Hour 3: NFL Insider Tom Pelissero on McCaffrey & More + Rich’s Top 5 WK1 Games

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1:19and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. This is The Rich Eisen Show. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studios in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

1:38Today's guests, podcast host and journalist Pablo Torre, pro football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, and your phone calls, latest news, and more. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

1:55Rich Eisen:Hour number three, our final hour of our two-day residency here in Brazil. The final hour of our first two days of being a multi-hemisphere program is on the air, and there's some activity going on in the field behind me in Arena Corinthian Stadium here in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the Chiefs and the Chargers are going to be kicking off in about six hours from now on YouTube. I'll be in the booth a few steps away from where I'm sitting alongside Kurt Warner for that international global broadcast. It's going to be pretty wild here. And so there's some activity of some folks getting ready for the pregame festivities on the field.

2:36Rich Eisen:We've already heard from Dan Orlovsky of ESPN. You at 844-204-RICH. We played What's More likely a Friday staple coming up I'll give you my top five other games that I'm looking forward to seeing once this game is finished here in Brazil and I hop a flight to be on NFL game day morning for week number one in my usual Sunday post at 9 a.m eastern time on NFL Network my NFL Network compadre who is a Friday regular on this program we welcome for the first time to our Disney Plus, ESPN, and ESPN Radio, presented by Progressive Insurance, live dual stream to the program, our boy, Tommy P. Tom Pocero.

3:16Rich Eisen:Hey, Tom. How are you, sir? What's up, Rich in Sao Paulo? What's up to the boys in the studio back there in El Segundo? Hey, Tommy P. What's up, Tommy? What's up, Tommy? Tommy P. I thought I had been a lot of places, but this is my Disney Plus debut. Thank you for pointing that out. I'm going to add that one to the bio moving forward. Yes. Well, with your new taller hair, you are now officially tall enough to ride this ride, Tom. So we're pleased to have you here on the program. First order of business. Let's start with last night's game and the fact that Jalen Carter got ejected and did not play a single snap of the Thursday opener.

3:54Rich Eisen:The league looking into this, is it possible a suspension is coming? What are you hearing here on this Friday? At this point, Rich, what I would tell you is the NFL is reviewing the entire spitting situation. That's standard. Anytime a player gets ejected from a game, they take a look at that to see whether additional type of discipline is warranted, whether that's a fine or a suspension. Basically, it's important to remember, if the other car served a one-game suspension last night, he might be the first player in NFL history to get onto the field and get ejected prior than playing a single snap on the field.

4:29Rich Eisen:So that's usually taken into account. It's rare, not unprecedented for players to get suspended after being ejected from the game. The fact that he missed the entire game probably would point you toward this is not going to be a suspension, which, by the way, week two is against. It's a Super Bowl rematch against the Chiefs team that you are going to see tonight. You know, additionally, beyond that, you know, there's been spinning incidents in the past. Remember Sean Taylor in a playoff game years ago with Bill Romanowski famously involved. Usually those have been handled by fines and not suspensions.

5:01Rich Eisen:Jalen Carter does not have a long disciplinary history in the NFL. These are all reasons to think that he's not going to get suspended. But again, the NFL's got an extra time because the Eagles don't play again for another, what, nine days here. And so they can fully evaluate this. I imagine that we've got some type of word here in the next day or so on what his status is. And then with regard to the Roger McDowell in all this, Rich, the second spitter, Dak Prescott, there's no equivalency here you know there's no rule against somebody spitting in the general direction of another player who is several yards away from them what you can't do is walk directly up and spit on a guy's chest point blank i would be surprised if there's any discipline for that press scott but again they'll review the entirety of the situation and come to those determinations probably in the next 24 hours or so yeah general direction was a very monty python way of putting that, Tom.

5:54Rich Eisen:I appreciate that. As for this game... To say that, Siciliano texted me that this morning as well, because I used the same phrasing on Good Morning Football. I actually went back and looked at that scene, Rich, and later on, the line that comes, like three lines later is, I will come down there and taunt you a second time, which taunting twice would also get you ejected from an NFL game. No, I thought that was Nolan Smith who got flagged for being, for taunting while we're continuing the theme. As for the game here tonight, again, you're probably hearing some music that's going down on the field here at Arena Corinthians.

6:30Rich Eisen:Mekhi Becton has suddenly shown up on the injury report with an illness. Is this going to be an issue from what you're hearing potentially for tonight's game, Chargers and Chiefs, sir? I have checked on it. There's no firm word at this point of whether he just did something I've done before and overrated a Fogo de Chau. I'm sure there's something better than that, actually, in Brazil. Or whether this is something that's significantly going to keep him out for the game. We've still got, what, six hours or so until kickoff here. There's no firm word on that. The fact he's added, anytime anybody's dealing with an illness during the day, you have to add them onto the report.

7:01Rich Eisen:If you don't, it could be a problem down the line. But certainly that would be something significant because you remember, they're already reconstructing this offensive line. After losing Rashawn Slater, Joe Alts can be flipping over to left tackle. If you took Becton out, that would be pretty significant when you're dealing with Chris Jones inside as well. And so certainly something to keep an eye on, but no firm word on that just yet. Tom Pellicero here on the Rich Eisen Show. I am inside Arena Corinthian Stadium. There's already some musical acts you could already tell. It's not an act. They're going through the national anthem of the United States of America that's being played tonight.

7:35Rich Eisen:So excuse me for conducting the business of this show while that song is being played behind me. Tom Pellicero joining me on the Rich Eisen Show. Christian McCaffrey showed up on an injury report. Tom, out of the blue it appears on Thursday. is there any cause for alarm because last year that happened and all of a sudden his 2025 went south well and that's where i i would caution anybody to make firm judgments off this what i would tell you is from my conversations last night after this came out of the injury report because nobody knew about it prior to that the feedback i got was don't sound the alarm bells just yet That this is not a DEFCON 1 type of a situation.

8:19Rich Eisen:If there's any player you're going to take precautions with, if you feel something weird, it's going to be your best player. And a guy who's had three seasons, essentially, in his career ruined by injuries here, would make sense if he felt anything in that cap to pull him off. Having said that, you're right. We didn't know until, what, an hour before inactives last year, that Christopher McCaffrey was not going to play in week one. And then he didn't end up returning until, like, November. Obviously, played a little bit. Wasn't quite himself. and then suffered another injury, a knee injury that took him out.

8:50Rich Eisen:Calves can be tricky. Calves can be precursors to Achilles injuries. McCaffrey had issues with both his Achilles last year. There's a lot of reasons to be cautious about saying anything at this stage. He was undergoing tests today. They're on the field in 90 minutes or so. The real question, at least short-term, is even if it is something that's a precaution, even if they think it's minor, do they risk running him out there in week one and suffering a type of setback that could take him out for a month? All those questions will start to get answered this afternoon. Again, from my understanding, I do not believe that this is, you know, the full alert, the alarms going off on Christian McCaffrey, but definitely something to keep an eye on.

9:29Rich Eisen:Tom Pelissero here on the Rich Eisen Show. When the Texans take on the Rams, obviously we're going to be looking to see any twinge, any moment where Matthew Stafford has a back injury that crops back up again. And what's the status going into this game? Cautious optimism that he won't have an issue or he's practicing like it's no big deal? He's not on the injury report, Rich, which by rule means that he's not receiving regular treatment on his back at this point. Back injuries can be extremely complicated. I can say that as somebody who tweaked my back again yesterday. I'm currently sitting on a heating pad, have a heavy dose of steroids and muscle relaxers.

10:12Rich Eisen:I would categorize myself as questionable for Sunday, but I'm pretty sure I'm getting on that plane tomorrow to do the Patriots and Raiders game. You just don't know. But everything, all the stuff in terms of how the Rams have approached this over the last week or so, the word has been positive coming out of there. It's a minor thing. They picked up his option yesterday for the 27 through 30 seasons. It doesn't actually mean anything. It just keeps status quo in terms of the cap considerations. but there's nothing that would tell you they think that this is going to be an issue. But it's a back, and it's something that can be, especially for an older player.

10:47Rich Eisen:We've seen Snaver take a ton of hits, Rich, through the course of his career. There's plenty of times he's gotten blindsided because he just stands in there and is willing to take those hits. He plays through a lot. If he starts having back spasms, obviously, or something related to that disc issue that he has in his back, then potentially it could become an issue down the road. It'll be interesting to see, to me, Rich, because, again, Again, I don't think there's any question right now. Matty Stafford is starting on Sunday against the Texans, but do we see Sean McVay maybe even more than he already does, lead a little bit more toward the rhythm passing game, get the ball out of his hand, just try to do things to limit the number of hits just until they see, okay, 70 snaps in the game, how does he function, make sure that he's getting into this, not getting blasted on the first third down they see.

11:32Rich Eisen:Matty's going against the defense, though. It may not matter how quickly you get rid of the ball. The Texans, as we all know, are pretty darn good on that side of the football. And then offensively, Joe Mixon is out for at least the first four games. Can you tell me about his injury, when he's expected back, and how the split of carries with Nick Chubb, and obviously Damian Pierce is a name that Texans fans are familiar with when he was the bell cow a couple years ago. So any sense of the Texans run game going into this Los Angeles Rams visit for them to open the season? At this point, there's no timeline for Joe Mixon to return.

12:12Rich Eisen:He's got a minimum of four games, but there's no one I've spoken to who says, hey, after those four games, he's definitely going to be back. And so that's very much an unknown as the Texans proceed into this season. But they did sign insurance with Nick Chubb. I would say, and again, game flow can dictate these things sometimes, but it seems like Nick Chubb is going to be the bell cow back, at least going into the season. Damian Pierce played extensively in the preseason finale, which is usually something reserved for guys that you don't even know if they're going to make the team, or maybe you're trying to showcase in a potential trade.

12:47Rich Eisen:So I would anticipate. I heard Nick Chubb looks great down there. He's had obviously a lot of injuries. He's an older player. That stuff's added up going all the way back to the injury he had in college, but he looks really good right now. It seems like he's going to be the guy with Damian Pierce spelling him. And, you know, maybe that even extends here out beyond four weeks because there's just not certainty on when we see Joe Mixon back on the field. And then in terms of Micah Parsons, man, I mean, I'm reading from yesterday's press conference with Matt LaFleur talking about that they're hopeful, no guarantees, that Micah's going to be out there against the Detroit Lions.

13:24Rich Eisen:today. You know, the coach said that Micah quote unquote looks limited when he's out there on the field. I'll be honest with you, man. I thought that was just posturing with the Cowboys to basically say I'm injured. I can't get out there. How serious is his back injury, Tom? I saw that quote from Matt LaFleur and I would just say knowing Matt, if he's asked, if he says Micah was limited, because that's what the report says, then someone says, well, how does he look? Matt's probably going to reply, he looked limited. In other words, I'm not giving you one additional ounce of information publicly on exactly what this guy's going to do.

14:02Rich Eisen:It's a real injury. It's an L4, L5 facet joint sprain. We're talking a lot about backs, which is making mine feel great right now. But with Micah, I would be surprised. I'd be really surprised if he's not out there. You don't give a guy a four-year,$186 million contract extension if you don't think he's going to be able to play in the early going. Now, do they manage him to some degree? I think you would do that regardless of the injury, just because he missed so much time on the field. The conditioning may not be exactly where you want it to be. It might be asking a lot for a guy to go from not practicing all of camp to 10 days later playing 70 snaps, full go in a regular season game against the super physical Lions team.

14:42Rich Eisen:They'll probably pick their spots a little bit with Micah Parsons, but whether he ends up getting some type of an injection or not, again, I would be really surprised if we don't see Micah out there and see him quite a bit on Sunday. All right. And is there anybody that could maybe sign some big fat contract between now and Sunday that always seems to happen this time of year where it's a last minute? Obviously, we were expecting Dak to get his new deal last year, but is there anybody out there that there's still something lingering that could be handled before a game gets played Sunday? Tom? The only really big one would be Lamar Jackson.

15:20Rich Eisen:And I can tell you there have been negotiations. They have been, you know, they've talked extensively about what a deal might look like for Lamar Jackson, but he's in a unique spot here. Obviously, Eric DaCosta, the GM, has said publicly they want to get something done with Lamar sooner than later, which makes sense. He's a two-time NFL MVP who's somehow still only 28 years old. And the sooner you can lock in a deal, the more cost certainty you have in terms of how you build your roster for years to come. But Lamar is due, I think it's like$42 million this year and$52 million in each of the next two years.

15:55Rich Eisen:In other words, from a cash-earning perspective, sometimes you get in the late years of a contract and those numbers go down. Lamar is still one of the top cash-earning players over the next several years. And so there's really no reason for Lamar to rush and take a deal, you know, because he is making that type of money. Also because we've seen in the past, Lamar just doesn't think about money the way that a lot of us do. You know, he played out his fourth, after winning MVP, he played out the fourth year on his contract for like$2.3 million. Then he played on the fifth year option, and he allowed himself to get franchise tagged.

16:25Rich Eisen:I mean, he went a long way further than he would have if he had an agent. No agent would have told him to go out there and play for a couple million bucks after winning an NFL MVP. But in this case, he is financially secure. Once the season starts, he said himself yesterday, his focus is going to be on football. And it seems like that's where it is. But you have a team that would like to do a deal sooner than later. And you have a player that the deal's out there for him. The only question is, based upon how much money he's still earning right now, Rich, do you take a deal that locks you in for years to come at a time the salary cap continues to rise?

16:58Rich Eisen:Or do you sit back for a year or even two and go, So, CJ Stroud's going to get paid. Bryce Young might get paid. Jaden Daniels in a couple of years is going to get paid. I can let all those guys reset the top of the market and I'll leapfrog them as I get a little bit later on in my deal. That's kind of the give and take in that situation. But that's really the only one, Rich, that I think would be headline news on game day morning on Sunday. At this point, I'd lean that it doesn't happen. But we'll see. Anybody from the Cowboys organization reach out to you today to sort of spike a little bit of a football?

17:30Rich Eisen:I know that they didn't win, but Kenny Clark played a really good game, man, in terms of yards per carry. Last night it was four yards better for the Dallas defense in terms of giving up yards per carry with Kenny Clark on the field than off it. Saquon Hull to only 60 yards rushing. I know Jalen had the day, but anybody from the Cowboys reach out to you to say, I told you so, we're going to be okay? Anybody? I think they were mainly focused on getting back. I think they probably got back to the facility at like 7 a.m. today in zombie mode after the lightning delay that delayed the whole thing.

18:04Rich Eisen:No, but I would tell you this, because I talked to a lot of people after the Micah trade, and there was still confidence in that building. I mean, you might say that's false confidence, and, you know, listen, all 32 teams have something to be optimistic about, but really, when I talked to people, there was no, like, oh, my God, we just punted on the season. There's a lot of positive energy around that place right now. They feel like they've got weapons offensively. Javante Williams, which I remember I was talking about this a couple of months ago, what are they going to do in the backfield? And I was hearing back in May and June, like Javante looks like finally he's that guy who was gashing people before he suffered the knee injury a few years ago.

18:37Rich Eisen:Well, you saw that last night. He's moving the pile. He's a really physical runner. You know, that part is positive. George Pickens didn't have a big night in terms of receiving the football. But C.D. Lamb certainly got a ton of opportunities. And when you have to account for Pickens, that opens some things up for C.D. You just hope that he holds on to the ball. And if C.D. makes even one or two of those, you know, three, four balls that hit him in the hands, the Cowboys might come out of there with a win last night um Dak looks he looks really lean he looked like he was you know in the flow of it was moving around really well coming off of that hamstring injury they've obviously got an offensive line you know the question is still just going to be all the way through do they have enough pass rush can they get home and when you saw you know how many plays in those first couple of drives where it's four five six seconds of jailing in the pocket and then you can get escapes and runs and those are the things that you worry about with that team.

19:25Rich Eisen:But absolutely, you saw a team last night in Dallas that looked like what everybody there claimed they were going to be, even post Micah, which is a team that's together. Maybe there's a little bit of a message it sends to your locker room of like, oh, crap, like if they can trade Micah, they can trade anybody in here. You know, there are environmental things that shift a little bit when you're trading one of your most outspoken best and what would have been one of your most highly paid types of players. They came out with some fire. They were really good offensively in the first half just didn't quite have it in the second half but again if cd makes catches that we'll see him make nine times out of ten rich they might upset the eagles which bodes well for the cowboys chances of competing with basically anybody else in the nfl last one for you tom uh last one for you uh what have i not asked you open the book what what what should we know about in week one that you know that you're willing to share right now for for all of us what he got yeah the uh i mean the only other thing that's kind of hanging out there is what's going on with cam hayward in pittsburgh uh he got a veteran rest day yesterday it wasn't contract related but he's continued to you know kind of try to raise uh the hair on people's necks a little bit by talking about his contract is he going to actually not play in the game if they don't sign him to a contract i don't foresee that but certainly you know he did this last year too They gave him an extension without really giving him new money.

20:47Rich Eisen:Then he comes back a year later. Teams don't like to redo deals a year later. The 49ers just found their solve with Juwan Jennings. They gave him$3 million in playtime incentives because you don't want to say, all right, we're going to give you a huge raise because then everybody else after one good year is going to come back and ask for raises. That's the only other thing that's kind of hanging out there. You know, but it's also a matter of as we get past this first week of games, you very quickly start to see, and as much as week one can be a liar, you start to see some of those things that you heard in the offseason, like, okay, that might have been true about this player struggling or this team, this particular part of the coaching staff isn't doing very well.

21:25Rich Eisen:You find out, hey, maybe that was overblown or, oh no, that does look like some of those things you were hearing behind the scenes. So I'm sure by the start of next week, we'll be talking about some things in terms of what coaches could be on the hot seat and what quarterbacks could be in danger of getting bench. For now, it's something but smooth sailing, Rich. Everybody's got something to be positive about across the NFL. I'll be interested to see the game I'm doing, and I'll be talking with you for four hours on Sunday morning. The Raiders and the Patriots, there's so much new on both sides of that thing from Mike Vrabel and Pete Carroll as the new head coaches.

21:57Rich Eisen:Obviously, Geno Smith taking over as the Raiders quarterback. Stephon Diggs making his debut. For all the speculation about digs rich in this offseason i'm fully anticipating based on every conversation i have to see stefan digs the way that we've known him going out there and being able to make plays uh in that game i think that that's you know we got some of the young stars in that game ashton gentty um trevion henderson on the other side it's not a game that a lot of people are going to be talking about it's in that that 1 p.m eastern window but i think it's gonna be a fun one out there in foxborough oh no doubt about it man pete carroll's back on the sideline and it's back where he once belonged obviously for a cup of coffee before belichick took over there for 20 plus years he's back with the raiders uh on the east coast it's vrabel's return to the fold there in new england i'm i'm with you man that's gonna be a that's gonna be a good one thanks tom uh more ibuprofen sir i look forward to seeing you on sunday can't be questionable you got to do it i'll be watching you tonight flat on my back all right all right tommy that's tommy p everybody Chris, you got to like that, huh?

23:03Rich Eisen:Diggs looking like the Diggs of old, giving a big-time weapon to Drake May with a new left tackle in front of him, a new running back behind him. The O.C. is Josh McDaniels who knows exactly how to cook it up. I know that they try to drum up some rivalry sort of type of revenge game because this is the team that bounced Josh McDaniels. I don't know, man. And he's just back as the OC dialing it up. You've got to be fired up. But the possibilities are endless right now. Yeah, yeah. Optimism is about as high as it's been in the last few years. We've seen flashes of what Drake May could be last year.

23:43You know, just surround him with a more competent offensive line, more competent skilled players around him. And I think, you know, they did a good job bolstering both of those units this offseason. A little shaky on defense. Vrabel just announced Christian Gonzalez is out. He missed basically the entire preseason with that hamstring injury, so that's obviously a huge bummer. I was excited to see him maybe lock down Brock Bowers or maybe take out Jacoby Myers. So we'll see what the Raider passing game is able to do tomorrow or on Sunday, but I am excited for this Patriots season, and I'm excited for Sunday.

24:17I think it's going to be a really exciting game.

24:19Rich Eisen:And the Raiders have reason for optimism, too, in a similar way. I love this week one matchup, man. and when the Chargers are done here in Brazil, they're flying off to Vegas for next Monday night football on ESPN and its family of networks. So the Chargers have the Raiders next as they play the first three games of their season in division and then the Chiefs go home to take on the Eagles who are already on the board with a victory in 2025. Let's take a break from here in Brazil when we come back. My top five games that I'm looking forward to seeing for the rest of week. Number one, your phone calls and more in our farewell to Brazil on the Rich Eisen Show Hour.