1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Barry Thompson (Fairfax Football Academy) - July 14th, 10:00am

Episode Date: July 15, 2022

Barry Thompson (Fairfax Football Academy)-How important is a good running back to a QB's success?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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Welcome in Barry Thompson, Fairfax Football Academy. Barry, how are you good, sir? I'm good and getting better. You guys are having a little bit of heat wave. We're just having kind of normal, you know, summer weather. So we're doing really well, real well. Barry, I want to ask you. We talked a little bit about it in our last segment.

And I'm not sure if you saw the Twitter battle between Lamar Jackson and Pollard. What are your thoughts on Lamar Jackson? Jackson as a quarterback from your perspective as a quarterback coach, and then obviously what you see on Sundays or Monday nights or Thursday night football. Right. So you'll have to – I caught you guys talking a little bit about the beat, so you'll have to catch me up on that. But as far as Lamar, a lot of times we've talked about quarterbacks here,

and I've always articulated that it's so important the environment which they exist or operate in that, you know, what does – What you want them to do is it playing to their strength. And Lamar has been extremely intriguing to me because of the way that they got the Ravens started with him. They just said, essentially, if we're going to take this guy, then we're going to put everything around them. And they redid everything, including in the first couple of years, the backup quarterbacks, which I think were RG3 and then Trace McSorley. Right?

So they even went and got similar guys that if Lamar was out, they weren't Lamar, but they would be a similar style quarterback. So that was an organizational mode. And I do like him. I think because of that ecosystem that's around him, because it plays just strength, I just think he's – I'm always intrigued by it. And I kind of just think there's a breakout – we've already had breakout season. But I think there's a championship season or two in him with those people around him.

I mean, the only pieces are missing, Ozzy. Ozzie who's retired, right? Yeah. Ozzy Newsom, who was, you know, putting all that stuff together. But, you know, great ownership, steady. You know, they seem to be able to put a competitive team on the field consistently with their budget. You're losing big people like Ozzy, losing Ray Lewis. You know, losing Ed Reed, and they're still competitive.

It kind of reminds me of that Pittsburgh model that seems to have been so successful for so long. But I like Lamar a lot. One of the things Marcus Pollard shot off and pretty much started it that the Twitter battle was that he was saying, even though Lamar Jackson is a good player, he'll never reach his pinnacle because receivers don't want to go to Baltimore and play with them, essentially saying he's not a good enough quarterback for guys that want to go play with him. Do you believe anything in that? No, I mean, look at Brady up in New England.

So, you know, however they were working the numbers there, other than Randy Moss, he didn't get a standout receiver, right? And they had a championship run. So that comment is kind of a, it's just something I really wouldn't pay attention to. And I don't know what Pollard's mouth and off about. Here's what we know about pro players. if they have a chance to win and you're paying the money. Yeah, they're going.

The good ones are going to show up. Heck, they're going to go where the money's at, even if you go to a bad team. There's guys that go to Cleveland Browns. And you know, you'll have a good receiver at a certain point in his career. He's tired of messing around. He may even take a little bit left. Right.

Don't say that out loud. But if he thinks he's got a good chance to win and go get a ring. So to me, that goes out. I don't understand what Pollard. I mean, why would he even say that? I guess he said it because we're paying attention, right? Right. That's what Lamar Jackson said he was irrelevant,

but from a defense standpoint, Paula was a decent player. But, you know, one other thing I want to ask you about Lamar Jackson in the passing game, say, I'm not going to compare a passing tree or system, say, to Brady, but let's just say like maybe like a Russell Wilson or maybe even Cam Newton. How from the offense, say you were, you know, advising, a coach. Say you train Lamar Jackson, you know a lot, you've seen how you can play.

If they're calling you up and say, hey, you know, what routes or what type of schematic scheme should we, from a passing standpoint, should we try to curtail with Lamar? How does that look? Because, you know, it's a little bit of what Nebraska might do this year, or you might expand it a little bit with what Whipple might do, is taking some stuff from Pittsburgh with picket. So how would you, you know, advise a team or a quarterback coach or offensive coordinator? to get the most out of Lamar Jackson in the passing game. Yeah, I think they're off to a good start, which is they have a firm running game there. I mean, they're committed to the run, and they've got first known.

I think they have to work out with their alignment, you know, which types of linemen that they're going to. Because remember, when he first came in, they were all big and beefy and what's the 300-pound, full-back. And so that kind of played to that. Then as he got into it, the linemen kind of changed. a little bit. So it starts up there. But as far as style of flesh, you know, he's pretty good from the pocket. And so you really look at, you know, certainly for longevity and that type of thing. Sure. You're looking more like a Brady model or like a breeze model. Right. And that type of thing that takes advantage of his intelligence is decision-making skills is, you know,

You know, and then you have that ace up your sleeve, which is if he needs to go out. I don't think that you approach him. Like, and it's got to be with the run game, it's got to be a little more downfield. Right. That combination of, hey, you know, when you look at patterns, you can either choose to read them short to deep or deep to short. And I think he'd be a guy, deep to short guy. So almost in the vein of, like, if you go back with Kurt Warner. Right.

going back in the day, right? He was a dude to short guy. Right. But anyway. Yeah, I also wanted to ask you, like, when I've watched Lamar later in the season, this happens to everybody, though, you know, maybe like accuracy issues, the ability to kind of, you know, just being a little bit off. And I know a lot of it has to do with the lack of missing on receivers with parraman.

Bateman was hurt, you know, from the very, I mean, he was killing it in training camp. I think he got hurt one of the last few weeks of training camp, then come back until like, I think, well into the, you know, halfway mark of the season. And I know that affected it. But what are some of the things you might see from Lamar late in the season, playoffs to where, you know, he's missing throws that he usually were making earlier in the season? Yeah, well, just from a pure, I don't know what's the right word,

but just at the mechanics that the quarterback throws with, There's something that needs maintenance on a consistent basis. That will come undone. Now, I'm not saying it's a mechanical issue, but I'm just a separate comment aside. That's just something that if you think of, like, the best golfers in the world travel with a swing coach. Right.

You feel me? So by that level, the quarterback has to know his stroke, has to know well, and it has to know what he needs to do to kind of maintain that consistency of mechanics. So that's just a separate issue. I'm not seeing Lamar as mechanical and sound. Now, when you look at the season, at the back in the season, you're right. These things, you get tired and people get tired.

But I'm going to go back to that lineman thing. Like, if I was really looking at those games, how comfortable was he really back there? And then if receivers aren't healthy. Because there's times when, as a quarterback, you have to throw early. Yeah. Right? I mean, you can't, you know, you've got to be committed to a throw, and it's not quite a guess, but it's not the normal time that you would throw a ball, right?

It's not the normal time. The normal time you throw a ball, you've got time when a receiver's getting his break and bad, and your footwork matches up. He's getting into his break and you're throwing the ball, right? There are times when he might be approaching his break, and you've got to throw the ball out there. Now I've got to back off some of the loss of the account where he's going to need a little more time to get the ball, but the space is correct. Now, when you're talking

about that type of time, now is that receiver getting stuff, or does that receiver understand, you know, from a past protection standpoint, hey, he may be throwing this out of girl. So there's a lot that could go into that. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

And if you're telling, yeah, and if you're telling me the regular guys aren't there, and we're in the second tier guys, then that's where that stuff can kind of happen. Yeah. And that, to me, to me, that's more when quarterbacks and receivers talk,

well, we just want to make sure we're on the same page and we have time. It's that type of time. Right. That, right, that the receiver looks in, like, well, okay.

You know, and the quarterback goes, okay, he knows. He knows, I got a problem over here, right? And they snap something off and they're both there.

So he may not have that later. I'm not making excuses for him. So kind of going back to like the talent that you were talking about, you know, the receivers and the offensive line. I asked Jay this question earlier, how important is it to have just a solid

running game when it comes to helping a quarterback? Well, it's always, a running game is always a quarterback's best friend. I mean, they usually attach that adage to a young quarterback, but when you get into that championship part of the season, and, you know, you need to be able to run the ball when you want to and run the ball when you have to. So it doesn't have to be a spectacular game, but those two objectives have to be achievable. In my opinion, if you're going to play championship football. There's times when you want to run the ball and you have to be able to do it.

And then there's times when you should run the ball, right? And you should be capable of doing it. You look at some high, you know, we always go back a little bit. It's called the old school country for one-on-one. But if you go back in these high flyer, quarterback, they had success in their career when the run game was matched up with their past. So, Peyton, actually, the ones come in mind both, them, right? Remember John Elway?

Right. Throwing, you know, people's hands and fingers are flying off and couldn't get enough of them. But late in his career, he gets a running back, they get a run game, and he reels off two up, and then Peyton, they get to one, but he goes to Denver, and he's not flinging the ball all over the place. You've got a run game in the defense, and there you go. So the principles of football guys, you know, as excited as we may be by combines and Mahomes aren't angles and all that kind of stuff,

and we are excited by it. the principles of championship football still haven't, to me, really have to change. You got to play defense. You got to be able to run the ball. You got to be able to complete a few passes. Right. And, you know, one thing I wanted to ask you about moving to college here with, obviously, Nebraska situation, you know, whether there's a quarterback battle or not, that's, you know,

that's a coaching decision. But I want to just talk about, just say if you're, just say Casey Thompson, you know, how important is it to have or speak to the importance? I know it's important. to build this continuity from, say, when spring ball got over, all way through off season, which is summer, into fall camp, your continuity with, what, four guys at the most, at least three, how important is that to his early success in camp,

which obviously you'd like to see boil over into the first game against Northwestern Ireland? Well, let's compare, first of all, let's say that at any point in time with the football team, you have to do what you have to do, right? I mean, you know, we could all sit here and say this should be done, but if you're looking at a group of guys and you assess it at this level, then you do what you think you need to do.

But if we're saying, and you do know the answer to this day, if we're saying, you know, that what's optimal, this is not optimal. And you can tell by looking at another program, the other programs when they even even if there's a sniff of competition even if there's a guy applying pressure

they'll go so far to the granular level of all the social media stuff that they put out because I've seen it with my quarterback is you'll never see the number two ever in anything right because they don't want to broadcast

anything to the outside world that other than this is a guy right I know for fact, one of my quarterback, to a certain point, they've taken him

and put him on another field with another unit. Right? So they may rotate players around because he's a solid number two. I mean, he's a player way. But just to go to that extent, right, to say

I'm not even, so you can't even compare it, well, you know, number one did this and number two did this and that. Number two is on a different field. Right. And the way that they've chosen to keep number two fresh, not put them with all the two. They're rotating personnel. So he gets work with one.

The other guy gets worked, you know, with both groups, but they have them on separate fields. So you don't even, they're not even letting the locker room get involved. You know what I mean? Right, yeah. And now I'm going to flip that. Now, how does a guy approach being on that other field, that number two, and what would you advise him from a mindset standpoint or a goal standpoint to get to that, you know, number one spot and get to where you can get to the other foot?

Now you get behind the curtain. I mean, that's what we here for. I mean, we got about five minutes, so you got, you got 300 seconds. Okay. Here's what I, I have a couple of guys that are in two spots, and they're behind, you know, guys that have done well, and they're the next stuff, guys. I firmly believe that. Confident.

When they came home, and we had long talk, you know, and we said, okay, what's the plan? Like, what are we doing? And they kind of just basically timed the stuff. I said, no, that's not the way it's going to go. I said, you're looking at the number one right now. And I said, there's things that he does not do well. And it's just, that could be anybody.

Right. And everybody does something. I'm saying look at the things that he doesn't do well. All right. Those are the things that you have to get better at. And the reason I said that to him, because if you get better at those things, it applies more pressure to him. And by the way, it makes the team better, and it makes you better. And it raises a bar for the next guy coming behind you.

Now, he's got more things he's got to be good at. So that was a long discussion. That was an analytical discussion. and then when they were home, those are the things that we worked on. And so that's what you can do. That's what you can do. You're not going to be a number two in one of these good programs

unless you're prepared. Right. There's no shaking. But if you're the number two, then that's what you're going to look at the number one and you say, what does he do well? What situation does he not perform?

That's where I got to sell, right? Because that's the only thing. You just can't, you know, if it's a coin toss, you can lose a coin toss. Sure. What's going to make you different? right what can make you different hey he does do this well let me go work on that it helps the quarterback helps the team raises the standard of the plug to the guy behind that's awesome

and Barry one more quick question um from an offensive standpoint is a quarterback as you played but just even you coaching and obviously watching quarterbacks I'm sure you're like me I watch linebackers I can watch him sun up to sundown and find something to get excited or be like man that was horrible about but how important is it especially unless just just take Nebraska's situation or any situation. How important is it to have a number one guy, you know, like a number, like a, you know, a guy that, you know, say like a lamb that was at Oklahoma or somebody like that. How important is that?

Well, I mean, shoot. I mean, that's everything. I mean, to have a security blanket out there is everything, right, to know that there's a guy, Whether it's short or long or whether it's a tight-in or one. You know, whatever the security blanket is, it's great to have, right? If you got a receiver that can dictate coverage and receiver that you can go to in situations, you know, again, whether it's short or long, it can be tied-ins. It can be extremely useful, extremely useful. If they're guys who know if you get open and you know how to get the ball to them, move in the team.

So, yes, the security blanket is a day. I still have my wooey. I guess what I'm asking, Barry, is like when you're in an offensive scheme, right, it's just an offense. You know, this is kind of like this is year one of Whipple's deal. So, you know, I guess until it's proven, we don't, I mean, we got ideas who's the number one, but you can be, what I'm asking, you can go over to Ireland in the first four games and be, you know, a high-powered offense with guys rotating. And even though you know you got the top three guys that are going to roll out there, but you know, you're still seeing what everybody can do. Well, let me put you this way.

I still go by the principle that the most difficult thing to defend is something that you don't know where it's going to be. Yeah. And so that allows you from a coaching standpoint to choose several different ways to get there. You could have a passing game that kind of dots the ball to different areas of the field, right? Right. That's one. what you prefer is you do have a number one that you can move around the field

or that's what you prefer you know you just don't want a number one he lines up at X all day I mean you'll take them I'm not going to kick him out but man if you give me an X that I could play a line of a little 8th a little Y a little ZX in the backfield that becomes an issue

the most difficult thing to defend it's something that you're not sure where it's going to be right you think about being a lineback, right? Think about the downhill eyes, when you get into rhythm and you've got blocking combinations, and you know when this back is set here and they're in this set,

right, you know what's coming. Right? Right? Right. Yes? Okay. So imagine if you're looking at this stuff and you're not quite sure, you know, is that a down block or just his own block and by the fact he was that way. He ran this way last time,

but last time that's Joker, you know, he went out of the back to him. Now, I got, you know, I've got more things to concern myself with, right? Right. Right. Okay. Now, all of a sudden, you see the back of the slot and the why come back here. It's like, well, okay, what's this mean?

Right. And, I mean, through study, you can get there to know what it means, but it's still not the same comfortable feeling that I've got an eye back or the fullback. That full back is going to do two things. He's going to lead me to the play or they're going to try to influence me, and I know how to read the influence. You know what I mean? And I'll still get to the play.

So those are the things, either spreading the ball around, right, moving or passing to different areas of the field, or having a guy that can move to different areas of the field. I think those are the two things that become problematic for defense, because you can't defend it all. We're speaking with Barry. You take away a lot of stuff, but you can't defend it all. We're speaking with Barry Thompson, Fairfax Football Academy. Jay Foreman's got to get to going. Barry, we're going to head to a break.

Jay, thank you for. sticking in. This hour, again, is brought to you by Ambition Electric, the Barry Thompson hour. We will be right back with Barry Thompson and myself here on one-on-one.