Speaker 1: Do you throw touchdowns and avoid costly turnovers? Can you
Speaker 1: scramble out of the pocket away from Miles Garrett Sack
Speaker 1: or look off Patrick sirtanas he drops into coverage. Then
Speaker 1: Quarterback Island is looking for you. Join the likes of
Speaker 1: NFL MVPs like Matthew Stafford, Hey dazzling darts from Matthew Stafford.
Speaker 2: And Josh Allen. Allen looking for the exile and he's in.
Speaker 2: The piece has been related.
Speaker 1: As you defined the quarterback position during the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: six NFL season. Can you lead your team on a
Speaker 1: game winning drive as time expires? Then Quarterback Island is
Speaker 1: looking for you. Dak Prescott touchdown?
Speaker 2: Fuckap the touchdown Pestack. He made the island.
Speaker 1: Caleb Williams, My goodness, do I spid get it for
Speaker 1: the fourth time he made the Island. Get over that
Speaker 1: late season collapse, Baker, Bob, and send in your resume
Speaker 1: for Quarterback Island Today, Quarterback Island is characterizing it a
Speaker 1: non ranked, anialistic way of the players who define with
Speaker 1: playing quarterback in.
Speaker 2: Well done.
Speaker 3: We are here, yes on Quarterback Island, But this isn't
Speaker 3: a regular Quarterback Island episode. This is the first ever
Speaker 3: episode of the Quarterback Island spinoff, Quarterback Island Casting Call.
Speaker 4: Great job there.
Speaker 3: By our producer Eric Roberts, surprising us with a new
Speaker 3: intro and Yes, Jordan from the mind of QB Island.
Speaker 3: Jordan Rodrigue, executive producer, comes QB Island Casting Call as
Speaker 3: we take a longer look at some gentleman who might
Speaker 3: earn a spot on Quarterback Island this year.
Speaker 5: I'm so happy right now that we heard that cold.
Speaker 5: I kept trying to get Eric to let me listen
Speaker 5: to it early because I was so excited about it.
Speaker 5: That was everything and more. Shout out to Randy.
Speaker 4: I called in a favor and he crushed it. He
Speaker 4: sent me a couple of takes. I'm might have to
Speaker 4: send out takes out so he could be a voiceover artist.
Speaker 3: I should have mentioned Jordan Rodriguez with me and QB
Speaker 3: Island regular, although he hasn't been in the Chris Westling
Speaker 3: podcast studio in a while.
Speaker 4: NFL Networks own Steve Weiss here.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad to be here, but I also want
Speaker 2: to see what type of rules you guys are going
Speaker 2: to create and later bend Oh for the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: six QBI.
Speaker 5: Well, first and foremost, I do want to shout out
Speaker 5: to Dalton Ross a beat report. I call him a
Speaker 5: survivor beat reporter over at Entertainment Weekly. He obviously does
Speaker 5: much more than that. He actually has been talking to
Speaker 5: me about Quarterback Island all year. He's a reality TV
Speaker 5: show expert, right, He's been messaging me about Quarterback Island.
Speaker 5: Loves the show, and he gave me the idea for
Speaker 5: Quarterback Island cast and call as the newest in the
Speaker 5: family of quarterback guys.
Speaker 3: Hey, when you got a cash cow, you got a
Speaker 3: milk it, you know. Yeah, As that intro referred to
Speaker 3: quarterback Island is the place that defines the quarter position
Speaker 3: what eight quarterbacks at the end of last season defined
Speaker 3: the quarterback position. Traditionally we start the season with twelve.
Speaker 3: We will have that first episode for the twenty twenty
Speaker 3: sixth season in about a month, maybe a week two
Speaker 3: weeks before the NFL regular season starts. But for this episode,
Speaker 3: we wanted to introduce some characters, some possibilities of guys
Speaker 3: who could be considered then who could make it onto
Speaker 3: the island eventually. And it did refer to some of
Speaker 3: the gentlemen who would not be eligible to be talked
Speaker 3: about today because they finished last season on the island.
Speaker 3: And that's Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence with a
Speaker 3: big closing pick, Drake may Dak Prescott brock Purty who
Speaker 3: played well at the end of last season, Matthew Stafford,
Speaker 3: and Caleb Williams. And you'll notice some big names who
Speaker 3: were hurt late last year not on the list, and
Speaker 3: maybe we'll talk about them today in this casting called Steve.
Speaker 3: It is awesome having you back. You're wearing your black
Speaker 3: College Hall of Fame classic shirt. I know we'll be
Speaker 3: seeing you on NFL Network throughout training camp and at
Speaker 3: Canton for the Hall of Fame game and all the
Speaker 3: Hall of Fame festivities. Got you in the studio now
Speaker 3: this is this is your other home, and I want
Speaker 3: you to get us going with your first nominee for anything.
Speaker 2: You know this is obvious based on my trumpet, I
Speaker 2: think player last year and it's actually where I'll be
Speaker 2: starting inside training camp in Denver. Bo Knicks. Bo Knicks
Speaker 2: is coming back now. He had the ankle injury that
Speaker 2: he suffered late last year. He's had two procedures to
Speaker 2: get it done, but they're expecting him to be ready
Speaker 2: to start Week one against the Kansas City Chiefs. But
Speaker 2: bow Knicks not only does he have a new play
Speaker 2: caller and Davis Webb Sean Payton's gonna take a step
Speaker 2: back for now. I don't know how long this is
Speaker 2: gonna last. But Davis Webb has been his old position coach, right,
Speaker 2: so they've got this relationships, going to be his play
Speaker 2: designer and play caller. But they went on. They got
Speaker 2: him Jaylen Waddle. They got him a speed burner on
Speaker 2: the outside to pair with Courtland Sutton. And I know
Speaker 2: you like analytics and stats, and here's one thing about
Speaker 2: the Denver Broncos. Since twenty twenty four, they have led
Speaker 2: the ball and led the league in throws of more
Speaker 2: than twenty yards air yards. And now you get a
Speaker 2: burner like Jayalen Watt. We think he's so much of
Speaker 2: a catch and run guy. Now he can go, It's
Speaker 2: gonna clear things up underneath for the other guys. I
Speaker 2: think this offense is gonna be far more fluid. It's
Speaker 2: gonna run just because they've got that outside speed threat
Speaker 2: who's incredibly reliable, can run the whole tree. It's gonna
Speaker 2: how about my guy bon Nick, especially when he breaks
Speaker 2: the huddle.
Speaker 3: Well, as someone who's wanted him on Quarterback Island in
Speaker 3: the past and is bringing him up here. It's just
Speaker 3: as a guy that that could be cast during this season.
Speaker 3: He is entering his third season, but he will be turning,
Speaker 3: you know, twenty seven right after the season ends, so.
Speaker 4: He's older than dirt. He No, that's Greg's monologue.
Speaker 3: He has thrown a lot of those plus twenty yard
Speaker 3: passes just because he's thrown a lot of passes period.
Speaker 2: He led the league actually in pattempts.
Speaker 4: It was very pass heavy.
Speaker 3: What what do you as a bow Knicks believer, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think he needs to develop to convince maybe some
Speaker 3: of the doubters of like myself out there, that he
Speaker 3: deserves to be on there.
Speaker 4: What has he got to get better out Pintilly.
Speaker 2: He's got some of the Caleb Williams in him, like
Speaker 2: early in games, figuring it out. He's got to come
Speaker 2: into games live bit earlier and hit things on schedule,
Speaker 2: make this offense click a little bit more smoothly, so
Speaker 2: he doesn't have to come in with those late game
Speaker 2: heroics like he often does. I mean, you go fourteen
Speaker 2: and three. A lot of it's because he was great
Speaker 2: in the fourth quarter, so again being on schedule early,
Speaker 2: getting this offense on time, and that's where I think
Speaker 2: again Wadda will help out. He's got somebody to do
Speaker 2: the timing routes. They can go the long routes and
Speaker 2: that's going to open up a lot more opportunities for
Speaker 2: the other receivers.
Speaker 5: One of the things that Davis Webb is supposed to
Speaker 5: help with remains to be seen because we don't know yet.
Speaker 5: He's calling plays really for the first time. Probably hard
Speaker 5: to do it with Sean Payton, like still actively in
Speaker 5: your ear as you're doing it, but getting the play
Speaker 5: call in faster that's going to be really important. And
Speaker 5: it sort of sets up to what you're talking about, Steve,
Speaker 5: which is what I think of Bonnicks, and that is
Speaker 5: presented with the opportunity some development obviously over the last
Speaker 5: couple of years. He's a really clean canvas for you
Speaker 5: if you're an offensive designer, if you're an offensive play caller,
Speaker 5: if you want to get the play in quickly, if
Speaker 5: you want to play different tempos, if you want to
Speaker 5: get the ball stretched the field, but also really move
Speaker 5: the quick game. He can be clean. He's been streaky,
Speaker 5: but he can be clean. And he's sort of one
Speaker 5: of those clean canvas type players where you can do
Speaker 5: a lot of different things based on what he can
Speaker 5: do and the way that he can protect the football
Speaker 5: when he's doing it well. That combines with Jalen Wattle
Speaker 5: in a big way, who I think, yes, is going
Speaker 5: to stretch the field, but I think going to be
Speaker 5: a little bit of a move player for the two
Speaker 5: and I think that's really important because you're building complexity
Speaker 5: around the quarterback and all you want the quarterback to
Speaker 5: do is continue to be that clean canvas, get the
Speaker 5: ball where it needs to be, not point guard necessarily
Speaker 5: because we know he can extend plays, but to almost
Speaker 5: raise what the level of artistry is within that offense.
Speaker 3: Overall, I think his reputation coming into the NFL has
Speaker 3: not been what I've seen on the field, and that
Speaker 3: makes him a.
Speaker 4: Interesting player to watch.
Speaker 3: But I think he did change from his first year
Speaker 3: to his second year, and it was just more of everything,
Speaker 3: like more mistakes, more big plays. I think he's a
Speaker 3: better athlete and a bigger playmaker than we really expected.
Speaker 4: You mentioned the deep throws.
Speaker 3: He was third in design runs among all quarterbacks last year.
Speaker 3: Like he's close to like Jalen Hurts and some of
Speaker 3: those guys, and he obviously got hurt on one of them,
Speaker 3: just the unfortunate play that he's now had a couple
Speaker 3: follow up surgery, So that's a bit of a concern
Speaker 3: because he is a guy who specializes in throwing on
Speaker 3: the move, so his athleticism really matters. But one thing
Speaker 3: I definitely noticed kind of picking through his numbers was
Speaker 3: and I think it speaks to a guy who the
Speaker 3: highs were really high, but it wasn't that consistent.
Speaker 4: You were talking about the slow starts.
Speaker 3: The game, but then he finished awesome, Like that Bill's
Speaker 3: game in the playoffs mostly great. They were the one
Speaker 3: seed and everything, but there were even ups and downs
Speaker 3: in that game. And if you kind of look at
Speaker 3: his turnover worthy play percentage his big throw percent it
Speaker 3: was both way higher last year, so I think he.
Speaker 4: Was doing more. He's giving you a little more flash.
Speaker 3: But when it all averaged out and you look at
Speaker 3: kind of all the DVOA and success rate and EPA,
Speaker 3: and it's all kind of landed in the middle.
Speaker 4: And that's why I think.
Speaker 3: Broncos fans are unhappy with some of us who look
Speaker 3: at those numbers and say, like, yeah, a lot of
Speaker 3: it was exciting, but it call kind of added up
Speaker 3: to a mid level quarterback, and how can he be
Speaker 3: a little more consistent.
Speaker 2: I think that's well and again, and Jodan made a
Speaker 2: great point like maybe getting the plays in quicker. You know,
Speaker 2: Sean Payton is very bit every play there's a new
Speaker 2: personal group on the field. I mean sometimes that takes
Speaker 2: time and sometimes young quarterback, you're hearing the play call. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm seeing a full back tide and weight pull them back.
Speaker 2: I just try to change my mind. If they getting
Speaker 2: a Jalen Waddle, a guy who can move, you may
Speaker 2: not have to change your personal packages. Maybe you change
Speaker 2: him with the groupings. But that's something that can clean
Speaker 2: it up a little bit. And I think that could
Speaker 2: help Apo Nixon.
Speaker 5: I think he can he can hit the areas of
Speaker 5: spacing on the field downfield, and also the way he
Speaker 5: can extend or create as a runner. Like you, you
Speaker 5: know that he can capitalize on the spacing that you
Speaker 5: want to extrapolate, like you want to make sure you're
Speaker 5: It's like I look at it like when you're a designer,
Speaker 5: you're painting and you're trying to just target all of
Speaker 5: the voids that you know are going to be there. Well,
Speaker 5: he can use those areas, he can hit those throws.
Speaker 5: It's just getting players there, getting the communication and sync.
Speaker 5: The protections are really complicated to effective, but complicated to
Speaker 5: make sure that everything is happening a lot faster earlier
Speaker 5: in the play clock and then and then and then
Speaker 5: giving more dimension. And I think that will just really
Speaker 5: really lift what we've seen from him already.
Speaker 3: They've talked about it, you guys have already mentioned it now,
Speaker 3: like the up tempo, little up tempo, a little more spread.
Speaker 3: That sounds to me like what he could be really
Speaker 3: good at. And that if you're looking at the way
Speaker 3: defenses are playing now, seems like maybe the next step
Speaker 3: of how offenses counteract like the trends of defense and
Speaker 3: Bonus being particularly suited to do that. But like I said,
Speaker 3: like he has these little the little problems in his games,
Speaker 3: Like he threw the less to the middle of the
Speaker 3: field than any quarterback in the in the NFL last year.
Speaker 3: I think, according to Dvoa was like his numbers to
Speaker 3: the middle of the field were like way down. But
Speaker 3: I think he could be good with the spread him out.
Speaker 2: And that's like, yeah, that's because he comes he leaves
Speaker 2: that pocket pretty quick. Maybe you know Sean's gonna get
Speaker 2: him or Davis web will get him that PoCA League,
Speaker 2: But you don't want to take that running ability away
Speaker 2: from him.
Speaker 3: I still view him as a young player in third year,
Speaker 3: like he still has room to grow. And in that
Speaker 3: playoff game, man, his great games were really great. That
Speaker 3: Packers game, really both Chiefs games. It was just a
Speaker 3: little more up and down I think then Broncos fans want.
Speaker 3: And so we'll see if the consistency come work.
Speaker 2: Fourteen and three, I'm okay, I'll take it. Okay, made
Speaker 2: it to the AFC Championship Game.
Speaker 3: I'm going to nominate someone here, all right, getting that
Speaker 3: casting call. And he was a man who did finish
Speaker 3: the year on quarterback Island two years ago as a rookie,
Speaker 3: and that's Jayden Daniels coming off his supporting star role
Speaker 3: in quarterback, which we could get to maybe as part
Speaker 3: of this conversation. Look, I did not expect him to
Speaker 3: be one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the NFL,
Speaker 3: based on his college tape, and yet that has been
Speaker 3: who he's been as a pro. Wasn't quite as sharp
Speaker 3: last year, but the accuracy is there. So if you're
Speaker 3: telling me you have a young player who is accurate,
Speaker 3: is athletic, is excellent in terms of decision making, I
Speaker 3: believe overall, and has natural pocket movement in the pocket.
Speaker 4: That's a player that you can work with.
Speaker 3: And yet he was not the same player overall last season,
Speaker 3: even when he played. And so I went back and
Speaker 3: I wanted to watch some of that film from a
Speaker 3: year ago, because I do think it's gotten a little
Speaker 3: lost in all the injuries that Okay, well, he wasn't
Speaker 3: hurt those first two games, and they were a little
Speaker 3: uneven when you go back, especially that second week against
Speaker 3: the Packers, he was taken a long time to get
Speaker 3: rid of the ball. There's a lot of reasons why
Speaker 3: this could have happened, but he just wasn't comfortable last
Speaker 3: season in that Cliff Kingsbury offense. He's running a lot,
Speaker 3: he's getting hurt a lot. That's obviously a big concern,
Speaker 3: and yet I love the intangibles so much that he
Speaker 3: seems like a young man and I hate to bet
Speaker 3: on the intangles. But he seems like someone that is
Speaker 3: going to figure out the problems that he has faced
Speaker 3: so far as a pro and learn how to move forward.
Speaker 3: But is he Is he that rookie quarterback or is
Speaker 3: he the guy in his second year that frankly wasn't
Speaker 3: that much more effective than Marcus Mariota. They didn't really
Speaker 3: get any worse or better when Mariota was in there
Speaker 3: versus Daniels a year ago.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I definitely remember those couple of games because
Speaker 5: I had them for our recap shows and Commanders fans
Speaker 5: were very mad at me for pointing out that he
Speaker 5: did not look the same and he did not look comfortable,
Speaker 5: and that, I think, to your point, greg is is
Speaker 5: something that we have to consider in his pool of
Speaker 5: data here, even if it's incomplete, because that was a
Speaker 5: little bit of a second year slump, a sophomore slump
Speaker 5: for the quarterback. But I think being in and being
Speaker 5: out as long as he was, and watching what worked
Speaker 5: and watching what didn't work in this case, because he's
Speaker 5: so young and because there's still so much football left
Speaker 5: in front of him, could be beneficial to him having
Speaker 5: things slow down. Not being the one who has to
Speaker 5: create everything, understanding how he can create and lift everyone
Speaker 5: in certain points, but then trusting kind of what he
Speaker 5: sees and what he's given, not having to do the
Speaker 5: out of structure superstar stuff as much maybe, but also
Speaker 5: doing it when it's like time to hit that power
Speaker 5: button or whatever. And I think that David Blough, that's
Speaker 5: part of the reason why he's the offensive coordinator. There
Speaker 5: now kind of a mystery bag with him. We remember
Speaker 5: him as a quarterback and I remember the old show
Speaker 5: The Blowhards, right, Yeah, that was the fan the fan base,
Speaker 5: and but he's he's a little bit of a mystery bag.
Speaker 5: But we do know is that he was in collaboration
Speaker 5: with Cliff Kingsbury and Anthony Lynn during those that first
Speaker 5: rookie season of Jane and Daniels. We know that he's
Speaker 5: someone that the organization thinks very very highly of. For
Speaker 5: I'd like to see the table set for Jade and
Speaker 5: Daniels in a way that really accentuates his superpowers while
Speaker 5: not frazzling him. And that's going to depend on the
Speaker 5: line and also the receivers group, which I'm still not
Speaker 5: really sure.
Speaker 2: Well, and that's the thing, I mean, think about what
Speaker 2: he didn't look great early on last season. Right, they
Speaker 2: were trying to incorporate Deebo Samuel into that offense. That's
Speaker 2: a player Cliff Kingsbury really doesn't well.
Speaker 5: They were sending him on go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they're just doing and look, i mean,
Speaker 2: let's and you know there's talking defensive coordinators Cliff Kingsbury's offense.
Speaker 2: After a while, you kind of know what they're going
Speaker 2: to try to do. Even when you got a wildcard
Speaker 2: quarterback like him, So they couldn't figure out the running
Speaker 2: back situation the old line was getting. There was this
Speaker 2: instability across the board, including Jade Daniels. It's not playing well.
Speaker 2: It just didn't seem right. That's gonna be fixed because
Speaker 2: dan Quinn knows he's in kind of a big make
Speaker 2: or break here. However, what's their tight end situation?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: And they were a heavy tight end team when he
Speaker 2: was you know the zach Ertz stuff. You know, when
Speaker 2: Jane dan is playing well, you got Terry mcluurin. But
Speaker 2: what are you working with again? It brought Diami roundback.
Speaker 2: That's good. That's somebody that Jane Daniels really played well with.
Speaker 2: They've got some type of relationship. I think the offensive
Speaker 2: line is absolutely going to be better.
Speaker 3: Right, He's going to have to elevate a receiver position
Speaker 3: we talked about on our position battles that is among
Speaker 3: the sketchiest in the league after Terry mclautin. Now McLaurin
Speaker 3: being healthy would help a lot, because there are games
Speaker 3: and I'm watching this tape and it's like it's a
Speaker 3: lot of Jalen Lane.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's Luke McCaffrey.
Speaker 3: They did bring in Chicka Conquest, so you add him
Speaker 3: and John Bates, who's a good blocking tight end. That
Speaker 3: could be a good tight end position. But I'm trying
Speaker 3: to even remove the you know, the the situation around
Speaker 3: him and thinking about what Daniels needs to do and
Speaker 3: what he needs to do more than anything is avoid sacks.
Speaker 3: He has been one of the worst quarterbacks in the
Speaker 3: league both years in terms of the sacks that he
Speaker 3: is taking and his It's one thing if you're Lamar
Speaker 3: Jackson and you're avoiding these big hits, but running the
Speaker 3: ball eight to ten times a game, which he has
Speaker 3: done both years, it really didn't change.
Speaker 2: He gets hit and he doesn't avoid the bit.
Speaker 3: He doesn't necessarily avoid it, like the the second injury
Speaker 3: that he had, and to review, he plays two games,
Speaker 3: hurts his knee, comebacks after a couple of games, and
Speaker 3: then hurts his hamstring, come comes back a game after
Speaker 3: that and dislocated his elbow or hurt his elbow, which
Speaker 3: that's just bad luck. Missus four games, comes back and
Speaker 3: then gets thrown on the ground on a pick six
Speaker 3: and hurts his elbow again, and that was it for
Speaker 3: the season. But those last couple of games that he played,
Speaker 3: which were against the Seahawks and the Vikings, were eye
Speaker 3: openers I think for him and Washington, and that's why
Speaker 3: they sat him for the rest of the year because
Speaker 3: they were just they were bad offense.
Speaker 2: I mean, they were not good. That's why he.
Speaker 4: Was absolutely lost.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that I think he got
Speaker 3: into a bad habit of was what you talked about,
Speaker 3: trying to just make plays and it wasn't as effective,
Speaker 3: Like he just wasn't the same runner. And maybe that
Speaker 3: was partly because of the the injury that he was
Speaker 3: playing through, although it was the case the first couple
Speaker 3: of weeks, but it was like defenses knew the book
Speaker 3: was to keep him in the pocket.
Speaker 4: Whatever however possible.
Speaker 3: There was a lot of good athletic linebackers that were
Speaker 3: kind of watching him and trying to take away what
Speaker 3: he did. So the way he won his rookie ear,
Speaker 3: I think it could be something that is important to
Speaker 3: him long term, but it's not necessarily sustainable long term.
Speaker 5: I used to really roll my eyes hearing people talk
Speaker 5: about this when I was covering like superhuman quarterbacks as
Speaker 5: a beat writer, Cam Newton being the number one example here,
Speaker 5: which is, you know, everyone would always say, ah Man,
Speaker 5: like take the check down, don't be Superman, when it's like,
Speaker 5: how could you ask Superman not to be Superman? Well, also,
Speaker 5: Jaden Daniels is maybe a third of the bill. He's tall,
Speaker 5: but he's like slight. And then the other thing is
Speaker 5: it was so annoying because in parts they were right,
Speaker 5: because when Greg Olsen was fully healthy and was the
Speaker 5: friendly target and gave an answer, a quick answer to
Speaker 5: the problem when you sent multiple linebackers after the guy
Speaker 5: when you're trying to keep the cup around the quarterback,
Speaker 5: as they say, and contain him in the pocket, when
Speaker 5: you're trying to basically like basically put your foot down
Speaker 5: on the end of the cape you know, or like
Speaker 5: you know in Incredibles, be the jet engine to the cape, right,
Speaker 5: and like that is what defenses will try to do.
Speaker 5: And then getting a Christian McCaffrey getting the quick, you know,
Speaker 5: very very quick answer mismatch player. Which is why I
Speaker 5: like your point about the tight ends. But it's also
Speaker 5: the quarterback really really internalizing that that is a problem,
Speaker 5: that is a problem that is solvable immediately within the
Speaker 5: offense and having that be an answer for him and
Speaker 5: an option for him. It's hand in hand in my opinion.
Speaker 5: Quarterback has to make the decision, but also the coaches
Speaker 5: have to make that available for him and.
Speaker 2: Go go Stefon Diggs. I mean, go go get a
Speaker 2: player like that, because he immediately brings respect and credibility.
Speaker 2: Defenses have to gain plan for him that it would help,
Speaker 2: That would help. I don't like their receiving corps. And look,
Speaker 2: I spoke to a coach who was on that staff who said,
Speaker 2: Jayden and Daniels covered up so many of our mistakes
Speaker 2: as a rookie that when he was hemmed in the
Speaker 2: second year, all of those mistakes blew wide open. And
Speaker 2: those were things that as an organization, they overlooked and
Speaker 2: that's why they've tried so hard this offseason, at least
Speaker 2: personnel wise and some of the moves on the coaching
Speaker 2: staff to fill in some of those gaps.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so he did you guys, did anyone watch Quarterback yet?
Speaker 2: I have not watched.
Speaker 3: On my flight home, I was like, I don't have
Speaker 3: time to watch the entire series right now, but I
Speaker 3: did just watch the Jaden Daniels sections and then fast
Speaker 3: forwarded and so I watched Jaden Daniels on Quarterback. You
Speaker 3: don't learn that much about him. I was a little
Speaker 3: like it was a bit of a missed opportunity. It
Speaker 3: feels like he wanted to be on the show. His
Speaker 3: mom is a huge part of his life. It's his manager,
Speaker 3: it's his agent, she's at every game, she's she's a
Speaker 3: big part of this show as well. And it was like, okay,
Speaker 3: they want to position him, and you think, man, what
Speaker 3: a run this kid has been on from Heisman Trophy
Speaker 3: to the rookie year that he had and the difference
Speaker 3: between how high he is flying coming into doing this
Speaker 3: show to this the frustration of just injury after injury,
Speaker 3: and to be fair to him, he's a small guy.
Speaker 3: He's never been hurt before, Like he's never missed time
Speaker 3: with injury. So people saying like that's a concern. It
Speaker 3: is a concern at the NFL level, But he's never
Speaker 3: been hurt before. But he watching the show like he's
Speaker 3: doing the Scout team late in the year. It does
Speaker 3: you don't learn a lot about him, which I I think, like,
Speaker 3: if you're going to do the show, let's give us.
Speaker 2: Did you finish it?
Speaker 3: Yeah I did, But like, if you're going to do
Speaker 3: the show, give us a little more of yourself. They
Speaker 3: just didn't, Like I didn't get a great You don't
Speaker 3: get a great sense of who he is other than
Speaker 3: he's a quiet, introverted guy.
Speaker 4: Doesn't seem to have like a lot.
Speaker 3: He seems like a young guy, Like he seems like
Speaker 3: a very mature football guy who's he's still just a kid.
Speaker 2: And that might be who he is. Ye we after
Speaker 2: all the time Matt Ryan played like we is this
Speaker 2: is this kind of it? Yeah, yeah, that's it. Russell Wilson.
Speaker 2: Russell Wilson tried to change and of course all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, Alston even for great, he's.
Speaker 4: All so chill.
Speaker 3: I think it makes him a great quarterback because he's
Speaker 3: so chilling about it. Yeah, and even Terry mclern or Deebo,
Speaker 3: who like showed up to his his birthday party a
Speaker 3: surprise birthday already. But you got the sense like he didn't.
Speaker 3: He wasn't super tight with everyone. They all really respect him,
Speaker 3: look up to him, but it's like an older team
Speaker 3: around him.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's really tight with Bobby Wagner.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, well, if you're gonna be tight with someone, that's.
Speaker 3: But I think it's just and they were talking about
Speaker 3: it's just like that's who he is all the time.
Speaker 4: But he he did seem like a guy to me
Speaker 4: that would be built to overcome some of the adversity.
Speaker 5: When you said that's it, I had the arrested development
Speaker 5: line her.
Speaker 4: All right, Jayden and Daniels, we'll see if he like that.
Speaker 5: I bet we will be talking about him. And that's
Speaker 5: part of the point of this exercise. And for that reason,
Speaker 5: I'm I have to nominate Jordan Love here.
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, Harden Love.
Speaker 5: First of all, we were cut down, you know, and
Speaker 5: our numbers on quarterback island storm hit or something, and
Speaker 5: we only we had a few fewer.
Speaker 3: Finished a greater honor to finish the season on Quarterback
Speaker 3: Island then to start.
Speaker 5: But I will say at the very end of last
Speaker 5: season's debate, we were going back and forth between Jordan
Speaker 5: Love and Caleb Williams and it was a really difficult
Speaker 5: decision to make, and in part we put Caleb Williams
Speaker 5: on the island because of some of the late games,
Speaker 5: late season heroics, the thrill factor, and also the protecting
Speaker 5: the football, avoiding sex also things by the way that
Speaker 5: Jordan Love does very well. Jordan Love did very, very
Speaker 5: very well last season. We have talked so much about
Speaker 5: Jordan Love this on this show, and everybody has been
Speaker 5: talking so much about Jordan Love, and so for the
Speaker 5: purpose of this exercise, I kind of wanted to talk
Speaker 5: about him maybe in a different context or present a
Speaker 5: question or a thought extra guys that maybe we haven't
Speaker 5: done on the show. And what I'm really curious about
Speaker 5: with him is are we fairly talking about his performance
Speaker 5: relative first of all to what is happening on the
Speaker 5: roster around him, which we've done, but also within what
Speaker 5: this offense is itself, and what his partnership with the
Speaker 5: head coach and play caller is and what they have
Speaker 5: accepted and agreed to with each other. That what that
Speaker 5: the system will be with Jordan Love as a quarterback,
Speaker 5: because because I think he is like the dream quarterback.
Speaker 5: If I know I talk guys like listeners. I know
Speaker 5: I talk about the Shanahan Tree a lot.
Speaker 4: I know that it's great.
Speaker 5: It is what I have gotten my education in Okay,
Speaker 5: It's why I talk about it so much. But I
Speaker 5: think that if all of these guys he is, he
Speaker 5: is like their dream quarterback. And I say that because
Speaker 5: they've all had a guy who can be agreeable with
Speaker 5: what they want to do as a play caller in
Speaker 5: the sense that they're not fighting with them Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 5: style or even sometimes Matthew Stafford's style about the play calls.
Speaker 5: They're not trying to make the coach change the offense
Speaker 5: to compromise with the quarterback. They all want that guy right.
Speaker 5: They want to point and shoot. They they want progression passing.
Speaker 5: They want answers on the field for the quarterback through
Speaker 5: every single one of his reads, depending on any type
Speaker 5: of defense, that they can break the rules for right.
Speaker 5: Jordan Love can do that. Jordan Love can absolutely do that.
Speaker 5: Jordan Love actually can do more than that because he
Speaker 5: also can extend plays, and it's not extending plays in
Speaker 5: a way.
Speaker 1: That is.
Speaker 5: Flustery or sporadic or freestyle or even like sure we
Speaker 5: could say the absolute thrill ride of a fourth you know,
Speaker 5: a fourth quarter, fourth down, fourth and fifteen touchdown path,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean? Like the Outliers, people are
Speaker 5: not remembering so much about with with Jordan Love. What
Speaker 5: I think Jordan Love does though, is he takes your
Speaker 5: pencil after the coach has done drawing on the page.
Speaker 5: He takes your pen and he continues drawing using the
Speaker 5: lines that you already started. And I think that is
Speaker 5: what is so exceptional about him that makes him this
Speaker 5: perfect fit and a double edged sword for him, because
Speaker 5: when the coach is designing answers for him and he
Speaker 5: and they're deciding philosophically, this is how we're going to play,
Speaker 5: and suddenly the answers are gone, and then there is
Speaker 5: no clarity about the rest of the answers aka the
Speaker 5: receivers room. Tucker Craft is injured, the number one person
Speaker 5: that this offense was going through, pucker Craft was gone
Speaker 5: by week ten last season. The rest of it was
Speaker 5: a complete lack of clarity in the receiver's room. And
Speaker 5: then Jordan Love there are some murmurings that he was
Speaker 5: a little banged up. He was banged up at the
Speaker 5: end of the year. When you take away the answers
Speaker 5: that you basically have agreed to use for your entire
Speaker 5: system and then redo them mid season, you are not
Speaker 5: going to look comfortable all the time, and then teams
Speaker 5: are going to pressure you more, which they did at
Speaker 5: a thirty percent rate between weeks ten and seventeen when
Speaker 5: he was when he was in the game, and and
Speaker 5: he struggled, and and so that to me is the
Speaker 5: context with which it's a double edged sword. He's the
Speaker 5: perfect quarterback to do with this coach wants him to
Speaker 5: do and more and elevate it truly. And then the
Speaker 5: double edged sword is when all those things aren't working,
Speaker 5: then what do you do? You have to problem solve better?
Speaker 3: And yet like he was the best quarterback in the
Speaker 3: league arguably the second half of the season along with
Speaker 3: Drake Lee and the season like.
Speaker 5: Man like on Jordan Lover, Well, there was that pocket.
Speaker 5: There was that pocket right in the like sort of
Speaker 5: I would call it the meat of the season where
Speaker 5: he dazzled, He dazzled Yeah, there were also times, and
Speaker 5: we've talked about it, and again you guys were thinking
Speaker 5: like this, this is not a framing of We've all
Speaker 5: watched you know, we've watched his tape, We've talked about it,
Speaker 5: we've talked about the stats, we've talked about the advanced analytics,
Speaker 5: We've talked about all of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: My point is, I think that for all of this
Speaker 5: sort of outside commentary to still finally is to is
Speaker 5: to really think about this in a way where I
Speaker 5: think that there is no ceiling on what this guy
Speaker 5: can do. Truly.
Speaker 3: No, I mean the last three seasons. If you just
Speaker 3: look at the second half of the seasons, the Toyota.
Speaker 4: Than thing is real.
Speaker 3: He is the number one quarterback in the NFL in
Speaker 3: terms of DVOA in the second half of the season,
Speaker 3: including including last season. I think last season he was
Speaker 3: a different player. He did prevent mistakes a lot more.
Speaker 3: He's been the best third and long receivers as exciting
Speaker 3: as you can imagine. Caleb Williams is on those big
Speaker 3: plays like Jordan Love has hit more third and long
Speaker 3: plays than anyone else. And I think that speaks to
Speaker 3: what you're talking about in terms of appreciating what Matt
Speaker 3: Lafair did, and that's despite not having craft in the
Speaker 3: running game, not being as good. I think it was
Speaker 3: the first time we really saw him elevate, and unfortunately,
Speaker 3: like the injury happened and that that hurt. You know,
Speaker 3: it was a couple of key games. I mean, it
Speaker 3: was just it was just a game and a half,
Speaker 3: but that moment and then the playoff game he was Okay,
Speaker 3: the numbers look great, but he wasn't amazing in the
Speaker 3: playoff game, and so you forget about him a little bit.
Speaker 4: But I think he's almost a lock.
Speaker 3: To be on QB Island to start the year because
Speaker 3: to me, he's just an obvious I think top ten
Speaker 3: quarterback at this point.
Speaker 2: And you look at you look at the list of
Speaker 2: the eight guys right who we had on this list,
Speaker 2: you know, Trevor Lawrence, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, like they
Speaker 2: got the dazzle factor. You know, you could say, Okay,
Speaker 2: brock Purty doesn't do but Bronc has pulled out some
Speaker 2: games like whoa you know, and then Drake May's been steady, right,
Speaker 2: but he's got the ability, He's got that that Joe Burrow, right,
Speaker 2: to kind of come in and kill you. So I
Speaker 2: think that's what with with Jordan Love when when I
Speaker 2: went sit there and watch him like man like, he
Speaker 2: may be executing the hell out of this offense, but
Speaker 2: where is that freaking flashing light. Like sometimes you see
Speaker 2: it like oh my god, this guy's insane, but there's
Speaker 2: sometimes kind of like, okay, now he's now, he's been
Speaker 2: what people you say about Lebron. Lebron could take over games,
Speaker 2: then it was almost kind of like he he'd meld
Speaker 2: into the to the furniture a little bit. And that's
Speaker 2: what I saw about Jordan Love. I'm with you. I
Speaker 2: think he's a guy who should absolutely start the season
Speaker 2: on the island and getting Tucker Kraft back with every Yeah,
Speaker 2: once he got hurt, they didn't know that. You talk
Speaker 2: about answers going out the window.
Speaker 5: Well, and that's the thing, Steve. It's because, like whin
Speaker 5: these coaches from this system, like historically through even beyond
Speaker 5: the young guys that we see now, when they have
Speaker 5: a outlier mismatch player that's specifically a move player, so
Speaker 5: a player that they can align anywhere on the field,
Speaker 5: what they will do is they will design their entire offense,
Speaker 5: and in Kyle Shannon's case, he's had two. Often they'll
Speaker 5: design their entire offense to flow, to make that the
Speaker 5: first answer, the first not necessarily always the first read,
Speaker 5: but the first answer to any problem you get. And
Speaker 5: they know how to do that because they understand defenses
Speaker 5: so well. Jordan Love knows how to do that because
Speaker 5: he understands defenses, and so to me, it's a double
Speaker 5: edged sword where if you're agreeing that you're going to
Speaker 5: protect the ball, that you're going to run the offense,
Speaker 5: that you're going to keep everything as risk averse as
Speaker 5: clean as possible, which he did. He was a seventh
Speaker 5: the seventh least off target percentage quarterback last year according
Speaker 5: to True Media, like he protected the ball only twenty
Speaker 5: one sacks. He really really protected the ball and himself
Speaker 5: for the most part. And when you agree that that
Speaker 5: is how you're gonna run your offense, the double edged
Speaker 5: sword is what happens when everything you built suddenly goes
Speaker 5: away and you have to redo it right in the
Speaker 5: middle of the season, as defenses are pressuring you more,
Speaker 5: as your body is breaking down, and as you don't
Speaker 5: actually have any clarity with that cluster of receivers, about
Speaker 5: which one is going to be the most targeted one
Speaker 5: per week. And I think the big clue on this.
Speaker 5: First of all, it really goes to show how mature
Speaker 5: Jordan Love is and that partnership he has with Matt Lafleur,
Speaker 5: because they are collaborators on this, right, we can have
Speaker 5: one without the other. The other thing is I think
Speaker 5: that you see clues. First of all, craft coming back
Speaker 5: is huge. Second, them reorganizing their receivers room, yes, letting
Speaker 5: go of Romeo Dobs and everybody scratching their heads about that,
Speaker 5: but also paying Christian Watson and then providing you you
Speaker 5: hear rumblings out of there. There is more clarity than
Speaker 5: there was about who's doing what, which means to me,
Speaker 5: when one answer is not available, five more will be.
Speaker 5: And you have it built in this time, stripping everything
Speaker 5: down and redoing it, then maybe you were able to
Speaker 5: do last time. And I think that's where we will
Speaker 5: really see him elevate this year.
Speaker 2: Is are you saying, oh that all this stuff about
Speaker 2: we don't really need a number one receiver stuff was
Speaker 2: kind of hogwaks.
Speaker 5: Well that's the nicer SI. That's the nicer term than
Speaker 5: what I was using for it, yeah.
Speaker 4: Or like, yeah, we know who our three guys are
Speaker 4: going to be.
Speaker 3: And yet you're right when he's looked his worst has
Speaker 3: kind of been late game situations where the other team
Speaker 3: is coming up with answers and they're not good at pivoting.
Speaker 3: That said, he has been in that offense now for
Speaker 3: five years. Yeah, this is the reason why you keep
Speaker 3: bringing back Matt Lafleur. He is going to be twenty
Speaker 3: eight years old. Jordan Love is at should be at
Speaker 3: the absolute peak of his powers to elevate what's not
Speaker 3: as good an offensive line, maybe what's not as dynamic
Speaker 3: a running game. And yeah, he's a guy you mentioned
Speaker 3: avoiding sex. He actually leads the NFL since he joined
Speaker 3: the league in avoiding sacks. Like this is a guy
Speaker 3: who has the ability, I think to have an MVP.
Speaker 2: Take and more is going to be asked to him
Speaker 2: because that defense, until Michael Parsons is good go is
Speaker 2: not personnel wise, is not what it has been.
Speaker 5: I think it was a bucket of cold water watching
Speaker 5: that defense not be what it was at the end
Speaker 5: of the last season. And then really, I mean Matt
Speaker 5: Lafore even said it straight up to the media stripping
Speaker 5: everything down like it was year one. To me, that's
Speaker 5: problem solving mode. I've been in that building before when
Speaker 5: they're doing that.
Speaker 4: All right, we are going to take a quick break.
Speaker 4: Those are three young men who got the casting call
Speaker 4: for this episode QB Island Casting Call coming back.
Speaker 2: In a future.
Speaker 3: Thanks again to our old friend Randy Chavis introducing the show,
Speaker 3: former producer Great Pipes.
Speaker 4: It's QB Island Casting Call.
Speaker 3: And when we came up with this show, we also
Speaker 3: wanted to conclude some young up and comers, you know
Speaker 3: who maybe weren't really ever in the conversation and maybe
Speaker 3: a guy in Tyler shuck that I'll make the case.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 3: He's not going to start the year on QB Island,
Speaker 3: but if things go right, yes, I'm sure about that.
Speaker 5: Greg has come all the way around.
Speaker 3: Top twelve to start the year. Now, he's not defining
Speaker 3: the position now, but here are the things he does well.
Speaker 3: Going back and watching his tape, and I think this
Speaker 3: is a bucket of qualities to build a streaky but
Speaker 3: potentially high level quarterback around that. Maybe you start the
Speaker 3: year fast and you're in the QB Island discussion. Number one,
Speaker 3: he gets through his reads fast. I mean that is
Speaker 3: one of the hardest things for any quarterback to do.
Speaker 3: Many good quarterbacks never really learned that. I think Shuck
Speaker 3: does that. He does not turn the ball over, not
Speaker 3: many turnover for worthy plays. Takes a lot of sacks.
Speaker 3: That's his biggest negative if we were going negatives. He
Speaker 3: really protected the ball. So you're getting through your reads fast,
Speaker 3: you're protecting the ball. You have a combination of creation
Speaker 3: more than I ever expected out of him. In terms
Speaker 3: of him as a college prospect. A lot of his
Speaker 3: best moments as a pro was him in create mode.
Speaker 3: And he's a tough guy and he took a lot
Speaker 3: of hits. He kept going and he stays in that
Speaker 3: pocket sometimes to go through those reads and makes throws
Speaker 3: while under pressure. Did not see that coming when he
Speaker 3: was a prospect. But look, he's made himself a favorite
Speaker 3: son of New Orleans. He knows all the best places
Speaker 3: to eat like. I like his intangibles. He's just one
Speaker 3: of those guys that somehow makes more sense as a
Speaker 3: pro than he did in college.
Speaker 4: And I think he could take a big step in
Speaker 4: here two and.
Speaker 2: We see that. You know this is a Kellen Moore staple.
Speaker 2: The quick decision making. Like every quarterback Kellen Moore's coach,
Speaker 2: they can get to where they need to go. Okay,
Speaker 2: problem solve problems. Off the balls out Now you get
Speaker 2: him Travis h chan right as a dual threat running
Speaker 2: back again, that did carried a heavy load last year
Speaker 2: in Jacksonville. You keep Alvin Kamara, you can put them
Speaker 2: on the field at the same time. You've got three
Speaker 2: potential receiving tight ends. They've got some opposite tight end.
Speaker 2: They've upgraded the offensive line. You add Jordan Tyson too,
Speaker 2: Chris Olave on the outside. Clearly, the Saints are expecting
Speaker 2: Tyler Shuck to be good. They built this offense to
Speaker 2: be better with him. They had a top ten defense
Speaker 2: last year. You know they get I'm blanking on the
Speaker 2: their nickel safety's name helbal.
Speaker 5: Player Sunker or are you talking about?
Speaker 4: Wait?
Speaker 5: Which one? There's like a million of them that they
Speaker 5: use now Jonash Sanker, Yeah, Sunker, I love that. Jonas
Speaker 5: Jonas and Sezer my name is Jonas.
Speaker 2: But I think defensively, Brandon Day year two, the uptick
Speaker 2: is coming. You know, Chase Young is gonna you know,
Speaker 2: he had a big year last year with Cam Jordan
Speaker 2: ten and a half sacks. They've got some people. I
Speaker 2: think the Saints are gonna be good, But Tyler Shuck.
Speaker 2: They have built this team for him to succeed. And
Speaker 2: that's that's the reason why he may not start the
Speaker 2: season on the island. No, but man, we might have
Speaker 2: some be talking about some land.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's he's got a little Jamis or Tannehill to him.
Speaker 3: Where like, is he going to be a top ten
Speaker 3: quarterback consistently? I probably have my doubts, but I think
Speaker 3: the highs and the streaks could be really high. And
Speaker 3: he's like an intermediate merchant, and those are the quarterbacks I.
Speaker 4: Think merchant like Sixtus right.
Speaker 3: He is a guy that over the middle of the
Speaker 3: field and you have a lave, you have Devon Vailey.
Speaker 3: There's a great throw of him getting to his second
Speaker 3: read to Devon Vailey against the Panthers where he takes
Speaker 3: a massive hit and the only reason he can throw
Speaker 3: is because he gets to that second read quickly and
Speaker 3: that's where he that's where he wins. And that that's
Speaker 3: usually the hardest thing for a young quarterback to learn.
Speaker 3: And that's why I like shuck Is because he does
Speaker 3: so many of the hard things. Well he has he
Speaker 3: has some flaws to his game, for sure, but he
Speaker 3: does a lot of the hard things.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I think that you can tell immediately
Speaker 5: what the Saints and what Kellen Moore thinks of him,
Speaker 5: and what think then think of what they all think
Speaker 5: of Tyler Shuck entering year two and specifically about the
Speaker 5: way that he gets through his progressions. Is because they
Speaker 5: built more of a layer to this offense. They added
Speaker 5: like multiple layers to this offense. And I don't just
Speaker 5: mean they added players to this offense. You you touched
Speaker 5: on with a Chen and and certainly with Devon Valley.
Speaker 5: I think is still maybe the front runner for their three.
Speaker 5: I know Jalen Polk has had a strong camp or
Speaker 5: of course I think the local media, but Vale they love.
Speaker 4: And that bill Ron Johnson is kind of a three.
Speaker 5: And but like there's there's dimension to it. Now You're
Speaker 5: you're basically making and building little little blocks out for
Speaker 5: him because you understand he can get to everything on
Speaker 5: the field and and I just think that that's a
Speaker 5: surefire way to understand if the if the team really
Speaker 5: thinks they've got someone at quarterback, they're not changing necessarily.
Speaker 5: They're blocking structure. They're not changing necessarily like the way
Speaker 5: that they play their system. You know, not to not
Speaker 5: to be negative about someone else that's have him catch astray,
Speaker 5: but you know they changed their entire way they were
Speaker 5: doing their front alignments when with Bryce Young they started
Speaker 5: playing more empty.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 5: I think that was a really really good thing in
Speaker 5: Carolina that they did, But you're not seeing that in
Speaker 5: New Orleans, and I don't think you will because they're
Speaker 5: going to build layers in because he's going to stand
Speaker 5: tall in there and get to all of his reads.
Speaker 3: And they know that they were the fourth fastest team
Speaker 3: in terms of tempo last year. So I mentioned the
Speaker 3: tempo when it came to Jade Daniels. I wouldn't be
Speaker 3: surprised if they are the fastest because he excelled at tempo.
Speaker 3: And the thing that really got me was ultimately, like
Speaker 3: the extra that he's adding a little bit, like you
Speaker 3: talked about with Jordan Love, that he can color outside
Speaker 3: the lines in a way that I did not expect.
Speaker 4: And it's tricky.
Speaker 3: You don't want to just count on like bo Nicks,
Speaker 3: these late game comebacks, but man, he had some big
Speaker 3: time moments. There was a four play sequence in the
Speaker 3: in the Bucks game where you know, he gets out
Speaker 3: of pressure to run for a key touchdown around the
Speaker 3: end that I just did not think he had that
Speaker 3: sort of juice.
Speaker 4: But then there is a third and six.
Speaker 3: They don't win the game with four minutes left unless
Speaker 3: he gets to his second read fast with pressure flashing
Speaker 3: really quick and the decision comes out. And then there's
Speaker 3: another third and five where he's hitting outside window throws
Speaker 3: like he can do the opposite hash stuff he can do.
Speaker 3: There was a fourth and one like creation mode play
Speaker 3: that was called back by penalty, but it was incredible
Speaker 3: him getting out of things. And that was what I
Speaker 3: didn't expect out of him, because I think he can
Speaker 3: do the tempo and the decision making pretty well. He's
Speaker 3: just gotta just gotta stop taking sacks because the sack
Speaker 3: stuff is awful. I mean, he was one of the
Speaker 3: he was one of the worst quarterbacks in the league
Speaker 3: in terms of he wasn't getting pressure that much and
Speaker 3: he's just hanging on to the ball trying to make
Speaker 3: a play too much and he'll get killed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was a rookie. I mean that that's something
Speaker 2: he's just gonna learn what he understands opposing personnel, what
Speaker 2: they're trying to scheme, and do you know the tendencies
Speaker 2: of defensive coordinator I help.
Speaker 3: So that was something in college too. It was like
Speaker 3: him and Brady Cook at the bottom of the league in.
Speaker 5: Terms of like, well, you camped him in your rankings
Speaker 5: with the great John Ledyard. You comped him to what
Speaker 5: Ryan Tannehill. Yeah, You're like, man, he's taken a beating,
Speaker 5: but he's standing in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a tough dude. So yeah, Chuck, you proved
Speaker 3: me wrong with the rookie season. I was skeptical, you
Speaker 3: have one more Georgian.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So again, I know that we've talked about this
Speaker 5: player so much through the off season, and I think rightfully.
Speaker 5: So We've covered the warts, We've covered the places to grow.
Speaker 5: We'll touch on some of those here, but with c. J.
Speaker 5: Strouds specifically, who I think we are going to be
Speaker 5: talking about as Island quarterback Island material here into the season.
Speaker 5: I want to sort of reframe, like I did with
Speaker 5: Jordan Love, reframe some of the discussion just a little bit,
Speaker 5: because I do think that this offense will take a
Speaker 5: step forward in year two with this system. I do
Speaker 5: think that the moves they made to try to improve
Speaker 5: the run game will help. David Montgomery looks like he's
Speaker 5: lost about ten pounds, it says via his Instagram posts,
Speaker 5: in order to take on much more of that that
Speaker 5: Carrie share with Woody Marks. Potentially as compliment, they've redone
Speaker 5: their offensive line again. I'd love to see more true
Speaker 5: continuity there, but it sounds like they really like the
Speaker 5: guys they have. And then, really importantly, it sounds like
Speaker 5: Nick Kaylee is I don't want to say simplifying, because
Speaker 5: I don't think it will be a simpler offense, but
Speaker 5: I think it will be less dense, Like I think
Speaker 5: he'll be trying to do less. He'll be trying to
Speaker 5: not do so many things from multiple systems every single
Speaker 5: time and every single game and and sort of cluttering
Speaker 5: things up. The concept I want to talk to you
Speaker 5: guys about is the idea of pace, and it's got
Speaker 5: two meetings here for the purpose of this discussion. The
Speaker 5: first one is performance after critical error. CJ. Stroud has
Speaker 5: fantastic numbers after he throws an interception. Specifically, he has
Speaker 5: courtesy of my friend Tage Seth, who ran this for
Speaker 5: me really quick this morning. He has a point four
Speaker 5: to three epa per drop back fifty percent success rate
Speaker 5: specifically after he throws an interception, So the drive after
Speaker 5: he throws an interception, on those plays after when multiple
Speaker 5: things happen, when he takes sacks, and you can see
Speaker 5: this watching watching him all year last year, takes multiple sacks,
Speaker 5: there's some some misfires, confusion, certain types of pressure. If
Speaker 5: there's an error or or he makes multiple errors in
Speaker 5: a single series, you see that start to compound. You
Speaker 5: see him getting frustrated, You see him start to sort
Speaker 5: of get in his head a little bit. Yes, it
Speaker 5: happened in a huge way at the end of last season.
Speaker 5: So I'll pause here for you guys to weigh in.
Speaker 5: But that concept of pace, I think that there are
Speaker 5: a lot of tools first of all, where c J.
Speaker 5: Stroud to get back onto full time quarterback Island can address,
Speaker 5: and also that the offense and the offensive coordinator can
Speaker 5: address to.
Speaker 2: When you're talking about pace, you're talking about in a series,
Speaker 2: a certain tempo or.
Speaker 6: Four months after critical error. So how he rebounds, so
Speaker 6: that goes to show he won. He's got a character.
Speaker 6: But you saw in that Patriots game to the playoff,
Speaker 6: he just completely melted. And I think part of it.
Speaker 2: I've spoken to some people about this who really diagnose
Speaker 2: his film. Some of it's on him, but some of
Speaker 2: it was on the offense. Right there weren't always answers
Speaker 2: like he's dropping back, he can't get his first read,
Speaker 2: second read, and then all of a sudden he makes
Speaker 2: a bad play and it looks like he's panicking. But
Speaker 2: then what's supposed to be the third option, whether it
Speaker 2: was a receiver running a bad route or something, or
Speaker 2: a block not being picked like it did not happen,
Speaker 2: or whatever executional region, some of it looked like play designed.
Speaker 2: So when you talking about Nick Cayley coming back for
Speaker 2: a second year, he's got to improve upon that, and
Speaker 2: that's part of what they have to do there. And
Speaker 2: getting a Dave Montgomery and adding, you know, Keelon Rutleds,
Speaker 2: you know, the center to that spot to fortify some
Speaker 2: of the interior running game. Maybe that helps because those
Speaker 2: young ride receivers and stuff they're talking about Jalen Nolan,
Speaker 2: Jaden Higgins like their young studs to go along with
Speaker 2: Go Collins know he's one of the better wide receivers.
Speaker 5: He helped me back.
Speaker 3: I think of the Jaguars game early in the season,
Speaker 3: or another one where he got in the hole and
Speaker 3: he couldn't get his way out it. Look both of
Speaker 3: his playoff games he struggled. He was bad in the
Speaker 3: Steelers game too. I do think he is such a
Speaker 3: cerebral quarterback. Weirdly, his greatest skill to me, which I
Speaker 3: think he's got a little bit of football genius to him.
Speaker 3: He just has a great feel of the position. He's
Speaker 3: what I want out of a quarterback. And so you
Speaker 3: do think that when he gets older, he maybe won't
Speaker 3: overthink things as much because I think he has such
Speaker 3: a good feel that when he loses it, it was
Speaker 3: like he loses it all the way and he tries
Speaker 3: to think his way out of it, whereas maybe some
Speaker 3: people that play quarterback they just they're not overthinking it
Speaker 3: as much as Jason.
Speaker 5: I love that you guys have set me up for
Speaker 5: this next point because absolutely I think I agree with
Speaker 5: both of you, and it brings me to the other
Speaker 5: meaning of pace that I'm thinking about when I'm thinking
Speaker 5: about you know, CJ. Stroud and kind of who he is,
Speaker 5: and that is just general pace of development, pace of
Speaker 5: playing quarterback in the NFL, not talking tempo, I'm not
Speaker 5: talking game pace so often. To me, he has been
Speaker 5: incongruous with the person who's calling plays for him. He
Speaker 5: was light years ahead as a rookie, and Bobby Slowck's
Speaker 5: offense I think was right where it should have been
Speaker 5: that first year.
Speaker 3: C J.
Speaker 5: Stroud remained light years ahead, just mentally in terms of
Speaker 5: that he's such a smart football player that that offense
Speaker 5: did not take another step forward and evolve. And then
Speaker 5: there was personnel disasters. We don't need to re litigate anything.
Speaker 5: Then Nick Cayley comes in and c J. Stroud is
Speaker 5: clearly showing to him his pace is fast. His pace
Speaker 5: is I want all of it. I can do all
Speaker 5: of it. I can think about all of it, I
Speaker 5: can see all of it. And Nick Keyley sees that
Speaker 5: and he's like, holy crap, Like this is awesome. I
Speaker 5: can try everything. I'm going to try to meld these
Speaker 5: two systems, the Patriots and the Rams, and I'm gonna
Speaker 5: try to do all of it sometimes in one game.
Speaker 5: And my answers that I give to my quarterback and
Speaker 5: the heat of the moment in battle are going to
Speaker 5: be maybe too much or too complicated or too clunky
Speaker 5: because there's too much going on all at one time.
Speaker 5: We don't have the run game to support it, we
Speaker 5: don't have the protection to support it. And you're asking
Speaker 5: then too much for a quarterback who wants to do
Speaker 5: all of it when sometimes the correct pace for both
Speaker 5: the play caller and the quarterback is to be together
Speaker 5: at the same time and to really dig and collaborate
Speaker 5: on how can I protect him from himself both ways?
Speaker 5: And I think steps, they skip steps, and I think
Speaker 5: that is what exactly is happening here, and I think
Speaker 5: that's what they're very self aware of in Houston right now.
Speaker 5: So the idea of pace in that regard being in
Speaker 5: the same step as the person that you're collaborating with,
Speaker 5: to me, that's what takes CJ. Stroud from being this
Speaker 5: really really gifted player who we just we know there's
Speaker 5: more in there, we know the highs of so high
Speaker 5: and turns him, I think into this, you know once again,
Speaker 5: because he was his freshman year, essentially his rookie year,
Speaker 5: a top ten quarterback.
Speaker 4: The crazy thing is.
Speaker 3: His numbers last year are almost identical analytics wise to
Speaker 3: his rookie year, but watching the film, I don't think
Speaker 3: he played as well. I think it's misleading and he
Speaker 3: was streakier.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Part of it is since he entered the league, the
Speaker 3: Texans are second to last in success rate and ep
Speaker 3: play running the ball. Yeah, so it's like he's always
Speaker 3: in third and lungs. He's always in a bad situation.
Speaker 3: There are obviously reasons for but I think what you
Speaker 3: hit on. They've talked about it, we'll see if they
Speaker 3: can execute it. All off season they've been saying, we
Speaker 3: want to focus on what CJ does well, build the
Speaker 3: offense around his strengths a little more instead of maybe
Speaker 3: just what we're doing and what are those strengths. I
Speaker 3: think it's reading down the field and like.
Speaker 5: Yeah, maybe, But I also think that's only half of
Speaker 5: the story there, because yes, you should do that, and
Speaker 5: he can do those things, but in the cases where
Speaker 5: then he was asked to do too much with less,
Speaker 5: with less support or less less pure answer, you also
Speaker 5: have to protect him from himself. Just because he can
Speaker 5: do it doesn't mean he always should. So I think
Speaker 5: that's just only part of the story there.
Speaker 2: Well, my final thing is, look, this is a big year.
Speaker 2: For him. I mean, of course he's got the contract
Speaker 2: coming up. More than anything, they've got a balance out
Speaker 2: thing because the defensive players they got to be tired
Speaker 2: of carrying this team. And you know, if he if
Speaker 2: everything works out and he does have a good year,
Speaker 2: they're going to have to let some of those defensive
Speaker 2: players go because you remember, they've extended just about everybody,
Speaker 2: Like and the next one up is Henry Toto, and
Speaker 2: he's a hell of a player. Like if he gets
Speaker 2: on the market, there's gonna be other teams that are
Speaker 2: gonna want him.
Speaker 4: How about how about Texans Bills and then Texans Bengals
Speaker 4: both one pm Eastern games in Houston to start the season.
Speaker 4: I'm just that's what those are some deaths.
Speaker 3: Those are some good early morning not the West Coast
Speaker 3: game on Because to your point, I think there are
Speaker 3: certain players teams like it's important I think for CJ
Speaker 3: in this offense to get off to a good start, he.
Speaker 2: Wi those two teams early, to let your defense get
Speaker 2: after him. Bigger thing, it's not offensive.
Speaker 4: Okay, last person for the casting call.
Speaker 2: I mean, come on, there's a couple of guys we've
Speaker 2: left off.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 4: Who's gonna get on who's not We're just.
Speaker 2: And I'm just saying this, and this is because of
Speaker 2: who he is, what he is and what he brings.
Speaker 2: And that's Patrick Mahomes, who who exactly who coming off
Speaker 2: the injury, He's gonna be ready for week one.
Speaker 4: He gets Bonix. Do we know that for sure?
Speaker 2: I think so?
Speaker 4: What a what a matchup of guys coming off sir,
Speaker 4: I'm going off of injuries.
Speaker 2: But this is this is why I think we really
Speaker 2: need to pay more attention to Mahomes than ever is.
Speaker 2: I think this offense personnel wise, Yes, they got Kenneth Walker,
Speaker 2: but it might be more of a mess than what
Speaker 2: he's ever had to deal with that receiving corps. It's
Speaker 2: not making teams saying who are we doubling? It's not
Speaker 2: making anybody saying, oh, we've got to do X, Y
Speaker 2: and Z. Because Travis Kelsey is where he is in
Speaker 2: his career, this offensive line has been Unstable'd be better
Speaker 2: than it was good. It could be better than it's been,
Speaker 2: but this might be the most ability that they've had.
Speaker 2: But what's going to be asked in Mahomes? What do
Speaker 2: we say every year he gets asked to do more
Speaker 2: than any quarterback in the NFL because of his person
Speaker 2: it might be more on him than we have seen
Speaker 2: it now. Eric Bienemy and Mahomes just said that he's
Speaker 2: back as Yosi b Enemy will be far more accountable
Speaker 2: than what they've had the past. Right, he'll keep guys
Speaker 2: in line. But just again, what's going to have to
Speaker 2: happen with Kenneth Walker in this run game? They're probably
Speaker 2: gonna have to score more points because this defense half
Speaker 2: of it is on other rosters in the NFL. Right now,
Speaker 2: I think this is where Patrick Mahomes is really going
Speaker 2: to show us how great. We know how great he is,
Speaker 2: but this is going to be a next level mover.
Speaker 4: I do think it's a great.
Speaker 3: First of all, we haven't talked about him despite him
Speaker 3: that much this operason, despite him being, as I've often said,
Speaker 3: the greatest player I've ever seen enter the league. And
Speaker 3: yet look, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees and Tom Brady
Speaker 3: never had a three year run of statistical decline in
Speaker 3: the middle of his prime like Mahlmes has had. Now
Speaker 3: you can look at the tape and understand that he
Speaker 3: has been better than that. But I would say at
Speaker 3: the very end of last year. They were out of
Speaker 3: answers in a way that they never had been before.
Speaker 3: And he had more value per game that he played
Speaker 3: running the ball yes qbr or Dvoa than any quarterback
Speaker 3: in the league, more than Josh Allen, more than anyone.
Speaker 3: And that's not going to be part of his arsenal
Speaker 3: this year. So they are so pass heavy. I think
Speaker 3: Eric b Enemy will help to change that, but they
Speaker 3: are the most pass heavy team in the NFL in
Speaker 3: almost every situation. It's just so much on his plate,
Speaker 3: and then you're taking away potentially his mobility this year.
Speaker 3: It is an incredible test of how great he is.
Speaker 5: So I don't think it's enough that they've done, but
Speaker 5: I do think I can understand their thought process of
Speaker 5: why they've done what they've done, which is, hey, Patrick Mahomes,
Speaker 5: how about instead of you running to send plays, we
Speaker 5: design a bleep load of screens to Kenneth Walker the
Speaker 5: best screen running in football right now, and Andy Reid
Speaker 5: the best screenplaybook in football right now, and we just say, okay, here,
Speaker 5: here's how we mitigate pressure. Here's how we get the
Speaker 5: quarterback to stop running so much and trying to do
Speaker 5: too much. We just give this, We just give this
Speaker 5: option to them. We build it into every single play
Speaker 5: as like a new type of a run pass option,
Speaker 5: like that type of a thing. It's an extension of
Speaker 5: their wide zone whatever you want to call it. Like,
Speaker 5: I think that that is exactly what they thought, like, Hey,
Speaker 5: who needs more receivers and who needs them to stay
Speaker 5: out of trouble? Right because we can just go ahead
Speaker 5: and dump it to Kenneth Walker and we've got the
Speaker 5: best screen game ever. And I just you know what
Speaker 5: I mean, Like, I just I don't know if it's
Speaker 5: gonna work, but I do think and I think it's
Speaker 5: also a part of the reason. You know, you see
Speaker 5: like some of the builds of their alignment, they're athletic,
Speaker 5: they can move with that type of bloody read you know,
Speaker 5: that type of a thing. So I really do think
Speaker 5: that that I don't know if it's gonna work, but
Speaker 5: I do think that that is legitimately what they thought.
Speaker 3: Their offensive line, if it hits, has potential to be
Speaker 3: one of the very best in the league. Josh Semons
Speaker 3: could be a top five tackle and he's leaned down. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Sue Mattea got better. Last year was a nice development
Speaker 3: story for them. They've replaced their right tackle. It's now
Speaker 3: going to be Jalen Moore, not Jewan Taylor. Like that
Speaker 3: could be better. You have Creed Humphrey and tracement. So
Speaker 3: they're going to ask for that to be a lot
Speaker 3: of work because to your point, it's like, oh wait,
Speaker 3: we're really doing Taekwon Thornton as wide receiver three for
Speaker 3: a second straight year because we're going for that. It
Speaker 3: was it was a different Mahomes last year. They started
Speaker 3: throwing deep like crazy again and it was like not
Speaker 3: that effective. It wasn't terrible, but other teams blitz them,
Speaker 3: and that used to be kryptonite against Mahomes. They didn't
Speaker 3: really have answers. They blitzed them. They were bad against blitzes.
Speaker 3: They were bad against man. It was it was a
Speaker 3: new Mahomes.
Speaker 2: He's going to get blitched one week one because they're
Speaker 2: playing Denver and Denver's guy got some dudes. You can
Speaker 2: bring smoke, but they want teams they're gonna try to
Speaker 2: get himut of the pocket to test that mo ability.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's coming off the AC on LCL, but
Speaker 2: that dude is made out of the most pliable ligaments
Speaker 2: how many times he's jacked up his ankle just bounce
Speaker 2: right up. So I think he's going to be back.
Speaker 2: But I think this is going to be, you know,
Speaker 2: the showcase of just how great he is because I
Speaker 2: think he's working with last year again, the stonewall defense
Speaker 2: has been broken down.
Speaker 3: He's more interesting this year because because of the adversity,
Speaker 3: because of the We've never seen a Chiefs team enter
Speaker 3: a season like this, Like, you know, their projected wins
Speaker 3: is going to be like nine, you know, eight and
Speaker 3: a half.
Speaker 4: Nine good?
Speaker 5: Won't somebody please give the Chiefs a chip on their
Speaker 5: shoulders right full?
Speaker 3: And what I mentioned about the three year period, Like
Speaker 3: I think he knows that. I think he's a little disappointed.
Speaker 3: Like he's a guy that has had all the team
Speaker 3: success in the world, but he wants to put up
Speaker 3: big numbers, he wants to have flashy plays.
Speaker 4: I'm excited.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm excited. He's someone we definitely and then we
Speaker 5: should not. We'd be remiss to say, you know, another
Speaker 5: injured player we probably will be talking about very quickly
Speaker 5: on the island was Lamar.
Speaker 3: Well, yes, yes, these guys will off to the side,
Speaker 3: whether they immediately get put onto the island.
Speaker 4: But that's for a month from now.
Speaker 3: Let's actually take one quick break before we let you
Speaker 3: get to your day job.
Speaker 4: Today.
Speaker 3: You're hosting NFL Insiders on NFL Network tonight.
Speaker 4: Everyone check that out Wednesday night. But we're gonna do it.
Speaker 4: Just a little bit of news. Training camp has started.
Speaker 4: Let's go.
Speaker 2: I should have mentioned that, getting real, I.
Speaker 3: Should have mentioned right at the top. It's July twenty second,
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4: I'm back in.
Speaker 3: Los Angeles, by the way. We're good. So we make
Speaker 3: a trip overseas.
Speaker 4: More on that coming up on NFL Daily. But Jordan
Speaker 4: might be coming with me this then around going to Parry.
Speaker 5: Just riding on Gregg's coach.
Speaker 4: Okay, I gave it away. Yeah, we're going to Paris.
Speaker 4: We'll talk more about that some other time as we're
Speaker 4: taping this.
Speaker 5: The girl who went to Paris. You don't get that.
Speaker 3: Reference the two No, I don't Emily and Perie, I
Speaker 3: don't know. The panthers in the Arizona Cardinals have showed
Speaker 3: up to their facilities. Training camp is opening for the
Speaker 3: two Hall of Fame teams, although they didn't go as
Speaker 3: early as they could have, and so that means some
Speaker 3: of the other teams that are starting early, like the
Speaker 3: Seahawks and the Patriots, they're showing up in a couple
Speaker 3: of days. The forty nine ers in the Rams are
Speaker 3: going to be over the weekend. Everyone will be there
Speaker 3: by early next week. But yes, the Panthers and the
Speaker 3: Cardinals are in camp, and so we'll start just with
Speaker 3: them since they're the teams that are there, and you
Speaker 3: start getting these little news items. Number one, Jacoby Brissett
Speaker 3: Ian Rappaport says that there is some agreement he deserves
Speaker 3: a little more money. It sounds like this is gonna,
Speaker 3: you know, be solved. And then the Cardinals also have
Speaker 3: a starting guard, Isaiah Adams, who is facing weapons charges
Speaker 3: in his home country of Canada that sound pretty serious.
Speaker 3: So that's something will monitor with them. But I did
Speaker 3: want to ask you whis about the Panthers, who got
Speaker 3: some rough news in terms of injuries. We knew Ikiakwanmu
Speaker 3: who's on the pup list to start camp, no surprise there.
Speaker 3: He's going to miss a big chunk of the season,
Speaker 3: maybe all the season because of his knee injuries. We
Speaker 3: did not know that they're projected starting right tacker tackle
Speaker 3: Taylor Moten has a blood clot issue, and the Panthers,
Speaker 3: after this was initially reported, clarified that they're hopeful he
Speaker 3: could return at some point mid season. But that has
Speaker 3: been a real lynchpin for their entire team. And suddenly
Speaker 3: it's one thing if you're down one tackle and then
Speaker 3: he draft a player in Monroe Freeling in the first
Speaker 3: round to maybe help fill the gap, it's another thing
Speaker 3: you're now down two tackles with Taylor Moten out for
Speaker 3: a while.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Freeling's gonna have to play right away.
Speaker 2: I mean Moten. I think they're saying the blood clot
Speaker 2: could be near as long. That's a dangerous thing. So
Speaker 2: he's gonna have to go on blood thinners and this
Speaker 2: and net. We know you get cut and things like
Speaker 2: that in the NFL, So best of luck to him
Speaker 2: getting healthy. But these are big blows. I mean, this
Speaker 2: is something you have to form a certain type of
Speaker 2: pocket with a short quarterback who's not an evasive type
Speaker 2: of guys, not Kyler Murray that you know, Bryce Young
Speaker 2: we're talking about. So you know, these are tough blows.
Speaker 2: We'll see how they adjust. A good thing is you
Speaker 2: know now, so you can plan schemes see if somebody
Speaker 2: comes available that you want to add, but depth wise
Speaker 2: and just frontline talent wise, this is not what the
Speaker 2: Carolina Panthers need, you know, especially playing in a division
Speaker 2: where you got some guys you can get after.
Speaker 3: The I doubt they knew before the draft, but we
Speaker 3: could try to find that out because Monroe Feeling was
Speaker 3: a little bit of a surprise pick there in the
Speaker 3: first round. But now they do have two guys in
Speaker 3: Rashid Walker who they picked up in free agency for Packers,
Speaker 3: who has his own injury issues, who you would assume
Speaker 3: is going to slot in at left tackle, and then
Speaker 3: the first round pick at right tackle, and Freeling that
Speaker 3: you at least have options there where most teams would
Speaker 3: not in terms of their fourth tackle.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was hot. I know that some of the
Speaker 5: stuff on Freeling was like, oh, he could use a
Speaker 5: year to develop whatever. I was pretty high on him
Speaker 5: as someone who could play right away, who I thought
Speaker 5: would win that job against Rashid Waker. But it's like
Speaker 5: you at least wanted the opportunity to compete for it
Speaker 5: without that pressure right of Hey, now you're going to
Speaker 5: have to go in right away. This seems to me.
Speaker 5: I don't know this is not reported info, but this
Speaker 5: seems to me like something that gets picked up in
Speaker 5: those physicals right they're taking before camp. It's a real bummer.
Speaker 5: Like I covered Taylor Moten early in my beat writing career,
Speaker 5: really really good dude, and just like a stalwart for
Speaker 5: them who's been through so much with that organization, through
Speaker 5: ownership changes and multiple front office changes and multiple coaching
Speaker 5: changes and has always been their iron man. For something
Speaker 5: like this to take him down is really really upsetting, frankly.
Speaker 4: And we've seen Christian Barmore for the Patriots as an
Speaker 4: example of a player that came back from blood clots
Speaker 4: and played well last year.
Speaker 3: So yeah, happy betrayals, but just get wet soon, get
Speaker 3: well Taylor Moten, and I should have mentioned Jacoby Brissett.
Speaker 3: According to reports, it hasn't been confirmed Wednesday, but the
Speaker 3: expectation was he was going to show up to training camp,
Speaker 3: but he was not going to hit that right out
Speaker 3: and so as a hold in so they will see
Speaker 3: this sounds like one to me that could get solved
Speaker 3: by like the first day or or the second day,
Speaker 3: you would hope. So a couple of contracts that got
Speaker 3: signed recently. Jordan Brooks got that money from the Dolphins.
Speaker 3: Three years fifty one million dollars, thirty five million dollars
Speaker 3: guaranteed on a three year deal. So what a success
Speaker 3: story for a guy who early in his career in Seattle.
Speaker 4: We were like, is they didn't know.
Speaker 2: What to do with it with an INTI guy and outside, yeah, is.
Speaker 3: It gonna work. Great job by the Dolphins getting himlocked up.
Speaker 3: And then Devonte Wyatt, the defensive tackle. This one surprised me.
Speaker 3: Three years, fifty seven million dollar extension, twenty million dollar
Speaker 3: signing bonus.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 3: I know you you you know have talked about Brooks
Speaker 3: is one of the weight bearing wall, weight bearing walls
Speaker 3: of their sprint rebuild, and they put their money where
Speaker 3: their mouth is.
Speaker 5: I am starting, I'm clocking this. It's on my radar
Speaker 5: that they're being very adamant that they're calling them pillars
Speaker 5: in Miami, not weight bearing walls. I do think that
Speaker 5: pillars just makes you feel a little bit better about yourself,
Speaker 5: like body wise, probably.
Speaker 4: You don't want to just copy the rams, you want
Speaker 4: to get better.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So, and honestly, like, look, I understand, like this is
Speaker 5: a exorbitant, historic amount of dead money, not just this year,
Speaker 5: but some of it spread into next year. It's almost impossible.
Speaker 5: I get that. All I'm saying is, this is how
Speaker 5: a sprint rebuild works. This is very expected. It is
Speaker 5: to me. They have a plan. They're following that plan,
Speaker 5: whether it works or not. I personally am higher on
Speaker 5: the Dolphins than most, not at the beginning of this year,
Speaker 5: but by the end of this year and into next year.
Speaker 5: And I just think that it just makes all of
Speaker 5: this makes a lot of sense. You're one of the
Speaker 5: best players in the league right now on that side
Speaker 5: of the ball. And he also is certainly someone who
Speaker 5: he is going to be a bridge with their young
Speaker 5: linebackers that they just drafted. It's like Jacob Rodriguez and
Speaker 5: then I forget his name Lewis, and I forget Lewis
Speaker 5: and and there they are going to play early.
Speaker 2: Lewis a good player.
Speaker 4: Yes, so by the way, you're not going to see
Speaker 4: him in the new assistant But it.
Speaker 2: Comes to the Dolphins, I'm most When you say you're
Speaker 2: higher on it, I'm most You're most.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I noticed you're talking about building the pocket
Speaker 5: around the quarterback with the two tackles that kind of
Speaker 5: I mean, you're looking at our pocket right here around Greg. Oh, yeah,
Speaker 5: we got a pretty solid one. We got a pretty
Speaker 5: solid one.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, you're looking more. I trying to think
Speaker 3: of like Andrew Whitworth over there next to me with
Speaker 3: the what.
Speaker 4: Do I look like? Greg?
Speaker 5: Just kidding, don't answer that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I won't answer that.
Speaker 3: I'm a little surprised Avaunt whye who I didn't think
Speaker 3: you know it was injury plague last year.
Speaker 4: There was a lot of money for him.
Speaker 3: You do you do sometimes wonder about, you know, the
Speaker 3: the extra edge you get when your GM wants to
Speaker 3: be proven right.
Speaker 2: Some of it is also how to just help our
Speaker 2: locker room. You got a good player, want to build
Speaker 2: around and the show that if you go through it
Speaker 2: and you do it the right way, we're gonna pay you.
Speaker 2: Other guys look at it, and I think that's another
Speaker 2: Jordan Brooks thing as well.
Speaker 3: They've they've spent money on a lot of players over
Speaker 3: the years, and sometimes it's been re signings on guys
Speaker 3: that were just okay. You know Goda Kunstant and all
Speaker 3: the resources he spent on that defense over the years,
Speaker 3: just to be Okay, Sam Laporta was cleared for training camp.
Speaker 4: That was great, huge news for the Lions.
Speaker 3: And yet I mentioned that the Seahawks are showing up
Speaker 3: this week and the Patriots are a little earlier, so
Speaker 3: we're already getting these like pup lists. I get a
Speaker 3: little tingle when I see the reports. I don't want
Speaker 3: anyone to go on a on a pup list, but
Speaker 3: I'm just saying, like, Okay, now it's happening.
Speaker 4: Zach Sharboney started.
Speaker 2: But then the nick Emon Warry one, get your attention.
Speaker 3: Nick Eman worry, got my attention. Harold Landry for the
Speaker 3: Patriots was another one. Sharbonay is one when it comes
Speaker 3: to the Seahawks, though, I did think it was interesting.
Speaker 3: Our insider Ian Rappaport said, the Devin Witherspoon contract extension,
Speaker 3: he believes much closer.
Speaker 4: They're working very hard on it. Then a Christian Gonzales extension.
Speaker 2: Same agency. Yeah, but we'll see. See. I don't wants
Speaker 2: to get it done.
Speaker 4: It sounds like they're kind of racing to make that
Speaker 4: thing happen.
Speaker 5: Well, and who at least one side is racing to
Speaker 5: see what the other guy gets. They can try to ask.
Speaker 3: For more well, I would imagine, and I could be wrong,
Speaker 3: that Christian Gonzales is one going to be in the
Speaker 3: Patrick stan neighborhood, whereas Witherspoon might get that slot discount.
Speaker 2: They're both thirty million dollars range. It's as Gardner contracts
Speaker 2: at the bar.
Speaker 3: Chris Bell went to the reserve NFI list. That was
Speaker 3: a Day three pick that I really loved from the
Speaker 3: Miami Dolphins. So yeah, these transactions are already starting.
Speaker 2: That's why.
Speaker 4: Going he said, No, I like need some Chris Bell.
Speaker 4: He's coming off. That's no surprise.
Speaker 3: The Seahawks, by the way, will be the hard knocks
Speaker 3: team this year, so who knows. We might have a
Speaker 3: Devin Witherspoon hold in or contract signing as one of
Speaker 3: the stories there.
Speaker 4: And then you know before we go.
Speaker 3: Just I like to say goodbye to these players when
Speaker 3: they retire and not forget about them. How about Niko Autry.
Speaker 3: Good NFL career, great NFL career if you if you
Speaker 3: think about where he came from and everything, but always
Speaker 3: an underrated player. He is retiring, So happy trails to
Speaker 3: Deniko are happy trails?
Speaker 4: How many years was he in the NFL?
Speaker 3: A twenty fourteen draft pick uh twelve, East Mississippi Community College,
Speaker 3: and then.
Speaker 2: I think I think the city hard knocks you about
Speaker 2: the hard knock. Was it the last chance? Was he?
Speaker 2: I think East Mississippi was the last ancies.
Speaker 4: But yeah, he started with the Raiders, Colts, Titans, Texans.
Speaker 4: So that's it for didn't Nico Autry And that's it
Speaker 4: for the news. We're just we're just sprinkling a little
Speaker 4: bit of news right now. You know what else we've
Speaker 4: been sprinkling in our timeline over the last careful New
Speaker 4: year or so. Power Players with Jordan rod Rieg. We
Speaker 4: got another episode coming on Thursday. Who do you got
Speaker 4: so excited?
Speaker 5: We've got Ram's assistant general manager, John McKay. We're going
Speaker 5: to talk a little bit about what they do differently,
Speaker 5: what's copyable, what's not copyable around the league in terms
Speaker 5: of their scouting and talent identification process. We're going to
Speaker 5: talk some Miles Garrett behind the scenes, might tuck a
Speaker 5: little Aaron Donald. Okay, well, we'll see.
Speaker 3: So that will be our show on Thursday, and then
Speaker 3: Jordan and I will be back on Friday with the
Speaker 3: first of our around the Division previews, starting with the
Speaker 3: a f C West and we'll also hit any news
Speaker 3: that pops up.
Speaker 4: Hit that music. Eric, Let's get on.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, this was so fun today, guys.
Speaker 2: How about this has been to call from one of
Speaker 2: my favorite baseball players of all time.
Speaker 3: I saw that Vince Coleman is calling Steve Weiss right now,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, is it that Vince Coleman's steals one?
Speaker 3: Steve Weiss is the best? Thank you Steve for joining us.
Speaker 3: We'll have your next time on QB Island until bet
Speaker 3: We'll see