Hour 3: ‘4-Downs’ Bengals Preview, Cousins Named Raiders’ QB1, plus Bucs Insider Rick Stroud

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0:46Find select shelving and tote storage up to 15 % off at the Home Depot to organize every room in your home, from your garage to your attic. Visit homedepot.com, how doers get more done. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of the Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to 3 Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. This is The Rich Eisen Show.

1:32Rich Eisen:What's the line that you get the most? The Rich Eisen Show. Who wants a mustache ride? Live from The Rich Eisen Show's studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show, actor Jeremy Swift, PGA Tour winner Jackson Koivin. Still to come. Tampa Bay Times Bucks writer Rick Stroud. Your phone calls, latest news, and more. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

2:26Rich Eisen:the first round I was asked by a member of the tournament um if I was playing the tournament as an amateur or a professional um uh did I ever tell did I tell you that story yeah yeah yeah and I told I I I told the person who walked up to me asking me if I was playing as an amateur or professional uh in this tournament that it's similar to being at age 57 carded at a bar that it's a compliment that you can't tell you know my age or how good at golf i am at which point i said no i'm an amateur i need to maintain my my status you know what i mean like i i'm not gonna forfeit a member guest opportunity just to win cash at the american century championship standards and i also have a long view of things i should have brought that up to Jackson.

3:20Next time.

3:20Rich Eisen:Next time. What I did bring up to Jackson. If you missed it, what we talked about, it's going to be on our YouTube channel. It's also going to be part of our podcast every single day, all three hours. Check it out. YouTube.com slash RichEyes and show wherever you get your podcasts. All three hours also available on Disney Plus. Okay. We met, we, we mentioned it before. It's now time to reveal what's more likely here on a, on a Wednesday, Just a quick one. Kyle, Kyler Murray's first snap of the competition in Minnesota. I haven't seen it between him and JJ McCarthy. Have you seen it TJ? I purposely skipped through the video twice.

3:58Rich Eisen:Cause it popped up. All right. Is it a massive mistake? Pick six, or is it a huge touchdown pass to one of his new receivers? Big, huge bomb. literally or figuratively? Which one is it? Pick six. Ah, what do you think? I'm going to say it's a bomb to my cousin Justin Jefferson for a toddy. You are half correct. Uh-oh. 60-yarder to Jordan Addison. Woo, Kyler. All right. You're J.J. McCarthy, and you're like, damn it. Oh, no. Or? Oh, no. There's still more time. There's still more time. Kyler, 60 yards. Why did you think it was a pick six, Chris? I don't know, because usually everything's bad this time of year.

4:45All right. I mean, I'm watching Marvin Harrison drops. A.J. Brown and Drake Mayer one for seven. You know what I mean? Come on. I'm thinking J.J. McCarthy watched that and thought, let me go get mine.

4:54Rich Eisen:You know how this works. Do you remember that one year where the Miami Dolphins social staff zoomed in on a throw from Tua to Tyreek Hill? And it was that wobbly. It was wobbly. It was the antithesis of what NFL films has, that tight spiral. And that led to one of our famous drops of him then throwing a good pass. Remember that? I don't know about you, but that looked like money. Remember he did that? That was Tua back in the day. But Kyler, I don't know about you, but that looked like money from him. Oh, there is another deep ball. This time, too, Justin Jefferson. At least 45 yards. Day one.

5:36I don't know about you, but that looked like money. Kyler having a camp.

5:38Rich Eisen:He got receivers. Day one. I told you the way this is going to go. Oh, here's a J.J. McCarthy dot to Jawan Jennings. He's good, guys. By the way, Jawan Jennings being added to Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson under the radar. What if they just go like an old school college and play both guys? That's not happening. That won't happen. But you know the way I think it's going to go. Yeah. For those who don't know, I just think that they're going to be, it's going to be too curious as to what the upside is for Kyler Murray when they get him for 1.3 million bucks. It's just going to be too big, but that's going to be, what a decision that's going to be down the road, man.

6:21The Atlanta Falcons decision at quarterback right now to a verse,

6:29Rich Eisen:the aforementioned to a versus Michael Penix. They got a problem on their hands because Penix isn't ready to throw. 11 on 11 yet and Tua has uh had an aggravation of something that they're refusing to identify but uh I believe Schefter's calling it a tweaked back oh I feel they'll do so they're looking for they just signed Cooper Rush because they're looking for camp arms right now with all due respect to Cooper Rush he he's more than a camp arm but right now he's sitting at home and he's he's the first quarterback to get a phone call saying would you like to play in the National football league or at least come to training camp and have a shot because the falcons are looking for healthy guys to throw that's the way they're entering their training camp season yeah cooper russian a guy named jack strand ah that sound like sounds like a 60s like cop show russian strand or it does sound like one of those new you know those new fangled shows that you can watch streaming a new man a new guy who's on who's on the crime case it's jack strand if you could tell me where jack strand went to college you get a dollar where did jack strand go to college vanderbilt minnesota moorhead hey everybody okay and then there's the uh questions that were getting answered one by one when kirk cousins got signed by the uh vegas raiders it was like makes sense man makes sense you're you're not gonna just draft fernando mendoza and throw him on the field and aiden o 'connell's still sitting there too i get it they've been there they've done that with him um and he's a great guy to have in your quarterback room too but they weren't going to go hire clint kubiak and go into the season with we're going to either go with a in O 'Connell again and go, you know, best of luck to all of us here trying to win games because they're done trying to draft first overall.

8:33Rich Eisen:We're just finished. Got to start winning some games there in Vegas. And you're not going to just say we're rushing Mendoza no matter what. Cousins was a perfect, perfect solve. You can win games with him and in West Coast, if you will, offense. if you're from the Shanahan, McVay world, as Daniel Jeremiah says, you must at some point pay fealty to Kirk Cousins. And they went ahead and got the genuine article. And it's no surprise that Coach Kubiak said, guess who's atop the flow chart, death chart here? It is, in fact, Kirk Cousins. You know, for every position, there's got to be competition, right?

9:24The best player has to play. And that's not just what I'm going to see. You guys are going to see it in the preseason games. You know, we as coaches, we're going to see who the best guard is, okay, best quarterback across the board. There's battles everywhere on the roster. So it's important for me to be fair to the players is to put the best player out there. When we go out to practice tomorrow, Kirk Cousins is the starting quarterback. He's the guy. And he's going to get a ton of reps. And he deserves them because he's played really good football. But I want Fernando and I want Aiden to push him.

9:59Rich Eisen:Okay. So, Kirk, job's yours, but you're going to be pushed.

10:07Rich Eisen:Kirk, you have the floor on that subject matter. I think that's pro football. I think every day we go out there, we all try to work together, raise the standard every day for one another. I think every position group, we're all competing. I just think that's the world we've lived in, even going back to college, is they're going to put as many good players in a room as they can and see who can come out as the guy who's taking the spot to play. But we're all kind of then supporting one another and working together. So that's just the journey we've always been on, and it's pretty much the norm. Okay.

10:40Rich Eisen:Okay. Mike, hit it, please. What were they really thinking? Listen, I know Fernando Mendoza just won a national championship, and I know Aiden's been here for a while, and he's a good quarterback, but I'm Kirk Cousins. I've been around for a long time. I've been there, and I've done that. I know this offense. These guys aren't going to push me. I'm not going to – the only way that I'm going to be pushed around here is eventually out. I also know what time it is. This is the first overall drafted quarterback who's a really good kid, and I'm happy to mentor him and show him some ropes, but the showing of the ropes is me starting.

11:31Rich Eisen:And sure, you want to call a healthy competition coach? That's fine. I'm here to support you in that regard and talk about these guys being talented players in the quarterback room, and we're pushing one another, and I do, at the very core of my being, do believe that sort of stuff, but I'm starting around here.

11:48and scene i don't i i can't you know listen

11:55Rich Eisen:now can fernando mendoza be that uh burrow like type player let's see let's see what's going down at some point he's gonna get it you got the schedule before we turn to uh speaking of burrow the cincinnati bangles four downs uh raider schedule uh there are some tough games clearly. Weeks four through seven. Weeks four through seven. Home for Kansas City at New England. Home for Buffalo. Home for the Rams. Now you're home for three of the four. That's good. At New Orleans in two week three. I understand New Orleans finished last year in their division. But that's a tough spot to play in week three.

12:37Rich Eisen:People are going to be well oiled in the crowd prior to that game. So I'm thinking it's smart to get cousins out there for the first two months of the season and see how it goes. At the Jets, at the Niners, home for Seattle, at Denver. None of this is easy, clearly. There's not a lot of soft part of the schedule ever. You never know. Everyone always looks at Tennessee. I know everyone, when they're playing the Jets in Tennessee in the win-loss game, it's like, oh, we're going to beat them. Or Browns, okay. But you never know. But it makes sense to get Cousins out there for the first two months and let Mendoza watch him prepare.

13:19Rich Eisen:And then maybe Cousins plays the whole damn first season. I don't know. I doubt it. But it makes sense that he's starting week one. Cincinnati Bengals, ladies and gentlemen, is the next team on our four downs list. Season preview of the Cincinnati Bengals. Hit it.

13:46Rich Eisen:All right. There's so many different ways I can go with the Cincinnati Bengals four downs, starting with the first down, the end of the story, the beginning and the end of the story is, is, you know, obviously Joe Burrow, but I, I'm not going to lead with that. I'm leading with the defense because the whole idea is Burrow going to have to score 90 million points a game or not. And how good can this Bengals defense be? And the Dexter Lawrence trade is front and center in the whole damn thing. They had a 10th overall pick, and they could have gotten your guy, TJ. Caleb Downs in the state of Ohio showed the last two years what he could do, and I understand you don't build around a guy that's in the back end of your defense who could potentially step up and play in the linebacking slot and just be moved all over the place.

14:29Rich Eisen:But that said, Derwin James and Christian Gonzalez and Kyle Hamilton, just to name a few, can change your defense. Just change it. Absolutely. And Caleb Downs, you're hoping he's going to do that for the Dallas Cowboys. I guarantee it. Sexy Dexy. They go ahead and they get him. He's a terrific player in the center of defense. You can change the defense from there, too. Al Golden is back for year two as a defensive coordinator. Let's just take a touchdown and game off the board and see how that works. And if Caleb Downs is balling out in Dallas and Dexter Lawrence is not performing like the Dexter Lawrence of old, we'll have a conversation.

15:15Rich Eisen:But I'm just circling that decision prior to the draft. Clearly they didn't know if Caleb Downs would be available. Francis Mauno was taken with that draft choice that they flipped to the Giants. So if they don't protect Burrow or they can't give Burrow enough help on defense again, we're going to hit this trade again. We're going to talk about it. Second down. Let's just dive into it here. Can the Bengals perhaps focus a little bit better on protecting Joe Barrow? Can we get there? Just a little. Honestly, can we be done with watching Nine run for his life? And then we've got our hearts in our throat saying, just get up.

15:58Rich Eisen:Yeah. Just get up and run back to the sideline. Let's not talk about a toe. Let's not talk about a knee. Let's not talk about anything like that anymore. Let's just get Joe Burrow standing upright, throwing touchdowns for what, you know, could wind up being the best offense in the National Football League. If this guy can be protected and if you can take a defense off of the other on the field and take a touchdown off the other team's total. Now you're talking. Third down is how much of a microscope is Zach Taylor under? He's been the coach since 2019. Just do it. 19, 20, 21. 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.

16:38Rich Eisen:This is year eight for him. And you're like, wow. That's a long time. Dang. Well, you know who's holding that beer is Marvin Lewis, who is coach of this team for 16 years. If you think Zach Taylor has been at this job long and should have a hotter seat under him, if you think that, you don't know this organization. Marvin Lewis coached this team for 16 years. that's what normally a hall of fame coach coaches a team for john harbaugh mike tomlin now then how much of a microscope is the coach going to be under he's got one more year after this one who knows man i know this team does not like paying dead money to coaches they just don't like pink i mean they just don't like it fourth down fourth down What does Joe Burrow think of everything?

17:33Rich Eisen:Every single press conference after a win, after a loss, it's going to be, what is Joe thinking? Is he going to pull a Carson Palmer on us? Is he happy? Is he not happy? Last year, we were all wondering that. And it came out, well, the reason why he's saying all these things from a podium, it's just, well, he's just frustrated over the injuries. He's frustrated over this. He's frustrated over that. It's not frustrating with the organization. He's not frustrated with Cincinnati. He's not frustrated. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. what does Joe Burrow think of everything? What will he think of everything?

18:02Rich Eisen:Everything he says from podium is going to be parsed and looked into and the lines being read in between. And right now, I think he's having fun with it because this soundbite's clanking around from just this very day. Joe Burrow on why he picked up a telescope. What? I got a cool telescope. You got a telescope? Yeah. I just thought it was cool. just gather cool things as you get older man it's like uh i don't know just find some cool stuff that i like galaxies um nebula planets moons all the above aliens hopefully one day well he's got an alien and wide receiver you know that wow and so he's instagramming out off season 26 see you on the battlefield and everyone's like, okay, what does this mean?

18:55Rich Eisen:What does this mean? Are you out of this world? You're excited. The fact that he's into his telescope, does that mean he's, you know, he's as cool with this team and on offense as you possibly can get? You see where I'm going with all of this? I got it, man. This team has boom and bust, wouldn't you say? The bust is because the football gods will see to the fact that he's not healthy or somebody important is not healthy again because chase brown is outstanding and those receivers are outstanding and this team can absolutely light it up and if the defense is even a hair better they can win the division and then good luck good luck joe burr back in january here we go yeah i mean and shamar stewart guy that drafted last year carted off today with a leg injury and it doesn't look good.

19:47Don't look at the video.

19:49Rich Eisen:Oh, man. Yeah. See, the football gods already. That's what I mean. So it's already started. Well, I didn't do much with him last year to begin with. Let's hope it's not as bad as what you're intimating. Yeah. Yep. But that's my four downs on the Cincinnati Bengals who could win the division, win the conference. The Super Bowl, we're all talking about, hey, the Rams can get back there. Don't forget who they played in that Super Bowl in SoFi. They can do it, man. They can do it. Running a small business means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money, but the right one helps your business grow.

20:26Rich Eisen:The challenge is finding that person without sorting through resumes. That's where LinkedIn Hiring Pro comes in, folks. It screens candidates so you can focus on conversations with qualified talent. And with Hiring Pro, you can hire with confidence and then 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. Rick Stroud back on the Rich Eisen Show, everybody, when we come back talking about the Bucs and all that's going on there.

21:01The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

21:04Rich Eisen:Back here on the Rich Eisen Show. Ladies and gentlemen, back here on the program, man who knows everything about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because his name is Rick Stroud, the beat writer for the Tampa Bay Times. It's good to see you again, Rick. How are you, brother? Good to see you. Rick, what's up, Rick? What's up, Rich? You know, I think that maybe Vita thought he'd have a little more ballast in his wallet today, and it wasn't quite as heavy. Yeah, that was a weird one. You know, he's holding a blocking sled and doing all kinds of stuff, but the tweak, the phantom tweak raised its ugly head.

21:36Rich Eisen:That could be it, Rick. If he's been prepping for his, like, let's just say he keeps his wallet in the back right pocket. That's it. He's expecting that right side to weigh something. And if it's less than that and he takes one step with his left, that could tweak. That could tweak anybody, you know? Yeah, absolutely. I think that's part of the mystery right here. It's been a weird, you know, I thought I would ease into the new season on Monday and then Vita says he wants to be traded. Then Tuesday Baker, you know, cuts off his negotiations and he comes back and I'm going to bet on himself again and play under his current contract.

22:12So never a dull moment down here in Tampa, man.

22:15Rich Eisen:All right, let's take it one at a time. Let's start with Baker. What's the number? What's the number that they couldn't get to, do you think? Well, I'm not sure the number. I would think that if I'm them, in particular his agent, Tom Mills, I think it starts with a five. From what I understand, you know, they made – Bakerside made some concessions in terms of length of the deal, you know, whether that's that he wanted three years and then he moved to you know to two or four three excuse me I don't know what's going on my voice but you know I think to be honest with you there might be a little sticker shock for the Glazers at the quarterback position they've never really paid one of these guys I mean Baker's gonna make 40 million dollars this year when Tom Brady showed up and we all know that he does the discounted thing right he only got 25 million and that was just a few short years ago.

23:04Now, you know, he did, you know, have a TB12 down the street that the entire team went to that the ball club paid for, for all his players to go there. But I'm not sure the Bucs have ever really, you know, paid this kind of money for a quarterback. So maybe it's just a matter of the Glazers settling in and understanding this is the market for these guys. And, you know, but Baker, you back them in a corner, they know he's going to fight. They know he's going to play his ass off. And, you know, the question is what happens if he does have a great season, you're happy, but then could he say, well, you didn't believe in me a year ago or when the season started, I'm going to find a new home.