December 8, 2024 • 9 mins
Pride of the Jaguars RB Fred Taylor is back for his weekly conversation with J.P. Shadrick to preview the Week 14 matchup against the Tennessee Titans. With the Jaguars out of playoff contention, what does this team play for and how can they finish the season on a positive note? The crew attempts to answer these questions on Countdown to Kickoff.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's signed for our weekly Conversation with Pride of the
Jaguars running back Fred Taylor. Jaguars eliminated. They're headed to Nashville.
Two teams that are struggling, obviously, the Jags to and ten,
the Titans three and nine. Fred and five games to
go and eliminated. This is the earliest in a while.
(00:20):
It's never fun in these Decembers.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
No, it's never fun, especially when you have two teams
that were always considered rivals at this point in the season.
This would be a meaningful game. You know, even if
there was a team not making the playoff, there was
a team that had a chance to play spoiler because
other team probably was.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
In position to win the division.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
But it seems that everything is shifted to Texas a
little bit further west, the Titans. The Titans aren't a
very good team. The Jaguars aren't a very good team.
But if I was a betting man, which I know
I'm not betting on my Jaguar, I would certainly say
I believe even this match up, the Jaguars are a
(01:01):
better team. Considering the close games that they've been in,
et cetera, et cetera. They've been through a lot, they're
still finding a way to show some competitive grit. So
my pick, which is always my pick, is the Jaguars
for this matchup.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I don't remember the last time you picked against them,
so that makes sense to me, Fred, And why not
keep it going in Week fourteen? Fred, what do you
make of the decision to shut Trevor Lawrence down for
the rest.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Of the season.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You know, I think it was a great decision. Is decision,
you know, for Trevor. You know, I believe overall it
was for the Trevor's future, his long term health, and
also for the Jaguars future, you know, in the team's
long term health as well, because it seems that the
(01:53):
team is only going to go as Trevor goes, you know,
with the investment recent leaders pass offseason and they secured
him for another four years after this season. So I
believe it was a great business decision, but more importantly,
just a decision that allows the Jaguars to say, we
are a high class organization. We don't care what's going
(02:17):
to happen with We care what's going to happen with
the rest of the season.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
But as it pertains, the Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
We are more concerned about his health and what we
can help.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
We can get him right now. So I thought it
was a big decision.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
We called for it on the post game, you know,
I was an advocate for saying, hey, maybe they should
shut him down. And now that they've announced that he's
shut down, he can have his procedure on his shoulder
and so to just get better, you know, not just physically,
but mentally. He can find himself in a good space
and they can look now to start evaluating to see
what they're going to do with the other guys by
(02:52):
giving them opportunity to play.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Brett Taylor with us. How many times in your career
were you in a scenario like this with five games
to go eliminated? It feels like you guys were a
lot of times in the mix, but maybe a week
or two to go would get knocked out and finish
like five hundred or whatever. But have you been were
you ever this early eliminated?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
You know, I don't believe so, JP. That was years
and years ago.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
My rookie year is approaching thirty years, which is insane.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
It's one of gray in that beard right now.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I got to say, I mean, you.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Know, my wife she likes the salt and peppers, so
I ain't even tripper on the gray. But I don't know.
I know we had a lot of competitive teams. I
believe there was a five and eleven somewhere in there. Maybe,
but then again I have to go and look and see.
But I know a lot of times we were nine
and seven rookie year, we were eleven and five then
(03:50):
of course fourteen and two, ninety seven, ninety seven, maybe six,
and I don't know, but we were always fairly competitive.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
The question, though, is from a player's mindset, when you
are eliminated and you still have a lot of work
to go, and you're healthy, you want to stay healthy,
but you're paid to play football, right, I mean, this
is what's the balance of competitive nature there?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
You know what even money aside.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
You know, competitive nature is just that it's just any
like you're like people like you throw around.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
You gotta be that dog.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
You know, you could be a gator and still be
a dog, not a jarge of bulldog, but like a
dog dog Like that's what I was. And I just
love competing, and I had teammates that you know, hey,
you knuckling up. I'm right there with you. But you
can kind of look around the locker room and see
some guys that kind of start to lose that sense
(04:49):
of urgency. And I hope, I hope that this locker
room has enough leaders, enough guys that you know, are
embarrassed by the way this season turned out out where
they want to go out there and they just want to,
you know, knock a couple heads off, you know, literally,
just to prove that, hey, I'm still me regardless of
(05:10):
our record, you still got to deal with me. You know,
I'm still kicking ass out here. So that's what it's about.
And that's the mindset until you know the clock hit zero,
you know, some at some point in January.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Bred Taylor with us.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I mean, this is five games to go, man, and
three of them in the division, so you know, and
it's the strength of schedules, like the easiest in the NFL.
The rest of the way, it's clearly all about the
Jaguars though, and how they perform. They've been in all
these close games this year, and you know, I guess
it's not too late to find a killer instinct and
(05:45):
win some of these games. They just haven't figured out
a way to do it in the last seven times
they've had a chance to do it. So why would
they start now? How do you finish a football game
this point in the season.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That's a great question, Japer, You hit it on the head.
Why would they start now? I mean, just look around.
I'm sure the scouting department they're looking at they've looked
at the entire season. What's available on the college ranks? Uh,
you know what they can possibly use where we need
to get better at efforts across the O line, D line,
you know, secondary receivers. I'll say that again, receivers. Arizona
(06:22):
has a great young receiver who's gonna be a topick
and most of these teams are sort of looking at,
you know, draft picks. And this is a battle of
the uglies these next couple of weeks. Uh, they play
the Raiders. Who's up there, same record. The Jets aren't
appealing in their record. The Titans again aren't too great
(06:45):
in their record. So I don't know, right like, what
do you do as a staff? You don't do do
you I don't want to use the word tank. Do
you just try stuff? Do you look around and try players?
You know, not trying stuff. Isn't just trying different plays
or gadgetry or any of that stuff. It's let's look
(07:06):
at our roster and let's see, you know, in terms
of evaluations, evaluating, let's see who we can possibly bring
back next year. We can have a better look at
this player. We didn't have an opportunity to look at
him when the starters were there. Maybe we can look
at this player a little bit more. Started to kind
of taper down the starters a little bit, you know,
(07:26):
for injury purposes and wear and tear, to hopefully get
them to the offseason safely. But again, I'm not in
those conversations. I'm not in the building. I don't know
mindset of the front office, the staffing department, or scouting department.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Excuse me, it's a lot, it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
But as a player, you know, regardless of what they're
doing in the front what I've always said was I'm
here to play ball, you know, I'm here to ball
until somebody pulls me out. I remember somebody pulled me
out when I was close to some incentives tou once
upon a time. That's a whole different conversation, isn't it
like I'm drifting.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
That's actually right up our alley. If we want to
go down this path today.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I am drifting. I mean, we need a little excitement
this late in the season. Right, Well, I digress. I
won't even bring it up. But hopefully you know, as
a player, man to a man, uh, these guys have
the mindset of one.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I have to compete, you know. That's what I was
born to do.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I do it every single day, and that's what I'm
going to do to finish this season.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Right, You're the best, even though you didn't catch all
your incentives.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Okay, we'll get them next year.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
It was one cold winter day in Kansas City and
I was yanked from the game. I was close to
seven fifty.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
That's a rhyme.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
That's a rhyme. Sometimes I can be a little witty,
sometimes a little silly, sometimes a little gritty without hitting
the gritty, you know what I mean. Fifty to fifty,
that's one hundred percent. Okay, I'm done.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Thanks Fred. We'll talk to you later, man, all right,
bro Later
It's signed for our weekly Conversation with Pride of the
Jaguars running back Fred Taylor. Jaguars eliminated. They're headed to Nashville.
Two teams that are struggling, obviously, the Jags to and ten,
the Titans three and nine. Fred and five games to
go and eliminated. This is the earliest in a while.
(00:20):
It's never fun in these Decembers.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
No, it's never fun, especially when you have two teams
that were always considered rivals at this point in the season.
This would be a meaningful game. You know, even if
there was a team not making the playoff, there was
a team that had a chance to play spoiler because
other team probably was.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
In position to win the division.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
But it seems that everything is shifted to Texas a
little bit further west, the Titans. The Titans aren't a
very good team. The Jaguars aren't a very good team.
But if I was a betting man, which I know
I'm not betting on my Jaguar, I would certainly say
I believe even this match up, the Jaguars are a
(01:01):
better team. Considering the close games that they've been in,
et cetera, et cetera. They've been through a lot, they're
still finding a way to show some competitive grit. So
my pick, which is always my pick, is the Jaguars
for this matchup.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I don't remember the last time you picked against them,
so that makes sense to me, Fred, And why not
keep it going in Week fourteen? Fred, what do you
make of the decision to shut Trevor Lawrence down for
the rest.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Of the season.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You know, I think it was a great decision. Is decision,
you know, for Trevor. You know, I believe overall it
was for the Trevor's future, his long term health, and
also for the Jaguars future, you know, in the team's
long term health as well, because it seems that the
(01:53):
team is only going to go as Trevor goes, you know,
with the investment recent leaders pass offseason and they secured
him for another four years after this season. So I
believe it was a great business decision, but more importantly,
just a decision that allows the Jaguars to say, we
are a high class organization. We don't care what's going
(02:17):
to happen with We care what's going to happen with
the rest of the season.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
But as it pertains, the Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
We are more concerned about his health and what we
can help.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
We can get him right now. So I thought it
was a big decision.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
We called for it on the post game, you know,
I was an advocate for saying, hey, maybe they should
shut him down. And now that they've announced that he's
shut down, he can have his procedure on his shoulder
and so to just get better, you know, not just physically,
but mentally. He can find himself in a good space
and they can look now to start evaluating to see
what they're going to do with the other guys by
(02:52):
giving them opportunity to play.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Brett Taylor with us. How many times in your career
were you in a scenario like this with five games
to go eliminated? It feels like you guys were a
lot of times in the mix, but maybe a week
or two to go would get knocked out and finish
like five hundred or whatever. But have you been were
you ever this early eliminated?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
You know, I don't believe so, JP. That was years
and years ago.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
My rookie year is approaching thirty years, which is insane.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
It's one of gray in that beard right now.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I got to say, I mean, you.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Know, my wife she likes the salt and peppers, so
I ain't even tripper on the gray. But I don't know.
I know we had a lot of competitive teams. I
believe there was a five and eleven somewhere in there. Maybe,
but then again I have to go and look and see.
But I know a lot of times we were nine
and seven rookie year, we were eleven and five then
(03:50):
of course fourteen and two, ninety seven, ninety seven, maybe six,
and I don't know, but we were always fairly competitive.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
The question, though, is from a player's mindset, when you
are eliminated and you still have a lot of work
to go, and you're healthy, you want to stay healthy,
but you're paid to play football, right, I mean, this
is what's the balance of competitive nature there?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
You know what even money aside.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
You know, competitive nature is just that it's just any
like you're like people like you throw around.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
You gotta be that dog.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
You know, you could be a gator and still be
a dog, not a jarge of bulldog, but like a
dog dog Like that's what I was. And I just
love competing, and I had teammates that you know, hey,
you knuckling up. I'm right there with you. But you
can kind of look around the locker room and see
some guys that kind of start to lose that sense
(04:49):
of urgency. And I hope, I hope that this locker
room has enough leaders, enough guys that you know, are
embarrassed by the way this season turned out out where
they want to go out there and they just want to,
you know, knock a couple heads off, you know, literally,
just to prove that, hey, I'm still me regardless of
(05:10):
our record, you still got to deal with me. You know,
I'm still kicking ass out here. So that's what it's about.
And that's the mindset until you know the clock hit zero,
you know, some at some point in January.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Bred Taylor with us.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I mean, this is five games to go, man, and
three of them in the division, so you know, and
it's the strength of schedules, like the easiest in the NFL.
The rest of the way, it's clearly all about the
Jaguars though, and how they perform. They've been in all
these close games this year, and you know, I guess
it's not too late to find a killer instinct and
(05:45):
win some of these games. They just haven't figured out
a way to do it in the last seven times
they've had a chance to do it. So why would
they start now? How do you finish a football game
this point in the season.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That's a great question, Japer, You hit it on the head.
Why would they start now? I mean, just look around.
I'm sure the scouting department they're looking at they've looked
at the entire season. What's available on the college ranks? Uh,
you know what they can possibly use where we need
to get better at efforts across the O line, D line,
you know, secondary receivers. I'll say that again, receivers. Arizona
(06:22):
has a great young receiver who's gonna be a topick
and most of these teams are sort of looking at,
you know, draft picks. And this is a battle of
the uglies these next couple of weeks. Uh, they play
the Raiders. Who's up there, same record. The Jets aren't
appealing in their record. The Titans again aren't too great
(06:45):
in their record. So I don't know, right like, what
do you do as a staff? You don't do do
you I don't want to use the word tank. Do
you just try stuff? Do you look around and try players?
You know, not trying stuff. Isn't just trying different plays
or gadgetry or any of that stuff. It's let's look
(07:06):
at our roster and let's see, you know, in terms
of evaluations, evaluating, let's see who we can possibly bring
back next year. We can have a better look at
this player. We didn't have an opportunity to look at
him when the starters were there. Maybe we can look
at this player a little bit more. Started to kind
of taper down the starters a little bit, you know,
(07:26):
for injury purposes and wear and tear, to hopefully get
them to the offseason safely. But again, I'm not in
those conversations. I'm not in the building. I don't know
mindset of the front office, the staffing department, or scouting department.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Excuse me, it's a lot, it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
But as a player, you know, regardless of what they're
doing in the front what I've always said was I'm
here to play ball, you know, I'm here to ball
until somebody pulls me out. I remember somebody pulled me
out when I was close to some incentives tou once
upon a time. That's a whole different conversation, isn't it
like I'm drifting.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
That's actually right up our alley. If we want to
go down this path today.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I am drifting. I mean, we need a little excitement
this late in the season. Right, Well, I digress. I
won't even bring it up. But hopefully you know, as
a player, man to a man, uh, these guys have
the mindset of one.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I have to compete, you know. That's what I was
born to do.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I do it every single day, and that's what I'm
going to do to finish this season.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Right, You're the best, even though you didn't catch all
your incentives.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Okay, we'll get them next year.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
It was one cold winter day in Kansas City and
I was yanked from the game. I was close to
seven fifty.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
That's a rhyme.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
That's a rhyme. Sometimes I can be a little witty,
sometimes a little silly, sometimes a little gritty without hitting
the gritty, you know what I mean. Fifty to fifty,
that's one hundred percent. Okay, I'm done.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Thanks Fred. We'll talk to you later, man, all right,
bro Later
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!