04-18-24 Hour 3 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to it Broncos Country tonight,but with all Brian, Dick Ferguson,
Grant Smith. So I got asneak peak at the uniforms, at the
Broncos uniforms. They'll roll it out, and I managed to get both Grant
here and Nick Ferguson sneak peaks ofthe uniforms as well. Lame, wow,

(00:25):
Look I don't because they're gonna rollthem out. They're gonna roll them
out on the on the twenty second. I don't want to give I don't
want to get too many specifics awayhere. Okay, but I look,
I didn't. I didn't care forhim. I'll give one detail that I
liked so that people will know thatwe've we've actually seen this, and then
we're not, you know, listening. They got rid of the stripe on

(00:45):
the the all white helmet, soit's like all white with the Bronco logo
on the side. So I likethat. I don't dig the weird triangles,
I don't dig. I'm not impressed. I'm gonna put it that way.
I said that Nick, the waythe way you your face looked when
you saw these things, like Iwas like, okay, I'm not on

(01:06):
an island here. I'm just gonnalet my facial expressions that you saw speak
for themselves, and I'm not gonnasay he's not gonna say anything. I'm
gonna just see here your mom said, if you had none of the nice
to say, don't say anything.I'm gonna say anything. I'm not saying
anything. All right. Well,in that case, let's go out to
the KWA comment sparrel off hotline andbring on a guy who was saying plenty

(01:26):
of things and had me laughing duringthe Sean Payton press conference. Brian Lee,
Right, how you doing this evening. I'm good. Just landed back
here in New York City, sowe're we're headed home. First time away
from the baby in the five months, so it was a it was an
interesting trip here. Welcome re Spike, but also good to be home,

(01:47):
right, yeah, good to behome. Gonna be home. My wife
and I actually could lay in bedlast couple of months and watch TV than
that five months. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Well, first of all,
congratulations, man, it's always goodto like to hear she had to
be cutting up because you sent methat tweet. What I solicited questions at
the at the presser, and Ipromise you you could hear in the presser
you could hear an audible coll ina chuckle. And it is me literally

(02:09):
laughing reading his tweet to me asas we were in there. I'm roy,
I want to talk to you abouta whole bunch of stuff. Well
got you here real quick. Butlet's start off with that. The Broncos
move on from and pay the priceto move on from Russell Wilson. He's
going to the Steelers. How doyou like that move for the Steelers?
And do you think the Broncos madea mistake or did they do the right

(02:29):
thing? Well, you guys knowhow I tell felt about Russell and and
I thought he was having a heckof a season last year. I thought
of or she and he would bethe first to tell you he could have
been better. But you know,I just I think that the team when
they made that decision to give himan ultimatum around you know, not playing

(02:50):
versus moving his injury waiver or whateverthe deal was on that that I mean,
that was the end of it.And so no matter what got in
the way, he was going tobe let go. And there was going
to be a huge dead money chaphit that was going to exist, and
the team was going to have togo forward with that. And doing so,
you're gonna lose some pretty good players, Justin Simmons being one of them,
and have to look elsewhere to tryto build this team. And I

(03:13):
think you take over a team it'snot in your likeness and you want to
build it that way, and ultimatelythat's where we're going. If you look
at the general manager in this instant, if anybody else walked into it,
let's say George walks into a delayit on the table right now, how
does he still have a job inthis moment? It doesn't make a lot

(03:37):
of sense. He's certainly in aposition where Sean Payton's backing in because they
went forward with the steel And Ithink it couldn't have ended up better for
the Steelers. Any sort of confidentplay with Pittsburgh, with the defense they
have and TJ want healthy, thisteam is a definite playoff team. And
I just thought it was funny tosay it because I think it would be
hilarious to see him hoist to Lomardyand know that the Denver Broncs paid for

(03:58):
their quarterbacks. Oh wow, thatright, there would be something that will
change the landscape of Broncos football ifthat were to happen. And like Ben
say, Man, I'm glad wehave you on because some of these questions
only you can answer them because you'vebeen in these situations. So for me,
what's some of the biggest mistakes thatyou've seen individuals make in quarterback evaluation?

(04:27):
Well, I think that one ofthe biggest mistakes and it's one that
I didn't think was quantifiable until NILbecame really apparent the last couple of years,
is you can't You couldn't quantify inyour decision making on what life changing
money would do to the mindset ofan athlete coming out of college. Now,
don't get me wrong, I neverthought it would affect me in a

(04:48):
negative way. It certainly affected mein a negative way. It made me
feel untouchable. It made me feellike you couldn't be critical of me.
I would just push you away andstuff like that. We get an idea
now, and I think it's goingto go a long way. I think
NIL is going to go a longway to inform general managers scouts of these

(05:09):
teams of what you know life changingmoney can do to somebody's work, ethic,
their mindset. And I didn't thinkthat, and I never thought that
would be a quantifiable variable that we'dbe able to come to. The Other
one is simply you know, andI don't think you can quantify it because
you don't know until it happened.How does a quarterback who has been a

(05:29):
killer. And I'm going to speakof one quarterback here who I spent some
time with last week, when everybodyconsiders a killer, what happens when he
failed? How does he deal withfailure at the highest possible level. And
I think those are some of thebigger mistakes that teams make because they just
don't know they have to push it. I do think the way UFC and
Caleb Williams failed last year seven tofive, I think I think it spoke

(05:53):
volumes and gave a lot of scoutsand then idea of how he handled that
that I'll take a lot of thereporting out there or necessarily from the talking
heads has been accurate in terms ofwhat kind of a leader he was,
how he responded, and how LincolnRiley and him went about their business.
So those were two that I justthink you can't you can't quantify one is

(06:16):
totally changing. So those are thebiggest mistakes I find, and also the
inconsistency at coach. Right, youbring a guy in that you want to
change the franchise, and you havea coach that may be in limbo,
but you're willing to risk the successof the said quarterback by letting him roll

(06:36):
with the coach that may not bethere the next year. And I think
that that plays a lot into it, and I can speak from experience there.
You know, if you knew youwere having trouble with Kevin Gilbriden after
my rookie you know, going intomy rookie year and trouble with the media
and everything that literally five games intomy rookie year you fire him. You
had to have known during the offseasonlike this is this is not a great

(07:00):
and now we're going to bring ina franchise quarterback and you know, place
him with a new head coach goinginto year two plus a new offensive system.
And I feel like Chicago's in areal tough spot there because they are
definitely a playoff team and if thingsdon't go well, Matt Eberbluce may be
holding that bag essentially. And Iknow a lot of people don't think he's

(07:20):
on the hot seat. What Ido think of that team as underperformed with
all the talent that Ryan Pols hasbeen put around him and Caleb Williams isn't
able to develop. I mean,it could be a real talk like that,
and all of a sudden, nowyou're talking about Kayleb Willons in the
situation of really dealing with failure.So I find it fascinating. You know,
if it were up to me,you know, I wouldn't have any

(07:41):
of these quarterbacks drafted in the firstround because of the bar that's set.
But of course that's never going tohappen. And you know, I may
be a little too close to itbecause of my experience too, But I
really like to see how the willLevis scenario played out last year and how
how he, you know, whenhe got the opportunity, used it and
kind of looking like he may bethe answer and ess you we'll see this
year. Is that the biggest stumblingblock to you know, to having or

(08:05):
or building up a young quarterback becausewe talk about the players around them quite
a bit, but we don't reallytalk about the functional person and the pressure,
the expectations that are put on them, you know, the drafting,
the that high I can't I can'teven begin to fathom what it was like
to be drafted, you know,you second overall in the NFL draft and

(08:26):
the expectations that come with that.And and you talk about you know,
adversity and failure. Uh, whathappens when you when you experience those things?
Is it tough to tune out allof that? I mean because you
have us dorks with microphones talking aboutit. You've got fan now, you've
got social media everywhere. Everybody's gota blog and a podcast. I mean,

(08:46):
is it is it tougher now eventhen to to I don't know,
tune out the drown of that.Well, the thing is about social media
is you just don't have to participate, you know, and if you don't
that, you usually don't see it. I was talking to my wife about
this, like, I've I've blockedsome people here in the last year,
and you know, it's realistically almostlike they're dead, like they don't exist,

(09:11):
because that's the only way I heardthem or saw them was through social
media. So it's you can dothat, like you can silence those voices.
What doesn't is is the fans likeon Sundays and UH locally like if
when your fan base it's not aboutthe voices outside of your city, the
voices in your fan base. Whenyou go from maybe being the most beloved

(09:37):
UH in a matter of a coupleof weeks becoming the most hated, I
mean, that's that's traumatic, youknow, and and and it's it's hard
to deal with now. If you'renot functionally able to deal with failure in
a positive light like I was,it's going to make it really difficult because
your your teammates aren't going to backit. You know. If you're not
you're not doing the right things thenand performing your your your teamates aren't either.

(09:58):
They just want to win. Theywant put food on the table for
their kids. They don't need atwenty one year old, you know,
you know, multi millionaire now,you know, wasting their time, and
they're not going to put up withit. And so that's that's ultimately you
want a guy to come in thatwould just work. So I'm really interested
to see, like from last year, I'm really interested to see how Bryce

(10:18):
Young deals with it, because Ithink he's got an absolute wonderful head on
his shoulders, and that organ organizationdid him as about as dirty as they
possibly could last year, hiring hishead coach, his quarterback coach. Now
he's going to have a new headcoach, he's gonna have a new offensive
system, all of that, andpeople are looking at him, especially after
c J. Strout had the yearthat he had in their calling of names.

(10:39):
I think he's got such a greatresolve in him that he's going to
come out and play very well.But it's going to be difficult because he's
not only has that bar been sohigh for him being the number one overall
pick, but c J. Stroudperforming the way that he did, that
bar has risen even higher. Andso for him to clear that thing,
I don't know what that would haveto look like this year for him,
unfortunately, And that's just that hasnothing to do with him. That team

(11:01):
is an absolute dumpster fire, andand you just can't expect one person on
in the twenty two person team whenthey're out there playing to be the the
ultimate answer in all this. Howimportant is it for any team that's looking
to select one of these young quarterbacks, no matter whether you like these skills

(11:22):
set or not. How important isit for them to construct a team around
them to support them. Well,I think it's important, but I but
I also think there has to bethere, just, you know, an
understanding of consistency, and in particularat the coaching position. You know,
you just can't flippantly, you know, expect these guys that are running the

(11:46):
same offense in college to say,for the last you know, few seasons
to to you know, come inand learn a whole new system and then
expect them to start on day onewith all those expectations. I know everybody
out there's fans expect them to dothat. But that's just not how the
real world works, you know,And so there's an understanding there is the

(12:07):
best thing about it. And Iheard bo Nick say this, you know,
you know, he's gone to schoolfor I don't know, I don't
know, he was in college forlike twelve years. It seems like he
said something really cool. He's like, I don't have to go to class
anymore. Like I could go tothe facility literally live there, you know,
from sun up to sundown and consumefootball. And that's what my life

(12:28):
will be about. And that's exactlyhow you should look at it. You
know, you become the CEO ofa fortune five hundred company essentially, and
that's the way you need to approachit. And you know, hindsight is
what it is. And of courseI wish I would have done things differently
because I had the work ethic.I was talented, you know, but
everybody's talented when they get to thatlevel, and so you get found out

(12:48):
pretty quickly if you're not willing toput in the work. And I find
that very hard to see. Andplayers that come into the NFL these days,
I do think the guys, especiallythe quarterback position, that come into
the league these days, simply workhard. I don't think there's guys that
are just there, I'm gonna takethe money and I'm going to call it
a day. I haven't seen thatfrom the player in some time at the

(13:11):
quarterbacks at the quarterback position, tobe honest, thought with Ryan Lee,
Ryan, is there any one ofthese quarterbacks or multiple quarterbacks that you're betting
on in this drand is panning outbig time in the NFL? Michael Pennock
Jr. For me, he's thecream of the crop of this draft.
If I was a general manager.I'd be drafted him number one. I

(13:31):
would have drafted him number one lastyear if he would have came out early.
I thought he was the best quarterbackin the draft last year. I
haven't had any misconceptions around his injuriesfrom Indiana. He has taken fifteen hundred
snaps or so over the last twoyears at Washington. He gets the ball
out quicker than anybody, which atthe NFL level is just a must.

(13:52):
The biggest problem you see with Rickiequarterbacks is they just hold the ball too
long because they're used to it.They need to see something before they let
it go, and what turns outto be a lot of fumbles. And
I think that was the biggest thingthat's hold in the back early on in
this draft process, and then atthe Michigan game, I don't know if
there was a bigger discrepancy between asemi final performance and a National Championship performance.

(14:13):
I mean, they were polar opposites. The semi final was unreal in
terms of his accuracy, his feelin the pocket, his reading defense in
comparison to what Michigan threw at him, and which was the most comparable to
an NFL defense. I assume peoplewere thinking about so you know, it
is what it is. You knowthe things in the background. You know,
Taylor Debora been talking to Alabama beforethat game, and you know there

(14:37):
was rumblings going on. I mean, there's just so much of a distraction.
I didn't feel like the team playedup to their full potential in that
game. Certainly Michael Pennix Junior didn'tput a to me. Has the best
accuracy down the field. He's aleader, He's been through adversity, he's
fought it. He understands that he'smy top quarterback. So if he were
to fall to the Broncos there atthe top of the you know, the

(15:00):
top of the early double digits,I think that's I think that's a blessing
for Broncos fans out there. Interesting, Ryan, we always love talking to
you. Sorry, we got tocut it short, man, but we
appreciate it. Get home, getgo see that baby yours, and we
look forward to talk to you nexttime. All Right, fellas, take
it easy. Enjoy that Steelers paradeif it happens to come. Riley,

(15:24):
Oh my god, I just Ipromise you I am not messing with you.
If you listen to the press conference. At some point you'll hear a
cough and a laugh in the background, and it's just me like, you
know, realizing that he went offthe top rope with that. With that,
Russell Wilson tweet well that that's kindof a very interesting perspective that when
Ryan Leaf is laid out. Ithink it's one that no one in Broncos

(15:46):
country wants to see. Uh Listen, It's okay because players move around and
coaches move around. I don't thinkit's unfair to root for a guy to
have some says, but in thiscase when it's the Steelers, no,
you don't really want it someone tohave success. But for me, I'm

(16:08):
here for all of it. I'mhere to see what's gonna happen with the
Broncos next week, how that's goinginto what that's gonna look like once the
season start. But also, yeah, we're gonna be watching some other teams
that have players who are no longerwho are former Broncos to see how well
those teams and those players performed.So it's gonna be interesting. Yeah,
I'm looking forward to it. We'llhave the coverage right here on Kaway for

(16:30):
all of your draft coverage. Lookingforward to that with big Al, Dave
Logan, Ryan Edwards, Brandon Cristal, yourself, myself, Grant Smith will
be around here somewhere. We gottatake a break. We'll be back.
Broncos Country to Night. Welcome backto it, Broncos Country Tonight, Benjamin
al Brighten, Nick Ferguson, GrantSmith here with you. Thanks to Ryan
Leaf for joining us in the lastsegment. If you missed any of that,

(16:52):
you can get into Broncos Country Tonightdot com, slash podcast or or
if you get your podcast that's atCEE, Apple, iTunes, Spotify.
I told the free and austin myheart radio app where I believe the latest
episode of Taking It for Granted hasDave Logan on it? Yes, sir,
dropped yesterday. Did I've got itin my cue to listen to tonight?
Put me right to sleep? Wait, no, that's not correct.
All three tones of Dave Logan willput you right to you right, Yeah,

(17:15):
that's what I do to put myselfto sleep. So I just listen
back to my own show right outHere's Insomnia. It's fantastic, five six
six nine zeros in text line,we're talking a little bit right before we
go to talk to Ride about thenew uniforms. They are unveiling them on
the twenty seconds. The new Broncosuniforms. They'll be unvailing them on Monday,
but we got a sneak preview ofthem, an unauthorized sneak preview,

(17:37):
and I don't think any of uswere impressed, not a fan. Without
going into great detail. I waslooking for more detail for real. That's
the best way to put it toabout that They're not substantively different, right,
I mean, I don't like,they're not a huge It's not a

(18:00):
huge overhaul. People expecting like thishuge overhaul. That's not what this is.
I don't want to give too muchaway because I want the fans to
be able to experience it for themselves. But that's the only way I can,
you know, quantify it is justthe fact that, I mean,

(18:21):
I was looking for a little moredetail, and then I had my idea
that maybe I've made it in myown mind, that little color splash here
and there, to just make ita little more vibrant. It's almost like
when you wear a suit, youwear that pocket square that gives it pop.
Yeah, right to say, youknow what, I'm in the room.
I'm in the building, and Ididn't really I wanted like a gradient,

(18:45):
you know what I mean. Yes, the orange, the blue lit
the grad like, that's what Iwanted in the blue of the white like.
They didn't do it. So whatever. I am a fan of a
lot of Monther Nike football uniforms.To be honest with you, Well,
we've seen a lot of uniforms somewhatleaked win wink, and some of the
look great and some of them's notso great. Like you know, we
talked earlier about the Detroit Lions.I kind of liked what they did,

(19:07):
but I understand what from your standardspoint of view, it was like it
had someone of that Carolina Panthers vibeto its uniform. Yes, yes,
but but it was still a littledifferent than what we would typically see because
I thought, I thought, rememberthe Caro a lot of blacks with like
the with the silver. I like, those were pimp uniforms back in the
day. They carried Collins uniforms.Yes, those were pimp uniforms back in

(19:30):
the day. Look, man,when you when you add those dark colors
tainy uniform it kind of spices itup because when I look at the Jets'
uniform it's like, wait a minute, Hey, you guys were those last
year. It's kind of like thesame thing, but the one, the
one uniform that I love that theensemble collectively is the all black, the

(19:52):
helmet, the jersey, the socks, the shoes. And I would have
loved to see the Broncos uniforms takeon a different flavor, a darker uniform
like that. Yeah, a littledarker, but because I don't think the
Broncos ever where black because of theRaiders, right, Like, I don't
think you've ever seen that man that'ssilver and black. Well there's silver and

(20:14):
the wait, I'm getting stuff away, sorry, but but you can add
dark access to the Broncos jerseys orJackson's make yes, like you were talking
about square, there's Yeah. Therewas a lot of things I felt like
they could have done with these thatthey did not did not do. I
I was underwhelmed. I've heard rumorsthat that people uh with the Broncos are

(20:37):
underwhelmed. I honestly it's weird becauseI had somebody tell me the players love
them, which you're a former playerand your face is telling me you don't
love them, you know what?Because once again, I guess I was
expecting something a little different, andI guess I had my mind made up
for the visuals to be a littlediffer, especially looking at some teams who

(21:02):
I saw their uniforms, like ooh, okay, that's that's different. That's
flat and I just mocked up inmy mind. Or the Broncos are gonna
hit across the head like this.But it's just like I don't know,
Okay, maybe my I may changemy mind by Monday maybe, but right
now, it's just you know,hey, yes, it's just like uh

(21:27):
if someone threw a surprise party fromme, it's like, hey, surprise,
nigga. I'm like, hey,oh okay, hey you guys are
here. It's that type of thing. I'm not like really surprised. But
maybe when I lay my eyes onthem, like like lay my eyes,
lay my eyes on them, maybethat may change something for me. Okay,

(21:48):
I just was underwhelmed and I neededsomeone to share in that underwhelming So
now you guys can share it.That's see, you know what. See
now I get it, Now Iget it. At first, I thought
that you know, Ben was tryingto do us a favor and just kind
of show us something to really getus excited. But he already knew that
he was underwhelmed by and he justwanted us to share make sure it wasn't

(22:12):
crazy. Right, Look, I'mnot you know if you would have loved
him and we probably never even seenhim. Nick my point, exactly what
my point. I go out onmy way to get you guys a chance,
all the people. And it's sofunny too, because like all these
there's hundreds of people on Twitter likeright hasn't seen him. He's pretending to
be an insider. And I'm like, oh my god, we saw I

(22:36):
could I promise you man, Like, I'm not sitting there putting stuff out
there with my name on it.That's not you know listen, I didn't.
I didn't have my eyewear on tonight. So you know what, I
saw him and live and live thecolor I saw them. I'm just yeah.
Anyway, Deans Anders down playing allthe transfers out of seeing you fourteen

(22:57):
Colorado players out of the transfer portaljust week theon kind of downplay the notion
that that's a significant impact, thatwe're good. I trust the recruiting team.
Trust our coaches. Have some faithin me. We're good. We're
all right. Trust the recruiting team. I trust our coaches, and please
have some faith in me. We'regood. We all right. What happens

(23:22):
with the portal? Man? Andyou guys need to know a lot of
people are fighting for recups. Whena guy's a starter and he transfers,
you got to really think about that. I mean, is he really that.
I don't know how many starters havereally transferred around the country. I
think we got some coming in fromvisits pretty soon, maybe even this weekend.

(23:48):
But we can attract those type ofplayers. But I don't think we're
losing those type of players. Andif we do, we're good. We're
good. Quit making a big dealout of it. I He goes on
to and and I don't know ifwe have the other quotes. He goes

(24:10):
on to say some things that Ithink are really important, talking about Carmoni
McLain saying I want the best forhim, Man, I really do.
I want this kid to sore.I wanted the man up. I want
him to be the best possible athlete, human being. Sometimes you gotta disconnect
from something to reconnect to something else, restart, you, re energize you.
I just want the best for them, and I thought that was the
important part because there'd been acrimony,specifically on McLain's end on social media,

(24:36):
and you know, having Dion comeout publicly say I want the best for
him, I think that's a goodthing. I don't think that color I
was in trouble with the transfer portal. Shiloh Shador went out and put that
message on Instagram and apparently something liketwenty six thousand people responded to it because
they had the open dms, likethe smart idea but also dumb idea at

(24:57):
the same time. You know whatit is. It is wild the landscape
of college football right now with nilsand guys jumping in and out of the
portal. And there's something unique aboutwhat Coach Prime said that when you look
at some of the guys who arejumping in the portal nine times out of
tendees or not to start, asyou have cases where a starter might jump

(25:22):
into the portal because who's the teamnow picked up out of the portal,
But for the most part is justguys who were backups like Alton Maskil.
Yeah, mccas. Yeah, likehe was an a AAC Rookie of the
Year back in twenty twenty one,but he barely got on the field for
the Buffs. Yeah, you knowwhat, I felt as though last year

(25:44):
he should have been more involved inthe run game. Well, I think
the run game should have been moreinvolved in the running game exactly. And
sometimes because of that, guy's getfrustrated because they're not getting enough carries.
And every guy has their dreams andaspiration of playing on Sundays and I and
I get it, and I totallyunderstand it. And guys now have the
ability to move around now better thanit was when I when I was in

(26:08):
school. And when I think aboutCarmina McClain, Holly Twerdy coming out of
high school and he was flipped fromthe University of Miami to come to see
you. And Prime was really frustratedwith Cormanni this entire time because he felt
as though, I mean, whenyou see it, CARMANI Kimmanty is a
big kid man. He's got alot of skills, but he wasn't applying

(26:30):
himself as though Prime coach Prime thoughthe would. And a lot of a
lot of coaches who were former playerswho played the game at a high level,
especially at that position. Yes,they struggle with that, knowing as
though they see a lot of talentin you and you're not living up to
those expectations. Like what Ryan Leafwas just telling us, you know,
you wish you'd had the work ethicbecause everybody's talent at the NFL level,

(26:51):
right, And what the what Primeis trying to get through to a kid
like that. It's like, hey, look man, you got have the
championship mentality. I get that you'regood enough to coast by on your abillion,
but I'm not trying to have peoplecoasting by. I'm trying to win.
But this is why I feel thatPrime leans so heavily on Travis Hunter
because he sees so much of himselfright in Travis. And when a coach

(27:12):
sees that, they're going to pushand they're gonna push, and they're gonna
push and they're gonna see how muchinformation that you can absorb when they lean
on you from a negative standpoint becauseof the high expectations, How you respond
to that. Some guys some guysdon't. And once again, this is
why I love Bill Parcells to thisday. Because he would lean, lean

(27:37):
and lean on you some more.And just when you thought that you perform
well, you greeted out at ninetypercent. It was always more that you
can do. Not every player,and what we've seen a lot of today's
players, they can't handle that typeof pressure. Yeah, you know one
of the things that And I'm supercognizant of that because I spent a large

(27:59):
portion of my life coasting, youknow, like I real talk for a
minute, like I'm super cognizant ofthat now as I look at players or
I hear about players or anything likethat. Because I had a knack for
things. I had a really goodmemory, and so specifically academically, I
coasted right. I didn't have to, I didn't have to show up.
I just you know, I rememberedthings, and people assumed I was smart
because I remember things and went fromthere. And so like, I am

(28:21):
cognitant when I see people not livingup the potential now because there are years
of my life that I wasted onthat that I could have put more effort
in and done more with I itfrustrates me. So I could understand definitely
how a coach can see somebody withall the talent in the world, and
not just saying that I had allthe talent in the world, but you
get the idea wasting that talent justgetting by rather than you know, maximizing

(28:42):
their potential. During the time thatI was coaching, that's one of the
things that frustrated me the most.And I never thought that I would ever
get to that point because I didn'tdisplay that type of frustration in my career,
as though you guys know it's twotimes in my career that I really

(29:02):
display certain level of frustration that Iwish I didn't but I can't take back.
But you know, coaching, Idefinitely experienced it because it was so
frustrating to know that you go oversomething all week long, you drill it,
you show it to them on thefilm, you walk through it,
and then you put guys in thegame and they don't come through, and

(29:23):
you put yourself this is what yougot to try to take take out.
But you put yourself in that situationand say, okay, well this is
how I would have handled that particularsituation. Why didn't this player respond in
this particular way? Was it didnot? Were we not able to reach
him? So he can understand whatthe game plan is so we can go

(29:44):
out there and execute. And itbecomes frustrating when they don't go out there
and you have to make sure thatyou take a deep breath and you don't
lose. Don't lose, you don'tlose yourself. But I can understand this
certain level of frustration that you knowsome of the greats have gone through.
Now I'm no Hall of Famer,but I played the game at a high
level for a long period of time, so I know what goes into helping

(30:10):
an individual player or helping a teambe successful. Like, man, you
can't play for a Mike Shanahan,a Wave Phillips, a Bill parce Sells,
or be around a Kyle Shanahan oror I mean, look, god
forbid, you can't play for aguy like Mike Westaf without pushing yourself to
a whole different level because they knowwhat you're capable of, and they're not

(30:34):
going to let you just kind ofcoast because if you coasting, that's a
reflection on them, and somebody's gonnapedal faster and lap you exactly. So
I get it. Man, it'scrazy. Hopefully these kids are understanding and
all the time, jumping in aportal doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to

(30:56):
get the results you need to,especially if you're not changing at the end
of the day. I mean,just losing players hurts you, sure,
but I don't think it's a atthis point. It's not a negative yet
because we haven't seen what Colorado's bringingin. So the panic is there because
you're seeing the outflow, but you'renot seeing the inflow just yet. And

(31:17):
we will, we'll see what thatwe'll see what that entails. But at
the end of the day, youknow, I mean, McCaskill, we're
talking about a guy who had fourteencarries for fifty nine yards and two catches
for nineteen He had sixteen scrimmage playsand got in seventy eight yards no scores.
He was effective on those, heaveraged four point nine per But I
mean, you know, end ofthe day, I'm not sure it's that

(31:38):
big a difference, you know,But I'll said that, and he must
have had conversations with Pat Shermer aboutwhether or not he was gonna be starting
or be the guy. Sometimes theworst conversations that you can have are the
ones that don't include the coaches.And what I mean by that because you
have everyone in your ear, especiallywith the elevated numbers in ni O money,

(32:01):
everyone is telling you, man,hey man, they take the money
out of your pocket. Did yousee what this guy received? So they
start gassing you up, and nowyou huff out your chest and making these
demands. Here's what I want,here's what i've you know, you should
have done with me, just like, well, how hard did you work
towards it? That's that's that's thething, that how hard did you work

(32:22):
towards it? And I'm all aboutcompetition. I'm all about competition. I'm
not I'm not about taking the easypath, easy road to get to to
any place. So sometimes I questionthat when it comes to some of these
players. And don't get me wrong, sometimes it may not be a great
fit for you and you may haveto leave. But some guys may not
be, you know, the competitorswe would like to think they are.

(32:42):
And I think you acknowledged that perfectlysaid sometimes you got to disconnect and in
order to reconnect, you know,And and I think that for whatever we
think of whatever's going to happen here, I think that's great advice. Is
that you know, sometimes it's sometimesit's not a good fit. Sometimes it's
just not And sometimes you gotta youknow, you got to see it for
yourself. And and and you havea built an excuse here. If you're

(33:04):
a player like that, who's youknow, you're the top guy, You're
an alpha dog, You're you know, all well, everybody's an alpha dog
at that level. Everybody's the topguy at that level. Right, So
you can't sit there and blame politics, even if even if it was true,
you can't sit there and blame toppolitics. You got to outwork the
guy to the point where it doesn'tmatter. The politics don't matter anymore.
But some guys don't want to work, man, They just want to say

(33:25):
that, Hey, they want tolive off what they did in the past.
Right, I did this in thepast. I was how you touted,
so that should be enough to getme by. It is not.
I mean I've seen guys who fitthe mold because they were the right side,
but they were not made. Didn'thave the right men to make up.
And when you don't have that,you don't have that pedigree. Man,

(33:46):
we find out who you are reallyquickly. Yeah, separate the men
from the mice goats from the sheep, Yes, depends from the Knicks.
Wait the batman from the Rockets Man? You wrong? Is there? You
go? I hate you both,the Broncos country and I can't wait.
Thank you easy, enjoy that SteelersParade if it happens.