Speaker 1: And now move the sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks.
Speaker 2: What's up everybody?
Speaker 3: Welcome to move the sticks, DJ, Bucky with you, Buck,
Speaker 3: what's going on man now?
Speaker 2: Man, great weekend, Happy Father's Day to you.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you had an opportunity to give with the
Speaker 4: family and your your dad and all that other stuff.
Speaker 4: Like it's always a great time to kind of reflect
Speaker 4: over a great weekend. And then to me, DJ, it's
Speaker 4: like you have Father's Day, you have Fourth of July,
Speaker 4: and then this football season. Yeah, so that's where we're at. Like,
Speaker 4: you got a couple of weeks to fourth of July,
Speaker 4: and then once you get to fourth of July, it
Speaker 4: is downhill quickly before we get to the season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt, it starts to really speed up on.
Speaker 3: You had a great trip this last week. Buck went
Speaker 3: to Orlando and then ended up jetting over to Gainesville.
Speaker 3: You get a chance to visit there with coach Napier
Speaker 3: and and see their whole facility and set up there. Man,
Speaker 3: what a setup. It's a little different than the quote
Speaker 3: unquote field house we had an app state back in
Speaker 3: the late nineties. The facilities these days are just unbelievable
Speaker 3: everything they have for these players. And I was walking
Speaker 3: around there and the thought that kind of went through
Speaker 3: my mind. And I'll get you on this topic before
Speaker 3: we get to our guest, which we have a great
Speaker 3: guest and a fun conversation coming up here in just
Speaker 3: a minute. But my thought was nil. The college experience now,
Speaker 3: I don't think it's ever been better. And I don't
Speaker 3: think that this is a fad with these guys staying
Speaker 3: in school. I mean to me, if I'm going to
Speaker 3: be a if I'm a day three pick, that life
Speaker 3: is too good in college right now and I'm getting paid,
Speaker 3: I'm getting these I'm getting this training, these facilities, the
Speaker 3: army of resources that they have for these guys is insane.
Speaker 3: I just don't know if it's ever been better to
Speaker 3: be a college player. I me, everybody talks people upset
Speaker 3: about alignment and change and this that, and I don't
Speaker 3: think it's ever been better.
Speaker 2: No, I don't think it's ever been better.
Speaker 4: And I think if you're really smart and you have
Speaker 4: a plan going into college, you really can maximize this experience,
Speaker 4: not only monetarily when you talk about nil, than the
Speaker 4: side deals that you can also, but just think about
Speaker 4: going in knowing that you're going to have nil money,
Speaker 4: while also having an opportunity to get your education in
Speaker 4: a few different ways where you're being able to see
Speaker 4: people on an accelerated plan where they not only get
Speaker 4: up bachelor's but then they can get a master's or whatever.
Speaker 4: People can really set themselves up for a very productive
Speaker 4: life after football is done, whether it's done at the
Speaker 4: end of college or done after you some time in
Speaker 4: the pros. To me, if you are a ford thinking
Speaker 4: college player, this is the best time that it's ever
Speaker 4: been to be a college athlete.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I also think of all these different factors.
Speaker 3: If guys entering college early, which we've seen a lot
Speaker 3: right to get in there that spring, so guys are
Speaker 3: graduating early, which means really you can kind of you know,
Speaker 3: obviously you could get paid throughout your whole college career.
Speaker 3: But if you graduate early and stay there and you're
Speaker 3: enrolled in a graduate course or what have you, you're
Speaker 3: basically you're basically a poor professional football player. You can
Speaker 3: live at the facility with very little academic requirements at
Speaker 3: that point in time. And for all the clamoring, if
Speaker 3: we don't have a minor league system. We had this
Speaker 3: other league. We haven't really developed this thing properly. College
Speaker 3: is now going to maintain and hold on to a
Speaker 3: lot of these kids and give them that quote unquote
Speaker 3: minor league experience as they kind of get between college
Speaker 3: and the NFL those last year or two of college
Speaker 3: where they're not going to have much academic responsibilities because
Speaker 3: they get in early, they graduate early. I think it's
Speaker 3: I think it's great.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: I know some people are so upset and frustrated by
Speaker 3: this new system. I think it's awesome. I might be
Speaker 3: alone with us.
Speaker 2: I think it's great.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, I think if channeled the right way and
Speaker 4: done the right way, yeah, I think it would be
Speaker 4: mutually beneficial for players and the universities.
Speaker 3: I think players have to understand what's the longer.
Speaker 4: Goal though, like because you have a lot of guys
Speaker 4: that are kind of pop coining around, bouncing around from
Speaker 4: school to school. I think if it's a little more
Speaker 4: planned in terms of like what you talked about, and
Speaker 4: I believe this, I'll go back maybe a decade. Quarterbacks
Speaker 4: were on this a long time ago. Quarterbacks were on
Speaker 4: the graduate high school early, early in roll, get ahead
Speaker 4: of the clock, so you can get to a school
Speaker 4: graduate and then have options at the end of that
Speaker 4: three and a half year period where either stay and
Speaker 4: continue to play go pro or transfer elsewhere and.
Speaker 2: Have another opportunity.
Speaker 4: Now everyone is beginning to take advantage of that opportunity.
Speaker 3: But it's about having a plan. Is really that.
Speaker 4: Part of If you have a plan in place, you
Speaker 4: can maximize the experience to have a lot of money
Speaker 4: in the bank while also having multiple options with what
Speaker 4: you want to do in your post playing career.
Speaker 3: The other thing I was thinking of is with this
Speaker 3: edition of the twelve team Playoff, I don't know, like
Speaker 3: I got some of these preview magazines and I've been
Speaker 3: kind of looking at this schedule and different things, and Buck,
Speaker 3: I think because we have twelve teams now, that the
Speaker 3: you know, the desperation to not lose a game because
Speaker 3: that could literally take you out of the playoff hunt.
Speaker 3: I'm pull up the schedule right now, Like have you
Speaker 3: looked at Florida's schedule, and like you look around the
Speaker 3: country and you see the schedules that these teams have.
Speaker 3: Florida opens up against Miami, right, so that's a non
Speaker 3: conference game. Then they play Stanford, but then it's A
Speaker 3: and M Mississippi State, UCF, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Texas, LSU
Speaker 3: Old Miss and then the rivalry game of Florida State.
Speaker 3: I'm like in the USC is playing LSU. Like there's
Speaker 3: there is massive games all over the college football landscape,
Speaker 3: and I think because we have twelve teams now you're
Speaker 3: you're gonna see less quote unquote cupcake games and you're
Speaker 3: going to see more really good games out of conference.
Speaker 3: And now because especially in the Big Ten in the SEC,
Speaker 3: like there is no easy weeks. Man like those two
Speaker 3: that is a meat grinder for those schools.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a meat grinder for those schools, and you
Speaker 4: have to be able to get a DJ. This is
Speaker 4: almost like a perfect world for coaches in terms of
Speaker 4: how you want to go about building your team. So
Speaker 4: I can play tough games early to kind of gauge
Speaker 4: where we are, where we need to improve, and still
Speaker 4: put myself in a chant with an opportunity to get
Speaker 4: back in the tournament, maybe as a lower seed, but
Speaker 4: still kind of having a true assessment of what my
Speaker 4: team is. Whereas before you wanted to avoid playing some
Speaker 4: of those tougher teams because you could be knocked out
Speaker 4: before the party even gets started. Now, to me, it
Speaker 4: should encourage more teams to really play a rigorous non
Speaker 4: league schedule, to at least have one of those games
Speaker 4: that is a measuring stick game where we can see
Speaker 4: where we are, see where we need to get better,
Speaker 4: whether we win or lose, to put ourselves in a
Speaker 4: better position to be able to play our best ball
Speaker 4: down the stretch. I'm so excited for college football and
Speaker 4: this twelfeaen players. It's one of those things that I
Speaker 4: always kind of was envious of the lower levels that
Speaker 4: would have like that sixteen team playoff and you would
Speaker 4: see how it culminate and have the champion recognize that way.
Speaker 4: I'm really glad that at the upper levels we get
Speaker 4: twelve teams. We get to see who's who and what's what.
Speaker 4: And even though people talk about all those early games
Speaker 4: are gonna be not competitive, we've been around football too
Speaker 4: long to think that everyone is just gonna chalco it
Speaker 4: all the way into the final four.
Speaker 2: Just as that.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 3: I'm fired up for it, man. I actually kind of
Speaker 3: like the way that college football is gone. I think
Speaker 3: it's great, and I think its players a lot of
Speaker 3: power and opportunity, which is I think is a good thing.
Speaker 3: I think it's great for scouts to be able to
Speaker 3: see good on good competition. You get players from maybe
Speaker 3: some lower levels that have climbed up to play against
Speaker 3: better players. That makes the evaluation process easier. It's better
Speaker 3: for the player. It's great for those big programs. Now
Speaker 3: some of the mid major programs, it's a challenge, like
Speaker 3: they almost have to have a little bit of a
Speaker 3: junior college mindset of I'm gonna have to be on
Speaker 3: a two year cycle with most of these players instead
Speaker 3: of a four year cycle if I get the right ones.
Speaker 3: Some of them are going to graduate after two years
Speaker 3: up to bigger schools. But that's just, you know, something
Speaker 3: you gotta adapt to and adjust to. But overall, I
Speaker 3: kind of like the landscape and how this whole thing
Speaker 3: is set up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do like the landscape. I like how it
Speaker 2: was set up.
Speaker 4: I love the competitiveness that we're going to see as
Speaker 4: they kind of begin to break it off in the postseason.
Speaker 4: And I am a believer, particularly after watch and I
Speaker 4: don't know if you've had a chance to catch any
Speaker 4: of the College World Series, Man, it is just something
Speaker 4: about tournaments and tournament play and being the last one
Speaker 4: standing that I appreciate. And even though I like the
Speaker 4: previous iterations of the playoff, a twelve team playoff tournament
Speaker 4: where you recognize the champion, I feel like you need
Speaker 4: to go through a bit of a gauntlet to be
Speaker 4: recognized as a true champion, regardless of which teams are
Speaker 4: down at the bottom part of the bracket. When you
Speaker 4: knock off these teams, I think it's more of a
Speaker 4: true champion than the way that we were selecting the
Speaker 4: champions in previous.
Speaker 3: Years, no doubt. Well, I mean that's again, well, plenty
Speaker 3: of time as we get to the season to get
Speaker 3: into more of this stuff. But just some thoughts there
Speaker 3: on what's going on in the college football world, what
Speaker 3: that looks like, and a chance to see it up
Speaker 3: close and personal. That was a great trip there to Gainesville.
Speaker 3: All right, let's get to our guests here. Let's go
Speaker 3: from the SEC to a former Big twelve player here
Speaker 3: and Chris Harris. Look, when you pile on a decade
Speaker 3: plus of NFL experience as an undrafted player, you've done
Speaker 3: something right. And what we wanted to focus on with
Speaker 3: Chris today Buck, is the challenge. You know, what's it
Speaker 3: like as an undrafted player? Every year we talk about
Speaker 3: these first round picks at nauseum, but we don't necessarily
Speaker 3: give a lot of voice to the challenge of being
Speaker 3: an undrafted player. But you can go through history and
Speaker 3: we can find some unbelievable ones. I mean, you rattle
Speaker 3: them off the top of your head. From Tony Romo,
Speaker 3: you think about Priest Holmes, you think about obviously Chris,
Speaker 3: who's going to be with us today. He has one
Speaker 3: of his classmates from that year was guy named Doug
Speaker 3: Baldwin who had a nice run. You know, they're everywhere
Speaker 3: every year, Austin Eckler. We could go on and on
Speaker 3: and on and on and on, but you can find
Speaker 3: impact from these guys, but it is a unique challenge
Speaker 3: that they face in a conversation we were looking forward
Speaker 3: to having, so here it is. Here's our chat with
Speaker 3: Chris Harris. All right, Buck, excited to have our friend
Speaker 3: Chris Harris join the show. Chris Man, First of all,
Speaker 3: thanks for taking some time in the off season over
Speaker 3: the summer here. I know we all try and get
Speaker 3: a little bit of a break, so we appreciate you
Speaker 3: taking some time for us today.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no problem, man, y'all been great for me
Speaker 1: over my career. Man, So it's definitely fun to come
Speaker 1: up here talk football with you guys.
Speaker 5: Man, it's always fun.
Speaker 3: Well, we appreciate you taking the time, man, we want
Speaker 3: to spend today. We've had a chance to visit with
Speaker 3: you so many times over the years and and enjoyed
Speaker 3: those conversations talking about the league and what's going on.
Speaker 3: But this is specific conversation we wanted to have with you,
Speaker 3: and that is about the transition, the challenge, uh, and
Speaker 3: then the keys to being successful as an undrafted player.
Speaker 3: You go back to you and your process coming out
Speaker 3: of Kansas. You go undrafted, no combine, invite, like the
Speaker 3: deck is stacked against you. So let's start first of
Speaker 3: all there, what was your mindset at the time as
Speaker 3: you realize, Okay, we've made it through the draft, I'm undrafted,
Speaker 3: and now my journey begins.
Speaker 1: Oh man, Luckily I was blessed that well, it was
Speaker 1: it was, I would say it was. It was a
Speaker 1: negative and a positive. Right, we had that lockout, so
Speaker 1: I got to go up to once the lockout was lifted,
Speaker 1: I got to be with the team faster than the
Speaker 1: other rookies because they hadn't signed their contract, their rookie
Speaker 1: contract yet.
Speaker 5: It was the new CBA, and you.
Speaker 1: Know, nobody knew like the you know, the beginning guaranteed.
Speaker 1: You know, you know the issue now Now it's not
Speaker 1: an issue now because now everybody knows the slots of
Speaker 1: the quarterback number one pick all the way down, right,
Speaker 1: But at that time, it was the first year, so
Speaker 1: nobody really understood how much Cam Newton was gonna get.
Speaker 1: So Von and a lot of those guys didn't get
Speaker 1: there until probably like a week or so later.
Speaker 5: So that gave me an opportunity to show what I
Speaker 5: could do.
Speaker 1: So and that was the advantage for me being able
Speaker 1: to come through in the lockout being undrafted. As soon
Speaker 1: as the lockout was lifted, I was picked up literally
Speaker 1: the next day, and I had to fly to Denver
Speaker 1: and get ready. So, you know, I had to be
Speaker 1: ready to go at be in great shape because first
Speaker 1: thing they did to us is run a run test,
Speaker 1: and some of the vets that were there that could
Speaker 1: make the run test, they always sent them home, you know.
Speaker 5: So that was a wake up call right there for me.
Speaker 1: First day, you know, just seeing how cutthroat it was,
Speaker 1: seeing that Elway wasn't playing any games and that we
Speaker 1: had to come back in.
Speaker 4: Shape, you know, Chris, and thinking about that because you
Speaker 4: got that rude awakening right away.
Speaker 2: They had the conditioning test, they seen guys home.
Speaker 4: What is that like though, like, because it's different coming in,
Speaker 4: Like I was a second round pick, so you kind
Speaker 4: of get grandfather.
Speaker 2: Then the vets kind of take you in.
Speaker 4: But as an undrafted like you're looking around and all
Speaker 4: coaches say, don't count the numbers, but what is your
Speaker 4: mindset like every day when you show up to the
Speaker 4: facility knowing that you're living on the bubble in a
Speaker 4: different way than some other guys are living on the boat?
Speaker 1: Oh man, it was hard because you know, when you're undrafted,
Speaker 1: they don't never change the depth chart.
Speaker 5: You know. I was staying at number ten the whole way,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 1: So it's like you can't look at the depth chart, right,
Speaker 1: You can't look at a lot of the outside things.
Speaker 1: You just got to play ball and try to control
Speaker 1: whatever you can control. And my mindset was is, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna prove what I can do. I know
Speaker 1: they're not they're going to give me a little reps
Speaker 1: on the twos, you know, but most of my rep's
Speaker 1: gonna be.
Speaker 5: Right here with these threes. So when we go against
Speaker 5: the ones, that's when I need to make some plays.
Speaker 1: Right when I go against Brandon Lloyd or Decker at
Speaker 1: that time, you know, I got to make plays.
Speaker 5: So that was my mindset. Luckily, I had great vets.
Speaker 1: You know, I had Champ Bayley, Brian Dawkins, I had
Speaker 1: another corner named Andre Goodman that all had ten plus
Speaker 1: years in the league. So I had some great vets
Speaker 1: that you know, that's poke confidence in me from day one.
Speaker 1: Man so got the Champ, you know, he gave me confidence.
Speaker 1: You know, probably after after you've seen me play for
Speaker 1: like a week a month in camp, he was like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: we want you to play with us and get you going.
Speaker 5: So he kind of he definitely took me under his wing.
Speaker 3: One of the things we always talk about with kids
Speaker 3: when they're coming into the draft process and we're trying
Speaker 3: to give him some advice and help them through that time,
Speaker 3: we talk about the importance of pen and paper of
Speaker 3: you know, how you look in the room and you
Speaker 3: look around. The guy who doesn't have a pen in
Speaker 3: his hand. Okay, I feel good about winning that competition.
Speaker 3: Like how important was it for you? You talked about
Speaker 3: those vets. You know, you can ask them questions, but
Speaker 3: at some point in time too, you got to observe
Speaker 3: and you got to you gotta learn things and take notes.
Speaker 3: How how was your process of really trying to collect
Speaker 3: all this valuable information to give yourself a chance.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Man, I was lucky to play three positions in college.
Speaker 1: You know, I started, I played corner three years and
Speaker 1: then my last year I was playing nickel an safety,
Speaker 1: So I got to play all the positions.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: So coming in the NFL, damn, I had like three
Speaker 1: decordinators at that time, so I got to see a
Speaker 1: variety of defenses at the time as a young kid.
Speaker 1: So coming in the league, I was pretty smart from
Speaker 1: my I would say, coming in understanding the different defenses,
Speaker 1: understanding how to communicate, understand running motions, stacks and bunches,
Speaker 1: communicating with the vents and things like that, and pretty
Speaker 1: much Doc told me like, hey man, you got to
Speaker 1: communicate because you're in the middle. You know, you got
Speaker 1: to run the show a lot of times in the middle.
Speaker 1: You gotta Nicol has to run the show. So you know,
Speaker 1: they kind of let me know. I got to communicate
Speaker 1: early man. Ever since then, you know, I kind of
Speaker 1: took that as my own as that's my job, you know,
Speaker 1: in that secondary, to be able to take ownership up
Speaker 1: the coverages run the show. But that's what helped me
Speaker 1: out playing multiple positions in college, coming in the league,
Speaker 1: having that under experience, right, starting forty plus games in
Speaker 1: the Big Twelve. You know, so I already had confidence
Speaker 1: because I already faced there is Brian I already faced
Speaker 1: Jordy Nelson, Jeremy Macklin, Michael Crabtree. I already went against
Speaker 1: these guys in college, you know, so I had confidence
Speaker 1: that could cover these guys. But it was just making
Speaker 1: sure that mentally, because as an undrafted player, you're you
Speaker 1: can't make any mistakes.
Speaker 5: Your mistakes aren't.
Speaker 1: Limited, right, you can't make I can't make the same
Speaker 1: mistakes as von Miller or rightheem Moore. Right, My mistakes
Speaker 1: gotta be way limited compared to those guys. So that's
Speaker 1: the difference that the undrafted, your margin for air is
Speaker 1: very slim.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: It's funny, Chris.
Speaker 4: One of the things that I struggled with in my
Speaker 4: career is having the confidence is one thing, but pulling
Speaker 4: the trigger is another thing. And so playing deepensive back,
Speaker 4: there are times where you're like, man, they line up
Speaker 4: in this split every time they run this route. How
Speaker 4: did you, as an undrafted player, have the confidence just
Speaker 4: to let it go because all that other stuff is
Speaker 4: in your head about man, if I make a mistake,
Speaker 4: I may go home. What was it about you that
Speaker 4: separated you from others in terms of that I'm going
Speaker 4: for it, I see it.
Speaker 2: I'm going for.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 1: I think probably I'm probably the most competitive guy too,
Speaker 1: probably when it comes to not wanting to lose, you know,
Speaker 1: that was me and the Key.
Speaker 5: We're probably the most competitive people.
Speaker 1: You'll you'll know we don't like to lose anything, you know,
Speaker 1: So having being him on the team, you know, we
Speaker 1: just we hate to lose, you know. So that's why
Speaker 1: we work so well from college to the NFL, having
Speaker 1: that competitive drive. But that that's what really That's another
Speaker 1: thing that kept me in the league, right there, Bucket,
Speaker 1: is that I was a pit bull, but I didn't
Speaker 1: care if I got beat You beat me two times
Speaker 1: on coming back you know, even more even harder. So
Speaker 1: that was my That's what really, you know, kept me
Speaker 1: that edge in the league is that regardless, I was
Speaker 1: going to compete, you know, which a lot of guys,
Speaker 1: you see, if they they drown out, you know, they
Speaker 1: can't compete through the hard time, through the heart, through
Speaker 1: the you know, the mental toughness times you know in
Speaker 1: the league, right.
Speaker 5: They can't give up, give up touchdowns to a B
Speaker 5: and then come.
Speaker 1: Back and line up again. A lot of people can't
Speaker 1: do that. They can't function like that, right. So I
Speaker 1: was luckily to have that competitive nature that you know,
Speaker 1: I was gonna line up regardless, right, And that's what
Speaker 1: I think, that's what really separated me from a lot
Speaker 1: of guys on our team with you know, with a
Speaker 1: lot of guys that are competitive, I think I was
Speaker 1: probably one of the most competitive out of everybody.
Speaker 3: It's interesting you use that word because I was trying
Speaker 3: to find and one of the reasons we want to
Speaker 3: chat with you too, is to find that through line,
Speaker 3: like what you know, your experience, well, how does that
Speaker 3: relate to other people that had a similar experience? And
Speaker 3: I was I was going back through your draft class.
Speaker 3: You know, another undrafted guy from your year was Doug
Speaker 3: Baldwin and Doug and Bucky and I both scouted him
Speaker 3: coming out of college and it was literally angry Doug,
Speaker 3: like that was the way he played was ultra competitive,
Speaker 3: ultra tough. You guys were both, I think, three sport guys.
Speaker 3: You had multiple sports coming out of high school, which
Speaker 3: we love because it means you're just competing year round
Speaker 3: in a variety of different sports. But the other thing
Speaker 3: I was thinking of, with guys like you and Doug
Speaker 3: that have had these long runs, these successful careers, it
Speaker 3: feels like you guys kept that like that, that drive in,
Speaker 3: that competitiveness of an undrafted player throughout your entire career,
Speaker 3: even after the contracts, you know, keep piling up.
Speaker 5: Yeah oh yeah, man.
Speaker 1: And he's the perfect example, right of just dominating on
Speaker 1: special teams and then eventually them seeing that this guy
Speaker 1: can actually run routes, he can play receiver. Now they
Speaker 1: give him a chance at receiver, right, and he pushed
Speaker 1: his way into the lineup.
Speaker 5: So, you know, very similar stories.
Speaker 1: Always love facing Doug and seeing how his career went,
Speaker 1: and always looked at him because you know, that's how
Speaker 1: I had to make the team. I had to be
Speaker 1: the leading tackler and special teams in the preseason so
Speaker 1: to be able to make sure I can sit here
Speaker 1: a spot as the fifth corner on the team, and
Speaker 1: then eventually by game three, Graine four, I'm playing.
Speaker 5: I'm starting out there on the field, so that his
Speaker 5: same way that he made.
Speaker 1: It's kind of similar to mines man, and that's what
Speaker 1: that's kind of a lot of the routes that you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to take it as an undrafted guy.
Speaker 5: You better be dominated on special teams.
Speaker 1: You better find a role on the team right there,
Speaker 1: so you can secure the fifty three man roster and
Speaker 1: then work your way up. But a lot of guys, man,
Speaker 1: you know, bucket, they don't want to play special teams.
Speaker 1: They don't want to you know, they don't want to
Speaker 1: do that hard job at gunner right. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: me and Balwin was that gunner, right. But he was
Speaker 1: blocking kicks. That's what Doug was doing. Does was blocking
Speaker 1: putts and things like that. But you have you better
Speaker 1: find a role on special teams if you're an undrafted guy.
Speaker 4: You know, and thinking about that, because I think so
Speaker 4: much of what we can learn is through the teaching.
Speaker 4: So if I'm an undrafted player. I come to camp
Speaker 4: and I'm playing behind you, Chris, and I say, Chris,
Speaker 4: how can I make the team? How our cart a career?
Speaker 4: What's the number one thing that you're gonna tell me?
Speaker 4: As an undrafted special.
Speaker 1: Teams You gotta find a role on special teams, right,
Speaker 1: You gotta find a role that's going to secure you
Speaker 1: on the fifty three besides playing at your position right,
Speaker 1: because a lot of times, coming into the league, they
Speaker 1: already know who they have starting right.
Speaker 5: It's very you rarely come.
Speaker 1: Into the league and they have two corner spots open, right.
Speaker 1: They might have one, they might have a nickel, they
Speaker 1: might have some competition open at the two spot, but rarely,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of teams already have their corner
Speaker 1: set right, So you got to figure out a way
Speaker 1: to carver away on special teams, make sure I get
Speaker 1: some value, and then eventually through injuries or they see
Speaker 1: that you're competing well or maybe this guy is not producing.
Speaker 5: Now I can find my way to get on the field.
Speaker 1: Right, and sometimes it's good the way as a rookie,
Speaker 1: a couple of games, right, I think it was good
Speaker 1: for me to watch a couple of games three games,
Speaker 1: you know, and then see how it is, you know,
Speaker 1: see how it is when docking them out there, really
Speaker 1: communicating and hitting and champing them or playing you know.
Speaker 1: So it was good for a couple of games to
Speaker 1: see and then when it's time to go out there,
Speaker 1: you ready to play.
Speaker 3: I just wrote down on my paper here. You better
Speaker 3: know everything and you be wadered to do anything like
Speaker 3: it sounds like those are key components if you're going
Speaker 3: to get out there, If a coach has the faith
Speaker 3: that you're going to know what to do, and then
Speaker 3: you have a willingness to do anything they ask you
Speaker 3: to do. It feels like that that's kind of what
Speaker 3: we're getting to. That's a big part of this equation.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, because you're playing for the ground man.
Speaker 1: Now, you're playing with people that are, you know, trying
Speaker 1: to take care of their five kids, trying to take
Speaker 1: care of their.
Speaker 5: Family, their households.
Speaker 1: So you don't want a little kid to come out
Speaker 1: there and play with you and not be able to communicate,
Speaker 1: not know the cause, not understand the game plan right,
Speaker 1: understanding motion and different things like that. There's a lot
Speaker 1: to an NFL game when it comes to preparation, right
Speaker 1: It's a reason why it takes three or four days
Speaker 1: to get ready for a game, right. It's not easy, right,
Speaker 1: especially with the offenses and the things that they're doing
Speaker 1: so well. You gotta be on point mentally because if
Speaker 1: you're under if you understand the game plan, you understand
Speaker 1: the scheme, what are you gonna do.
Speaker 5: You're gonna play fast, You're not gonna think right.
Speaker 1: Everything is gonna be your moments is just gonna be
Speaker 1: fully just based off football, because you know what to do,
Speaker 1: you know where the line up, So the easiest, the
Speaker 1: easier you can do to make that for you to
Speaker 1: go out there and have success.
Speaker 5: That's how you make the team right there.
Speaker 4: You know, Chris, when I was in Green bay Ron
Speaker 4: with the general manager, you used to love to hire
Speaker 4: former players to scout. And what I want to do
Speaker 4: is I want to tap into your experience as a
Speaker 4: player to kind of get a little insight in terms
Speaker 4: of what you would look for in a player that
Speaker 4: you would want to play with you. So when you're
Speaker 4: scouting dbs and you're scouting defensive players, or they ask
Speaker 4: you about a player when you're in Denver, what what
Speaker 4: are you looking for from a mentality? Or a football
Speaker 4: character's standpoint in a teammate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh man, first thing you know is is he competitive?
Speaker 5: Is he a dog? Right? Well? He compete when it's hard.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: You don't see that a lot, right, And the ones
Speaker 1: that do have that, you know, those are usually the
Speaker 1: probos are all pro guys, right, But that's what you're
Speaker 1: you're really looking for.
Speaker 5: You want to see it. Can I count on this
Speaker 5: guy opposite of me? Right?
Speaker 1: I can count on Robi He's he's a dog. I
Speaker 1: could count on to leave champion. Those guys, you know
Speaker 1: that they are going to compete, right, And that's all
Speaker 1: you want really, right If you know, if you've got
Speaker 1: somebody that can fight for you on the other side
Speaker 1: and compete, you.
Speaker 5: Know, I'll lay them up with you. You know.
Speaker 1: I had to do that with a lot of young corners,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh, you know, those guys went out
Speaker 1: there and.
Speaker 5: Played hard, So I can live with that. At the
Speaker 5: end of the day.
Speaker 1: You know, you're gonna you know, everybody's gonna be perfect,
Speaker 1: you know, especially with technique coming into the league. But
Speaker 1: that's something that we could mow. Are you coachable?
Speaker 5: Right? Uh? You want to have a kid that's coachable.
Speaker 1: A lot of these coaches have been coaching longer than
Speaker 1: what we've been playing, right, so they understand the game.
Speaker 5: They've been in the NFL longer than that. Then how
Speaker 5: older then older than us? You know what I mean?
Speaker 5: I mean? So, can you be coachable? Can you learn?
Speaker 5: Do you want to learn? Right? Are you interested? Do
Speaker 5: you love the game? Right?
Speaker 1: A lot of people might not truly love the game,
Speaker 1: They might love the stuff that come with the game, right,
Speaker 1: But I'm pretty sure Aaron Donald loved the game.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: Uh, So you gotta That's what I'm looking for. Are
Speaker 5: you competitive? Do you how much do you love the game?
Speaker 1: Do you are are you in tuning in and trying
Speaker 1: to study, trying to get better in improvement?
Speaker 5: And that's why I want to see if you do that,
Speaker 5: I can work with you, man, We can work with you.
Speaker 3: All Right, We're going to take a quick break and
Speaker 3: we will be back with more from Chris Harris. One
Speaker 3: of the other things that we've talked about, and we
Speaker 3: kind of step outside the undrafted role here on this
Speaker 3: conversation with Chris. When you look at offensive line, we
Speaker 3: have a tomato can theory. So the tomato can theory
Speaker 3: is that you're only as good as your worst lineman.
Speaker 3: So if you've got three all pros, another really good player,
Speaker 3: but then one terrible play, well guess what Guys like
Speaker 3: Aaron Donald just mentioned, that's who he's gonna go against
Speaker 3: every single time. We haven't applied that necessarily to the secondary.
Speaker 3: Is that is that applicable in your opinion, to your
Speaker 3: kind of as strong as your weakest link in the secondary?
Speaker 1: Oh, without a doubt, man, because now they could pick
Speaker 1: you apart. Now you can't hide anymore, right, Usually you
Speaker 1: can kind of hide that corner, you know, put some
Speaker 1: cover two on them. Real you can't run cover too
Speaker 1: the whole game. It's gonna be a time period with
Speaker 1: that guy's gonna be one on one, right, So you
Speaker 1: can't hide guys anymore, especially in this scheme, in this NFL.
Speaker 5: So you know it's no running right, We're gonna find
Speaker 5: you eventually.
Speaker 1: The top corner is gonna the top corner is gonna
Speaker 1: be a man probably fifty percent of the time, sixty
Speaker 1: percent of the time, so you're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: catch him.
Speaker 5: Also, so the way this league is.
Speaker 1: Going, there's no hiding, there's no you're gonna be found out.
Speaker 1: There's now there's seventeen weeks now, right, so you got
Speaker 1: seventeen weeks to be try to be consistent as possible,
Speaker 1: and eventually, you know you're gonna get beat in the
Speaker 1: NFL if you play corner.
Speaker 5: You're going against these receivers. Yeah, it's gonna happen.
Speaker 3: By the way, don't don't don't don't name names. I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna ask you to do that. I'm not put
Speaker 3: anybody on blast here. But have there been times with
Speaker 3: maybe due to injury or maybe just poor evaluation, where
Speaker 3: you've wind up and just gone like, man, this dude
Speaker 3: over here, we got no chance because they're gonna Ah.
Speaker 1: Definitely, you know, definitely, you know we had sometimes when
Speaker 1: to leave left, but it was definitely hard, you know,
Speaker 1: once he moved on.
Speaker 5: But you know I had, I went through a string
Speaker 5: of corners, you know.
Speaker 1: But I won't say that they didn't have the technique
Speaker 1: or or I would say they were just you know young.
Speaker 5: You know, I'm kind of throwing the fire and still
Speaker 5: needed some more work.
Speaker 1: Some guys, don't, you know, they don't come in the league,
Speaker 1: you know, all rookie team.
Speaker 5: You know, it doesn't happen like that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they need about three or four years to get that,
Speaker 1: and you know, not everybody gets that opportunity to get
Speaker 1: those years of development, right. So I was luckily to
Speaker 1: have guys that wanted to work and wanted to get better.
Speaker 1: But you know, they weren't there out all the way,
Speaker 1: you know, as a playmaker yet.
Speaker 5: So now they're doing now I see him, Now, they're
Speaker 5: doing a lot better.
Speaker 1: You know, they're you know a lot of those guys
Speaker 1: I played with there, you know, are doing pretty well.
Speaker 5: You know, Isaac Adam, he's a guy.
Speaker 1: You know, he struggled a little bit with me at
Speaker 1: when Denver you go, I was with him with the Saints.
Speaker 1: I see how much he improved, and he just got
Speaker 1: a nice deal with the forty nine ers and I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure he's gonna make an impact on that team
Speaker 1: to get back to the super.
Speaker 5: Bowl this year. So he's a he's a guy right there.
Speaker 1: I would say that that started in raw, but he
Speaker 1: wanted it and he continued to improve as his career continued.
Speaker 4: Okay, Chris, I'm gonna say this, like having known you
Speaker 4: and got to know you, you strike me as one
Speaker 4: of those best.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like the best that you encountered.
Speaker 4: So when I was in Kansas City, my best were
Speaker 4: dal Carter, James Hasty and those guys, and they were
Speaker 4: Mark McMillan. They were very demanding on me as the
Speaker 4: dime coming in. They would say, hey, man, you know
Speaker 4: where the balls going, It's going to you. You got
Speaker 4: to hold up your end of the deal. And so
Speaker 4: it strikes me that Brian Dawkins and Champ Baby put
Speaker 4: that kind of pressure on you. Can you talk about
Speaker 4: that positive benefits of the peer pressure in the position
Speaker 4: room and how it can make you a better player
Speaker 4: if you embrace it.
Speaker 1: No, oh man, because they already had a high standard.
Speaker 1: We already know like it's Hall of Fame. So ain't
Speaker 1: no talking back, Ain't no saying.
Speaker 5: No, I don't want to do this, right. You just
Speaker 5: gotta fall in line, right. And I was luckily that
Speaker 5: we had meetings with no coaches. Right.
Speaker 1: So I'm sitting there, I get a whole hour every
Speaker 1: day for a full season to steady film and watch
Speaker 1: film with no coaches with be Dark and Champ and
Speaker 1: Andre Goodman.
Speaker 5: Right, that's a dream come true as a corner right
Speaker 5: as the dB.
Speaker 1: So you know that was it was very important for
Speaker 1: those guys to set the standard to also give me
Speaker 1: so much confidence, right, they struck so much, They gave
Speaker 1: me so much confidence.
Speaker 5: Hey, we believe in you. We know you can play.
Speaker 1: When you get out there, just make sure you ready.
Speaker 1: We love your competitives, competitiveness. I'm telling Coach Fox. They're
Speaker 1: telling Coach Fox to.
Speaker 5: Throw me in right.
Speaker 1: So now when I have vets telling them telling the
Speaker 1: coaches to put me in that, my confidence is off
Speaker 1: the roofs now.
Speaker 5: I'm about to go really now.
Speaker 1: Not only am I about to go play hard for
Speaker 1: the team, but I'm about to go play extra hard
Speaker 1: for these guys because they put their they stuck their
Speaker 1: neck out for me, so as an undrafted guy. So
Speaker 1: you know, that was my mindset and that kind of
Speaker 1: has to be a mindset for all the vets right
Speaker 1: come in. You know, try to give them as much
Speaker 1: as knowledge as they want. But you know, some vets
Speaker 1: get turned off because a lot of these guys are
Speaker 1: they don't really love the game, you know, So I
Speaker 1: think dark and champion them seeing I love the game.
Speaker 1: They've seen I was competitive, and those guys went all
Speaker 1: in as being a VET towards me.
Speaker 5: A mentor towards me for sure.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 4: So I was telling you about my VID James Hasty. So, Chris,
Speaker 4: if you can imagine, we wouldn't meet on Tuesdays.
Speaker 2: He would come in at nine o'clock. He said, Buck,
Speaker 2: you need to be at eight o'clock and at eight o'clock.
Speaker 2: From eight o'clock to nine o'clock. We're playing Seattle this week.
Speaker 2: We have Joey Galloway.
Speaker 4: I want you to study him, and I want you
Speaker 4: to give me a report on Joey Galloway by the
Speaker 4: time I get here.
Speaker 2: That's the kind of demand that he put on me.
Speaker 4: And much like you talked about those guys going to
Speaker 4: bath for you for coach Fox, he did the same
Speaker 4: thing for me when it came to Gunther and Marty Schottenheimer.
Speaker 3: When it comes to your preparation process, and this is more.
Speaker 4: Of a defensive back question, what are the things that
Speaker 4: you're looking for on tape to get you ready to
Speaker 4: play against a high level wide receiver?
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh man, you're looking at of course, you want
Speaker 1: to look at his route tendency. You know where he
Speaker 1: likes to line up, where his splits is if it's run,
Speaker 1: is he and what does he do with his hands
Speaker 1: as they relax or if it's run, if his past
Speaker 1: is it getting his hands ready to make it is
Speaker 1: grit is ready. He's more in his stance things like
Speaker 1: that where he likes to run his breaks. You know
Speaker 1: a lot of receivers, you know it was a lot
Speaker 1: of them stayed within the scheme. But you know you
Speaker 1: had some receivers that the scheme didn't matter, right, they
Speaker 1: let them go outside of the scheme like a Tyreek hill.
Speaker 5: Like he run a lot of a lot of his routes.
Speaker 5: You could stop on that first route.
Speaker 1: It was the second roup, right, same thing with a
Speaker 1: b you know, Big Ben buying extra time.
Speaker 5: He could bam. He's in that second round. He's pretty
Speaker 5: much unstopped.
Speaker 1: The first route is already tough to stop these guys,
Speaker 1: but now they get a second roup. So you know
Speaker 1: you're you're you're studying everything right. And the nickel I
Speaker 1: had to study motions, stacks, bunches, you know, covering on
Speaker 1: the run, different splits in the slot.
Speaker 5: Uh, you know, covering tight everything right.
Speaker 1: I was since playing nickel and playing I was one
Speaker 1: of the guys that was playing corner and then third
Speaker 1: downs having to go inside. So I had to look
Speaker 1: at bait my outside receivers tons, all those routes from
Speaker 1: the X and a Z get back to the slot.
Speaker 5: Now, I gotta know everything to slot the tight ends.
Speaker 5: Who's coming in here is running. So I had kind
Speaker 5: of like a double.
Speaker 1: What you say, double film study, I would say, because
Speaker 1: I wasn't just watching the left side. Hey, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna watch the left side. Let's see every route that
Speaker 1: he ab runs on the left side. No, that's not
Speaker 1: what I had. I had to know every route that
Speaker 1: this guy ran all over the field. Right, And when
Speaker 1: you have those responsibilities, right, we have to be very
Speaker 1: precise in our film watching.
Speaker 5: We can't wait till the end. Right. I would have
Speaker 5: to study on I would probably have to.
Speaker 1: Be going over first downs, probably that Monday, so that
Speaker 1: Monday I need to know all the first down quick
Speaker 1: game all.
Speaker 5: I need to know all that on Monday because I have.
Speaker 1: So much that I have information that I have to
Speaker 1: bring in from outside and the inside.
Speaker 5: So I have to study a little bit more extra.
Speaker 5: So I would start my.
Speaker 1: Preparation on Mondays working first down, past play action, quick game,
Speaker 1: second second. On my Tuesday, you know, I'm still Now
Speaker 1: I'm really working on their their deep plays.
Speaker 5: Right, what are the deep shots that they won throughout
Speaker 5: this season?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 5: And big?
Speaker 1: They're big plays that they've been successful on. Now I'm
Speaker 1: going through that. I need to know what plays could
Speaker 1: have hurt me if I'm in this coverage, if they
Speaker 1: might they love to run this versus coverage, if I
Speaker 1: may cover for.
Speaker 5: Okay, what's the best route? Oh, I'm getting a post
Speaker 5: right here.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: We know it's coming with this team, if I get
Speaker 1: this alignment. So it's just different things that you have.
Speaker 1: I would have to break it down every day right
Speaker 1: in some like you what y'all do, right, how y'all
Speaker 1: study the draft guys, right, but you know on Thursdays,
Speaker 1: you know, third down, red zone, I'm having to learn
Speaker 1: all that. I have to communicate a lot in the
Speaker 1: red zone with the linebackers and the safeties in the corner.
Speaker 1: So I got to make sure I know my responsibility
Speaker 1: for all these guys.
Speaker 5: So it's a full long work it's a full on
Speaker 5: work schedule, you know.
Speaker 1: And being able to that was my kind of study,
Speaker 1: which I don't think everybody kind of prepares. Like everybody's
Speaker 1: different and they have their own way of preparing for
Speaker 1: a game. But that's what worked for me, and I
Speaker 1: had to I couldn't procrastinate in my studying because I
Speaker 1: had so much I had to know on Monday, and
Speaker 1: my teammates were counting on me to kind of tell
Speaker 1: them a lot of things too. You know, hey, this
Speaker 1: team likes to run screens. I would watch a full
Speaker 1: day on screens, right, because I pride myself for being
Speaker 1: a screen stopper. You're not running screens versus Denver moroncos
Speaker 1: if twenty five is in a nicros right.
Speaker 5: That was my philosophy.
Speaker 1: So every day, man, every day, you had to have
Speaker 1: something to really master to be able to go out
Speaker 1: there and play well.
Speaker 3: Well. There's so much that goes into playing that position
Speaker 3: and playing it well. And one of the things that
Speaker 3: we've discussed over the years, and I love to get
Speaker 3: your thoughts on it, just from when you entered the league, Chris,
Speaker 3: to where it is now, the importance of tackling with
Speaker 3: all the reduced splits you see week in and week out,
Speaker 3: and I think McVeigh probably was the champion of that
Speaker 3: and what they did and now the copycat league you
Speaker 3: see it everywhere. But I remember when Bucky and I
Speaker 3: started scouting in the early two thousands, we would have
Speaker 3: this guy would be labeled as a cover corner. We're like, Ah,
Speaker 3: he doesn't really tackle, but he's a cover corner. We
Speaker 3: can We'll be fine with him, you know, that's what
Speaker 3: he does. Can you play with the cover corner in
Speaker 3: today's football, it's.
Speaker 5: Gonna be hard, you know.
Speaker 1: You know, they might give up a couple of yards,
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of yat now, which is hard,
Speaker 1: and that kills the team. Yack kills the the hitting
Speaker 1: yard just kills the defense. Now in today's game, right,
Speaker 1: the yards have to catch now because now you're getting
Speaker 1: a lot more bubbles, a lot of shovel passes, a
Speaker 1: lot of quick throws.
Speaker 5: So those yak stuff add up.
Speaker 1: At the end of the game, we have one hundred
Speaker 1: yards and yeat yards have to catch, you know, And
Speaker 1: usually that happens because your team can't tackle right your
Speaker 1: second day struggling with tackling, and that's it's you got
Speaker 1: to be able to tackle nowadays, Daniel, Because I.
Speaker 5: Mean, these these.
Speaker 1: Corners now and right there, I would say they're pretty physical.
Speaker 1: I've seen some physical but you might have one you
Speaker 1: know what, was a guy from Clemson. He didn't like
Speaker 1: to tackle, but his coverage skills is.
Speaker 2: Off the charge.
Speaker 3: Yea Wigans. Wigans is a great example. He's a tough
Speaker 3: one for us to scout because when he if he
Speaker 3: was coming out in two thousand and three, he'd have
Speaker 3: been a top ten pick because it's long and fluid
Speaker 3: and fast and ranging, can play the ball and all
Speaker 3: those things. But then it's like, well, this is the
Speaker 3: tackling component now, like you're gonna get brought into run fits,
Speaker 3: You're gonna have to defend against these quick hitters and
Speaker 3: bubbles and things that is. It's just hard. It's a
Speaker 3: harder evaluation now than maybe it would have been fifteen
Speaker 3: years ago.
Speaker 1: Yes, because now we got to see these guys can
Speaker 1: they get off how they know what I mean. We
Speaker 1: always have to see if guys can get off blocks,
Speaker 1: but we really got to see it now, right because
Speaker 1: it's a lot of screens, it's a lot of bubbles,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of perimeter plays that are happening quick plays, right,
Speaker 1: and you.
Speaker 5: Got to be able to get off the block. You
Speaker 5: got to be able to tackle.
Speaker 1: And what I've seen last last year was probably one
Speaker 1: of the worst tackling seasons in the NFL from what
Speaker 1: I've seen. I don't know what the numbers are, but
Speaker 1: I know the mistackles were hot, right even just watching Denver, right,
Speaker 1: I know they probably you know, that's probably one of
Speaker 1: the highest years of mistackles we've ever had, you know.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm seeing around the league, is that
Speaker 1: the fundamentals of that And that's just because now we're
Speaker 1: not tackling in the offseason as much anymore. You know,
Speaker 1: even training camp is getting waylax. There's not no hitting
Speaker 1: really going on in training camp anymore. And now we
Speaker 1: can see it's coming showing up in the games, and
Speaker 1: the proper tackling fundamentals is just out the window. Really,
Speaker 1: I don't, you know, it was very bad last year.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it that bad. Maybe it's because guys
Speaker 1: are adjusting from you know, the nikill to kill hits,
Speaker 1: you know, the knockout hits or so.
Speaker 5: But you know, and they didn't learn proper form.
Speaker 1: They just learned how to just kill somebody, you know,
Speaker 1: not they learn how to wrap up alligated tackle or
Speaker 1: things like that. So that's what I'm seeing right now.
Speaker 1: Maybe y'all can go look up the stats and give me.
Speaker 5: To me one day. But the mis tackles were very
Speaker 5: high last year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's funny you talk about like the mis tackles
Speaker 4: and the things about like being able to get people
Speaker 4: down in space in one on one. Well, I want
Speaker 4: to I want to hit you with this because I
Speaker 4: think it's one of the things. It's a term that
Speaker 4: we use in scouting. That thing maybe is overused. So
Speaker 4: when I tell you someone is a shut down corner,
Speaker 4: what traits do you have to be a shut down corner?
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, man, eliminating your guy, you know, trying to
Speaker 1: being able to eliminate them. And in college those guys
Speaker 1: should be able to you know, watching those if they're
Speaker 1: elite guy, they should be able to eliminate their guy, right,
Speaker 1: especially in the college game.
Speaker 5: But in the league, you know, it's really a shutting down.
Speaker 5: Shutting down a receiver in the league is.
Speaker 1: Hey, Justin Jefferson had fifty yards today, right, or you
Speaker 1: know it's not. It's damn near impossible to keep these
Speaker 1: guys from getting catches. Now with the way that the
Speaker 1: schemes are, they can scheme the guys open.
Speaker 5: They're moving them around all over the field, you know, and.
Speaker 1: They can find a way to get the guy a
Speaker 1: couple catches, right, bubbles, you know, you know, shovel screens.
Speaker 1: There's ways the office can get you involved, now, right,
Speaker 1: So shutting the guy down to fifty, you know, fifty
Speaker 1: sixty around those ways, not giving up any touchdowns. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're doing that consistently, on a consistent basis, you're
Speaker 1: giving up three, say three to two touchdowns a year,
Speaker 1: that's elite to me, right because especially on the island,
Speaker 1: you're not giving up anything, and you're giving up say probably,
Speaker 1: I look at everything, Budckie, because we gotta look at yards,
Speaker 1: we gotta look at your targets, we gotta look at
Speaker 1: your quarterback raiding.
Speaker 5: How many touchdowns are you giving up? You know what
Speaker 5: I mean? We got to look at everything, you know,
Speaker 5: as a corner.
Speaker 3: You sitting in the locker with the USA today talking about, No,
Speaker 3: this dude down corner.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at all the stats. I'm not giving him.
Speaker 3: I'm not giving him that.
Speaker 4: Moniker, because the numbers don't justify what the label it.
Speaker 5: Like Derek Stingly, people.
Speaker 1: Didn't realize this guy was a shutdown corner last year, right, y'all.
Speaker 5: Missing his status and what he did just because you know,
Speaker 5: of course you got a.
Speaker 1: Rookie quarterback that was great last year. But this man
Speaker 1: put up great numbers. That's why I said he really
Speaker 1: had an all Pro year last year when.
Speaker 5: You look at him. But you know, that's just that
Speaker 5: just happens. Man. You gotta do sometimes you got to.
Speaker 1: Go above and beyond as a shutdown corner of the
Speaker 1: show what you can do.
Speaker 5: And right now, I would say the top guys.
Speaker 1: You know, I love a certain but I think certain
Speaker 1: hand probably needs to take it up to another level
Speaker 1: because I think he can't take it up another level
Speaker 1: right to be a true you know on the levels
Speaker 1: with a lot of our era guys, know the reeves,
Speaker 1: the Shermans to leave, you know, Pat p I think
Speaker 1: they're almost to that level, but they're they're they're knocking
Speaker 1: on the door, right.
Speaker 5: The same thing with Sauce.
Speaker 1: I think they're knocking on the door because I think
Speaker 1: still needs to get those picks right.
Speaker 3: He's catch the gun, but yeah, it's.
Speaker 5: Covering you know Sherman. You know Sherman two point oh.
Speaker 1: You know that's Sharon, right, I call him baby Sharon,
Speaker 1: but without the hands because one thing Sar did he
Speaker 1: had ball.
Speaker 5: Skills, right, is gonna get the ball. So I love
Speaker 5: those two guys. Stinglee.
Speaker 1: I love the guy, uh Kansas City, probably one of
Speaker 1: the great great Nicholas coming through.
Speaker 3: Now mcdey's man, he's the best. He might be the best,
Speaker 3: just pure cover guy, like if you're gonna go, yeah,
Speaker 3: I love he might be the best.
Speaker 1: And my fifth corner I would probably say I loved it.
Speaker 1: I gotta keep Oz in there, so I'm gonna keep
Speaker 1: Ramsey in there. Right he's still playing, still playing all
Speaker 1: and uh, still making plays.
Speaker 5: I love his game.
Speaker 1: So uh, but if I want to put a younger guys,
Speaker 1: take out Ramsey. Now, I'll put the guy from Chicago
Speaker 1: because I love his game.
Speaker 5: Johnson's gonna be Yeah, he's gonna be a nice player, man,
Speaker 5: I love his game.
Speaker 1: Those would be the top five guys pretty much that
Speaker 1: last year.
Speaker 5: That was very consistent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Johnson just got himself a twenty million a year,
Speaker 3: so he got he got rewarded for Oh yeah, uh,
Speaker 3: I've kept you. We both kept you long here, but
Speaker 3: we could go on forever here Chris, So this is
Speaker 3: the last question, most important question. I'm gonna we're gonna
Speaker 3: have a three on three basketball game. Your one, right,
Speaker 3: So you you got one of the slots. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: let you pick one former Kansas basketball player, and then
Speaker 3: I'm gonna let you pick one former NFL teammate to
Speaker 3: comprise your three man roster here for three on three hoops.
Speaker 3: Who were going with.
Speaker 1: Oh, Joe, m B and b oh we got We're
Speaker 1: going MVP man O yeah, O p over for Pierce
Speaker 1: over truth and unstoppable, unstoppable when he is healthy. I'm
Speaker 1: going with NB uh because just because you know, I
Speaker 1: got to see him being at Kansas.
Speaker 5: Uh. But if we were going somebody in my air,
Speaker 5: it was Brandon Rush. You know. I came in with
Speaker 5: be Rush. So those are my guys.
Speaker 3: So so now you gotta get you. You gotta be
Speaker 3: firm on your squad because Bucky went to Carolina. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna give Bucky a chance to do it. I think
Speaker 3: you got.
Speaker 5: Michael Jordan's.
Speaker 4: No shot, no shot, no shot to pick.
Speaker 5: The truth now man that defend Jordan.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with uh it be and then basketball
Speaker 1: if it has to be NFL teammate, Yeah, NFL team,
Speaker 1: NFL teammate, man, I don't to leave to leave, can hoop?
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go with to.
Speaker 3: Leave Okay, all right, yeah against him.
Speaker 6: But it's gonna be a fighting pick up because Chris
Speaker 6: and talk the whole time. We're not gonna be able
Speaker 6: to get anything off because it's gonna get personal and
Speaker 6: we be able to squad and he has Paul Chris
Speaker 6: with him's gonna talk crazy and reckless get anything done obviously,
Speaker 6: like in North Carolina, so many choices, but you gotta
Speaker 6: take the go so you can take Michael Jordan and
Speaker 6: then for a teammate, uh from my NFL days, I'm
Speaker 6: gonna say this, like Dale Carter could play. But if
Speaker 6: I'm going to Kansas City, I'm gonna take Tony Gonzales
Speaker 6: just because Tony so I got back to and we
Speaker 6: and we're gonna do it and then you know, just
Speaker 6: gonna I'm just gonna hang out there and stay away.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna try and make sure that uh keep and
Speaker 6: Chris don't beat up on my guys doing all that
Speaker 6: crazy talking that they like to do.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm gonna playing. I'm playing came on Tony man,
Speaker 5: and we'll find a way. We're gonna have to try
Speaker 5: to double team Jordan when we can. Man, we gotta
Speaker 5: figure out a way.
Speaker 6: See, but I know you guys, y'all gonna put to
Speaker 6: Jordan rules, so like y'all gonna follow.
Speaker 5: Him real.
Speaker 2: Any change any brings into the gym, he can't. He
Speaker 2: gotta come.
Speaker 3: No jewelry because keep it's gonna take.
Speaker 2: So we're just gonna make your.
Speaker 5: Head out throw it down in the m B m
Speaker 5: B B j out Man, that's true.
Speaker 3: I don't think they have anybody to match up with
Speaker 3: m B download Chris. I think that's that's your shot
Speaker 3: right there. Man, Hey, this is a fun way to
Speaker 3: end it. Man, this has been an awesome conversation. It
Speaker 3: is uh, it's always it's always a joy to visit
Speaker 3: with you. And for real, like, we have so much
Speaker 3: respect for you for your career, all you accomplished. I mean,
Speaker 3: just an unbelievable, unbelievable player and as everybody can tell
Speaker 3: by listening, it's just awesome dude. Man, So we appreciate you. Man.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, no problem, man, thanks for having me. Man,
Speaker 5: it was fun.
Speaker 3: Well, Buck, I I always enjoy getting a chance to
Speaker 3: visit with him. We've had a chance to be around him.
Speaker 3: I was around him when he was with the Chargers.
Speaker 3: We got a chance to know him. There probably an
Speaker 3: overused phrase, right, but just a true pro mm hm.
Speaker 4: And like like a true pro. And what I love
Speaker 4: about the conversation is DJ heat. When you work in
Speaker 4: the scouting business, you have all these things where you
Speaker 4: talk about critical factors, the traits, and the things that
Speaker 4: you look for.
Speaker 2: Chris Harris not embodies the trades that you.
Speaker 4: Look for in those underdogs who can kind of make
Speaker 4: their way onto your squad. But I just loved how
Speaker 4: he described what he would look for in a teammate.
Speaker 4: And it always comes down to the same things. And
Speaker 4: so it just leads me to believe that you and
Speaker 4: I on the right path when it comes to the
Speaker 4: guys that make it and the guys that don't, and
Speaker 4: how you build a team, Like when he talks about
Speaker 4: dogs and super competitive people that love the game, that
Speaker 4: are willing to prepare the game and do all the
Speaker 4: other stuff. The recipe is the same no matter who
Speaker 4: we hear from. Whether it's Chris Harris who's an undrafted player,
Speaker 4: whether it's Luke Keithley who's a top ten pick, they
Speaker 4: all have the same ingredients, and so I'm more confident
Speaker 4: than ever that the football character traits that we've talked
Speaker 4: about on the pod are the football trades that you
Speaker 4: look she need to look for in those players, because
Speaker 4: those are the ones that make it, and it gives
Speaker 4: those guys an opportunity to go from good to great
Speaker 4: when they kind of pitted in the same pool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, I go back to just how
Speaker 3: competitive he is. That was something that just jumped through
Speaker 3: the screen. We're visiting with him, and I go back
Speaker 3: as well too. If you're an undrafted player, it's probably
Speaker 3: a good rule of thumb for any player, but particularly
Speaker 3: an undrafted player. You better know everything. You get no
Speaker 3: room for air in terms of mental mistakes. You better
Speaker 3: know everything, and you better be willing to do anything.
Speaker 3: You know. Special teams, gunner, you know what do you need?
Speaker 3: You need me to fill in on scout team, help
Speaker 3: out on offense, you name it. If there's a number
Speaker 3: that you need to be called, it's my number. Then
Speaker 3: we'll figure out what the question is. But I'll be
Speaker 3: ready for the answer.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that's what it is.
Speaker 4: And I think you have to be ready for everything,
Speaker 4: and is one of the things that you want to
Speaker 4: convey to young players or young guys that are entering the.
Speaker 3: League, like how this is an ASP league.
Speaker 4: There's an urgency that you must carry yourself with to
Speaker 4: be able to really make the team and make contributions
Speaker 4: very early in your career. Chris talked about that, talked
Speaker 4: about his process with being able to have it. But
Speaker 4: it's just really important that you kind of understand that
Speaker 4: once you move up to the big leagues, you better
Speaker 4: be on go and ready to go at any time
Speaker 4: to do anything, because that's how you make it in
Speaker 4: this league.
Speaker 3: For the I no doubt, great, great conversation, Great to
Speaker 3: visit with him. Hope you guys enjoyed that. We will
Speaker 3: have a few more podcasts coming your way this week.
Speaker 3: We'll get a chance to get in a little bit
Speaker 3: of that preview mode as we get a little bit
Speaker 3: closer to the season, so I have a chance to
Speaker 3: break down some of these teams, some of these divisions.
Speaker 3: We'll have that come in your way if you're on
Speaker 3: the lookout for that the rest of the week. But
Speaker 3: that's going to do it for us today. I hope
Speaker 3: you guys have enjoyed it. We'll see you next time,
Speaker 3: right here on movile sticks.