Speaker 1: Welcome into the studio. Another edition of the official podcast,
Speaker 1: Eric Ellen joined by wide receivers coach Miles Austin. What's
Speaker 1: it like for you to be coaching a professional football
Speaker 1: team here in Flora Park, just a couple of miles
Speaker 1: away from where you grew up in Summit. Oh, it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's really uh, really special. That's why when this opportunity
Speaker 1: came about, something that you really can't pass up at all.
Speaker 1: So uh yeah, but being born in Summit, growing up
Speaker 1: in Garfield, going to Mommouth University, which is all here
Speaker 1: in Jersey. Uh, it's just great to be back home
Speaker 1: and have a chance to help the home team win
Speaker 1: finally for the first time instead of trying to beat
Speaker 1: him every time going against him? Miles, how much time
Speaker 1: do you spend down on the shore since you did
Speaker 1: go to school at Mammouth And obviously you don't have
Speaker 1: time to do it right now it's training camp gets gone.
Speaker 1: But like during your downtime, we lived down so we
Speaker 1: live my family and I lived down in Rumps and
Speaker 1: so that's like where home is. So right now during camp,
Speaker 1: I obviously stay up here as as much as I
Speaker 1: can with the long hours that we're working and during
Speaker 1: the season, probably two nights a week I'll stay up here.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we're right down there by the shore. Uh live.
Speaker 1: And that's the reason why we chose that area when
Speaker 1: we moved back to Jersey because it was next to
Speaker 1: Mamouth and we just love the shore. So for people
Speaker 1: who don't know too much about the shore, you, as
Speaker 1: a guy who lives there, who played collegially down there,
Speaker 1: what would you say, especially mom, it's specifically you're saying, well,
Speaker 1: mamth rumps in all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the area
Speaker 1: is just it's it's awesome, you know. Uh. I think
Speaker 1: the the tagline for the Mamoth football team that they
Speaker 1: send out to their cruises, we we train where you
Speaker 1: were other people vacation or something like that. So yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's awesome. It's it's a it's a great area down there.
Speaker 1: You got the shore right there, the weather is awesome.
Speaker 1: Being able to hit the be whenever you can is
Speaker 1: is always a great thing. So we took advantage of it.
Speaker 1: We we should have taken advantage of it more when
Speaker 1: we were in school, but uh, whenever you did get
Speaker 1: out there to the boardwalk of the beach, it was
Speaker 1: it was just awesome. Undrafted free agent here in training camp?
Speaker 1: What do you tell the guys about your experience? I
Speaker 1: try to tell them things I wish, things I learned,
Speaker 1: the mistakes I've made, and things that I've done right.
Speaker 1: Things I wish people have told me, things that people
Speaker 1: had told me. So I just try to uh impart
Speaker 1: on them. How important, especially as uh the undrafted guys,
Speaker 1: how attention to detail matters. How the way you are
Speaker 1: in meetings matter, the way you uh, the way you
Speaker 1: walk through matters, the special teams, reps, every everything that
Speaker 1: you do matters, because essentially you got to go in
Speaker 1: with the mindset if they're trying to do anything they
Speaker 1: can to get me out of here, and I have
Speaker 1: to make it as hard as I can on them
Speaker 1: when the time comes. Why didn't you make it though?
Speaker 1: In terms of being that guy who comes out of
Speaker 1: momouth big fish, little pond and you come into the
Speaker 1: National Football League and you have a long career. Uh.
Speaker 1: The thing that helped me was I just have a
Speaker 1: big fear of failure almost you know. So it's like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do whatever I can, like I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: fail like I have to, you know, I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: do whatever it takes to uh make it work out.
Speaker 1: So that's really the approach I took. So what did
Speaker 1: I need to do to make that happen. I had
Speaker 1: to on special teams, whatever you had me block some money,
Speaker 1: had to go hit somebody as hard as I can.
Speaker 1: I had to know what I was doing. I was
Speaker 1: there on time, you know, just trying to do all
Speaker 1: those things I could to make Like I said that,
Speaker 1: the decision at the end of the camp that much
Speaker 1: more difficult. Whether you're gonna try to release me or
Speaker 1: put me on practice, I'm gonna make you have to
Speaker 1: almost sign me to to the team. So that's that
Speaker 1: was the mindset that I have, and it's the kind
Speaker 1: of wisdom I try to impart on those guys, UH
Speaker 1: day in and day out. What's unique about this offense
Speaker 1: from a wide receiver's perspective. I was in other offenses
Speaker 1: in Dallas and UH the first time I experienced this
Speaker 1: offense was in Cleveland with Kyle Shanahan being the offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator over there, and I really honestly just fell in
Speaker 1: love with it. Just how the um, how the formations
Speaker 1: are set up, what are rules were in the run game, um,
Speaker 1: and just the way we try to find ways to
Speaker 1: attack uh defenses. So that's when I really fell in
Speaker 1: love with it. And then I got it again when
Speaker 1: I was out there in San France and having it here.
Speaker 1: Obviously I'm I'm a lot more familiar with it, but
Speaker 1: I fell in love with it, uh in twenty fourteen
Speaker 1: when I was when I was first kind of introduced
Speaker 1: to it. What's the expectation for WI vers see for
Speaker 1: you as a guy who thrived in the system yourself
Speaker 1: who fell in love with it. One thing that stuck
Speaker 1: out to me last year about MICHAELA Fleur when he
Speaker 1: was explaining the offensive system is you guys require the
Speaker 1: receivers to learn all the different positions. You can't just
Speaker 1: be an outside guy. You can't just be a guy
Speaker 1: who's gonna live in the slot. Yes, Uh, that's that's
Speaker 1: really the way our offense is set up. So we
Speaker 1: have concepts, obviously, but we have formations, and we have
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of formations. So all of our formations
Speaker 1: can get uh two to three people in a specific
Speaker 1: cluster let's call it, that have a combination to run.
Speaker 1: So as long as you know the combinations and you
Speaker 1: know where you're lined up. You have what we have
Speaker 1: the ability to put you at number one, number two,
Speaker 1: or number three options in that combination based on our formations.
Speaker 1: So that's if you just know what our offenses and
Speaker 1: you know where to line up, and you know our concepts,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have any problem, you know, I mean, and
Speaker 1: now at this point, now it just takes ability, It
Speaker 1: takes strain, it takes effort, all the other things we
Speaker 1: ask them for. But as far as schematically, if you
Speaker 1: know where to line up and what our concepts are,
Speaker 1: you should be able to kind of handle everything because
Speaker 1: we can put you anywhere. We're gonna get back to
Speaker 1: that in a second. That's a key word around here though.
Speaker 1: Strain from a coaching perspective, What does that mean when
Speaker 1: Solid is talking about that all the time, A Miles
Speaker 1: Austin is in the wide receiver's room saying, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: we gotta strain. Strain is the thing that takes a
Speaker 1: guy from good degrade. It takes a team from good
Speaker 1: degrade or or bad to better, or you know, it
Speaker 1: moves you up a notch strain and uh it really
Speaker 1: takes nothing other than uh, you wanting to do it.
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't take any You don't have to
Speaker 1: be fast to strain. You can be the slowest person
Speaker 1: in the world and still strain, you know. So just
Speaker 1: kind of imparting that on our guys, Uh, to constantly
Speaker 1: keep that in the forefront of their mind. I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna get not only them better individually, but us
Speaker 1: individually as a group better and then ultimately, uh, team wise,
Speaker 1: get the whole team. But what do Corey Davis and
Speaker 1: Braxton and Burials mean for you with this young group? Oh,
Speaker 1: it's awesome because they they've been in this system. Uh,
Speaker 1: they know it so and they pretty much do everything
Speaker 1: you ask them to do. So having those guys dad,
Speaker 1: you know, you can put in and get consistency out
Speaker 1: of is uh is a It really makes it easy
Speaker 1: on my end. And I gotta script the day out,
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta you gotta put guys in different spots,
Speaker 1: and uh, whenever you put those two guys down on
Speaker 1: the sheet, you just feel like, all it's gonna this
Speaker 1: is gonna be handled right here, you know. So it
Speaker 1: feels great to have those guys. Yeah, So there was
Speaker 1: a play today in practice. We're taping this but Zach
Speaker 1: drew an off side from a defender, rolls out to
Speaker 1: his left, froze fifty plus yards and Elijah Moore makes
Speaker 1: to catch eighty yards. That play covered in all something
Speaker 1: like that. Does that speak to familiarity in the system
Speaker 1: and how these guys are growing up together because maybe
Speaker 1: we want to saw that play last summer. Yeah, I think, uh,
Speaker 1: especially in Elijah's case and and all of our receivers cases,
Speaker 1: especially the ones that we're here last year. The first
Speaker 1: year you're kind of implementing something, it's the first time
Speaker 1: a lot of guys have just been in a huddle
Speaker 1: in general. You know, it's a lot of times they've
Speaker 1: heard the type of verbage that we've uh that we
Speaker 1: have for them. So being their second year hearing the
Speaker 1: same type of verbiage, the things that you're correcting last year,
Speaker 1: you kinda don't have to correct as much because more
Speaker 1: people know it, and the fact that more people know
Speaker 1: it and are doing it, the younger guys that come
Speaker 1: in kind of see the right example more often than not.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of how that kind of flows naturally
Speaker 1: to UH too to get us better scheme wise on
Speaker 1: those plays. I mean, that was just that play. Right.
Speaker 1: There was just a connection of us realizing they've jumped offsides.
Speaker 1: My original route was already cut off. So let's just
Speaker 1: let's just make a play. And uh Elijah can do that,
Speaker 1: Uh pretty much as good as anybody in our in
Speaker 1: our whole in our whole receiver room. What's his next step?
Speaker 1: He's so competitive and we saw the skills that he
Speaker 1: brought to the table last year. I only played a
Speaker 1: lot of games, we still had five touchdowns, and I
Speaker 1: thought you saw that chemistry really take off with him
Speaker 1: and the formatted Zack Wilson done stretch. Yeah, he uh,
Speaker 1: he really like took off in the right in the
Speaker 1: middle of the year and then obviously you know, tailed
Speaker 1: off with with the injury. But um, in the beginning
Speaker 1: of the year, it was just kind of like again
Speaker 1: like I was mentioning, hearing those concepts and understanding exactly
Speaker 1: what he had to do. There was just a little
Speaker 1: bit off. It was just a little bit off, and
Speaker 1: then he kind of hit his stride. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it was like week five to ten or something
Speaker 1: like that, he just hit his stride and and really
Speaker 1: was playing at the level that he expects to play.
Speaker 1: And and we expect him to play and I think
Speaker 1: hopefully he can start at at that level of better
Speaker 1: and uh and still continue to climb to to push
Speaker 1: even further. So he's he's been, He's been a pleasure
Speaker 1: to coach. He's ultra competitive. He wants to win every rep. Uh,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times I gotta pull him back
Speaker 1: to say, listen, let's just take a big picture of
Speaker 1: this thing and take it play by play, regardless of
Speaker 1: what happened on the last one. But I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what he's Uh, he's a pleasure to coach because he's
Speaker 1: he has that strain that we're talking about to help
Speaker 1: you as a coach that similar situations. Maybe Garrett Wilson's
Speaker 1: drafted a little bit earlier. We know Elijah was drafted
Speaker 1: at the top of the second round, whereas Garrett comes
Speaker 1: in number ten overall. But you're you're coaching up a
Speaker 1: guy in his first year who similar skill set. I
Speaker 1: think in some ways totally different players. I know that,
Speaker 1: but in terms of the versatility that you coached up
Speaker 1: a guy like Elijah last year and now you have
Speaker 1: a guy like Garrett who seems the same in the
Speaker 1: way he approaches things that he's going to be a
Speaker 1: sponge and he's gonna learn from his teammates, and he's
Speaker 1: alter competitive as wealth. He's very competitive and uh and
Speaker 1: he's another one. Um, he's specially you know, he's just
Speaker 1: his body movement. Obviously, he's unbelievably athletic. It's like now
Speaker 1: taking that athleticism and still being able to use that
Speaker 1: athleticism within the uh framework of of what we have
Speaker 1: as an offense. And we're working that blend right now.
Speaker 1: But I mean a lot of the place he's making
Speaker 1: and the amount of time and energy he's he's putting
Speaker 1: into improving not only in the classroom but out here
Speaker 1: on the field. UM, I can tell he's gonna be
Speaker 1: he's gonna be a special player for us as long
Speaker 1: as he continues to do exactly what he's doing, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna really help us out. He's gonna really help
Speaker 1: us if he's fast and he's quick. And one of
Speaker 1: the most impressive plays or efforts he had out here
Speaker 1: I think in training camp was actually a catch he
Speaker 1: didn't come down with, but it just spoke to he
Speaker 1: He jumped through the gym, he went up two defenders
Speaker 1: in the area and he was mad at himself for
Speaker 1: not coming down with it. But that basketball background, you
Speaker 1: can see that a little bit. Huh, yeah, you can
Speaker 1: see it at the line of scrimmage at the top
Speaker 1: of routes. Um. I like to see it less sometimes
Speaker 1: when the balls and there, unless you really have to
Speaker 1: go up and go get it, because really, as as
Speaker 1: receivers were trying to keep our feet on the ground
Speaker 1: to be able to continue to move after we catch it.
Speaker 1: So we worked out with all of our guys are
Speaker 1: just like jumping when you have to, but also being
Speaker 1: heavy to the ground so you can so you can
Speaker 1: do something with it instantly. But yeah, that play like
Speaker 1: going up, it looked like it was one of those
Speaker 1: It was it DeAndre uh dedre Jordan's who kind of
Speaker 1: like maybe it was like, you know, it was like
Speaker 1: um Blake Griffin. Yeah, you know, anyone's got pushed up
Speaker 1: a little higher as he jumped up there. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: he went up. He went really really high, and I
Speaker 1: don't know what his vertical was. I'm sure it was
Speaker 1: around forty but it was about forty five on that
Speaker 1: It felt like that and he's in helmet and shorts.
Speaker 1: How cool is it for you guys, the possibilities now
Speaker 1: that this is a group that can kind of grow
Speaker 1: up together. Because you're working with a quarterback in his
Speaker 1: second year and Zach, it is special. Uh those guys
Speaker 1: are are together. I saw they were out there and
Speaker 1: uh in Idaho working together. So whenever you get a
Speaker 1: core group um around similar age or at least similar
Speaker 1: interests or at least that are just that connected together, uh,
Speaker 1: there's so much more of a bond that can happen
Speaker 1: off the field. But that translates to how you practice.
Speaker 1: That translates to games. Trusting the guy across from you,
Speaker 1: knowing the guy across from you, Uh, it makes you
Speaker 1: work that much harder as a as a player. I've
Speaker 1: been in that situation UM with my teammates as a player,
Speaker 1: and I just know that there were times like Layton games,
Speaker 1: you're you're with you, with you guys, and you know,
Speaker 1: as long as you're connected in that way, you feel
Speaker 1: like you've got a chance lating games to do things special.
Speaker 1: I'm not asking you to go Rob Calabrie's here and
Speaker 1: give me your complete evaluation on Zach, but from your
Speaker 1: guys eyes, what's different about him here that second summer
Speaker 1: because one of the things that I caught my eyes
Speaker 1: again today was that it seemed like you're gone Temple
Speaker 1: and maybe last year at this time, that's not something
Speaker 1: you guys are doing where he maybe he's processing the
Speaker 1: play and take some time to hear what's coming in
Speaker 1: from La fleur, but he really seems like he's getting
Speaker 1: to the line quicker and going through everything quicker and
Speaker 1: hitting your guys. Yeah, it's and it goes back to too,
Speaker 1: even with our receiver room familiarity, just hearing the play
Speaker 1: calls here and here in the concepts knowing them. The
Speaker 1: more you do anything, you know ten thousand hour, The
Speaker 1: more you do anything, and the more you are practicing
Speaker 1: the right way, the better you get. So uh, not
Speaker 1: only him, but our entire receiver room, our entire offensive line,
Speaker 1: everyone hearing it another year and being able to digest
Speaker 1: what they're hearing from from the huddle, uh, and being
Speaker 1: able to execute it. Because you've had those looks. You
Speaker 1: have memories in your head of what happened the last
Speaker 1: time I faced this look, or I faced faced this
Speaker 1: coverage and this leverage in front of me. Um, you
Speaker 1: can go back to those memories and and kind of
Speaker 1: figure out answers faster than you did when it's the
Speaker 1: first time you're hearing it versus the first look that
Speaker 1: you're seeing. All Right, you gotta roll. You've been gracious
Speaker 1: with your time. I gotta get a quick one in though.
Speaker 1: UM with Zach Robert Sali was talking about the second play.
Speaker 1: There's the first play and then there's the sec can
Speaker 1: play when he breaks the pocket. Um. From receiver's view,
Speaker 1: what do you guys have to do when you see
Speaker 1: the athletic guy get out? What's what's the move next?
Speaker 1: They're like just general rules. A lot of times when
Speaker 1: when ball scrambles out right, you're obviously trying to find
Speaker 1: space out there, uh, and you're trying to find that
Speaker 1: space again, kind of like I was saying almost with Garrett,
Speaker 1: within the confines of how we're all going to get there,
Speaker 1: So without getting in too much too uh specifics, there's
Speaker 1: spaces we have to get to based on how we're
Speaker 1: running there or who's in what spot. So every time, uh,
Speaker 1: that Zach ever does break out the pocket, it's a
Speaker 1: great way we can practice those rules and kind of
Speaker 1: tweak them as we go or realize, oh, I should
Speaker 1: have came down on this one, or I should have ran,
Speaker 1: I should have taken the top off first, this look
Speaker 1: on the sideline, and I thought, Elijah is uh playing.
Speaker 1: It was a great example of like what to do
Speaker 1: kind of when a play breaks down. So we're getting
Speaker 1: repsitted every single day. So, uh, those second plays happened
Speaker 1: pretty often in games. You know a lot of guys,
Speaker 1: a lot of big, good quarterbacks out there kind of
Speaker 1: make their hay on on those second second places. So
Speaker 1: hopefully we can be one of those teams that they
Speaker 1: can make something out of those as well. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: appreciate your time and hopefully we can catch up again
Speaker 1: real soon. It sounds good. Thank you, thanks for having me.