Hour 2: Former NFL Head Coach Sean McDermott, What’s More Likely, NFC South Prediction, Adam the call screener Plays Bears Win-Loss Game

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1:15Rich Eisen:Get what you need in two hours or less with Express Delivery from the Home Depot. Subject to availability, order select in-stock items by 4 p.m. Restrictions and fees apply. 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. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here we go again. The Rich Eisen Show. You guys are like a joke. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

1:58Rich Eisen:Earlier on the show, the ringer NFL insider, Tom Pelissero. Coming up, former NFL head coach, Sean McDermott. CBS NFL analyst, Trent Green. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

2:23Rich Eisen:Our number two of the Rich Eisen show is on the air. Trent Green, hour three. We just had a chat with Tom Pellicero about the upcoming National Football League season. Upcoming in this hour, what's more likely? 844-204-RICH is the number to dial. But we kick off our number two of the man we last spoke with at the draft. Long-time coach in this league, ladies and gentlemen, Sean McDermott's back on the Rich Eisen show. Good to see you, coach. How are you, Sean? I'm doing great. How about you guys? I'm doing well. Let's just quickly talk about a little bit what you dropped, if you don't mind me mentioning, on the air.

2:56Rich Eisen:You dropped off the air. Tonight's a big game. We got a big game tonight? Big game in Charlotte, North Carolina. High school football. My son's team, Charlotte Christian, is playing Charlotte Catholic. 7 p.m. tonight. Tune in. Okay. Follow-up questions. Your son plays what position? He's a sophomore quarterback. Also plays baseball. But for right now, he's in football. Okay. Full-blown football. All right. And pardon me for asking, but I have to ask, does dad take a helicopter? Or can you just sit and watch? What do you have? Yeah, helicopter, that's a thought. I've never really had that thought.

3:35But I get up as far into the bleachers as I can, usually one of the corners away. Yeah. Definitely away from my wife. We've agreed to sit separate with one another.

3:49Rich Eisen:Hey, man, you have to know your system, right? You got to run the system to be successful, right? It's funny because I've had some people reach out that want to come to the game. And actually a coach that I know in college wanted to come to the game. He's not a football coach. He's actually a softball coach. My oldest is a softball player. Yeah. Headed to Notre Dame next year. And he's like, let me come watch your son. And I so I kind of I kind of delayed on getting back to him a little bit. And then he's like, hey, that's that's like I want to come to the game and watch him. And I thought to myself, you don't know what you're getting yourself into.

4:32Like, I need I need to be by myself away from everyone. I don't really like to have conversations when when they're playing.

4:41Rich Eisen:That's the way I watch football. You know what I mean? Like, I'm focused here. but okay that's pretty cool man and I look forward to you being able to enjoy those Friday nights that I'm sure you have not been able to enjoy you know because you're you're locked in you're this is this is a neat aspect of of your 2026 and how have you spent your summer Sean what have you been up to these days well how much time do you have Rich we've got a lot to I've got a lot to say here unpack it what do you got unpack it and I'm the only guest the rest of a show right so yeah we're cleared we're cleared we have some run love it clear the runway all right no it's uh it's been great it really has it's it's been different for sure um when you're a head coach or a leader of any of any sort you don't always get this space um you know to to just live life and to reflect and so what i've been doing a lot of is at least at the earlier part of this is reflecting on my journey in Buffalo in the close to 10 years that we had there, the good things, the things I'd like to do differently in the next go around.

5:51And I think that's been very, very powerful and useful for me. And then also doing some other types of reflection as well, which is asking other people in sort of a blind spot type of exercise, guys, people in the building in Buffalo who I respect, and there's a ton of people there that I respect, their opinions. Because sometimes as a head coach, not everything gets to the, I'll call it the top of the food chain, right? Every story, every truth. And so just going back and probing, because I want to know. I want to know what I don't know. And that's been very useful for me as well. And look, I want to coach again.

6:35And I want to be a head coach in the NFL. And I've got this burning desire in my heart to win a world championship and to take that to an organization and a fan base. And so, you know, I owe that to myself, but I also owe that to the next organization that I work for because I want to build on the success that we had in Buffalo.

6:55Rich Eisen:So if you don't mind me asking, what's the toughest truth you were told that you didn't know? Yeah, I think, you know, there was listen, there was so many amazing things and I was just taken back by it because you don't initially you're hunting, you know, the negatives, I guess, the things I can work on. But what came back was I was blown away by a ton of love, I would say, and it's much appreciated. But I would say the hardest truth I got was, and it hit me between the eyes, Rich, was, hey, sharing more of myself, sharing more of who Sean really is. And it's not that I didn't do that on a coaching level, but on a personal level, like dropping my guard a little bit and really just showing them my true self as a person.

7:51And I think that just comes from a little bit of getting just so focused on the job and the task at hand. And I think it happens a lot with leaders around our world, quite honestly. And that's some of what I unearthed over the course of the last couple of months as well.

8:07Rich Eisen:Sean McDermott back here on the Rich Eisen Show. And last we spoke at the draft, I was reaching out, hey, to have you come back on. And I heard, no, he's going around some training camps to pick some brains of some coaches in the league. What training camps did you hit? Who did you speak with? So I hit four. I hit one spring OTA or mini camp, and then I hit three other training camps just recently. And the first one was someone that was somewhat inside of my circle, Rich and John Harbaugh. And John and I worked together for about eight years in Philadelphia under Andy Reid. And John is known as this tremendous program builder and system builder.

8:58John and my career kind of go a little bit parallel with the fact of him coming out of a place that he was for 15 plus years. Experienced tremendous success and then transitioning to the Giants, obviously. And the one thing that was different, though, was he decided to get right back in where I decided to stay out and use the time to reflect. And so I wanted to get hip to hip with John in the spring and get over and see in the early stages of how he was implementing his systems, the different ways he was structuring certain departments. so John and I sat for the better part of two days really just shared best practices and what he did in Baltimore what he may be doing differently in New York and very fruitful time for John and myself and then from there this training camp at the early parts of training camp I flew out to LA to see Sean McVay you know you always hear about Sean I've always heard how good of a leader Sean is and how well he connects with his team, both old and young.

10:07And so I wanted to get a front row seat and watch him in training camp with his team and watch him move and how he operated in that space. And I'll tell you one thing I took from it, or the biggest thing I took from it, is I asked every player that I came across or every staff member, whether it was a coach, equipment manager, trainer, personnel department, I said, what makes Sean special? And to a person, they said his authenticity, Rich. And that just, it stood out to me. And at one point, I even walked on the other side of the practice field, just so I could kind of get along and just watch Sean move and how he was connecting.

10:50And it was just awesome to see, really was. And these are guys, Sean and the next one, Ben. And then the last one is Mike McDonald, Ben Johnson, Mike McDonald. These are guys that I wouldn't say were necessarily inside of my coaching circle, right? But what a fraternity coaching is to where these guys were willing to open their doors to me and share their wisdom. Ben and I, we met in Nashville when the Bears were practicing jointly with the Titans a few weeks ago. And we sat up for probably, in addition to dinner, probably three hours just talking about the head coaching position. But more for me with Ben is, hey, let's talk about offense.

11:40Let's talk about offensive systems. I'm going to be hiring, hopefully, an offensive coordinator someday here in the future. And I want to know more than I knew before about it. And Ben's one of the best in the business. I think he's quite honestly a mastermind of offensive football. The way he built his system is unique. And so we just went back and forth in the hotel room, meeting room, and truly enjoyed our conversation. Ben is one of the best play callers, I believe, in football. And, you know, we went against him in Detroit, and now we practiced against him a year ago when I was in Buffalo when he was in his first year at Chicago.

12:26So I really appreciate his time. And then lastly, more recently met with Mike McDonald, obviously of Super Bowl fame. And boy, the job that he's done in a short amount of time in Seattle, taking over for Coach Carroll and the culture that was built under Coach Carroll. And I'm sure keeping some of that, but also putting his own stamp on the organization. And really what I was interested in there was some of the defensive acumen that Mike has and how he's evolved over the years with his defense. But even more important than that was really just what his evolution has been from year one, kind of where they were hitting some turbulence to year two and winning a Super Bowl.

13:10And that's really what I'm after as a head coach. I've done just about everything else, but I'm after a world championship. And so I wanted to hear from Mike his thoughts.

13:19Rich Eisen:Oh, man. So I got a lot of follow up questions. Let's start right there with Mike McDonald and how, you know, the through line that I think we're finding out here from yourself, Scout, to what you said about McVay. and being authentic, right? And McDonald seeming to come out a little bit of a shell. I don't know if it's because I'm seeing him on hard knocks or anything like that, but that seems to be a development for him and how he has related to his players. But the defensive scheme side of things, because again, his defense was outstanding last year, like top shelf. And now here they come again.

14:05Rich Eisen:and now it's year three of his system. And I'm wondering, what did you glean? What's his superpower in calling these plays and designing his system, Sean? Well, you're spot on. Let's go to the kind of the interpersonal part of Mike. I've witnessed the same thing. On Hard Knocks, you're seeing Mike kind of be vulnerable with his team in those team meetings, on the practice field. And even that came across when he and I were having our conversation And I think that's a superpower in and of itself, right? Being vulnerable or not afraid to be vulnerable with your team. I mean, the NFL is an alpha league, and yet at the same time, we're all humans.

14:46And that's an important component to leadership. And with Mike in terms of the scheme, I mean, he's been around so many people in his career. And he made a great point when we were talking, Rich. He said, you know, I said, Mike, I don't remember when you were around, and I don't want to give away everything, but around this coach. And he said, I wasn't. And he kind of started smiling. And he said, you know what? He said, when you coach in college, people in the NFL talk. And whereas they don't necessarily talk NFL coach to NFL coach all the time, just because we're playing each other, it's very competitive in that way, as you know.

15:27but when you're in college they'll share and so when Mike consequently was at Michigan he talked to a lot of NFL coaches defensive coaches that that shared some of what they do and kind of some of their the way that their systems were built and so again credit to Mike and the way he's built that system it's unique to him in a lot of ways but there's also carryover to other systems that are lurking out there as well.

15:52Rich Eisen:You mentioned speaking of unique Sean McDermott here on the Rich Eisen show when you spoke with Ben Johnson you said the way that he's layered and created his offensive system is unique what what is that walk me through it well again I want to be respectful of of Ben and um you know when you build something it's just it's just it becomes your own and you know I got to know Ben the person as well and what I've seen and how I've tied what he said to what I watched on film or what I watched then when he practiced against Tennessee, Rich, was this intensity. There's certainly creativity, but there's this intensity of expectation.

16:35And it's getting in and out of the huddle and doing the little things right. And I can relate to that. I mean, it's very relatable from the standpoint of having a standard of excellence in everything and anything you do, you're trying to meet that standard on a daily basis. And he leads his team with that. And he certainly leads his offense. And they play that way. They're a reflection of their head coach. And so I was very impressed overall by Ben and the time we were able to spend together.

17:03Rich Eisen:He's intense, though, right? I mean, like, that's real, right? It is real. And I missed you one, you know, years ago when I was, look at it. I love that, man. Shirt off, right? But that's vulnerable. That's vulnerability right there. You better have maybe worked out, done a couple push-ups or something if you're going to rip your shirt off on camera, right? But no, he's a guy's guy. And as smart as he is and as cerebral as he is, that intensity relates to the players. And when you can do that and, like I said, connect with them, it's very powerful. So at the end of the day, man, he's had a tremendous amount of success.

17:51Mike has had a tremendous amount of success, and they're both young in terms of head coach tenure, and they both have bright futures.

18:00Rich Eisen:You mentioned John Harbaugh, a few minutes left here with Sean McDermott on the Rich Eisen Show and how you spent time with him and you've known him for a long time and how you were probing for what he might be doing differently. clearly he's doing something different for the Giants players who are new to the way he does things himself. A lot of talk about the number of padded practices from Giants players. What does that indicate? Why do that? Why would a coach do that and say, I'm here, I'm new. We're padding up as much as possible. We're going to, we're going to do that. Why? Well, again, it's, you go with what, you know, you go with what you believe in.

18:38I mean, listen, this is John's second go around. So he's not going to be somebody that he's not. He's not going to try and do things to make sure that, hey, people like him, for example, like, hey, taking it easy on the players. He's going to do what he believes in. And then that kind of likability grows when you're accomplishing the ultimate goal of winning. Right. So John's vetted his systems over the years for 15 plus years, like I said, in Baltimore. And he's done it at a high level. He's won a Super Bowl. And what I could tell early on was he was going to do it his way. That's always been John.

19:19And it was important for him to lay that foundation early. The thing that I love about John, too, is he's a great communicator, right? Like he may be having players and pads more than they're used to, perhaps. But at the end of the day, he knows the process that leads to winning. And so if I'm a player or I'm a coach and you're out there on the field and it's getting long, we've been out there a long time, as long as you know it's necessary because it leads to winning. So the process is on target to get you to win games. I don't think there's many people that would complain with that approach.

20:01Rich Eisen:So you're saying if you pat him up and you don't explain what it is or you're not as communicative in other areas, players are like, what gives with this guy, as opposed to I'll pat up, I'll sweat my ass off, it doesn't matter, right? That's right. Yeah, the players and everyone at the end of the day, they want to know the why, right? This is what we're doing, but we'd like to know the why. Once we know the why, we may disagree, but at least we know and understand why we're doing something. So they can attack at full speed with that in mind. Last two questions for you, Sean. Straight up sports talk radio questions.

20:34Rich Eisen:Are you ready? Here we go. I'm ready. Let's hit it. Here we go. When you've got Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett and Stafford and Puka and Devante, you see where I'm going with this. You saw him, although you didn't see Donald, right? But you saw what's going on with the Rams. How do they not win at all, Sean? The greats don't shy away from change. They attack it head on with confidence, preparation, and a clear strategy. KPMG LLP and their transformation professionals work with organizations across industries using their advanced AI to help them move faster, work smarter, and adapt with purpose.

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21:59Rich Eisen:Rich Eisen here. Running a small business means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money, but the right one helps your business grow. The challenge? Finding that person without sorting through resumes. That's where LinkedIn Hiring Pro comes in. It screens candidates so you can focus on conversations with qualified talent. With Hiring Pro, you can hire with confidence and build the team you need. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Eisen. terms and conditions apply. Do they win at all? Well, it is to your point.

22:31I mean, listen, those, I think any coach would love to have that, that lineup, that roster. And it's, it's to some extent, an embarrassment of riches, right? In terms of what they've been able to do, how they've been able to construct the roster. They have a great head coach, great GM and Les Snead and what he's been able to do there. And so the great part about all that is the influence and the impact that those players are going to have, not only on the field, but in that locker room, right? And so I think people don't always talk about that, but that's just as important as anything because that's what leads to success on the field is how that locker room is and the leadership that comes from veteran players who have been there and done that, like those guys that you mentioned have.

23:15And so, I mean, he's got built-in player-driven leadership, which is highly impactful. And listen, there's other teams out there, though, that I feel strongly about as well. and I think Buffalo. I think Buffalo. I really do. I think Buffalo, listen, when we left, we were this far away from getting to a Super Bowl and winning one. Now with what they've done, the moves that Brandon Bean has made and the activity they've had on the roster just over the last X amount of months has, I think, been very important. And so I think if you're betting on a Super Bowl contender, they're certainly one of them.

23:54I don't see why, you know, why you wouldn't bet on them because the games at the end of the day have to be played. Right. It's it's one thing on paper, but it's another thing to play the game. So is that a Super Bowl prediction? Is that it? Bills Rams? It'd be Bills Rams. That'd be a great Super Bowl. Bills Rams. Listen, people ask me all the time, hey, do you still root for your old team? And I said, why wouldn't I? Right. Of course I do. I mean, the impact that you want to have as a head coach on a team and a community, that's one thing. But man, oh, man, the impact that that team, that building and that community had on me and my family, we'll remember that for the rest of our lives, Rich.