Hour 1: Top 5 NFL Offseason Storylines, NBA ASG/Dunk Contest Reactions, plus NFL Insider Ian Rapoport

0:00Rich Eisen:We're leaving today and entering a world of Mickey Mouse waving, princess meeting and greeting, lightsaber clashing, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror dropping, Banshee flying, Space Mountain launching, galaxy rewinding, what's the whole deck with galaxy rewinding, fireworks igniting, World of Other Worlds. For whatever you love, infinite worlds await at the most magical place on Earth. Walt Disney World Resort. So good, so good, so good. New markdowns up to 70 % off are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. And that means so many new reasons to rack. Because I always find something amazing. There's so many good brands.

0:44Rich Eisen:Because there's always something new. Join the Nordiclub to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. 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 richeisenshow and you'll never miss a moment.

1:26Now, on with the show.

1:30Rich Eisen:Well, his nickname is Showtime. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Neither of those count as a test. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. We should have. They dunk however they wish. Wembenyama must dunk flat footage. Today's guests. NFL Network Insider, Ian Rapoport. ESPN MLB Insider, Jeff Passan. ESPN NBA Insider, Ramona Shelburne. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Well, hey, everybody. Welcome to this edition of The Rich Eisen Show. Hope you all had a fun, restful, three-day President's Day weekend. We're back here in our Los Angeles studios here on our usual spots. Disney +, the ESPN app, ESPN radio, Sirius XM, Channel 80.

2:19Rich Eisen:We say hello to the ESPN viewing audience for the first two hours of this show. And then ESPN2 will carry us the rest of the way. we're here uh on the rich eyes and show where we always handle the stone by the handle you imagine if we just spent the next three hours on curling everybody but probably could probably could uh but ian rapaport is going to join us from his vacation that's how we're handling the winter olympics slightly uh here on this show our number one hour number two jeff passan joins I believe from Lakeland, Florida, the site of the Tigers spring training facility, where he'll be talking about the news that broke earlier today that Tony Clark, the head of the Players Association for Major League Baseball, is expected to resign just in time for a playing season that could end in a lockout.

3:14Rich Eisen:so there's lots going on in the baseball world. Ramona Shelbert, on what we saw just up the road at Intuit Dome, we saw actual competitive basketball in an NBA All-Star game after a slam dunk competition that should be absolutely euthanized after what we saw on Saturday night. So there's lots to talk about in the NBA world as we're waiting for the All-Star festivities to, well, we're waiting for the second half of the season to start later on this year. Good to see you, Christopher Brockman. How are you, sir? Hey, Rich. I'm great. What's up, man? Good to see you, Jason Feller. Hey, Rich. Good to see you.

3:48Rich Eisen:Mike Del Tufo is still celebrating. He's still, you know, the hangover is celebrating McKinley's presidency over the president's weekend. Is that what it was? Celebrating somebody. I mean, you got to be careful. You know, when you just get hammered celebrating Warren Harding like that, you might miss Tuesday's bell for the Rich Eisen show. How are you, T.J. Jefferson? The candle is lit. Candle's lit. You better put some respect on Calvin Coolidge's name. I didn't mean to disrespect Calvin Coolidge. By the way, do we mention No Contest Wrestling off the top of this program? Do we do this? I think being on ESPN and as ESPN's only wrestling podcast, we should.

4:25Rich Eisen:Okay, so later on today, as soon as we are done, you and O'Shea Jackson Jr. will be recording the latest episode of No Contest Wrestling wherever you get your podcasts and our Rich Eisen Show YouTube channel. Who is showing up today to appear for the first time on this podcaster? Well, we hope he appears because most of the time you cannot see him. And that is this man on my shirt. This is the 17-time world champion, John Cena. He will be in studio. Okay. With us. To be recorded. Recorded today and it will be released on our normal day of Wednesday. Very good. So that's wherever you get your podcasts.

5:03Rich Eisen:Really cool. Congrats. And the Rich Eisen Show YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Rich Eisen. Sure. So, listen, I would talk curling all day, which is just fascinating. You know, Team Canada getting the finger pointed at them. So we'll discuss that as conditions warrant. Not the index. And Ramona Shelburne is going to help us handle the NBA All-Star Game festivities later on. But as you know, I always have football on the brain here on this program. And I got a top five list. Oh, I kind of do this every year because one week from today, we will be at the NFL scouting combine and and we'll have our entire world of shows from there.

5:53Rich Eisen:And it's going to be lit. Yeah, we'll be wheels up. And this show will be emanating here on ESPN and the rest of the family of networks next Tuesday from Indianapolis. And Ian Rappaport is going to join us in 15 minutes time to help set the table for a National Football League offseason that is going to be lit, as the kids might say. Now, it was right around this time last year where we're hearing, you know, rumblings that Matthew Stafford might be having some wanderlust. And, you know, remember the Giants kicked the tire on him and he's like, OK, thanks. But no, thanks. A whole bunch of teams kicked tires on him.

6:35Rich Eisen:We wondered if maybe the Steelers would be a fit. Right. And he wound up returning to Los Angeles at the end of the day. And so I have a top five list presented by Hyundai of the top five storylines that I expect to rule the day for the NFL over the next few weeks. The NFL offseason, if you will. High five. One, two, three, four, five. Rich's top five. Here we go. I need my music right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Here we go. I need my music for my top five. Number five on my top five list of top storylines for the NFL offseason is which new head coach will get the most reinforcements. There's ten new head coaches in the NFL.

7:23Rich Eisen:Crazy. which team has a front office and an ownership group that in their internal meetings looks around and basically goes hopefully not high register you know i think we can be the next new england patriots i think if we come up with the right mix of free agents and we nail this draft that we've got a shot to turn things around right away which facility is going to be lit with activity. Who has the cap space? Who has the gumption? Who's got the general manager in the ownership group that's going to go for it? You're already hearing with Tyreek Hill apparently being released. You're seeing a whole bunch of teams kind of go for it.

8:08Rich Eisen:At least you're hearing the rumors of it. You're seeing some players maybe throw their hat in the social media ring to start getting something going. I saw a handful of Tennessee Titans folks who are blogging or rooting or whatever on my social media saying, Tyreek Hill, you need to come here because that's where everybody who gets released shows up. All these great wide receivers towards the end of their career wind up showing up here at Tennessee. I saw pictures of DeAndre Hopkins in his Tennessee Titans uniform and things of that nature. Honestly, could Cam Ward be that guy to get a bunch of reinforcements?

8:47Rich Eisen:He was the one, you know, just last year. Could he be a second-year guy? Can Robert Sala get this group together? That's just one. Can the Raiders start putting some people together? Will the Ravens start throwing a little bit more on top of what we believe to be a ready-made roster? Just add a new coach. Which new coach is going to get the most reinforcements? I think is kind of an under-the-radar, in a way, storyline of the NFL offseason number five. Number four, I'm going to remove this one quarterback question from the ultimate carousel conversation that I'm already teasing at the end of this top five.

9:24Rich Eisen:But I'm going to focus on what do the Steelers do at quarterback? That, I think, over the next month is going to be eyes on Malibu, California. Will Aaron Rodgers be out there staring at the sunset again with a blanket around his shoulders? I don't know what it was but you know is Roger and again we're going to have Ian Rappaport on here shortly is there any there there just because McCarthy and Rogers together back in Green Bay can be hooked up here for one more year is there any there there is Will Howard a possibility for them to say alright coach we hired you to groom a young quarterback we drafted one last year in the 6th round we like Will Howard we're going to send Will Howard out there I or do they draft one or do they go in the free agent market as you know Kirk Cousins is available I don't know if that would be the right fit to me I think Malik Willis would be a great spot for him in in Pittsburgh PA I kind of dig this as a major storyline number three on my top five storylines of the NFL season is what will this team do after having a rare tumble for them in their era of dynastic football?

10:49Rich Eisen:What do the Chiefs do to reload? What is the plan? Where is Patrick Mahomes going to be in his rehab by, say, the summer? Can we tell over the next few weeks what do they do at the wide receiver position what do what does Travis Kelsey do will he come back Chris Jones was one of those folks who came out and said hey Tyree Kill you should come home that was something he threw out there is that even in the cards would that even be possible what do they do in the draft do they go and get Jeremiah Love ninth overall do they get a major piece on offense through the draft like that with a rare top 10 pick.

11:37Rich Eisen:What do they do on defense? Does Eric Biennemi's return auger anything for the Chiefs over the next few weeks? Brett Veach, you are on the clock. What do the Chiefs do to reload is number three. He'll get handled when he gets handled. Number two on the storylines of the NFL season, top five storylines. Is there anything going on for real with Max Crosby? is there anything up with max crosby in vegas i know he's like leave me the f alone and i want to play football but what did he tweet today should should there be this conversation is max crosby this year's version of miles garrett a top-notch pass rusher who well i mean miles Garrett made it plainly apparent he had no desire to play for the Cleveland Browns anymore until the Browns said, here's the number of zeros with the number four in front of it.

12:39Rich Eisen:As you know, I kind of like having a little bit of fun with this bit of I'm never playing for the Browns anymore until how much? And is that what's up with Max Crosby? He tweeted today, stop making excuses. Go be great. OK. OK. I don't know. Listen, you can tweet out, you know, like you're Jalen Hurts at the podium, you know, saying things that are, you know, straight out of a fortune cookie or anything that you can do to inspire yourself. That's great. But what is up there? Is there anything up there? Was the way that his season ended where they told him you're out for the last two games truly pissing him off?

13:21Did he really say something that he doesn't want to be there anymore, even though he was there on the first day the coach showed up to have him run into him at the coffee machine?

13:31Rich Eisen:What is up with Max Crosby? And I think that is going to consume everything until at least the new league year. I think next week in the combine, I'm going to have my ear to the ground. There's going to be a bunch of people chatty cat thing about this subject matter. Number one is a kind of evergreen. evergreen but in this year i don't know how much of a rotational pull we're going to see from the quarterback carousel now i every time i think that it spins off its axis but the question is you know who's going to be the first domino on that to fall who's going to be the first cut is it tour with the dolphins is it kyla murray with arizona are those guys going to be available Kirk Cousins cut, but will he sign back with Atlanta?

14:22Rich Eisen:Because that seems to make sense with he and Stefanski having great times together in Minnesota and Michael Penix clearly not being ready potentially for the season with his knee. And maybe he's not the guy there anymore anyway. And Cousins can stay after all and finish his contract. Those are just three off the top of my head. You got Malik Willis as well. You've got a bunch of questions with some guys that might be under the radar. What's going on? Can Matt Jones be acquired if somebody's going to go and pluck him? What are the Vikings thinking with Sam Donald having left them and winning the Super Bowl and J.J.

15:03Rich Eisen:McCarthy having an injury marred up and down season in which he's now a meme in a way that nobody in the NFL wishes to be a meme? How fast will the quarterback carousel spin and where do those leave pieces? Who's going to be the quarterback of the Jets? Is Deshaun Watson and his salary that remains mandating the fact that he's going to be the Cleveland Brown starter there? I will tell you this. If Matthew Stafford retired, this would have been number one without a doubt where who wants to be the next Rams quarterback? Who wants to throw their career in the hands of Sean McVay with Cooper Cup? I mean, with Puka Nakua, pardon me, and Devontae Adams being their wide receivers.

15:47Rich Eisen:Literally everyone. You know what I mean? Like, this would have spun completely off the pinning. But he stayed put. And there's always a surprise as well at the quarterback spot where you don't see one. So I'm going to leave this one here. And this is the clear number one storyline of this upcoming offseason, to say the least. You have one more. I did not notice. Using my boy for that one. This is one more that's definitely going to be one in March after the new league year is all finished. And the annual league meeting, which is the official name for the owners meeting that's going down, I believe, in Arizona this year.

16:32Rich Eisen:And the question is, will the owners ban, do away with the onside kick and or the tush push or neither? what's going to happen here now listen the tush push came close last year to being banned this year it didn't seem to be an unbeatable play there were a couple of plays that actually were made off of it as a fake um it's boring i'm sick and tired of it to be quite frank but listen um i i it's not as significant this time around because the team that's the best at it didn't jam it down everyone's throat all the way to the winner's podium yeah right you know like the Seattle Seahawks ran it with their tight end every now and then and as a matter of fact the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl finished the postseason as being the only team in the playoffs to not even go for it on fourth down on offense once zero times they didn't do it in any of their three playoff wins this year so it's going to have less heat on it and there was actually an onside kick that worked to the Bears favor against Green Bay in a crucial contest towards the end of the regular season so I don't know if there's as much heat on this one either my guess is always neither because owners need to keep kicking the tires on things before they make a change certainly when it could be as significant as a fourth and 15 or a fourth and 13 play instead of an onside kick that one would kind of stun me uh if the league makes that move and those are my top five storylines of the nfl offseason presented by hyundai to kick off this edition of the rich eisen show that rolls on when we come back with ian rapaport tapping out of his ski vacation to tell us what he's working on in his notebook you're never you're never out when you're in NFL information, at least until I pull you back in from the ski slopes.

18:35Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show Podcast.

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20:55Rich Eisen:Not as a full-time thing, not as some big production, just something that fits into trips you're already taking. You can use the money for that dream vacation or put that money towards that outdoor kitchen you always wanted. Hosting on Airbnb just feels smart. Your home may be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host. is there does that mean that whatever happened last year wasn't pete carroll related that whoever ordered the code red for him to sit down is still there essentially ian is that because one would think a change of regime might have automatically taken care of whatever he was pissed about so i guess yeah we can sort of connect dots no yeah i mean it was it was an organizational decision and also a medical one because like he did have a major injury and i think that's what's tough and this is sort of the reason that players are not always great sources on their own injuries everybody wants to play everybody wants to play so i understand why he wanted to be out there here would be my thing he has been as loyal soldiers you could ever imagine he has been a a great raider at a time where there's not been a lot great i've always wondered over the past month or two months, does the organization say, you know what?

22:16We are going to do right by you and send you to a real contender and rebuild with the draft. That is an option. I just don't know at the end what they end up doing. I just know like for him, like, yes, you could say like things will be better, but he's heard that to be fair, probably like five times. Okay.

22:36Rich Eisen:So what do we look for? You think if anything happens we're talking about august or could this be a similar situation as miles garrett um and you know they they uh sprinkle a little bit more davis dollars on top and this thing goes away ian money solves a lot of things uh i'm not naive okay if when in doubt uh you know money Generally money. He's got two raises the last two years. Right. And I really feel like he just wants to win. So look, if they give him a big bag, people like money. So my guess is that would probably help. But I really just think he wants to be part of something that is meaningful and headed in the right direction to play good football in December and January.

23:27Rich Eisen:Okay. And what do you think the Raiders do at one overall? Is it Fernando Mendoza coming in? You connect them to the new coach and Clint Kubiak and off they go. And that might be something that could be sold with Bowers and Gente and a draft and free agency. And suddenly this is a fixable situation in that regard. Ian, that's the argument. I mean, that is that is absolutely the argument, right? It's it's draft for him and those, which I do believe will happen. You know, we're going to get a closer look. It's such a great picture. Yes, right. I love the kid. I mean, that is him. All emotion and energy, a little awkward, but all emotion.

24:07That is a great picture. You can sell it. You just did. They got great weapons. I think the offensive line was coached horrendously last year. They're going to play better because they'll be better coached. If you were to say to me, what's their offseason look like? I would think it looks like the commander's offseason from two years ago where they spend in fray and sea, but it's a lot of like mid-level guys to make up for some bad drafts. So like just fill the roster with pretty good players. And like, here's the real problem. And again, like you kind of just said it. We've seen teams turn around so quickly.

24:45Like every year there's a couple worst to first. So like, if you're the Raiders,

24:50Rich Eisen:like you know this is what they're thinking, right? Right. Ian Rappaport here on the Rich Eisen Show. So if you were in a quieter place and we were then not saying any words here and we could all hear a pin drop would we be hearing the sound of fernando mendoza's agent telling him not to throw in a couple of saturdays leaving us at nfl network all bummed or or what what are you hearing i mean i'm so biased i mean of course i mean i want i want everyone to throw i know you want everyone to throw right my guess is he does i feel like he sort of has insinuated that he might not um i i never quite know if it matters if a guy throws or not.

25:27I hope he does, but my guess is because he has nothing to gain and only things to lose that he probably doesn't throw. But, look, he's going to do the interview. He's going to talk to – we'll see how many teams he ends up talking to. It might be just one. But I think we're going to get a better sense of him over the next week or so.

25:44Rich Eisen:All right, a few minutes left here with Ian Rappaport, kind enough to get off the Deer Valley slopes to join us here. What are the Dolphins up to, Ian? you know yesterday was a an interesting day because it was what we all expected i mean i think everyone knew tyreek hill would be released um obviously bradley chubb we knew he was going to be released a bigger question for tyreek is just like when does he play again like that is as bad of a significant injury as you could get like is he able to play by mid-season hopefully i think that's realistic but we don't know um so i think that one made sense it does feel like a full reset for Miami.

26:23Even Tua himself has said a fresh start would make sense. That seems to be the direction they're going. I don't know what form it's going to take. Can they trade him? I know they would like to. But how feasible is it? I think that's certainly a question. It certainly looks like a full reset. When we were all freaking out when the Dolphins fired Mike McDaniel and it was looking like a rebuild, this is why you do it. so you can say, you know what? We're not worried about the previous regime. We're not worried about people's feelings were going to be hurt because we signed them and we drafted them.

26:56We're just going to start new. And I liked the hires they made. I think John Eric Sullivan has been, you know, a GM in the making for several years. I think, you know, the personnel staff that he's creating is going to be really good. I think Hathaway is going to be really good. They just need to start new. So my guess is that is with a new quarterback. And the only thing that's weird for me here is when yours may be good and what we saw last year was pretty promising so i'm really curious what the internal evaluation of him is going to be because they may say like they're going to add a veteran anyway but they may say like okay we think we got one and we'd like to

27:35Rich Eisen:have him go play well wouldn't this be a spot um for malik willis aren't people already saying that right like uh they are because he because he's already he he's somebody that uh has shown significant potential over the last two years when he's gotten in for the green bay packers and you know but the question is is how much would he command and i'm not a capologist i don't play one on tv i i would find it hard to believe that somebody knowing the cap in a hard place or hard rock place, if you will, that the Dolphins are in with Tua, that someone would say, let's make this straight. We'll take that contract on and not leave it at your feet.