August 8, 2025 • 41 mins
John dives into the pre-season and what this period before the start of the season really means for the coaching staff, starters, and fringe players. John discusses the pressures for players on the bubble and rookies getting a taste of the NFL for the first time and how nervous they can be and how the mindset of playing for yourself and playing for the team is different between the preseason and the regular season.
Next, John reacts to the news that Chargers star LT Rashawn Slater will be out for the season with a leg injury.
Finally, John is back with a new "Fugazi Friday."
04:35 - Preseason preview
31:01 - Meaning of preseason games
32:33 - Rashawn Slater injured
38:18 - Fugazi Friday
Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow - for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Happy Fugazi Friday? And today I thought we would do
a little preview for the preseason, just what to look for,
what not to look for, what matters, what doesn't matter.
Obviously some teams operate different in these preseason games than others.
We'll discuss that Andy Reid's philosophy is a lot different
(00:41):
than Sean mcvas and we've seen over the years there's
no right or wrong way to do this. And we
also had a major, major injury to a highly paid
player today, Rashaun Slater for the Chargers, or star left
tackle who just got a huge contract, had a devastating
knee injury. So that no mail bag today. I'm probably
(01:01):
gonna save it for next week. We'll do a big,
big mail bag coming out of the weekend for sure.
So keep firing those dms at John Middlecoff at John
middlecoff Is the Instagram.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
And get your questions answered on the show.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
But other than that, you guys know the drill. If
you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to
three and Out. We have a podcast feed Apple Spotify,
We got you covered. Also have a YouTube feed all
of our contents on there as well. Make sure you
jump on that subscribe. All our content is up and
I will be in Chicago this weekend with Coward, so
(01:40):
I'm looking forward to it. Never been to Chicago even
though like a twenty four hour trip, but I'm excited
and I will report back to what goes down. But
first I gotta tell you about my friends, my partners,
and the official ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time,
best ticketing app in America. If you want it to
go on these preseason games, I would probably wait till
(02:01):
the regular season. But any event you want to go
to football game, basketball game, baseball game, hockey game. You
live in Utah, got a hockey team there. You store
ours here in the desert, So you want to go
to one of these games. You want to go to
a concert, you want to go to a comedy show,
you want to go enjoy yourself.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Do it on me.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Download that game Time app, Go have a good time.
Best app I've ever used, take the guests work out
of buying tickets with game time down. The game Time
app created a goat and used to go John for
twenty dollars. I've first purchased terms of play again, create
an account and redeem the code John for twenty dollars
off down in the game time app today last minute
ticket's lowest prices guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
The pre season.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
It's always fun in terms of the for the team,
the coaches, the front office to kind of get out
of the monotony of just everyday, same thing, wake up,
breakfast meetings, practice lunch meetings, walk through meetings, bed day
in and day out to actually play someone else in
(02:59):
the broadcast are enjoyable in the sense that usually your
local radio television or local radio crew is doing your TV,
your GMS in the booth, the team president's in the booth,
the owner might be in the booth. It's just an
easy environment for a lot being on the line. Now,
big picture, with the preseason game, there's not a right
(03:21):
or wrong way to do it. Historically, before this last CBA,
coaches when there were four games would ease their starters in.
Guys might play a series or two game one, guys
might play a quarter game two, and typically they would
try to get guys to play a full half and
sometimes come out of halftime to get in that rhythm.
(03:44):
Play one more series, and then they income Game three,
and then everyone was down Game four. I remember the
year Derek Carr was drafted and he won the job
against Matt Schab, Pete Carroll, and Lob in the height
and peak of their powers played their starters for a
series in Game four. It was a big reason Derek
won the starting job because the first series of the game,
(04:06):
he went right down the field against Cam Chancellor, Richard Sherman,
Earl Thomas and let a touchdown drive. So the old
school coaches, Pete Carroll, Andy Reid, they have no problem
playing these guys. It was reported Dassaw headline, which Andy's
been doing forever. Patrick Mahomes, he plans on playing a
quarter now. If you score a touchdown, you have two
(04:27):
good drives, maybe a Yankee after one.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
But those guys play.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
It's the one thing nice about a Chiefs game you
expect when you sit down on the couch, you watch
those guys play. But what does Andy Reid not do.
He doesn't do joint practices. He does not go up
against other teams in that scenario, which I think the
joint practice throughout the league, which the overwhelming majority of
teams do. Forty nine ers Broncos had one today, Washington
(04:54):
had one against the Patriots. I saw the Ravens and
the Colts. The Raiders and nine will do on next week.
It's happening all over the place. Has become the new
preseason game. So my starters, my veteran players, that's where
they get their work, and then I don't need to
play them in the preseason.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I think Andy would tell you I've never asked them,
but like I've never done it.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I'm not comfortable with another.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Team seeing my fringe players. You know, in that environment
is different in a game where I somewhat control when
they come in and out into practice. Everyone's repping throughout,
especially against another team. Everyone in the league talks. It's
kind of like a high school. They get on the phone,
they start talking to other gms like I'm not doing that,
which I completely understand for a guy with his resume
(05:39):
can do whatever he wants. I do think it's harder
for younger coaches to pull off, and clearly they're more
numb to the fact that the game of telephone can
get out about your players. Because this is the time
of year where the reason these preseason games have a
lot of value is every personnel department all thirty two
if they're doing a good job. But I would imagine
(06:01):
every team does evaluates literally every guy that plays in
the game. Now, if you're playing, like if Patrick Mahomes
ends up playing, the only reason he's getting evaluated is
because like for example, the Chargers who are playing him
week one are looking for scheme stuff. They're not evaluating
like Patrick Ke's he went three steps back like, they're
(06:22):
not evaluating like these other players. But every team in
the league, especially second string and third string, you are
getting a grade no different than a college scout going
into a program.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Evaluate the film.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Now, because it's only three games, you potentially get twenty
thirty fifty, one hundred. Who knows how many plays you
end up playing, But every play that you play is
being watched by personnel people and then graded. And obviously
the majority of guys that play, a large portion are
guys that were either drafted this year, undrafted free agents,
(06:57):
or drafted last year or in the last two years
and have.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Been on practice squads.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
So from a lot of these guys, they don't have
week one through Week seventeen film. They have not played
in regular season games, so this is their resume.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
This is their chance to prove themselves.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And I think when you look at these preseason games,
I thought we'd do a little like what matters and
what doesn't matter, because there's always a lot of banter
about like this guy ran for three hundred yards in
three games and he got cut and he's on a
practice squad.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
How did he not make a team?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You gotta be very careful about this because.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I learned this. I'm no different.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I remember when I was at cal Poly a guy
I forget his name. He was an undrafted free agent
to the Raiders, a middle linebacker who he had just
won the Blitnikoff Award, and he led the team in
tackles during the preseason, Like, this guy's not only gonna
make the team, he's gonna, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
He's gonna be a starter in the league. And he
got cut and he was out of the league.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
So you gotta be very very careful about out watching
these games and understanding what actually is evaluating now. I think,
big picture wise, when I'm evaluating a fifth round pick,
a sixth round pick, a seventh round pick, I'm looking
at him a little bit like a college player from
a scouting perspective because I don't necessarily have the playbook
(08:17):
if I don't work for that team, so I don't
know exactly what he's trying to do. And I'm not
going to have access to calling up the coordinator like
I would as a college scout and be like, how's
this guy learn?
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Does he know what's going on?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So I'm evaluating his physical characteristics, how they look in
an NFL uniform, because it is crazy how often a
guy that you really liked in college or didn't like
and then you see him in this scenario playing. Hey,
he's a two going up against two, a guy that's
gonna make a roster and he looks pretty good.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
God I was a little low on this guy. He
looks pretty solid, But.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Hey, what you did in college in your draft evaluation
once these games start, don't have that much merit.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Now.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Where they do is once you get cut, even if
you've struggled a little in the preseason, maybe we entertain
claiming you because like, oh, we had like a third
round grade on this guy, you got drafted in the
sixth round. We like him, but you gotta be.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Careful with that.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And I think in these moments for these players The
number one thing you can do, like whether you're playing
up against a guy that's gonna play in the league
for ten years or a guy within a year is
gonna be selling insurance, is to make place. Make place
obviously as a skill guy, as tight end, as a
wide receiver, as a running back. Anytime the ball's in
your hand, if you do something good, break a tackle,
(09:30):
make a guy miss, just make a positive play. There's
nothing wrong with that, regardless of the context. Regardless, that
is the number one goal make things app as an
offensive player, and to me as a defensive player, it's
one Playing fast, like looking fast on tape is something
the easiest way to jump out obviously depending on your position,
(09:52):
like if you're an end, being able to bend the edge,
if you're a defensive tackle, being able to you know,
hold the point and stuff the run. There's position specific
shit you gotta be able to do. But looking fast,
if you're a corner, can you run with whoever? And
do you look like you were going stride for stride
with whoever they put out there. If you're a safety,
can you cover ground? If you're a linebacker, can you
(10:14):
go sideline to sideline? Because that is the easiest, quickest
way to gain someone's just like kind of attention. And
then obviously from there making open field tackles, being violent,
being physical, but no one will ever complain. It doesn't
guarantee you making a roster or even getting claimed. But
to me, the number one thing that does matter is
making place. It's like I remember, and again I use
(10:35):
the Niners as a lot of example because I don't
watch that much preseason football, but I remember watching Brock
Purdy in that time, and like, the reason he made
the team is because when you put him on the
field with like random dudes, that fucking guy was making place.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
And it's happened to it.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
The first game I ever went to, the first NFL
game I ever went to when I got hired by
the Eagles, I actually went there with Lewis Riddick. It
was a Monday night football game against the in MetLife Stadium, right.
I didn't think the Eagles we'd even played a game.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Maybe we had played the previous day.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
But I went there with Lewis and it was like
kind of teaching me how to scout and like kind
of what NFL people do and how to handle and
conduct yourself in that scenario, and it was Jets first,
the Giants and this undrafted free agent from UMass that
of course, I mean, I'm coming from Fresno State.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I didn't even know UMass.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I just thought him about John Calipari and a BASKETBA team,
didn't even know they had a football team. And this
undrafted free agent wide receiver named Victor Cruz had one
of the greatest games you'll ever see. I'm pretty sure
he had three touchdowns in that game and it was
like Jesus, and I think it's fair to say, looking back,
like he made the team that night alone. But obviously
(11:45):
he had a really good preseason, made a bunch of
plays and the rest is history. And then by the
middle of the season they had some injuries and Victor
Cruz was born. I think by the next year they
win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
That year they won it.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
The next year I can't remember, but he he obviously
played a big role because he got us in based
on injuries. But he made the team simply because like,
this guy's a playing this guy can do shit. So
I think the simplicity of this is, like just do
positive things right, And I think if you want to
try to make your own team, separate from everyone evaluating you,
(12:19):
because as a scout watching on tape, I don't I
have a pretty good idea depending on the team I'm watching,
like type plays they run, but I don't have the
actual play call in front of me. If I am
coach X right, if I am the offensive coordinator for
the If I'm Brian Schottenneimer, well, I guess he's not
(12:40):
even in control, but whatever, coach right, Mike McDonald and Seattle,
Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Do you know what you're doing?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Do you know where to line up?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Do you know the play calls? Do you know right
if a defensive player? Are you lined up in the
right spot once the play is run? Do you know
what your assignment is? Even if you screw up in
terms of like the ball was there, I missed it,
or I missed an open field tackle, or I slipped
on a route? Do I know the actual route? Did
I break off the route at the right distance? Do
(13:10):
I know what I'm doing? Because the easiest way to
just be like for the coaching staff to get down
on you even more than the personnel guys, is not
having a clue what the play calls are and obviously
there's a.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Lot going on. This is intense time of year. I
think it's a little bit, you.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Know, the football version for young players of like you know,
seal training or you know, you know, Hell week for
the Army, the Marines whoever, to try to throw a
lot at you, seeing like how much you can handle.
And some guys absolutely crumble in that environment. And some guys,
even if you screw up, occasionally it's like, Okay, I'm okay.
(13:48):
The next play, I bounce back. I know what I'm doing.
I make a play like can you mentally handle stuff?
And the more and more tired you get, because listen,
you're obviously in good shape. You've been at training camp,
it's been hot. You go in a game, you're adrenaline's
going extra hard. If you're a six to seventh undrafted
free agent, a fifth round pick, how fourth round picks
get cut, you kind of know what's on the line.
Can you handle yourself? Can you cause the moment? What
(14:12):
I think Jimmy Johnson coward makes or fatigue makes cowards
of us all. I don't think it just makes cowards
of football players, because when you can't breathe, you just
your physical nature goes.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Your head goes too.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
You can't think straight right you go right now, if
you're in shape or out of shape, do something physically
to the level of where you can barely breathe in
your heart's pounding. It's hard to think right. All you
care about is how do I get air? How do
I get fluids in me? And these games are a
little bit like that with these younger players where a
coach goes, hey, call play that we've only ran it once. Coach,
(14:44):
I want to see if these guys can handle it,
can they process it, and then can they execute it?
So and that is that's how you make an individual's team.
Like you can look good on tape and have no
clue what you're doing and run the wrong play call
and look good to me sitting in the booth or
sitting in my office evaluating you a week later. But
(15:04):
if I talk to your position coach, your coordinator, your
head coach two days later when they're going over the
film as a team, he might have got his ass
ripped and got lit up and got called an idiot
because he's like, we've done this ten times and you
lined up in the wrong spot or you didn't come
in motion. We've talked about this fifteen times. Yet on
that play, he catches the ball, he breaks a tackle,
(15:26):
and he goes for twenty yards right or a linebacker
lined up in the completely wrong spot goes the wrong way,
but he's a great athlete, turns around, makes the tackle,
and in that team meeting two days later, Mike Vrabel,
Todd Bowles, Mike McDonald is like, what are you doing.
It's like, great, you're an athlete. But from an evaluation standpoint,
other teams like, look at this guy move little do
(15:48):
they know?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Doesn't know what's going on.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
So I think that's key and overall, it always stands out.
It stands out in the regular season, it stands out
in any level of football from high school to college
to the energy, effort and violence. Like when you are
flying around, you do stand out. And this is what
we talked about, like you cannot know what's going on,
so your own team judge you. But if you are
(16:11):
flying around, it's hard not to jump off the screen.
And that's back to like play speed never turns people
off because if you play fast, it's the best defenses
I've ever seen. You know, we talked so much about
like physicality, like how hard they hit you. I saw
the Denver team that was elite with Peyton Manning. I
(16:33):
saw lob that was, you know, one of the best
defenses ever. I saw those hardball teams with Bowman and Willis.
I'd say one thing they've all had in common, obviously
the Eagles last year team speed and that always translates
obviously the offense. That translates so playing fast and when
you're thinking a lot. It's no different in any line
(16:56):
of work. Right, it's hard to be confident. Part of confidence,
I think whatever you're doing is when you actually don't
have to think that much.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You're just reacting.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Whether it's in a business meeting, whether it's now in
a podcast, whether it's on the football field playing safety
or corner or linebacker. It's like you know the play
call and then you can just play. Coach has been
talking about this forever at every level. It's why they're
so big on like studying, knowing your assignments, so you
go out there you not even thinking about what to do. Listen,
I did not thrive in academia. I would have thrived
(17:27):
in this era when Chad Gpt and Grock and AI
and all that shit, and I could just get all
the answers, but back we didn't have that in my day.
You know, it makes me feel really old because I
would have died for that. I saw some chart about
like open AI the usage falling off a cliff in
early June. It's like, yeah, school's out for the summer
(17:49):
college in high school, and it's like, God, I would
have loved that. It also shows you, like, is that
could be mean in some trouble? Is it gonna be
rendered kind of irrelevant? But that's a conversation for a
different day. But my point is, you don't there's no
cheat code.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
When you're out on the field.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
You either know the play call that the middle linebacker
or the quarterback is telling you in.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
The huddle or you don't.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
And then from there, if you don't, you better play
fast because I think coaches can at least attempt to
look past and give you more of an opportunity. It's
like he doesn't know what's going on, but god, he's
the fastest guy on the field. So it sounds sometimes
we overanalyze and overcomplicate this sport, like this sport is
played by strong, fast, physical people you know, and they
(18:31):
all come in different shapes and sizes, Right, Adrian Peterson
looks a lot different Darren Sproulls. Both guys that got
some open grass were fucking gone. And like, this is
the time of year where you do Victor Cruz, like
you do things that whether you knew the playbook or
you didn't, you score a couple of touchdowns in a game,
because here's the thing, here's what doesn't matter necessarily. Just
(18:53):
because you score one touchdown or have a big run
or sack the quarterback, it doesn't mean it's that impressive. Right,
Like in an NFL regular season game, if I score
a touchdown on the Baltimore Ravens, a guy blew assignment
or not, like.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
That's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
If you score a touchdown in the preseason, there's a
chance that the entire defensive backfield has no clue what's
going on. They all run the wrong way and you
just walk right in and all those guys are not
going to even be on practice squads if it's in
the fourth quarter. Right, This happens sometimes in college, like, oh,
this guy had twelve sacks. He played in the SEC. Right,
(19:31):
he played at Missouri. He played at Mississippi State and
he had double digit sacks, and then you look into it,
you're like, well, eight of those eleven sacks came against
D one double A opponents and the other three sacks
came against the worst team in the SEC. When he
played up against Bama, LSU, Georgia and Tennessee he had
(19:55):
one total tackle. You're like, kind of a red flag.
And preseason can be like that a little bit, right,
So it's like, yeah, he had two sacks, and you
look at both the sacks, You're like, well, the offensive
lineman completely whiffed on one and on the other one
he went the wrong way and no one.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Even touched him.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
It's like, well, if you are smoking guys and you're
like making moves and you know, uh, driving guys into.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
The ground to the quarterback.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Okay, so the context of your production, because every team
in the league, over the course of the preseason will
print out statistic leaders like who's leading the league in
rushing yards, who's leading the leading tackles, who's leading this
is the preseason, who's leading the league in catches, who's
leading the league.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
In completion percentage?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
And that alerts you. But then you got to break
it down, it's you do that same stuff in college. Right,
who's leading the Big Ten, the ACC, the SEC, Division one,
Double A, the Mountain West. Just because you're the league
leader in whatever doesn't mean you're necessarily a high end
draft pick or an NFL player.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Sometimes it does.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
So that's where you really got to dive in and
that's where context in the preseason matters. But like I said,
no one ever complains for making place. So even if
the guy falls down, you better get to the quarterback. Right,
if the corner trips and that balls come in your way,
you better catch it and score. So this is where
there's a lot of pressure. I'll never forget Phil Savage,
who was a GM in the league, ran the Senior
(21:13):
Bowl and worked for the Joe Douglas forever when he
was at the Jets. Joe Douglas guy's from the Ravens.
Phil was originally that's where he met Joe And I
remember talking to him one time and he said, this
is when he was the GM of the Browns back
in like two thousand and six and seven, two thousand
and eight.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
He said he.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Walked around before the game of the preseason, he saw
some of these guys like so nervous they couldn't even
walk straight and like wanting to throw up. And he's
thinking to himself, He's like, guys, we just draft you
in the third round. You are coming from USC or
Texas or Aleman. You've been playing in front of eighty
thousand people for the last three years, dominating all American.
(21:54):
You just got drafted, right, and you're nervous about this environment.
The stadium is gonna be half full. It's not, but
you just it's part of it's the uniform, part of
it is the NFL. It's it's actually very understandable because
once you know you red shirt or whatever and you
become a starter, even if it's at Alabama or Ohio
State or Texas, dan some confidence. It just becomes part
(22:15):
of the deal. And then you're like, I'm good. But
then you come to the NFL. You've never done this before,
you just practiced for a couple of weeks. You're like,
I totally understand where the players are coming from. The irony, though,
is they have played in games. Maybe not the personal
pressure on them, but the overall pressure of playing like
Alabama against Tennessee is way more intense and way more
(22:37):
on the line, you know, just in terms of your
team and what's going on. Then the Redskins playing the Patriots, right,
But that's where the preseason has a little bit of minor.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
League Baseball to it. It's almost like.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
You're not playing for yourself totally, because it's still like
you need the other ten guys, but you're kind of
focused on yourself. We're in a regular season game. It's
all about the team. It's all about doing your job
to help out the other guys. In the preseason, it's
like kind about that, but it's like you you better
do the right thing because three of the other ten
eleven guys might suck, they might have no clue what's
(23:15):
going on.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
You can't really worry about them. We're in a regular
season game.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
If your teammates are struggling, you're doing everything you can
to help them out. Get everyone on the same page.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
This is This has.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Got a little triple A baseball to it in terms
of the mentality and mindset, which is understandable because your
only goal if you're a fifth round pick is like,
how come September first, to mind that fifty three man
roster and I and I have I play Week one
and I make a million dollars veteran mental you know,
or the rookie contract, whatever, But I make this team.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I do not want to be on.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
The practice squad, which at the end of the day
is not the worst thing in the world because most
practice squad guys, you know, throughout the course of the year,
if they're good, get opportunities through injuries, get plucked off
other teams. Like it's being on the practice squad like
way worse things could happen. But this is a time
where you get on other people's radar. And we talked
about this with Shador. I'm recording this the day before
(24:06):
Shador's game. Is you put this film out there right now.
Even if you make your team and you're on your team,
if the team gets rid of you next year, this
is really important for other people to like you and
the evaluations go a long way. I remember being in
the league and guys would you know, be three or
four years into the league, but they don't. They've been
(24:28):
on a fifty three man roster, but they don't really
play besides special teams. And the only time you can
see them on offense or defense is in the preseason
so that preseason film is really really important. If that
guy gets cut, if that guy's like, hey, we could
we could trade for this guy if we need like
a backup cornerback. Would you give a seventh round pick
for this guy? But you have to go off that
preseason film, and that's the only time you really have
(24:50):
to evaluate them. That's where it's changed a little bit
with the with the joint practices. And I think that
gets back to why Andy Reid would probably not want
a joint practice because, like, word gets out.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Of my guys.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You know, I don't want people because football everyone talks
to everybody. Okay, you don't need to sink a thirty
foot putt to score big this weekend. Just fire up
the DraftKings sportsbook and take your shot at the green,
the kind with dollar signs. Whether you're diired golfer or
(25:20):
just in for some Sunday drama, DraftKings has everything you
need to make the round a little more exciting. Live bets,
prop plays, odds, boosts, and plenty more you need to
golf betting.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
It's really easy.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
You take a guy to win outright.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
You can bet on.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Guys to top five, to top ten, to top twenty.
Got a couple names for you. Obviously, odds are subject
to change. Tommy Fleetwood had some devastating heartache earlier in
the season. Well, on this course in Memphis, you got
to drive the ball straight, something Tommy does really well.
You can get him at plus twenty two hundred to win.
You get him at plus three sixty two top five
(25:53):
and plus one seventy to top ten. Another name, I
like a lot. He was very good in this tournament
last year. Victor Hoblin. Remember smaller fields, the playoffs starting
no cuts. Victor Hoblin plus thirty five hundred to win.
I love and I love Hoblin at top five this
weekend at plus five hundred, So tak yours wing at
(26:14):
wins them dough this weekend. Download the DraftKings sportsbook aapp
and use the code John. That's code John, that's my
name for new customers to get a bonus of two
hundred dollars and bonus bets instantly when you bet just
five bucks only on DraftKings.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
The Crown is yours.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Gambling problem called one eight hundred Gambler in New York
call eight seven seven eight Hop and wire text Hope
and y in four six seven, three six nine in Connecticut.
Help is available for a problem gambling called eight eight
eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit
CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill
Casino when resorting Kansas twenty one on over agent eligibility
varies by jurisdiction Voyden, Ontario. Bonus bets expires seven days
(26:49):
after issue ins four. Additional terms and responsible gaming resources
see DKNNG dot co slash audio.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I'd say the other thing that doesn't matter is you
can't nitpick, like just because a guy plays in the
second quarter or a guy's playing in the second half,
it's hard to exactly quantify what that.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Means in terms of the vibe in their organization.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Just because you play in the second you know, the
second quarter, doesn't mean you're some lock to make the team,
right And just because you're playing in the second half
doesn't mean they don't like you, right. So it's very
hard to play that game, which we all try to do.
It's like, ah, this guy's playing the fourth quarter, he
much suck or are they just he just needed a
bunch of reps and they just wanted to see him
get a bunch of time and they actually really like
(27:41):
this guy. Worst case scenario is going to be on
the practice squad, And just because you start a game
like doesn't mean that you're some lock to make the team.
So you got to be very careful about playing.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
That like a.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
You know, trying to put the piece of the puzzle together,
just based on the time of game guys are playing
now for the most part, if you're playing in the
fourth quarter of some of these preseason games, you're probably
not gonna be a starter week one, But who knows.
You're on the practice squad and by the end of
September you're on the team and playing a little bit.
So you just you just never know. And we've talked
(28:14):
about this before that the sick part of training camp
is the injuries and when a guy goes down, especially
if you're not right near the play, whether you're a coach,
whether you're a player, and definitely whether you're you know,
the scouts and the gms who are kind of you know,
much more on the sideline. When you can't get a
direct view of you it is, you just pray it's
(28:36):
not an important player. I mean, that's a sick mindset.
But you just rather have it to be a backup
or third stringer. I mean, it makes logical sense. And today,
you know where Shaun Slater is a pretty special player,
and the Chargers drafted them high. They just paid them
a boatload of money. And the reason to like the
Chargers because their roster still got a little something to
(28:56):
be desired, you know, overall top to bottom, to be
like a Super Bowl contender, Like they're gonna have one
of the best offensive lines of the league that they
might right there with the Eagles have the best left
tackle right tackle combo with you know, my Latta and Lane,
and they got Slater.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
And Joe Alt and.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
To lose Rashaun Slater what looked like I saw a
couple of times like I don't even want to watch this.
It kind of looked like his knee buckled before the
defensive lineman even made contact. And it was reported the
Chargers put this out about two seconds after Schefter reported
it that he tours Pattel attendant, which happened to my
(29:33):
dad when I was probably in like I don't know,
fifth sixth grade.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Now again, he was fifty year old guy.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
He was never quite the same and probably later in life,
should have got a knee replacement, but it was a
devastating injury. Again, he's not I'm not comparing my dad
at fifty to Reshawn Slater. But my point is that
that tearing that is a lot different than tearing your ACL,
which if you told me towards ACL, that sucks.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
He's out for the season.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
But it's like, you're gonna be okay that today was
a devastating day. And this is the risk of football.
This is why these guys hold out for the guaranteed money.
But this is also why the teams you just never know,
and at the end of the day, you gotta play
and you can the injury risk in football because of
how hard you lift. Right, You've seen guys get injured lifting.
(30:23):
You've seen guys get injured and walk through. You see
guys get injured like this. What looks like in more
of a non contact I mean it was a contact drill.
I think they're playing eleven and eleven, but I looked
like he went out before the guy even touched him.
It just it sucks, and it's the thing I don't
miss much about the NFL. Besides, there is some camaraderie
(30:45):
about everyone in the bunker together, players, coaches, front office.
You're all kind of pulling in the same way. Which
there's something you know in theory special about that. It's
awesome when you're on like sweet teams, sucks when you're
on bad teams. But I'll ever forget, and I even
at when I go to training camp doing what I
do now, that feeling of training camp, especially when it's
(31:08):
a marquee guy and the whole place just goes silent.
When you can hear a pin drop, no one's moving,
they call for the cart and it's just it's silence
and devastation. And this is what why these coaches get
paid so much money, because Jim Harbon now has to
go in front.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Of the team leading up to the season.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
And act like everything's gonna be okay and we are
going to find a way to figure this out when
it's just there is no replacing a high end left tackle.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Now.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Technically, because they have Joe Alt on the right side,
you can move him to the left tackle. Okay, that's true,
So you can still have a good left tackle, a
really good left I mean, Joe All could make a
pro ball left tackle. But then your right tackle that's
not ideal. And now you can be like, well you
can move Mikai Beckton back to this tackle position. You're like, well,
he just resurrected his career at guard. So usually a
(32:00):
backup tackle, like the gap between starting tackle and backup tackle,
tends to be as big, sometimes bigger than like starting
quarterback to backup quarterback, especially when you're talking high end guys. Right,
if you're just talking average tackle to backup tackle, might
not be that big of a difference, No different than like,
(32:21):
what the hell's the difference between, you know, pick some
random quarterback, especially like a low end starter and the backup. Right,
like Jimmy Garoppolo is a backup. I don't think he's
that good anymore, but if he's one of the better
backups in the league, or Mac Jones against whoever is
the worst starter, Russell Wilson, like you could argue in
(32:41):
twenty twenty five, there's not much difference, right, Jameis Winston,
Russell Wilson, what the hell's the difference?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
And I just.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Think it's really really hard because we're dealing with humans here,
not AI robots.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
These people have.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Emotions, they have a brain that they understand like this
is a problem, and obviously, from a business standpoint, you
just invest all this money and.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Lose this players. It's pretty gutting.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
And I was really high on the Chargers last year.
Not that I was down on them necessarily, because anytime
you got Jim Harball and you got a really good
quarterback and you got a physical mentality, like they're gonna
be good. But I was like, I could see them,
you know, be a little closer to average this year
than what they were last year, and I kind of
like the Broncos more.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
And then today it's like this is the type move because.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
The one thing they hung on their hat on last year,
it's like, well, hey, you know, no receivers like offensive
line Jim Harbaugh, run the ball, lose a tackle. That's
that's the major problem that sucks. You feel for the player,
you feel for the team. I mean, Chargers have gotten
so much good positive momentum. This guy is such a
high level guy, and it's a really good feeling as
(33:48):
a team, as a coaching staff, as a fan base
when it's like we got a high end star player.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Who's just a good dude like that, those type people
you like, you.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Want to build around, and then the guy has a
devastating knee injury, which I'm not even trying to get
ahead of myself, but when you have that injury relative
to some others, even if it's season ending, you're like,
are we sure this guy's ever going to be the same.
I want to end on this Fugazi Friday. I don't
think I've talked about this yet, but this is like
(34:17):
a couple weeks old, JJ Watt was going at it
with a bunch of people on social media about training
camp stats being stupid. He also didn't love like training
camp videos coming out, and then a bunch of reporters
that take those stats or fighting back, and I think, listen,
(34:38):
in training camp, every team is recording the stats of completion, percentage,
of catches, of win rate in practice between offensive and
defensive line. No one is acting like if you catch
two touchdowns in a practice, it's the same as doing
it on Sunday or Monday night football. But do think
(34:59):
that does not matter? And again we're not talking about
like if Jamar Chase. No one cares about Jamar Chase's
stats in training camp, right, did he have fifty touchdowns?
Did he have two it doesn't matter. We're not talking
about established veteran players. No one's judging Saquon Barclay's run
per attempt, your yards per attempt, or how many catches
(35:23):
he had on wheel routes. I mean, the Eagles might
technically be taking that information, but no one, no fan
the Eagles, like, we're not judging that. But you can't
convince me that the backup quarterback, the third string quarterback,
all the skill guys who aren't starters. The defensive players
are a little harder to get statistics because you're not
(35:43):
tackling to the ground for most teams every some teams
do like a session or two doing that. But offensive
statistics in practice for guys that aren't starters, they matter
because why would they take them now? They are put
into context with the team when they're evaluating. But I'm sorry,
(36:06):
like they're doing that for a reason. These practices matter,
some coaches will tell you, especially if you know the
joint practices might hold a little more weight than some
of the games. So I understand where jag is coming from.
Because players get really mad when a video comes out,
and some drills like the O line D line, one
(36:29):
on one pass rush Obviously that's advantage defensive lineman because
offensive linemen don't quote unquote play one on one. They
play as a unit with five. So if the guard
is going up against even if he's going up against
Aaron Donald or Jalen Carter or you know, you name it,
he typically has a center there to help him out
(36:50):
if he pushes him over. That guy's just standing there.
No different than one on one routes on air or
not routes on air, but like one on one wide
receiver corner with the quarterback, well, there's no pass rush,
so sometimes the corner or excuse me, the wide receiver
runs like an out and in and up and comes
back and catches it like seventeen seconds later. Like no
one's talking about those stats, but in team situations, seven
(37:14):
on seven even, but definitely team situations, statistics with the
skill guys kind of matter, and the teams keep track
of it. And I'm sure you know, defensive coaches and
the defensive coaching staff because now these staffs are huge
take inventory on like yeah, we'll give you a tackle,
but like kind of keep tracks of like this would
have tackled, This would be a mistackle. This was a misassignment,
(37:35):
Like all this stuff really matters. This is you were
trying to earn a job, just like no different than
like in an interview. Probably most things you say matter,
even if you look back a year later after getting
the job, Like I was kind of stupid. It mattered
at the time, and you might go on, you know,
like a guy like Victor Cruz to have a great career,
(37:58):
but those catches he made in pre season which led
or in practice, which led to him getting reps in
the game that have been making plays like it all
kind of builds on one another. Right, If you don't
make plays in practice, you know, you're probably not gonna
move up the depth chart and get an opportunity to
play a lot of snaps in the games, and then
the pressure on those game reps will be huge, and
(38:21):
if you screw up, it might just be like we
might cut you. So I think we got to be
very careful about saying none of them matter.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
They're all stupid. That's just not true.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Do they mean everything? Of course not, But like just
players getting so advanced, so like I'm so embarrassed because
I got I got mossed in a practice, you know,
like the coaches like whatever, if you trip like it,
shit happens.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Can we have a little thicker skin? I can't like
even I've seen some where. Did I watch this recently?
Who was saying it?
Speaker 1 (38:54):
It was like Tracy McGrady.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
It was some older NBA player, It was someone else.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
It was like a guy that just retired recently. And
he said that one thing it might have been like
Joe Johnson. I forget who it was, but he said
one thing that changed dramatically that when he first got
in the league in like two thousand or two thousand
and five or whenever to now, was that you come
into halftime. Oh was Kevin Garnett was even saying this,
(39:21):
And you know, usually come into halftime, everyone like takes
a deep breath, slam a gatorade or whatever. You start
going over, Hey we start doing this against this guy.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Hey, I'm out, you're in. Will you take this guy?
Speaker 1 (39:31):
And you kind of start basketball strategy for ten to
fifteen minutes, he was saying, you come in the locker room. Now,
fucking place is silent. Everyone's on their phone. And it
wasn't KG, but one guy said that like one of
the dude, it might have been Chauncey Billups. It was Chouncey,
who's a coach, who's the coach of the Trailblazers. He said,
a dude had a huge dunk in like the first
or second quarter, and he said it was sweet. It
(39:54):
was like a big time you know, like a dunk
that you would see all over like highlight Twitter accounts
and stuff. And he said, by the time they were
coming out to the second half and he learned about
it after the game, the dude had taken that dunk
and posted it all over social media during the game,
you know, at halftime, during the game, and it's just
like we live in a different era where everyone is
(40:16):
so obsessed with what's going on on social media at
you know, these young athletes, which I do understand you've
grown up, but like you get to a point you
should it's like it's kind of irrelevant even if people
are making fun of you, just don't go on.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
And people will go it's so easy for you to say,
don't go on. I actually don't think it should be
that hard, you know, it really shouldn't.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
And especially some of these guys that have been you know,
around big time college programs, you realize, like the only
people that matter, you know, in college is the head coach, right,
does that guy believe in you? In your coordinators?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Are they playing you?
Speaker 1 (40:49):
And in the pros, it's like what Joe Blow is
saying on Twitter Instagram making fun of you. Does your
coach or GM think that about you? Because if they don't,
it doesn't matter. And they're the ones that hold the
keys to millions upon millions of dollars and playing time
in the National Football League, not some guy talking shit
in your Instagram comments. So I just I think we've overblown,
(41:11):
like how bad the training camp coverages. I'd argue it's
better than it's ever been. And the information, which is
king is important to the NFL. People are following it.
I'll promise you that every team in the league, they're
director of player personnel, the air pro scouts.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Are all over all this information.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
So to say it doesn't matter or it's just that's
actually kind of uninformed because it's just not true. The
volume
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Happy Fugazi Friday? And today I thought we would do
a little preview for the preseason, just what to look for,
what not to look for, what matters, what doesn't matter.
Obviously some teams operate different in these preseason games than others.
We'll discuss that Andy Reid's philosophy is a lot different
(00:41):
than Sean mcvas and we've seen over the years there's
no right or wrong way to do this. And we
also had a major, major injury to a highly paid
player today, Rashaun Slater for the Chargers, or star left
tackle who just got a huge contract, had a devastating
knee injury. So that no mail bag today. I'm probably
(01:01):
gonna save it for next week. We'll do a big,
big mail bag coming out of the weekend for sure.
So keep firing those dms at John Middlecoff at John
middlecoff Is the Instagram.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
And get your questions answered on the show.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
But other than that, you guys know the drill. If
you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to
three and Out. We have a podcast feed Apple Spotify,
We got you covered. Also have a YouTube feed all
of our contents on there as well. Make sure you
jump on that subscribe. All our content is up and
I will be in Chicago this weekend with Coward, so
(01:40):
I'm looking forward to it. Never been to Chicago even
though like a twenty four hour trip, but I'm excited
and I will report back to what goes down. But
first I gotta tell you about my friends, my partners,
and the official ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time,
best ticketing app in America. If you want it to
go on these preseason games, I would probably wait till
(02:01):
the regular season. But any event you want to go
to football game, basketball game, baseball game, hockey game. You
live in Utah, got a hockey team there. You store
ours here in the desert, So you want to go
to one of these games. You want to go to
a concert, you want to go to a comedy show,
you want to go enjoy yourself.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Do it on me.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Download that game Time app, Go have a good time.
Best app I've ever used, take the guests work out
of buying tickets with game time down. The game Time
app created a goat and used to go John for
twenty dollars. I've first purchased terms of play again, create
an account and redeem the code John for twenty dollars
off down in the game time app today last minute
ticket's lowest prices guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
The pre season.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
It's always fun in terms of the for the team,
the coaches, the front office to kind of get out
of the monotony of just everyday, same thing, wake up,
breakfast meetings, practice lunch meetings, walk through meetings, bed day
in and day out to actually play someone else in
(02:59):
the broadcast are enjoyable in the sense that usually your
local radio television or local radio crew is doing your TV,
your GMS in the booth, the team president's in the booth,
the owner might be in the booth. It's just an
easy environment for a lot being on the line. Now,
big picture, with the preseason game, there's not a right
(03:21):
or wrong way to do it. Historically, before this last CBA,
coaches when there were four games would ease their starters in.
Guys might play a series or two game one, guys
might play a quarter game two, and typically they would
try to get guys to play a full half and
sometimes come out of halftime to get in that rhythm.
(03:44):
Play one more series, and then they income Game three,
and then everyone was down Game four. I remember the
year Derek Carr was drafted and he won the job
against Matt Schab, Pete Carroll, and Lob in the height
and peak of their powers played their starters for a
series in Game four. It was a big reason Derek
won the starting job because the first series of the game,
(04:06):
he went right down the field against Cam Chancellor, Richard Sherman,
Earl Thomas and let a touchdown drive. So the old
school coaches, Pete Carroll, Andy Reid, they have no problem
playing these guys. It was reported Dassaw headline, which Andy's
been doing forever. Patrick Mahomes, he plans on playing a
quarter now. If you score a touchdown, you have two
(04:27):
good drives, maybe a Yankee after one.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
But those guys play.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
It's the one thing nice about a Chiefs game you
expect when you sit down on the couch, you watch
those guys play. But what does Andy Reid not do.
He doesn't do joint practices. He does not go up
against other teams in that scenario, which I think the
joint practice throughout the league, which the overwhelming majority of
teams do. Forty nine ers Broncos had one today, Washington
(04:54):
had one against the Patriots. I saw the Ravens and
the Colts. The Raiders and nine will do on next week.
It's happening all over the place. Has become the new
preseason game. So my starters, my veteran players, that's where
they get their work, and then I don't need to
play them in the preseason.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I think Andy would tell you I've never asked them,
but like I've never done it.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I'm not comfortable with another.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Team seeing my fringe players. You know, in that environment
is different in a game where I somewhat control when
they come in and out into practice. Everyone's repping throughout,
especially against another team. Everyone in the league talks. It's
kind of like a high school. They get on the phone,
they start talking to other gms like I'm not doing that,
which I completely understand for a guy with his resume
(05:39):
can do whatever he wants. I do think it's harder
for younger coaches to pull off, and clearly they're more
numb to the fact that the game of telephone can
get out about your players. Because this is the time
of year where the reason these preseason games have a
lot of value is every personnel department all thirty two
if they're doing a good job. But I would imagine
(06:01):
every team does evaluates literally every guy that plays in
the game. Now, if you're playing, like if Patrick Mahomes
ends up playing, the only reason he's getting evaluated is
because like for example, the Chargers who are playing him
week one are looking for scheme stuff. They're not evaluating
like Patrick Ke's he went three steps back like, they're
(06:22):
not evaluating like these other players. But every team in
the league, especially second string and third string, you are
getting a grade no different than a college scout going
into a program.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Evaluate the film.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Now, because it's only three games, you potentially get twenty
thirty fifty, one hundred. Who knows how many plays you
end up playing, But every play that you play is
being watched by personnel people and then graded. And obviously
the majority of guys that play, a large portion are
guys that were either drafted this year, undrafted free agents,
(06:57):
or drafted last year or in the last two years
and have.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Been on practice squads.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
So from a lot of these guys, they don't have
week one through Week seventeen film. They have not played
in regular season games, so this is their resume.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
This is their chance to prove themselves.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And I think when you look at these preseason games,
I thought we'd do a little like what matters and
what doesn't matter, because there's always a lot of banter
about like this guy ran for three hundred yards in
three games and he got cut and he's on a
practice squad.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
How did he not make a team?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You gotta be very careful about this because.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I learned this. I'm no different.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I remember when I was at cal Poly a guy
I forget his name. He was an undrafted free agent
to the Raiders, a middle linebacker who he had just
won the Blitnikoff Award, and he led the team in
tackles during the preseason, Like, this guy's not only gonna
make the team, he's gonna, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
He's gonna be a starter in the league. And he
got cut and he was out of the league.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
So you gotta be very very careful about out watching
these games and understanding what actually is evaluating now. I think,
big picture wise, when I'm evaluating a fifth round pick,
a sixth round pick, a seventh round pick, I'm looking
at him a little bit like a college player from
a scouting perspective because I don't necessarily have the playbook
(08:17):
if I don't work for that team, so I don't
know exactly what he's trying to do. And I'm not
going to have access to calling up the coordinator like
I would as a college scout and be like, how's
this guy learn?
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Does he know what's going on?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So I'm evaluating his physical characteristics, how they look in
an NFL uniform, because it is crazy how often a
guy that you really liked in college or didn't like
and then you see him in this scenario playing. Hey,
he's a two going up against two, a guy that's
gonna make a roster and he looks pretty good.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
God I was a little low on this guy. He
looks pretty solid, But.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Hey, what you did in college in your draft evaluation
once these games start, don't have that much merit.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Now.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Where they do is once you get cut, even if
you've struggled a little in the preseason, maybe we entertain
claiming you because like, oh, we had like a third
round grade on this guy, you got drafted in the
sixth round. We like him, but you gotta be.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Careful with that.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And I think in these moments for these players The
number one thing you can do, like whether you're playing
up against a guy that's gonna play in the league
for ten years or a guy within a year is
gonna be selling insurance, is to make place. Make place
obviously as a skill guy, as tight end, as a
wide receiver, as a running back. Anytime the ball's in
your hand, if you do something good, break a tackle,
(09:30):
make a guy miss, just make a positive play. There's
nothing wrong with that, regardless of the context. Regardless, that
is the number one goal make things app as an
offensive player, and to me as a defensive player, it's
one Playing fast, like looking fast on tape is something
the easiest way to jump out obviously depending on your position,
(09:52):
like if you're an end, being able to bend the edge,
if you're a defensive tackle, being able to you know,
hold the point and stuff the run. There's position specific
shit you gotta be able to do. But looking fast,
if you're a corner, can you run with whoever? And
do you look like you were going stride for stride
with whoever they put out there. If you're a safety,
can you cover ground? If you're a linebacker, can you
(10:14):
go sideline to sideline? Because that is the easiest, quickest
way to gain someone's just like kind of attention. And
then obviously from there making open field tackles, being violent,
being physical, but no one will ever complain. It doesn't
guarantee you making a roster or even getting claimed. But
to me, the number one thing that does matter is
making place. It's like I remember, and again I use
(10:35):
the Niners as a lot of example because I don't
watch that much preseason football, but I remember watching Brock
Purdy in that time, and like, the reason he made
the team is because when you put him on the
field with like random dudes, that fucking guy was making place.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
And it's happened to it.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
The first game I ever went to, the first NFL
game I ever went to when I got hired by
the Eagles, I actually went there with Lewis Riddick. It
was a Monday night football game against the in MetLife Stadium, right.
I didn't think the Eagles we'd even played a game.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Maybe we had played the previous day.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
But I went there with Lewis and it was like
kind of teaching me how to scout and like kind
of what NFL people do and how to handle and
conduct yourself in that scenario, and it was Jets first,
the Giants and this undrafted free agent from UMass that
of course, I mean, I'm coming from Fresno State.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I didn't even know UMass.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I just thought him about John Calipari and a BASKETBA team,
didn't even know they had a football team. And this
undrafted free agent wide receiver named Victor Cruz had one
of the greatest games you'll ever see. I'm pretty sure
he had three touchdowns in that game and it was
like Jesus, and I think it's fair to say, looking back,
like he made the team that night alone. But obviously
(11:45):
he had a really good preseason, made a bunch of
plays and the rest is history. And then by the
middle of the season they had some injuries and Victor
Cruz was born. I think by the next year they
win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
That year they won it.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
The next year I can't remember, but he he obviously
played a big role because he got us in based
on injuries. But he made the team simply because like,
this guy's a playing this guy can do shit. So
I think the simplicity of this is, like just do
positive things right, And I think if you want to
try to make your own team, separate from everyone evaluating you,
(12:19):
because as a scout watching on tape, I don't I
have a pretty good idea depending on the team I'm watching,
like type plays they run, but I don't have the
actual play call in front of me. If I am
coach X right, if I am the offensive coordinator for
the If I'm Brian Schottenneimer, well, I guess he's not
(12:40):
even in control, but whatever, coach right, Mike McDonald and Seattle,
Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Do you know what you're doing?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Do you know where to line up?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Do you know the play calls? Do you know right
if a defensive player? Are you lined up in the
right spot once the play is run? Do you know
what your assignment is? Even if you screw up in
terms of like the ball was there, I missed it,
or I missed an open field tackle, or I slipped
on a route? Do I know the actual route? Did
I break off the route at the right distance? Do
(13:10):
I know what I'm doing? Because the easiest way to
just be like for the coaching staff to get down
on you even more than the personnel guys, is not
having a clue what the play calls are and obviously
there's a.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Lot going on. This is intense time of year. I
think it's a little bit, you.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Know, the football version for young players of like you know,
seal training or you know, you know, Hell week for
the Army, the Marines whoever, to try to throw a
lot at you, seeing like how much you can handle.
And some guys absolutely crumble in that environment. And some guys,
even if you screw up, occasionally it's like, Okay, I'm okay.
(13:48):
The next play, I bounce back. I know what I'm doing.
I make a play like can you mentally handle stuff?
And the more and more tired you get, because listen,
you're obviously in good shape. You've been at training camp,
it's been hot. You go in a game, you're adrenaline's
going extra hard. If you're a six to seventh undrafted
free agent, a fifth round pick, how fourth round picks
get cut, you kind of know what's on the line.
Can you handle yourself? Can you cause the moment? What
(14:12):
I think Jimmy Johnson coward makes or fatigue makes cowards
of us all. I don't think it just makes cowards
of football players, because when you can't breathe, you just
your physical nature goes.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Your head goes too.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
You can't think straight right you go right now, if
you're in shape or out of shape, do something physically
to the level of where you can barely breathe in
your heart's pounding. It's hard to think right. All you
care about is how do I get air? How do
I get fluids in me? And these games are a
little bit like that with these younger players where a
coach goes, hey, call play that we've only ran it once. Coach,
(14:44):
I want to see if these guys can handle it,
can they process it, and then can they execute it?
So and that is that's how you make an individual's team.
Like you can look good on tape and have no
clue what you're doing and run the wrong play call
and look good to me sitting in the booth or
sitting in my office evaluating you a week later. But
(15:04):
if I talk to your position coach, your coordinator, your
head coach two days later when they're going over the
film as a team, he might have got his ass
ripped and got lit up and got called an idiot
because he's like, we've done this ten times and you
lined up in the wrong spot or you didn't come
in motion. We've talked about this fifteen times. Yet on
that play, he catches the ball, he breaks a tackle,
(15:26):
and he goes for twenty yards right or a linebacker
lined up in the completely wrong spot goes the wrong way,
but he's a great athlete, turns around, makes the tackle,
and in that team meeting two days later, Mike Vrabel,
Todd Bowles, Mike McDonald is like, what are you doing.
It's like, great, you're an athlete. But from an evaluation standpoint,
other teams like, look at this guy move little do
(15:48):
they know?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Doesn't know what's going on.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
So I think that's key and overall, it always stands out.
It stands out in the regular season, it stands out
in any level of football from high school to college
to the energy, effort and violence. Like when you are
flying around, you do stand out. And this is what
we talked about, like you cannot know what's going on,
so your own team judge you. But if you are
(16:11):
flying around, it's hard not to jump off the screen.
And that's back to like play speed never turns people
off because if you play fast, it's the best defenses
I've ever seen. You know, we talked so much about
like physicality, like how hard they hit you. I saw
the Denver team that was elite with Peyton Manning. I
(16:33):
saw lob that was, you know, one of the best
defenses ever. I saw those hardball teams with Bowman and Willis.
I'd say one thing they've all had in common, obviously
the Eagles last year team speed and that always translates
obviously the offense. That translates so playing fast and when
you're thinking a lot. It's no different in any line
(16:56):
of work. Right, it's hard to be confident. Part of confidence,
I think whatever you're doing is when you actually don't
have to think that much.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You're just reacting.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Whether it's in a business meeting, whether it's now in
a podcast, whether it's on the football field playing safety
or corner or linebacker. It's like you know the play
call and then you can just play. Coach has been
talking about this forever at every level. It's why they're
so big on like studying, knowing your assignments, so you
go out there you not even thinking about what to do. Listen,
I did not thrive in academia. I would have thrived
(17:27):
in this era when Chad Gpt and Grock and AI
and all that shit, and I could just get all
the answers, but back we didn't have that in my day.
You know, it makes me feel really old because I
would have died for that. I saw some chart about
like open AI the usage falling off a cliff in
early June. It's like, yeah, school's out for the summer
(17:49):
college in high school, and it's like, God, I would
have loved that. It also shows you, like, is that
could be mean in some trouble? Is it gonna be
rendered kind of irrelevant? But that's a conversation for a
different day. But my point is, you don't there's no
cheat code.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
When you're out on the field.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
You either know the play call that the middle linebacker
or the quarterback is telling you in.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
The huddle or you don't.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
And then from there, if you don't, you better play
fast because I think coaches can at least attempt to
look past and give you more of an opportunity. It's
like he doesn't know what's going on, but god, he's
the fastest guy on the field. So it sounds sometimes
we overanalyze and overcomplicate this sport, like this sport is
played by strong, fast, physical people you know, and they
(18:31):
all come in different shapes and sizes, Right, Adrian Peterson
looks a lot different Darren Sproulls. Both guys that got
some open grass were fucking gone. And like, this is
the time of year where you do Victor Cruz, like
you do things that whether you knew the playbook or
you didn't, you score a couple of touchdowns in a game,
because here's the thing, here's what doesn't matter necessarily. Just
(18:53):
because you score one touchdown or have a big run
or sack the quarterback, it doesn't mean it's that impressive. Right,
Like in an NFL regular season game, if I score
a touchdown on the Baltimore Ravens, a guy blew assignment
or not, like.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
That's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
If you score a touchdown in the preseason, there's a
chance that the entire defensive backfield has no clue what's
going on. They all run the wrong way and you
just walk right in and all those guys are not
going to even be on practice squads if it's in
the fourth quarter. Right, This happens sometimes in college, like, oh,
this guy had twelve sacks. He played in the SEC. Right,
(19:31):
he played at Missouri. He played at Mississippi State and
he had double digit sacks, and then you look into it,
you're like, well, eight of those eleven sacks came against
D one double A opponents and the other three sacks
came against the worst team in the SEC. When he
played up against Bama, LSU, Georgia and Tennessee he had
(19:55):
one total tackle. You're like, kind of a red flag.
And preseason can be like that a little bit, right,
So it's like, yeah, he had two sacks, and you
look at both the sacks, You're like, well, the offensive
lineman completely whiffed on one and on the other one
he went the wrong way and no one.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Even touched him.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
It's like, well, if you are smoking guys and you're
like making moves and you know, uh, driving guys into.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
The ground to the quarterback.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Okay, so the context of your production, because every team
in the league, over the course of the preseason will
print out statistic leaders like who's leading the league in
rushing yards, who's leading the leading tackles, who's leading this
is the preseason, who's leading the league in catches, who's
leading the league.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
In completion percentage?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
And that alerts you. But then you got to break
it down, it's you do that same stuff in college. Right,
who's leading the Big Ten, the ACC, the SEC, Division one,
Double A, the Mountain West. Just because you're the league
leader in whatever doesn't mean you're necessarily a high end
draft pick or an NFL player.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Sometimes it does.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
So that's where you really got to dive in and
that's where context in the preseason matters. But like I said,
no one ever complains for making place. So even if
the guy falls down, you better get to the quarterback. Right,
if the corner trips and that balls come in your way,
you better catch it and score. So this is where
there's a lot of pressure. I'll never forget Phil Savage,
who was a GM in the league, ran the Senior
(21:13):
Bowl and worked for the Joe Douglas forever when he
was at the Jets. Joe Douglas guy's from the Ravens.
Phil was originally that's where he met Joe And I
remember talking to him one time and he said, this
is when he was the GM of the Browns back
in like two thousand and six and seven, two thousand
and eight.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
He said he.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Walked around before the game of the preseason, he saw
some of these guys like so nervous they couldn't even
walk straight and like wanting to throw up. And he's
thinking to himself, He's like, guys, we just draft you
in the third round. You are coming from USC or
Texas or Aleman. You've been playing in front of eighty
thousand people for the last three years, dominating all American.
(21:54):
You just got drafted, right, and you're nervous about this environment.
The stadium is gonna be half full. It's not, but
you just it's part of it's the uniform, part of
it is the NFL. It's it's actually very understandable because
once you know you red shirt or whatever and you
become a starter, even if it's at Alabama or Ohio
State or Texas, dan some confidence. It just becomes part
(22:15):
of the deal. And then you're like, I'm good. But
then you come to the NFL. You've never done this before,
you just practiced for a couple of weeks. You're like,
I totally understand where the players are coming from. The irony, though,
is they have played in games. Maybe not the personal
pressure on them, but the overall pressure of playing like
Alabama against Tennessee is way more intense and way more
(22:37):
on the line, you know, just in terms of your
team and what's going on. Then the Redskins playing the Patriots, right,
But that's where the preseason has a little bit of minor.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
League Baseball to it. It's almost like.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
You're not playing for yourself totally, because it's still like
you need the other ten guys, but you're kind of
focused on yourself. We're in a regular season game. It's
all about the team. It's all about doing your job
to help out the other guys. In the preseason, it's
like kind about that, but it's like you you better
do the right thing because three of the other ten
eleven guys might suck, they might have no clue what's
(23:15):
going on.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
You can't really worry about them. We're in a regular
season game.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
If your teammates are struggling, you're doing everything you can
to help them out. Get everyone on the same page.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
This is This has.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Got a little triple A baseball to it in terms
of the mentality and mindset, which is understandable because your
only goal if you're a fifth round pick is like,
how come September first, to mind that fifty three man
roster and I and I have I play Week one
and I make a million dollars veteran mental you know,
or the rookie contract, whatever, But I make this team.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I do not want to be on.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
The practice squad, which at the end of the day
is not the worst thing in the world because most
practice squad guys, you know, throughout the course of the year,
if they're good, get opportunities through injuries, get plucked off
other teams. Like it's being on the practice squad like
way worse things could happen. But this is a time
where you get on other people's radar. And we talked
about this with Shador. I'm recording this the day before
(24:06):
Shador's game. Is you put this film out there right now.
Even if you make your team and you're on your team,
if the team gets rid of you next year, this
is really important for other people to like you and
the evaluations go a long way. I remember being in
the league and guys would you know, be three or
four years into the league, but they don't. They've been
(24:28):
on a fifty three man roster, but they don't really
play besides special teams. And the only time you can
see them on offense or defense is in the preseason
so that preseason film is really really important. If that
guy gets cut, if that guy's like, hey, we could
we could trade for this guy if we need like
a backup cornerback. Would you give a seventh round pick
for this guy? But you have to go off that
preseason film, and that's the only time you really have
(24:50):
to evaluate them. That's where it's changed a little bit
with the with the joint practices. And I think that
gets back to why Andy Reid would probably not want
a joint practice because, like, word gets out.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Of my guys.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You know, I don't want people because football everyone talks
to everybody. Okay, you don't need to sink a thirty
foot putt to score big this weekend. Just fire up
the DraftKings sportsbook and take your shot at the green,
the kind with dollar signs. Whether you're diired golfer or
(25:20):
just in for some Sunday drama, DraftKings has everything you
need to make the round a little more exciting. Live bets,
prop plays, odds, boosts, and plenty more you need to
golf betting.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
It's really easy.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
You take a guy to win outright.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
You can bet on.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Guys to top five, to top ten, to top twenty.
Got a couple names for you. Obviously, odds are subject
to change. Tommy Fleetwood had some devastating heartache earlier in
the season. Well, on this course in Memphis, you got
to drive the ball straight, something Tommy does really well.
You can get him at plus twenty two hundred to win.
You get him at plus three sixty two top five
(25:53):
and plus one seventy to top ten. Another name, I
like a lot. He was very good in this tournament
last year. Victor Hoblin. Remember smaller fields, the playoffs starting
no cuts. Victor Hoblin plus thirty five hundred to win.
I love and I love Hoblin at top five this
weekend at plus five hundred, So tak yours wing at
(26:14):
wins them dough this weekend. Download the DraftKings sportsbook aapp
and use the code John. That's code John, that's my
name for new customers to get a bonus of two
hundred dollars and bonus bets instantly when you bet just
five bucks only on DraftKings.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
The Crown is yours.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Gambling problem called one eight hundred Gambler in New York
call eight seven seven eight Hop and wire text Hope
and y in four six seven, three six nine in Connecticut.
Help is available for a problem gambling called eight eight
eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit
CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill
Casino when resorting Kansas twenty one on over agent eligibility
varies by jurisdiction Voyden, Ontario. Bonus bets expires seven days
(26:49):
after issue ins four. Additional terms and responsible gaming resources
see DKNNG dot co slash audio.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I'd say the other thing that doesn't matter is you
can't nitpick, like just because a guy plays in the
second quarter or a guy's playing in the second half,
it's hard to exactly quantify what that.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Means in terms of the vibe in their organization.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Just because you play in the second you know, the
second quarter, doesn't mean you're some lock to make the team,
right And just because you're playing in the second half
doesn't mean they don't like you, right. So it's very
hard to play that game, which we all try to do.
It's like, ah, this guy's playing the fourth quarter, he
much suck or are they just he just needed a
bunch of reps and they just wanted to see him
get a bunch of time and they actually really like
(27:41):
this guy. Worst case scenario is going to be on
the practice squad, And just because you start a game
like doesn't mean that you're some lock to make the team.
So you got to be very careful about playing.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
That like a.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
You know, trying to put the piece of the puzzle together,
just based on the time of game guys are playing
now for the most part, if you're playing in the
fourth quarter of some of these preseason games, you're probably
not gonna be a starter week one, But who knows.
You're on the practice squad and by the end of
September you're on the team and playing a little bit.
So you just you just never know. And we've talked
(28:14):
about this before that the sick part of training camp
is the injuries and when a guy goes down, especially
if you're not right near the play, whether you're a coach,
whether you're a player, and definitely whether you're you know,
the scouts and the gms who are kind of you know,
much more on the sideline. When you can't get a
direct view of you it is, you just pray it's
(28:36):
not an important player. I mean, that's a sick mindset.
But you just rather have it to be a backup
or third stringer. I mean, it makes logical sense. And today,
you know where Shaun Slater is a pretty special player,
and the Chargers drafted them high. They just paid them
a boatload of money. And the reason to like the
Chargers because their roster still got a little something to
(28:56):
be desired, you know, overall top to bottom, to be
like a Super Bowl contender, Like they're gonna have one
of the best offensive lines of the league that they
might right there with the Eagles have the best left
tackle right tackle combo with you know, my Latta and Lane,
and they got Slater.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
And Joe Alt and.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
To lose Rashaun Slater what looked like I saw a
couple of times like I don't even want to watch this.
It kind of looked like his knee buckled before the
defensive lineman even made contact. And it was reported the
Chargers put this out about two seconds after Schefter reported
it that he tours Pattel attendant, which happened to my
(29:33):
dad when I was probably in like I don't know,
fifth sixth grade.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Now again, he was fifty year old guy.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
He was never quite the same and probably later in life,
should have got a knee replacement, but it was a
devastating injury. Again, he's not I'm not comparing my dad
at fifty to Reshawn Slater. But my point is that
that tearing that is a lot different than tearing your ACL,
which if you told me towards ACL, that sucks.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
He's out for the season.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
But it's like, you're gonna be okay that today was
a devastating day. And this is the risk of football.
This is why these guys hold out for the guaranteed money.
But this is also why the teams you just never know,
and at the end of the day, you gotta play
and you can the injury risk in football because of
how hard you lift. Right, You've seen guys get injured lifting.
(30:23):
You've seen guys get injured and walk through. You see
guys get injured like this. What looks like in more
of a non contact I mean it was a contact drill.
I think they're playing eleven and eleven, but I looked
like he went out before the guy even touched him.
It just it sucks, and it's the thing I don't
miss much about the NFL. Besides, there is some camaraderie
(30:45):
about everyone in the bunker together, players, coaches, front office.
You're all kind of pulling in the same way. Which
there's something you know in theory special about that. It's
awesome when you're on like sweet teams, sucks when you're
on bad teams. But I'll ever forget, and I even
at when I go to training camp doing what I
do now, that feeling of training camp, especially when it's
(31:08):
a marquee guy and the whole place just goes silent.
When you can hear a pin drop, no one's moving,
they call for the cart and it's just it's silence
and devastation. And this is what why these coaches get
paid so much money, because Jim Harbon now has to
go in front.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Of the team leading up to the season.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
And act like everything's gonna be okay and we are
going to find a way to figure this out when
it's just there is no replacing a high end left tackle.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Now.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Technically, because they have Joe Alt on the right side,
you can move him to the left tackle. Okay, that's true,
So you can still have a good left tackle, a
really good left I mean, Joe All could make a
pro ball left tackle. But then your right tackle that's
not ideal. And now you can be like, well you
can move Mikai Beckton back to this tackle position. You're like, well,
he just resurrected his career at guard. So usually a
(32:00):
backup tackle, like the gap between starting tackle and backup tackle,
tends to be as big, sometimes bigger than like starting
quarterback to backup quarterback, especially when you're talking high end guys. Right,
if you're just talking average tackle to backup tackle, might
not be that big of a difference, No different than like,
(32:21):
what the hell's the difference between, you know, pick some
random quarterback, especially like a low end starter and the backup. Right,
like Jimmy Garoppolo is a backup. I don't think he's
that good anymore, but if he's one of the better
backups in the league, or Mac Jones against whoever is
the worst starter, Russell Wilson, like you could argue in
(32:41):
twenty twenty five, there's not much difference, right, Jameis Winston,
Russell Wilson, what the hell's the difference?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
And I just.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Think it's really really hard because we're dealing with humans here,
not AI robots.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
These people have.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Emotions, they have a brain that they understand like this
is a problem, and obviously, from a business standpoint, you
just invest all this money and.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Lose this players. It's pretty gutting.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
And I was really high on the Chargers last year.
Not that I was down on them necessarily, because anytime
you got Jim Harball and you got a really good
quarterback and you got a physical mentality, like they're gonna
be good. But I was like, I could see them,
you know, be a little closer to average this year
than what they were last year, and I kind of
like the Broncos more.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
And then today it's like this is the type move because.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
The one thing they hung on their hat on last year,
it's like, well, hey, you know, no receivers like offensive
line Jim Harbaugh, run the ball, lose a tackle. That's
that's the major problem that sucks. You feel for the player,
you feel for the team. I mean, Chargers have gotten
so much good positive momentum. This guy is such a
high level guy, and it's a really good feeling as
(33:48):
a team, as a coaching staff, as a fan base
when it's like we got a high end star player.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Who's just a good dude like that, those type people
you like, you.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Want to build around, and then the guy has a
devastating knee injury, which I'm not even trying to get
ahead of myself, but when you have that injury relative
to some others, even if it's season ending, you're like,
are we sure this guy's ever going to be the same.
I want to end on this Fugazi Friday. I don't
think I've talked about this yet, but this is like
(34:17):
a couple weeks old, JJ Watt was going at it
with a bunch of people on social media about training
camp stats being stupid. He also didn't love like training
camp videos coming out, and then a bunch of reporters
that take those stats or fighting back, and I think, listen,
(34:38):
in training camp, every team is recording the stats of completion, percentage,
of catches, of win rate in practice between offensive and
defensive line. No one is acting like if you catch
two touchdowns in a practice, it's the same as doing
it on Sunday or Monday night football. But do think
(34:59):
that does not matter? And again we're not talking about
like if Jamar Chase. No one cares about Jamar Chase's
stats in training camp, right, did he have fifty touchdowns?
Did he have two it doesn't matter. We're not talking
about established veteran players. No one's judging Saquon Barclay's run
per attempt, your yards per attempt, or how many catches
(35:23):
he had on wheel routes. I mean, the Eagles might
technically be taking that information, but no one, no fan
the Eagles, like, we're not judging that. But you can't
convince me that the backup quarterback, the third string quarterback,
all the skill guys who aren't starters. The defensive players
are a little harder to get statistics because you're not
(35:43):
tackling to the ground for most teams every some teams
do like a session or two doing that. But offensive
statistics in practice for guys that aren't starters, they matter
because why would they take them now? They are put
into context with the team when they're evaluating. But I'm sorry,
(36:06):
like they're doing that for a reason. These practices matter,
some coaches will tell you, especially if you know the
joint practices might hold a little more weight than some
of the games. So I understand where jag is coming from.
Because players get really mad when a video comes out,
and some drills like the O line D line, one
(36:29):
on one pass rush Obviously that's advantage defensive lineman because
offensive linemen don't quote unquote play one on one. They
play as a unit with five. So if the guard
is going up against even if he's going up against
Aaron Donald or Jalen Carter or you know, you name it,
he typically has a center there to help him out
(36:50):
if he pushes him over. That guy's just standing there.
No different than one on one routes on air or
not routes on air, but like one on one wide
receiver corner with the quarterback, well, there's no pass rush,
so sometimes the corner or excuse me, the wide receiver
runs like an out and in and up and comes
back and catches it like seventeen seconds later. Like no
one's talking about those stats, but in team situations, seven
(37:14):
on seven even, but definitely team situations, statistics with the
skill guys kind of matter, and the teams keep track
of it. And I'm sure you know, defensive coaches and
the defensive coaching staff because now these staffs are huge
take inventory on like yeah, we'll give you a tackle,
but like kind of keep tracks of like this would
have tackled, This would be a mistackle. This was a misassignment,
(37:35):
Like all this stuff really matters. This is you were
trying to earn a job, just like no different than
like in an interview. Probably most things you say matter,
even if you look back a year later after getting
the job, Like I was kind of stupid. It mattered
at the time, and you might go on, you know,
like a guy like Victor Cruz to have a great career,
(37:58):
but those catches he made in pre season which led
or in practice, which led to him getting reps in
the game that have been making plays like it all
kind of builds on one another. Right, If you don't
make plays in practice, you know, you're probably not gonna
move up the depth chart and get an opportunity to
play a lot of snaps in the games, and then
the pressure on those game reps will be huge, and
(38:21):
if you screw up, it might just be like we
might cut you. So I think we got to be
very careful about saying none of them matter.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
They're all stupid. That's just not true.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Do they mean everything? Of course not, But like just
players getting so advanced, so like I'm so embarrassed because
I got I got mossed in a practice, you know,
like the coaches like whatever, if you trip like it,
shit happens.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Can we have a little thicker skin? I can't like
even I've seen some where. Did I watch this recently?
Who was saying it?
Speaker 1 (38:54):
It was like Tracy McGrady.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
It was some older NBA player, It was someone else.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
It was like a guy that just retired recently. And
he said that one thing it might have been like
Joe Johnson. I forget who it was, but he said
one thing that changed dramatically that when he first got
in the league in like two thousand or two thousand
and five or whenever to now, was that you come
into halftime. Oh was Kevin Garnett was even saying this,
(39:21):
And you know, usually come into halftime, everyone like takes
a deep breath, slam a gatorade or whatever. You start
going over, Hey we start doing this against this guy.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Hey, I'm out, you're in. Will you take this guy?
Speaker 1 (39:31):
And you kind of start basketball strategy for ten to
fifteen minutes, he was saying, you come in the locker room. Now,
fucking place is silent. Everyone's on their phone. And it
wasn't KG, but one guy said that like one of
the dude, it might have been Chauncey Billups. It was Chouncey,
who's a coach, who's the coach of the Trailblazers. He said,
a dude had a huge dunk in like the first
or second quarter, and he said it was sweet. It
(39:54):
was like a big time you know, like a dunk
that you would see all over like highlight Twitter accounts
and stuff. And he said, by the time they were
coming out to the second half and he learned about
it after the game, the dude had taken that dunk
and posted it all over social media during the game,
you know, at halftime, during the game, and it's just
like we live in a different era where everyone is
(40:16):
so obsessed with what's going on on social media at
you know, these young athletes, which I do understand you've
grown up, but like you get to a point you
should it's like it's kind of irrelevant even if people
are making fun of you, just don't go on.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
And people will go it's so easy for you to say,
don't go on. I actually don't think it should be
that hard, you know, it really shouldn't.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
And especially some of these guys that have been you know,
around big time college programs, you realize, like the only
people that matter, you know, in college is the head coach, right,
does that guy believe in you? In your coordinators?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Are they playing you?
Speaker 1 (40:49):
And in the pros, it's like what Joe Blow is
saying on Twitter Instagram making fun of you. Does your
coach or GM think that about you? Because if they don't,
it doesn't matter. And they're the ones that hold the
keys to millions upon millions of dollars and playing time
in the National Football League, not some guy talking shit
in your Instagram comments. So I just I think we've overblown,
(41:11):
like how bad the training camp coverages. I'd argue it's
better than it's ever been. And the information, which is
king is important to the NFL. People are following it.
I'll promise you that every team in the league, they're
director of player personnel, the air pro scouts.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Are all over all this information.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
So to say it doesn't matter or it's just that's
actually kind of uninformed because it's just not true. The
volume
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!