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Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Amex Business. This is the Rich Eisen Show, and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show, Bears head coach Ben Johnson. Coming up, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero, actor Sean William Scott. And now, it's Rich Eisen.
All right, everybody. Welcome to this second hour of the championship Friday edition of the Rich Eisen Show here in the National Football League playoff season in 2025. Playing season 2024, Tom Pelissero will be joining us in 20 minutes time to give us news and information around the National Football League, the coaching carousel spinning. We just said goodbye to Ben Johnson, the 38-year-old HC of the Chicago Bears. And we kick off hour number two here on the Infinity Sports Network, including our friends in Las Vegas who listen to us every single day on Raider Nation Radio.
Things of that nature down there. We appreciate it. Always being heard in Vegas. Remember last year, people would stop us and say, we listen to you all the time, and it's like, fantastic. That was the conversation we would always have. Listen, we just keep talking about it almost every day, every single hour.
We did last hour. You can't make this stuff up. You cannot make it up, right? We showed a video of Jeff Garland being fooled years ago on an April Fool's Day, being very angry because TJ Jefferson was in charge of our Instagram time as the Rich Eisen Show social media grand maester back in the day. I used to be pretty good at that stuff. And you put out there, the Bears were acquiring Russell Wilson, and you fooled him.
And sure enough, he never was a Chicago Bear, but did wind up in the same quarterback room as Justin Fields in 2024 in Pittsburgh. You know what I mean? Can't make it up. I predicted it. So here we are getting set to head to New Orleans for our 11th Super Bowl that we're going to cover.
11th. The first one we ever covered way back in the day was in Arizona between the New England Patriots trying to win their first Super Bowl since Brady went back to back. And it had been a long time. And he had lost twice to Eli Manning in the interim. And here he is going up against the team, trying to become the first back to back team since Brady's Patriots. And sure enough, Pete Carroll's Seahawks are right there on the goal line with somebody named Marshawn Lynch to run it.
And we all know they decided to throw it. And instead of taking the lead, the game was over when a guy named Malcolm Butler, who I don't think anybody outside of New England maybe had ever heard of, and certainly inside of New England had ever heard of, just steps in front of what would have been the go ahead touchdown if not game winning touchdown pass to seal a back to back Super Bowl run for a dynastic Seattle Seahawks team. We're going to talk about a dynasty in that respect.
And Malcolm Butler steps in in front. And it's crazy, man. I have never in my entire life seen an entire stadium filled with one fan base crying at one moment and the other one elated at the same moment. And then in a flip of a switch, the team's fans that were elated were now crying and the ones who are crying were now elated.
I've never seen anything like it in my entire life. And now here we are in 2025. That was Super Bowl 49. We're getting set for Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans. And on this very day, Pete Carroll is now back in the National Football League as a head coach and it's for the Las Vegas Raiders and the ownership group that hires him includes Tom Brady. So we are sitting here saying Tom Brady is 100 percent in control of the coaching search in Las Vegas. And his first hire as an part owner in the National Football League, his first hire is Pete Carroll. And they're giving him reportedly a three year deal to do it. And Pete Carroll will, when the Raiders take the field with him wearing silver and black, will be the oldest head coach in the history of the National Football League.
And we will hear a lot about age, certainly since this man is being hired at age 73 and 131 days on planet Earth. And he is older than the guy who's coaching North Carolina right now and had a $10 million buyout. And Tom Brady reportedly called in recent weeks to say, do you want out and do you want in? And that guy's Bill Belichick, who was the winning head coach of Super Bowl 49 that day. I can't tell you how mind blowing this all is.
Can't make it up. Belichick is technically available. I know they sent out his redacted contract and signed it. You know, and I know, you know, our friend Lambeau has been going all around, speaking of Vegas, you know, Lambeau, you know, previously Vegas resident, I imagine, telling everybody he's focused on North Carolina football folks. And that said, you know, I don't know if this could have been possible, but instead of Belichick being Tom Brady's first hire as a head coach, it's the guy he beat in Super Bowl 49 and the guy that Belichick succeeded in New England.
Unbelievably, you want to keep just going crazy about how he can't make this stuff up. Aaron Glenn just got hired as the head coach of the New York Jets. He was a former first round selection in 1994 for the Jets. He's now coaching the Jets. Do you know the coach of the Jets was in 1994? Pete Carroll.
And he was one of the youngest head coaches in the history of the NFL and the Jets hired him. And Pete will now be the seventh head coach in NFL history to be the head coach for at least one game for four or more different teams. He joins Wade Phillips, who's the leader in the clubhouse with six because there were some interim, right? Jimmy Consulman with five. Roy Andrews with five. Guy Chamberlain with four. Bill Parcells with four. And Marty Schottenheimer, son of maybe that of the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Marty Schottenheimer. Can't make it up. Amazing.
Now, let me just say this about the hire of Pete Carroll. We are, again, going to hear all about how old he is. And if there's any human being that I've ever met in person and know for whom age is just a number, it's this guy.
OK? It's this guy. Anybody who's out here saying he's an old man, you take your shirt off when you meet DK Metcalf and see if you stack up.
Good point. Now, the one thing you are going to get with Pete, unlike the other coaches that you have in the league that are being hired, and we just said goodbye to Ben Johnson. And I'm like, you know, what's your style? What's your coaching philosophy? What's this?
What's that? And we did get a lot of because because the guy is going to have to prove it. And I'm also asking, like, well, how are you going to coach Caleb Williams? What are you going to do to actually coach him up? And he gave he gave an honest answer and like, look, I got to get him on the grass. Yeah, I got to get him in the building. I got to get him in the playbook.
I got to sit down with him and find out what he likes and dislikes and watch film and write and do all of that stuff. Pete Carroll, there's no question what you're going to get with him. You're going to get a team that's going to play the heck out of the defensive side and is going to run the ball on offense. And it's going to utilize a play action game with your passer who will have. One would assume the mobility.
To make this play action stuff work. We have seen it. It has been proven.
We know exactly what it is. His mantra is always compete. And his mantra is doesn't matter where you are in the depth chart, if you compete, you have a chance to get the starter role. And the guy who's personified that more than anyone else is Russell Wilson. Who is a free agent, is a free agent, I understand, which would be completely wild. Because that is going to be the ultimate question, we'll get to that in a second as to who the quarterback is.
Oh, but when you just look at it, you know, and and and. Brady knows. And it kind of dovetails in Tom competed his ass off all the time to and anybody who.
Was open, he threw two, and you better be ready because Tom was ready to throw it to you, and you better have knowledge of what needs to be done and where to be and have the accountability. And the guy who personifies that is Pete Carroll. When you think about it.
The crazy thing is, is it? This may be more of a Brady higher than maybe Belichick is. Because if Tom ever spent some of his time in New England saying, I like the accountability stuff. And I like the situational smart stuff. I like the defense stuff. I like the offense that, you know, possesses the ball and can maybe be a quick strike if need be. I kind of dig all that stuff.
When I don't really dig being screamed at, I kind of didn't like the Syria, the overall seriousness of it. Constantly, you know, all that stuff about, you know, the Philadelphia Eagles. When they beat the Patriots, it was like we're having we're not only winning, we're having more fun than you are. Do you know what likes to have fun?
Pete Carroll likes to have fun. Something on like a scooter or something. Yeah, that video that Seahawks would have. They had the social media team had a camera right in the middle of the Seattle facilities sort of main thoroughfares meeting. And he came through on a scooter and other people were like dribbling a basketball. And it kind of looked like, you know, the circus was coming to town.
But I also remember when when we were in Munich and the Seahawks flew in and they were bouncing around their their. Their practice and they were going out for bowling to celebrate Drew Lock's birthday, and they just loved this guy. They loved him. All the people who are literally a third of Pete's age, they loved him.
They absolutely loved him. Now, they did lose in Munich to wait for it. Tom Brady. So Tom's played against Pete, Tom's beaten Pete, Tom's. Well, aware of who he just hired. The crazy thing is, you know, would be perfect for Pete Carroll is the guy that just let walk to Green Bay. And Josh Jacobs, that would have been nice to have Josh around right now to say, OK, you know, we're going to do we're going to run the ball. You know, we're going to run it with Josh Jacobs. You have him in the building, man. But again, Pete is one of those guys just compete your second string, your third string doesn't matter.
Play your ass off, practice hard, you're going to get your shot. That's why Pete's teams are always successful in a way that, you know, next man up was never a dangerous thing there. And obviously, who's going to be the quarterback? That one, I don't know. And I don't know how you can figure that out in the three years that Pete's got a contract for. Russell Wilson could be a bridge guy.
Man, could you imagine? I don't I don't know. I saw someone, you know, in the bridge to who, though a bridge to a bridge to who is nobody that's on the roster that you're going to bridge something to.
Right. You'd have to draft someone, obviously. Could it be, you know, well, why not go in yours at sixth overall?
No, maybe second round, early second round. I don't know. Maybe it's your door. Maybe it's your door.
It could it could definitely fall. You know, you know, I think would get along famously with Pete. His prime. I mean, you know, I know that didn't Tom Tom's clothing company had an NIL Chador for a minute there, dude. I mean, I'm I'm just saying you're the oldest coach in the history of the NFL with a son of Deion Sanders playing for the Las Vegas Raiders in Pete Carroll's fourth go round as a head coach in the National Football League for Tom Brady in Las Vegas. Honestly, I don't know.
I mean, that's the world that these are all proper nouns that don't fit the Madeline. Yeah. When I first started with NFL Network two hundred twenty two years ago, when Pete Carroll was the head coach at USC coming into NFL Total Access, asking Susie was covering USC at the time. Hey, you know, I wouldn't mind going on NFL Network and we're like, we could have Pete Carroll come in here.
Absolutely come and sit down. And he does even did the Pete Carroll thing. Great segment. Amazing segment.
I loved it. And then he just says to one of the analysts, walk me out to the car. Guy was Ken Norton. You know, he hired Mr. UCLA himself, Ken Norton, put him on the staff. He went up to Seattle with him. I mean, everything's outside of the box with this guy always. So if Pete comes on game day this year, you're going to lose Kurt.
I'm going to have my head on a swivel. That's what you're asking. Kurt is O.C. Now we're talking. Here we go. Bring it on. I've often said he should be coaching.
I mean, I know he's got a great game. It's off, Kurt. Everybody get out of here.
I think this is why I'm just basically listen. We said it last hour. I'll say it again here. Anytime somebody's hired as a head coach in the NFL, people are like, oh, he's too old. He's too dumb. He's too bad. He's too green. He's too this. He's too that.
We don't know. And yeah. And the people are like, oh, that's a perfect hire. That is a great guy.
His philosophy is amazing. People want to run through a wall for him. Blah, blah, blah. You never know. You never know because the quarterback situation may go to crap and then all of a sudden everybody's gone. Or in the same way, like I said, last hour when the Yankees had a ton of young players and they had just made the playoffs. And Don Mattingly, it's a home run for the first time in his playoff career.
And I'm thinking this is the greatest thing ever. They fire Buck Scholter and hire a retread and Joe Torre and everyone in New York's like, really? The former Met guy? What's he going to do?
He turned out to be perfect. Oh, the old guy with Don Zimmer is going to really talk to Derek Jeter? Yeah.
Jeter called him Mr. Torre. And guess what? They want a ton of rings together.
So you never know. And in terms of you never know, it's Super Bowl 59 and Super Bowl 49, Combré gets his ring and starts another stretch of three Super Bowls in five years after getting three in his first four and then none in between. And the guy you beat was Pete Carroll, who he just hired.
It's his first hire as an owner in the NFL. Get out of here. You can't make it up. So who knows? And when you think about it in the AFC West, if you need to go against Andy Reid, you need to go against Sean Payton. You need to go against Jim Harbaugh.
Who knows? Going against Jim Harbaugh from UFC Stanford to Seattle versus San Francisco to now Raiders versus Chargers twice a year. What's your deal, bro? Sean Payton just made the playoffs with Bo Nix. Andy Reid might be a three-peat head coach when he faces Pete Carroll as the young whippersnapper. Oh, and you want to talk about age? The average age of the coaches on the screen right now are 65. Who cares? We talk about Andy Reid's age coming up on Sunday. Will we talk about it two Sundays after that? No, you certainly won't talk about it with Pete, who I think could go through a day much better and navigate it than people literally half his age. My son goes and hangs out with his friends and wants to take a bath when he comes home. He's a teenager. I mean, that's a bad idea, right?
It's not a bad idea. I put up a poll. Who's the second best head coach in the AFC West? Go check it out.
Jim Harbaugh, Sean Payton, Pete Carroll. It's unbelievable. Vegas, man. Vegas. Oh, my gosh.
Let's go. Pete and Carl Reiner are going to go bust into Terry Benedict's vault tonight, man. Wow.
What a caper. I saw Andy Garcia. He was at the Laker game last night. Fantastic.
844-204-rich is the number to dial. Here on the program, we come back. Tom Pellicero on what made this happen. What's going on with Liam Cohen? Dude. You know, pulling a Josh McDaniels on the Bucks? I mean, he's ghosting the Bucks. Oh, my goodness. There's a new ghost on the ship. 844-204-rich, number to dial.
Don't go anywhere. You're here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk TurboTax people. You might be sitting there going, wait a minute, Rich.
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Limited availability, only through participating Hyundai dealers in select markets. Speaking of Vegas, and another thing, as Tom Pelletzor is going to join us in a couple of minutes, the college football playoff just announced that the 2027 national championship game will be played in Las Vegas, Nevada. Right, yeah, I saw that. By the way, on Monday, January 25th. Clap was this week saying January 20th.
What are we doing? It's too late. It's the 25th. I mean, gosh, what is the calendar that year? Is everything a week late or something?
I'm sure, I'm sure. Ugh, that sucks. 24 days after, that means it'll be 24 days after the, well, the second round will always be, the quarter finals will always be Gen 1, right? Always, right? Hold on, I'm looking at the calendar. So yeah, that year, 2027, New Year's Eve is a Friday. That's it.
Oh, there you go. So then, Because the Rose Bowl can't be a weekend. Well, I mean, they will always be, the national quarter finals will always be three of the games on Gen 1, right? That's what it was this year, three of them on Gen 1, and one of them was on New Year's Eve. So Friday, New Year's Eve will be one of them, and then three on Saturday. So Gen 1 is, Gen 1 is, hold on a minute, so Gen 1 is a Saturday?
Is that what you said? I thought you just said it's a Friday. Oh, hold on a second, I was looking at 2027. It's a Thursday, and then, 2027 is when this is, Chris. Yeah, Gen 1, I was looking at the calendar year, 27, and then Gen 1, 2027 is a Friday. Yeah. Well, interesting. Does that mean a Thursday night will be the final Thursday?
It depends. If that's week 17, then that's the final Thursday night of the NFL season will be on Prime Video. On New Year's Eve. On New Year's Eve, and then, I don't know, man, will they put one of the other, they should probably put a bowl game on that Saturday. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So play one on Friday? Bottom line is it's going to be in Vegas, which is just going to be perfect.
Yeah, Monday. Perfect. Back on 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 clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Tom Pelosaro, boy, do we have a lot to talk about with him. Tom, first things up, breaking news, is Houston changing offensive coordinators, Tom? Bobby Slowick is out as the Texans' offensive coordinator. This has really been something that was a rumor since around mid-season.
You know, C.J. Stroud, he got back on track at the end of the season, but there was a couple of months stretched there where they just weren't particularly good on the offensive side of the ball. You go back to a year ago, Bobby Slowick was one of the hot head coaching candidates, had five interviews, by all accounts did well in those interviews. Interviewed with the Jets, among many others, in this head coaching cycle. But now out as offensive coordinator, it'll be interesting to see now what is D'Amico Ryan's plan with that position, and then additionally, could Bobby Slowick pop right back up? Because between Tampa, which just lost Liam Cohen, the Seahawks are still looking for an offensive coordinator, and then you're going to have a half dozen staff that still need to get filled out. It would not be a shock at all to me if Bobby Slowick is right back in the O.C. mix elsewhere. Well, what did happen with Liam Cohen?
Just where he got the contract he was looking for? I mean, you're laughing. I know that's a loaded question, but again, walk everybody through. I'll let you do the talking about what had happened and where it's gone, Tom. I'm trying to remember what day it is. Today's Friday, so this was one of those weeks.
I haven't shaved, I haven't showered, my brain's working at about 75% capacity. So on Wednesday, the Bucs had moved forward with an agreement to make Liam Cohen one of the highest paid coordinators in the NFL. They had an agreement, but Liam Cohen had not signed that agreement. My understanding is when Liam Cohen and his agent had called the Jaguars to say that he was out on that head coaching search, there were some questions asked about is it because of Trent Bulky, which is something that the Jaguars had heard from other candidates through the process, which was they weren't going to come in and work with Trent. A couple of hours later, Trent was fired. There was quickly a call placed from Jacksonville back to Liam Cohen and his representation saying, hey, how about now?
Would you reconsider this? Trent's out. You can have more say in what the working environment is and the structure and the GM. Cohen thought about it through the evening. By yesterday morning, he was having a conversation with Todd Bowles. And Todd, from what I was told, Todd was supportive to the extent of, hey, I get it. There's only 32 of these. You got a shot at one.
I understand if you want to go explore it. But at that point, based on the deal the Bucks thought they had done with Liam Cohen, this very much felt like a if you go, don't come back type of a situation. And so Liam Cohen arrived in the Jaguars building yesterday. Patrick Graham, who was interviewing for the job, was still in the building at the time while Liam Cohen is coming in and while it was painted as an interview, really, again, under the circumstances it was pretty clear that was to get a deal done. So I got a text around 2.20 a.m. saying they had a verbal agreement in place with Liam Cohen. We don't yet have evidence of a signed agreement. So we've already been down this road with Liam once this week.
But all indications are, Rich, this is going to get done. Cohen has told some of the assistant coaches in Tampa that he's not going to be returning. And the Jaguars, who had been in the Ben Jonson sweepstakes, they'd interviewed guys like Aaron Glenn.
They had a handful of other candidates that were in the mix. They are prepared to move forward with Liam Cohen, who's had a wild journey in recent years from Kentucky to the Rams, back to Kentucky to the Bucks, and now over to Jacksonville as the head coach. Wow. All right. Now walk me through Pete Carroll's hiring in Las Vegas. The whys and the hows and the fact that it's actually happening, Tom. What do you got for me there?
One sec. We've got a lot going on. Are you breaking news or are you receiving news? Potentially.
But it's always fun when I'm talking about something, literally getting a text about it in real time. In terms of Pete Carroll and the Raiders, Pete had an extensive interview. It was about a week and a half ago. And at that time, there certainly was a feeling that Pete was a real candidate for the job. But the Raiders took another swing at Ben Jonson. And when the Lions got eliminated on Saturday night, that really accelerated the time frame on Ben, because that meant that he was eligible to do a second interview as soon as Monday, as opposed to if the Lions had won, it would have been this coming Monday, that he would not have been able to do a second interview. And quite honestly, Rich, behind the scenes, this would have ramped up on sort of an off-the-books basis anyway. We would have had a pretty good idea where Ben Jonson was going.
But that suddenly brought it to a pressure point. And so Sunday night into Monday morning, the Raiders made their best offer. They made their final pitch to Ben Jonson. But he was always, you know, my understanding, I said it, Rich, with you going back a month-plus ago, Chicago was always the job that I was told and that I believed was the one that Ben Jonson wanted. And they were able to get it to a place where it made sense for Ben to take it. There was not a clear pivot at that point for the Raiders, who then were also going through their general manager search. John Spytek, who signed his deal late last night after a little bit of consternation among Raiders fans about Liam Cohen just, you know, made a last-minute escape to Tampa, is Spytek going to back out and go with his Tampa buddy. That wasn't happening. They worked through some language stuff.
That got signed last night. Spytek was always the favorite for that job. Once he was able to get into, then, the conversations, what took place was they were able to ramp up very quickly, go back through the same candidates. The understanding was they were not going to interview new candidates. They were not going to bring new people into the mix.
It was a matter of, okay, what do we feel like works? And one thing that I thought was interesting, Rich, is not only does Spytek have a connection to Tom Brady because they played together for a year in Michigan, but they also were together in Tampa when they won a Super Bowl with a 68-year-old head coach in Bruce Arians, who at one point had retired, and then he came back and they kind of, you know, he changed the culture in that building and they put it together. They got the greatest quarterback of all time and they made a run and they won a ring. Now you've got 73-year-old Pete Carroll, who's had a year away to maybe refresh. Pete was very aggressive from what I'm told, pitching himself to the Bears and the Raiders and the Cowboys, among others. There are a bunch of his, if you think backwards to his best staffs a decade or so ago when the Seahawks were, you know, a perennial contender.
A lot of those guys are available right now. And so they were, you know, they were decisive. Again, there were conversations going on behind the scenes. Pete had been lining up staff for a week. They accelerated it last night into this morning and they've now got a deal done. Pete Carroll joining Jim Harbaugh, Sean Payton, and Andy Reid in a single NFL division.
That's a pretty fun story. And listen, Pete's got his work cut out for him because you compare the state of the rosters there and the quarterback position. Specifically, there's a ton of work that Pete and John Spytek and Tom Brady have to do.
So then let's just throw it against the wall here. Russell Wilson's available, Tom. You know, I mean, like, and I think that's a real, that's a real consideration here, you know, because I think that on the outside looking in, everybody said, where is, where's Russ going to go besides Pittsburgh?
In other words, who's going to pay him because there's really no market for his services? Well, now you've got a coach in Pete Carroll who's been with him. We know how Mike Tomlin has felt about Russell Wilson.
I certainly would not rule this out. I mean, there have been times in the past where Russell Wilson, going back to his Seattle days, and even going back to last year after the Broncos released him, where there were, let's call them rumors slash rumblings slash inquiries being made of Russ trying to get himself to Vegas. Now Pete's there.
Pete's always been a big Russell Wilson fan. They don't have the answer on the roster. Gardner Minch, who's under contract for another year.
They've still got Aidan O'Connell, and they probably will draft somebody sooner than later here. But if you're just trying to have competency, bringing in Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson together, even at advanced stages in their careers, it would make some sense. We just got to see, though, we're still pretty early in this entire process, and I still would not rule out him going back to Pittsburgh either.
Tom Pelissero here on the Rich Eisen Show. That leaves the Saints and the Cowboys. Let's start with the Saints and finish up strong. Mike McCarthy still sitting out there.
Is he the choice? Because I know Aaron Glenn was a choice of theirs. He's now with the Jets, having that vacancy filled this week. What's your two cents on the Saints opening here?
The Saints is the furthest one away still, Rich, because they had the snowstorm that hit and rescheduled all their interviews this week. So they have Anthony Weaver is in the building today, the Dolphins defensive coordinator. He interviewed really well last year with a couple of teams. Mike Kafka is in the building tomorrow. My understanding is they're going to try to get the likes of Joe Brady and Kellen Moore in the building next week. And then Mike McCarthy, he could have done an interview at any time, but Mike McCarthy, if you want him, you know his track record.
It's probably not much of an interview. He worked in that building 20 years ago with Mickey Loomis. I mean, those guys know Mike. They know what he's about. In my mind, that makes a ton of sense because you've got an older, expensive roster. They're always pushing the cap and they're in a generally weaker division. This is a team that has to win right now.
When you're constructed the way you are, you have to win right now. So do you want to take a risk of maybe going through some growing pains with a first-time head coach, or do you want to get a guy who's been to the playoffs 12 times in 18 seasons and has won a Super Bowl and you have a familiarity with him? I think that it makes a ton of sense with Mike. You can't count on Darren Rizzi either. I know Alvin Kamara took to social media a couple of days ago to make his pitch for Rizzi to get the job. The Saints can really take their time here because the candidates that are in play for them are not in play anyplace else. Unless Dallas were to decide to reengage on Mike McCarthy after a 10-11 day divorce and counting here, there's not really a lot of crossover between the teams. So I fully anticipate Mickey is going to take his time here. Probably middle of next week, Tuesday, Wednesday, maybe Mike McCarthy will go in there. That'll probably be the last interview and then they'll decide what to do.
All right, now let's get to the Cowboys. The current status of the Cowboys coaching search is? Conversations are continuing with Brian Schottenheimer. Their offensive coordinator.
That's been going on for three, four days now. There are certainly people who believe that that's going to end up being Schotti's job. Pete Carroll did have contact, as our Jane Slater reported. There was a conversation there.
It sounds like that was probably initiated by Pete because he was trying to make sure that he was able to get back in. They've interviewed Robert Sala, who I was told had a really good interview there. They interviewed Leslie Frazier for the position and they did a Zoom with Kellen Moore. Jerry's ultimately got to decide what he wants because Jerry, going back to the conversations two weeks ago with Mike McCarthy, there was no time in those conversations where it seemed like Mike was not going to be back as the head coach. But with Jerry, it's been about the commitment and what is he willing to do contractually, the length of contract, how long is he tied with somebody. He definitely has interest in scenarios that would prepare a Jason Witten to take over somewhere down the line, to groom him and have him on staff and potentially make him the head coach, whether that's two, three, five years down the line, whatever it might be. There may not be a lot of coaches who are comfortable with a scenario like that.
So is it possible? Jerry takes us into next week and waits out, let's say, at Cliff Kingsbury, who's got a ton of ties in the state of Texas and is currently helping Jane Daniels have a monster season and get into the National Championship game in Washington. There's different things that he could do, but I certainly get the sense that Jerry does not want to drag this a whole lot further than he already has and we'll see whether they're able to cross the goal line one way or another here in the next couple of days. And as I'm about to ask you this question, this man is currently zooming into Pat's show from a private aircraft dressed like he's going to see Brad Dougherty play a basketball game years ago and Bill Belichick. Does that mean Bill is staying in Carolina blue hoodies, Tom? All of this right now?
What do you think? Bill Belichick and Jerry Jones know each other well. If they wanted to accelerate this and strike a short-term deal for Bill to come in, I think that that's certainly something that Bill would entertain. But right now, this is the thing is you're running out of jobs here. Remember, Tom Brady called Bill Belichick about this job weeks ago in Las Vegas and asked him what it would take. They end up with kind of a similar type of an archetype, right, an older coach who's won a ton of games to just kind of reset the culture and maybe set the table a few years down the line for somebody else to take over.
That could have been Bill. You have to wonder, hindsight is 20-20 on these things, but if he never takes that North Carolina job, do people take it a little bit more seriously? Does he go and interview for some of these jobs?
That was not a risk he was willing to take to not have a job once again. So he's currently at North Carolina. You're down to the Saints. I don't see him going there. And the Cowboys, which, again, there's a longstanding relationship. He's one call away, but remember this about Jerry. He is a big believer that coaching isn't that important. And he said that going back to the mid-'90s when Jimmy Johnson won the first Super Bowl, and basically Jerry's response was anybody could have coached this team to a Super Bowl. They win a second one.
He fires Jimmy Johnson. They end up bringing in Barry Switzer, who wins one, and that kind of short-term proved Jerry right. Well, in the close to three decades since, they haven't been to a Super Bowl.
They haven't even been to an NSA championship game. And last year he had everybody on one-year contracts who was a hyper-stressful environment, and then he wouldn't make the type of commitment to Mike McCarthy that Mike would have wanted to stick around. If you end up hiring a Brian Schottenheimer, you're probably doing that in part because you can do that at a lower price point on a shorter-term deal, keep some of the same guys in place.
I'm not saying that's the sole reason. I don't mean to in any way discount Shoddy, who's been a really good coach for a long time. He's been in a lot of different places. Fifteen years ago, he was the Ben Johnson.
He was turning down head coaching gigs, and then the magic kind of ran out with the Jets, and he ended up bouncing around as an OC a bunch of different places. But certainly he is qualified, and he's ready for this opportunity. But if you're talking about bidding on the top head coaching candidates, frankly, it's going to be more expensive than promoting your offensive coordinator to the position.
That's just how the market dynamics work here. So is there a world where Jerry could one more time decide to call Bill? I certainly think it's possible. But right now, Sidney Rich, I don't get any sense that Jerry wants to fan out this search or think about new names that have not already been involved in the mix. A lot of that points toward potentially hiring Brian Schottenheimer. But like I said, they're continuing the talk on this.
And if there's one thing we know about Jerry is he can talk and talk and talk, and it doesn't always lead to the place that you think it's going to. And obviously with Vrabel going to New England, he's got Drake May. Ben Johnson, who I spoke to earlier, he's got Caleb Williams.
Liam Cohen's going to get Trevor Lawrence. Whoever Dallas hires, Dak's the guy. You mentioned whoever New Orleans hires based on the setup. It's going to be Derek Carr. We talked about, right, at least this year.
And in terms of Vegas, we mentioned there's options for Pete. Aaron Glenn, is he going to stick with Aaron? Rogers, what's your first blush thought about the Jets' quarterback situation upon Aaron Glenn's hiring?
Tom? Well, the first thing they've got to do is figure out the general manager position because as much as everybody thought, as I get a call, this is twice in one segment here, you get a call about that, the Jets will need to lock in their general manager here. A lot of people thought it was going to be Lance Newmark. They ended up bringing in two additional candidates, Darrin Muji and Trey Brown, to interview for the job yesterday. I would think this is going to accelerate pretty quickly here. They'll probably have a GM in place today. And then those conversations have to happen with Woody Johnson, Christopher, the new GM, and Aaron Glenn about what exactly are we going to do.
I would be surprised, nothing shocks me anymore, Rich, but I would be surprised if Aaron Rogers is back. But this is going to be part of a broader landscape of it because it's not a matter of let's just move on from that thing that didn't work. It's also what do we do next?
That's the steps that they need to take here to figure out exactly what the path forward is going to be. Your phone's buzzing like crazy, so just give me a few seconds here about the injury reports for this weekend, just in general. AFC, NFC championship game, what do you have for me there, Tom?
And then I'll let you go if you don't mind. Yeah, on the Eagles' front, everything seems to be trending positively for Jalen Hurts. Obviously that knee did not look great in the game. We'll see how healthy he is because let's say there's a full participant on the injury report yesterday, which gives you an indication. At minimum, they think this is a guy who's going to be able to get through the game. They're not even easing off his practice reps. It's going to be a matter of how much do they expose him as a runner, do they do some things in terms of are they going to run the brotherly shove and things like that with a guy with a bulky knee.
That's certainly stuff that we need to keep an eye on here. The Chiefs have basically an entirely clean slate. They're as healthy as anybody. Obviously they've still got all the receivers, by the way, no movement on the Jets' GM hire. That was the call I missed.
I texted back. The Chiefs are about as healthy as you're going to be those receiver injuries that they've had through the course of the season, notwithstanding. Now with the Bills, Taylor wraps out. So you're going to be thrusting in Cole Bishop, who is a young guy that they really like.
That's something to keep an eye on here. How much does that impact them in the way that they play in this game coming up this weekend? But you've really got, other than the Eagles quarterback being beat up, you've got some pretty healthy teams it seems like here. Commanders, offensive line, everything to watch because Sam Cosby being out for the season. We don't know what their offensive line combination is going to be. You know that Vic Fangio is going to be trying to find a weak spot in that.
So that's one more thing to watch here is how do they line up on Sunday and then what does that mean for the defensive game plan. Tom, you're the man. Thanks again. Really appreciate it. Well done. Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Pelissera, everybody. Thanks, boys. See you, buddy. There you go. Life insurance, you know you need it, but maybe you think you can't afford it or it's too complicated or you don't want to deal with medical exams.
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That's tryethos.com. We'll take a break. When we come back, though, we've got a top five list of the biggest game changers and matchups.
But right now, here's Rich Ackerman with an update. In the NFL, as we all know, there is no margin for error. One single mistake can change the outcome of a game or even, yeah, a career. Science proves quality sleep can help boost reaction time, recovery time, and overall athletic performance. Putting it all together, the official sleep and wellness partner of the NFL is Sleep Number, whose mission is to provide players with data and insights to optimize their sleep for the ultimate competitive edge. And you can have it, too.
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Learn more at americanexpress.com slash Amex Business. True or false? Sean William Scott, you once helped Christopher Walken celebrate his birthday when it wasn't really his birthday. True or false?
Yeah, that's pretty true. So what's the story? So I was on the set of The Rundown with The Rock. Great movie. Oh, thank you. Not that I had anything to do with it.
I love it too, though. And I remember seeing Christopher Walken, he looked really sad. I was like walking to my trailer and he was just kind of, what I remember, he was like standing outside his trailer and looked kind of sad. I can't do his voice, but I remember being like, oh, hey, Christopher Walken. Yeah, I don't know why I always call him his full name, but I was like, Christopher Walken. Is this Christopher Walken?
Because he seemed sad. He goes, no, no. But maybe a little bit, you know, it's my birthday. I'm like, oh, my God, happy birthday, Christopher Walken.
That's amazing. And he goes, no, I don't want to make a big deal. He's like, you know, this thing is like every year, you know, my birthday and it's like this year, you know, I feel like kind of alone. Usually I get a cake.
Let people know. He's like, I'm just kidding, it's not my birthday. He's like, but I bet you right now if I told people, they'd bring me out a cake. I'm like, what? And then like 10, 15 minutes later, I hear the crew sing happy birthday to him and I walk by him and he's like, gives me a wink.
I'm like, weirdo. And then like a couple of days later, he came up to me and he goes, hey, do you know where I could get a nice steam? And I was like, a steam? I go, yeah, give me a second. And I went up to the rock. I go, dude, where can walking get a steam? He's like, what?
Forget it. And then I found out like a spa and I told him, I go, yeah, there's this spa like in Beverly Hills. He goes, do you think there'd be a lot of really good looking men there? I go, what? And he kind of winked at me and just walked away.
I'm like, this guy's messing with you all the time. It was awesome. So it's true, but you also got a place where there's a good steam on a steam on a birthday that really wasn't his birthday. Fantastic. His real birthday is next week. Oh, well, see him at the spa. Been a little over a little less than three years since Sean William Scott's last appearance here on the program. He's coming in to make his third such appearance shortly. You're on the program is very funny.
Always very funny. Are we going to run it back with him? Like his first time in seven years ago, we were talking about redoing the ending of sports.
Yes, I like that idea because I told him I wanted Rudy to pop a quad at the end of right at the end of Rudy. And he laughed at that. He goes, what if we did do that? We should revisit this. OK. Fun.
Sold. We'll do that. He's making his way to the studio right now. Like Robert Redford strikes out. Oh, no. Well, actually, that's what did happen in the book. You know that, right?
You ever read the book, The Natural? They changed it. Well, I mean, the movie? Yeah. Oh, very much so. Oh, interesting. Oh, yeah. In the book, Roy Hobbs took the money and then regretted it and struck out anyway.
Oh, and everybody thought that he did, in fact, do it on purpose because he took the money and it was found out. Oh, it was a very different ending. Wow. Wow. Oh, yes. Interesting.
Bernard Malamud had a dark streak, man. He was the author of it. And it's an old book and it's very good. Interesting. You ever read the book, The Natural? I read part of it years and years ago.
Oh, boy, did they change the ending of that book. Wow. Very good. Wow.
Very much. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, everybody, I got a top five. You ready to hit it? Hey.
Go ahead and hit it. High five. One, two, three, four, five.
Richest top five. Top five matchups of Championships Sunday presented by Hyundai. Number five on this list is the defensive coordinator of the Eagles against the offensive coordinator of the commanders, Vic Fangio versus Cliff Kingsbury. That's your matchup. The last quarterback to beat the number one scoring and total defense, which the Eagles are on the road in a conference title game. Ready for it? Chris Brockman.
Let's go. Tom Brady in 2001. And he needed, as you know, Drew Bledsoe to finish it. Yeah, he did. Jayden Daniels is the only quarterback this year to throw for three or more touchdowns against Philadelphia in a game this year.
He had five. And that's the only loss the Eagles and Vic Fangio have had since week five. Wow.
OK. OK. Since week four, really, they had a bye in week five. This game's going to be awesome. Number four on the list is how do the 30th ranked commanders on rush defense with Bobby Wagner stop Saquon Barkley? No.
I don't know. I mean, they're going to have to do it. This is just the second playoff matchup since 1970s between a top three rush offense against a bottom three rush defense. I mean, it's a 72 division round.
That's how long it's been to see something like this. And Saquon Barkley had two hundred and ninety six rush yards against the commanders this year in the two games. Number three, I'm a run back. This is the same matchup as Houston versus Kansas City. Same one.
Just run it back. And I don't really need to describe it. Whoever covers Travis Kelce versus Travis Kelce.
You don't need film study. OK. Whoever the Bills are going to run at Travis Kelce. Bobby Babich, the defensive coordinator, nobody's got it cooked up, but he's got to cook something up.
That's the number three matchup of Championship Sunday. Number two is the middle of the Philadelphia defense versus Jayden Daniels. The middle, Jaylen Carter, Zach Bond, the safety's behind him right up the gut. Can they get the pressure up in Jayden Daniels's face against a an offensive line that is missing Sam Cosme, their interior lineman of notes?
We shall see that is going to be big. Jaylen Carter can blow things up. Zach Bond is a is a defensive player of the year candidate. And the number one matchup of Championship Sunday is Josh Allen against the Ghosts of playoff pass.
Oh, wow. We're all talking about his ability this year. And what can we do?
Because here it is, guys. We've been talking about it all year long. Who can stop the Chiefs in the AFC? Oh, it's got to be the Texans.
That was preseason. It's got to be the Ravens after week one. It is the Bills. The Bills have this responsibility.
And if things go a little bit south in the end of this game at Arrowhead, how does Josh Allen handle it? And that's my top five list of Championship Sunday presented by Hyundai. Now you can buy a new Hyundai from the comfort of your home at Amazon.
Visit HyundaiUSA.com for more details. That wraps up our number two, Sean William Scott showing up in our number three in studio. Do you think we need one more? And I've got one more.
All right, we'll get one more. I do have one more of the matchups of Championship Sunday. They're not on the field at the same time. Keon Coleman versus Xavier Worthy. Two rookie wide receivers. But why do I mention these two in particular?
I have an idea. On the night Jayden Daniels was drafted second overall in Detroit. That's the draft moment we're all talking about, right? Certainly since he just won and done the 15 win Detroit Lions in Detroit, where he was drafted second overall. And we're talking about him being the greatest rookie quarterback ever on that night.
Later on, later on, later on. When there was just a mere, what, half million people still hanging out there watching this. The Buffalo Bills allowed the Chiefs to move up from 32nd overall and use their draft choice to draft Xavier Worthy at 28th overall. And Bills fans were like, really? We're going to let the Chiefs get this guy? And now here's this guy against the Chiefs. And then the Bills moved down to 32nd overall.
Had a third and a seventh in their back pocket to use later on. And they drafted Keon Coleman with that pick. And we'll see how that sliding door actually slides in terms of who makes the Super Bowl or not may not matter. These guys may not factor in, but just keep this in your mind's eye. And by the way, the third round selection that night, Dwayne Carter, is a defensive tackle currently for the Bills. The seventh round pick is not currently on their roster. Carter was inactive last week.
We'll see if he's possibly. But he was 33rd overall. If you remember, the Bills moved back again, Xavier Leagett.
Because the Panthers moved in to take him on that night. 33rd overall is what Coleman went to kick off the second night. The reason why Leagett went 32nd overall, apparently he was telling everybody the Panthers want me. And the Panthers like, oh, we better move and go get him because somebody might move to go get him 32nd overall.
That's right. The Bills move back down to 33rd. Bottom line, though, is the Bills got a lot of grief on that draft night with some and Bill's mafia saying, really? Because you know back in the day who traded up to go draft Mahomes.
Yeah, in 2017. And you know who let them move up. They traded with the Bills. Right. But, you know, the Bills did get a first rounder in the next year.
And in that draft, they not with the Chiefs pick, but they drafted Josh Allen the next year. So, you know, good in the hood anyway. Sort of. Right. But it does leave just again, you know, Bill's mafia rankled.
And could you imagine if Xavier Worthy beats the Bills? His name is Cole Bishop Rich. Cole Bishop is guarding Kelsey. Thank you, sir. We'll see. Bishop better pray. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. It's game over. Over, man.
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