Speaker 1: What is it like to learn an NFL playbook? What's
Speaker 1: it like to learn an NFL playbook? Well, it's it's
Speaker 1: your back. When I came in, they give you the
Speaker 1: three inch binder. It was actually a binder back then,
Speaker 1: three inch binder, which is the big boy or what
Speaker 1: is that right?
Speaker 2: And uh, three inches is huge, Yeah, And so they
Speaker 2: would give you that and there'd be a table of contents.
Speaker 1: There'd be I mean, it was laid out professional. This
Speaker 1: is this was the pros, you know, and you had
Speaker 1: like at the top you had special teams slots, then
Speaker 1: you had the offense install slots, and then when you
Speaker 1: get into offense install slots, that would break down to
Speaker 1: you know, a whole bunch of things from formations, personnel groups, splits, informations.
Speaker 1: They would have protections, they'd have all the site adjustment rules.
Speaker 1: It have all the hot adjustment rules, it have everything.
Speaker 1: Everything was broken down fundamentally on there on like you
Speaker 1: could find it in the in the playbook. Now it's
Speaker 1: it's transferred now to the iPad, which it's probably way
Speaker 1: cleaner and way awesome. And I remember we did that
Speaker 1: later in my career for the younger guys that were
Speaker 1: coming in. But I mean it's just a it's literally
Speaker 1: like the encyclopedia of everything that the offense is about.
Speaker 1: I mean it goes you have we have an example
Speaker 1: up right here that's exactly how it looks. It'll have
Speaker 1: the basic and then it'll have like the defensive line. Uh,
Speaker 1: they'll have like how each play goes against each line.
Speaker 1: It'll break down each coverage, it'll break down everything that
Speaker 1: the defense defense does, so you can commute like what
Speaker 1: did Gruden say, recognition, communicate execution RCEE yep, So you
Speaker 1: have to recognize what's going on after you learned your formation, personnel, group, split,
Speaker 1: potential motion, potential shift, like all those things. That's in
Speaker 1: the beginning, and then it goes into how things change
Speaker 1: against the defense. I mean, it's a it's a it's
Speaker 1: a literally it has every single bit of information that
Speaker 1: the coach will explain to you. And it's much like
Speaker 1: the textbooks when we were kids, where you could read
Speaker 1: that and if you could do that, it'd be great.
Speaker 1: But I was always a guy that would, you know,
Speaker 1: I had to study it. I would look at it
Speaker 1: while we were installing it, while the coach was addressing
Speaker 1: the classroom, you know, you would go through your playbook
Speaker 1: and you would kind of highlight and then for me,
Speaker 1: a lot of guys, for like guys like me, receivers,
Speaker 1: the receivers always. I was a guy that used flashcards
Speaker 1: for personnel groups because there's like sixty different personnel groups.
Speaker 1: So you know, on Rangers, that's what is said before
Speaker 1: the play that tells everyone who they are Rangers. The
Speaker 1: personnel group. Our Rangers an eleven or eleven personnel group
Speaker 1: were example, Danny goes to the F, I go to
Speaker 1: the z. Lafel's on the X, and Gronks at the Y.
Speaker 1: So there's three receivers one tight end, and then whoever
Speaker 1: is in the backfield is in the backfield. Then you
Speaker 1: would have regular. Regular was twelve, So then regular puts
Speaker 1: me at z Lafel at X, and then there'd be
Speaker 1: two tight ends that would come in so you'd have to.
Speaker 3: Go over that.
Speaker 1: So I would always flashcard personnel groups and formations because
Speaker 1: if you fuck that up, you weren't getting a rep.
Speaker 4: How often are you shifting between these like so when
Speaker 4: do you find out that you're like the Z and ranger.
Speaker 1: Or that's how often I find that out through the
Speaker 1: coaches like weekly weekly. So if they'll give you a
Speaker 1: group of personnel groups that we're gonna highlight this week,
Speaker 1: we're gonna use these six. These six personnel groups Rangers,
Speaker 1: sub sub half and uh another one regular no regulars two.
Speaker 1: Those are all eleven personnel grips. So these are all
Speaker 1: these could be the same. This is there's three receivers,
Speaker 1: one tight end to and one running back like regular,
Speaker 1: sub half, Rangers, Army Marines. Those those tell like every
Speaker 1: guy which spot they have to go into. So you
Speaker 1: could make a play for a guy. Instead of changing
Speaker 1: the whole concept, you could just change the personnel group.
Speaker 1: So if you're trying to get what's this, you're trying
Speaker 1: to get Danny at the F. Instead of putting him
Speaker 1: at the F, you just changed the personnel group and say,
Speaker 1: now Danny goes.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Right? That makes sense? Tag
Speaker 3: it from there, Tag it from there.
Speaker 1: You would never tag you just say rangers, okay, and
Speaker 1: that would put That would tell everyone where we all go.
Speaker 1: I'm at F, I'm at Z, he's at Z, he's
Speaker 1: at X, all right, and half I'm at I'm at F,
Speaker 1: he's at Z. Half again, I'm at f but maybe
Speaker 1: half in sub everyone's in the same spot, but the
Speaker 1: tight ends change.
Speaker 3: There's a new tight end in you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So the personnel groups are fucking They were a bitch
Speaker 1: to learn. And then there's a formations, so then the formations.
Speaker 1: They would break it down. All right, guys, we'll have
Speaker 1: these eight formations and these personnel groups, and then we
Speaker 1: could have these seven empties and empties were you know,
Speaker 1: whenever you know the quarterback is empty and there's five
Speaker 1: guys on the line of scrimmage, five receivers, and so
Speaker 1: like you'd have to learn were what each formation was
Speaker 1: because you'd have to put the F in here, the
Speaker 1: X goes outside, like if you're an empty, And it
Speaker 1: was just a whole lot of studying. And so once
Speaker 1: you got those down, then you'd have to learn defenses
Speaker 1: because when you things could change or you know, then
Speaker 1: you learn your concepts. So you go personnel groups, formations,
Speaker 1: and then you learn concepts. There was concepts that were
Speaker 1: two man concepts. Then there was three man concepts. So
Speaker 1: like read read was an incut from by one and
Speaker 1: number two has an option route to the outside, and
Speaker 1: so conceptually you were trying to high low this backer.
Speaker 1: So that's read now a three man concept or ICE
Speaker 1: is another one. Ice was where this guy has an
Speaker 1: incut and this guy has a cross route. So that
Speaker 1: you'd learn those two man's and there would be three
Speaker 1: man concepts, and so you're basically learning how you're building
Speaker 1: in your mind, how the quarterback calls the play. So
Speaker 1: first thing you're gonna hear is personnel group. Then you're
Speaker 1: gonna hear formation, and you got to learn your protections
Speaker 1: because after your formations and concepts, you got to learn
Speaker 1: the protections because the protections could it could change your
Speaker 1: route if you are a sight adjusting or if you're
Speaker 1: depending on if you can get it protected. The receivers
Speaker 1: would have to know because if it's only a five
Speaker 1: man protection, there could be a hot and a side
Speaker 1: adjustment if you're an empty So you'd have to see
Speaker 1: where the mic point is and communicate with the quarterback.
Speaker 1: The quarterback was set, he would set the protection. You go,
Speaker 1: Mike fifty two, which is the front side backer, or
Speaker 1: here you go, check easy, check easy, We're gonna mic
Speaker 1: fifty four. He'd change the protection and he would look
Speaker 1: at me and he'd say jewels. So that makes him
Speaker 1: the mic. He's the mic, he's the will or the
Speaker 1: will because or the Sam. And then the next guy
Speaker 1: would be a different slot, the jack, you know, to jack.
Speaker 1: And so then he would look at me and say
Speaker 1: these two if those two guys came, If he said two,
Speaker 1: then I'd have to break my side adjustment. Now if
Speaker 1: he looked at me, Tom could look at me and
Speaker 1: he could say, hey, Jules, if he did that, that
Speaker 1: means one or the other. If any one of those
Speaker 1: guys come, you gotta break all right. But if he
Speaker 1: said to it, you got to go when the two
Speaker 1: guys come. And sometimes they would come and one guy
Speaker 1: would jack out, so you'd have to get en route,
Speaker 1: all right. And then so another one he could look
Speaker 1: at you and he could sit there and you see
Speaker 1: your guy on your face coming. But Tom paulus change
Speaker 1: protection all the way over he over here, so he'd
Speaker 1: make that guy the mic who's on over me, the
Speaker 1: star or whatever, and he would sit there and go, Jeles,
Speaker 1: you're locked. So if he regardless no matter what, whoever came,
Speaker 1: you're locked on the route. So that's when you'd have
Speaker 1: to study your protections. So you go Personnel group formations, concepts, protections,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of then you'd break into how defense
Speaker 1: was was involved.
Speaker 5: So if you're locked on the route, that means no
Speaker 5: matter what it's the play called route is drawn.
Speaker 4: Up, okay, messaged sight adjustment. What explained, The.
Speaker 1: Hot is to the strong side, So when the Sam
Speaker 1: and Mike and Sam come, that's a hot the sight
Speaker 1: adjustments to the weak side. So it'd be like a
Speaker 1: Will and a week safety. So like if this guy,
Speaker 1: so you have your Mike Sam Will, right, you always
Speaker 1: see the quarterback making the point. So what what he
Speaker 1: can do is though he could change. Well we always
Speaker 1: think that this guy is the MIC, right because he's
Speaker 1: near the tight end the strong side of the passing strength. Well,
Speaker 1: he could change and make that guy the MIC, So
Speaker 1: then it would make him the MIC. The guy to
Speaker 1: the right of him who is the star would be
Speaker 1: the Sam, meaning that the lion can get a Protec.
Speaker 1: And then this guy who we think is that it
Speaker 1: looks like the MIC is now the will. Okay, so
Speaker 1: the line could take care of the Mic, Will and Sam.
Speaker 1: You know, that's when other guys get involved. That's when
Speaker 1: that's when side adjustments and hot hots get involved.
Speaker 4: So inside adjustment is like a to the weak side.
Speaker 4: It's to the weak side. It's a changing the route
Speaker 4: based off of the changing the route.
Speaker 1: A hot and a side adjust could be the same
Speaker 1: kind of thing for the receiver, but it's just telling
Speaker 1: which side they go. So if it's it's to the
Speaker 1: passing strength, that's a hot. If it's the passing So
Speaker 1: if so, if I'm sitting here right and we got
Speaker 1: we make him the mic, he's the SAM. So he
Speaker 1: whoever comes off here, you're hot.
Speaker 3: So you're going to fill that space where they were.
Speaker 1: Depending on what the hot is, it could be a
Speaker 1: it could be a burst. You have to like a
Speaker 1: five yard hitch full speed. You can't lollygag it because
Speaker 1: then they sniff that and then they'll break. So you
Speaker 1: got to come off the ball hard every time. That
Speaker 1: was like the number one pot coaching point to any
Speaker 1: kind of side adjustment or hot, you gotta come off
Speaker 1: because defense is fucking smart. You know they'll sniff that
Speaker 1: bullshit out if you come lollygagging off and then they
Speaker 1: break and it's a pick six because they got a
Speaker 1: guy coming to that area. But if you're sprinting, that
Speaker 1: guy doesn't know where you're going, so he'll he would
Speaker 1: be all scared and he'll be less hesit or less
Speaker 1: aggressive to break. So getting back strength is hot, so
Speaker 1: to our strong side. Right, So this guy, we make
Speaker 1: him the mic. Anyone come off that, Sam, you're hot.
Speaker 1: Anyone coming off the will you're sighting and then you
Speaker 1: just have to read if they're coming well, yeah, we
Speaker 1: have to. But the quarterback in our system, we had
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, so he was the ultimate reminder and he
Speaker 1: when he was dishing out his protections and getting stuff,
Speaker 1: he would tell you, and the good quarterbacks do that.
Speaker 1: If you look like Peyton Manning and all those boys,
Speaker 1: they would sit there all right, I'm locking you.
Speaker 4: I'm locking you.
Speaker 1: Because he changed the protection and it's it's it's a fact.
Speaker 1: The protections are the most fascinating things. That's why offensive
Speaker 1: linemen like they have. Not only do they have to
Speaker 1: be choreographed in such a great manner together as one
Speaker 1: like they're dancing, but they have to be able to
Speaker 1: see shit body.
Speaker 3: Language of the guys.
Speaker 1: They got to be able to break down the defensive
Speaker 1: fronts because things change. The protections change if there's a
Speaker 1: three down or a four down, like that that's when
Speaker 1: we got to start, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 1: that's more of the defensive offensive line. You really only
Speaker 1: needed to know the backers. Now, if it's a run play,
Speaker 1: are you a part of the protection call too.
Speaker 4: Or how does that? How does that work?
Speaker 3: So run play?
Speaker 1: On certain run plays, uh, depending on the mic call,
Speaker 1: you would always have like the six man in the box, right,
Speaker 1: so the sixth man on the box or is it
Speaker 1: the seventh Either be the strong the strong safety coming
Speaker 1: down or the star or it would be that corner
Speaker 1: if that, if that, if one of the safeties dropped
Speaker 1: into the box, you'd be responsible if it was a
Speaker 1: six or seventh.
Speaker 3: Scott Chattio is gonna kill me.
Speaker 5: So.
Speaker 1: But a lot of the times if the court on
Speaker 1: certain plays run plays, the quarterback would lock you on
Speaker 1: your guy over your face because they have a line.
Speaker 1: Like on a trap play or something. You wouldn't come
Speaker 1: down to get the force because we're having alignment coming
Speaker 1: and pull to get him or the lion is adjusting
Speaker 1: up to that guy. You know, you'd always for the
Speaker 1: most part of most of the time for receivers, they're
Speaker 1: blocking skill guys. Safety's corners. Now, when you see the
Speaker 1: guys the on the bunches, the receivers on the bunch.
Speaker 1: A lot of times you're seeing with like the Lions
Speaker 1: San Francisco, they'll have have their receiver Saint Brown.
Speaker 3: He'll he'll set the edge and he'll take out.
Speaker 1: Of the end and then they'll pull the tackle in
Speaker 1: the in the guard on those toss traps. But like
Speaker 1: that's those are like one off plays and they'd have
Speaker 1: to be condensed down. You're not really going in and
Speaker 1: getting linebackers because that's usually for for the line. There
Speaker 1: are certain occasions where like in Seattle, the Seattle Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: on the back side of this, I forgot the run play,
Speaker 1: but there was a backside play where I would go
Speaker 1: up and I I I would the linebacker would be
Speaker 1: in my face and I would go up and go
Speaker 1: to the safety like and you could fully get them.
Speaker 1: But then there'd be times where they could lock you
Speaker 1: and you'd have to just get If you're on the
Speaker 1: back side, you have to get in his way and
Speaker 1: get in his way to cut them off for the
Speaker 1: front side of the run. But most of the time
Speaker 1: you're playing, you're you're going against the smaller guys, unless
Speaker 1: it's one of those specialty plays the playbook. I mean
Speaker 1: this everything for the offensive line and you have everyone's.
Speaker 3: Uh, you have all of it.
Speaker 1: So you could go through the offensive line part and see,
Speaker 1: you know, the shades because like they have a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff on like on you know they divide the
Speaker 1: guy one, two, three, Uh what shades they are and
Speaker 1: you could learn all that you know. The I mean
Speaker 1: it's it's it's like an encyclopedia of everything fundamentally they
Speaker 1: have in your playbook. They have a whole section on
Speaker 1: just your the cadence and the snap counts. Wow, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, the going on two, going on
Speaker 1: three color this color that you know gold calls or uh,
Speaker 1: you know to change plays. There's an audible section how
Speaker 1: you every way to communicate anything it was in the playbook.
Speaker 3: That's incredible.
Speaker 5: You know what if you got say how much was
Speaker 5: getting added or like say you install play from week
Speaker 5: six that.
Speaker 3: Those are all the fundamentals. Now once you get in
Speaker 3: this is.
Speaker 1: This is all training camp right right, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of is a test to see who can retain
Speaker 1: what and you won't even have to get if you
Speaker 1: listen to the coaches, you You're not just gonna sit
Speaker 1: there and be a guy that I mean, they're smart
Speaker 1: guys that will sit there and read the playbook and
Speaker 1: they can digest it. But if you go along with
Speaker 1: the coaching, you know, that'll that'll help you. The month
Speaker 1: you're paying attention to class, you don't have to go
Speaker 1: do homework. Yeah, well, it's good to reference it, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, It's just like school. It's fucking
Speaker 1: just like school. There's some guys that can sit there
Speaker 1: and read the formations and do it. I mean I
Speaker 1: had to put them on flash cards and concepts and
Speaker 1: me and Hoyer would sit and bounce them off of
Speaker 1: each other. Because you know, when you're young football player,
Speaker 1: a lot of the a lot of the evaluation of
Speaker 1: you is how much you can retain how much can
Speaker 1: you take from the classroom to the drills to the
Speaker 1: team periods. They that's like that's the huge, like one
Speaker 1: of the biggest evaluation processes of these young football players
Speaker 1: because once you get to the reg to get to
Speaker 1: your point, once you get to the regular season, okay,
Speaker 1: you that's all fundamental. Now, new plays, game plan plays
Speaker 1: come in and so you're gonna have to be able
Speaker 1: to install a ten to fifteen new plays each week,
Speaker 1: potentially on what that team's weaknesses are.
Speaker 3: Are those getting sheets to go into the playbook?
Speaker 1: Those are yeah, so each week on a Wednesday, so
Speaker 1: you have your big ass book and then when you
Speaker 1: come in then you get back in the day, they
Speaker 1: would give you sheets just like those sheets, and you'd
Speaker 1: have all your your past concepts on there, all your
Speaker 1: run concepts, the install for that week's prep. And so
Speaker 1: some of it could carry over to some of the
Speaker 1: stuff that we already learned in training camp and in
Speaker 1: the install, but some of it can be completely new
Speaker 1: and completely different. But if you lean on your fundamentals
Speaker 1: of what you've learned in training camp, you'd be able
Speaker 1: to communicate and understand it because it'll still be this.
Speaker 1: It could be the same, it'll be the same language,
Speaker 1: but it could be a different concept or a different
Speaker 1: protection or a different personnel group that's incorporated into it.
Speaker 1: So it's just like fit finding out the puzzle. So
Speaker 1: to simplify the playbook, the organization of it. If you've
Speaker 1: mentioned personnel, you mentioned formation, protection concepts, concepts, you'd have
Speaker 1: snap counts, snap counts. That's usually at the beginning you'd
Speaker 1: have splits for receivers. What is that splits are so
Speaker 1: in certain formations of certain plays and certain concepts. So
Speaker 1: like on a say ice, if you're the outside receiver,
Speaker 1: which ice is an incut and a crosser, If you're
Speaker 1: the outside receiver on ice, you have to have a
Speaker 1: plus four split from the number yards. Yes, then there
Speaker 1: was also a plus two split on certain concepts. Then
Speaker 1: there was sometimes there was a minus two split. So
Speaker 1: and then when you get into like certain formation buzzwords
Speaker 1: like nasty, nasty tells everyone that you're condensed. So then
Speaker 1: you'd have those in the playbook on buzzwords for uh
Speaker 1: buzzwords for formation splitting, you'd have Then you'd have a
Speaker 1: whole section on movement. So movement is shifts and motions.
Speaker 1: So for us, if you heard if there, if the
Speaker 1: suffix was I n G ing, then you're coming in.
Speaker 1: If the suffolx was a p app, you're coming across.
Speaker 1: So so if you're the F and you hear fing,
Speaker 1: you're just coming in for a pass play.
Speaker 4: If you're because it's thing is f I n G,
Speaker 4: that guy is going in.
Speaker 1: So if you hear zing, the Z is coming in
Speaker 1: ying the.
Speaker 3: Other you're going the other because it's AP right.
Speaker 1: FAP, it would be across for a block of blocking
Speaker 1: for a like a run play FAP. If it's fact
Speaker 1: a C then then then you're going across for a
Speaker 1: pass play or something. Then there was z U, z U, zig,
Speaker 1: I G. You hear a lot of that with the
Speaker 1: slot that's going into the guard and back out, So
Speaker 1: that's a formation indicator. You're seeing what kind of coverage
Speaker 1: you can get. Then there would be the Y shift.
Speaker 1: All that's telling you is when you hear a you're
Speaker 1: you're your letter and shift. You're starting on another the
Speaker 1: other side and you're shifting over and we're resetting the
Speaker 1: play to that.
Speaker 4: You know you're here.
Speaker 1: H home that's just telling the home is one of
Speaker 1: those buzzwords for a shift for the H home. He's
Speaker 1: coming from all the way outside the receiver back into
Speaker 1: the home spot. So there'd be a whole freaking table
Speaker 1: of content or what is it a chapter on that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, so, I mean it goes into everything.
Speaker 4: Then you have just beyond that. I want to hear
Speaker 4: all the different segments.
Speaker 1: There was fing fact, there is h fing fact fat
Speaker 1: uh zig or zig. There was z shift. Then there
Speaker 1: was h home you could use all the other letters
Speaker 1: for that you have and I'm probably missing one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's you'd have there, and there was probably a couple others.
Speaker 1: Then there was a there would be what was this,
Speaker 1: There was a fast one, like a fast motion. We
Speaker 1: started doing that. So let's bet Mike McDaniel with like McDaniel,
Speaker 1: there there'd be the fast it's like a rabbit zing
Speaker 1: or there. There's there are certain buzzwords for that. If
Speaker 1: I heard it, I would I'd be able to do it.
Speaker 4: What other like chapters outside of like movements, so we
Speaker 4: got personal formation protection concepts, snapcount splits, movements.
Speaker 3: Movements, and motions.
Speaker 4: Motions, So there is like it's a misnomer that there's
Speaker 4: actual plays in the playbooks rather than you go concepts
Speaker 4: and then concepts, then concepts and routes.
Speaker 1: So then you'd have you'd have every single route, you know,
Speaker 1: like a go route, a in cut. Then there's there
Speaker 1: was the fourteen yard incut, the twelve yard incut, the
Speaker 1: twenty yard in cut. There was you know, there was
Speaker 1: the stopper route, which is a twenty five yard like
Speaker 1: comeback but you break you open in and come back
Speaker 1: down the line. There was a comeback at sixteen, There
Speaker 1: was a comeback at fourteen. There is a ten yard out,
Speaker 1: there was a five yard out, or you know, six
Speaker 1: to twelve you usually uh, you know, you have your
Speaker 1: slot routes, which were you know, then there's tosser to
Speaker 1: two slants. There's hook, which is a three man concept.
Speaker 1: The three has the hook, the two has the diagonal
Speaker 1: with something that you always see. And the guy has
Speaker 1: an m R which is must outside release, go on
Speaker 1: the outside there. I mean, we're going off to just
Speaker 1: the knowledge of my brain, and you know, a lot.
Speaker 5: Of knowledge, baby, I mean, how see, I'm always curious
Speaker 5: going back to a lot of these.
Speaker 3: Like some of these oftens don't don't id the mic
Speaker 3: is crazy to me.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of them do. It's just who
Speaker 1: depending on who's identifying the mic, it's either sometimes it's
Speaker 1: the center and a lot of systems, right, like a
Speaker 1: lot of the younger quarterbacks in the West Coast systems
Speaker 1: from what I've been told, right what I heard, the
Speaker 1: center makes the call.
Speaker 3: Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 5: But then and then you hear some of these ones
Speaker 5: where like I mean, of course the Patriots or the
Speaker 5: outlier here and what you know more than anybody, But
Speaker 5: like how simplistic are some of these offens? Like you
Speaker 5: know what I mean, you hear some of these where
Speaker 5: like a guy comes from like a really simple system,
Speaker 5: and it's like, how different is that from like the
Speaker 5: most simple NFL on to.
Speaker 3: Like the Patriots.
Speaker 1: I would say simpler offenses are just offenses that don't
Speaker 1: try to get into the right play and call a
Speaker 1: play and run that play and there's no there's no
Speaker 1: adapt to adaptation to that play according to what the
Speaker 1: defense is doing, which do exist.
Speaker 5: In their twenty twenty six in the NFL, which do exist. Okay,
Speaker 5: that's crazy, I.
Speaker 4: Mean, isn't that the whole thing with the Patriots offense?
Speaker 1: But sometimes when you got guys, so that that's the
Speaker 1: fine line, right when you got guys, what you what
Speaker 1: a coach's job is to do is to make the
Speaker 1: player play as fast as you can. And sometimes when
Speaker 1: you flood the guy's minds with too much, then they're
Speaker 1: thinking they're not going to be able to totally. So
Speaker 1: you know, it's harder to get a lot of these
Speaker 1: complex advantages and complexities of change during play, during pre snap,
Speaker 1: during post snap, because a lot you know, then a
Speaker 1: lot of guys got to be on the same page
Speaker 1: at the same time, and sometimes a lot of teams
Speaker 1: don't have the luxury of that guy gets hurt, young
Speaker 1: guys on offense, young quarterback can't.
Speaker 3: Get it all like that. That that's very hard to do, right,
Speaker 3: So personnel is going to dictate so much of that
Speaker 3: personnel dictates what you can do. That makes subtal sense.
Speaker 4: Was there a specific player concept when you first started?
Speaker 4: That just fried your brain? It just couldn't. It was
Speaker 4: the hardest one to grasp.
Speaker 1: They used to have this thing called the wiggle route,
Speaker 1: and I used to hate it, and West was really
Speaker 1: good at it. The wiggle route was like in a
Speaker 1: West Coast system. It's called like the basic. The basic
Speaker 1: is they do like, but it was different than the basic.
Speaker 1: The basic is like a twelve yard incut. It's usually
Speaker 1: the slot guy runs a twelve yard speed incut and
Speaker 1: he goes well. The wiggle route was kind of like
Speaker 1: that ten to twelve yard incut, and you could but
Speaker 1: a verse man. You had to break it down and
Speaker 1: give him something at the top and break flat to
Speaker 1: downhill if it was one man. If it was cover five,
Speaker 1: which is two man. You could run the endcut, but
Speaker 1: if he was walling you off, you could pull it
Speaker 1: out all right. And then if it was zone and
Speaker 1: it was to Tampa, you would find the zone. So
Speaker 1: there was like three different things, and I always struggled
Speaker 1: on like the Cover five one. I don't know because
Speaker 1: I always wanted to whip it out, but if you
Speaker 1: could win in, you could keep it going. And there's
Speaker 1: a lot of indecision and that's the worst thing for
Speaker 1: a quarterback.
Speaker 3: To see in a route, So you you know what
Speaker 3: I mean.
Speaker 1: So you had three, and you know it took me
Speaker 1: time to like figure out how to do it.
Speaker 3: So the wiggle route, oh wiggle.
Speaker 1: And then there was like the Q route, which was
Speaker 1: kind of like the outside version, which the old Q was.
Speaker 3: If it was rolled rolled meaning covered two.
Speaker 1: You had this guy was letting you go, and there's
Speaker 1: a half field safety you run, you know, you run
Speaker 1: the bow route where you get inside, you reset your
Speaker 1: your vertical stem to about fourteen, and then you hit
Speaker 1: a high seven and let the quarterback flatten you in
Speaker 1: between the half field safety and the the flat zone
Speaker 1: defender right versus Cover three. It was like a I
Speaker 1: think it was like a curral route and then if
Speaker 1: it was man. If it was man, you uh press,
Speaker 1: you had to get inside and then you'd run and
Speaker 1: then you'd hit like an inside stutter where you could
Speaker 1: take it.
Speaker 3: It's almost like a post corner.
Speaker 1: It was just it was the same kind of three
Speaker 1: routes with in one route according to coverage. And it
Speaker 1: was before like I was comfortable reading coverage post now.
Speaker 1: I mean I was always actually pretty good at reading coverage.
Speaker 1: It was just the running of the route from me
Speaker 1: and and being able to make them all look the
Speaker 1: same and not dictating because like these dbs man that
Speaker 1: they're they know.
Speaker 3: They're bullshit readers, but they could read it. Yeah you
Speaker 3: know what I mean.
Speaker 1: They could feel if you're if you're hesitating at something,
Speaker 1: they feel it and they break and they make the plays.
Speaker 3: They're they're they're extraordinary athletes.
Speaker 4: Was there a moment where you feel like it clicked
Speaker 4: or like when you felt like I can actually use
Speaker 4: my physicality versus my like became instinct versus like thinking
Speaker 4: through it.
Speaker 1: I mean I would say after like my third my
Speaker 1: third my third year, like it was just clicking in
Speaker 1: spurts kind of like my golf.
Speaker 3: Game, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And then by by the year three, you know, I
Speaker 1: had enough, I had enough reps of actual feeling it
Speaker 1: in practice. Uh, you know, doing it an offseason with
Speaker 1: Tom the you know, the amount of reps that I
Speaker 1: had at that point helped me because I felt every
Speaker 1: situation at that point, you.
Speaker 3: Weren't topping the ball or slicing that thing in the wood. Yeah.
Speaker 4: And I got one last question this year anything.
Speaker 5: I think to Kyler's last question, the quick follow, but like,
Speaker 5: at what point not only were you grasping that thing?
Speaker 5: Were you and Tom like mind melded like full his
Speaker 5: brain's my brain, Like we're seeing the.
Speaker 3: Field the exact till like probably year five.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's never figured some war or five when Welker
Speaker 1: left right with.
Speaker 4: Those extra first team route.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that and it was you know, he had to
Speaker 1: start trusting me. It's hard for those guys to you know,
Speaker 1: when when when you have a guy, when you're a quarterback,
Speaker 1: you know, in regardless water flows downhill, water flows downhill.
Speaker 5: One other one guy, I swear I was trying to
Speaker 5: look this up over here. I swear I remember maybe
Speaker 5: on my mind's playing tricks on me. I swear someone
Speaker 5: on the Patriots left their playbook at the hotel on
Speaker 5: the road in like a preseason game against.
Speaker 3: I was just gonna ask what penalty that could be?
Speaker 3: Conduct detrimental? That could be like a thirty five thousand.
Speaker 5: Wow, yeah, because you bring on the road with you, right,
Speaker 5: oh yeah, and but that thing.
Speaker 1: But when you're in, when you're like now with the
Speaker 1: iPads and stuff, when do they switch to the iPad?
Speaker 1: I want to say, like my fourth year okay, so
Speaker 1: oh wow, yeah, third fourth year micro soft surface.
Speaker 3: But the thing is.
Speaker 1: With the iPads, they have more power the team. So
Speaker 1: they would collect iPad like during camp and ship. They
Speaker 1: would collect the iPads after games or during games, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. They would collect there would be
Speaker 1: a fucking big ass like home thing and you'd have
Speaker 1: to go and turn your iPad, and you know, there'd
Speaker 1: be a coach coming to a you don't you turn
Speaker 1: your iPad?
Speaker 4: And they can update stuff better update or they could
Speaker 4: just wipe you. They can also keep track of how
Speaker 4: much you're using.
Speaker 1: They keep track of how much you're using. Can you
Speaker 1: go to like websites and stuff on it or no? No,
Speaker 1: it's pretty long. I mean, my boy Jared had my ship, I.
Speaker 3: Had my.
Speaker 1: Jahout out angry birds on there. No, No, I just
Speaker 1: you know what what jail broke was me being able
Speaker 1: to look at the news there like the fact that
Speaker 1: I can.
Speaker 3: Look at the news. We couldn't even get on Google.
Speaker 3: You'd be there getting on news and like oh shit, hell.
Speaker 5: Yeah, get to see some articles just reading keeping up
Speaker 5: with the world.
Speaker 3: Baby, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1: And one last question, So you were quarterback in college
Speaker 1: do you? And then so now though the playbook with
Speaker 1: the iPads, it's so awesome because you could go through
Speaker 1: all your thing and then you could see it and
Speaker 1: you could press a button and see an example of
Speaker 1: the play.
Speaker 3: Against the footage.
Speaker 4: That's cool. So yeah, it's a little bit more of
Speaker 4: like a multi media experience.
Speaker 3: It's insane now you have it all on your iPad.
Speaker 4: So you were a quarterback in college, do you remember,
Speaker 4: like remember a specifically complicated play from your time in case?
Speaker 1: No, I've been trying to do that and I remember,
Speaker 1: like I don't remember the play calling, but it was
Speaker 1: a West Coast so there was like eighty four i'd
Speaker 1: have a protection or seventy three or i'd have a
Speaker 1: sixties or sixties, seventies and eighties eighties were like I
Speaker 1: was fully protected and there'd be some like kind of
Speaker 1: get open, why shallow look. It was like a West
Speaker 1: Coast spread. I've really I gotta I gotta call up
Speaker 1: old Dougie Fresh. Should get him on the show, Doug Martin,
Speaker 1: I should shout out, we should.
Speaker 3: I think he's at Elon right now.
Speaker 5: Let's go, baby, Let's make a trip down. Let's go
Speaker 5: over to Burlington, North Caroline.
Speaker 3: His wife's she she used to kill it in the
Speaker 3: real estate world.
Speaker 5: Oh killing it. He's probably running Burlington right now. Probably,
Speaker 5: I love it.
Speaker 1: You don't remember like a play call, like you, I
Speaker 1: just remember. I remember the concept. I remember my favorite
Speaker 1: concept was poker. I don't remember like because dude, after
Speaker 1: here and all, it just get gets wiped because I've
Speaker 1: heard and then I remember doing that. But like because
Speaker 1: early in my my uh, early in my career, the
Speaker 1: protections were messing with me. Because seventies we used to
Speaker 1: have a thing called scat protection where it's five man
Speaker 1: protection only, and that was the same as like you're
Speaker 1: your your seventies protection. So like I had a lot
Speaker 1: of that or eighties was the same as my sixties
Speaker 1: in college.
Speaker 3: So then I kind of wipe it. Yeah, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean, You give us a quick.
Speaker 5: John Gruden esque Blake call. I don't really from the Patriots.
Speaker 1: From the Patriots. You could go like sub home home
Speaker 1: to fing home home.
Speaker 3: It could be home f right.
Speaker 1: Fing right one thirty four, f bow ice, alert ride
Speaker 1: one thirty or alert thirty four gap or or something,
Speaker 1: or you could there. The thing is, it gets wordy
Speaker 1: when you would get like two or three play calls.
Speaker 1: So all you got to do is say two fucking
Speaker 1: plays it's alert and so and the root. By the
Speaker 1: time you're in it, you can just when I hear
Speaker 1: the play call, when Tom would say I heard, I
Speaker 1: would hear the protection, I'd hear the concept, and then
Speaker 1: there'd be a couple of buzzwords. You know you're sitting
Speaker 1: you know you're sitting in the huddle all year. All right,
Speaker 1: all right, fingerl right, I got a thing, right, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. No, that's when you're like and
Speaker 1: how to say the play would be in the playbook,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like right there home, what
Speaker 1: I say, I told you the h started out home
Speaker 1: to f right, So wherever he is, he's we got
Speaker 1: to get to F right, which is the formation, and
Speaker 1: then fing telling me to fing in ride one thirty four,
Speaker 1: which is the protection play action f bow ice alert
Speaker 1: ride one thirty or alert thirty four alerting to just
Speaker 1: the run if it was two safeties. You know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not a fucking I was never like a I
Speaker 1: mean you know, I was never like you hear all
Speaker 1: these backup quarterbacks like Dog and or Lawski, like those
Speaker 1: guys they could recite their whole thing because they were
Speaker 1: communicating it, you know what I mean. When and I
Speaker 1: remember that struggle from when I turned to quarterback to receiver.
Speaker 1: Hearing a play was different than saying the play. Like
Speaker 1: it took me a while to learn how to hear
Speaker 1: the play and know what to do then when I
Speaker 1: used to when you say the play, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean?
Speaker 3: Oh, for sure it is.
Speaker 1: It's so stupid for me, But I mean the backup
Speaker 1: quarterbacks they were always like they had to know everything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and they're getting mental reps like crazy.
Speaker 3: They're getting mental reps. Slant with a clipboard your hand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what I mean, and once you get out.
Speaker 1: I mean, if I were to go back for Like,
Speaker 1: that's why I love going back. You know, you go
Speaker 1: to the Patriots, you can go to their meeting like
Speaker 1: they let me come and sit in on their meetings,
Speaker 1: or Abel let me sit in or whoever whoever the
Speaker 1: coaches were at the time. They've gotten to sit in
Speaker 1: on all of them. That's when it refreshes, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, It's all okay, now they're doing this,
Speaker 1: you know, and Josh getting to sit in Josh meetings McDaniels.
Speaker 1: You know, I could a lot. You could see where
Speaker 1: the play callings evolved because now that they're making them
Speaker 1: less worthy and they're having buzz words tell like a
Speaker 1: lot of guys what to do. So there it could
Speaker 1: be like only three words, but those three words could
Speaker 1: be protection.
Speaker 3: Concept evolutions got to be crazy. Yeah, And then.
Speaker 1: We'd have like a NASCAR package in the playbook where
Speaker 1: it would be that or one one word would tell
Speaker 1: just everything. So that would be a lot of the things.
Speaker 1: When we were installing, like weekly, the coaches would say,
Speaker 1: you know, all right, we're going to do these four
Speaker 1: NASCAR plays and they'd break them in. We'd only do
Speaker 1: it for like those three days or two days and
Speaker 1: then they they would say, all right, we're atting four
Speaker 1: more NASCAR plays, so they'd expect you to you have
Speaker 1: to already know those ones. And so you're at eight
Speaker 1: by the week, you know, day five, and then after
Speaker 1: day seven they'd give you four more NASCAR plays. So
Speaker 1: you're building your book. You're building you know that. That's
Speaker 1: how they would install it, you know.
Speaker 4: So just for the audience, NASCAR is like a hurry up.
Speaker 1: NASCAR would be no huddle, and then the play calls
Speaker 1: like one word and you have to know one word everyone.
Speaker 1: What's a like? Jordan was like a jan isn't Barkley
Speaker 1: one too? Barkley was h it was Barkley. Barkley was
Speaker 1: Charlie Sheen. So the Charlie Charlie program was a certain protection.
Speaker 1: So we we had Charlie Sheen, We had Charles Barkley,
Speaker 1: I love it, Yeah, which was stopper, you know, on
Speaker 1: the outside. He was the best stopper of all time.
Speaker 1: We have Jordan. We had Alli, which was those were
Speaker 1: our like go tos that we could always run. It
Speaker 1: was a fundamental play. It was empty right uh or
Speaker 1: Bonzi right, haas z Juke, which is you know, haas
Speaker 1: and then the Z has a juke route. Jordan would
Speaker 1: be to the right, Allie would be the same play
Speaker 1: on the left. You know, you'd have Jordan, and then
Speaker 1: there'd be like, uh man, I'm gonna get exposed for
Speaker 1: not knowing my play.
Speaker 4: And like this is like you guys were lining up
Speaker 4: or like you're going from your running.
Speaker 1: Up Jordan Jordan, Jordan, here Tommy tom Like Jordan Jordan, Nascar,
Speaker 1: Nascar Jordan.
Speaker 3: Everyone get the line of scrimmage. Everyone know what to do.
Speaker 4: So like someone like Ray Lewis that might have a
Speaker 4: lot of experience against you, guys might have some film,
Speaker 4: might have some tape on like some of these Nascar
Speaker 4: plays could Yeah.
Speaker 1: But if you're going fast, they can know what you're doing.
Speaker 1: You still got to execute, still got to execute.
Speaker 3: That was my thing.
Speaker 1: You could go Jordan, he could go Jordan Jordan, and
Speaker 1: we'd all set up in Bonzi and then he could
Speaker 1: sit out there and look at us and give us hook.
Speaker 1: He could and we all have to and if he
Speaker 1: goes like that, then it changed all three of us
Speaker 1: what to do. There was nonverbal coms or you can
Speaker 1: go say. What you could do is we call a
Speaker 1: play in the huddle, and you can go xerox, xerox,
Speaker 1: xerox and xerox meant same exact, same exact formation. And
Speaker 1: there was no play making copies, and so you're making
Speaker 1: copies and you could sit there and there'd be no places,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden he would get us
Speaker 1: into a play based off of how they line up.
Speaker 1: That was called the molasses that would be in the
Speaker 1: pre pre there would be a pre snap, a pre
Speaker 1: snap menu which motions and all that cadence molasses was.
Speaker 1: There was no play call momo. So he could sit there,
Speaker 1: all right, it's on MO, it's on MO. You had
Speaker 1: you had to hear gold, gold color or like the
Speaker 1: buzz color for the play to be in. So he
Speaker 1: could sit up there, and this is how you try
Speaker 1: to get the defense, you know, kind of show what
Speaker 1: they were doing there, White twenty, why twenty hot, hot,
Speaker 1: hurt heart like eighty eight by eight. So sometimes and
Speaker 1: then you go gold thirty gold tells everyone plays on go.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 4: So even on those like hard costs, there might not
Speaker 4: even be a play call.
Speaker 1: It's just let's see what you got, let's see what
Speaker 1: you We're just trying to get a tell out of
Speaker 1: the defense that happening again, I mean, depending on the
Speaker 1: defense you were playing, who's a disguised defense man?
Speaker 3: If John Gruden just heard you do that, oh the
Speaker 3: hair on the back of the stand?
Speaker 1: Why put how I.
Speaker 4: Mean call, they wouldn't know. But how often do you
Speaker 4: think like McDaniels is in Brady's ears.
Speaker 1: In there until fifteen seconds? So you do that a
Speaker 1: lot of the NASCAR. So that's why that's it. That's
Speaker 1: so you when you when you gotta say you have
Speaker 1: a really good defensive line. And what NASCAR would do
Speaker 1: is NASCAR if you you could run out of sub
Speaker 1: which is three receivers, or you could run it out
Speaker 1: of regular, but that's hard because then you got guys
Speaker 1: going in different spots. Right, So when you have a
Speaker 1: good defensive line, fast guys, NASCAR, what it does is
Speaker 1: it doesn't allow them to substitute, which is huge.
Speaker 3: So and you can go fast.
Speaker 1: And so if you get to the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 1: you get to the line of scrimmage with the most
Speaker 1: time as you possibly can, then Tom and Josh can
Speaker 1: communicate until fifteen So as soon as the other play's done,
Speaker 1: the forty clock starts.
Speaker 3: That's a lot of time to talk.
Speaker 1: Forty clock starts right, So if you're done, say it's
Speaker 1: a long play downfield, then everyone gets to the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage. You got you use your NASCAR term. All right,
Speaker 1: we're going Jordan, all right, we're going with Charles Barkley,
Speaker 1: Charles Barkley. Everyone gets into Charles Barkley. You're there with
Speaker 1: twenty eight seconds. You got fourteen seconds if you got
Speaker 1: there in ten seconds, or twelve seconds. If you get
Speaker 1: everyone gets the line scrimmage by fifteen seconds, you got
Speaker 1: ten twelve seconds to communicate with Josh. So then they
Speaker 1: could sit there. Tom can't talk to him, but he
Speaker 1: can hear them, you know. So then then we used
Speaker 1: to do like muddle huddles. Muddle huddle is kind of
Speaker 1: like a fast huddle where we're not getting back to
Speaker 1: the huddle. We're kind of getting back and we're getting
Speaker 1: near the line of scrimmage and we're yelling out NASCAR terms,
Speaker 1: but it's not Nascar. Nascar means we're going fast. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so muddle huddle is different than NASCAR. That would be
Speaker 1: in the pre pre it's so it'd be so crazy.
Speaker 1: The gold turn you have, like the buzz terms and
Speaker 1: Black eighty eight.
Speaker 3: Black eighty eight would be on three full masterclass.
Speaker 4: Right now, you're saying the kids that Phillips and over
Speaker 4: with Earnie.
Speaker 3: Your fucked no good coaches. They know to simplify.
Speaker 1: Good coaches simplify, And a lot of the evaluation of
Speaker 1: training camp is to try to get guys to be
Speaker 1: anxious about how much there is, to see how much
Speaker 1: they can they can handle and see that hey, you
Speaker 1: don't have to know all this where if you listen
Speaker 1: to the coaching staff that you know, this is what
Speaker 1: we're gonna go over learn those you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's all part of everything, the evaluation process of how
Speaker 1: you're building your team.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent.
Speaker 5: But like to go back to what we said earlier,
Speaker 5: it's all about like personnel dictates so much of this.
Speaker 5: Like when you got when it was you and Dolan
Speaker 5: gronking Jojo and it was just clicking and you guys
Speaker 5: could go no huddle so often.
Speaker 3: Oh that was the best.
Speaker 1: That was like the strength of you know, with Chris
Speaker 1: Hogan and Malcolm Mitchell and Dola, Like we weren't like
Speaker 1: the most explosive group, but the strength of that team
Speaker 1: was the smartness, like the.
Speaker 3: Everyone's a saying everyone was smarts.
Speaker 4: The beauty of the Aarhart Perkins is when everyone's got.
Speaker 1: It, everyone's everyone was on the same page at all times.
Speaker 3: That was the best to watch. Oh god, I loved it. Man.
Speaker 4: That was awesome. Guys, keep keep u people leave comments
Speaker 4: on YouTube. Maybe maybe we'll get a whiteboard and like
Speaker 4: pick up a pick a playof I gotta get my playbook.
Speaker 4: I have playbooks, so maybe we should just expose it.
Speaker 4: Oh fire, let's go.
Speaker 5: Speaking of exposing in playbooks, I always think back to that.
Speaker 3: Uh when you remember when.
Speaker 5: Chris uh, Chris Cooley got in trouble in the early
Speaker 5: days of like instagram, he took a picture was like
Speaker 5: in the preseason, like cracking open the playbook and he
Speaker 5: was studying the playbook naked, so you could see like
Speaker 5: the typically in the Instagram pictured.
Speaker 4: Like three like penis related.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Chris cool while keeping on those igels, who's Chris Cooley?
Speaker 4: He was a tight end sat for a little while.
Speaker 3: I remember he was actually a good place. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know why. That's in my taking up space
Speaker 3: in my brain.
Speaker 4: Three inch binder.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that was awesome. That keep sending these We love
Speaker 5: pulling back the curtain, man, because.
Speaker 4: That was playbook. But that got into a lot of
Speaker 4: different stuff. But I've always want to know how. You
Speaker 4: don't answer it, We'll do another time. But like you
Speaker 4: guys got to like how you know personnel from the sidelines,
Speaker 4: when to go in and how signals.
Speaker 3: Yeah, with you never, I'd be so bad at that.
Speaker 1: And that goes into like you practice, that's what practice
Speaker 1: is for, you know, like all the receivers are in
Speaker 1: with the receiver coach on the sideline, all the running
Speaker 1: backs are with the running backs, and you have to
Speaker 1: practice those things. Your communication coming in the field, with
Speaker 1: your signal. There were certain signals half hat, your sub army, army,
Speaker 1: we all had signals at receiver which probably change, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, but you have.
Speaker 4: To cycle through anything that's gonna be on tape, signals
Speaker 4: and whatnot.
Speaker 3: You know what.
Speaker 1: But like it didn't really change that often really, So
Speaker 1: like one of those things like that's our best shot,
Speaker 1: man against man, we're gonna beat you.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, I don't know the personnel group