Rodgers the QB not Rodgers the Behind-The-Scenes Guy Got Saleh Fired

For business owners like you, the American Express Business Platinum Card works just as hard as you do to help you pursue your passions. With its world-class business and travel benefits, you can get more for your business wherever it takes you. The Amex Business Platinum Card offers a flexible spending limit that adapts with your business, enabling you to flex and adapt as your business evolves. And you'll earn five times membership rewards points on flights and prepaid hotels booked on AmexTravel.com so that going that extra mile for your business is even more rewarding. See how the Amex Business Platinum Card gives business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love. Not all purchases will be approved. Terms apply.

Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Amex Business. Prime Big Deal Days is here, which can lead to involuntary deal squeals like the classic deal on a new blunder squeal. Save big this Prime Big Deal Days on NOW. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The New York Jets.

I feel that we had to go in a different direction. This is the Rich Eisen Show with guest host Andrew Siciliano. Today's guest pro football focused lead NFL draft analyst Trevor Sycamore. Lions running back David Montgomery. Fox Sports college football analyst Bruce Feldman. And now sitting in for Rich. It's Andrew Siciliano.

Hope I remember how to do this. Hey everybody. Is this chair like really low or did I get shorter since I was last here? You're not a tall man.

He's not a tall man. It's Justin. Hey everybody. It is it is not the weekend at all. Hope everyone is doing well. I'm happy to be here. Rich is off in London.

Caleb Williams is on the podium right now. The Bears are in London. Feels like feels like back in the day with the refrigerator in front of Buckingham Palace with the bobbies in the 80s. Remember that?

Okay, that was just me when I first got Sports Illustrated as a kid. I'm doing well to answer your question. Chris Brockman, it is good to see you. Good to see you buddy. The future is now.

Yes. Drink May time. I haven't been this excited in forever. I am not a real quarterback lap guy on on the socials, but I did it yesterday. I did post a video in August saying you're going to get through the first four weeks and then you're going to play him during the big homestand.

Now I misread the schedule then thought the game in London because they are the home team next week was a home game, but I basically got that one right. It is now officially Drake May time season. Yeah, buddy. Season SZN.

Mike Del Tufo, it's great to see you for the second time in in 15 hours. Yes. Wait, what? Yes.

So breaking news. I'm I'm on the strand yesterday in the South Bay here in Los Angeles at my iPods in not a flex. We both we were both down there and I'm having a phone conversation at the AirPods in all of a sudden Del Tufo rides by on his Harley on the strand. Yeah.

Was that what that was? Yes, it was my my your electric bike. You're like, I go a thousand miles a day on this thing.

I'm like, it's got a motor. You're not pedaling. I am actually pedaling. I started this morning in San Luis Obispo.

Do the Pacific Coast Trail on this thing in an hour. Anyway, it was so Del Tufo. Yes, it was great to see you. Which got me caught up a little. We caught up.

I was added. Yeah. Like stop his phone call, which I felt bad. I'm like, don't feel bad.

We picked it back up. But you're like, it's like the fifth time I've driven by in the last hour. I'm like, what?

I would stop. I'm like, I don't want to bug you. We're deep in thought. It's all good. Now, it's just and I'm quite demonstrative waving my arms and I look off and as if I'm pained while speaking, I was just having a conversation. T.J., it's good to see you as well. What up, man? How you been, Joe? I'm OK. Good to see you.

Good to see you, man. Been working with my brother, Nathan Zagor. Yes, we've been working.

Everybody's working for the weekend. This weekend would be in Philadelphia. Nathan and I working in the Browns booth every week.

He is he is the best of the best. I love to see it. I really do. Doing a show and everything in-house there with the Browns during the week and then in the booth with me on Sundays. We'll certainly tap that base and talk NFL and Browns coming up a little bit later. They are one and four. They are in Philadelphia.

Things are not good now. However, just saying, if they can find a way to pull this one off, you get to two and four. No one's running away with that division. At least the Ravens haven't done that yet. And then coming up next week, the Browns open up a three game home stand. All winnable games. They're all winnable games.

Nothing's unwinnable in this league. Fingers crossed. Optimism. Yeah, buddy. Yeah, buddy.

OK, let's go. Coming up on today's show, Trevor Sycamore will be here from PFF. He is their lead draft analyst.

Also want to throw in the question, just how bad the Patriots O-line really is, according to PFS grades. And is Drake May going to get killed? We'll get to that. David Montgomery will be here. A two-time winner already of Kyle Brant's Sweaty Scepter for Angry Runs. Is that the official title?

I mean, that is not code for anything. He is a two-time winner this season. David Montgomery, the Detroit Lions, will be here. And Bruce Feldman sitting in this beautiful chair as well. Nobody knows college football.

Bruce, obviously from Fox, better than Bruce. There are a couple of big games this week, including the game of the year. It has been circled as the game of the year for months and months and months. And we are here now with that game actually as expected. Ohio State undefeated. Oregon undefeated.

Both of them top five. Yeah. This is it, buddy. Autzen Stadium coming up Saturday evening. Big 10 Saturday night. One of the chances before we get going that it's half, it's three quarters. It's as good as Alabama, Georgia. Well, I mean, that's a pretty high bar.

Well, everyone's, I mean, this is two versus three. Georgia, Alabama was two versus four. The fourth quarter that game gave us is what I'm saying.

That's a high bar. Yeah, but it was one good quarter. I mean, that game was pretty much garbage up until midway through the third quarter. Full disclosure, I was doing Ohio State, Michigan State on Peacock NBC that evening. So I only really saw the last five minutes when we got done with our game. I saw the score going back and forth. I was aware of the score. But when Colt McCoy and yours truly got in the car to leave Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, that's when I pulled out the trusty iPad and we put the game on in the car and we're like, oh, wow.

Yeah. And we saw the back and forth and we saw Milro make a play. And when we, yeah, it was amazing.

I hope you get a game like that. I mean, I have seen both Ohio State and Michigan, I'm sorry, Ohio State and Oregon in person. Who do you like?

Who's better? It's fascinating. Look, you give the home team the advantage here, certainly. Ohio State and more, let's get into this a little bit more with Bruce. Ohio State is amazingly talented. They have in essence, they have an NFL team, right? The overwhelming majority of their starters are last year's players.

They brought them all back. They added Quinshan Judkins in the backfield. They added Jeremiah Smith and they added Will Howard.

Those are three huge, huge additions. But like defensively, they're the same team. The question is, is that defense, is that pass rush good enough? And Oregon's had O-line problems, particularly the right side of that line. Can they get consistent pressure on Dylan Gabriel, especially considering how much quick game they use, how much they spread the field side to side, not just up and down, to truly make a difference? Can they force turnovers? Can the Oregon corners deal with Emeka Ibuka, Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate, and everything Ohio State has on the perimeter? Can the Oregon backers deal with that run game? I think Ohio State's the better team.

I do. You're at Oregon. You're under the lights. It is going to be loud. It is going to be awesome. If there is one college football game I would pay my way to see this year, it is this one. And before the Browns gig happened, I was going to go to this one.

I didn't have a ticket bought or anything, but I had circled it. I am going to this game. Period. It is that good.

Ohio State three-point favorites. Okay. For those who dabble, yes. For those who dabble. I do not.

We've been known, TJ. Not there's anything wrong with that. Not there's anything wrong with that. I dabble. It's okay.

Let's get to the National Football League stuff. Yeah. Anything happen yesterday? Anything happen yesterday?

Now, I know Tom Bellisario, you guys were all doing the show yesterday when the news hit. It was one of those days where you wake up and you look at your phone and you go, holy. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. What happened? Boom.

Robert Sullivan got fired. Yeah. Hey. Like, whoa.

What the? Whoa. All right.

We've had an hour, I'm sorry, a day to digest it. Here's what I think. Aaron Rodgers did not say, he did not order a code red. This is my opinion.

Aaron Rodgers did not say, you must fire the coach. No. Now, do I think there is more than just a, hey, two score game explanation to that shove on the sideline a couple of weeks ago? Yeah. Probably. Do I think the cadence miscommunication on the podium thing, and Salah has been known to have some missteps on the podium over the years. Do I think that factored?

Yeah, I do. But I think, and I'm not the only one who thinks this, great column on NJ.com yesterday as well. I think Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback led to this, let me rephrase, take two, use take two on the social.

Take two. I think Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback got Robert Salah fired, not Aaron Rodgers, the behind the scenes guy got Robert Salah fired. Does that make sense? It does. Look at the numbers from last year and look at the numbers from this year.

They are almost the same. Last year, the Jets were two and three out of the gate. This year, the Jets are two and three out of the gate. Now, last year, the quarterback, I'm looking at my phone to pull up these numbers here, make sure I have them right. Last year, the quarterback was Zach Wilson. They were two and three. This year, the quarterback is Aaron Rodgers.

They are two and three. Last year, 60.1 completion percentage for Zach Wilson. This year, 61.6 for Aaron Rodgers. Last year, passer rating 77 for Zach Wilson. This year, passer rating 81 for Aaron Rodgers. He had his prime time moment a couple of weeks ago.

I couldn't care less if he went to the Amazon post game show, although it would have been nice, right? He had his prime time moment. They've won a couple of games, but overall the offense ain't working.

It isn't. Garrett Wilson, he had 12 catches. All right. They had the nice Breece Hall, two touchdown game. I'm sorry, Braylon Allen, two touchdown game in Tennessee.

Breece Hall's had his moments as well, but overall, this is not what you expected. This is not, it's not what you paid for. This is not what you thought was going to take you to the Super Bowl. The offense is the same, but why then do you fire the head coach and not the offensive coordinator? Because you can't. You can't. You can't fire the offensive coordinator.

He's untouchable, so you fire the head coach. That seems so backwards. It does seem backwards.

It does seem backwards until you take a step backwards, TJ, and you look at the big picture and say, Robert Sala has had enough time to prove that he should be the guy to lead this team. You have a big sample size. You've kind of made your decision, right?

You gave him a pass last year because of Roger's week one opening minute injury. You've kind of made your decision. If it's immediate, make it inevitable. I'm sorry.

I just screwed that up. You take two again. If it's inevitable, make it, make it immediate. If you know, you know, don't look back with regrets.

I know Rich worked the Oasis thing. Don't look back in anger last week. Don't look back with regret. Do it now. So they did it now.

Is it unfair after five games? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Do you believe the stories that Sala was about to take play calling duties away from Hackett and give them to Todd Downing?

Like he made the decision yesterday morning and then minutes later was fired. I don't know. That's convenient timing, isn't it? Sure. For that story for that story to come out after the fact.

Sure. I'll believe it. Let's take it at face value. But I don't believe that, hey, he ordered a code red or rather he decided to take the play calling duties away from Todd, from Nathaniel Hackett. And then that got to Rogers and the result was quick, go fire the coach. So we can't do that. No, I don't, I don't think, I don't think that's the case, but I think Todd doubting, I think Todd doubting is going to call plays this week.

I wouldn't be stunned whatsoever. I would assume that is going to happen until we hear otherwise. Can we hear Jeff Ulbricht, please? The new head coach. Let's Hoskins.

Let's do the second one about the offense here. I think Aaron's is going to be a part of a lot of conversations. You know, obviously it has a lot of insight regarding this offensive system and, and, and he's been a part of it when it's been, you know, operating at the highest level. So responsibilities and, and roles and all that, we're going to take a hard look at all of it, the process included.

We're going to take a hard look at responsibilities and roles and everything to me. That means, yeah, you know what we might just go with Todd doubting as OC. Now does changing play callers make magic happen? Sometimes it does.

Sometimes it doesn't. It didn't Buffalo last year when Brady took over for Dorsey. But if you pull back, if you pull back the lid there and you really look inside the numbers with Dorsey were really good. They, they just had untimely turnovers and they had a lot of them. Things went wrong, but the numbers were really good. The breaks started going their way to Joe brains credit.

You make your own breaks and it worked. It did work last year, but it's not like this magic fix all the time. The fact is Aaron Rogers is 40 years old. He's still an exceptional quarterback and most teams would take him tomorrow. No questions asked, but he doesn't move like he used to. He is coming back from major injury. Look at Kirk cousins. He too coming back from a major injury later in the season. First couple of weeks, we looked at him and said, who is this guy? Well, all of a sudden he throws from 500 yards and rallies him back in prime time this past Thursday. And we're, Oh, look, he's back. Rogers is going to have plenty of those moments this year, but he is, he is that rare combination used to be at least of amazing arm talent and best mind in the game at quarterback. He still is probably the best mind in the game, but he's not playing with guys that he's used to playing with necessarily.

You're not there yet. And he doesn't move like he used to. And the old line, I know you spent some money and you brought in some new parts in the office.

It's still not that good. Yeah. That's the thing that I really noticed too. You talk about the back shoulder throws and all the timing stuff that Rogers is used to. Let's just say he's one to two to 3% off on some of these throws now, because he is still a little bit rusty and he is a little bit older. Well, when you're used to playing with Devante Adams and these guys who are, you know, accustomed to playing with you, they can still adjust and make those catches. When you're playing with these guys that he's got now who aren't, yeah, those are going to be incompletions. Those are going to be interceptions to end the games. Those are going to be pick sixes. And I think that's what we're seeing.

Absolutely. Also give Brian Flores credit, right? I mean, drop it, Andrew Van Ginkel into an obvious throwing lane for Aaron Rogers. They lined up three to the right. He loves that slant when you're showing blitz, right?

That's film study. That's coaching, right? Hey, look, they showed blitz. They did blitz, but they dropped Van Ginkel and he got the pick six. They outsmarted.

They played chess. Brian Flores won. Yeah. Brian Flores is on a heater.

He's on a heater. They won, right? The Vikings defense is right now what the Browns defense was last year.

Okay. They're on a roll and they're getting good quarterback play from Sam Darnold and don't discount what the setup meant. And I'm sure Rich said this yesterday. The fact that they are in London. Woody Johnson used to call London home, right? Laugh at all you want to what Eric Mangini said. Oh, he's going to get fired.

If he's embarrassed in London, the man genius nailed it. He nailed it and it was against Sam Darnold of all people who didn't play his best game. It took a beating, but look, the jets have given up.

What is it? 29 points in the last three weeks. No one touchdown, 29 points, something like that in the last three weeks, one touchdown they've given up. That's it. It's a rough deal.

Isn't that crazy? They bring in the head coach. It was a known defensive guy. He's made them one of the top defenses.

He did what he was brought there to do essentially. And the result is he's gone now. Aaron is talking today with Pat McAfee.

And when we get it, we'll bring it to you. Trevor Sikkema right around the corner as well. It is not too early to look at the top of the draft and the quarterbacks for next year. When Ewers or Sanders or Carson Beck or some other mystery quarterback, Dylan Gabriel or Will Howard or Jackson Dart, you name it. Jalen Milro. Where does he fall into this conversation as well? He's right around the corner. And also what are the PFF numbers? Tell us about the jets and tell us about the Patriots. And David Montgomery is going to join us next hour as well.

The Lions after a week five by Yikes. For business owners like you, the American Express Business Platinum Card works just as hard as you do to help you pursue your passions with its world-class business and travel benefits. You can get more for your business wherever it takes you. The Amex Business Platinum Card offers a flexible spending limit that adapts with your business, enabling you to flex and adapt as your business evolves. And you'll earn five times membership rewards points on flights and prepaid hotels booked on amextravel.com so that going that extra mile for your business is even more rewarding. See how the Amex Business Platinum Card gives business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love. Not all purchases will be approved.

Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com slash Amex Business. Let's talk LinkedIn people and small business owning. I'm a small business owner. Yeah, I might host the Rich Eisen Show, but I run it too.

Rich Eisen Productions is a small business. And when you're hiring for small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. And that's why you've got to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. It's not just a job board that's LinkedIn. LinkedIn helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else, even those who aren't actively searching for a new job, but might be open to the perfect role. In a given month, over 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job sites. So if you're not looking on LinkedIn, you're looking in the wrong place. LinkedIn knows that small business is wearing so many hats and might not have the time or resources to hire.

That's why you got to use them. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash Eisen. That's LinkedIn.com slash Eisen to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Let's talk about game time tickets people.

We've been talking about it actually for months here on the Rich Eisen Show and our Rich Eisen podcasts. But guess what? There's something new to tell you about game time. There's a new feature called game time picks that makes getting tickets to see your favorite teams play live even easier. Game time picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. Yet another way that game time makes things easier for you when you're looking for tickets to anything in your area. With the new game time picks, it's curation easier to save more on sports, concerts, comedy, theater, and more.

And with the all-in pricing feature, which is my favorite, you get to see the total up front. So there's no surprise fees at game time checkout. And with game time, you always get the lowest price guarantee or game time's going to credit you 110% of the difference.

Plus your purchase is covered with the most flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry. Take the guesswork out of buying concert tickets in particular with game time. Download the game time app, create an account and use my code EISEN for $20 off your first purchase.

Terms apply. Visit gametime.co for restrictions. Again, create an account, redeem my code EISEN for $20 off. Download game time today.

Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. So I played 11 years. They've been to the Super Bowl nine times and I didn't get their warrants.

Think about that. And I was one pick away from being drafted by the Patriots. What happened?

The charges drafted. No, but I know that's what happened. They didn't, they didn't, but they didn't come up and come get you. So I went to, so I went on to visit to the Patriots and that's when Charlie Weiss was office coordinator and I go to Boston and I, I really liked to visit. I like Charlie.

I love Charlie Weiss. You meet with Bill? I did meet with Bill.

You know, we sat in his office right above the stadium right there where you're looking out at the stadium. And we really just sat there and we really didn't talk about no matter. We really didn't talk about much. We just looked at each other.

What do you mean? What do you mean you just looked at each other like each other? I guess. So you're saying it was awkward.

I mean, I just, you know, you know how Bill is. He just, there's only a few things he probably wants to know about you. And I guess he was trying to get a sense of, you know, was I passionate about football as most coaches, coaches do you invest a first round pick on a guy.

You want to make sure they're passionate. Do you think they would have chosen you if you were available? Well, they said they were going to choose me. Charlie Weiss promised me if I was there at sticks because they needed to run it back.

They needed to run it back bad that year. And so yeah, when the Chargers drafted me, I think they took Richard Seymour. Have you ever brought up to Brady when you've seen him?

No, never brought it up. You could have been Robin, his Batman. I always, I always thought about, you know, what would that be like? With all due respect to Antoine Smith. All due respect to Antoine Smith.

It would have been a little different. No way. Yeah.

I'm kind of getting freaked out. It is the Rich Eisen Show, everybody. Rich is in London getting ready for another game this week, coming up on NFL Network. You get me today and tomorrow.

You get Trevor Sycamore momentarily. But I got to tell you first that you're listening to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network on, as I sit here right now, the Rich Eisen Show Desk. Actually, I'm not on it.

That sentence sounded funny, but you get my point. I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show Desk. Bless you, Brockman. This desk is furnished by Grainger.

It is built so well, I could sit on it. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger has the right product for you. Call or click Grainger.com or just stop by. Aaron Rogers talking right now, said he did not fire Robert Sala. He resents the accusation because it is patently false. He says that yesterday was a friendly reminder about how tough this is on a personal level in this business. Talked about the humanity of the situation, how he loves Robert.

It was tough for his family and that Sala was one of the big reasons he came here to begin with. He says he did talk to Woody Johnson on Monday night. It was a short conversation. He asked me how I was doing. We talked about the game, how disappointed I was in my performance and how we're going to get this thing turned around. And then I hung up. Woody has no obligation to let me know what his plans are.

All right, more of that coming up in a bit of the meantime. As mentioned, our lead draft analyst at PFF Pro Football Focus, although we'll get to the draft in a little bit, let's talk the Jets and how their offense actually looks when you go under the hood with Trevor Sikkema from PFF. How are you, Trevor? Andrew, I'm doing fantastic.

Appreciate you having me on the show. Because the numbers suggest that the defense is just fine. They've given up 29 points in the last three weeks, something like that. Offensively, however, we laid them out earlier and I was cherry picking stats to be fair.

They are two and three as they were last year, two and three with Zach Wilson. Completion percentage pretty much the same. Passer rating in the same neighborhood. Now Rodgers is throwing for roughly 30 something yards more per game than Zach Wilson did. And look, Aaron Rodgers is operating this offense better than Zach Wilson did.

However, the results are similar. What are the PFF numbers telling us? Yeah, I think specifically when you look at this offense and that's been the topic of conversation ever since the news came out about Robert Salah is like, okay, how does this fix the offense?

How does this make things any different? And you wonder if it's just because was there something going on behind the scenes with how the locker room was coming out and playing these games that was just putting them behind the eight ball before the game even started? Because when you talk about some PFF numbers and we're able to contextualize, okay, we can look at different things. We can not only look at red zones and third downs, but also we could break things up into quarters and halves and see how teams are playing like throughout the game.

You talk about all those opening scripts with drives, how it's supposed to look easy. The Minnesota Vikings, the team they just played, make it look pretty easy. And when you look at the Jets specifically first quarter stats, my co-host on the PFF NFL show Dalton Wasserman found these numbers. When it comes to first quarter PFF grade on offense, they're dead last in the NFL. They're also 30th on first drives of any sort of situation on offense. First 15 plays, the scripted plays, right? All right, maybe even if you go three and out, you still got some scripted plays on the next drive. First 15 plays, dead last PFF offensive grade. And then the first play of every single drive as well.

They are 29th in PFF grade. How they are starting games, how they are starting drives, how they are coming out of the locker room and supposedly supposed to set the tone on the offensive side of the ball, it's horrendous. It puts them behind the eight ball before it even goes. And so I just think that that is a major, major issue of this offense that if you want to say, okay, how does firing Robert solid change anything on this team? Perhaps there was a lack of juice.

Perhaps that is maybe the reason why you move on from them because the vibes weren't great. You know, you don't want to make multimillion dollar decisions off of just vibes, but sometimes we talk about, you know, losing the locker room and not having these guys energized, not having them ready and penalties are sometimes a way that we can look at that. But how you start out of the gate first quarter, I mean, we're five weeks into the season. This is a decent enough sample size to where the Jets are almost dead last in every single offensive situation when it comes to starting. They're just starting way too slow. That's fascinating.

Honestly, I did not expect that. Trevor Sycamore here from PFF, I'll compare it real quick to the Browns. I obviously, for those who don't know, do Browns games and their offensive numbers are not good, not sugarcoating anything. However, they have been good out of the gate. Last week was the first week on which they did not have points on an opening drive. Two weeks ago in Vegas, they had a 15 play opening drive, touchdown drive that took nine and a half minutes off the clock. The week before that, they had a one play 24 yard touchdown drive, one play right out of the gate, bam, explosive touchdown.

So, they have opened well. You're telling me the Jets have not. What about their offensive line numbers?

What do they say, Trevor? Well, the offensive line just it has not been good enough as a group and specifically, I look at how they're performing in the run game because this is a team that, although all the talk is about Aaron Rodgers, they want to stay balanced. It's not like they've got four all pro guys that they want to throw to. They've got some guys that they like, obviously, with Garrett Wilson at the top, but they want to be a balanced football team. Breece Hall, they feel is an all pro talent and one of the best five backs in the NFL.

So, they want to get him going. We're five games into the season and three out of the five games in which Breece Hall has played, he is averaging negative yards before contact. The offensive line just cannot block for this dude.

So, I don't really know what you want at this point. In fact, the season high for a single game performance for Breece Hall when it comes to yards before contact is 0.4. It's not even one yard per per per attempt.

So, right. And that's why it's like they got good guys on the team, but two areas that are really struggling, how they are as an offense out of the gate and then what they are as an offensive line specifically when blocking for Breece Hall, because there have been a couple of performances where Braylon Allen, he's been able to get it going. He's had a little bit better blocking. You normally get like, okay, two, maybe three, if you're great, yards before contact. And Braylon Allen's had that at times. It hasn't existed at all for Breece Hall. Every single yard that he has this season, he has had to earn himself after contact.

Those aren't the kind of numbers that you want. So, obviously, we're all talking about the passing game and everything like that. But part of why this team is so slow out of the gate is because they do want to establish the run at the beginning and they absolutely cannot do that right now. Their offensive line is not blocking well enough as a unit. So, those two areas for the Jets are big areas that Robert Salah or not have to get better. This team is not going to get where they want to go. All right, let's get to the Patriots here.

Speaking of offensive line. Hey, Bowie, can we take Brockman's shirt? Can we show Chris Brockman's shirt? Patriot fan number one over here. He's got the, what does it say again? Made for New England. Trevor, it's go time.

Talk to me. Trevor, does the Patriots O-line give Drake May any chance this week or is it that? The O-line themselves, I'd be a little skeptical of.

Now, to be fair, May has played behind in not great situations before. When you look at UNC's offensive lines, the two years in which he was a starter, not like they were great either. He was pressured consistently. He was running all over the place.

He had to deal with pressure, navigate a pressure to muddy pockets. So, it's not like he was playing behind five-star offensive lineman in college and now he's coming to a completely different situation. We've seen that be the case with college quarterbacks before. And so, May at least has some experience playing behind an offensive line that, okay, maybe isn't the best.

The Patriots though, maybe it isn't the best would probably be like the best compliment that we have for this team, right? If we were able to say that about the Patriots against the Texans this upcoming week, I think that might- How bad is it? So, the numbers that we have indicate that it's pretty bad. 83 pressures allowed this season. That's tight for the second most in the NFL. 48.5 PFF pass blocking grade. That's the third worst in the NFL.

So, it's not dead last in those categories, but it's not where you love to be with a rookie quarterback going out there for his first start. Specifically, I think of the matchup that they have, right? You're going up against Danell Hunter. You're going up against Will Anderson, Jr. Your offensive tackles have to play incredibly well against those guys. And we know that D'Amico Ryan likes to be creative in how he's able to create those pressures as well. So, those are the numbers that we have. Anybody who's been watching Patriots games didn't even need the numbers really to justify that.

But this matchup specifically is also a really tough one because Anderson and Danell Hunter are two guys who have a good amount of pressure so far this season. Uh, yep. It is a tough one, but it is one that I think we all saw coming. I said in August after one of those Drake-Mate preseason appearances. I've seen enough.

Give them the job, but you look at the schedule, who they had to face the first month of the year, whether it would be the Niners and the Seahawks, Mike McDonald, whether it's the Jets and Robert Solid. Just give it a month. Wait until October. There's a stretch then.

And here it is. The offensive line is bad, but we're doing the go ahead, kid. Run around a little bit and make some plays thing and hope you don't get killed. It'll be more fun and maybe there's a chance at a play here or there, right?

Yeah. Oh, Trevor, I'm also a Pats fan, but can I just provide just a little bit of pushback? Like Jacoby Brissett was an iron deer back there. He's not making any plays with his feet. He doesn't have the arm strength or the vision, uh, to, to push the ball downfield. Drake-Mate can do both of those things. Like, is there a situation here or a scenario where he actually helps the offensive line out with those skills that he possesses? Oh, 100%.

Yeah. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have gone to Drake-Mate. I mean, again, it's a tough matchup, but it's going to be a tough matchup basically the entire year, right? I think the Patriots schedule gets pretty favorable over the next couple of games for them to be able to start him and have a little bit of success.

But yeah, I, I'm not really arguing with, you shouldn't be going with Drake-Mate. You got to play this guy eventually. Now, unless you said to yourself, the offensive line is terrible. We're not going to play him all year long, which I think would probably be detrimental to your investment anyways.

It was going to have to happen. And there's not many matchups that you have in the national football league where you go, oh yeah, this is great. This is perfect scenario to start a rookie quarterback because perfect doesn't exist.

So what you are saying is correct. And to Andrew's point, we saw that in the preseason, we saw Drake-Mate give them the juice and be willing to push the ball deep down the field. And if he can make some quick decisions, if he can thread things vertically, anytime you're able to do that, you can get the defense to back off a little bit.

But to me, that's, what's going to be important. They got to get Ramondre Stevenson going. I know it's, you know, it's tail is all the time from every coach. They tell you to establish the run, but they do have to do that because they can't let these pass rushers just tee off on them the entire game. And then specifically, if May can hit one or two of these deep shots in the first half of this game, well, all of a sudden, then you might have to think about him differently.

Maybe the Texans say, okay, we can't play as aggressive in the second half. Maybe it becomes less of a dire environment for him for the entire game as we see it. So I'm not arguing that you shouldn't start him. Maybe this matchup specifically is a tough one, but you have to get him in there eventually. You've got to see what you've got.

And like you said, he brings a higher ceiling than Jacoby Brissett does. So it was only a matter of time. And this is when they're doing it. I was also googling iron deer here. I guess people buy those things. Yeah. They don't move.

The idea is that they don't move. No, I get it. But Trevor, have you ever heard of iron?

I thought it was a beer, like iron deer. Haven't. I don't know. I'm going to be honest with you. That was one that I was just going to roll with the punches. Feel free to take it. Feel free to take it. Iron deer beer. Also, you get this fight wet a little bit against Houston and like next week, Jacksonville, not exactly the greatest defense in the world.

All right. I'm going to ask you about PFF premium real quick here, but Trevor, we also get a fascinating game this week in Baltimore. You have the commanders and the Ravens. I saw the commanders up close last week.

Jayden Daniels is so the real deal. Now I am waiting for, there is historically Cliff Kingsbury offenses, a little bit different second half of the season performance. And we've seen in the first half, but this offense is different.

It's 12, it's 13 personnel. It's based on the run, not just spread them out and throw it 50 times a game. This feels different and this feels real. The play that Jayden made where he's flushed out and he hit Terry McLaurin on the rundown field. I mean, that is as pretty a throw and as accurate a throw on the run as you will see period anywhere all season long. Now Lamar had that crazy play too against the Bengals last week, which might be the best play I've ever seen. Anyway, that aside as we're short on time, Trevor of all the amazing Washington numbers you have seen from this offense so far, what is your favorite stat on the commander's early season offensive performance?

Well, it's a great transition into what you just mentioned. It's one of those plays where he's rolling out and it's the scramble plays from Jayden Daniels because going through as a draft guy, you know, I watched a lot of Jayden Daniels over the last two years and I heard people once draft season rolled around talk about, Oh, you know, Jayden, he's this, he's this mobile quarterback. He's going to be great with escaping the pocket and throwing on the run.

And I went, Whoa, not necessarily. When you look at Jayden Daniels numbers from last year, Heisman trophy winning year, talk about the player that he is right now. If you just turn back the clock a little bit, Andrew, he had 15 total passing attempts when scrambling last year.

He just didn't do it. When he got out of the pocket to escape, it was simply to run. He wasn't keeping his eyes down the field.

That was not a portion of his game where you had to have him as a threat already five weeks into the season. He is showing that he is now willing to do that, especially over the last three weeks where he has been excellent 95.7 PFF grade when scrambling and getting out of the pocket, he is keeping his eyes downfield and he is killing defenses. Now, specifically for this matchup, it's a really interesting point because the Ravens have given up the second most passing plays of 15 yards or more to quarterbacks when they are scrambling.

And so that sort of plays into Jayden Daniels hand. Once again, he has 16 first downs when scrambling both as a rusher and a passer. That's the most in the NFL. He has an 87.1 scrambling grade through five weeks of the season. That is number one in the NFL. So what Jayden Daniels is, is a scrambling passing quarterback is even different and elevated from what we saw as a Heisman trophy winner last year.

And something that the Ravens defense really have to focus on because so far through this season, they have given up a lot of big plays to quarterbacks once they get out of the pocket. Yeah. Sign me up for this one. This is one of those games you're like, yeah, yeah. I'd buy a ticket.

Yeah. I want to be there. Ravens and the commanders this week. And it's also nice having grown up there in Northern Virginia to see two teams actually doing well where the fan bases can get into it.

Like that hasn't happened. That is kind of cool, I think for the region. Also cool, PFF premium. Trevor, tell us about it, please.

PFF Plus, it's got all the different premium stats. I'm sorry, my fault. No, no, no. Yeah.

You're all good. It's got all the premium stats that you guys have heard me kind of rattle off and just so much more. And a really cool thing that we're doing this season is we're opening up in-game grading. So as you are watching games, you can see the PFF grades flow in live.

There's a bit of a delay. Are you guys doing this with beer? Because in-game PFF grading with a cocktail, that's fun.

That might have to be the PFF Plus subscription. That might be an untapped market, actually, right? Literally like, there you go.

Workshop this. No, it's been really cool to watch. You could check out all the grades as they're kind of flowing in. There's about a 10, 15 minute delay. So it's not like as the play is happening, but the grades will flow in.

It's a cool way to just keep up with the game as it's going on. You can see it if you got a PFF subscription over at pff.com. Beautiful. I am in my PFF right now. Premium on pff.com. I am here right now. Regular user. I am there daily.

Also cool. Look at all my film. It's fun.

It's so easy. I want to look at every play that Drake May got sacked onto the preseason because the O-line looked bad. I could look at all of that right now.

Trevor Sycamore, we don't have time for the quarterbacks here for next season. We'll do that next time. I promise.

Go to pff.com. Appreciate you, man. Love the gaming headset as well. We'll talk to you soon. Appreciate it, guys.

Anytime. Trevor Sycamore, everybody. I love BFF.

I'm looking up Drake May as we speak. Huge fan. No, I really do use it all the time. Same.

All the time. I use it for all my fantasy and then, like you said, watch film, get stats, breakdowns, grades. It's the best. All of it.

And like, I can watch Mile 22 there. Certainly. I can pull up, hey, we think a team should make a change. A right guard. Let's say, for example, let's pull up all those plays. You could do pass block plays only for the guy.

Run block plays only for the guy. It's all there, not only with the film, but with the grades as well. Cool.

Okay, cool. Coming up, Aaron Rodgers says he is not a consistent ayahuasca user. And other revelations from the Jets quarterback. Wow. Next on the Rich Eisen Show.

The Rich Eisen Show is sponsored by Grainger. Does this sound familiar? You're a maintenance specialist, and you've been squaring off with a leaky radiator at your facility for hours.

You're both drenched in sweat. You've thrown the whole playbook at it, but so far, it's got an answer for everything. What you need is a teammate, a pro who's seen it all before, and that's Grainger. With support specialists always ready to chat the product you need, plus a million more, just give this ringer a ring. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click Grainger.com, or just stop by one of their local branches. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts, people. You love their jingle. You're going to love their friendly, helpful service even better because they're in the business of keeping your car on the road. And the parts knowledge they have, it's all you need for your maintenance and repairs.

They've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock, either in store or online, so you never have to worry if you're in a jam. The team at O'Reilly Auto Parts can test your battery for free in or out of your car. If it needs to be replaced, they'll find you just the right battery for your vehicle.

Need your windshield wipers replaced, a brake light fixed, or quick service? They'll help you there and find the right part or point you to the nearest local repair shop for help. The professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts are your one-stop shop for all things auto. Do it yourself, and you can find what you need in store or online. So stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today, or visit us at OReillyAuto.com slash EISEN.

That's OReillyAuto.com slash E-I-S-E-N, O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. This is a little early. I don't do lunch martinis. You're pouring a martini now into the martini shaker. I poured just a little in.

It looked like there may have been. You won't complain. Don't send the drink back. We just need to, the olives are already in the glasses. Don't bruise it.

Don't bruise it. Some people at home, what about stirring? There's a great bar called the Edmund over on Melrose that you like to stir. I like that. I like to shake a little bit. So are you more like Bond, shake and not stir it? I prefer actually bruising the vodka, make it ice cold. Okay.

You know what I'm saying? Sure. These are vermouths, washed glasses. We have a little vermouth in there earlier. Okay.

And then I'll take that one. This is my friend, Rich Eisen. Are we toasting? I just want to toast you seeing you again. You want to toast the Aspen, correct? Well, you chose where you're toasting to ESPN's 40th anniversary. There is a big event going on this weekend.

My invitation is probably where yours is right now. Yeah. So we just figured, why not just do it ourselves? You know what I mean? Like, I haven't seen you in a very long time. I like to toast.

I haven't seen you in a long time, Craig. And I, you know, I've been cultivating this caper to try and get you to come on this show. What if I only do your show? I'd love to just do that. Cause I like you're, you're smooth and natural. I like rich, rich. Let me just see what this is.

Cause the water, the ice was sitting there. Cheers to you. Nice to finally meet you.

Cheers. It's watered down. Don't say anything.

It's watered down, but let's pretend it's not. This is what I say at a bar or a restaurant, the big four up in San Francisco, a knob Hill. I take a sip. I go like this.

I go, this is the greatest moment of my life. Hey everybody. Okay. Can I tell you about game time? Always. Here we go.

I'm going to do it anyway. Game time. Use it. You want tickets, go to a game, game time. Do you like football?

I'll try that again. Do you like football? Do you like to see football live in the building?

Yes. Like, like feel the excitement, the color, the pageantry, the live, the football, like make memories, go to games, take the kids, take the significant other, use game time to do that. Pick a game. What game do you want to go to? There's like a big game in Eugene this weekend.

I'd like to go there. Big game there. Big game in Ballmer this weekend. Big game there. Big game of the Coliseum. Big game of the Coliseum this week.

Big game there. So go to game time, you know, scroll through, find the game you want to go to. It's got great features in the app. You can customize your spot, find the super deal, get the seat view, all that game time, game time, game time. You really need to go to game time. So here's what you do. Download the game time app, go to your favorite app store.

It's there in all of them. Create an account and then use the promo code rich. Oh, isn't that rich? Use the promo code rich, R I C H. And then you get 20 bucks off your first purchase.

It is that easy. Visit gametime.co for restrictions because of course restrictions do apply. Create the account, redeem the code rich, R I C H for $20 off game time. What time is it? Game time. It's game time. Also time for what week is it? It is week six of the National Football League.

Let me tell you folks, we all love our jobs. When you're in it, you almost lose track of what week it is. You just remember like where it is you're going this week.

And again, we are all so very fortunate to call this our lives. It is week six of the National Football League. The team that I cover every week, the Cleveland Browns, are in Philadelphia to play the Eagles, two and two coming off a bye.

You hate to get a team coming off a bye when you're on the road, you're in their building, they're angry and getting healthy. Not a good setup, but regardless, that's what the Browns find themselves walking into this week. Kevin Stefanski said on Monday, he said it on Sunday after the loss in Washington, reiterated on Monday and then reiterated again about 45 minutes ago. He's not changing quarterbacks.

It is going to be Deshaun Watson. Now he left the door open and he never leaves the door open, but he seemingly, seemingly, if you want to parse words, on Monday, he didn't say no to a play caller change. Now, again, it was a very, very, very narrow interpretation of semantics there to think that he might've left the door open. It's not going to happen.

I don't think it's going to happen. And Stefanski made that clear about 45 minutes ago. He is still calling plays. Everything every week, Tony, and whether it's scheme, whether it's personnel, whether it's how we call it. So there's things that we've looked at this week and things that we know we can do better. I'm comfortable with the amount of collaboration we have right now on the headset and how we operate. So that won't change. But I do want to emphasize that it's a, number one, we're constantly looking at things that we can do better, but number two, this is a collective effort from players and coaches to make sure that we are playing better on offense.

And I think that's the right move. He's a two-time coach of the year. Last year, this team made the post season at double digit wins, getting wins from Deshaun Watson and PJ Walker and Dorian Thompson Robinson and Joe Flacco. Kevin Stefanski calling plays is not the issue.

Look, I know it's a common topic and it's not only in Cleveland, it's any town in which the offense is struggling. This is a constant in life. You always want the backup quarterback. You always want to change and play caller.

Those are constants in whatever town and whatever team you are in or rooting for. I don't think it matters. I think he is the best play caller period. Baker Mayfield, second half of 2021 on a 20 touchdown two-pick heater.

Don't tell me, not taking it away from Baker, that doesn't have to do with that guy on the right of your screen wearing the orange long sleeve, dry fit, holding the Microsoft surface. That guy's a great play caller. The problems go deeper than that right now. They are offensive line based. They are quarterback based. They are injury based.

They're a lot of issues. He could do better. He says that all the time, right? But I don't think changing play caller would make things demonstrably better. And I'll go back to a conversation I had with Brian Billick years ago, because we have this conversation a lot on TV, because as I said, it's a constant topic. Hey Brian, coach X is giving up play calling. What do you say? Hey coach, there's a coach in this town that's being pressured to give up play calling. What do you say? He has experience.

He has given up play calling. And he says, it's dangerous because once you do it, you can never get it back or you can take it back. But then if you take it back from the guy you give it to because it's not working, then where are you?

Right? You're kind of rudderless at that point. So just don't give it up unless you truly, truly think it's going to make a bit of difference.

You just don't give it up. I think Kevin Stefanski is a fantastic offensive coach. The problem is right now, the injuries, the poor play of the offensive line. And yes, there are plays where the quarterback just doesn't see it, doesn't let it rip. And there are plays where it's there and the offensive line doesn't block it up.

You don't get enough of both of those things happening per game. But the Browns have showed moments, 15 play, nine and a half minute opening drive against the Raiders. That's one of them.

That's one of them. They had scored opening possession every game except last week. Last week they got to midfield, went forward fourth and down, fourth and one, didn't get a good push from the O-line, didn't get the first out. It didn't happen.

Okay. But there have been moments. Look, I go back to the Raider game. Deshaun Watson made a heck of a play, got drilled, like made a play out of the pocket, threw an 82 yard strike to Amari Cooper for a go ahead touchdown.

They're going to win the game. Got called back on a very suspect holding call. By the letter of the law, is it kind of sort of a hold maybe? Does Christian Wilkins get credit for selling it?

Absolutely. Ross Tucker on the broadcast, former offensive lineman, I might add. Ross Tucker is going, Oh my God, that's not a hold. I love Ross.

That's a lovable impression, right? Joe Thomas. That's not a hold. Okay. We're looking at this conversation differently if that call was not made, even though the problems go far deeper than that.

David Montgomery coming up next hour. And we're still on the Roku. You get my point. Get your point.

Get your point. I like Ken Dorsey. The issue here is you're, you're, you're kind of caught between schemes. What Stefanski ran for years was really, really good. Now you're trying to spread it out a little bit more, go five wide, go more empty, less from under center where it's your classic stretch, play fake, turn your back to the defense kind of feel that we've had for years.

And it's not jive. They beat the Eagles this week. It feels totally different, right? Then, well, then we're talking about how bad the Eagles situation is, how bad the Eagle situation is. They're getting healthy. Do you get Lane Johnson back? Do you get Devante back? Do you get AJ Brown back?

Cause I only played one game. If those things happen, look, that's not ideal, right? But everyone's got injuries at this point. You get a win this Sunday, you then go three straight home games and then a buy, like it sets up okay.

The problem is, is that you just got through the quote unquote easier part of your schedule, right? The Giants, the Raiders, the commanders aren't a heater. You didn't think this would be, you know, a tough one. It was, and they won. They were the better team, but you expected victories against the Giants and the Raiders.

And then it feels different. And then they could have should have won both of those games. I mean, they get to within one score of the Giants with nine and a half minutes to go and have four possessions after that. And you can't score.

Anyway, team that can score David Montgomery, the Lions, Dan Montgomery, joining us X on the Rich Eisen Show. Passion doesn't pay bills, Ocean. Watch what Lala is talking about on YouTube or search for, give them Lala wherever you listen.