Hour 2: Rich’s NFL Power Rankings, an NFC South Breakdown plus Saints HC Kellen Moore

23:13Rich Eisen:You took a guard out of Auburn and Jeremiah Wright, and then you stopped at the sibling store here. Next up, you got, right? You got Trey's brother, Bryce, and then obviously Sonny Styles' brother, Lorenzo Jr. Let's walk one by one here. What does Bryce Lane bring to you at the wide receiver position, do you think? Yeah, Bryce really became a pleasant surprise for him to still be available at that point. It felt like his juice and his speed obviously shows up on film. Coming from a really good program in North Dakota State, he's got a great experience there. And so we'll bring him into this receiver room.

23:50Again, it felt like, hey, this is a great opportunity to double down on receivers, build a strength for our program. And so we're really excited about it. And so that was great. And then, you know, with Lorenzo, Lorenzo's got such a unique experience. He played receiver, transitioned to defense. His special team stuff really showcased itself. And so we feel like, hey, he can create a really valuable role on special teams while still continuing to develop as a defensive player. I think he played a little bit last year certainly at Ohio State, and when he played for Matt, Patricia being there, you know you're going to be taught really, really well.

24:24And so we feel like we've got the right time out of that.

24:26Rich Eisen:All right, so now taking a look at your death chart here, you got Travis Etienne leading your running back room right now. And when I saw that, that you guys snagged him right at the outset of free agency, was that born out of you knowing that maybe Jeremiah Love wasn't going to be dropping to you in the running back class? wasn't that deep, so you might as well jump on Travis and add him to your offense. Was that part of the strategy here? I think part of the strategy, and this is fortunately last year coming off of the year in Philadelphia, is obviously we're really fast and we're moving quickly.

25:12And so this year, for us to be able to go through the process of really stacking the free agency with the draft process together, I think is really beneficial for us. Travis had a phenomenal year in Jacksonville. I don't know if all of us were close. He's had some success. So I feel like it was a great opportunity to bring him back down to Louisiana where he was born and raised. It's just a really exciting opportunity to address.

25:32Rich Eisen:Right. And then obviously you're two for your quarterback. So what's the development? You've been there and done that. You've been a quarterback in this league. You've developed quarterbacks in this league. you've also uh taken quarterbacks like say jalen hurts to a a championship and a podium that earned you the right to be sitting in the chair you're currently occupying where does shucks development sit right now kellen yeah i think uh tyler's in a great spot i think what we're really excited about and what tyler's certainly really excited about is just the opportunity to you know really to take control of this thing through the offseason.

26:13The leadership, them rallying the group together, all the different throwing sections that they're a part of and all the different competitions they have to spend together. And then we get to double down on our system. So last year, you introduced the system, you know, we build it, we make adjustments from a roster standpoint, and then we get to make adjustments from a scheme standpoint and really tailor this thing, what we want to do collectively. And so Powder finished the season off really well last year. We're really excited about that. And it's just been a great offseason start so

26:40Rich Eisen:What was a moment where you're like, okay, we saw the kid in the combine, or we saw the kid in the evaluation process, and we're trying to move the kid along here in his first year. We're giving him the opportunity. What was the first moment where you were like, okay, we got this right here? There's moments through training camp. I think it was exciting just to see him grow. I think any young quarterback, you know, you've got to develop quarterbacks. He's a little sensitive to that aspect of it. He's got to let these guys keep growing and keep getting better. You saw him do that. He had a chance to do the scout team quarterback early the first handful of weeks of the season, obviously.

27:21I thought that was a deep benefit for him. He had to test himself and himself in situations. When he got on the field, I thought his first start was since L.A. Reigns. One of the best teams in our league last year. Will be again this year. They got after us pretty good. He hung in there all the way to the end. I thought that was credit for him. And then the next week we went to Carolina and we've won one game so far in our season at that point. He hung in, played against those guys. He made some big-time third-down throws, off-schedule plays. We kind of played off-schedule and scrambled a little bit.

27:53I felt like that was like a big-time moment for our entire program.

27:56Rich Eisen:How much of your experience at the quarterback position and your journey that took you from Boise State to the Lions, If I'm not mistaken, you were in the same quarterback room as Dan Orlovsky when you first arrived in the league, right? Obviously, you have taken different positions in the NFL world right now. But how much of your experience do you bring to bear when you're talking to someone like Tyler Shuck and bringing him along? Yeah, I think just the quarterback position is the developmental position. So we all get to lean into all of our experiences. exists. I think I was fortunate to be around a number of different guys.

28:38Matthew Stafford in Detroit. Sean Hill, Dan O 'Obson was one of our backups there at the time. I didn't learn from those guys. Going to Dallas with, you know, Tony was there at the time. And then the Sox at their coaching career taking us. And so, what's really fun, what I really enjoy is every quarterback's got their different exposures, their different preferences, and it's fun to build systems around that and make these guys as successful as they possibly can and put them in the best position and that comes from you know building a relationship and spending a ton of time

29:09Rich Eisen:together well i mean also there's a responsibility uh again jim caldwell is one of the best to do it obviously um and he was the if i'm not mistaken your first coach and then you know you you bounced around a brief bit but there might have been some moments where you're like you know what if i had only been given this opportunity or if i'd only been told this um i might have actually had a longer playing career or had more success at playing is there anything like that that that you bring to your chair right now or am i off feel free to tell me i'm off yeah i think just having your experience i mean i love playing and i i loved it love that whole experience uh i got hurt one of my last years in dallas and figured out this jack trust got got it pretty good in the curries and sometimes things happen for a reason i got into coaching and got it jack became the star that he is, so things happen.

30:00But I think you get to lean on those experiences, and when you ask quarterbacks to put them in certain situations, hopefully you can relate in some capacity because you've been in those situations to some degree, not to the same degree that Tyler Shuck has been or some of these guys have been, but you get to lean into those experiences. It's a really hard position. There's a lot of challenges. There's a lot of mental wear and tear that you have to go through each other week to prepare yourself. I get to lean into all those different

30:27Rich Eisen:exposed about that are you aware that after you left the league uh as a player there was no left handed quarterback in the league until tua are you aware of that i there was a ton when i got in the league right uh and then i think all these guys got smart with the baseball and you know yeah went back into pitching and all pitching uh hitting and all that good stuff but you bring them back slowly but surely we got a couple yeah the lefty but the lefties in baseball are crafty That's what we refer to lefties in baseball as crafty, not, you know, unicorns like they apparently are in the NFL. So what would you tell Saints fans about a level of expectation for this season?

31:03Rich Eisen:Telling more. Yeah, obviously, obviously there's excitement. There's excitement. There certainly should be. I think the way our team finished last year and the acquisitions they've made, we're still growing. We're still developing. We've got a lot of young guys that won't get on the field. And so, you know, we'll just continue to go from that standpoint. But, you know, there should be a lot of excitement. And we're excited about the group that we have and, you know, families to get out of the field and start working. And what about fans that are, you know, hoping to see Cam Jordan or Alvin Kamara on your roster this fall?

31:32Yeah, we love those guys. These guys have meant the world for this organization. And, you know, we're continuing to go through that process. You know, a lot of times what happens is we spend so much time talking about our side of it. Well, players have to sit this big on their side of it, too. Certainly Cam's, you know, in that boat. So, you know, he had a really good year last year. Alvin got cut short just because of an injury, unfortunately. And we were playing good football at the end. And so it was a bummer that he couldn't experience that part of it. But, you know, both those guys knew the world.

31:59We love those guys. And we'll leave it back and we'll see what happens.

32:02Rich Eisen:All right, Kellen. Really appreciate the time here. So what's next? Rookie mini camps, right? Like walk me through the next couple months here for the Saints program under Kellen Moore. What do we got next? Yeah, we'll get into the rookie camp with these guys in here. A lot of it's just about exposure, acclimation. I think we try and control the tempo a little bit with those guys. Many of these guys, Jordan, have probably been on 20 flights in the last two months. So we've got to get these guys back up and going in the football shape. And so then we'll acclimate them in with our veterans, and we'll have a great off-season program.

32:36So we're really excited.

32:38Rich Eisen:Yeah, what's it going to feel like, do you think? You're standing out there with your whistle on the field there, and you watch Shuck throw it to Tyson. with Olave on the field, like what, you know, like you're going to start to see this come together, right? Like this is it. Yeah, yeah. With A-Chan out there too. I hope I pronounced his name right the way that he wants to know. Yeah, there you go, A-Chan, yeah. Okay, A-Chan. Like that's going to be exciting for you, I imagine. Yeah, we're excited about this. I think, you know, look at these offenses around our league. A lot of them have these, you know, two, three, you know, receiver combinations with a ton of depth behind them, and we thought that was a great opportunity for us to create that.

33:15So certainly the way Chris played last year, we loved it. We've got some other young guys that we're excited about. And so get Jordan in this mix and get the same role.

33:23Rich Eisen:All right. I'm going to ask this one. You could take it or not. What's your favorite Big Dom story? What do you got? Big Dom. What do you got? What's your favorite Big Dom story? You got one? Oh, let's see. That's a good question. What's your favorite Big Dom? I got to interview for the Philly job when Nick got the job. And Dom just kept kind of – I was in Dallas. times that Dom kept threatening me that Jerry probably hovering around every time a helicopter came by he'd say, oh, it's probably Jerry. You know, an experience in Combine with Dom is obviously always a fun experience. It's like Fight Club.

33:56Yeah, it's like Vegas, right? Just whatever happens

33:58Rich Eisen:at the Combine. The best part, I think, was Nick Sirianni and I were trying to pull Dom out of place. It was not the head coach of Nick Sirianni. Yeah, that would be a tag team. That would have to be a tag team. Yeah, that would have to be a two-person job, three-person job, I'd imagine. You know? Yep, exactly. Yeah, he's one of our favorites, too, that we've come across. All right, Kellen, thanks for the time. He's the best. Yeah, he is. All right, thanks, guys. You got it. That's Kellen Moore, head coach of the New Orleans Saints, right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Favorite big Dom story. That's pretty funny.

34:31Rich Eisen:All right. It would take more than just two people to get Dom out of any situation, for the record. Of any situation he does not wish to be removed from. Correct. Alvin Kamara and Travis Etienne on the same team you're talking yourself into the Saints here I just don't know if Kamara is going to be there right and if not where does he go where could he go a lot of teams need that type of versatile running back dude two way threat two way threat Saints could still trade him right or if he if here's the here it is uh i should have looked this up beforehand but i didn't know we were going to go in that direction yeah i mean this is last year um only a 19 20 26 trade um uh a move before june 1st cost the saints roughly seven eight million or nine million in cap space yeah minor savings after june 1st um a little under a million bucks after and and where who wouldn't want him if he is still the alvin camara that we were figuring about so then there's cam jordan too so let's just say what if camara does stay

35:57Rich Eisen:okay but even not seems unlikely but etn uh hn good lord lave Tyson olave Tyson Jawan Johnson. Bailey, Jawan Johnson. Noah Fant is there. Oscar Delp, too. Shuck keeps rising like he did at the end of last year where he was arguably rookie of the year. That could be a potentially dangerous offense. I want up here. A little bit. Can I give you a higher register here on this one? You can pretty much do whatever you want. Thank you. I'm going to give you a higher register. I'll give you a higher register.

36:38Rich Eisen:the NFC South is a sneaky good division well I had the Saints not picking in the top half of the draft for overreaction yesterday or on Monday but for a division where under 500 barely got you 8-9, 9-8 kind of wins it I got it I think it'll be double digits you gotta get double digits I'm still going I'm still going So Carolina has done a good job. They got Jalen Phillips. They crushed it in free agency. The draft, they got Monroe Freeling for their offensive line in the first round. You know, that kid Coker was on fire at the end of the season. Yeah, okay. Right? I'm looking up win totals here.

37:29Rich Eisen:Look them up, and I'll keep going. Because I've got the list in front of me. Because I'm a lead pipe-wielding professional. Of course. um okay that's you know monroe feeling is a really good draft choice and they got some great value for him at 19th overall i'll keep going um their first two picks were each over six foot three and 315 pounds and they've used a first round pick on an offensive player in five straight drafts all right according to vegas you want to guess which nfc south team has the highest win total. Atlanta. Incorrect. Tampa. Tampa 8.5. That's kind of silly. Falcons and Saints 7.5.

38:10Rich Eisen:Panthers 6.5. You know what? The disrespect is real. The disrespect is real. For real. Just telling you what the desert thinks. I understand. The disrespect is real. Yes, it is. Thank you. Am I reading this right? Yeah, you are. Boy, Atlanta just got hurt with the James Pierce thing, man. But it looks like he's going to play. I don't know about that. He has to just perform some duties in the offseason. In all honesty, based on what I read and what the reporting is on that, that's kind of nuts that he could be in that position. True. I'm not saying that otherwise. I understand. But they got A.J.

38:50Rich Eisen:Terrell's brother. That was a nice moment. That was really cool. That was really cool. Avion Terrell, Zachariah Branch, wide receiver out of Atlanta. Got a lot of playmakers. I mean, out of Georgia. comes down to Tua, obviously. I understand that. You think, brother, Tua's going to have a real shot at a nice spot for him to land. At a sticking point. That's a nice spot for him to land. That's a potential Baker situation. 100%. 100%. He's in Atlanta and he goes on the road in another dome in New Orleans and then he goes on the road like the coldest place in division he might play is carolina if their road game is somewhere in november or december yeah and it's raining and so all that stuff in miami like good luck going to new england new york and buffalo when it's freezing good luck that's like three losses yep and if that is in fact what you know i know that drives two of nuts but indoors in atlanta indoors in new orleans he's in tampa like that's that's not a bad And Stefanski with that offense and the weapons, that's not a bad one.

40:01Rich Eisen:See, I'm going up. No, I'm not even high register. NFC South is sneaky division. I just said it. Regular register. They're cold as road game. They're at Green Bay, but we don't know when that is, obviously. Boy, if that winds up in September. Right. Yeah. At Washington. By the way, Atlanta at Green Bay. This is coming out soon, too. So reeks, reeks of a Thursday or a Monday nighter in September, early October. Get your juices flowing. Yep. Fan base is feeling it. Yeah, that smells of a nationally televised game. Tua at love. You want to call it? Who goes over and under here for these win totals?

40:44Rich Eisen:Oh, my gosh. Oh, that's right. I'm not an NFL employee anymore. Screw it. Ask me. No, we're allowed to do this. Panthers 6.5. Are you serious? That is disrespectful. That is an over. Really? You don't think Carolina's going to... What, that was Fugazi last year? Rico Dattles gone? Oh, please. Okay. He was nice. Chuba Hubbard is no slouch. Okay. Hold on a minute. Let me make sure I get all of this right. I'm just saying. Hold on a minute. Let me make sure I get all of this right now. You know? Yeah. They got Jalen Phillips, Devin Lloyd. Come on, man. Okay. Come on. Saints, 7.5. I'll go under. That's pretty.

41:32Rich Eisen:Like we're still building there. We're still building. Falcon, 7.5. That's over. And the Bucs are over too. Bucs, 8.5? Yeah, come on now. Really? Excuse me. You know I'm a grandfather twice over now? Yeah, I saw it. Yeah, I don't want it. Baker just had his second kid. Two overs. Three overs. Did we pronounce it crew? K-R-E-W-E? Well, we are the crew. That's the Bucks. I know that. So they named their baby crew K-R-E-W-E. They're locked in. Congratulations to Baker and his lovely wife. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So three overs. All right. We're taking a break. Clearly, because they're rolling a break.

42:08Rich Eisen:Yeah, we got to go. The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast.

42:19Rich Eisen:Rich Eisen here. PayPal is now the official peer-to-peer payments sponsor of the NFL, which means all the money moments that fandom creates, whether splitting tailgate costs or chipping in on tickets and game day food between friends, are covered. Wherever the game is played or watched, PayPal moves with fans. You can send money through text, email, or directly to your friends with eligible accounts on Venmo. Just download the PayPal app and share all the moments that matter. Account with PayPal is required. Not available in all regions where PayPal operates. In today's world, planning ahead isn't always top of mind, but not having life insurance can leave families facing difficult financial uncertainty during already emotional times.

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44:02Rich Eisen:Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, 844-204-RICH, number to dial. Al in Dallas is joining us on the program what's up al al albert you there al this is yeah i'm here you there what's up what's up we're here how we doing so it's been great uh i haven't spoken to you guys in a while great draft coverage uh it was a hodgepodge of different things but you guys did a you guys did a fantastic job thank you and of course richard you're a lock stock professional at night thank you appreciate that out you know you know we got unfortunately guys like my tj myself brockman and we got nothing going on for the rest of the summer, so it's all about football, I guess, right?

44:40All right. Hey, my team won yesterday. Yeah, I'm out.

44:43Rich Eisen:That's all right. He's referring to baseball. Yeah, I know. I'm referring to baseball. I'm still excited about the Knicks if they show up, but the baseball is just a disgrace. Yeah, it's too bad. Al, I'm with a small violin here, as you know. Oh, I know you are. Believe me. You're reveling in it. You're bathing in our tears. Certainly since I was born in a Mets town. that I was unaware of. When you say baseball. You never forget. I like that. Oh, no. You never forget. The draft, I mean, I'm ecstatic for my team. I'm sure you're the same for yours. I think they did a really nice job with the draft.

45:22But I would be remiss to not comment on that interview you had with Les Snead and that draft pick. That draft pick could possibly go down as one of the worst draft picks of all time.

45:33Rich Eisen:Wow. You and Mike Greenberg. Come on now, Al. You don't know. You don't know. We don't know. We have no earthly idea. Richard. Yes. If you want to get a player like that in the first round because of the five-year option, right? You get four years. You get out of the year. Right. Don't you just roll the dice? You know he's not going to get picked. Or you think there's a high probability he wasn't going to get picked. So don't you trade back into the first round and then select him in like the 30s? Well, he was saying the options of trading back, you know, were drying up because who's trading up for, you know, no one was trading, you know, the Eagles traded up for Makai Lemon, but only until he dropped to 20.

46:13Rich Eisen:Nobody was trading up for Bain. Nobody. Nobody traded up for him. He dropped all the way down to 15. So his point was like, nobody was trading up. He could sit here and say, I'll trade back, but, you know, I'll trade back. But, you know, what's the point? No, no, no, no, no. I'm not saying trade back. You take a Bain and then you trade up. You trade maybe next year's first round pick to get up. Or you trade more picks to get up. I don't understand it. Really, like this kid, like, I don't understand it. I mean, listen, they know more than we do, right? And I wonder what the hell the line is. They love them.

46:44Rich Eisen:And, like, you know, in all honesty, Al, it's just like, thanks for the call, pal. Everything for me goes back to Hoosiers, right? Fans are howling. Al's howling. Smitch is howling. Rams fans are howling. and Coach Dale looks at him and says, my team's on the floor. That's what Les Snead is saying. My team's on the floor. I got Trent McDuffie. I got other draft picks coming. My team's on the floor. And everybody howling about Ty Simpson. And we don't know. We just do not know. We don't know. And if they win the Super Bowl and Stafford strolls off into the sunset because that's what he wants to do off the Super Bowl and it's Ty Simpson time right now, I'm going to be like, well, there you go.

47:25Rich Eisen:There you go. a sofi personal loan is here to help you achieve something once thought impossible overcoming high interest credit card debt walk the tightrope of your finances with one low fixed rate monthly payment no fees required and as soon as the day same day funding that's right you can pull off your own debt defying stunt with a sofi personal loan visit sofi.com slash trick to learn more loans originated by sofi bank na member fdic terms and conditions apply nmls 696891 all right that's our number two in the books when we come back what are the most absurd concepts i've heard of in quite some time expansion of a particular entity that does not need it that's an hour number three more of your phone calls at 844-204-RICH and Chase Crawford is in our green room coming on out to talk about the boys golf football and so much more that's on the Rich Eisen Show the Rich Eisen Show podcast