Howard Balzer: The Buffalo Bills Might Have The Best Roster In The AFC

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1:14Get what you need in two hours or less with Express Delivery from the Home Depot. Subject to availability, order select in-stock items by 4 p.m. Restrictions and fees apply. Yeah. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Goats have home lives, too. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Rich Eisen. Hello, Rich Eisen. Rich Eisen. Oh, that's Susie Eisen's husband. The Rich Eisen Show. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Dan Schwartzman. Hour number three of the Rich Eisen Show. Dan Schwartzman in for Rich on this Friday. Man, two hours have flown by. I talk a little NFL with Howard Balzer. That's coming up here in about 20 or so minutes.

1:59But I do want to get into NFL a little bit here, not actual football talk, because right now it's the offseason, so who really cares about what's happening in the NFL? But a story came out late yesterday that newest Chargers running back Najee Harris, who left the Pittsburgh Steelers after four years, rushed for over 1 ,000 yards all four years, after being a first-round pick, he avoided apparently very serious injury. He sustained an eye injury that's being called, quote, superficial by his agent Doug Hendrickson. After a fireworks mishap at a July 4th event, several people were injuries. One person lost fingers.

2:51This occurred in Antioch, California, which is where Harris is from. Signed a one-year deal to play with the Chargers, and they also drafted, by the way, a running back in the first round, Marion Hampton from North Carolina. So they are pretty set there. By the way, amazingly, the Chargers have not had a 1 ,000-yard rusher since Melvin Gordon back in 2017, another first round pick. Hopefully they won't have one for another 50 years. It's because you're a Raider fan. I understand. Yes. But here's what's always amazing to me, okay? You're a professional athlete, and Harris is 27 years old. So as a running back, his earning potential years are not much more.

3:39Maybe four years. Maybe. Even after rushing for 1 ,000 yards a season for four straight years, There was not a ton of interest in Najee Harris on the free agent market to where, you know, he's a guy that was able to sign just on a one-year contract. Like, you have to do everything in your power to protect your body, right? Like, I don't know what some of these guys have as fallback options outside of football. I've been fortunate to have worked with more than one former NFL player, and I found them to be bright guys, but they went from playing football to talking about football. And I'm not sure what they would have done in the, let's put it this way, the real world, right, outside of sports, if they had to.

4:32Like, I don't know what their skill set outside of football and even conversation was or is. but you have to maximize the number of years you play in the league because that's going to be the bread and butter. That's where you're going to make the bulk of your fortune that you're going to live the rest of your life on, or if you're lucky enough to make a lot of money, pass on to your kids and set them up for quite a while. So when you are the star, right, like when you are Harris or you are Jason Pierre Paul, and there's a fireworks show going on, like the little local fireworks show that you and your buddies are putting on you have a hell of a lot more to lose than your buddies okay oh yeah like i don't know if the the other attendees at this little bash in antioch california are also nfl players or professional athletes most likely not right but i do know naji harris is an nfl player that's made millions of dollars and potentially for at least three or four more years or possibly more can make millions more so when your buddies are like hey man you want to shoot off this rocket you're just supposed to say no nah dude you shoot off the rocket and you know i'm going to keep my fingers and if it's like okay guys we're going to shoot off some rockets you go as far away as you can from where the rockets are being shot off and by the way there's precedence for this right this isn't like wow we've never heard of this happening before right like Najee Harris is the first guy to get himself injured by fireworks as a professional athlete or even as a professional football player well sadly he's not and again thankfully this is a quote superficial injury so what I read from that is it's not going to affect his ability to play football so it's not going to affect his earning potential close but he should be okay from what we are understanding now maybe that's not true maybe it's a lot worse they just don't want to tell us but i mentioned jason pierre paul who literally blew off fingers shooting fireworks down in florida like apparently he had like a a like the back of a truck full of fireworks and he was shooting fireworks and literally lost fingers crazy just crazy story right so and then he came back and played with that club on there right i remember that like and he was actually fairly good after that but still there is a precedent set in your own league to where maybe you shouldn't be shooting off the fireworks if you want to watch so be it go watch but take a step back because you have more to lose than everybody else at this fireworks show, I assume and probably correctly assume, it is always mind-boggling to me.

7:26Like, I am not a millionaire. I am not a professional athlete. And I am not going to make millions of dollars in the next three to four years. And I'm smart enough to realize, you know, maybe I stay away from it. Leave it up to the professionals, right? Or leave it up to my friends. If they want to shoot the fireworks, by all means, go do it. I'm not going to partake. I'll watch. I'll enjoy. I'll have a drink with you. We'll cook out. Awesome. But when the fireworks start, I'm going to take a step back. So good news is he is apparently okay. That's the most important thing here. But let's hope that we don't have a repeat, especially in the NFL, of players getting injured or a player getting injured due to fireworks on July 4th.

8:14as a Raider fan as a Raider fan I'm not going to say anything don't say it don't say it the Raiders players have been oh my gosh on the police blotter a lot yeah they've just been bad okay I mean what a story right what an absolute crazy story oh man alright It is now over at Wimbledon, and Novak Djokovic loses to center 6-3, 6-3, 6-4. He faces Carlos Alcaraz, who earlier beat American Taylor Fritz, who played well. He lost 6-4, 7-5, 6-3, and then 8-6 in the tiebreaker in the fourth set. So it was actually very competitive, and Fritz is getting better and better. But still, we have No. 1 versus No.

9:082. Look, I mean, if you are a huge tennis fan and you don't specifically root for one tennis player, then this is what you want, right? You got the 23-year-old No. 1 ranked tennis player versus the 22-year-old No. 2 ranked tennis player who's won five Grand Slams already. So in terms of the actual match, like Djokovic-Alkaraz is a really good one, too. They've had a few battles out there, but one versus two is kind of what you want. because in the women's one, you're not getting one versus two. You are getting number 13 versus number eight. Now, Iga Sviatek used to be number one, but now she's number eight.

9:46And then for us, it's going to be interesting to watch, right? Because we get to watch the American Anissimova, who is hopefully poised to win her first Grand Slam. It's her first Grand Slam final, I believe. So, you know, she was a protege at 17. She had a nice run, I think, at the French Open back then. She's had some mental health issues since then. Her father, who was her tennis coach, had a massive heart attack and passed away when I think she was 17 or 18. And she stepped away from tennis for a year. And it's good to see her. I mean, she was a phenom. And it's good to see her back now at, I think, 22, 23, 24, starting to be the player that everybody thought she'd be based on her abilities and what she accomplished as a young tennis player, when she was, I think, No.

10:311 or something in those ranks. So there is a storyline to watch Saturday, but it is still No. 13 versus No. 8. In the men's, it's No. 1 versus No. 2. It's what you kind of wanted, what you asked for, and you have now gotten the matchup that probably most people want to see. Can both men lose? Probably not, unless they both get injured. Maybe they both run toward the net for a ball and they collide. That's probably not going to happen. so i gotta ask you are because you know i've given you time to calm down right before you say oh man this alcaraz he's he got me fired up so what yeah what's so let's look at this from afar all right alcaraz is a tremendous player he is poised to be an all-time great when it's said and done he could win his sixth grand slam and he's only 22 so why do you have very strong negative thoughts on poor Carlos Alcaraz because I got to work we start talking and you just are not a fan oh no oh no I was rooting for Fritz I was rooting for Fritz but this Alcaraz I mean he comes around it comes across like very arrogant and he looks like he's you know a spoiled rich kid yeah no I don't disagree yeah no he does give off the uh and Fritz is like one of us you know No, he's...

11:57An American? He's an American, yeah, of course. But he's a grinder. He's a grinder like us. Yeah, I get that. And yes, Alcaraz does kind of rub me wrong sometimes. I think he is a sore loser, right? Like his body language at times and his facial expressions when things aren't going his way kind of rub me wrong. but with that said art you gotta admire what he's doing on a court i mean guys his age usually don't have this type of success this early yeah no doubt no doubt and he's he's a winner against a sinner he's won eight times against sinner and i think when it comes down to the lesser of two evils in your mind who would you rather root for?

12:46Oh, man. Sinner, who is a guy who got busted, right, and should have been suspended longer and probably shouldn't be playing in this tournament. The suspension probably should have kept him out of this tournament. Or Alcaraz, who is, you know, again, body language, facial expressions, when things aren't going his way, are not that good. Right. You know, your belief that he actually got entitled rich kid. So who are you going to root for? You're a tennis fan. I know you enjoy watching tennis. Who are you rooting for? Oh, man. Jeez. Anyways, I'm rooting for the ball. Yeah, but the big one they sign afterwards.

13:19Because think about it, okay, I love when people tell me, oh, yeah, I watch sports. I don't care who wins. I don't buy that, okay? Even if you're watching a game in whichever respective sport that you want to fill in the blank with, and it does not include your team, like for you, the Raiders, or for me, the Jets, baseball, your Dodgers, my Yankees, whatever. it is you're just watching say sunday night football just two random teams you end up still pulling for one team to beat the other for whatever reason right that's human nature i think right you can't watch sports without a rooting interest it's very hard to do and and you will just start rooting for a team by just watching so same thing here you're not going to watch this match being completely indifferent as to who wins the points you're gonna start pulling for one of the two guys so you don't like either one Art and you're probably somewhat of a curmudgeon which you are and that's why you don't like anybody but Art seriously who are you going to root for when you watch this great number one versus number two match on Sunday the history shows that Alcarez he's got more wins so I would say Carlos you're rooting for Carlos so you are going to put the entitled rich kid attitude that he shows on the back burner, you're going to let it go and you're going to root for him to beat Yannick Sinner, the Italian with the non-Italian name.

14:51Exactly, yeah. You know, we could call this the economic final. Two countries that are beautiful, amazing food, great climate, but no jobs. It's really what it comes down to. Spain and Italy, Very similar countries, low cost of living, low salaries, amazing food, beautiful scenery, right? On the Mediterranean, no jobs. I mean, God, I'm so old, man. I'm trying to think about countries that way, right? Great countries to visit, but don't want to live there. You can't. I would live there. I honestly would live there. You have to earn an American salary. You got to live there. I would move to Spain tomorrow.

15:40I really would. I would absolutely move to Spain tomorrow. Great place. I don't know if you've ever been, Art. It is phenomenal. It's beautiful. It is awesome. I've passed through it on the way to Saudi Arabia, yeah. Yeah. Well, next time you get a chance, stop off and enjoy it because it is people there know how to live. You know what they say, right? Americans, we live to work. Europeans work to live. And they don't work as hard. They have siestas. They get the whole month of August off. People are more laid back, more relaxed. Cost of living is less. Yes, salaries are less, but for some reason they can survive on much less money than we need to survive here in this country.

16:25It's just a different lifestyle. So Italy and Spain are actually very similar with how things are in terms of average salaries, quality of food, quality of life. And amazingly, you know, as much money as we make here in America, the quality of life in a lot of these European countries that don't have the wealth we have is actually much better. It's crazy. It really is crazy. But I don't want to get all political on you here. We're not going to do that. We got some football to talk. It is the offseason, but before you know it, it's training camps, mini camps, all that good stuff. You're already starting to read all the stories about this team could do that, this team could do this.

17:04Who's going to be good, who's not, who's poised to be in the playoffs, who's Super Bowl favorites. We're going to do an early edition, an early look at the upcoming NFL season. Our buddy Howard Balzer, he is going to join us next. We continue here in our number three. That's right. Hour three, the Rich Eisen show. Dan Schwartzman in for rich on this Friday. Back with Howard Balzer next.

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18:22Visit HyundaiUSA.com for details. Taking a quick break to tell you how Saturday's game time can get a little messy. Your crew just came over to watch. Snacks on the table, drinks in hand, and somebody celebrating like they just won the whole season and beyond. And when that energy gets going, your walls can end up taking the hit. Whether it's a big spill or a noticeable scuff, that's where Bear Ultra Interior Paint comes in. It adds an extra durable stain-blocking finish that helps your walls hold up for the whole season. It also delivers outstanding coverage and hide in fewer coats with easy application and a smooth, even finish that goes on clean from the first pass.

18:59Plus, that easy, clean finish helps walls stay looking new longer. So before the next kickoff, give your space game-ready defense and coverage that goes the distance. Bear Ultra, only at the Home Depot. Dan Schwartzman in for Rich Eisen on this Friday, July 11th, hour three of the programming. Talked NBA hour one, a lot of baseball in hour two. It's the All-Star break almost here, home on Derby on the 14th. I think it's still the best All-Star game of the four major sports. Basketball is a joke. Hockey's a joke. It's just pure offense on both. The Pro Bowl, there's nothing positive you can say about the Pro Bowl except you can gamble on it.

19:39and then I think baseball kind of stands out. Let's talk a little NFL. Our buddy Howard Balzer is joining us, and he is. Man, I'll tell you, Howard does everything. I think this is year number 47. He's a Cardinals NFL reporter for CardsWire. He's also a Hall of Fame selector. Howard, is this your 47th year? You must have seen unbelievable things when you look back at your NFL career here, my friend. Yeah, I have seen a lot, no doubt about it, Dan, and thanks for having me on. I will say this, that this is actually starting my 50th season, half a century covering pro football. So, yeah, it's been a long road, but a fun one and exciting one and an interesting one.

20:22And here I am still going at it at this advanced age, if you will. Ah, you're young, man. It's like the new 50s, like the new 30. But what's the one thing in all these years that stands? Is there one moment that you remember the most? Maybe it's a game, a player doing something smart or stupid. Is there one thing that stands out in these 50 years of covering the NFL? My goodness. Someone said to me the other day that he asked me if I've ever written a book, and I said no. And they said, well, this 50th year, you should do a book just on your 50 most exciting or greatest moments. I said, boy, that would even be hard to get it down to 50.

21:00but to choose one obviously is very, very difficult. I will say the one thing that jumps out, I'm in Arizona now covering the Cardinals, but in St. Louis for many, many years covering pro football, and certainly that Super Bowl year, that moment, that season, when it culminated in a victory over the Titans and the unbelievable story with Kurt Warner and everybody else on that team, that's probably the one thing that stands out because obviously it all happened in my backyard. But there's so many others being part of the Hall of Fame selection committee. And I'll be heading to Canton in a little under three weeks, believe it or not.

21:45And I was adding it up. This will be the 35th Hall of Fame weekend that I will be at. So there's been so many. and truly uh truly dan i'm i absolutely feel blessed by by everything that that i've done and experienced in this last half century yeah it's interesting you mentioned the hall of fame and and you mentioned that uh thest louis rams team with kurt warner if it's not for and you know people say it's a dirty hit rodney harrison and the hit on trent green i believe it was it was at the preseason who knows what happens with that kurt warner doesn't get the opportunity Rodney, of course, has been a finalist many years, but it's kind of ironic when you think about the fact that that happened because Rodney Harrison takes out Trent Green for the year.

22:31Kurt Warner steps in, and obviously he ends up becoming a Hall of Fame quarterback. Well, we are, of course, going to talk NFL. I was going to say the other quick thing about that for moments that changed history is that even Kurt Warner getting a tryout to be part of the Rams originally the year before that occurred because a guy by the name of Al Lukenbill was coaching the Amsterdam Admirals in NFL Europe. And they wanted a quarterback to have on their team that they could say was on an NFL roster. So he talked to his old friend Charlie Army, who was the personnel guy with the Rams, and said, hey, we'd love to have you sign him.

23:08So they brought him in for a tryout. He admits he didn't do very well, but the Rams signed him anyway and sent him off to NFL Europe for that year. So without that, who knows if Kurt Warner ever even gets another tryout after being in arena football for numerous years after his one season as an undrafted free agent with the Green Bay Packers. Yeah, incredible when you think about how things play out. I loved NFL Europe. What a great starting place it was for a bunch of guys who ended up having lengthy careers. You know, NFL careers. Also reporters, by the way, broadcasters. A lot of people can owe their careers to NFL Europe.

23:45I remember Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Barcelona, all these places. London, Monarchs, I think it was. A bunch of teams. And they had those stupid plastic face masks. I do remember those. But, Howard, I have to ask you. You know, you look at the league right now. I want to start in the AFC. And, again, it's so early because it's the offseason and guys are more on beaches than they are thinking about football. But in the AFC, three teams really stand out to me, and that is the Kansas City Chiefs every year that Patrick Mahomes is going to be there. They're going to be in the conversation. Same thing with Allen in Buffalo, Baltimore with Lamar Jackson.

24:20Right now, when you look at those three teams, who is the best of the three in your mind heading into this season? Things will change, of course. Yeah, they will, and we never know when injuries will hit. When you look at it overall, I think when you look at the rosters and look at everything that these teams have, I would say the Bills might have the best roster, but it's very close. And, of course, you have Patrick Mahomes, who, I mean, heck, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, they're always trying to get over that hump and get past the Chiefs to get to the Super Bowl. And that's what keeps them away because the Chiefs have been there so often.

24:58So it's always tough to pick against Kansas City. But, you know, I would say the Bills slightly. It's not a whole lot. But, you know, they are the three teams that, you know, will probably be vying. It doesn't mean that anyone else, you know, can't jump up and challenge them like, you know, like the Bengals if they can get off to a good start at AFC West. Boy, oh, boy, you know, the Raiders can be competitive. I mean, look at the head coaches in the AFC West with Andy Reid and Harbaugh and Sean Payton and Pete Carroll. I mean, that's just the treasure trove of NFL head coaches. So it's going to be very interesting to see the way that whole conference plays out beyond those top three teams.

25:38You know, with Buffalo, though, and with Kansas City, that's become really a heck of a rivalry if you think about, you know, those two teams playing great quarterbacks and very competitive teams. Is there a psychological factor when you're Buffalo and you're facing Kansas City? I think there probably has to be. And I think that it's only natural. And obviously you try to put it out of your head and you say, hey, this is just one game, play our best football. And they've come so close so many times. Most of the time, heck, there was that epic divisional round game several years ago that went to overtime.

26:13And most of the time when they've lost to them, it's usually by a field goal. And so that just shows how close those games are. But you have to believe, I mean, you have to put it out of your mind, obviously, Dan, but you get to the fourth quarter of a game and it's close, and you're saying, boy, hopefully who's going to make the play to help us for the Bills, let's say, win the game or not make the mistake that helps us lose it. And certainly they thought it was going to be them in that overtime game when, heck, would it take the Chiefs 13 seconds after the Bills went ahead to go down and tie it and send it to overtime.

26:48So, yeah, that has to be in the back of your mind. You have to put it behind you. But it's not as if they haven't been competitive with the Chiefs. They have been. And you've just got to find a way to win that game that is finally going to take all that weight off your shoulders. Cardinals NFL reporter for CardsWire and Hall of Fame voter Howard Balzer joining us here on The Rich Eisen Show. Dan Schwartzman in for Rich on this Friday. Give me an AFC team. Again, so early here, but this is the fun of it. Give me the AFC team that you think is going to make the strides to potentially get maybe not into that big three group that we just mentioned with the Ravens, Bills, and Chiefs, but could give them a little scare.

27:28Is there a team like that in the AFC you think about? You know, I think that, you know, there's certainly going to be so much focus and watching the Steelers now with what they have done, you know, to go all in with signing Aaron Rodgers and trading for DK Metcalf and now acquiring Jalen Ramsey. Certainly they've got to get T.J. Watt signed because I have to believe that'll happen. But you look at the Steelers over the last few years, and aside from quarterback play, they're a different team when TJ Watts on the field than when he is not. So that's a team that you really look at and say, this is a team that can be a real challenger.

28:06I look at the Broncos, and it's not crazy to say that they can challenge the Chiefs. Obviously, they have that tough division that I just talked about, but no one expected them to do what they did last season. And now if they can build on it, then they could potentially be in that discussion. So I think those are a few teams that we have to keep our eye on. The Bengals always seem to be, not always, the one year they got to the Super Bowl, obviously, but they always seem to be that enigma with all that ability on offense. But they always just seem to get off to these slow starts and then really turn it on at the end of the season.

28:45If they get off to a good start and then carry it through, then that's certainly, I think, if the defense improves, is a team that could be right there with the Ravens and the Steelers in that division. I want to turn to the NFC and the Eagles are the Eagles, and they're tremendous, obviously, with Hurts at quarterback. Saquon Barkley is unbelievable. Washington, of course, a much better team. But Detroit tastes success, right? And they were very good. They let, you know, 15 wins last year, the disappointment in the postseason. But still, some teams need that disappointment to then take the next step this year.

29:20How scary in your mind is Detroit going to be? oh they're definitely gonna be scary because that offense is so explosive they got some adjustments to make on you know on the offensive line and they've got to keep everybody healthy on defense that was the biggest problem uh last year and and yet they still won 15 games but but bowed out of the playoffs early so you know that that's a team that you can never underestimate and the one the one question you have and it's always something that we it's hard to wrap our our arms around but when you've done things a certain way for a few years with assistant coaches and you lose both of your coordinators in the same year and then you wonder how is that going to be without ben johnson and without aaron glenn and they have the talented players but even when you say well we're you know it's still going to be pretty much the same and all that but it's not the same when you lose guys like that and i think that's going to be one of the hurdles that the Lions have to overcome to still be at that top of the NFC.

30:24But they're good enough to be talent-wise, and if everyone's comfortable with the coaching, and it's not only the players being comfortable with the coaches, it's the coaches being comfortable with the players and what they can do. But they are still one of the teams to beat, obviously, I think, in that conference. Washington, a great story. They finally shed themselves of Dan Snyder. They have adults now owning the team, a new name. They have a quarterback that seems to be the real deal here that they can go a decade plus with and be successful. They go 12-5, really shock a lot of people. Do they take a step back this year?

31:04Do you think it's legit that this is a team that can now make the stride to win more and go deeper in the playoffs? No, I think they are legit. And obviously it still is on the shoulders for the most part on Jaden Daniels, who no one, even though he was the second overall pick, I don't know that anyone could have expected him to play at the level, you know, that he did for the entire season. And, you know, Dan Quinn, I think was a very underrated leader, which is what you have to truly be as a head coach and let everybody else coach, but, you know, be the leader. And I think he was underrated in that when he was with the Falcons.