Speaker 1: You are listening to the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network.
Speaker 2: This is Drive Time with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 3: Back to throw to a looking whips about.
Speaker 2: A wide Dolphin touchdown time, Rickquel uncelievable, just move by
Speaker 2: it for a second time.
Speaker 3: Don'tknew where he was going right away.
Speaker 4: I want to hit that though.
Speaker 3: Man, I'm gonna help you. Someone will up on the bandwagon.
Speaker 2: Wattle Wattle to a shotgun, back to throw, looking at them.
Speaker 3: Up myers touchdown.
Speaker 2: It's Waddle his sixth touchdown pass the team.
Speaker 3: Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Speaker 4: Now we check your pulse if you're not for.
Speaker 2: What is up? Dolphins? And welcome to the Drive Time podcast,
Speaker 2: part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team,
Speaker 2: your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host,
Speaker 2: Travis Wingfield. And on today's episode, we continue rolling here
Speaker 2: on the Summer Visional Preview podcast series. We're going to
Speaker 2: take a look at the NFC West with the great
Speaker 2: Jordan rod Rigg today, Plus we're gonna hear from one
Speaker 2: of my favorite guys in the entire team, Rob Jones,
Speaker 2: stops by for his walk and talk. All of that
Speaker 2: and more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist
Speaker 2: Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time podcast.
Speaker 3: Hey caffish, let's.
Speaker 2: Go ahead and get to my guest today, Rob Jones.
Speaker 2: What's up, guys, Travis Wingfild Here another edition of one
Speaker 2: hundred Yards with Travis Wingfield Dolphins Offensive. I'man Rob Jones
Speaker 2: with us here. I'm gonna go ahead and make away
Speaker 2: to the field here. I want to ask you, you know,
Speaker 2: getting here to the summertime, about ready for training camp,
Speaker 2: but not quite yet. What have you been up to
Speaker 2: this offseason? What he got coming up? For the little
Speaker 2: mini break here?
Speaker 1: One guy coming up is you know, I'll probably go
Speaker 1: to Jamaica, travel Viay, go back to Chicago, see family,
Speaker 1: spend time with them, and do a.
Speaker 4: Lot of pilates. Get my core right. I think Politie's
Speaker 4: been helping me a lot and doing it this offseason.
Speaker 4: It's kind of fun. It was hard at first, but
Speaker 4: I don't get used to it.
Speaker 2: You just got into it this off season, Yes, sir,
Speaker 2: how'd you get into it?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 1: During the season, you know, Tis Stead. I know it
Speaker 1: was like emphasized this no doing a lot of polates. Hope,
Speaker 1: like just event a game and I tried it at
Speaker 1: least twice during the season, and I fell in love
Speaker 1: with it and I've been doing it ever since.
Speaker 2: To around like a coach in the field, isn't he him?
Speaker 4: You know, it's dope.
Speaker 1: We got a lot of experience, you know, who played
Speaker 1: at a high level for a very long time, still
Speaker 1: playing at a high level. You know, he's just like
Speaker 1: he just you know, help us see things from a
Speaker 1: different perspective, help us, try to help us be successful.
Speaker 2: You get to slot in next to him and Connor
Speaker 2: Williams last year, two really good veterans positions. What was
Speaker 2: that like playing there and getting that staring experience as well?
Speaker 1: Oh, you know, it was fun getting out there, you know,
Speaker 1: get an opportunity and going out there, you know, believing myself.
Speaker 4: I know I got two guys you know next to
Speaker 4: me who believe in me, who helped me be better.
Speaker 2: How do you feel about the second year here in
Speaker 2: Coach McDaniel's offense is going to make you, guys, A
Speaker 2: lot of you guys take that next step.
Speaker 1: I think, you know this a lot of us our
Speaker 1: first year, you know, in the same offense, I think
Speaker 1: we get a lot better and you know, I was
Speaker 1: just being comfortable and just understanding, like what really our
Speaker 1: assignments are.
Speaker 4: You know it's gonna be huge.
Speaker 2: Now going into your three here right the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 2: So you've you've been around the block a little bit.
Speaker 2: What are some of your go to spots, whether it's
Speaker 2: a restaurant or you know, a place to go chill.
Speaker 2: What do you do down here in South Florida for
Speaker 2: for fun?
Speaker 1: I got two I got two spots. My first one
Speaker 1: was a restaurant called Komodo No Gas. They got these
Speaker 1: Waggo tacos amazing and the Short River is amazing. And
Speaker 1: those spots on Spider open on Saturday and Sunday. It's
Speaker 1: called Smorgasburg Down and Win. What a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: different food stands.
Speaker 4: Dope?
Speaker 2: When what's the best man? My daughter loves that place.
Speaker 2: We go down and played right around all time. So
Speaker 2: you talk about food, who's the best cook on the team?
Speaker 4: Best cook? It has to be Connor Williams. So we
Speaker 4: had an old line dinner. He cooked up some food
Speaker 4: and I was surprised, Beu. I thought he could have
Speaker 4: cooked it was pretty good? Did you know that he?
Speaker 4: I think he?
Speaker 2: I believe he did some type of cooking school something
Speaker 2: with food in school. I believe it's at some point
Speaker 2: in Texas at all he was. I read in his
Speaker 2: his bio his background like he's like a cook or something.
Speaker 2: I believe totally tracks. How about funniest kind of team?
Speaker 2: My vote is maybe for you. We just had to
Speaker 2: Sean Elliot. He's pretty good too. But who's the funniest
Speaker 2: kind of team? To you?
Speaker 4: Outside myself?
Speaker 1: I think Rob Punt Like he's hilarious, Like if people
Speaker 1: don't understand, like he's very hilarious, and it's like he's
Speaker 1: just come naturally he'd be serious.
Speaker 4: Everyone was just finding so funny.
Speaker 2: Has he got you in the nail paint yet? Man?
Speaker 4: Not chat?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I thought about trying it, but you know that's his thing,
Speaker 1: and I'll let him do it. And you know, I
Speaker 1: get I ball out like he.
Speaker 4: Did, I do it. I appreciate you.
Speaker 2: And there he goes the hilarious Rob Jones checking in
Speaker 2: with us here on the Walk and Talk edition of
Speaker 2: Drive Time. Let's go ahead and take our first break
Speaker 2: right here and then come back on the other side
Speaker 2: with the great Jordan rod rig Her and I went
Speaker 2: almost an hour because of how much we both love
Speaker 2: this league and this game. That's next on the Drive
Speaker 2: Time podcast. Your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by
Speaker 2: Auto Nation and joining us today, is the co host
Speaker 2: of the eleven Personnel podcast and one of the top
Speaker 2: features writers in the game. You can find that work
Speaker 2: of hers and all over coverage on the Los Angeles
Speaker 2: Rams and the NFL at The Athletic. She's Jordan rodrig Jordan,
Speaker 2: welcome back in. It's been just a few weeks last
Speaker 2: talk to you here.
Speaker 3: I know we had such a great conversation. We're like, yeah,
Speaker 3: let's do it again.
Speaker 2: I mean, Jealen Ramsey, Los Angeles Rams, NFC West. I
Speaker 2: just I thought you were the perfect person to get
Speaker 2: on for this, and we'll talk about something at the
Speaker 2: end of the show that makes you also a perfect
Speaker 2: guest here on Drive Time as well. Here in just
Speaker 2: a moment, but first, let's go ahead and kick this
Speaker 2: off with how I've done all these divisional preview podcasts.
Speaker 2: Here the thirty thousand foot view of the NFC West.
Speaker 2: I think it's one of the most fascinating divisions right
Speaker 2: now in the NFL, which maybe a few years ago
Speaker 2: it wasn't that, but now it is tell us just
Speaker 2: kind of what you're looking forward to heading into the
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three season here in the NFC West.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it if I were to like come
Speaker 5: up with a slogan for the NFC West right now,
Speaker 5: it would be very existential, Right, Who am I?
Speaker 3: And what does it all mean?
Speaker 5: You know, because there are these teams that we have
Speaker 5: seen for so many years that this play in this
Speaker 5: division that is so competitive and it ends up, you know,
Speaker 5: cannibalizing itself in terms of these teams that place each
Speaker 5: other twice a year and they're so competitive, and that
Speaker 5: you know, it really shapes really what some of these
Speaker 5: playoff brackets look like and some of these things that
Speaker 5: late in the year, and these teams are really fighting
Speaker 5: hard so late in the year. The division is almost
Speaker 5: never just settled so early on, and they're all at
Speaker 5: the same time going through a little bit of an
Speaker 5: identity questioning, right because some of them are very much
Speaker 5: in the window. San Francisco is very much in the window.
Speaker 5: Seattle has to prove that it won't regress after surprising
Speaker 5: everyone and delighting everyone really last year with how much
Speaker 5: fun it looked like they were having with Gino Smith
Speaker 5: and Arizona is like, are have you fallen off the
Speaker 5: face of the earth or are you still here?
Speaker 3: Like what's going on? Blink twice if you're not okay?
Speaker 5: You know, those types of things, And then the RAMS
Speaker 5: are in this state of can they really do this
Speaker 5: remodel on the fly that they're trying to do, and
Speaker 5: like also this wild vibe permeating through the building that
Speaker 5: they actually think they're going to be better than we
Speaker 5: on the outside think they're gonna be. And that's actually
Speaker 5: like genuine They're not just saying those things, and that
Speaker 5: to me, I'm wrapping my head around that, So it's
Speaker 5: who am I?
Speaker 3: And what does it all mean?
Speaker 5: I think they're all going through a various stages of
Speaker 5: existential crisis here in a good way and maybe in
Speaker 5: a bad way for some.
Speaker 2: That's that's fantastic. And not only that, but you went
Speaker 2: through each team in order of how I have it here,
Speaker 2: how we're going to talk about them. So that's just
Speaker 2: randomly awesome here for the podcast. But I totally agree.
Speaker 2: I mean that the RAMS thing is fascinating to me,
Speaker 2: and you obviously know that team as well as anybody,
Speaker 2: just because I trust that coaching staff in the same way.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of times you have to just
Speaker 2: put your faith in certain you know, organizations, the way
Speaker 2: they do things with the coaches and the personnel people.
Speaker 2: So that's so fascinating. Plus getting your you know, your
Speaker 2: Super Bowl MVP quarterback back helps as well. And you know,
Speaker 2: Cooper Cup still there. All that stuff. We'll get into
Speaker 2: that here in a minute. Let's go ahead and revert
Speaker 2: back to my former stomping grounds, the Specific Northwest and
Speaker 2: the Seattle Seahawks, because you know, Jordan, I do my
Speaker 2: my division or my season preview every single year, every
Speaker 2: single summer, and last year I was pretty confident that
Speaker 2: the Seahawks will be picking in the top five. And
Speaker 2: not only did they not do that, they made the
Speaker 2: playoffs and really kind of went toe to toe with
Speaker 2: the Niners there for you know, three corps of that
Speaker 2: football game and that wild card playoff game. But now
Speaker 2: I think you look at this roster, you might say,
Speaker 2: you might say the top ten roster, with where they've
Speaker 2: built this thing from the ground up with a couple
Speaker 2: of really good draft classes. What do you take away
Speaker 2: from what they accomplished last year? And is that kind
Speaker 2: of like a message to the rest of the division,
Speaker 2: like just because you're down and out right now, like
Speaker 2: for Arizona for instance, doesn't mean that it has to
Speaker 2: be that way for a long time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think they really send a signal not just
Speaker 5: to the rest of the division, but to the league overall.
Speaker 5: And we saw Philly do this a couple of years
Speaker 5: ago too, where it's like, if you do a rebuild,
Speaker 5: quote unquote, it doesn't have to be a multiple years
Speaker 5: long thing, like you could come out of the gate
Speaker 5: swinging if you put the pieces in place, if you
Speaker 5: really crush certain parts of the of the year, like
Speaker 5: if you are a team that now has to really
Speaker 5: find players to draft and develop, you have to completely
Speaker 5: crush that section of the calendar and making sure you
Speaker 5: know if you can do that, then that sets you
Speaker 5: up on a trajectory. They can be really positive and
Speaker 5: so I think it was a lesson for a.
Speaker 3: Lot of the teams.
Speaker 5: Was a lesson and I know we'll get to them,
Speaker 5: but certainly was a lesson to the Rams, and I
Speaker 5: think for a lot of teams in the division, but
Speaker 5: across the league in general, because I remember the conversations
Speaker 5: previous to last season where it was like, oh, they're
Speaker 5: going to finish in last place. The division is stacked.
Speaker 5: You've got these teams. You know, the Rams are trying
Speaker 5: to repeat and the forty nine ers are ascending and
Speaker 5: you know, still don't know what the Cardinals are doing.
Speaker 5: But okay, and like you had this, but it was
Speaker 5: the Seahawks are going to be terrible. That was the narrative,
Speaker 5: and they weren't. And instead they not only that, but
Speaker 5: they had so much fun and I doing it and
Speaker 5: you could really see right out loud there how much
Speaker 5: a lot of the people on that staff returned to
Speaker 5: some of their coaching fundamentals, and so I actually think
Speaker 5: that that part of it too, That element was inspiring
Speaker 5: to people and really attention grabbing, because you know, if
Speaker 5: you have the right people in place in the building
Speaker 5: and you have the right process, I think that you
Speaker 5: can do a lot of really cool things, but there
Speaker 5: has to be that those those parts of the calendar
Speaker 5: where you crush it. And the Seahawks have been really
Speaker 5: impressed with the way they've drafted the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you talk about the draft, that's where it all started, right,
Speaker 2: And I think it's a good example for folks you
Speaker 2: know around the league, for people like us and also
Speaker 2: fans that watched the game so intently to realize that
Speaker 2: you're not necessarily your last game or your your last season,
Speaker 2: because you know, Pete Carroll's been under so much fire
Speaker 2: for I don't know what I mean, He's been one
Speaker 2: of the great greatest coaches in the league for a
Speaker 2: long time. John Schneider kind of similar after that really
Speaker 2: good draft class he had where it was you know,
Speaker 2: Richard Sherman and Cam Chancellor and Russell Wilson and Bobby
Speaker 2: Wagging a couple of years they had there, and then
Speaker 2: he basically did it all over again last year, right
Speaker 2: like the draft class with Charles Cross and Abe Lucas
Speaker 2: and Kenneth Walker and Tariq Wollan. IM probably missing a
Speaker 2: couple of guys in there, and this year I feel
Speaker 2: like with Devon Witherspoon and Jackson Smith and Jigba, they
Speaker 2: might have done it again. So it's it's kind of
Speaker 2: a cool referendum in terms of you know, how you're
Speaker 2: not necessarily what your last draft class was or your
Speaker 2: last regency period was. Like it's a big body of work.
Speaker 2: I think these guys have proven time and time again.
Speaker 2: So I want to go into that draft class with
Speaker 2: you here real quick. I just kind of touch on this,
Speaker 2: because have you seen a better class, Like I go
Speaker 2: back to that twenty seventeen Saints class with Latimore and
Speaker 2: Ramcheck and Kamara and Hendrickson, Like this might be the
Speaker 2: best draft class since that one twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3: Well, you could see where everybody fits, right.
Speaker 5: You can literally look at the roster, you can look
Speaker 5: at who they drafted, and you can say, Okay, I
Speaker 5: see what your potential ceiling can be right there. Like
Speaker 5: that's and I think that's when you can draft that way,
Speaker 5: where the path is clear. If it's clear to people
Speaker 5: on the outside, it is certainly clear to the player
Speaker 5: and to the people on the inside. Now, of course,
Speaker 5: we don't know until we know. We don't know until
Speaker 5: we see these guys play. We don't know really how
Speaker 5: strong the class is until we actually see it unfold
Speaker 5: out on the field. But I think the Seahawks are
Speaker 5: showing us data that says, hey, you can you can
Speaker 5: believe us.
Speaker 3: So like we've gotten our.
Speaker 5: Ways back together, Like we've gotten it figured out again
Speaker 5: in terms of the draft.
Speaker 3: And I just I like I like the way that
Speaker 3: they've done it.
Speaker 5: I like how they've they've really found and some some
Speaker 5: real bright players and and real bright spots without using
Speaker 5: necessarily always premium picks. Finding a player at a premier position,
Speaker 5: you know, at cornerback, but but not necessarily in the
Speaker 5: first round, somebody who is going to have some some
Speaker 5: be battle tested and have some scars right out in public,
Speaker 5: right because you're going to make mistakes as a rookie.
Speaker 5: But but continuing to hammer and that that faith in
Speaker 5: the player and continuing to develop them in that way.
Speaker 5: I think the two things they have to marry, They
Speaker 5: have to marry each other so cohesively, and I think
Speaker 5: being able to find, first of all, find a player
Speaker 5: with that type of upside at a premium position, and
Speaker 5: then you know, and then they're doing it again.
Speaker 3: You see it this draft class as well.
Speaker 5: You know they're they're doing that type of strategy again,
Speaker 5: really trusting you could see trusting the the way that
Speaker 5: they develop players and the system that they're in on
Speaker 5: offense or defense. And I think that's really that shows
Speaker 5: a cohesiveness that I think has Like you said, I mean,
Speaker 5: it's like the draft in a vacuum. We can give
Speaker 5: it grades whatever, but when you really apply the class
Speaker 5: itself and the personnel they went out and found within
Speaker 5: the structure of the system, they're they're going to be
Speaker 5: deploying that draft class in. I think that's where you
Speaker 5: start to see this is where they've started to separate
Speaker 5: themselves a little bit.
Speaker 2: I think you hit the nail on the head with
Speaker 2: the idea of hitting these premium positions. And there's no
Speaker 2: better cheat cod in the NFL than to get a
Speaker 2: premium player, you know, late in the draft, like a
Speaker 2: fifth round cornerback like Tarik One I think he was,
Speaker 2: and then Abe Lucas, my guy from Washington State in
Speaker 2: the third round, who was a really good looking right
Speaker 2: tackle for them right out of the gate. But they
Speaker 2: also had a veteran that essentially did something at the
Speaker 2: most important position that hasn't really been done before in
Speaker 2: terms of like was he year nine? Like a year
Speaker 2: nine breakout for a guy as doesn't happen in this league.
Speaker 2: Gino Smith, I know like you. I think you and
Speaker 2: Greg Rosenthal on the Around the NFL podcast talked about
Speaker 2: him a little bit, and you guys were excited about
Speaker 2: his his outlook and his future and he's certainly proved
Speaker 2: that right, tell us about you know, what did he
Speaker 2: do to take that big step and become this breakout,
Speaker 2: you know, top paid quarterback that he was year ago
Speaker 2: and going into twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3: Well, you could just.
Speaker 5: See that confidence. I think it's it's multiple things. Obviously
Speaker 5: Gino himself and the way that he approaches the job.
Speaker 5: And you heard a lot of stories about the way
Speaker 5: that he worked at it and the way that behind
Speaker 5: the scenes, he really wanted to see how see how
Speaker 5: how high his ceiling could go, right, and he really
Speaker 5: approached that process the right way. And then but you
Speaker 5: also look at what they're running now, Shane Waldron's there.
Speaker 5: They're running they're running a system that legitimately does raise
Speaker 5: a quarterback's floor, and the ceiling becomes so much higher
Speaker 5: of a potential when the floor is raised, right, because
Speaker 5: the system and the personnel that they're putting around Gino
Speaker 5: also helps. And I always I always think it's it's
Speaker 5: been funny or reductive, even when people have oh, it's.
Speaker 3: The system, it's the system. You should have a system
Speaker 3: that helps your quarterback play free. You should have a
Speaker 3: system that helps your quarterback feel confident. You should have that,
Speaker 3: and vice versa. Your system should have a quarterback who
Speaker 3: thrives within a type that type of workspace. You should
Speaker 3: your system should have a quarterback who has good decision making,
Speaker 3: who's smart with the football, who throws a beautiful pass
Speaker 3: the way Gino Smith does, who can who can make
Speaker 3: things happen out of structure. I think that those those like,
Speaker 3: all of those things should work hand in hand.
Speaker 5: And I think in the in the NFL, we get
Speaker 5: so obsessed with credit, right, and so we are like, oh,
Speaker 5: who's either who's at fault or who should we give
Speaker 5: the praise to?
Speaker 3: And I think it's bold.
Speaker 5: I think we absolutely should give Geno the praise for
Speaker 5: all the work he put in behind the scenes, but
Speaker 5: I think we should also give praise to what they
Speaker 5: built around him and the way that that offense is
Speaker 5: functioning as a whole in terms of all the pieces
Speaker 5: that it does take. In the modern leaguehere you have
Speaker 5: to do so many different things well all at the
Speaker 5: same time. In the play caller, I think it does you.
Speaker 5: You also should send credit that direction too. At the
Speaker 5: same time, it doesn't take credit away from anyone else.
Speaker 5: It's just more credit to go around, right, and so
Speaker 5: I think that's that's all really important. I think the
Speaker 5: way again, the way they showed that cohesiveness, it was
Speaker 5: very reminiscent of you know what those RAMS teams used
Speaker 5: to look like when everything was clicking together and all
Speaker 5: the pieces in the parts were interconnecting and in the
Speaker 5: way that makes the whole machine run.
Speaker 2: So that's the second place team in at AFC NFC
Speaker 2: West the season to go in the Seattle Seahawks. Let's
Speaker 2: go ahead and pivot now to the division champion real
Speaker 2: quick that the Seahawks also had Dremont Jones thought it
Speaker 2: was a great addition, brought back Jeron Reid, Evan Brown,
Speaker 2: Devin Bush, Julian Love, and Bobby Wagner back in Seattle.
Speaker 2: What a great story that'll be for him to come
Speaker 2: back and play in front of the fans there in
Speaker 2: the Pacific Northwest. So let's go ahead and pivot now
Speaker 2: down to California and the San Francisco forty nine ers.
Speaker 2: And you let off talking about this team being, you know,
Speaker 2: one of the one of the premier teams in the
Speaker 2: conference and certainly within their window to you know, pursue
Speaker 2: a championship and almost got there last year, despite going
Speaker 2: through some of the craziest attrition at the most important
Speaker 2: position in the NFL, quarterback. But that's kind of the
Speaker 2: lingering question now heading into twenty twenty three is what
Speaker 2: does happen at quarterback? Are they Is it going to
Speaker 2: be Trey Lance under center? Is it going to be
Speaker 2: Sam Donold? Is Brock pretty gonna come back? I don't
Speaker 2: recall a team with this high of championship aspirations having
Speaker 2: such a question mark at that key position.
Speaker 5: Jordan, I have some theories, and I'm gonna sound like
Speaker 5: I am on mushrooms. I'm not, but I have some
Speaker 5: theories if you would like to hear them. Okay, so okay,
Speaker 5: So first and foremost, I think that looking at the
Speaker 5: San Francisco forty nine ers is the ultimate like roar
Speaker 5: shock test. I think it's like ink blots, right, because
Speaker 5: you could either see it'll tell you whether you're an
Speaker 5: optimist or pessimist. Because you could either see what happened
Speaker 5: to them at quarterback last year and be like, Wow,
Speaker 5: Kyle Shanahan just wrecks his quarterbacks. You could you could
Speaker 5: be that way, or you could look at it and
Speaker 5: you could say, wow, look at what they're able to
Speaker 5: do with literally anybody at quarterback, you know, like it's
Speaker 5: a total it is a total test, psychological test of
Speaker 5: like how you're wired as a person to look at
Speaker 5: that roster and what your instant reaction is.
Speaker 3: So that's one theory. My second theory is that Kyle.
Speaker 5: Shanahan knows this and understands this and has decided over
Speaker 5: the years to instead of necessarily thinking about the quarterback
Speaker 5: position as the position that runs the show on the team,
Speaker 5: which I think every coach does, but in a way,
Speaker 5: I think he's actually created a run game that has
Speaker 5: become his quarterback if that makes sense.
Speaker 3: Like the run game is.
Speaker 5: You can there's so much more predictability in how you
Speaker 5: can take concept and put it into tangibility like lot
Speaker 5: something live that's actually happening, living, breathing, something that's actually
Speaker 5: being deployed with a quarterback. Sometimes even if everything seems
Speaker 5: like it's lined up perfectly, an edge rusher comes out
Speaker 5: of nowhere and hits the elbow of the guy, or
Speaker 5: you know, you know you you you take off on
Speaker 5: the run and then you know you don't slide the
Speaker 5: right way and something happened. You know, anything could anything
Speaker 5: could happen even if everything is set up so perfectly.
Speaker 5: And it's not to say that the run game is
Speaker 5: a total predictable factor. It's just that with the way
Speaker 5: that his quarterbacks have been operating, it seems like taking
Speaker 5: the element of control and the element of multiplicity, the
Speaker 5: element of here's how broad a playbook we have in
Speaker 5: this phase versus maybe what they're asking the quarterback to do.
Speaker 5: It just seemed to me like that is the way
Speaker 5: that he has taken, uh the idea of the engine
Speaker 5: that makes the offense go, and he's lifted it off
Speaker 5: the quarterback and put it directly into the run game
Speaker 5: and made the run game his quarterback. And it's it's
Speaker 5: interesting because I think that that's something definitely that probably
Speaker 5: will get them through the first part of the season
Speaker 5: because there is so much unknown. I mean, we don't
Speaker 5: know what we don't know. I don't think any of
Speaker 5: us have seen Trey Lance, you know, rep Live. We
Speaker 5: won't see that until in terms of this year. We
Speaker 5: won't see that until training camp. We won't see that
Speaker 5: until you know, I don't I don't even want to
Speaker 5: think about what the conversation will be like if he
Speaker 5: plays in the preseason, you know what I mean, because
Speaker 5: it's so such a difference of opinion on whether players
Speaker 5: should be playing, you know, and and so we we
Speaker 5: just don't know. I am interested to see what steps
Speaker 5: he's taken forward. You know, the reports out of forty
Speaker 5: nine ers camp and it's been the spring have been
Speaker 5: really positive. But you also you can't ignore what rock
Speaker 5: Perty accomplished for this team. And you know, I think
Speaker 5: that one thing about that locker room from Afar, watching
Speaker 5: from Afar is it seems like they're all already used
Speaker 5: to this.
Speaker 3: So you they're all all the.
Speaker 5: Other guys are probably seemed to be of the mindset
Speaker 5: where it's like, Okay, put someone in there, and we'll
Speaker 5: rally behind that person, you know, because we like all
Speaker 5: of these guys, and so you put someone in there,
Speaker 5: will rally behind this person. Again, because it's not necessarily
Speaker 5: about that person. It's more about the functionality of the
Speaker 5: entire system and all of the other people working in sync,
Speaker 5: and especially that run game being able to do what
Speaker 5: it does and really control games in that way. And
Speaker 5: so I think that that's been fascinating is as things
Speaker 5: have gone so out of control in terms of what's
Speaker 5: happened to that position over in that building. You've almost
Speaker 5: watched Kyle Shanahan go find a way to like bring
Speaker 5: in some stability however possible, and like that has meant
Speaker 5: really shifting some of that identity of what they do
Speaker 5: to that run game.
Speaker 3: So those are my crazy theories.
Speaker 2: No, it's great. It reminds me of like one thing
Speaker 2: I always do every summer is I look at each
Speaker 2: team and think about what the trap door scenarios are,
Speaker 2: Like what could happen to this team where they could
Speaker 2: go from potential playoff berth to like, you know, picking
Speaker 2: top five in the draft. What could happen to the
Speaker 2: roster that would cause that? And talking about you know,
Speaker 2: your theories there with Kyle Shanahan, it sounds like, you know,
Speaker 2: you mentioned you can't necessarily predict everything, but it's almost
Speaker 2: full proof in the sense that you have a bigger
Speaker 2: range of you know, potential I guess for people that
Speaker 2: input their production to make it more widespread, so you
Speaker 2: don't have that one situation where you know, if Patrick
Speaker 2: Mahomes goes down, the Chiefs all of a sudden are
Speaker 2: a way different football team than the Niners was in
Speaker 2: their quarterback and you know, we had McDaniel before. I
Speaker 2: think it was when he was still with the Niners,
Speaker 2: talking about the investment they made on the offensive line,
Speaker 2: even going into last year on paper, like the Niners
Speaker 2: offensive line was Trent Williams and then five or four
Speaker 2: other guys that you didn't really know much about and
Speaker 2: they still produce at a high level. Then you go
Speaker 2: out and you get Christian McCaffrey, and I think that
Speaker 2: trade was more valuable to them than really anybody else
Speaker 2: in the NFL because of all of that. So it's
Speaker 2: kind of cool to see these teams that zig when
Speaker 2: everybody else SAgs, but do it successfully because we've seen
Speaker 2: it happen before where it didn't work out. But you
Speaker 2: get the Bill Belichicks of the world, the Kyle Shanahan's
Speaker 2: of the world, it does seem to work out for them.
Speaker 2: And where also I think it works out for him.
Speaker 2: And this is kind of my next my next portion
Speaker 2: of my questions I had for you. Was one of
Speaker 2: the best skill groups I think in the National football
Speaker 2: that you talk about Adam Christian McCaffrey obviously, but Brandon I,
Speaker 2: you can Deebo, Samuel, George Kittle. Is there a better
Speaker 2: group running back, tight end receiver wise than this one
Speaker 2: right now in the NFL.
Speaker 5: You know, in the in the entire league, you know,
Speaker 5: I would look at I'd probably look at Miami. Just
Speaker 5: the speed element is is crazy. Yeah, you are welcome. No,
Speaker 5: I forgot where I was for a second.
Speaker 3: That wasn't even intentional.
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, that was really should be talking about.
Speaker 5: But like, and you know, I think you obviously you've
Speaker 5: got to respect the rams and what the RAMS do.
Speaker 5: You've got to respect the way that they Matthew Stafford
Speaker 5: and Cooper Cup that dynamic.
Speaker 3: You really do have to respect it.
Speaker 5: But in terms of the the diversity of concept and
Speaker 5: the multiplicity that exists right all out of the same
Speaker 5: the same pre snap looks, all out of the same
Speaker 5: pre snap concepts where you you've watched them go heavier
Speaker 5: personnel pre snap, but then they're doing all kinds of
Speaker 5: crazy stuff, you know, out of those pre snap looks,
Speaker 5: and it's it's fascinating because it goes back to it's
Speaker 5: not just that they're great skill players, they also do
Speaker 5: so many things. When you have those hand in hand,
Speaker 5: it deepens your playbook in a way that is an
Speaker 5: absolute nightmare.
Speaker 3: For other people to cover.
Speaker 5: And that's why I do think you look at them
Speaker 5: as you know, ranked among the top in terms of
Speaker 5: their skill positions, ranked among the top of the league,
Speaker 5: is because it's not just that they can hurt you
Speaker 5: in the air. It's also all of these receivers become
Speaker 5: extensions of the run game too. Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel.
Speaker 5: I mean either one of them could line up, you know,
Speaker 5: split out wide on the line of scrimmage, or or
Speaker 5: they could line up in a stack on the line
Speaker 5: of scrimmage or a bunch, or they could be in motion,
Speaker 5: or they could be in the backfield. And when you
Speaker 5: have to account for so many different things, but not
Speaker 5: just with one player doing so many different things like
Speaker 5: we used to see in the league several years, you know,
Speaker 5: years and years ago, not just one positionless player quote unquote,
Speaker 5: but higher skill group full of positionless players, you can't
Speaker 5: You almost have to revert back to your most simple
Speaker 5: basic forms of defense to account for it because you
Speaker 5: don't know what tendencies to play because they could do anything.
Speaker 5: So I think when I look at the ability, first
Speaker 5: of all, it is obviously there of the players, but
Speaker 5: when I look at how it broadens and deepens the
Speaker 5: playbook itself. Again, we talked about cohesiveness that we saw
Speaker 5: in Seattle last year. That's where player and system match
Speaker 5: really really well together, and that makes it an overall
Speaker 5: collective threat.
Speaker 3: That definitely is.
Speaker 5: Again, it's something that people have to account for in
Speaker 5: ways that with other teams they just don't.
Speaker 2: In one of the ways you complement that strong running game,
Speaker 2: and like you mentioned, everyone that has a part in
Speaker 2: that running game is with one of the best defenses
Speaker 2: in the NFL. And I think you look at, excuse me,
Speaker 2: this group this year they lose Amigo Ryans. I'm most
Speaker 2: curious to hear your opinion on how Steve Wilks will
Speaker 2: kind of, you know, put his fingerprints. And I think
Speaker 2: when the whole process of defensive coordinators kind of picking
Speaker 2: their spots was, you know, being reported out there, what
Speaker 2: I saw, who knows what's what's truth and what's not,
Speaker 2: was that the forty nine ers were looking to really
Speaker 2: stay more into their system they had previously rather than
Speaker 2: going after a Vic Fangio who might you know, alter
Speaker 2: things quite dramatically, and so Steve Wilkes kind of brings
Speaker 2: that same mindset, so that concept and also pair with
Speaker 2: adding Javon Hargrave, which to me seems almost unfair for
Speaker 2: this defensive line.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And what people forget though is like when when
Speaker 5: Robert Salo was there and then also when Dmiko was there,
Speaker 5: like they did they do play quarters like they do
Speaker 5: play those types of sort of like what we think
Speaker 5: now is like Fangio esque before that a little don
Speaker 5: kper Zy, like we think about those things as like
Speaker 5: Vic Fangio, right, but and like the modernization of this league.
Speaker 5: But you know, back when when Robert Salo was there,
Speaker 5: like he and he and Kyle Shanahan, like they put
Speaker 5: in some of that stuff and then started like sort
Speaker 5: of broadening it. So even though you're like Steve Wilkes
Speaker 5: is considered to be a little bit more, uh, he's
Speaker 5: not in that He's not necessarily in that quote unquote
Speaker 5: Fangio tree that is very very like hot to hire
Speaker 5: right now and league he also, I mean, this is
Speaker 5: stuff that's that's been happening, right and so I think that.
Speaker 3: That's really interesting.
Speaker 5: What I'm most interested in is so Steve Wilkes, he's
Speaker 5: he's a coverage guy, Like he is someone who that's
Speaker 5: his background as a DB's coach. I covered him in Carolina.
Speaker 5: Cannot speak more highly of him as a human being.
Speaker 5: And he's also someone he is He's going to be
Speaker 5: the right personality, the right presence to build things because
Speaker 5: sometimes you get coordinated. And this is the reason why
Speaker 5: Mike McDaniel goes out and hired Victango, which he talked
Speaker 5: about is like, you want someone who can challenge you
Speaker 5: and and challenge you to think about new things and
Speaker 5: can present a really tough to defend look in practice
Speaker 5: that you're also troubleshooting. And Steve Wilkes has that autonomy,
Speaker 5: has that control, has that ability to do those types
Speaker 5: of things in a way that hey, you know, you're
Speaker 5: bringing elements from the stuff that they've already run before,
Speaker 5: but you're also thinking about different voids, different structures, different
Speaker 5: ways to sort of hassle or even just simply reacting
Speaker 5: to the offense in different ways than maybe they'd had
Speaker 5: in the building before. So it's that combination, that blend
Speaker 5: of what can you add to this that maybe they
Speaker 5: didn't have and also, you know, running those foundational principles
Speaker 5: that they installed, you know, years ago, back in eighteen
Speaker 5: and nineteen with Robert Sala. I think that's going to
Speaker 5: be really interesting. And Wilkes is a like I said,
Speaker 5: he's a coverages guy, so I don't doubt that you're
Speaker 5: going to see some fun stuff out of them. And
Speaker 5: again we talked about like raising floors. So he's a
Speaker 5: really great coach because a really great teacher. I think
Speaker 5: that was like it somehow went a little bit under
Speaker 5: the radar that they that they hired him, but I
Speaker 5: think that was a fantastic hire. And frankly it had
Speaker 5: to happen because the forty nine ers, their window is
Speaker 5: now right Like I saw this a couple of years
Speaker 5: ago with Rams, you have to go now, and I
Speaker 5: think that's where they're at.
Speaker 3: So you have to bring in somebody who's going to.
Speaker 5: Immediately pick things up and immediately get you, you know,
Speaker 5: that much closer to where you need to be.
Speaker 2: Yes, speaking of that window now, they have so many
Speaker 2: veteran players that are just at the peak of their
Speaker 2: primes right now, and it makes the most sense, like
Speaker 2: a Christian McCaffrey. And I'm looking at their draft picks
Speaker 2: right here. All their top three picks this last year
Speaker 2: were traded to Miami and Carolina for Trey Lanson for
Speaker 2: Christian McCaffrey. So, like you talked about, the urgency is
Speaker 2: now Javon Hargave, I thought was a great now urgency
Speaker 2: pick to get Sam Donald to can just give you
Speaker 2: more in that quarterback room. Really right now, the only
Speaker 2: healthy quarterback we know for sure that's at the time
Speaker 2: being to Sean Gibson, Cleveland Ferrell, and Colton mckibitt some
Speaker 2: other offseason editions there for the San Francisco forty nine ers.
Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and take our last break right here
Speaker 2: and come back on the other side and talk about
Speaker 2: the other two teams here in the division. We'll talk
Speaker 2: Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams with Jordan rod rig Today,
Speaker 2: my guest from the Athletic on the Drive Time podcast,
Speaker 2: your host Travis Wingfield. We are brought to you by
Speaker 2: Auto Nation. Let's go ahead and pick it back up
Speaker 2: here in the NFC West, talking about the other two
Speaker 2: teams after Seattle and San Francisco and the Arizona Cardinal team, Jordan,
Speaker 2: that you talked about kind of not really understanding where
Speaker 2: they're at in their cycle right now. We know that
Speaker 2: they've been aggressive in terms of adding draft capital for
Speaker 2: future years. And I think it starts at the quarterback position,
Speaker 2: which most teams it does, and obviously a new head
Speaker 2: coach there as well with Jonathan Gannon. But I'm most
Speaker 2: curious to know what their plan is heading into the
Speaker 2: year at quarterback because Kyler's not going to play right away, right,
Speaker 2: so is it a pup thing? And if that's what
Speaker 2: he does, then if they start off slow, what's the
Speaker 2: you know, I guess the urgency and bringing him back
Speaker 2: into the lineup. To me, it's so fascinating because I
Speaker 2: haven't seen a team that's been in this position where
Speaker 2: they're kind of you know, reset in the decks, but
Speaker 2: have this highly paid, franchise level quarterback. What do you
Speaker 2: make of that situation right now in Arizona.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why it's unique.
Speaker 5: And you know, again when we talk about like existential crisis,
Speaker 5: I just don't think we know what their identity is
Speaker 5: going to be on the field. Like I think structurally
Speaker 5: it's pretty it's pretty obvious to see what.
Speaker 6: They're doing, like they're totally resetting other than again at
Speaker 6: that quarterback position, and they're stockpiling for twenty twenty four
Speaker 6: to really have good positioning, whether honestly, whether it is
Speaker 6: a quarterback that they want to go after in the
Speaker 6: next year's draft class is supposed to be.
Speaker 5: We always say the next year's draft class is the
Speaker 5: best quarterback draft class, but this one really is, like
Speaker 5: this one's really great, right So it's and I think
Speaker 5: that's interesting. But yeah, in terms of on the field,
Speaker 5: we just don't know what they're going to look like
Speaker 5: or who they feel like they want to be. And
Speaker 5: it feels like, you know, players are smart if you
Speaker 5: kind of are set up structurally the way that they are.
Speaker 5: I mean, how are you going to convince players to
Speaker 5: play for you if you are setting up the decks,
Speaker 5: you know, structurally the way that you clearly are. On
Speaker 5: the other side of it, what's the messaging?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 5: They they had some friction in that NFLPA survey that
Speaker 5: came out earlier this year about like paying for your
Speaker 5: own gym time like things like that, where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 5: what is the messaging happening?
Speaker 3: And we just don't know that yet.
Speaker 5: We don't know because we don't have enough data yet,
Speaker 5: right So, but in terms of the quarterback situation, I
Speaker 5: always tend to think about it like I'm a little
Speaker 5: more empathetic to like the player, and if I'm Kyler,
Speaker 5: I'm like I'm you know, and I'm sort of almost
Speaker 5: almost like forcing the issue if it were me in
Speaker 5: terms of not wanting to rush back, because first of all,
Speaker 5: why if you're not gonna if you don't even know.
Speaker 5: Let's this is a hypothetical obviously, but like let's say
Speaker 5: you start to think, Okay, maybe they are really going
Speaker 5: to try to go after a quarterback. This is a
Speaker 5: new coach, this is a new GM, the organization has
Speaker 5: sort of been going through this, the structural change quarterbacks.
Speaker 5: A lot of times you just don't know if the
Speaker 5: inherited quarterback will stay. We've seen it happen before. If
Speaker 5: I'm just thinking about this logically and I'm thinking, oh,
Speaker 5: maybe they want to go get somebody new, then I'm
Speaker 5: thinking to myself, Okay, well, I have to do everything
Speaker 5: I can to make sure I am as and am
Speaker 5: in as great a shape as possible and mentally everywhere
Speaker 5: I need to be in order.
Speaker 3: To be ready for that if it does happen. And
Speaker 3: so for him, I think it's so complicated.
Speaker 5: Like I said, I am empathetic to feeling like that
Speaker 5: because in one sense, you can't wait to get back
Speaker 5: right and compete with your with your teammates and and
Speaker 5: and to really show the organization, show the fan base,
Speaker 5: show the coaching staff that like, you can do this,
Speaker 5: that you can lead, that you can come back from
Speaker 5: this injury and be the franchise guy and all of that.
Speaker 3: But on the other hand, it's like.
Speaker 5: You're gonna have that that that feeling, that voice in
Speaker 5: the back of your head that's saying, are they doing
Speaker 5: all of this just to move on from me? What
Speaker 5: does my future look like? You're going to have those
Speaker 5: those real thoughts. You're a human being, right, and so
Speaker 5: I am empathetic to that situation. And frankly, that's the
Speaker 5: biggest question surrounding this this franchise. I think it's it's
Speaker 5: been almost to the point of like embarrassing at times
Speaker 5: how clear they've made it that they aren't committed to
Speaker 5: Kyler Murray in some in some ways, like the money
Speaker 5: says one thing, but like all the stuff that came
Speaker 5: out before the contract was signed, and then some of
Speaker 5: this teammates have been out and then like you know,
Speaker 5: some of the stuff that was leaked and and you know,
Speaker 5: it's just been you have If we have that doubt
Speaker 5: on the app outside, imagine how he's feeling on the
Speaker 5: on the inside of the organization.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 5: And so that's where I think that is the number
Speaker 5: one question. And and then you think about what the
Speaker 5: effect that is to the rest of the roster. If
Speaker 5: that question is has not been answered. How are you
Speaker 5: feeling about that? If you're another player in any part
Speaker 5: of this roster, how are you feeling about players like
Speaker 5: you know, and we say you know, players who are
Speaker 5: a little bit more veteran, you know, Buddha Baker or
Speaker 5: you know, You're you're looking at players who are like, Okay,
Speaker 5: what's the plan?
Speaker 3: Where do I fit? What's going to happen?
Speaker 5: And I think that's where this gets really complicated, is yes,
Speaker 5: that's the biggest question for them to answer moving forward.
Speaker 5: But the ripple effect of how you're addressing the messaging
Speaker 5: of that question in the meantime is going to be
Speaker 5: sort of like looming over this franchise for the next
Speaker 5: several months.
Speaker 2: You've already seen Buddha Baker request a trade, right, so
Speaker 2: that's out there is something that's already You've already made
Speaker 2: that impact in terms of you know how that ripple
Speaker 2: effect impacts the rest of the football team. And I
Speaker 2: forget which podcast it was, because you're the seventh one
Speaker 2: of these I've recorded so far in terms of the
Speaker 2: division previews. And somebody made a comment about the true
Speaker 2: Detective time as a flat circle Matthew McConaughey scene, and
Speaker 2: I'm thinking that applies here because not that long ago,
Speaker 2: Kyler Murray was the first overall pick when they had
Speaker 2: a quarterback taken in the top ten the previous year.
Speaker 2: And like you said, if they get the first pick
Speaker 2: in the draft and they fall in love with a
Speaker 2: Drake may or a Caleb Williams and that's where they
Speaker 2: want to go after, then all of a sudden, Kyler
Speaker 2: probably is their biggest trade chip to get more capital
Speaker 2: back in their pocket to replace that and replenish that
Speaker 2: draft capital. So it's so funny how this league comes
Speaker 2: and goes and the cycles that it follows through, and
Speaker 2: you know, repeat to self sometimes it's just that's why
Speaker 2: we love this league so dang much. And for this
Speaker 2: Cardinals team, I don't really have any veteran acquisitions to
Speaker 2: mention here, but I did like their draft. Paris Johnson
Speaker 2: bj Ojalari, Garrett Williams, Michael Wilson, all really good players
Speaker 2: in the top three rounds there for them. So I
Speaker 2: think we can go ahead and move on from the
Speaker 2: Cardinals and finally, Jordan get to the team that you
Speaker 2: know the most about here in the Los Angeles Rams.
Speaker 2: You've talked about him a little bit here so far.
Speaker 2: You've mentioned a lot of the really I guess bones
Speaker 2: and structure of their defense when we had you on
Speaker 2: for the Vic Fangio podcast or the Jalen Ramsey podcast,
Speaker 2: I should say, talking about him playing in that defense
Speaker 2: under brandis Tally and then last year as well. But
Speaker 2: the Rams here, it's again another one of these teams
Speaker 2: in this division that to me is in such a
Speaker 2: fascinating place because they're kind of opposite of the Cardinals
Speaker 2: in the sense that maybe on defense they have you know,
Speaker 2: you don't really know what you have there, but offensively
Speaker 2: you got one of the best receivers in the game,
Speaker 2: one of the best quarterbacks in the game. Still, I'm
Speaker 2: just curious how you make sense of all that. And
Speaker 2: you talked about how the Rams have kind of given
Speaker 2: their opinion that they believe they're going to compete more
Speaker 2: than the public thinks they are. I'm curious where you
Speaker 2: come down and all of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for me, I'm just.
Speaker 5: I've got to be skeptical, right because I've seen nothing
Speaker 5: but as the kids saying, the vibes are immaculate, right,
Speaker 5: everyone's happy. Sean mcvay's back, and he's doing better than
Speaker 5: he was through the course of this last season. I
Speaker 5: think he's really like sort of dove back into process,
Speaker 5: and he likes his coaching staff and you know, which
Speaker 5: he wasn't necessarily super thrilled with at times last year,
Speaker 5: and and then you know, fired a bunch of people
Speaker 5: and then brought in a bunch of people that you know,
Speaker 5: he actually had time to go through the full hiring process,
Speaker 5: and and they're really teaching things that the reason why
Speaker 5: I can't say definitively is because like, dude, they're going
Speaker 5: back to teaching kids how to do drills because they've
Speaker 5: got like over forty rookies on their roster right now
Speaker 5: and they're back in Like I'm sitting there and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 5: I've never seen this drill before. And then I'm realizing
Speaker 5: why I've never seen this drill before? And it's because
Speaker 5: they've all been they've always been such a veteran loaded
Speaker 5: team that this is literally the step before the step
Speaker 5: before the actual drill that happens.
Speaker 3: And it's it's been wild to see that.
Speaker 5: And so for me, it's like I've got to be
Speaker 5: skeptical just because you're you're a realist and you're like,
Speaker 5: there's so many young players on this roster. But I've
Speaker 5: also seen really good energy from this group overall. Like
Speaker 5: I think that I don't think it's even like we
Speaker 5: have a chip on our shoulder. We're going to prove
Speaker 5: everyone to everyone that we're not going to just completely
Speaker 5: suck the way that maybe the public thinks that we're
Speaker 5: going to be, or we're going to prove that we're
Speaker 5: not tanking or whatever.
Speaker 3: I don't even really think it's that. I think it's
Speaker 3: more so like.
Speaker 5: Everybody's really seems to be enjoying every what the days are,
Speaker 5: what learning is like, well, competing, They're they're opening up
Speaker 5: different parts of the practices in ways that maybe they
Speaker 5: hadn't before in terms of having that type of energy.
Speaker 5: The coaches that they've brought back Aubrey pleasant being a
Speaker 5: huge factor here. That type of energy is being brought
Speaker 5: every single day. They're allowing young players, even though they're
Speaker 5: wanting them obviously to stay within their technique. They're allowing
Speaker 5: young defensive players to really try to challenge the offense
Speaker 5: in terms of trying to make plays on the ball
Speaker 5: if they see a play to be made, and those
Speaker 5: types of things sometimes you'd see in the past with
Speaker 5: all veterans it's like, okay, install is install, right, We're not.
Speaker 5: We just kind of go through the motions and we're
Speaker 5: going to make sure we just at the mental checks
Speaker 5: done and we're not going to really quote unquote play
Speaker 5: because there's so much physical preservation to be done with that,
Speaker 5: especially with older players.
Speaker 3: This time of year. But in this way, in these practices,
Speaker 3: you're seeing this like youthful sort of vibrance and this
Speaker 3: youthful energy, and I think it's been really good for
Speaker 3: a lot of the more senior coaches on the staff.
Speaker 3: Sean McVay included, which is hilarious. At thirty seven, he's
Speaker 3: one of the more he's the senior coach. I'm staff right,
Speaker 3: but I will tell you there's going to be some
Speaker 3: bumps in the road. Again.
Speaker 5: The parallels to what Seattle did are are very clear.
Speaker 5: There's definitely going to be some bumps in the road.
Speaker 5: Their defense, it's going to have Aaron Donald, Ernest Jones,
Speaker 5: and Jordan Fuller as the only three as coming back
Speaker 5: with significant starting experience, and Jordan Fuller is coming off
Speaker 5: a pretty significant leg injury that held him back last year.
Speaker 5: And so when you're looking at that and you're looking
Speaker 5: at how many positions have to be filled by rookies,
Speaker 5: the offense is still kind of top heavy. I really
Speaker 5: like what they've done with their offensive line. They've sort
Speaker 5: of beefed up their offensive line. You could tell that
Speaker 5: they're moving away from that pure outside zone as they
Speaker 5: have been for years. They'll still have those elements in it,
Speaker 5: but they've got like people moving guards on the interior
Speaker 5: now and they're like trying to see if having a
Speaker 5: bigger center will work, and like it's just there. They're
Speaker 5: larger in that regard instead of those those really light, shifty,
Speaker 5: like horizontal movers that Sean had always gravitated toward in
Speaker 5: the past. And now you could see they're still top
Speaker 5: heavy in a lot of spots on the offense, but
Speaker 5: on the defense, you're going to see a lot of
Speaker 5: learning in public just like what we mentioned was Seattle
Speaker 5: at the top of this show. It's like, you're going
Speaker 5: to see a lot of learning in public, You're going
Speaker 5: to see a lot of coaching in public. You're going
Speaker 5: to see a lot of mistakes. But you're also what
Speaker 5: they hope is you're going to see these guys start
Speaker 5: to grow and really develop when they're thrown into the
Speaker 5: fire in that regard, and I think that's what the
Speaker 5: mindset is. It's like they I'm going to just put
Speaker 5: it bluntly, the defense was the sacrificial lamb of this
Speaker 5: like partial rebuild. They basically said, Okay, Raheem Morris, we
Speaker 5: know that you can handle this, and we know that
Speaker 5: you're a really good teacher, and we know that like
Speaker 5: in general, like just the mindset, like you can handle
Speaker 5: something like this, So good.
Speaker 3: Luck, yes and so, and that's kind of and that's
Speaker 3: what they're doing.
Speaker 5: And Sean keeps his offense and his quarterback and his
Speaker 5: receiver and all of those things right, and so that's
Speaker 5: how you make everybody happy while also understanding like they're
Speaker 5: going to try to rebuild on the fly, right, And
Speaker 5: so I think that's what you're looking at here.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be really interesting.
Speaker 5: I've heard when I'm talking to people in the organization
Speaker 5: over the last several months, I've heard things like, Oh,
Speaker 5: they're just gonna go be like the Golden State Warriors
Speaker 5: and shoot a bunch of threes and like not play
Speaker 5: defense or whatever. It's gonna be like, Oh, we're just
Speaker 5: not gonna We're gonna be like a run and gun team,
Speaker 5: Like we're just gonna try to outscore people.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, yeah, all right, well that's entertaining, so sign.
Speaker 2: Me up, you know absolutely, I mean, that's it if
Speaker 2: you're gonna compete with one side being lopside. I compare
Speaker 2: Todai that the offense is the way to go in
Speaker 2: today's NFL. So it makes the most sense, especially with
Speaker 2: the coach like Sean mcvab. But I do love the
Speaker 2: Raheem Morris, you know, possession on that defense in terms
Speaker 2: of having a guy that's been there and seen it all.
Speaker 2: And Jordan, when you said forty rookies, like I remember
Speaker 2: they had a lot and I had to go look
Speaker 2: at their page here and see to be sure, because
Speaker 2: you're right forty exactly. And I'm thinking about your work
Speaker 2: day on the last day of the draft when I
Speaker 2: had eleven day three picks and signed twenty six udfase.
Speaker 2: Holy moly, that you must have been busy for weeks
Speaker 2: after that, fourteen draft picks in total. Was your draft weekend?
Speaker 2: Just you went the Rams the draft.
Speaker 3: House, right, Yeah, I was there, I should say that,
Speaker 3: like in a really haunted way, like I was there.
Speaker 5: But yeah, it was wild that I had a thirty
Speaker 5: thirty two ounce hydro flask just full of this crazy
Speaker 5: cold brew that I make, and I had team employees
Speaker 5: come coming to find me to get some of that
Speaker 5: cold brew because it was like just a little extra
Speaker 5: rocket booster, you know, because of how crazy things were getting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was wild, man like. And you sit there
Speaker 3: so that here's the thing though, too.
Speaker 5: It's like you walk out to practice and again I
Speaker 5: can't emphasize enough the RAMS have been so top heavy
Speaker 5: for so many years in terms of those more experienced
Speaker 5: veteran core players that have been there forever, and now
Speaker 5: it's almost flipped on its head. So you walk out
Speaker 5: to practice and you're sitting there and you're like, oh
Speaker 5: my god, that guy was born in two thousand and one, Like,
Speaker 5: oh my god. All three specialists are rookies, Oh my god.
Speaker 5: And you sit there and you start to have like
Speaker 5: this personal crisis where you're like, oh my god, I
Speaker 5: don't recognize any of you, and you're looking at the
Speaker 5: roster and you're like, oh my god, there's so many
Speaker 5: young people.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's it's been crazy. That day was crazy.
Speaker 3: It's been wild. But but and it's like, and it's crazy.
Speaker 5: It'll hit you at different times, like you'll they didn't
Speaker 5: even work on they hadn't even been working on kick
Speaker 5: returns at first, because you have to figure out the
Speaker 5: covered structures first.
Speaker 3: You have to do those first, and so it's.
Speaker 5: Like, oh, we're you know, I'm really watching a back
Speaker 5: to basics scenario. That's been fun too, because seeing in
Speaker 5: the process start from scratch is not a luxury I
Speaker 5: have had because they again, they've been so top heavy.
Speaker 5: So this is fun in a whole different way.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I always say that twenty nineteen training camp was
Speaker 2: one of my favorites because it really tested my scouts
Speaker 2: side in terms of, oh, there's an undrafted rookie cornerback
Speaker 2: they moved into safety today, let's see how he plays there.
Speaker 2: Like it's just watching football. To watch football it's not
Speaker 2: about the names of the decals on the side of
Speaker 2: the helmet. It's just straight up football, So you'll have
Speaker 2: fun with that. Let's go ahead and close this podcast
Speaker 2: before we hear from what you're working on here in
Speaker 2: a second with our division superlatives here, just give me
Speaker 2: the name. You don't have to tell me why you
Speaker 2: think this way. Maybe a brief description, but just a
Speaker 2: quick description on a few items here of the best
Speaker 2: in the NFC West. And we start where we always
Speaker 2: do with who do you think is the best quarterback
Speaker 2: in the NFC West?
Speaker 5: Right now?
Speaker 3: I am going to have to say Matthew Stafford.
Speaker 6: I have to.
Speaker 5: I shouldn't say it like that, but I think you
Speaker 5: know what I'm watching is a healthy, healthy Matthew Stafford,
Speaker 5: which is which is significant because also a happy Matthew Staffort.
Speaker 5: And it's also a problem solving and a troubleshooting and
Speaker 5: a collaborating Matthew Stafford. And as we've seen, that can
Speaker 5: be a very very dangerous thing for other teams when
Speaker 5: channeled in the right direction.
Speaker 3: So he's feeling great.
Speaker 5: He was there obviously through the entire the entire spring,
Speaker 5: even you know, voluntary stuff because it is so important
Speaker 5: for him to be getting the reps. Remember he didn't
Speaker 5: throw the entire spring last spring, and he's a full
Speaker 5: go this year. So I think that's significant and certainly
Speaker 5: something to watch for the Rams.
Speaker 2: That's where I have to go too. I'm curious about
Speaker 2: Kyler and his rehab and getting under an offensive minded
Speaker 2: coach that can maybe take his game to the next level.
Speaker 2: But we'll see. That's a different down the line type
Speaker 2: of answer there, But it's Stafford for me as well.
Speaker 2: How about and this one's a lot tougher. I think
Speaker 2: your best non quarterback player on offense in the NFC West.
Speaker 3: Oh, that is so hard.
Speaker 5: I always want to go with like alignment right because
Speaker 5: because they're so important, So I would just say that
Speaker 5: position in general.
Speaker 3: I really liked what Seattle did with their offensive line.
Speaker 5: Obviously Stamford Cisco you can never count them out with
Speaker 5: the offensive line.
Speaker 3: But in terms of if I'm going to.
Speaker 5: Say like pure skill player, I'm really curious to see
Speaker 5: with a full season with Christian McCaffrey and and Deebo
Speaker 5: Samuel together, I'm really curious to see how that shakes out,
Speaker 5: how that unfolds. There's so many great players in this division,
Speaker 5: so I certainly don't want to leave anybody out, but
Speaker 5: in terms of concepts, then concepts turning into tangible action
Speaker 5: and execution, like I'd really like to see how those
Speaker 5: two are utilized, how they interchange, how they compliment each other,
Speaker 5: and then how they they use some of those misdirection
Speaker 5: and those those pre snap and post snap book changes.
Speaker 3: I'm really curious to see how that goes this year.
Speaker 2: It's so funny how in stink we've done the entire
Speaker 2: podcast because you talk about I put George Kittle because
Speaker 2: of the extension of the offensive line that he is,
Speaker 2: on top of the passing game prowess that he offers.
Speaker 2: So we're in lockst up there again, not in terms
Speaker 2: of the player, but in terms of the thinking. And then,
Speaker 2: like you know, Trent Williams too, it's hard to ignore, guys,
Speaker 2: there's so many plays.
Speaker 5: And there's some caveats too, Like Cooper Cup it's obvious
Speaker 5: seas in that conversation obviously, but there's caveats because again,
Speaker 5: he's coming off that tightrope surgery.
Speaker 3: He hasn't been a full go. They're just onboarding him
Speaker 3: really carefully through the spring.
Speaker 5: So it's like it's almost like, Okay, well, ask me
Speaker 5: again in five months and maybe my answer will completely
Speaker 5: change when some of these guys are back and healthy.
Speaker 3: But yeah, Cooper Cup's always got to be in that conversation.
Speaker 2: Well, just like this one. Who I think you have
Speaker 2: three good options, but I think there's one that stands
Speaker 2: above the rest, and I think you might go in
Speaker 2: that direction. But we'll see top defensive player in this division.
Speaker 3: Oh, Aaron Donald in the world.
Speaker 4: I agree, I agree with you.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what too.
Speaker 5: It's it's Aaron Donald obviously coming off his first and
Speaker 5: only significant injury he's ever had in his entire career.
Speaker 5: He's never missed time before. He played with broken ribs
Speaker 5: in Frozen Green Bay a couple.
Speaker 3: Of years ago.
Speaker 5: But this was something where it's like, ah, the season's
Speaker 5: in the toilet, time to go get tightrope, you know,
Speaker 5: not that he wanted to do this. It's like, Aaron,
Speaker 5: we should sit you down, you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: Like you have to convince someone who's wired like he
Speaker 5: is to sit and so and like so for me, though,
Speaker 5: it's like there's there's he's so competitive, there's got to
Speaker 5: be that just like that sour taste of like I
Speaker 5: am not having this be the last word, Like I
Speaker 5: Am not having this be the mark on my on
Speaker 5: my legacy, and I just I'm really it's gonna be.
Speaker 5: It's always fun watching him play, but I just I
Speaker 5: have to say it's like he did not lose a
Speaker 5: step last year, even when he was like the last man.
Speaker 3: Standing on that defensive line, did not lose a step.
Speaker 5: And I expect him to be really really itching to
Speaker 5: remind people who he is this year, which is going
Speaker 5: to be interesting to watch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not sure if you take between Donald Bosa
Speaker 2: and Fred Warner, if there's a better three sum of
Speaker 2: defensive players and a different division in the NFL right now,
Speaker 2: those those players are also this This division is awesome.
Speaker 2: I just I can't wait to see it play out
Speaker 2: this year. And let's go ahead and do two more here.
Speaker 2: You're best coach in the NFC West. I know it's
Speaker 2: such a loaded question.
Speaker 3: For you, I know, especially when we talk about this
Speaker 3: project I've been working on.
Speaker 2: You can pass, you can take the broadcasters pass.
Speaker 5: I'm going to take a broadcaster's past, And I think,
Speaker 5: and I think just because I just think The biggest
Speaker 5: thing is I would have said Pete Carroll last year, actually,
Speaker 5: if this was last year, I would have said Pete
Speaker 5: Carroll just because of the way that he totally subverted
Speaker 5: expectations and really re like there was so much ego
Speaker 5: in what he did in terms of they change, they
Speaker 5: completely changed their defense around as we've talked about. And
Speaker 5: then also, you know he's he's got a Sean mcvag
Speaker 5: guy calling his offense. Now, like that's a that's a
Speaker 5: lead your ego at the door, because we've known that
Speaker 5: that system has had Seattle's number, whether it's Kyle or
Speaker 5: Sean or whoever, Like, we know that that's had their
Speaker 5: number for and so to go and find that guy
Speaker 5: and bring that system into your own house. Like so
Speaker 5: last year, I would have said Pete Carroll. This year,
Speaker 5: I'm kind of like I'm going to take a broadcaster's
Speaker 5: pass because we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 2: No, it makes perfect sense. I mean, it's it's another
Speaker 2: thing where we have a bunch of really good options here.
Speaker 2: I mean, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, bo if you know,
Speaker 2: the playoff runs one Super Bowl championship there as well.
Speaker 2: In an appearance in the big game as well, So
Speaker 2: I mean it's you really can't go wrong.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and Travis, like we know, like Sean's coming back
Speaker 5: from something significant too, you know, almost walking, you know,
Speaker 5: the whole thing is is like the personal stuff that
Speaker 5: he went through last year, Like that's all real.
Speaker 3: So it's it's like you need to see before you
Speaker 3: can actually make it.
Speaker 5: Just how is some It's almost like it's just with
Speaker 5: a player with an injury, like how is this person
Speaker 5: going to return from this crisis? How is this person
Speaker 5: going to return from adversity? And so it's almost like
Speaker 5: the Kyler the Cooper caveats, like I'll wait and see
Speaker 5: ask me in a few months, because I'll wait and see.
Speaker 5: I'll have to see for real, like how someone has
Speaker 5: returned from this situation that they were in.
Speaker 2: I'll hold to that. Maybe we'll come back in a
Speaker 2: couple months and then get that answer from you here
Speaker 2: down the line. So I will ask you for an
Speaker 2: answer on this one before we get out of here.
Speaker 2: Division champion this year? Who you taking?
Speaker 5: Probably San Francisco. Yeah, it's their time. They have to
Speaker 5: And honestly, it's not just that I think that they
Speaker 5: in that place right now. They have to be like,
Speaker 5: they have to be dominant this year.
Speaker 3: They have to really this. They have to make this
Speaker 3: run that they think that they can make. It'll depend obviously.
Speaker 5: Honestly, I think I'll depend more on the run game
Speaker 5: than the quarterback, as I've noted. But there are some
Speaker 5: big questions to answer there. But they absolutely have to
Speaker 5: finally max out this window with the championship.
Speaker 3: Again.
Speaker 5: They've traded all these draft picks, They've built their roster
Speaker 5: a certain way.
Speaker 3: They have to do it.
Speaker 5: This is like they're I hated when people said this
Speaker 5: about the Rams because it wasn't necessarily accurate, but this
Speaker 5: is like they're all in year.
Speaker 3: It's they're all in window. They have to be doing
Speaker 3: these things now.
Speaker 2: It makes a lot of sense. I think them and
Speaker 2: Philly and Dallas are really the teams to beat right
Speaker 2: now in the NFC, and it's probably how it's gonna
Speaker 2: play out. Again. We'll see, though. It's a long season
Speaker 2: and we'll have a lot of fun covering it. Jordan,
Speaker 2: you cover a lot of things in this league. I
Speaker 2: want to go ahead and close with this about First
Speaker 2: of all, where can the folks find you? What are
Speaker 2: you working on? I understand you have something big coming
Speaker 2: in the pipe here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you so much, by the way for asking
Speaker 3: about that. I'm stoked.
Speaker 5: Obviously we've talked off camera about this project that I'm
Speaker 5: working on. You guys can find me at the Athletic
Speaker 5: dot com. You can find me on Twitter at Jordan
Speaker 5: rodrig Jordan with you. You can also find me. You'll
Speaker 5: be able to find me very soon. I have been
Speaker 5: working on a narrative podcast series, uh and for the
Speaker 5: Athletic and it is a deep dive into the dynamics
Speaker 5: and the rise of the Shannahan McVay coaching tree. And
Speaker 5: so the four main characters of the series are Kyle Shanahan,
Speaker 5: Sean McVay, Matt Lafleur, and Mike McDaniel. So, Dolphins fans,
Speaker 5: I think you will be really fascinated as I was
Speaker 5: by this, because not only was Mike so gracious with
Speaker 5: his time in working on this project with me, but
Speaker 5: also you're going to I think hear him in a
Speaker 5: way that I think you guys on the ground in
Speaker 5: Miami you see a lot of a lot of him, right,
Speaker 5: but like the the mass public, they sort of see him, Oh,
Speaker 5: that's the guy who always has the funny quote. Oh,
Speaker 5: that's that brilliant guy from Yale who like can scheme
Speaker 5: up this great like he's he's he's one of those like,
Speaker 5: you know, boy genius types kind of kind I think
Speaker 5: people think. But really the development of his character, I
Speaker 5: say character, like the stuff he's made of, Like the
Speaker 5: development of that he is so open about through the
Speaker 5: course of this series, in how his experiences working with
Speaker 5: these other coaches and also his own life experiences have
Speaker 5: shaped him into being the coach and the person. And
Speaker 5: I think that's something that as I talk to him
Speaker 5: and as I talk to people around him, started to
Speaker 5: really understand, is he is wearing that out loud. And
Speaker 5: I think that's why you've heard some of the players
Speaker 5: talk about him the way that they have is because
Speaker 5: he's showing them who he is, and who he is
Speaker 5: is someone who can empathize with a real, lived and
Speaker 5: human experience because he has really lived it in a
Speaker 5: lot of ways other people in this series have not,
Speaker 5: and and certain everyone's got different lessons in their lives
Speaker 5: and hits, different adversities and hits different things that they've
Speaker 5: experienced that shape them as a human. But the way
Speaker 5: that he's talking about it and how much it interconnects
Speaker 5: and becomes part of the identity of the football, the
Speaker 5: football brain waves, and how much his identity shows as
Speaker 5: a play caller and as a designer, Like it's all
Speaker 5: shaping you're you're watching himself and then all these coaches
Speaker 5: who who talked with me for the series, and so
Speaker 5: many people from across the league, coaches and analysts and
Speaker 5: former players, and you're they're literally growing up right in
Speaker 5: front of us, and they're showing us how they're doing
Speaker 5: it if you know where to look. And so this
Speaker 5: this series is sort of a roadmap into that and
Speaker 5: and basically how football works, how systems clash and react
Speaker 5: to each other, and kind of what this modern moment
Speaker 5: is that we're living in the NFL right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we might have to get you back on conclusion
Speaker 2: of all that, maybe do a recap, because I am
Speaker 2: fascinated to see this and like, you know, you talk
Speaker 2: about getting spend time with coach every time he leaves
Speaker 2: a press commerce, I'm like, we I hope those guy's
Speaker 2: here for thirty five years. Like he is so much
Speaker 2: fun to be around, and just the way he allows
Speaker 2: you to be yourself and not just from a player standpoint,
Speaker 2: but everybody in the building, like he is all about,
Speaker 2: you know, be your true self and you know, be
Speaker 2: the vulnerable. If you want to be vulnerable, be vulnerable.
Speaker 2: I just think I think so much of Mike and
Speaker 2: obviously you know I'm not just say next time the
Speaker 2: pay why. I really appreciate what he's done down here
Speaker 2: for us, not just on the football field, but in
Speaker 2: every way, every aspect of the of the profession. So
Speaker 2: that's awesome, Jordan, And you've given me about an hour
Speaker 2: of your time now, so I'm very grateful for that.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Thank you for coming back on
Speaker 2: the podcast back in March when we got Jalen Ramsey
Speaker 2: on the team. You've been awesome. You've said it all.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Jordan for your time. And we'll
Speaker 2: check out that project for years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you for having me. It's out July tenth.
Speaker 5: Wherever you get your podcast, you will be able to
Speaker 5: find it and I will be an annoying person blowing
Speaker 5: up Twitter and everything else talking about it. So thank
Speaker 5: you so much, Travis. I always have so much fun
Speaker 5: talking with you about any of this stuff. So I'll
Speaker 5: come back anytime, and it's great to see you and
Speaker 5: it's great to catch up.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Likewise, and thanks again Jordan and the way she goes
Speaker 2: How much fun was that? I mean we I told
Speaker 2: her before the podcast I was shooting for a half hour.
Speaker 2: We went almost double that, but it's difficult not to
Speaker 2: and we probably could have done another hour on her
Speaker 2: Mike McDaniel projects she's worked on and put together over
Speaker 2: the last several months here, and I think we're going
Speaker 2: to have her back on sometime during training camp and
Speaker 2: be an off day to talk about that piece and
Speaker 2: how much great content she provided there with Mike McDaniel
Speaker 2: and really kind of getting to know our head coach,
Speaker 2: not just that, but also the x's and o's into
Speaker 2: the offense. So great fit on the podcast obviously. Hope
Speaker 2: you guys enjoyed that episode. Let's go ahead and get
Speaker 2: out of here. I believe the next one we have
Speaker 2: for you guys will be on Monday. We're going to
Speaker 2: move that around because the fourth is the holiday, So
Speaker 2: check out the AFC North podcast on Monday, July third,
Speaker 2: the next one you're hear from me here on drive Time.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe
Speaker 2: to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your
Speaker 2: podcast from. Follow on social at wingfold, NFL at Miami Dolphins,
Speaker 2: check out the Fish Tank with Seth and Juice, our
Speaker 2: YouTube channel that has a bunch of fish tank content,
Speaker 2: Dolphins Today, media availabilities, and much much more, and last
Speaker 2: but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time.
Speaker 2: Finn's Up, Carolina and Cameron Daddy's Coming Home.