August 8, 2025 • 14 mins
A selection of the best Kyle Brandt cuts from the Week of August 4th:
- Jared Allen's perfect HOF performance
- Belief in Cam Ward
- Jerry Jones' hobby
- The James Cook dilemma
- Level of McLaurin concern
- Ravens tough to talk about
- Most important Steelers staffer
- The Bears need different
- Shedeur Sanders first start
- The temperament of Jalen Hurts
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Ten Takes is a production of the NFL in partnership
with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I always think it interesting at these Hall of Fame
ceremonies when you see a player that you love, that
you grew up with, and they've changed dramatically since they're
playing days. Maybe they've changed physically, maybe they've mellowed out
in their later years. I always think that's interesting. Jared
Allen didn't do that at all. He showed up exactly
like you remember him, like you liked him, and with
all of the antics, all of the look. And here
(00:45):
he is doing the hog tie. This is at the
Jacket ceremony. Out there with his kids. Jared Awen split
his pants on stage. It's so perfect. I don't even
think he tried to, but he'd look at I'm right
down the seam of his pants.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
So awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I bet Jared bought those like it at Sears or
something like the day before, maybe even in Canton, Ohio
he bought those like at the Mini mall. His daughters
appear to love it. Everybody in the Allen family, and
that is like, I like how some guys change. I
like how some guys don't. And now that Jared Allen
is in football immortality. He'll return to that Jared Jacket
(01:20):
ceremony for decades to come. I hope he shows up
that way every single time. He's really at all time
or classic story fourth round pick, they becomes one of
the greatest pass rushes of all time and also has
a Hall of Fame SAX celebration with the hog tie.
I I've always loved everything about Jared Allen on the
field and now in football heaven nah, I mean, listen,
it's too early for us to compare him. It's not
(01:42):
too early for Brian Calla, and he has the PhD.
In these guys, he's the guy that you want to
hear from. This is totally credible. And let's remember Joe
Burrow as a rookie comes in twenty twenty COVID season,
very strange atmosphere. Come in his second career game in
the NFL. Joe Burrow threw sixty one passes. They threw
him right in there, and eventually he ended up getting injured.
(02:04):
His rookie, but he was the part Immediately. I just
want to say, like, I can see this happening already.
I can see already August fourth people coming around and
be like, oh wow, cam Ward is pretty good.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Save it.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I was on you guys at the draft. I was
on you guys after the draft. No one gives a
damn about cam Ward. You don't care about them. And
when they come out and they go one and oh
two and oh three, whoever, everyone's just gonna come sprinting
to the can Mored bandwagon and you're gonna get the
But Jesus stiff armed out of you by me and
the four other people in the United States of America
who actually cared about cam Ward when he was drafted.
(02:37):
So he can compare it with Joe Burrow, he can
compare it with Joe Montana. Just don't come running when
the season starts to be like we like cam Warden Now, nonsense.
You're obsessed with a fourth string Browns quarterback when you
should have been talking about the number one overall pick.
Don't come lately, should have been there from day one, Jerry.
If there's nothing to lose sleep about, then you're telling
(02:58):
me that Micah is going to get a new deal,
all right, So why wait then? Don't tell me there's
nothing to lose sleep about. Show me it's a homegrown player.
That you drafted at the right age, at the right position.
So why not just take care of it? And you
know why, not quite time yet. Let's let simmer for
a while. It's only August fourth. Let's let that sucker simmer. Guys,
this is Jerry Jones thirty seventh training camp as the
(03:20):
owner of the Cowboys thirty seventh. These billionaires get bored.
You can only go on so many jets and yachts,
you can only eat so much caviar. How do you
stay entertained and alive if you're someone like Jerry Jones.
Some of them get into gambling, some of them get
into politics. Jerry gets into contract standoffs.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
This is his thing.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
This is his hobby, this is his polo, this is
his pickleball. And by the way, it's not a bad
philosophy either. Let's get all the heat and all the
hoopla at the beginning of this season, because we're not
going to get it at the end of the season.
And we know that teams want to win the Super
Bowl in February. This team wants to win the media
(04:03):
in Augus. In fact, like it's almost these these contracts
standoffs and hold on.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
It's almost like in this.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Era, they have become the Cowboys super Bowls. This is
now their super Bowl because whether the player gets a
lot of money or the team feels like it gets
a better deal, it doesn't matter. The Cowboys still win
because they live in a currency of clicks. Hang a banner,
another championship. They won the Ceedee Lamb Super Bowl. Hang
a banner, the Dak Prescott super Bowl, Hang the banner
(04:32):
anybody you want, Zak Martin, anybody across they are super Bowls.
I am old enough to remember when they won the
MTS Smith's Super Bowl and he took him to overtime.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
It's become this thing where Jerry likes this. I fully
believe it. It's early talk about us? Why not? Time was?
How about them Cowboys?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Was a victory rally call and a rhetorical question in
a Super Bowl locker room. Now how about them Cowboys
is an actual question that talk show hosts pose at
the beginning of a blocks and that's exactly how their
owner likes it. So congratulations, Jerry, thank you for executive
producing this segment.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
It's a heart versus head thing.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You know, if you're a fan, your heart says, oh yeah,
he's great Jimbo, and he scored a bunch of touchdowns
last year and he had an incredible touchdown in the
title game against the Chiefs. He's amazing, your head says,
it is a little more complicated than that.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I understand where he's coming from. James fit. This is
the one shot he will get at this.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
This is the one time when he is at this
point in his career, this age, coming off that season
scoring that many touchdowns, where he feels like it's time
for my deal, that he has to.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Go in on this.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
But there's also a test of can you close your
eyes right now and picture the Buffalo Bills Josh Allen
offense without James Cook And sadly for me, I think
the answer is yes. And are they still winning games?
And I think the answer is yes. He is a luxury.
He's a very talented player that has again his homegrown
(05:59):
But as we've said many times, he's in the wrong era.
This was two thousand and five, he would have had
a huge deal ready, it would have been no big deal.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
But I think big baller being.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Is looking at some of the stuff you guys mentioned,
the percentage of the time he's on the field, the
time when he was off the field. How did we
run the ball and we have this player of mass
destruction at quarterback?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Right or wrong? I don't think it's.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Prudent for us to spend huge dollars on this running back,
and so heart versus head. I like James Cook as
a player and a person, but I definitely understand the
other side of this. When you get to the requesting
a trade level, that's pretty significant. That's not I'm unhappy,
that's not I'm unfollowing you on Instagram like that is
legitimately concerning. The next step after requesting a trade is
(06:44):
demanding a trade.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Then we go up to like ten or.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Eleven the reasons that the other things that have yet
to come with Terry are. I'm concerned when they're not there.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I don't know where they are.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
They're on some beach or some facilities, somewhere out of sight.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Out of mind. I don't like that.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I don't like when they make declarative statements on social media.
I don't like any of that. I like when the teammates. Sometimes, guys,
we're hearing Jaden and dan Quinn talk about how much
they love Terry. Sometimes it gets to the point where
they start chirping Terry a little bit, like, you know,
we really would like to have him here, and you
know we've seen all that stuff. That's why it's not
up at A ten or eleven. The number one reason
why I only have it at an eight point five.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Is it's August fourth. It's August fourth.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
It's August fourth, and they have play play the Giants
in the opener in about five weeks. So we will
double back on this. We'll probably quadruple back on this,
but right now I have it at eight point five.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I find the Ravens very difficult.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
To talk about because it all just comes to the
same answer every time, especially this year. You know, the
Ravens didn't make dramatic moves in the offseason because they
didn't need to, and they shouldn't make dramatic moves. They
have the coach, they have the players, they have the roster,
they have the quarterback. It's just can they make enough
plays in that game in the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
That's all it is.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's all it was last year, it's all it's going
to be next year. I see Bills and Bengals and Chiefs,
and it's we know these guys are going to fight
at the end of the It's like you want to
just fast forward to the end.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
You understand.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
It's like Frank Dukes is gonna fight Shong Lee and
the championshiprown of the turn of the Kumite. Let's just
get there. We know that the Ravens are gonna be
very good this year. Their defense is gonna be good,
their offense is gonna be good, just like last year,
just like next year. Now some teams they're more more
interesting and more mysterious. I don't know if the Steelers
are gonna be good this year. I'm not really sure.
I don't know if the Bears are gonna be good
this year. I know the Ravens are gonna be good.
(08:29):
You know they're gonna be good, probably great. It's just
one of these teams where I don't really need to
know anything else. I know it's what we do, and
we get into the minutia of their defense and their schemes,
and that's wonderful, and that's football.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
The net sum of.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
All of it is, will you make enough plays to
beat the Bills, Chiefs, Bengals.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Usually they don't, so this year will it be different?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
I don't know, But it's like they are one of four.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
See you in January. Teams.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I can't wait for it, But in the meantime it's
difficult to talk about just because that's the only answer
anyone's interested. I think the obvious answer is the guy
holding the reins. I think it's Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator.
This is an interesting thing here. He has a guy
who is forty three, his quarterback is forty one. They're
from the same era, the same age, Like, what is
that marriage like? Because I pointed this out last week,
(09:15):
Aaron Rodgers has never done this before, meaning he has
never gone to a new team and gone with an
offensive coordinat that he has no history with.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
When he went to the Jets, it.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Was this guy, Nate Hackett, who had a lot of
history with He was curated specifically for Rogers. This is
just Arthur Smith was the guy the Steelers chose well
before Rogers was part of the team, and then Rogers
becomes part of the team and they just have to
make it work. It's not picked, it's not selected, it's
not filtered for Rogers nor Rogers. With Arthur Smith, I
don't think they really knew each other very well. So
(09:44):
I don't know how it's going to work, because if
it's not working. Rogers is different than a lot of
quarterbacks in the sense that there's this whole thing about
him changing plays in line of scrimmage him audibly, and
that came up with his relationship with Robert Sala and
the Jets. He is not just your typical I'm out
of college and I'm twenty four and I'll do whatever
you say. In a lot of ways, he is the coach.
So I don't know how that mayrit is gonna work.
(10:05):
I don't know what happens if it's not working. It's
just that's a fascinating one. Tomlin and Rogers fine, But
Arthur Smith with the headset calling plays for a guy
in his twenty first season who knows everything about the game,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Sometimes the plays get called.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Back to you, we'll see I'm excited as hell, but
I need something that's gonna be different. We've seen new
head coaches, we've seen new quarterbacks, we've seen it all.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
We haven't really seen any new results.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So you try to look for something truly different about
what's going on with the Bears, and you try to
look for it from the people who know the best.
Yesterday afternoon, there was this exciting thing that happened where
fireworks started going off online, and if you follow Bears
beat writers and Bears social reporters and just people whose
lives and careers are dedicated to covering the Chicago Bears,
(10:49):
it was just a flurry. I don't think I can
recall Bears training came practice quite like today. Physical live tackling.
They even tackled during seven on seven.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
That's just one. They just kept coming.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
The Bears just finished the most physical practice I've ever
seen in my life. That's Patrick Finley just wrapped up
a two hour, two minute Practice's most physical in terms
of live hitting I've seen since the Lovey era.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
That's twelve years ago, since love Smith's been there.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I don't know in my ten years of carving the NFL,
I've seen as much live tackling in a practice that
we witnessed today.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
This is four or five of fifty.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
And everyone was losing their minds about Ben Johnson camp
and how much they were popping pads.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yesterday.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
That's different, that is wildly different. We just heard Lovey
Smith's name. I was at those Matt Ebrafluse camps. I've
been to them. It wasn't that. He is not Ben Johnson.
If you're looking for someone who set a tone, culture
or all those buzzwords, we like, that's.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
The kind of thing you want to see.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You want to see Ben Johnson riding Caleb who gets
accused of being soft and too emotional and coddled, not
by this coach, this coach And the other thing I
don't like hearing about Ben Johnson is this idea that well,
he's kind of this like lab rat, mad scientist who
comes up with wacky fake plays and trick plays. Did
you watch the Lions run the ball last year or
the year before? They ran the hell out of the ball,
(12:04):
talking about North and South knocking heads, winning angry run
scepters every single other week.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
That is that guy too.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So listen last year's Bears head coach, God bless him.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
He was ned Flanders.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
This guy is an SOB in the best possible way.
I mean, he really really has an edge on him.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Don't forget.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
He shows up to Hellas Hall with his family and
his opening remarks calls out the Packers head coach, a
man with whom he is not friends with this is
the kind of guy you want. And then you know
what the players responded to the practice with yesterday, all
this hitt and haven't done this in a decade. They
come out and say, I hope we do this every day.
I love it more more. They have an opening game
and prime time against the division rival in the Minnesota Vikings,
(12:46):
And if you want something different from the Bears, we're
seeing it already.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, it's exciting. I want to watch this. You want
to watch this.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Whatever he does, it's going to be amplified times a
thousand if it's really good.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
If it's really bad, I mean, we're going to.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Scrutinize Shador Sanders throws in this preseason game more than
Jalen Hurts throws in the super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
We're gonna see more of that. That's just how it
works right now.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
And you know what I like about it.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
It's real football.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
It's not like he's a four string quarterback and a
late round draft pick. He's starting the game. We don't
know how long he's playing. He can play a half,
he can play a quarter, you can play three quarters.
Like it's actually a really cool opportunity for shaduur never
mind the fact that his name is Sanders. He's a
fifth round pick who gets to start a football game.
He can impress, he can show off, he can make
it all about football, not about.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Media or his dad or anything like.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Just go out there and play really good football, who
your champions always insist you can do. I can't think
of a preseason game in a long time that I've
been more interested to see how the player plays than this.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
One I'll be watching.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Jalen Hurts has what people point to in media, specifically radio.
It's something called brevity of words, where you can or
economy of words, where you can make a point with
the fewest words possible. It's a skill that I don't have,
but he really does. He's so measured in every word
when things are going well, when things are going bad,
and you know what, there's people out there that's like, man,
I wish Jalen Hurts and talk more like a normal person.
(14:06):
Well he's not a normal person. Then he doesn't have
a normal job. He goes through a lot of crap
at that position for that team in that town, and
he has the temperament for it. You can't ask him
to be a vaudeville act and then switch it off.
He's like that all the time, and I appreciate his
commitment to it.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Ten Takes is a production of the NFL in partnership
with iHeartRadio. For more iHeartRadio pods, go to the iHeartRadio app,
go to Apple, go anywhere you like, it'll be there.
Ten Takes is a production of the NFL in partnership
with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I always think it interesting at these Hall of Fame
ceremonies when you see a player that you love, that
you grew up with, and they've changed dramatically since they're
playing days. Maybe they've changed physically, maybe they've mellowed out
in their later years. I always think that's interesting. Jared
Allen didn't do that at all. He showed up exactly
like you remember him, like you liked him, and with
all of the antics, all of the look. And here
(00:45):
he is doing the hog tie. This is at the
Jacket ceremony. Out there with his kids. Jared Awen split
his pants on stage. It's so perfect. I don't even
think he tried to, but he'd look at I'm right
down the seam of his pants.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
So awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I bet Jared bought those like it at Sears or
something like the day before, maybe even in Canton, Ohio
he bought those like at the Mini mall. His daughters
appear to love it. Everybody in the Allen family, and
that is like, I like how some guys change. I
like how some guys don't. And now that Jared Allen
is in football immortality. He'll return to that Jared Jacket
(01:20):
ceremony for decades to come. I hope he shows up
that way every single time. He's really at all time
or classic story fourth round pick, they becomes one of
the greatest pass rushes of all time and also has
a Hall of Fame SAX celebration with the hog tie.
I I've always loved everything about Jared Allen on the
field and now in football heaven nah, I mean, listen,
it's too early for us to compare him. It's not
(01:42):
too early for Brian Calla, and he has the PhD.
In these guys, he's the guy that you want to
hear from. This is totally credible. And let's remember Joe
Burrow as a rookie comes in twenty twenty COVID season,
very strange atmosphere. Come in his second career game in
the NFL. Joe Burrow threw sixty one passes. They threw
him right in there, and eventually he ended up getting injured.
(02:04):
His rookie, but he was the part Immediately. I just
want to say, like, I can see this happening already.
I can see already August fourth people coming around and
be like, oh wow, cam Ward is pretty good.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Save it.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I was on you guys at the draft. I was
on you guys after the draft. No one gives a
damn about cam Ward. You don't care about them. And
when they come out and they go one and oh
two and oh three, whoever, everyone's just gonna come sprinting
to the can Mored bandwagon and you're gonna get the
But Jesus stiff armed out of you by me and
the four other people in the United States of America
who actually cared about cam Ward when he was drafted.
(02:37):
So he can compare it with Joe Burrow, he can
compare it with Joe Montana. Just don't come running when
the season starts to be like we like cam Warden Now, nonsense.
You're obsessed with a fourth string Browns quarterback when you
should have been talking about the number one overall pick.
Don't come lately, should have been there from day one, Jerry.
If there's nothing to lose sleep about, then you're telling
(02:58):
me that Micah is going to get a new deal,
all right, So why wait then? Don't tell me there's
nothing to lose sleep about. Show me it's a homegrown player.
That you drafted at the right age, at the right position.
So why not just take care of it? And you
know why, not quite time yet. Let's let simmer for
a while. It's only August fourth. Let's let that sucker simmer. Guys,
this is Jerry Jones thirty seventh training camp as the
(03:20):
owner of the Cowboys thirty seventh. These billionaires get bored.
You can only go on so many jets and yachts,
you can only eat so much caviar. How do you
stay entertained and alive if you're someone like Jerry Jones.
Some of them get into gambling, some of them get
into politics. Jerry gets into contract standoffs.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
This is his thing.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
This is his hobby, this is his polo, this is
his pickleball. And by the way, it's not a bad
philosophy either. Let's get all the heat and all the
hoopla at the beginning of this season, because we're not
going to get it at the end of the season.
And we know that teams want to win the Super
Bowl in February. This team wants to win the media
(04:03):
in Augus. In fact, like it's almost these these contracts
standoffs and hold on.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
It's almost like in this.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Era, they have become the Cowboys super Bowls. This is
now their super Bowl because whether the player gets a
lot of money or the team feels like it gets
a better deal, it doesn't matter. The Cowboys still win
because they live in a currency of clicks. Hang a banner,
another championship. They won the Ceedee Lamb Super Bowl. Hang
a banner, the Dak Prescott super Bowl, Hang the banner
(04:32):
anybody you want, Zak Martin, anybody across they are super Bowls.
I am old enough to remember when they won the
MTS Smith's Super Bowl and he took him to overtime.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
It's become this thing where Jerry likes this. I fully
believe it. It's early talk about us? Why not? Time was?
How about them Cowboys?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Was a victory rally call and a rhetorical question in
a Super Bowl locker room. Now how about them Cowboys
is an actual question that talk show hosts pose at
the beginning of a blocks and that's exactly how their
owner likes it. So congratulations, Jerry, thank you for executive
producing this segment.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
It's a heart versus head thing.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You know, if you're a fan, your heart says, oh yeah,
he's great Jimbo, and he scored a bunch of touchdowns
last year and he had an incredible touchdown in the
title game against the Chiefs. He's amazing, your head says,
it is a little more complicated than that.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I understand where he's coming from. James fit. This is
the one shot he will get at this.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
This is the one time when he is at this
point in his career, this age, coming off that season
scoring that many touchdowns, where he feels like it's time
for my deal, that he has to.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Go in on this.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
But there's also a test of can you close your
eyes right now and picture the Buffalo Bills Josh Allen
offense without James Cook And sadly for me, I think
the answer is yes. And are they still winning games?
And I think the answer is yes. He is a luxury.
He's a very talented player that has again his homegrown
(05:59):
But as we've said many times, he's in the wrong era.
This was two thousand and five, he would have had
a huge deal ready, it would have been no big deal.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
But I think big baller being.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Is looking at some of the stuff you guys mentioned,
the percentage of the time he's on the field, the
time when he was off the field. How did we
run the ball and we have this player of mass
destruction at quarterback?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Right or wrong? I don't think it's.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Prudent for us to spend huge dollars on this running back,
and so heart versus head. I like James Cook as
a player and a person, but I definitely understand the
other side of this. When you get to the requesting
a trade level, that's pretty significant. That's not I'm unhappy,
that's not I'm unfollowing you on Instagram like that is
legitimately concerning. The next step after requesting a trade is
(06:44):
demanding a trade.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Then we go up to like ten or.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Eleven the reasons that the other things that have yet
to come with Terry are. I'm concerned when they're not there.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I don't know where they are.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
They're on some beach or some facilities, somewhere out of sight.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Out of mind. I don't like that.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I don't like when they make declarative statements on social media.
I don't like any of that. I like when the teammates. Sometimes, guys,
we're hearing Jaden and dan Quinn talk about how much
they love Terry. Sometimes it gets to the point where
they start chirping Terry a little bit, like, you know,
we really would like to have him here, and you
know we've seen all that stuff. That's why it's not
up at A ten or eleven. The number one reason
why I only have it at an eight point five.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Is it's August fourth. It's August fourth.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
It's August fourth, and they have play play the Giants
in the opener in about five weeks. So we will
double back on this. We'll probably quadruple back on this,
but right now I have it at eight point five.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I find the Ravens very difficult.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
To talk about because it all just comes to the
same answer every time, especially this year. You know, the
Ravens didn't make dramatic moves in the offseason because they
didn't need to, and they shouldn't make dramatic moves. They
have the coach, they have the players, they have the roster,
they have the quarterback. It's just can they make enough
plays in that game in the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
That's all it is.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's all it was last year, it's all it's going
to be next year. I see Bills and Bengals and Chiefs,
and it's we know these guys are going to fight
at the end of the It's like you want to
just fast forward to the end.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
You understand.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
It's like Frank Dukes is gonna fight Shong Lee and
the championshiprown of the turn of the Kumite. Let's just
get there. We know that the Ravens are gonna be
very good this year. Their defense is gonna be good,
their offense is gonna be good, just like last year,
just like next year. Now some teams they're more more
interesting and more mysterious. I don't know if the Steelers
are gonna be good this year. I'm not really sure.
I don't know if the Bears are gonna be good
this year. I know the Ravens are gonna be good.
(08:29):
You know they're gonna be good, probably great. It's just
one of these teams where I don't really need to
know anything else. I know it's what we do, and
we get into the minutia of their defense and their schemes,
and that's wonderful, and that's football.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
The net sum of.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
All of it is, will you make enough plays to
beat the Bills, Chiefs, Bengals.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Usually they don't, so this year will it be different?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
I don't know, But it's like they are one of four.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
See you in January. Teams.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I can't wait for it, But in the meantime it's
difficult to talk about just because that's the only answer
anyone's interested. I think the obvious answer is the guy
holding the reins. I think it's Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator.
This is an interesting thing here. He has a guy
who is forty three, his quarterback is forty one. They're
from the same era, the same age, Like, what is
that marriage like? Because I pointed this out last week,
(09:15):
Aaron Rodgers has never done this before, meaning he has
never gone to a new team and gone with an
offensive coordinat that he has no history with.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
When he went to the Jets, it.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Was this guy, Nate Hackett, who had a lot of
history with He was curated specifically for Rogers. This is
just Arthur Smith was the guy the Steelers chose well
before Rogers was part of the team, and then Rogers
becomes part of the team and they just have to
make it work. It's not picked, it's not selected, it's
not filtered for Rogers nor Rogers. With Arthur Smith, I
don't think they really knew each other very well. So
(09:44):
I don't know how it's going to work, because if
it's not working. Rogers is different than a lot of
quarterbacks in the sense that there's this whole thing about
him changing plays in line of scrimmage him audibly, and
that came up with his relationship with Robert Sala and
the Jets. He is not just your typical I'm out
of college and I'm twenty four and I'll do whatever
you say. In a lot of ways, he is the coach.
So I don't know how that mayrit is gonna work.
(10:05):
I don't know what happens if it's not working. It's
just that's a fascinating one. Tomlin and Rogers fine, But
Arthur Smith with the headset calling plays for a guy
in his twenty first season who knows everything about the game,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Sometimes the plays get called.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Back to you, we'll see I'm excited as hell, but
I need something that's gonna be different. We've seen new
head coaches, we've seen new quarterbacks, we've seen it all.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
We haven't really seen any new results.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So you try to look for something truly different about
what's going on with the Bears, and you try to
look for it from the people who know the best.
Yesterday afternoon, there was this exciting thing that happened where
fireworks started going off online, and if you follow Bears
beat writers and Bears social reporters and just people whose
lives and careers are dedicated to covering the Chicago Bears,
(10:49):
it was just a flurry. I don't think I can
recall Bears training came practice quite like today. Physical live tackling.
They even tackled during seven on seven.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
That's just one. They just kept coming.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
The Bears just finished the most physical practice I've ever
seen in my life. That's Patrick Finley just wrapped up
a two hour, two minute Practice's most physical in terms
of live hitting I've seen since the Lovey era.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
That's twelve years ago, since love Smith's been there.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I don't know in my ten years of carving the NFL,
I've seen as much live tackling in a practice that
we witnessed today.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
This is four or five of fifty.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
And everyone was losing their minds about Ben Johnson camp
and how much they were popping pads.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yesterday.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
That's different, that is wildly different. We just heard Lovey
Smith's name. I was at those Matt Ebrafluse camps. I've
been to them. It wasn't that. He is not Ben Johnson.
If you're looking for someone who set a tone, culture
or all those buzzwords, we like, that's.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
The kind of thing you want to see.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You want to see Ben Johnson riding Caleb who gets
accused of being soft and too emotional and coddled, not
by this coach, this coach And the other thing I
don't like hearing about Ben Johnson is this idea that well,
he's kind of this like lab rat, mad scientist who
comes up with wacky fake plays and trick plays. Did
you watch the Lions run the ball last year or
the year before? They ran the hell out of the ball,
(12:04):
talking about North and South knocking heads, winning angry run
scepters every single other week.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
That is that guy too.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So listen last year's Bears head coach, God bless him.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
He was ned Flanders.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
This guy is an SOB in the best possible way.
I mean, he really really has an edge on him.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Don't forget.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
He shows up to Hellas Hall with his family and
his opening remarks calls out the Packers head coach, a
man with whom he is not friends with this is
the kind of guy you want. And then you know
what the players responded to the practice with yesterday, all
this hitt and haven't done this in a decade. They
come out and say, I hope we do this every day.
I love it more more. They have an opening game
and prime time against the division rival in the Minnesota Vikings,
(12:46):
And if you want something different from the Bears, we're
seeing it already.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, it's exciting. I want to watch this. You want
to watch this.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Whatever he does, it's going to be amplified times a
thousand if it's really good.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
If it's really bad, I mean, we're going to.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Scrutinize Shador Sanders throws in this preseason game more than
Jalen Hurts throws in the super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
We're gonna see more of that. That's just how it
works right now.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
And you know what I like about it.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
It's real football.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
It's not like he's a four string quarterback and a
late round draft pick. He's starting the game. We don't
know how long he's playing. He can play a half,
he can play a quarter, you can play three quarters.
Like it's actually a really cool opportunity for shaduur never
mind the fact that his name is Sanders. He's a
fifth round pick who gets to start a football game.
He can impress, he can show off, he can make
it all about football, not about.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Media or his dad or anything like.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Just go out there and play really good football, who
your champions always insist you can do. I can't think
of a preseason game in a long time that I've
been more interested to see how the player plays than this.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
One I'll be watching.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Jalen Hurts has what people point to in media, specifically radio.
It's something called brevity of words, where you can or
economy of words, where you can make a point with
the fewest words possible. It's a skill that I don't have,
but he really does. He's so measured in every word
when things are going well, when things are going bad,
and you know what, there's people out there that's like, man,
I wish Jalen Hurts and talk more like a normal person.
(14:06):
Well he's not a normal person. Then he doesn't have
a normal job. He goes through a lot of crap
at that position for that team in that town, and
he has the temperament for it. You can't ask him
to be a vaudeville act and then switch it off.
He's like that all the time, and I appreciate his
commitment to it.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Ten Takes is a production of the NFL in partnership
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Hosts And Creators
Jamie Erdahl
Jason McCourty
Kyle Brandt
Peter Schrager
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