Game On Rewind: NFL QB coach Quincy Avery joins the show!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Well, it's a banner day here on Game On in
more ways than one. We have a very special guest
joining us here in just one second. We want to
remind you too, there is some breaking news out of
the National Football League. I do not know what ESPN,
the Worldwide Meter in Sports is doing. Finally they put
it on the chiron. They're covering college football. There's a
lot of games tonight, including our old friend Matt Ruhle.

(00:26):
Oh yeah, that's right, Yeah, going for glory, teeing it
up and really trying to get the riola and the
game there moving in the right direction, unlike here in Carolina.
We'll see what happens. Michael Parsons hasn't been traded to
the Green Bay Hackers. The highest paid non quarterback in
NFL history. David Mulgetta continues to do amazing work, mastermind,
and Jerry Jones. I'm going to see something, Ben. It's

(00:48):
a that's gonna be a tough one to watch. That
defense this year. Ah man, it's now the Bengals of
the South. You better score five thousand points to stay competitive.
That's a huge loss.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Got GP there, you know, ceedee, Lamb, you could do it.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
I feel bad for Dak sometimes, but he got paid to.
Let's bring in somebody who not only knows a thing
or fifty about quarterbacks, he knows them firsthand. So many
that you see play on Sundays, and many that you're
watching on Saturdays, and some that play on Friday nights.
Because the man is Quincy Avery, and he is with
the QB takeover an establishment that he has built himself,

(01:25):
and was featured on Hulu this summer in what was
one of the great fascinating stories I've ever seen documented Quincy.
This is great. We've been talking so long on social media.
Thank you for connecting with us man.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah, no, I truly appreciate you. I'm a big fan
of what you do, so I'm glad to be on.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Please clip that and put it in the archives. Quits
the Avery tell me I'm okay. The Quincy Avery effects
streaming on Hulu it was outstanding. Let's lead with that
for a minute, and then I want to get your
take on what just happened in Dallas. How rewarding and
emotional was that walking through a time cap so basically
and recalling your youth and your stories, things that we

(02:03):
never knew about the man behind so many of the
successes of quarterbacks like Deshaun Watson and Justin Fields and
your front and center and get to tell your story.
It must have been a rewarding time.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
It was definitely rewarding. I think that anytime you're doing
a documentary, you've got to be a little bit more
vulnerable than you probably anticipated, and it takes kind of
revealing some things if you want to tell a story
that's interesting the folks. And I think that I was
able to be really honest, be vulnerable and tell a
story that I hope truly inspires people to really follow

(02:37):
their dreams and live their life. They want to as
much of a football story as it is a life story,
and I really hope that when people watch it, no
matter what they do or a line a working, they
can truly take something away from it that they can
apply to their life.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Quincy, I must say that you've joined a long line
of people in very good company, because this was supposed
to be a great moment for both of us talking
about this Hulu documentary and your work with it, but
Jerry Jones, as always, takes the opportunity to steal the moment,
and I just saw you tweet this a minute ago.
I do want to talk about the Quincy behaviory effect
in just a minute in detail. What the hell is this?

(03:16):
He gets He gets rid of his best player literally
and you could argue that the most impactful guy did
you have to scheme up against in my opinion, and
it's just back to the back to the drawing board.
What do you make of what we just saw and heard.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
I think that we're seeing a very emotional owner GM
do very emotional things and would very difficult to build
a team when you act out of such emotion. That's
he really discounts the business side of all the things
that he's doing, and he's really hurt his team, hurt
his franchise, and hurt his organization. He's done that over

(03:54):
and over and over and over again. Not only with this,
but the way that he ain't his contracts, the way
that he and a salary cap. He's just done a
poor job and everything front office wise, other than drafting.
I think he drafts really well. Yeah, but everything else
that he does in terms of organizationally, he truly truly failed.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
The Green Bay Packers just became a much more dangerous
team in the NFC. And then again, our work here
with you revolves around a number of things, shooting the
bs and talking quarterbacks, but it's always great to get
a perspective from a quarterback guru like you on what
this means and before we dive back into your guys
that you've trained. This shifts the dynamic dramatically in that

(04:36):
division that features a lot of young quarterbacks still with
a lot of question marks. I mean, look, Kayleb Williams,
I really want to believe it's going to be a
good deal with Ben Johnson. Got to continue to stay
firm in the pocket. You know that as well. And
then I've not seen much from McCarthy outside of his
time with a sort of an insulated system in hardball's
world in Michigan. I think this makes it really challenging

(04:57):
not to mention Jared Golf without Ben Johnson.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah, man, this has made the NSC norse as difficult
as it gives crazy Troit Lions, Green Bay Packers who
were just loaded up front. Now it just changes a
complete dynamic of that league, especially for those two young quarterbacks. Well,
I think you're going to be learning of a fly.
Michael Parsons isn't something you want to do. It's it
completely changes your protection plan each and every week you're

(05:22):
turning things to them, trying to chip it back. You
just don't get to play offense the same way.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
I can tell you before we jump back into some
real football talk with Quincy Avery, QB takeover quarterback coach
to so many of the greats out there, Adam Schefter
supporting the full trade of compensation for Micah Parsons is
Kenny Clark defensive tackle, very good player, and two first
round picks for Micah Parsons. So that's that. We'll decide

(05:48):
later if that was stupid or not, but I think
we kind of already know that wouldn't give away. That's
that's a man who mentor Jalen Hurts laughing right now,
that's a man who knows Paul. It ain't me clowning around.
Please just keep doing that for an hour. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
I think I think we all know that the Packers
probably got the better end of his view. When you
trade for someone like Micah, you're pretty aware that you're
not going to be drafted early in the first round
for quite some time. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
One of the best quarterbacks in the league. You got
one of the best edge directions in the league. I
think any organization be really happy with having those two
cornerstones cornerstones and being able to move there.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Let's talk quarterbacks. Quincy Avery is joining us here and
we want to talk more about the Quincy Avery effect.
And one of the quarterbacks you have worked closely with
over the years that I still hold in high regard
and I was really fascinated with him in the pre
draft process, was Justin Fields didn't look there have been
some moments of real, you know, growth and development with
his game. And obviously from where you sit, there's a

(06:54):
star contrast between coaching them on the field, calling plays,
and working with them in the off season and during
the core season with consultations. And I know if that
works a certain way, but Justin is now with Aaron Glenn.
Here's my take on it, and I don't know if
I'm right. I think Aaron Glenn wants to run the
ball about seventy five times a game. Did you sense
that that could maybe help Fields play a little more

(07:16):
like he did Ohio State where you get back to
some of the vertical stuff and you run that readoption,
or is that something that is just shortsighted on my part.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
No, I think they they have an interesting plan there.
They got a coordinator who came from the Detroit Lions,
because I think the Detroit Lions probably had one of
the most intricate systems in the NFL between marrying their
past game and their run game. Now, what they did
was a lot more under center than the things that
Justin's done previously. Right, So it's gonna be interesting to

(07:46):
how do we have this same offensive system from a
shotgun alignment that allows us to do a lot of
the things in the run game but still get Justin
to be able to have that zone read feel that
really stresses out the defense. If they can marry that
run game in the shotgun with Justin's ability, I think
that's going to be a really explosive offense. I think

(08:07):
it's going to lean into a lot of Justine strength.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Quincy. My friend Trey Falco here is the best producer
on the planet, and he has learned the game of
football in the last three years, unlike anybody I know
in terms of somebody who knew nothing about the game
and now as a Yinzer, as a Steeler guy, he's
started to go through this whole thing of Will Howard.
Will he be the next guy? But Trey, do you
have a Will Howard question? No?

Speaker 2 (08:28):
I do not have a Will Howard question.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Will the name is Big Bench, by the way, that's
what we call him. Go ahead, Trey, what do you got? Quincy?

Speaker 2 (08:36):
So your guy that's mentored several successful NFL quarterbacks. There's
this kind of narrative that I hear quite often. I
heard it last year about Bryce Young and kind of
throughout Bryce Young's development that, Oh, the team needs to
go out and find a quarterback. Whisper they need to
fix their quarterback.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Is it more of like a.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Chicken in an egg scenario? Do they need someone to
actually come in and fix a player. Is it more
about like maybe the line or the weapons, or in
the situation that the quarterback is thrust into. What's your
take on this whole we got to go fix the
quarterback narrative?

Speaker 3 (09:07):
I think that we throw that tim around at very blanket.
But I think that the most important thing is learning
what kind of quarterback you have and how they learned
in order to execute your offense. I think oftentimes people
try and teach everybody or communicate to everybody in the
same exact way, and a quarterback cannot be successful in
your offense until that they until they can see things

(09:28):
and understand things in the way that you hope they
understand them. Watching guys who've been in offenses where they
were poorly and we saw that come out in their play,
then they get it switched. I'll talk about somebody. I'll
be specifics, all right. Malik Willis leave in the Tennessee type.
The offense system that they ran, the way that they

(09:49):
were coaching did not align with the way that he
heard things or understood things, right. So he goes through
two years there and they're like, this guy just does
not get it. He doesn't stand football, he can't understand
these concepts. They trade him. He goes to the Green Bay.
Every time he's down on the field with the Green
Bay Packers, he's been able to sell. The reason for

(10:09):
that is not because they's learning some new intricate offense.
The offense are relatively the same, but it's the instruction
that he's getting the way that it's being communicated to him,
where they're having him find his eyes with defender he's
looking at it. They're able to refine how he sees
the game more so than the plays in which they call.
And that is the thing to me that makes the
biggest difference.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Now, Quincy, I look back at what happened with Schotzinski
and Mike Schuler and Rivera. I covered the Panthers in
year one with Cam and Ron together and they visited
with Gus Malzan down there and then with gene Chiswick
and Auburn, and they really did. That was the lockout
year too, And the takeaway I had from that was
how Ron had talked about very openly with us, we

(10:51):
want to try to make this identifiable for Newton. And
you could see right out of the gate he was
thrown for four hundred yards. The team did not have
a very good defense, but you raise such a good point,
and we talk about fields and so many other guys
justin went through this in Chicago with Matt Nack. It
just seemed like and I think Matt is a wonderful
steward of the game and a nice assistant coach, But
I just think that sometimes it's it's so important to

(11:14):
follow the thing you said, make it easier on the
quarterback and make it accessible to what they've known and learned.
And speaking of that, you see these quarterbacks bounce around.
What happened with c J Stroud. You know CJ quite well,
and obviously they're moving on to a new coordinator, Nick Cayley,
Bobby Slowak. These things do happen in a flash of
a hand. Sometimes Slowack was raved is what's going to

(11:36):
be the next head coach in the league? And now he's, oh,
quote garbage, and we know that's not true, but that's
the narrative what went wrong. I guess you could say
with CJ, and do you agree with me that maybe
if that's your floor, you're gonna be okay?

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, I bet Sloan wish you would take a job
after that season.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yet, yeah, that's right time.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
They had some real transition with their offensive line. Yeah,
and a lot of the things that he wanted to
do did not align with the personnel that they had.
So that's another issue. And we talked about personnel. Offensive line.
They had a decent offensive line. They experienced some real
injuries at the online positions. They experienced some injuries at
the wide receiver position. So we're struggled with injuries in

(12:20):
both of those spots and he wasn't able to adjust
fast enough to put them in situations where they could
be successful. I still think Slowly is a fantastic coach.
I think it's some really good ideas. I don't think
that he had the personnel to do the things that
he wanted to do as a coordinator. Now. I think
that the true test of a great coach is are
they adaptable enough when they do have those injuries, that

(12:42):
they do have these deficiencies in certain areas, whatever that
may be, that they find new ways to still be successful.
That's not something that he could do. And I think
we saw what looked like regression from CJ. But I
think it was just a frustrating situation for everybody.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
An We've talked about that so much on our show.
I find it interesting that we're in the afternoon drive
on an FM sports talk show and we sort of
don't yell and scream stupid stuff fall We try to
be analytical. It probably doesn't help ratings much, but yeah,
you talk about SLOWIK, like, yeah, that moment that's where
your stock is the highest, Go get it. It's such

(13:18):
a sick, weird world, this NFL world. All of a sudden,
your garbage. It's the same thing that what's his name
Kubiak went through last year with the New Orleans Saints.
Speaking of this division, I know you haven't and maybe
you have. I just don't know if you have ever
worked with Bryce Young one on one in terms of instruction.
But you know him well, I'm sure from quarterback circles.
And he's obviously the coast of the town right now

(13:39):
in Carolina with the way he finished the end of
last season. But it's a year to year proposition. How
do you assess his game so far? Some of the
habits that are still there and some that have been corrected,
and what is he doing well? What does he need
to work on?

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yeah, I'm a big right Young fan as a person
and as a player, and I think he does some
things that are really unique from the quarterback position. You'll
see Bryce Young plays from a very open setup, so
his chest is facing the line of scrimmage a lot.
But that allows him to really close and generate force
on the ball when it's time to throw. But we

(14:15):
do see some deficiencies sometimes when he's throwing to the
less because of that movement. It just puts them in
a unique position in terms of strive frequency. Boy, he's
getting his foot down in order to throw balls and
be consistently successful there. That's the one technical thing that
I'll say, Hey, Bryce, let's figure out how we want
to do this in a way in which he can
be successful and consistent there. But I think that he's

(14:37):
playing with much more anticipation now. I think that you
learn very very quickly in the NFL that the guys
may be open, but they're not going to be open
for long. And we got to get the ball out
of our ends being able to throw the ball and
anticipate windows rather than being reactive to this guy's being open.
And I think that he's going to have a more electric,

(14:57):
a more athletic receiving core. I'm not sure if they're
gonna have somebody to take that feeling role, but I
often want to say, like you think about Bryce Young,
Bryce showing is somebody out bench last year, right, and
you were able to turn the corner. So it's really
interesting to see the way that quarterbacks are developed and
the time that they're given. Is Andy Dalton would have
just played good to the remainder of the seasons. Who

(15:18):
knows that we'd still be feeling this way about Bryce
Young or if they'd have been trying to draft another
quarterback last year. So it's really interesting the way that
this quarterback position plays out.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
I think he deserves a ton of credit for the
way he handled it and it shows the class act
that he is and no matter what it becomes of
his career. And I'm of the mindset covering that team
every week in Charlotte and then doing work here on
this station that you have to know guys and you
get to know people that know a thing or two
about the game. And it was no fluke what he
did at Alabama, and then that last year at Alabama,

(15:47):
he wasn't dealing with the most electric group of receivers either.
So I thought last year was a good indicator against
very good competition, even though they lost some of these games.
I mean, poor Xavier Luet, who we love. If you
catch that ball in philadel that's one of the most
miraculous game winning drives in Philly I would have ever
seen in my life. Excel's got to make that catch.
But anyway, that's the Carolina Panthers. They start up with

(16:09):
the Jacksonville Jacks. I need to break one more piece
of news and see if we can get a chuckle
out of Quincy Avery as he's joining us right in
the middle of Micah Parsons being dealt away for a
veteran defensive tackle and two what will probably be twentieth
first round picks twenty twenty five range. Yeah, the Cowboys
will play the Packers in Week four, I'm told and

(16:29):
I can go short that my theory on this and
that game is in Dallas. This is a part of
the package that Jerry was willing to do because he
loves it. He loves all of it. He doesn't love losing.
Nobody does. But if he's gonna trade him, go on
and find somebody. And Steven on the schedule learning o.
So he's not hurt, and they sure as hell did.

(16:52):
That's going to be the most watched game, probably of
all time, and we'll see what happens. Jalen hurts. You've
worked with him. Jalen comes under a lot of fire
at times, and obviously Philadelphia is a tough place. But
when you win a Super Bowl and you are able
to have special traits that work within the confines of
the structure of an offense that you're you're operating in

(17:13):
It's a magnificent thing to watch him work with that
line a toush push what if you want to call it?
I have a theory about this. His passing game has
also elevated in big moments too. And you know that
the toush push an unsung hero in that is the
quads on Jalen Hurts, Is it not? Because he can
pretty much pick up a pickup truck.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
Dalen Hurts is the strongest quarterback hands down that I've
ever interacted with. Yea, and I've worked with some. Justin
Field is a really strong human being. Malik Willis is
a really strong human being. Jalen Hearights is just on
another level in terms of the strength in which he
possessed his name. He's able to do some of those
things because of that. But watching Jalen Headshill on the football, now,

(17:56):
do you go cut on some tape at least time
at Alabama and then you cut paid from his time,
Now what you will see is a completely different pastor.
But what I see is just someone who is so
willing and dedicated to working hard, working the right way,
being able to put in the work and learn and
be willing to change something. Even though you're successful enough

(18:16):
to be playing at one of the most prestigious university
to all the country, that takes a lot for you
to be willing to do all those things. So he's
someone that I'm a major fan of because of who
he is as a person, how hard he works, and
how bilgen he is about his work.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
I think, Yeah. My theory in football has always been, look,
it doesn't matter what you're doing relative to the other team.
It's how you're operating within your own structure. That's the
way the forty nine ers quarterbacks are so good understand
a head of times and whatever works in Philly. There
are some traits in his game, including the things you
can't even see, the intangibles that are tangible at times
when he's on that field. The leadership, they love the guy,

(18:54):
and he's got a tremendous amount of value in a division.
Now that becomes even easier to do eight because, as
we told you earlier, Michael Parsons is no longer in it.
Quincy Avery is our guest. We need to probably let
him go because he's extremely busy with qbtakeover dot com.
Can you give us a minute and just help us
understand the mission statement and what you guys are all about.
I know what it's about. But help the upstate here

(19:16):
because we have a lot of high schoolers out there,
a lot of young you know, seven on seven kids.
My son was one of them. You're doing such a
great job developing guys at a young age and giving
them something more than just football, giving them a purpose.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
Yeah, and I mentioned really in terms of the football aspect,
is to work with the best of the best and
make them a little bit better each and every day.
But I think that we do things a little bit
different than everybody else. We want to make it more
difficult than you would ever experience in the game because
we want to prepare you for every situation, not just
on the football field, but in life as well. And
we hope that we're not only changing football teams because

(19:51):
we bring them a quarterback who was better than they
were before, but we hope we're changing lives. We hope
change in high schools, colleges for the NFL, we hope
those have a change of community. So we really shot
to be working with the best of the best in
all aspects well.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Quincy, We've come a long way from the days where
I would stalk you on Twitter and ask you questions
about this film cut. Can you tell me what this
Rocke concept is?

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Sarah?

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Thank you. You're very gracious to make time for me,
and it's a hopefully the beginning of a great friendship
in this business. Quincy Avery, QB takeover dot com and
don't forget to watch on Hulu and for all of
eternity this great, tremendous series about the life and times
of Quincy Avery. And I can't stress enough. I watched
the whole thing with my sons, big football fans. One
is still trying to play the game. It was great, man.

(20:37):
I'm proud of you, Bud. Keep it up.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
Thank you. I will see you soon.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
You Q be good man. Let us know when the
next big star hits the market and we will start
interviewing them in fourth grade. Man, he is something else,
Quincy Avery, that was one of the weirdest moments in
my professional life. Is an NFL reporter, I guess you
can call it. This is one of the biggest stories
in my lifetime in terms of a player being dealt away.

(21:02):
This is herschel Walker level stunning that it came to
this and It's rare that you get a guy that's
literally as much as we've had on this show, some
of the great players and coaches. Quincy Is. He's one
of the people that knows everybody. Oh yeah, that's why
when he started laughing, I just kicked a mic back

(21:27):
and let him go. That is a man who's worked
with Jalen Hurt since he was in high school. It's
this guy that coaches Jordan Love. He's worked with obviously
so many others like Milik Willison. Gosh, that such a
great point he brought up that we've even hinted at
about Malik Willis, but he nailed it out of the
park that you know, hey, Tennessee, they put slop in
front of him basically in terms of I don't know

(21:49):
how you did it. You know, we're at Liberty, but here,
right here, there's our play that's Mike Brabel, there's our playbook. Butlik,
go learn it and all of a sudden, out that
doesn't work. You go to Matt Lafleura up there in
Green Bay, and there are certain organizations that have a
way of taking quarterbacks that wow, it seems so hard
for them right now, come here and we'll actually do

(22:11):
it right, because let me tell you something, like a
car dealer, we got you in mine right now. And
they take the quarterbacks and they don't baby them. But
like what Matt Naggy did was almost a war crime
against Justin Fields, lining him up and you know, empty personnel,
no screen game, no deep shots, just a bunch of slop.
And I'm glad Quincy Avery was able to come on

(22:34):
here and confirm some of our theories and thoughts, not
one Aaron Rodgers question. He probably appreciated that I didn't
need to ask. Aaron's proven themself, gone Avery, Aaron Rodgers
as he watched, Well, uh yeah, we could always talk
about that. I'm still stunned at Michah Parsons got trade
and it's the first thing my son Andrew said. They
play each other week four. I'm like Jerry is the

(22:57):
master of all masters. LSU and Clemson kickoff seven thirty Saturday,
and then you've got the Game Cocks right here against
Virginia Tech and the kind of a Beamer Bowl reunion story.
There two great games and so many others. Boise State
and South Florida have just kicked off. I believe they
delayed this game for the Micah Parsons news and guess
who plays the night among other teams. Oh boy, we

(23:19):
got the Cincinnati Bearcats. Oh yeah, entertaining net rule. And
it's the Year of the Husker. That's right. It's not
year seven yet, but it's year three. We'll see if
Nebraska can get off on the right track. I never
thought I'd say those words were brought to you by
Ingles Low Prices. Love the savings when we return, Michah
Parsons and Michaeh Parsons and more Micah Parsons right here

(23:41):
on came on