Speaker 1: Welcome to the official Pod. We are down here Mobile, Labama.
Speaker 1: By this time, the Senior Bowl is over. But I'm
Speaker 1: joined by Mike La Fleur. We were presented by wind
Speaker 1: bet Bet into the team sport but together at win Bet.
Speaker 1: You made an entrance here today. How different is your
Speaker 1: role now as the offensive coordinators of the New York
Speaker 1: Jets compared to the last time you were here working
Speaker 1: for Kyle Shanahan and San Francisco for much, you know,
Speaker 1: And it's but it's uh, it's coming full circle a
Speaker 1: little bit, you know. I mean when we came down here,
Speaker 1: it was it was a really good experience. Obviously the
Speaker 1: first two years in San Francisco, um I was a
Speaker 1: receiver coach and pass game coordinator and did a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff still with the quarterbacks because Kyle was floating
Speaker 1: around as a head coach when we came down to
Speaker 1: the Senior Bowls, like it's your show, you know, so
Speaker 1: there was gonna be no interaction and and basically he
Speaker 1: worked in two thousand eleven. Uh, when he was with
Speaker 1: the Redskins, they worked down here, and they put a
Speaker 1: lot of offense and I guess absolutely overloaded the players
Speaker 1: and so the only piece of vice the game. He's like,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna make the same mistake I did. So
Speaker 1: we came in with a very simple plan. Just allow
Speaker 1: these guys to play fast. Um. I thought we had
Speaker 1: a really good week when we came down here. It
Speaker 1: was really good for myself and all the other young
Speaker 1: coaches just to kind of run the room while some
Speaker 1: of the other guys took a step back. And then, um,
Speaker 1: you know, and then I get down here and there's
Speaker 1: I don't know where to stand out there right now.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to watch but also not getting the way.
Speaker 1: But you're trying to coach, you know, so um, but
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's cool. It's cool to watch Rob Calvaries
Speaker 1: and all the other guys get a crack at it.
Speaker 1: Yeah you're young, dude, but you're talking about Rob Calabrie's
Speaker 1: who's I believe thirty one year thirty five? What's it
Speaker 1: like when you go in that quarterbacks meeting room and
Speaker 1: watch him orches straight, I'm thirty four. I got one more.
Speaker 1: The only reason Eric I'm gonna say that is because
Speaker 1: my wife just turned thirty five. So we always have
Speaker 1: that little six week buffer where I get to be
Speaker 1: the okay, so I jumping on right there? No, it's UM,
Speaker 1: it's cool. You know Rob, Rob's a very intelligent, smart guy. Um,
Speaker 1: he knows how to communicate with the quarterbacks. Um, I
Speaker 1: had never worked with them before, obviously, And even though
Speaker 1: he was in this system before in Denver with Rich Gangarrello,
Speaker 1: there's still nuances and differences, you know, so that you're one,
Speaker 1: you're still trying to get UM on the same page
Speaker 1: with everything. And UM, he's ready to take off, you know,
Speaker 1: and it this is a great experience for him, but
Speaker 1: he's he's ready for this experience. I'm more fired up
Speaker 1: for guys like Mac Brown, Billy Vanderberg, Jake Morland running
Speaker 1: an offensive line. UM, just guys that haven't ran in
Speaker 1: NFL room before and where they get to just coach
Speaker 1: that whole thing up for the week. How did you
Speaker 1: prepare for it when Kyle said you were going to
Speaker 1: be the guy down here? How did you get ready
Speaker 1: for it? And with that being said, what did you
Speaker 1: say to Rob? Because I know you don't want to
Speaker 1: psyche these guys out put too much on their shoulders
Speaker 1: where it's like they're making more of it than maybe
Speaker 1: they should. Where you have over preparations. When when we
Speaker 1: came down here in eighteen, they did not have any
Speaker 1: of the documents from seven years ago in Washington when
Speaker 1: my brother was the quarterback coach. No one had any
Speaker 1: of those documents. So we did somewhat have to start
Speaker 1: from scratch. Um, and again I got the piece of
Speaker 1: advice from Kyle, Hey, keep this thing simple. Uh. The
Speaker 1: the whole deal for everyone in this league is to,
Speaker 1: you know, just see these guys play as fast as
Speaker 1: humanly possible. Give a little bit of stuff in to
Speaker 1: them where you can see their brains working, adding a
Speaker 1: few things and switching up a few things every single day. Um,
Speaker 1: when we found out we were coming here, they are.
Speaker 1: He had they are. He had the test because I
Speaker 1: had all the files. So I'm like, hey, we just
Speaker 1: basically got to switch this over to our terminology now,
Speaker 1: which was basically the same terminology. So they got a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of the hard work out of
Speaker 1: the way. They just had to make the cut ups
Speaker 1: and get these guys prepared, rescripted on out, get it
Speaker 1: out to the guys. Now. These guys are so prepared,
Speaker 1: The players are so prepared with all the different trainers
Speaker 1: and stuff that they're working with. They get the information
Speaker 1: even faster than they did three three years ago. I
Speaker 1: mean they're asking for the information two weeks in advance,
Speaker 1: and that's good and all. You'd almost get bored because
Speaker 1: there's not enough offense to like, you know, you'll learn
Speaker 1: it in two days if you're going to study it.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. It's not our whole playbook
Speaker 1: by any means. It's five percent and it's dummy down.
Speaker 1: So so so five percent you said, probably, yeah, five
Speaker 1: teen percent, But I mean there's so many rules with this.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't get in three by one formations.
Speaker 1: It's uh, you know, you're you're you're stuck in two
Speaker 1: by two, um, stuff like that, so that you can't motion.
Speaker 1: So I mean there's you're you're so limited in what
Speaker 1: you can do anyways, you know. So that's where I
Speaker 1: like to give out the playbook. But then you keep
Speaker 1: a couple of things on the side so that it
Speaker 1: doesn't get old and stale. And then you also want
Speaker 1: to see how fast guys can learn, you know, because
Speaker 1: that's part of you know, the the unique advantage that
Speaker 1: we get is we get to be in the meetings
Speaker 1: with them. Everyone gets to watch them out there, but
Speaker 1: we get a little bit closer and we get the
Speaker 1: meetings and so you get to kind of see how
Speaker 1: they process information. What are the challenges with the terminology
Speaker 1: in such a short amount of time. Um, just that
Speaker 1: it's new, you know, UM a lot of these guys
Speaker 1: and this isn't new this year or last year. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is college football. What seems like over the last
Speaker 1: ten fifteen years, they're not even in huddles anymore. So
Speaker 1: it's sometimes if they didn't do it in high school
Speaker 1: and they didn't do in college, they've never been in
Speaker 1: a huddle here, and not only a play call for
Speaker 1: the first time, but a play call that might have
Speaker 1: ten eleven words in it, you know, and it's telling
Speaker 1: everyone where to line up, what kind of split the take,
Speaker 1: what's going on in the protection. If I'm a receiver,
Speaker 1: I don't need to worry about the protection until I
Speaker 1: have to, because there might be one word where I'm
Speaker 1: I'm a part of that protection. Uh So it's just
Speaker 1: being able to process that information. If you know, uh,
Speaker 1: kind of split those play calls up in your head.
Speaker 1: Everyone's gonna hear it a little bit different, but you
Speaker 1: try to give them a couple of uh coaching points
Speaker 1: to to how to hear it, and then um, you know.
Speaker 1: It's one thing to be in the meeting get it
Speaker 1: UH coached you, but it's another thing in real time
Speaker 1: because you want to be able to break the huddle
Speaker 1: and not look back like what do I got? You know,
Speaker 1: because again we're we're all out there and if you're
Speaker 1: doing that too often, then there's something that's uh maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit off on how you're hearing it, and
Speaker 1: we'll get you coached up. But uh you know. So
Speaker 1: it's a challenge for him because it's a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of it's new for these guys. Can you
Speaker 1: talk about the advantages for the staff to not only
Speaker 1: get these guys on the field, but get them behind
Speaker 1: closed doors watch them absorb the concepts, look at the film,
Speaker 1: talk about um you know, but basically recite what you
Speaker 1: guys are telling. Now, yeah, no, it's you get it.
Speaker 1: You get a um, you know, up close view of
Speaker 1: these guys and and how they're digesting the information that
Speaker 1: you give them, and not only digesting it and be
Speaker 1: able to recite it back to you, but then after
Speaker 1: practice come back and you know you're coaching them up
Speaker 1: see if you know, you can ask him a question, Hey,
Speaker 1: what do you think you could do better here? And
Speaker 1: it might be something you've never even coach, but hey,
Speaker 1: there's a receiver I could have you know, attacked an
Speaker 1: edge a little bit more and got a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a re stammer. I was a little bit
Speaker 1: short to my router, whatever have you. So it's stuff
Speaker 1: that even at the combine you don't you don't get.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is this is real football. And that's why, um,
Speaker 1: you know, just having the one experience with the Senior Bowl,
Speaker 1: it's in my opinion, way more beneficial than the Combine
Speaker 1: because you get the full interaction, you get the practice,
Speaker 1: and then you know culmination with the game. Win bet
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Speaker 1: called one D seven zero because I've one one seven.
Speaker 1: Can we go back to your planning days? Uh, talk
Speaker 1: about yourself as a quarterback and you played safety too, right,
Speaker 1: it's safety. Uh. My senior year I got moved to safety.
Speaker 1: Actually are snowline coach Jake Moreland, his best friends Tim
Speaker 1: Lester was now the head coach at Western Michigan. He U,
Speaker 1: he came in my senior ye and we're going to
Speaker 1: run more of a pro style offense at Elmer's College.
Speaker 1: So being a five eight dude that I wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: be able to see very well. Uh, and we had
Speaker 1: a very good quarterback was one of my best friends,
Speaker 1: you know, in front of me. So um he started
Speaker 1: at quarterback and I moved over to safety my senior
Speaker 1: year and started at free safety all year. So it
Speaker 1: was it was I'd never played defense before. I was
Speaker 1: always a quarterback all through high school. That we didn't.
Speaker 1: We didn't go two ways. So I was always a quarterback.
Speaker 1: So what was your what's that? What were weighing in
Speaker 1: at I was in high school? In college, Well you
Speaker 1: played you played safety only in college? Yeah, right. I
Speaker 1: got up to one eight seven my senior year at
Speaker 1: five eight. It was like carrying a ton of bricks
Speaker 1: on your feet. It was. It was one of the
Speaker 1: dumbest moves I made because I thought, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: my first year playing defense, I gotta be able to
Speaker 1: I gotta be able to have some sturdiness and hit
Speaker 1: some So I gained a bunch of weight, and now
Speaker 1: I couldn't run like I could as a quarterback, you know.
Speaker 1: So I always looked back at that like that was
Speaker 1: so dumb, Like, but how much did your quarterback background
Speaker 1: help you when you go back to place I started because,
Speaker 1: like I said, I mean, it wasn't I'd never played defense.
Speaker 1: You know, being a quarterback, you're gonna know kind of
Speaker 1: everything that's going on. So that was the easy transition.
Speaker 1: It was, Hey, at the moment of truth, am I
Speaker 1: gonna go stick my face in there? And I felt
Speaker 1: like I would. But the problem was I wasn't getting
Speaker 1: from point a to point defense enough because I was
Speaker 1: in probably twelve pounds overweight, because I thought I had
Speaker 1: to get nice and for playing defense. So anyway, I
Speaker 1: played played defense that senior year. But before that, I
Speaker 1: was a quarterback for three years. Started one year and
Speaker 1: it was a good experience and we went to it
Speaker 1: was a D three school in Chicago. I'm from small
Speaker 1: town Michigan, so that was a whole just the school
Speaker 1: experience being you know, in the summers of Chicago was different. Um,
Speaker 1: it was cool. It was really cool. Where the coaching
Speaker 1: bug come from? Because your your older brother now Matt
Speaker 1: is what seven years older than you, a little over seven? Yeah,
Speaker 1: where did it come from? So it goes, I mean
Speaker 1: it goes pretty far back to my grandpa, my mom's dad. Uh.
Speaker 1: He was a high school head coach in Michigan for
Speaker 1: for twenty five plus years. Um. He played at Western Michigan. Um,
Speaker 1: so he started it. My mom loved football because that's
Speaker 1: what she knew growing up. She was at chew it
Speaker 1: or she goes to Central Michigan, meets my dad who's
Speaker 1: a player there. He was a he was a linebacker there.
Speaker 1: Um and then d line is senior year he gets
Speaker 1: into coaching. He coaches at Central Michigan for twenty three years.
Speaker 1: And then you know, my brother gets into it. And
Speaker 1: I'm the one that I tried to get away from
Speaker 1: it when I was at Elmhurst because it was a
Speaker 1: it was a Division three school. There's no scholarships, so
Speaker 1: you had, you know, I had had a pace some
Speaker 1: money to go to school there. My mom's like, if
Speaker 1: you're going to school in Chicago, and my brother tried
Speaker 1: talking me into it, We're gonna go school in Chicago,
Speaker 1: you might as well going to economics, go go going
Speaker 1: to finance something like that and work down in the city,
Speaker 1: makes some money. Said, you know what, You're right, And
Speaker 1: I took about one week of classes and that and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I called my mom's waiting and I got
Speaker 1: out and went into into education and got my degree
Speaker 1: there and and yeah, I just got into coaching and
Speaker 1: I kind of work my way up. What about the
Speaker 1: gap between you and Matt seven years? Was it when
Speaker 1: you guys were growing up? With it? Every competitive between
Speaker 1: you two, because that's a pretty wide discrepancy. But with
Speaker 1: that being said to you both are competitive guys. Probably
Speaker 1: competitive because I wanted time with him and I was
Speaker 1: the little brother that was always trying to linger around
Speaker 1: so as I was growing up, No, it was not
Speaker 1: competitive because he just was so much older. I was
Speaker 1: always the ball boy and stuff like that, and you know,
Speaker 1: the annoying little brother, always just trying to be around everything. Um,
Speaker 1: we're probably got competitive, was what I was just saying.
Speaker 1: When I got into college and you know, you're in college,
Speaker 1: you're thinking, you're finally a man. He's still seven years
Speaker 1: you're you're you know, older than you. He's working out
Speaker 1: with Solid every day, and they got they ballooned up
Speaker 1: and got huge when they were gas like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: they got who. I got stories for days on that.
Speaker 1: Maybe we get into it and um and Solid can
Speaker 1: back it up later. But uh No, when I got
Speaker 1: into college, I felt, you know what, I'm I'm in
Speaker 1: a college program. Now I'm lifting, I'm I'm gaining away,
Speaker 1: I'm getting stronger, Like let's go. You know. So when
Speaker 1: we're on our summer vacations on the beach, you know,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you get a little challenge, and
Speaker 1: that's where the competition would come. We get we get
Speaker 1: down there on the beach and go after it a
Speaker 1: little bit you mentioned Salah and your brother obviously started
Speaker 1: out together as g as. Um. He always talks that
Speaker 1: he was around your family quite a bit there in
Speaker 1: those days. Can can you elaborate on that? Yeah, he's so.
Speaker 1: Um they were at Central Michigan and that's I mean
Speaker 1: Mount Pleasants a small town. I mean there's not much
Speaker 1: going on there. There's the university and then it's just
Speaker 1: a small town America right there. So um, again, not
Speaker 1: much to do. And uh, then they were GA's not
Speaker 1: making any money, kind of going to class I guess
Speaker 1: if you want to call it that as gas and
Speaker 1: they and they lived only a mile and a half
Speaker 1: down the street because again, my moult Pleasant is not
Speaker 1: that big. They had no cable, they had hardly any furniture.
Speaker 1: So what are they gonna do in the piston? Detroit
Speaker 1: Pistons are in the playoffs, They're gonna come over and
Speaker 1: you know, so you're just gonna naturally hang with them.
Speaker 1: And um crazy enough, My my wife we were dating
Speaker 1: at the time too. We started dating in high school.
Speaker 1: So Lauren got to know, uh to no solemn. You know,
Speaker 1: my brother obviously at an early age, and so it
Speaker 1: was kind of us for hanging out watching playoff games
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, and uh, yeah, they were always over.
Speaker 1: Then they come over in the summer. We had a pool,
Speaker 1: so they would lather up and kind of you know,
Speaker 1: get a little sun tan there and then head off
Speaker 1: to to the more the adult closer to the university
Speaker 1: as the day went on, did you think early on,
Speaker 1: when you're looking up at those guys that hey, they're
Speaker 1: gonna do this for a long time? You know? I mean,
Speaker 1: I you know you did? You just never know? Um,
Speaker 1: we knew what we knew. You know, my dad again,
Speaker 1: he coached at Central Michigan. We thought Mid American Conference football,
Speaker 1: Like wow, like if if I could ever be a
Speaker 1: coach in the Mid American Conference, Like how cool that being?
Speaker 1: Just growing up? How fun it was to go to
Speaker 1: those games, particularly I was a little bit younger. Um,
Speaker 1: Central was a a good football team and then kind
Speaker 1: of faded a little bit off later in the nineties
Speaker 1: and then my dad got let go, but but a
Speaker 1: twenty three year run. Um, they obviously did some pretty
Speaker 1: good stuff there. So um, everyone asked me, you know Michigan,
Speaker 1: Michigan State. I like Central Michigan. That's what I That's
Speaker 1: what I thought football was you know, I mean there
Speaker 1: was the Mid American Conference and um, so seeing them
Speaker 1: as Gas had at a Division one school was a
Speaker 1: huge deal, you know, and uh obviously solid. Uh kind
Speaker 1: of moved on and got to the Texans and somehow,
Speaker 1: some way as a as a QC, got my brother
Speaker 1: in in the door as a QC with Kyle Shanahan,
Speaker 1: and then they they just kind of took off from there.
Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan, he already was an he did. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: what did you think when you got your start under him?
Speaker 1: And why is he's such I guess a brilliant football mind.
Speaker 1: Uh we talked about his father, no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: But what he's able to accomplish him the way he
Speaker 1: sees the game. What did you see from him? And uh,
Speaker 1: why was that a great start for you? Well? It was.
Speaker 1: It was an incredible start because I had had coached
Speaker 1: um college football for four years at had a couple
Speaker 1: of different small schools. Luckily all four of those years
Speaker 1: right out of college, I was a coordinator, So I
Speaker 1: got thrown right into it. Was not ready for it,
Speaker 1: but you're never really ready for anything until you actually
Speaker 1: get into it, you know. And so you kind of
Speaker 1: learned through the fire and um. Because I didn't have
Speaker 1: any foundation other than playing. I I took what I
Speaker 1: could get from Kyle and my brother and I was
Speaker 1: at their O t as in Washington and would just
Speaker 1: listen to everything I could, you know, and then and
Speaker 1: then dummy it down to get into a Division two
Speaker 1: type offense. When I was in Davidson, I got a
Speaker 1: call just late right after the signing day on a
Speaker 1: Sunday night, and my brothers like, Hey, You're going to Cleveland.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what do you mean? Why? Why? Why are
Speaker 1: you going to Cleveland? You just going to Northday. He's like, no, dude,
Speaker 1: you're going to Cleveland. He's like, Kyle just called. He's
Speaker 1: got a he's got a QC spot for you, you know.
Speaker 1: And I was like, all right, what am I going.
Speaker 1: He's like, duding, like twelve hours, you're out. You know.
Speaker 1: It was that quick. It was. It was ten o'clock
Speaker 1: at night on a Sunday. My wife was sleeping, we
Speaker 1: had no kids. She was sleeping on the couch. I
Speaker 1: was watching some TV. I think we had that Monday
Speaker 1: off or something like that, because we just got done
Speaker 1: with the signing day and by eight am, I had
Speaker 1: my car packed and I was out the door. So
Speaker 1: you get to Cleveland, had to Cleveland, you know. And Uh,
Speaker 1: I didn't really know where, what room I was gonna
Speaker 1: be in, didn't know anything. I just had a got
Speaker 1: a chance to get in, and I just wanted to
Speaker 1: to to get in. Obviously with Kyle, he's really the
Speaker 1: only one I knew. So UM got in there. They
Speaker 1: put me an offensive line room, which was, to to
Speaker 1: this day the most beneficial year I've had. I was
Speaker 1: in the offensive line room with guys like Joe Thomas,
Speaker 1: Alex mac Mitchell, Sward Shol Betonio, John Greco. I mean,
Speaker 1: just like dudes, like you know, veteran dudes. And then
Speaker 1: on top of it, a rookie that we just drafted
Speaker 1: in Betonio, who got to learn from those guys. Um.
Speaker 1: So that was the most beneficial year to day as
Speaker 1: a coach because you saw it from advantage point that
Speaker 1: you've never seen it before. Uh. And then the answer
Speaker 1: your next question, just obviously getting in with Kyle, it's
Speaker 1: what you learned through him is the importance of detail
Speaker 1: and the important importance of urgency, Like how detailed he
Speaker 1: was from the moment I met him too. How it
Speaker 1: never stops and how to it never stops in front
Speaker 1: of the coaches, and it never stops in front of
Speaker 1: the player. He never assumes that you just got it,
Speaker 1: and he's going to make sure that the players are
Speaker 1: altra detailed and it it's he'll even say it's going
Speaker 1: to get annoying at times, but I'm not gonna stop
Speaker 1: until we get it done, you know. And so that's
Speaker 1: where you just see that detail and that that commitment
Speaker 1: to the detail, and you see it when you pop
Speaker 1: on their tape. They're extremely detailed team. They play really tough,
Speaker 1: but their details are are are through the roof. And
Speaker 1: then on top of it, um is just the urgency
Speaker 1: of this league that he teaches you like you don't
Speaker 1: you don't have time. You gotta get better now. It
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you gotta win a super Bowl in year one,
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you gotta win a super Bowl. And it
Speaker 1: means you've got to get better every single day. And
Speaker 1: it's got a show and if you don't, then the
Speaker 1: next cruise coming on it. And you know, so the
Speaker 1: detail and urgency are the two things when you don't
Speaker 1: when you're not talking anything excess and knows. Um are
Speaker 1: the two things that stick out so well with him.
Speaker 1: Would you consider that he was demanding of his staff
Speaker 1: because you're talking about detail and expectations totally, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's you know, you if you're gonna hold players accountable,
Speaker 1: you gotta hold obviously the coach is accountable too. You
Speaker 1: gotta hold yourself accountable first and foremost, you know. And um,
Speaker 1: that's something I you know, I try to do all
Speaker 1: the time with the players. You know. One of the
Speaker 1: first things I like to do is show them where
Speaker 1: I made mistakes in a game or in a practice
Speaker 1: or within the plan, you know, because you want to
Speaker 1: show that accountability. And the same thing though, we're gonna
Speaker 1: hold I'm gonna hold myself accountable. So you do that
Speaker 1: from time to time, like you get in there and
Speaker 1: you didn't get the film up there, and that's not
Speaker 1: I mean, that's I've seen my brother do it multiple times,
Speaker 1: seeing Kyle do it multiple I mean, that's just I
Speaker 1: think that's that should be a standard amongst us, where
Speaker 1: it's it doesn't matter who's right, it matters what's right,
Speaker 1: you know, And and like this league is, it's it's
Speaker 1: just us. We gotta get this right, fellows. There's no agenda,
Speaker 1: is It's not like college football, It's not like I
Speaker 1: recruit you like, there's no agendas. Like we got to
Speaker 1: just figure out to find a way to put our
Speaker 1: best foot forward and win football games, you know. And
Speaker 1: uh and so, um yeah, that's just that's just like
Speaker 1: I said with Kyle, I mean, just the the urgency
Speaker 1: that he that he makes you feel to get better. Again,
Speaker 1: it's not talking about wins and losses. It's just about
Speaker 1: continuing to get better and being honor stuff. And what
Speaker 1: do you take from your brother from a coaching perspective, Um, well,
Speaker 1: I'll answer it before you even asked the coach, And
Speaker 1: this is from a coaching perspective, is I've never been
Speaker 1: around a guy that works as hard as he does.
Speaker 1: And I mean that, I know it sounds kind of cliche,
Speaker 1: but the two years I was with him at Land,
Speaker 1: I mean that was you know, again going back what
Speaker 1: we were talking about a little bit earlier. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm seven years younger, so when he went off to college,
Speaker 1: I was in sixth grade, So you know, I have
Speaker 1: seven years I guess at home without him, and then
Speaker 1: we have some overlap when I'm a senior and he's
Speaker 1: a g at Central, so we can hang out all
Speaker 1: the time. And that's when we got really close, is
Speaker 1: when I got a little bit older in high school
Speaker 1: and in college and now all of a sudden, now
Speaker 1: I'm not the little brother as much. Now we're getting
Speaker 1: Now we're getting closer. But I had never really been
Speaker 1: with him on a day to day basis, particularly in
Speaker 1: a work environment. So when I got to UM Atlanta,
Speaker 1: when we're unfortunate enough that Kyle took me in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: dan Quinn hired both myself and and my brother. UM,
Speaker 1: I got to see first you know, firsthand, what kind
Speaker 1: of worker he was, what kind of coach he was,
Speaker 1: And it's if there's twenty five hours in a day,
Speaker 1: he's gonna find it, you know, and uh, he doesn't stop.
Speaker 1: It's it's incredible. Uh he doesn't blink and he just goes.
Speaker 1: And you know, So I try to say all the time,
Speaker 1: like if I could work as hard as him, that'd
Speaker 1: be unbelievable. I don't know if I can. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I've seen anyone put in the time in
Speaker 1: and just the constant churn in of hours like he does.
Speaker 1: And it's efficient hour. How much did you enjoy it?
Speaker 1: And at the same time, is it difficult working with
Speaker 1: your brother? Yeah, sure, if you asked him right now.
Speaker 1: I mean it particularly that first year. Again, we had
Speaker 1: never we had never been with each other first, you know,
Speaker 1: such a long period of time, particularly in a stressful environment,
Speaker 1: particularly in you're one of of a deal. You know.
Speaker 1: Atlanta was a different situation because we got there and
Speaker 1: we had Matt Ryan as our quarterback who had played tenure.
Speaker 1: We had Julio Jones, we had Roddy White. You know,
Speaker 1: there was I mean that that team had won a
Speaker 1: lot of games before we had got there. Um, so
Speaker 1: we we started out pretty well. I think we started
Speaker 1: out five and oh and then ended up I want
Speaker 1: to say seven and nine. Uh So there was a
Speaker 1: stretch there where let's just say we went too and nine.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was three and three and eight finish eight
Speaker 1: and I can't totally remember that, but uh, I mean
Speaker 1: it got it got tough in the rigors of the season.
Speaker 1: And again so now it's not only um you know
Speaker 1: from a coaching staff. Now, now you got your brother
Speaker 1: on there, and you got to separate that and realized
Speaker 1: I was a q C. He was a court he
Speaker 1: was my boss, you know, to an extent, Kyle. I mean,
Speaker 1: anyone that's above you, that that's that's your boss. They
Speaker 1: actual he's probably gonna go out of his way not
Speaker 1: to show favoritism to to you. To right, it was
Speaker 1: not gonna show favoritism. It was gonna be a beat
Speaker 1: down before anything else, you know. And uh, so we
Speaker 1: we learned a lot about each other, um, on how
Speaker 1: to work with each other after that first year. And
Speaker 1: uh and then two thousand and sixteen, um talked about
Speaker 1: some things in the off season. Again it was all love.
Speaker 1: It's just it was just new to us. And then
Speaker 1: uh sixteen, Um, what what an incredible ride we had,
Speaker 1: you know with going to the super Bowl and obviously
Speaker 1: coming up a hair short there at the end that
Speaker 1: we all know, but I mean, be able to share
Speaker 1: that experience with Matt and and get to a super
Speaker 1: Bowl amongst other friends obviously Kyle and Mike McDaniel, Bobby
Speaker 1: Turner and stuff like that was was incredible. Do you
Speaker 1: see do you see similarities here? Not personnel perspective, but
Speaker 1: as far as the system on what Robinson incorporating now
Speaker 1: two back in two thousand seventeen is as far as
Speaker 1: what you're doing at the start, yeah, totally. I mean
Speaker 1: it's UM. When we got to San Francisco, we we
Speaker 1: played UH, we played the Niners in sixteen when we
Speaker 1: were in Atlanta in December, and that's when we were
Speaker 1: really getting hot in Atlanta. We want our last five
Speaker 1: to get into the playoffs, get the get the UH
Speaker 1: two seed and I get to buy and then ended
Speaker 1: up UM, you know, one seed loss and we got
Speaker 1: to host the NFC Championship. But we played the Niners
Speaker 1: in December and they were they were struggling, and I
Speaker 1: want to say we beat him fourteen. And so when
Speaker 1: Kyle came to he's like, hey, we're going to the Niners,
Speaker 1: was like, what, I just you know, that's that's gonna
Speaker 1: take some time, and he goes, this is It's it's
Speaker 1: a good situation because a UM ownership in that organization
Speaker 1: wants to win and be UH, we can build this
Speaker 1: thing the right way, and we're gonna build it with
Speaker 1: urgency boat. We're gonna build it the right way. And
Speaker 1: so when and you know, it was what it was.
Speaker 1: I was going with Kyle regardless. But when UH Sala
Speaker 1: got the job here. There was no blinking like it
Speaker 1: was like, okay, you've you've been through this, you know exactly.
Speaker 1: There's there's nothing to think about. Does the organization want
Speaker 1: to win? Yes? Does the organization want to do it
Speaker 1: the right way? Yes? Are the right people in place? Yes?
Speaker 1: And that's the way I feel and I still continue
Speaker 1: to feel that way. So that's where the similarities were. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, own, We're going to continue to work urgently
Speaker 1: to get better. That's exactly what we're gonna do and
Speaker 1: the results will show, uh if if we have that mindset.
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Speaker 1: seven zero seven one one seven John Button? How important
Speaker 1: was his his travel here? In addition, and then also, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to ask you about great Nap.
Speaker 1: I know how much personally he meant to everybody, and uh,
Speaker 1: and just you can talk about him as a football coach,
Speaker 1: but also what he brought to the table because I
Speaker 1: know he was gonna be such a valuable piece of
Speaker 1: everything you guys did here. Um, I'll answer your first
Speaker 1: question first, uh, before I get the emotional with Napper.
Speaker 1: But uh, now, um, John Benton was big having the
Speaker 1: four years working with him, Um we we we had
Speaker 1: a good friendship too. We had a good bond with that. Um.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't just a respect from a work standpoint.
Speaker 1: We developed a good freshman friendship off the field too,
Speaker 1: which is not then a'll be all by any means.
Speaker 1: You gotta hire the best staff you know, uh that
Speaker 1: that you possibly can. But he's done it for so
Speaker 1: long in the in this league. Um, he's done it
Speaker 1: successfully at so many different stops. Um, so for for
Speaker 1: us to be able to get him was just an
Speaker 1: absolute just huge higher not only for myself as a
Speaker 1: first time play caller and first time coordinator, uh, but
Speaker 1: uh you know for the players, you know, to be
Speaker 1: able to have a guy with that much knowledge and
Speaker 1: uh and and for a guy that's been able to
Speaker 1: develop players to the level that uh, you know he's
Speaker 1: gotten guys. Um. And the second one was Greg Nap.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't know Greg Nap personally. My brother
Speaker 1: kind of did because Greg always would run the quarterback
Speaker 1: drills at the combine and my brother, Um always would
Speaker 1: would work those drills to get up close and personal.
Speaker 1: And anyone that coaches in this league knows who Greg
Speaker 1: Nap is. You just don't know if you knew him personally. UM.
Speaker 1: So I got a call from Raheem Morris when we
Speaker 1: hadn't had a quarterback coach yet, and he's like, and
Speaker 1: Raheem's one of my best buddies in this profession. And
Speaker 1: he was with him Atlanta and he's like, you gotta
Speaker 1: hire a great Nap And it was like, all right,
Speaker 1: you think it's a good He's like Mike, it's an
Speaker 1: incredible fit for you. And plus he he doesn't want
Speaker 1: your job. He doesn't want anyone. He wants to be
Speaker 1: the quarterback coach and he wants to develop quarterbacks. And
Speaker 1: uh so, you know, hearing that from a guy like Raheem,
Speaker 1: you're gonna trust that. But then I got a call
Speaker 1: from Matt Ryan, and Matt's like, I'm just telling you,
Speaker 1: if I was a twenty three year old rookie or
Speaker 1: a twenty five year old third year player, I can't
Speaker 1: imagine a better quarterback coach than Greg Nap. How he
Speaker 1: is consistent day in and day out. He's gonna bring
Speaker 1: the same positive attitude but yet be able to coach
Speaker 1: you in the way that you need to be coached
Speaker 1: day in and day out. Whether you're winning, whether you're losing,
Speaker 1: You're gonna get the same grade Nap every single day.
Speaker 1: And so when you get just back to back calls
Speaker 1: from Raheem, uh, from from Matt Ryan, Um, and then
Speaker 1: obviously again knowing that my brother knew him as a
Speaker 1: person and stuff, it just was it was a no brainer.
Speaker 1: You know, that took me about five seconds, feel like slide.
Speaker 1: I really would like this one to go down and
Speaker 1: sale and the organization got that done pretty quickly. And
Speaker 1: then Um and then it was just about getting to
Speaker 1: know him and teaching him kind of how our offenses
Speaker 1: evolved in San Francisco and and uh, you know how
Speaker 1: we're teaching the quarterback play. Not that it's too different
Speaker 1: from what he was doing with Matt Ryan and the
Speaker 1: West Coast system, but but there were some difference in nuances. Um.
Speaker 1: So that was a fun process. But the more fun,
Speaker 1: the better part of it was getting to know him
Speaker 1: as a person. I mean, it's such a positive guy, right.
Speaker 1: Everybody who who was around him, for even a man
Speaker 1: in it says he would remember your name. He you
Speaker 1: meet him once to remember your name, He'd always have
Speaker 1: a smile on his face. He'd ask you how you're doing,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, you know, you lose somebody. But
Speaker 1: his presence was just a monstrous presence. It was you
Speaker 1: couldn't have a bad day if you're going to spend
Speaker 1: some time a great nap. It was everything you just said.
Speaker 1: Not only did he know your name, probably knew your
Speaker 1: kid's names too. And it's the truth. And getting to
Speaker 1: know um Greig and that time and in that year
Speaker 1: one is always a special time too, because what stinks
Speaker 1: is you're away from your families as they're moving from
Speaker 1: wherever they have to move, and you know, you're buying
Speaker 1: a house and it's going through all those processes and
Speaker 1: all that. So, yes, that stinks, not being to be
Speaker 1: with your family for the two three months that they're
Speaker 1: not there. But because of that, you get to spend
Speaker 1: a little bit more time outside of the building, getting
Speaker 1: some dinners with some of your staff, getting to know
Speaker 1: them on a personal level. And I spent probably more
Speaker 1: time with Greg Nap than anyone else on our staff.
Speaker 1: And we just if it wasn't football, we enjoyed going out,
Speaker 1: getting some good food, having a glass of wine or two,
Speaker 1: and then waking up and having some good coffee. Like
Speaker 1: that was the best life that he could have right
Speaker 1: there is just a good dinner, good coffee, and then
Speaker 1: right back to work, you know. And uh, we we
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time together here uh in chat
Speaker 1: him and then we actually spent some time out in Napa.
Speaker 1: We had a long weekend and I wanted to go
Speaker 1: back and see my family. He was going back to
Speaker 1: see his lovely wife, Charlotte, and so we were up
Speaker 1: in Napa and him and Charlotte came up and we
Speaker 1: spent a day up in Napa after only knowing him
Speaker 1: for too much, you know, and had an absolute unbelievable
Speaker 1: time there. And um, there was a there was such
Speaker 1: a calmness and at peace when you were with him,
Speaker 1: and you could see it in his eyes at how
Speaker 1: how much he enjoyed just life, you know, and uh,
Speaker 1: he taught us a lot about football, He taught us
Speaker 1: a lot about life. I could go on for hours
Speaker 1: talking about you know, it's uh and and anyone that
Speaker 1: knew him, anyone that saw his celebration of life, Um,
Speaker 1: that could have gone on for twenty four hours. People
Speaker 1: didn't want to get off that stage because they wanted
Speaker 1: to share stories of their time with Greg Nat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's difficult to transition off of that. But I know
Speaker 1: what Robert said at the beginning to training camp was
Speaker 1: what he said was, you know, he would want us
Speaker 1: to go on and and carry through with positivity, continue
Speaker 1: to teach and the develop because that's what he was
Speaker 1: all about. With that being said, how much did you
Speaker 1: enjoy the year as a whole? The first time being
Speaker 1: an offensive coordinator in the National Football It was, Um,
Speaker 1: it was believe it or not. Everything I wanted, you know,
Speaker 1: it's selfishly, I say either, but UM, I I needed
Speaker 1: to get out and challenge myself. You know, I've been
Speaker 1: with Kyle for seven years. UM. When he asked me
Speaker 1: if I was going, it was you know, I just
Speaker 1: felt like it was the right situation, in the right timing, UM,
Speaker 1: being with a guy that I was respect not only
Speaker 1: as a friend and and Robert, but as a worker,
Speaker 1: seeing how he worked with that defense for four years,
Speaker 1: seeing how he was in front of the room. UM,
Speaker 1: it was just a no brainer, you know. And it
Speaker 1: was just it was time for me to to to
Speaker 1: go learn about myself and uh, and and challenge myself
Speaker 1: and put together a staff and then and then get
Speaker 1: to work with these guys, you know. And again that
Speaker 1: the challenge of um coming to a team that that
Speaker 1: you know, hasn't been in the playoffs for for a
Speaker 1: little bit, that that what didn't even go into my
Speaker 1: thought process. I just wanted to go again to an
Speaker 1: organization that was gonna UM, that was committed to winning,
Speaker 1: that wanted to win, and with the right people in place.
Speaker 1: So UM, it was there was definitely there was definitely ups.
Speaker 1: There was definitely downs. UM. I like where our our
Speaker 1: progress went, particularly later in the year. We got a
Speaker 1: long way to go. The first year is always difficult
Speaker 1: because you're setting a standard, you're putting in new stuff.
Speaker 1: We played obviously the most rookies out of any team
Speaker 1: in the league, so you got that challenge on top
Speaker 1: of having a rookie quarterback. Uh. But now, like I
Speaker 1: told the players, the next steps even harder. We gotta
Speaker 1: go get we gotta get better, and we gotta get
Speaker 1: better with urgency. You know, it's not pressing, it's just urgency.
Speaker 1: So um it was. It was awesome. Uh, We've loved
Speaker 1: living in this area. Um it is an awesome place
Speaker 1: to raise a family. And I'm not just saying this,
Speaker 1: but this fan base is they're cool, man. It is
Speaker 1: a cool fan base. Just they're thirsty and you can
Speaker 1: feel it, you know, and uh, you want to do
Speaker 1: it for him, and there's a there's nothing like going
Speaker 1: out that locker room on a Sunday. And you know,
Speaker 1: obviously I was up in the booth for the back
Speaker 1: half the year, but just feeling that energy and going
Speaker 1: into the NFL stadiums and some feel different than others,
Speaker 1: you know. Uh, San Francisco's felt different than New York's. Uh,
Speaker 1: not good or bad, just it's just different. And uh,
Speaker 1: it's a it's it's a cool, cool deal. The Jets
Speaker 1: nation is is awesome, and uh, you know, we want
Speaker 1: to get this thing done. What did you tell Zach
Speaker 1: Wilson at the end of the season, Uh, take a
Speaker 1: deep breath, you know, kind of the same thing I
Speaker 1: did to him, and uh, um, you know, he got
Speaker 1: he got hurt there for the four weeks. Just take
Speaker 1: a deep breath. Sit back. Um, All rookies, whether it
Speaker 1: be the second pick quarterback or the fourth round running back,
Speaker 1: that's a long year. Uh. Not only sixteen games now
Speaker 1: seventeen games, h plus the three preseason games which people
Speaker 1: don't look into the preseason. That's a big deal for
Speaker 1: for rookies. I mean, they're they're they're they're nervous there,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean it's and if you're not, you're
Speaker 1: cold blooded, I guess you know. But uh, it's it's
Speaker 1: a long year. When you think about you got that season,
Speaker 1: not only that they had a COVID season, uh in
Speaker 1: in twenty and then you got the combine, You've got
Speaker 1: your pro days and then you go straight to rookie
Speaker 1: Mini camp and then you go straight to O T
Speaker 1: A S. And then you have about five weeks and
Speaker 1: then boom you're in from training camp from late July,
Speaker 1: hopefully playing all the way to to mid February, but
Speaker 1: at least till till early January. And it's long and
Speaker 1: um so for him, um, it was just to take
Speaker 1: a deep breath. And does he have the ability to
Speaker 1: do that? Think? I don't think he does. But he
Speaker 1: knows what I'm talking about when I say that everyone's
Speaker 1: gonna some guy's breasts are gonna be longer than others.
Speaker 1: You know. I just didn't want him to to be
Speaker 1: back in Utah by Wednesday already thrown. He just needed
Speaker 1: to just just chill for a little bit, go on
Speaker 1: a trip, like I kept telling, go having experience whatever
Speaker 1: that means for you, you know, just get out and
Speaker 1: then once you're ready to roll, go roll, and uh,
Speaker 1: we know the stuff we need to work on. I
Speaker 1: don't like to talk to the players, uh too much
Speaker 1: about this and that and the other of what you
Speaker 1: need to work on immediately filling the season where everyone
Speaker 1: coaches players, the organization, they're drained by that time, so
Speaker 1: you just, uh, you know, you give them a few
Speaker 1: things you let them know how much you appreciate him
Speaker 1: and love him, and then and then you step back
Speaker 1: as again as coaches. I needed that to and f
Speaker 1: weeks to just clear my mind. And sometimes sitting at
Speaker 1: the beach with your family and just watching them have fun.
Speaker 1: Some of those that's the best ideas that you can
Speaker 1: come up with about how we're gonna help this player
Speaker 1: become a better player, and how we're gonna help this
Speaker 1: offense become a better offense. And so I'm excited to
Speaker 1: get contacted with these guys again. I'll be in constantin tech.
Speaker 1: Was zact. He knows when he needs to work on. Obviously,
Speaker 1: having John back here was huge. Um, you know working
Speaker 1: with them so, um you know it'll it'll be good.
Speaker 1: Well let's end it right here. How cool was it
Speaker 1: for you when you guys got into a flow because
Speaker 1: you're watching this from afar like I was, like a
Speaker 1: floor is really in a rhythm right now, and you'll say,
Speaker 1: you know what, you need more plays and back Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that played out when you when you had
Speaker 1: more plays, you can open it up, you can do
Speaker 1: more things. But for you as a coach, how much
Speaker 1: do you enjoy it when everybody's live when the ball
Speaker 1: is just being distributed all over the place and you
Speaker 1: guys are winning at the line of scrimmage. We saw
Speaker 1: a glimpses of that down the stretch. It's, um, it's football,
Speaker 1: you know. You get to just see it the right way.
Speaker 1: You know. It's just um, it's it's cool, it's and
Speaker 1: it's it's just a testament to to the guys. Like
Speaker 1: it's just you know, everyone has their different why why
Speaker 1: they do it, you know, but one of mine is
Speaker 1: being on the share and experience. It's after a game,
Speaker 1: particularly after a win, but even after a loss with
Speaker 1: the with the guys that put so much work into it,
Speaker 1: you know, and so um. You know, as you put
Speaker 1: in a system and you're you're you're teaching coaches, you're
Speaker 1: developing coaches, you're teaching players, you're developing players, and seeing
Speaker 1: it all come together, Um, sometimes not the way you
Speaker 1: want it, but but when it does, uh, and we're
Speaker 1: you know and showing them the picture of what this
Speaker 1: is gonna be when we flip this thing. Um, it's
Speaker 1: pretty cool. And and you know the cool part about
Speaker 1: these guys is they're in the boat. Um. And again,
Speaker 1: now we just we need to go get better. We
Speaker 1: need to continue to get better. We're gonna continue to
Speaker 1: add here, got so much trust and Joe and the
Speaker 1: group upstairs um to to you know, well we're all
Speaker 1: on the same page with this thing. Uh so you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, it's it's urgently working to get better. Well,
Speaker 1: you are unbelievably gracious with your time. Really enjoyed catching
Speaker 1: up and hopefully we can do this again in the future,
Speaker 1: no doubt. Thanks Eric for sure. But my own thing
Speaker 1: a fen