Countdown to Kickoff: Fred Taylor, Jaguars-Vikings

Pride of the Jaguars running back Fred Taylor joins J.P. Shadrick on Countdown to Kickoff on the Jaguars Radio Network ahead of the Week 13 game against the Vikings.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Countdown to kickoff continues as the Jaguars visit the Minnesota
Vikings today at one o'clock kickoff time j P. Shadrick
each week joined by a pride of the Jaguars running
back Fred Taylor. Hello, Fred, what's up? JP? More football man?
Gotta love it, gotta love it. Let's keep having football.
I know there's some games that have been in question

(00:20):
the last couple of weeks, but so far, so good
for the Jacksonville Jaguars in terms of getting these games played.
Biggest news of the week Dave Colrell out as a
general manager. He started here in he had a playoff
rount in teen. There was some success in the later
rounds of the draft, not as much success at the
top of the draft, and I think that's the big key.

(00:42):
Now what for the Jaguars, you know, now what they
bring someone in and bring someone else in to call
the shots. You know, hopefully someone that will work in
a joint coordinated effort with the head coach to get
the type of players they need to fill the roster
and fill their philosophy. You know, a lot of times
uh gms and head coaches that have different ideologies and

(01:06):
philosophies and they don't mesh well. And I can put
a strain on the organization top down as it relates
to to to Dave Caldwell, I I really I like
Dave a lot. I think he's an awesome person. The
NFL is a business, more business than personal. The quarterback position,
I think that sort of hurt uh Dave earlier on

(01:27):
you know, the whole Blake borders that thing there. Although
they did have the one that run three years ago,
the defense was amazing. They built an amazing defense, so
I do give them credit for that, having one of
the best defenses, uh, statistically in the history of the
game at different points throughout that season. You're not measured
on one shot. It's about consistency in the NFL. UH.

(01:51):
And usually that comes from the quarterback position. First. If
you're gonna be a team that's in it every year,
look at the successful teams around the NFL is the
quarterback position. And then you build out from there. Uh.
And you pretty much can do anything through draft, through
free agency. And unfortunately one of Dave's first picks was

(02:11):
the quarterback position and that didn't pan out. So it
created this trickle down effect and this is what we
have now. Hopefully going forward, uh shot Uh, the decision
makers in the front office, they can find somebody out
to get in there, and that would be solid, you know,
get us some solid picks in work coordination with with

(02:32):
the head coach whatever they're gonna do there. Uh and
and and hopefully that will all translate to wins for
the Jaguar fan base. And really that's all that matters.
The fans don't care about all this stuff. They just
want to see wins. The one way to get in
the stadium enjoy you know, spending their hard earned money,

(02:53):
seeing a great product on the field and enjoying their Sundays.
That's all they care about. Fred Taylor with us to
the Jaguars running back. So now it's on the Minnesota
and a really good battle of running backs here, of course,
James Robinson, the rookie for the Jaguars, and then Dalvin
Cook for Minnesota, the second best running back in terms

(03:13):
of yardage in the league this year. You gotta love
this matchup, Fred, You know, I do love the match up.
I've been a fan of Dalvin since his his days
at Florida State. Although he was a seminar but I
was still a fan. I my you know, his style
of run. I thought I always thought that he was
getting the NFL to have a successful career, you know,

(03:34):
not so much earlier on. You know, they they compared
him to a lot of the other guys around the league,
and he was slowed due to a few injuries. When
coach Kennedy Poland my old position coach, when they got
up there in Minnesota, and they adapted that that style
of play they had here under with under coach Pola

(03:54):
in the run game coordinator with myself from our reice,
we were very successful. Kp he reached out a lot
to me, you know, he talked about Dalvin and what
the young man brought to the table. He put us
on the phone together. He allowed myself to share my
experiences with with d C with Dalvin, and Dalvin started

(04:15):
training at my facility with coach Pete Bamrito here in
South Florida, and his career skyrocketed. I mean, he's having
a great last two years. He's been running really well,
really efficient, and he's learning how to stay healthy. And
and and James Robinson he'll do the same. You know,
He's having a pretty solid rookie campaign. He's really the

(04:37):
highlight of the entire team, you know, more than anything else.
That's usually what you're gonna get from the running back position, though,
you know, we we were that spark that the entire
ball club needs. But he's doing his job. Uh, he's
making the guys up front excited about blocking again in
the run game. He's doing it in the past game.

(04:57):
And uh, he's definitely been a great find for the Jaguars.
And again all the days out of the building, you
know that decision was made between he and coach Marone,
but again, um it wasn't through the draft. But he's
still a solid player, never the case, whatever the case
may be, and luckily he's on our side. Fred Taylor

(05:19):
with a final thoughts here, Fred, you know there's five
games left. The team's officially eliminated from postseason contention. They've
already made a change in the front office. Who knows
what other changes could come down the line here, but
there's still five football games left to be played. You know,
Doug Brone is trying to go out and get the
best out of this team that he can and still
try to win games. How difficult is it to to

(05:42):
stay motivated, to stay locked in, first as a football
team and then as an individual player when you know
at the end of the day, you're you're not going anywhere,
you know. I want to start from the individual side
and then look at it from the team aspect. I
think from an individual side, the guys are motivated from.
You know, some guys may have, you know, certain incentives

(06:03):
that they're close to hitting. Uh. Some guys just want
to put something on tape. You know, you got a
lot of young guys out there due to injuries that
they they understand that, hey, this might be my last shot.
Who knows, So I have to put some film on
tape and give myself an opportunity. And I think that's
a motivating factor. And how hungry these guys are gonna

(06:25):
be throughout the remaindering, pushed portion of the season. And
then now I want to talk about the team effort.
I think the key part for that is how well
they're communicating in the building throughout all of this madness
with COVID UH this whole season, UH, dealing with their
injuries and their personal frustrations. How well they're communicating these

(06:49):
these last five weeks, you know, how important it is
to them, uh from an individual standpoint, and now I
think that all bill on the team side, uh, the coaches.
The coaches want to finish for the bank. They don't
want to lose. You know. People tend to joke and say, well,
they're jockeying for position to to get the number one pick.
I don't know how true that is, because when you're

(07:11):
between the choke, you just want to go out there
and play your butts off. Coaches want to coach their
tails off, you know, because they know it's about opportunity
for them as well. So, UM, I don't know how
they're gonna you know, how it translates to the overall
team picture, but I do know that you have guys
in the building definitely. Over the last couple of weeks

(07:32):
have shown that they're hungry, they're still passionate about football.
The end result hadn't been great, it's not what they've wanted,
but they're out there playing their butts off. They're playing
hard down to the last whistle, and that's what I'm
excited to see. I'm excited to see the young guys
out there scrapping and hopefully those are building blocks that
will get us to where we want to be. You know,

(07:53):
where we were three years ago and hopefully where we
can be within the next three year window. As the
entire French Fred, great stuff. As always, We will talk
to you again in the post game coming up a
little later. I'm gonna see you there, Fred Taylor, pride
of the Jaguars running back and up next, the final
Word with head coach Doug Brone ahead of the Jaguars
and the Vikings in Week thirteen. This is countdown to

(08:15):
Kickoff on Jaguars Radio.