Hour 1: Are the Seahawks are Legit? Russ HOF Debate, plus NFL Insider Tom Pelissero

22:18Tom Pelissero:That's the truth. It's a medical decision. You know, it's a real knee sprain that he's got. That's what kept him out last week. He was limited last Friday, limited Wednesday, Thursday. Not on the field when reporters got out there today, although that was also the case last Friday. To this point, he's not been ruled out. It certainly seems like it's potentially headed toward Marcus Mariota starting against the Falcons on Sunday. And really, this is a long play if that's the case for the commanders, you know, saying nothing ill about the Falcons, although certainly they were a team that has struggled to this point in the season.

22:51Tom Pelissero:They were terrible on offense last week, and we get into more of that a little bit later. But if you're thinking about the big picture goals of this team, the last thing you want to do is roll Jane Daniels out there at 95 percent in week four against the Falcons and potentially jeopardize something. Dan Quinn's been very direct throughout the process that he's not going to be out there. Jayden's not going to play unless he can do everything. And to this point, Jayden Daniels has not registered one full practice since he suffered the injury 12 or whatever that was, two weeks ago. And so this is a situation where, again, he's not been ruled out, but certainly seems like it's trending toward him not playing this week.

23:29Tom Pelissero:And that means Marcus Mariota is going to be out there throwing to people not named Terry McLaurin because he registered a third straight, did not participate in practice today. it's hard to imagine he's going to be out there this week no surgery not long term that we know of at this point for Terry McLaurin but it does not sound like he's going to be able to go this

23:47Rich Eisen:week yeah I was going to ask why does one see a core specialist for a second opinion on something that could be a quad they're trying to figure out if it's something up here that refers to a quad muscle I mean not to turn you into a doctor here but there's a lot of I'm trying to wonder what's

24:01Tom Pelissero:up with that I would put my internet doctor degree my insider doctor degree on the line here and say Rich, that the quad, the hip flexor, the core muscles, the groin, they're all interconnected. And so if you're having some type of pain in that general area, you want to get things checked out. The fact that he saw Dr. William Myers and did not have surgery, that's a pretty good sign that this is not a major long-term injury. Because generally when people go see Dr. Myers, I'd say a high percentage of them end up having surgery while they're on that appointment. That's usually how things go just because if you've got a core muscle injury you you want to get the surgery done as quickly as possible because it's not a fast type of a recovery uh dan quinn's going to speak to the media shortly here i would imagine he's going to address this as week to week for terry mclaurin but again um barring a real shock i i don't expect him out there on sunday

24:52Rich Eisen:okay before we get to the i guess we've done the knees um we don't have much of a head and her shoulder uh let's do the toe um what's up with brock purdy does he start sounds like it's

25:06Tom Pelissero:headed that direction based on what the 49ers have said publicly and privately uh kyle shanahan said on the radio yesterday that as long as he keeps feeling better every day he should be good to go on sunday brock purdy has sounded the same tone this was always you know two weeks was kind of the baseline it'll be three weeks on the nose come sunday um you know a week ago he potentially could have suited up. They just decided it wasn't really worth it at that time. Obviously, this is not nearly as significant as the Joe Burrow toe injury. It's a different type of injury. It's on the bottom of the toe, the bottom of the foot for Brock Purdy.

25:38Tom Pelissero:He also banged up his non-throwing shoulder in that same game. Mac Jones went out there and did a good job. Mac Jones also got so banged up in that game that he was limping around just trying to hand off the football to Christian McCaffrey by the end of it. So they gave all three quarterbacks, Adrian Martinez, too. Some first-team reps through the course of this week, but barring a setback, it does sound like we're trending toward Brock Purdy being out there as opposed to a Mac Jones revenge game against the Jaguars on Sunday.

26:04Rich Eisen:While we're on the injury front, who else is in your purview there that you think we should know about going into the weekend?

26:13Tom Pelissero:Justin Fields is another one that that seems like he's trending to be out there for Monday night against the Dolphins. He was full participant in practice yesterday. The way that the concussion protocol is set up is It's five steps, five phases, as they call it. Phase four is non-contact practice. He was able to do that and fully participate in everything yesterday. So that means the final step here is just clearance from an independent neurologist. Obviously, if he has a setback, if his body and his brain don't react well to the exercise, then we're going to be in a different place. But a full participant three days, four days before a game usually is a sign that that player is going to be on track.

26:49Tom Pelissero:And so it seems like it'll be Justin Fields Monday night against the Dolphins.

26:53Rich Eisen:Okay, so that's one of interest. What about the fact that the preseason pup list means you've got to miss four games? Looking over the steering wheel with the Texans in dire need of a better rushing attack, is there any shot of Joe Mixon coming back soon at all? What's going on with Mixon? Not a lot of people are throwing that name around, Tom.

27:16Tom Pelissero:Well, and there's been a sort of cryptic type of sense around that situation since he was first put on the non-football injury list back at the start of training camp. I would point to the public statements that the Texans have made. Nick Casario has been asked about it, has basically just said, we'll evaluate it when the four weeks are up. D 'Amico Ryans was asked about Mixon a week or so ago and spoke about him in the past tense, saying they missed the things that Mixon brought to the team, but they're moving forward. I would just tell you, Rich, I have not gotten the sense that Mixon is going to be back anytime imminently here, certainly not next week.

27:50Tom Pelissero:Things can change, but there's no sense that the Cavalry is riding in right now with Joe Mixon. So the Texans absolutely have a lot of things that they've got to figure out offensively. You know, it's kind of been a continuation through these first three weeks of the struggles they had last year. They were able to overcome those struggles to get into the postseason, to get into the playoffs, win a playoff game. but there's just been that sense of how do we get over the hump and the changes they made in the offseason including the offensive coordinator to this point have not had the desired effect yes having Joe Mixon out there absolutely from an energy standpoint the physicality the downhill nature of his game all those things they loved what they got for Mixon last year when remember Rich they got him in kind of a throwaway you know low low risk trade with a Bengals team that was planning to cut him if they couldn't trade him Joe Mixon had a great year for the Texans the fact he's not out there.

28:39Tom Pelissero:It's one of the factors, but it's definitely not the sole factor, and there's a lot of things that the Texans are trying to figure out at this point on offense.

28:46Rich Eisen:1-3 Baltimore at 1-3 Kansas City, Tom Pelissero. Xavier Worthy is ready to roll. He's got a brace. Does he not have a brace? What's the scoop with Xavier Worthy?

29:00Tom Pelissero:Really quick, I just got a text. Dan Quinn announcing DQ has ruled Jaden Daniels out, so indeed, he will be out for Sunday. Marcus Mariota gets the ball once again. With Xavier Worthy, this was a situation where once they knew that it wasn't something, a major long-term type of injury, the hope was sooner than later, Xavier Worthy would be able to wear a harness, get out onto the field, and be able to play again. But there's an element of getting comfortable with the harness. Basically, when you dislocate your shoulder, and again, I'm going to put my insider doctor degree to work here. When you dislocate the shoulder, you tear ligaments, you tear the labrum, and it's going to be a risk of popping in and out.

29:37Tom Pelissero:What the harness does is it keeps that thing from dislocating, but it can be very uncomfortable. There are players who have, you know, a shoulder that subluxes or dislocates on a regular basis. They don't want to wear the harness because it's uncomfortable because it changes just their ball carrying, how they're holding the football. So this was something where Xavier Worthy, they were hopeful last week he'd be comfortable, just wasn't comfortable by the end of the week. But this idea that this was a more severe injury or he could miss time, it was never really realistic. We'll see. He registered a full participation in practice.

30:08Tom Pelissero:That's a really good sign that he'll be out there this week. They just want to make sure that he is comfortable. And, Rich, I would say this. We've talked a lot about the Chiefs and what's ailing them, why the offense doesn't look the same. If they get Xavier Worthy back this week, and then two weeks from now they get Rasheed Rice back, who's already back in the building for them, that's your top two wide receivers. Take any team in the NFL. Take away their top two receivers. It's going to be a challenge to be effective offensively. There's certainly other issues that they have to smooth out. You know, is Travis Kelsey going to be able to find it here?

30:40Tom Pelissero:Are they going to be able to run the football effectively at some point? But getting those top two wide receivers back by midseason, if they can just kind of surf through these next three games, win one or two of them, and be in position, there's no reason to think that the Chiefs can't put this thing together offensively once they're back to full strength.

30:56Rich Eisen:Tom Pelissero here on the Rich Eisen Show. Breaking news, looking at his phone, focusing on the task at hand. It's incredible. he's just spinning plates right here and you got what what else you got now mcclaurin is also uh

31:08Tom Pelissero:being evaluated week to week doctors did not clear jayden daniel so it's effectively exactly what i just said so just go use ai and just have me say it firmly as opposed to it appears that to show that i nailed it never on the first time before dan quinn said all right look at you tom

31:23Rich Eisen:uh the the what natural intelligence of tom pellizero here on the rich eyes and show So walk me through your reporting on why Jackson Dart now for the Giants, Tom.

31:35Tom Pelissero:It was time. There was just no way that Brian Dable was going to be able to walk into that locker room, go to the coaches, go in front of the fans again, because they got another home game at MetLife Stadium against the Chargers on Sunday and say, this guy gives us the best chance to win. That red zone sequence, Rich, if that's the last time that we see Russell Wilson as QB1 anywhere in the NFL, it's really unfortunate. because Russell Wilson, you know, I've seen debates. Is he a Hall of Famer? You know, you can argue that. I don't know how many times in his career Russell Wilson was, you know, one of the absolute best at his position, but he's been a really good quarterback for a really long time, and he's won a ton of games.

32:14Tom Pelissero:That was really hard to watch. It's been hard to watch Russ, frankly, for five years now. His last year in Seattle, and then going one and done with four consecutive coaching staffs, lasting only three games with the Giants. There's just an element of his game which was his ability to extend plays, to create things off schedule, to make things happen down the field that seemed to have left him. And I know the week before, we can be very, you know, we have a lot of recency bias. The week before in Dallas, you know, those moon balls were hitting. But what you saw in that game against the Chiefs when they were taking away Malik Nabors the way that they were was Russ trying to come up in the pocket, and he just couldn't get out.

32:52Tom Pelissero:He's trying to extend plays. He's trying to throw the ball down the field, and it just wasn't working. to have four downs starting at the four-yard line with a goal-to-go situation down two touchdowns. This is your last gasp opportunity. He throws the ball away on first down, gets a grounding penalty. Second down, calls his own number and runs. Third and fourth down, throws the ball away. That's it. And I don't mean to overly simplify this. There's a lot of different factors. We kind of knew the moment that the Giants traded up to number 25. That was a matter of time until Jackson Dart got his opportunity.

33:24Tom Pelissero:Russell Wilson was not the top choice in the offseason for the Giants. Is there a parallel universe where the Giants don't win a late season game and lose out on the number one pick? And they've got Cam Ward starting for week one? Absolutely. But that doesn't exist. We live in reality here. And the reality is Russell Wilson is a nearly 37-year-old quarterback who is an ultimate competitor and a great guy. And they love him in the room. but it just wasn't there for him to be the quarterback of this team and so instead of having what you had last week Rich even when Russ was still starting which was when they put Jackson Dart in the game for a play the crowded cheer and then they put Russ back in and Russ would get booed you take that part away from it it should be an electric atmosphere at MetLife Stadium on Sunday they have not had a lot of those atmospheres at least since the 2022 playoff season you know how ready is Jackson Dart?

34:14Tom Pelissero:We're about to find out on Sunday. But, you know, to be just completely honest, it can't be worse than what we saw from Russ in that entire offense last Sunday night. This is a new start for a Giants regime that needs to show progress. There's no doubt about it. In 2025. And I'm as intrigued and excited to see what Jackson Dart can do as anybody else.

34:34Rich Eisen:So just picking up what you're putting down here, it was Russ's ineffectiveness that kind of forced the hand here, is what you're saying. And you said he couldn't walk into that locker room. Are you hearing that there are some people in that locker room that are saying we need to see the kid, Tom?

34:50Tom Pelissero:What I would say is you know that your receivers are getting frustrated when they're not getting opportunities. You can see that on Malik neighbors. You put on the tape, Rich. We can sit back and watch it and just go, what was that? It was one of the worst red zone sequences I've ever seen in my life. I hear you. The inexplicability of throwing the ball away, not targeting a receiver in four downs. It's just, it's hard to square. And so, you know, listen, again, was Russell Wilson their top choice in the offseason? No. I mean, they were in on different trades. They were in on different signings.

35:20Tom Pelissero:They were in on Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford. And again, if they had the number one pick, they're probably drafting Cam Warden. We're not talking about any of this, but they really, really like Jackson Dart. And one other point I would make, Rich, something the Giants liked about Dart in the pre-draft process was the layers to his game. The fact that they saw a guy who, based upon the size and the athletic ability, you can run pass options. You can run read options with Dart. You can get him out on the move. That was a part of Russell Wilson's game early in his career. It's not part of his game now.

35:49Tom Pelissero:And when we've seen Brian Dable's offense at its best, it's been with Josh Allen in Buffalo. and it's been the first year with Daniel Jones in New York where Jones was healthy and they ran the crap out of it with him. There were times where he was rushing the ball almost as much as he was throwing the ball. I don't know exactly what the formula is, but I would say when teams are taking away Malik Neighbors and Wandale Robinson, you're trying to figure out how to get them the ball, one of the best things any offense can do is establish the run threat, make the defense account for the quarterback as a runner, which changes the math and how they run all the coverages against you.

36:22Tom Pelissero:And I anticipate that they will at least establish that in this game starting on Sunday.

36:26Rich Eisen:All right. Before I let you go, Tom, the question I ask you every week, which is the team or the coach or the player that's most, I guess, popular amongst those in the league hitting you up on your phone for information or just curiosity or just want to gossip about? Tom?

36:43Tom Pelissero:I'll mention two because there were three teams, Rich, that made a significant change in this past week. One was the Giants, obviously, benching Russell Wilson and going to Jackson Dart. Number two was the Falcons. They're coming off of getting shut out by the Panthers. Just absolutely unwatchable performance from that offense. Michael Penix, by Raheem Morris' own admission, had a very bad day at the office. It was bad. It could not have gone a whole lot worse. Michael Penix Jr., since he took over last year as the starter, if you look over his six games or you look at the three games this year, statistically, he's one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL.

37:18Tom Pelissero:It's a very small sample size with a young-ish quarterback. I won't call him young because I think he's 25. He played six years of college football. But he's certainly young within the NFL. And so you're trying to go through a growth process. And that's where Raheem Morris has shot down the idea of benching Michael Penix and going to Kirk Cousins and making$27.5 million as the backup. He said, I will let you know. Michael Penix is the quarterback until I tell you otherwise. Well, at what point might he tell us otherwise? They fire their wide receivers coach, Ike Hilliard. They move Zach Robinson from the booth down to the sideline.

37:51Tom Pelissero:They have TJ Yates take over coaching the wide receivers. Those are substantial types of moves to try to get this offense going. It's not, I won't say it's a panic move, but it's certainly establishing, hey, this isn't going well. But they're not putting the blame right now on Michael Penix Jr. If after these changes, things don't get better, and two, three weeks from now, the offense is still struggling, the pressure is going to ramp up. And so I've gotten plenty of people asking what exactly is happening right now in Atlanta. The other one is the Tennessee Titans, who made a substantial move by having Brian Callahan hand over play calling duties to the quarterback's coach, Bo Callahan, bypassing the offensive coordinator, Nick Holes.

38:31Tom Pelissero:That's a product of a couple of things. You know, it's in part because Bo Callahan, excuse me, not Bo Callahan, that's a good one, though, Bo Hardegree has called plays before with the Raiders as the interim head coach, but also interim offensive coordinator, but also because he's around Cam Ward on a daily basis. Those two have a natural rapport. This allows Brian Callahan now to try to zoom out, take a broader picture of the entire team, the defense, the special teams. When things happen on Sundays, Rich, like taking a delay of game before a field goal, That reflects on many people, but specifically on the head coach.

39:04Tom Pelissero:So this is Callahan saying, I'm going to try to take a more global view of this team. There's plenty of times where people give up play calling, and it's a prelude to not a pretty ending. There's other times, like when Nick Sirianni gave up in Philadelphia, that end up being a turning point. Because you focus on building culture, and you focus on coaching the whole team, as opposed to having your head down and calling plays in the offense. Brian Callahan is plenty smart for the job. There's a reason that they hired him as the head coach like 20 months ago. He has not been there that long. There's a lot of stuff that Mike Borgonzi and that front office staff that's almost entirely new have to get done on the roster.

39:39Tom Pelissero:They trade away Jarvis Brownlee, one of their starting corners, to the Jets just because he wasn't a fit for what they're building right now. But this certainly amps up a level of pressure on Tennessee. They're going into Houston, both teams 0-3. Of course, the Titans used to be the Oilers. Amy Adams Strunk, the owner, is from Houston. There's a lot of dynamics here in terms of let's watch and see how both these teams do on Sunday because one of those teams, Rich, is falling to 0-4, and that is not going to be a fun building to wake up to on Monday morning.

40:09Rich Eisen:Tom, thanks for the time. Greatly appreciate it. As for Bo Callahan, you should look into why people didn't go to his birthday party.

40:17Tom Pelissero:Ryan Callahan and Bo Hardegree. That is a – and I combined them completely off the cuff.

40:23Rich Eisen:It makes sense. and look into Vontae Mack because somebody's going to take him no matter what. Ladies and gentlemen, that's Tom Pellicera right here on the Rich Eyes and Sugar. Good to see you, Tommy P. Okay. It's all good. See you, buddy. These things happen. That's right. They happen, you know. Case in point, famous Syracuse quarterback, Kirk Herbstreit. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial right here on the program. It's been a fun week. Wow. We're back. Steve Young's going to join us in an hour or two. How about them apples?

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42:07Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show The Podcast Presented by Progressive Insurance Insurance for motorcycles, boats, and RVs. For protection on the road and on the water, see how much you can save at 1-800-PROGRESSIVE and progressive.com listen all right let's jump into this here we just showed in our uh tv only segment to top 10 or half of a top 10 list that i did a few years ago of top 10 quarterback nfl quarterback birthday parties i had most want to attend and uh it was a fun list topped by gardner minchu i remember you came up with that list like well 15 minutes before this because you know why because the subtext or the inspiration if you will was a headline that had just popped that people uh teammates of russ's in denver didn't want to go to his birthday party remember that one even though he didn't right even though he had like you know some house with like 18 million bathrooms right and a million bathrooms and all of that stuff and um that's was the inspiration for that top 10 list and here we are again here we are again our our friends on the the prime video uh studio set um a a show that i i've done before many years the thursday night uh production team uh with prime video a lot of a lot i know a lot of them because they were on the thursday night a studio set for us on the road on nfl network and so um at any rate uh tony gonzalez said something very uh strong and that russ essentially played himself has played himself out of the hall of fame that his first several years in in seattle were hall of fame worthy and as tom pelissero just said his last five years the two in in um last two in seattle two in denver last year in Pittsburgh and now I guess this year first three games in with the Giants um have been very un-Russ like from this first few years and I I gotta be honest with you and you know we're I'm a big Russ fan where we have a special place for him because he back in the day was a a guest before he played a snap in the NFL on our um season preview Rich Eisen podcast TV show and he's been a friend of this program but it's tough to push back on what Tony had to say we're waiting for his career pivot one last act similar to I guess what Kurt did in Arizona after he was benched for a rookie quarterback in New York that was Eli taken first overall and he was benched I guess when they were above 500 I think they were 5 and 4 when he got benched and then he goes to Arizona, and there's Matt Leiner, and we're all wondering, is Kurt really a Hall of Famer?

45:03Rich Eisen:And then we saw Kurt's a Hall of Famer. We're waiting for that pivot for Russ, and it hasn't happened. And it might have happened in week two. We were thinking, who knows? That kind of a higher register, hey, is Russ going to do this again? And maybe if they won that game, I don't know. If they had won that game, they'd be one and two. But again, the way that Tom was reporting, what I am also hearing what Mark Schlereth also mentioned the other day is the final four snaps in that red zone with three minutes and change to go against Kansas City were so substandard were so shocking was so off the charts bad that you can't go into your own locker room and your own fan base and your own media local media and go we're going to go back with Russ again when we drafted this kid 25th overall and everybody's clamoring for him and maybe maybe the players are looking at the coach and going do you know what you're doing and so it's tough to say if russ is going to get another chance to start and guess what it could actually happen this year hey obviously you never know well i mean look at jj mccarthy he had the fourth quarter for the ages and his career first career start on the road he won nfc offensive player of the week based on that one quarter certainly wasn't the first three quarters of that and then four quarters later he's out for four games you know what i mean and here's carson wentz and now everyone's like is this carson wentz's second chance you know is this it the life comes at you fast so russ could be back in there because it's not jameis that's in the two spot right now there in new york but it's tough to push back on what Tony Gonzalez had to say that he's played himself out of the hall of fame because he was on that trajectory he goes to Denver that paid him that paid him what a top notch elite quarterback gets and then also paid Seattle in draft choices what you pay them to get a top notch elite quarterback and then Sean Payton comes in and goes this ain't it we're dead capping him to a record pace and then we all saw what happened in Pittsburgh and what's happening now with the Giants.

47:20Rich Eisen:Steve Young, maybe we'll ask him on this question coming up in hour two. The Ridge Eisen Show podcast. Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class.

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