Hour 3: Aaron Rodgers Update, Jerry Talks Pickens Extension, plus FOX Sports’ Mark Schlereth

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0:56Rich Eisen: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 When you turn the ball over really three drives in a row, it's like, alright Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles Picked off in the end zone by Carolina Intercepted by Hornigan Earlier on the show Michigan head coach, Sharon Moore Comedian, Jim Gaffigan Coming up Fox Sports NFL analyst, Mark Schlereth And now, it's Rich Eisen.

1:57Rich Eisen:Our number three of the Rich Eisen show is on the air. Jim Gaffigan just left us. I believe he's at LAX right now, which is great. I mean, we're very convenient to there. As a matter of fact, as soon as I'm done here, I'm heading there to pick Suze and Taylor up from the airport. They're back from New York City, which means you had your shot to have her drop something off at Carl Anthony Townsend's place of business. By the way, I can't believe I don't understand. I'm not taking your shot. You don't understand. But if you look at YouTube, I went to the YouTube video. Smich posted overwhelmingly the comments were on my side.

2:32Oh, about not like we split with them. It's a regular season game. Like it's all.

2:37Rich Eisen:But he did the same thing to you. Sometimes you're going to be above the fray. Didn't we talk about that earlier? There wasn't even an Eagles. He did it without even an Eagles game. In the game, after the Lions blew the Cowboys out, he sent you something. So it wasn't even his argument to stake a claim in. All the Cornwall Eagles fans are like, oh, that's such a Super Bowl. No. Beating us is their Super Bowl, obviously, because they all took so much joy from winning a regular season game. I just don't understand it. But anyway, it's a great promotion for our YouTube channel. YouTube.com slash RichEyesandShow to see that video.

3:17Rich Eisen:The comments were hot. on all that. Okay, very good. We always appreciate the engagement. It's called engagement. Overwhelmingly on my side. Okay, it's called engagement. By the way, this bourbon going in smooth. So good. Let's take a nap here. Okay. Drinking on the job here with Jim Gaffigan. Where's the booze? Brought like mud around here. Thank you, Chris. He brought his bourbon. In hour one, we had Sharon Moore, the University of Michigan football program on. If you missed any of it, there's our podcast. I was fair and balanced. Unbiased. No, that's again. No, you weren't biased. That was great.

3:54Rich Eisen:Please stop drinking and talking on the job. That was Thanksgiving. We've already had people around here who did that. Oh, wow. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial here on the program. Joining us now from Fox Sports is our friend Mark Schlereth back here in the program. Good to see you, Mark. How are you, sir? Hey. I'm doing great, man. How are you? Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Right. Really good to see you, Mark. Love it. Have you been in a situation where somebody hit you in your spot, the forbidden speed bag, as Juwan had his Jennings hit last night? Mark, has that been happened to you again?

4:26The old proverbial got hit in the coin purse? No. I've been okay with that. Every now and again, you'll get an accidental grundle shot. But no, no, I have not. I have not hit anybody there, and I have not been hit there.

4:45Rich Eisen:I don't know what's going on in this league, man. And then it's, you know, take shots after the game, which, by the way, is going to happen if you're trying to maintain composure during the game. And I'm sure the NFL doesn't want these handshake moments to be overtaken by open hand slapping, but we've seen that now three times this year or twice this year, and obviously we saw what happened last week with the Steelers and the Bengals a couple weeks ago. Yeah, well, I mean, is there any correlation between not allowing the NFL to have some frontier justice anymore and to take matters into your own hands between the whistle?

5:26It used to be a day when you got a cheap shot or you had something you didn't like happen. Then you just kind of tally that. You had a tally in your head and you said, okay, that's great if that's the way we're going to do this. but just know you're going to get yours here in the next couple of plays. And it was just the way it was done. And we kind of policed our own league that way. And now, because, you know, you can't do any of that stuff, do guys get, you know, overly frustrated and then have to take matters in their own hands after the game when things don't, you know, when normally things calm down.

6:00So I don't know. I mean, I don't know if that's the right answer or not.

6:03Rich Eisen:No, I don't know if there is an answer for it. I just wanted to know if you had any experience in that sort of thing. All right, so Mark Schlereth, Carolina, Minnesota, New Orleans, who you are seeing this week, played the Dolphins, as you're calling that game on Fox, and then San Francisco. Those are the only teams that have buys left, no buys this week on Thanksgiving week, and then those are the four teams in week 14, meaning those are the only four teams that have five games left. Everybody else, it's a six-game run to the playoffs from their current positions or playing out strings. That said, is the setup.

6:38Rich Eisen:Taking a look at the standings in each conference just to set everything up. Start with the NFC. Rams are, in my estimation, the best team in football. But I came to know your thoughts on the subject matter. And then you've got eight and three teams in Philadelphia and Chicago as your division leaders. Seattle as the top wildcard team. The Bucs hanging on as everybody's dropping there. Maybe they get Bucky Irving back. They currently lead the NFC. You got the Seahawks at 8-3 Packers, 7-3 and 4 Niners, 8-4 with the Lions at 7-4. Cowboys at 5-5 and 1. My setup for you, sir. What are you looking to see over the last six weeks in the NFC?

7:22Rich Eisen:What are you most curious about in the NFC? What you need to see or you're eager to look forward to over the last six weeks? Yeah, well, the NFC West is just unreal, right? It was San Francisco winning last night. Didn't look good. You know, Brock Perry throwing three interceptions. But the NFC West with the Rams, and I agree with you, they look like the best team in football without question. I think the Seahawks are a really good football team, very balanced. Think about the decisions that they have made as just an organization. And, you know, John Schneider has done just such an unbelievable job.

7:59One, he said, hey, man, it's time for Pete Carroll. You know, we're going to part ways with Pete Carroll. brings in mcdonald um you know mcdonald's done a phenomenal job uh gets rid of dk medcap makes the decision on sam darnold says hey man sam darnold the one thing about this dude is he's just a dude like we love him he's a dude and guys respect his journey guys respect the work that he's put in to get where he's at all these decisions that you made to say hey dk mcapp you've been our number one guy but we think smith and jigba is going to take off and he has just been as exceptional as anybody in football.

8:35So they're a really good team. I would probably put them as the second best team in the NFC right now. And then you've got a bunch of other teams fighting for their spot. But the Rams clearly the best right now. And I think Seattle is really intriguing to me as well.

8:54Rich Eisen:I would go with the NFC North. I can't wait to see how this plays out. You've got the Bears at 8-3 and then a half game behind of the Packers and one game behind of the Lions who play the Bears in Chicago to finish the season. The Packers have yet to play the Bears at all. They play them twice. And the Lions take on the Packers on Thanksgiving. How this thing plays out is fascinating to me because what you just said in the NFC West, you can't get three teams in from both divisions. Somebody's going to be left without a chair. and the Cowboys have come on strong. We'll see how that plays out with the Chiefs on Thanksgiving Day.

9:34Rich Eisen:I'm curious to see how the North finishes up. That's my big question mark over the last six weeks here. Yeah, I was looking at Chicago today, and I just kept thinking to myself, man, there's no way Chicago, can they continue on this run? And you look at their last six weeks, man, they have got a brutal schedule with a couple games you mentioned against the Packers, Detroit to finish up, they've got Philadelphia. like every team they have coming up you see it Cleveland is probably the only one there but San Francisco playing pretty good football right now um albeit the three interceptions that Brock pretty through last night like that's a that's a uh that's a brutal schedule coming down the stretch for the Chicago Bears but you also point out it's a linchpin of not just again the NFC North but also the NFC playoff picture certainly you know they're taking on Philadelphia this weekend battle of the Eastern and Northern division leaders of Thanksgiving week, the two and three seeds in the NFC.

10:30Rich Eisen:And if they don't win the division, Chicago, based on other results, that San Francisco game could be about who has the seat and who doesn't in the wild card, right? Like that game itself. So that's a huge, I mean, Chicago might be the through line here. If you think about it, it's, it's, it really is. It's really fascinating how tightly packed all these teams are at the top of their divisions. And it'll be fascinating to watch it as, as you know, the NFL does such a great job of scheduling things and making sure that all these games, all these divisional games, for the most part are late and they're meaningful.

11:03And certainly we have that in the NFC North.

11:06Rich Eisen:All right, let's talk about the AFC playoff picture entering Thanksgiving weekend. You've got the Patriots is the only 10 win team. How about that? Yeah, that's the entire NFL. The Patriots are the only 10 win team. You've got the Broncos one-half game behind them coming off of their bye. The Colts just lost to the Chiefs, who are at 6-5, the 10 seed. I mean, the Chiefs being the 10 seed, the Ravens have, in fact, run down the Steelers. We were all thinking at 1-5, can they do it? Well, entering Thanksgiving week, taking on the Bengals on Thanksgiving night, they have. The Chargers are coming off of their bye.

11:42Rich Eisen:The Jaguars have just won a bunch of games by the skin of their teeth. Their only loss since their bye after the London loss was a game that they led by 19 points. The Texans have come on strong. They're above 500. And the Bills face the Steelers this week. So what do you want to see out of the final six weeks in the AFC? Your biggest question is what? Well, my biggest question, I suppose, like, I really like the teams that stack the top. I like, obviously, the New England Patriots. And you can say what you want. Brable's a hell of a coach. He believes in old school football controlling both lines of scrimmage.

12:18You can say whatever you want about Josh McDaniels as a head coach, as an offensive coordinator, the guy is phenomenal. He's just phenomenal. And Drake Mays playing at an incredibly high level. The Broncos defensively. I mean, when you start talking about the Broncos or any team and you start marketing back to the 1985 Bears, like like anybody and there's i'm sure you have tons of people who watch you that that don't really or aren't really familiar what what the 85 bears did but let me just say coming in the league in 89 and playing the bears they were frightening even then and when you start talking about a team in present-day football that that you can compare to the 85 bears when it comes to pressuring the opponent's quarterback that team is legit they are scary the broncos defensively and they've been doing it without you know without pat sertan they've been doing it without alex singleton so that'll be really interesting to see them down the stretch um and you know i i we talked about baltimore i'm telling you like baltimore is interesting houston is really interesting to me because defensively all three levels they have superstars and will anderson and daniel hunter like unbelievable edge pairing but will anderson he he doesn't try to just beat you he tries to humiliate you like he physically tries to to to like shorten your neck i mean it's to watch him play the physicality with which he plays is unbelievable and i am not so sure they are going to get they're going to get cj stroud back and i'm not so sure that the way davis mills has been playing that he's not a better option right now he's really yeah he's really played he's just played really good solid football that complements what they do on the defensive side of the ball so they're a really interesting team to me and if if the colts stumble a little bit down the stretch here you know all of a sudden they start to stumble their passing game falls apart like it did in the fourth quarter in overtime of that game against Kansas City could I see Houston reeling the Colts in and winning their what fourth straight division title that'll be interesting

14:39Rich Eisen:yeah and the Jaguars are between them um yeah and you know the Jaguars had a chance to sweep the Texans being up by 19 that is a loss that leaves a mark and keeps the Texans alive because that's the difference between being eight and three like the Colts and the Texans being five and six and out of it or what you currently see on the screen with the Colts have yet to play the Jaguars or the Texans so the AFC South is definitely wide open the question that I have uh over the final six weeks you know kind of dovetailing on what you just said is which of the teams at the top that we didn't expect even though the Broncos had a massive bandwagon coming into the season, but 9-2 I think is above expectation.

15:19Rich Eisen:And certainly the opportunity they have at 9-2, the fact that the Chiefs are 6-5 is kind of surprising. Patriots being 10-2, Colts being 8-3. Which one of those teams can hang on to their amazing starts over the final six weeks of tight football? And which of the teams that are perennial AFC playoff contenders, if not favorites, Chiefs, Ravens, Bills, Texans, which one of those will actually survive? Which one of those will actually make it from their early season holes? One in five Ravens, Owen, three Texans, Bills, once upon a time at four and one, having lost more than they've won over the last couple of weeks, which one of those might actually come from the pack?

16:07yeah i i still like until they're dead i still fear the chiefs and as much as i root for them to lose every game what they did like what they did against the colts was amazing they held them to 18 yards total offense in the fourth quarter and in overtime defensively they just made plays and even when like even when patrick mahomes and his receiving core and even travis kelsey they don't have that same magic that they always seem to have and be able to make those, you know, remarkable plays. When things break down, they still found a way to come back down what 20 to nine in the fourth quarter and win that football game.

16:50And like, they're the team to me that if they get in like their championship pedigree and the fact that they haven't been clicking on all cylinders on the offensive side of the ball, they still understand how to win. They made plays on the special teams. They made plays on defense like that team still really scares me. If if if, in fact, they get in, they they are the one team that really scares me.

17:15Rich Eisen:And I know fans who watch shows like this one and hear folks like us, Mark, say over and over again. You know, the count that Chiefs aren't out until they're finally out, blah, blah, blah. And they might get sick and tired of that. It's the truth. this is a fact that backs it up or a nugget that NFL network or the observation the research department there came up with that I keep repeating and I will keep repeating that in the Mahomes era seven years of being the starter this is his eighth year being the starter the seven previous seasons of him being a starter the earliest a chief season has ended is overtime in the AFC championship game five Super Bowl appearances two overtime losses in the AFC championship game so not even in the division round not even in regulation of the afc championship game that's the earliest a season has ended for the chief so that's why you and i i think are saying until it's over it ain't over with yeah and think about how many times rich we've seen them make remarkable plays like one thing about mahomes is that dude can play on schedule and and he can play as well as any quarterback on schedule but what what separates him is his uncanny ability to play off schedule and to be on the same page where everybody on that offense just seems to see the same thing where they can alter a route um in in the midst of a game where they're lining up on the line of scrimmage we remember the overtime game where they beat the buffalo bills i think in the divisional round with 13 seconds left they said oh yeah we just kind of uh as we're walking up the line of scrimmage, Travis and I just kind of changed the play.

18:50And, you know, we pick up a, I don't, I don't remember what exactly the game was like 30 yards or something like, yeah, we just, we just looked at each other and we knew this is what we're running. They haven't had that this year. That hasn't, that hasn't been part of, of kind of their makeup. And yet here we sit at six and five and you keep saying, well, if they get to that again, if eventually that comes and rears, it's a beautiful head. If you're a cheese fan, ugly head, if you're the rest of the NFL, then we're in trouble. Because they still can play on the defensive side of the ball.

19:22Rich Eisen:Well, and in terms of that, you know, when we're talking about the Chiefs here and with all due respect to Denver, and we just also established the AFC South is wide open, that's why I would choose of any of the teams that have started well in the AFC to finish and not stumble. I would choose New England because of the way that the quarterback is playing. And then, I don't know, did you hear the soundbite from Vrabel? after they beat the Bengals in a tight game. Did you hear that? No. Play this for Mark Schlauerth, please. Mike, how much of a battle was this? It was. That's what happens in this league.

19:58You know, you need everybody, and you go through the season, you go on the road, and you know it's tough, and nobody wants to talk about numbers and records. That doesn't mean ****.

20:08Rich Eisen:That's it. That's a soundbite. You just stood there and said, next question. Yeah. Records and stats don't mean S. and I heard that and I'm like you know this is also the guy who is shaking hands everybody before they go in the locker room so he's rallying them but he's also keeping their feet firmly planted and he's got an incredibly generationally apparently talented quarterback to lead him in an opportunistic defense that if they tighten things up in the red zone man they could be particularly tough to beat for sure man I love Rabel man that dude Like, you sit down with variable one-on-one, he can be a salty bitch, and he can be great at the same time.

20:50He's very much that way, and he's a no-nonsense guy. Like, he demands great study habits. He demands great practice habits. He demands all those things. At the same time as being a hard ass, he's incredibly relational with his players, And you see it, you mentioned him handshaking guys. Like you go down and watch practice. And I've been to several Patriots games, done several games this year. And watching him at practice, man, he puts on the, you know, the off-color penny. And he's out there playing middle linebacker. He's out there playing, you know, edge linebacker. And, I mean, he's mixing it up on Friday practice with the guys.

21:36It just is like his vibe resonates with players. They want to play for him. And he believes in old school football in that we're going to control the lines of scrimmage. And we're going to do that on both sides of the ball. And damn it, we're going to play, you know, disciplined football. And we're going to come out on top playing this way. And I just, you know, there's times when you sit down and talk with him, like, come on, dude. And then, you know, we played against each other, like, you know, ease up a little bit. And then there are times when we're just laugh and we, you know, reminisce.

22:11So he's just a really interesting cat, and I think he's just one of the best coaches in the National Football League.

22:19Rich Eisen:Plus one, man. What does the Thanksgiving scene for the Schlereths look like? Paint it for me. Oh, we're right here. The kids are coming in on Wednesday. Grandkids? Grandkids? Grandkids? Grandkids are going to be in Michigan. So Lisa and I, my wife, and I just went out to Disney World. I had the weekend off last weekend. So we went out to Disney World and ran the streets with the grandkids. And so anyhow, that was our Thanksgiving with them. Do you go on the ride? Does Grandpa Mark go on the rides with him? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What are we like? Like what? Mr. Toad's Wild Ride? What sort of speed are we?

22:56Rich Eisen:Are we rollercoastering? I love the roller coasters, but my left knee, there's some that I can ride. There's some that I just can't get my leg into because it won't bend enough. So, but yeah, I was, I was knee deep in roller coasters and, and you know, the Tower of Terror and, and the, all those, all those fun ones, Aerosmith, Rock and Roller Coaster, you name it. Okay. And let me make sure here, you'll be back in the state of Florida calling Saints of Dolphins. Yes, I will. Gone Fox this weekend. Have a great Thanksgiving. I am thankful for your friendship and love talking ball with you, man.

23:30Rich Eisen:Love chopping it up. Likewise, buddy, happy Thanksgiving to you and yours as well. And we'll look forward to talking to you next week. Yeah, I'll be working, but it's all good. That's what we do this time of year. Thanks to Mark Schlareth, everybody back here on the Rich Eisen Show, another terrific appearance, calling Mike Vrabel something I would never call to his face. Although I do just remember, speaking of him being a salty, you know what? Having a pre-broadcast meeting with him in London when the Titans were out there. and Jamie Erdahl was in the room and he says to Jamie, love watching you on Good Morning Football.

24:08Rich Eisen:My wife loves watching you. We love the show. It's really great. And he gave her a compliment and I just thought I'd have a little bit of fun and I just paused and I'm like, what about the Rich Eisen show? The Vrabels aren't watching that. And he just looks at me and goes, no. He goes, you want a compliment too, Rich? That's my coach. Don't you want? I'm so happy. You're happy that your coach doesn't want to watch you on television? No. That's not why I'm happy. Just like, you know. But interesting that you took that that way. No, no. Let me explain. What do you mean? Excuse me. Excuse me. Stewardess.