Ted Nguyen: Aaron Rodgers Played Better Than His Numbers Showed Last Season

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1:13Bear Ultra, only at the Home Depot. I'm living my best life. Yeah, yeah. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here's the other surprising part. With guest host, Brian Weber. Yeah, big shoes to fill. Eisen's a legend. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Rich Eisen Show. Do you know who I am? I'm a guy on television. I have my own show. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Rolling into the final hour of the program. For hardcore listeners, I appreciate your patience and your tolerance. I have excellent news for you. It's our last hour together. Yeah. Now, if you're one of the select few, the silent majority, I'll say, but now I feel self-important.

2:03If you happen to enjoy my approach, I will be on the radio tomorrow. I'm not going to promote it here, but follow me on the X platform, B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs, capping my three-week audio extravaganza. Then I disappear for a long time. But I'm active on social media, and we are not laying it up. metaphorically with some NBA talk coming up to start the last hour of the program. Keep it where it is. My good friend, Dan Schwartzman in tomorrow, a very talented and compelling talk show host. And then Rich and the fellas are back on Monday. Rich right now living his best life. He's in beautiful South Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

2:46In fact, if you don't follow me on the X platform, do it right now. Here's the incentive. Here's my gift to you. You will see a photo circa 2013 of yours truly wearing sunglasses interviewing Trevor Hoffman at the American Century Championship at Tahoe. Rich is going to be part of the field that tees off tomorrow. 90 of the biggest names in sports and entertainment with terrific golfers who are also sports stars like Steph Curry leading the way. Steph won it all a couple years ago. Co-favorite along with Marty Fish too. Captured the title this weekend. In 45 minutes, I'm going to let you know the odds that you can use to bet on the host of this program.

3:37500 to 1. Now, that's not the best proposition. It's a value proposition. Says that maybe Rich is not a top favorite to win it all. But when I give you the names behind him and some of the odds, because context is important. For example, Charles Barkley is 7 ,500 to 1. I'm not good with math. That says Rich has a much better chance of winning the title. But it's not about necessarily being atop the leaderboard. It's about the schmooze. It's about the hang. And who better than Rich to get that done? Think about all the big names from Hollywood who appear on this program on a regular basis. In 20 minutes, NFL analysis provided by Ted Wynn of The Athletic.

4:25I'm going to ease in with thoughts on Cooper Flagg not breaking down the under over for points and rebounds tonight as he makes his summer league debut in Vegas, although it's in Nevada and you can bet on everything. but we'll try to come up with realistic expectations for the short term year one in Dallas and then is it a stretch to say we're looking at a future face of the league that is coming up I have mentioned in passing but understanding that the audience is always changing especially with a fill-in hack that one of the things I've enjoyed about my career has been the variety. Now you could push back, jack of all trades, master of none.

5:11I wound up off and on. I was asked to leave once and then I quit in spectacular fashion, spending 20 years at Tennis Channel. Why? I'm a broadcast courtesan. Secondly, I grew up loving tennis. I grew up about 20 minutes away from the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York. I have early memories of going to the U.S. Open as early as 1977. So I grew up in a tennis family, gave up playing it because I was terrible. And let's be candid, unless you're playing doubles, it can get a bit boring, but I still track the sport. I'm not going to spend more than 30 seconds here reminding you of what hopefully you're aware of, because we do have the updates depending on how you're consuming the program, but it's a monumental achievement worthy of noting that the 13th seed, who's 23, who's from New Jersey, so I'm chanting USA, USA, Amanda Anasimova took down top-seeded Arena Sabalenka.

6:14Now, it's not something that works in sports talk radio. What's the topic? America's back. Let's discuss, but I will point out, and I understand the majority of you only, if you care about tennis at all, are only concerned about the men. Well, Taylor Fritz will play in the semifinals tomorrow. I don't think he's got much of a shot against Carlos Alcaraz, but he's a big dude with a big serve on grass. Still, the women, if you care at all about how the United States is doing in a sport that we used to dominate and then relied primarily on the Williams sisters to carry the flag, well, you might know that Coco Gauff won the French Open last month.

6:55Go back to Madison Keys winning the Australian Open. So that's back-to-back USA titles in the women's draws at the majors. Going to be a big ask for Amanda as she takes on former world number one, Iga Sviantec, who absolutely dismantled the Swiss Miss. Belinda Benzic, too, and love. And that is your tennis update. But because in individual sports, we prefer our stars to be American, it is a big achievement just for Anissa Mova to make the first Grand Slam final of her still young career at the age of 23. And it's a sport, when I was coming up, and yes, I'm a million years old, but the United States dominated tennis.

7:42What changed? I think our attention spans. I think it's a tough ask to tell a seven-year-old kid, go out there and hit 10 ,000 tennis balls. And that's the key to getting better. I get it. Look, if I had access to the entire internet and everything that comes with it, if you know what I mean, I would not have sat in my room and memorized baseball stats in 1982. Now, I wouldn't have this scintillating of personality, of course, right? But I don't want to be that guy saying, hey, everything was better a million years ago. Tennis doesn't work now because it could be 90 minutes. It could be eight hours.

8:21Games without a clock are not friendly to our culture. Thankfully, the NBA has a clock. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich. I realize some of you would have preferred if I had gone all football all the time over the last five shows. If you go back and check out the podcast, with a reminder, if you miss any portion of any show, you can listen anytime on demand. Our terrific technical producer, Art Martinez, and the team will have that up shortly after the conclusion of the show. We have talked a ton of football, and we'll do it again in 15 minutes with Ted Wynn of The Athletic. But as a veteran of guest hosting this time of the year and somebody who loves basketball as a sport, I just think it's a better watch.

9:04and from a selfish media standpoint, I like covering hoops better than football. You show up at shoot around. You hang around. There are fewer people to talk to. Coaches will tell you everything. Most basketball coaches have big personalities because the lifeblood of basketball is recruiting. Now, you could say that for football, but football, you got to find an offensive lineman and a shutdown quarter. Basketball, you find one or two guys. You can be employed for the duration of their careers. So with that bias on the table, I understand this was not the most riveting free agent cycle. Although, if you actually take the time to provide context and connect the dots, I do think intriguing storylines emerged.

9:51Like what we discussed an hour ago with Steve Ashburner, senior writer for NBA.com and friend of the program, Giannis finally spoke today. Why is that significant? Because everything that has been linked to him has been via reports and leaks, like the bombshell from Shamshirania, who may have overhyped the activity that was coming up in this news cycle of NBA free agency. but that's part of his job description. He's looking to build engagement. We had the report after the Bucs had their third straight, one and done, getting knocked out in the first round of the playoffs, although losing to Indiana this time doesn't look that bad considering their remarkable run to the NBA Finals.

10:40Giannis was open to all options, including leaving Milwaukee. Well, that was signaling the Bucs' ownership and the front office, get me more help. You may not think Miles Turner means that much. I tend to agree with you. If you were listening to conversation with Steve an hour ago, even with that move, they don't have a point guard. I see the Bucs is no better than being in the play-in, even in the East, when we get to the postseason. If they were in the West, they would not be in sniffing distance of even the play-in. That's the massive disparity between the East and the West. So it's a bonus for Giannis that he's in that conference.

11:25Although you could push back saying, who do you really believe in, in the Eastern Conference? And couldn't Giannis get hot as he did in 2021? Because think about the supporting cast on that championship winning roster. Chris Middleton was their second best player. the addition of Drew Holiday with his lockdown defensive skills, a major asset. But that also was because they got Holiday in part to appease Giannis then because we were talking about where is Giannis going four years ago? Because that is the majority of NBA conversations. So for Giannis to say on a live stream, I have the quote in front of me when asked about his future in Milwaukee, will he be staying with the Bucs?

12:09Quote, probably. We'll see. I love Milwaukee. I realize that's not a guarantee. That's not a pledge, but it was also not a evasive. I don't want to answer that. I'm here just to talk about hoops. I don't want to get in my future. Giannis is also a good dude. I've never interviewed him, but people I know around basketball vouch for him. I think you can also judge people by how they handle themselves at a podium. Giannis to me, and this is just my interpretation, seems like somebody who is rational and is not necessarily just fixated on going to the biggest town. Maybe that's part of his background because he's from Greece.

12:54Whatever the rationale is, I don't think that the Bucs are going to be much better, but I'm not saying that Giannis is ready to force himself out of that situation because I don't know. You don't know. Perhaps he doesn't know. And he had the opportunity. He could have turned up the heat. He could have said, yeah, I'm looking forward to playing with Miles Turner, but we need more guys. And he didn't. It was a noncommittal answer, but it wasn't in any way antagonistic. It wasn't passive aggressive. Compare that to any quote you want from LeBron James, and I'm not talking LeBron here. I've made the executive decision, enough LeBron, because why are we focusing on a team that's going to be irrelevant this year in the West?

13:42One could say the same about the Mavericks, but with Cooper Flagg playing for the first time in Summer League, to me, that's a good device to use his appearance in Las Vegas tonight. Oh, by the way, against Bronny James, and I got no problem with Bronny benefiting from that situation. My issue is with his old man, but if you are the recipient of generosity through nepotism, what's he going to say? No? No, Dad, I don't want to be a second-round pick. It's not his fault. I'm sure he's working hard. Unfortunately, he's just limited physically. He didn't win the genetic lottery. LeBron's other kid who's going to be a freshman at Arizona, Bryce, has a lot more potential.

14:32Another reason why I think LeBron's hanging around at least a few more years. He wants to play with his other son. But I'm not one of the people who bash Bronny as an individual. Seems like a well-rounded, thoughtful young man. Not his responsibility to dictate his future. I don't think he said, Dad, make this happen. to me it was LeBron as a byproduct of his ego and more to the point wanting to demonstrate at the time he had all the power here's what you're going to do not only is my kid going to be on the roster you're going to draft him I understand when you're taken in the 50s in the NBA draft not a big deal but it was a flex by LeBron and he got some guaranteed money oh by By the way, for the next head coach, you're going to hire my podcasting buddy.

15:21And J.J. Redick is a bright guy, but undeniably, he got outcoached by Chris Finch in the opening round playoff series lost by the Lakers because he got paralyzed. He got caught in the moment, wouldn't go to his bench. Now, you could argue he had no talent there, but he ran his starters into the ground. So LeBron has used all of the power at his disposal until now. The Lakers have finally shifted the dynamic by not reupting with the one plus one, making him opt in to play out his contract for the final time. And then we'll see how things play out a year ago. And I just contradicted myself, didn't I?

16:03I can't stay away because the soap opera is real and engaging. The Lakers do have a lot to discuss, even though they're going to be a non-factor on the floor. I think, unfortunately, if you're a Mav fan, you're not going to see much improvement this year, especially because you play in the West. Now, everything changed when you won the lottery. I'm not going down the conspiracy road. Yes, do I find it to be an odd coincidence after Luka winds up in L.A. that the Mavericks, with less than a 2 % chance to win the lottery, won it? Yeah, but I'm not putting on the tinfoil hat, and I don't think black helicopters are following me when I leave the studio.

16:47Sometimes stuff happens. But if you want to go down that road, have at it. It makes NBA Twitter all the more entertaining. So think about the swing from jerseys being burned in front of the Mavericks arena to now we have Cooper Flagg, who does have the possibility to be a generational talent. Some of you have hit me up on social media for using that phrase too often. Fair observation, although I don't think I was slipping into hyperbole when I said Caleb Williams could be a generational talent. He was selected with the first overall pick, had a brilliant run in college. I said could be. Didn't say necessarily he will be.

17:30Same story for Cooper Flagg. Now, you know he's young. He's 18 years old. So think about how much more his body is going to develop, and you need that kind of physicality, which is a word, to survive in the NBA, even the modern NBA, where nobody mixes it up in the paint. It's all three-pointers all the time because you're playing 82 games or with load management, 70 games. So double your college slate of games. But I think the most impressive thing, having watched Cooper play a lot at Duke, is his two-way abilities. I think he's the most offensively refined Duke freshman to go directly to the NBA we've ever seen.

18:16And he plays defense, which is a phenomenal development for the Mavs. I also realize that the Mavs still have a fairly good roster, but in this league, we focus on the stars. So I was not delighted when Kyrie Irving the other day on a podcast when asked about, hey, Kyrie, is there a chance? And this is in direct contrast to that Giannis quote I just read, because how you say something is as important as a substance. somebody posed on a live stream the question to Kyrie, any chance you're going to be able to rehab as hard as you can to make it back for our playoff run? And his answer was, don't hold your breath.

19:01Now, if you go deeper into the quote, he was saying, at this stage of my career, it's more important for me to come back a thousand times better than I was when I left. I get it, but you don't have to articulate it that way. So let's just assume no Kyrie. I do know they picked up D 'Angelo Russell, who's fine. He's high. Again, it's about the burden of expectations. When you're the number two overall pick and you don't fully deliver, guys like me are going to take shots at you, but he is a functioning point guard. And it all comes down to, unfortunately, the health and availability of Anthony Davis.

19:39And this time, more misfortune, a detached retina. According to reports, successful surgery should be ready to go for the start of training camp. But you are what you consistently do. Street clothes is a snarky moniker, but it's accurate. How many games with a box score next to Anthony Davis read DMP? Because he just wasn't available. So if you're a Mav fan, rejoice that you have somebody who could be your next Dirk Nowitzki, not as a comp in terms of playing style, but longevity and that kind of impact for maybe a dozen years, but pump the brakes on thinking that a championship run is any time in the immediate future.

20:27I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich. Last opportunity to express your thoughts on social media. B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs. Straight ahead, we return to the NFL. The Jaguars, to me, in addition to being a candidate to be one of the most improved teams in football, are fascinating because of who they drafted. How are they going to handle Travis Hunter as a two-way player? We'll get the answer from Ted Wynn of The Athletic, host of the Just Wynn podcast. I'm Brian, in for Rich. This is The Rich Eisen Show.

21:07We'll be right back.

21:32Ask for O 'Reilly Veriscan today. Oh, oh, oh, O 'Reilly. Auto Parts.

21:45Rich Eisen here for Gusto. On my shows, we talk a lot about what happens in the spotlight, the games, the highlights, and the moments that get replayed and debated. But in any successful operation, what happens behind the scenes matters just as much. Small businesses are no different. payroll, hiring, onboarding, benefits, and all the details that keep things moving may not be the most visible part of the job, but they still have to be handled right. That's where Gusto comes in. Gusto is online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all-in-one, remote-friendly, and incredibly easy to use, so you can pay, hire, onboard, and support your team from anywhere.

22:22Automatic payroll tax filing, simple direct deposits, health benefits, commuter benefits, workers' comp, 401k, you name it. Gusto makes it simple and has options for nearly every budget. And it's all built to save you time with built-in automated tools for offer letters, onboarding docs, direct deposit, and more. Plus, you get unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price. No hidden fees, no surprises. Try Gusto today at gusto.com slash rich and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash rich. One more time, gusto.com slash rich.

22:59Rich Eisen here. We talk a lot about battles in sports. Teams battling through adversity. Athletes fighting for every yard. The toughest warriors I've ever seen, though, aren't on the field. They're kids fighting cancer. They're families standing beside them. Doctors, nurses, caregivers. That's why I'm proud to support Hyundai Hope on Wheels. For over 28 years, they've helped fund pediatric cancer research, raising more than$303 million and supporting over 40 ,000 children. Learn more and donate at HyundaiUSA.com backslash hope on wheels. Let's get back to the NFL. Joined by a content creator, writer for The Athletic, who every time I read his work, I learn something.

23:39It is Ted Wynn, senior NFL writer for The Athletic, host of the Just Wynn podcast. Hey, Ted, it's Brian in for Rich. How are you? Doing well. How are you? I'm doing real well. And I love one of the lines on your Twitter bio. Purveyor of truth of the All-22. So, since you spent a lot of time looking at a lot of tape, what did the tape tell you about Aaron Rodgers' level of play, let's say over the final six games last year for the Jets? Yeah, I think he played really well in the last six games, better than his numbers show. I think early on in the season he was still struggling with recovering from the Achilles injury.

24:19But he played some good ball down the stretch, especially after they acquired Devontae Adams. He was really good in the quick game. He even scrambled for some good yardage. He's definitely not as quick as he used to be, but he could still effectively scramble and get that first down if he really needs to. But where his game has diminished most is just being able to create plays out of structure. He's just not that type of quarterback anymore. He's still pretty good inside the pocket, but you shouldn't be asking him to try to extend plays for four or five seconds like he used to in Green Bay and create those big plays anymore.

24:55That part of his game just isn't quite there anymore. So having said that, what's your outlook for Pittsburgh? With all the moves they made, the splashing move last week to get Jalen Ramsey playing in a division where I think Baltimore is one of the top three teams in all of football, and Cincinnati's got to be better if for no reason. The defense can't be worse than last year, right? Yeah, I mean, to me, the Steelers are in a better place than they were last year. But is it good enough for them to win a playoff game? That remains to be seen. I think the offensive line has to be much better. As we mentioned, this offense can't revolve around Aaron Rodgers and playmaking ability.

25:34They need to be able to run the ball. They invested a lot in that offensive line, and it's about time they see a return in investment. That defense is extremely expensive, especially with Jalen Ramsey, and they didn't play well down the stretch last year. So they need to be better. That four-man pass rush needs to stay healthy and really dominate to kind of cover up some of the questions in the secondary. And like you mentioned, the Bengals have that high-flying offense, and they're going to have to stop them, and they're going to have to play Baltimore, who is a two-headed monster in offense, trying to stop Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson.

26:08So I think Pittsburgh has improved, but trying to catch Baltimore is going to be a tall task because they might be the best team in the NFL. I'm Brian Weber, and I agree with that assessment. I'm in for Rich Eyes, and we're taking you across the NFL with Ted Wynn of The Athletic. You can also check out his podcast. He's the co-host of the Just Wynn podcast, which is informative and entertaining. Ted, we throw around the notion in all of sports championship windows, and I don't want to belabor is the window already closed Is it coming down? Is it a screen window? So using that construct, how do you view the Bills after all of their close calls and still unable to break through last year and beat Kansas City in the AFC title game?

26:54Yeah, I think for the Bills, last year was supposed to be kind of a year where they take a step back, shed some salary, got younger, and they ended up still in the AFC championship game. So I think that's a testament to how good Josh Allen is, It's a testament to how good of a defensive coach Sean McDermott is. But they didn't make any major improvements in the offseason. They needed to improve their pass rush. The pass rush just wasn't good enough to stop Patrick Mahomes at the AFC Championship. It was pretty good during the regular season, but I think to stop the Chiefs, it has to be a dominating pass rush.

27:29They just added Joey Bosa, and he's a very good player, but he struggles to stay on the field. And as far as the Bills offense, they need one of their wide receivers to really step up and improve their games, whether that's Keon Coleman or Dalton Kincaid, two high draft picks. They didn't make any major moves in that area, too. They added Elijah Moore. But they need one of those young guys to really step up and become alpha for that team to take the next step as a team. Ted, the last time we saw the Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes was running for his life. all of those sacks from the Eagles without a blitz.