LISTEN | Inside the Jets with Braxton Berrios (12/27)

Hosts Bart Scott and Dan Graca talk about the 26-21 victory over the Jaguars, how the Jets can finish the season with some momentum and welcome wide receiver/returner Braxton Berrios to the show to talk about his electrifying 102-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Each time for Inside the Jets presented by e Y
Building a Better Working World. No, here's Bart Scott and
Dan Grossa and welcome into another edition of Inside the
Jets presented by e Y Building a Better Working World.
Dan Grosso, joined as always by my pal, former Jet

(00:25):
linebacker Bart Scott. Bart Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Victory Monday
all rolled into one. Nothing could be better. How are you,
my friend? I am great man. They have been few
and far between, but listen, you're taken where you can
get him in the Jets. You know, we're able to
win in front of their home crowd, and that's a
great Christmas gift for everybody that was in attendance, no
doubt about it. You know what, the faithful that showed up,

(00:46):
they got themselves a pretty entertaining ball game. One came
down to the last play literally where Jaguars were a
little bit on set. They couldn't complete that past to
Marvin Jones in the end zone regardless. But Jets walk
out of there with a victory. And there's a lot
of positives you take away from the game. You know,
when you have two teams like the Jets in Jacksonville,
you could tell that aren't going to the playoffs this year.

(01:08):
They kind of dove into their bag of tricks on
both sides. You saw a lot of fakes of fake
field goal, fake punt. It was an entertaining game, but
at the end of the day, you still take the
core football elements out of it. You have to start
with the play of the quarterback who once again played
a mistake free football game and really showed you a
little bit of what you hope is going to make
him a special player at that position for the Jets

(01:29):
for a lot of years. It's about humility, right, because
you don't always have to be the main story. It's
about getting the victories right. You know. I think when
you talk about quarterbacks outside of any other position, you know,
we we really keep you know, we keep records of
their wins and lost totals. Right. We don't keep wins
lost totals of linebackers, receivers or things of that sorts.

(01:51):
But you talk about wins in his league, that's what
quarterbacks are measured on. So at the end of the day,
nobody really cares if he didn't throw for three hundred yards.
You know, he was effective and he did he was
supposed to do. And sometimes we throw around that game
manager um and we act like it's a negative. But
you have to be able to manage the situation when
you lean at other sports. Nobody criticizes Chris Paul for

(02:12):
being a game manager, right. We also we actually elevate
him from understanding what's needed for the situation, right. And
and that's what Zach Wilson was about. Right. He was
able to be you know, four for four, you know,
and start finally making teams paid if they want to
go to man and go man and man and turn
their backs to him, not respecting his athleticism because it
was something that he hadn't put on film, and you know,

(02:34):
being able to go and listen, you know it's on
film now, right, And you know he teased, He teased
the defenders, you know, on the end of the sideline,
and he came back and hit the L two and
came back and went, you know, you you get away
with that once or twice in his league, right before God,
before God stopped giving you the benefit of the doubt.
When you running towards that sideline, they're gonna assume that

(02:56):
you're gonna stay in. They're gonna start cleaning you up.
But listen, it worked yesterday. I think he's gonna have
to have his antenner's up going forward because nobody wants
to be that defense that let up and allowed the
quarterback to come back. But he did that was that
was just one that just a kound of for fifty
two of the yards right. The other the other uh
thirty nine came from the fact that he was able

(03:17):
to be able to to kind of use his athleticism.
And you know, one if my read is not there
and I see alleys and guys aren't respecting my athleticism,
and IM gonna make them pay. And uh, I think
that's the element of his game that he's gonna have
to add. When I look at Zack Wilson, reminds me
so much of we know when Steph Curry came in
the league and he was so slight, you had concerns

(03:38):
about him being durable and healthy, especially because Steph Curry,
you know, really was injured his first couple of years
with the ankle injury. Ironically enough, right, he was injured
with the ankle injury. And I look at Zack Wilson, right,
he's a young man, right, and he's gonna mature and
grow into a young boy or or a not young boy,
but he's gonna grow into a mature man, right, and

(04:01):
part of that process is putting in the work. Right.
We always laugh at the pictures of Janna's when he's
nineteen he's with the Bucks and he's really slender, and
we look at step. But now we look at what
those guys did. So if Zach Wilson wants to take
the next step to his game, is gonna be in
the mill room, and it's gonna be in the weight room,
as he's gonna have the mature and get a mature

(04:22):
adult body so that he can do more of that
and his body can withstand some of the hits that
he's gonna have to absorb when he puts itself in
harm's way and he looks he was missing some key
contributors yesterday, right, I mean he was with without his
top three wide receivers, he was missing his two starting guards.
He loses his center in the fourth quarter of that
game yesterday. Uh you know, Ryan Griffin goes on I

(04:42):
R his top tight end there, So I mean they
played shorthanded yesterday and he still managed to move the
team up and down the field, the offense put points
on the scoreboard. Heck, he was even throwing tight end
passes the offense or touchdown passes the offensive lineman yesterday
bart So it was a little bit of everything. And
as I said a couple of minutes ago, I think
it's in overaging. Now three straight games without an interception.

(05:02):
We're up to a hundred and three consecutive past attempts
without an I N T. And I know that a
couple of them could have easily found, you know, the
Jaguar defenders there, but they couldn't corral them. But these
are things to build upon now going into the final
two weeks this season against some pretty quality opposition, we
know which is down the road, right is And that's
what I'm excited to see, right because we've seen him
do this in Spurs against lesser competition. And what I

(05:25):
want to see Zach Wilson be able to do is
when the competition gets better, your your process doesn't change, right,
You still get rid of the ball, you still identify,
you know the rotation of the defense, what defense is
they're in. Either that's pre snap information or post stop
snap information. But I want him to no matter what
the opponent. I want his procedure to be correct. I

(05:46):
want his hot rails to be correct. I don't care
about the end result at this point, the end result
whether the receiver catches that are not. I want to
know that you know and that you understand, because that's
when the game begins to slow down for you. You know,
it's it's no different. The game is no different from
Zack's transition from high school to college. He went in,
he had to learn new verbie that he's never learned before,

(06:08):
and he had to play at a higher level. And
a lot of times people say, well, you know this
is the best level of the highest level. Yes it is,
but also your your your teammates, your resources are higher, right,
So so the transition shouldn't be as steep as people
sometimes may say, because if you have teammates, it helps
you execute because you're going to get tougher competition. But

(06:28):
you have better protection, you have better skill position players,
you have the prose prose everybody that's a That's a
great thing about the NFL when it's the pros. It's
not like college with a disparity between the pros. Everybody
gets good players in the league. Right it's about who
can play well together, who can execute the game plan,
and that starts with knowledge and then slowly but surely,
hopefully he can start making that that that next step

(06:50):
to being a leader. I don't understand he has a
see on his chest, but right now that's a see
that was given to him, not to see that was earned,
because it's it's it's too hard to be a rookie
in his league. Now, maybe if I can say any
rookie has earned it and should maybe get a sea
on his chest, you know postseason. You know, it's it's
a guy like you know, Michael Parsons who came in

(07:11):
his league and has took it by storm. Zach had
isn't there yet, but he needs to earn that sea
on his chest. Right now, it's just been given to him,
but he's going about it the right way. It's about
humility and always putting your teammates first. You know, when
you think about the entire team here as a whole,
like this victory yesterday, using the word rewarding, maybe not

(07:33):
do with justice enough because you know, like the fans,
they get so caught up and consumed about um. You know,
you talk about who's here, who's not there? All right,
let's hear more from the Jets quarterback. Here's Zack Wilson
following yesterday's game with our senior reporter Eric Allen. Zach,
what does this victory say about this team after everything
you guys have endured this week? Yeah, just to take

(07:54):
it a game out of time. You know, it's it's
been a rough season, now what we talked, but you know,
we gotta put something good on film. So every in
a week we're gonna keep fighting, you know, keep going.
And the guys have we had something to prove today.
So take me to the sideline fourth and one there,
Trevor Lawrence says, the ball, How did you take it
all in? Yeah? I was just hoping we got to stop.
You know, it was coming fast. They did a good

(08:14):
job driving. Uh, just praying our defense you get a
stop right there. So, uh, an awesome job by them
locking it up. An awesome job by them locking it up.
So uh it felt good. You know, I wish it
could have been easier, not on the one yard line,
but we got it. So, hey, are you aware that
you just rushed for more yards on the ground at
any quarterback and franchise history. Oh wow, that's that's I

(08:36):
don't know if that's a good thing for me or
bad for everybody else. Yeah, I mean it worked out.
You know, I wasn't planning on running. It just uh,
it kind of happened. I feel like I just had
to take advantage of what the defense was given me. Well,
can you take me through the fifty two yards score? Yeah,
we got man coverage pressure up the middle. I had
a chance to dump it off underneath pocket clothes. So

(08:56):
I stepped up and I just saw a huge lane
and all the receivers are going away from where I
got out, and um, you know, once I got by
the sideline, I was planning on just going out of bounds,
but he didn't. He didn't hit me or push me out,
so I just I just kept going. And then I
think the second guy thought I was going to step
out as well, and so I was able to cut back,
and Uh, it end up just working out for me. Lastly,
how cool of a moment was it for you guys

(09:18):
and Coach Middleton after COVID had run a while throughout
the organization throughout the week. Yeah, really cool. You know
he's got some passion, some great energy. Uh. The guy's
love when he's up there, you know, saying his things.
So it was cool to have him step up and
do his thing. Uh, you know. But I feel like
everyone individually, um had the right mindset coming into today

(09:38):
and knowing what they had to do. Thanks Zach, Thank you.
All right, Thanks a lot, guys, And this is inside
the Jets and we're brought to you by Selective Insurance
be Uniquely Insured Dan Grasso alongside Bart Scott. We talked
about Zack Wilson barton his prowess when it came to
moving the football with his legs yesterday. But what about
the team as a whole, two hundred and seventy three
yards rushing, which is the most by the Jets in

(10:01):
three years. You talk about the rookie Michael Carter hundred
eighteen yards on the ground, about seven and a half
yards per pop. I mean, this is a team that
we said a little bit earlier, came into the game
without their two stunt guards. It lose Connor mc governor
center in the fourth quarter yesterday, but they had an
unbelievable day when it came to churning out those yards
on the ground. Well, this is the scheme that we
were promised right when we knew that they were bringing

(10:23):
in Robert sold they were bringing in the floor who
had a background in the Kyle Shanahan type of system.
This is the type of explosive, you know, run game
that we've expected. Right, and finally I think that they're
finally starting to understand, They're starting to understand how they
want to block certain fronts and it really doesn't matter,
so plug and play. Remember this is a run game
that you know, traditionally under um Mike Shanahan and and

(10:46):
and Gary Kubiak later. You know, it was one of
these things that you know, it had thousand yard rushers
that the likes that we had never heard of. Now,
I don't think that you can just plug a guy in,
because I do think that Michael Carter is a special talent,
but I think the run game enhances his ability and
he he's able to operate at a high level. And
that was just an example of it. Tevin Coleman as well.

(11:07):
And you know, this is how this team I think
it's going to be successful. This is how Zach Wilson
is going to be a an elite in Premier young talent.
If you can run the football, it sets the table
for everything that you want to do. It sets the
table for being able to get body blows and wear
out the opponent, where you can close games out. Because
we've seen time after time, you know, we've seen teams

(11:28):
get out the huge leads, but because they can't saw
the way the clock by keeping the clock running by
running the ball, you know, they let teams back in
because they throw the ball in completion stop the pot.
And you know, if this team can learn how to
do that, not only will they be able to blow
some teams out by just attrition, but when they do
have a lead and it's a tight game, they'll be

(11:49):
able to have that famous four minute offense like we
used to have with Thomas Jones, like we have with
Sean Green and lt to be able to salt games
away so that when you get two scores, he said,
and the two scores to be two touchdowns, it could
be a touchdown in the field goal. You know, you
know that the game is over and you know all
you have to do is go to your run game.
And had to set the table for everything else, and

(12:11):
also gives that defense time to rest, so they can
play with their hair on fire because they're not having
a lot of reps. Yeah, that was one of the
odd things about the game yesterday, right, is that the
fact that the Jets ran the ball as well as
they did, but the defense was on the field for
a good portion of that game. Right. It was Normally
when you think when you're eating up the clock in
the time of possession and that sort of thing gives
your defense a little bit of a spell. But Jacksonville

(12:32):
had several long drives in that game, which look Jets
overcame if they won the game. But that defense they
had to put in their time yesterday. Well, you know
they had to because they couldn't get off the fill
on third down. And you know, they gave up some
big plays. And listen, Trevor Lawrence is the talent as well. Um,
it came down to the wire, and you know, you
have to be able to get off the fill on
third down, and that's how you are able to to

(12:54):
to be able to be a compliment to a tremendous
running game. You know, the Jets have a little work
to do, but they were really really be shorthanded, and um,
you know, you had guys out there that was just playing,
you know, and not always having a lot of chemistry,
you know, missing a lot of key pieces. But they
found a way to make the time of these stops,
you know, they found a way not to give up touchdowns,
to give up field goal attempts, and I believe that

(13:17):
was a difference in the game. This is Inside the Jets. Remember,
Jets fans, you can watch Inside the Jets through the
Jets App presented by Fubo Sports Book. Go to the
app store or Google Play right now and search Official
New York Jets. When we return, we'll be joined by
one of the heroes of yesterday's victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Braxton Burials joins us right here on Inside the Jets

(13:37):
presented by e Y Building a Better Working World. And
welcome back to Inside the Jets, Stan Grosso, Bart Scott
with you. We're pleased to be joined now by Jet
wide receiver Brexton Burrios, who had a big hand in
yesterday's victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. It's part of our
player guest segment, which is brought to you by e
Y Building a Better Working World. Braxton, Dan Grosso, Bart Scott,

(13:59):
congrat on the win yesterday, my friend, thanks for joining us.
How are you? I'm good, I'm good, Thank you for
having me on. Was just your days statement game for
you when you talk about being snuff for the Pro
Bowl and all the hard work that you've put in
on special teams, and you know we've all been there.
Sometimes you know, it's it's about name recognition, and sometimes
people aren't really looking at what's really going on and

(14:21):
who's effective. And sometimes it's a popularity contest as well.
Was just to that statement saying, hey, listen, I am
that guy and I'm deserving of the Pro Bowl and
you guys missed out, you know, because of popularity contest.
Not a contest that's that's that's judged on the film. No, absolutely, Um,
you know it's uh, it kind of all reverts back
to controlling what you can control. And um, you know,

(14:44):
I can't control a popularity contest or how they pick
things or the way they go about things. But um,
what I can't control is the stats and the numbers,
and uh you know what is it? Men? Lie women
line numbers don't alright, alright, jigger? Uh So like when
when when you look at the game, right, you know,
you guys are down twenty players, you know, and you

(15:06):
you expect your leaders to step up, and you know,
it seems to me like you're in short order is
becoming one of these emotional leaders as well, you know,
with with the passion which you play with, but you know,
you do the dirty work. You know, you talk about
being a special teamer but also being a major contributor
and being kind of that Swiss army knife. Was this
an opportunity for you to say that, hey, when guys

(15:26):
need to step up, I'm capable as well, and that
you can start depending on my my um, you know,
my productivity because it's consistent absolutely. Um. You know it's
uh my motto kind of the whole year and honestly
for my career is kind of winever whatever. Um. And
and that just that that was kind of my my
mindset going into this game as well, um, and really

(15:48):
this whole season. You know, whatever we need to do
and whatever position, um, I'm willing to do, whether it's
the dirty work, you know, whether it's on the line
blocking a d ND or going in and blocking a
Mike Sam backer, or it's you know, running around and
doing the typical wide receiver stuff. Um, you know, I'm
here to win and whatever that takes is I'm game
four hundred ninety all purpose yards for yesterday. Of course

(16:11):
a hundred and two of it coming off that kickoff
return that you took to the house. And you and
I talked a few weeks ago when you had that
big one against the Philadelphia Eagles to open the game,
and just that feeling in your mind or that thought
in your mind when you saw that hole open up yesterday,
I think the whole was even bigger. Were you thinking
those same exact things once you saw that incredible amount
of real estate that you had to work with? No, absolutely, Um,

(16:33):
you know we we we executed our plan there. Uh
pretty much too perfection, I'd say, And uh, you know
there's different seams, and you know, once I hit that
one to the right and we already beat the kicker
because he tried to insert uh a little bit more
towards the middle. Um, I knew that one was gone,
the sideline was there, there's nobody ahead of me, and um,
you know, we we did we. I gotta give all

(16:54):
the credit to the other ten guys on the field,
because I truly don't think I was touched, and that's
a that's credit to them, not to me. You know what,
what was the level of disrespect when you saw the
guys trying to well, were you looking up at the
big at the at the jump of mind to like
this dude is still pulpits are you're not gonna catch me.
I don't know what you saw your scot of report,
but I got that long speed because we didn't see

(17:16):
that old where you had the zig zag or not
like that. They still was trying and then the dude
trying to tackle you ten yards in the end zone, like, yo, bro,
what's going on here? Man? Liked did you have a
couple of words with him like, hey man, you need
to pump your brakes? No, yeah, I don't. I don't
know what was in their scouting report, but again, um,
I did. I peeped up at the school board just
to uh, just to make sure at one point in time.

(17:38):
But absolutely once once we crossed the forty, um, there
was there was no shot. And uh yeah I obviously
saw that on the on the replay of uh you know,
somebody diving at me about seven yards deep. Um, But
you know what, what can you do we're celebrating at
that point? Absolutely? So, like when when you when you
see where where we are with the NFL season, right,
COVID's there and it's really you know, taking a lot

(18:00):
of people you know off the field. You know, you
guys remind us twenty and the Texans were down at
a huge amount of numbers. But when you when you
look at that, do you see that as advantage because
what happens is a lot of special teamers are pressed
into action and your use is going both ways and
playing a lot of snaps on offense and special teams.
But is it potentially a hidden weapon? The fact these
next two games, you know you talk about the third

(18:23):
of the game is being special teams. It's a place
where the Jets can really take advantage because you guys
still have a lot of your core teamers, but you know,
you're a guy that's available and you can take advantage
of maybe some some special teamers on other teams. Has
been overextended because if you don't understand when you go
that I used to hate that punt defense punt return

(18:44):
three and out. It was like the killer. It's like
you're tapping after that, but you can't you can't act
out because you're a special teamer. You're not, You're just
happy to be getting steps snaps. Yeah, no, absolutely, it's
um you know. And and again a side from that
that one long return even you know when they when
they kicked to the other side and uh, you know

(19:05):
Tevin was returning. I mean we we we still gashed them.
And so that that is a big part of, uh
of obviously the game plan and you know, our hopes
going forward in the next two games to finish out
the season is that you know, our special teams really
really steps up and really becomes that spark in a
consistent spark for this uh this offense and defense at
times obviously, UM and and we can take advantage of

(19:28):
you know, all the COVID injuries. You know, it's week sixteen,
going into week seventeen of an NFL season. You know,
there's there's gonna be adversity. There's gonna be people who
uh you know might not have been on a team
in Week one or you know, I've bounced around a
few teams that get inserted into play and uh, you know, honestly,
our job is if if they're on our team, to
coach them and get them up to speed so we
can take advantage of them on the other team. Talking

(19:50):
about Braxton burials here on Inside the Jets presented by
e Y Building a Better Working World. You know Bart
mentioned a little while ago there about the challenges of
the week with the COVID and know the obstacles that
you have to overcome, you know, Christmas week, all of
those things. I mean, you got to the stadium yesterday,
you find out a little over an hour before the
game that you're gonna be down another guy because Quinnin
ends up going into the protocol. You've been playing football

(20:13):
a long time. Was this win yesterday as rewarding and
as satisfying a win as you've maybe had in your
football career given the challenges that you guys had to
fight through this week. No, absolutely, um, And like I
just said, you know, there's there's gonna be adversity, uh
in an NFL season regardless. But you know the fact
that we're down twenty Stellton players, the fact that we

(20:34):
had another you know we call it popped, but got
popped you know, an hour or two before kickoff, and
you know the next man had to step up. Uh.
You know, obviously there was a lot of uncertainty going
into the week. But it's a credit to this coach
and staff and these um you know and everybody on
our team obviously of you know, everybody in the building
being ready. Um, no matter if you were the starter
or you're on practice squad or wherever you were on

(20:56):
the so called depth chart at this time of the year, Um,
you know that you were ready to play. And you know,
obviously across the board we were and we did a
great job all week at that and uh, you know,
it does make it more rewarding because you know a
lot of things were stacked against us, and you know,
this team showed a lot of resiliency and um, you know,
we got to be proud of that. Now. Sometimes you know,

(21:17):
when I used to come to the game, you just
think about what I want to wear? Like what what?
What's what's my mindset? Right? And you know yesterday post
game I saw you with the reindeer outfit? Was that symbalid?
Where like which one were you? Were you? Rudolf like, hey, guys,
follow me, I got the red nose. I'll leave this
to safety. What what was what was symbolic about the
Rutolf or I can't say Rudolf the reindeer outfit? Yeah yeah,

(21:43):
generic uh yeah, um No, Honestly, it wasn't symbolic. The
only symbol was that, you know, it was Christmas, and
obviously I didn't go into the stadium with that, and
that was that was tucked away in my bag barring
the outcome of the game, and luckily I got to
pull it out. Um, but yeah, that's all it was.
It was it was Chris Muth. It was it's time
to celebrate. Like I said, it, it's hard win in

(22:03):
the NFL. UM, I don't care how you cut it,
especially with everything we went through as well this week.
So you know, it was it was something I was
happy I got to do. And you know, honestly only
had one onesie in my in my closet, and that
happened to be a I think it would have been
great if he came into the stadium like that too. Braxton,
you know, started to finish the whole thing. Yeah, well

(22:23):
now what was so if you're so, if you were
a Rudolph, does that make zach Uh Santa Claus? And
what did you think about the Willie Beamon invisible juice
as he I didn't know he had it. It looked
like a piano jumped on his back as he had
a little gideo. But then his eyes got big once
he got close to the end though, and he finished
strong through the line as we would say, no absolutely,

(22:44):
Uh you know, he started running obviously, and then he
kind of went to the sideline and halfway was maybe
gonna go out, and then burst up the sideline and
made another move inside and then like you said, finished
strong and uh incredible run. And you know obviously that's uh,
that's a that's a momentum shifting play um if anybody
does it. But obviously when you when your quarterback does it,

(23:06):
um and uh finishes it with a touchdown, you you
just love to see it. And that's something that he
uh he did a lot yesterday, you know when when
things broke down or didn't look right, he escaped the
pocket and either it made a throw on the run
or made it made it happen with his feet. Well, Braxton,
hank tight. We want more with you coming up here
in just a few minutes. Rejoining with Braxton Burrios here

(23:28):
on inside the Jets presented by e Y Building a
Better Working World and welcome back in again to Inside
the Jets, Dan Gross and Bart Scott. We're joined by
Jet White out Braxton Burials, and it's part of our
player guest segment brought to you by e Y Building
a Better Working World. How do you feel at this
point of the season physically? I mean, you're gonna have
an extra week to deal with your throw on what

(23:48):
the NFL did. But you know, late season, everybody's banged up,
and how's the body feeling here with a couple of
games still to go? Um, you know, like you said,
it's it's week seventeen now going into and we have
one more week that added on this season. Uh, you know,
body is gonna feel how it's supposed to feel this
late in the season. But at the end of the day, no, uh,

(24:08):
nobody cares. Um. You know, you gotta go out there
and you gotta you gotta do your thing, and you
gotta execute and you gotta play. Um, but you know
how how it feels. Will do that. Uh, we'll do
that self. Audit Um January ten. Well, you know how
it is, right, Like, you know, you don't have to
be feeling great, You just need to be feeling just
a little bit better than the guy that you're going

(24:29):
against right now. That's that's just kind of the state
of what it is to go through any type of season.
But you know the quote the great you know, uh,
Joey Craig, yesterday's price, it's not today's price. And when
you get to the end of seasons and you're coming
up on free agency, you know, you want to make
sure you finish strong. You want to make sure that

(24:49):
you show the team who you are, what you stand for.
You know, this is an opportunity for you to kind
of give an open letter to Jet fans into the
management about you know, how important you are, because it
seems to me like you're one of these glue guys.
I played with a guy that was similar to you
and Jericho Contry, who was a guy that just made
everything work. You know, yesterday's performance, you know, do you do?

(25:13):
You feel like that was that encompasses everything you are
as a player and what you bring to every team,
both in the locker room, on the on the field
and playing. You know, special teams are doing whatever it
takes for a team. The ultimate selfless guy. Um no, absolutely, Uh.
Like I said before, you know it's uh, it's a
winever whatever, you know what, whatever we need, whatever we

(25:34):
have to do. I'm I'm game four and I I
really probably myself. I'm being the same person every day.
Um you know, whether that's uh, whether that's getting fifty
snaps in a game or whether it's getting tent which
you know I've I've kind of done both this season. Um,
you know, it's it's uh, yeah, it's it's just what

(25:55):
I It's what I love doing. I love bringing passion
to the game and uh, you know, I love playing
from my team, and obviously I love winning as well,
but I hate losing even more. And I think you
see that. You know, you guys certainly had a lot
of fun in that locker room after the game yesterday.
You know you could see that it meant a lot
for Ron Middleton getting a chance to lead the team
this weekend. I guess we were even able to zoom

(26:17):
in with Robert Sala right and after the victory in
that locker room. I mean, you talked about a cool
experience there, but I guess that that's part of the
world we're living in now. In yeah, yeah, poort coax
Sala I know he was absolutely going nuts, uh in
whatever hotel or apartment that he was in. Um. But
it was fine obviously seeing him celebrate with us in

(26:38):
the locker room and you know, give us, uh, give
us a little his two cents of of what he saw. Um,
and uh again he was he was obviously absolutely throwed
for us, and we were obviously throwed for a coach
Middleton as well. I want to I want to push
it forward a little bit. Right now. You got defending
champions coming in. You know, you got guys that's gonna
come in with tremendous resumes, pro bowl oles, all pros,

(27:01):
you know, franchise guys, some you know, maybe even teetering
on on Hall of Fame. How excited do you get
to be able to have an opportunity because what it
be said is, okay, well you did that against Jacksonville.
But how excited do you get when you get to
go against the best of the best and be able
to measure yourself up and be able to prove because
that's what you make your name, you know, when you
go against gods like that because everybody be watching and

(27:22):
that's the way you earn your respect. How excite are
you personally, how quickly would you go? Are you going
back to the lab to get ready to go against
the champs immediately? Immediately? It's uh, it's an excellent opportunity
and it's a fun one as well. Um, you know,
they're they're coming in. I believe they just clinch their division.
Uh you know, so they're they're already looking looking to
the playoffs and obviously, you know, we're we're we're not

(27:45):
necessarily fighting for the exact same things, but we're fighting
for the next opportunity, and this is an incredible one
in front of us, So we're we're excited. The quarterback
has done some things in his career, just just a
couple of things, you know, nothing really all that special,
but you got a chance to be a team of
his when you broke into the NFL. What were some
of the things that you were able to pick up
from Tom Brady? You know that you observed, maybe it

(28:08):
was even from Afar about how he goes about his
business day and day out that you can help to
apply to your career moving forward. No, absolutely, I learned
I learned an absolute uh ton um in that time
I was there, and you know, a lot of things
you know from Afar observing and you know other things
in meetings, UM here and how he sees things and

(28:28):
you know, watching him break down a defense and you know,
if they do this, what is he going to do?
And stuff like that. So a lot of that UM
football I Q I learned there and you know it's uh,
it's invaluable, honestly, UM. And uh, you know he was
he was a great guy. He was a great teammate.
And I'm looking forward to uh for for that challenge again. Now.

(28:48):
I don't know how many fans know this necessarily, but
back in your career at Miami, you forget about on
the football field. You had a pretty good academic career
as well. You were the val victorian in the business school.
And you told the me a couple of weeks ago
that you got one beat one be while you were there,
and you just couldn't let it go. It not at you.
You just couldn't put it aside. There. What was what

(29:09):
was the class that you got to be in? And
you bring it up again, I have to bring it up.
I couldn't put it aside and not at me. Okay, Um,
it was a finance class. It was a finance class.
I gotta be it happens. Um, I felt short, Honestly
I felt short, uh, and that it was one of
those things where, um, you know, I'm kind of glad

(29:32):
I did in a way. Obviously I wasn't at the time,
and obviously I don't love it about it now. Um,
but it just goes to show that, uh, you know,
I I strive to be perfect in that area and
I felt short, So there's always a little bit more
I could have done. And uh, you know that kind
of translates into other aspects of my life as well.
How big of a passion is that the whole business
side of things, Like, I know you're playing football right now,

(29:54):
and that probably eat up eats up a lot of
your day and day output as far as the off
the field stuff. Maybe life after football and opportunities. There
is that something that you're still keeping a watchful eye
on even as you're in the middle of your football career. Yeah. Um,
I always say I grew up wanting to uh, wanting
to play in the NFL. I didn't. I didn't grow
up you know, loving school. I didn't love school when

(30:14):
I you know, I think that's a big misconception when
people here how well I did in school that I
liked it or I loved it. I didn't, um, but
I had to do it. So if I'm gonna have
to do it and put my name on it, I
wanted to be, you know, representative of who I am
as a person. And that was a competitive switch that
just never flipped off. So you know, I I grew
up wanting to play in the NFL, and that's what

(30:35):
I'm doing now. And I'm I'm lucky enough to be
living my dream. And obviously I'm gonna do this, uh
for absolutely as long as I can. And you know,
the whole the whole business thing, um is uh, it
comes I I do things on the side as well, Uh,
just just because it's the right thing to do and
it's a smart thing to do. Um. But obviously my

(30:56):
my focus is here because this is this is what
my life goal is. You know, I wonder what the
conversations are in the locker room now, you know, as
you know, the locker room environment has changed so much.
You know, the world has changed so much since I,
you know, left the league in two thousand and thirteen.
Now it's weird because I remember growing up and watching
my son trade Pokemon cards and also Fortnite changing skins.

(31:20):
How much of the conversation are about n f T
s and digital art and that stuff going on as
gods are trying to educate themselves in the middle of
the season, as it as it exploded. Did you get
you some board apes? Did you did you buy you
some yourd apes? Are you slanging some some n f
T s around? And now I have a I have
a good amount of friends who have a few board apes, um,

(31:40):
some crypto punks and you know, everything of that nature.
And honestly, I'm in a I'm in a group chat
with with all of them. So that's kind of how
I keep up with with that part of the world.
Anybody get you Anybody get you one on the side,
anybody like, look up my head. You can be preparing for,
you know, to pick up this hot route, you know
and figure out that type stuff out. Man, I bought

(32:02):
your board if you can give me the money later,
That's what I'm saying. Help me. Um. And by the
time I got I got put on game, it was
it was deep in that deep in that board a
uh explosion should say, I think you can't buy one
for under two hundred thousand right now. UM, but no
I uh. And it's funny because I talked to uh
actually Elijah more um really over the last month kind

(32:24):
of about uh n F T S And I'm still
learning obviously that that whole decentralized land and uh, the
metaverse and you know everything of that, you know, uh
that sense. But yeah, we we do. We we talk
about it a lot because at the end of the day,
I tell everybody, you know, whatever, whatever you come out
of this league with, you know, whether it's just a
few years on practice squad or whatever, it's hard to

(32:44):
it's hard to get a job with uh, you know,
at twenty four making hundred plus thousand dollars a year. UM,
So this is incredible leverage. Uh. And if that's all
it is, then that's great, and hopefully it's a lot more.
But if all it is is a few years, an
incredible leverage, that you've got a great start on life.
I got some homework to do after the show today,
that's for darn sure, because I didn't understand the word

(33:05):
you guys were talking about. We'll talk We'll talk to
your kids or talk to your nieces and EFTs that
that used to sell skins. You know, the first bitcoin
actually was a reward that you would get on video
games that will give you a bitcoin. Right, so now
you know we found your grown ups to to monetize
grown people mean little kids games. And we're falling forward.
But listen, it's one of those things that you get

(33:27):
on the way, but you miss it and you know
all the people that missed the Internet, And listen, I'm
not giving financial advices. I don't want nobody's saying like that.
Either you're the sink or swim either figuri stuff out
this whole metaverse virtuality. I feel like I'm in Demolition
Man and stuff in Taco bell is the only restaurant
that survived. But you gotta adapt. Yeah, you gotta adapt.

(33:49):
The world's the world's changing. See. But but also what
that what that talks about, right, you've been a veteran.
That's also the part that people miss about being a
leader in the locker room, right because we know when
people finances are good, that allows them to focus on
playing the game. And that's part of being a leader.
It's it's been able to share the information about what's
going on to make sure that everybody in the locker

(34:11):
room has the access to the information and you know
that that that they can make great decisions for themselves
and going forward in the future. And it's about having
those conversations, you know. You know some some locker rooms
don't have those conversations. They're having conversations about to shake
them up, club going out, hanging out, and it's not
the right conversations. You can always tell when you have
a good, tight knit conversation where you're talking about information

(34:34):
things that can make you better, not whrather you choose
to dabble in it or not. It tells you if
you have a mature locker room or you have an
immature locker room. You know, guys like listen, South Beach
is a real thing, right and it's not that the
Miami Dolphins are such a great team. Is that when
you go down there, it takes a streame discipline and
when you have real leaders, you know, you you understand
that we can go to the shake um up in

(34:55):
the off season. Right now. This is about business, no, absolutely,
and uh you know, and that's the credit to everybody
in the locker room because there are those a lot
of those kind of conversations um, of of just education. UM.
And you know I'm somebody who I love learning. I'll
ask questions just to learn, you know, not that I'm
questioning you, but because I don't understand something. And you know,

(35:16):
the more information and education that you can spread, um
obviously the better. And like you said, you know it's
it's your own you know, it's your own grown man
decision whether you dabble in something or not. But you know,
if if I know something, if I have information that
I think could be healthful with somebody or anybody else
and I'm not sharing it, then you know I'm doing
a disservice to to my teammates, my brothers, my friends,

(35:38):
you know, everybody. Hey, Braxton, thanks for a couple of
minutes today on this victory Monday. Go enjoy it and
uh really continued success on the field. Close strong these
next two weeks. Happy New Year to you and your
family and always appreciate the time. Thank you guys, appreciate
it alright. That is Braxton Burials Mark Inside the Jets
coming up next, presented by e Y Building a Better

(35:58):
Working World and welcome back to Inside the Jets. Stand
across alongside Bart Scott and Inside the Jets is brought
to you by Draft Kings sports Book and official sports
betting partner in the NFL. Download the Draft King Sports
Book app today. Use code green for a special offer
when you sign up. It's only a Draft Kings sports book.
So two more weeks left in this NFL season, and

(36:19):
you're starting to see things kind of fall into place
a little bit, and more importantly, you're starting to see
teams maybe even play themselves out of it a little
bit with some disappointing play in the month of December,
which you know, it's not a cliche, right, you want
to play your best this time of year. You want
to be strong in the month of December. And unfortunately
there's some teams that didn't get that memo, Bart, But uh,
you know, it's like Survival of the fittest, right you

(36:40):
separate the contenders and the pretenders. Yeah, this year, I
think with COVID, we have an added element where you know,
teams are playing and they physically may be healthy, but
you know, because of COVID and being in a protocol,
they're not available for their team. And that's why you know,
you talk about the depth at your practice squad, and
you know how many people you have that there where

(37:00):
you can call up a quality player that can help
you get a win. You know, we saw the Ravens
esterday with Josh Johnson, he knows somebody who had played
with us. Whoever, there's just there for ten days that
had to be the starting quarterback. And that's that's tough
for any team. Right. So you talk about you see
other teams getting healthy from injury. I mean the fact
that the Rams can potend to get cam Acres back
for the playoffs after right, Yeah, going out with achilles, right,

(37:24):
you can kind of remind you of Rod Woodson. Rod
Woodson came back for the Super Bowl for the Steelers
after you know, blowing both of his achilles out, you know,
trying to tackle Barry Sanders in space early in the season.
You know, you know that, you know, trying Derrick Henry
may be coming back. You know. J. J. Watt has
been rumored that he may be able to get back
from that shoulder of peck injury. And you know that's

(37:44):
just what it is. It's like, you know, you see
some teams that just can't They just run out of
capable bodies, right, and then some teams just aren't playing well. Right.
We were ready to crown the Cardinals as the best
team in the NFC and they've lost four And this
is with Kyler Murray understanding that they don't have the
Andre Hawkins he he hasn't been able to get right
with that hamstring. But we talk about one hell, the

(38:05):
Ravens don't have you know, that didn't start the season
with their starting running back. They're you know, they're starting
running back cores. They lost the entire core, they lost
the entire secondary for the most part, and you know,
you feel for them, but nobody's gonna feel sorry because
it's not gonna be an asterisk on the whoever wins
the super Bowl this year, whoever wins Super Bowl. Listen,
they're they're gonna they're gonna be road words, they're gonna

(38:26):
be battle tests. They're gonna be a team that every
team in the NFL has had to face. Not something
I was right, they faced a lot, right, and um,
it's gonna be interested to see who rises up. But
you know, funny how when you have a premier franchise quarterback,
everything else around you can be in chaos. As long
as you have that a healthy quarterback, you have an

(38:49):
opportunity to win in this league and win consistently. We
see that in Green Bay, we see that in Tampa,
we see that at times in Los Angeles. You see
it in Cincinnati. Um so Into City is not bad either. Yeah,
And the guy I can't City has came back to
her mind is that he was a bad man. And understand,
it's not how you start, it's how you finish, no
doubt about it. And you know you mentioned at Arizona

(39:09):
a little while ago, there the game on Christmas Night
with Indianapolis going in there. You know, no Quentin Nelson,
who might be the best offensive lineman in the NFL.
Darius Leonard is down on the COVID list. Okay, so
that's two of your best players right there. Now for
lineman four, we know at least three of them are
Pro Bowlers, right And they still go in there and

(39:31):
beat Arizona. And you see the way the Colts have
kind of gathered some steam here the last couple of months.
As far as my money's worth, that is the team
that I would not want to see come playoff time
because they got a defense, they run the football. Those
two things work when you're talking about playoff football, especially
even on the road. The only X factor is Carson Wentz. Well,

(39:51):
Carson Wentz Givebeth and Carson Wentz to take up away.
And so I want up you. I want up you.
The NFC equivalent of the in Annapolis coach or in
San Francisco. And once again, Jimmy G, you'll throw you
out of it. As soon as you need to depend
on them, you'll throw you out of it. Now, Jimmy G.
I think it's playing a little bit better than Carson Wentz.

(40:12):
But those are the question mark you have for those
two teams. That's the team that nobody wants to face
because you're going to be the favorite against them because
you're gonna be the higher seed. But man, they can
come to your house. And both of those teams remind
me other teams that I was a part of with
the Jets, that we come in. You know, our quarterback
doesn't have to do much, make one or two plays,
but it's gonna be a tight game. And we're so accustomed,

(40:35):
we're so accustomed to being in tight games that we
didn't panic, that we didn't get nervous. They those other
teams that expected to be a blowout that needs to
win by ten or fourteen. You know, can't be in
one possession games because you know, pressure bust pipes and eventually,
you know, somebody's gotta make it play and an interception here,
interception there can mess everything up. It's gonna be exciting
to watch. You know, somebody's going to become a household

(40:57):
name during this tournament, and somebody's gonna become a goat.
And I'm not talking about the goat greatest of all time.
I'm talking about the goat, like the guy who was
responsible for the team blowing and win and losing because
they threw an untimedly interception or bad fumble. And that's
what you that's what you love to see because we've
seen at times guys like Eli Manning who limped their

(41:18):
way into the playoffs that catch fire and just go crazy.
We've seen guys like Joe Flacco wimp into the playoffs
and go crazy and win a Super Bowl. We've seen
you know, Aaron Rodgers and his only Super Bowl untitled
underneath his resume, limp in as a six seed and
go crazy. Is this one of the years where one

(41:40):
of the six seeds or this instance, seventh seed can
be just as dangerous as the number one seed. I
say yes. But even the Steelers in two thousand five,
remember when Roethlisberger was in his second year when they
beat the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. They came in
as a wild card. Nobody thought that they would go
all the way and they ended up doing it. It's
you know, we keep talking about you want to be
playing your best football this time of year. And you

(42:02):
know you mentioned Baltimore that game yesterday where look, Cincinnati
took it to him. Joe Burrow had an incredible game.
And now you think about the Bengals, the team that
the Jets beat earlier this season. Once upon a time,
I'm Halloween. They're looking down at everybody else in that
a f C North. We thought the Bengals would be better.
And I know that those other teams in that division, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cleveland,

(42:22):
they've all had some adversity, But I don't know if
anybody thought the Bengals would rise to the top of
this division, especially in year number two of Joe Burrow's career.
But given credit, now, you give them credit, man. They
they they've taken care of business and they've been up
and down like the stock market, right you. You look
at them and I kind of compare them where they're
at to to the charges right there, up and down,
and you never know when you're gonna get a dominating performance.

(42:44):
You talked about Joe Burrow throwing for five hundred yards.
I think that's the fourth best performance in the history
of the game, throwing for like five twenty five or
something like that. But I mean, let's be honest, I
have no idea who's playing defensive back for the for
the for the Ravens. Everett goes down early. I mean
at this point, I don't I don't even recognize that
they're putting out there. But listen, you don't apologize to that.

(43:06):
When it's your opportunity and and the football gods to
bless you with health, you take advantage of it. And
that's the team that Hey, they got a good defense.
Trey Henderson is a tremendous pass rusher. You know, he's
I think he's at a sack in his last seven
games or something crazy like that. We share agent their
defense that can get after they have two premier um
you know, safeties and Bates and Bell. They got some

(43:28):
pass rushers. They have the ability to be in games
when you have a special quarterback like Joe Burrow and
all those weapons. Are you talk about t Higgins who
sometimes it's the forgotten receiver there tomorrow Chase, you talk
about Tyler Boy, who's forgotten as well. You know they
can they can get busy and listen any given Sunday, right,
any given Sunday. And it's about locking in. And this

(43:50):
is where the playoffs is where your coaching staff comes
in and and to to play too. Who can put
together that r and clad game plan because what happens
is you're going for against team that sometimes you don't
have familiarity with, that you didn't play this year. So
you can jump on guys really early in the playoffs
because you haven't played him. When we played the Charges,
they hadn't seen us, They didn't know what it was like.

(44:12):
And when you watch teams on film, it doesn't look
right like, oh they are tight games, they're really not
exposed them on offense. But when they didn't, they're not
gonna be able to stop our offense. Wrong Cincinnati as well. Wrong,
And you talk about you know when when when we
when Payton saws it was wrong when Brady sauce for
the other time. They have familiarity. But that's the opportunities
when you go against opponents that you're used to going against,

(44:32):
where you use their knowledge against you, where you take
everything that they've studied about you and learned and having
their game plan and you and you switch it up.
So then when they think they know how you play
certain situations, it's opposite world and you use it against
them and and actually hurts them the fact that they
know you so well. Well he speaking of Brady, Jets
are gonna see him again coming up next Sunday, all

(44:55):
being in a different uniform the first time they're gonna
get a look at him. With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
defending Super Bowl champions, you know this team plays at
a high level. Tom Brady never played this Jets team
with this scheme per se necessarily, but you know that
the Jets are gonna have their handsful. Will be nice
to get some guys back off that COVID list to
suit up for this game. Well, it's gonna be in
the hands of Zach right because we understand it that

(45:17):
run defense is elite and there and Todd Bowl is
gonna put everything there. He's gonna have to make quick decisions.
He's gonna have to nowhere his hots are because he's
gonna force, you know, Zach Wilson to make quick decisions.
And and and if Zach goes into it, let me
guess and not know when confirmed what I see, it's
gonna be a long day, no doubt about it. Bart,
have a happy new Year, my friend, you and the family,

(45:40):
and we'll finish up strong. Two more to go. We'll
be back next week, buddy, But have a great holiday.
Absolutely happy new Year. Alright. He's Bart Scott. I'm Dan Garrossa.
Thanks for joining us here once again on Inside the
Jets presented by e Y Building a better working World.
Happy New Year, everybody,