October 21, 2024 • 31 mins
On this episode of the Coach McVay Show, general manager Les Snead joins J.B. Long and D’Marco Farr to recap Sunday's win against the Las Vegas Raiders, discuss defensive production, evaluate undrafted free agents making impacts, reflect on relationship with head coach Sean McVay, and much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello everyone, hope you're having a great Monday night. Thank
you for spending part of it with us. Welcome to
the Coach McVeigh Show presented by Microsoft Surface with our
special guests GM, Lesnie DeMarco, far jb.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Long.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
As we often do on these short weeks, Less is
kind enough to give us some of his time while
the coaching staff gets to work on their game plan
for the Minnesota Vikings. Unless we're in a rut there
for a little while a few years on these short
weeks on a losing streak. It's good to have you
back on a winning streak now. A couple of victory
Monday appearances, Yes, sir, I like it. Let's keep it rolling.
(00:37):
Big picture thoughts on the win over the Raiders, the
defensive driven victory for win number.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Two, that's I think that's the theme, right. The defense
which is really neat, young, not very experienced defense in
terms of years in the league. That's what That's how
the defense was engineered. So to see them evolve each week,
start to play more as a collective, not just as individuals,
and then cash in where you really really go out
(01:03):
and make the play. Probably most of our points, if
not all, of them were off of turnovers caused created
engineers disturbed by the defense. So that's that's always fun
to see.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I can't care less about style points. Win is a win,
is a win. This team needed a win. You got
it on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, there's the I think. I think in the moment.
Uh right, we don't have a game until Thursday, some
until Sunday. You're going to talk about style right aftermath,
the style of the aftermath. Now again, it's a I
like to I like to call the seasons like the
Tour de France. It's seventeen stages. So at the end
of the day, yes, there's there's wins and losses on
(01:42):
each stage of the way. How you won that stage
or lost that stage, that's But when we get to
the final and that that final yellow jackets awarded to
especially the bicyclist in France, you don't really talk about. Okay,
how is stage four one? It was just you know
what that counted as a win and you're wearing the
(02:03):
yellow jersey today?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
How about what Chris Shula and the defensive staff did
in the lab during the bye week. There's been a
lot of tweaks especially over these last couple of games,
and in the back end in particular, it seems to
be coming together less well.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It's really really neat to see Chris. Let's call it
put there's you know, I would say this the Rams
we have a let's go, there's a DNA to how
we play defense. But always encourage Chris to okay, add
your DNA, your personality, your authenticity to it. And also right,
(02:36):
who we have, what they do? Well, That's always the
thing all really good coaches do in the lab is
is who do we have? What are their superpowers? Let's
accentuate the superpowers. And to see Chris his defensive staff
come together and do that is is always a very
fulfilling thing.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I'm happy when Jared Verse makes a play because it
helps the Rams win, but I really enjoy watching him play.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
I really do.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Times you could say he might have been the best
player on the field. Is that what you saw when
you drafted him? That that potential?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
You know, you what, here's what There's some people you
watch play football and there's an element of hey, we
can grade evaluate rate their skill. This is how they're
this is what they're good at. But then there's those
players where even though film is two D one D,
I don't even know what film is, you're not playing
(03:26):
against him, but you can feel people right when when
they're out there. He's one of those guys that had
that physics right then. That's usually some element of a
combination of probably size, power, explosiveness, tenacity, urgency, just putting
it all together and you're like, wow, that's a you
feel him when he goes.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
To execute him and a serious case of want to
like he wants you to be that guy.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
That's the urgency. I talked about it. And the interesting
thing a lot of the players on our defense, you know,
that's their that's their makeup. We've talked about it a
lot internally. Is is even early in the season when
we weren't quite let's call it, playing totally together as
a collective. There are these moments where we're disruptive, like
(04:15):
we're we're like these individual tornadoes, but we haven't necessarily
become a collective yet. And that's still to come too.
It's not solved yesterday. It's not engineer, it's not totally
evolved yesterday. We'll see this group still go through some
ups and downs, but you can feel how they're going
to evolve what they've always been able to do, like
(04:37):
Jared versus is create engineer disruption.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I hear you on that, and it feels like there's
still meat left on that bone, right in terms of
opportunities that are not yet converted.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
I know our audience has been focused on that for
much of the first month.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
But zooming out, like in the post Aaron Donald universe,
when you plan for scenarios, this had to be about
the best case scenario in terms of impacting an opposing passer,
like without the greatest who's ever done it? The group
you've assembled in what they've done through a handful of.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Game and that we always knew that that was a plan,
that was the vision. What's interesting is Chris, his staff,
myself from thirty thousand feet, but they're the ones that
are in the lab this week right trying to figure
out how to get the other team off the field.
But there is an element of okay, we can conceptionally
(05:27):
walk through visualize what it's going to be like without
Aaron Donald, And there's an element in the off season
whenever you can conceptualize, wow, there's going to be a
void there. One of the greatest ever is not going
to be there. What's interesting is all of a sudden,
you start playing these teams and they're running plays against
you that historically they haven't run because Aaron changed the math.
(05:51):
They did things differently against the Rams, Like wait a minute, wow,
all of a sudden, their playbooks opened up a little
more than it used to be. You those guys have
had to kind of live through that and understand, Okay,
this is this is different. You know, it's it's almost
like you're playing the offenses are like, you know what,
Aaron Donald's not there. We're really going to open up
our playbook, where in the past it was okay, we
(06:14):
can maybe do you know, you get your coaches got
their big Excel spreadsheet. It's like, we'll just cut it
down the half against Aaron.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Donald, everything that pulling guards are back in the in
the game plant but Kobe turns Aaron Fisk has made plays.
Michael Hoyt is a psycho out there. I mean, you
love to see these guys psycho in a good way,
in a good way. In a good way, he just
makes plays the emotional leader.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
But when you.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Can use the word psycho and it's actually it's a
good thing.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
It's a compliment, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, you can't just do that anywhere, but in football,
absolutely the best thing about it.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
I get arrested, But I mean when you hit on
a guy like Jared Verus or even a Braden Fisk.
But what about undrafted rookie free agents, we're touching, tugging
my hearts. Yeah, Jalen McCall comes up two picks, I
mean versus there, it's obvious you had to find this guy,
and here he is making plays. That's got to make
you feel good.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
This is a great time to talk about. You said
you had to find this guy. This is that's that's
that's our college scouting staff. I mean, as a GM,
you're going to you're especially when you have a first
round pick and maybe you're gonna trade up for fisks. Right,
You're spending a lot of energy trying to make sure
of all the players who are available at those picks. Right,
(07:30):
who do we pick? Who do we not pick? And
you're not necessarily worried about who you get after the draft.
But it's really neat to see. I can remember when uh,
when I do know this towards the end there you
see the favorites of all right, this is who our
college free agency kind of committees, scouts working with the
(07:50):
defensive back coaches on who they want, and you can
kind of see, all right, these are and so you
start game planning who would you draft late, who wouldn't
you things like that neat thing is on mister McCully
is just reading its profile. Didn't even have to turn
on any tape at Tennessee. Just reading his profile, You're like,
you know what, I bet on that guy making the team,
(08:12):
and not only making the team, contributing. You can just
maybe wasn't the fastest in a forty all those things,
but you could just see his production, what his makeup is,
especially playing the safety position. I go for that to say,
college scouting staff, personnel staff on enough, not just myself.
They come together that you know, make things like that happen.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
That is a bit like college recruiting, right that after
draft process, because there's a financial component to it, sure,
but a lot of it is opportunity driven. Like when
you're pitching yourselves the rams to a McCullough, to a
Josh Wallace to an Omar space, you're saying spend this
off season with us, and you might be a pro.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, that's I know, there's that's a recruiting pitch. Sometimes
when you're dealing with gen Z a little bit chaos. Hey,
here's the recruiting pitch. You're gonna get to play a
lot in the pre season. And historically we have, right,
so many college free agents that not only make the
team but play right and Troy Reider being one of them.
(09:11):
So we go down the interesting thing on the financial
component nowadays, right, what's what we haven't played that game
is teams will guarantee a portion of their let's call
it salary if they make the team. A lot of
times it's up to what would be uh, let's call
(09:32):
it their practice squad salary for the year, where we're
just giving the player a signing bonus. There's a cap
on the signing bonus for the pool of players. So
usually financially, historically, I will say this the guys recruiting
for us, they're like, wow, we're empty handed.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Now not the Oregon Ducts of the NFL.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
But here's what's interesting. A lot of times what players
don't know, especially when they're getting recruited. On the other
they haven't been in the business long enough, is okay.
If I'm pretty solid, I'll be on the practice squad.
So that guarantee they were gonna make anyway, right, See
what I'm saying. Teams are just guarantee that they make
the prie. What nice little Here's the neat thing about
(10:15):
what we found here. The way we do it is
players who come here, you know, they're betting on themselves
and they're hungry. It's not okay. Guess what, I You know,
I've got to guaranteed almost practice squad spot. I can
coast you know, you can kind of feel with our guys,
but I give our our our college scouts, our coaches
who go through the recruiting processes, they're empty handed. Hopefully
(10:37):
I explained it well enough for the fans. But the
neat thing is, you see that group come in and compete.
They're almost the guys that going. You know what, I'm
gonna bett on myself and I'll end up with at
minimum of the practice squad salary, but maybe more maybe,
and get one of those fifty three sounds.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
Chuck Knox told me they'll take a playoff.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
He's gonna cut all I need to know a lot
of guarantees. That's it. So like, did you ever tell
I didn't take that playoff? I was just actually tired, Oh,
I said, was yes, coach, thank you?
Speaker 5 (11:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
On defense, I think we've taken a long lens on
this thing and we're starting to see it move towards fruition.
On offense, maybe not so much the plan as I
think you and Sean and others drew it up, got
disrupted early, and they've not yet clicked on all cylinders.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
I think those days are still ahead.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
But where are you in terms of the lack of
offensive production relative to what we thought was going to
be a team that might, you know, kind of lead
the way with hopefully.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Definitely disrupted definitely a reason, But like I said, reasons
or reasons, I think what we had to do internally
is continue doing what we have done a well aware
of the disruption. But now we're evolving with the group
we have what can we do? What can we not do?
And again, sometimes your opponent's going to dictate it, but
(11:49):
oftentimes we say, in these cases, there's this element of
an ideal, and if there is an ideal, right, there's
probably an equal and opposite reaction to that, and that
there's a less idea. And interestingly, when you do whether
you're in the ideal or less ideal, there's still a
game to play, right, and that game doesn't really care
(12:10):
whether what stage of the ideal you're in, and they're
still going to keep score. There's still going to be
a win and a law. So again, I think what
we say internally is when we're optimal, let's try to
make the most of it, right. But oh, by the way,
when we're less optimal, can we still somehow make a
profit the day? Again, that goes into your style points, right,
(12:32):
we weren't if we were optimal, maybe we have a
little more style points right, make a little more profit.
But at the end of the day, if we just
make a little bit of pro how do we make
the most of these less ideal situations? And sometimes it's
a process. Sometimes it's learning, right, what this collective is
actually good at? And sometimes guess what you got to
(12:53):
do to win? You got to lose first, to learn
some lessons on try to win, and again, try to
win sometimes without without style, And that's that's what we're
trying to do.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I hear that a lot why can't you guys just
do X, Y and Z. Well, it's not that easy.
It's you have to implement. There's a lot that goes
into game planning. But over the course of your career,
I mean, what haven't you gone through. I mean you've
gone through where your all line is decimated you're going
through right now, or you lose your top two receivers.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
What haven't you gone through? What haven't you been prepared for?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I think it if you're in this, I mean, this
is coming up on let's call it a totality of
thirty years in the NFL. Not quite there yet, Maybe
thirteen is a general match there. Here's what I do know.
Anytime you start a season, now again, you can start
a season and not be quiet ideal, right, But wherever
(13:48):
you start the season, you know there is going to
be some version of disruption, some version of chaos that's
going to be not necessarily in your favor. And I
think the better teams, right, they deal with those. When
they deal with those, are the ones that again, when
this seventeen stage, let's call it regular season race tour,
(14:10):
is over, they're the ones left standing to get to
go on to the to the next round. So that's
how you got to look at stay in the moment,
Stay in play. We could ruminate. We could rewind and
talk about the good old days, but that does you
know good. We could fast forward and talk about maybe
when players are coming back, end of the day. Guess
(14:31):
what where it's today? We got Minnesota Vikings on Thursday night.
In this moment, stay in play, fast forward, rewinds doing
this now.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I hope we don't have to scrub too far ahead
to see Cooper cup. It sounds like this Thursday might
be the day. What's your level of anticipation for his
ability to make things right, not just for the offense,
but for this entire organization.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
You know, I think he's he's definitely going to help, right,
And there's that's Cooper's Cooper, He's been Cooper. But again,
there's even with that, even though he's coming back healthy, right,
things may not be exactly like there were at the
end of OTAs when we had him and Pooka. Right,
(15:10):
they might not be like they were the first half
of the Detroit game when we had him and Pooka
and healthier people. So at the end of the day,
there will still be an element of disruption when he
comes back, because right, we're still trying to figure out
who we are with the collective, and that's what that's
the puzzle your people. But at the end of the day,
(15:31):
Cooper cup is a net positive and we'll figure out, right,
how many plays he plays, what type of packages he plays,
and go from there.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I can't wait till they all come back, Pookah Cooper.
Everybody comes back and you have a full offense, you
have your Kyroen numbers. Right, is there ever a time
where you could call him underrated Kyron Williams like an
underrated running back. Are we not giving him enough credit
for how good he really is?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
You know, I don't y'all tell me. I don't necessarily
that's called I hate, don't be offended, but I don't
listen to y'all every single day. So are y'all not
giving him his due? No? We do, we do.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
But go ahead, Yeah, this is awesome, But.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I get I can understand where you're going.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
He and Derrick Henry are on a list of two.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Put it that way for the time being, King Henry
and yes, and and so come on, let's go give
made some context.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Maybe we're not giving him enough praise for how good
he is, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
He's definitely had a really really it's called it when
he got back last year from the IR situation. From
there to now, he's been a big part of our
offense for sure. I know this I where I watched
the game right and there's television own. Usually you're watching
the game, but tape delayed, you can turn around. I
did see a graphic that came up that I mean,
(16:52):
he had tied some greats for most consecutive games with
a TV. Maybe not number one, but he seemed like
he had gotten too, maybe second or third place amongst
a lot of really really Now La Dani and Thomas
is a good place to be chasing. LT's got a
pretty good lead in that Tour de France, you know
what I mean. But at the end of the day,
(17:12):
it seems like Colin was definitely climbing climbing the leaderboard there.
That'll let you know if you that's the hardest thing
to do in football probably is score a touchdown, right,
things get really really tight. I always say that when
you get in the red zone, they have the best
safety in football, that back end zone line. It's like
it's like one big safety who's the width of the field. Yeah,
(17:34):
you know what I mean. So it's like, wow, you
so now things get whether you're running or passing, it's
a little bit a little bit harder. So to get
down there and be someone that it just seems like
he consistently scores when.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
He's down there.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
That safety never busts, never gets flagged for a penalty either.
It's a it's super annoying. How about the guy you
drafted to be his backup and Blake Corum emerging kind
of at the midway port.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
The neat thing about I think with Blake is is
he's someone similar to Jared Bursey you're talking about is
when when he has run the ball, probably need to
start running him a little bit more, or you know
what I mean. Kirraen may be offended, but we got
to give him a break at some point, right, can't
always calm the mountain on the tour the France and
if we just keep you know, running that metaphor into
(18:17):
the ground. But at the end of the day, then
what I'm trying to say is when he does make
a cut, there's a violent cut there. Right when he
does make contact with a defender to try to get
more yards after. There's a violence there that you feel.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
And I do think.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I do think as the season evolves, we'll we'll feel
him and he'll definitely begin contributing a little more than
he even is.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Now, he didn't give me the Kiren numbers. Thought, you're
gonna give.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Me something special, something special. We talked about King Henry
and LT. I think he's doing just fine, but there
was no numbers said with a rushing touch there we.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Go nine straight games with the rushing touchdown. Come on,
that's what I mean. Maybe we're not giving him an.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Even I knew that. Come on, what do you got else?
Speaker 5 (18:59):
You got it?
Speaker 4 (19:00):
I mean, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
I was trying to think about the peloton that, like
every every cyclist needs someone to draft a little bit
right over the course of a seventeen stage season, should
we talk to some kicking like it seems like second
and third chance kickers are kind of like some of
the most consistent across the league. Now, I'm not saying
that that Cardon needs a second or third opportunity, but
where are you with your rookie kicker? As he kind
(19:25):
of wabbles a little bit here in recentlyak.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
As you stick with him, I think we've we've been
going through this kicking thing for the last few years.
Here's what's really really interesting is if you've with rookie kickers.
If you if a rookie kicker was very successful in college,
there is moments during probably his rookie season, and even
(19:48):
in Cardi's sake, it hasn't really happened yet, but he
has missed his last two kicks where they may go
through a slump. Usually kickers who were successful in college
right after the rookie sometime they'll get it back on
and they become a little bit more consistent. Right, but
I forget you may know his numbers. Is he nine
of eleven total? I mean, if he only ends up
(20:10):
with two misses, whatever, that's a good year. What I
am trying to say is there is this subset of
sometimes we take these kickers who probably were a little
less accurate in college, but they have really strong legs, right,
and if as rookies or what have you, as young kickers,
if they somewhat become a little less accurate, they sometimes
(20:31):
never get it back because they never really were. They
just if we go to golf they were able to
really drive the ball, but maybe landed in the rough
instead of the fairway sometimes. So Cardi is one of
those players. One of the reasons we drafting that right
was accurate from many distances for a lot of years
at Stanford, and usually right. The probability says that he'll
(20:54):
will he will basically at the end of the day,
that'll transcend that right translate to our league and be
very similar to how he was at Stanford.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
They're just like every other player.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
I mean, you you can pat him on the back,
say you're still my guy, go out and nail the
next one.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Right, That's how it goes.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
That's how it is, other than probably to Marco, if
you're a defensive lineman and you're you're out of gap
and someone bails you out, and hey, if you're at
a gap and there's a ten yard run, it's like, wow,
was DeMarco trying to get an edge there and make
a TfL and he left us hanging. But really it's
(21:31):
the average fans not really like man I just but
when you're a kicker and it doesn't go between those
yellow posts, it's like, okay, it's it's either a pass
or fail in your case, kind of out a gap
C plus for the day.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
What do we say about aeron production? Equal tolerance.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
See, as long as I make big plays, I can
make a mistake or too, but not place kickers. That's
the way that goes.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Well technically they can't. It's just they're just probably again
in the style in the in the aftermath.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
It's I was gonna say, game winner against San Francisco.
He's still got some runway to burn some credit.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
That's a past day, right, that's a past day. Well,
really in the style points that's an eight plus day.
Right he grew up a San Francisco fan. Then he says,
you know what, I'm a ram Now we'll put the
dagger in the Niners. I mean that's an eight plus.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
I don't want to be that here. Yes, big time.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
We were talking about the turnaround the special teams has
made on punt last season.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
Problem this year, Wow, going down and covering.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
I think you chase his staff, players, everyone evolving, trying
to get better. Like you said, you're there's some lessons
to learned from last year, and they were learned. But
I give everyone you know credit for doing their part.
As we've tried to figure out a way to settle
the special teams down.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Let's what can you say about this moment in time? Like,
it's not lost on Rams fans that at two and
four the division's flat. They're still in the thick of it.
Last year we saw the Rams win a couple of
home games in five days at Sofi Stadium. We're all
hoping they can replicate that formula. And then you got
your first chance at Seattle on the back side of that,
with the trade deadline looming, What context can you give us?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Context is the hardest thing you can do. Stay and play.
If we rewind, it would be like, wow, what if
we'd have beaten Chicago? What if we had come through
against Queen? What if we were through? Hey, then you
fast forward, stay and play seventeen game stage a little
bit like last year. Not saying it's going to happen,
(23:32):
but if we can kind of stay in the moment
and write, try to win games, play quality football first,
win the games. At the end of the day, the
math will usually catch up, right the math, But if
you start, if you and I get it's tough, right
if you're a fan, if you start doing the math,
a little bit too early. The hole could look a
(23:53):
little bit deeper. But again, whatever the hole is now
is irrelevant. It's what it is later. And I think,
I think internally, I've always thought personally when I chat
with people around the building, is this, look, if you
start slow, we will feel an element of fulfillment if
(24:17):
we finished strong. And if you finish strong, right at
that point, that's when you can really look up at
the map and you go, you know what, that's when
you can start playing off. We'd only won this game,
we were this seed or what have you. Key is
try to stay in a moment, try to play quality
football one game at a time. And and again it
(24:39):
could we could be fortunate and win on Thursday night,
but that doesn't You better stay in the moment because
that win could easily be erased, right if you come
back and and don't stay in the moment.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
I was never knocked out of my gap, just to
correct that over there, but.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I bet you, I bet you he intentionally ran O
out of his Yet here's all there.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
If you go do a little search on the short
list of rams have had a sack and an interception
in the same game, it's probably the only conversation that
you'll ever see Kobe Durant and DeMarco Farr together in.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I can tell you that I can remember probably I
was probably a Falcon then, and at one time we
were in the Rams Division right with the the old
NFC West. Yes, I don't know why Falcons and Rams
were in the West. I guess Rams were LA. There's
only one team in the Yeah it was Saint Louis.
But there there isn't Now when you played demor you
knew this. His helmet was probably getting into the offensive
(25:41):
backfield before anyone's else. There's you did. I bet you
the ol did not want.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
To play was Bobby Aber was them in Atlanta?
Speaker 4 (25:49):
See there you go, good memory.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
That's one of the reasons I think we're fortunate to
have this conversation with you today. Is it because it
comes out of a unique moment in Rams history where
Sean McVay, with this week's victory tie John Robinson a
top of the Rams all time win total list and
as one of the guys.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Yeah wow, one of the guys.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Show is like you learned things.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
In the room where it happened, right, I mean it
must feel like yesterday too. You and I know we've
told this story a million times, but can you reflect
on this burst of history that the Rams have had
together in your partnership. It seems so obvious in retrospect
how it was destined to work out, but I'm sure
on the front end that was not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, on the front end, it it's a it's a bet.
But you know what, when you do the vetting, you
do the research, you feel like that the BET's gonna
going to work out. Uh. It's It's interesting though, as
we're in this moment. It's sometimes it's hard to to
enjoy these moments when you're I call it, we're still
(26:47):
on active duty, We're still in the season, and it's like, okay,
reflect but that is it's interesting if you were to say, okay,
you think, uh, we're making a quality higher Uh in Sean,
even if we would have said you know what, and
obviously we did, we all said it, and especially Stan,
(27:11):
he was the one that right made the final call
and said, okay, I want to hand the keys of
the franchise to Sean in terms of the head coaching job.
And then that even if you thought, okay, we're going
to get an a does that A mean, you're the
you know, you tie the franchise record wins.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
So I didn't know that not surprising based on the
it's so sometimes just surprising that Sean and I talking
what was it? How many years have we been together?
I mean when we say the number eight is eight, eight, like, wow,
we've been together eight years. So it's not surprising when
you say, okay, eight, we've had some success that she's
getting close to to that's pretty.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
I mean, that point's well taken that you all optimistic
about that decision. Otherwise you wouldn't have selected it. But
if we had told anyone from ownership on down at
that moment that you're about to hire the winningest coach
in franchise history, that would have made an impression.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Because you think about it here, I mean, there's this
is I mean there's been some I mean, yeah, Chuck Knox,
Dick for mil So. I don't know who's two, three,
four or five, but there has been I mean Alan,
I mean, there's been a lot of names here. How
long they coach. I'm not, as let's call it nuanced
(28:29):
in the exact history.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
But consistency the truest measure of performance. Right, isn't that
one of Sean's favorite sayings. Yes, And what's cool is
that it applies to him equally.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I wonder what your record is as a GM. We
need to look that up. That's got to be at
the top of the list. See, I need to know
this stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah, I hadn't. Again, when you're on active duty, I
don't think you ever figure out, Okay, what's your your record?
The interesting thing is I would probably if I went
to look at my record, I would probably look at
the first My eyes would go to where the losses
and I'd go, Man, I felt those That's why I
got gray hair.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Yeah, I point to some of the wins, like the
Aaron Donald.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Guy and more recently he's college free agents and how
about Jordan Whittington. Yes, Day three continues to be a
fertile soil for less need and.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
His and some gold.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Your whole scouting department, some good players and you got
guys to coach them up.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
So yes, you had the inside scoop though from Austin
though that had to be one of your easier ones.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Right, You know what that I we joke a lot
of time if I'm I'm an area scout for one school,
and that's Texas right now. So we should, you know,
we should, we should be able to get those somewhat right.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Keep dipping into Tennessee too, whether it's Agent zero B.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
You got to listen, Yeah you can't. You know, I'm
the area scout for Texas and uh and then let
everybody else dominate their role in the other school.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Good job calling Dibbs on that one. It's a pretty
good program to be ra a thought on Thursday. You
want to preview the Vikings for us before we wrap
this up.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Quality team offensively and defensively. Maybe they're so good on
they're playing so well on both sides of the ball
that I'm not even sure how their special teams are doing.
I think you think of the Vikings, you think of
what coach Flores is doing with their defense. Definitely fun
(30:23):
to watch, probably not fun to play him, and really
cool to see an alumni in coach O'Connell work with
the entire team and the offensive side of the ball
and what they've been able to do right especially at
QB as they've made a transition and even had injuries
at times. Would Kirk and have the success they've had
(30:46):
so they're gonna be definitely, definitely I know this. They're
gonna play quality football.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
No doubt.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
We're on the Minnesota long Live lesson, Sean, here's your
next seventy nine and eighty.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Wins in eight years of partnership.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I like and to the coach McVeigh show less need
winning streak continuing. Let's get the three Microso have.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
A great week with everyone.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
I hope we can see you Thursday at so Far.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Mm hmmmmmmmmm
Hello everyone, hope you're having a great Monday night. Thank
you for spending part of it with us. Welcome to
the Coach McVeigh Show presented by Microsoft Surface with our
special guests GM, Lesnie DeMarco, far jb.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Long.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
As we often do on these short weeks, Less is
kind enough to give us some of his time while
the coaching staff gets to work on their game plan
for the Minnesota Vikings. Unless we're in a rut there
for a little while a few years on these short
weeks on a losing streak. It's good to have you
back on a winning streak now. A couple of victory
Monday appearances, Yes, sir, I like it. Let's keep it rolling.
(00:37):
Big picture thoughts on the win over the Raiders, the
defensive driven victory for win number.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Two, that's I think that's the theme, right. The defense
which is really neat, young, not very experienced defense in
terms of years in the league. That's what That's how
the defense was engineered. So to see them evolve each week,
start to play more as a collective, not just as individuals,
and then cash in where you really really go out
(01:03):
and make the play. Probably most of our points, if
not all, of them were off of turnovers caused created
engineers disturbed by the defense. So that's that's always fun
to see.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I can't care less about style points. Win is a win,
is a win. This team needed a win. You got
it on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, there's the I think. I think in the moment.
Uh right, we don't have a game until Thursday, some
until Sunday. You're going to talk about style right aftermath,
the style of the aftermath. Now again, it's a I
like to I like to call the seasons like the
Tour de France. It's seventeen stages. So at the end
of the day, yes, there's there's wins and losses on
(01:42):
each stage of the way. How you won that stage
or lost that stage, that's But when we get to
the final and that that final yellow jackets awarded to
especially the bicyclist in France, you don't really talk about. Okay,
how is stage four one? It was just you know
what that counted as a win and you're wearing the
(02:03):
yellow jersey today?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
How about what Chris Shula and the defensive staff did
in the lab during the bye week. There's been a
lot of tweaks especially over these last couple of games,
and in the back end in particular, it seems to
be coming together less well.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It's really really neat to see Chris. Let's call it
put there's you know, I would say this the Rams
we have a let's go, there's a DNA to how
we play defense. But always encourage Chris to okay, add
your DNA, your personality, your authenticity to it. And also right,
(02:36):
who we have, what they do? Well, That's always the
thing all really good coaches do in the lab is
is who do we have? What are their superpowers? Let's
accentuate the superpowers. And to see Chris his defensive staff
come together and do that is is always a very
fulfilling thing.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I'm happy when Jared Verse makes a play because it
helps the Rams win, but I really enjoy watching him play.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
I really do.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Times you could say he might have been the best
player on the field. Is that what you saw when
you drafted him? That that potential?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
You know, you what, here's what There's some people you
watch play football and there's an element of hey, we
can grade evaluate rate their skill. This is how they're
this is what they're good at. But then there's those
players where even though film is two D one D,
I don't even know what film is, you're not playing
(03:26):
against him, but you can feel people right when when
they're out there. He's one of those guys that had
that physics right then. That's usually some element of a
combination of probably size, power, explosiveness, tenacity, urgency, just putting
it all together and you're like, wow, that's a you
feel him when he goes.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
To execute him and a serious case of want to
like he wants you to be that guy.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
That's the urgency. I talked about it. And the interesting
thing a lot of the players on our defense, you know,
that's their that's their makeup. We've talked about it a
lot internally. Is is even early in the season when
we weren't quite let's call it, playing totally together as
a collective. There are these moments where we're disruptive, like
(04:15):
we're we're like these individual tornadoes, but we haven't necessarily
become a collective yet. And that's still to come too.
It's not solved yesterday. It's not engineer, it's not totally
evolved yesterday. We'll see this group still go through some
ups and downs, but you can feel how they're going
to evolve what they've always been able to do, like
(04:37):
Jared versus is create engineer disruption.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I hear you on that, and it feels like there's
still meat left on that bone, right in terms of
opportunities that are not yet converted.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
I know our audience has been focused on that for
much of the first month.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
But zooming out, like in the post Aaron Donald universe,
when you plan for scenarios, this had to be about
the best case scenario in terms of impacting an opposing passer,
like without the greatest who's ever done it? The group
you've assembled in what they've done through a handful of.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Game and that we always knew that that was a plan,
that was the vision. What's interesting is Chris, his staff,
myself from thirty thousand feet, but they're the ones that
are in the lab this week right trying to figure
out how to get the other team off the field.
But there is an element of okay, we can conceptionally
(05:27):
walk through visualize what it's going to be like without
Aaron Donald, And there's an element in the off season
whenever you can conceptualize, wow, there's going to be a
void there. One of the greatest ever is not going
to be there. What's interesting is all of a sudden,
you start playing these teams and they're running plays against
you that historically they haven't run because Aaron changed the math.
(05:51):
They did things differently against the Rams, Like wait a minute, wow,
all of a sudden, their playbooks opened up a little
more than it used to be. You those guys have
had to kind of live through that and understand, Okay,
this is this is different. You know, it's it's almost
like you're playing the offenses are like, you know what,
Aaron Donald's not there. We're really going to open up
our playbook, where in the past it was okay, we
(06:14):
can maybe do you know, you get your coaches got
their big Excel spreadsheet. It's like, we'll just cut it
down the half against Aaron.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Donald, everything that pulling guards are back in the in
the game plant but Kobe turns Aaron Fisk has made plays.
Michael Hoyt is a psycho out there. I mean, you
love to see these guys psycho in a good way,
in a good way. In a good way, he just
makes plays the emotional leader.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
But when you.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Can use the word psycho and it's actually it's a
good thing.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
It's a compliment, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, you can't just do that anywhere, but in football,
absolutely the best thing about it.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
I get arrested, But I mean when you hit on
a guy like Jared Verus or even a Braden Fisk.
But what about undrafted rookie free agents, we're touching, tugging
my hearts. Yeah, Jalen McCall comes up two picks, I
mean versus there, it's obvious you had to find this guy,
and here he is making plays. That's got to make
you feel good.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
This is a great time to talk about. You said
you had to find this guy. This is that's that's
that's our college scouting staff. I mean, as a GM,
you're going to you're especially when you have a first
round pick and maybe you're gonna trade up for fisks. Right,
You're spending a lot of energy trying to make sure
of all the players who are available at those picks. Right,
(07:30):
who do we pick? Who do we not pick? And
you're not necessarily worried about who you get after the draft.
But it's really neat to see. I can remember when uh,
when I do know this towards the end there you
see the favorites of all right, this is who our
college free agency kind of committees, scouts working with the
(07:50):
defensive back coaches on who they want, and you can
kind of see, all right, these are and so you
start game planning who would you draft late, who wouldn't
you things like that neat thing is on mister McCully
is just reading its profile. Didn't even have to turn
on any tape at Tennessee. Just reading his profile, You're like,
you know what, I bet on that guy making the team,
(08:12):
and not only making the team, contributing. You can just
maybe wasn't the fastest in a forty all those things,
but you could just see his production, what his makeup is,
especially playing the safety position. I go for that to say,
college scouting staff, personnel staff on enough, not just myself.
They come together that you know, make things like that happen.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
That is a bit like college recruiting, right that after
draft process, because there's a financial component to it, sure,
but a lot of it is opportunity driven. Like when
you're pitching yourselves the rams to a McCullough, to a
Josh Wallace to an Omar space, you're saying spend this
off season with us, and you might be a pro.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, that's I know, there's that's a recruiting pitch. Sometimes
when you're dealing with gen Z a little bit chaos. Hey,
here's the recruiting pitch. You're gonna get to play a
lot in the pre season. And historically we have, right,
so many college free agents that not only make the
team but play right and Troy Reider being one of them.
(09:11):
So we go down the interesting thing on the financial
component nowadays, right, what's what we haven't played that game
is teams will guarantee a portion of their let's call
it salary if they make the team. A lot of
times it's up to what would be uh, let's call
(09:32):
it their practice squad salary for the year, where we're
just giving the player a signing bonus. There's a cap
on the signing bonus for the pool of players. So
usually financially, historically, I will say this the guys recruiting
for us, they're like, wow, we're empty handed.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Now not the Oregon Ducts of the NFL.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
But here's what's interesting. A lot of times what players
don't know, especially when they're getting recruited. On the other
they haven't been in the business long enough, is okay.
If I'm pretty solid, I'll be on the practice squad.
So that guarantee they were gonna make anyway, right, See
what I'm saying. Teams are just guarantee that they make
the prie. What nice little Here's the neat thing about
(10:15):
what we found here. The way we do it is
players who come here, you know, they're betting on themselves
and they're hungry. It's not okay. Guess what, I You know,
I've got to guaranteed almost practice squad spot. I can
coast you know, you can kind of feel with our guys,
but I give our our our college scouts, our coaches
who go through the recruiting processes, they're empty handed. Hopefully
(10:37):
I explained it well enough for the fans. But the
neat thing is, you see that group come in and compete.
They're almost the guys that going. You know what, I'm
gonna bett on myself and I'll end up with at
minimum of the practice squad salary, but maybe more maybe,
and get one of those fifty three sounds.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
Chuck Knox told me they'll take a playoff.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
He's gonna cut all I need to know a lot
of guarantees. That's it. So like, did you ever tell
I didn't take that playoff? I was just actually tired, Oh,
I said, was yes, coach, thank you?
Speaker 5 (11:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
On defense, I think we've taken a long lens on
this thing and we're starting to see it move towards fruition.
On offense, maybe not so much the plan as I
think you and Sean and others drew it up, got
disrupted early, and they've not yet clicked on all cylinders.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
I think those days are still ahead.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
But where are you in terms of the lack of
offensive production relative to what we thought was going to
be a team that might, you know, kind of lead
the way with hopefully.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Definitely disrupted definitely a reason, But like I said, reasons
or reasons, I think what we had to do internally
is continue doing what we have done a well aware
of the disruption. But now we're evolving with the group
we have what can we do? What can we not do?
And again, sometimes your opponent's going to dictate it, but
(11:49):
oftentimes we say, in these cases, there's this element of
an ideal, and if there is an ideal, right, there's
probably an equal and opposite reaction to that, and that
there's a less idea. And interestingly, when you do whether
you're in the ideal or less ideal, there's still a
game to play, right, and that game doesn't really care
(12:10):
whether what stage of the ideal you're in, and they're
still going to keep score. There's still going to be
a win and a law. So again, I think what
we say internally is when we're optimal, let's try to
make the most of it, right. But oh, by the way,
when we're less optimal, can we still somehow make a
profit the day? Again, that goes into your style points, right,
(12:32):
we weren't if we were optimal, maybe we have a
little more style points right, make a little more profit.
But at the end of the day, if we just
make a little bit of pro how do we make
the most of these less ideal situations? And sometimes it's
a process. Sometimes it's learning, right, what this collective is
actually good at? And sometimes guess what you got to
(12:53):
do to win? You got to lose first, to learn
some lessons on try to win, and again, try to
win sometimes without without style, And that's that's what we're
trying to do.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I hear that a lot why can't you guys just
do X, Y and Z. Well, it's not that easy.
It's you have to implement. There's a lot that goes
into game planning. But over the course of your career,
I mean, what haven't you gone through. I mean you've
gone through where your all line is decimated you're going
through right now, or you lose your top two receivers.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
What haven't you gone through? What haven't you been prepared for?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I think it if you're in this, I mean, this
is coming up on let's call it a totality of
thirty years in the NFL. Not quite there yet, Maybe
thirteen is a general match there. Here's what I do know.
Anytime you start a season, now again, you can start
a season and not be quiet ideal, right, But wherever
(13:48):
you start the season, you know there is going to
be some version of disruption, some version of chaos that's
going to be not necessarily in your favor. And I
think the better teams, right, they deal with those. When
they deal with those, are the ones that again, when
this seventeen stage, let's call it regular season race tour,
(14:10):
is over, they're the ones left standing to get to
go on to the to the next round. So that's
how you got to look at stay in the moment,
Stay in play. We could ruminate. We could rewind and
talk about the good old days, but that does you
know good. We could fast forward and talk about maybe
when players are coming back, end of the day. Guess
(14:31):
what where it's today? We got Minnesota Vikings on Thursday night.
In this moment, stay in play, fast forward, rewinds doing
this now.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I hope we don't have to scrub too far ahead
to see Cooper cup. It sounds like this Thursday might
be the day. What's your level of anticipation for his
ability to make things right, not just for the offense,
but for this entire organization.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
You know, I think he's he's definitely going to help, right,
And there's that's Cooper's Cooper, He's been Cooper. But again,
there's even with that, even though he's coming back healthy, right,
things may not be exactly like there were at the
end of OTAs when we had him and Pooka. Right,
(15:10):
they might not be like they were the first half
of the Detroit game when we had him and Pooka
and healthier people. So at the end of the day,
there will still be an element of disruption when he
comes back, because right, we're still trying to figure out
who we are with the collective, and that's what that's
the puzzle your people. But at the end of the day,
(15:31):
Cooper cup is a net positive and we'll figure out, right,
how many plays he plays, what type of packages he plays,
and go from there.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I can't wait till they all come back, Pookah Cooper.
Everybody comes back and you have a full offense, you
have your Kyroen numbers. Right, is there ever a time
where you could call him underrated Kyron Williams like an
underrated running back. Are we not giving him enough credit
for how good he really is?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
You know, I don't y'all tell me. I don't necessarily
that's called I hate, don't be offended, but I don't
listen to y'all every single day. So are y'all not
giving him his due? No? We do, we do.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
But go ahead, Yeah, this is awesome, But.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I get I can understand where you're going.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
He and Derrick Henry are on a list of two.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Put it that way for the time being, King Henry
and yes, and and so come on, let's go give
made some context.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Maybe we're not giving him enough praise for how good
he is, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
He's definitely had a really really it's called it when
he got back last year from the IR situation. From
there to now, he's been a big part of our
offense for sure. I know this I where I watched
the game right and there's television own. Usually you're watching
the game, but tape delayed, you can turn around. I
did see a graphic that came up that I mean,
(16:52):
he had tied some greats for most consecutive games with
a TV. Maybe not number one, but he seemed like
he had gotten too, maybe second or third place amongst
a lot of really really Now La Dani and Thomas
is a good place to be chasing. LT's got a
pretty good lead in that Tour de France, you know
what I mean. But at the end of the day,
(17:12):
it seems like Colin was definitely climbing climbing the leaderboard there.
That'll let you know if you that's the hardest thing
to do in football probably is score a touchdown, right,
things get really really tight. I always say that when
you get in the red zone, they have the best
safety in football, that back end zone line. It's like
it's like one big safety who's the width of the field. Yeah,
(17:34):
you know what I mean. So it's like, wow, you
so now things get whether you're running or passing, it's
a little bit a little bit harder. So to get
down there and be someone that it just seems like
he consistently scores when.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
He's down there.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
That safety never busts, never gets flagged for a penalty either.
It's a it's super annoying. How about the guy you
drafted to be his backup and Blake Corum emerging kind
of at the midway port.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
The neat thing about I think with Blake is is
he's someone similar to Jared Bursey you're talking about is
when when he has run the ball, probably need to
start running him a little bit more, or you know
what I mean. Kirraen may be offended, but we got
to give him a break at some point, right, can't
always calm the mountain on the tour the France and
if we just keep you know, running that metaphor into
(18:17):
the ground. But at the end of the day, then
what I'm trying to say is when he does make
a cut, there's a violent cut there. Right when he
does make contact with a defender to try to get
more yards after. There's a violence there that you feel.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
And I do think.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I do think as the season evolves, we'll we'll feel
him and he'll definitely begin contributing a little more than
he even is.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Now, he didn't give me the Kiren numbers. Thought, you're
gonna give.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Me something special, something special. We talked about King Henry
and LT. I think he's doing just fine, but there
was no numbers said with a rushing touch there we.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Go nine straight games with the rushing touchdown. Come on,
that's what I mean. Maybe we're not giving him an.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Even I knew that. Come on, what do you got else?
Speaker 5 (18:59):
You got it?
Speaker 4 (19:00):
I mean, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
I was trying to think about the peloton that, like
every every cyclist needs someone to draft a little bit
right over the course of a seventeen stage season, should
we talk to some kicking like it seems like second
and third chance kickers are kind of like some of
the most consistent across the league. Now, I'm not saying
that that Cardon needs a second or third opportunity, but
where are you with your rookie kicker? As he kind
(19:25):
of wabbles a little bit here in recentlyak.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
As you stick with him, I think we've we've been
going through this kicking thing for the last few years.
Here's what's really really interesting is if you've with rookie kickers.
If you if a rookie kicker was very successful in college,
there is moments during probably his rookie season, and even
(19:48):
in Cardi's sake, it hasn't really happened yet, but he
has missed his last two kicks where they may go
through a slump. Usually kickers who were successful in college
right after the rookie sometime they'll get it back on
and they become a little bit more consistent. Right, but
I forget you may know his numbers. Is he nine
of eleven total? I mean, if he only ends up
(20:10):
with two misses, whatever, that's a good year. What I
am trying to say is there is this subset of
sometimes we take these kickers who probably were a little
less accurate in college, but they have really strong legs, right,
and if as rookies or what have you, as young kickers,
if they somewhat become a little less accurate, they sometimes
(20:31):
never get it back because they never really were. They
just if we go to golf they were able to
really drive the ball, but maybe landed in the rough
instead of the fairway sometimes. So Cardi is one of
those players. One of the reasons we drafting that right
was accurate from many distances for a lot of years
at Stanford, and usually right. The probability says that he'll
(20:54):
will he will basically at the end of the day,
that'll transcend that right translate to our league and be
very similar to how he was at Stanford.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
They're just like every other player.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
I mean, you you can pat him on the back,
say you're still my guy, go out and nail the
next one.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Right, That's how it goes.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
That's how it is, other than probably to Marco, if
you're a defensive lineman and you're you're out of gap
and someone bails you out, and hey, if you're at
a gap and there's a ten yard run, it's like, wow,
was DeMarco trying to get an edge there and make
a TfL and he left us hanging. But really it's
(21:31):
the average fans not really like man I just but
when you're a kicker and it doesn't go between those
yellow posts, it's like, okay, it's it's either a pass
or fail in your case, kind of out a gap
C plus for the day.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
What do we say about aeron production? Equal tolerance.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
See, as long as I make big plays, I can
make a mistake or too, but not place kickers. That's
the way that goes.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Well technically they can't. It's just they're just probably again
in the style in the in the aftermath.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
It's I was gonna say, game winner against San Francisco.
He's still got some runway to burn some credit.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
That's a past day, right, that's a past day. Well,
really in the style points that's an eight plus day.
Right he grew up a San Francisco fan. Then he says,
you know what, I'm a ram Now we'll put the
dagger in the Niners. I mean that's an eight plus.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
I don't want to be that here. Yes, big time.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
We were talking about the turnaround the special teams has
made on punt last season.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
Problem this year, Wow, going down and covering.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
I think you chase his staff, players, everyone evolving, trying
to get better. Like you said, you're there's some lessons
to learned from last year, and they were learned. But
I give everyone you know credit for doing their part.
As we've tried to figure out a way to settle
the special teams down.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Let's what can you say about this moment in time? Like,
it's not lost on Rams fans that at two and
four the division's flat. They're still in the thick of it.
Last year we saw the Rams win a couple of
home games in five days at Sofi Stadium. We're all
hoping they can replicate that formula. And then you got
your first chance at Seattle on the back side of that,
with the trade deadline looming, What context can you give us?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Context is the hardest thing you can do. Stay and play.
If we rewind, it would be like, wow, what if
we'd have beaten Chicago? What if we had come through
against Queen? What if we were through? Hey, then you
fast forward, stay and play seventeen game stage a little
bit like last year. Not saying it's going to happen,
(23:32):
but if we can kind of stay in the moment
and write, try to win games, play quality football first,
win the games. At the end of the day, the
math will usually catch up, right the math, But if
you start, if you and I get it's tough, right
if you're a fan, if you start doing the math,
a little bit too early. The hole could look a
(23:53):
little bit deeper. But again, whatever the hole is now
is irrelevant. It's what it is later. And I think,
I think internally, I've always thought personally when I chat
with people around the building, is this, look, if you
start slow, we will feel an element of fulfillment if
(24:17):
we finished strong. And if you finish strong, right at
that point, that's when you can really look up at
the map and you go, you know what, that's when
you can start playing off. We'd only won this game,
we were this seed or what have you. Key is
try to stay in a moment, try to play quality
football one game at a time. And and again it
(24:39):
could we could be fortunate and win on Thursday night,
but that doesn't You better stay in the moment because
that win could easily be erased, right if you come
back and and don't stay in the moment.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
I was never knocked out of my gap, just to
correct that over there, but.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I bet you, I bet you he intentionally ran O
out of his Yet here's all there.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
If you go do a little search on the short
list of rams have had a sack and an interception
in the same game, it's probably the only conversation that
you'll ever see Kobe Durant and DeMarco Farr together in.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I can tell you that I can remember probably I
was probably a Falcon then, and at one time we
were in the Rams Division right with the the old
NFC West. Yes, I don't know why Falcons and Rams
were in the West. I guess Rams were LA. There's
only one team in the Yeah it was Saint Louis.
But there there isn't Now when you played demor you
knew this. His helmet was probably getting into the offensive
(25:41):
backfield before anyone's else. There's you did. I bet you
the ol did not want.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
To play was Bobby Aber was them in Atlanta?
Speaker 4 (25:49):
See there you go, good memory.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
That's one of the reasons I think we're fortunate to
have this conversation with you today. Is it because it
comes out of a unique moment in Rams history where
Sean McVay, with this week's victory tie John Robinson a
top of the Rams all time win total list and
as one of the guys.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Yeah wow, one of the guys.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Show is like you learned things.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
In the room where it happened, right, I mean it
must feel like yesterday too. You and I know we've
told this story a million times, but can you reflect
on this burst of history that the Rams have had
together in your partnership. It seems so obvious in retrospect
how it was destined to work out, but I'm sure
on the front end that was not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, on the front end, it it's a it's a bet.
But you know what, when you do the vetting, you
do the research, you feel like that the BET's gonna
going to work out. Uh. It's It's interesting though, as
we're in this moment. It's sometimes it's hard to to
enjoy these moments when you're I call it, we're still
(26:47):
on active duty, We're still in the season, and it's like, okay,
reflect but that is it's interesting if you were to say, okay,
you think, uh, we're making a quality higher Uh in Sean,
even if we would have said you know what, and
obviously we did, we all said it, and especially Stan,
(27:11):
he was the one that right made the final call
and said, okay, I want to hand the keys of
the franchise to Sean in terms of the head coaching job.
And then that even if you thought, okay, we're going
to get an a does that A mean, you're the
you know, you tie the franchise record wins.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
So I didn't know that not surprising based on the
it's so sometimes just surprising that Sean and I talking
what was it? How many years have we been together?
I mean when we say the number eight is eight, eight, like, wow,
we've been together eight years. So it's not surprising when
you say, okay, eight, we've had some success that she's
getting close to to that's pretty.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
I mean, that point's well taken that you all optimistic
about that decision. Otherwise you wouldn't have selected it. But
if we had told anyone from ownership on down at
that moment that you're about to hire the winningest coach
in franchise history, that would have made an impression.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Because you think about it here, I mean, there's this
is I mean there's been some I mean, yeah, Chuck Knox,
Dick for mil So. I don't know who's two, three,
four or five, but there has been I mean Alan,
I mean, there's been a lot of names here. How
long they coach. I'm not, as let's call it nuanced
(28:29):
in the exact history.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
But consistency the truest measure of performance. Right, isn't that
one of Sean's favorite sayings. Yes, And what's cool is
that it applies to him equally.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I wonder what your record is as a GM. We
need to look that up. That's got to be at
the top of the list. See, I need to know
this stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah, I hadn't. Again, when you're on active duty, I
don't think you ever figure out, Okay, what's your your record?
The interesting thing is I would probably if I went
to look at my record, I would probably look at
the first My eyes would go to where the losses
and I'd go, Man, I felt those That's why I
got gray hair.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Yeah, I point to some of the wins, like the
Aaron Donald.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Guy and more recently he's college free agents and how
about Jordan Whittington. Yes, Day three continues to be a
fertile soil for less need and.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
His and some gold.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Your whole scouting department, some good players and you got
guys to coach them up.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
So yes, you had the inside scoop though from Austin
though that had to be one of your easier ones.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Right, You know what that I we joke a lot
of time if I'm I'm an area scout for one school,
and that's Texas right now. So we should, you know,
we should, we should be able to get those somewhat right.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Keep dipping into Tennessee too, whether it's Agent zero B.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
You got to listen, Yeah you can't. You know, I'm
the area scout for Texas and uh and then let
everybody else dominate their role in the other school.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Good job calling Dibbs on that one. It's a pretty
good program to be ra a thought on Thursday. You
want to preview the Vikings for us before we wrap
this up.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Quality team offensively and defensively. Maybe they're so good on
they're playing so well on both sides of the ball
that I'm not even sure how their special teams are doing.
I think you think of the Vikings, you think of
what coach Flores is doing with their defense. Definitely fun
(30:23):
to watch, probably not fun to play him, and really
cool to see an alumni in coach O'Connell work with
the entire team and the offensive side of the ball
and what they've been able to do right especially at
QB as they've made a transition and even had injuries
at times. Would Kirk and have the success they've had
(30:46):
so they're gonna be definitely, definitely I know this. They're
gonna play quality football.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
No doubt.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
We're on the Minnesota long Live lesson, Sean, here's your
next seventy nine and eighty.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Wins in eight years of partnership.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I like and to the coach McVeigh show less need
winning streak continuing. Let's get the three Microso have.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
A great week with everyone.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
I hope we can see you Thursday at so Far.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Mm hmmmmmmmmm
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