Hour 1: Thanksgiving Day NFL Games Preview, plus NFL Network’s Kurt Warner

0:00Rich Eisen:This Father's Day, do more with dad and spend less with low prices guaranteed at the Home Depot. Get him fired up with a new grill and accessories, like the Nexgrill 5 Burner for just$299, so you can spend more time together while he becomes the grill master he was always meant to be. Or build memories with savings on top brand power tools so you can tackle projects side by side. Gift more and do more together this Father's Day with help from the Home Depot. Exclusions apply. See homedepot.com slash price match for details. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new.

0:36Rich Eisen:It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. 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.

1:13Rich Eisen: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. This is The Rich Eisen Show. I know him. Rich Eisen. I know. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Are you kidding me, JJ? How many weeks do you give JJ? I'm surprised with the struggles of it. The Rich Eisen Show. Today's guests. Pro Football Hall of Famer, Kurt Warner. NFL Network insider, Tom Pelissero. Actor, Jared Harris. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Well, hey, everybody. It's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving edition of The Rich Eisen Show.

2:03Rich Eisen:We're on ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance, Sirius XM Channel 80. The reason why I mentioned the radio first is you're just as important as those who are watching on Disney Plus and ESPN, the app, 12 to 3 Eastern. Plus, I need to describe for you, I'm wearing one of my favorite blue sweaters today. I really enjoy it. It's got patches on the elbow. It makes me look very professorial. And I feel good. I feel really good because over the next couple of days, I'm going to eat myself into a coma and I'm going to self-loathe. And is this thing on? Yeah. What a great way to start the program.

2:36Rich Eisen:Kurt Warner, Tom Pelissero, some of our favorites. We love repeat customers like yesterday. Where is Gaffigan's Booze, man? Gaffigan's Booze is somewhere around here. It's around the corner. You were so funny yesterday, Chris, when he's going off about Bill Belichick and his girlfriend. and you're like rich looks like you need a finger in that drink oh my god you were down in it pretty good during that conversation at any rate um no alcohol but a repeat customer today the actor jared harris is returning uh on this program you may remember him from mad men the terrific hbo uh miniseries chernobyl he's in uh another dynamite uh film called a you know a house of dynamite and also a show a movie called reawakening um and so there's lots to talk about with him we'll go down some memory lane uh because his dad richard harris who many of you might know certainly from um a couple of generations ago the uh movie unforgiven and from many other generations ago he's a old hollywood legend uh jared's in studio hour number three it'll be a lot of fun chatting with him good to see you chris brock hey rich good to see man uh we have a what's more likely just specific for the Thanksgiving games.

3:50Rich Eisen:Only about the three-pack on Thursday, which should be tremendous football. Okay, very good. Wow, you almost went full Rome there. Hilarious. You almost went full tremendous right there. How about that? And so I got my power rankings today. The powerful Mike Del Tufo is here. Good to see you, DJ Mikey. D is in these nuts. Good to see you, buddy. Good to see you, TJ Jefferson. Candles lit. Let's go. I'm wearing the no contest shirt that I mocked up. What do you got? In case I just, you know, NCWP. I love it, DJ. Okay. That's awesome. All right. Is O'Shea going to join us at the end of today's program?

4:26Rich Eisen:Because you're recording the latest No Contest Wrestling later on after the show today. We are. We have the tribal thief, Bronson Reed. I've even heard of your guest. Yeah, man. Very good. We're thinking about hiding our sneakers because if he could snatch Roman Reigns sneakers, then he could definitely take me and O'Shea. Ladies and gentlemen, DJ Jefferson being topical. are you ready for tomorrow's are you ready Thanksgiving contest it's been a while when was the last time you went into the game feeling great about your team and it's a monster opponent coming in it's not like some division foe that you're better than or some season that's lost because Dak's been hurt you know what I mean last week I kind of felt that because if we don't win last week than I feel like the season's.

5:16Rich Eisen:I'm talking about Thanksgiving. I'm talking about the kettle. Man, I feel like every year we're going to win that game. I'm talking about the kettle being right there in the end zone. I'm talking about the entire country sitting down trying to avoid talking politics or just avoid talking anything to your relatives. I'm talking about this big, huge game that I do believe is going to crack 50 million viewers. I really believe it. It's a big chance. Listen, the NFL schedule makers, we talked about it with Mike North, who's the major domo on this front and the National Football League, talking about how, hey, AFC North's playing NFC North this year.

5:56Rich Eisen:Those are just massive matchups. And the AFC West is chock full of must-see games. and you looked at some of the matchups as well like this weekend's Steelers-Bills matchup these are enough marquee matchups coming into the season with the Steelers also playing the AFC East and Rodgers' roll through another old spot of his like the NFC North they're like we could be able to give something of value to all of our television partners so we could load throughout the season so we could load up we could load up on thanksgiving in a way that we've never really thought that we could to goose the ratings and going into the season everybody thought chiefs at cowboys had his chance to be the highest rated regular season game in the history of the nfl And last week, the Chiefs at 5-5 with their playoff season, you know, teetering.

7:08Rich Eisen:A chance to win the division for a 10th straight time, to make the playoffs for an 11th straight time. Up in the air, all of CBS, coast to coast, was showing the Chiefs take the Colts into overtime. a game that bled into the late window where everybody essentially, if they wanted to watch what most of the country was watching, went from that game to Eagles-Cowboys, probably joined it while the Eagles were building that 21-0 lead on Fox for the entire country to show this game in front of them. And the Cowboys come back on the Eagles to continue their improbable playoff push from 3-5-1 to now 5-5-1, and a game that is annually the biggest regular season audience, the middle game of Thanksgiving in Dallas, now has the entire country having seen how both teams have come in, essentially.

8:10Rich Eisen:I think it's 50 million for sure. Chiefs at Cowboys. My oldest son's sitting around wondering, Is Taylor going to be there too? That's right. You know? I mean, it's a road game. And so coming in, Pickens doing his thing. And Mahomes coming back from 20-9. Now both teams coming back. The Chiefs a fourth quarter 20-9 deficit. And the Cowboys coming back from 21-0. Everybody saw it. and as we said Pickens is the only 1 ,000 yard receiver in the NFL to have been acquired by his team off of somebody's scrap heap because the Steelers were done with him Jackson Smith and Jigma is the only other 1 ,000 yard receiver in the league George Pickens is number two we were joking that he's turned CeeDee Lamb into his own personal Alvin Harper over the last month you know who doesn't like that sort of conversation i'd imagine cd lab who talked about his drop in the end zone and i guess those are all happening against the eagles and they were one-on-one against them that's what he had to say going on thanksgiving it's really just lack of focus on my end honestly just thinking of doing two before one and there's been plenty of that going on and by that i mean i'm thinking about my next move before catching the ball and things of that nature uh there's not really much on anybody else but myself and i've never been the type to really point the finger but yeah it's it's all on me and i gotta handle that what are those conversations like with dak when you go through kind of a little stretch like you're going through i mean you just you just find ways to get better you want to be solution oriented and not really much dwell on the problem granted we know the problem i need to catch the ball rather than that man it's all it's a we'll be fine when i do catch it just be ready let's be ready ready let's go thanksgiving middle window and in this day and age you know cd lamb fantasy 100 owned george pickens 100 owned dac 100 owned javante williams might be up there patrick mahomes travis kelsey rasheed rice let's go six and five versus five five and one you bet But Chiefs Cowboys keeping it 100 on the land and the sea and the air.

10:44Rich Eisen:That's a fate of Ophelia reference. Let's go. Or the day that the kids, you just say you're keeping it a buck. So let them know that. Yes, but that's not the lyric I was referring to. I know, but like some people might not. Okay, let's go. And then, you know, right before it, right before it, the NFC North, baby. the Bears are sitting back in Philadelphia. Maybe in the same hotel as Al. For Prime Videos, Friday game. Would Al have a hit in the back? No, he's... I don't... There's a season and there's four of them. Packers-Lions, baby. The Packers eat vegetables. For the right to keep pace with the Bears or if the Eagles do their job, maybe emerge from Thanksgiving weekend in first place of this division in which the Bears are 8-3, the Lions are 7-4, and right in between them are the 7-3-1 Packers who have not looked terrific in a month.

11:52Rich Eisen:That Steelers game where they went in Pittsburgh and Jordan Love outplayed everybody with Aaron Rodgers on the other side of the field ever since then. A couple home losses, surprising losses. The Panthers deflating loss to the Eagles. They've pulled one out of the chair. They're chinny-chin-chin against the Giants. They terrorized J.J. McCarthy. But offensively, can they put up points with somebody that fields Jameer friggin' Gibbs? And that's the way you've got to say his name these days. And the Packers, a couple years ago, Well, once upon a time, everybody didn't think Jordan Love could do it.

12:33Rich Eisen:He went into that building on a Thanksgiving, and he pounded them. And then all of a sudden, they went on some run. They made the playoffs, and they made the second round of the playoffs. While the Lions, coming off of a 15-win season, don't look like that team a lot of the time. They had a nice win streak from September into October. But other than that, it's been a lot of middling play. but against some terrific opponents. Packers win this. They sweep the Lions and can train their focus on a team they have yet to play and they love to beat in the Bears. Oh, baby. What a great way to start your Thanksgiving John Madden celebration.

13:17Rich Eisen:And a coach, Dan Campbell, earlier this week asked about the up and down play and how the Lions have not looked like the team that has been dominant in the regular season over the last couple of years. At the end of the day, it's like, hey, man, you take it the way it comes and you just try to improve along the way. And you just never know, you know? I mean, 15-2 felt great last year until you get booted right out. And it's like, hey, man, maybe we got to go the hard road and just win. Let's just win and find a way every week and grind it out. So, are your juices flowing right now just listening to this stuff and how it's all going down tomorrow, starting in Detroit?

14:02Rich Eisen:Can't wait, man. Clark coordinator, Super Dan, wearing his salty T-shirt. Every week now, he's salty. Oh, yeah, man. Great way to also start off a Thanksgiving weekend of football in the state of Michigan as well. NFC North. What a big 24-hour period from Detroit to Philadelphia with the Bears having that big game on a Friday. And it all leads off to the night game where after a week two toe injury that required surgery, everyone's wondering, could it be Jake Browning versus Lamar when that game hits? And then my Jake Browning take, yeah, it didn't go well. Maybe my worst take to date of joining the world of first takes in the Disney world.

14:56Rich Eisen:And then it looked like it's going to be Flacco, right? But wait a minute. Joe Burrow targeted next week to come back when everybody was talking about how long the injury would take. That was way back when the Ravens were only beating the Browns and nobody else. One in five Baltimore Ravens. one in five Ravens are now six and five. And a lot of that reason is because of a defense that suddenly has become quite stingy in support of a team that needs that because Lamar Jackson looks like potentially the less healthy quarterback coming into this game. What is up with him? He doesn't look like he's got that next gear.

15:41Rich Eisen:He's sitting out Wednesday practices and this week's a short week. and they have in fact run down the Steelers, who are taking on the Bills on Sunday in a big game. Steelers are rooting on Bengals in this one. Certainly the Bills would as well, because they've got a tiebreak on Baltimore, and if the Steelers do catch the Ravens, this would be helpful for the Bills. And certainly if the Bills win this weekend in Pittsburgh, they'll have a tiebreak over either one of the teams that does not win the AFC North. That might be thrown into the wild card mosh pit with them by the end of the day. But this is a big game for the Ravens to hold ground.

16:23Rich Eisen:You can't lose division games at home. The reason why they're in front of the Steelers right now is because the Steelers have lost a division game. That one in Cincinnati on that Thursday night to Joe Flacco. The only win Flacco had as the quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals because he's not that anymore. it's Joe Burrow who had this to say about how close he was to coming back last week and how it is helping him get ready for his return on Thanksgiving night yeah it felt good I needed it it felt good to get some live reps both scout team and first team and I think that'll serve me well this week having a full week where You're expecting to play, and you're going through your preparation like you're going to play, and then that doesn't happen.

17:22But it's good to have that under your belt to then go into this week where you're not going to get a ton of full-speed reps because it's a Thursday night against a team that I've played a million times. Joe, just to be clear, you're playing on Saturday on Thursday, correct? Correct.

17:35Rich Eisen:Oh, baby. It's happening. Let's go. Must Joe TV. on NBC. The NBC. Thursday night. He had this to say to people like maybe all of us in this room thinking, what are you doing? You got three wins. Season's practically over. Offensive line has trouble protecting quarterbacks in Cincinnati. It's part of the reason why you've been out since week two. And also stopping the opponent. That's been an issue as well. What are you doing, Joe? Why are you coming back? Why are you playing? And he had this to say to those who say that. You look at it from my perspective. I'm a football player. And if I get hurt, I'm going to go through the rehab process.

18:27And then I'm going to let everybody know when I feel like I can go out there and play. I don't really know what else to say about that. I'm not going to ever go to somebody and say yeah I'm healthy but I don't think I should go out there and play. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I'm not going to live my life and play this game scared of something happening. Like yeah something's going to happen. It's football. Guys are going to get hurt. Guys are going to get concussions. You're going to break bones, tear ligaments. It's a physical, intense game. That's part of this. And, yeah, I've had injuries.

19:11There's not a lot I can do about that. I worked really hard to have that not happen. But what I can do is when it does happen, I can control how I'm attacking my rehab and attacking practice and doing everything in my power to get back as quickly as possible. That's what I did.

19:27Rich Eisen:Love it. Yes, he's a football player. He plays football. He's not looking at his rearview mirror. Not worried about his toe, not worried about his knee, not worried about anything like that. He's worried about finding number one who's back from suspension. Number five's not going to play, though. Joe Burr, Jamar Chase can single-handedly end this Raven streak of winning games and winning games giving up 20 or fewer points, all five of them. He can do that with three flings of his right golden arm to number one. You know, let's go. Let's go. If the Ravens are, in fact, going to make the playoffs and win their division from 1-5, and they are, in fact, going to be one of the more dangerous teams going through December into January, they have to win games like this one.

20:22Rich Eisen:And to take on a Bengals team with Joe Burrow back, saying, screw it, this is the way you want to finish your Thanksgiving, baby. I want it to start now. We can't. We've got Kurt Warner now. This is great. Am I right? Or am I right? I'm right. I can just answer that. This takes a nice chunk out of the past. I don't know what that means. So, Rich, real quick. I know people, because I've been monitoring the socials, people are going to say, well, you're saying Jackson Dart shouldn't play, and you're saying Joe Burrow should play? That's correct. There's a difference. That's correct. We're talking about a man's head here.

20:55Rich Eisen:That's correct. And we're also talking about, we've seen enough, Joe Burrow's, you know. A concussion is completely different. Joe Barr is being paid a quarter of a billion dollars from Mike Brown, who, as you know, doesn't like spending a single dollar on people. Give me a break. Let's go. These are completely different circumstances. And I understand if Jackson Dart feels the same way about this kid, too. I get it. But sometimes it's just got to be like there's two wins, and I know that we're talking about a team with only, what, three, right? Yes. It's different. It's also Thanksgiving night.

21:28Rich Eisen:Let's go. Plus, I don't care if I'm consistent. Let's take a break. Kurt Warner is going to join us next. It's Thanksgiving. Let's go. I'll be there in person tomorrow. He'll be Zooming, but it's okay. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast.

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23:28Rich Eisen:kurt warner joining us in his usual wednesday spot all right let's jump in uh on jj mccarthy because there's a full-on full-on happening in minnesota right now and it does not look like he's going to answer the bell because his bell was rung there's already conversation about it's the same thing that happened with his ankle earlier that he just needs a break again what What are you seeing from J.J. McCarthy on film, Kurt? Yeah, you know, I did actually a breakdown. So it's on QB Confidential for people that want to go a little bit more in depth and, you know, kind of talking about some of the issues.

24:00You know, I mentioned it when we had a conversation on game day morning last week. And I think the first thing is that, you know, sometimes you just come across what I call natural throwers, that it's just it's just natural for them to pick up a football and sling it. You know, guys like Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. And then there's other guys that aren't necessarily natural throwers. You know, they've worked at it, they're good at it, but they're not natural throwers. And I believe that's where it starts with J.J. McCarthy. I don't believe he's a natural thrower, athletic-type thrower. And so the first thing that you're seeing is a lot of inaccuracies when he throws the football.

24:36Coming out of Michigan, everything was a fastball, and it was either hit or miss. And that's something that he has to work on. He's got to get better at. So it starts there, I think, with the physical. And then what I talked about in the piece is the mental side of things. And it's a fascinating thing because I don't know the background. I don't know the full details. But you've heard me talk a lot about pure progression type systems. and pure progression type systems again for those that aren't familiar is a play where coach basically designs a play and says it doesn't matter what coverage you get doesn't matter what you see you're going to read this the exact same way one two three four five that's how you're going to read it no matter what and when that happens because i'm a believer there's sometimes when you come up and you can have a pure progression play but i know without a doubt one and two aren't going to be open against this coverage.

25:28Like I know it, you know, it's just bad coverage for that concept. For me, I'm wiping those things out and I'm going right to three, four and five. But in some systems, they don't really allow you to do that. You know, three, four and five have a certain timing. So you do have to look at one and two, or you at least have to take that same amount of time before you can get to three and four. And so I, you know, I'm always talking about how I think pure progression can hurt quarterbacks more than it can help them. And so what I'm seeing a lot of times on tape is I believe J.J.'s hanging on routes way too long.

26:04So by the time he gets back to these other routes, he can't see it. He doesn't have a time to verify it or he's late on those particular routes. And so my question becomes, is J.J. slow at processing things? Is he, you know, take him too long to see and determine whether he wants number one or number two before he gets to number three? Or is the system dictating him to you got to see one, you got to see if one comes open, you got to hang here until it gets to the top of the route before you can move on to the next one. And is that causing him to go through things slowly? And so that to me is the big question I have with what's going on with Minnesota is, is it JJ?

26:48Is it the system? Is it a combination of both of them that's causing him to play slower than he needs to play? He has got to speed up the processing and get to places quicker. So, you know, if he is, wants to take a little bit more time to throw the football and wants to be more accurate and wants to slow down his body or his arm, he has the ability to do that. But right now, that is the biggest issue that I'm seeing is that the processing part of it, or at least getting to where he needs to be, is slow. Is it system related? Is it player related? That to me is a question that I'm going to continue to look forward to, you know, as he continues to play throughout the season and in his career.

27:30But I think it's a valid point because I see a number of systems built that way where you can't really speed up your process because these other guys aren't quite ready in their route yet. and it causes a quarterback to play a little bit differently, play a little bit slower, you know, and miss things that, you know, personally, if I was building an offense, I'd say, hey, if you don't like this coverage, we're getting off of that. We're getting right back to this. I'm making it fast. I'm letting you play fast, get the ball out of your hands and be able to play a little bit more successfully. So that to me, in a nutshell, is what I'm looking at when I see the Vikings play.

28:07Rich Eisen:Well, is that why he's taken a lot of sacks or is it because the offensive line is just not as good as previous years and they would have been banged up? They just had all five of them together for the first time. This time around, unfortunately, it was against Micah and Green Bay. What about that part of this equation? I would say it's still a combination. There's times where the offensive line struggled, especially this past week. But yeah, the longer you take to process information, Like if you can get back there and read it and get the ball out on time, that's always going to help your offensive line.

28:43So, yes, I do believe when he's hanging on something too long on one side and then we're asking him to come all the way back to the other side of the field and try to verify what's going on coverage wise back there before you can throw it. That all takes longer and taking longer, obviously, is going to put more pressure on the guys up front. So I don't think it's one or the other. I think there's different times where you can point to the offensive line and other times you can point to holding the football too long as well. And so, again, to me, this game is played so fast that you have to speed it up any way possible.