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Let me break it down for you again. With guest host, Suzy Schuster. You're a legend in this business. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Hello, Rich Eisen. The Rich Eisen Show. Rich Eisen. Oh, that's Suzy Eisen. Earlier on the show, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero. Coming up, host of the Business of Sports Podcast, Andrew Brandt. Writer and comedian, Sarah Tiana.
Plus, latest news and more. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Suzy Schuster. Hello, everybody. Suzy Schuster in for Rich Eisen. Thrilled to be here while Rich is at the combine. I may never leave. I think you guys all know I get a little too comfortable in the chair here on the Roku Sports Channel.
Infinity Sports, wherever you find this place, there's so many places to find our show on YouTube, what have you. Hey, Suzy, you playing NBA highlights over there? Is that me? You're going to get sued? Is that me?
Without express written consent by the NBA. Meanwhile, I'm talking and I'm like, who left their computer open? That is so obnoxious. I'm like, whoever that is is going to be. Hi. Chris Jason and I were all like making sure. OK, I've done this show so many times.
I was bound to have an Urkel moment at some point. Was that me? Did I do that?
Did I do that? Hi, TJ. How are you this morning? Hey, the mimosas are flowing. It's Friday and I feel swell. Yeah, you're on your second.
I've had a sip of mine, so I'm not blaming this on the Prosecco. Hi, Feli. How are you? Hi.
I can't believe that. I'm the person in the movie theaters. Can everybody turn off their phone? Like my kids play guys, is your phone off?
Meanwhile, we will talk about Steph Curry, Chris Brockman, because he was insane last night. I was incredible. Maybe he heard us.
I think this is my theory. Eight, four, four, two or four, which is the number to call. And by the way, glasses back on so I can read this.
Hey, Tom, we're going to come to you in a second. But that said, maybe he heard us talking with Vincent Goodwill about how Anthony Edwards should be the face of the or doesn't want to be the face of the NBA. And clearly he showed that last night by racking up some more teas. But Steph Curry just doing it, doing it, doing it well.
Amazing. You know, the late Toby Keith had a song and the hook was, you know, I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was. And look, Steph Curry is older now and the Warriors dynasty is over. You know, they're trying to keep it going with the Jimmy Butler deal. And they played great with him.
They're seven and one now. But every once in a while, Steph will have one of these nights to remind you that he is him and he's always been him and he's changed the way the game is played. And he's probably in the top 10 all time. When you think about it, he might be the greatest point guard ever, DJ.
I know, you know, you're in the Magic Johnson camp and I get it. But what we saw last night, man, when he is cooking, there is nothing like it in the association. And you just kind of sit back on the couch and you watch it.
You eat your popcorn and you watch greatness. And that's what we saw last night from Steph. That was unbelievable. I mean, 56 points, 12 threes. I would argue with you by saying that the dynasty is totally over. I never look, you know, I don't think anyone thinks they're real title contenders this year. You know, I never overlook anything that Steve Kerr ever does. You never know. I think the West is, you know, we talked about the East, like who's even in the East half the time.
But I think the West is fragile too. TJ, I mean, what did you think watching that last night? I actually didn't see the game, but I caught all the highlights and it was upsetting that I missed the game.
And so I went on Twitter and I consumed as much of these high. And I think I pretty much saw every one of his points by the end of the night. Because it's special. It's special. And the thing with Steph is, I think it was about, I'd say 2017 when I got to the point, Chris, where I was more surprised when Steph Curry missed a shot than he made. Like if he pulled up from 75 feet, I 1000% expected the shot to go in.
It's just, he's special, man. And I'm also of the argument that maybe he may have ruined basketball a little bit because guess what? Not everybody can be shooting 45 feet from the basket. You know, not everyone needs to be jacking up threes like that. And yet we have a whole generation of kids who think they're Steph. That's right.
Guess what, children? Steph Curry's don't get, you know, born every day. You know, there's one per generation and he's something else. And by the way, Chris, their last championship, I thought it was over. And then they went and won their last title against your Celtics.
So I'm never going to count them out completely until, you know, his numbers up in the rafters. Yeah. And in fact, I flew Cooper to Golden State just to watch one of those Celtics games in person. And I remember that only too well with Taylor. I watch her video. I watch his videos, his warmup videos with her nonstop just to show the precise way he gets ready for a game.
And it is a thing of wonder. And it's funny as we talked to David Anspy yesterday, the director of Hoosiers, and we talked about that one scene with Jimmy Chitwood and we talked about really shooting it in one take and a kid just making these shots over and over. The only player I can think of in modern day who can do that is Steph Curry. And it's because of the way he approaches the game. You know, you never hear anything bad about him, Chris. You only hear the best things about him. And again, as we look at a night in which Anthony Edwards hits the showers a little early, you just think about Steph Curry is still doing everything as just as you'd want him to be. All time great.
One of the faces in the league and maybe he's in his whole career. It's been a joy to watch this dude. And, you know, he doesn't have a lot of these nights anymore, but every once in a while, you know, you kind of kind of dip into the wayback machine T.J. and you're like, hey, everybody, I can still do this.
Yeah, I can still do this thing. It's crazy, bro. You said he doesn't have many nights like this anymore. True. Fifty nine, whatever. But my man is still averaging 24 at night, like every night.
So he's still, you know, if not at the top of his game, he's, you know, not far from the precipice. But yeah, it's something. Look, I said there's no one like him. Yeah. I mean, obviously we have the Kevin Durant's too. Right. And we have the Dan Miller's. We have those those snipers.
But when you think of just the sharpshooter, it's that's the first one that comes to mind, obviously. And it's a treat. Yeah, it was fun.
It was fun watching that last night. And look, you know, you look at the standings. They're a playing team right now, but they have won seven out of eight since since getting Jimmy Butler. They're a half game back of the Clippers for the six seed.
And then there's kind of a gap between five and six. There's a four and a half game back between the Lakers and Houston ahead of L.A. Can they can they really keep this hot, hot run going here and sneak into that four or five situation? It seems like the Lakers are going to be the two seed when this is all said and done in the West, to be honest. And then can they get up there ahead of Houston or the Clippers and find themselves hosting an opening round? And then maybe they knock off the Thunder and then we get Lakers Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. I'm sure TNT execs are are praying for that.
But my God, for a night, it was really fun to watch that. And just a reminder of who he is and where he is as an all time great. And again, you may not hear about him all the time because he's never clamoring for attention. He's never doing anything stupid. He's just going out there and working. And I think he is an exceptional role model.
And anybody who's ever seen the show knows what I think about Steve Kerr as a head coach. I never, ever write them off. All right. Let's take a couple calls before we see Andrew Brant in the next segment. Tom from New Jersey, you have been holding. We really appreciate it.
What's on your mind? I got four quick points and then you and the men can discuss. And the first one is the referees ought to retire the whistle and go to a pocket air horn because a lot of times players don't hear the whistle. If the offense hears it and stops, the defense doesn't, a guy could get waffled and put out of his career in football. The second thing is the push, push the scrum, where the runner's running a couple guys, grabbing from the defense, the rest of the offense pushes the defense. That's a glorified push. You can't beat that pushing the guy in his chest.
Push it to the side. You can push Derek Henry out of bounds from the side quicker than you can push him up from the chest. The third thing is please have rich applied to be the next commissioner of football. I'm serious about this because he's got this game in his heart.
He knows people. He knows all about the nuances of the game, and if he doesn't go for it, let him sleep on the couch. And the fourth thing is Chris Brockman, if you bet over unders, bet the unders. You're a winner until you're a loser the whole game. The overs, you're a loser till you're aware of the whole game. And more things can affect under to win, like the prime players getting knocked out with injuries and all. They're not going to bring the number one quarterback in in the second half to get to the over.
So you're safer betting only unders and stay away from the overs. Thank you much. We love you a lot.
I'm 80 years old. I've been a football field for a long time, and I had kids running in my family, a 4-3 in 11th grade, but they never went to college. They played on the sole backup team up in Philly for a couple years. Two of my sons.
The one had over 20 touchdowns in one year and over 2,000 yards when he was in high school. Wow. Have a good one, Susie. Thanks for the job you're doing, and please ask Rich to be the next commissioner. Tom, that was, first of all, outstanding phone call. You need to call back, Tom.
That's number one, Tom. I think the other thing is Chidor Sander is not going to be star struck when he hits the NFL. He's just like the Mannings. He's just like the quarterback for the Chiefs. They were in the spotlight in sports before they were even kicking the slats out of the cradles. So he's not going to be star struck. A lot of these new quarterbacks that come from lower colleges, God bless them.
They're going to be good, but they're not going to be ready for the spotlight like Chidor Sander is. Tom, thank you for that call. That was outstanding smidge. If you're watching, make him a graphic.
This guy needs his own graphic. That was fantastic. Tom, you should know overs are public bets. Takes a real man to bet unders.
I love betting unders. I don't know what you're talking about, but that's okay. Tom, I took notes. Tom, I took notes. First of all, you seem like you're a great dad and you know what it takes to raise athletes.
So my hat is off to you. Number one, whistle. I need a whistle by the way, because in practice all the time, I do the head lasso thing. I'm like, whistle, whistle. I never seem to have a whistle. I need a whistle. I'm not sure about the air horn.
Thoughts on that, Chris? Air horn would be, that's a tough sell. That's a tough sell. I mean, I get it.
I've been on, we've been on the sideline for NFL games. It's very loud. It's very hectic and chaotic, but the players are kind of been trained to hear whistles since they were kids. You know, they, they hear it and stop. It's like an old school whistle. It's kind of like, I still like the chain gang. I still like them taking them, you know, the measurement.
We're no, we're going to probably have a laser out there measuring the first down and downs in distance, but I still like an old school chain gang. And was that you? I told you I had a whistle. So, so you got a whistle.
I always have a whistle. I've got NBA highlights. I think clearly I win. All right. Number two. You want to, should we address all of Tom's? I mean, sure. Sure. Let's run it down before Andrew comes out. Yeah.
Before, okay. I forgot what number two was. I was taking notes. I have three and four. Richby commissioners. Is that number two?
I thought that was number three. Well, let me go to the commissioner thing. Roger. Hi.
It's me. It's easy. If you want to step aside, I'm more than happy to give you rich. I think it's a great idea.
You know, you can get to the podium and speak effectively. You know that he loves the game and wants to be a part of the league for the rest of his natural born life. I think that Roger has about 80 million reasons to be the commissioner still until the end of time. What I was going to say was, Susie has 80 million reasons to why Roger, I'm, I'm happy to have rich be the commissioner. I'm going to go real estate shopping while we think about this right now.
I'm okay with that, Tom. Thank you for the suggestion. If you want to start like a, maybe like, so what's it called? Like when you start a thing from the ground up, ground swell, grassroots grassroots. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, thanks for that. If you want to start a grassroots campaign, I'm all here for it. Hey, right.
Rich wants to be in the competition committee. That's one step at a time, baby steps. Okay. This is the nature of our relationship. I'm going, I'm, I'm looking up, you know, he's looking at the committee and I want him to run the whole shebang now.
But I feel realistic. Yeah. I think we're doing this baby steps. I think he loves doing this.
So I don't think you'd want to completely walk away. I'll do this show. Let's get rich out of the out of pinstripe suits, then the competition committee, then pinstripe suits.
And I'm wearing one today. Like, what are you thinking? Yeah, that was weird. That's weird for him.
Not you. Right. Focus. I feel like I'm talking to cage.
Focus. Okay. I will, I will put you in a time out so fast. Do that to me all the time. Oh, you don't like it.
You don't like it. When the rabbits got the gun ain't no fun, right? Somebody cut his mic.
Uh, anybody remember three and four? I was actually listening to Tom being wait, push push push push about pushing them left. Yeah. I mean, anybody should try pushing Derek Henry.
My goodness. Uh, I think it's interesting because we talked about just how scientific the tush bushes and how engine, this is not just pushing. This is one guy pushing on the left buttock, one guy pushing on the right buttock. I mean, the buttock. I know you were upset yesterday because we almost got through a show without mentioning tush brush until I mentioned it with five seconds to go.
But, uh, you guys want to opine on Tom's take on the tush brush? I, if you don't know when the ball's getting hyped, there's no way that left pushing the left the right side thing could work. Like the offense has the advantage clear cut and I don't, there's no way to stop it.
No, there's no, we, we, you know this from the Neil deGrasse Tyson video. I mean, it doesn't matter what the defense does. They're not going to stop it. And it's really just about physics. It's nothing. I mean, yeah. And then you see like when guys who get pushed out of bounds, like you mentioned Derek Henry, by the way, have you ever been near an NFL player while he's pushed out of bounds? It's the scariest thing. It's terrifying. It's literally like a Mac truck is coming right at you at a hundred miles an hour. It's terrifying. It looks like, yeah, it looks like a Mac truck is coming right down on you.
It's terrible. I mean, I had that with Ralph region, but that's a whole different conversation. Whoa. Whoa. Oh yeah. Did I never tell you that story? No, but I'm just saying he's a big guy. Yeah.
Ralph region, the former head coach of the Maryland Terrapins was known as the fridge for very obvious reasons. And I was doing the sideline interview with him and we're walking to the sidelines and we're kind of jogging. It's a slow jog, not going to lie. And he tripped over a cable and I saw end of days earthquake. There was a seismic movement. There was a moment and it was on television and there was a moment. I thought I'm going to die on national television because I'm going to get fallen on by Ralph region. I made it through the day.
Not all heroes wear capes. Anyway, Tom, you're awesome. Can we take one more call before break? Let's let's cast you a question. You're there. You're asking me a question. I'm not talking to you. You're not talking to Tom, right? This is my Chris Meyers. He's there. He's there. Christopher in Maine, Christopher in Maine, Vikings off season talk. I mean, like, hi, Christopher, where in Maine are you?
I'm in Portland, but I grew up in Waterford, so I went to Oxford Hills High School. Amazing. And I appreciate you taking my call. I really appreciate Brockman, especially because coach and taught with a lot of people in that area.
And thank you again. We just talked about team consistency, right? And your show, especially between the rich, you know, everyone else. But he leads the charge in terms of the fostering environment. And I think in when we think about sports, we think about leadership.
And you brought up the Sandra Sanders thing, especially which triggered a note. And it was wonderful to see that because, you know, giving all the opportunities for someone that might be perceived as jaded or not. And it's a great way to look at how you build a team. I think as the show, one of the reasons I enjoy listening, like seeing and actually like actively listening to a show is that your whole team on the show really does that. So thank you for that. To the Vikings standpoint, I think they're doing that pretty well.
They're hard. They're figured out some hard decisions in terms of JJ McCarthy and Darnold, but they're doing it and they're actually not shying away from being on the present. So I really wanted to thank you for providing a great level of content but being inclusive.
And I just want to know what your thoughts are on the draft there. And just seeing a continuation for good culture as a team, as you have provided such as as a show. Thank you for your time. And I appreciate that. Thank you, Christopher.
And thank you for the call and the compliments. Number one, as Chris knows, like we love Maine. We love Portland. By the way, the restaurant scene in Portland is lit.
It is so insane. Number two, our kids go to camp in Maine and we are the biggest fans of it. Camp Skylamar, shout out.
Camp Mattapanai, shout out. But I think what you said is so key, Christopher. And this is what I was talking about earlier with the Browns. And I would love to talk to Andrew Brandt about this.
It's all about culture and it's all about community and it's all about your players wanting to be there. And this is my concern with what the Browns are doing. You don't want to have an unhappy player like Miles Garrett in the locker room. I don't care if he's under contract or not, but I've been around enough locker rooms to see when an attitude can poison a locker room. That's it. It's a famous Mike Tomlin quote. He wants volunteers, not hostages.
Yeah. And Miles Garrett is kind of at the hostage part now. And if a guy's that disgruntled, that unhappy, has repeatedly said it's not about the money, then acquiesce. Send him on his way.
Get a lot in return because he's a superstar Hall of Fame player. Get the adequate compensation and just move on. It seems like an easy fix for everyone involved.
Everything seems easy until it isn't. But I got to tell you right now, if I am sitting there in Cleveland, I'm shopping. Andrew Brandt will be up with us next. Let's talk to him about the situation. We're going to take a quick break on The Rich Eisen Show.
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See store or sleepnumber.com for details. Can you just clean that up, please, sir? Thank you. Let's talk TurboTax people. You might be sitting there going, wait a minute, Rich.
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Get an expert now on TurboTax.com. Back on Roku, Suzy Schuster, of course, in for Rich Eisen, and Andrew Brandt joins us right now. And I want to talk to you about myriad things. A sitting ovation. It's cute. Sitting ovation. I love it. Guys, guys, we got we got sports to talk about, like enough of the accolades. Gosh, I like to I'd like to run a tight ship here, Andrew.
It's got to hold it up. It's somewhat troubling. Let me ask you this. How do you react to the news that Bill Belichick may be the star of hard knocks coming up this year? Every year, the NFL would ask us, and I'm assuming a lot of teams, would you do it? And I'd go into our meeting.
I was with the Packers, of course, and I before I got the word knocks out of my mouth. Everyone was like, no, no, no way. The feeling was always, what is in it for us? Why would we possibly do that? Why would we let them in on information that has no value to us to get out there?
And it was so interesting that every time I never got and I said, well, what about, you know, just the brand and we have shareholders? And they said, no, never going to do it. And the thing I saw last year, Susie, was when the Giants allowed them in in the offseason. Now, one thing during the season training camp, it's players, but offseason, when you make those decisions that are really confidential and proprietary.
And when I saw the way that Joe Shane handled that Saquon situation and John Maris and I couldn't sleep at night if we lost him to the Eagles, I'm like, why? Why? Why do that? Why open it up? And of course, that would be a meme for the rest of the year, including the Super Bowl. I don't get it. Why team do it?
And now we see no one would do it. And so they're going to Belichick, who's NFL. And what's so interesting, Susie, is that this, I think, will be interesting, because college sports is turning into pro sports. So instead of negotiating free agent contracts, you're now negotiating NIL contracts. And now with the Newhouse settlement, you're gonna be dealing with a salary cap.
So it's gonna be very similar from the college point of view. Welcome back to The Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. I'm sitting at The Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.
Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. Susie Schuster in the chair for Rich Eisen because you know, he's at the combine, that place over there in Indy and watching a million and a half people play and get ready for the NFL draft and breaking news we have that Matthew Stafford has agreed to a restructured deal to keep him in LA. This is according to Adam Schefter. Quash is any and all trade speculations per sources. You know, Andrew, how we feel about sources.
Good friend of yours, correct? But yeah, so what we're basically hearing is that the first domino has fell into place. What's your reaction to that? I predicted that and not to pat myself, but I thought it was all about what I talk about, follow the money, the business of sports. Matthew Stafford scheduled to make $27 million. Seemed like the Rams said, you know, yeah, we think you're worth that too, but how much more?
So they sort of let him gauge the market. And somewhere between 27, I thought, and 50, which is kind of the market. Again, the guys making 50 are in their 20s.
Matthew's in his late 30s. But he's still a high level quarterback, hasn't shown decline like some of the older quarterbacks, like Wilson and Aaron Rodgers. So they came to a number, it sounds like, and all that talk with the Raiders or Giants, whoever else, was just to gauge the market. The thing, again, if I'm working for Stafford, I'm like, I want a big number this year, but I want some protection. So I'm not on just a non-guaranteed and worthless number next year so they can get rid of me. So I'm guessing, Susie, that he got a bigger number this year, probably closer to 50 than 27, but not 50, with protection next year.
In other words, some guarantees that he will be a Ram, not just in 25, but in 26. Andrew Brandt joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show. He's the executive director of the Morehead Center of Villanova, the business of sports podcast. We talked a lot earlier today about what's happening in Cleveland with Myles Garrett and his desire to exit stage left from the building. Can you put on your GM hat here and explain to us what you think is happening and what I think most importantly is how do you keep a player who doesn't want to be there a player of that merit and yet still keep a healthy environment?
Yeah, they're trying to do some communication, I'm sure, to say, we're going to get better. I know it hasn't been good. And that's a franchise. Listen, I'll say this personally, I'm a friend and fan of Andrew Berry. He was in with the Eagles. He's a guy I admire a lot, but they have the worst contract situation maybe in the history of the sport. They were leveraged into a fully guaranteed contract that they can't get out of with Deshaun Watson.
Forget all the character stuff coming into it. They did it because he was going somewhere else. And the only way to get him to come north, he's a southern guy, was to give him that absurd contract.
It's never been done since nor before fully secured. So they're stuck with them. And now their other best player, I'm sorry, their best player is having trouble wants to get out. I think they're going to try to keep them until it becomes a problem. The way we've seen players sort of get out is not hold out, but hold in. So would Miles Garrett, it doesn't seem like he's this type, but would he show up in August and be a pain in the you know what? And until and unless he's moved somewhere else.
They're going to be suitors out there, of course, for a premier player at a premier position. I don't know if Andrew Berry is saying we won't do it because he really won't do it or because the price has to be so high and someone would make him a stupid offer to make that happen. But the poor Browns and I say that with some empathy because they have this albatross of a contract. Watson is uncuttable. Watson is untradeable. Watson will probably be a backup making $46 million. And he may even be like he was in 2021 with the Texans told to go home. Just stay away, you'll get your $46 million. We can't cut you because of the cap impact.
And you're going to get paid. So it may come to that. Cam Ward was really auditioning to be their quarterback. And he may be.
He may be. I'm not the college guy to talk about these guys, but they're what at the third pick? I mean, yes, a quarterback because they're stuck with Watson for two years. Whether Watson plays or not, they need an answer like a lot of teams. But Cam Ward is good as anyone, I would think at this point.
Let's keep in the state, the Bengals. I mean, T. Higgins with the franchise tag last year. Jamar Chase obviously is in line for a new contract. And Joe Burrows made it really clear he wants his guys paid.
What will they do there? I think it's a no brainer with with Chase. They've already said that now the market is the top of the market is Justin Jefferson at $33 a year. It's going to pass it. So we may see a $35 million a year receiver.
If you just think about that for a second, Saquon Barkley's making $12 million receiver making three times that. So that will happen. I think on Higgins, they're going to date again and not marry.
They're going to date again and not marry. They have the weapon I've talked about for years, the franchise tag. Everyone says it's only a few players a year. No, it's lots of players because everyone uses it in negotiations to get a better deal. And I think with Higgins, if they want Higgins on the team, that's the way they're going to do it. I don't see them having one $35 million receiver and one receiver averaging $28 million over many years. One thing about Burrow, Burrow is saying he's very NBA like. You know, we don't see this in the NFL.
Like I want my guys. Like make that happen front office. We don't see that. Now he can do these cap restructures to create cap room and that just pushes the pain down the road. I know some teams like the Bengals don't like doing that. So we'll see what they do. My prediction, they do a massive contract with Chase and they franchise tag Higgins again. And Trey Hendrickson's do too as well.
Another one. I would push back on NBA only in that Tom Brady did the same thing when he was in New England. He did make, and again, I love the association note. This is no attack on the association. I think that it seems to me like he's following in that same mold that Tom put out there.
Like take care of my guys. I'm not saying Burrow wants to take any less money. But I do appreciate the fact that he is trying to create an environment to not only attract players, but to show the guys that he is aligned with them. Did the Bengals not have the cash?
I'm just trying to figure out why they structured it like this. What people don't realize about the NFL, and again, I was with the only team that didn't have an owner, but there's such a variation. I mean, the Browns who own the Bengals are a family business. I mean, yes, they have the asset value of a, pick a number, $3 billion, $4 billion asset, but they don't have cash. You know, and like when Jimmy Haslam did that deal with Deshaun Watson, where we have to front load this funding rule of all future guarantees, they couldn't do that with Joe Burrow. They did a different type of deal, which benefited them, so it's not a future guaranteed deal. So I don't see them being able to front load huge guaranteed cash.
Maybe just for Chase, if that. We're here on the Rich Eisen show, Susie Schuster in for Rich Eisen with Andrew Brant. Rumors, reports, what have you, about Aaron Rodgers talking to the Giants. What do you know about that?
What do you think? I don't know much. Giants expressing interest. You know my history with Aaron. Around him a lot in his early days, and it's making me feel old that he's sort of at the end of the line, knowing that seeing when we drafted him in 2005, I think he's still got time left. People have to understand he's not the Aaron Rodgers of say 2015. You know, to me, I'm just looking at it from the Giants point of view.
It's a stopgap, like the Jets. Like nothing against Aaron. Nothing against Aaron, but do you want a stopgap? Do you just want to keep trying to, they don't seem like a team that's going to win the Super Bowl.
So I, if I was them, let's start, you know, let's start with someone fresh. And maybe it is this bridge, Aaron could be a bridge potentially to that person. It's so hard to think of Aaron Rodgers as a stopgap, isn't it?
When you think about everything that he was building, and you knew that only too well. I still think he's the best ball skilled, if that's the word, quarterback ever. He could, and hopefully can, put balls in places that no one's ever seen. Suzy, when we drafted him, we had our first minicam practice. I'll never forget, Ted Thompson was the GM, and he deserves all the credit for standing in the face of so much criticism and taking Aaron. And that first practice, five days after the draft, you know, we knew a little about him, but he takes sort of a movement out of the pocket and hits Donald Driver on a seam pattern 74 yards out. And Ted Thompson, very unexpressive guy, and I locked eyes, and he gave me a look like, oh my God, we have him. Like we have the guy. Those three years of keeping him in the bullpen with Brett were tough, because him and Brett were not eye to eye.
We had Southern Mississippi and California Cool, and it was a little bit frosty. And I was dealing with Aaron's people saying, Brett's never going to retire. What are you going to do, trade him? And Brett's people saying, you know what it's like to come to work every day? Sit with your replacement?
It's no fun. So what people don't realize about these kind of decisions, and it happens, it happened in the Packers later with Jordan, you have to manage that. These are people, not just contracts, not just players. There's a lot of management goes on with the Eagles. You know the Packers so well. Why do you think they started the tush-push conversation this week? I am a fan of the Packers, but I disagree on this. I also like the Eagles.
I live down the block from Howie Roseman. I just think what they're doing is trying to legislate against a team. What Mark Murphy said, which I push back on, is it's not a play of skill. If it's not a play of skill, why can one team do it so much better than others?
It just seems to be very discriminatory against a team that had all the success. And you each talked about this before I came on, but if a player's down the field and all of a sudden this scrum starts pushing them, the crowd loves it, the announcers love it, it's so cool. It seems to me that's the same thing. If you're going to outlaw that, that's the same thing, right? That's a push.
People come in. Now there's people on the other side. So the uncanny thing to me about the tush-push is not that the Eagles perfected it. It's that no one else can. And it can't just be because Jalen Hurts has stronger legs. There's technique or whatever it is. I'm not the X's and O's guy, but why can't it work for other people? Are their quarterbacks' legs too skinny?
Is it that simple? I mean, why haven't the Packers and other teams been able to do this? Because it's clearly a competitive advantage for the Eagles. And I think it stays.
I don't think that passes. And again, we talked about this the last couple days. If you go back, and I'll send this to you, this link, of Neil deGrasse Tyson on NFL Game Day morning, the day of the Super Bowl, that our producer Ken Tolo brought to my attention, you watch this and you see one of the greatest physicists in the history of our country talk about how it's an impossible play to defend because of physics. And this guy has basically, you know, solved black holes, and yet he can't solve the tush-push.
And he says it's just because of the force of the earth and the push of his legs. I mean, go back and watch it. I will send you the link. If you were out there and you want to see it. Well, what would you say about these other 30 teams? Well, that's it. That's the question. But shouldn't everybody be able to go out there and score? Right. And again, you could say it's the Eagles' line and it hurts and it's pushing by, say, Juan Barkley.
But to me, that's not the answer. I would love to ask you about the running back position, because this is something Marshall Falk and I discuss all the time. And if you missed that conversation, we did bring it up again yesterday.
Go to the YouTube channel. Check it out. Saquon, Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs. Will last year's success with running backs change the way front offices talk about the running back position?
I think so. Before last year, we had this really stagnant market for so many years, as you saw. And no one was getting over pick a number eight, nine million dollars a year. So Barkley broke the seal with twelve, thirteen million dollars a year. And the success of those ones you mentioned, especially Jacobs and especially Joe Mixon and Derrick Henry, all discarded by their prior teams.
Amazing. So, yes, but a handful. You won't see a gaggle of running backs getting twelve, thirteen a year. But this is what I just talked about with Jamar Chase and receivers. Suzy, there's twenty, twenty five receivers making over twenty million a year. There's three running backs making over ten million a year.
So it just seems to me we have an inefficiency in the marketplace. We're overpaying receivers who are easy to find. And we're underpaying running backs at that level who are hard to find. I just think twelve million dollars for Saquon Barkley, who's the seventh highest paid player on the Eagles offense, is a fantastic bargain and get a couple more out there like that.
You really are now saving money on running backs. They're the most disadvantaged position in the league. They have this three year eligibility rule. They can't come into the NFL. And those years could be high earning years because running backs, they don't need time to develop like offensive lineman quarterbacks. They need to play.
And that's where they make their money before age twenty seven. One more question for Andrew Brant here on the Rich Eisen Show. What are we not talking about that's of interest to you that maybe people are missing?
What's intriguing to you as we enter this next season? I think the success of the Eagles shows that I'm a cap manager many years ago. You can push the envelope on this through, again, things you don't need to concern yourself inside cap, but voidable years, pushing out cap pain, caps going up every year. You can assemble a juggernaut of a roster and not worry about all this stuff people are talking about. Do we have enough cap room?
And with rookie contracts taking up half your cap, your salaries, they're all making a million dollars or less. You can push the envelope on this. How Roseman has shown a way that you don't need to be worried about in five years in windows. Push the envelope.
You can make this happen. Build rosters out in a strong way year to year. Chris, Andrew, in regards to Miles Garrett, we've talked a lot about this in the last couple of weeks.
How would you handle or how did you handle a player who openly just doesn't want to be there, especially someone of his caliber just basically saying, like, I'm not coming back? Yeah, I mean, the one issue you can always deal with, good or bad, is money. If it's about a bigger contract, I tried ways to sort of add money to the contract without redoing it, without giving a whole new bonus. But as you talked about, this is more than money. This is wanting out because of opportunity and a bad team.
And I think what you do is publicly say you're not doing anything and privately you try to leverage the best deal you can. And that seems what Andrew Barry is doing right now, right? I think so. No doubt.
He's got to be working right now trying to get some deals going. Two number ones. I mean, these are all the things that you sort of put out there privately, like we're not trading them and then sort of a stupid offer comes along. Yeah, we couldn't turn that down, an offer we couldn't refuse. But Andrew Barry is a good guy to try to sit down and talk to. I just wonder if it's beyond with Miles Garrett. Yeah, Miles Garrett has kind of said it's just not a shared vision. He wants to win a Super Bowl, doesn't feel like Cleveland is close. Like, what do you think the starting offer is for a guy?
Is it two number ones plus or will that just get it done? You know, if I'm a GM, I would want younger players more than draft picks, showing a little bit of play. They're not new to the NFL and they still have low salaries. So a couple of cost control players, who I say in their first, second, third year, that have shown promise and a draft pick too. So I'm guessing a number one plus a young player or two that has promise, ascending and cheap. And why is Howie Roseman going to make this deal?
Well, that's the guy. Again, when you talk about the A.J. Brown deal, not afraid. Nothing's too big and he's going to be front and center whenever these deals come up, especially with Josh Swett being a free agent. So you don't believe that he'll be in Brown's uniform? Deadlines spur action, whether the deadline's the draft or start of training camp.
Gun to my head, yes, I think they move them for a big, big package. Andrew, as always, thank you for your time. Thank you, Suzy. A choice of reason indeed. Rolling Stone music now.
Follow and listen on your favorite platform. When do you make that decision to go for it? I mean, look, obviously you and Les Snead are known for your aggressiveness. It's not like we haven't seen something like this before. Certainly out of Les, before your tenure as the H.C. of the L.A.R. So at what point did you make this decision that maybe it wasn't working out with you and Jared Goff in L.A.? Well, I think when you look at just the landscape of the league and the amount of conversation that evolved and revolved around the quarterbacks that could be available, that maybe went out that don't, he was a guy that's in that upper echelon of the league and performed at a high level that was really the only one that was truly available. You know, the Lions had said, OK, we are going to allow you to seek a trade.
Everything else is speculation. And so when that became kind of publicly known that he had talked to ownership and Rod Wood and they granted that permission, now we're saying, all right, let's do our due diligence, really study the player. Fortunately, I do think that some of the relationships with Brad Holmes was helpful in facilitating a lot of that dialogue where not getting out.
But there is, you know, a certain level of mutual respect and trust on both sides. And really, it was as soon as, you know, it was made known that he was available, that we kind of started exploring it. And the dialogue started and, you know, like been kind of reported, Rich, both Matthew and I were in Cabo and everything finalized. And, you know, as much as I don't think anybody would believe it, it is true that it happened by coincidence. So you weren't like, let's go vacation and and jump into the 2021 season together, that those things are mutually exclusive, is what you're saying? Yes, I'm saying, you know, we're on vacation.
And then then it's known that, hey, Matthew Stafford and his wife, Kelly, and a couple of their friends happen to be at the same resort. I said, you got to be me. I cannot believe. No kidding.
Wow. So you didn't just like go to the spa together and run into each other in terry cloth bathrobes. They were literally was somebody just told you that and you reached out and then all of a sudden you're now coach and quarterback.
I guess so. I mean, Cabo, it was a pretty it was a pretty unique spot. It was one of the few that wasn't restricted in terms of, you know, being opened up. And, you know, I ran into Drew Brees was down there.
I think Sean Payton, Coach Nagy at some point. It was the NFL. We had the league meetings in Cabo early. Wow.
Nothing rich likes more than a Cabo hotel and a fluffy bathrobe. And that's how we're going to end. I'm just saying, come on. Sean McVeigh is talking about seeing them. We actually ran into I think it was Andrew Wortworth and Sean McVeigh down there once we were down there for a wedding.
And all of a sudden there were rams everywhere. But yeah, fluffy bathroom. I'm just saying not that I'm selling him short. He would tell you the same thing. Do you think Sean McVeigh always talks in that voice? Like, is he running everyday errands like screaming? He's the Energizer Bunny of coaches. He's always talking like this. That's what I mean.
He's he's always in an 11 just no matter what. Hey, how many electricians come this afternoon? Are you going to take the set of daycare? I think we should go get some more groceries. We're out of brown sugar.
We need eggs. Yeah, we're going out for a pizza right now. There's no I don't want to see any Hawaiian. No pineapple on the pizza. There's no pineapple on the pizza.
And, you know, the guy at the pizza is like, hey, dude, this is Southern California and chill. I need you to change the channel. Turn the radio down and the fence guy is coming at two. Like take it down a little bit. You can talk in a whisper song. Yeah, we need to maybe have Andrew branch around a little bit more and just see how to be just chill and keep it all together.
He was in charge. Don't let the urge to sing along to that catchy tune distract you from that truck creeping towards your lane or that lane splitting biker creeping up besides you. That makes me crazy. Fortunately, every Hyundai offers advanced safety features that can alert you to a potential danger around you. And Hyundai has over one hundred and twenty IHS top safety awards since 2006 because Hyundai is always working to ensure the road doesn't get you.
Hyundai vehicles have won over one hundred and twenty IHS top safety awards from 2006 in two thousand and twenty four. So, yes, we hear the deal is that Matthew Stafford agrees to a restructured deal to stay with the Rams. And you got to be glad to see that. As I'm saying, allow me to reintroduce myself. What was that? Was it was an awesome powers? Allow myself, allow myself to introduce myself, myself.
Fantastic. Just thinking about it and allow me to reintroduce myself as Jay-Z. There's that.
I went Austin Powers to the O.V. I mean, I just. Yeah, baby. Money is not released yet. Money thing. The reports from the Giants and Raiders, they were, you know, in the 90 to 100 million guaranteed over two years. So I imagine it's going to be they said it's not quite as much as that.
So I imagine it's probably in the 80 to 90 guaranteed range for two years. No brainer for Stafford. The Rams are his best place to win Raiders, Giants not set up to go on a playoff run. We saw the Rams played this year in the playoffs, gave the Eagles all they can handle in the playoff game. And I think this is an absolute no brainer for both sides. You're staying in a system that, you know, you're staying in a system that gets you, believes in you.
Got Puga Nakua, Cooper Cup, apparently on the way out the door. But Kyron Williams, we know the Rams have been one of the best at drafting young wide receivers, other than really Pittsburgh has done a phenomenal job at that. And you got a defense that's unbelievable with with with Jared verse and company.
So, yeah, absolutely. Had to get this done for the Rams. You didn't want to go into a situation with Aaron Rodgers or just an unknown at the quarterback position, especially when you feel like you're close and you're definitely. And we'll see how San Francisco bounces back next year injury wise and what their roster looks like next year. But, you know, you're kind of the toast to the NFC West right now. So take advantage of that.
Take advantage of this window. Smart move by everyone involved. And you got a coach who really believes in you.
He's going to talk about registering the whole time. Listen, there was no chance Matt was going to leave because this is his home. You know, we made a deal with Matt. We felt really good about him in the position. We really feel good about him running the offense. And he knows all my plays and he knows I'm always going to talk like this.
Now, mom, mom. Why wouldn't you want to stay? It's a great building.
It's a great organization. Let's need runs a real tight ship. That was our point earlier in the week. It's like people talk about him wanting to go to Pittsburgh or other places, but you're going to leave essentially a dome to go play in weather like you're here. And no other team you go to is going to have a Puka Nakua at wide receiver.
So that's something to think about. You know, it makes sense. Oh, I mean, Puka Nakua. I mean, he is just so special. He also looks like a Disney character, don't you think? I mean, he really, he really does.
He walks into the room and you're like, I need to talk to this guy. Puka is the star of Encanto 2. Is that what you're saying? That's it. I mean, he literally could be in Moana 3.
Thank you very much. I see you, TJ. And I will toast you for that little Moana drop. Moana 2.
Not as good as one. Just saying. Why do they have to always kill somebody off in a Disney movie? Sorry for anybody who missed it. Spoiler. Spoiler. Spoiler.
Hey, note to self. I was just going to watch that. Moana 1.
Amazing. Phenomenal movie. It's like Cars. Cars. The original Cars. Perfect movie.
Moana 2. Why you got to, why you got to, why you got to kill somebody? Well, I mean, she was old. You mean what, Chris?
She was old. Oh my God. Hour number 3 is going to be gone. Fire people.
I wouldn't go anywhere. Watch me eviscerate Chris Brockman. Hour 3 is ahead. What? What do you mean she's old? Spoiler alert. Moana 2.
The grandmother was super old. No, I'm talking about Moana, dummy. They kill Moana. They both die?
What? Yes. We're watching a different movie. Moana 2.
No. She comes back as a demigod. They kill her. She dies.
I'm in the movie theater. A kid is crying. She lives forever. What do you mean? She dies and comes back as a demigod. They kill her. She drowns. A little kid starts crying. Moana, don't go.
And I'm like sitting there with Taylor. But she doesn't, she lives. She comes back and lives. She comes back as a demigod. They kill her. It's like Bambi. They have to kill the mom. It's always the mom.
Did you notice that? No, it's like a vampire. She just had to like transform and now she lives forever. Okay, she's not a vampire.
It's like a vampire. That's weird. Listening skills. Wow. Really? Really?
Listening? You're telling me that? You're making it seem like Moana is like dead and it's over. They kill Moana. She doesn't actually die. She died. She transforms. She drowns. And then she comes back as a demigod. She talks to the ocean. She can't drown. Oh my god. Did you watch the movie?
I may have been texting you doing some bit. I did not like Moana 2. I love Moana 1. It wasn't that great.
If you're being honest. It was not great. And even Taylor was like, yeah mom, that really wasn't as good as the first one. But Moana 3 is going to star Pukunakua.
Pukunakua. That's, oh we could really. But that's Lion King. Thank you for clarifying that for all of us.
I was unaware of that. You two literally sounded like those two guys a few years ago that were arguing about the Wicked Witch of the East and the West being sisters. If you guys ever saw that. They were sisters. Viral video. You need to watch it if you haven't seen it. That was you two.
Will you send it to me please? But they were sisters. I started watching Wicked. They're not sisters. They were roommates. Oh my god.
Are you watching? What are you talking about? They're sisters. One's in the wheelchair. Did you not watch Wicked?
Yeah, those two. They're the Wicked Witch of the West and the East. She's wearing the slippers. The house falls on her. You see the socks.
They pull the shoes off. Wasn't that the green one? The green one's the West. The other one is the East.
And Galinda, guh, Linda, Galinda. What is happening? It's the one in the bubble. I wasn't paying attention. Of course you weren't. It's way too girly for you. Have you seen Hoosiers?
I tried to get the boys to watch Hoosiers last night. We went out for dinner instead. Her sister was a witch, right? And what was her sister? They were sisters. They were sisters. You'll see.
A pooka and a coo-o. This is a sport show, people. Sarah's going to put you in your place. Top of the next hour. Good lord. Is she here yet? The Candy Valentino Show. Time to invest in your future. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.
