Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're just a bunch of
Speaker 1: Sikos staying up on a Thursday night to watch the
Speaker 1: last week of the preseason Bengals Colts. And there's no
Speaker 1: one I would want to talk about a Bengals game
Speaker 1: with more than Nick Westling, Who's the one who's really
Speaker 1: staying up late there. Look a little tired, but he's
Speaker 1: ready to go. Let's go, Nick Woo.
Speaker 2: Yeah good.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know what we learn how these preseason games. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And what I learned is Anthony Richardson hyped up pretty
Speaker 2: well for obvious reasons. He's got all the physical tools
Speaker 2: and looks amazing, but he missed a couple of bunnies
Speaker 2: and that's against a third team Bengals defense. So we'll
Speaker 2: see what happens. And obviously you're not going to show
Speaker 2: too much in the preseason. I don't think we really
Speaker 2: learn too much about about things. But he's got to
Speaker 2: tighten some things up if he's going to lead this
Speaker 2: Colts teams to the playoffs this year.
Speaker 1: No, I love that, Nick, you just jumped right into
Speaker 1: I was thinking of doing news first, but I brought
Speaker 1: up the game. You're talking game, let's talk the game,
Speaker 1: and yes, I just saw Bengals on the schedule primetime game,
Speaker 1: and I thought, what would make me happy, what would
Speaker 1: make our listeners happy? What would make us more happy
Speaker 1: than to just hear from from Nick Westling? Of course,
Speaker 1: and the visage. It's looking good, you look healthy, you
Speaker 1: look happy. It's always great to hear from you, my
Speaker 1: favorite Westling in Cincinnati. You know, Phil's the old you
Speaker 1: know Phil's in Columbus. I'm not counting him and the
Speaker 1: other brothers. You know, I don't really hear from them
Speaker 1: as much, so you're in the top spot.
Speaker 2: Nick, fine, you know it. Phels feels okay, but you're right,
Speaker 2: he doesn't live in Cincinnati. He doesn't count. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm not You said I look healthy. I'm I'm definitely
Speaker 2: not missing any meals. So we're feeling good here. Well,
Speaker 2: we'll see what happens with this football season. Obviously. I
Speaker 2: know you want me on because Westling brothers equal ratings,
Speaker 2: so you gotta go grab those while you can.
Speaker 1: No doubt. Yeah, of course. Uh, all the fans and
Speaker 1: listeners back from the around the NFL days of Chris
Speaker 1: if you're watching on our YouTube show, I mean I
Speaker 1: have to admit it still happens to me, Nick when
Speaker 1: your when your face pops up on screen, it's just like, oh,
Speaker 1: the likeness is there. So that's not the only reason
Speaker 1: why I love you, but it is is an extra
Speaker 1: bonus of why I love you. All right, let's just
Speaker 1: talk Colts Bengals then, because yeah, Richardson and the Colts
Speaker 1: played their starters for the first quarter and a half
Speaker 1: and we saw it all With Richardson, I thought in
Speaker 1: that first drive that he had, he goes right down
Speaker 1: the field, scores a touchdown. It's one of those preseason
Speaker 1: nights where if they just took them took him out
Speaker 1: after one drive, everyone and be like, oh, that's great,
Speaker 1: Like he is looking ready to go MVP, like sleeper,
Speaker 1: here we go, because he showed some pocket movement. I
Speaker 1: disagreed with Kirk kurve Street. I disagreed with him a
Speaker 1: few times in this show. We'll get to that, but
Speaker 1: one of the times was you know he was saying
Speaker 1: Richardson asked the show he's a good decision maker, and
Speaker 1: to me, that's one of his good strength. I think
Speaker 1: he gets through his reads. He makes good decisions. But
Speaker 1: he had a couple misses. He had a pick six
Speaker 1: on what I think was a miscommunication, but it was
Speaker 1: a couple miscommunications, and ultimately they had five drives and
Speaker 1: that was the only score. So that's not really what
Speaker 1: you want when you're going up against the Bengals third
Speaker 1: string defense or whatever they had out there.
Speaker 2: That touchdown was easy. Again, you said third string the safety.
Speaker 1: Stir It's not easy. He came across to like his
Speaker 1: second or third reads. His eyes start on one side
Speaker 1: of the field and he goes back. Give the guy
Speaker 1: a little credit.
Speaker 2: Within six yards of him, I could have made that throw.
Speaker 2: Come on, man, I might not have been able to
Speaker 2: make that subtle movement he made to the left to
Speaker 2: get there, but I was sure he looked at you know,
Speaker 2: he put it on the guy and he jogged in
Speaker 2: for the touchdown. The play right before that, though, he
Speaker 2: had a guy wide opening the end zone, overthrew and
Speaker 2: missed him, went off the fingertips. So it's one of
Speaker 2: those things where it gets a little tighter in the
Speaker 2: in the in the regular season against a real safety
Speaker 2: there instead of a third stringer. So we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2: I'm excited for Anthony Richards and I don't want want
Speaker 2: to take anything away. I'm curious to see. But let's
Speaker 2: not pretend like that was a world beating drive there.
Speaker 2: He was fine.
Speaker 1: That was a good drive. All I mean is he
Speaker 1: got through his reads, like he went one to two
Speaker 1: to three pretty quick. So that was good.
Speaker 2: The limited amount last year we saw. I thought that
Speaker 2: was one of the strains too. He was very quick
Speaker 2: through his accuracy issues and fumble issues. But other you know,
Speaker 2: he looked great when when he was playing.
Speaker 1: It's just a reminder how little we know of this dude.
Speaker 1: I think there's almost an artificial expectation and I'm part
Speaker 1: of it. I'm excited for him because we only had
Speaker 1: two completed games last year, and then he had two
Speaker 1: more where he didn't complete it. And on average, those
Speaker 1: games which I went back and watched, had so many
Speaker 1: good moments that you just immediately project forward like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's who that guy is. But it was like three
Speaker 1: games at the NFL level and he barely played at
Speaker 1: college and he was supposed to be one of the
Speaker 1: most raw prospects. So there are mystery Box. They are
Speaker 1: a team I'm excited about. This is an AFC South
Speaker 1: themed show. I don't know if you know this, Nick.
Speaker 1: I have Seth Payne, former Houston Texan, who I really like,
Speaker 1: who's down there as an analyst, who's on the show.
Speaker 1: He's going to be talking Texans. And then John Shipley,
Speaker 1: who's I think one of the best beat writers out there,
Speaker 1: talking Jaguars. Because I'm into this division, it's not really
Speaker 1: about the Titans. I mean, as a last place team
Speaker 1: goes like I could watch the Titans levis is kind
Speaker 1: of fun. But it's these three teams with these quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: I just feel like this division has never had any juice,
Speaker 1: and right now I wanted to just have a show
Speaker 1: where we talked about their juice because we saw on
Speaker 1: the rest of the field. Jonathan Taylor, I think he
Speaker 1: set up for a nice year, eighty Mitchell, he out
Speaker 1: snaps Alec Pierce, Tonight a good looking rookie, and a
Speaker 1: lot of good players on their defense too. Liatu Latu
Speaker 1: had a sack in this game. He was my favorite
Speaker 1: defensive pass rusher in this draft, So I think his
Speaker 1: Colts team could contend if Richardson is good enough. What
Speaker 1: do you think about the AFC South Do you worry
Speaker 1: they're coming for the AFC North Crown as the best division.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think that's the danger this year, but
Speaker 2: there is a lot of reason to get excited. There's
Speaker 2: still a lot of question marks with all four of
Speaker 2: these teams, I think. I mean, obviously the Texans look
Speaker 2: a little better than the other two, and you you
Speaker 2: mentioned mentioned the Titans. I'm a little little bit excited
Speaker 2: to see what they have, see if they have any
Speaker 2: juice this year. The Titans, I always thought they were
Speaker 2: well coached until the very end of last year when
Speaker 2: they kind of fell apart. So we'll see if the
Speaker 2: new coaching staff can get in there and do some things.
Speaker 2: And and I don't really want to focus on them.
Speaker 2: I want to focus on the Jaguar. I'm sorry the Jaguars. YEA,
Speaker 2: make sure I say it without the Midwest accent there.
Speaker 2: But they looked like they were gonna be good, and
Speaker 2: then they just kind of came out and last year
Speaker 2: and we're average. The entire year, looked really bad in
Speaker 2: some games, looked pretty good in some games. They're not
Speaker 2: getting talked about much this year, and I'm excited that
Speaker 2: they still have a lot of playmakers. I mean, we
Speaker 2: know Trevor Lawrence what is he? Is he a top quarterback?
Speaker 2: Can he be a top eight guy? I think he's
Speaker 2: got the tools that we haven't seen it quite yet
Speaker 2: though he's been more in that ten to twelve range
Speaker 2: for the most part of his career, and he shows flashes.
Speaker 2: But we'll see what happens. That their defense should be
Speaker 2: decent and how much how many points can they score?
Speaker 2: We'll wait and see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's a fun division and we'll get into
Speaker 1: all that later in the show. The last thing on
Speaker 1: the Colts that I wanted to get into it with
Speaker 1: Herb Street, you know, because he's listening. He really respects
Speaker 1: me a lot. I know the preseasons that these games
Speaker 1: are long, and I wouldn't even notice if he said
Speaker 1: that if someone didn't clip it and send it out
Speaker 1: on Twitter. But he spent a part of the third
Speaker 1: quarter like speculating, well, you know, they know what they
Speaker 1: have and Joe Flacco, you just wonder And I was
Speaker 1: sensing some Richardson doubt from Herbstreet. It's usually very positive,
Speaker 1: so I don't mind him having a little criticism. He said,
Speaker 1: you know what if Richardson's struggles, what then will the
Speaker 1: temptation be to go with Joe Flacco. Who you know
Speaker 1: what you got there and you have a ready made roster,
Speaker 1: ready to win. I was like, what do you know
Speaker 1: that you have? He's played ten games the last three
Speaker 1: years and they've been up and down. Even the Cleveland
Speaker 1: thing was fun, but like, let's not get carried away
Speaker 1: in no world, like they would put me on Amazon
Speaker 1: for Thursday Night Football in the Booth with al over
Speaker 1: Kirk kurve Street before they would replace a healthy Anthony
Speaker 1: Richardson with Joe Flacco. I will, I will, I don't
Speaker 1: know what I will do, Nick Westley, I will drive
Speaker 1: to your house in Cincinnati if they replace Kirk Herbs.
Speaker 1: I mean, if they replace Anthony Richardson with Joe Flacco,
Speaker 1: if he's healthy this year, that is not happening.
Speaker 2: That's not happening.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: I mean Flacco, great career, you know, good run last year.
Speaker 2: He I mean he's my age or your age or something.
Speaker 2: He can't play anymore. I mean he can still get
Speaker 2: in there and be a spot starter if you needed
Speaker 2: someone in an emergency and be efficient. And if you
Speaker 2: give him times, he can time the throw. He can
Speaker 2: still pick passes. But yeah, that's not going to be
Speaker 2: a thing.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 1: If Richardson gets hurt, it's fun. You bring him in.
Speaker 1: That's the whole point. And he could fill in. He
Speaker 1: showed he can do that, but there's no chance. Wait,
Speaker 1: how I always forget that because Chris Westling five years
Speaker 1: older than me to the day, born on the same birthday.
Speaker 1: I always took a little pride in that thought. That
Speaker 1: was cool. Wait are you are you younger than me?
Speaker 1: Are you older than me?
Speaker 2: No, I'm older than you. I'm about to be forty
Speaker 2: seven in a month.
Speaker 1: Okay, So Bengals, Look, they didn't play Jermaine Burton, who
Speaker 1: is their third round pick until the very end. There
Speaker 1: was a little conversation from the broadcast that he had
Speaker 1: been falling asleep in meetings. That was news to me.
Speaker 1: So that explained maybe why they won't play him. A
Speaker 1: certain sort of maturity and a trust level maybe with
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow, whether he's in the right spot. But then
Speaker 1: every game they always put him against these fourth stringers
Speaker 1: and he has lit up. Like one thing I've learned
Speaker 1: from the preseason, there is not a third stringer in
Speaker 1: the NFL that is any match for Jermaine Burton. He's
Speaker 1: just moss in them play after play. It's amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that catch he made over a third
Speaker 2: string safety, of all things, So it wasn't even a corner.
Speaker 2: I don't know, like you heard a lot about this
Speaker 2: in college. I wasn't sure if Herbstreet was saying it
Speaker 2: was happening now or if it was it happened to college.
Speaker 2: I wasn't sure what that was. I hadn't heard anything
Speaker 2: in Cincinnati about that, so I don't know. But he's
Speaker 2: had problems with all the coaching staffs he had in college,
Speaker 2: and now it looks like maybe he isn't in the
Speaker 2: good graces of the Bengals coaching staff will see. Obviously
Speaker 2: he's got the physical, physical tools. He looks great in preseason,
Speaker 2: but he's not gonna he's not gonna crack that top three.
Speaker 2: I think Yosivas has that third receiver position locked up.
Speaker 1: And love Yohshavas. I mean, it might be their number
Speaker 1: one receiver to start the year if Jamar Chase doesn't
Speaker 1: end this Holden. This Holden's taken a little while considering.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's got he's got that fifth year option
Speaker 1: on his contract. The Bengals aren't gonna I don't think
Speaker 1: they're gonna pay him. So this is one that's a
Speaker 1: little a little diceier than most where I could see
Speaker 1: it going up to the very end, and I could
Speaker 1: actually see in this case, him skipping a game. I
Speaker 1: never predict that you will be back, Trent Williams be back,
Speaker 1: Ceedee Lamb will be back. I actually think in this case,
Speaker 1: because he because he's just gonna be so annoyed that
Speaker 1: they won't even do anything, that he actually might skip
Speaker 1: a game or two. It's it's at least possible. With
Speaker 1: Jamar chasing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no one seemed worried about it until today. I
Speaker 2: hadn't heard anyone really talking about it much. I just
Speaker 2: assumed something would get done, they give him a little bomber,
Speaker 2: or he would just go away and go back to practice,
Speaker 2: just to you know, I don't know what it was
Speaker 2: all about, because you're right, I don't think he's going
Speaker 2: to get much. If he gets anything, I don't. I can't.
Speaker 1: He's only going to sign if it's like the big
Speaker 1: Justin Jefferson type contract, And I just think they don't
Speaker 1: want to pay him this early because that's just what
Speaker 1: they just don't want to do it yet, and Jefferson
Speaker 1: didn't get that money till he was a year older.
Speaker 1: You know, he is a year older, so we'll see that.
Speaker 1: It's just been a weird, quiet situation. The other preseason
Speaker 1: game tonight was was Chiefs Bears backups of plenty, so
Speaker 1: not much to talk about their Kadarius Tony, McCole Hardman
Speaker 1: are in this game heavily, which shows like they might
Speaker 1: not be a lock for this roster, which is interesting
Speaker 1: just because you know, Hardman had that Super Bowl winning
Speaker 1: catch and Kadarius Tony's former first round pick, so we'll
Speaker 1: see if either of them, at least one of them
Speaker 1: will make the team. But the story of the preseason
Speaker 1: has been Carson Steel of the Chiefs, who every game
Speaker 1: he plays, he has a ridiculous highlight run. Here it is,
Speaker 1: give him the football again. Here you go, it's Clarkson
Speaker 1: Steel breaking exactly and if you're watch it on YouTube, Like,
Speaker 1: I love that we have the that we're able to
Speaker 1: show the highlights and stuff like he's doing this every week. Uh,
Speaker 1: he's like the next Mike Alstatt. I hate to just
Speaker 1: compare him to like another white fullback, but he's a
Speaker 1: white fullback.
Speaker 2: What was the a few years back? What was a
Speaker 2: guy from Cleveland that had that rund of like six
Speaker 2: or seven games?
Speaker 1: Peyton Hillis he was? He was a tailback technically he was.
Speaker 2: A bigger one and looked kind of similar in his
Speaker 2: running style. They got on the.
Speaker 1: Cover of Madden, which was like one of the more
Speaker 1: racist things that's ever happened in my lifetime. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 2: Congratulations, she had a great year. What you're doing on
Speaker 2: the cover of mad.
Speaker 1: And I don't I don't know either. All right, we
Speaker 1: look I'm having so much fun. I'm taking longer than
Speaker 1: I expected. But we are going to do some news
Speaker 1: because there was some significant news. I was going to
Speaker 1: start the show with this because it was a big
Speaker 1: bit of a surprise, and if you're a listener to
Speaker 1: NFL Daily, it might not have been as big a surprise. Eric,
Speaker 1: Let's do some news, all right. John Dotson going from
Speaker 1: the Commanders with a fifth round pick to the Eagles
Speaker 1: for a third round pick. The Eagles also sent to
Speaker 1: seventh in this deal, so the Commanders pick up a pick,
Speaker 1: swap up to the third and to seventh for their
Speaker 1: first round pick from a couple of years ago. Obviously
Speaker 1: it's a different regime there in Washington, with Ron Rivera
Speaker 1: out the building. They did not seem to have any
Speaker 1: use for Johan Dotson. Your reaction Nick to this trait,
Speaker 1: and I'm saying it's not a surprise if you listen
Speaker 1: to this show, because I was just saying it did
Speaker 1: not sound like they were a fan of him and
Speaker 1: someone was going to give up a decent pick I
Speaker 1: thought for Johan Dotson, and they weren't going to cut
Speaker 1: him or anything, and they got decent value. It's telling
Speaker 1: they traded him in the division though they do not
Speaker 1: think this kid can play.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he was drafted sixteen overall, just a
Speaker 2: couple of years ago. It was supposed to be a
Speaker 2: great compliment to McLaurin, and it just never really clicked
Speaker 2: for him. He was injured his rookie year and then
Speaker 2: came back and really didn't do anything his second year.
Speaker 2: They have to be massively disappointed by this because he
Speaker 2: looked looked like a good prospect coming out and he
Speaker 2: would at least be a you know, a borderline number one,
Speaker 2: if not an absolute number one there and it just
Speaker 2: never never really panned out. Seemed like he got opened
Speaker 2: a lot when he was a rookie and couldn't get
Speaker 2: the ball delivered on time, and then last year he
Speaker 2: just didn't seem like the same guy.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I kind of thought he had way more production as
Speaker 1: a rookie until today when I went and checked, he
Speaker 1: had thirty five for five hundred and twenty three yards.
Speaker 1: But he did have seven touchdowns. And that's why I
Speaker 1: think I remember it because he had a couple of
Speaker 1: big plays down the field, and he was he's a
Speaker 1: smaller guy that tries to like win at the catch point,
Speaker 1: like make those crazy catches with guys all over him.
Speaker 1: That's a hard life to live as a smaller guy.
Speaker 1: But he's shown he can get open. You hit the
Speaker 1: nail on the head. He can run routes at the
Speaker 1: NFL level if he just has a free release. And
Speaker 1: so in Philly he is there. What their fifth receiving option.
Speaker 1: You have aj Brown, you have DeVonta Smith, And now
Speaker 1: it was he was maybe the biggest gap in the
Speaker 1: NFL from two to three before at wide receiver they
Speaker 1: had a guy Britton, Covey and Wilson, a rookie who
Speaker 1: has taking snaps and like it was just a chasm.
Speaker 1: So now dots and fills into that that that position
Speaker 1: and mostly you'll be in the slot. But I say
Speaker 1: fifth option because they're going to throw it to Dallas Goddard,
Speaker 1: They're going to throw it to Saquon Barkley, and so
Speaker 1: then I think, Okay as a role player, he's not
Speaker 1: getting that press coverage. He can run some routes and
Speaker 1: more than anything, he's a good backup because I did
Speaker 1: think they were in big trouble. There's such an offensive team.
Speaker 1: If Brown or DeVonta Smith, who have both been really
Speaker 1: durable ever got hurt. That just was a really thin room.
Speaker 1: So it's a rare trade I like for both teams
Speaker 1: because I think Dotson is probably better than he showed.
Speaker 1: It sounded to me Nick just reading the reports and
Speaker 1: reading between the lines with the coaches, like the effort
Speaker 1: might have not been like either he was in his
Speaker 1: own head and not confident, or just like it wasn't
Speaker 1: with the program, because whenever they brought up their receivers,
Speaker 1: they would always just say how the other guys were
Speaker 1: trying so hard and they finish every route and blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, and they were kind of leaving him out
Speaker 1: of that equation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously we're not on the inside there, but it
Speaker 2: seems there's something amiss there. He's just he's too talented
Speaker 2: to give up on this early, if you know, especially
Speaker 2: when you do it now, You're right, a different regime,
Speaker 2: different coaching staff. Maybe they they looked at him and said, nope,
Speaker 2: cut our losses. That's what it looks like.
Speaker 1: Right, and they and to give it to Philadelphia. I
Speaker 1: kind of like that. That's a DJAF type of move.
Speaker 1: It's like, we just wanted the best pick possible, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he might be fine there, Like we're not worried about that.
Speaker 1: We're worried about twenty twenty five. Frankly, like that that's
Speaker 1: what they're worried about. They're getting picks, they're rebuilding, and
Speaker 1: they're doing it around their young quarterback. So I like
Speaker 1: it fine for both teams. We'll see if that's and
Speaker 1: it wasn't the only move, by the way, the Commanders
Speaker 1: made today. Kadi York, the kind of busty Browns kicker
Speaker 1: from a couple of years ago, they got taken high
Speaker 1: in the draft. They traded a conditional pick for him
Speaker 1: and cut Riley Patterson so they have their kicker. I'm
Speaker 1: going to roll through just two quick contracts and then
Speaker 1: we'll mention Justin Herbert at the end. Nick aj Terrell
Speaker 1: got a contract from the Falcons a little more than
Speaker 1: twenty one million dollars a year. They had me do
Speaker 1: the top fifty free agents of twenty twenty five on
Speaker 1: the site. It's the last thing I write before the
Speaker 1: season starts, the only thing I write in training camp.
Speaker 1: And I'm realizing I write it at a stupid time
Speaker 1: because they always sign these guys like a week or
Speaker 1: two later before the season starts. But aj Terrell was
Speaker 1: number six, Like he's probably a top fifteen to twenty
Speaker 1: cornerback in the league, maybe even top ten, And so
Speaker 1: that was good business. And then they also gave money
Speaker 1: in Kansas City to their center, Creed Humphrey, by far
Speaker 1: now the highest paid center in the NFL. I had
Speaker 1: him number four on my top fifty list. And that's
Speaker 1: that's big news for the Chiefs because they have a
Speaker 1: couple offensive linemen that we're coming up now. They can
Speaker 1: use the other franchise tag on the other one. And
Speaker 1: they've done a great job protecting Patrick Mahomes. How sick
Speaker 1: of you sick of the Chiefs. Are you on a
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten as a Bengals non fan,
Speaker 1: although you are a fan, and just as a football fan,
Speaker 1: are you getting sick of him?
Speaker 2: I love watching the Chiefs play.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: I love watching the Chiefs play. I mean, my wife's
Speaker 2: in the other room and she can hear me say this,
Speaker 2: but she would say that, argue they always get all
Speaker 2: the calls. And maybe that's true to a certain extent,
Speaker 2: but I think they you make your own luck in
Speaker 2: the NFL. When you're making good plays, you're going to
Speaker 2: get more calls. So yeah, I've got no with the Chiefs.
Speaker 2: I love watching.
Speaker 1: I just feel like the fatigue is there, and I
Speaker 1: forget that you pretend that you have absolutely no emotional
Speaker 1: attachment to the Bengals.
Speaker 2: I've told you, I'm a casual fan of the Bengals.
Speaker 2: It's not I don't. I don't love your family.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not a Rams fan, but I want
Speaker 1: my daughter to be happy, so I'm happy. Yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: it's the same. Maybe it's the same.
Speaker 2: I'm happy when they do well.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's good. Uh Yeah, I'm just feeling Chiefs fatigue
Speaker 1: all around. The country. Definitely in my house, like everyone
Speaker 1: used to love and by everyone, I mean you know
Speaker 1: my my family members who watch a lot of football too.
Speaker 1: They they still love the Chiefs, and now they're just
Speaker 1: kind of like, all right enough for the Chiefs.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Finally, the team that I thought would be their main
Speaker 1: rival was Justin Herbert and the Bengal and the Chargers. Rather,
Speaker 1: I'll never forget uh. You know, the last season we
Speaker 1: had with Chris Uh, we watched the Chiefs chart Chargers game,
Speaker 1: actually at Chris's house and Lakeisha's mom UH was hanging
Speaker 1: out and came over and she was getting She loved
Speaker 1: she loved that Chiefs Chargers matchup, and she was going crazy.
Speaker 1: That was a fun memory. And they always played them tight,
Speaker 1: but they always find a way to lose in the end.
Speaker 1: And now they're not even playing them tight anymore. I
Speaker 1: bring up all that just to say that Justin Herbert
Speaker 1: was back at practice, and according to Daniel Popper at
Speaker 1: the Athletic, it was one of the best practices he's
Speaker 1: ever seen Justin Herbert play quarterbacking at the highest level.
Speaker 1: It's a rare training camp report like that that actually
Speaker 1: influences me because I was so freaked out about this
Speaker 1: foot injury. I thought this their season might be done
Speaker 1: before it started. Maybe I'll get hurt again. But hearing
Speaker 1: that that makes that makes me happy as someone that
Speaker 1: wants to see some fun football by the Chargers.
Speaker 2: Well, let's hope.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the league's a better when when he's
Speaker 2: playing well because he's an exciting quarterback, doesn't mind throwing
Speaker 2: the ball downfield and into tight windows. So it's fun
Speaker 2: to watch the Chargers play when he's playing well. So
Speaker 2: let's hope it's good. And I mean, I don't know
Speaker 2: how many opportunities they'll get to throw on the tight
Speaker 2: windows this year, but.
Speaker 1: What do you mean? I mean they'll probably all be
Speaker 1: tight windows unfortunately. Yeah, you just saying they're going to
Speaker 1: run the ball and they're going to be in trouble. Yeah, Chris.
Speaker 1: You know, Chris was a true believer in Herbert. He
Speaker 1: enjoyed he enjoyed watching him those couple of years, and
Speaker 1: I think I think he would have been surprised how
Speaker 1: the next few have gone. Not that Herbert's played poorly,
Speaker 1: but just that it's really he hasn't gotten any better,
Speaker 1: and the team around hims gotten worse facts.
Speaker 2: I don't have anything to add to that. That was perfect.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you what you said today. Everything was perfect
Speaker 1: to Nick, and it's always good to see you. I
Speaker 1: got to check the schedule see when the Bengals are
Speaker 1: on in primetime and get you on for those shows.
Speaker 1: But I like your analysis any old night, so we
Speaker 1: should have you back before then.
Speaker 2: Even then, anytime, Greg.
Speaker 1: All right, that was Nick. We're going to take a
Speaker 1: quick break and I'll be back with Seth Payne. We'll
Speaker 1: talk some Texans after the break back on NFL Daily.
Speaker 1: So you know one thing I'm excited about with this show.
Speaker 1: We're gonna cover every team, but we do have the
Speaker 1: space here with Daily to really get into certain teams
Speaker 1: I find fascinating in a given moment of time, and
Speaker 1: that's why I'm excited about this kind of AFC South
Speaker 1: focused show. We talk Colts already. I'm digging the AFC
Speaker 1: South this year, and they're young quarterbacks, so we're kind
Speaker 1: of running out of time. Season's about to start, and
Speaker 1: so I wanted to set the table for what's at
Speaker 1: stake this season in this division. That's been an afterthought
Speaker 1: frankly for most of the time I've been at the NFL.
Speaker 1: But now you have a division with four young quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: three of them top five picks, all of them extremely talented.
Speaker 1: Let's be real, like one of them, c J. Stroud,
Speaker 1: is above the rest. And one of these teams, to me,
Speaker 1: just in terms of being the team of the moment,
Speaker 1: is above the rest. And that's the Houston Texans. And
Speaker 1: that's why I'm excited to have on former Houston Texan
Speaker 1: Seth Payne, co host of The Pain and Pendergast on
Speaker 1: Sports Radio six ' ten in Houston Show and a man.
Speaker 1: Before I even let you speak, Seth, I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: you know, so the listeners know on YouTube just what
Speaker 1: they're kind of dealing with. Your your trim and fit now.
Speaker 1: But this is what Seth Pain looked like as a rookie,
Speaker 1: uh in the NFL. I believe that's a rookie. That
Speaker 1: was Jaguars Man.
Speaker 3: That's so much creating.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I really suggest anyone check it out.
Speaker 1: It's I get you gotta. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: want this. If I were you, I would want this
Speaker 1: being the first thing that comes up when you google
Speaker 1: the name Seth Pain, because this is pretty much it
Speaker 1: right here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's all. I'm happily married, so I'm scaring off women.
Speaker 5: Doesn't bow bother me at all, gladly use That's not
Speaker 5: what I looked like when I met my wife. Yeah
Speaker 5: that was probably my rookie my rookie years. So yeah,
Speaker 5: that's that's different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Randy, But yeah, Okay, I was gonna say, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna feel intimidated and uncomfortable if you leave it up
Speaker 1: any any longer. But yeah, Seth now is down there
Speaker 1: doing awesome work. One of my favorite voices out there
Speaker 1: on any team. And you just came right off the field,
Speaker 1: so I actually I'll just start there. You had a
Speaker 1: joint practice. Those are always to me the most interesting
Speaker 1: days of the off season. Texans and Rams. Any takeaways
Speaker 1: just from today while you were there.
Speaker 5: Okay, so they were practicing the Rams, which is cool.
Speaker 5: Matt Stafford practiced And I'll say the Texans defense has
Speaker 5: looked good throughout camp. They made a lot of off season
Speaker 5: additions and it looks like it it might be paying off.
Speaker 5: You never know until you get to the regular season.
Speaker 5: But the defense looked good. The offense looked weak at
Speaker 5: offensive line.
Speaker 3: I think CJ.
Speaker 5: Stroud looked great throwing to step on Diggs and Tank
Speaker 5: Dell and Nico Collins like that.
Speaker 3: That's been a lot of fun to watch.
Speaker 5: But the offensive line is a bit of a work
Speaker 5: in progress, and the Rams defensive line had their way
Speaker 5: with them a bunch of times. So like in the
Speaker 5: quest to be the San Francisco forty nine ers, that
Speaker 5: means elite passing offense and elite rushing offense. I feel
Speaker 5: like they are long ways off from the elite rushing
Speaker 5: offense part right.
Speaker 1: Now, hmmm because of the O line. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: Tunsl's back out there, right and yeah, paper they have,
Speaker 1: you know, a good, good tackle combo. I guess the
Speaker 1: question is in the interior. And yeah, I don't want
Speaker 1: to I wasn't playing in a start negative, but if
Speaker 1: if you asked me to be like, what could be
Speaker 1: the problem for this Houston Texas I guess that's it.
Speaker 1: I hadn't really thought about it, but that that doesn't
Speaker 1: come together because yeah, you look at the numbers and
Speaker 1: they were one of the worst running teams in the
Speaker 1: entire NFL last year.
Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, no, and that's trust me. Like We've had
Speaker 5: a whole off season of fun and frivolity, and it's
Speaker 5: been really cool to watch all of this come together.
Speaker 3: I like CJ. Stroud is the real deal.
Speaker 5: I try to step away and take off my Homer
Speaker 5: glasses as much as possible, but he's the real deal.
Speaker 5: And you know, Stefan Diggs, his history is the first
Speaker 5: two years he's anywhere. Everything's awesome, so I'm not worried
Speaker 5: about it. They got him on a one year contract,
Speaker 5: so I don't like, I don't foresee any issues on
Speaker 5: that side of things. I think the defense is going
Speaker 5: to be very good rushing the passer. I just I
Speaker 5: like all off season long as I listen to people
Speaker 5: outside of Houston gush and heat praise and like I'm talking,
Speaker 5: you know, like the hardcore film watchers and everything heat praise.
Speaker 5: On the Texans, I did feel like they were whistling
Speaker 5: past the run game issue a little too easily. And
Speaker 5: I like Joe Mixon. I'm glad he's here. You know,
Speaker 5: I don't think he's going to be you know, set
Speaker 5: records or anything like that, but the whole operation, the
Speaker 5: blocking of the offensive line and the tight ends and
Speaker 5: a fullback whose name will be determined later apparently right now,
Speaker 5: it's it needs to get better if they want to
Speaker 5: be genuinely elite, because they weren't that good in the
Speaker 5: red zone last year, and so far in the preseason
Speaker 5: it hasn't looked so great either.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's interesting too because the Rams are young upfront,
Speaker 1: but they they could be They could be pretty good,
Speaker 1: better than people think. And that's interesting. These joint practices,
Speaker 1: I feel like, especially if you had a bad one previously,
Speaker 1: it's all the Rams have been doing is having Jordan
Speaker 1: practice and come out for the next one all fired up.
Speaker 1: But that's good to think about. How did Mixon look,
Speaker 1: by the way, because he was on my radar that
Speaker 1: he missed so much of camp early and he's been
Speaker 1: a guy that at the beginning of each of the
Speaker 1: last two seasons, I'm like, Oh, Joe Mixon's back, and
Speaker 1: I love Joe Mixon just as a as a runner,
Speaker 1: just his style of running. And then he was someone
Speaker 1: like if you watched him from week one and then
Speaker 1: it was week eight, just wasn't like, I don't know
Speaker 1: if his body was breaking down, he just wasn't the
Speaker 1: same guy by the middle of the last couple of seasons.
Speaker 5: I think with Mixon, for one. Yeah, there's because he
Speaker 5: was gone for he practiced the first day my radio
Speaker 5: co host Sean Pendergast, so I'm kind of rubbing his
Speaker 5: squad after that practice, just as he was talking to
Speaker 5: a family member or something, and then, yeah, your soft
Speaker 5: tissue injury was gone for a couple of weeks. It's
Speaker 5: noticeably different when he's on the field versus other running backs.
Speaker 5: He's just you know how he is. He's way bigger
Speaker 5: when you see him in person than you expect, Like
Speaker 5: he's a big, fast, athletic dude. He looks like Joe Mixon,
Speaker 5: and I think he'll be just fine. Us to get
Speaker 5: the absolute most out of him. The thing I'm curious
Speaker 5: about in the difference between being in Cincinnati and being
Speaker 5: here is that in Cincinnati they had kind of transitioned
Speaker 5: into being a team that was in shotgun all the time.
Speaker 5: And Joe Mixon is at his best when he's QB
Speaker 5: under center. He's seven yards deep in the backfield and
Speaker 5: he can just hit it. And this offense will do
Speaker 5: that a lot. So as long as the offensive line
Speaker 5: can get in sync, I think he's going to be
Speaker 5: just fine. I just want to be able to maximize it.
Speaker 5: One little interesting part of that too, was with the
Speaker 5: Rams in town. I was talking to Jordan Rodrik, who
Speaker 5: covers them for the Athletic.
Speaker 1: Daily too. Here we go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 5: I mean I was so excited fanboyd Over because I
Speaker 5: love that play Callers podcast, and like, cam Akers is
Speaker 5: with the Texans right now. So cam Acres comes to
Speaker 5: the Texans after a second Achilles tendon tear, and when
Speaker 5: they first signed him, I was like, Oh, don't pay attention.
Speaker 5: He just had his second Achilles tendon tear. It's just
Speaker 5: that's an experiment. The first day he was out there like,
Speaker 5: oh wow, I never would have thought that guy had
Speaker 5: a second Achilles ten and turned nine months ago. So
Speaker 5: I was talking to Jordan about it, you know. And
Speaker 5: one of the things with cam Akers was that the
Speaker 5: Rams transitioned away from being an outside zone running team
Speaker 5: and it just not quite the same fit for cam Akers,
Speaker 5: whereas the Texans are an outside zone running team and
Speaker 5: cam Akers might be a better fit with the Texans.
Speaker 5: But also at the same time, we're watching Damian Pierce
Speaker 5: in the preseason game so far average one yard per
Speaker 5: carry on seven carries. It's just it's not feeling good
Speaker 5: for Damian right now. And I think Cam might end
Speaker 5: up if he's healthy, et cetera, et cetera, like he
Speaker 5: might actually end up being a much better option than
Speaker 5: I gave them credit for when they signed him.
Speaker 1: It's funny that camp in the preseason so long, and
Speaker 1: I'm doing this show daily, that it's long enough for
Speaker 1: narratives to turn in on themselves by the end of it.
Speaker 1: Because I was all excited about all like Damian Pierce,
Speaker 1: maybe this is the comeback season. He did something as
Speaker 1: rookie year. All right, let's get to the fund. Let's
Speaker 1: get to the reason why you were right. You said
Speaker 1: the people nationally. I don't know if you're including me
Speaker 1: in that, like the film watchers.
Speaker 3: I'm part of the cool group.
Speaker 1: No, I'm I mean I would take it.
Speaker 2: I mean I am.
Speaker 1: I am high on the Texans. How can you not be?
Speaker 1: They are the team to me at the moment, like
Speaker 1: they are. I thought they should have been in that
Speaker 1: kickoff game. It's crazy to say a game between Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson and Patrick Mahomes would be maybe more interesting with
Speaker 1: the Texans. But I guess when I think of the
Speaker 1: kickoff game, I like the idea of the champ versus
Speaker 1: like some new challenger, and the Texans are that team
Speaker 1: and they feel more real than even the Lions felt
Speaker 1: at this time of year ago when they were that
Speaker 1: team and they delivered on it because of Stroud. And
Speaker 1: you've gotten to see, you know, this kid from from
Speaker 1: day one and the maduration and obviously he's got more
Speaker 1: than enough weapons around him this year, and kind of
Speaker 1: how he manages that as a leader, I think is interesting,
Speaker 1: but also just how you think he manages that and
Speaker 1: develops as a quarterback, because we've seen so many times
Speaker 1: quarterbacks really develop so much between one and two, and
Speaker 1: if you think about that with Stroud, that's just going
Speaker 1: to be insane. Just kind of give me, give me
Speaker 1: your impressions. Being around him and this team for a
Speaker 1: year plus now.
Speaker 5: The really cool thing about Stroud last year was you
Speaker 5: could kind of you could see the stages of development.
Speaker 5: So the first the first game versus the Ravens, they
Speaker 5: come out and Bobby Slowick and Bobby Slogan has basically
Speaker 5: said this much himself, did that classic first time coordinator
Speaker 5: thing where they tried to do all the good stuff
Speaker 5: all at once, and it was just a little bit
Speaker 5: of overload. You know, they had multiple guys in motion
Speaker 5: and everything while they're playing with three backup offensive linemen,
Speaker 5: and it was a little too much. And then over
Speaker 5: the first the course of those first two games against
Speaker 5: the Ravens and the Colts, CJ took eleven sacks in
Speaker 5: those two games, and then all of a sudden, CJ
Speaker 5: didn't get sacked for several games in a row after that,
Speaker 5: like he figured out, all right, I got to get
Speaker 5: rid of the ball. Sometimes, you know, you saw him
Speaker 5: really steadily learn what he could and couldn't get away
Speaker 5: with in terms of interceptions. Sometimes people look at his
Speaker 5: completion percentage, which wasn't sky high last year, and they
Speaker 5: think of that as like, oh, maybe he wasn't as
Speaker 5: accurate as he thought.
Speaker 3: He was as we thought he was. No, he was
Speaker 3: super accurate.
Speaker 5: It was he was very mature in terms of throwing
Speaker 5: the ball away or throwing passes that were either going
Speaker 5: to be caught or incomplete, but not interceptions. So like
Speaker 5: the ball and some of his incompletion percentage is actually
Speaker 5: due to his accuracy and his ability to throw to
Speaker 5: a safe place. So his you know, only throwing five
Speaker 5: interceptions on the year was something that developed over time,
Speaker 5: and like his ability to start to I think understand
Speaker 5: and feel the pass rush was really cool. And it's
Speaker 5: one thing that they talked about they're working on this
Speaker 5: training camp is just the efficient pocket movement, you know,
Speaker 5: taking one step instead of three, you know, just moving
Speaker 5: in the pocket instead of scrambling. And and I think
Speaker 5: he's taken a step in that regard. So it's kind
Speaker 5: of like it's all this stuff that you hope your
Speaker 5: quarterback develops by year three so you can make a
Speaker 5: decision on whether or not to give him that quarterback extension.
Speaker 5: I feel like he he kind of fast forwarded through
Speaker 5: a lot of those those processes last year, and and
Speaker 5: I honestly I tried to. I sought out every Kurt Warner,
Speaker 5: Dan Orlovsky, jt Osullivan, every former quarterback that breaks down film,
Speaker 5: just looking for guys to point out where maybe it
Speaker 5: wasn't actually that good, and like they're just they're universally
Speaker 5: blown away by how quickly he moved through that part
Speaker 5: of it. So that's that's a really cool thing. And
Speaker 5: yet at the same time he I think he remains
Speaker 5: very humble about it. I know a lot of I
Speaker 5: know he talked a lot of smack on podcasts in
Speaker 5: the offseason, but he's like he's still got it. He's
Speaker 5: got the appropriate size chip on his shoulder. You know,
Speaker 5: it's not a it's not a John Man's El sized
Speaker 5: chip on his shoulder, and it's it's just the right
Speaker 5: size of chip to keep attention, to keep him focused.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I could see that. He just seems like a
Speaker 1: guy you would want to hang out with. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's the guy that I think that makes you feel things.
Speaker 1: He makes me feel feel at watching him, And you
Speaker 1: mentioned the pocket movement. I mean, to me, I'm sure
Speaker 1: he could get better at that, but just his natural
Speaker 1: feel that's tough to teach, and it reminds me a
Speaker 1: little bit of some of the greats I've enjoyed watching
Speaker 1: and just the style of quarterback I like, whether it's
Speaker 1: whether it's a Brady or a Rivers or a Geno
Speaker 1: even like on a lower level, but even just he
Speaker 1: reminds you of those guys and that he just obviously
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like one of those guys in terms of
Speaker 1: how he carries himself. He does seem like a guy
Speaker 1: and you can speak to the all these weapons here
Speaker 1: that I think would be uniquely suited for a second
Speaker 1: year player to kind of handle and understand to keep
Speaker 1: everyone happy. Because look at by the end of last
Speaker 1: year was just Nico Collins as like a big time playmaker.
Speaker 1: Now it's Dell healthy again looking good. Steph On Diggs
Speaker 1: is their Nego Collins and then they're deep. I expect
Speaker 1: them and we don't need to get into who this
Speaker 1: will be, but they have the best like wide receiver
Speaker 1: six and seven in the in the league. They have
Speaker 1: Noah Brown and Robert Woods and David Hutchinson, who is
Speaker 1: a good young player. And who am I forgetting metchy,
Speaker 1: Like someone's gonna get.
Speaker 3: Treated started taken off? Yeah in the last come right.
Speaker 1: Someone's going to get traded here. And I don't even
Speaker 1: need to it does it for our purposes? It's not
Speaker 1: that big a deal because they have so many stars, Like,
Speaker 1: how do you see him just like as a guy
Speaker 1: that's to me going to be one of the faces
Speaker 1: of the league and certainly the face of Houston Sports
Speaker 1: for the next ten plus years.
Speaker 5: I think the the pairing of him and Bobby Slowick
Speaker 5: has been really good in terms of just the x's
Speaker 5: and O side of things. I think the pairing of
Speaker 5: Demico Ryans and c J. Stroud and their personalities and
Speaker 5: their commitment to kind of doing things a certain way.
Speaker 3: I think that's where it could be really, really good.
Speaker 5: And you know, you've got a defensive minded head coach,
Speaker 5: so at some point Bobby Slowick's probably going to get
Speaker 5: hired away to be a head coach somewhere. You're gonna
Speaker 5: have to replace that offensive coordinator. I think the biggest
Speaker 5: thing that I noticed about CJ away from the x's
Speaker 5: and o's is and I'll credit Ryan Day and the
Speaker 5: staff at Ohio State for a lot of this. He's
Speaker 5: he takes the leadership part of it very seriously and
Speaker 5: it's not just some stuff that he's read in a book.
Speaker 5: Like he talks all the time, and you know, you
Speaker 5: see in his actions he really wants to form personal
Speaker 5: relationships with everybody on the team and really get to
Speaker 5: know them so that they trust each other and that
Speaker 5: everybody you know, is moving in.
Speaker 3: The same direction.
Speaker 5: And with that, you know, we saw him in training
Speaker 5: camp this year really start to take on more of
Speaker 5: that actual captain of the ship mentality. You know, he's
Speaker 5: he's correcting guys he's calling him up when the practice
Speaker 5: isn't going well and he's doing all that, but it
Speaker 5: doesn't It feels very very natural because he took his
Speaker 5: time in building to that, and I think he feels
Speaker 5: more comfortable and he feels like this is last time
Speaker 5: this year he still didn't know if he was going
Speaker 5: to be the starting quarterback, where obviously this year he's
Speaker 5: the starting quarterback.
Speaker 1: Right, and it's gonna be fun that that's such a
Speaker 1: fun week one game them and the Colts. You mentioned Demiko,
Speaker 1: and he just won another award from last year. I
Speaker 1: don't even know what this. It was some sort of
Speaker 1: coaching board and he.
Speaker 3: Pro Football Writers' Association, that's something or other.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he did do a great job because I
Speaker 1: one thing I thought he did a good job was
Speaker 1: he took players that just weren't as good under other coaches,
Speaker 1: whether they were on the Texans or whether they came
Speaker 1: in guys like Blake Cashman, Christian Harris and various players,
Speaker 1: and he made them better. And like that's ye. Belichick
Speaker 1: always said, like that was all you got to do,
Speaker 1: is like if you can just show someone how to improve,
Speaker 1: they're going to love you. And trust you. And obviously
Speaker 1: he's he's a great leader and everyone likes him as
Speaker 1: a person, but you also need that part of it. Now,
Speaker 1: it seems like he has a better roster. It feels
Speaker 1: like Daniel Hunter is an upgrade from Grenard. They tried
Speaker 1: to upgrade a little bit at linebacker. They drafted Kamari Lassiter.
Speaker 1: Just feels like they're more talented. I've heard people who've
Speaker 1: come in and out of Houston this month, and people
Speaker 1: have seen a lot of training camps and everyone's just like, Wow,
Speaker 1: this seems so talented. There's so many good players everywhere.
Speaker 1: As a former defensive lineman, just give me a way
Speaker 1: or you're most excited, you're most impressed, you're most surprised
Speaker 1: out of this camp.
Speaker 3: All right, good. You mentioned a couple of the big names.
Speaker 5: Danil Hunter man, I'm guilty of this, like of not
Speaker 5: having really appreciated just like how freakishly good he is
Speaker 5: in a lot of ways. Are just what a physical
Speaker 5: freak he is. That dude's a that dude's a freak,
Speaker 5: and it's cool and fun to watch him work with
Speaker 5: Will Anderson. Kamari Lassiter is understandably I think flying under
Speaker 5: the radar in a lot of ways outside of Houston.
Speaker 5: He's had a really good camp and he's you know,
Speaker 5: he's got he You talk about teaching somebody to swim
Speaker 5: by throwing him in the pond. He is out there
Speaker 5: from day one going against Stefan Diggs, Nico Collins, Tank
Speaker 5: Dell and and he's battled them like he's battled them.
Speaker 5: And today at practice against the Rams, it's like, every
Speaker 5: time I looked over to the defensive side of the field,
Speaker 5: he was breaking up a Matt Stafford pass. It was like,
Speaker 5: he's he's doing really really well. So isn't the regular
Speaker 5: you know, you've got to do it in the regular season,
Speaker 5: but that looks really good. Al Shire is probably an
Speaker 5: under heralded signing because I don't think al Shire them
Speaker 5: the linebacker.
Speaker 3: He's not.
Speaker 5: He's not going to be an All Pro or anything likely,
Speaker 5: but he's he's Demiko Ryans in a lot of way,
Speaker 5: Like in terms of cause I played my last year
Speaker 5: in the NFL was Demiko's rookie year, and Demiko was
Speaker 5: this guy that came onto the team and you know,
Speaker 5: by you know, by by midway through his rookie season,
Speaker 5: we're calling.
Speaker 3: Him cap for captain.
Speaker 5: Wow, because that's like just and you try to explain
Speaker 5: it to people, and people talk so much about culture,
Speaker 5: and then it just becomes white noise because every coach
Speaker 5: comes in and says they're going to establish the culture
Speaker 5: and then usually they you know, they make exception here,
Speaker 5: they don't really follow the motivational poster there.
Speaker 3: It's just this is just who Dimiko is.
Speaker 5: He's one of the rarest individuals I've met in football,
Speaker 5: and it's hard to describe and explain sometimes until you
Speaker 5: see it. And it's really cool. This year, I think
Speaker 5: you start to see that. I think the team's taken
Speaker 5: on his personality and and that part of it. Like,
Speaker 5: I like, I'm as jaded and as cynical as the
Speaker 5: rest when it comes to talk about that stuff for
Speaker 5: all the reasons I just mentioned, But it's but Dimiko's
Speaker 5: just different.
Speaker 1: What made he jaded? Just seeing a few different coaches
Speaker 1: that weren't weren't at Tomiko's level as a players. They Ah,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of change. I gotta say I
Speaker 1: was kind of on the why let that Kissario pick
Speaker 1: another head coach who knows if he even really was
Speaker 1: one that picked Tamiko Ryans, but credit to the Texans
Speaker 1: because the Broncos wanted him and he chose the Texans
Speaker 1: and that changed everything. And and ultimately they've been proven
Speaker 1: right because Casserio's had a lot of good players brought in.
Speaker 5: You know what part of it is, man, I mean,
Speaker 5: there was a lot of dysfunction in the organization for
Speaker 5: a couple of years.
Speaker 3: And like part of it.
Speaker 5: I don't want to get too deep into of all
Speaker 5: of this, but if you look at the Chiefs when
Speaker 5: they when they first transferred ownership, after I'm blinking on
Speaker 5: his name passed away, there was like a little bit
Speaker 5: of turmoil for a little bit. And I think I
Speaker 5: think after Bob McNair passed away and and Cal his
Speaker 5: son took over, there were a lot of different voices
Speaker 5: and a lot of different people kind of grabbing power,
Speaker 5: and it was an ugly situation. So like there was
Speaker 5: only so much David Cully or Lovey Smith was going
Speaker 5: to be able to do. They fixed some of that
Speaker 5: and they righted the ship in a lot of regards.
Speaker 3: And the thing about Cassaria was, you know, Casario took.
Speaker 5: The job, you know, and without getting the timeline exactly
Speaker 5: nailed down, basically Casario took the job, and then Deshaun
Speaker 5: Watson requested a trade, and then all of the allegations
Speaker 5: came out against the show on Watson and meanwhile there
Speaker 5: was a salary cap mess because Bill O'Brien and Jackie
Speaker 5: should be went hog wild spending like they spending like
Speaker 5: hillbillies who just won the lottery, and so like Casario
Speaker 5: had to clean that up. And I did think that,
Speaker 5: you know, Casario, he was very impressed with Demiko on
Speaker 5: the call. I do believe that it was going to
Speaker 5: be Casario's choice on making that higher.
Speaker 3: A lot of people were skeptical.
Speaker 5: That Demiko would want to come here, or that the
Speaker 5: McNair's would want Tomko because you know, Demiko had sued
Speaker 5: them for the field conditions.
Speaker 3: A few years back.
Speaker 5: There was that side of it, and then the Texans
Speaker 5: did not have good pr at the time. I just
Speaker 5: I knew from the beginning that Demiko and Casario were
Speaker 5: going to get along great because they're both They've got
Speaker 5: much different personalities, but they're both very focused on ignoring
Speaker 5: extraneous bs and like just caring about the podcast like
Speaker 5: them Yeah, yeah, any uh, the stupid media or just
Speaker 5: even like like old school coaching bs, you know, like there,
Speaker 5: Casario's not trying to be Bill Belichick. Casario is just
Speaker 5: very much his own guy, and I think he pulled
Speaker 5: he pulled some really good things from New England. But
Speaker 5: he also understands that every organization is different and you
Speaker 5: don't want to go the way as some of those
Speaker 5: other like like head coaches have gone from out of
Speaker 5: New England.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not Maybe you guys do do a podcast,
Speaker 1: but maybe they make it into back up. But that's
Speaker 1: four hours on the radio every morning. You know, I
Speaker 1: cannot talk anything about suddenly going daily when you're doing
Speaker 1: four hours daily. One of my favorites, Seth Pain. Let
Speaker 1: let's fly another pick of Seth Pain up here before
Speaker 1: we go, just so that's let the listeners know what
Speaker 1: they're dealing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, be impressed, everybody.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm impressed. I'm impressed. Great career in the
Speaker 1: NFL and great career as a guy in the media.
Speaker 1: One of my favorites. And uh, look he lucked out
Speaker 1: one of his former teammates becomes the local head coach.
Speaker 1: That's perfect. That that can't be bad business. That's got
Speaker 1: to be great. Thank you for everything. This team to me,
Speaker 1: they are like they are the team right now, the
Speaker 1: Houston Texas amazing to think where they were where they are.
Speaker 1: But we'll get you back on later in the season
Speaker 1: to see how they're doing.
Speaker 3: Awesome, Man, I'm sorry I was negative. They just got
Speaker 3: to get the run game going.
Speaker 1: No, you weren't negative at all. Come into it next
Speaker 1: after the break. We're gonna have John Shipley talking to
Speaker 1: Jaguars right after this. Very excited for my next guest,
Speaker 1: John Shipley, who writes for SI dot com about the Jaguars.
Speaker 1: He co hosts the Jaguars on SI dot Com podcast
Speaker 1: with Gus log who's also excellent and sounds a little
Speaker 1: too much like John Shipley at first. I want you
Speaker 1: to work on that for me, John, like I have
Speaker 1: to figure out who's who. Well, we can get into
Speaker 1: what a good job you do, John, But I just
Speaker 1: want to start this way. You analyze this team from
Speaker 1: a very considered, intelligent, I would say, unemotional perspective. But
Speaker 1: what if I told you there's just something about this
Speaker 1: Jaguars team, like I don't know what to do with.
Speaker 1: They're just there, like they're not that great at any
Speaker 1: one thing, but they're not that bad at any one thing.
Speaker 1: So I start just asking you, like, what are the Jaguars.
Speaker 6: Yeah, honestly, this is my six year covering them like that,
Speaker 6: probably like five out of six years, Like last year
Speaker 6: is the only year I've been around them where there
Speaker 6: were really expectations, And it definitely feels like how they
Speaker 6: finished last year, like they were the biggest collapse in football.
Speaker 4: Last year.
Speaker 6: You know, start eight and three, lose five your last
Speaker 6: six games. They lost the last five games Trevor Lawrence started,
Speaker 6: they'd probably lose their last six and they don't play
Speaker 6: you know, Bryce Young and to marry Bunch in Carolina
Speaker 6: in week seventeen. So definitely feels like a lot of
Speaker 6: the feelings around Jacksonville are rooted in how bad last
Speaker 6: year ended, and it's on to blame them. They've gone
Speaker 6: nine in eight the past two years. They just kind
Speaker 6: of feel like, you know, like if nine in eight
Speaker 6: was a football team. It kind of feels like the
Speaker 6: Jacksonville Jaguars as organization right now, Like you said, not
Speaker 6: one of the worst teams, but nobody I think, even
Speaker 6: locally it's ex them to like threatening like the Kansas
Speaker 6: City Chiefs or Baltimore Ravens or anything like.
Speaker 1: That, which is crazy because if you think about the
Speaker 1: trajectory of this team, you know, they get Trevor Lawrence
Speaker 1: as hyped up a quarterback prospect as there's been since
Speaker 1: Andrew Luck, and then they have the end of the
Speaker 1: twenty two season, they play the Chiefs pretty tough in
Speaker 1: Kansas City, like it felt like the start of something,
Speaker 1: and then the end of last year. You mentioned it,
Speaker 1: and I know Jaguars fans are probably sensitive about this that, like,
Speaker 1: I guess this is the upside. Like if that was
Speaker 1: the Giants, who at the end of the last season,
Speaker 1: like that just would have been something the entire NFL
Speaker 1: and the media is talking about, you know, for the
Speaker 1: entire offseason and everything. But instead it's the Jaguars. And
Speaker 1: I look at this roster and I actually think there's
Speaker 1: more reasons for optimism than there has been, including going
Speaker 1: into last year. I was pretty down on the Jaguars
Speaker 1: going into last year, just that they you know that
Speaker 1: they couldn't necessarily keep up keep it up. And they're
Speaker 1: interesting to me because they risk getting passed, you know,
Speaker 1: not just by the Texans and their young QB, but
Speaker 1: possibly the Colts and their young QB, So I kind
Speaker 1: of want to go back to Trevor because to me
Speaker 1: that the clear reason that might not be true that
Speaker 1: the Jaguars could win this division is just like, well,
Speaker 1: what if our QB is the transcending QB. What if
Speaker 1: you know, in his fourth year he takes everything he's
Speaker 1: learned and the new weapons around him and like he's
Speaker 1: the best quarterback in the division. They have a chance
Speaker 1: to win this division. Kind Of where are you at
Speaker 1: just with Trevor and his development and everything that's led
Speaker 1: him here.
Speaker 6: Yeah, It honestly like it's a pretty good microtism of
Speaker 6: like just how NFL media and fans I think consume
Speaker 6: the sport.
Speaker 4: It's more like what have you done for me lately?
Speaker 6: You know, like Anthony Richardson is the new shiny toy
Speaker 6: in Ananapolis, CJ Shroud, you know, he's pretty much on
Speaker 6: every top ten quarterback list you can think of. A
Speaker 6: shot con you know, met with local media uh Ale
Speaker 6: months ago, any more or less, was like it feels
Speaker 6: like deja vu with how the Texans are being talked
Speaker 6: about the same way the Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence being
Speaker 6: talked about a year earlier. But you know, somebody knew,
Speaker 6: somebody fresh comes in and does what people expect you
Speaker 6: to do, they're.
Speaker 4: Gonna jump you.
Speaker 6: So I think when I watched you know, Trevor Lawrence,
Speaker 6: you know him and CJ. Shradd last year, I think
Speaker 6: it was Week eleven in Houston when the Jaguars beat them,
Speaker 6: it was like if it wasn't you know, the Jacksonville Jaguars,
Speaker 6: and like if it wasn't like an AFC South Battle,
Speaker 6: I feel like a lot of more people would have
Speaker 6: came away from that game thinking like we just saw
Speaker 6: two like long time ten year franchise quarterbacks, like you
Speaker 6: get out for four quarters and then awesome back and forth.
Speaker 6: I think Trevor and CJ. I'd probably lump them like
Speaker 6: in the same tier. And I think inside the building,
Speaker 6: you know, the Jaguars, the issues that they have with
Speaker 6: Trevor Lawrence are less about like, you know, him missing
Speaker 6: open receivers, his decision making. It's more about asking him
Speaker 6: to like tone it down a little bit in what
Speaker 6: he's trying to do and understand that, hey, you're the
Speaker 6: franchise quarterback. Some of these things you're doing, you know,
Speaker 6: maybe that you did at Clemson, you can't do it
Speaker 6: because you have, you know, legitimately, like hundreds of jobs.
Speaker 6: They're relying on you and your health. It goes back
Speaker 6: to the Dampa the Bay game I think they played
Speaker 6: on Christmas Eve last year. They get completely destroyed second
Speaker 6: half of the game. I think it was like late
Speaker 6: third quarter. They're down by like twenty plus points, and
Speaker 6: Trevor scrambles out of the pocket and he lows his
Speaker 6: shoulder against the defensive back while he's going out of bounds,
Speaker 6: ends up getting a shoulder sprain. Isn't one hundred percent
Speaker 6: healthy against Tennessee Titans two weeks later. Those are the
Speaker 6: kind of things I think internally they want Trevor to
Speaker 6: improve at, just that protecting yourself, having the more you know,
Speaker 6: I guess situational and self awareness. But I think, you know,
Speaker 6: the Jaguars struggles last year, I think maybe little of
Speaker 6: it had to do with Trevor loren Is playing bad football,
Speaker 6: if that makes sense. You know, sometimes he definitely pushed
Speaker 6: the envelope too much, especially with you know, ball security,
Speaker 6: trying to be superman on every play. I think a
Speaker 6: lot of reasons that they worrying three to begin with
Speaker 6: was with Trevor and going into this year, you know,
Speaker 6: you asked me to list of top ten concerns I
Speaker 6: have for the Jaguars, I'm not sure Trevor's you know,
Speaker 6: even on the list. So he's definitely you know, it's
Speaker 6: kind of a weird dynamic with him because he hasn't
Speaker 6: met those expectations people set for him. But the expectations
Speaker 6: people set for him was like to be like Hall
Speaker 6: of Fame players basically, you know, after three or four years,
Speaker 6: and he's not there yet. But I certainly think he's
Speaker 6: a quarterback that you win because of and not in spotos.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with that, but I'm also part of
Speaker 1: the problem because you know, if I'm ranking the quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: we did that going into this year, it's like stroud
Speaker 1: to me right off the bat, And maybe I'm just
Speaker 1: getting too excited because to see a rookie do that,
Speaker 1: like I do put him up in that like has
Speaker 1: a chance to be top five or six this year,
Speaker 1: and like was close to that already. And Trevor is
Speaker 1: obviously your quarterback. He's obviously above what we used to
Speaker 1: call the Dalton line of like he is a franchise quarterback.
Speaker 1: There's no question about that. I think it's just the
Speaker 1: range of outcomes of what his career can be. Is
Speaker 1: multiple time pro bowler or I think it's unfair to say,
Speaker 1: like one of the greatest quarterbacks ever, but a couple
Speaker 1: of tiers higher. So you watch him every day, and
Speaker 1: I do want to stay on Trevor just one more question,
Speaker 1: because like, what what do we not like know about him? Like,
Speaker 1: first of all, how's he looked in practice in camp
Speaker 1: and then just sort of like a little bit behind
Speaker 1: the scenes of how he's kind of developed into this
Speaker 1: role of being like the most important guy in an
Speaker 1: entire franchise.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I know, for sure, I think so. He definitely
Speaker 6: had a slower start to training camp this year. Kind
Speaker 6: of the mo or Trevor Lawrence and training camp the
Speaker 6: last couple of years has been he starts out right
Speaker 6: hot and its shed in the defense, and then as
Speaker 6: the defense catches up, you know, it normally slows down
Speaker 6: a little bit. There's kind of the reverse this year,
Speaker 6: and they went from practicing against Mike Caldwell's scheme where
Speaker 6: the corners are you know, practically ten year olds off
Speaker 6: the ball. There's you know, easier windows or quick throws stuff,
Speaker 6: like that to you know, Ryan Nielsen's scheme where receivers
Speaker 6: are getting pressed at the line of scrimmage seeing a
Speaker 6: law too high coverage, and you could tell it was
Speaker 6: a big adjustment for passing offense. Like through the first
Speaker 6: I want to say four or five practices, I think
Speaker 6: he had four or five picks. He threw two picks
Speaker 6: to Andrew Winger in one practice, and you know it's
Speaker 6: a good like special teams player, but he should be
Speaker 6: taking off your star quarterback twice in one practice. And
Speaker 6: then but also that it really seems like he settled
Speaker 6: into a groove. I'd say the last probably like two
Speaker 6: or three weeks is as consistent as I've seen, you know,
Speaker 6: Trevor Lawrence in training camp practices. I feel like skill
Speaker 6: room they have around him kind of fits his skill
Speaker 6: set a little bit better than the last couple of years.
Speaker 6: Like Calvin Ridley is by far the best receiver he's
Speaker 6: ever had, but just looking at the whole room together,
Speaker 6: you know, he's never really had a pure deep threat
Speaker 6: like he has and BTJ. You know, Gave Davis is
Speaker 6: a bigger body than Jay Jones, a little bit better
Speaker 6: over the middle. They're not asking Marvin Jones to run
Speaker 6: vertical routes at like age thirty three anymore.
Speaker 4: So things are a little bit better around him.
Speaker 6: I think behind the scenes and even during practice, I
Speaker 6: think you're seeing him kind of take the reins more
Speaker 6: and be more vocal. They had joint practices against the
Speaker 6: Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week and I had him. I
Speaker 6: think he was like sacked, like they weren't taking them
Speaker 6: to the ground, but it would have been a clear
Speaker 6: sack like six different times and team drills and by
Speaker 6: the end of it, you could see him getting you know,
Speaker 6: this is what frustrated and you know, tell on the
Speaker 6: offensive line more or less like you know, this isn't acceptable.
Speaker 6: Whereas I think two years ago he's probably just silently,
Speaker 6: you know, walking back to the holidle in but in
Speaker 6: his mind he's probably thinking, you know, like what the
Speaker 6: heck's going on? But I think now you're seeing him
Speaker 6: kind of demonstrate that, you know, on field leadership a
Speaker 6: little bit more so.
Speaker 1: You said Calvin really is the best receiver he's ever had,
Speaker 1: which is a failure I think for three, you know,
Speaker 1: three years of a young quarterback when you think not
Speaker 1: that Calvin really is a bad receiver. He's a good
Speaker 1: starting receiver, but I tend to think he's maybe just
Speaker 1: like a smidge overrated. Maybe it wasn't as consistent as
Speaker 1: you would want and maybe not in the right place,
Speaker 1: whether that's coaching, whatever was going on last year. It's
Speaker 1: been interesting to hear you and Gus talk about it,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I tell people like the way to learn
Speaker 1: about teams, have listened to good team podcasts, and like
Speaker 1: I said, the Jaguars on SI podcast is one of
Speaker 1: the best out there. I just I learned a lot
Speaker 1: from it. One of the things I've learned this preseason.
Speaker 1: You guys talking about how they're using Gabe Davis maybe
Speaker 1: a little different than you expected, as you know, instead
Speaker 1: of just this vertical guy, which maybe wasn't the perfect
Speaker 1: fit in Buffalo, he's doing more of the intermediate routes
Speaker 1: and getting open and he's over the middle. And then
Speaker 1: you have my guy, Brian Thomas Junior, who I'm I'm
Speaker 1: very excited about because I'm a very basic NFL draft scout,
Speaker 1: where I just saw the way he moved and I
Speaker 1: was like, this has to translate, not just like I
Speaker 1: know he runs fast, but more the way he just
Speaker 1: like glides and can stop and start, and just I
Speaker 1: just I just thought it was rare move and I
Speaker 1: was like, there's the floor of what I think he
Speaker 1: could be as a pro is pretty high because it's
Speaker 1: just gonna translate, and it sounds like that's been translating lately.
Speaker 1: So you have those two guys. You have Endavid Ingram's
Speaker 1: coming off a monster year. You have a great maybe
Speaker 1: not great running back, but it's certainly above average running
Speaker 1: back in ETN who I think is a little misunderstood.
Speaker 1: And I was like, this is this is a good group.
Speaker 1: I think it's better than it's been before. Uh. Just
Speaker 1: I guess just make me feel great about my Brian
Speaker 1: Thomas junior evaluate and I guess let's start there.
Speaker 6: No, I mean really throughout training camp, I honestly, I'm
Speaker 6: not sure if I've seen like a single like here
Speaker 6: deep ball throne to gave Davis like it certainly does
Speaker 6: not look like he's being used like he was in Buffalo.
Speaker 6: And I think in Jacksonville you're going to see Brian
Speaker 6: Thomas kind of in the world gave Davis wasn't in
Speaker 6: Buffalo where they're just giving him, you know, the vertical
Speaker 6: passing game and saying, you know, you're the guy who's
Speaker 6: going to get behind defenses. He definitely started off a
Speaker 6: bit slow, I think in training camp, which you'd probably expect,
Speaker 6: you know, rookies, they're doing a lot of thinking, you know,
Speaker 6: the first week of training camp. But ever since, like
Speaker 6: two practices before the first preseason game, when he caught
Speaker 6: that great, you know, one handed cradle catch against the Chiefs,
Speaker 6: you know he's really turned it on. He's Ronald Darby
Speaker 6: was locking him up like easily during the first week
Speaker 6: of camp.
Speaker 4: Since then, you know, he has a couple of scores
Speaker 4: over Darby.
Speaker 6: It looks like he's somebody who you know, no matter
Speaker 6: who you put in front of him, he's able to
Speaker 6: get behind the defense, and the Jaguars have drawn up
Speaker 6: some good concepts to get him behind the defense. He
Speaker 6: had one play against Tampa Bay where you know, he
Speaker 6: kind of did a little like stop and go route,
Speaker 6: you know, from the slot. And you know, a guy
Speaker 6: who with like legit four to three speed, you know,
Speaker 6: running vertical routes out of the slot, it's not going
Speaker 6: to be easy to defend. So he's easily i'd say,
Speaker 6: the best deep threat Trevor Lawrence is had in his career,
Speaker 6: and Trevor Lawrence like he's kind of been neutered. I think,
Speaker 6: like especially last year in the scheme, you know, kind
Speaker 6: of almost Alex Smith like West Coast style where he's
Speaker 6: getting the ball and immediately throwing it. You know, Evon
Speaker 6: Ingram hasn't average. It felt like he had an a
Speaker 6: dot of like one yard at times last year where
Speaker 6: they're just trying to immediately get the ball out of
Speaker 6: his hands. But Trevor Lawrence, I think, wants to play
Speaker 6: a vertical game and Bryan Thomas gives him a weapon
Speaker 6: he hasn't had, like he played with DJ Chark for
Speaker 6: like a coffee in twenty twenty one. But I've seen
Speaker 6: more out of Thomas in training camp as a deep
Speaker 6: threat than you know, I saw out of Chart back then.
Speaker 6: So I definitely think he's going to be heavily utilized.
Speaker 6: And I think I agree with you. I think he's
Speaker 6: more than just a one trick pony. You know, he
Speaker 6: has the whole athletic skill set like he can be
Speaker 6: in my opinion, like as time goes on, a pretty
Speaker 6: good route runner. I mean, he ran a great route
Speaker 6: against Tampa Bay that little comeback on the Sadevine.
Speaker 4: You've already seen teams respect to.
Speaker 6: Speed, and it definitely feels like Lsu asked him to
Speaker 6: run like two routes pretty much and he's like like
Speaker 6: learning everything now that he has the physical ability to grow.
Speaker 4: Into more than that.
Speaker 6: So I think this year he's going to have like
Speaker 6: a defined role as you know, a field stretcher and
Speaker 6: a guy that do try to get the ball into
Speaker 6: his hands. But you know, moving forward, like long term,
Speaker 6: I definitely think he has, you know, big, big potential
Speaker 6: in I had some people yelling yelling at me online
Speaker 6: yesterday for sharing and I didn't say to quote, but
Speaker 6: you know Pete Prisco, long time Jaguars guy, he said
Speaker 6: he thinks he may be a Jamar Chase Justin Jeffson type.
Speaker 6: So I'm not going to go that far, but it
Speaker 6: just shows you like the kind of momentum that he
Speaker 6: has right now that he's beating defensive backs badly enough
Speaker 6: that you know, it went for people being definitely concerned
Speaker 6: during the first week of training camp to now he's
Speaker 6: always getting these crazy you know comparisons.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love I love Pete, I love anyone who's
Speaker 1: you know overcome his lack of height like myself to
Speaker 1: have such a great career. He's right about the same,
Speaker 1: although he's much stronger, to be fair, But Pete Go's
Speaker 1: big with his predictions. I wouldn't even go that big.
Speaker 1: And I loved Thomas. I thought the Colts should have
Speaker 1: taken him and were those back to back picks. Those
Speaker 1: are like my two favorite players in the draft. Lot
Speaker 1: too and Thomas. No, they weren't back to backics, but
Speaker 1: so I like both picks.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 1: I was cool with the Colts taking a lot too,
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna be kind of tracking those two guys
Speaker 1: over the next few years. And yet fantasy like fantasy implications,
Speaker 1: I'm not even that high on him. It's not about
Speaker 1: like his numbers this year. It's about that he's going
Speaker 1: to help this offense. He's going to have some production, certainly,
Speaker 1: and I think long term he reminds me of DK Metcalf,
Speaker 1: not at all in playing style, but just in that
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, he's limited coming out, but guys can
Speaker 1: get better when when football is the only thing they're
Speaker 1: doing and they're getting NFL coaching, and I think he
Speaker 1: has this skill set to do it and he has
Speaker 1: just such obvious physical skills Lett and that's where I
Speaker 1: get the DK Metcalf part was like, that's going to
Speaker 1: translate on some level and then they'll get better and better.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited for that. You mentioned Peterson and the
Speaker 1: kind of the short offense. You know, Doug Peterson's an
Speaker 1: interesting guy. He's a little off the radar nationally too, obviously,
Speaker 1: like a Super Bowl champion last year was weird. He's
Speaker 1: someone who elicits strong reactions actually from other people in
Speaker 1: the league. Some people think he's great, and other people
Speaker 1: are like Doug Peterson overrated? Like where are we at
Speaker 1: with Doug Peterson and the Jaguars experience right now? He
Speaker 1: came in and obviously I think overall you'd have to
Speaker 1: give him like a B grade. He's done a pretty
Speaker 1: good job. But just where you at? What, like what's
Speaker 1: he like? He's been a little off the radar compared
Speaker 1: to when he was so much part of like the
Speaker 1: national discourse.
Speaker 6: Yeah, no, I think, like, like I said, the Jaguars
Speaker 6: are like the team embodiment of the nine to eight record.
Speaker 6: Doug Peterson's probably like the head coach, and I'm like
Speaker 6: a record like that like he's definitely a solid coach,
Speaker 6: I think, But I don't think anybody's disagreeing singing him
Speaker 6: off like top ten lists or anything like that. And
Speaker 6: he's definitely done some good things in Jacksonville, Like he's
Speaker 6: raised absolutely the floor of the team, raising the ceiling,
Speaker 6: getting them over the hump. I think is you know,
Speaker 6: the next biggest question. But he's definitely came in and
Speaker 6: especially that first year, you know, coach Urbin Meyer, like
Speaker 6: they legitimately had to be a lot of.
Speaker 4: Like healing done.
Speaker 6: There were a lot of people, especially inside the locker room,
Speaker 6: who their confidence was kind of fried by just getting
Speaker 6: you know, completely onslaught in my Urban Meyer. I know
Speaker 6: of at least you know, one player who you know,
Speaker 6: after overmyer tirade was legit like left to tears and
Speaker 6: I'm like the thrown man. So they obviously had to
Speaker 6: build he had to build up confidence back up. I
Speaker 6: think last year, you know, he probably had to try
Speaker 6: to navigate you know, them reading too much into their
Speaker 6: own press clippings, and he himself said that they had
Speaker 6: an issue of that last year. That was probably a
Speaker 6: failure on his part. I think he's a solid you
Speaker 6: know coach, but there definitely is some questions, you know,
Speaker 6: in terms of what he's doing, in terms of how
Speaker 6: he's operating a team, especially at play caller. Like me, personally,
Speaker 6: I don't think it's that big of a deal if
Speaker 6: Doug Peterson's not the press play caller and Press Taylor is,
Speaker 6: because Doug Peterson's still putting the offense together. You know,
Speaker 6: every week in meetings, Doug Peterson's hearing every play call.
Speaker 6: You know, he's ultimately it's ultimately his offense. But some
Speaker 6: people absolutely do care, and that includes jag Warzona Shot Cohn,
Speaker 6: who more or less has said, like, I want Doug
Speaker 6: to call plays this year, but it's up to him.
Speaker 6: That's I think would be the one concerning thing about
Speaker 6: Doug Peterson and Jacksonville, Like, let's Taylor's legitimately probably the
Speaker 6: reason he got fired in Philadelphia, you know, just his
Speaker 6: loyalty to Press Taylor and then he's running it back
Speaker 6: again in Jacksonville, and it kind of feels like, you know,
Speaker 6: a you know, Groundhog BA scenario where it's like, you know,
Speaker 6: you already did this, why go through this a second time?
Speaker 6: So while it might not be that big of a deal,
Speaker 6: you know, in reality, it's a big deal to the
Speaker 6: most important person in the franchise. So I'm interested to
Speaker 6: see who's calling plays this year. If Press Taylor calls
Speaker 6: plays and they missed the playoffs, I think it could
Speaker 6: get interesting for Doug. I really did, which is kind
Speaker 6: of wild because I mean, you know, winning eighteen games
Speaker 6: in his first two seats, He's won more games in
Speaker 6: two seasons, and Gus Bradley won like four and a half.
Speaker 6: So it's definitely an interesting dynamic wahing moving forward.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Gus Bradley, that was That was That was kind
Speaker 1: of the era where, yeah, it's why I want to
Speaker 1: do a show focusing on the AFC South right now,
Speaker 1: because that was the era where you got the Jags
Speaker 1: Titans TNF game like during the World Series, like we
Speaker 1: know what you're doing, NFL, Like you're kind of sneaking
Speaker 1: in the bad TNF game like during the World Series,
Speaker 1: and like that's all you saw of the AFC South
Speaker 1: all year on prime time. We don't have a ton
Speaker 1: of time left, but you guys were really drinking the
Speaker 1: Ryan Nielsen kol aid you guys were having a conversation
Speaker 1: about like, hey, what do we do if Ryan Nielsen
Speaker 1: gets hired as a head coach. I was like, it's
Speaker 1: may is he that impressive in the offseason? And then
Speaker 1: just along with that, I guess like give me, give
Speaker 1: me anyone on the defensive side, just maybe that people
Speaker 1: don't know as much about, but it surprise you or
Speaker 1: look good. You just caught your eye between Neilson in
Speaker 1: the defense this this preseason.
Speaker 6: No, I think the big thing with Nielsen is that
Speaker 6: guy guy's being used more to their strengths, you know,
Speaker 6: mainly Josh Heinz Allen and Trevon Walker. Mike Tolllin had
Speaker 6: a great quote about the Jaguards defense last year. He's like,
Speaker 6: they run a three four, but their outside linebackers are
Speaker 6: like defensive ends.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, yeah, that's the entire problem.
Speaker 6: You know, Like Trevon Walker, he is best with his
Speaker 6: hand in and dirt moving forward, not dropping in the coverage.
Speaker 6: So you're seeing more of that from Ryan Nielsen, a
Speaker 6: lot more detailed work, especially with the defensive line. Different
Speaker 6: I think just brand of football, and I think that's
Speaker 6: what has gotten a lot of people, you know, excited.
Speaker 6: Change makes people excited, so that's probably a big thing
Speaker 6: of it. You know, him and Mike Calwell's scheme. It's
Speaker 6: a complete one to eighty in terms of players that
Speaker 6: you know, people should probably watch for. You know, I
Speaker 6: think that the staff has been really high on second
Speaker 6: round pick Mason Smith. You know, he missed a ton
Speaker 6: of time at LSU. That was a pick that was
Speaker 6: pretty blasted because he didn't really do much in college
Speaker 6: and they took him top fifty. You know, he's really impressed.
Speaker 6: He might even you know leap Roy Robinson Harris on
Speaker 6: the depth chart as Eric Arms steps back up, and
Speaker 6: then Antonio Johnson at safety, fifth round pick last year,
Speaker 6: he's going to start this year. They really liked his
Speaker 6: blitzing ability and his ability to work, you know as
Speaker 6: a strong safety last year, and he seems like a
Speaker 6: good compliment to Andre Cisco in the back end. I
Speaker 6: think with more snaps with him, he could be a
Speaker 6: guy that kind of surprises people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a fun safety group. Cisco is another guy,
Speaker 1: you know. I know, you guys talk about as having
Speaker 1: a potential breakout year can be a playmaker and it's
Speaker 1: one of those where Nielsen can get creative and he
Speaker 1: was impressive with the Falcons last year. They didn't have
Speaker 1: great talent. Ultimately their production was it depended on what
Speaker 1: numbers he looked at, but it wasn't like amazing. But
Speaker 1: again he was creative and it was fun. And you
Speaker 1: hope that the safeties can kind of make up for
Speaker 1: what to me is a little lack of depth behind
Speaker 1: Tyson Campbell at qrnerback. I think this team's more interesting
Speaker 1: this year than the last few years. I don't know
Speaker 1: if they're going to be good or not, but I
Speaker 1: do like that this division is so watchable. I'm going
Speaker 1: to be into all the AFC South games, especially Jaguars, Titans,
Speaker 1: and Colts, and I'm going to stay into listening to
Speaker 1: you John and Gus. Got to give Gus a shout
Speaker 1: out here on the podcast, and thank thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you.
Speaker 6: Man, Hey, thanks Man as always, you know, thanks for
Speaker 6: all the support.
Speaker 1: Ah no worries. John really does a great job. And yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it for this week. This has been a fun week.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: Next week we're going to do the same recap of
Speaker 1: the preseason games, but it might be more team notes
Speaker 1: with Nick Schuk that comes out on Monday nights because
Speaker 1: a lot of backups playing. And then we get into
Speaker 1: some of our predictions, and it's really the last week
Speaker 1: of the offseason. We are almost to twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Till then, see you next time.