Hour 2:  Raiders Analyst Kirk Morrison Talks Fernando Mendoza, plus Golf Channel Analyst Brandel Chamblee

17:31Kirk Morrison:Football is family, Kirk. Football is family. And there's the Thanksgiving week games, Wednesday night, Thanksgiving Eve. Guess what? Right here in Los Angeles, right down the street at SoFi Stadium, Packers versus Rams. I'll tell you this. I think a lot of people from Green Bay, Wisconsin, may be trying to spend the Thanksgiving holiday here in Los Angeles. Why not? Would you rather be in Green Bay or in El Segundo? Without due respect, we went to Green Bay for the draft. Tremendous people, tremendous place. Oh, it's a great place. Yeah, I live here for a reason. Yeah, a great place. I love Green Bay.

18:07Kirk Morrison:I mean, Titletown, you know, the Hotel Kohler across the street. They know me over there, by the way. Shout out Hotel Kohler. But, you know what I mean? Like, would you rather be here or would you rather be there at that time of year we're talking about? The Rams should take a note from the Sixers and they should start geotagging their tickets. That way, you know, Packers fans just can't come in vain because what you're saying is true. Yeah. And then we got three games, obviously, on Thursday for Thanksgiving. And look, I'm just I keep telling you, like the NFL sees the opportunity kind of like majors.

18:42Kirk Morrison:how do we make a regular season game feel like a major feel like a championship, even though your championship is months away, but you want to make the game feel bigger. The stage feels bigger. And I know some players are against the whole international series, but my friends at the NFL buddies of mine who work there, who just tell me if you have not been to an international game yet, this international series. I think it's nine games. If you have not been to an international game, when your team is playing, you need to go. Or if you just want to go just to go check it out, you should. Because I promise you, I've had buddies of mine that have went.

19:26Kirk Morrison:I've had friends of mine who follow their team that they've went. I've played in the international series game before. And people who have not, I think, participated in it, they may sometimes, I don't care about it. The NFL, what are they doing? It is almost as it has a Super Bowl type of atmosphere. It's the same thing when we see like the club soccer teams come here and play. The atmosphere in these arenas or in these stadiums, it's unbelievable. You get the same thing with the NFL as well. So I get what's going on. I get what's happening, especially around this time when the majors are happening in golf.

20:06Kirk Morrison:Yes, you make the little things seem so much bigger, and that's what's going on. But the best thing going right now is my Raiders schedule, because I can't wait to break it down for you. The stepbrothers, Fernando Mendoza, Kirk Cousins. How long will they be stepbrothers until one wins the job? I'll break down the Raiders schedule covered right here on The Rich Eisen Show.

20:32Brandel Chamblee:The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

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23:06Kirk Morrison:The Rich Eisen Show, man. It's so great to be here on this Friday as we've just had a week. It was one of those weeks where you had the basketball part of it, the NHL part of it, seeing some just cool things. And the one thing about my mind, it's always constantly going every which way. And I got to slow it down because I see so many things throughout the week. And I'm like, wow, like, oh, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. One of the cool things I saw this week as well, before I get to this schedule breakdown of the Raiders, this week I saw that Lisa Leslie will be getting a statue. How many statues they got at Crypto.com Arena slash Staples Center?

23:44Kirk Morrison:Like, she will now have a statue unveiled. And I believe she will join, how many other statues? Is it eight or nine? Let's see. It's a lot down there at Crypto.com. There are currently 15 statues of the Star Plaza outside of Crypto. Yeah. The Lakers. A lot of Lakers. Magic, Kareem, Shaq, Jerry West, Elger Bell, or Chick Hearn. Yep. Kobe Tribute with he and Deanna. The Kings have Gretzky, Robitaille, and Dustin Brown. Correct. Oscar de la Hoya. Oscar de la Hoya. And Lisa Leslie. And then there's L.A. King's Monument, which features sculptures. Yes. The King's Sculpture. Yeah. Marcel Dion. So, yeah, that's some of the things that I saw this week, too.

24:23Kirk Morrison:I always bring light of that. I'm like, wow, this is always sports news coming out. But Lisa Leslie, the legend of Lisa Leslie, what she's did in sports, especially USC and obviously the LA Sparks and the championships. So well, it's a well-honored, a big honor for her as well. I can't wait to see what it looks like as well. Lisa Leslie once scored, I think, 101 points in a high school game. So, yeah, get a chance to, I think, is this the first? Kirk, by the way, that was all in the first half. Oh, yes. 101 in the first half. She finished with 105. She slacked. I mean, this is a big achievement, and I think this is the first female statue that'll be at the crypto.com arena.

25:12Kirk Morrison:Obviously, you mentioned the Kobe tribute, but it's Kobe and his daughter. They have that tribute right by the arena. But this is the first woman, Lisa Leslie, man. That's pretty cool. Pretty cool, especially when I walk down in there. I'm always down by crypto.com to the big events or basketball games. So we'll see that coming up. That's pretty cool. But you know what? The schedule was released, and my phone was buzzing. My phone was ringing when the Raiders schedule was released. It came out. And the first thing that you always do when you get the schedule is, when are we on primetime? That's the first thing I did.

25:51Kirk Morrison:Okay, I'm going through the schedule like, oh, Raiders, here we go. Where we at? So you look at all the Monday nights. Wait. Okay, wait. Hold up. Oh, no, no, no. Okay, they messed up. No, Monday. But I know, I know they got us on a Thursday. We're Amazon.

26:11Kirk Morrison:Well, is this the right schedule? But you know what? Am I reading this right? Well, you know, Netflix got some games. So let's see if we go to Netflix. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. To do. Man, wait. No. Oh, ESPN. Oh, we on ESPN. They got to give ESPN. Without question.

26:33Kirk Morrison:Well, that was the first thing that came to mind. No primetime game. Zero. Zero. Zero point. So my first, this was a real reaction when I got the schedule. I got the schedule. We're on Disney now. Don't curse. I know. I didn't curse. But I had a tweet. Oh. I'll put up or the X, whatever you want to call it. You want the X like you was Des Bryant? I tweeted this yesterday. As soon as I got the schedule. The Alonzo game. We know all about the Alonzo game. Yes. So I said, when you look at the Raiders schedule and you realize that this season, all you need is Fox and CBS. Yes, I can cancel my subscriptions to Netflix, Peacock, and Amazon Prime because you don't need those channels, Raider fans.

27:25Kirk Morrison:You don't need them this year. We ain't on them. Saving some money. We ain't even on them. Save some of that money. Go on a road trip. That's what this year is going to be about. Road trip year. We're saving money on all the subscriptions because we're going on a road trip. We're telling everybody we're the underdogs this year. Everything is going to be earned. Raider fans. But this is the schedule right here in front of you. No primetime games. So it is consecutive. It is 12 Sundays in a row. 12 Sundays in a row, you get a break. Alright, we get the break. Week 13, that's going to be the bye.

28:00Kirk Morrison:Then four games after that. And so when you look at the schedule, the thought already, number one, amongst Raider fans, amongst the national media, where is a good spot for Fernando to start? Is it week one? Is it week four? Is it Chiefs versus Raiders? Fernando versus Mahomes, both returning. Like, where is the spot? Or is this all about maybe that bye week? Because the one thing that we always seen, I think, in NFL history, or revisionist history, if you want to call it, the times that you make changes at the quarterback position are usually when number one always the bye week the bye week always seems like the time like all right give him an extra week of work name him the starter he'll have the whole bye week and then you have the next week of preparation then you start him after the bye week the other like I always say is those international games every time we had an international game something bad happens always feel like you come back, a coach is fired, or a quarterback situation has changed, but the Raiders ain't playing international, so you don't have to worry about that.

29:12Kirk Morrison:So where is the spot for Fernando Mendoza? Or is there even a spot on the schedule? Because what if Kirk Cousins is playing at a level that you don't want to go away? See, quarterback changes happen because the team is not having success. We never talk about if the team is having success. Because a lot of times people point to, well, look at Patrick Mahomes. He sat the whole year. And, well, the reason why he sat the whole year is because Alex Smith had the Chiefs off to a great start that year, by the way. I believe they were like 4-2 or 5-0. And so no one's talking about the backup quarterback when your team is successful.

29:52Kirk Morrison:And so this training camp upcoming, currently during OTAs and mini camps, Right now, let's say the leader in the clubhouse is Kirk Cousins. And I would think he would be the leader in the clubhouse to be the starting quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders. Why? Because he's got the experience. He's started playoff games, won playoff games. He's done things in this league that Fernando has not done yet. And so if you want to have or be comfortable, have some faith in a guy right now, obviously Kirk Cousins right now is the present. that doesn't take away from the future, which is Fernando Mendoza.

30:27Kirk Morrison:And I get it, hey, you drafted him number one overall. He should be ready. But we do know that if you give him time and an opportunity, I think he will be okay, whether that's in the beginning, the middle, or the end. We know what the future holds for Fernando Mendoza, but we're talking about the now. And a lot of times, and I'll go with this as a veteran player in the league, because I was around when they drafted a quarterback number one overall back in the day. And sometimes that quarterback may not be ready for what it takes to be a franchise quarterback in the National Football League. That Fernando can now ease his way into that position of not only leadership, production, but what it takes to be a true professional.

31:11Kirk Morrison:Kirk, let me ask you this. The Raiders culture, right? They kind of got that triple R. New culture. It's a new culture. That rough rug in the raw about the Raiders. It's a new culture now. Guys that look like filler, right? You know, cat it up. But like Fernando comes across as like, you know, the Eddie Haskell. They're like, hey, I'm happy to be here type guy. How do you feel like that personality is going to work? If there is a new culture, is this what Raider Nation is going to adopt? Is his type of personality? Or how do you think this is going to work out? From what I've seen and what I've observed, what I've observed is Fernando Mendoza is one of the hardest working guys that I've seen coming out of college and this goes back to his time when he was at Cal Berkeley when he was a quarterback there I know a lot of guys on that staff but the first time I'm meeting this redshirt freshman quarterback and I'm like watching him on film like this guy can spin it like this guy's got the size he's got like how did y 'all get him you know I'm saying like how y 'all get him because I'm watching him on film like this guy has potential.

32:15Kirk Morrison:Now, I don't know what that was going to look like in three or four years down the road, but he's got potential. It was like, man, hey, he's the hardest worker. The guys love him. He's been our culture setter when he was at Cal. He's there for two years. Or three years. We're a redshirt, then played two seasons. Watched him out-duel Cam Ward in the game. Okay, and that was the number one overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft. or sorry, 2025 NFL draft. So I've seen him compete. Then what I saw at Indiana only stamped what I had already saw in the previous time of seeing him while he was at Cal. He brings a sense of accountability, a sense of leadership, a sense of I'm going to work and I'm all about the work.

33:01Kirk Morrison:Remember, this week actually started with the president, Donald Trump, having to give him a pass because he said, I can't make the White House visit with my Indiana teammates because Fernando's got, as the president called it, spring training. We call it OTAs in the NFL. He had an organized team activity. But he wanted to be at the OTA because he knows he's in a competition to try to win the starting quarterback job. He's like, I'm low on the totem pole. like he works and he works to a point where what the Raiders perception, I think for many years were always the guys who were cast offs or guys who obviously were, there was always something to you as a Raider.

33:49Kirk Morrison:Like the Island of Misfits. Always been that way. Like that's just what the thought process has been. But if you stick around and you're around Clint Kubiak for like five minutes, you're like, Oh, this dude ball ball. Yeah. And he's not about the bouquets. I don't want your praise. I'm all about the work. So it comes from, I think, the top all the way down. So it comes from, obviously, Mark Davis, who has now allowed, obviously, John Spitek and Clint Kubiak to do their jobs, having Tom Brady as a voice and a sounding board to bounce ideas off of and get approval and thanks and understand. Hey, what do you think about this?

34:26So like it's been a collective effort over this past year that I've seen

34:33Kirk Morrison:that tells me that this franchise is moving in a different direction than it has many years ahead of time before that. It's been constant turnover, constant turnover, and finally feels like this is something stable. Because this schedule is representative of what I love about where I think this team is headed. Because the schedule says prove it. no more are we going off to what we did in the 70s and the 80s, right? No more of, oh, man, we won a Super Bowl in the 60s and the 70s and the 80s. It still counts though, baby. I know they count, but same thing like the Cowboys. I didn't mean to bring the Cowboys.

35:12Kirk Morrison:I had to, but the mystique of what those Super Bowls once were, they're always going to be there, but at the same time, you got to show up now. You got to earn the respect. Kirk, let me ask you. You brought up a name there. When you speak quarterbacks, obviously the mind goes to Tom Brady. You mentioned a little bit about Tom there. Yeah, TB12. But let's really deep dive in this. What do you know about Tom and his position with the Raiders? How involved will he be with this QB competition? Do you ever see him maybe hopping down? Probably wouldn't do this in front of everybody, but maybe giving some pointers to Fernando though, and maybe even Kirk still at this point in his career.

35:55Kirk Morrison:How involved is Tom Brady going to be with this whole project? I think when it comes to Tom, like, he just loves football. So it's not just like he keeps his thoughts and how he played so many years and at a high level, like he's just going to be secluded, and I'm only going to tell these guys. Like, Tom Brady wants to talk football. Like, when I see him either at practice or where, you know, he may be calling a game, and I've seen him, and we have these conversations. like, like Tom is always intense. Like I never see Tom just like calm. No. Cause when he's steps in between the lines, when he's at practice, he is about ball.

36:33Kirk Morrison:Like, how can we be better? Oh, I love that. Or this isn't that. Or Kirk, what do you think? And it's like, just to have those conversations when you do see him, it's to me, it's refreshing because everybody wants to think what's his role. What's his role. His role is a sounding board. His role is to the greatest player. I know that I played against and I've seen go out and operate and work and have competed against, know what it's like, know what the process has looked like, the mind games that go on in a football game. His opportunity is to give back. Now, being with the organization, he can give back to the players in which he's the minority owner of.

37:14Kirk Morrison:So to be able to have that phone call, to pick up the phone and a player like Fernando or even Kirk Cousins, hey, Tom, you know what, man? Two-minute drill came up today. I just got a question. What are you thinking, man? You're down three. We got to get to this yard line. But what if I want to go and I saw a cover two and they shifted to a cover three? Those are the types of questions that you can ask somebody who's been through, who's seen every day. Who better to ask? I would want to ask him. Even if I was not a part of the Raider organization, If I'm a young quarterback and I have a landline to Tom Brady, I'm going to use it.

37:50Kirk Morrison:The goat line. The goat line. Like, I'm going to use it because I want to be great. You should use it. I want to be great. Like, I think about Kobe Bryant and what he talked about with Michael Jordan, how he studied and wanted to be Mike. If you want to be the best, utilize it. And it just so happens the guy who's the best at that position of all time, in my opinion, is in your building. or is a phone call away who watches what you do, that's what his role is, is to be able to listen, be a sounding board. And it's part of the family atmosphere, right? It's all a family now. Like I think before it was always one guy makes decisions.

38:27Now it's like, Hey, we all can make a decision.

38:30Kirk Morrison:We all can agree on what's next. And I will tell you this, I'm knocking on, Oh my God, I got to find some wood here. All right. I found some wood. But this has been a fairly smooth offseason for the Raiders. I know a lot of people brought the Max Crosby stuff up, right? We saw it in all the release videos. But even still, in years past, that would derail an offseason for the Raiders or even any other team. And yet it was handled smoothly, handled with grace. Max is a Raider. He'll always be a Raider. And I hope he stays a Raider. but that situation was handled off season was handled perfectly.

39:11Kirk Morrison:In terms of the free agents, the draft was handled perfectly. We all know who Fernando was going to be the number one over. We all knew, but they respect the process. They did the work and they treated it like they were supposed to treat it. And they picked the best player in the draft and the guy who fits what they need to do in order to be at the best in our organization. So kudos and shout out to the guys in the silver and black. and we'll see what it looks like. But if you're asking when Fernando's playing, I don't know. Come back to me in about a couple months. How about that? But TJ, you said we got some standout players need to break through?

39:49Kirk Morrison:Oh, yeah. Yeah, we may get to that. Coming up next year on The Rich Eisen Show.

39:56Kirk Morrison:The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast.

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40:52Kirk Morrison:That's what it's going to be now. Fernando Mendoza, Kirk Cousins, must-see TV throughout this summer when we get to the NFL and training camps, which will be opening up next. But I'll be in Vegas a couple weeks. We've got the mandatory minicamp. We'll have a little fun with that because I'm looking for – Stay hydrated. I'm staying hydrated, but I'm looking for breakout players for 2026, TJ. Yeah, you know, this morning I text you. We have a little thing we do on this day. Different things have happened on this day. National blah, blah, blah day. And I noticed today was break national, break the glass ceiling day.

41:30Kirk Morrison:So I texted you this morning and I was like, well, you know, there's got to be some players you got your eye on that you, that you expect to take that next step to break that glass ceiling to just become pro bowlers, you know, superstars this year. So I want to put you on the spot, man, but I'm putting you on the spot. Put me on the spot. I got, I got a couple of guys that just to me right off the top on the mind, number one. You're going to start with one? Oh, no, not number one. Okay, you want to go five? I just said list. Come on, man. I just said disgusting. You're in charge. You be quiet over there.

42:08Kirk Morrison:Speaking of my theme of silver and black today, Ashton Gentry has to be on that list. He has to be. Breakthrough. Because remember last year, you can't take a running back at six. That's too high. That's too high. But all of a sudden, we're taking Jeremiah Love at three. He's like, oh, that's the best pick. Like how quickly things change in the NFL. So I like Asin Gentile on that list. You had that whole thing about his stance last year. What was that on? The guy who told him to change it is no longer there. You know what I mean? So I'll just go with that. All right, so Asin Gentile. You know who my next one is?

42:42Kirk Morrison:Who's that? Because I saw the growth of this receiver last year. Okay? They traded away DK, and we saw Jackson Smith and Jigba do what? Take off. Oh, man, he blew up. Okay? The Tampa Bay Buccaneers let Mike Evans walk in free agency. So, to me, that means it's going to be a breakthrough for Emeka Ibuka. Okay. That's going to be my guy. Okay? I think that he takes off. He had a sensational start to this season last year. Yes. I don't know what happened. Kirk, it fell off a little bit. But he will be the number one guy, and I think this was now that opportunity for him. For some reason, I don't know if he's a breakthrough or breaking the glass, but I just feel like under John Harbaugh's tutelage, okay, as the head coach over in New York, Jackson Dart, this is a breakthrough for him.

43:30Kirk Morrison:I think he's learning right now what he can do and can't do. He's on my breakthrough list. He's got to stay healthy, obviously. I just like the E-man, the nickname, Nick Emanwari, breakthrough. Okay. Okay. You got that ring. I do. He got the ring. And number five, it's no list in the order. But I really believe Brian Dable is going to get Cam Ward playing at a super high level, which he did last year, too, at the end of the season. Number one draft pick. He's got a lot. But he's a little talked about number one draft pick. That's true. And I think this year is his breakthrough where we can now put him in the conversation with some of the good young quarterbacks in the National Football League.

44:17Kirk Morrison:So these are my young breakthrough guys that I love. Cam Ward, Iman Wari, Ibuka, Ashton Gentry. They got it going this year. 2026, my breakthrough guys.