Thursday Night Football Analyst Andrew Whitworth

0:00Rich Eisen:Get your tickets now for The Dog Stars. It's no surprise how fast civilization can disappear. Out there, just kill or be killed. Jacob Alordi. There are people out there. They need our help. Josh Brolin. Shoot first and inquire afterwards. Margaret Qualley. Okay, tough guy. And Guy Pearce. Arm up! The Dog Stars. Directed by Ridley Scott. In theaters August 28th. Get tickets now. Rated R. Under 17, not admitted without parents. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks.

0:45Rich Eisen:Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Is Russell Wilson a Hall of Famer? As he steps on the field to start week one for the New York Giants. The Rich Eisen Show. Russell Wilson, not a Hall of Famer. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. P.J. Jefferson, would you care to chime in on this subject matter as well? No. Today's guests. Prime video NFL analyst Andrew Whitworth. Former NFL general manager Mike Mayock. Bears senior writer for The Athletic, Kevin Fishbane.

1:31Rich Eisen:And now, it's Rich Eisen. Well, hey, everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Lots going on. Certainly in the football world, sports world, the world of this program, and places where I work, 844-204-RICH is the number to dial. We'll talk about it all with you on this three-hour program. Andrew Whitworth is about to join us. He was at the Rams-Cowboys joint practice yesterday. That is the epicenter right now of the NFL preseason world. We'll talk with him. Mike Mayock, longtime general manager on this program. And we'll chat with him in hour number two. Kevin Fishbane, I wanted to speak to the man who covers the Chicago Bears to see if there's any there there.

2:18Rich Eisen:What's going on with Caleb Williams in that camp? There's some word coming out of Cleveland that Shador Sanders is going to start a preseason game and play most of it. So we'll talk about that on this program. And it is a Wednesday. So it's time for a power ranking. And not just an actual straight up power rankings. It's still too early, but I'm going to give you one that's later on a centerpiece, if you will, on this program. Good to see you over there, Christopher Brockman. How are you? What's up, man? How you doing? I'm well. Good to see you over there, Jason Feller. What's up, Jay Feller? How are you?

2:55Rich Eisen:Good to see you. Good to see you and the man who leads the league in requesting or needing roadside service, TJ Jefferson, is here on the program. This guy. Well, you have a car that's as old as you are. I'm just wondering, like, the number of faulty batteries this man has. Is your car run by a triple A, a nine volt? What is it? What do we got over there? Do you want to know what really happened here? No, no, I don't. I know. I know. I'm just glad you're here. There it is. There it is. Has Trey Hendrickson been signed? No, that's TJ. He's preparing for a new car, finally. Don't scare me like that, Jay.

3:33Rich Eisen:Here's the deal. Get off my car right now and just realize the Thinamick box is still empty. No, look. Get out of my dreams and into my car. You almost went full Billy Ocean on us. You never really want to go full of Billy. Okay, very good. I'd start to sing, but I can't do that. No, you may not. No more singing. You may not. It's going to be tough. Hey, listen. Very musical. Listen, we had Albert Breer on this program yesterday. Breer. A great tan. He's in Arizona for training camp today. Has he changed his avatar yet? Well, all he did is just complain on a text with me and Money Manager This Star is Don about how it's 117 degrees in Glendale, Arizona.

4:10Rich Eisen:And Don's response is like, you're in the desert. It's August. What's your problem? At any rate, listen. The reason why I bring it up is Breer was here, and he's just like, When he went to Oxnard, he goes, for the first time, I'm actually believing that the Micah Parsons contract standoff and the Cowboys approach to it might have something to do with. With wanting more buzz for the team. And as he said, being the A block of first take. Yeah. And again, he's referring to the highly popular Stephen A. Smith program on on ESPN. And the A block is a TV term for the first item of for instance. This is the A block of the Rich Eisen show.

4:57Rich Eisen:So if that is, in fact, the intention of Jerry Jones. I'm going to give him what he wants because we're talking about it because he spoke again. And every single time he speaks, it adds just a new layer to the frustration or the insanity of it. And, you know, and because when he talks, the grounds shift. You're trying to figure out why he's taking the approach he's taking and why they keep doing this with their star players by making them wait and sit out up till the very end or hold in or have a training camp. that's other than things other than just focusing on the task at hand, you know, while you're going through your practices, you look over to the side and you see number 11 standing there.

5:54Rich Eisen:And, or last year, you're going through your, your practices and you're looking around for number 88 and he's not there. Or last year, you know, you're going through everything. And number four, the leader of the team really important is being made to wait until the last possible day. And why do you want to go through all that unless you're comfortable doing it and living in your comfort level? And, you know, just shortly before we went on the air, if you wouldn't mind popping up the quote board. We'll get to that first. Yeah. Dak Prescott, according to Yahoo Sports, he knows what this all means because he said to Jory Epstein of Yahoo Sports, when Micah Parsons announced his trade request, Dak texted Micah, quote unquote, F man.

6:45Rich Eisen:And Dak says it wasn't an F you, Micah, or F them. It's more of an F. Because, you know, as he said, this is frustrating for everybody involved. He understands what this means. and right now we're we get deeper into the f part of it and the guy who appears to be comfortable with all this is is the guy who could basically change it all with one phone call and jerry jones bless him talks to the media likes talking to the media enjoys i think the endeavor until you know the questions begin to get repetitive but it's really on it's really his uh making this bed and the fact that he's eager to lie back into it with the cameras all around him and then it's left up to us and the cowboys fans to interpret what he means and doesn't mean a standoff with no answer to it so here's the um The two soundbites, we'll play them one at a time, that everybody's talking about here on this Wednesday before the full preseason week number one of the 2025 NFL season.

7:59Rich Eisen:Have you talked to him since the trade request? I have not, no. Have your people started a contract talk with his agent? Excuse me, excuse me. Have you negotiated a contract talk with his agent? No, no. Are you hopeful anything could change with this situation this week? Again, this situation being with Micah. Listen, that's part of what we do. We have continual contract negotiations going on. I know you have Micah in front of mine, but we're continually working on contracts, and all clubs are. And so I don't necessarily put a big red letter beside any time that we've completed contract negotiations.

8:48Rich Eisen:But I'm appreciative when we do. But it's really business as usual. Now, business as usual, he's basically saying this is what we do with all contracts. Or business as usual, this is what we do with the contracts with our big players. most of the time. I mean, it doesn't really give you much confidence that we're getting closer to midnight.

9:13Rich Eisen:Because that's the question. When does midnight strike? One would think September 3rd, Wednesday, September 3rd, is midnight, day before the game in Philadelphia. Or the day you get on a plane, and Micah makes the choice of, I'm not even getting on a plane. Don't forget, Dak got on a plane to Cleveland. now he might have gotten on the plane because he got a call for his agent saying we're close but right now he's not even talking to micah nor is anybody from his team talking to his representative because again as you'll hear the cowboys feel it's on micah to actually show up in uniform on opening night if nothing gets done because he is under contract it's not like he's a free agent.

10:00Rich Eisen:And I think you can hear that in Jerry Jones's answer when asked about urgency. When is it midnight, sir? When does it become urgent? I mean, clearly you want him on the field against Philadelphia. When does it become urgent that we need to get something resolved one way or another that he's on the field against Philadelphia? Again, your definition of urgent is not necessarily, I don't believe you gave a definition of urgent. Okay. So, So I stay urgent. Okay. Any confidence that he will be on the field against Philadelphia? Again, no. Absolutely not. That has to, a big part of that is his decision.

10:42Rich Eisen:How would I know that? I'm just saying. No, but I'm urgent. Well, that's, one would think, the polar opposite of don't lose any sleep over it. That was the last time we heard from him on the subject matters. he told folks like yourself don't lose any sleep over it and the way i interpreted that is like don't lose any sleep over it this thing's going to get handled at some point and we'll sign him we know it and that's the end of that

11:11Rich Eisen:you know but now he's like it seems as if the approach is what do i need to talk to him for he's under contract why do we need to reach out to the agent we already discussed some sort of a framework of a deal back in in march that he took off the table wait a minute um why why is it sensitive you know when you ask me of a sense of urgency about obviously you want him on the field in philadelphia no of course i want him on the field in philadelphia but he's under contract so it's really up to him whether he wants to play that's the approach he's clearly taking right now now again i'm not jerry jones i'm not the owner of the dallas cowboys i don't have a bust in the pro football hall of fame i'm not um on land man i don't have all of jerry's decades of hall of fame acumen right i would handle it completely differently i would i would one million percent start the process of calling the agent and saying let's end this i want him we all know he's not playing for the number i don't want to go through this anymore so let's get to it and i'd want to do it before aiden hutchinson sets a market that i that that that i don't want to i don't want to surpass i don't want the lions to beat me here and i don't want the bengals to suddenly wake up and go oh okay we'll we'll pay hendrickson a certain amount of money i i'd like to get it done that's what i would want to do i'd want to remove all this stuff give brian schottenheimer his best player on defense if not the entire team right out there on the field but then again there's always there's always something going on here in the nfl where there's a an iceberg and we only see the tip and all we keep hearing about in this media business and you know i don't trade in rumor or anything like that but there's a full-on conversation you hear it all the time that there's some mica fatigue in that cowboys facility you hear it i hear it people write about it people talk around it and i'm wondering if this is like you know on behalf of those in the front office or those in management or those anywhere in the building that has micah fatigue jerry's fighting a fight for them and some people might be sitting there in the cowboys organization and going that's right jerry make him simmer make him sit i mean we know he's eventually going to come back here anyway but maybe maybe there's some sort of a humbling that he he wants him to undergo here don't forget remember remember when uh tank lawrence left through that verbal lob back into dallas telling micah stop podcasting and focus on your stuff i mean there's something underneath i'm wondering if that's at play here you have to start wondering about that sort of stuff and that obviously makes the personal get a little bit deeper but again in the same way talent over everything whatever there might be in terms of gear grinding with the front office or people in the organization and Micah, this guy is as talented as they come.

14:15Rich Eisen:Once again, there's two people who ever played the National Football League with a dozen or more sacks in the first four years of his career. One of them is named Micah Parsons. The other is Reggie White. Talent over everything. And in that respect, he's going to get paid. Right? And it's not just talent over everything as well. it's you need to win football games and he's the guy to do it

14:49Rich Eisen:and you know personal aspects be damned just like talent over everything there's another one money over everything we saw that with Miles Garrett I hate to keep on bringing up anything mercenary with him but he went from I'm out of here they can't win here oh wait a minute Deshaun Watson's out all next year we might have Joe Flacco and we're going to draft somebody at the position I'll go back there for$40 million a year and now that might be a cheap deal at the end of the day I still believe as we continuously take this cheese every day that at the end of the day Thursday night football banners raised Eagles fans are going nuts let's say they win the toss they take the ball Micah Parsons will be lined up across from Jalen Hurts with a new fat deal now will all bygones be bygones personally emotionally and all that stuff maybe so maybe not the first paycheck comes in then it will i'm telling you i've seen it over and over and over and over again and over again the good news here tj is i don't know who the next guy who's going to go through this grinder for the cowboys because after micah gets done i don't know although the cowboys do draft very well you do have to give them that yeah and that they they draft them well i would just love for them to be signed earlier so these moments don't have to happen for the players for the fans and that maybe just maybe the few millions that they save by signing somebody early can add to another player on special teams or defense offense offensive lines so you get some sort of depth that does appear to be a case of why the cowboys sometimes fall short you hit the nail on the head there so this is all happening oh and by the way uh aaron donald um pops out on instagram and other places a markup of micah in a rams uniform and micah and responds and aaron donald thinks he might have to come back oh and you know who was also at the joint practice you know was also at the joint practice yesterday where i guess many of the our friends in nfl media including ian rapaport saying oh um matthew stafford has a disc problem that requires and required an epidural guess who was there um on tuesday our next guest andrew woodworth oh and guess who walked and talked like he was Jim Hill with Micah Parsons.

17:53Rich Eisen:Yeah, that's a Jim Hill reference. They need to delete that tweet. He did the walk and talk with Micah. Andrew Whitworth, lots to talk about with Whit. Who's ho? Our house with Andrew Whitworth of Prime Video, Thursday Night Football. Andrew Whitworth coming up. Delete that.

18:13Rich Eisen:Rich Eisen here with some advice. If high interest credit card debt is grinding you down, it might be time to call an audible with a SoFi personal loan. It consolidates your debt into one low monthly payment with no fees required. And with as soon as the same day funding, you can make the right play fast. Call an audible on your debt today at SoFi.com slash debt play. Loans originated by SoFi Bank N.A. Member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. N.M. L.S. 696-891. Fast funds. Terms apply at SoFi.com slash debt play. Right now, O 'Reilly Auto Parts gets you back to savings. Pick up select Royal Purple Fuel System additives.

18:49Rich Eisen:Buy one, get one free. Plus receive four times O rewards points. Stop by your local O 'Reilly Auto Parts store or shop online at OReillyAuto.com. Rich Eisen here. Running a small business means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money, but the right one helps your business grow. The challenge? Finding that person without sorting through resumes. That's where LinkedIn Hiring Pro comes in. It screens candidates so you can focus on conversations with qualified talent. With Hiring Pro, you can hire with confidence and build the team you need. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire.

19:23Rich Eisen:Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash eisen. Terms and conditions apply. Back here on the program. Listen, I know you're a little bit raw here, so understand this comes from the heart. You know, as you know, on richeisenshop.com, where you can get mugs like this, hats, shirts, or whatever. should we, I'll ask you Chris because I know that the answer is going to be in the corner here, should we add Rich Eisen Show branded jumper cables for TJ? 100%. Do you need jumper cables? Do you have them in the car? He needs a whole new automobile. But that has nothing to do with a battery.

20:01Rich Eisen:Here's what happened. My car, there was something wrong with it. My mechanic is fixing it. He's cool enough that he allows me to use one of his cars so I don't have to have a rental car. It's a loaner. So the loaner ran out of batteries? So I'll tell you, it's like a Porsche. It's a Porsche SUV. Excuse me. Oh, my goodness. Pardon me, sir. So what happened is. I mean, if you're going to be broken down behind the airport, that's not a bad car. It's going to be broken down behind the airport. So I get into the car this morning, and I think what happened is I forgot, because it's not my car. I'm not used to it.

20:33Rich Eisen:I don't think I turned the lights off last night. So I got in the car. I put the key in. The battery was dead. So that's why. The amount that you've spent on repairs, just since I've known you, you could have had a new car by now. I really haven't spent that much on repairs. Like I said, my mechanic's my guy, so I get a little bit of a discount. Okay, I just don't, again, I just don't know. Do you need a AAA membership? I got State Farm. Okay, good enough. They'll be at the crib at 1230. And again, I don't know what he, does he need a AAA membership or a AA battery? I need someone who sells cars.

21:07Rich Eisen:Who out there is a car salesman that wants to hook your boy? up hook your boy up hook your boy up what does that mean he wants a free car is what he wants what does he mean by the what do you mean hook your boy up well breckman knows he went when he got his car he went to a dealership down the way they knew him from oh the rich eyes oh was that right did you get did you get something did you get an msrp knockoff no absolutely not so the guy didn't know you from the show and didn't like he knew me all right that didn't knock any zeros i I have fewer answers than before the segment began. That's not what I remember.

21:41Rich Eisen:He was in the middle of Oxnard on Tuesday chatting it out with Mike. His old quarterback has got back problems. I mean, he's in the middle of everything. Joining us back again on the Rich Eisen Show, ladies and gentlemen, from Amazon Prime Video, one of the best of the best, Andrew Weatherworth. Good to see you, Andrew. How are you? Good to see you, brother. How are we doing? I'm fine. What ocean expanse are you in front of photographically? Where are we right now? You know what? I'm actually in town, Rich. I'm just down here at the Fairmont. We got the Amazon seminar starting. You know the fun seminars.

22:18You get back. You got to go over all the stuff going on this season. So we're excited, man. Get this thing kicked off.

22:24Rich Eisen:Okay. Is Alan in charge of the lunch menu? He is. It's going to be lots of protein. No greens? Lots of protein. Zero green. Zero green. Unless it's like a chimichiri sauce. I don't think it's happening. Well, when they explain the rules, because the NFL is all about explaining the rules, the new rules, right? Making sure that the broadcasters know what they're talking about. Can you please take a photograph of Al Michaels being told this sort of stuff? Him basically going, I've got 50 years in here. Like, let's move along. Let's get to lunch. Can you take a picture of that, please, for me, Andrew?

22:59Yeah, I always feel bad for them. It's like, yeah, please tell Al Michaels the rules. Like this guy doesn't know every rule and where it started and where the one previous came from. But, you know, the best part, Rich, actually, of our presentations is those poor people trying to get through that meeting without Richard Sherman destroying every rule. It's not fair. It is. It is the most entertaining part. I don't think anybody says a word. They just watch Sherm go to it because he gets after it.

23:24Rich Eisen:Oh, yeah. I'm trying to remember. We you know, we had Rod Woodson back in the day with the NFL Network having to sit through these things. and he would just sit there steaming. Every rule helps the offense. Every rule helps the offense. So I've been there with Rod. You're there with Richard. I love that. I love that. How's this pass interference? How is this pass interference? It's so great. And it's like, can we move on? Because I'm hungry. Like, let's go. It's always right before lunch. And you're like, all right, sure. It's enough. Like, you're not changing the rule right here in this room.

23:52So let's go.

23:53Rich Eisen:Love it. Love it. All right. So all that said, glad that you're taking some time out from the annual symposium with the NFL and Amazon Prime Thursday night video team. Thursday night Prime video team. But let's get to where you were yesterday. Boy, there's a lot to talk about with you. You were at the Rams-Cowboys joint festivities up in Oxnard. First order of business is the man you used to protect back in the day. What can you tell me about Matthew Stafford? Apparently, what, he's got some sort of a disc ailment that required an epidural is what Ian Rappaport was reporting today from NFL Network?

24:32Rich Eisen:Andrew, what can you tell me about? Yeah, it sounds like he showed up basically to camp and kind of a little prior to camp was just having some back issues, as I well know, playing into my 40s. You know what? That's part of getting old and playing the game of football. But, you know, he just decided to be, you know, precautious with it and really take care of himself. And, you know, it's like, hey, what can we do to probably, you know, prolong the recovery process as much as we can. I mean, this guy's played a lot of football. He took a lot of snaps with Devontae and all those guys in the offseason throwing.

25:02So it's not like they feel like, oh, man, we're not going to miss time in that sense. Let's make sure this guy's healthy. Let's make sure the back is great before we get out there because there's really no reason to push it. And this is also an advantage you have when you have a guy like Jimmy Garoppolo as your backup, a veteran who's played, has been in the big moments and played on the biggest stage. So you feel confident in, hey, let's let's make sure our guy is fully healthy before he has to go back out there. And, you know, football is football. Even though you're not hitting the quarterback in camp, things happen and he's going to have to protect himself.

25:32And you want to make sure he feels good and we feel good about, you know, what week one Houston Texans. That's what matters.

25:38Rich Eisen:Right. And obviously, we're we're more than three weeks away from that. All that said, though, Andrew, I mean, this is not the ideal way for training camp to go in the first two weeks where you're week to week. You're getting an epidural. You're seeing specialists. You're doing all that stuff. Anything that you can share of a level of concern here? Yeah, I mean, you look at it in Cincinnati, right? I mean, we've seen how it affected them in training camp with Joe Burrow having time missed over the last few years and really that slow start. And you look at this Rams team, it's been something they've dealt with the last few years of just the injury bug.

26:12Not necessarily that they've started slow, but they've really had lots of injuries early in the season that dictated a little bit how they started. And then they kind of made their runs late in the year. And I think it's one of those things, have you seen how they've been able to finish after the bye week the last few years? You know, if you could get that fast start, if you could get ahead a little bit, you know, maybe you're playing at home in L.A. and still instead of on the road in Philadelphia, you know, in the month of January. so that's that opportunity for them they want to win this division again it's going to be a challenge I think all the other teams uh in this division have gotten better and uh I think they've got to have a fast start so yeah I obviously there's concern um but I don't think there's concern on whether Matthew Stafford will be out there week one playing quarterback for the Rams

26:53Rich Eisen:okay so and again before uh I move on to another uh thing that you were talking about uh on on Tuesday at this joint practice with the Cowboys. Anything you can share from Stafford? Again, I know you don't speak for him, but was he bummed, nervous, chill? I mean, I'm sure you had some form of communication with him that you might be able to share with me here. Yeah, I think it's like any other veteran in those situations. I've been there. I had a patella issue later in my career where I had to sit out a lot of practices in camp. I think, you know, the other guy I got to spend some time with yesterday is frustrated as well when you're sitting out.

27:35But, yeah, you're frustrated. Listen, we play this game because we love it. And I know people make it about performance and all this, but you love playing the game. You don't want to sit there on the side and watch everybody practice. Like, you want to be out there. Even at my age when I was 40, yeah, I missed practices. But for the most part, if we were in pads, I was in the practice because I want to compete. I want to get better at my craft. Those things are important to you. So, yeah, Stafford's, you know, he's frustrated. But the dude he is, he's trying his best not to show that to his teammates and be the leader he is all the time.

28:07And, you know what, in his own time, I'm sure he's pushing himself as hard as he possibly can because you want to be out there with the guys, and it's miserable to not be. There is nothing worse than watching an NFL practice wanting to be out there on that field. I mean, heck, every one of them I go to, I'm like, man, I think I could put some pads on and get out there and play around because it just gives you that feeling. and you don't ever want to be the guy standing on the side.