Hour 1: AJ Brown to Patriots Reaction, plus The MMQB’s Albert Breer Talks Myles Garrett & More

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0:36Now Hank's has a line out the door. Hank makes the pizza. Co-Pilot handles the spreadsheets. Learn more at m365copilot.com slash work. This is The Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of The Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to 3 Eastern. Missed the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show.

1:15Rich Eisen:My phone is buzzing like crazy. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Miles Garrett is in fact being traded to the Los Angeles Rams. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Rams are not messing around. Today's guests, senior writer for the MMQB, Albert Breer, six-time Pro Bowl safety, Eric Weddle, ESPN NFL analyst, Alex Smith. And now, it's Rich Eisen. All right, everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show here live on Disney +, the ESPN app, ESPN Radio, Sirius XM, Channel 80. Oh, man, what were we going to talk about in between games seven of the Western Conference Final and one of the NBA Finals?

2:06Rich Eisen:And it is basically the National Football League raising its hands and saying, hey, we're still here. And it has been nonstop. And Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated's first up on this program in less than 20 minutes time to tell us what in the heck happened yesterday. And then we've got Alex Smith of ESPN and one of our favorites when he pops his head up to be up for joining shows like this one in our three. Eric Weddle's joining us because I called him when he basically said Bryce Underwood can't play quarterback as he set the University of Michigan fandom world on fire. and who knew that we would have Rams football to talk about with him by the time that he appears on this program an hour two and then there's you at 844-204-RICH number to dial Chris Brockman good to see you sir it's good morning my friend DJ Mikey D good morning Rich not good to see you TJ Jefferson the candle is lit what up though ah lots happy AJ Brown day well you know it's kind of wild uh june 1st again it it's a date on the nfl calendar where you think well what's going to happen on june 1st and june 1st is a date that the nfl has put together with its collective bargaining and the players association and the management council of the national football league to come up with a date by which transactions can affect the salary cap in a better way for a team that's parting ways with a player is just a shorthanded way of putting it.

3:42Rich Eisen:It's far more complicated than the way I did it, but I'm trying to be as simplistic as possible that it becomes beneficial to a team, uh, salary cap wise to trade a player away or designate that player as a June 1st cut post June 1st cut. And, um, and that's just a procedural thing that, uh, that, that, that occurs far earlier than June 1st. Many of the players that got cut back in March for the new league year designated a post-June 1st cut. They're allowed to go ahead and find a next place of business so they can continue their careers, and the teams can designate them in such a manner that's more beneficial to them, allowing them to cut them in an easier manner monetarily, which is why yesterday was pegged as the day that the Eagles would finally trade A.J.

4:35Rich Eisen:Brown, causing Howie Roseman to eventually start tap dancing like crazy from March all the way to this day, where he comes on a show like this one. Basically, I'll just tell you this. I'm not going to answer your questions. So let's talk about my answers to the questions I'll refuse to answer. Remember how you did that when he came on the show? It was great. It was brilliant. A.J. Brown's still an eagle. A.J. Brown is an eagle. Everything about Jalen Hurts is false. Yeah. So we were expecting that to happen yesterday. We didn't see the Miles Garrett stuff coming. I mean, we sensed that it was possible when they made in Cleveland a contractual maneuver to push a bonus payment to him to later in the summer as opposed to the spring, basically saying, hey, listen, if he's going to be paid this money, maybe it's for somebody else to do.

5:25Rich Eisen:So Miles Garrett happens. and then we go off the air, A.J. Brown happens. And what you've been waiting for, Christopher, Christmas on June 1st did in fact happen. Huzzah! And the trade is thus. The Patriots get a guy who's a nonstop thousand yard per season machine and all it costs him is in next year's draft a fifth, but that first happens in 2028. Great. I don't know why that's part of the reason why we'll have Albert Breer on the show what's the thinking behind that from Philadelphia or Elliot Wolfe of New England to say yeah not next year year after and that might be again because next year's draft quarterback heavy clearly Patriots don't need to deal with that but it is very talent rich and why would you give up a first round pick in that if you don't have to got it so AJ Brown now goes to New England and Drake May has his beast of a receiver.

6:29Rich Eisen:He's got his clear-cut number one in the middle of his career's prime seasons. He's got this guy, and he is coming to New England, and apparently the Patriots putting out him in a number one jersey, so they'll offend Cam Newton more than Julian Edelman, I imagine. Because Jules has got the sticks. Yeah, can't give up both of them. And I imagine they're not going to give him Jules' sticks. Nah. And A.J. Brown is coming to New England to be wide receiver number one. And here he is showing up on Tuesday for work for the first time. you are out of your mind happy and i don't blame you because i understand if drake may is this generation's tom brady the guy that again you put all your trust in and is arriving in year two for super bowl season that you didn't see coming and he is clearly you know when you're 196 picks higher in the draft expected to have that sort of result yep but i'm only equating him to brady in the fact that a new england loves him can't wait to see more from him he's generationally talented guy's the limit and you have to wonder is this the randy moss in this equation the beast of a guy outside the numbers who goes across the middle and i understand that i'm equating aj brown to a first ballot wide receiving hall of famer when those are unicorns randy moss larry fitzgerald is the next one and we send our condolences to him about his dad passing away as well One of the nicest people I've gotten to meet, senior and junior.

8:21Rich Eisen:But you've got this guy in A.J. Brown coming to New England, and it's exactly what you want to do for somebody like Drake May. Give him a massive boost after he gives himself a massive boost. Give this team a ton of excitement around it after three months of not that. And you also can compliment the run game, give this kid a new BFF. And on top of it, Romeo Dobbs, Pop Douglas, and arguably maybe their best deep threat out of all of them, Keyshawn Booty. That is a quartet of receivers that you can go to battle with and go into this season saying, okay, Denver, the team that we beat, I understand Bo Nix wasn't around, but okay, Denver, you get Jalen Waddle.

9:24Rich Eisen:We see that and we will raise you A.J. Brown. Okay, Chargers. Okay, Chiefs getting your quarterback back, we expect. And okay, Buffalo with D.J. Moore. We got A.J. Brown. and um i say to you christopher congratulations your team did exactly yeah exactly what it needed to do no doubt a five this year and a one two years from now great rip the knob off you go back to the super bowl in the next couple years maybe you win one no one's gonna remember what the compensation was and now and now you throw drake may the best deep ball thrower in the league with a receiver who's arguably the best deep ball receiver in the NFL.

10:1050-50 catch. And now it's a guy that you know is going to get the ball on third down. It's a guy, yes, maybe he left Philly unceremoniously. He's going to be on his best behavior. He is going to be the man and a leader of this wide receiver room that it's been kind of revamped with Romeo Dobbs added into the mix. Like you said, throw in the talented backfield. They got two good running backs. at an exciting tight end in the draft, kind of a revamped offensive line. And this is what good teams do. They don't sit back and say, hey, we went to the Super Bowl. We're good enough. No, stay on the attack.

10:46Keep adding weapons. And a very exciting day for Pats.

10:49Rich Eisen:And he's now playing for a coach who once upon a time, when he was with the Tennessee Titans, came on this program, phoned into this program. And Mike Vrabel said, when I asked him rumors about A.J. Brown being traded, And he said, if this guy's not on the team, I'm paraphrasing, I don't want to be a coach of a team that doesn't have A.J. Brown. Don't want to be the coach. Guess what? They traded him. Yada, yada, yada. We're back. Rabel's not there. Now he's in New England. And A.J. Brown is there. And he was fired up. He already sat down for an interview. Maria Taylor got him on a podcast called 7 p.m.

11:28Rich Eisen:in Brooklyn. Okay. Cool. I've been in Brooklyn around 7 o 'clock at night. Great place. Nice place to be. And so here he is sitting down and talking about being a patriot. Man, dream come true. Dream come true. I'm truly a kid in a candy store. You know, last night was like Christmas. You know, I still had another 24 hours or so. to go but uh yeah i'm uh i'm just i'm excited man i'm uh the key to me is is ecstatic right now yeah and he was uh talking in his house where apparently he's got a patriot man cave um oh really carpet like a rug apparently he's been a patriot fan a long time he was saying he posted pictures last night of him in a tom brady jersey when he was a toddler so that that's There it is.

12:29Rich Eisen:Man cave. I think I need to get that, TJ. Okay. Definitely. No, you just keep it at your house. Okay. Not in here, though. Yeah. We got lots of space. Listen. I'm going to get dogs in here. It's fitting that he joins the Patriots, too. Why is that? Because the Patriots are involved either by themselves or in the sidecar of some of the more mysterious, potentially never-to-be-answered questions of 21st century football. Okay. Okay? Like, why didn't Marshawn Lynch get the ball against the Patriots? Why didn't the Patriots keep active in a Super Bowl against a red-hot offensive machine in Philadelphia?

13:21Rich Eisen:the guy who picked the ball off against Seattle because Seattle didn't give Marshawn the ball. Why didn't Malcolm Butler play in that Super Bowl? What the hell's got with that? And now I think you can add to the list of 21st century potentially never to be answered questions. What the hell happened with A.J. Brown in Philadelphia with Jalen Hurts? What's going on? Why did there have to be a code red? why did A.J. Brown leave Philadelphia why did that have to happen even with the Miles Garrett stuff you can see it it's just like okay Miles is 30 by the time that you're going to get better I mean is Miles going to be 32 33 34 I mean I was Garrett did ask for a trade asked for a trade Brown never came out and you know what I mean to leave so what the hell happened there and so So Maria did ask AJ Brown about his relationship with Jalen Hurts.

14:22Not as close as we once were. And I believe that's fine. It's like there's no bad blood. There's actually still a lot of love. I love him. I love him to death. I want him to succeed and accomplish all the things that he wants to accomplish. I didn't truly understand why our friendship became the public of, the center of everybody's attention when it came to football because, you know, looking back on it, you know, we haven't been as close as we were a couple years now, but that didn't stop anything, you know. We still competed. We still pushed each other. We still led the team. So it was just kind of strange, you know, People just got so fixated on the relationship and wanted to talk about maybe from the history of this place, but that wasn't what this was.

15:16I'm going to say it to you. I'm going to say it on camera. I got nothing but love for him. I wanted him to do well and accomplish everything this heart desires.

15:26Rich Eisen:Okay. Great. So, wild. Jalen Hurts is scheduling a press conference in Philadelphia today specifically to talk about his relationship with A.J. Brown. Wait a minute. Hold a minute. Yeah. I'm being told that's, I wrote it down here. Never going to happen. Okay, there it is. Never going to happen. We'll never know the answer to this question. Now, we might see some former Eagles throw stuff out there. Brandon Graham talked. The OG BG once let in that these two guys don't like each other. Yeah. so i wonder why here's the deal like you can go on and speculate and tongue-in-cheek it and be cheeky about it i'm not here too we here too it's this guy it's that guy they're falling out about this or that not a guy we will never no this is not from hurts at least because he's going to get up there when he's available next time and be asked about this and just go uh i loved him he's a brother we try to win we did win together i'll never forget it we'll have that forever i mean it's good and then he'll give some sort of you know statement that sounds like it comes from either a chapter in the good book or a fortune cookie and we'll get nothing from him on that and then all that will be placed on this situation is a lid that will either percolate and boil because the new offense will miss A.J.

17:07Rich Eisen:Brown and it will then become a Jalen Hurts issue. It'll be Hurts because this is the guy who is now left there in an offense that does have different receivers, including Mikhail Lemon, who's in the offensive rookie of the year launching pad, certainly in the mind's eye of a lot of Eagles fans, excited to have had him drop to Howie Roseman for him to go up one spot and snipe him from the Steelers while they were talking to him on the phone. Why is Philly going? One of my favorite draft moments ever. Hang up. And 100%, it's now on. This has been a narrative, I'm sure, that has been prepped for the longtime listeners and first-time callers and columnists and opiners.

18:04And it's been prepped in anticipation of A.J.

18:08Rich Eisen:Brown being shipped to New England. That Jalen Hurts, new offense, they're going to put him under center more. Is he going to be more comfortable? Who's his go-to guy? Devontae Smith you're now on the clock you're now wide receiver one who is wide receiver one are they going to name it in that sort of thing I mean just keep going on and on out Saquon can run to the rescue where's that going to be offensive line is that going to be up to speed can they all put it together and now be the Philadelphia Eagles in the every other year situation where they're dynamite, unbeatable, winning the division again, and going on a Super Bowl run.

18:55Rich Eisen:Because Jalen Hurts, when the chips are down in a Super Bowl run every other year, it seems, he plays the best he's ever played. And certainly in the biggest games. You can't say that he's under the most pressure in the National Football League because he doesn't feel it, or at least doesn't show that he feels it. because when the chips are down, the Super Bowl is going down, he plays so well, you could consider him for MVP when he loses to Patrick freaking Mahomes. Correct. So let's see. But A.J. Brown being gone, 11 being gone, means it's now Hertz. But he's used to it. It's Philadelphia. Every quarterback that plays here better be used to it.

19:40You know?

19:41Rich Eisen:And you know Sirianni will shine it off, and it'll all be shined off. And then if you put the Eagles schedule up before we throw to break and get Albert Breer here to talk about all of this, you put the Eagles schedule up and you see it's going to be on against Washington and then at Tennessee, whole country will just let everybody else take the center stages on a Wednesday or I mean a Thursday and then a Friday and then a Sunday and then a Monday and then the next week on a Thursday and on a Sunday and then a Monday and then the next week on a Thursday and a Sunday and then let's go Monday night football week three at Chicago all right the team that came in and punked AJ Brown and Jalen Hurts and Saquon and everybody else the day after Thanksgiving last year everybody looking at them as the ascending team and then the week after that in comes Miles Garrett in his fresh new horns.

20:42Rich Eisen:I can't believe that's a real sentence. To go at Jalen Hurts in week four. That's the way it'll start for the Philadelphia Eagles. Call me interested. Now that A.J. Brown is a patriot. Let's take a break. Phone lines are all it. I love that. That means you like us. Or you don't and you just want to yell at us. Either way, we're happy for the engagement. Albert Breer's next. This is The Rich Eisen Show on the first Tuesday of June.

21:19Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

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23:38Rich Eisen:albert breer here on the on the rich eisen show our radio audience has just returned okay so you said just moments ago on our tv only just to recap that the rams and browns started talking with each other in march right so first things first were the rams the only ones talking to the to the Browns this wasn't like a Luka pocket listing right like this no I mean what was it here here

24:04Albert Breer:yeah here's what I would say is like I think teams check in on these things and that certainly existed um I I think the relationship between the Rams front office the Browns front office really helped here in that like the first answer the Rams got was no we're not doing that and then the Rams come back and sort of stick with it. And I think what they were willing to do when it was purely a draft pick situation and not a player involved, and sorry about my phone ringing there, Rich. When it was purely just a draft pick situation, that showed the Browns like, yeah, the Rams are really serious about doing this and no, we're not going to do it for just draft picks.

24:52Albert Breer:But I think they showed like that this was something they were going to stick with and that they were going to kind of try to keep working through. And I think like by the time they got to the draft, the Rams were pretty freaking confident that they were going to be able to find a way to get this done. At the same time, I think at that point, the Browns were probably thinking we're still not trading Miles Garrett, you know. So I think it's just sort of been a process of one team really wanting the player and the Rams really wanting Miles Garrett. And then also, on the flip side, the Browns, sensing the seriousness and how the Rams were approaching this.

25:37Albert Breer:And then internally sort of setting parameters for what they would be looking for, which there were three principles that they were working off of there. and then and then you know once the the rams met those parameters or those principles um going forward and finding a way to hammer a deal out all right so then just taking a look at

25:57Rich Eisen:between march and you know the draft yeah there are a couple of moments that now look potentially like big fat breadcrumbs albert i want to get you on because if i'm not mistaken the rams were interested in the proposal where you could get uh far more leeway in offering a certain number of first round picks for anyone in a draft that suddenly the browns went ahead and proposed uh to the league that got shot down that you could use first round picks from here to kingdom come um was that born out of this conversation do you think where the rams are just offering draft choices and they wanted to just keep going up and up.

26:44Albert Breer:The timing was, the timing's interesting for sure. And I, I do think like the contract adjustment gave them flexibility to move them. There there's, there's no question about that. At the same time, I don't think the Browns were ever going to move miles Garrett just purely for picks. I told you about like, there were three principles, right? Like the three principles that Andrew Barry and his team were working off of. The three principles were, number one, if we're going to do this, it has to serve both our short-term and long-term best interest. So that's number one. Number two, as part of the short-term equation, we need to get a player back that is a premium player at a premium position on a cost-controlled contract.

27:34Albert Breer:So it has to be a pass rusher or a corner or an offensive tackle. somebody in a premium position who is still on his rookie contract, right? And then the third piece was we need to get premium draft capital on top of that. And so I know it looks interesting, at least, and it would promote the conversation if you could go to four or five first round picks or whatever that would be. But just as the Rams became more serious about this and showed their seriousness in what they were trying to do um the browns really settled into a place where it was like we need to get a known commodity in here and we want to get somebody who can help us right now and we need that somebody who can help us right now to also be part of our long-term future which very clearly

28:23Rich Eisen:jared burse will be yeah he checks those boxes no question about that and then another uh bread crumb potentially the whole ty simpson drafting and how i think i told you well you did you drop You dropped this breadcrumb when we were here the last time talking that, that, you know, Hey, Simpson's getting drafted now. So because they're, they're, you know, Les is sitting there confident about not needing any first round picks in the immediate future for a quarterback. You check that box and it clears the path a little bit more to go get Miles Garrett. Is that you drop that breadcrumb, pick it up, man.

29:04Albert Breer:Right. So, yeah, I mean, And I said it at the time and I had some I think I had some knowledge of some things. And I would say, you know, I remember everybody that back then saying, like, what are they doing? They were four points shy of making the Super Bowl in Seattle's house against the Seattle team that crushed the Patriots in the Super Bowl. and that game would have been held in Los Angeles if it weren't for the funky two-point thing with Zach Charbonnet, right? During the regular season, you're that close. Why are you doing this? Why are you spending the 13th overall pick on a guy who isn't going to help Matthew Stafford win a championship right now?