NFL Week 3 ‘Higher Register’ – Browns, Chargers & Falcons Tepid Takes

Every sports show has takes it doesn't quite believe. The Rich Eisen Show decided to make a segment out of them.

The idea comes from a long-running studio habit: when someone says something they don't really believe in their heart of hearts, their voice climbs. So once a week, the crew now delivers a statement for the upcoming NFL week that they have to "go higher register to really believe." The segment even has a sponsor. It's called Higher Register, presented by Sonos, and for Week 3 the crew served up three picks built on hope more than evidence.

Chris went first, with a team he admitted has "thoroughly disappointed in the first two weeks." These are the guys "the nerds love," and they've "looked awful." Chris has been declaring the season over, and yet he couldn't quite let go.

"I just don't want to give up on Herbert and the Chargers just yet," he said, before labeling them a "sneaky dog this weekend." Rich briefly thought Chris was talking about his new puppy, which apparently is still sneaking around the house causing trouble. The pick stood anyway: "Don't give up on Herbert just yet, guys."

TJ was next, and he made it clear this was his least favorite part of the week. His natural voice doesn't really climb, and he confessed he had read the comments the week before, which "hated me." He tried anyway.

His subject was the Browns and Deshaun Watson, who was set for his first home start since being booed in the preseason. "Everything's going to be just fine with the Browns," TJ said. "The fans are going to love them. They won the game. He's going to throw some touchdowns. He's going to be fine." Rich graded it "not bad," and TJ went further, saying he was taking the Browns to win outright.

Rich closed the segment with his first higher register take of the season, since he had been out the week before. The Falcons quarterback situation, he admitted, "has been brutal." The Cooper Rush move didn't work in Atlanta or in Pittsburgh the week before, and Jack Strand "wasn't the answer," unless the question was Devin Lloyd's personal stat sheet.

So Rich went high. "I kind of feel that Penix is going to straighten the Falcons out," he said of Michael Penix Jr. on Thursday Night Football. He pictured Penix finding Pitts and London, with "the Bijan game" rolling in the run and pass game "cuz Penix is spinning it." He noted it didn't work out last year before Penix got hurt, but reminded everyone that the year before, Atlanta handed him the job late in the season and he nearly got the Falcons into the playoffs.

Rich even liked the over. And if Penix doesn't look like the answer? "Look out below," he said, floating the 2027 draft and wondering aloud how Trinidad Chambliss might look in that system.

Chris's answer to that one required no change in pitch at all. "Oh, baby."