Hour 1: Browns Starting Gabriel, NFL Network’s Kurt Warner, plus Did Aaron Boone Blow It?

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1:00Rich Eisen: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. Miss 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. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Ohtani. He flips the bat and watches it fly. The Rich Eisen Show. Chapman leads the bases. How could they not score? Today's guests. Pro Football Hall of Famer, Kirk Warner.

1:49Rich Eisen:Bears wide receiver, Romo Dunze. Dancing with the Stars host, Alfonso Ribeiro. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Well, that's true, and I can confirm it by my presence. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show, live on Disney +, the ESPN app everywhere, ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance. Roma Dunze, one of the young, hot receivers in the National Football League, fresh off of the Bears improving to 2-2, is going to join us in the middle of this program. Kurt Warner's first up on his usual Warner Wednesday spot. Alfonso Ribeiro, everybody. The delightful Alfonso Ribeiro of everything, I guess, that Jimmy Kimmel doesn't do for anything on Disney or ABC is on this program.

2:35Rich Eisen:Dancing with the Stars, America's Funniest Home Videos, all of that good stuff. You saw him at the American Century this summer, right? I did, indeed. He's one of the 87 other players I went looking up at and saying hello. Poor Dylan Dreyer. oh katherine tappen is the only one that i can look to the side and say what's up t88 uh at any rate they were delightful to play with all of them i didn't get a chance to play with alfonso but we'll uh we'll have fun with him when he joins us in the program good to see you over there christopher how are you sir i'm great what's up man dj mikey diaz and d's nuts good to see you just so you know my analytics says i've pushed enough faders i should be taken out of the game to know what's up tj jefferson how are you sir good to see him i too would like to say hello to dylan dreyer okay nice i have a random question you know it's always random yeah yeah did you have a show name picked out if it wasn't the rich eisen show was there ever anything else that you were gonna call a show no no i don't know why i don't know if you're aware it's born out of a podcast called the rich eisen yeah i don't know it just popped into my head so i don't know why okay great i know if you had a funky name no no funky names the two ball guys yeah you know what i mean uh let's start this program with um a general um question that we see in across sports is uh when do you pull your starter and um interesting it's a tale of two such um stories right now um because one uh has done so when everybody thought maybe it's time to do so and we'll see how it works out and another one who did it when i can safely attest everybody who roots for that team says do not take your starter out one is football the other is baseball a tale of two starters being pulled one in cleveland ohio where unfortunately for guardians fans uh aj hinch decided to say to tarik school we'll just keep pitching you stay out Because, again, it's the wild card round, and it's three straight games in a row.

4:46Rich Eisen:And if you don't advance, your season's over. And if you do advance, your game one starter isn't most likely, depending on the way things play out for the divisional round, isn't going to be your game one starter for that round due to the five days of rest. So you might as well just push the pedal to the metal, which A.J. Hinch decided to do, yada, yada, yada. Tarek Skubal has a victory in Cleveland that stands up. and as you know a lot of cleveland sports fans have been pouring their heart and soul and hopes into the guardians for their remarkable run to the playoffs to not only even make it but host the wild card round as american league central champs and the reason why they're doing that is because they have a great story great team to root for and also there's the browns and the cav season hasn't started yet and they know how the cav season despite it being so remarkable in the regular season last year there was a drain and it circled it pretty fast so the Browns have a head coach in Kevin Stefanski two-time coach of the year who has decided to pull his starter his name is Joe Flacco and Flacco once upon a time was the comeback player of the year from his couch to the Cleveland Browns in the Stefanski system and everything there lit up like a Christmas tree with Deshaun Watson being out for the rest of the season.

6:12Rich Eisen:And the Browns made the playoffs with Joe Flacco as their starter. And it was amazing. There are a number of people who won their fantasy leagues because they decided to take a flyer on Flacco when he first started for the Browns and did well in his first start. And he was unreal. and so when the browns brought him back for one year four million bucks and then decided to draft not one but two rookies to join kenny pickett who was there who they acquired from the philadelphia eagles almost within a month after he took the victory formation to start a parade in philadelphia it's like okay it's only a matter of time one would think unless flacco lights it up that they'll start Pickett or one of the rookies.

7:04Rich Eisen:And as it turned out, Pickett got hurt in training camp. He wound up being traded to the Raiders where there's so many interceptions being thrown by Geno Smith. There's some conversation in the desert right now about whether maybe Pickett should start there because there's only one person who's turned it over more in the first four weeks of this season than Geno Smith. And his name is Joe Flacco. So, sure enough, as soon as we left the studio here yesterday, getting set to watch all the playoff baseball games on ESPN and the family of networks, Stefanski made a move. And it's Dylan Gabriel starting at quarterback.

7:49Rich Eisen:And we'll see how this one works out as Dylan Gabriel is now going to be the first quarterback in NFL history to make his first career start in an international game. Yes, he will play in the home of Tottenham before he plays in the home of the Browns or anyone else's home in the NFL. And he's taking on a Vikings team that is only traveling to London from Ireland. And Gabriel knows all about traveling. central florida oklahoma oregon six years in college so he's gotten some uh reps responsible for the most starts and touchdowns in the history of college football quarterbacking 63 starts when he basically turns to bo nicks and rock bird he says uh hold my beer and 189 touchdowns and in terms of passing touchdowns he's tied with somebody who's I think see being brought in as a backup in commercials these days Case Keenum 155 passing touchdowns there so he's gotten some experience and Stefanski let it be known some first team reps during the first month of the season as well so there's been some writing on the wall internally this was Kevin Stefanski about making the move from the second he's been here he's been working very hard uh very intelligent young man he's he's done a nice job throughout practice uh and you know he's been this whole season he's been learning how to get yourself ready and and uh understand the rhythm of an nfl week and what that looks like as a backup and uh obviously now feel like he's ready to go in as a starter.

9:38Why now? Yeah, just my decision where I felt this decision was best for the football team. Yes. Why did you decide to make Joe the backup and not Shador?

9:51Rich Eisen:Yeah, Joe's the backup. And again, that's a question that's not being asked of any coach who's drafted somebody in the fifth round of a draft. Why is Shador not backing up? And we'll have more time to talk about Shador. This is more about what Dylan Gabriel is going to do in the moment to be honest with you i know everyone's going to make it about shador i know pretty much any other show that's being broadcast and distributed by uh disney or espn is going to make it about shador um but this is dylan gabriel's gig right now and it makes sense go be jackson dart kid because dart's the only one in from that draft class that's won a game so far cam ward is yet to maybe dylan gabriel could be the second taking on a vikings team that will uh no doubt look at this what i people would call to a junior right as um potentially fresh meat we will see what he can do quinshawn judkins can help his rushing attack has um come alive but guess what browns fans you now have a 41st different starting quarterback since reconstituting in 1999 that is way way deep in first place the second place team in terms of most starting quarterback since 1999 are your chicago bears with 30 wow 30 they have an 11 qb league that is correct and who knows maybe by the end of the year if shador gets his shot a dozen and this is all about the browns picking in their way through this year with multiple draft choices next year and I know nobody in that locker room and certainly in that town wants to already talk about 20 26 but is Gabriel going to be the guy?

11:40Rich Eisen:We'll see. If not do they finally give Shador a shot? We'll see. But it doesn't surprise me that after a 1-3 start with the way everything's looked on offense and the fact that Flacco threw another couple of interceptions last week that he makes a move like this because he reads the room and he has a gut and feel and he makes a move. Dylan Gabriel, we just mentioned over the first few minutes of this program, is the football portion of the conversation over the last 24 hours of somebody deciding to pull his starter, his starting thrower, pitcher, if you will, in football. um dylan gabriel the guy who comes in is left-handed like the guy who aaron boone took out last night after six and the third shutout innings and max freed on the mound with a one nothing lead on garrett crochet in the red sox their left tender Cy Young award candidate just like Max Freed 19 wins for Max Freed in his first season as a Yankee and it was crucial that he would make all those starts and perform as well as he performed with an ERA less than three because Garrett Cole as we all know blew out his arm needing Tommy John surgery before anything happened this year and so Freed in his first start in Yankee Stadium coming up with strikeouts cruising through the first three and then escaping some jams, some of his own making in the next three innings.

13:20Rich Eisen:Got a double play ground ball to get out of the sixth. And Jaron Duren coming up in the seventh inning. Left-hander, keep him in and he gets him out. And out comes Aaron Boone to take out his starting pitcher after 102 pitches. and at that point in time you know what lit up like a christmas tree my phone cooper my 14 year old diehard yankee fan son who sits next to me watching michael k and the yes network for six straight months my buddy paul name anybody else in my life who's a yankee fan is texting me uh one particular man whose enthusiasm can be curbed every now and then oh texting what is boone doing what's he doing bringing in luke weaver in this game and you know sure enough luke weaver last year took over the role of closer from eventual new york match may schmoms as he's referred to in our house because kurt uh cooper and i could not bear to say the name clay holmes after a while last year weaver was great last year's playoffs Maybe there's some gut and there's some feel here.

14:38Well,

14:40Rich Eisen:a walk, double, base hit later, there goes the lead. Just like that. And underneath, if you look at the box score of last night's game, you could see the ERA, because they start from scratch in the playoffs. The ERA of Max Fried is 0.00. And then right underneath are the letters INF, which stands for usually infielder. it usually stands for infielder in baseball but in this particular point it stands for infinity and beyond we are on disney plus i guess i should say and beyond infinity i mean now interestingly enough you look at garrett crochet's total pitches he stayed in the game. You know, Alex Kors says, you know what?

15:29Rich Eisen:I'm riding my horse. He pitches 117 total pitches. Max Freed at 102. And you had to know. Aaron Boone had to know. He's been through enough of these rodeos. He's been through enough of these postseason rodeos. He's been through enough of these postseason rodeos against the Red Sox. To know that at that very moment at that moment when a second boston red sox crossed home plate as luke weaver now comes out of the game he had to know it would be on like the proverbial donkey kong after the game as to why did you do it why'd you do it because right now as a yankee fan i'm sitting here thinking Well, at least Max Fried is rested for his first start of 2026, right?

16:22Rich Eisen:Honestly. But I'm not a manager. I don't have that keen eye to know when somebody's flagging. This is what Boone had to say. Yeah, just they pressured him pretty good in the fourth, fifth, sixth. You know, I had a couple of base runners each inning. So I felt like he kind of cruised through the first few and obviously ends up pitching great. but I felt like he had to work pretty hard, and I was going to have the 6B at the end, but once we finished with the double play, I wanted to go out and get Duran, and then felt like we were lined up. I don't know what lined up means other than the fact of, I guess, lined up Weaver and then, you know, Devin Williams and then Bednar for the close.

17:09Rich Eisen:I guess that's what he meant by lined up. The thing, I just don't get it. I don't understand it. It's an easy second guess. It's a simple second guess. And all you have to know is I'm sure you, Chris, were being kind to not hit me up. Same thing with everybody on Susie's side of the family. You had to be doing cartwheels when you saw Aaron Boone coming out of the dugout to take Max Fried out with 102 pitches. Knowing again, by the way, am I correct in that assumption? I can't do a cartwheel, but figurative cartwheels. Can you confirm figurative cartwheels, mental cartwheels? I was very excited.

17:47Rich Eisen:You can confirm it. Great. Because, again, Max Fried isn't going to, if you advance, start game one of the American League Division Series because that's Saturday. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Tarek Skubal, if the Tigers advance, would start game two at the earliest. And he stayed in. If you guys advance, Crochet will start game two. and you'll deal with that later. Gotta get to game two. You have to get to game two of the American League Division Series and in order to do that, the history of these three gamers now is the way that the league has set it up. The way that Major League Baseball has set it up.

18:31Rich Eisen:No team that's lost the first game has won the next two to advance. So the Yankees are going to have to set a new standard. Again, there's not a lot of history in it. And they do have Rodon to go tonight. It's been great all year. And I'm just wondering, can we get more than 102 pitches out of him if it happens? Again, it's an easy second guess. Simple one. And he had to know. Certainly when Crochet goes 117 pitches into the eighth and hands things off to her, Aldis Chapman, for a four-out save. And Chapman showed up in the ninth inning of that four-out save looking exactly like the Chapman that a lot of us from Yankee fandom saw as he loads the bases only to get out of it yeah with two strikeouts around a pop fly to right field that the Yankees weren't running on and that's the unkindest cut it's also a dislike let the Yankee fans see the nice light at the end of the tunnel to flip this entire script and we're not talking about what Aaron Boone did with Freed.

19:32Rich Eisen:Instead, we're talking about Giancarlo Stanton with a walk-off base hit or anybody else, and it didn't happen, and now the Yankees are in trouble. Carlos Verdone, season-high pitches this year, 109. He did it twice. I'd like to go longer. I'd like to see longer than that if he is succeeding. Because right now, I'm sure Max Freed is like, okay, this'll be great. I guess I'll be fully well-rested for the first week in April. Last week in March.

20:09Rich Eisen:That's the beauty of baseball. We're back at it today. And the same thing goes for the Guardians. Same thing goes for the Padres. Same thing goes for the Reds, who lost their respective games to the Tigers, Cubs, and Dodgers. So. No one to pull your starter. Stefanski's done it. We'll see what happens. Boone did it. We saw what happened. We'll see what happens from there. That's the way we start our first segment of this three-hour program. Kurt Warner will join us next right here on The Rich Eisen Show to talk about what he expects from Dylan Gabriel, what he saw from Jackson Dart, and more.

20:51Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show Podcast.

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22:29We'll be right back. of the FIFA World Cup 2026.

22:59Joe Flacco, even though he was the best quarterback, obviously coming in. And I think he's played well at times. I don't think he played very well on Sunday, you know, with the record where it is. And, you know, I think I've heard a few people talk about it. You know, they've got some draft stock in the first round next year where they could get a quarterback if one of those guys is the right guy. I'm not sure watching college football who that right guy is, you know, to pick high in the draft quite yet. But if they want to do that, they got to figure out these two guys that they drafted this year.

23:32If one of them can be their guy or can be their guy for a while until they find that right guy that they think can take over. And so, again, if they started out hot, Joe would have obviously kept the seat with some of the struggles that they've had with where their record is. I don't think this surprises anybody that Dylan is going to get his shot. If he plays well, I think he'll obviously hold on to the seat. If he doesn't play well, I would not be surprised if Shadu at some point gets an opportunity as well just to say, hey, let's, you know, empty this thing and let's see who is our best guy.

24:04And if one of these guys can be a franchise quarterback or if we've got to make another move.

24:10Rich Eisen:What do you see from Jackson Dart on film as Dart became the first quarterback from the rookie class to win a game in the NFL? He's one for one now and against the Chargers defense. That's no joke. as you know, Kurt, what'd you make of Jackson Dart's first appearance? Yeah, I mean, if you just break down the X's and O's, it wasn't a great performance. You know, made some throws, missed some throws, missed some things. But I think you could feel the spark that he gave this team. And, you know, you never can really quite put your finger on, okay, what was that? You know, the first drive, they take the ball all the way down, they score.

24:47He runs it in. He makes a couple big runs in there. And I think those big runs energize people. You know, why their defense play so much better this week than they have. You know, I mean, those are things that you can't explain other than they're fired up to have him for whatever reason, whatever he brings to the table. You could feel that, you know, even just me watching the all 22. I felt like it was a different team out there. And like I said, it wasn't great, you know, just from, you know, quarterback play. but he gave them a couple big plays in the game, a couple big runs, some things to excite the fans.

25:21And so I think it was obviously a great first outing that you don't play great, but you energize your team and you get a win against a 3-0 team. That's exactly how you want to start, and there's a lot of room for improvement.

25:32Rich Eisen:Kurt Warner here on the Rich Eisen Show. As you know, we're always looking for corners to be turned, sir. Have the Chiefs turned it? Have the Chiefs turned the corner? Kurt Warner. You know what? I want to say yes. And solely because of the fact of how they played this game. You know, we covered the first game in Brazil and I talked about it a lot. Like it didn't look like the same Chiefs team just from the standpoint is they weren't running RPOs. They weren't throwing a lot of their quick throws, you know, and supplementing their run game with that kind of play. And that had really been their M.O.

26:08for the last couple of years is they couldn't push the ball down the field. So it was a lot of quick throws. That was their run game, yards after catch. And we just didn't see that early. And maybe it was because, you know, as we talked to Andy Reid, there was a big package for Xavier Worthy, and he goes out in the third play. And so maybe they didn't have anybody that they could plug in and run those plays. But when I popped on the tape this past week, it looked like the Chiefs to me. You know, there was a lot more RPOs and those quick throws to supplement that run game and to use Patrick's ability to get defense out of position and then just make those quick throws.

26:43A lot more wide receiver screens. And then they got some big plays down the field. But that, to me, is the Chiefs offense. And I finally saw it again. And so maybe it is because Xavier Worthy is back. We know Rasheed Rice is a couple weeks away, and he adds that piece as well. And so I feel really good about where they are after that performance against the Baltimore Ravens. And I know a lot of people expected the Ravens to win that game just because the better roster across the board, but they dominated that football game and they were doing what I expected the chiefs to do all year long. So I do believe they have turned the corner and gotten, gotten back to, you know, maybe not a perfect formula, but the formula that was a winning formula for them a year ago.

27:27Rich Eisen:And then the corner in Houston has CJ Stroud and that offense turned it 26 to nothing went over the titans in which stroud was 22 for 28 with a passer rating just a little north of 125 have the texans and stroud turned a corner i'm gonna say no um you know i was watching that film and uh and i kept asking myself they won 26 to 0 right like where's this offense you know where is it at you know like i thought it would be more explosive than it was and so uh yeah the numbers were good I still think they have issues there I'm still trying to put my finger on you know what's going on with CJ and again the numbers were good and sometimes you have those performances but I can't shake the first three weeks of the season out of my head quite yet is there was a lot of struggles CJ just doesn't look like the same player that he was as a rookie just awareness seeing things getting the ball out of his hands so I'm not ready to say that they've turned a corner quite yet.

28:27I think they played a Titans team that really struggles offensively. And that's why it looked like it did. I'm going to need to see some of that against a better football team. Okay.

28:36Rich Eisen:So have the Falcons turned a corner offensively? Have we found something with Penix that they were able to uncork on Washington, Kurt? Yeah, here's another one that I'm not quite sure. I'm starting to wonder because I thought they looked really good in week one of the season. And I thought, man, Michael Penix looks really good. And, you know, this team could be, you know, something to reckon with because of all their weapons. And then we go two weeks where he doesn't look very good. And then he comes back and he looks really good again this fourth week. And, you know, so for me, consistency is the name of the game at the quarterback position.

29:13And that means seeing it. That means being able to work through things when your first read's not open and being able to find the next guy. That's how you have to play the position. There are going to be some games where the number one read is open quite a bit and you just have to drop back and throw it. And most of these guys that are starting in the NFL can drop back and throw it. And so so I can't just take one game where where things just kind of worked out pretty favorably for them and say, OK, they've turned the corner. I think they've got a very simple offense. They run a lot of these choice routes and things every single week.

29:48a lot of the same concepts over and over again. And when those things are open, team looks pretty good. When those things aren't open, they don't look very good. And so I have to see some more evolution here. And I've got to see Michael work through some things beyond just his first read and those guys getting open before I'm ready to say that this offense has turned the corner. They've got lots of talent, and we see what they're capable of. We've seen it a couple times this year, what they're capable of. But then you wonder, you know, how do you have a Carolina game where you can't put any points on the board and you struggle.