Speaker 1: Hexam.
Speaker 2: I'm Pennannie Stevens. We are hearing from head coach Doug
Speaker 2: Peterson for the first time since free agency as the
Speaker 2: NFL holds their annual league meetings in Orlando. We'll have
Speaker 2: a live report a little later in the show as
Speaker 2: John Oser checks in with us and tells us all
Speaker 2: he's learned so far at the meetings. Brian Sexston is
Speaker 2: here with me in studio. We also have a special guest.
Speaker 2: We're going to start off with Big Thing one now,
Speaker 2: been there and done that. In regards to those free agents,
Speaker 2: a lot of them coming from winning teams, had coached.
Speaker 2: Doug Peterson said that was kind of the goal in
Speaker 2: who they were targeting.
Speaker 3: This is the culture that I want to establish in Jacksonville.
Speaker 3: And then this is the reason why you go get
Speaker 3: guys like Mitch Morris and Eric Armsteads and the Darnell
Speaker 3: Savages and the guys that have been to the postseason.
Speaker 3: These guys have been captains on their team and you know,
Speaker 3: they've been to Super Bowls, They've they've been to AFS
Speaker 3: Championship games.
Speaker 4: You know, so these guys know.
Speaker 3: How to win, and that's the that's kind of the
Speaker 3: influx of talent that we want to bring on to
Speaker 3: this our young roster, the guys that have.
Speaker 1: Been there, done that, been there and done that.
Speaker 2: Brian, this is something we discussed a lot in the
Speaker 2: off season, even the back end of last season. You're
Speaker 2: setting a culture here, but you also want that winning
Speaker 2: culture as well, and these guys know what that, know
Speaker 2: what it means to win, you know.
Speaker 5: Kyle, We've talked about it a lot since last November.
Speaker 5: You remember when the Jaguars lost to the San Francisco
Speaker 5: forty nine ers. It was a disheartening loss, thirty four
Speaker 5: to three, and after the game, Doug Peterson said, we
Speaker 5: haven't done anything yet. And the resounding thought from his
Speaker 5: coaching staff, bringing Ryan Nielsen and all the guys they
Speaker 5: assembled there to the free agents that they've brought in
Speaker 5: has been about the quality of person and the quality
Speaker 5: of their experience, whether they've been to Pro Bowls, Super Bowls,
Speaker 5: been on winning teams. Doug has tried to reinvigorate his
Speaker 5: locker room and his coaching staff with people of renown,
Speaker 5: people who have gotten things done. So I'm going to
Speaker 5: introduce you to somebody who got things done around here
Speaker 5: for ten years, and you all know him. Jaguars center
Speaker 5: Brandon Linder, now retire, joins US today. Hi Brandon, how
Speaker 5: are you? I'm doing well and you are a spelt
Speaker 5: two hundred and fifty pounds. You're getting it done at
Speaker 5: home now.
Speaker 6: I am yep, a lot of cardio and just eating
Speaker 6: protein and veggies.
Speaker 5: Do you miss the game?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 6: Yeah, of course, of course I miss it, but it
Speaker 6: was time for me to move on, and I couldn't
Speaker 6: be happier.
Speaker 5: We're going to talk about what you're doing and what
Speaker 5: you think of the Miller Electric Center. And by the way,
Speaker 5: it was wow which we walked through it. But you
Speaker 5: heard Doug. You know the guys that he brought in,
Speaker 5: and you know some of them, Mitch Morris and Eric Armstead,
Speaker 5: guys who have proven themselves on the field and off.
Speaker 5: You've been in the locker room a lot. Give me
Speaker 5: a perspective of what it means to bring guys like
Speaker 5: that in.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's a real exciting to see that you guys signed.
Speaker 6: Mitch Morris, heck of a player, great feet, very quick,
Speaker 6: brings his hips on contact. You'll see that throughout the year.
Speaker 6: Great in the past game, great in the run game.
Speaker 6: So that I mean, and that's where it starts, right
Speaker 6: at the center position. And he's a smart dude too,
Speaker 6: so relaying the calls obviously he'll figure out the plays.
Speaker 6: And then Eric Armstead, lengthy guy, has a heck of
Speaker 6: a bull rush, can swim off of it, can go
Speaker 6: under as well. So now you're just adding another tool
Speaker 6: there in the d line.
Speaker 5: Two guys like that who are accomplished come in and
Speaker 5: have an impact in the locker room in terms of
Speaker 5: their leadership style or because they're coming into it an
Speaker 5: established team, is that more difficult.
Speaker 6: No, I think when you come in as an established player,
Speaker 6: you can definitely have an impact on the locker room. Right,
Speaker 6: You've been other places, you've done it, you have a
Speaker 6: resumeated show for so guys, especially younger guys, right, they're
Speaker 6: going to look at that. They're going to lean on
Speaker 6: those guys, so they can definitely have an impact right away.
Speaker 5: The kay sounds like Doug Peterson's counting on that.
Speaker 1: He sure is.
Speaker 2: He's also counting on the fact that the way they
Speaker 2: finished last year will motivate this team going forward. Our
Speaker 2: second big thing is fuel to the fire, specifically talking
Speaker 2: about cornerback Trevor Lawrence does. So we've been in touch
Speaker 2: with them obviously in the and he feels like the
Speaker 2: way they finished is going to motivate Trevor going forward.
Speaker 7: Now he's playing meaningful games, he's playing he's taken the
Speaker 7: last two years our team to the right there and
Speaker 7: now we got to push through that and and so.
Speaker 1: And now it bothers him.
Speaker 3: That part bothers him, right, football bothers him.
Speaker 1: And and that's a good thing. Brian.
Speaker 2: We always talk about how Trevorson's very even keeled, but
Speaker 2: Doug saying, you know, the way things finished got him bothered,
Speaker 2: which is what you want to hear. You certainly don't
Speaker 2: want to hear that he's fine with it. Will this
Speaker 2: be the motivating factor.
Speaker 1: For him going forward?
Speaker 5: Well, it certainly seemed that way on the day that
Speaker 5: they cleaned out their lockers at the end of last season,
Speaker 5: just to look at his eye and my kids would say,
Speaker 5: Trevor's chill, right, We'll get Brandon's thought on that. You know,
Speaker 5: he's relaxed. He does it get too wound up. He's
Speaker 5: he's level. But you could tell that day in the
Speaker 5: locker room back in January that it was something that
Speaker 5: bothered him. Brandon, you and I talked a lot about
Speaker 5: Trevor in the last couple of months when we've connected.
Speaker 5: You think his upside is incredible. How do you see
Speaker 5: something like the last six games of last year when
Speaker 5: nothing seemed to go right, taking a young player and
Speaker 5: pushing him forward.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean his upside's tremendous. And what happened last year,
Speaker 6: you know that was a shame how it fell apart.
Speaker 4: I have been a part of that, and it's not fun.
Speaker 6: When I was with Trevor, I mean, he is so
Speaker 6: invested in this team. All he wants to do is win.
Speaker 6: That's all he's ever done in high school, college. So
Speaker 6: you're going to see a guy that I believe. You know,
Speaker 6: he's working, doing everything he needs to do this offseason,
Speaker 6: and he's motivated. He's ready to come in and put
Speaker 6: forth the effort like I know he's going to. And
Speaker 6: it just it takes the right parts, and I think
Speaker 6: I think they have it. I think they've gotten it,
Speaker 6: especially in free agency.
Speaker 5: Don't let me put words in me rout, but I
Speaker 5: think you maybe said you thought twice about retiring because
Speaker 5: you wanted the chance to play with this caliber of
Speaker 5: a quarterback.
Speaker 6: No, you're correct, and you know, I sometimes think, like man,
Speaker 6: I wish my career would have aligned with Trevor's because
Speaker 6: he is that special and you know that center quarterback connection,
Speaker 6: it's it's a special connection. So yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 6: definitely would have liked to have played more years with Trevor,
Speaker 6: but that's not the case.
Speaker 4: And that's all right.
Speaker 5: We got enough good years with Blake, that's right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And that's one of my best friends to this.
Speaker 5: Day, one of the fun guys we've had around Jacksonville
Speaker 5: in the years.
Speaker 4: Kay.
Speaker 2: Our final big thing today is going to be position flexibility.
Speaker 2: That was something Doug Peterson hammered home yesterday about being important,
Speaker 2: whether it's in terms of free agents that they brought
Speaker 2: in or who they're looking at in the draft.
Speaker 3: You're starting to see more guys with position flexibility, you know,
Speaker 3: just like you would offense a lineman, right. You know,
Speaker 3: guards that can play center, tackles can play both sides.
Speaker 3: You know, receivers you can move receivers around. I just
Speaker 3: think it's a It just helps your overall team and
Speaker 3: if you do have an injury at a position, you
Speaker 3: can plug and play a guy.
Speaker 2: Brian We saw a lot of musical chairs tally on
Speaker 2: the offensive line last season. But there are players now
Speaker 2: that they're bringing back they can play but multiple positions,
Speaker 2: whether it's Ezra Cleveland or others. And also he's talking
Speaker 2: about the defense, you know, bringing in a Darnell Savage
Speaker 2: who can play different positions on defense, possibly with different schemes.
Speaker 2: Is it more about having a good player that can
Speaker 2: also play other positions or someone that's kind of decent
Speaker 2: at everything.
Speaker 5: Well, I'd like to have a really great player that
Speaker 5: can do multiple things, but you'll take a good player
Speaker 5: that can do that as well. And in particular, this
Speaker 5: line of thought goes to Darnelle Savage and Antonio Johnson
Speaker 5: because both guys can play nickel. In fact, Antonio Johnson's
Speaker 5: a guy that's probably that big nickel that's more in
Speaker 5: run support, but Savage can do that as well. We
Speaker 5: have the perfect guy here in Brandon to talk about
Speaker 5: positional flexibility because he came in as a rookie in
Speaker 5: twenty fourteen and started at right guard. Kicked and domik ensues.
Speaker 5: But if I recall in Week two against Miami and
Speaker 5: that was Sue's debut with the Dolphins and he was
Speaker 5: the highest paid free agent in history. Not to lay
Speaker 5: that at your feet, but I remember the day. So
Speaker 5: the value in being able to do multiple things, and
Speaker 5: not just in terms of your contract, right, but in
Speaker 5: terms of on the practice field, in the meeting rooms,
Speaker 5: in a pinch, in a game.
Speaker 4: Oh, that's everything.
Speaker 6: And as a player, all you're trying to do is
Speaker 6: add value, right, you want that next contract extension, You
Speaker 6: want to start and have play as many years as
Speaker 6: you can.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: To do that, it's adding value to be able to
Speaker 6: And I'm just going to speak on the offensive. Sure,
Speaker 6: if you could play center, if you could play guard,
Speaker 6: left guard, right guard, normally that's how you swing in
Speaker 6: the inside and then tackle. If you can play both
Speaker 6: sides and play them both at a high level, it's everything.
Speaker 6: I mean, you can really add value to yourself and
Speaker 6: you prolong your career in the NFL.
Speaker 5: So we've talked a lot about Mitch Morse and they
Speaker 5: didn't sign him to coming to be the backup. He's
Speaker 5: going to come in and be the starter, which means
Speaker 5: that now Luke Fortner has a chance to learn to
Speaker 5: play a couple of different positions. How hard will it
Speaker 5: be for him to go from playing center to learning guard.
Speaker 5: Do you think he can be effective at that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, of course I could. I think he can be effective.
Speaker 6: And it's funny like going from left guard to right guard.
Speaker 6: It's not as easy as you would think because it's
Speaker 6: a completely different stance, completely different mechanics, right, You got
Speaker 6: to switch your brain.
Speaker 4: But you can learn that.
Speaker 6: You can develop that in the offseason, develop that in
Speaker 6: o Ta's training camp.
Speaker 4: That's what that's for.
Speaker 5: So ky when you bring in a guy like Mitch
Speaker 5: Morse and you take Luke Fordner and move him around,
Speaker 5: he's got thirty three thirty four regular season starts underneath
Speaker 5: his belt. Now you create depth as well as versatility,
Speaker 5: which gives Phil Rousher even more to work with in
Speaker 5: that offensive line room when we get started here in
Speaker 5: a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: Maybe adding in the draft as well. So we'll talk
Speaker 2: a little bit more offensive line a little later in
Speaker 2: the show, but stay with us here on Jagzam. Coming
Speaker 2: up after the break, we'll have a report from John
Speaker 2: Oser at the league meetings. Jaguars Fans Europe at fanatics
Speaker 2: dot com with all the latest Jag styles. You can
Speaker 2: shop now and get today's special offers. Fanatics dot Com
Speaker 2: officially licensed Everything seasons Welcome back to jag zam ozone.
Speaker 2: Ditch just last week he his own vacation now was
Speaker 2: ditch just again, but this time is a good reason.
Speaker 2: He's at the annual League leading John. I know you
Speaker 2: were there talking hearing from Doug yesterday. That's the first
Speaker 2: time we've heard from him since free agency. So what
Speaker 2: was kind of a tone from him and what was
Speaker 2: the overall method from him.
Speaker 1: I think what you guys led with with the top
Speaker 1: was the uh, you know, the money quote, if you will,
Speaker 1: uh talking about bringing in veteran guys. And I think
Speaker 1: even more than the veteran guy thing, even more than
Speaker 1: the guys who've been winning teams. He talked a little
Speaker 1: when he talked about that, about the swagger, and I
Speaker 1: think in the last six games the last season, he
Speaker 1: looked around and wanted guys to take control of the
Speaker 1: situation and win, and you know, there were times that
Speaker 1: didn't happen. So I think guys like Eric Armstead, guys
Speaker 1: you know, the six of the players brought in from
Speaker 1: Green Bay, the Ravens, the Bills, those teams have made
Speaker 1: seventeen postseason appearances. Over the last five seasons. I think
Speaker 1: he wants guys who are going to walk out and
Speaker 1: expect to win rather than hope to win. And there's
Speaker 1: a subtle difference there. But I definitely think the money
Speaker 1: quote yesterday was about the swagger and about the need
Speaker 1: to feel like you're gonna win late in the season.
Speaker 1: That's the defining thing of the off season of me. John.
Speaker 5: I saw a lot of chatter of people interpreting what
Speaker 5: Doug said right. Doug is one of those guys that
Speaker 5: if you read between the lines, he tells you a lot. However,
Speaker 5: when the conversation got to wide receiver or offensive line
Speaker 5: and where this team felt like they could still get better,
Speaker 5: where they might need to add players, where the focus
Speaker 5: might be on the draft, I felt like Doug was
Speaker 5: all in on every position, wasn't telling anybody anything. Did
Speaker 5: you hear something that I didn't? Was he leaning in
Speaker 5: one direction about where this team still needs to get
Speaker 5: better in April?
Speaker 1: Not really. You get the feeling that they would like,
Speaker 1: I think they have to get better at corner and
Speaker 1: I don't think you know it wouldn't really ask specifically yesterday,
Speaker 1: but they're still you feel like they have two guys
Speaker 1: who with big time experience, big time pedigree. You feel
Speaker 1: like they still got one more somewhere in the first
Speaker 1: couple of days. Beyond that, I think they'd like to
Speaker 1: get better at receiver, but don't want to force themselves
Speaker 1: into that situation. Probably that's true at most positions, right So,
Speaker 1: I didn't get the idea that they are targeting a
Speaker 1: certain area the sweet spot in the middle of the
Speaker 1: first round. It seems like receivers going to be their
Speaker 1: offensive line is going to be there. I think Doug's
Speaker 1: looking at it on the lines of if somebody drops
Speaker 1: to us, if the situations there, we'd love to get better,
Speaker 1: but we can line up, which is probably the way
Speaker 1: you want to be right now going into the draft, John, we.
Speaker 2: Got some ozone questions for you because you got to
Speaker 2: check in obviously. At the league meetings they do some
Speaker 2: of those rule changes. So our first one is about
Speaker 2: the one they hold it on yesterday, the.
Speaker 1: Hip drop tackle.
Speaker 2: So how can rest possibly enforce this new hip drop
Speaker 2: tackle rule when it's I mean, they try to enforce
Speaker 2: a lot of things, so I'm sure they'll find a way,
Speaker 2: but this one seems a little bit weird as a defender,
Speaker 2: What are you allowed to do at this point?
Speaker 1: Oh, they'll enforce it. I mean, it's whether it's quote
Speaker 1: unquote fair. You know, my life's not fair, son, You
Speaker 1: know so, I think that's what you're telling some of
Speaker 1: the defenders right now. How do you avoid doing that?
Speaker 1: I guess it's probably the same answer that you had
Speaker 1: to give to safeties a few years back when you say, well,
Speaker 1: how do you avoid hitting receiver in a certain way? Well,
Speaker 1: you just do it, and in some cases that means
Speaker 1: sort of giving up a little more on defense than
Speaker 1: you want to. I don't think it's great for the
Speaker 1: quote enjoyment of the game. I think you'll see some
Speaker 1: clunkiness with it. I think defenders may be for things
Speaker 1: they weren't fined for in the past. But this is
Speaker 1: an era where the league has to continue to gear
Speaker 1: toward player safety for numerous reasons. First of all, because
Speaker 1: players should be kept safe. It's I can't sit here
Speaker 1: and say that. I could look a defensive back or
Speaker 1: a linebacker in the face and say, hey, the game's
Speaker 1: getting easier for you. Now it gets harder, and it'll
Speaker 1: be it'll be tough to adapt, but they'll enforce it.
Speaker 1: I mean, they'll be penalties, and they'll be complaints, and
Speaker 1: they'll be outrage on Twitter, because there's always out always
Speaker 1: outrage on Twitter.
Speaker 5: And I saw something as Twitter. It just a quick
Speaker 5: thought on that. By the way, you know, remember when
Speaker 5: they had to rule two years ago with the running
Speaker 5: back and they were going to hit the running back
Speaker 5: for lowering his head into contact. I haven't seen a
Speaker 5: whole lot of that the last couple of years. You know,
Speaker 5: every once in a while, when it's blatant, they'll call it,
Speaker 5: and I remember there was a great hue and cry
Speaker 5: about it. How in the world can you do that?
Speaker 5: And they haven't over enforced that. My guess is is
Speaker 5: that when it'll all boils down, there's gonna be some
Speaker 5: really obvious hip drop tackles where guys get hurt, right
Speaker 5: like the one with them the tight end from the
Speaker 5: Ravens against the Bengals, and that wonder will be so obvious.
Speaker 5: But I'm not sure that this is going to be
Speaker 5: as cold as you think.
Speaker 2: We'll see how it goes. But it's a new rule,
Speaker 2: so they always love to enforce the newest rules. John
Speaker 2: also hasn't officially been done yet. They've been talking about
Speaker 2: it as of yesterday. Dug weighed in on it. But
Speaker 2: the kickoff changes. They didn't see many returns at all
Speaker 2: on kickoffs last year after they changed the rules, so
Speaker 2: they're kind of allegedly going to tweak it. They haven't
Speaker 2: voted on it yet. Do you think that'll go through
Speaker 2: and how much will it change things?
Speaker 1: Yeah, they voted on it this morning and actually did
Speaker 1: go through, So it seems like it's going to change
Speaker 1: things a lot. And I saw somewhere it was called
Speaker 1: one of the most significant rules change in NFL history.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's that, but it's it's going
Speaker 1: to look different. I think the quote, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think the stat was there were no kickoff returned to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. Some people about my old friend Pete Prisco,
Speaker 1: who cares just to throw the ball in at the
Speaker 1: twenty and line up. You know, I think you do
Speaker 1: like to have kickoffs in the game. I think it
Speaker 1: does add a level of excitement. This one's gonna be
Speaker 1: interesting because if you kick it in a certain area,
Speaker 1: they have to return it. If you don't kick a
Speaker 1: certain area, you get the ball at the forty. It's
Speaker 1: going to promote offense it's going to promote excitement. That's
Speaker 1: what the league wants. It's definitely something to watch. It'll
Speaker 1: keep some jobs open on special teams. It'll make it
Speaker 1: more important, which I think matters to the NFLPA. So's
Speaker 1: it's going to be a factor and and you're gonna
Speaker 1: see that back in the game. I think you'll get
Speaker 1: a few complaints from the old people like me. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm gona complain about it, but I'm an old person
Speaker 1: that it. It's gonna look sort of clunky at first
Speaker 1: because guys can't run at the on the kick. They
Speaker 1: have to wait. So it's going to look different than
Speaker 1: what some guy played in high school. Right, So it's
Speaker 1: gonna ah, that's not football. But it'll promote the kickoff
Speaker 1: return and it does seem to be a place where
Speaker 1: they can find some middle ground with excitement and player safety.
Speaker 1: And that's really the whole task of the league right now.
Speaker 1: Last seven or eight years has been about trying to
Speaker 1: make the game safer without losing the excitement, and this
Speaker 1: is a move toward that.
Speaker 5: For people who aren't familiar with it, just in round terms. Basically,
Speaker 5: what they're going to do is have the kickoff coverage
Speaker 5: team and the front line of the kickoff return team
Speaker 5: line up five yards apart. Then they're not going to
Speaker 5: be able to move until the ball is caught by
Speaker 5: the return man. And as John mentioned, if you kick
Speaker 5: it into the zone, then it will likely be returned.
Speaker 5: If you don't kick it into that zone, then the
Speaker 5: ball is twenty five yards up the field to the
Speaker 5: forty yard line, so there's a penalty. They're really trying
Speaker 5: to find a safe way to bring the kickoff back in.
Speaker 5: I heard yesterday there was something like, oh, I don't know,
Speaker 5: the forty five hundred kickoffs two years ago and then
Speaker 5: last year when some rules changed, they dropped it to
Speaker 5: thirteen hundred something like that. I mean, there's like a
Speaker 5: third of the number of kickoffs returned in a third
Speaker 5: of the number of yards, and they want to bring
Speaker 5: it back. So you're going to see some of this
Speaker 5: stuff showing up in stories when we have practice in OTAs.
Speaker 5: As they practice it, it's not easy to envision because
Speaker 5: it's completely different than anything we've seen in professional football.
Speaker 2: That is going to be something to see for sure
Speaker 2: when you explain it as physsically, what that's going to
Speaker 2: look like when you're kind of frozen.
Speaker 1: Until they get the football.
Speaker 2: It's a completely different dynamic now.
Speaker 5: Somebody that trust wrote that it's the biggest difference, Brandon
Speaker 5: in terms of the visual of the game since they
Speaker 5: moved the goalpost out of the front of the end
Speaker 5: zone and moved them to the back, and that was
Speaker 5: in like nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's going to be interesting. I didn't even know
Speaker 6: about the rule change. I'm hearing you explain that.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 5: It's like, it's a little bit clunky, but it's they
Speaker 5: think it's the way to save the kickoffs because the
Speaker 5: league has been trying to minimize it's considered to be
Speaker 5: the most dangerous play in football, right, I mean, statistically proven,
Speaker 5: it has become the most dangerous playing football. So they've
Speaker 5: been legislating it away in recent years with the you
Speaker 5: know how they moved the kickoff up and all the
Speaker 5: rules that have minimized the number of kickoff returns. This
Speaker 5: is a way to sort of create something they think
Speaker 5: will be safer and still give you the potential to
Speaker 5: have that big play, field changing, game changing kind of moment.
Speaker 2: John, I got one more last question for you before
Speaker 2: we let you go. Do we have any idea what
Speaker 2: they're doing with seventeen or are we still thinking corner? Are
Speaker 2: we discussing still?
Speaker 1: Oh and number seventeen in the draft. I continue to
Speaker 1: figure it'll be corner because I look at the cornerback
Speaker 1: situation and Darby and Campbell seem like, you know what
Speaker 1: I would call resume pedigree. Guys, you know what they've done.
Speaker 1: Beyond that, they have Christian braswell Tarek Brown, who they like.
Speaker 1: I haven't been in the fire yet, so to me,
Speaker 1: it feels like seventeen or corner at seventeen. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: At the same time, you can also take that in
Speaker 1: round two, round three. So I think it's a corner
Speaker 1: offensive line. I keep saying, I don't think it's receiver,
Speaker 1: but that's also a possibility. Those would be the three
Speaker 1: spots that I would guess, So I'll go either corner,
Speaker 1: offensive line. But what do I know?
Speaker 5: Depends on who's there, doesn't it. It always depends on who
Speaker 5: might slide down the board and be there.
Speaker 2: You know what, all, John, who's there, have a good
Speaker 2: time in Orlando. We'll see you next week here on
Speaker 2: Jags Am.
Speaker 1: Stay here with us.
Speaker 2: We're gonna check it with Brandon lend a little bit
Speaker 2: more go over that offensive line and what he sees
Speaker 2: out there. From Jack's stay with us, Move the freight,
Speaker 2: Move the freight. Magell and Transport got the coolest office
Speaker 2: space in Jacksonville. You can fly online at www dot
Speaker 2: Magellan Logistics dot com. Welcome back to jag Zam here
Speaker 2: in the Hyundai studios and we have our special guest,
Speaker 2: Branding Linder here with us, who's center for the team
Speaker 2: offensive line and for the team center for many years.
Speaker 2: The offensive line last year was a bit of a
Speaker 2: trouble spot for the Jaguars, to say the least. A
Speaker 2: lot of injuries, a lot of you know, kind of
Speaker 2: moving parts. Head coach Doug Peterson said he felt a
Speaker 2: lot of the issues were the fact that they didn't
Speaker 2: really have a set lineup. But offensive line, I mean,
Speaker 2: injuries are going to happen no matter what. How hard
Speaker 2: is it when you go out there and you don't
Speaker 2: know who's going to be next to you? Is it
Speaker 2: a lot different when there's different players and different positions
Speaker 2: on every game?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is different.
Speaker 6: And I've been a part of years where the line
Speaker 6: was like that, where continually revolving door. I've also been
Speaker 6: a part of lines where we started together the whole year,
Speaker 6: and you definitely want to be next to the guy.
Speaker 6: I mean, yes, they're the backups. Can have that same
Speaker 6: kind of you know, to lepathy where I don't even
Speaker 6: have to say, like AJ can like was was you know,
Speaker 6: I played with him forever. There would be things where
Speaker 6: I could just literally look at him or get like
Speaker 6: just make some sort of audible noise and he would
Speaker 6: understand what I'm saying. Right, So it's it's everything to
Speaker 6: have that type of cohesion with each other. But that's
Speaker 6: not this But that's not an excuse. You know, everyone
Speaker 6: still needs to rise to the occasion.
Speaker 1: What was it like for you?
Speaker 2: I know we talked a little bit about that transition
Speaker 2: from position, especially in the NFL. Maybe you haven't played
Speaker 2: that position at all or in a long time, but
Speaker 2: to kind of trans know that your role is now
Speaker 2: a different position. Was that an easy transition for you?
Speaker 6: It was just something that needed to be worked on.
Speaker 6: I mean I started my first two years at right guard,
Speaker 6: and I had played center in high school and in college,
Speaker 6: and in college I moved from right guard to right tackle,
Speaker 6: so I had that kind of you know, experience at
Speaker 6: that But no, it was just taking the off season,
Speaker 6: you know, learning how to snap at an efficient rate,
Speaker 6: and then you know center, you know, iding the front
Speaker 6: insideing the mike linebackers, you know, kind of taking the
Speaker 6: calls and spreading him down the line.
Speaker 4: So it was just that kind of change.
Speaker 5: How hard is it if you're the quarterback and you
Speaker 5: have Cam Robinson, you know, gone for four games, and
Speaker 5: then he's in for eight games. Then he's gone for
Speaker 5: four games. Right, he had four different starting left guards.
Speaker 5: I mean, to be fair to Luke Fortner who struggled
Speaker 5: last year, but he had constant turn over next to him.
Speaker 4: How about the quarterback?
Speaker 5: You know, when things didn't go well last year, he
Speaker 5: didn't point fingers, but it had to be tough on him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean he'll never point fingers, but not knowing
Speaker 6: who is going to be playing on Sunday at that position,
Speaker 6: you might not think it or say it, but in
Speaker 6: the back of his head when he's dropping back, you know,
Speaker 6: to pass, and he's going through his progressions making his reads,
Speaker 6: there might be a little thing in the back of
Speaker 6: his head like what's going on over here at the
Speaker 6: left side. Right, do I need to float drift more
Speaker 6: more over to the right. So yes, if everyone can
Speaker 6: stay together, that's the best case. But again you have
Speaker 6: to adjust teams.
Speaker 2: Ring and Mitch Morse, you know who's in Kansas City
Speaker 2: and Buffalo for a while, a veteran presence. What does
Speaker 2: that do for a quarterback to have somebody you know
Speaker 2: coming in really commanding in the center and has been there,
Speaker 2: done that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. Then they're done that.
Speaker 6: You know, he has the experience, he can you know,
Speaker 6: he'll learn the plays, he'll learn the calls very easily,
Speaker 6: and then they'll they'll create a bond together and.
Speaker 4: And they'll you know, I'm sure they'll win a bunch
Speaker 4: of games, which is exciting to see. And that's what
Speaker 4: you hope happens.
Speaker 5: How long does it take to form that that bond center?
Speaker 5: So he had you as a rookie, and then he
Speaker 5: had looke forward to the last two years. Now he's
Speaker 5: got Mitch Morse going into his fourth year. Is he
Speaker 5: old had enough to be able to do that quickly?
Speaker 5: Or is that something that we're going to watch evolve
Speaker 5: over the course of the season.
Speaker 6: I mean it takes an off season, you know, OTAs
Speaker 6: and by camp. Yeah, by and then by camp you're flowing,
Speaker 6: and then by the season you should be hitting on
Speaker 6: all cylinders. And then guess what, that next year is
Speaker 6: going to be even better in the year after that, and.
Speaker 1: You know, so it's a be a good one.
Speaker 2: We saw some young talent in Anton Harrison. He was
Speaker 2: one of the bright spots. Certainly last year at right
Speaker 2: tackle to come didn't have that much success, is it.
Speaker 1: When you came in?
Speaker 2: I wasn't here, so please fill me in a little bit.
Speaker 2: But did you feel like you had some anchor points
Speaker 2: to kind of work off when you got here? Did
Speaker 2: you feel like you learned as you went along? Was
Speaker 2: there some lineman that kind of coached you along the way?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 6: Actually, when I got here, there wasn't very many. You know,
Speaker 6: it was not a veteran group. Yeah, it was not
Speaker 6: a veteran group. You know, there was a Beatles that
Speaker 6: left guard. I leaned on him a lot, but it
Speaker 6: was not a veteran group. So it was kind of
Speaker 6: like thrown into the fire. And I was starting since
Speaker 6: day one and kind of just figuring it out. But
Speaker 6: like I told Brian, you know, off air, like there
Speaker 6: was guys that I leaned on like paulpaz Lusny and
Speaker 6: Mercedes Lewis, you know how to be professionals, what it
Speaker 6: looked like, and just modeled, modeled my game in my
Speaker 6: career after them, even though they were different positions, but
Speaker 6: just how I went about my business.
Speaker 4: So yeah, just thrown to the fire and I came
Speaker 4: out all right.
Speaker 5: Well, and look, Gus Bradley did not have a great
Speaker 5: record as the head coach here, but I liked his
Speaker 5: mentality about you have to be in order to be
Speaker 5: a great teammate, you had to be a great individual.
Speaker 5: You had to come to work every day, the idea
Speaker 5: that it was on you to be your best and
Speaker 5: not to worry, not to make it be about a
Speaker 5: veteran guy next to you or someone else. It was
Speaker 5: all about you coming in the door every day, focused
Speaker 5: entirely on being the best Brandon Linder you could be.
Speaker 6: Yes, I mean again, this is a team sport, right,
Speaker 6: this is the Jacksonville Jaguars. But at the end of
Speaker 6: the day, I'm an individual business, right, Each player is
Speaker 6: an individual business. As soon as you're not as soon
Speaker 6: as you're not performing or you're getting paid too much,
Speaker 6: they're gonna they're gonna move on from you. So you
Speaker 6: have to do everything you can, as Brandon Linder, as
Speaker 6: Trevor Lawrence, to go out there and put put put
Speaker 6: the best film out there, because that's that's your resume,
Speaker 6: that's what they're looking at, and that's how you play
Speaker 6: a long time in the league, and that's how you
Speaker 6: can stay with the team for a while, and that's
Speaker 6: how you can sign, you know, a contract extension.
Speaker 5: When you have a locker room full of guys who
Speaker 5: come in every day wanting to be the best version
Speaker 5: of themselves, willing to work harder, willing to stay longer,
Speaker 5: willing to eat the right thing and do the right
Speaker 5: thing in terms of recovery and study, well, then you've
Speaker 5: got something, right. I mean, they have to be good players, right.
Speaker 5: We learned we didn't have enough good players when Guss
Speaker 5: was trying to implement that philosophy. But had we had
Speaker 5: enough good players. I think that philosophy is how it
Speaker 5: works in.
Speaker 6: Today's Yeah, and then that becomes part of the culture.
Speaker 6: I mean that then you know you see other guys
Speaker 6: doing it, well, I need to do that, all right.
Speaker 6: It's it's contagious, right, And that's and I think in
Speaker 6: seventeen when we had that success.
Speaker 4: We had a lot of good players.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but you saw guys doing that and that's that's
Speaker 6: what it takes to win, setting that standard.
Speaker 2: Stay with us here on jag Zam. Brand is gonna
Speaker 2: catch us up on what he's been up to and
Speaker 2: we'll look ahead here on Jagsam. Jags fans joined us Tuesday,
Speaker 2: April sixteenth, from six thirty to eight thirty at EverBank
Speaker 2: Stadium for the Beat inspired by JAG's Jobs event that's
Speaker 2: presented by the Florida Lottery. You can register now at
Speaker 2: Jaguars dot com slash Bright Futures. Back hereon Jack Zam, Brandon,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining us today. It's been
Speaker 2: really nice to get your perspective. Thing.
Speaker 5: It is too bad that you weren't here when Brandon
Speaker 5: was playing. He was the most challenging interviewer interviewee in
Speaker 5: the locker room. Well because he was focused. I mean,
Speaker 5: now that he's retired, he'll tell you he was so
Speaker 5: focused on what he had to do next. But it
Speaker 5: was like, Brand, do you have time to talk? What
Speaker 5: do you want sext? And what do you mean?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 6: I was just going from one thing to next, right,
Speaker 6: I come off the practice field. Then it was a
Speaker 6: cool downstretched ice tubs, gotta get my food, the meetings.
Speaker 6: To me, I didn't have time for this, right I'm
Speaker 6: trying to do everything I can to help the team win.
Speaker 5: He was trying to be the best version of himself,
Speaker 5: which is it's part of the relationship that you build.
Speaker 5: You kind of understand to give him his room. But
Speaker 5: as you've heard, the reason I wanted to hear from
Speaker 5: him was because he always had something good to say
Speaker 5: when I could stop him, but he was always so
Speaker 5: focused on it. So last year we did Jags All Access,
Speaker 5: Brandon came back up into town and we reconnected. I've
Speaker 5: worked on a story for the Jags Legends alumni and
Speaker 5: Brandon is up here today and I said, will you
Speaker 5: do it?
Speaker 6: It's like, yeah, because you want to do some of this, right, Yeah,
Speaker 6: I do, and I want to. I want to be
Speaker 6: a part of this community. I want to be a
Speaker 6: part of this organization. I mean, I love Jacksonville. I
Speaker 6: mean that that was a strategic plan my part two
Speaker 6: to retire a Jaguar. There hasn't been many lifers. I
Speaker 6: I plan on living here my whole life. I mean,
Speaker 6: I love Jacksonville. So yeah, I want to I want
Speaker 6: to be a part of it. I want to get
Speaker 6: back in the organization, you know, part of the community
Speaker 6: still doing stuff, which I'm actually here also to talk
Speaker 6: about next year we're going to be doing a fishing tournament,
Speaker 6: which start start figuring out the logistics of that. But
Speaker 6: you know, affiliated with the Jaguars and and you know,
Speaker 6: bringing awareness to a great cause.
Speaker 5: Guess who one of his best boys was when he
Speaker 5: was here, Punter Logoman, Oh Jean out doorsman of the day,
Speaker 5: and probably the punter too. I mean, anybody who would
Speaker 5: hunt fish, you would be offshore fishing, you'd be out
Speaker 5: in the woods hunting.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Logan Cook, you have a great friend of mine
Speaker 6: and Jeff, my rookie year. Uh he heard that I
Speaker 6: that I like to hunt and fish and so that yeah,
Speaker 6: I think it was your tas we started talking and
Speaker 6: from there, Yeah, that that relationship bloomed.
Speaker 5: Now ask him about his wife, because watch him beam
Speaker 5: from side to side.
Speaker 2: Yes, tell us about your wife.
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 6: Yeah, No, she's she's amazing. She's in residency right now.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna be an orthopedic surgeon, and that's kind of
Speaker 6: why I'm not living here in Jacksonville for right now,
Speaker 6: but roughly three years we'll be back up here.
Speaker 4: And uh and you know, calling this home.
Speaker 6: But she's incredible, she's finishing out her five year residency.
Speaker 4: And then and then yeah, orthopedic surgeon. Wonderful, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: We love a power couple.
Speaker 2: That's so exciting. Brandon, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2: We hope to have you back soon and we love
Speaker 2: your insights, so we'll hopefully see you in a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having us all right, that's dagsam.
Speaker 2: We'll see you guys next week