Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now move the sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks.
What's up, everybody? Welcome to move the six? DJ Buck
with you, Buck?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is going on? Man? None?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
DJ Man, And I guess this is a very exciting
time in football because we're in the thick of the
college football season, got the NFL coming to the midpoint,
trade deadline is.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
About the pop, so there's a lot of stuff going on.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
So I feel like we're beginning to see the best
ball that we're going to see now that people are
kind of settling in and kind of get into their routines,
particularly the NFL loove.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, no, it's kind of everything's settling down. I told
you I've got my video coming here to jump on
the college guys because there's now enough, there's enough out
there that you can get some homework done. You're gonna
start on those offensive linemen, start working through those guys,
and then we're off and running. Man, I'm fascinated by this,
like this class. I'm fascinated by how the conversation started
(00:54):
about the quarterbacks and how it's going to finish.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
And I think it's always fun.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
And when we get to March in April, when we
had the paths of the draft and we're running up
and we were talking about these guys.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
It will be interesting to look at the notebooks from
the summer and the notebooks from the spring, because I
believe there's gonna be a completely different set of names
that we talked about that we didn't talk about it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Can I hit that real quick, because that's a great point,
and I wanted to give you my thoughts on it
and see if we're on the same page. In years past,
if you had the year like you were coming into
the year, say you were a junior and you were
expected to be a first round pick or there was
a lot of buzz and a lot of hype on
you and it didn't go your way, well, the agents
would still get you with, hey, look there's a chance
(01:37):
you go back and you end up with the same performance.
Your stock gets even lower, like right now, maybe your
third round pick, fourth round pick, but you'll start the clock.
You're gonna get paid, and then it gets you closer
to your second contract.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
That's to me was the sales pitch. Well, now, man,
there's tons of money in college. We've seen over the
last you know, five years, the guys who've come in
and had success or guys who played a ton of ball.
So it's only going to help you to get all
those reps with the to be honest, with the less
stressful reps than at the NFL level, where as soon
(02:11):
as you get on the field, it feels like the
clocks ticking on your judgment. So I'm hoping and we'll
see once we get to the spring, and hopefully these
guys finish up strong. But there's a lot of these
guys that do have some eligibility left. I hope they
take advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I look, I think they should.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I think they should max out their opportunities, particularly particularly
at the collegiate level, when it's been proven the more
you play at the college level, the more likely you
play better at the NFL level, And we have a
bunch of examples.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
That illustrate that right now with the young quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I think it's gonna be interesting when we talk about
the quarterbacks, like you look at a Carson back situation
where he has been around for a long time and
now he's playing in Miami, have to being at Georgia
and the time on task and how they may benefit
him when people start looking at him in those things.
I just think there's so many benefits for that position,
in particular where they are getting paid top of the
(03:06):
market money in college to stay there, unless you really have.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
To make that jump.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
To me, I think it's beneficial because I'm getting paid well,
I'm getting paid, and I can get the reps, and
it's been proven that I could get more reps in college,
I'm performed better in the NFL and potentially avoid a
bad situation at the top of the charts.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Why wouldn't you explore that if you have that available
to you. Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
So we'll see how these guys finish up and what
they decide they want to do when we get to
that point, Buck, I did a little project, two little projects,
and I wanted to get you on. The first one
was we've talked about Travis Hunter, you know, a good
bit on here, but I hadn't taken the time to
like really jump in on them and ahead of ahead
of your game. This weekend I went through and watched
(03:50):
all of his targets and was trying to see, you know,
what can they do, like, how can they how can
they unlock him a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So I'll give you a couple of my findings on that.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
And then I love, as someone who's around it day
in and day out and every single week, I love
to hear what your your formula would be for how
you'd want to approach it going forward. But so let's
just look at the numbers right now. He's got twenty
one catches for one hundred and ninety eight yards going
through PFF on thirty five targets. One of the unusual
nuggets I looked at, and I don't know on some
of these. Sometimes on PFF there could be penalties and
(04:20):
things could be called back. But based off just watching
all the targets, I had four picks. I had Trevor
Lawrence with four interceptions on balls and intended for Travis Hunter.
So I mean there's been some there's been some force
feeding there at times when it hasn't necessarily been there,
and it's got him in a little bit of trouble.
That was one of the things that stood out. A
(04:41):
ton of quick hitters, a ton of quick screens, hitches, flats,
a little bit of option routes, shallows, a couple overs,
but the one, you know, the seam ball was you know,
he made a big time play down the scene on
one and then like another d on a deep over.
I think can't City game. We had a big play,
But you know what I did not see on there,
(05:03):
which I was a little surprised. I think he's one
of the best, like fifty to fifty go ball guys
that we've seen over the last few years. You saw
that at Colorado a lot like outside Chador just giving
him a chance. I think to the North Dakota State
game in particular, him just mossing a guy down the field.
And I won't going through all the targets, but I
didn't see any. I didn't see any outside vertical shots
with him at all.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
No, So it's kind of funny because I believe there
are a lot of things that are working at one time.
Lin Poyn, first time head coach, play caller with Trevor
Lawrence trying to do all of this, and to me,
when I look at this offense, it reminds me of
the twenty eighteen version of The Rams where you're trying
to repair Jared Goff.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You're trying to put it together.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
But the one thing that the Ram said is they
had Tyd Gurley that they could lean on early until
they could solve all the issues with the passing game. Now,
what you're trying to do is get Trevor Lawrence up
and going comfortable, trying to figure out, Okay, Brian Thomas Junior,
he's my number one. Is Travis hunumber two? The pecking
order in those things, but it's also looking at what
(06:03):
do each of these players do really well. It's one
thing to establish the pecking order. It's another thing to
now put a plan that features routes that play to
the skill set of each player. Early on, there was
a conversation in the building that maybe Travis Hunter is
more like a Justin Jefferson type in this offense, and
they had done the numbers. If you look at Justin
(06:24):
Jefferson's numbers last year, he had eighteen percent of his routes.
We're inbreaking routes. Travis Hunting to me because in my aspension,
he's the best ball catcher on the team. He catches
the ball in traffic without plinching, no issue or whatever.
To me, you've seen all those quick hitters, those five
yard ends. I think they need to expand it where
(06:46):
he becomes the dig runner, he becomes the deep overrunner.
He does the dirty work in the middle. And I
know people talk about his size, but DJ you see
it in the tape. There are two things that he
does really well. He catches the ball and when he
gets the ball in his hands, it is rare that
the first guy tackles him. He has unbelievable stop start
(07:07):
quickness and just awareness and feel and he hasn't taken
a shot. To me, I think not that you reset
the pecking ward and make him the number one receiver,
but I do believe there's a world in which the
Jaguars can live where there's a one A, one B
situation with him and Brian Thomas Judy.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah, you bring up a good point. He does do
a good job on that stuff. It just hasn't been
given opportunities really to do much of it. That's why
to me that seam ball was impressive. But I just
I just feel like, man, let's let's try and get
him some one on ones and let's let him go
play above the rim. The guy's got unbelievable leaping ability
and ball skills down the field.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
He does it all the time. The Cats versus Kansas City.
But when he reaches over the guy and puts it
like that's like it's more like find more and really
is I think Trevor getting comfortable with knowing that if
he's covered, he's open.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Like I said, there's been four picks, but those four
picks were kind of like underthrown and like some of
it is you know, I don't think he's you talk
about Justin Jefferson, like, I don't think he's you know,
he doesn't have the polish as a wide out to
be like you see him running comebacks the corners got
outside leverage and he's trying to lean him inside.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Well you've got to get to him. You got to
get to him before you do that.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
And so he just kind of opens the door for
him to make Yeah, you got to get upon his
toes and all that. So I don't think there's that
that type of policy. I'm like, I'm looking for athlete throws,
like just be an athlete, go get it. The other
thing is what I well, I was kind of surprised
I thought we would see is like there's no like
orbit motion with him. I don't know what, you know,
I always called those little escort screens where you gotta
get kind of the tight end out and then him
(08:42):
out there with the lead blocker.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
A lot of it is just quick.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
He's just one on one, you know, just got to
make that guy miss and do something with it. I'm like, man,
I think you could give him a little blocker out
there too and let him do it that way.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, I think there's there's so much meat on the bone.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
And you know, it's funny, right because you have these
weapons and toys that you're trying to figure out to play.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I feel like it's Christmas Day and you try to
figure Okay, I got the quarterback. Who Oh, he might
be more athletic than I thought. He can run a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Oh where is he at when it comes to pushing
the ball down the field after we give him so
much at the line of scrimmage?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Oh, Brian Thomas Jr. He's supernatural and gifted. What works
for him?
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Oh maybe this doesn't work, so maybe we need to
put him in this lane. Parker Washington is intriguing. You
got Travis Hunt go on both sides. There's a lot.
I've always believe and I've actually been surprised at the
way that they've come out the gate.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I feel like.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Their best ball would be after the bye week, after
they reset, recalibrate, take all the information in. Yeah, Like, Okay,
here's where we are from an efficiency standpoint. These are
the things that we need to do to maximize the
talents that we have.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And you make that presentation in front of team.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Hey, guys, here's what we thought we were going to be,
but here's what we ought to be based on what
the number.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Saying, what the production has been. Yea, ain't no doubt.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I'm curious to see how this kind of grows and
evolves as we go forward. Here, I gave you a
little homework assignmon bucket. I'll give you mine first and
then uh and then we'll get to yours. But I
was looking at the AFC and I got to do
this for a little TV thing. But they're like, how
would you stack the top five teams in the AFC?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Right now?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
We talked about the other day with the topsy turvy
nature of it, with you know, Burrow's injury, Lamar Jackson's injury.
Buffalo's now lost two games in a row. They're skidding
a little bit. I think what the expectation was, you know,
Kansas City is now clicking, but that wasn't a great
start to the season for them, So it's a little
it's a little upside down right now. So I looked
(10:30):
at it and said, Okay, I'm gonna go I'm gonna
go resumes and uh and who I think the five
best teams are right now, So not not I'm not
saying this projects to what it's going to look like
at the end of the year, but just kind of
as we take this six week snapshot, this is how
I came down with it.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
One I had Indy.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
You know, I just think Indy, with the record they have,
they're five and one. They've got to win over Denver,
which is a great win. So I put them at
five and one. I'll get called a homer on this one,
but I put the charters at two just be because
of the quality win they beat Denver and Kansasity. Those
are two playoff wins. They're four and two, and their
whole team's been decimated. I mean, they just won a
(11:07):
game last week with their fifth and sixth tackles, with
their third running back, no Khalil Mack, no Denzel Perriman.
I mean, they've you know, they're a four and two
team that's going to get a lot of these guys
coming back. But I just think the quality of wins
that they've had. They've swept the division, three division wins
in the AFC West to start the season. So that's
why I had them at two to one spot ahead
of Pittsburgh, who I just thought Pittsburgh only has one loss,
(11:29):
but I thought the Chargers had more impressive wins uh
than Pittsburgh did. I put k C at four, and man,
they were charging fast and they're getting they're getting right offensively,
and you had a big time receiver into the mix
there as well. And then the fifth spot, I came
down to Denver and Buffalo, and I ended up going Denver.
And maybe that's some reason see bias because Buffalo's dropped
(11:51):
a couple of games, But I just think that Denver defense,
if you're going to look at the four units between
Denver and Buffalo, I think Denver's defense is the best
of the four in terms of the two offenses, the
two defenses.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
No, man, it's not a bad list.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I think what's interesting when you talk about having to
make the hard conversation between Denmer in Buffalo.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I was on a podcast in Buffalo and I.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Made the point, they may they may be the best
team with the least talented roster.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
If I can make this, it's like they when you
look at their blue chips, they squeeze the most out
of the orange.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I mean yeah, I mean you talk about you talk
about Josh Allen, maybe talk about Dion Dawkins being a player,
James cookwoot, but DJ compared to what we've talked about,
and we've talked about eight to twelve are required to
be a championship team.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
They don't have that.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
They play great together, but they don't have on paper
what you traditionally need to have to be a championship team. Now,
when I look at it in AFC, it's so funny
that you have the Indianapolis coast up there, because very
similar I would have Indy Pittsburgh or have the Chargers.
Don't have the Chiefs in the top five, I would
(13:03):
have the Broncos after that, and then I'm kind of
stuck with the you know, like it's to feel a
good story of.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
The Patriots and in the Bills.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And here's the thing why I would lean towards the
Patriots coaching in quarterback. And I'm not saying that Drake
May is a superior quarterback to Josh Allen Man, that
Mike Rabel you're talking about squeezing it out of whatever
the Patriots have. Drake May and Josh Daniel McDaniels are
on another level right now in terms of what they're
doing and how they're getting it done. And I expected
(13:37):
it to happen, but not this year. I expected them
to re emerge as a winning franchise and be all
those things that they've been. I did not expect to
see it this soon. Stefan Diggs helps, But and I'll
say this, and sometimes love and eyes can be the
harshest eyes, because I saw Drake May from the time
he was in high school at Myers Park all the
(13:59):
way through. Sometimes your expectations are there because you're too
close to it, and so maybe you're hard on him
doing the draft process and all that he plays for
your alma mater and all that other stuff. But DJ
when you step back and you look at him and
you talk about what we're going to say, is like
a very good quarterback class that came out a couple
(14:20):
of years ago.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
He's playing the best right now. I mean he is
daling bo Nix.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I mean yeah, I mean he is unbelievable, and he
has what I always love and the quarterback he has
a quiet swagger to.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Him that is not overwhelming, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
It's not a look at me or whatever, but he
has some of that I got this coach, And I
think anyone who's been around the game, you always like
your quarterback that in that moment he's running back onto
the field and the coach he's like, hey, don't get
He's like, I got this.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, Well, I mean I think you tell me. But
they're going on the road and winning at Buffalo. I
think it is one of, if not the best wins
in the entire season so far, any great, great win.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
And you know what we always know when it comes
to Mike rabel One, he's one of the best ratherius tacticians,
however you want to call it, in terms of game
day strategy, getting the team to do whatever they need
to do to win the game.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
He's terrific at that.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
He understands the ins and outs of the rules and
how they like bleed it out if they need to
bleed it out if he feels like they're the undogged,
they take care of business if they're the favorite. But
man I would say, like confidence that his team is
beginning to play with they're dangerous, Like they're dangerous because.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
They don't even know what they don't know yet.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And when they start to get the young guys up
and going with these other like, they're a really good team.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
No doubt.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
It's fun to watch all those young guys out there
performing and doing a nice job. That's why it's a
little bit of a trick the exercise there in the AFC.
I think the and look, we get the Chargers and
the Colts squaring off this week, so that'll that'll help
determine how I see the top of the top of
the conference settling in right now. So that'll be a
fun one. Looking forward to that. All right, buck, a
quick one today. We want to get one in before
(16:18):
we're on the road here. You got to get Overseas,
I've got to get up to LA. We've got all
kind of stuff going on, so we wanted to make
sure we kept the pod train rolling here. So we
appreciate you guys hanging with us. We've got a fun
one Tomorrow, We've got our conversation with our buddy Maurice
Jones Drew where we'll talk about all things running backs
and maybe see if we can't have some connective tissue
(16:39):
with all these great backs and the really the rush
rushing numbers across the league are up, so we'll get
his take on that.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Look, man, it should be a lot of fun to
have him on. He is always a blast. Looking forward
to the commode.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yep, that'll be tomorrow, so be on the look out
for that our conversation with Maurice Jones Drew. Until then,
we appreciate you having a wonderful day. We'll see you
next time. Right here on, move the sticks.