Hour 3: Rich on His ‘SportsCenter’ Return, plus ESPN’s Joe Tessitore & NFL Draft Analyst Matt Miller

21:42Rich Eisen:Because when you're hauling kids' gear, snacks, and backpacks, space matters. And so does comfort. Just make sure they keep their cleats off the seats. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for details. Rich Eisen here. The April 15th tax deadline is coming fast, but don't worry. Hand off your taxes to a TurboTax expert today. You know how April feels. Everything speeds up. Games matter. More hoops and hockey schedules tighten. Your phone won't stop buzzing. And somewhere in the middle of it all, there's that quiet little reminder. Taxes. You'll get to it tonight or tomorrow or after the weekend.

22:16Rich Eisen:And if you handle it the old way, you're refreshing your inbox like it's breaking news. Waiting. Wondering. Hoping everything's squared away. That's a lot of mental bandwidth. With Intuit TurboTax Expert full service, you can match with a dedicated expert who understands your specific tax situation and handles your taxes for you, start to finish. You can do it all online or meet in person at one of their new tech-enabled store locations. Have your tax forms imported directly into the app and hand everything off to your TurboTax expert. While they work to get you every dollar you deserve, you can go about your normal routine, giving you time back to focus on what actually deserves your attention, like rooting for your team to make the playoffs.

22:58Rich Eisen:April 15th is not waiting, people. Visit TurboTax.com and hand off your taxes to a TurboTax expert today. Rich Eisen here. I've traveled all over for some of the biggest NFL moments you can imagine. Conference championships, Super Bowls, draft weekends, and everywhere I go, the city just feels different. It's buzzing, packed, electric. Now, take that energy and multiply it by the entire world. That's what's coming this summer with the FIFA World Cup. Fans from every corner of the globe are going to be traveling to experience it live. And when that many people come to town, they're all looking for a place to stay.

23:34Rich Eisen:That got me thinking. If you live in or near a host city, this is one of those rare moments. You already have a space. This summer, you could list your space on Airbnb while fans are in town for the FIFA World Cup, not as a full-time thing, not as some huge lifestyle change, just during an event when demand is naturally high. When I travel for big games, I just want a comfortable place in a real neighborhood, and that's exactly what so many visiting fans will be looking for. If you've ever thought about listing your space, this summer is a great time as we welcome FIFA World Cup fans. your home might be worth more than you think find out how much at airbnb.com slash host the rich eisen show the podcast that only leaves one other thing to do our radio audience is back matt miller here on the rich eisen show saying that the final mock draft from the nfl draft analyst of espn is coming the day before the draft i had daniel jeremiah on sports center last night Matt so in while we're waiting to hear your final mock draft let's critique others um he gave me his first 10 of the draft last night he had the Jets taking David Bailey would you agree with that I would and I think until I think until a week ago I was kind of viewing it as a toss-up and I talked to one team that thought thought the Jets would go Arvel Reese and that's from someone on the outside looking in but these teams all do mock drafts just like we do because they're trying to see who's going to be there for us at seven who's going to be there for us at nine or wherever you might be and this team I talked to a week ago thought maybe it would be Arvel Reese because the Jets are a team that's building for the future and I'll tell you that the tide has turned on that there's been a lot of pushback that the Jets need to win right now that Aaron Glenn needs to win that defense was awful last year they produced zero interceptions when your head coach is a former NFL defensive back and you have zero interceptions that's a problem and I think part of that was their lack of an ability to get to the quarterback and create some of those problematic throws that can be jumped on.

25:39Everything I'm hearing today says it's David Bailey. Now we're a week out, 10 days out. A lot can change, but I think Bailey is the preferred pass rusher in that building because they need someone that can help Aaron Glenn keep his job right now. Another disappointing season. The Jets are probably moving on, especially if they're in a position to draft a quarterback highly next year. More likely than not, they would want to bring in an offensive mind to work with an Arch Manning or a Dante Moore or whoever that quarterback might be at the top.

26:08Rich Eisen:Unless, as you point out, that they can do well enough this year with Geno Smith and win enough games. And with Frank Reich being the offensive coordinator, perhaps that would be the model for the Jets to move on and move forward and for Aaron Glenn to keep his gig. And in that regard, Daniel kind of doubled down on SportsCenter on Sunday night to say the Jets would move up from 16, only coughing up their second two on this year's draft. They have multiple ones, including their own at the top of Friday night and a fourth rounder to go up to seven and take Carnell Tate. What do you think of that notion, Matt?

26:47Yeah, I love it. I think receiver is the second biggest need for them, honestly. And it's a team with a lot of needs, obviously. It's the Jets. They always have a lot of needs. they have the number two world pick for a reason. But I do think it's smart in a class where there's not really a ton of love for the number two receiver, at least from the teams I talk to. I personally view it differently. I think Makai Lemon is a very good prospect. I think Omar Cooper Jr. is a very good prospect. But teams definitely see a gap between Carnell Tate and that next group of wide receivers. So if you're the Jets and you feel like it's not that valuable to have pick 34 because the receiver board is going to be wiped out.

27:21So let's package that second and second rounder in a fourth round pick to get ahead of some teams like the New Orleans Saints, to get ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs, to get that first wide receiver off the board. And I think the Jets are a team that we have to watch as a trade-up. I think the Dallas Cowboys are a team that we have to watch as a trade-up because, again, they have multiple first-round picks like the Jets, 12 and 20. And if they view one of these corners in this class as a player that you have to have, whether that's Jermod McCoy from Tennessee or Mansoor DeLane from LSU, who would probably be the player that I think they would target more likely.

27:52If they view one of those corners as can't miss, then I think you also get aggressive and see Dallas come up.

27:59Rich Eisen:With who? Who would be their trade partner? I'd imagine it's not the commanders, Matt. Yeah, probably not going in division, but what about Cincinnati sitting there at pick number 10? And you only jump in one spot, but Miami has completely remade their board. So we can see, I think that's a logical landing spot. I think we can see the Saints at eight be a team that would rather move back and get extra capital, especially depending on how they view Ruben Bain. That's going to be a big question is how these teams view him. Is he someone that they say, we'll stick a pick at eight, or maybe he's going to be there at 12 with the short arm concerns.

28:34Maybe we can move back, get extra capital, and Dallas comes up to that eight spot ahead of Kansas City, who traded Trent McDuffie. And you take Mansour Delay and a player who I compared to Trent McDuffie, so you jump Kansas City to get a player that I think a lot of us believe that they would like to have.

28:50Rich Eisen:Matt Miller here on the Rich Eisen Show we just talked about the receiver class Makai Lemon is in Miami today having a visit with the Miami Dolphins and that is one of the more sharpied for the lack of better phrase mock draft player and team to be married 10 days out right now Matt as you said you've already gone through some of the mock draft endeavor for yourself before your Wednesday before the draft final mock. Who are the Sharpie picks for you where you're like sitting 10 out, 10 days out, pretty confident this guy is going to be around and this team will definitely take them when they're on the clock?

29:33Yeah, I had Makai Lemon 11 to the Dolphins. I think Caleb Downs at 10 to the Bengals is one that's close, you know, as close as you could get to Sharpie. And another one you're going to see in a lot of mock drafts is Dylan Dannemann, the safety from Oregon to the Minnesota Vikings at number 18 overall. And now there might be a question mark of if we were just talking about Dallas at 12, if they can't move and the board gets wiped out, would Dallas just take him at 12 and make him that rover in their secondary that they're going to need with this new 3-4 defense coming in? They have massive needs at the safety position.

30:03They have needs at corner as well. But I think Dannemann probably gets past Dallas and at 18, if he's there, the Vikings would make him the replacement pick for Harrison Smith. And that's about as seamless of a replacement as you can get. He was a playmaker at Purdue, transfers to Oregon, plays under Dan Lanning, and is incredibly versatile while being a high IQ leader on the back end. The Vikings need a hit in the draft after several misses in the first round with their former front office, former general manager. I think a lot of times we see these new GMs that you just want to hit in the first round.

30:34You'll see a lot of offensive linemen be hits. I think the enemy is one of the true hits in this draft. So if he's there at 18, that's a Sharpie pick for the Vikings.

30:43Rich Eisen:yeah I've seen Jermon McCoy basically a sharpie pick for the Cowboys at 12 right like if he's still there and the Cowboys don't move up that's that's the spot for him that's a popular one yeah and the Cowboys are an interesting teamers because they their team doctor is one of the best in the nation at you know these types of injuries that McCoy had the ACL injury so I think Dallas would be more comfortable with McCoy just knowing who the team doctor is what he's been able to do with these athletes in the past. And we've seen the Cowboys not be shy about drafting players coming off injury. I know Jerry Jones said they need to stop drafting projects.

31:18They need to draft players they could come in and produce. That's McCoy, who had four interceptions in 2024 at Tennessee. He was a lockdown corner. Yes, it's at least a question mark that he missed the entire year with that ACL. But Tennessee was out of the college football playoff race. I think we probably would have seen him back on the field at least by January if they had been in the mix there. And then he had that phenomenal pro day workout that I think does answer a lot of questions, at least about his readiness to get on the field and play right now.

31:46Rich Eisen:Who's the guy moving up most draft boards in the final throws? Late push, moving up. Who is it? Yeah, I'll go Alabama, but not our guy Ty Simpson. I think it's Caden Proctor, the left tackle from there. Someone who, he started the year at 390 pounds and really played his way into shape. I made the comparison to Shaq, how we would see him play himself into shape during the season. It's exactly what Caden Proctor did. And it worked because he was playing his best ball down the stretch. Then we get to the combine. He's 354 pounds. He puts together a great workout. Does the same thing at the Alabama pro day.

32:18Puts together that great workout. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that he's the number six overall pick in this draft. The Cleveland Browns need a left tackle. They've liked bigger bodied offensive tackles like this in the past. So I think the Browns at six are a team to watch. It's maybe a surprise pick for Caden Proctor, but his name is absolutely rising.

32:38Rich Eisen:no kidding i mean the brown because dj uh daniel had uh fano going to the browns so i guess a right church just a different pew for what you're saying here yeah you'll take that as a hit okay in your mock draft right it's not always the player sometimes the position is a good enough hit so if daniel's here in tackle i'm here in tackle i think we're all kind of here and the browns got to address that offensive line spot so you love to get the the name to the team right but sometimes the position's just as good. Well, there's only one name associated with the position of running back, as we all know.

33:13Rich Eisen:Your 10-day-out peg for Jeremiah Love would be where? He's tough. I still think Tennessee at four. I look at a team that did so much work trading for Jermaine Johnson, adding players through free agency. They checked off so many boxes defensively, which is where they have needs. And Robert Salah coming in, And you're going to want to build the defense kind of in your own way. But then I look at what they have offensively. You have Cam Ward, who had such a great rookie season. You're bringing in a different mindset offensively. I think you could go with Jeremiah Love. And you have that tough inside-outside runner.

33:48You have someone with the breakaway speed, that 98-yard touchdown at Notre Dame, 94-yard touchdown at Notre Dame. Great receiver out of the backfield. He had a two-touchdown game as a receiver against Arkansas last year. I think Love at four. Yes, that's rich for a running back, especially on such a young team. But if you want to boost this offense, if you want to give them a chance, and there's not a receiver that you love at 4-0 role, I think you just take Jeremiah Love, who I believe is the best player in the entire draft class. You take him and you pair him with Cam Ward and you have something that at least is going to threaten defenses.

34:19Right now, they don't have any position players that scare a defense. This would give you that player that defenses have to really worry about and scheme for.

34:27Rich Eisen:Who are we not talking about, Matt? who are we not talking about here? Ty Simpson. That's the question, right? That's the big one. I'm going to be waiting to see. Is anyone going to call his name? That's who we're not talking about. I'm rooting. I've been loudly pushing back on the round one talk. My guy Orlovsky says he's the best quarterback in the draft. I've been pushing back on that. But I'm rooting for Ty Simpson to prove me wrong. I truly am. But I maintain it. We're number 15 is accurate because that's how many starts he had in college. And that should scare everyone who wants their team to draft him because there is zero precedent for a quarterback starting that few games in college and having success in the NFL, at least in the last 30 years.

35:12And so that's going to be the question mark. He's a great young man. He's tough as heck. He had such a fantastic start last year and then the wheels kind of fell off that entire Alabama offense. So I'm rooting to be wrong. I had this great moment early in my career where Luke Kuechly came up to me at the Super Bowl. and was like, hey, I still remember the scouting report you wrote about me. You were wrong. I was like, you know what? I absolutely was. You're going to be a Hall of Famer. I was way too low on you. So you love those moments. And I genuinely hope that Ty Simpson and I get to have that moment in 10 years where he says, hey, buddy, you were wrong.

35:44Dan Orlovsky was right. And I've had a great career and a little bit of a chip on the shoulder, maybe because someone's lower on him than everyone else.

35:53Rich Eisen:Well, I mean, in the way for that to happen, Matt, is he's got to be drafted by the right team. You know, and again, I'm concerned that if the Jets do that and they've already kind of gotten their their fan base attuned to the idea of drafting one next year and that if if Simpson isn't as surefire as he possibly.

36:18Rich Eisen:as somebody drafted in the first round is assumed to be, and he's put into New York, and Geno Smith shows up and struggles in this Jets offense similar to what we saw in Vegas last year, and he gets in there, and the coach might be on the hot seat. That doesn't sound like a great spot for him to wind up in, as a for instance. Would it be somebody like the Rams who could use a pick, I don't know, in the middle of the first round, if that's the way it's going to go. That just doesn't make sense for the Rams to do that when they've got Matthew Stafford and can get a significant helpful player to win right now this year in Stafford's final year or years there.

36:59Rich Eisen:I don't know. Do the Steelers do it? Matt? I mean, that would be fun for us as we're sitting there, right? It'd be fun if they take him. I don't think they will. I would think you have to be a little bit cautious if you're Pittsburgh that this feels like Kenny Pickett all over again. you know, the smaller quarterback who falls to you and you say, oh, well, we don't have one. Let's we'll draft him. I think at Pittsburgh, it's probably similar to everywhere else where they say you have to evaluate Ty Simpson against what you know is coming next year. And there's always the risk of potential and guys don't live up to expectations.

37:30We saw that plenty this year. Garrett Nossmeyer didn't live up to expectations. Lenore Sellers didn't live up to expectations, goes back to South Carolina. Archmaning and Dante Moore decided to go back to college instead of jumping into this class. both very good decisions. But so I think if you're Pittsburgh, you say a lot like the Rams, you're sitting at pick 21. Can we draft a player at 21 that's going to help us with one more year of Aaron Rodgers get to the playoffs, make another run, you try to build this entire roster? Or do you, are you in a spot where you think you're drafting for the future?

37:58And for Simpson, that's the hard part. The game of musical chairs says there's not a lot of teams that have that need at quarterback that makes sense for him. The Rams at 13 definitely don't. As you said, you can draft an impact player for one more year of Matthew Stafford. Do the Jets move up? Do the Cardinals move up? There aren't that many teams that need a quarterback, and that's where maybe we get the surprise pick. You know, Michael Penix to the Falcons was a surprise at eight overall after they had just signed Kirk Cousins. I mean, do the Dolphins surprise us all? And if he's there at 30, they take him with that second pick.

38:29It's hard to find a logical landing spot right now for him.

38:34Rich Eisen:Matt, thanks for the time. I wish you the best of luck on your final mock draft. We'll have you on and we'll see you in Pittsburgh. Thank you. Yeah, looking forward to it. Thanks, guys. You bet. That's Matt Miller, everybody, ESPN NFL draft analyst right here on the Rich Eisen Show. And speaking of Aaron Rodgers, the aforementioned Adam Schefter went on Pat's show and came up with an interesting scenario about his future and when he might announce. That's next, as well as my review of my weekend. Yes. Cannot wait for that. Good times in Memphis and Bristol.

39:36Rich Eisen:make it mean so much more. Thrivent, where money means more. Connect with us at Thrivent.com. O, O, O, O 'Reilly! Check engine, ABS, or maintenance light on? Take the guesswork out of your warning lights with O 'Reilly Veriscan. The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASE-certified master technicians. And if you need help, we could recommend a shop for you. Ask for O 'Reilly Veriscan today. Oh, oh, oh, O 'Reilly. Auto Parts.

40:20Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. All right. Okay, so take me through it. I want step by step. When did you arrive? What were your feelings and emotions when you got to Bristol? Yes. So I arrived. It was a midnight sports center that came on a few minutes early. and uh i got there around 130 okay so left new york around 11 took a ride up there so you got there about an hour before uh cam young and well i wanted to i knew the um sports center um let me get the i want to make sure i get everything right here because i i'm new to absolutely everything sure um what the uh the team is is expressly called um so just give just bear with me for for a moment here uh because we shot um the sports center universe team okay uh a crack staff of producers and uh photographers and you know camera operators we put together a this is sports center type of promo like we came up with the idea when we started zooming or microsoft teaming with each other um a couple weeks ago about what we want to do on the show just coming up with a sort of a this is sports center cutesy take of me coming back after 23 years, walking and seeing, you know, like an overflowing mailbox and stuff like that.

41:38Rich Eisen:So that took a few couple hours to shoot. Okay. And then once that was over, we started, you know, mapping out the show and sitting down and, you know, I interviewed Ovechkin, which was like, you know, occasionally pulling teeth because he didn't eat it. I mean, listen, well, he hasn't said, he hasn't said anything. Right. And the team still has an outside shot to make the playoffs. So he's not sitting here. There was like, you know, the penguins wanted to shake his hand. Yeah, and he was shooing them away. Yeah, yeah. Saying, get out of here. Right. You know, so you didn't really want to say much, but he was kind enough to speak anyway.

42:14Rich Eisen:But really, the wild moment was when I got out of, you know, and strolled around the campus and saw this building again for the first time in 23 years. Since he left, right? And then not knowing which was the old building or which was the new building. Like I'm walking around having no bearings, you know, and where I'm standing right there. That I believe was the building that I did have my office in behind me. Oh, I'm almost sure of it. I don't know. I've never been there. So how many more buildings are there than when you last? It has to be a half dozen. Wow. Right. Right. And, you know, and then there's this spot for, you know, where you walk in and they're showing commercials.

42:57Rich Eisen:And, you know, there's a this is SportsCenter wall. There's a new cafeteria where you walk down this hallway. And on your right, as you're walking down the hallway to the new cafeteria, is a touchscreen and a touchscreen of all of what looks like, I think, about 50 college schools and college football programs. you press the button uh of the you know the logo of your alma mater or your favorite school on the touchscreen and it plays the fight song as you walk oh wow to the to the cafeteria that's awesome honestly i just it was so out of body and it was so like um i i i just didn't know where i was even though i knew where i was and i was so familiar where i used to be and i finally got you know a little bit of a heads up of which building was the old building and then i walked in and i saw my old desk i saw my old desk you know the desk where stewart and i shot that um commercial where he gave me uh an earpiece for for for the holidays yeah and um you know where dan patrick had his office and um and how things are still look the same there and i walked down the the stairwell where um you know i would go to a sports center and the the um old studio is still there but it's filled with stuff because they use it for storage the old baseball tonight set was there and this wall where the old sports center desk was has now just got like pieces of wood and boxes and stuff on it and um yeah it hit me and the old newsroom is now an espn radio wing and that's where that room i wanted to go in that room specifically to facetime the kids because that was in that room where i met suzy oh wow and but that's gone now um it was wild you know it was totally wild wild but the neat thing is i'm not just saying it because you know obviously we've got these four letters here and we're we're part of the the espn world i really mean it like the the crew the production staff um you know um it was awesome you know i each production assistant that gave me a shot sheet you know um this young man uh handed me my first shot sheet in 23 years we took a picture uh i believe his name is shane what was that the masters one which which uh it That was, ironically enough, the Yankees losing their fifth in a row.

45:30Rich Eisen:Oh, that's a shame. Which somehow, someway, oddly enough, didn't make the show. But that had nothing to do with me. No, it had nothing to do with me. And I got cut? It had nothing to do with me. Yeah, Shane King, who I met yesterday. But it was great. It was just a whole team got together, and we did it. And that new studio is spectacular. Yeah, I mean, the way they made it look, too, like the late 90s. The director and the production staff put the old school background up on that huge screen. I like the gray suit. Just popped the whole thing. That picture you posted, I was just, damn, that was so cool.

46:08Rich Eisen:I mean, I'll do it again. And look, there's DJ. Look at DJ. Look at Daniel. He got all suited and booted for the occasion. That a boy. His glass, the desk didn't break this time. No, no, no. It's all put together. He's all put together. It was great. I loved it. Inside the NBA, throwing to me on SportsCenter, the long-time TNT show in the 23 years I was gone. It's crazy. I was watching Golf Channel. They were replaying all the pressers last night, and then I was like, oh, it's 1150. Let me switch over and watch the end of Inside Guys. But you were already on. You had already started. I know. We came on a little.

46:47Rich Eisen:I missed the welcome. Yeah. The old school tees and everything. So I want to thank everybody there. So cool, man. Bristol. Congrats. That's awesome. They made me feel welcome and warm like I'd never left. And I look forward to going back. You know, it's just the beginning. Just the beginning. Of our beautiful new friendship of the 2.0. Rich, you mentioned that I text you. So what a fun show. Whoopi Goldberg. Yeah, I did mention that you texted LFG right off the top. I didn't realize you were going on a little bit earlier. And I was waiting until like, I was like, all right, 10 minutes beforehand.

47:18Rich Eisen:Yeah. That's when I'll send the text. And I was like, oh, wow. I didn't want to interrupt you. so my bad. It's all good. Irv sent me one too. It was nice to hear from everybody. Thanks to Whoopi Goldberg, Ian Rappaport, Joe Tess and Matt Miller. We'll be back. Thanks for listening to the Rich Eisen Show podcast. You can watch and listen to the Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from noon to 3 Eastern on ESPN Radio, Disney Plus and on the ESPN app. The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast.