August 8, 2025 • 51 mins
Aaron Torres and former NFL offensive tackle Ephraim Salaam (in for Rob and Kelvin) open this 'Best of' edition of the show with a discussion on how college football's preseason needs a revamp here in the NIL era. NFL insider Adam Caplan joins the show to share what he's been hearing throughout his training camp tour. Plus, reacting to Shedeur Sanders' first preseason game... How do the guys think he played in his first taste of NFL action? Does he have a chance at eventually earning the starting job?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
You're listening to the best of The Odd Couple with
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Speaker 3 (00:27):
Welcome he everybody, Hour two The Odd Couple Fox Sports Radio.
Rob and Kelvin are out eritaorus E from Salam taking
you up till ten pm Eastern. We are broadcasting live
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Speaker 4 (00:58):
Again.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get podcast and
you'll find today's full show and a best of version
posted right after the end of the show. NFL preseason
well underway, as de Seger just told you, three games
in progress three last night. We'll get back to the
NFL in just a minute, and Adam Kaplan, of course
(01:20):
from Inside the Birds podcast, will join us to give
us plenty of updates on what he has learned in
camp so far.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
You know, Ephraim, I do want to.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Switch gears briefly to college football, and I don't want
to talk necessarily about a specific player or stat or
news item because there essentially are none. And it really
struck me today, Ephraim is that I will listen. I
think you and I and most of the audience we
(01:51):
love the NFL. We also love college football. But I
was thinking today college football, of every major sports, do
have the worst lead.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Up to the season. Oh yeah, Like it's unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
So put us out like credit, the NFL fans get in,
fans get to watch. There's clearly a higher degree of
media availability because every day I wake up, there's a
new Caleb Williams story, there's a new Aaron Rodgers story,
there's a new whatever, there's a new store Sanders story.
And I was thinking about this with college football. The
(02:27):
SEGA did just mention throughout the show that Garrett Nussmeyer,
the LSU starting quarterback has a little bit of a
banged up knee. But there is literally no news about
college football. It's unbelievable to me. And I'll just say
this really quick. I'm not going crazy. I went and
looked at espn dot com today. The number three trending
(02:50):
story on ESPN's college football page was the coaches poll
that got released on Monday. And so I'm opening the
floor up to you from if you were the dubious,
elusive college football commissioner that everybody is demanding one, would
(03:12):
you do anything to change the lead up to the season,
because I am blown away how there is literally nothing
to talk about and no major news. And by the way,
and I'll just be really quick and I'll get it
to you. When I say major news, I don't mean
like God forbid an injury or something bad happens. Like
I said, every day there's a new Aaron Rodgers story.
(03:32):
Every day, there's a new Shadoor Sanders story. And with
college football, it is freaking crickets. As we are now
three saturdays away from the first full weekend of college football.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
I think the lead up to it is there's no preseason,
so teams, you don't know these teams, Nope, until they
actually start playing. So many new kids are theirs players
have left, you don't I don't know if there's a
way to ramp up the beginning of college football. It
(04:08):
kind of just happens, right have zero weekend right up
and and those games are are usually okay. But the
impact of college football when it starts vable, it's like
(04:31):
no other. So I just think because you're dealing with
student athletes and no one really knows what what you have,
we don't have any inside looks there are there are
no you know, like for training camp, there will be
a look in at training camp for each NFL team.
(04:54):
Are There is none of that on the college campus
because there, I mean there's students as well. And I
don't know if there's a fix to get people pumped
up leading into the season. I just know when the
season starts, it starts with a rocket ship.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
It does.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
And what we've seen now more than anything, big games
are happening early. Sure, I think that's the change that
people enjoy because you could get you know, Alabama versus
Wisconsin Tech.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
You can get you know, ssconsin Tech is going to
be good this year, by the way, just let the.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Red, you know what I mean, there are so many
of those type of games. Earlier, it used to be
those type of games early in the season that it's like,
But now the way college football can really ramp this
thing up. It start with marquee matchups like they're doing
(05:55):
this year.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, Texas Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio State, Ohio State, that's huge, huge,
Clemson LSU. By the way, week one as well.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
That's that's how you do it.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, and that and and that I will defend college
football is that that opening weekend is great. And it's
funny now with this expanded playoff, everyone's just trying to
figure out the calendar. And I even saw Dan Lanning
actually say he thinks that we should move up the season.
That's one thing I actually disagree with. I think that
(06:25):
Labor Day weekend everybody has it off. You know, you
have a three day weekend. You have basically five straight
days of college football because you start on that Thursday
and then you go all the way through Labor Day
Night on Monday. By the way, this game this this
year's Labor Day the Monday Night game is TCU at
the North Carolina tar Heels. Jordan Hudson's North Carolina tar Heels,
(06:48):
So plenty of intrigue there.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And so I agree with you one hundred percent is
that Week one is good and week zero. To your point,
there's usually a marquee game this year, not key, but
a noteworthy game. At least this year it's Iowa State,
Kansas State, it's overseas whatever. I think both those teams
will probably be on the fringes of the top twenty five.
So I guess once you get too week zero, it's okay.
(07:13):
I And one thing I will say, we're having Adam
Kaplan on the show here in about ten minutes from now,
and I do want to ask him about the media availability,
because it does feel like all of these players, all
these coaches are let me ask you, you played in
the league, I should probably just ask you what is
media availability?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Are our players? Are fans allowed in every day?
Speaker 6 (07:32):
No?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
No, it's just like that one day a week or whatever.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
No, they have designated days where fans are part of
the practice and can come. Because once you open it
to fans, you're open it to everybody.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Well that's yeah, and that's the argument against college football. Yeah,
Like you don't want just everybody in there.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Now, they'll have days set aside where you know, fans
are there. They may have a little live scrimmage like
and just watching the regular practice.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
It's not yeah, there's not much going on. It is
not a lot going on on that day.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
No, So when they set things up, we're gonna have
a live team period, are we going to do? You know,
just to give the fans something to look forward to
and so on and so forth. But every day is
not open for for fans and they and it shouldn't
be sure because now it becomes something other than what
it is, and what it is is we're putting this
install in.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
These playbooks, these plays.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
We want effort, we want this and that a lot
of custom from the coaches, like you know, you know,
there's a lot of things that that coaches don't even
want that that level of accessibility to their program because
especially kids, they you get distracted easy. Sure, you know,
your girlfriend her friends are up in oh yeah, you know,
(08:51):
gammafy gammas over here and they got the whole like
it's just you know, so it's training camp and and
preseason for football.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
It's for business.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
Sure, it's your job, college football. You're trying to hit
the ground running.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
You mentioned Wisconsin Tech. Would you have a problem with
preseason game even if it's just one in college.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Full No, I don't think they should do that really well,
I don't think. So what are your benefits? What are
you getting?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
It could be what are the benefits of playing preseason
NFL games.
Speaker 7 (09:29):
To fill out your roster? There are no cuts in college.
Sort are with the portal now. But no, I know
what you're saying.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
You know what I'm saying, Like there you go to
camp with eighty eight guys, ninety guys, you gotta get
down to fifty three. Sure, you need training camp, you
need preseason. You need to see if young players can
step up and playing game like situations.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
There's no need for that in college. You don't need
to know if young players can step up in game
likes it.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
No, you'll find out, like you'll find out, But the
practices are set up to where you know, me having
a preseason game against Oklahoma if I'm Oklahoma State that
I don't know the benefit of that right now. It's
(10:14):
up to colleges. And you got to remember, most colleges
have these players in place, right like, so if you
have a.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Quarterback that's coming back. Okay, quarterbacks coming back.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
If you lost a receiver, you the guy behind him
last year is normally going to be that guy this year.
Right Like, there's a feeder system in college already, sure,
right Like, it's already there. You've been living with these
players and watching these players and playing with these players
(10:47):
since they've been at your program. Now a portal throws
a little wrench in there, but there's a body of
work of that player that you got from the portal
that you can you already know what you're getting. You
draft a kid in the NFL. Can he play at
the next level? You need to find out. That's the
question for every single draft pick. Two hundred and however
(11:09):
many draft picks will Can he play at the next level?
That is the question that training camp in preseason answers. Yeah,
I'll be curious. We're gonna welcome in Adam Kaplan here
in just a few minutes. I'd actually be curious his
thoughts because it's just it's just it's incredible to me
how little again information is out there. But again to
(11:31):
your point, once we start that season, we do hit
the ground running, and to the credit of college football,
and I think the twelve team playoff helps. You know,
one loss doesn't submarine your season. So we can't get
a Texas Ohio State in week one, Clemson LSU actually
Notre Dame Miami in week one. The teams are are
willing to take those shots. And before it's like now
(11:53):
we're gonna play Citadel we won. We're gonna play Wichita
or Wichita Southwest. Then when you know, you have five
weeks of just huh huh, and then you'll get into
conference play.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
No start with the bang. We will start with the bank.
Three Saturdays from now is Week one, two Saturdays. So
this tomorrow is the last Saturday without college football week zero,
not tomorrow, but a week from tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
So that is exciting.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Fox Sports Radios Odd couple Aaron torres E from salam
In for Rob and Kelvin. When we come back, one
of the best insiders in the game, Adam Kaplan, will
join us. Cannot wait to hear Adam's thoughts on He's
been traveling all over these training camps. Curious to hear
what he's seen and what he expects to see coming up.
(12:50):
Adam Kaplan, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 8 (12:57):
Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, straight Fire
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Throat every day.
Speaker 8 (13:07):
Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest
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Speaker 4 (13:14):
All the best guests.
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Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with
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Speaker 2 (13:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
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Speaker 3 (13:41):
Welcome back, everybody, Fox Sports Radio. This is the Odd Couple.
Kelvin and Rob are out air trus E from salam
are in taking you up until ten pm Eastern time.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
AK and E.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Stiff back joints not cooperating. Some days your body's just
like nope. And on those days, look, there's a leave
which just one pill. A leap provides up to twelve
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as directed, so don't want to go straight to the
phone lines. One of the best NFL insiders on the planet,
Adam Kaplan. Of course, you can follow him on Twitter
(14:17):
at Kaplan NFL. He is our Fox Sports Radio NFL
insider host of Inside the Birds Adam One, How are
you too? Where in the world are you right now?
I know you're a busy man this time. Here are
you traveling?
Speaker 4 (14:29):
Where you at?
Speaker 6 (14:30):
Yeah, guys, I am in my office watching the Detroit
Atlanta game and I'm gonna flip to a couple of
these other games here and then. Yeah, So next week
and niphram could relate to this with the joint practices,
I'll probably see like ten teams working with each other
next week if if weather holds up and travel holds up, Jets, Giants, Eagles, Browns, Bucks, Steelers,
(14:53):
probably gonna hit at one more by the end of
the week. So yeah, looking forward to getting on the road.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Let me ask you.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
I was just gonna ask you real quick, and I
was curious. Before the break, Adam, we were talking about
how every day seemingly there is new information coming out
of these camps and new Caleb Williams take or.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
Video or whatever yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
And I was telling Ephraim, it's like college football is
unbelievable because there it's just state secrets everywhere, and then
it's Week one and it's awesome, but you don't really
get any information this time here. I was just curious,
how much are you guys? Are you and the media
we in the media. I've never covered in an NFL camp,
but how much are the Is the media able to
(15:34):
see be around? Are you limited? Is it unlimited? Are
players and coaches available every question?
Speaker 6 (15:40):
So it varies by camp. So I typically will only
go to a camp where I get good access whether
I know I'm gonna get in front of the coaches
and executives, you know, because you text people, hey man,
I want to want to catch up if you got time,
and then yeah, because I'm not you know, I'm not
a beat reporter, so I don't care. You know, I'm
not coming with a mike trying to interview a player
that doesn't That does nothing for me. I'm looking for information,
(16:01):
trying to learn about a club, get a good feel
for them, and get your FaceTime. Getting in front of people,
getting the truth is what I'm after doing. This is
my twenty first training camp tour and that's you know,
it's why I do it. I travel, I try to
This tour won't be as long as it I mean,
I've done one where it was twenty four teams in
like thirty days, which is insane. That's not something I
want to do again. But it's a hustle. I mean,
(16:23):
I really do enjoy it and getting in front, in
front of people, getting access. So there's some teams that
you know, the problem is where you you know, you
want to watch practice and you're you're too far away.
Well that doesn't you know, it doesn't interest me. So
on your question, it's where I could get a good
view and get in front of people.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Well, let me ask you this.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Out of the views that you have had there, has
anything stood out that was different than you have your
expectation going into a certain team.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
Well, okay, see from this is a this is a
great one. I go back to my first tour in
two thousand and five. So I'd heard the Raiders you
were in Napa, and I'm like, okay, Napa, Marriott, don't
know where like the Raiders pr that was awful, Like
they didn't tell you where the field was. So I'm
walking around, you know, I find it off of Solano Road.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
I bet you know.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
I know everything about it because I've been there so
many times. So I see what it looks to be
a tennis court because it's covered with tarp. So I'm like, well,
this can't be it. So I'm walking around. I asked
the UH. I asked the security to going, hey, do
you have any idea where the field days goes? You're
looking at him like, what do you mean, I'm looking
at it? He goes, you don't look inside. I'm like,
I look inside. I'm like, oh my god. So what
(17:31):
it is is they ripped up the parking lot and
they put three fields down there. It's just the crazy
you got like the pools in front of it where
the hotel guests are, and then you've got three football fields.
It's it's and by the way, going there from five
through twenty nineteen, it never rained one day, not one day,
fifteen years going there. Think about that. It's incredible. That's
(17:54):
my favorite camp of all time. By the way, not
nothing will come closer now Texans for a team that
played for you know, oh, it's bad. So I went
to their their coming out of the lockout of twenty eleven.
So they set a national record most thirty straight one
hundred degree days. You know it's bad when the PR
staff emails you and said, hey, you probably want to
bring another T shirt.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Wow, thirty straight?
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Yeah, it was awful one of those days.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Are you not in that?
Speaker 5 (18:20):
It is awful? And that's why I I'm sitting here
talking about it. And every time I see teams going
to training camp, I get anxiety because I remember what
those days are just going into the season. Is there
a team that didn't reach, you know, their potential or
(18:41):
expectations last year that you see going into this season
they can make some noise Every year. There's a couple
of teams I want to be the first I know
from you.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
I know, and you never know which. It's hard to
project at And like Denver last year, I completely missed
on I, you know, is a player. You can never
underestimate the value of coaching. I just didn't see it
with Bo Nicks. And I'd heard for the draft that
this was Sean Payton's guy. But Nicks played pretty well
by rookie standards. But so who's going to be that
(19:13):
team that nobody's talking about that comes out of nowhere.
So I have a team now. They didn't make the playoffs.
They were ten and seven last year. Seattle Seahawks. I
think had a really good offseason, and I really beli
Sam Donald played great in the in the in the
West Coast offense. I know from I think you were
in it. Were you in Kobeak's offense?
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Of course? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (19:32):
Yeah, so you know that offense, and Donald's going to
play it in it. Ironically, Clink Kobyak's offense, who coached
with New Orleans lasts and did a pretty good job
for Derek Carr got hurt. So I feel like that.
And their defense is young and very talented. I think
that's a team that can make the playoffs. I'm not
buying the Chicago hype now. I'm a Ben Johnson enthusiast.
I believe he'll do a good job. I don't think
(19:53):
they're going to be good enough on defense, particularly with
their past rush, but I'm hoping he get there before
they're their training camp ends. They were five and twelve.
They were disaster and total chaos. Coaches fired in season
and they were just they had a lot of discipline.
Talking to people there don't. I don't see them getting
in there this season, but I think they will improve.
I would probably say Seattle would be one of them.
(20:16):
I think New England will be way better than people think.
They're ford to thirteen last season, not very competitive, had
a very tough schedule last season. Drake may is talking
to the Patriots. It was probably better than they anticipated
when they when they drafted him. And he's he's had
a schedule, he's doing pretty well. They're gonna be remember
Mike Rabels the head coach, and they're gonna be like
eight or nine wins, and they're not gonna make the playoffs,
(20:37):
but theyre can be much better than people think.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Adam Kaplan joining us our Fox Sports Radio, NFL Insider,
host of Inside the Birds at Kaplan NFL on Twitter.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Adam, let me ask you this. You know you mentioned
Ben Johnson.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I actually asked you a question a few weeks ago
about kind of everything surrounding both the Lions and the Bears.
But oh yeah, yeah, this is a great one. Go ahead,
Yeah you said it was quote a great question and
you may. You know, sometimes people say it's a great question,
they don't mean it. But all I said was will
the impact be felt more positively for Chicago or negatively
in Detroit?
Speaker 4 (21:09):
But I do want to ask you negatively.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
For Detroit, by the way, it's absolutely the way they're
thinking about it. John Morton's their offense coordinator. He was
a coordinator, he called the place for the Jets, and
I remember putting a report out that the players just
didn't buy into a system. Yeah, I got I mean
it was true. I mean, that's got that from two
people who were worth the team then, so it's you know,
it's definitely true. Some people thought I was out of
(21:31):
my mind, but it was true. But now he's a
Sean Payton guy. He's a really sharp guy. You know,
look this is eight years ago, so everybody we grow
and evolve. But Ben Johnson is brilliant and he he
is and he coaches hard, and you know, they the
players kind of saw immediately with the Bears that he's
(21:52):
going to be He's on them all the time. And
now they've accepted it so far. But we he from
know this as a former player. They they haven't coached
the game yet, so real game yet, So we'll see
how much it really matters.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Can I follow I was gonna ask really quick the
Caleb Williams stuff. Is it just because he's the number
one pick in a lightning rod? Do we think that
he's like you know, there's a report about him every day,
but you know, if he was Caleb Williams' twenty sixth
overall pick playing for the Saints, is the coverage the same,
(22:25):
Like is it concerning or is it just he's Caleb
Williams or both?
Speaker 6 (22:30):
Well, he's a lightning rod because he was the first
pick overall. He is very talented, but needs what we
call hard coaching and he's going to get it from
Ben Johnson. The thing with Caleb Williams is a lack
of discipline in his play, not very structured. You know,
he needs more structure and that's coming with Ben Johnson
and he gets on him. But man, Caleb Williams, I
(22:52):
know it wasn't good. He didn't have a good rookie season.
But if you isolate throws, there's some plays last year
we go wow, But he just played with a lack
of discipline and that's going to come here. And you know,
by the way, they are very talent on offense. The
problem is on defense where they've like no pass rush
at all.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
Let me ask you a question about this game we're
watching here. Cleveland has six quarterbacks on the roster. Obviously
they're depending on Joe Flacco to start this thing off.
Is there a spot, are a way that Shaduur Sanders
can supersede that and play himself into an opening day starter.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
It'll be hard, it'll be hard, but listen if now,
depending on how they want to do it, he started
tonight at Carolina. He'll be in Philly this week. They
have two joint practices and you know, I'll be at
least at one of them, and I'll talk to Kevin Stefanski.
I'll get and I know if Joe flackwef cover him
since so seven, so I'll get a lot of pinions
on how should or has done. And he's doing well tonight,
(23:47):
by the way. Now Carolina, by the way, played some
starters on defense, so that that's I like that. And
Shoulders playing with a bunch of backups, which is not
easy to do, by the way, you know, because a
lot of these guys won't be on the football team
this fall. But I like that he's gotten off to
a fairly decent start. Now, could he do it. I
don't see Dylan Gabriel being a starter. Cann He Pickett
(24:07):
has heard. He's not a starter. They got the wrong
guy there. What they should have gotten is Tanner McKee,
but I don't think he would have done it. Tanner McKee,
as you saw last night twenty for twenty five, who's
really talented, one of the better backups in the NFL.
But Flacco. Look, Flacco put the team on his back
two years ago with Cleveland. That was incredible. Last year
not so good with Indy. But it depends from how
(24:29):
good of a start that they get off to. If
Joe starts like I think he will and they're two
and five, you have to have yourself what's the point, Like,
what are you playing for here? Go to the kid now?
One thing I will tell you, if they don't think
the kid's ready, they're not going to just throw him
in there. That's not going to happen. Kevin's got his extension,
but they're going to be smart about now. Jimmy has him.
(24:50):
The owner is involved. He's an involved owner. He made
the call to go against Kyle Shannon and play. He
told Ray Farmer. Then he's hey, put we want we
want Johnny manziel In, and that's not what Kyle Shanahan wanted.
So Jimmy HASLM has gotta be careful here. He cannot
get involved here with what happens with playing decisions.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Adam Kaplan joining us, host of Inside the Birds at
Adam at Kaplan NFL on Twitter.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Let me ask you a question now, Adam.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
It's a little water under the bridge at this point,
but I am curious in your reporting. What was the
biggest or what was the reason for Shodor's fall? Was
it being misevaluated? Was it really bad interviews? We've heard
so much yours.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
Plugged in the true go ahead. Yeah, I mean, I'm
just going to tell you what I got. I got
three things not prepared for interviews. I would say that
like he was asked to do certain things, like what
happens is his interviews with quarterbacks. Okay, hey, listen, we're
gonna give you these plays. We're gonna run through them,
and we want you to come. We're gonna talk to
(25:57):
you later after you go through the playbook or the film.
You're gonna look at this iPad and we're going to
come back and bring you back in an hour and
he either didn't study or was indifferent, and that that's
just not right, and he seemed unprepared and didn't care.
And that was that was true, that that I talked
to the right people that that this isn't made up.
(26:17):
I don't do that stuff. And I when when the
stuff started to come out before the draft, I was like, Wow,
why is this coming out? Like what's how much is
the truth? And I just was surprised, Uh, people I
really trust.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (26:30):
The quarterback coach I've known forever said he was very
disappointed because he liked his tape. He said off tape,
he gave him a third round grade. And then when
they got him in their building or whoever the interviewed,
I don't know if it was a combine in their building,
just was not impressive and very disappointed with his attitude.
So that that stuff's real. To be honest with you, Wow,
that's uh, it is what it is.
Speaker 5 (26:52):
Yeah, But you know I was telling earlier, I was
saying that all of that doesn't matter. Now it's gone.
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Yeah, he's a preferred, but it does matter in this
case if he acts the same way from as he
did before the draft, then it matters. If it's he
takes it as a new beginning. That's behind me. I'm
a baller, I'm gonna prepare. I'm a quarterback. He takes
it the right way, then he's got a chance because
he's a very talented quarterback.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
And that's why I mean, that's what I mean by
it doesn't matter, because now you'll be graded on what
you do on the field, not.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
A preseason in the classroom.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
In the classroom, right, yeah, Well you're not gonna get
on the field if you don't do it in the classroom.
Speaker 6 (27:34):
They just knows as alignment that that ain't gonna work.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Yeah, they're not. We're not about to go out there,
just roll the dice.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
If you can't get it plays together in the classroom,
you won't be playing. And the fact that he is
starting today bodes well that he has a firm grasp
and understanding of the playbook. He's looked well, like you said,
eleven for eighteen, one hundred and three yards, two touchdowns,
four rushes and twenty yards. So for me, all of
(28:02):
the speeding tickets, of the batched interviews, the dropping in
the draft, it doesn't matter. What matters now is what
you put on tape. If you come out here and
you play well, you command the team, you lead the team,
all of that's forgotten because now when rero football is played.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
What you did to get here is it is? What
it is? What are you going to do to stay here?
Speaker 6 (28:27):
Yeah? I would agree. Now we'll see how he handles himself.
I'll find out what the tape looks like, because you know,
we're only seeing numbers here. I need to get a
better grasp of what it really looked like.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
But I was looking a good He missed some open throws,
but he scrambled. He hasn't looked rattled. He's you know,
not watching the plays at the line of scrimmage, no
fumble snaps all.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
So you know, for me, just watching the first half,
and I'm not sure he'll play in the second half.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
It's it's I'm I'm pleased with what with what he did.
Speaker 6 (29:05):
Because by the way, and they don't have a future quarterback,
so this this is very important. They have no idea.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
We said there, they don't have a quarterback.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
They have no idea.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Oh they had six on the roster and no starting quarterback.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
Watson the forest transaction in NFL history, right, that's and
I mean it is it's it's the worst move I've seen.
And it's funny thing is he would have been an Eagle.
I feel strongly had he wanted to be an Eagle.
But that's another that's a that's a thirty for thirty.
They were the Eagles pursued. I mean they were really
in again and trying to get Watson, but you know,
just they didn't go far enough. But Cleveland now has
(29:38):
got to figure it out. But you know, they have
an interesting roster. That they have a good roster. People
don't realize that because they were so bad last season.
But it's been about the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Adam Kaplan, host of Inside the Birds Are Fox Sports Radio,
NFL insider, Adam, we got to let you go real
quick where you headed to this week. I know you
said eight would you say eight teams?
Speaker 6 (29:56):
Yeah, if it all works out and whether you know
whether and what or the case may be. But I
got a joint. I got a night practice in Philly
at their stadium. They have one practice where the fans
get to go and they usually get forty or fifty thousand.
So that's at the Lincoln Financial Stadium Sunday night. And
then if all goes to all Washington and the Giants
Jets joint, Brown's Eagles joint, Bucks Steelers joint. And then
(30:23):
the following week. See, I go week by week. So
that's what I got for next week? Are you I drive?
This is a dry It's funny. I live in the
Philly area, so this is a driving trip. And then
the last the eighteenth or the twenty second, I'm hoping
to fly out west if all works out, I I do.
I'm not going to I'm not going to Henders. I'm
not going to Nevada because I refused to be in
that weather.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
But you did thirty straight days of one hundred degrees
in Houston.
Speaker 6 (30:47):
Yeah, I know, but I'd rather be you know where
I'd like to go is La. I'd see the Rams
and Elsagundo with the Choges.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
The judges. Adam Kappaman, we appreciate your time. Thank you
for your.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Time, and again follow Adam on Twitter at Kaplan NFL
and of course the hosted the Inside the Birds podcast.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
Thank you, Adam, appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
That was Adam Kaplan, host of Inside the Birds and
our Fox Sports Radio NFL Insider. Let's not waste any
more Time News desk Steve Desager, what is trending?
Speaker 9 (31:18):
We got three NFL exhibitions to update. Cleveland as the
halftime lead fourteen to seven at Carolina. Shador Sanders the
rookie starting tonight, eleven of eighteen, one hundred three yards,
two touchdowns. One of those was a short TD right
after Cleveland recovered a muff punt. It was Bryce Young
with a TD pass for the Panther, scoring New England
up twenty to three on Washington. In the second quarter,
(31:41):
the Patriots rookie Trevion Henderson returned the opening kickoff one
hundred yards for a touchdown. Drake May did have a
fumble as he was sacked. He only has twelve yards
passing in the first half, but he does have a
five yard touchdown run for the Pats.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
Halftime.
Speaker 9 (31:57):
At Atlanta, it's ten to seven Falcons over to Royd
Falcons with a fifty seven yard field goal and late
first half and Easton Stick touchdown pass. Stick the former
Charger preseason quarterback fifteen of eighteen through the air one
hundred and forty nine yards and the TD to Major
League Baseball. Houston still leads two nothing at the Yankees
(32:17):
in the bottom of the fifth on a two run
homer in the first from Jose Altuve Orioles over the
A's three to one bottom of the six. The Angels
have taken the lead at Detroit four to three, top
of the six, getting back to back homers off Trek Scooble,
who's out after allowing the four runs in four and
two third innings. Marlins lead five nothing at the Braves
(32:37):
bottom of the six. Reds a two to one leader
at Pittsburgh bottom of the seventh. It's the Guardian seven
to one at the White Sox top of the fourth.
Philadelphia star Kyle Schwarber with his forty first homer of
the season. The Phillies at Rangers game is tied one
to one in the second. Twins lead the Royals three
to one in the second. The Mets are up to
nothing after two at Milwaukee. Cub scoreless at Saint Louis,
(33:00):
bottom of the second in the NL Central, The Brewers
are first place, four games up on the Cubs. The
Celtics gave coach Joseph Missoula an extension the NBA's Christmas slate.
Five games should include Houston at the Lakers, Dallas at
Golden State. Three w NBA games tonight, including New York
up in the third quarter fifty two thirty eight at Dallas.
(33:24):
For Dallas, Page Beckers out with a bad back, and
for New York Breonna Stewart due to return in late
August from a bow and Bruce in her knee. Tommy
Fleetwood leads by four strokes in Memphis. Dustin Johnson tied
for the livegolf lead in Chicago with Sergio Garcia.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Beck to you, Thank you very much, Steve de Seger.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
This is the odd couple Fox Sports Radio er Torres
and E from salam In for Rob and Kevin. Tell
you what will come back when we do. We got
more to react to from Thursday night. From here on
Friday night, football is back and it feels so good.
Fox Sports are you?
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
That's right, everybody, This is the odd couple. Hour three
on a fucky flashback Friday.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Kelvin and Rob are out Ertorus E from salam are In.
The fellows will be back on Monday, so make sure
you're locked in. We're taking you till ten pm Eastern.
Jason Smith, Mike Harmon following us. And by the way,
if you miss any of today's show, not only can
you download the podcast, also make sure to check out
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(34:42):
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and turn on all notifications so you have easy access
to our very best videos. That's right, click that bill
note of case. All right, so story of the night.
(35:05):
You know, it's funny from sometimes the content gods are
on our side because we we're planning on talking Shadoor
Sanders Cleveland Browns anyway to lead this hour because obviously,
of course that game the Cleveland Brown's playing the Carolina Panthers.
That game started at seven Eastern, so when we came
on air, it was just getting underway. Well, we are
(35:27):
now about midway through the third quarter. Shador Sanders is
still in still in eleven of nineteen, passing one hundred
and three yards two touchdowns. Cleveland Brown's up fourteen to seven.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
Listen you know, I'll say.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
This is you know, it kind of stinks on social media,
not that social media is a by, you know, a
reflection of anything. But you know, the people that thought
Shador was gonna be good, everybody's really happy. The people
that uh said he isn't gonna be good are saying
it's the preseason. It doesn't mean anything. You're a dude
who you had to earn your spot. I hope you
don't mind me saying it, but from my understanding, you
(36:04):
had to earn your spot in the preseason. So one,
I would love for you to tell the story of
how you did so in your rookie training camp, and
then two, what this performance means for Shador Sanders.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:17):
So ninety eight, I got drafted one hundred and ninety
ninth pick in the draft to the Atlanta Falcons. And
I was a left tackle coming out of San Diego State.
And when I got there, they had a perennial Pro
bowler and Bob Whitfield at the left tackle, and they
had about two other guys who had been in the
league and so on and so forth. So I was
(36:38):
about fourth on the depth chart. You know, she'd do
and I you know we're I think fifty four picks
apart from each other, so essentially we were in the
same position. And the thing that I knew that would
give me an advantage was learning the playbook immediately. So
(37:00):
all I did was just study the playbook. I didn't
want to go out, I don't want to do anything.
I just wanted to be prepared if I got an opportunity.
And Art Schell would call young players up to the
board and have them periodically draw plays to see if
they were grasping the offense. And so whenever I had
(37:20):
my chance to do that, I wouldn't just draw what
the offensive line did. I would draw what the running
backs did for the pass play. I would draw the
routes and the depth of the pocket, all of those things.
And it kind of made him look at me like,
huh okay. And so the first couple weeks in training camp,
I'm stuck over there in the log gem in left tackle.
(37:42):
Our right tackle gets hurt pulled is growing, so he
was out for some time, and so he moved me
over to second string right tackle. And what that did
was it gave me more reps and it gave me
more playing time in the preseason and so just doing
that battling in the preseason. I hadn't really played right tackle,
(38:04):
but I was figuring it out. And it came down
to the final preseason game when that starter was back
from injury. Cory Lucci, it was a free agent, came
over from Buffalo, and Art came over and sideline and said, Hey,
I think we're playing the Bengals that game. He said, hey,
e from Corey, Corey, You're going to start from You
(38:26):
play the second quarter, Corey, you play the third. E
From you play the fourth, and whoever plays the best
starts opening weekend. He said, right on the field, right there,
he put on the table what you were playing for,
(38:47):
so we wouldn't be confused. Wow, okay, he said, whoever
plays the best is our starter opening weekend next week.
Speaker 4 (38:57):
That was it.
Speaker 5 (38:59):
And so I remember watching that first Normally, when you're
not in you got your helmet off, you know, I
might help it on, and my chin strap, bucket and
my mouthpiece in the whole first quarter, and I was
just chomping at the bit to get an opportunity and
went out there and I literally put it all out there.
(39:21):
Had no idea how I played. I knew I played hard.
That next morning, we're going down. Our training camp was
in Swannye, Georgia, and we stayed at the Falcon Inn
and Swannye, Georgia. And I was coming down from the
(39:41):
hotel and Corey was walking up and I was like,
what up, Corey? And he just walked past who I think, No, no, no,
one got something to eat in the training room whatever.
And then we had a team meeting. They had made
final cuts to team meeting. So I'm sitting at a
team meeting and I'm in there and I'm like, oh, snap,
Corey went up to the room. I'm gonna go get
him because it's gonna be late for the meeting. And
(40:02):
when I got up, Art looked at me, it was
like come here. He was standing outside. He called me
and said, hey, look, uh we just cut Corey. Wow,
congratulations You started next week at Carolina. Tell you two things.
Don't be afraid to be successful and don't go out
there and beat down your leg. And I was like okay,
(40:26):
and going on the road my rookie year to Carolina
to play against Kevin Green, somebody I had been watching
for a decade plus destroy offensive linemen. I had a
tough opening game. I mean, I think I gave up
(40:48):
two sacks, but we won and Art I was sitting
in the locker and Art said, hey man, congratulations, you
want your first NFL game. And I was like okay,
and he was like, don't worry about you. Was se
him again. You'll see him in Atlanta. I had a
much better game against him when we played Atlanta. But
I started my career in that moment. That preseason game,
(41:10):
that fourth preseason game, was the moment where my career
could have taken off or it could have stayed sidelined.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
So the big theme to me is for anybody on
Twitter saying hey, yeah, that's preseason, it doesn't matter, your
response would be what it matters.
Speaker 5 (41:30):
It matters more than you know. Teams NFL rosters are
built in the preseason. They're not built in train they're
not built in OTAs or during the year. The roster
is built in preseason training camp. That's you go to
camp with ninety guys, only fifty three survive.
Speaker 7 (41:54):
They got six quarterbacks right now too, so you know,
you know.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
Some heads are rolling.
Speaker 5 (42:02):
All you can do is take each opportunity and give
every single thing you have to solidify a spot on
the opening day roster. That is the goal for a
late round draft pick, that is the goal. My first
initial goal going into training camp was I just want
(42:22):
to make the team. Then it became I just want
to be able to make the active roster. Then I
want to start right, and then you start going, I
end up. You know, well, obviously we won nineteen games,
eleven in a row, all the way up to the
(42:43):
Super Bowl. I was the youngest player to ever start
in the Super Bowl. I was the fourth rookie in
NFL history to start all nineteen games including the Super Bowl. Wow,
and I was I made the All Rookie Team. Me
Peyton Manning, Fred Taylor, Kyle Turley, my linemate from San
(43:03):
Diego State, Like, we all made the Rookie team right
from a seventh round draft pick. That's how Robert Edwards
like that. That's how serious training camp in preseason is. Oh,
it matters. It matters, brother. You don't get your opportunity.
(43:28):
You don't get a lot of chances. Of course, like
you literally like you. And because coach, it's a test.
Coaches want to see and Art told us that to
see how we would respond. That's the whole point. He
gave us that information to see how we'd respond. I'm
a twenty two year old rookie and I'm just trying
to figure it out. And I'm looking around like, all right, well,
(43:50):
this is an opportunity. I don't even play right tackle,
but I'm playing it now and I played it my
first four years in the league.
Speaker 4 (43:58):
An unbelievable story.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
Shors did just pick up yet another first down right
now as we speak, stats are obviously updating in real time,
but the Browns are up fourteen to seven in the
third quarter and again driving two touchdown passes for Shador,
And I'll tell you what you know, the pass game
has opened up the run game because just a big
(44:21):
chunk on the ground. So just your overall evaluation, what
does it mean now? Obviously we I think everybody expects
Joe Flacco to be the starting quarterback Week one, but
Dylan Gabriel's banged up, Kenny Picketts banged up. You know,
Shador needed an opportunity, He gets it. What does it
mean going forward for him?
Speaker 5 (44:41):
All right, Well, it means that he's positioned himself to compete.
We all know that they probably are going to start
Joe Flacco. But they don't have to. True, they don't
have to if you're if you're performing at a high
clip now, Shudu or will get more reps with the
(45:02):
ones coming up because starters will play in the next
preseason game. What are you doing is just chipping away.
You're just chipping away at that depth chart. You will
get more opportunities based on how you're playing right now.
And that's all you can That's all you can want
as a competitor. As a player, all you want is
(45:25):
an opportunity to compete. So all you us do is
keep going. This is gonna be a opportunity for a
third scoring drive and an opportunity for him to put
three touchdowns up on the board. That's huge and your
first outing and NFL action preseason or not, he doesn't
(45:45):
have three turnovers.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
I was just thinking that, yeah, right, well, well the
sack five times we've seen those games.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
Well, And it's funny because the people who are saying, oh,
this means nothing. If it was the opposite, if it
was zero turk tds to buy and ts.
Speaker 10 (46:01):
Yeah, I told you, I told you you are you
are one thousand, right, That's that's how they are Aaron,
they will.
Speaker 5 (46:15):
Change the narrative, switch it to whatever course fits their
point of view. Well, look, I told you couldn't play.
That's why he's a fifth round draft. He turned them
all over three times, three touchdowns.
Speaker 4 (46:28):
It's just preseason. Well sorry, nouga, when you say something else, no, no,
that's it.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
All I was gonna say was it has so far.
It is now late third quarter. He's still in the game,
so that's a great sign.
Speaker 4 (46:42):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (46:43):
Yeah, and it's gone about as well as it could have.
You know, I'll let you break down the film, you know,
in a more detailed way. I mean a misthrow early,
but it looks like hypothetically could be leading them on
another touchdown drive, as he has led the Cleveland Browns
on a third touchdown drive. They are now up twenty
to seven, extra point pending late in the third quarter. Listen,
(47:08):
I have no affiliation to him. I'm happy for him,
I told you off the top.
Speaker 9 (47:13):
You know.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
To me, I feel like he is being treated like
Bronni James, as if he is only in the NFL
because of who his father is. No disrespect to Brani
on the basketball side, but it's the truth. Shador was
the Big twelve Player of the Year, the Offensive player
of the Year. Last year, he threw thirty seven touchdowns.
He completed seventy four percent of his passes. If you
(47:35):
want to say there's holes in his game, stuff to
work on, that's every rookie from cam Ward on down.
But I just thought, and again, by the way, is
some of it self inflicted? Probably? We had Adam kaplan
on earlier that said that said he did not interview
well during the process. Okay, But to your point, all
(47:55):
you can ask for is a chance. He's gotten it
three touchdown drives. Now Brown's up twenty one to seven
with Shador with two touchdown passes.
Speaker 5 (48:02):
And I love the fact that he's playing the game. Yep,
He's playing the game. It's not a two series. And
you come out there. This is a huge sample size
for him coming in at halftime, make adjustments. How do
you come out of halftime? Like all of these things
are part of things that these teams need to know, yep,
(48:24):
that he can handle as a quarterback. Backed up, they
just drove down the field like all of those things.
Short yard is fourth down. They're one for two on
fourth down conversions. All of those things you want to
know about the guy who's going to be the signal
caller for you.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Well, even on the possession before he was backed up
basically on his own one yard line and took a
short pass just to make it easier to punt. I mean,
those are like the little things that you know he
could have tried to chuck it down field and pick
up the big play.
Speaker 4 (48:55):
It's like, no, man, it e's your first punter.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Flip the field that you know the defense gets a
stop now all of a sudden. So Schador has been fantastic.
To Ephram's point, you know, you can't say it means
nothing when the same people would have said that it
meant something if he wasn't playing. Well, you know, I'll
be gry Parker Okay, yeah, yeah, we did. Hear from
Rob Parker would.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
Be going crazy, right, I told you. I told you, Alex.
Speaker 3 (49:19):
You want to you want to bring up the Rob
Parker group text from just by the way.
Speaker 4 (49:24):
We love Rob. So if Rob here's this, after the
fact that I'm not criticizing Rob, I'm criticizing him. Go ahead, Alex.
Speaker 11 (49:31):
So apparently Rob has no sense of a vacation or
knowing how it's time to chill or enjoy himself for
maybe when he's at Magic City, get another serving of wings.
Don't worry about the games, he texted us in the
group chat, and I quote apparently sand has just won
the Super Bowl. Too much made out of a first
preseason game. I refuse to be a part of it.
(49:55):
Hashtag Tim Tebow two point zero.
Speaker 4 (50:00):
That's just a ridiculous take.
Speaker 5 (50:02):
Rock Parker's crazy, man, He's crazy because to your point, Aaron,
if Schaduor had instead of two touchdowns and three scoring drives,
if he had two turnovers and and you know, missed
opportunities and missing throws, that's all he would be talking about.
(50:26):
And I couldn't reply it was just preseason. It's just preseason, No, man,
this is how you make the team. Preseason is there
for a reason. It's therefore reason there would be no
Tom Brady without preseason.
Speaker 4 (50:42):
Great call, Russell Wilson. Yeah, Russell Wilson, Like, what are
we talking?
Speaker 2 (50:45):
No?
Speaker 4 (50:46):
It matters, It really matters, It really does.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
Shahdre Sanders Cleveland Brown's up twenty one to seven late
third quarter, two touchdown passes for Shador Sanders and a
third touchdown Drive just moments ago. This is the odd
couple of Fox Sports Radio. Kelvin and Rob will be
back on Monday, aratorus Ephrom salam In until ten pm
Eastern Time.
Speaker 4 (51:12):
When I come back.
Speaker 3 (51:13):
Actually, I do want to switch gears to an NBA story.
Steph Curry said something very interesting today and I actually
want your perspective as a big time NBA guy, Ephram.
We'll discuss Steph Curry's comments next Fox Sports for you
Thanks for listening to the best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
Be sure to check us out live every weekday from
four to seven pm Pacific seven to ten pm Eastern
on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for The
Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream
us every day on the iHeartRadio by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You're listening to the best of The Odd Couple with
Chris Brusat and Rod Parker.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Welcome he everybody, Hour two The Odd Couple Fox Sports Radio.
Rob and Kelvin are out eritaorus E from Salam taking
you up till ten pm Eastern. We are broadcasting live
from the Fox Sports Radio studios and should always mention
if you miss any of today's show, you'll want to
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(00:48):
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Speaker 4 (00:58):
Again.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get podcast and
you'll find today's full show and a best of version
posted right after the end of the show. NFL preseason
well underway, as de Seger just told you, three games
in progress three last night. We'll get back to the
NFL in just a minute, and Adam Kaplan, of course
(01:20):
from Inside the Birds podcast, will join us to give
us plenty of updates on what he has learned in
camp so far.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
You know, Ephraim, I do want to.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Switch gears briefly to college football, and I don't want
to talk necessarily about a specific player or stat or
news item because there essentially are none. And it really
struck me today, Ephraim is that I will listen. I
think you and I and most of the audience we
(01:51):
love the NFL. We also love college football. But I
was thinking today college football, of every major sports, do
have the worst lead.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Up to the season. Oh yeah, Like it's unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
So put us out like credit, the NFL fans get in,
fans get to watch. There's clearly a higher degree of
media availability because every day I wake up, there's a
new Caleb Williams story, there's a new Aaron Rodgers story,
there's a new whatever, there's a new store Sanders story.
And I was thinking about this with college football. The
(02:27):
SEGA did just mention throughout the show that Garrett Nussmeyer,
the LSU starting quarterback has a little bit of a
banged up knee. But there is literally no news about
college football. It's unbelievable to me. And I'll just say
this really quick. I'm not going crazy. I went and
looked at espn dot com today. The number three trending
(02:50):
story on ESPN's college football page was the coaches poll
that got released on Monday. And so I'm opening the
floor up to you from if you were the dubious,
elusive college football commissioner that everybody is demanding one, would
(03:12):
you do anything to change the lead up to the season,
because I am blown away how there is literally nothing
to talk about and no major news. And by the way,
and I'll just be really quick and I'll get it
to you. When I say major news, I don't mean
like God forbid an injury or something bad happens. Like
I said, every day there's a new Aaron Rodgers story.
(03:32):
Every day, there's a new Shadoor Sanders story. And with
college football, it is freaking crickets. As we are now
three saturdays away from the first full weekend of college football.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
I think the lead up to it is there's no preseason,
so teams, you don't know these teams, Nope, until they
actually start playing. So many new kids are theirs players
have left, you don't I don't know if there's a
way to ramp up the beginning of college football. It
(04:08):
kind of just happens, right have zero weekend right up
and and those games are are usually okay. But the
impact of college football when it starts vable, it's like
(04:31):
no other. So I just think because you're dealing with
student athletes and no one really knows what what you have,
we don't have any inside looks there are there are
no you know, like for training camp, there will be
a look in at training camp for each NFL team.
(04:54):
Are There is none of that on the college campus
because there, I mean there's students as well. And I
don't know if there's a fix to get people pumped
up leading into the season. I just know when the
season starts, it starts with a rocket ship.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
It does.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
And what we've seen now more than anything, big games
are happening early. Sure, I think that's the change that
people enjoy because you could get you know, Alabama versus
Wisconsin Tech.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
You can get you know, ssconsin Tech is going to
be good this year, by the way, just let the.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Red, you know what I mean, there are so many
of those type of games. Earlier, it used to be
those type of games early in the season that it's like,
But now the way college football can really ramp this
thing up. It start with marquee matchups like they're doing
(05:55):
this year.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, Texas Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio State, Ohio State, that's huge, huge,
Clemson LSU. By the way, week one as well.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
That's that's how you do it.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, and that and and that I will defend college
football is that that opening weekend is great. And it's
funny now with this expanded playoff, everyone's just trying to
figure out the calendar. And I even saw Dan Lanning
actually say he thinks that we should move up the season.
That's one thing I actually disagree with. I think that
(06:25):
Labor Day weekend everybody has it off. You know, you
have a three day weekend. You have basically five straight
days of college football because you start on that Thursday
and then you go all the way through Labor Day
Night on Monday. By the way, this game this this
year's Labor Day the Monday Night game is TCU at
the North Carolina tar Heels. Jordan Hudson's North Carolina tar Heels,
(06:48):
So plenty of intrigue there.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And so I agree with you one hundred percent is
that Week one is good and week zero. To your point,
there's usually a marquee game this year, not key, but
a noteworthy game. At least this year it's Iowa State,
Kansas State, it's overseas whatever. I think both those teams
will probably be on the fringes of the top twenty five.
So I guess once you get too week zero, it's okay.
(07:13):
I And one thing I will say, we're having Adam
Kaplan on the show here in about ten minutes from now,
and I do want to ask him about the media availability,
because it does feel like all of these players, all
these coaches are let me ask you, you played in
the league, I should probably just ask you what is
media availability?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Are our players? Are fans allowed in every day?
Speaker 6 (07:32):
No?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
No, it's just like that one day a week or whatever.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
No, they have designated days where fans are part of
the practice and can come. Because once you open it
to fans, you're open it to everybody.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Well that's yeah, and that's the argument against college football. Yeah,
Like you don't want just everybody in there.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Now, they'll have days set aside where you know, fans
are there. They may have a little live scrimmage like
and just watching the regular practice.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
It's not yeah, there's not much going on. It is
not a lot going on on that day.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
No, So when they set things up, we're gonna have
a live team period, are we going to do? You know,
just to give the fans something to look forward to
and so on and so forth. But every day is
not open for for fans and they and it shouldn't
be sure because now it becomes something other than what
it is, and what it is is we're putting this
install in.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
These playbooks, these plays.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
We want effort, we want this and that a lot
of custom from the coaches, like you know, you know,
there's a lot of things that that coaches don't even
want that that level of accessibility to their program because
especially kids, they you get distracted easy. Sure, you know,
your girlfriend her friends are up in oh yeah, you know,
(08:51):
gammafy gammas over here and they got the whole like
it's just you know, so it's training camp and and
preseason for football.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
It's for business.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
Sure, it's your job, college football. You're trying to hit
the ground running.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
You mentioned Wisconsin Tech. Would you have a problem with
preseason game even if it's just one in college.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Full No, I don't think they should do that really well,
I don't think. So what are your benefits? What are
you getting?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
It could be what are the benefits of playing preseason
NFL games.
Speaker 7 (09:29):
To fill out your roster? There are no cuts in college.
Sort are with the portal now. But no, I know
what you're saying.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
You know what I'm saying, Like there you go to
camp with eighty eight guys, ninety guys, you gotta get
down to fifty three. Sure, you need training camp, you
need preseason. You need to see if young players can
step up and playing game like situations.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
There's no need for that in college. You don't need
to know if young players can step up in game
likes it.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
No, you'll find out, like you'll find out, But the
practices are set up to where you know, me having
a preseason game against Oklahoma if I'm Oklahoma State that
I don't know the benefit of that right now. It's
(10:14):
up to colleges. And you got to remember, most colleges
have these players in place, right like, so if you
have a.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Quarterback that's coming back. Okay, quarterbacks coming back.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
If you lost a receiver, you the guy behind him
last year is normally going to be that guy this year.
Right Like, there's a feeder system in college already, sure,
right Like, it's already there. You've been living with these
players and watching these players and playing with these players
(10:47):
since they've been at your program. Now a portal throws
a little wrench in there, but there's a body of
work of that player that you got from the portal
that you can you already know what you're getting. You
draft a kid in the NFL. Can he play at
the next level? You need to find out. That's the
question for every single draft pick. Two hundred and however
(11:09):
many draft picks will Can he play at the next level?
That is the question that training camp in preseason answers. Yeah,
I'll be curious. We're gonna welcome in Adam Kaplan here
in just a few minutes. I'd actually be curious his
thoughts because it's just it's just it's incredible to me
how little again information is out there. But again to
(11:31):
your point, once we start that season, we do hit
the ground running, and to the credit of college football,
and I think the twelve team playoff helps. You know,
one loss doesn't submarine your season. So we can't get
a Texas Ohio State in week one, Clemson LSU actually
Notre Dame Miami in week one. The teams are are
willing to take those shots. And before it's like now
(11:53):
we're gonna play Citadel we won. We're gonna play Wichita
or Wichita Southwest. Then when you know, you have five
weeks of just huh huh, and then you'll get into
conference play.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
No start with the bang. We will start with the bank.
Three Saturdays from now is Week one, two Saturdays. So
this tomorrow is the last Saturday without college football week zero,
not tomorrow, but a week from tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
So that is exciting.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Fox Sports Radios Odd couple Aaron torres E from salam
In for Rob and Kelvin. When we come back, one
of the best insiders in the game, Adam Kaplan, will
join us. Cannot wait to hear Adam's thoughts on He's
been traveling all over these training camps. Curious to hear
what he's seen and what he expects to see coming up.
(12:50):
Adam Kaplan, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 8 (12:57):
Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, straight Fire
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Throat every day.
Speaker 8 (13:07):
Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest
sports headlines, accurate stats to help you win big at
the sportsbook, and.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
All the best guests.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with
Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington weekdays at seven pm
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Welcome back, everybody, Fox Sports Radio. This is the Odd Couple.
Kelvin and Rob are out air trus E from salam
are in taking you up until ten pm Eastern time.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
AK and E.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Stiff back joints not cooperating. Some days your body's just
like nope. And on those days, look, there's a leave
which just one pill. A leap provides up to twelve
hours of pain relief so you can keep moving. ES
as directed, so don't want to go straight to the
phone lines. One of the best NFL insiders on the planet,
Adam Kaplan. Of course, you can follow him on Twitter
(14:17):
at Kaplan NFL. He is our Fox Sports Radio NFL
insider host of Inside the Birds Adam One, How are
you too? Where in the world are you right now?
I know you're a busy man this time. Here are
you traveling?
Speaker 4 (14:29):
Where you at?
Speaker 6 (14:30):
Yeah, guys, I am in my office watching the Detroit
Atlanta game and I'm gonna flip to a couple of
these other games here and then. Yeah, So next week
and niphram could relate to this with the joint practices,
I'll probably see like ten teams working with each other
next week if if weather holds up and travel holds up, Jets, Giants, Eagles, Browns, Bucks, Steelers,
(14:53):
probably gonna hit at one more by the end of
the week. So yeah, looking forward to getting on the road.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Let me ask you.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
I was just gonna ask you real quick, and I
was curious. Before the break, Adam, we were talking about
how every day seemingly there is new information coming out
of these camps and new Caleb Williams take or.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
Video or whatever yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
And I was telling Ephraim, it's like college football is
unbelievable because there it's just state secrets everywhere, and then
it's Week one and it's awesome, but you don't really
get any information this time here. I was just curious,
how much are you guys? Are you and the media
we in the media. I've never covered in an NFL camp,
but how much are the Is the media able to
(15:34):
see be around? Are you limited? Is it unlimited? Are
players and coaches available every question?
Speaker 6 (15:40):
So it varies by camp. So I typically will only
go to a camp where I get good access whether
I know I'm gonna get in front of the coaches
and executives, you know, because you text people, hey man,
I want to want to catch up if you got time,
and then yeah, because I'm not you know, I'm not
a beat reporter, so I don't care. You know, I'm
not coming with a mike trying to interview a player
that doesn't That does nothing for me. I'm looking for information,
(16:01):
trying to learn about a club, get a good feel
for them, and get your FaceTime. Getting in front of people,
getting the truth is what I'm after doing. This is
my twenty first training camp tour and that's you know,
it's why I do it. I travel, I try to
This tour won't be as long as it I mean,
I've done one where it was twenty four teams in
like thirty days, which is insane. That's not something I
want to do again. But it's a hustle. I mean,
(16:23):
I really do enjoy it and getting in front, in
front of people, getting access. So there's some teams that
you know, the problem is where you you know, you
want to watch practice and you're you're too far away.
Well that doesn't you know, it doesn't interest me. So
on your question, it's where I could get a good
view and get in front of people.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Well, let me ask you this.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Out of the views that you have had there, has
anything stood out that was different than you have your
expectation going into a certain team.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
Well, okay, see from this is a this is a
great one. I go back to my first tour in
two thousand and five. So I'd heard the Raiders you
were in Napa, and I'm like, okay, Napa, Marriott, don't
know where like the Raiders pr that was awful, Like
they didn't tell you where the field was. So I'm
walking around, you know, I find it off of Solano Road.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
I bet you know.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
I know everything about it because I've been there so
many times. So I see what it looks to be
a tennis court because it's covered with tarp. So I'm like, well,
this can't be it. So I'm walking around. I asked
the UH. I asked the security to going, hey, do
you have any idea where the field days goes? You're
looking at him like, what do you mean, I'm looking
at it? He goes, you don't look inside. I'm like,
I look inside. I'm like, oh my god. So what
(17:31):
it is is they ripped up the parking lot and
they put three fields down there. It's just the crazy
you got like the pools in front of it where
the hotel guests are, and then you've got three football fields.
It's it's and by the way, going there from five
through twenty nineteen, it never rained one day, not one day,
fifteen years going there. Think about that. It's incredible. That's
(17:54):
my favorite camp of all time. By the way, not
nothing will come closer now Texans for a team that
played for you know, oh, it's bad. So I went
to their their coming out of the lockout of twenty eleven.
So they set a national record most thirty straight one
hundred degree days. You know it's bad when the PR
staff emails you and said, hey, you probably want to
bring another T shirt.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Wow, thirty straight?
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Yeah, it was awful one of those days.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Are you not in that?
Speaker 5 (18:20):
It is awful? And that's why I I'm sitting here
talking about it. And every time I see teams going
to training camp, I get anxiety because I remember what
those days are just going into the season. Is there
a team that didn't reach, you know, their potential or
(18:41):
expectations last year that you see going into this season
they can make some noise Every year. There's a couple
of teams I want to be the first I know
from you.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
I know, and you never know which. It's hard to
project at And like Denver last year, I completely missed
on I, you know, is a player. You can never
underestimate the value of coaching. I just didn't see it
with Bo Nicks. And I'd heard for the draft that
this was Sean Payton's guy. But Nicks played pretty well
by rookie standards. But so who's going to be that
(19:13):
team that nobody's talking about that comes out of nowhere.
So I have a team now. They didn't make the playoffs.
They were ten and seven last year. Seattle Seahawks. I
think had a really good offseason, and I really beli
Sam Donald played great in the in the in the
West Coast offense. I know from I think you were
in it. Were you in Kobeak's offense?
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Of course? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (19:32):
Yeah, so you know that offense, and Donald's going to
play it in it. Ironically, Clink Kobyak's offense, who coached
with New Orleans lasts and did a pretty good job
for Derek Carr got hurt. So I feel like that.
And their defense is young and very talented. I think
that's a team that can make the playoffs. I'm not
buying the Chicago hype now. I'm a Ben Johnson enthusiast.
I believe he'll do a good job. I don't think
(19:53):
they're going to be good enough on defense, particularly with
their past rush, but I'm hoping he get there before
they're their training camp ends. They were five and twelve.
They were disaster and total chaos. Coaches fired in season
and they were just they had a lot of discipline.
Talking to people there don't. I don't see them getting
in there this season, but I think they will improve.
I would probably say Seattle would be one of them.
(20:16):
I think New England will be way better than people think.
They're ford to thirteen last season, not very competitive, had
a very tough schedule last season. Drake may is talking
to the Patriots. It was probably better than they anticipated
when they when they drafted him. And he's he's had
a schedule, he's doing pretty well. They're gonna be remember
Mike Rabels the head coach, and they're gonna be like
eight or nine wins, and they're not gonna make the playoffs,
(20:37):
but theyre can be much better than people think.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Adam Kaplan joining us our Fox Sports Radio, NFL Insider,
host of Inside the Birds at Kaplan NFL on Twitter.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Adam, let me ask you this. You know you mentioned
Ben Johnson.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I actually asked you a question a few weeks ago
about kind of everything surrounding both the Lions and the Bears.
But oh yeah, yeah, this is a great one. Go ahead,
Yeah you said it was quote a great question and
you may. You know, sometimes people say it's a great question,
they don't mean it. But all I said was will
the impact be felt more positively for Chicago or negatively
in Detroit?
Speaker 4 (21:09):
But I do want to ask you negatively.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
For Detroit, by the way, it's absolutely the way they're
thinking about it. John Morton's their offense coordinator. He was
a coordinator, he called the place for the Jets, and
I remember putting a report out that the players just
didn't buy into a system. Yeah, I got I mean
it was true. I mean, that's got that from two
people who were worth the team then, so it's you know,
it's definitely true. Some people thought I was out of
(21:31):
my mind, but it was true. But now he's a
Sean Payton guy. He's a really sharp guy. You know,
look this is eight years ago, so everybody we grow
and evolve. But Ben Johnson is brilliant and he he
is and he coaches hard, and you know, they the
players kind of saw immediately with the Bears that he's
(21:52):
going to be He's on them all the time. And
now they've accepted it so far. But we he from
know this as a former player. They they haven't coached
the game yet, so real game yet, So we'll see
how much it really matters.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Can I follow I was gonna ask really quick the
Caleb Williams stuff. Is it just because he's the number
one pick in a lightning rod? Do we think that
he's like you know, there's a report about him every day,
but you know, if he was Caleb Williams' twenty sixth
overall pick playing for the Saints, is the coverage the same,
(22:25):
Like is it concerning or is it just he's Caleb
Williams or both?
Speaker 6 (22:30):
Well, he's a lightning rod because he was the first
pick overall. He is very talented, but needs what we
call hard coaching and he's going to get it from
Ben Johnson. The thing with Caleb Williams is a lack
of discipline in his play, not very structured. You know,
he needs more structure and that's coming with Ben Johnson
and he gets on him. But man, Caleb Williams, I
(22:52):
know it wasn't good. He didn't have a good rookie season.
But if you isolate throws, there's some plays last year
we go wow, But he just played with a lack
of discipline and that's going to come here. And you know,
by the way, they are very talent on offense. The
problem is on defense where they've like no pass rush
at all.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
Let me ask you a question about this game we're
watching here. Cleveland has six quarterbacks on the roster. Obviously
they're depending on Joe Flacco to start this thing off.
Is there a spot, are a way that Shaduur Sanders
can supersede that and play himself into an opening day starter.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
It'll be hard, it'll be hard, but listen if now,
depending on how they want to do it, he started
tonight at Carolina. He'll be in Philly this week. They
have two joint practices and you know, I'll be at
least at one of them, and I'll talk to Kevin Stefanski.
I'll get and I know if Joe flackwef cover him
since so seven, so I'll get a lot of pinions
on how should or has done. And he's doing well tonight,
(23:47):
by the way. Now Carolina, by the way, played some
starters on defense, so that that's I like that. And
Shoulders playing with a bunch of backups, which is not
easy to do, by the way, you know, because a
lot of these guys won't be on the football team
this fall. But I like that he's gotten off to
a fairly decent start. Now, could he do it. I
don't see Dylan Gabriel being a starter. Cann He Pickett
(24:07):
has heard. He's not a starter. They got the wrong
guy there. What they should have gotten is Tanner McKee,
but I don't think he would have done it. Tanner McKee,
as you saw last night twenty for twenty five, who's
really talented, one of the better backups in the NFL.
But Flacco. Look, Flacco put the team on his back
two years ago with Cleveland. That was incredible. Last year
not so good with Indy. But it depends from how
(24:29):
good of a start that they get off to. If
Joe starts like I think he will and they're two
and five, you have to have yourself what's the point, Like,
what are you playing for here? Go to the kid now?
One thing I will tell you, if they don't think
the kid's ready, they're not going to just throw him
in there. That's not going to happen. Kevin's got his extension,
but they're going to be smart about now. Jimmy has him.
(24:50):
The owner is involved. He's an involved owner. He made
the call to go against Kyle Shannon and play. He
told Ray Farmer. Then he's hey, put we want we
want Johnny manziel In, and that's not what Kyle Shanahan wanted.
So Jimmy HASLM has gotta be careful here. He cannot
get involved here with what happens with playing decisions.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Adam Kaplan joining us, host of Inside the Birds at
Adam at Kaplan NFL on Twitter.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Let me ask you a question now, Adam.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
It's a little water under the bridge at this point,
but I am curious in your reporting. What was the
biggest or what was the reason for Shodor's fall? Was
it being misevaluated? Was it really bad interviews? We've heard
so much yours.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
Plugged in the true go ahead. Yeah, I mean, I'm
just going to tell you what I got. I got
three things not prepared for interviews. I would say that
like he was asked to do certain things, like what
happens is his interviews with quarterbacks. Okay, hey, listen, we're
gonna give you these plays. We're gonna run through them,
and we want you to come. We're gonna talk to
(25:57):
you later after you go through the playbook or the film.
You're gonna look at this iPad and we're going to
come back and bring you back in an hour and
he either didn't study or was indifferent, and that that's
just not right, and he seemed unprepared and didn't care.
And that was that was true, that that I talked
to the right people that that this isn't made up.
(26:17):
I don't do that stuff. And I when when the
stuff started to come out before the draft, I was like, Wow,
why is this coming out? Like what's how much is
the truth? And I just was surprised, Uh, people I
really trust.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (26:30):
The quarterback coach I've known forever said he was very
disappointed because he liked his tape. He said off tape,
he gave him a third round grade. And then when
they got him in their building or whoever the interviewed,
I don't know if it was a combine in their building,
just was not impressive and very disappointed with his attitude.
So that that stuff's real. To be honest with you, Wow,
that's uh, it is what it is.
Speaker 5 (26:52):
Yeah, But you know I was telling earlier, I was
saying that all of that doesn't matter. Now it's gone.
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Yeah, he's a preferred, but it does matter in this
case if he acts the same way from as he
did before the draft, then it matters. If it's he
takes it as a new beginning. That's behind me. I'm
a baller, I'm gonna prepare. I'm a quarterback. He takes
it the right way, then he's got a chance because
he's a very talented quarterback.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
And that's why I mean, that's what I mean by
it doesn't matter, because now you'll be graded on what
you do on the field, not.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
A preseason in the classroom.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
In the classroom, right, yeah, Well you're not gonna get
on the field if you don't do it in the classroom.
Speaker 6 (27:34):
They just knows as alignment that that ain't gonna work.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Yeah, they're not. We're not about to go out there,
just roll the dice.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
If you can't get it plays together in the classroom,
you won't be playing. And the fact that he is
starting today bodes well that he has a firm grasp
and understanding of the playbook. He's looked well, like you said,
eleven for eighteen, one hundred and three yards, two touchdowns,
four rushes and twenty yards. So for me, all of
(28:02):
the speeding tickets, of the batched interviews, the dropping in
the draft, it doesn't matter. What matters now is what
you put on tape. If you come out here and
you play well, you command the team, you lead the team,
all of that's forgotten because now when rero football is played.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
What you did to get here is it is? What
it is? What are you going to do to stay here?
Speaker 6 (28:27):
Yeah? I would agree. Now we'll see how he handles himself.
I'll find out what the tape looks like, because you know,
we're only seeing numbers here. I need to get a
better grasp of what it really looked like.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
But I was looking a good He missed some open throws,
but he scrambled. He hasn't looked rattled. He's you know,
not watching the plays at the line of scrimmage, no
fumble snaps all.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
So you know, for me, just watching the first half,
and I'm not sure he'll play in the second half.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
It's it's I'm I'm pleased with what with what he did.
Speaker 6 (29:05):
Because by the way, and they don't have a future quarterback,
so this this is very important. They have no idea.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
We said there, they don't have a quarterback.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
They have no idea.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Oh they had six on the roster and no starting quarterback.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
Watson the forest transaction in NFL history, right, that's and
I mean it is it's it's the worst move I've seen.
And it's funny thing is he would have been an Eagle.
I feel strongly had he wanted to be an Eagle.
But that's another that's a that's a thirty for thirty.
They were the Eagles pursued. I mean they were really
in again and trying to get Watson, but you know,
just they didn't go far enough. But Cleveland now has
(29:38):
got to figure it out. But you know, they have
an interesting roster. That they have a good roster. People
don't realize that because they were so bad last season.
But it's been about the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Adam Kaplan, host of Inside the Birds Are Fox Sports Radio,
NFL insider, Adam, we got to let you go real
quick where you headed to this week. I know you
said eight would you say eight teams?
Speaker 6 (29:56):
Yeah, if it all works out and whether you know
whether and what or the case may be. But I
got a joint. I got a night practice in Philly
at their stadium. They have one practice where the fans
get to go and they usually get forty or fifty thousand.
So that's at the Lincoln Financial Stadium Sunday night. And
then if all goes to all Washington and the Giants
Jets joint, Brown's Eagles joint, Bucks Steelers joint. And then
(30:23):
the following week. See, I go week by week. So
that's what I got for next week? Are you I drive?
This is a dry It's funny. I live in the
Philly area, so this is a driving trip. And then
the last the eighteenth or the twenty second, I'm hoping
to fly out west if all works out, I I do.
I'm not going to I'm not going to Henders. I'm
not going to Nevada because I refused to be in
that weather.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
But you did thirty straight days of one hundred degrees
in Houston.
Speaker 6 (30:47):
Yeah, I know, but I'd rather be you know where
I'd like to go is La. I'd see the Rams
and Elsagundo with the Choges.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
The judges. Adam Kappaman, we appreciate your time. Thank you
for your.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Time, and again follow Adam on Twitter at Kaplan NFL
and of course the hosted the Inside the Birds podcast.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
Thank you, Adam, appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
That was Adam Kaplan, host of Inside the Birds and
our Fox Sports Radio NFL Insider. Let's not waste any
more Time News desk Steve Desager, what is trending?
Speaker 9 (31:18):
We got three NFL exhibitions to update. Cleveland as the
halftime lead fourteen to seven at Carolina. Shador Sanders the
rookie starting tonight, eleven of eighteen, one hundred three yards,
two touchdowns. One of those was a short TD right
after Cleveland recovered a muff punt. It was Bryce Young
with a TD pass for the Panther, scoring New England
up twenty to three on Washington. In the second quarter,
(31:41):
the Patriots rookie Trevion Henderson returned the opening kickoff one
hundred yards for a touchdown. Drake May did have a
fumble as he was sacked. He only has twelve yards
passing in the first half, but he does have a
five yard touchdown run for the Pats.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
Halftime.
Speaker 9 (31:57):
At Atlanta, it's ten to seven Falcons over to Royd
Falcons with a fifty seven yard field goal and late
first half and Easton Stick touchdown pass. Stick the former
Charger preseason quarterback fifteen of eighteen through the air one
hundred and forty nine yards and the TD to Major
League Baseball. Houston still leads two nothing at the Yankees
(32:17):
in the bottom of the fifth on a two run
homer in the first from Jose Altuve Orioles over the
A's three to one bottom of the six. The Angels
have taken the lead at Detroit four to three, top
of the six, getting back to back homers off Trek Scooble,
who's out after allowing the four runs in four and
two third innings. Marlins lead five nothing at the Braves
(32:37):
bottom of the six. Reds a two to one leader
at Pittsburgh bottom of the seventh. It's the Guardian seven
to one at the White Sox top of the fourth.
Philadelphia star Kyle Schwarber with his forty first homer of
the season. The Phillies at Rangers game is tied one
to one in the second. Twins lead the Royals three
to one in the second. The Mets are up to
nothing after two at Milwaukee. Cub scoreless at Saint Louis,
(33:00):
bottom of the second in the NL Central, The Brewers
are first place, four games up on the Cubs. The
Celtics gave coach Joseph Missoula an extension the NBA's Christmas slate.
Five games should include Houston at the Lakers, Dallas at
Golden State. Three w NBA games tonight, including New York
up in the third quarter fifty two thirty eight at Dallas.
(33:24):
For Dallas, Page Beckers out with a bad back, and
for New York Breonna Stewart due to return in late
August from a bow and Bruce in her knee. Tommy
Fleetwood leads by four strokes in Memphis. Dustin Johnson tied
for the livegolf lead in Chicago with Sergio Garcia.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Beck to you, Thank you very much, Steve de Seger.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
This is the odd couple Fox Sports Radio er Torres
and E from salam In for Rob and Kevin. Tell
you what will come back when we do. We got
more to react to from Thursday night. From here on
Friday night, football is back and it feels so good.
Fox Sports are you?
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
That's right, everybody, This is the odd couple. Hour three
on a fucky flashback Friday.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Kelvin and Rob are out Ertorus E from salam are In.
The fellows will be back on Monday, so make sure
you're locked in. We're taking you till ten pm Eastern.
Jason Smith, Mike Harmon following us. And by the way,
if you miss any of today's show, not only can
you download the podcast, also make sure to check out
the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel. Just search Fox Sports
(34:42):
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and turn on all notifications so you have easy access
to our very best videos. That's right, click that bill
note of case. All right, so story of the night.
(35:05):
You know, it's funny from sometimes the content gods are
on our side because we we're planning on talking Shadoor
Sanders Cleveland Browns anyway to lead this hour because obviously,
of course that game the Cleveland Brown's playing the Carolina Panthers.
That game started at seven Eastern, so when we came
on air, it was just getting underway. Well, we are
(35:27):
now about midway through the third quarter. Shador Sanders is
still in still in eleven of nineteen, passing one hundred
and three yards two touchdowns. Cleveland Brown's up fourteen to seven.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
Listen you know, I'll say.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
This is you know, it kind of stinks on social media,
not that social media is a by, you know, a
reflection of anything. But you know, the people that thought
Shador was gonna be good, everybody's really happy. The people
that uh said he isn't gonna be good are saying
it's the preseason. It doesn't mean anything. You're a dude
who you had to earn your spot. I hope you
don't mind me saying it, but from my understanding, you
(36:04):
had to earn your spot in the preseason. So one,
I would love for you to tell the story of
how you did so in your rookie training camp, and
then two, what this performance means for Shador Sanders.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:17):
So ninety eight, I got drafted one hundred and ninety
ninth pick in the draft to the Atlanta Falcons. And
I was a left tackle coming out of San Diego State.
And when I got there, they had a perennial Pro
bowler and Bob Whitfield at the left tackle, and they
had about two other guys who had been in the
league and so on and so forth. So I was
(36:38):
about fourth on the depth chart. You know, she'd do
and I you know we're I think fifty four picks
apart from each other, so essentially we were in the
same position. And the thing that I knew that would
give me an advantage was learning the playbook immediately. So
(37:00):
all I did was just study the playbook. I didn't
want to go out, I don't want to do anything.
I just wanted to be prepared if I got an opportunity.
And Art Schell would call young players up to the
board and have them periodically draw plays to see if
they were grasping the offense. And so whenever I had
(37:20):
my chance to do that, I wouldn't just draw what
the offensive line did. I would draw what the running
backs did for the pass play. I would draw the
routes and the depth of the pocket, all of those things.
And it kind of made him look at me like,
huh okay. And so the first couple weeks in training camp,
I'm stuck over there in the log gem in left tackle.
(37:42):
Our right tackle gets hurt pulled is growing, so he
was out for some time, and so he moved me
over to second string right tackle. And what that did
was it gave me more reps and it gave me
more playing time in the preseason and so just doing
that battling in the preseason. I hadn't really played right tackle,
(38:04):
but I was figuring it out. And it came down
to the final preseason game when that starter was back
from injury. Cory Lucci, it was a free agent, came
over from Buffalo, and Art came over and sideline and said, Hey,
I think we're playing the Bengals that game. He said, hey,
e from Corey, Corey, You're going to start from You
(38:26):
play the second quarter, Corey, you play the third. E
From you play the fourth, and whoever plays the best
starts opening weekend. He said, right on the field, right there,
he put on the table what you were playing for,
(38:47):
so we wouldn't be confused. Wow, okay, he said, whoever
plays the best is our starter opening weekend next week.
Speaker 4 (38:57):
That was it.
Speaker 5 (38:59):
And so I remember watching that first Normally, when you're
not in you got your helmet off, you know, I
might help it on, and my chin strap, bucket and
my mouthpiece in the whole first quarter, and I was
just chomping at the bit to get an opportunity and
went out there and I literally put it all out there.
(39:21):
Had no idea how I played. I knew I played hard.
That next morning, we're going down. Our training camp was
in Swannye, Georgia, and we stayed at the Falcon Inn
and Swannye, Georgia. And I was coming down from the
(39:41):
hotel and Corey was walking up and I was like,
what up, Corey? And he just walked past who I think, No, no, no,
one got something to eat in the training room whatever.
And then we had a team meeting. They had made
final cuts to team meeting. So I'm sitting at a
team meeting and I'm in there and I'm like, oh, snap,
Corey went up to the room. I'm gonna go get
him because it's gonna be late for the meeting. And
(40:02):
when I got up, Art looked at me, it was
like come here. He was standing outside. He called me
and said, hey, look, uh we just cut Corey. Wow,
congratulations You started next week at Carolina. Tell you two things.
Don't be afraid to be successful and don't go out
there and beat down your leg. And I was like okay,
(40:26):
and going on the road my rookie year to Carolina
to play against Kevin Green, somebody I had been watching
for a decade plus destroy offensive linemen. I had a
tough opening game. I mean, I think I gave up
(40:48):
two sacks, but we won and Art I was sitting
in the locker and Art said, hey man, congratulations, you
want your first NFL game. And I was like okay,
and he was like, don't worry about you. Was se
him again. You'll see him in Atlanta. I had a
much better game against him when we played Atlanta. But
I started my career in that moment. That preseason game,
(41:10):
that fourth preseason game, was the moment where my career
could have taken off or it could have stayed sidelined.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
So the big theme to me is for anybody on
Twitter saying hey, yeah, that's preseason, it doesn't matter, your
response would be what it matters.
Speaker 5 (41:30):
It matters more than you know. Teams NFL rosters are
built in the preseason. They're not built in train they're
not built in OTAs or during the year. The roster
is built in preseason training camp. That's you go to
camp with ninety guys, only fifty three survive.
Speaker 7 (41:54):
They got six quarterbacks right now too, so you know,
you know.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
Some heads are rolling.
Speaker 5 (42:02):
All you can do is take each opportunity and give
every single thing you have to solidify a spot on
the opening day roster. That is the goal for a
late round draft pick, that is the goal. My first
initial goal going into training camp was I just want
(42:22):
to make the team. Then it became I just want
to be able to make the active roster. Then I
want to start right, and then you start going, I
end up. You know, well, obviously we won nineteen games,
eleven in a row, all the way up to the
(42:43):
Super Bowl. I was the youngest player to ever start
in the Super Bowl. I was the fourth rookie in
NFL history to start all nineteen games including the Super Bowl. Wow,
and I was I made the All Rookie Team. Me
Peyton Manning, Fred Taylor, Kyle Turley, my linemate from San
(43:03):
Diego State, Like, we all made the Rookie team right
from a seventh round draft pick. That's how Robert Edwards
like that. That's how serious training camp in preseason is. Oh,
it matters. It matters, brother. You don't get your opportunity.
(43:28):
You don't get a lot of chances. Of course, like
you literally like you. And because coach, it's a test.
Coaches want to see and Art told us that to
see how we would respond. That's the whole point. He
gave us that information to see how we'd respond. I'm
a twenty two year old rookie and I'm just trying
to figure it out. And I'm looking around like, all right, well,
(43:50):
this is an opportunity. I don't even play right tackle,
but I'm playing it now and I played it my
first four years in the league.
Speaker 4 (43:58):
An unbelievable story.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
Shors did just pick up yet another first down right
now as we speak, stats are obviously updating in real time,
but the Browns are up fourteen to seven in the
third quarter and again driving two touchdown passes for Shador,
And I'll tell you what you know, the pass game
has opened up the run game because just a big
(44:21):
chunk on the ground. So just your overall evaluation, what
does it mean now? Obviously we I think everybody expects
Joe Flacco to be the starting quarterback Week one, but
Dylan Gabriel's banged up, Kenny Picketts banged up. You know,
Shador needed an opportunity, He gets it. What does it
mean going forward for him?
Speaker 5 (44:41):
All right, Well, it means that he's positioned himself to compete.
We all know that they probably are going to start
Joe Flacco. But they don't have to. True, they don't
have to if you're if you're performing at a high
clip now, Shudu or will get more reps with the
(45:02):
ones coming up because starters will play in the next
preseason game. What are you doing is just chipping away.
You're just chipping away at that depth chart. You will
get more opportunities based on how you're playing right now.
And that's all you can That's all you can want
as a competitor. As a player, all you want is
(45:25):
an opportunity to compete. So all you us do is
keep going. This is gonna be a opportunity for a
third scoring drive and an opportunity for him to put
three touchdowns up on the board. That's huge and your
first outing and NFL action preseason or not, he doesn't
(45:45):
have three turnovers.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
I was just thinking that, yeah, right, well, well the
sack five times we've seen those games.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
Well, And it's funny because the people who are saying, oh,
this means nothing. If it was the opposite, if it
was zero turk tds to buy and ts.
Speaker 10 (46:01):
Yeah, I told you, I told you you are you
are one thousand, right, That's that's how they are Aaron,
they will.
Speaker 5 (46:15):
Change the narrative, switch it to whatever course fits their
point of view. Well, look, I told you couldn't play.
That's why he's a fifth round draft. He turned them
all over three times, three touchdowns.
Speaker 4 (46:28):
It's just preseason. Well sorry, nouga, when you say something else, no, no,
that's it.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
All I was gonna say was it has so far.
It is now late third quarter. He's still in the game,
so that's a great sign.
Speaker 4 (46:42):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (46:43):
Yeah, and it's gone about as well as it could have.
You know, I'll let you break down the film, you know,
in a more detailed way. I mean a misthrow early,
but it looks like hypothetically could be leading them on
another touchdown drive, as he has led the Cleveland Browns
on a third touchdown drive. They are now up twenty
to seven, extra point pending late in the third quarter. Listen,
(47:08):
I have no affiliation to him. I'm happy for him,
I told you off the top.
Speaker 9 (47:13):
You know.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
To me, I feel like he is being treated like
Bronni James, as if he is only in the NFL
because of who his father is. No disrespect to Brani
on the basketball side, but it's the truth. Shador was
the Big twelve Player of the Year, the Offensive player
of the Year. Last year, he threw thirty seven touchdowns.
He completed seventy four percent of his passes. If you
(47:35):
want to say there's holes in his game, stuff to
work on, that's every rookie from cam Ward on down.
But I just thought, and again, by the way, is
some of it self inflicted? Probably? We had Adam kaplan
on earlier that said that said he did not interview
well during the process. Okay, But to your point, all
(47:55):
you can ask for is a chance. He's gotten it
three touchdown drives. Now Brown's up twenty one to seven
with Shador with two touchdown passes.
Speaker 5 (48:02):
And I love the fact that he's playing the game. Yep,
He's playing the game. It's not a two series. And
you come out there. This is a huge sample size
for him coming in at halftime, make adjustments. How do
you come out of halftime? Like all of these things
are part of things that these teams need to know, yep,
(48:24):
that he can handle as a quarterback. Backed up, they
just drove down the field like all of those things.
Short yard is fourth down. They're one for two on
fourth down conversions. All of those things you want to
know about the guy who's going to be the signal
caller for you.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Well, even on the possession before he was backed up
basically on his own one yard line and took a
short pass just to make it easier to punt. I mean,
those are like the little things that you know he
could have tried to chuck it down field and pick
up the big play.
Speaker 4 (48:55):
It's like, no, man, it e's your first punter.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Flip the field that you know the defense gets a
stop now all of a sudden. So Schador has been fantastic.
To Ephram's point, you know, you can't say it means
nothing when the same people would have said that it
meant something if he wasn't playing. Well, you know, I'll
be gry Parker Okay, yeah, yeah, we did. Hear from
Rob Parker would.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
Be going crazy, right, I told you. I told you, Alex.
Speaker 3 (49:19):
You want to you want to bring up the Rob
Parker group text from just by the way.
Speaker 4 (49:24):
We love Rob. So if Rob here's this, after the
fact that I'm not criticizing Rob, I'm criticizing him. Go ahead, Alex.
Speaker 11 (49:31):
So apparently Rob has no sense of a vacation or
knowing how it's time to chill or enjoy himself for
maybe when he's at Magic City, get another serving of wings.
Don't worry about the games, he texted us in the
group chat, and I quote apparently sand has just won
the Super Bowl. Too much made out of a first
preseason game. I refuse to be a part of it.
(49:55):
Hashtag Tim Tebow two point zero.
Speaker 4 (50:00):
That's just a ridiculous take.
Speaker 5 (50:02):
Rock Parker's crazy, man, He's crazy because to your point, Aaron,
if Schaduor had instead of two touchdowns and three scoring drives,
if he had two turnovers and and you know, missed
opportunities and missing throws, that's all he would be talking about.
(50:26):
And I couldn't reply it was just preseason. It's just preseason, No, man,
this is how you make the team. Preseason is there
for a reason. It's therefore reason there would be no
Tom Brady without preseason.
Speaker 4 (50:42):
Great call, Russell Wilson. Yeah, Russell Wilson, Like, what are
we talking?
Speaker 2 (50:45):
No?
Speaker 4 (50:46):
It matters, It really matters, It really does.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
Shahdre Sanders Cleveland Brown's up twenty one to seven late
third quarter, two touchdown passes for Shador Sanders and a
third touchdown Drive just moments ago. This is the odd
couple of Fox Sports Radio. Kelvin and Rob will be
back on Monday, aratorus Ephrom salam In until ten pm
Eastern Time.
Speaker 4 (51:12):
When I come back.
Speaker 3 (51:13):
Actually, I do want to switch gears to an NBA story.
Steph Curry said something very interesting today and I actually
want your perspective as a big time NBA guy, Ephram.
We'll discuss Steph Curry's comments next Fox Sports for you
Hosts And Creators
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Rob Parker
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