Hour 2: Overreaction Tuesday, Robert Kraft’s HOF Snub, plus NFL Insider Tom

25:02Rich Eisen:He could have just been like, I was sleeping on the plane.

25:04Tom Pelissero:It's not as dramatic because how far can you recline? It's like from here to here. But if you're in the lay flat seat, I had to do the full undertaker in the coffin all the way up to a 90 degree angle. I probably scared the people next to me with how quickly I popped up. You know, but that's why you got always a lot of tweet drafts in the chamber because you got to know which ones might be coming.

25:24Rich Eisen:Don't skip core day. That's it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Certainly if you want to break news, kids, tell the kids out there. Tom Pellicero, the first class story right here on the Rich Eisen show. So are we done talking about Drake May's shoulder now or what? But are we done?

25:46Tom Pelissero:It's a situation where, you know, we'll see the first injury report of Super Bowl week will come out tomorrow.

25:51Rich Eisen:Come on, the Patriots will have 15 questionable people. It's still the Patriots. They may have changed the coach, changed everything. Unless they list him as full.

25:58Tom Pelissero:Right. You're right. I mean, everyone was questionable last week. They've got that history going way back. But they've removed people from the injury report this season as well. You know, we'll see. It's something in that, at minimum, it caused them to reduce his reps last week. It does not sound like anything that people are concerned is going to drastically alter his ability to play on Sunday. You just don't know, though. Drake said it himself when he was asked about it. Somebody asked him, are we making too much of this? He's like, well, it's a quarterback's throwing shoulder. Yeah, exactly.

26:25Tom Pelissero:You just don't know until you get into the game just how much, if at all, it might limit him. There's different things you can do to manage pain in those situations. What we have to see is just exactly how functional is he. I don't get any sense, talking to Elliott last night, talking to other people, I don't get any sense that we're really concerned about Drake May. He's going to start in this game. But just in terms of does it impact him at all? Could he have a setback? I mean, we all, I think, still have PTSD from watching Carson Wentz's right shoulder injury get gradually worse and worse and worse until he's basically being shoveled off the field by the end of that game against the Rams this season.

27:00Tom Pelissero:You just don't know. Again, I don't get the sense it's something major, but it is something to monitor just because it's quarterbacks throwing shoulder and he was limited going into the Super Bowl.

27:08Rich Eisen:Okay. And Darnold's oblique. Are we done talking about that?

27:12Tom Pelissero:Not done talking about it because he's going to have to manage it. You know, it did not. I was actually pleasantly surprised for Sam that it was not more of an impact in the NFC Championship game. Because anytime you're talking about whether it's a pitcher in baseball or quarterback, anybody who's a thrower, those oblique injuries can progressively get worse. You never know if the wrong movement is going to cause it to get worse. I never saw him hampered. I never saw him, you know, wincing at all through the course of that game. Again, they've been limiting his reps. They're being very cautious because the last thing they want is, you know, an extra rep in a Friday practice, which is where he got hurt initially, was in the last practice of the week before, you know, the conference championship game.

27:48Tom Pelissero:And all of a sudden, I mean, it was the divisional game, but all of a sudden he pops up on the injury report. You're like, oh, you know, that's not a good thing here. But don't get any sense that we're concerned about that one either. Both quarterbacks should be healthy, just a matter of, you know, making sure they don't suffer setbacks in the game.

28:01Rich Eisen:Okay. Okay, so what are you looking in your notebook about for Super Bowl 60 you'd like to throw out there for everybody?

28:10Tom Pelissero:One notable injury is Harold Landry for the Patriots. I mean, that's a pretty significant player. Their leading sack guy was not able to play in the AFC Championship game. They gave him a podium at Super Bowl media night. There was one guy who was camped out with a camera in front of him for about four hours by himself, so he was very interested in Harold Landry. But I would say any time you're talking about the best pass rusher on a team who didn't play in the last game. You know, let's see. The list team is questionable last week. Let's see if he's able to ramp it up and give it a go because that's a pretty big piece of this.

28:38Tom Pelissero:Same thing with Charles Cross, the Seahawks. No reason to think that he's not going to play, but again, limited through the course of the practice week. How effective is he going to be? Now, if we zoom out just, you know, in terms of some of the macro storylines here, you've got two head coaches who have not been in this game. You've got two quarterbacks who have not been in this game. You've got a lot of people on both sides who have not been at this point. Every team's Super Bowl week is a little bit different. I know the Patriots were out at Stanford yesterday. The weather was nice enough that Elliott told us he got sunburned at practice, which is a little different than 15 years ago when he was in Dallas with the Packers and there was an ice storm and no one could get around all week.

29:15Tom Pelissero:But they were out there. They did a normal 90-minute practice. They're going through this like a normal week. The Seahawks will get rolling really in earnest on the field tomorrow. tomorrow you know we'll see who handles these elements better the weather is great here in Santa Clara I'm up in San Francisco now but it looks like it'll be in the 70s on game day so that part should not be you know any type of a significant factor but who better handles the entire week and just kind of the uniqueness of the extended pregame the extended halftime all those things you know Vrabel was in it obviously as a player he does have that experience Mike McDonald has plenty of different resources he can go to but tons of players on both sides and coaches who have not been in the Super Bowl before.

29:54Tom Pelissero:To me, that's always one of the biggest storylines is just who handles the uniqueness of this week better.

29:58Rich Eisen:Okay, and do you have a story on either side or one player in the Super Bowl? Because you were talking to John Schneider and Elliot Wolfe who almost wasn't acquired by a Super Bowl team in this Super Bowl 60, that that sliding door did in fact open up and that player is here and it's a big difference. Do you got a story on that front?

30:22Tom Pelissero:I mean, there's a bunch of them on both these teams. I mean, start out, and John Schneider took us through last night, how they acquired Sam Darnold. I know we've talked about it before, but, you know, they started at the Combine. You know, Geno Smith wanted a raise. They offered him a raise. If Geno had taken it, Geno Smith is still the quarterback of the Seahawks. Geno wasn't happy with what the offer was. All of a sudden, the Raiders pop up with an offer for Geno. They get a third-round pick for him. and gets Sam Darnold for less money 10 years younger, plus a third-round draft pick for a guy who led him to the Super Bowl.

30:51Tom Pelissero:But it was that close. If Geno had been willing to play on his deal or if he had accepted the contract offer, he's still the quarterback of the Seahawks right now. Rasheed Shahid, that was a protracted negotiation between the Saints and the Seahawks. There was at least one other team that was involved on Shahid. It ended up being a pretty significant price, but nobody right now is caring about whether it was a fifth-round pick or a fourth round pick for Shahid, the impact that he has made has been substantial for that Seahawks team. I mean, he's arguably the most, you know, the most important player that they've had in terms of just the impact that he's made really throughout the second half of the season and into the playoffs.

31:31Tom Pelissero:On the Patriots' side, I mean, there's a couple of them. Milton Williams, who there was actually a report that Milton Williams was going to the Panthers. what it sounds like happened if my memory is serving me correctly was milton williams the panthers think they've got a deal with him he's one of the highest profile free agents of course made a huge impact in the super bowl last year where he was like a backup type of player he played a bunch but he was not like one of their frontline guys for the eagles has a huge playoff run a huge super bowl has a huge offer from the panthers they think that deal is getting done and like a minute later the report comes out all of a sudden the patriots swoop in with we'll we'll do better.

32:05Tom Pelissero:We'll pay, I think he got$27 million a year. And they got him away from Carolina. Milton Williams was nearly not a patriot. It all comes back, too, to Drake May. And we talked with Elliott about that last night. He said they were never truly close to trading that pick, but they did take it all the way up to, I think I reported about 3 p.m. on draft day, they're staying. Because we all knew one, two was going to be Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels. It was going to be a matter of could the Giants or the Vikings, who both made offers, get up into number three. I know the Vikings, like the last year, the night before, the day of, they sent one more offer over and involved pick swaps and other things.

32:43Tom Pelissero:They took a good run at it, but the Patriots decided ultimately they thought they knew what Drake May could be. They decided to stand in. There's some parallel universe out there where they decide, man, we can't pass up multiple picks for this. We'll trade back and we'll take Penix or J.J. McCarthy or Bo Nix and Drake May goes to the Vikings. That's not the universe we live in. Drake May is a finalist for the MVP and starting the Super Bowl in year two.

33:08Rich Eisen:I knew asking that question would yield results. Then you stuck the landing there, Tom. But cycling through all of that is the fact that the Vikings just fired their general manager and Sam Donald's in the Super Bowl. And I understand you've said before that these things are not, you can't draw a bright line to connect both dots. There's lots of other dots and things of that nature. But what exactly did the Vikings offer Sam Darnold? What did happen on that piece? Because you just mentioned the piece in Seattle that had Geno Smith accepted the raise that was being given him, that he'd have stayed.

33:48Rich Eisen:And the Seahawks would have gone into battle with him. but what about the other end what about the other end of it tom my understanding is the vikings

33:57Tom Pelissero:offer was structured similarly to the seahawks offer it was a multi-year deal but it was really a one-year commitment if you look at sam darnold's deal with seattle on paper it's a three-year hundred million dollar deal but really they could get out after year one and that's because the seahawks their contract structure they don't do guarantees into future years in virtually every case. But it was for less money. The money was there. But more important than the money, whatever that difference was,$10 million or whatever it was, more important was Sam Darnold could go there and be the guy. He was not going to have J.J.

34:30Tom Pelissero:McCarthy still looming and being right there. And if things went wrong for Sam Darnold, then all of a sudden it's handing off to J.J. McCarthy. I think that one of the things that gets lost here, Rich, is, and I'm not knocking Sam Darnold. But go back. I think people have forgotten what the last two games of Sam Darnold with the Vikings looked like. Week 17, I believe it was, when they were hoisting him on their shoulders in the locker room and pouring water on him, and Kevin O 'Connell was standing back like a proud dad. A week later, week 18, they have the number one seed on the line in Detroit, and that was the worst game Sam Darnold has played over the last several years.

35:07Tom Pelissero:He missed Justin Jefferson multiple times wide open in the end zone. There were just red zone failures early. He flat out was off. He played poorly in that game, which then meant instead of having the buy in the number one seed, the Vikings had to go in the end to Arizona to face the Rams because I believe there were the wildfires at the time that relocated that game. And the entire offense didn't play well. So as you got to the end of it, it wasn't this no-brainer like we have to keep Sam Darnold. He's an all-pro and he's going to go to the Super Bowl next year. It was Sam Sam Darnold, as well as he had played, he had played really well for 17 weeks.

35:42Tom Pelissero:Those last two games made you go, is this the Sam Darnold that at other stops in his career, when the pressure is ratcheted up, he's come a little bit unglued. That's not happened in this postseason. Obviously, there were some things that went his way. The second game against the Rams where there were some bounces and weird things that happened in that game. Zach Charbonnet picking up a rolling ball. That kind of got the monkey off his back in the proverbial way. It seems like Sam relaxed a little bit. and he's played well after that. But at that time, at the end of last season, it wasn't like a slam dunk.

36:12Tom Pelissero:I mean, you know, hindsight's 20-20. Could you go back in time and franchise tag him? You could, but the tag was$40 million. He didn't even get, he got 33 per year on an extension. Usually you're not going to tag somebody at a number 7 million higher than what they're getting on a long-term deal because that gives the player all the leverage. And then the baseline that they would accept would be 40 million plus another 48 next year, which is the second tag, 120%. It's 88 over two. He wasn't getting anything close to that. And so logically speaking, if we take the emotion out of it, logically speaking, it made sense for the Vikings to say we're only going to go up to here because we're not going to make the type of multi-year commitment that's going to keep us from giving J.J.

36:50Tom Pelissero:McCarthy his opportunity. I've seen other complete nonsense out there, quite frankly, Rich, this week that they were getting ready to trade J.J. McCarthy and Kwasi pulled the plug, that there was a toxic environment between Kwasi and Kevin. None of that is true. And I can tell you that objectively speaking, as somebody who is pretty wired into the NFL and specifically wired into the workings of the Minnesota Vikings, Kevin O 'Connell and Kwesi Adolfo Mensah are friends. They never had a personal issue. There were things they did not see eye to eye on. They had disagreements. Certainly the way that things played out at the quarterback position was not ideal for anyone.

37:27Tom Pelissero:And everyone would love to go back in time and have the foresight to go, Sam Darnold's going to play like a top 10 quarterback and go to the Super Bowl this year. Of course you keep that guy, but really when it came down to the firing of Kwasi, it was a lot of different things in totality. They don't have a quarterback answer. They have a salary cap issue that they have to clean up. The drafts on the whole, there were certainly hits in there. Jordan Addison was a big one. The kicker, Will Reichert, was one. There have been good picks. There have been some that didn't work out. They had to figure out what the path was forward.

37:58Tom Pelissero:The Wilfs always hold these meetings a couple weeks after the season to kind of have everyone take a breath and go out there. It seems like the Wilfs asked some pointed questions. They heard very honest answers from multiple people. They decided there was not a path forward for this particular group. And so Rob Brzezinski, who's a highly respected executive, is going to run this thing through the draft. Kevin O 'Connell is certainly going to be leaned upon and his staff more in the free agency process and in the draft process than they probably were in the past. They'll run a GM search after that, and we'll see where that leads.

38:28Tom Pelissero:But it was not strictly outcome-based Sam Darnold's in the Super Bowl. Let's fire the GM who got rid of him. There were a lot of different factors. And let's also not forget, Rich, plan B in this thing was bring back Daniel Jones. They had essentially the same offer on the table to Daniel Jones. Jones decided to go to Indianapolis. They pulled the offer when they realized Jones was just using them as leverage to go to the Colts. He went there for some of the same reasons, which is there was a clearer path. You're not as threatened by Anthony Richardson as you are by a guy in J.J. McCarthy who they had just drafted number nine overall.

38:59Tom Pelissero:And you knew one way or another was eventually going to get a shot.

39:02Rich Eisen:Tommy P, you're the man. Thanks, Tom. Greatly appreciate it for various reasons. Your information is outstanding, too. I'm staying in the same hotel as you, and I'm checking out your room, and it better not be bigger than mine. King Ben.

39:17Tom Pelissero:I know that's a big deal for you, Rich. King Ben. You know what I mean? We're all set.

39:20Rich Eisen:But just to show you there's nothing personal here, just leaving you in a better spot, I can confirm in case you've heard the rumor that I am checking a bag. So you can break that. No, excuse me. You can break that news. Okay, Tom, go for it.

39:36Tom Pelissero:You got a lay flat seat from L.A. to SFO? I doubt it. It's probably going to be one of these things.

39:42Rich Eisen:It's probably going to be one of these things, but I'll let you know when I see you. I'll let you know. I'll let you know.

39:46Tom Pelissero:Thanks, Rich. Thanks, fellas. Hey, Tom. Tom Pellicero, the one and only.

39:51Rich Eisen:Great stuff right there. All right, let's take a break here on the Rich Eisen Show. 844-204-RICH. Number to dial is phone calls when we come back. The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast.

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41:13Rich Eisen:Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, Hyundai Hope on Wheels has been going on for 27 years. Every Hyundai sold, didn't you know? Maybe you didn't. Every Hyundai sold has helped fund life-saving pediatric cancer research. Together with over 850 dealers nationwide, they have raised more than$277 million, supporting over 25 ,000 kids in their fight against cancer. How great is that? Visit HyundaiUSA.com and search Hyundai Hope on Wheels to learn more, please. is that Hyundai Hope isn't optional. It comes standard. Next guest we have, we've got Tony Khan, who's going to be joining us in the middle of next hour, and we also have Mark Schlereth to tell us his thoughts about Super Bowl 60.

42:01Rich Eisen:Let's go to Sean in Cleveland, Ohio, everybody, where I believe the new head coach of the Cleveland Browns was just introduced within the hour. What's going on? Rich, how you doing? What's up, buddy?

42:15Tom Pelissero:Hey, just wanted to first off say thanks for having me. Also just wanted to mention that I am a two-time Balls Deep fantasy football champion.

42:22Rich Eisen:Congrats. Congrats. Congrats. And I did want to see what was your guys' opinion on this James Harden coming to Cleveland situation. Can it work? Is it going to happen? Of course it can work. I turn to the Clipper fan in the house for that answer. I mean, we're just tapping out now, huh? I mean, this just popped up in the middle, almost seemingly in the middle of the night last night. We're just tapping out. You're seeing Shams come up like Clippers are. I saw that. I'm like, the Clippers have actually performed well in the last four to six weeks. Like, they've put themselves on the periphery. That's not where you want to be.

43:00Rich Eisen:You want to be in the mix. Yeah, December is horrible. But they've rebounded nicely. And then it's over with Harden? are you fine with that well as I told Chris Brockman and Jason Fowler today this is Super Bowl week so I don't want to get into it this week they're 3 under 500 but if this happens and they start to dismantle this team we're going to have the very first document signed really? he's going to do it you're not signing the document he's doing it not this week because like I said let's get the Super Bowl out the way we got a lot of time but if they start dismantling now it's like what are we doing it's over I'm a document.

43:37Rich Eisen:Are you going to have no team or are you going to jump on? I'm going to become. Well, I still have the Sixers. Right, obviously. The good doctor. You should probably get rid of them, too. Maybe the Spurs. This is your release of fandom from the Dallas Cowboys. That's the Cowboys. That's been unsigned. That's never good. I got a whiteout. We can fix it real quick. You might as well just go ahead and burn that. No, I think there's a Clippers one around here somewhere. No, there's no Clippers. We've been talking about it. This is my golfing scorecard with Stuart Scott and Linda Cohn back in the day Wampanoag Country Club and West Hart.

44:05Rich Eisen:You should have that. I don't have it here. Did we ever create a clip? I didn't make that one. Get on that. Something's just saying, man. There is a trade that did go down about 10 minutes. What do we have? Sean's reporting. The Grizzlies. I'm sorry. Did we leave Sean on the phone? Did we just ignore Sean? Yeah. No, I just don't. By the way, if you're the Cavs, do you do this if you're the Cavs? I guess it depends on who they want. Well, it might be a one-for-one situation with Darius Garland. I know that. Yeah. And maybe a draft pick. And get Harden in there? But how is James Harden and Donovan Mitchell going to mesh?

44:42Rich Eisen:Yeah, I don't see how this is. I don't see that working. Well, they're going to petition the NBA to use two basketballs. Oh, well, if that's the case, they're winning. That's the only answer. And an eight-point line. I'm sorry. Can you chop this up? Because I'm still looking for the paper. Yeah. No, the paper doesn't exist, Rich, because they've never made one. The breaking news is the Grizzlies, not John Moran getting moved, Jaron Jackson Jr. getting moved, along with a few others to Utah. Oh. For three players, four players, and three future first-round picks. Utah. Danny Ainge making moves.

45:15Rich Eisen:Yeah, I know. For what? For Walter Clayton Jr. I know that. Tyler Hendricks, George Nyang, and three number ones. So they're just remaking everything and hoping it finally turns the page? Yeah. In Utah, yeah. Also seems like this is just the first in a movie. Jaws probably next, right? So, yeah. So they're breaking it up there. Yeah, yeah. The Grizzlies are getting broke. Dude, I was stunned when I saw that alert last night, too. Could have won 17 of the last 21. I know. And so now we're just going to get rid of Harden? What's going on? Well, he's been at home the last couple days due to some personal rebounds.

45:46Rich Eisen:Stop it. That means that they don't want him to get hurt. Yeah, exactly. Now you got me looking over here, too. No, trust me. It doesn't exist because it's never gotten brought up before. It's always football. Also, a rumor Atlanta might be in on James Harden, which, you know, that's keeping a lot of people through college down there. Oh, good lord. That's true. Because like I said, when Susie was here, sometimes you put places where you reinvest into the community. This is Del Tufo's bandwagon fan transfer from various other. Oh, wait. You got one in there. I don't know if Billy in Cleveland's a big fan of Mobley.

46:21Rich Eisen:He might finally sign this release of all Cleveland sports. I found all this stuff. What else do I got here? Some Jets releases over here. I've got an autograph. I have an autograph of Mo Green. I got that going on. Before he got popped? He signed it, Mo Green? Alex Rocco. No, it's the actor Alex Rocco. You never know. I need to clean out my stuff. By the way, great way for us to finish up on ESPN today, huh? They're like, wait a minute. What the hell is Rich doing? We're having food packed.

47:23Rich Eisen:And every single one is zero sugar. Tap the banner to learn more.