Hour 1: Rams-Seahawks TNF Reactions, plus NFL Insider Tom Pelissero

21:34Rich Eisen:58-yard touchdown return for the Seahawks for their first successful two-point play making an eight-point game the rams go three and out again then shaheed with an end around for 31 yards and then aj barner left wide ass open to 26 yards for a touchdown right away boom that's when the two-point conversion attempt in question went down with 623 to go so yeah that's you got to play better than the sometimes refs ref certainly in the case of the rams first touchdown of the night called back on an illegal man downfield by an offensive lineman who just was put in the game due to injury that Terry McCauley said on the Prime Video broadcast shouldn't have been a foul.

22:16Rich Eisen:But McCauley did say that they did call it right with this two-point conversion that it was a backwards pass. For me again, if you're going to say a play that basically stopped because everybody thought it was over and only one guy decided to Just pick the ball up and you're going to give that team a game tying two point conversion on a reversal. You better have something where it is damn right down the line of the centimeter. And I didn't see it. I didn't see it. So that's my opinion on that. Two point conversion and give it up, man. The Seahawks come back, win this football game, and they've got it on top of the Rams right now.

23:02Rich Eisen:who are down to 25 % chance, according to the old next-gen stat machine, to win the division. And 21 % to win the conference. That's how difficult a loss it was, because now the Seahawks, they went out, and they are in the playoffs as the one seed. And if they don't, if the Carolina Panthers do the Rams a favor in a way that the Carolina Panthers did the Seahawks a favor next week when they beat the Rams a few weeks ago, than the Niners win out because they play the Seahawks at the end of the season. I believe the Niners could be the one seed in this conference. It is wide open. The Bears are raising their hands saying, we're still here too.

23:45Rich Eisen:What a week 16 kickoff. Let's take a break. We'll come back and we'll talk about Puka's night and we'll talk about Stafford, the MVP candidate, and then we'll get Tommy P on the horn. 844-204-RICH, number to dial. We're on ESPN2 as well as Disney Plus and the ESPN app.

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25:35Rich Eisen:Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. A bandwagon fan. The biggest insult in sports. But this summer, during the FIFA World Cup, it's an invitation, America. Never watched soccer before? Perfect. Think a corner kick is a karate move? Sure, why not? Prefer sports where players can use their hands? Me too. Just here for the snacks? Now we're talking. So grab a bag of Lay's and jump on the bandwagon. We're undefeated. Lay's, the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. the rich isa show podcast back here on espn radio presented by progressive insurance progressive commercial insurance protecting your business vehicles 24 7 see if you can save at progressive commercial.com all right before we get to tom pellicero i do want to talk about puka nakua um who um i appreciate sent out that apology yesterday about the touchdown celebration his live streaming friends gave him to work on and uh unless a bunch of people i'm always the only one pointing out hey man that's not cool beyond at the very least if you do that and highly anti-semitic at the worst uh sent out an apology and the rams and he got together and it was awesome and that's why the rams are a top-notch organization and a model organization in the nfl and as i said yesterday he's a young kid and you got to give it up to him the way that he's comported himself and use that uh past as as a base to to view that whole scenario and um you know incorporating robert craft's organization about stopping jewish hate i thought was also a terrific touch.

27:41Rich Eisen:So there's all of that. And Puka, though, after balling out, as I said, Maria said, just go ball out, kid. I guess he heard me on that front. He both counts. That's for sure. Holy crap. Yeah. He's one of the best I've ever seen, certainly at this level of his career. So young. He had this to say about the live stream stuff. No, I don't. It was just a lack of awareness. and just in some frustration, I know there were moments where I feel like, man, you watch other games, you think of the calls that some guys did, you wish you could get some of those, but that's just how football is played. And my job, in order to work my technique, to make sure that there's not an issue with the call.

28:20Rich Eisen:Right, and he's also talking about the officiating, about how he, you know, railed on the officials on that live stream. But, you know, again, he's young, he's still learning. as soon as the game was over he went right to his phone and he tweeted out something that he deleted shortly afterwards can you say i was wrong appreciate you strives for your contribution lol again you know what i said i didn't think it was clear and obvious that that was a backwards pass because there was no specific angle that was directly down the line obviously a touchdown was taken away earlier in the game due to um a an illegal man downfield He immediately, somebody must have seen that from the Rams and just said, bro, what are we doing?

29:09Tom Pelissero:That's frustration.

29:10Rich Eisen:I know. I was asked about it, too. No, I know. We'll get to that in a second. Puka had this to say after the game about the deleted tweet. Just a moment of frustration. After a tough, intense game like that, just thinking of the opportunities that I could have done better to take it out of their hands. Just a moment of frustration.

29:26Tom Pelissero:What specifically was the tweet?

29:30Rich Eisen:Just the opportunities that we didn't take advantage of. some of the moments that we put in the officials' hands that I just felt like we could have executed to not put ourselves in those situations. I know that's something that we'll improve on.

29:40Tom Pelissero:What moment felt like it was something we could have?

29:42Rich Eisen:Just some of the two-point extra plays and some of the opportunities where our defense had executed to make them snapper one more time. But yeah. Listen, he is so unbelievable and young, and I'm happy to keep giving him the benefit of the doubt, as I'm sure the Rams are as well. You know, he's not the first one to complain about officiating and take it to his phone. Career high 225. Second player in NFL history with 165 or more receiving yards in three straight games. The other one's named Isaac Bruce. Come on, man. McVay was asked about this deleted text after the game. Hit it.

30:27Tom Pelissero:So Puka just tweeted something out, you know, kind of taking like a bail shot. rest of the refs. I mean, what are you talking about? You just put something on a glitter. Yeah. You know, so what are you asking me right now? Do you, are you, I can't answer questions about something that I'm not aware of. Okay. But are you okay with players kind of expressing frustration over things like that? Or is that something that you hope that they kind of keep for themselves? I got to have more information before I answer any of those kind of questions.

30:54Rich Eisen:That's as snippy as you'll ever see Sean McVay at the podium. Yeah. That's the most like that I've ever seen him. I was watching that live. I couldn't believe it. But if I may, If I may, go ahead and hit it.

31:03Tom Pelissero:What were they really thinking?

31:05Rich Eisen:I like doing this every now and then to speak on behalf of coaches in the National Football League. Are you kidding me? I just lost by one point in overtime in this rivalry game. What do you think? I go reaching for my phone right afterwards. Like I'm monitoring the Twitter feeds of everybody right now. Like, are you kidding me? You're asking me this right now? And then the rest of this stuff. I just had a my wife just had a baby on Monday. I've been game planning with a new with two little kids at home. I haven't slept in like 90 friggin hours. All right. So normally you and I and we all have a better relationship than the tone of this back and forth, but not right now.

31:52Rich Eisen:F the tone, because that two point conversion stuff was ridiculous. and the other stuff with that penalty in the first quarter was ridiculous. I know we made a ton of mistakes, but a lot of this stuff was ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as you think I know what Pook is tweeting about two minutes ago, right after this game. End scene. Like I'm a clown, I amuse you? Yeah, right. Why don't you dance that question over here, Spider? What a night. Crazy. Epic on every front. Let's take a break. Tom Pellicero is going to join us next to tell us everything that he knows about the National Football League, which is a lot.

32:33Rich Eisen:That's next. This is the Rich Eisen Show on ESPN2 for the day.

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33:47Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show. The podcast.

33:51Tom Pelissero:We've never seen before. And, you know, the fact that they executed, if you count that one, three consecutive two-point conversions to get the thing done. I mean, there's never really been a finish like that in recent NFL history.

34:01Rich Eisen:ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance is back on the air. We're one big, I guess, massive simulcast. ESPN 2, Disney +, ESPN App, ESPN Radio, Sirius XM, Tom Pelissero here on The Rich Eisen Show. Okay, we've got about 15 minutes time. Tom, let's try and get through a ton of stuff. Two have benched. Why? What happened in Miami?

34:24Tom Pelissero:This was a situation that had always been a possibility throughout the course of this season. Tua, by and large, had not played well, obviously led the league in interceptions with 15, had a couple of games here and there like he did in Atlanta where you go, OK, that's the guy that you were used to seeing on the field. But, you know, once they're eliminated from playoff contention, much as we've seen in the past, with the likes of Russell Wilson being sent to the bench, Derek Carr, a little different situation with Daniel Jones. But at the end of the season, once you're out of it, if you are thinking you might be moving on from a player, it just doesn't do you any good organizationally to have that player on the field, run the risk of him getting hurt, and then complicating whatever, perhaps long-shot trade scenarios you have.

35:11Tom Pelissero:Those would all go out the window. I also thought that it was informative. the way that Mike McDaniel addressed the move, talking about Tua did not have the conviction playing quarterback, and they needed somebody with the conviction that they think Quinn Ewers brings. He was asked why Ewers, you know, over Zach Wilson, he talked about the relationship that Quinn Ewers has with teammates and the confidence that they have in him to go out and be able to execute. It became abundantly clear on a lot of different levels here that this was not the same Tua that we have seen in the past. And the difference that you saw on the field is also the difference that they had seen off the field.

35:53Tom Pelissero:You know, in terms of where this goes from here for Tua, he is under contract next year for$54 million, fully guaranteed. There is a total of nearly$100 million of dead cap that they would have to take on over the next two seasons. I did get a breakdown, Rich. You and I talked on the phone about this the other day. Yes, we did. There's some complications because of the option bonus structure, but I can tell you it would be$67.4 million in dead cap in 2026, 31.8 in 2027. That's if they release Tua at the start of the league year in March with a post-June 1 designation, which I believe is the most likely scenario in this.

36:36Tom Pelissero:If they were to trade Tua Tungavailoa, all the dead cap would accelerate, which totals$45.2 million plus whatever portion of the cash they're not able to offload to a new team. That is almost a worse scenario for the Dolphins than simply cutting bait. I do believe that there are corollaries to what we saw the Broncos do with Russell Wilson. His actual dead cap number was in the 80s. It was less, but as was pointed out to me, it's actually a lower percentage of the cap if the Dolphins were to release Tua because the cap has grown that much over the last couple of seasons. So as hard as that was for the Broncos to take on all that dead cap, and Russ is still counting like$32 million on their cap this season, right now if you hit on the next quarterback, which the Broncos appear to have with Bo Nix, and if you put other things together roster-wise, it's not prohibitive to you not just competing but turning the thing around really quickly.

37:32Tom Pelissero:The key part of that equation is getting that next quarterback right, and that is going to be a huge focus for the Dolphins in 2026 at a time that it's pretty apparent that Tua in all likelihood has played his final down in Miami.

37:44Rich Eisen:Tom Pelissero here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk about Joe Burrow's last few months that has now led to my question that I'm about to ask about the toe injury. He comes back and he's sat out so he could play two games in five days or one of the games in five days. He doesn't play the Sunday, so he could play on the Thursday. He beats the Baltimore Ravens. Then he goes to the Western New York snow, and he's up by 10 before the roof caves in with a couple of interceptions. And then he gets to the podium and starts saying things like, if I want to keep doing this, I need to have fun. Then he gets shut out, but he says this has nothing to do with the Bengals.

38:30Rich Eisen:Then he comes back this past Wednesday, and he says he definitely sees himself being the Bengals quarterback next year. But when asked about what about other places, he goes, you think about a lot of things. What in the world is going on with Joe Burrow?

38:43Tom Pelissero:Tom, I would start with this, Rich. Rehab is not fun.

38:47Rich Eisen:Right.

38:48Tom Pelissero:And Joe Burrow has spent an inordinate amount of time over the last six years since he got into the NFL rehabbing. He had the ACL reconstruction, which is like an eight or nine month process that started in the tail end of his rookie season. He's had a calf injury. He has had a really significant type of a wrist injury. He had an appendectomy. He played every game last season, and really he hadn't missed a ton of game action. A lot of these things happened at the tail end of seasons where he was rehabbing in the offseason, but that also cuts into the normal break that you're going to have. This year, when I sat down with Joe, like the second week at training camp, and he was talking about this is the best he's felt and how great it was to have a healthy training camp.

39:32Tom Pelissero:Week two, he suffers a really significant turf toe injury, which is a 12 - to 14-week injury, Rich. It's a long-term injury. When it first happened, the sense I got was he probably wasn't coming back until the very end at best of the regular season. He beats the timeline. He misses nine games. He's back in like 10 weeks. And then he has a grand total of what? About 10 days from the moment he steps on the field to the Bengals being eliminated. in part because, you know, he played great in that Buffalo game, but for two interceptions on consecutive snaps, one where the ball kind of slips out of his hand, another one where it gets picked off right at the line of scrimmage.

40:11Tom Pelissero:That was the swing in the game. And for a guy who prides himself so much on being one of the absolute best in the world at what he does, there hasn't been a lot of time to enjoy, you know, much less success, but even playing the game. Yeah, no, that I get that.

40:28Rich Eisen:I understand that, but Bengals fans who are still going through PTSD from another guy who was drafted first overall wearing No. 9, they just want to hear from him, I'm your guy. I'm not going anywhere. Think about a lot of things.

40:42Tom Pelissero:He already said it, 2026, doesn't envision any scenario where he's not the Bengals quarterback, which makes sense. He's due about$161 million over the next four years, which in quarterback terms,$40 million per for Joe Burrow, assuming, which is a big assumption at this point, that he's healthy. That's one of the best bargains in the NFL. Mike Brown, the Bengals owner, has never been somebody who wants to trade players. He doesn't want anyone else playing with his toys. Joe Burrow's under contract for the next four years. Every expectation that even if they got calls, which they certainly might, even if Joe Burrow were to say, I want to be traded, which it doesn't sound like he's going to, but even if that happened, And I wouldn't anticipate that anything changes on that front from ownership in terms of people who are saying, well, then change out the head coach again.

41:33Tom Pelissero:That's not how the Bengals historically have operated. It would be a surprise if they were to move on from Zach Taylor, a guy who took him to a Super Bowl and took him to another AFC championship game. The past three years have been rough. Three straight non-playoff seasons. Burrow has dealt with injuries, even though, again, he didn't miss time in terms of game action last year. But he's dealt with a lot this season. He was basically not out there. That's a driving force, not to mention, defensively, you go through the entire offseason where you're at war contractually with your top pass rusher, Trey Hendrickson, and your first-round pick, Shamar Stewart.

42:10Tom Pelissero:Neither guy has played very much through the course of the season. You saw flashes those first couple weeks from Stewart. Then he suffers, Jamar Stewart, then he suffers an injury, misses a large chunk of time. Trey Hendrickson gets banged up, misses basically the entire second half of the season. They've had a lot of complications here. But you go back to the start of the offseason, what did Joe Burrow want him to do? Re-sign Jamar Chase, re-sign Tee Higgins, re-sign Trey Hendrickson. They did all of it. The Bengals have basically given Burrow what he wanted. They changed their contract structure for him.

42:40Tom Pelissero:And that's not to say that there's not reasons for Joe Burrow to be frustrated. My sense is the frustration as much as anything is at his situation. The fact he hasn't got an opportunity to enjoy playing football. Let's see where it goes in 2026. Maybe we're in a different place at the end of this season. There could well be rumors in the offseason. Again, I would not be surprised. Why wouldn't people call the Bengals about him? It is really, really hard, as Joe Burrow said, to envision a scenario where he's not the Bengals quarterback in 2026.

43:07Rich Eisen:All right. In the four minutes I have left here, what should I be looking at for this weekend? Again, I mean, massive games, Bears and Packers first up. What am I looking forward? What's in your notebook? I'll just give you the floor here.

43:21Tom Pelissero:You got key injuries for both those teams in the Bears-Packers game for Chicago. Roma Dunze has been dealing with that stress fracture in his foot, missed the game, tried to go last week, then aggravates it in warm-ups. Out again this week. Luther Burden's also out again this week, a player that was coming on. So D.J. Moore has kind of been a forgotten man in that offense, made a big play on the touchdown, obviously. that wild, still unfathomable how Caleb Williams made that throw last week. He's going to be a big part of this against Green Bay. DeAndre Swift is questionable. DeAndre Swift is questionable almost every week.

43:53Tom Pelissero:At this point, I don't have reason to believe that he's not going to play, but certainly something to monitor. And then for the Packers, I mean, this is like an old-school Patriots injury report where half the team is listed as questionable right now. With Christian Watson, he went down with what looked like a really concerning injury. My first thought. And I know the first thought of some of the Packers personnel as well was it looked like he broke his collarbone. It wasn't that. He went to the hospital as precaution, but he was able to practice on a limited basis. Matt LaFleur said that he's encouraged.

44:22Tom Pelissero:They're going to give Watson up until game time. That's probably going to be a game day decision. And then Josh Jacobs, this is also a true game day type of a decision. Josh Jacobs, Rich, has been dealing with significant injuries for well over a month now. Initially, it was a thigh contusion as well as a bone bruise in his knee. My understanding is the knee is the issue at this point. It is a bone bruise. He got hit on that knee again last week. He was going to be on a pitch count anyway against the Broncos. That's why he only got 12 carries. But when you get hurt on a knee that's got swelling, It's got fluid, the edema.

45:02Tom Pelissero:That hurts a lot. Josh Jacobs, my understanding is he was on crutches on Monday. Wow. And this is a guy who still wants to play and says if it's up to him, he's going to be out there on Saturday. It does sound like he's got a chance. They may put him through some type of workout, whether it's in the morning or closer to kickoff here. The Packers historically have been really conservative medically. They held him out of a game, Josh Jacobs, a few weeks ago against the Vikings, a game that he would have liked to play in. but they're just trying to get the knee to calm down. It's not an injury that's going to fully heal or not be an issue until he can rest for a long period of time.

45:38Tom Pelissero:That is not Josh Jacobs' mindset. You've got playoff spot potentially at stake, potentially the NFC North, even the No. 1 seed at stake in this game. Josh is going to want to go. We'll see if the team ends up letting him go in that game. If anybody's going to go from crutches on a Monday to on the field in uniform primetime on a Saturday, it's Josh Jacobs. But everybody, including the medical staff, is going to be involved in that final decision.

46:02Rich Eisen:Yeah, three college football games tomorrow. And then you also got Eagles Commanders first up at 5 Eastern, then at 820 Eastern. My gosh, Packers at Bears. Packers trying to sweep the Bears. Bears have their eye maybe on that one seed, certainly atop the NFC North. Tom, I always appreciate the time. And TJ, you're going to send the video to him? I didn't take one. It's unbelievable. I was told. You were told nothing. And TJ. No, no. The tone is the tone. You were told nothing. You broke TJ. Sorry, Tom. Tommy P. What's Tom going to post on his Instagram now? Take video now. I mean, you ruined the moment.

46:42Rich Eisen:Oh, I ruined the moment. I was just getting awkward.

46:43Tom Pelissero:I'm going to do it right here. There you go.

46:47Rich Eisen:There you go. There you go. Hey, Tommy P. This is great. Hey, Rich, can you wave, Rich? There you go. Hey, Tommy P. Tom, thanks again. My mom loves you, Tom. See you Sunday on Game Day morning, everybody. That's Tom Pelissero. See him on NFL Network, NFL game day morning, 9 a.m. Eastern time on NFL Network. D 'Amico Ryan's hour two coming up. The Ridge Eyes and Show podcast. You can't reason with the sun. Trust us. We've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. Columbia's OmniShade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's harsh rays that can burn and damage your skin.

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