CBS' Trent Green Talks Mendoza, Donald & Garrett, Super Bowl Predictions & More IThe Rich Eisen Show

Trent Green has been showing up for Rich since before either of them had any business believing the arrangement would last. "Gosh, we go back all the way to 2003," Green said, and Rich supplied the credential Green is too polite to lead with. Green was the first ever in-studio guest in the history of NFL Network.

The origin story is better than the title. Green was in Los Angeles playing Wheel of Fortune down the street for charity when somebody asked if he wanted to run over to the studio. "And I was like, let's do it." Paul Tagliabue had been the first guest on NFL Total Access, Brian Urlacher the first player out of Bears camp, and then Green strolled in. It was 23 years ago this November.

He was also the first on-set guest after a Thursday night game, having just won a Thanksgiving night game against Denver, which Rich remembers for reasons that have nothing to do with football. That was the night Adam Schefter reported that Jay Cutler would start after the game regardless of how Jake Plummer played, and Pat Bowlen came into the parking lot looking for Schefter to find out how he got it.

These days Green was calling in from Bloomington, back in something close to his college colors, and enjoying a sentence he clearly does not get tired of saying. Indiana is the defending national champion. Rich made him repeat it. Green obliged, then upgraded it. "I usually follow it up with the undefeated national champion Indiana Hoosiers."

He is there for a Dr. Pepper fan wall of fame off Kirkwood, and he has a Curt Cignetti story that predates all of this by decades. When the two of them first got on the phone during Cignetti's first season, Cignetti reminded Green that one of his early jobs was quarterback coach at Rice. Green took an official visit to Rice as a high school senior, drawn by the business school more than the football, and Cignetti was the position coach who sat with him for a couple of hours going over film and the offense. "I would like to say I remember it," Green admitted. Cignetti had to remind him.

On Fernando Mendoza, Green started with the organization rather than the quarterback, because he thinks that is the actual variable. The Raiders have moved from Oakland to Las Vegas, churned through head coaches and front offices, added new pieces to the ownership puzzle, and absorbed off-field episodes involving coaches and players that pulled the franchise sideways. "There's a lot going on with the Raiders."

What Green sees now is a floor that did not exist before. Kirk Cousins is in the building. Mendoza is in the building. Maxx Crosby appears to be staying. The cap room has always been there, and Green pointed to what the Raiders have done with it in free agency the last couple of years. "There are opportunities for this organization, and obviously Fernando's going to be right at the front of that because of where they took him and what they're expecting from him."

The division is the hard part. Denver won it. The Chargers made the playoffs. Kansas City has won three of the last six Super Bowls and gets Patrick Mahomes back nine months out from an ACL and LCL injury. "It's a tough division and they've got their hands full."

Asked whether Mendoza actually looks like a pro, Green did not hesitate. Size and speed are there. The mental piece is what convinced him, and he built the case chronologically off last season: the comeback win after the interception at Oregon, the comeback at Iowa, the comeback at Penn State, the win over Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship, then "the dismantling of Alabama" in the Rose Bowl. What Green kept flagging was the capacity to keep concentration and handle adversity.

He also did his own reporting on the locker room question, which is the part most evaluations skip. Green has former Indiana teammates whose sons played on that team, so he asked them directly how the players really felt. "The guys loved him. They loved everything about him." That mattered to Green because the public version had raised a question. "In the media, we would see some of the quirkiness of the interviews and we were like, okay, what's going on here?" His expectation is that Mendoza is simply himself in Las Vegas and the Raiders buy in the way Bloomington did.

Then Rich asked the question Green is uniquely qualified to answer. What is a quarterback thinking in the week leading up to a game where both Aaron Donald and Myles Garrett are on the field?

"Normally you only have to worry about one," Green said. The protection plan is built around locating that man. Two changes the math entirely, especially because they will not stay put. Green's assumption is that the Rams line them up next to each other and dare you to solve it. "It's like, okay, do we take all five guys and block there?" And the moment you commit five to two, the rest of a stacked defense is running free.

Green wanted to be clear the problem is not limited to the headliners. He remains a Jared Verse fan and thinks Verse does well in Cleveland. But two first ballot Hall of Famers in the same front is a different category of problem.

He also rejected the idea that Donald comes back on a snap count. "I don't see him coming in and saying, hey, you know what, I'm only going to take about 30 to 40% of the snaps, I'm just going to be a situational guy. I don't see his makeup in that manner." Green allowed that endurance might take time to rebuild, then undercut his own caveat. "If you watch any of his workout videos, it looks like he's in better shape now than he was when he left."

The advice, when it came, was one sentence and needed to be no longer. "As an opposing quarterback, you better get the ball out of your hands quickly."

For the Super Bowl, Green went with the crowd in the NFC and admitted it. "I wouldn't be surprised to see the Rams just because they're so stacked." He walked the roster: Matthew Stafford as reigning MVP, Garrett and Donald added to the defense, the two corners traded from Kansas City in McDuffie and Watson, two good safeties, stacked linebackers. "The Rams have all the pieces there. It's just a matter of staying healthy." He noted the division does not make it simple, with the 49ers and a Seattle team that is the defending Super Bowl champion.

The AFC he called genuinely open, with five or six teams that could get there. New England has the young quarterback and the complication of transitioning after a season nobody saw coming. Kansas City is in the mix because Mahomes is back. The Chargers are in it. Houston has the defense and needs the offense to arrive. The Colts get Daniel Jones back.

Forced to choose, he chose. "As long as Bo Nix is healthy, I think Denver is probably in the best position to get it done." So the pick is Denver and the Rams, which would put the Super Bowl in the building where Green calls his first game of the year.

Before he went, Rich lodged a formal complaint about the Dr. Pepper fans who throw for the scholarship and shot-put the ball rather than pass it. Green, diplomatically, described them as more like jump shots. Rich did not find it acceptable. Green promised to pass along a hello to Kevin Harlan, his broadcast partner going on year seven.