though there was like that moment where everybody in our heads seemed to be holding their breath when he's scrambling on third and 13 or whatever, you know, then he almost gets the first down and then caps the drive. They get the fourth and then score on the 15-yard run. I mean, if that doesn't answer questions right there in and of itself, you know, I just think we have to remember that this team was in kind of bad shape last year heading into the playoffs. And they answered a lot of questions and, you know, vanquished also. So, who's to say they can't do that again?
Just a couple minutes left, but I know that you are skilled in the art of clock management. I am aware that Josh Allen and the Bills handed Kansas City their only loss, but since Baltimore's playing Houston tomorrow, if I made you pick between the Bills and the Ravens, who do you think would have a better chance of going to Arrowhead and beating the Chiefs in the AFC title game? Yeah, great question. I mean, the Ravens defense has really come on. I mean, obviously, you know, the Bills can win without Josh having a great day. Sunday proved that, but you'd obviously rather have him kind of get hot again and get in the zone. But I think New England, you know, showed a good look with that cover one and, you know, try to keep him in the pocket.
That's really what teams are going to aim for. And look, Lamar is such a wild card. And obviously, Derrick Henry this time of year, Bateman's been a big factor for them as well.
I mean, that's a tough choice. Buffalo is a super scary team, but I'm kind of leaning Ravens on this one. I've gone back and forth and, you know, it depends on the matchup, who's getting who win and all that stuff. But, you know, if I had to give the slightest edge, I think I'm going the Ravens, even if that, you know, the penalties keep adding up and the defense isn't fully there yet. The Lamar Henry factor kind of pushes them just a little over the top for me.
And if we get the rematch, maybe it comes down to millimeters like it was on that Thursday to kick off the season. Eric, always appreciate your insights. Thanks so much for taking the time. Happy holidays and looking forward to chatting with you again in the new year. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays to everybody. And thanks for having me on this. My pleasure.
Eric Edholm always provides outstanding information and it should shine through. That's somebody who watches a lot of games and a lot of tape. And if you're thinking, hey, fill in guy, whoever you are, why are you talking NFL draft? You got to remember the league is designed on parody. There's a good chunk of teams at a lot of markets that have no hope right now other than looking towards the future. For example, New York football Giants and Chidora Sanders is timely because Colorado is going to take on BYU. It's a funky matchup, I know, but these are based on the old conference tie ins.
They're going to play Saturday in the Alamo Bowl. I admire the willingness of Chidora Sanders and Travis Hunter to play in a meaningless exhibition game. Coach Prime, dad, saying of his son and the Heisman Trophy winner, they're going to have more insurance when they hit the field. The biggest policy we've ever seen of any college player, but why run the risk?
For who or for what? And as Eric intimated, if we're talking quarterbacks and that's all we talk, think about last year's historic run on QBs and how well they played this year, including Michael Pennix Jr. making a starting debut on Sunday with the favorable assignment of beating up the batter Giants. If you want to parse things, you can be a Sanders fan or Cam Ward fan. Cam Ward is an incredible story. He started his college career at incarnate word in Texas. Then he went to Washington State.
Then he nearly led Miami to the playoff. I would go Chidora for the reasons that Eric laid out. He's got more of the it factor and a little bit more mobility. But however you want to slot those guys after Sanders and Ward, there's a massive drop off to the rest of the QB class.
So going to be fascinating to see how things play out. But why don't we take it one holiday at a time? Because we had Christmas Adam yesterday, Christmas Eve today. I'm back with you tomorrow on Christmas Day. But we always want to thank the appropriate people, starting with Mr. Eisen, Bruce Gilbert, all the good folks at Westwood One, our skilled technical producer, Art Martinez, and our guest, Eric Edholm of NFL.com, Joe Vardon of the Athletic. My name is Brian Weber wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Be safe and be open to joining me tomorrow live on a holiday edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Build your value and then understand your value and then you create your own leverage. There's no substitute for hard work and getting over it. My world with Jeff Jarrett, wherever you listen.
