Malik Willis Concern Already? Mendoza as ROY? Mahomes' Return & More

0:00Rich Eisen:Rich Eisen here. PayPal is now the official peer-to-peer payments sponsor of the NFL, which means all the money moments that fandom creates, whether splitting tailgate costs or chipping in on tickets and game day food between friends, are covered. Wherever the game is played or watched, PayPal moves with fans. You can send money through text, email, or directly to your friends with eligible accounts on Venmo. Just download the PayPal app and share all the moments that matter. Account with PayPal is required. Not available in all regions where PayPal operates.

0:35Rich Eisen:It's time for the latest and newest edition of Overreaction Monday, presented by PayPal, the official peer-to-peer payments sponsor of the NFL. It's the first week of May. We're in the month of schedule release, rookie mini camps. That's right, yeah. We're in the third to last month with no football being played in it. Pretty much. I mean, July-ish. With all due respect to the other leagues playing football. Right. What's up, Chris Brockman? May the fourth be with you. You know what? I'm going to say this on the flagship show, so let me say this to you right now. Sure. I'm the biggest Star Wars fan there is, but I feel bad for people with lisps today.

1:18Rich Eisen:Yeah. It's not really cool. Mike Tyson. Yeah. Try saying may the fourth be with you to him. Not great. Okay, what's funny, this whole list is all Star Wars overreactions. Oh, fantastic. Hit it. That was terrible. That was crap. That was garbage. This place sucks. Overreaction. Mondays. Monday. All right, what do you got over there, Chris? First up, I don't blame Anakin for going to the dark side. Okay, good one. Committed to the bit. I like it. I like it very much. I really like it. Keep going, man. Sure. Jabba the Hutt really wasn't that disgusting. What does everybody say? Han shot first. Okay.

1:59You know what I mean? Okay, very good. I don't think so. I like the commitment to the bit. I mean, we could do all of this. No, it's all good. Fine. Here's the deal. I was watching some sports over the weekend, and you've done a first pitch, right? Okay. At the Dodger game. Oh, you're going Malik Willis to start off? You've done one, right?

2:17Rich Eisen:I was there for it, actually. I was there. Yes, you were. We did a little piece for the old podcast. Yes, we did. And yours was a little high and tight. Well, I mean, I would have hit a right-handed hitter, but I will always feel that a lefty would have been fooled by the off-speed. Yeah. You own the inside corner. I think that's my point. What you're saying is I wasn't, with my first pitch, being used as a prism or a window into which it could be read whether somebody's going to be great at quarterback for the Miami Dolphins or not. No, yeah, exactly. I like this way to start. And we're in that time of the year where we're looking for stories and storylines and possibilities and projections of what could be for the coming season.

3:03Okay. And I'm looking at, like, you guys are already throwing out 27 mock drafts, and who do they have at the top of the mock draft? The Dolphins taking somebody, yes. Combine that with Malik Willis' really bad first pitch, And Dolphins fans should be very worried about Malik Willis this season. Oh, dude. Dude. That was rough.

3:25Rich Eisen:That is so rough. And I just saw something this morning. He's claiming he slipped. Come on, Malik. Well, I mean. We all got two eyes at work. He's got his excuses going. I like it. He's already on the excuse train. Here's. I could give you. You want the long answer or the short answer? I want the long answer. All right. The long answer is this. I need to see what all of these pieces that the Dolphins put together in the draft of players that nobody was just like, oh, I saw him. I heard him. I know what's going to happen with this guy. You know, he's going to fit in here. He's a perfect fit for this team, this offense, this defense, this coach, this system.

4:04Rich Eisen:And we have no idea about the coach, the offense, the system or anything like that. We also know the grocery shopper is a guy from Green Bay, meaning they're just not going to take a wide receiver in the first round, even though they traded away Jalen Waddell and got the 30th overall selection and didn't use that pick on a wide receiver, didn't use either of their first rounders on a wide receiver. They are building a program. They are looking at some of the howling fans and waving their game plan in the leather satchel, just like in the movie Hoosiers, Coach Dale saying my team's on the floor and we just don't know who that is.

4:43Rich Eisen:And so Malik Willis is a perfect avatar for all of that for the Miami Dolphins, okay? So we just don't know. We have no idea how it's all going to work. And the odds are that it's going to take some time to gel, to put a program together to get the right guys in there. It's going to take more than one draft. It's going to take more than one free agency period. It's going to potentially take more than one season. So Malik Willis making his 20 some odd million dollars. If they wind up with a top five draft choice and all of those quarterbacks that are going to be on the board, they're going to take one.

5:22Rich Eisen:And I think there are some evaluators that look at all this and know how long it's going to take. And we'll suppose that they're going to have one of the top two picks in the draft and that they will take a young quarterback right there. so Malik Willis better come correct in the first half of this season otherwise he might not get more time in Miami that's what everybody's reading into and then when he sails this first pitch like like nuke Lelouch um trying to hit the mascot everywhere and it is now used as a whoa this guy can't throw as if none of the games in which he looked terrific for the Green Bay Packers against some stout opponents didn't exist.

6:02Rich Eisen:Right. And the fact that it's a different type of ball that he's throwing. And, you know, I'd be concerned if he's a$20 million a year pitcher for the Miami Marlins if I saw that. But Miami Dolphins is a different story. Overreaction. That's the long-winded one. Oh, that's the short answer. The short answer is, did you see Patrick Mahomes' first pitch? Yeah, and you know what? Back when he, before he played football? And someone sent that to me, and I'm like, look, Mahomes' was right on line with the catcher. It was just high. Okay. Malik Willis is 20 feet to the right. It wasn't as bad, but the bottom line is, did it hit the backstop or did it hit the catcher?

6:38Rich Eisen:The backstop known as the catcher or the wall behind him? It was pretty bad. Okay, so to the point where Mahomes even reposted it saying, I thought we got rid of this video. That's pretty good. Okay, so yeah. Like, so come on, man. Mahomes didn't have a great first pitch. It wasn't as bad as Malik Willis. I mean, you got to know, you got to practice. But it just goes to show you. Cleats do something. It goes to show you that Malik Willis has a small window of opportunity here. When he signed with Miami, I thought he's got a large window of an opportunity. Yeah, it doesn't look like it. But now everybody's starting to talk about, well, next year there's all these quarterbacks.

7:16Rich Eisen:If he plays well enough and if he wants to preserve his job there, play well enough where you're picking 15 through 25, and all of a sudden, you know, you're not in position to take one of these top quarterbacks. You're in seven, eight games next year, and you're in the middle of the draft, and quarterback's not an option. Right. Stay healthy as well. And, you know, stay out of the zone of going outside your lane, man. Yeah, next time someone offers a first pitch, say no. Well, I mean, yeah, of course he'll say no. He's done it once. It's over. It's over. Overreaction is what I'm saying. What else, Chris?

7:51Rich Eisen:All right, Rich. Great first start. You're welcome. You're welcome. We're doing what we can here. Okay. May the fourth be with you. Okay. you're a voter in the awards I heard I took an MVP away from Drake May and here's the deal the dude who put Justin Herbert's name is a first place MVP vote well yeah because that got flushed down the toilet excuse me just real quick here I will always push back on this because you say this with a hint of seriousness Your son texts me every week about it. I told him this, too, is that anybody who had a vote for MVP this year, it was obvious that it was a referendum on two people, and he went to an other receiving vote.

8:39Rich Eisen:He went to a small party candidate. Ralph Nader. Wasted the vote. Well, that's an old school way of putting it. You want Jill Stein. You want to put something a little bit more contemporary. I don't know if the Russians influenced his vote. Here's the deal, Rich. Sorry to get you going. Oh, my God. Okay, of last year's MVP vote getters, okay, there were six. And I voted for the proper one. Matthew Stafford, Drake May, Josh Allen, CMC, Trevor Lawrence, and Justin Herbert. Only two are going to get votes this year. Give me the names again. Matthew Stafford, Drake May, Josh Allen, McCaffrey, Trevor Lawrence, and Justin Herbert.

9:19Only two of those guys are going to get votes.

9:21Rich Eisen:I don't think that's an overreaction. I don't think it's an overreaction. and I think it's going to be Stafford and Allen. Stafford? You're doubling down on Stafford. Yeah, I chose the right MVP vote. Because you don't want your pick to look like a fluke. My pick did not look like a fluke. It doesn't look like a fluke in that serious campaign that I was a part of where I had to vote for one of the other. Couldn't even win his division. Okay. But, yeah, I think it'll be Stafford and Allen. You want me to call my shot, don't you? I do want you to call your shot. I do want you to call your shot. I'm calling my shot.

9:51Yeah.

9:52Rich Eisen:On May the 4th. Correct. I'm calling my shot. I'm saying Stafford and Josh Allen will get the MVP votes as a repeat customer. Excellent. And everyone else, I say make sure. What's the rest of the top five? May the fourth be with them. What's the rest of the top five look like? The rest of the top five looks like. Caleb? Putting Caleb in there? That's going to be the hot name all season. I know it will be. All off season. That's a tall order. That's a very tall order. I'll say I'll say I'll say Lamar and Joe Burrow are back. Okay. Both of them are back. Okay. All right. Both of them are down with staff and Alan.

10:33Rich Eisen:And I'll go Dak Prescott. Oh, nice. Give you a little bit of a little taste. Just a little taste. I like Dak. I wish you a little taste. I wanted him on the Patriots. By the way, I'm extending myself the same courtesy. I extend ever all guests of the Rich Eisen show is if I'm right, we repeated. Of course. Not going to play this back. It never happened. Correct. Never happened. And I left Drake May off just to Obviously Well look, things couldn't be worse for Boston Sports right now I'm waiting for something to happen I might be purposely flopping like supposedly Joel Embiid does I don't think anyone can dispute that The biggest guy in the court, he's always on the ground He's wobbly He doesn't have an appendix now He doesn't have ligaments or an appendix Of course he's going to flop around like the tin man Like the scarecrow Come on now.

11:22Rich Eisen:Fish. He doesn't have, if I only had an appendix, this doesn't have the same ring to it. It doesn't have the same ring to it. Rich, you know what I... By the way, I just made a 90-year-old pop culture reference. What else you got, Chris? I mentioned Ralph Nader before. So here's the deal. I'm watching, again, watching the clips. I'm seeing rookie minicamps. Fernando Mendoza. Yes. I saw that he's taken more snaps under center during Raiders minicamp than all three years of playing college football. Yes. he was thrown apparently the footballs he was throwing were very nice i know over the over the weekend yes here's the thing even if he doesn't start until october and he is going to start this year okay fernando mendoza's winning rookie of the year um offensive rookie of the year over jeremiah love huh a lot of running backs in there that's right a lot of running backs a vulture touchdown over carnell tater jordan tyson not even the number one receivers on their own team over any like mckay lemon not even the number one receiver on his own team over any of the other quarterbacks that might get a start like or 10 i don't know carson back i don't know the shot came out of nowhere a little bit last year i don't think this is an overreaction i really like him a lot man yeah i do too i think and by the way i think he's gonna start week one but you know if he doesn't i don't believe he will but um i i i like everything about him i like the fact that he dodged the political lane by saying i'm just a rookie i'm playing politics within my own building yeah when he was asked if he was going to be with the indiana hoosiers at the white house visit and he basically was like it's i think it's landing on a practice day i'm a rookie i need to show it's a good answer he's a bad it's a bad look for a rookie to to go to the white house i need to earn my start my stripes whatever um but that's the fire hose that he's drinking out of and i love the fact that they're like okay we're just not gonna baby him get under center this the way we run our offense here if you remember um you know uh clint kubiak's dad uh back in the day when he got peyton manning in um peyton's like yeah that that under center stuff like that ain't happening i'm i'm the sheriff i'm also pushing 40 myself here i'm on the backside of 30 well they invented like the I'm in the shotgun, so they put him in the pistol.

13:44Rich Eisen:So it got him closer to the quarterback, and it allowed him to potentially pivot a little bit, pirouette a little bit, and create some of that boot action that he wasn't fooling anybody with. So clearly this is a Kubiak thing, and Mendoza can move. So let's get him under center. Let's start it now in May, and let's keep on hammering this kid and get him drinking out of the fire hose. And as you pointed out, though, based on all reports, it's not affecting his throwing. No. There's a great headline meme went around on threads that I sent to the group. I love it. About how perfect everything looks.

14:27Rich Eisen:Yeah. Everything looks pristine. Yes. So Google that. Look it up. Sure. But be careful. Be careful. Who you're around. But yeah, that's not an overreaction. I don't think it's an overreaction to say the first overall pick quarterback who's going to get some starts is going to wind up rookie of the year i mean tyler shuck almost did himself yeah but it didn't happen last year cam warden didn't win rookie no i no no but i'm saying tyler shuck didn't as a second round guy right didn't start till basically midway through the season yeah nine games and he almost uh you know beat out tetaroa mcmillan for the award correct so there's no reason why the first overall drafted quarterback shouldn't be right rich eyes in here paypal is now the official peer-to-peer payments sponsor of the nfl which means all the money moments that fandom creates whether splitting tailgate costs or chipping in on tickets and game day food between friends are covered wherever the game is played or watched paypal moves with fans you can send money through text email or directly to your friends with eligible accounts on venmo just download the paypal app and share all the moments that matter.

15:35Rich Eisen:Account with PayPal is required. Not available in all regions where PayPal operates. Most protein drinks ask you to choose between results and taste. Bucked Up decided that's a ridiculous trade-off. Bucked Up makes lightly carbonated protein drinks, 25 grams of protein per can, clear protein, not milky or thick, and they taste so good that 25 grams of protein almost feels like a bonus. Bucked Up is so confident you'll love their drinks. They're giving away an island vacation just to prove it. That's the kind of brand this is. No purchase necessary. Giveaway ends May 30th. Enter and find your closest Bucked Up at BuckedUpEnergy.com.

16:14Grab a Bucked Up and feel like a million bucks. What else you got? Rich, talk every year about turnover. Turnovers in the division winners, turnovers in the playoffs, turnovers, head coaches. Lots of turnover. You know, last year, seven divisions had a new winner from the previous season. Can you name the only repeat division winner of 2025?

16:37Rich Eisen:I would go with, let me just see here at the top of my head. Yeah, talk it out. I'm going to talk it out here. I was surprised that seven out of eight were new. It's the Eagles. The Eagles, yeah, yeah. Fly, Eagles, Fly. We're the only repeat division winners. This year, Rich Eisen, we're going eight for eight. Every division will have a new winner in 2026. So the Bills and the AFC East? I think so, yeah. Okay. Well, it's not going to be the Dolphins or the Jets. Why not? Well, you just saw the first pitch in Miami. I did. It's definitely not. The Jets aren't suddenly going to turn around and go from the outhouse to the penthouse.

17:08Yeah, Patriots first place schedule. I think the Bills kind of sniked that.

17:12Rich Eisen:You want to go Ravens in the north? Is that what you want to do? Do I want to go Ravens? Who else are you going to go? You're going to go the Bengals or the Browns? No, I want to go Ravens. Okay, go Ravens. Yeah, I want to go Ravens. We're actually doing this. Yeah, why not? Okay, let's do it. So you want to go Texans? You want to go Texans in the south? Texans in the south. Yeah, of course you will. I don't know. I want to go Colts. Colts. Interesting. Interesting. You believe in Danny Dimes or C.J. Stroud? I believe in C.J. Stroud with David Montgomery and the other pieces that they're putting around him.

17:44Rich Eisen:Interesting. All right. Dude, that guy wins a playoff game every year. Yeah, but then what? Okay, Houston. Okay, I'm down. This is not a then what. It's a win the division. Correct. Yeah, okay. Houston. All right. I switched it. Then we're going to go Chiefs. I'm going to go Chargers. All right. Either way, you've got a different division winner. What, are you going to go Dallas? You're going Dallas? You're going to go Giants. Call it. Call it. You've been dancing around the Giants subject. I'll go Dallas. I really have been. I want to go Dallas. Let me tell you something. I really like Dak. In all seriousness.

18:14Rich Eisen:I want him to succeed. In all seriousness, you put Caleb Downs in the back end of that defense. They're going to be amazing. They got Rashawn Gary and Kenny Clark. They basically got half the Packers defensive line for Micah Parsons. Okay? And then they got Quinnen Williams for the full season. Overshown. They drafted a kid out of my school in the third round, Jay Sean Barham, who is going to just bring downhill nastiness. I think they're going to be the best defense in the NFC. And then the offense is the – I mean, Pickens – I don't know what's going on with him, Matt. Well, we're going to talk about him in a second.

18:45Rich Eisen:Okay, so we'll put a pin in that. So Dallas, I think, can win the division for sure. I like Dallas. I like Dallas. I like Atlanta. So what are you – no, hold on a minute. Don't skip the north. Oh, north. You want to go to Packers? The Packers? The Packers are back. They're back. I've been picking them the last couple of seasons. I had them in the Super Bowl. So you'll go with them. Not the Lions. Are you going to go to the Lions? No, I think they're windows closed. I'm going to go Green Bay. Windows closed is a very bold statement, sir. Well, I've been saying that for the last two years. All right.

19:12Rich Eisen:They haven't shown me anything in the playoffs. So Falcons in the South. Yeah. And then in the West, you go the Rams. Yeah. Or the Niners. You're going to go Niners? I was really impressed. You're not going Cardinals, are you? No, I was really impressed with Kyle Shanahan last week. Dude, he hasn't changed at all, by the way. I was really impressed. And all he's done is gotten better and smarter and more learned and more experienced. I weirdly think Ty Simpson's going to play this year. Are you saying that the Kyle Shanahan appearance in the Rich Eisen show last week, after a six-year absence on the program, his ease with which he just told you how four-dimensional his chess playing is, In the draft alone.

19:58Rich Eisen:Forget about game planning week to week. Just in the draft alone. That flipped you from a Kyle Shanahan doubter slash hater to believer. This would be breaking news. You know, that's not being received well from the Niner gang. What is? Kyle Shanahan's openness in the way he described the draft process. Well, guess what? A lot of fans are taking that as confirmation. It's like they don't know what they're doing. All right. the guy almost was the one seat last year. I know. All right. So I'll call this. I don't think this is an overreaction. I think we just threaded the needle with a bunch of reasonable answers.

20:36Rich Eisen:Okay. Interesting. All right, Christopher, second half. What do you got? Second half. Here we go. Rich, we're always looking for who's next. We can't enjoy what we have now. We want to think about what's coming up down the line. You lead the charge on that. That's my job, Rich Eisen. That's not an overreaction. And here's the thing. We've been talking about this kind of at the end of last year, once the season ended, who's the next JSN? What do I mean by that? Wide receiver to kind of come out of nowhere, offensive, offensive rookie of the year, great season, high marks, records, whatnot. JSN had an old miss teammate leave town.

21:13Yeah. And then he was able to shine as the number one. I'm looking at a very similar situation. It's going to happen in Philadelphia. Devontae Smith is going to have an Ole Miss teammate leave town. A.J. Brown's going to New England. I'm not breaking any news. And he's now the guy. Devontae Smith will be the next Jackson Smith and Jiggo. Great pedigree. Heisman Trophy winner. Similar build to JSN. Quarterback. Maybe we don't really. Oh, stop. I'm just saying. Jalen Hurts. Who was Sam Darnold? won a Super Bowl.

21:50Rich Eisen:Come on, man. That's what I mean. Two great games. Better pedigree. Okay, fine. Better pedigree for the quarterback here in Devontae Smith. But also a running back that demands the football. Not because he's voiced. An aging running back. Not vocally, but his skill set requires a feeding that does not. Sure. I guess combined. An aging running back. K-9 and Zach Charbonnet received it in Seattle. I'm trying to talk this out here. No one thought JSN was going to be offensive rookie of the year last year. I think the next JSN is sitting here in Los Angeles in Puka Nakua, pal. I mean, he's already a star.

22:25Rich Eisen:All right. So you're saying. I'm saying the next JSN has got to be someone, maybe not on anyone's top 10 radar coming into the year. Now thrust into this number one role spotlight. Puka's already the number one. And then, boom, breakout. Interesting choice. DeLante Smith has this game in him. Interesting choice. Oh, man.

22:50Rich Eisen:So he's going to be the offensive player of the year in Philadelphia. New offensive coordinator. It's all going to click. New offensive coordinator. He's going to be the number one guy. Number one guy. Pass first offense in Philadelphia. Is it? I don't think so. I don't know. Why not? Offensive line's not as good. Hertz is going under center too more now. Great. Let's get him throwing the ball. Let's get him throwing the rock. Throws a pretty deep ball. I'm going through my head right now to try and push back here. Michelle Smallman here. PayPal is now the official peer-to-peer payment sponsor of the NFL, which means all the money moments that fandom creates, whether splitting tailgate costs or chipping in on tickets and game day food between friends, are covered.

23:28Wherever the game is played or watched, PayPal moves with fans. You can send money through text, email, or directly to your friends with eligible accounts on Venmo. Just download the PayPal app and share all the moments that matter. Account with PayPal is required. Not available in all regions where PayPal operates. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly.

23:58Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-GRANGER. Click granger.com or just stop by. Trying to push back here. Just a guy that's going to come out of nowhere. Someone we're not thinking about right now. We're not thinking about Zay Flowers. We're not thinking about Zay Flowers. That's a good one. But he's kind of the number one already.