Hour 3: NFL Insider Tom Pelissero Talks Flacco Trade, plus ‘Task’ Star Tom Pelphrey

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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. Defense! Dominate on three! Picked off! Devin Lloyd, what a year. This is The Rich Eisen Show. Touchdown, Devin Lloyd's right in the end. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show, host of The Greenlight Podcast, Chris Long.

1:44ESPN senior NFL writer, Jeremy Fowler. Still to come, actor Tom Pelfrey. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

1:56Rich Eisen:it our number three of the rich eyes and show is on the air what a day it is uh and has been we've been uh reacting to the monday night week five finale where the jaguars took care of business against the chiefs uh i'll give you my two cents on where the chiefs go from here in my opinion uh the browns traded joe flacco to the bengals in the middle of our conversation with jeremy fowler we reacted to that you react to us by calling 800 uh 888 um uh calling our phone number 204 rich um we're in uh hour number three just had a really nice chat with tom pelfree back on this program he's on a terrific show called task on hbo max we'll talk about that with him um and um i guess your name must be tom uh if you're allowed to appear in hour number three uh we're about to get to tom pellicero in a second we're on espn uh the app as well as disney plus and espn radio presented by progressive insurance let's get to him now he along with ian rapaport My colleagues from NFL Network broke this news earlier today.

2:53Rich Eisen:Tom Pelissero joining me here. Tom, why did the Bengals decide to finally make this move to try and get somebody to compete with Jake Browning or start? What's the plan here for Flacco, Tom?

3:06Tom Pelissero:The actual plan in terms of what this means this week, Rich, remains at least somewhat fluid at this point. No one that I've spoken to has spoken in definitive terms in terms of what happens this week. But what I can tell you is over the last 48 hours here, the Bengals really did canvas their options. There were a lot of discussions. There were phone calls made to different teams. In the end, Joe Flacco was not one that I had exactly top of mind that they potentially would go for. A 40-year-old quarterback who was benched one week ago today in favor of a rookie third-round draft pick, in part because Joe and LeBron's offense had not played particularly well.

3:47Tom Pelissero:But here's why this makes sense for Cincinnati. My understanding is they never really went down the road on, for instance, Kirk Cousins. With Kirk Cousins, you're talking about significant draft capital, significant money, and oh yeah, no trade clause that he would have had to waive. They didn't go down the road with the Giants on Russell Wilson or Jameis Winston. They end up getting Joe Flacco for a pick swap, fifth and sixth rounders being swapped in 2026. It's a pretty low-level type of a deal. And what this does is this gives them at least an option if Jake Browning were to continue to struggle.

4:23Tom Pelissero:Now, is it possible that Zach Taylor could come out tomorrow and simply say, hey, we're rolling with Joe Flacco immediately? It's certainly possible. But I think that the more likely scenario, Rich, frankly, at this point is this is sort of Jake Browning's last shot. Go out there, play like you did in the second half or at least the fourth quarter of the game last week. Stop turning the football over. They do believe in Jake Browning. They've seen him win before, but Joe Flacco is an upgrade over the other quarterbacks on the roster. Brett Rippon, Sean Clifford on the practice squad, Mike White, who they cut off the practice squad this morning.

4:57Tom Pelissero:Flacco's played a lot of football. He played against the Bengals in week one and at least played well enough that they had a chance, if not for a missed field goal, to pull off an upset in week one for Cleveland. So again, this is sort of a low risk and they hope, let's say, medium reward type of a situation for a Bengals team that's got one goal in mind here, Rich, which is stay alive. Stay alive until mid-December, start in January, whenever it is that Joe Burrow could come back. They're in second place in the AFC North because obviously a couple of teams have really struggled. The Ravens are all kinds of beat up.

5:33Tom Pelissero:They're chasing a Steelers team that is 3-1. and the Bengals by virtue winning those first two games, they're still in the playoff picture here. It's a fascinating move. You don't see these types of intra-division trades very often, but on the flip side of that, you don't see many times the team's trying to get by for three months without their franchise quarterback. And, oh, yeah, the other team wants to clear the decks and have an all-rookie depth jar, which is what Cleveland's got now.

5:56Rich Eisen:Okay, so let's talk about the Browns part of it again. I know you're busy, and then I'll let you go on your day, and you're back on the show on Thursday. and then your guest hosting Friday and next week while I'm in London with me chiming in every now and then. So what are the Browns doing? What do you think? Is it Shador now, his second string? I know Bailey Zappi's on their practice squad and Deshaun Watson, we've seen him on a practice field every now and then. What's the Browns' plan here moving forward, do you think?

6:27Tom Pelissero:Well, starting off on Deshaun Watson, he's coming back from two Achilles tears. That's a very long rehab process. Obviously, he's been documenting that on his social media. I have not gotten the sense that anything is imminent in terms of Deshaun Watson getting back on the field. Bailey Zappi's in his second run now on Cleveland's practice squad. But this does really clear the space now that for everybody saying, why isn't Shadour Sanders the number two quarterback? Well, now here it is. And the expectation would be that he is going to be the one who backs up Dylan Gabriel starting this week for the Browns.

7:01Tom Pelissero:So, you know, with Shadour Sanders, I know a lot's been made. I watched Gerald McCoy talk about it on your show on Sunday morning, Rich. What are they doing with, you know, having Shadour and saying that he's going to play eventually? That's always been the plan. Jimmy Haslam flat out said it in training camp, which is they want to see both these guys figure out what they have. And then as we get toward next year and the fact they've got two first round picks, you at least know, do we think we have something that we can work with here? Joe Flacco, barring an injury to Dylan Gabriel, was not going to get back on the field this season.

7:33Tom Pelissero:Credit to Andrew Barry for getting something for a player that you wouldn't think just on the surface you'd be able to get something for here. But again, this was always the plan was to see both these quarterbacks. You certainly saw some good things from Dylan Gabriel last week. You saw some not so good things in this game. It's not short term. They're not yanking him mid-game this week to go to Shadour, but they want to get a full evaluation on both these players. This brings them one step closer to doing that.

7:56Rich Eisen:Okay, so the likelihood of this week, it's Browning starting in Green Bay for Cincinnati with a last chance saloon message because Flacco's there as the backup learning the playbook while in Cleveland it's two rookies going to go 1-2 into Pittsburgh for the 1-4 Browns who are waiting to see if Watson's in any way, shape, or form ready to come back this year. Tom, that's the likely scenario for week six.

8:26Tom Pelissero:That would appear to be it. Still no guarantee that we see Deshaun Watson on the field at all in 2025 for a variety of different reasons. He's got one more year and$46 million left on that contract. Obviously, they've got to amortize a ton of the bonus proration still, and they'll be feeling that effect on their cap for the next couple of years. But they've made some adjustments in terms of how they're going to be able to account for that moving forward with voidable years and the like. In terms of the Browns quarterback situation, yes, it's Dylan Gabriel this week. I would anticipate Shadour Sanders being the number two quarterback.

8:56Tom Pelissero:We'll see if they end up signing Bailey Zappi to the active roster to service the three, just to have a third quarterback in uniform. And for Cincinnati, you know, it's not easy, Rich, to get traded on a Tuesday at quarterback and go and start on a Sunday. I mean, Baker Mayfield got claimed off waivers years ago by the Rams and started a couple of days later. Those stories are few and far between here. Again, I've talked to a number of people involved in this situation. No one has said definitively what Cincinnati's quarterback situation is going to be this week. And Joe Flacco's only win as the Browns started this season happened to come over the Packers, who now his new team is facing this week.

9:34Tom Pelissero:I would just say with Jake Browning, it would make sense. And honestly, if you're Jake Browning, a trade for Joe Flacco is the best scenario of all the different player acquisition scenarios. In other words, you didn't go out and pay, you know, for instance, a Ryan Tannehill, a bunch of money to come in, and you know that the clock is ticking. You didn't give up picks and give money for Kirk Cousins, who you know the clock is ticking. Jake Browning, if he does get the opportunity to start this week, which I would categorize as more probable than not, that we have not heard from the decision makers, and again, I've not gotten a straight answer on that to this point, the odds are he's going to be the starter once again this week.

10:13Tom Pelissero:If he plays well, maybe you've just got a good, solid No. 2 in Joe Flacco, and Jake Browning can hold down this job. What the Bengals couldn't do was sit there, and Brett Rippon's a great guy. He's hung around for a long time because of that, because he's a smart guy you like having in a room. But in his limited opportunities to actually play, he's not performed at that level. Joe's had a lot of success. The guys who run this style of offense have always liked Joe Flacco because he has that quick twitch in his arm because he can read it and process and get the football out quickly. He has shown over time, not so much this season, but he has shown over time that he can manage a game.

10:49Tom Pelissero:Jake Browning's got to get better at that. You know, people talked about, should they trade for Jameis Winston? Well, you just got a three touchdown, three interception stat line from Jake Browning, which is probably what you get from Jameis. You're not changing a whole lot there. And I don't know that anybody's sitting there and going, well, Joe Flacco's a clear upgrade over Jake Browning. This is not, I won't say it's a message being sent to Browning. It's the Bengals saying, hey, we got to get somebody else in here who we would trust to go out there and play if it continues to look like, you know, a turnover riddled mess with Jake Browning, then you might see Joe Flacco here sooner than later.

11:21Rich Eisen:Tom, appreciate the two cents. I know you're Zooming with Suze when I'm flying to London on Thursday and then your guest hosting Friday and then Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. Appreciate your time, and we'll see a lot of you on this program. Thanks, Tommy. Can't wait. Tommy P., everybody right here on the Rich Eisen Show, everybody giving us the two cents that we required. Dang. Okay. Before we bring out Tom Pelfrey, I haven't hit the Chiefs yet. So let me talk about the defending AFC champs and the gajillion time defending AFC West champs. Didn't look pretty last night. They are playing like a 500 team right now, which is tough to see.

12:03Rich Eisen:And they are not playing consistently enough to win games against opportunistic teams that are full of talent and confidence. and they go down in Jacksonville last night despite being up 14-0. Usually it's a wrap when this defense takes the field with two minutes to go and the other team needs a touchdown to win. Usually it's a wrap, and it wasn't last night. And the Chiefs are making way too many mistakes right now that you're not used to seeing 13 penalties, including two on kickoff. they're making that last penalty, the last holding penalty on the kickoff that put them back deep in their own end as opposed to on the 30-yard line with some timeouts left and enough time on the clock more than with all due respect to our coordinator producer, doesn't want to hear it, than they had against the Bills years ago needing a field goal to force overtime.

13:06Rich Eisen:And they just made too many mistakes. Harrison Butker, missing kicks, kicked one out of bounds. defensively, everybody's pointing out Chris Jones today. In Brazil, it was a mistake, a mental mistake, of taking the wrong path to Justin Herbert. He goes and takes advantage and slides and takes the time off the clock to beat the Chiefs. Last night, everybody's pointing out how he hardly, as we talked about with Chris Long in hour number one, he hardly gave a lick of effort on that play in which Trevor Lawrence fell down, stumbled around, and then got up and got for a touchdown. Normally, Chris Jones is so far in the backfield, Lawrence is touched, no timeouts remaining.

13:53Rich Eisen:They're not going to win that football game, most likely. Mahomes throws a pick six right over the middle. Devin Lloyd takes advantage, flashes in. Good defensive play. These things happen. And normally, the Chiefs can slough that off because they come up with a turnover on their own goal line where Trevor Lawrence comes up, tries to put it across the goal line, and he's the latest person to fumble inside the one-yard line trying to go in that we've seen this year. There's been a rash of those. Normally the Chiefs, you do that to them after they're up a score. That's a wrap. But not this time around.

14:33Rich Eisen:They're 2-3, and Patrick Mahomes was pointing that out last night. Yeah, I mean, it kind of just talks about our whole entire season. I mean, I feel like we have the guys, and we've executed at certain points in the game and looked really good, and then we kind of crush ourselves with penalties and mistakes and interceptions and fumbles or whatever that is. I mean, it's just we've kind of done that to ourselves all year long. It's kind of been one guy here and there, and in this league it's so close that those change games. And so we've got to be better. We've lost too many games already, And so we got to find a way to be better as a team and come together and play better throughout the rest of the season.

15:13Rich Eisen:Yeah, that's how you go from not losing a single one score game last year or going back two years, 17 straight one score games you win to losing three of them this year. That's how you do it by making these types of mistakes. It's their first loss after leading by at least 14 points in four years. So that's what happens. Andy Reid pointing out the penalties being so difficult to overcome.

15:39Tom Pelissero:My hat goes off to Jacksonville. They did a nice job. We obviously had 13 penalties to their four. Whether I agree with them or don't agree with them, it doesn't matter. They called them. And so you have that many penalties. You give up field position. You can outstat them to death, but it doesn't matter. It's a score that matters, and we've got to take care of business there.

16:02Rich Eisen:They sure do. So here's the scoop. Are they looking differently than they have in the past few years? You bet. 100%. The last time they've started two and three or worse was 2021. They finished 12 and five, made the AFC championship game at home and lost to Joe Burrow. so can they turn it around absolutely as a matter of fact the time they started two and three before that they made the playoffs as well in 2015 Andy Reid's been there done that Mahomes has actually even been there and done that second time in his career that he's under 500 through five weeks the other time as I mentioned he still hosted the AFC championship game lost to Joe Burrow so clean up the mistakes and and and somehow rally these troops because the division's still winnable a couple weeks ago they're 0-2 and the chargers um were looking much healthier than now and they're only a game behind them right now and only a game behind denver who they've yet to play the raiders unfortunately for them don't look like they're going to be able to pull anything together to try and make a run to join these three at the top of the AFC West.

17:19Rich Eisen:So the division is still within reach. The wildcard race, you take a look at that, if you will, and they're only a game behind that. And they, you know, Mahomes is playing at the top of his game, 49th career game with 300 pass yards in the game. And first 11 seasons in NFL history, only Matt Ryan and Drew Brees have had more. And he's now all-time in third place with the number of 300-yard pass games in his career. How about that? In his first 11 seasons. Just passed Kurt Warner on that list. More than Peyton Manning. I mean, Mahomes is still Mahomes. Kelsey scored a touchdown, albeit, you know, Russell Yerk thought there should have been a penalty on that one.

18:12Rich Eisen:I disagree with that call. It looked close enough to that one-yard line, to be honest with you. And the season's not over. The division's not over. The wild card certainly isn't gone. But they do not look like the team we have seen for the last few years. They just haven't. last two weeks last you know against the ravens they did and the ravens didn't look like a mass unit just yet so the problem is as well the team that's playing the best football over the last month is coming into their house ready to try and put their pelt on their wall again just like they did on a banner raising night a couple years ago here come the lions and even if they're two and four after that home for vegas there's a monday night a home against washington which is not going to be easy.

19:00Rich Eisen:They visit Buffalo, which we all know. The train whistles will be going nuts on that night. They just have to beat Denver. If they can sweep that season series, great. They can sweep the season series against Vegas. Take care of the business against the Chargers when they see them there. Have a winning record in their own division. Win the division and go to the playoffs and make some hay and you're the ones that are going to have to one and done. Patrick Mahomes and crew, good luck. That's the way through all this. But right now it doesn't look good and you got to tip your cap to jacksonville but that one was a shocker up 14 nothing and then up again with two minutes and change to go those are the ones that you're like this thing's on ice good luck it's over but they keep making too many mistakes on on special teams for sure um but i'm i'm i'm uh somewhat concerned i'm not i'm not terribly concerned 844-204-RICH number to dial Tom Pelfrey is in a great show Task on HBO Max is a diehard Giants fan he's coming out here for his second appearance on this program don't go anywhere this will be fun

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21:31Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show podcast. You're on the Rich Eisen Show simulcast on ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance. Talking with Tom Pelfrey, we just saw an incredible clip from the show Task, which is again on Sundays, 9 Eastern time, starring Mark Ruffalo and this man, Tom Pelfrey, here on the show. And, you know, before we talk some sports here, just the power that you bring to your performance in this show, it's awesome, dude. Really. And you're welcome. I'm a fan of yours. And I told you this the last time you were on here from Ozark, you know, where, again, you're playing a certain character in that show that is troubled.

22:12Rich Eisen:This guy is more of, obviously, a family man than your previous character in Ozark. And the scene that you have with your daughter, you know, I'm a girl dad. Me too. Dude, it hit me. It absolutely hit me because you're in trouble and you know it. Your daughter doesn't. She might sense it. Just terrific stuff, man. Oh, thanks, brother. You're welcome. I mean, that's what makes Brad so special is scenes like that, you know, and being a girl dad myself and, you know, even having to film that scene. I, you know, sometimes as an actor, when you're younger, you're thinking like, how do I get my head space into the drama?

22:48How do I think of what this would be like? And cook yourself up into a storm that day on set, I was literally trying to distract myself from what I was doing. Cause even like a half second of realizing, you know what that would mean, you'd be a mess, you know? And, and this is what I love about Brad, like in a show like that, that we can, we can have this great cat and mouse, this great building this great sort of like genre thriller and still have you know a dance with your daughter

23:20Rich Eisen:in the kitchen oh my god the brad you're referring to is brad anglesby who's the creator of mayor of east town if you like that show you're going to love task again sunday nights at 90 stern on hbo available to stream on hbo max as well and so you're you've got that philly accent down man you know and you you nail it and i'm i'm wondering do you channel all of the fans that you grew up painting as a giant fan is that is that why you're so good at this tom is that why you nail it is that what it is oh man all those guys all those guys and gals who spell out eagles and just make sure like nails on a chalkboard for you you know for a long time the eagles weren't even a problem it was like we could all just hate the cowboys and lately uh the eagles are the problem big time sir yeah here can you put up the photograph of um of tom at the eagles game please because i noticed this um there you are with mark ruffalo now mark mark this is i guess in support of of task right you're promoting it yes okay all right and so mark if i'm out is that like a brawling dawkins gamer he's wearing that sure is he an eagles fan no well well he is now i mean by the end of that game mark was getting tattooed on his chest okay good to know and i I noticed you're in civilian clothes.

24:38Yes. So you would not put on Eagles gear. They asked me if I would wear a jersey. I said, of course, absolutely not. They asked me if I would wear green. I said, absolutely not. Okay. And then this picture is taken. As you see, my head is down. Mark's holding up my hand because he knows that I'm really walking a tightrope here. They'd asked us to go out before the game with the Garrett Blunt and do the Fly Eagles fly. Oh. And I stood there and I smiled, but I didn't flap my arms and I didn't say a damn word. So you are a diehard is basically what you're saying.

25:15Rich Eisen:Oh, yeah. You refuse to play along. I know that feeling, guys. Okay. I know that. Well, I know you hate the Eagles as well as the Cowboys. I like the fact that you're clearly loving your project. You're proud of your project. Very. Which means you want to promote your project. but there's a line you just simply won't cross on this behalf. Can't cross it. I mean, I grew up in a family where when the Giants lost, my grandfather wouldn't talk for the rest of the day. We're all in this together for the long haul. And promotion of task be damned. Yeah, you're not up for that task. I got it. We all got to have lines, Rich.