Green Light with Chris Long - Gerald McCoy! Nate Tice! Tampa Bay Bucs Outlook, Training Camp Fights & NFL QB Battles!

Episode Date: August 6, 2024

Another Beau show blesses your timeline! Macon, Kingston and Cowboy start things off with a little Olympic review. Then Beau welcomes on Gerald McCoy to talk the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, being with the NFL Network at Colts training camp, impact of Jason Kelce & Fletcher Cox's retirements for the Eagles, Baker Mayfield's season prediction and training camp fights. Beau finishes today's episode with Nate Tice talking the QB battles from around the NFL: Justin Fields & Russell Wilson, Aidan O'Connell & Gardner Minshew and JJ McCarthy & Sam Darnold. (00:00) - Hello, Layup Line & Olympic Updates (17:23) - Gerald McCoy on Tampa Bay's training camp, Indianapolis Colts outlook, Jason Kelce's replacement with the Eagles and training camp fights (53:47) - Nate Tice on NFL QB battles, the New York Jets' ceiling and Caleb Williams' preparedness Want your Green Light Merch so you can look exactly like Chris and the fellas? Hit the website below and get kitted! https://stores.kotisdesign.com/yotehouse/products Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ Send any Talent Search submissions to: [e-mail] Include any video of your talents, takes and bits as well as a little bit about yourself. Love hearing from the Green Light fans. Also, check out our paddling partners at Appomattox River Company to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. https://paddleva.com/ Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42 Green Light Tube YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgxWFAA-wuB7osdiAJyLOcw Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of my points that I'll say now, because I've already said it, but I'm going to say on TV, and we talk about Philly is losing a Jason Kelsey or a Fletcher Cox. People don't understand, man, when you lose your core leaders, like losing your center, who's really like the mind and the brains behind, like, really making everything go on offense, that's very tough to replace. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast. Thank you for tuning in today for the Bo show. Bo talks to a couple of his favorite guests, Gerald McCoy and Nate Tice.

Bo and Gerald run through some NFL training camp stories, talk to Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Gerald was just at Bucks Camp. He updates Bo on Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans, the connection those two have, Liam Cohen taking over the offense. He also talks about training camp fights, what you got to do to be ready, and how excited he is for the 2024 NFL season. Nate Tice joins Bo and they talk all things quarterbacks. Which quarterbacks are going to win the competitions in Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Las Vegas?

Is Caleb Williams the real deal? And what is the ceiling for the New York Jets? If they stay healthy, can they make it all the way? A couple great guests, Macon, Matt, and myself will kick things off, do a little Olympic update for you. Y'all enjoy today's show, and we will have something very special for you in the second half of this week. Y'all stay tuned. We'll catch you then. Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Hello! Why? Thank you for asking. It's the site of this week's National Bank Open, currently an ATP qualifying event, into the main draw here shortly. And it's right now raining in Montreal. And McKinsey McDonald and James Duckworth are locked in a second set tiebreaker. Are you betting again? Well, for those who are, who grabbed McKinsey McDonald at minus 150 at a couple units who pulled out a first set breaker 7-4 after getting up 6-1 and is now up to love and the second set breaker gets interrupted due to rain.

I can imagine people are fairly stressed out and I'm looking out for you. I hope the rain subsides. I don't know why you won't watch the movie Challenger's. It's about an ATP Challenger's event. I just, is it, but it's comedy? No. Okay. It's like romance sports drum.

I just watched the two Robert Durstocks. Excellent. The jinx is what they're called. I was a few years behind on the first iteration. Well, it's up to you all to determine that. Not really up to us. I want to tell you something. Hey, today's the Boe show.

Bo has Gerald McCoy coming up as well as Nate Tice, two excellent football-centric interviews. And you all will be hearing from Chris here shortly, not today, but in upcoming shows, I wanted to let you all know that my dad has handed me his obituary.

Oh, he wrote it himself? Yes. So he, a living person the other day, hands me his obituary very nonchalantly. Did you like feedback? No. It was like for your files when the time comes.

I was like, well, are you dying? And he said no. And I said, okay. like any plans? And he said, no. I said, okay, great. And I gave it a once over. I'm like straight down the middle.

Like, this guy died on this day and in this location. And then he is survived by X, Y, and Z goes through a lot of folks. A little bit of a life history. And then I told my lovely wife, and she was like, are you okay? I was like, I'm pretty used to this sort of stuff at this point. A lot of death preparation in our household. Also, very cool movie. He has a PhD, you know, these things, the doctoral degrees.

But he went with Mr. Gunter throughout his obituary, no stolen valor. Are you in there as surviving? Yeah, that's it. Great. Okay. I mean, we can edit it if I do not. Yeah, right, right. Outlast him.

Reed's been spicy today, by the way, in the studio. He has been spicy. For the first time in his life, at least. that I can remember. Reed went to a wedding over the weekend and I guess didn't realize that the wedding is hanging around in his head and he sounds just a little gravely,

a little off, and he's giving people all sorts of attitude. Mostly me. Kingston asked if there was any, anybody had any tape and the cowboy says, yeah, anywhere you fucking look, I'm paraphrasing.

Like, you've got tape here, we got tape there. Open your eyes. Cowboy, you want to defend yourself? No, this is all good. The wedding was for former employee Taylor. Oh, no shit. He got married and Harrison Berg.

It was great. Nice. I did a lot of yelling on the dance war. And I hope there was no sickness that I brought in. Yeah. You know? Good for him. Viby.

Yeah, it was great. The, yeah, him and congratulations to him and Hannah. Pretty dope. Wow. Ain't no party like a Duke dog. Hey, damn right. Party. Damn right.

Finning's Cove. PFT, you know something about Finnington's Cove? We did that on Friday, and then a Golden Pony was a Saturday new move. But yeah, a good time, good vibe. But talking about music, we had a great run-through at the wedding, a great playlist. But is there a lay-up line for today? Were we talking about music? Or did you say, talking about music?

Okay. Talking about music, I don't know if that qualifies as an actual. Talking about, yeah, talking about me yelling and singing at the... Okay, you're right, you're right. Yeah, yeah. Why don't you pick one for us, a good wedding dance song? Sheesh. Well, we listen to Creed Higher about five times.

Nice. Let's do that. So, yeah, we can do that one. Okay. But we had a, you picked another one. I was going to do LaVie on Rose to celebrate the Olympics. I'll break the tie and say Creed Higher. Oh, what are we watching at the Olympics?

Olympics. What has stood out? I can't get enough for the tracking field. I don't know if you saw 100 meters yesterday, but that finish was electric. I thought you're going to take that in a different direction with what stood out. But we, yeah, I feel like we learn every four years. Oh, you're talking about penises. You got it. You got it. Let's table that talk. Okay. And give credit to I just, Noah Liles. I almost said Nate Liles. Let's give credit to Nate Liles,

former NFL player and Noah Liles too. Noel Liles is DMV, yeah? He's a local cat? Yep. And I think we learn every four years that it's the chest that matters when you're crossing a finish line. It's not feet, it's not the head,

it's your torso. Got to run through the line. Run the line. With your chest. Yep. I feel bad for South Africa. and he lost by 200ths of a second and didn't get a medal. Yeah.

What's the Seinfeld line? Like he's talking about the guys in first, second, third, and last, and they're all like right next to each other. Yeah, gold, silver, bronze, never heard of you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A guy who we have now heard of and will continue to see, I reckon is Anthony,

who is either from Italy or France, we've determined. and he's a pole vaulter. I thought he was Italian because his name is Amarati, but he's French. Yeah, on his leotard, which is the only thing he was wearing, no compression shorts to speak of. It says France, and he vaults over the pole and then comes down and wax his package onto the pole, which brings the pole down.

That was a bummer for him. Well, kind of a bummer, a bummer for everybody else, maybe to see I'm gonna zag I don't think it is a bummer for him this guy was not like a metal contender we wouldn't have been talking about him he's one of the most famous guys on the planet for having a huge dong like this is a win for him

you go back in the annals of his social media presence he's aware of the dog let's just say that well now we're all aware yeah I mean there are pictures that are very flattering maybe all pictures for this guy are flattering but really I mean if that

is going to be an issue and you're in the Olympics, put on the Nike Pro compression shorts. They were. It seemed like he might have had the, there was a track star, a sprinter who was just wearing free-flowing boxers under his track suit. So he might be, you know, tackling the same way. I don't know how you can do that.

I don't know how you can do that. And all of my athletic pursuits, I'm wearing compression shorts. We have a pickup basketball game, and it should be noted that we now have a guy who calls a foul in every possession. Oh, no. I assume. You would not believe this. I mean, this guy who's decent at basketball drives into a lane, he's calling a foul on every single possession. And I assume they're like 10% of them are actual fouls.

Yeah, I mean, maybe half, but nobody else is calling in fouls. Nobody. No shame. Nobody reacts to it at all except for making. Oh, come on. No, no, no. I didn't say anything for the first five. I didn't say a word.

And they were, by the way, it's a game to 11. It's like 15 all. I mean, it's a close, very hotly contested game. And then he goes up. I'm right in front of him. I see that he just loses control of the ball. He comes down and goes foul. And then I gave him like a, uh, uh,

and then somebody hearing my, he said, who got you? And then he turns around and points at me and that's when I gave him the, come on, dude. I don't know what I said, but it was along those lines. Did they alter the outcome?

Like, did his team end up winning? They did, they did win. Turn over late, actually. But he stopped calling the foul. There's nothing. I mean, he, fouls called was probably eight for him. He also started calling three seconds on me.

He called three seconds. He didn't actually call it, but he started counting. In a pickup game? Yes. And I was. I was planting in the lane, but I was surprised with it. Unbelievable. Hey, good for this guy.

He wants to play his way. USA three on three hoops is terrible. Do they have officials in three and three hoops? Yeah. Okay. And it's all the same. You want a referee three hoops? Like ball hits the rim.

You got to take it out past the three. I haven't watched any of it. Actually, even if the ball goes in, You have to take it out past the three point line. Well, I know if the ball goes in. But it's like continuous. There's no checkup. You just take it right back.

Oh. It can be stolen from you on the way back to the three point line. Oh, really? Oh, I don't like that at all. Maybe that's why we're terrible. I think it's because we played three white guys a lot. That and Jimmer Fredtta is headlining the group. Yeah, that's probably right.

Okay. Anything else at the Olympics? There was a new event that I saw, the kayak event. Read this question mostly for you. Do you think, is this something? that if Chris sees it, we're at risk of him going full-time training mode in 2028? 100%. We'll have to install a whitewater course at his house where you will transition probably to a kayaking podcast. There will be a long video about his training process.

But yes, this is a fun event. There's like a 10 foot drop right at the start. They start on this platform. They drop right into the water. And it is fast-paced. It is moving. The water's obviously moving, but these guys flying down the course, they have to go, they have to roll under a bar and then tag a hanging buoy. It was fun. There's a event in the winter Olympics called Snowboard Cross, which is very similar. You have to go down through a banked slalom course almost, not slalom, but a banked snowboard course. And it's very similar. I wish I could train for that. But yes, this kay king, once Chris sees it, he is all in 100%. How many people are there in the world? A little over 7 billion or 8 billion is it now?

Looks like 7.951 billion. And is this a men's and women's event? Like this is just men? I think there's a men's and a women's field, yeah. How many men are there in the world? A little less than half of 7.9 billion. Okay. We're going to call it...

About 3.9 billion. Okay. And then how many of those people are between the ages of... What are you getting at? I think he'd be pretty competitive. I agree. I think he'd be very... He likes kayaks.

He likes the water. The question is, is his weight a disadvantage? Which I don't know the answer to. Interesting. Or an advantage? Possibly. I think he could be really good. You know how you have like a pool that's this big, but it's throwing water in the case so they can just swim?

We could have one of those installed pretty easily. He could just rowing... Yeah, and I mean, the dude's got a pond at his house. We can make some crazy things out there. And the 28 games are in the U.S., yeah? So that's not so hard to get to. Yeah. Nice.

Easy. It's a thought. Okay. Anything else, boys? Any news in politics this week? So as I understand it, RFK Jr. either kills a baby bear or comes across a dead baby bear and then puts it in the back of his van. And then he decides, well, I got to make dinner at Peter Lugers.

So he goes to Peter Lugers. He gets done with the dinner, runs late, and he's got a plane to catch and he thinks, oh, no, I've forgotten about this dead baby bear in the back of my van. So he then thinks to himself, there's been a rash of bicycle accidents in Central Park. Let me go place the dead bear in the middle of Central Park with like a bent bicycle on top of it, staging an accident because I no longer have the time to skin and eat this deceased. Bear cub, okay? And then... And what bicycle wouldn't kill a bear? And then the New Yorker gets a hold of this story,

which could upend RFK Jr.'s presidential hopes, and so RFK decides to get out in front of it by telling Roseanne Barr the whole story. What show was she on? Roseanne. Roseanne Barr starred in Roseanne. And so he tells Roseanne Barr over the weekend about this whole dead baby bear story

to which even Roseanne, to her credit, I can just see it in her eyes like, this guy is fucking insane. And then today we see, I don't know if the full story's out or not, but we at least see a picture of RFK with his hands inside the dead bear's mouth with a little joke,

a little funny, joky picture. Ah, the baby bear's eating me. The bear looks like it's been shot with a frickin' bazooka. has its insides are coming out and RFK's pants are unzipped, seemingly without his knowledge in the photo. Is that pretty much right? That's it.

RFK, of course, married to Cheryl Hines of curb your enthusiasm. Introduced by Larry David. Wow. And you're welcome for that flowerless chocolate cake, by the way. Oh, yeah, yeah. I asked for a cookie, but that is the only acceptable alternative. And actually, had I been in there and both had been, available I probably would have gone with the flowerless chocolate cake so thank you so much for that

I'm going to enjoy that as I watched my stories looking for a story if anybody has any recommendations I'm done with the durst doc I'll like a doc I'll also like a period piece there's a new uh boston set capers starting starring matt damon and kC afflick coming out on friday called the instigators i uh that casting must have been tough yeah I had more time I could could have made that funnier. You all understand the joke. Here's Bo Allen with Gerald McCoy, followed by Nate Tice. Enjoy.

All righty, I'm taking over Greenlight Pod again because I did such a good time last time, joined by one of my favorite teammates, General Great Guy and unbelievable personality. Look at shining smile. Gerald McCoy. Thanks for coming on, brother. Thanks for having me. Broseon Allen. How is it going?

It's going good, man. I'm in beautiful Minneapolis, Minnesota. Where in the world are you? I am in Indianapolis. I am preparing for the Indianapolis Colts training camp. We are on site four-hour show today. Wow. Talking about Colts camp, talking about Colts.

We're probably going to hit the Texas, Buffalo, Carolina, Philly. And it's one more. I can't remember. I did all the research. I don't know. You better study up, gee. Get that playbook, man. Freak it, eh.

You got to watch that tape, brother. He was paying me to be on TV to just make stuff up. Hey, you would need both. I want to talk Colts real quick. Their D-Line coach was my defensive line coach in college, Charlie Partridge. Okay. Unbelievable guy. Yeah, please introduce yourself today.

He's a stud, man. If you see him out there, you'll see all the drills that I was doing at Wisconsin. You know, give me right for the NFL, but he's a great guy. I got you. Nice. Who are you looking for to watching the most at Colts training camp? I want to see if what how Anthony Richardson is shaking back. He's such a freak of nature, like athletically, and we've seen flashes of it in Florida.

And when he got in the league, you know, we've seen him take our runners like, this guy can figure it up, you know, and Shane Steakkin, you know, he was able to take what Jaila Hurts can do and make that sum in Philly. So if he could take a more talented, more athletic player Anthony Richardson, and do the same thing. I mean, you got John the Taylor back. You got Michael Pittman Jr. who's really a bona fide number one.

They can make that connection work. Yeah, it's going to be exciting. It's fun to have a tough young quarterback, too, with a lot of upside, you know? Yeah, yeah, for sure. So hopefully he bounces back from that, and I'm looking forward to watching him this season. But look at you, man.

You miss training camp that much. You're going back for more. Yeah, I was even in bucks training camp, sweating. I walked outside, bro, I walked outside, and they had us get there early. So apparently there was a miscommunication on what I was supposed to do that day. I thought I was working the whole camp. Like we were doing the pool day, like I did, the day before I was in Kansas City. So I was like, okay, I'm going to do the bucks tomorrow.

And I get there, and my call time is 8 o'clock. And I was like, yeah, we need you there at 8 o'clock. I wasn't even doing that until after practice. I'm like, freaking, I'm like outside. I'm like, I said, why am I here? I'm going inside. So I go outside. I got on my work shirt and I'm just, you've been there.

You're just raining through your clothes. I'm like, man, give me a regular shirt. So I don't like. Yeah, but. You just went to the equipment room and just got a, got a buck shirt just for, you know, I literally, bro, no lie. I walked inside. There was nobody in the equipment room.

I walked in. I just went. back there where the t-shirts was, grab one and walk out. Help yourself, man. Yeah. What was it like being back at Bucks Camp? Did you walk out of the building and just look right to the big flag? Just couldn't break that habit.

Get this, beau. They took the flag down. Oh. That's smart. And I asked, I said, hey, yo, I asked, hey, where's the flag? And everybody was like, they took it down. We don't know. I said, oh, man, they're playing mind games.

Yeah, exactly. They don't want you to know whether or not. There's a breeze, you know. Right. But I saw you actually working with Colagia Cancy down when you're at Bucks Camp. What do you think of him as a young player? Does he remind you of a young Gerald McCoy? I wouldn't say a young me.

He's more of a more like a Gino-Eckins, Aaron Donald, Jarrell Casey. He's built in that mode. You know, he's so athletic. He's fast. You know, some people are athletic, but they're not fast. He's actually fast, like speed, straight-line speed. And he's quick. But when you see him, when you see him move or see him on TV, you think he's a lot smaller than he is.

But he's really like a stout guy like that. That's why I put him into Gino-Ackins mode more than the Aerona mode. Arndonnell really was a small dude. Geno Ackins was like real stocky, and that's what Colisey Kansi is. But he's more, he's more of a finesse. Gino-Ackins was a power detackle. He had that stanky-like stance. He would just force the shit out of guys.

That stance was horrible. But then he was just lift people off. He was insane. But, yeah, he's going to be really good, man. And it's all going to depend on the guys around him, you know, how they set him up for success. How he's learning the game. You know, I'm watching. They did some drill.

And he was like, I need a young guy up here. And he runs up to getting the drill. So he's willing to do it. And the coach is like, no, not you. I need a young guy. I said, who is a year, too? It's different.

It is different. I see one of the old linemen, he had like this head rack on his head. They had like ice packs around it. I'm like, wow. Oh, y'all not like the elements.

Kids these days, gee. The elements in Tampa is what gave us our advantage. Like even if we, if we were losing, it was because we were getting out of execution. It wasn't because we were out of shape for sure. But like they just, it's different.

I'll tell you that. I mean, the elements in Tampa can be such an advantage, which is funny. People talk about cold weather games, but, dude, remember when we played Philly in 2018? I think it was week two at Ray J. Bro, they couldn't get through warm-ups. I know. I was looking down the other end like, ha! Yeah.

And then we opened up with a bomb to D-Jack that went for like 60 yards, which was cool against his former team. But anyway, I want to talk a little bit more about camp because it sounds like you're doing the circuit, man. And it's weird because you know how it is, dude. We're retired. Obviously, we both love football. We miss football. That's kind of why we do this media shit. But it's like you kind of love training camp, but you hate it.

And I find myself missing random things about training camp. You know what I mean? So I'm wondering if you're out there like at Bucks camp, you're going to Colts camp today. What do you miss about training camp? Because we always talk a lot of shit about training camp, how anxious it makes you, how hard it is. But like there's things you miss too. So I want to know, I want to look at that. Like, what do you miss about camp?

Well, Bucks camp, for sure, it was an orange bruskees. Oh, God, yes. And for everybody who don't know an orange brusky is a canned orange Gatorade. Slaps. And it is by far the best Gatorade you have ever experienced in your life, especially during Bucks training camp or a training camp, if you get a cold orange Gatorade, canned Gatorade, it'll change your life. It is just like, it is incredible.

So I'm out here watching and they're rolling them around. I'm like, oh, they got bruskees. I grabbed me a brusky, but if it's anything at training campday, I do miss, I do miss the opportunity to fix mistakes. So if you make a mistake the day before, it sucks because you got to watch it. You know how we used to watch film. You practice that morning, then you watch it, you don't get through everything, then you go to lunch and you come back, watch the rest, and then you go to dinner, install,

and then we had walked through. the joy of one, the install knowing kind of was, because it was like cheating. It was almost like, I used to wonder why guys would struggle the day in practice after the walk through because we literally just walked through versus the offense what they're going to do tomorrow. Exactly. So when those plays. You know what they installed.

Like, oh, they put in power today. Yeah. So when you come out and you're getting power or you getting a lot of boots, it's like, Like, when you get power, you know, you're like, freaking, hey, man, I don't know tomorrow going to be one of them days. Or when you're getting, like, a lot of boots and stuff and motions, you're like, okay, I know tomorrow it's going to be more of a finesse day. Yeah.

But. Gerald's backdoor backdoor on every three tech reach block. Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure. I know it's coming. I know it's something. But it's like the joy of watching the film and knowing, all right, tomorrow, you know, the worst day, the worst thing that can happen in training camp is to have a rough play. or a couple plays the day before an off day.

Because now it's sitting on your mind that whole rest of that day, the off day, you like, man, I just need to. Especially if it's a bad play. Like, it's a bad one. Like, you can't get over it. You need to wipe the slate clean. Right. You need to watch it.

You need to take your beating and then you need to move on so you can, you know, folks on the next day. But the worst part is, like, you said, you know you had a bad rep in, like, team. It's like one of the last ones that I hope we fucking get to it. but you're just agnizing over it before meetings. Right. I'm about to get my ass reamed by Coach Buckner. I see Buck.

I ran in the book. Yeah, I ran in the book. I say like a month ago, you know, Brandon Jordan was having a, he does the D-Line camps, and he does the D-Line conferences, and it was in Dallas. I went out there,

and I'm walking in, and I'm seeing all these different guys. Did I see D-Line conferences? I see Buck over there doing his buck movements. I'm like, oh, my guy. He had the Air Force One's on. Yeah, of course he did. We had Vita on the podcast a couple weeks ago,

and he was telling some funny stories. He was talking about how, remember how Buck would make him go out? He's a rookie, you know, first round pick, top 10 pick, and Buck would make him go out before practice, you know, 45 minutes an hour early to do individual. And then eventually, like, me and you and Will, Golston, started going out there with him because we can't let this dude go out there alone. Like that's just like, was dying.

He threw that and did have to practice. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I'll say this. Let me just say this. That ain't happening no more. I was outside and I said, hey, practice started 8.30, right? It was like, yeah.

I said it's 820. Where is everybody it? I was like, nobody's doing extra. Nobody's getting warned up. They said, gee, that's not how it goes. I'm like, oh, my ass was out there. Bro. I was out there every year that you.

Play in the NFL, you need like 20 more minutes to get warm. Bro, I was out there super early. I'm like, bro, I need to get warm. I do my personal warm up. And then I would get like some sprints in. And then I would go do the catching with the quarterbacks. Like I did so much to get ready for practice. I'm like, how guys just walking out and going straight to prep?

I don't get it. I'm not going like that. I can't raw dog practice. Me neither. Me neither. I cannot. I cannot. All right.

I want to hit a couple more bucks things before we move on. Tristan Wirf signed that new deal. Was that done? But when you were in Tampa, or was that immediately after? No, that was after. So a big thing was he wasn't really like doing a lot. I remember he did a rip where he kind of,

his leg kind of got rolled up on. And from that point on, he was like, nah, I'm good. Yeah. To see this deal is done. I'm straight. Yeah. Y'all do it. Until I signed the paper, y'all go.

I'm not doing it. Because he, you know, he watched his buddy, Jensen get rolled up on and essentially kind of end his career. Right. You know, and he's like, nah, I need to get paid before that. Now he's probably going hard as hell this week. Yeah, you know, yeah. Oh, I got a lot of respect for Tristan as a player.

I think the Bucks have done a really good job locking up guys that, you know, like their core group of guys. So like Mike Evans, Levanti, like just, I know I saw an interview with that you did with Mike where you're talking about his decision to stay in Tampa. But how crucial is it that he's down there as a core element of the Buckswriters, I mean, of their offense, really? He's a fucking monster. Yeah, it's huge, man.

You need guys like that. Like, one of my points that I'll say now, because I've already said it, but I'm going to say on TV. And we talk about Philly is losing a Jason Kelsey or a Fletcher Cox. People don't understand, man. When you lose your core leaders, like losing your center, who's really like the mind, and the brains behind, like, really making everything go on offense, that's very tough to replace, i.e. Travis Frederick for the Cowboys O-line. When he left that dominant O-line play that everybody was so used to, it started to fade a little bit because that centerpiece was missing. And on the

defensive side of the ball, two years ago, the Philly was, well, they had 70 sacks, but at the same time, Fletcher wasn't hurt. Fletcher was going. Like he was in the mix. He still had a little juice left. And then last year he's kind of, you know, and everything dropped. So when you got a guy that's in the core of what you do and he's there, it makes everything go. Guys look to him not just to make plays, but for energy. They look to him for advice, everything.

So you got a guy like Mike who brings so much to a team. Forget the offense just to a team with what he does off the field, where it's philanthropy, how he treats his teammates, how he is in the locker rooms, is how he carries himself. If you lose an element like that, not just for him, but for Baker.

Baker's safety net last year was Mike Evans. For Baker to shake back and be, have a CZ he had. He needed a Mike Evans. Well, now when you got a connection like that, you bring in a Sterling Shepherd who they had the connection in college. Now you have somebody else on top of CG-14.

Chris Guy, I want to put everybody that don't know. Now I have a core that I can lean on, but I need my safety net. Okay, if all else fails, throw up the 13. He's going to go get it. You know, and just having a guy like that on your team makes everybody else bring their game up. When everybody else is like looking around, it's like, oh, we got Mike, we good. Yeah. I mean, speaking of core, you know, leaders and like that group, like what you're talking about,

when you're saying all those things, like a guy, you look for leadership, consistent play. A guy's like a steady presence in the locker room. When I think of Bucks football, Levante David, bro. Is there anybody who's like more, you know, epitomizes that more than LD? And dude, I was fucking pissed because I saw, I don't know if you ever look at the NFL Top 100. He was 99 on there. Like, how do we get some more love, man?

Bro, it's just been like that. And we kind of discussed it a little bit. You know, they did a survey. I guess it was ESPN. Somebody did a survey. They asked GMs and coaches, like top 10. linebackers and even though honorable mentioned. I'm like,

so you can name me 10 linebackers better than Lamonte David in the NFL right now? 10. All right, man. But it's the market, bro. The reason I know is because I dealt with it. I dealt with it for years. It's like you got people, other D-tackles who

have other pro bowlers next to him, other double-digit sack guys next to them and are playing on winning teams and the media will say, this guy the one. This guy's this, this guy's that. But when you go watch the tape and you watch the film, you're seeing, hey, man, that dude over there, just because we're not seeing him on TV, he really is. And that's what's happening with Levanti. That's what's happening with Mike. If Mike was a cowboy,

we wouldn't be wondering, oh, is he a first battle Hall of Famer? We wouldn't be one, you know what I'm saying? Like LeBonte, if Levanti, if he's a cowboy, if he's a 49er, if he's a raider, if he's a stealer, we're not, we're not saying, he's underrated. We're saying this guy is a first ballot guy. He won the greatest of all time. That's what we would be saying about it. But because he's in Tampa, you know. I mean, I bang Levanto David Drum every chance I can get, man.

I love playing with him behind me. He's an unbelievable guy. So I always have a bone to pick about that. But you say playing a small media market hurts you in the NFL top 100. I'm looking at some stats here, G. You were 93rd on the list in 2013, 28th and 2014, and 2015. 63rd in 2015 52nd in 2016

and 2016 75th and 2018 We're on that list a lot my guy Well I was a halfway decent Player of when I think People forget Gee come on man People forget Yeah it's kind of bullshit I never made that list

I don't know what's up with that man Yeah I don't know freaking hey God day People don't care about your average white First and second down Run stuffy defensive tackle anymore I don't know what the fuck that's about All right, let's move on for bucks.

Obviously, you're spending a lot of time across the NFL looking at a lot of different tape. One thing that's always intriguing, obviously, I know you watch a lot of the young defensive tackles. We talked about Collaja Cansey. Who is a rookie defensive tackle that you're kind of most excited to watch in this upcoming season? And we don't, you know how it is. We don't need to gas up any rookies. We're not about that. Rookie?

Or just maybe rookie or second year guy or just a guy or maybe a guy who's in a scheme or something like that. Yeah, I would love to see what one Jalen Carter does. Yep. And I always forget the kid's name. He won, well, he should have won, I thought. Or did he win it? Defensive rookie of the year?

No, he should have won. I felt he should have won. He had nine sacks for the Rams. Kobe Turner, not fill in the boy. Nobody can feel in the boy for Aaron Donald, but be that next guy that takes over the reins. Like, if you take me, I didn't fill in for Warren Satt, but I was the next guy.

You know what I'm saying? And I want to see if Kobe Turner can be the next guy. And then Jalen Carter. Fletcher's not there no more. I want to see if him and Jordan Davis can be that key to get this defense back to where they were two years ago when they were number one against the past because they got 70 sacks. You know, that was a big part of why Philly fell off last year was the pass of defense. Man, they were second to last on third down. were second to last and passing.

And they went from first in sacks to 19th. You know, they just fell all the way off. And they started with the D line. I want to see if those three young D tackles can take the next step in their game. Yeah. I mean, you talked about him with the Rams, dude. I'm excited to watch those two rookies from Florida State, verse and Fisk. The dude, Fisk is kind of a freak athlete, bro, for a white boy.

Yeah. Yeah. He tested really well. So I'm curious to see if he can kind of. you know, fill some of that production void of, of AD retiring. It's like, it's going to be a different NFL without Aaron Donald, man. Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, I just think it's just like we have our guys that we talk about every year.

Like, you know you're going to bring up these people, bring these people. I remember I was at the broadcast boot camp, and the main producer for Sunday night football said, that any chance I get a chance to bring up Aaron Donald, I'm going to do it. Like, it's just, why not? And we have those players that we have in our league where you just, it's a must to bring him up. But, you know, it's just, he did so much in his time.

You play 10 years. You're a three-time defensive player a year, win a Super Bowl. You made first team all pro every freaking year except for one. Like, it's like, it's incredible, man. You can argue he's the greatest defensive player to ever play this game. So when you got a guy like that, it's like, all right. I mean, but Tom Brady retired and the game has moved on. So you just, you just see who's next.

And that's the joy of my game. That's the joy of our game. That's why when players think they're like bigger than the game, it's like, bro. Yeah. You're not. They will keep it pushing. You're one rep from me out of the NFL, man. They will keep it pushing.

Like, okay, moving on. Yeah. All right. I want to talk a little bit more about training camp because it's that time of the year. And, you know, there's no, the Hall of Fame game last year or last week. But like, do, does anyone really give a shit about the Hall of Fame game? No. They don't.

You see it on your. I remember they threw one touchdown. It comes, oh, my God. Oh, that's it, bro. Oh, man. Yeah. But what I'm excited about, gee, is we're getting at that point of training camp where, like, the boys are kind of tired of going against each other. You got joint practices.

I feel like there's so, like. Listen, I was at Kansas City. They were seven days in. And that walk to practice was like, I told my producers, my co-hosts, I was like, hey, listen, y'all never played this game at this level. That walk right there is a, hey, listen, man, you need to chill today walk. Like a lot of thousand yards stairs or what? Yes, like, I'm over it today, man.

One guy came out the locker room, I forget who it was. He came out the locker room and he just, he said, stood at the door, he put his arm the door. He was just like, I'm getting too old for the shit. And then he started walking. I was like, ooh. You had to take like five deep rest against the door frame. He was just like,

he took our walk. I said, I know them days. Woo, man. Seriously. But joint practices this week. You know what that means, gee? Fights. Boys are going to be scrapping.

That's going to be the whole thing. Yeah. So I want to talk about that a little bit. just like I feel like people always love hearing about that everyone always asked me like oh were you but were you a trash talk or like did you did you fight a lot of the field you did you do dirty stuff I was like first of all I wasn't trash talking bro because in my mind I'm gonna talk to some shit to an O lineman and then get fucking rolled on a double team three snaps later like you talk shit and then you everyone gets got at some point everybody everybody you're a nice guy jay I feel like you did a

little bit of shit talking nothing crazy but in camp it's a different story like you can talk shit in camp just to like kind of I don't know but mine was more of like mine was more of like fun it was like some people talk talk noise like really like mean it like you if you if you

you're cool like they just like they just really meant what they said I was more of like talking noise like hey I'm talking noise to you but it's more of like to keep you happy keep me happy so we can get through this you tired I'm tired

We got to go against each other. So it's like, bro, like, come on, man. That was more of what I did. And it would get us through it. You know, it would really get us through practice. But, yeah, like, I would see fights. And everybody was like, jeez, you used to fight practice? Absolutely not.

Because it's like, okay, I'm a fight. And then they're going to say, all right, next rep. And now I just did three reps worth of a fight. And now I got four reps left in this period. I'm dying. I'm not fighting you for what? If I'm going to fight, I'm going to fight you for real.

Like, I remember when Jensen first got to the books, right? Come up. This was in the spring, bro. This was in the spring. I know. I was there. When Jensen first got to the books and he did something dirty and I'm like, bro, like, you got to relax and he did it again.

No pads. No pads, nothing. I walked over to him and I said, hey, look, man, wherever you did, whatever you did, I know you was the tough guy in Baltimore, whatever, whatever you did over there, don't bring that over here. I'm your teammate. But if you want to fight, we can go in the locker room and fight for real.

Like, I'm not, I don't do the own field. I'll fight you. Let's fight. As a matter of fact, let's fight, but we're going to do it in the locker where we can actually scrap.

And then we can settle and we can move on. No, man, it's just I am. I just practice like this. I'm like, well, chill, man.

Sometimes you go into the meeting rooms even at all the, all the tables and chairs are pushing aside. Oh, my gosh, man. Sometimes it gets like this. It's like, It's like that, gee. Sometimes it, listen, listen,

building locker rope stories if all people only knew. Yeah, you've got to write like an NFL anonymous, you know? We'll just compile anonymous stories from across the NFL. All right,

that's a lot of football talk, Gerald. There's some other shit I want to hit you on that. I've been excited about, talk to me about Robert Downey Jr. It's Dr. Doom, man. Yeah.

I'm kind of like, dude, I'm not going to lie to you. Like, I know you love superheroes. I love, like, you know, nerd cult.

I like fucking. a lot of inertia. Like I like superheroes a lot, but I've been checked out of it ever since. I'm trying to think of the last real, I don't know. Like maybe, maybe Loki season one,

you know, is like the last time that I was really invested. And then I just, it's felt like dog shit since then. No offense. No, no, no. No, I agree wholeheartedly.

And that's why Deadpool Wolverine was such a big deal. That's why bringing back with Jonathan Majors doing what he did in his real life. been tricking off like the whole Kang Dynasty thing. They needed, Marvel knew they needed a splash. So they do, Danpool, Wolfring, you allow all these cameos. But then they're like, okay, how do we get everybody back on our side? Bring back Robert Downey Jr.

And there's so many different nerd storylines that I could get into. But I'm there for it, man. The mindset behind it is Dr. Doom can, you can go so many routes with it, But there's, they feel like, okay, if we can get the guy that really kind of held this thing together for all these years, he can really play any role. I mean, the dude just won an Oscar playing in Oppenheimer thing is what it was. Yeah. So it's like he can do anything. So we can really have him be Tony Stark.

We can have him be a variant of Victor von Dune. Is that what we're thinking? Is that what? I'm thinking. So here. So here's what I'm thinking is he's coming from the universe that the Fantastic Four is in, which is an alternate universe. Galactus is going to destroy their universe.

Somehow they're going to end up in the main 616 universe. This is a lot of nerd talking. No, I'm following. They're going to end up in the main 616 universe. Robert Downey Jr., who is Victor von Doom and their universe is going to end up over here. What I think it's going to happen is they're going to see him, think he's back, like Tony he's going to say I don't know who's Tony and he's going to be Victor Vondal that's what I think it's going to be and then he's going to be in the next two

movies you know during the day they're going to know secret wars they're going to try to get as much as I can out of him man bro they gave him 80 million plus yeah seriously he's going he's going to be in these movies I think he's going to be in at least three movies for sure uh but like I haven't seen Deadpool and Wolverine yet it's worth seeing absolutely were you there opening now It's, yeah, opening day. No, pre-opening day. So it came out Friday.

I was there on Thursday. I wasn't up around. Yeah, I wasn't messing around. Yeah, it was worth it. It's worth it, man. They bring back a lot of people to, a lot of people that, a lot of people that, a lot of people. They pay off a lot of, so, Deadpool, Wolverine was a fan service movie. It wasn't, when you go watch it, just watch it and enjoy it.

Don't watch it for, like I told people, if you're a nerd and you're looking for, what's happening next with Marvel Universe, don't go watch it for it. Go watch it for the, it's really a tribute to the old Fox Marvel universe. Yeah, I love, I love those old X-Men movies, bro. I love the movie, but it's a

node to the daredevils, the Spider-Man's, the X-Men, the Fantastic Fours, the Ghost Rider, all that, all those movies that came out then, it's really kind of like a thank you to them is what the movie's about. It's a lot of

fan service, a lot of jokes that the fans have made, they, like, pay it off in this movie. It's just just go enjoy the movie, you know what I'm saying? And then they kind of give you a basically tell you, like, moving forward, Deadpool, Wolverine, a couple these characters are available for the

MCU now, so. Ryan Brown was trying to stay out there with the Deadpool franchise, man. Got respect. Yeah, he is. He's done that much, man. Yeah. All right, last superhero question. You know you're a big Batman guy. You got the fucking chain on. You know, Make sure we get that.

Yeah, there you go. Yeah, yeah, we're in here. Yeah, what's your, who are the top five Batman villains in order? I know you probably. In order? I know you thought about this. So I'm going to take him out. Joker's clearly one.

I'm going to take him out. Easy. I think two phases is, I think two phases like, I'm a big riddler guy. Yeah, riddler's good. What about Mr. Freeze? Arnie, baby, come on. I was going to dig in Mr. Freeze. Yeah, but it's just because it's like, there's so many different.

Everybody. Chew. there's so many different versions of these people man it's just like bane i really like bain but yeah vain if you think about bane as like a comic book character it's like he just this big venomous dude but if you think about bane that's how he was in the movie now we're talking right that version of bane uh catwoman obviously i got to put in there um the quarter owls a lot of people don't know about the quarter that's a deep cut yeah the quarter of house, death stroke.

Deathstroke is probably number two after joking. Because he gave Batman work. But no like, I mean, I feel like Killer Croc, weak as hell. I just, Red Hood. Okay. You're going with

Duke Cutt. Yeah. Like, you're not, yeah. Yeah, because I'm like, surface level characters is like, I could go, okay, penguin, point. I thought you were going to bring up Penguin because then I was going to be like, how do you feel about the new Penguin series? No, you want to hear something crazy? You want to hear something crazy about that?

So I've been doing some acting. Oh, really? I've been taking acting classes. My acting coach is actually in that series. You think of Howie Long or something? My acting coach is actually in that series crazy because as we on this interview, he's texting me because I think I'm supposed to be in this class. I forgot to tell him, oh, yeah, by the way, I'm going to be on TV.

Yeah. I'm going to miss it. Yeah. He's in the Penguin series? He's in the Penguin series, yeah. Tell me get you in on that, man. You could be like a henchman. They've already filmed it.

Oh, yeah. We've been working, though. We've been working. But, yeah, I say, Joker, obviously, the quarter of ours is really good. I like Bain. Poison Ivy? I like Ridler. Poison Ivy.

She's cool. I mean, she's dope. She's like... It's kind of poison-a-sy, gee. Yeah, she is. Poison Ivy and get you right. But I like Catwoman, for sure. Catwoman's got a deeper story than people know.

I'm going to go video game, man. The Arkham Knight was tough, man. Yeah. Archimonyte was tough. I've got that game on my Steam deck. Yeah, Deathstroke. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm going to go to him, yeah.

That's a good list, man. You can tell you're a deep-cut Batman guy. Yeah, yeah. I get how it is, brother. I feel you. Right. Like, I think that next movie should be the quarter of ours. I think Batman, too, should be the quarter of house.

Pitch that to your acting coach. He's got the plug. Yeah, and I think they are about to film it. So whatever's going to happen is going to happen. Hey, we got to get you in on that. Right. Yeah, we'll see you on the big screen soon. Yeah, I don't even care if it's just my hand.

Hey, no wonder you're hitting that stair stopper, dude. Yeah, I'm trying to get right. I told you. Try to get right. Listen, the camera has 10 pounds. I need to lose that 10. I can look normal. I feel you, brother.

I'm right there with you. Yeah, I was telling, I was telling people, we'll tell the audience a little bit. Gerald and I text every now and then and just talk about how fat we've been and set each other photos of the scale. Like, hey, I need you to shame me a little bit. Give me right. Listen, I see. So we have like this goal of a weight we want to get to.

And he is like, you know, hey, listen, I need you to like make me feel bad so I can get to it. And I said him like a picture of a bag of sour cream and cheddar chips. Like, boom, I can't say nothing to you right now. I'm struggling. And a funny part of the bag of sour cream and cheddar chips was sitting in front of a bowl full of fruit. Yeah. He's like my option.

Choose your, choose with this one. Yeah, exactly. Choose your fucking mission here. Well, shit, man. Gee, sounds like you got a full week or a full day of camp today. It's like you never retired, man. Yeah. Yeah, I got today.

I got the Raiders. And then I'm doing something cool. I get to work the corner of a U.S. So my boy, Damon Jackson is fighting his weekend in Vegas, and I'm going to be working his corner. So if y'all watching the UFC, I don't know when this is dropping, but if y'all watching the UFC, August 10th, Damon Jackson is fighting, and I'm going to be in his corner walking out with him.

I'm going to have my whole UFC get up. Oh. Yeah. And I've been doing a lot of MMA, right? Yeah, I have a lot. Yeah. You're going to get the rain or what? No, no, no.

The only reason I haven't sparred. like for real is because I be on TV and I don't want to get, you know, knotted up and now my eyes all swollen. I'm not afraid to get beat up. That might make you look better, gee, honestly. No, listen, I'm working on it. But I'm not afraid to get beat up.

It's not to getting beat up for it's the fact of after I get beat up, I have to go on TV. It's like, if I can get beat up and not worry about the camera, I was far all the time because I would be bleeding and the eyes all swollen, you know. Because you can't get me.

Anybody can hit a pad. until you learn defense and, like, get in there. It's like, I can watch, I can hit bags all day. But, you know, going against us just hitting the sled and taking on a real. It's a different hand. They're punching back, bro. Bro, hitting the sled, hitting the sled, and taking on a true double team is. That's always the best.

You see the guys, like the young guys in camp, like going through the bags, the gauntlet drill so nice. And then, like, first rep of, like, one-on-ones, they just get the shit punched out of them. Bro, you see a kid. You're like, ah! Ah! It's like one-on-ones. He'd get up there.

He laid off the ball. It's like, bro, I told you. Stop letting that coach gashy, man. I'm telling you, it ain't what you think. Like, you got to relax, bro. It's not Instagram, brother. Well, all right, G. It's always a pleasure catching up with you, man.

Enjoy indie today. I appreciate it, bro. I'm out of here. I got to go. My driver's downstairs, and I'm off to work. Off to work, brother. Well, thanks a lot for coming on, man. Hey y'all green light has official merch like this hat right here like the one on my head

this dad hat love this hat I'm not even a dad hat guy but this thing fits great this this hat right here fits great we've got hoodies we've got tea by the way this hoodie's like super comfy I mean it's like soft plush it's not the type of hoodie that's going to get stiff with one wash and the shirts too because like I'm a big comfort guy Okay, you got like this white shirt here. You got the shirt with the logo the Abbey Road looking logo with Dr. Fax Smoking presumably a blunt Kyle carrying Cowboy Reed making driveling a basketball, which I've never seen him actually do and me carrying a football And then you've got the the black shirt here too with the logo so Stickers hit the link in the description in the video below the video actually and make sure to tag us on social media

showing off your Greenlight merch. It's quality, quality threads here, okay? Wouldn't do it any other way. All right, welcome back, Greenlight Pod with The Butter King. I'm joined by, you know, fellow Minnesotan and UW alumni guy. I've actually played high school football against. Now he's a staff writer for Yahoo Sports and a new podcast called Football 301. Nate Tice, Nate, thanks for coming on, man.

Thanks for having me. Yeah, classic lake. Represent. Yeah, I know, right? Yeah. Classic Lake Conference, Edina versus Minnesota or Edina versus Minnetonka. You represent the rest of Minnesota. Eidna versus all.

That's exactly how it felt too. I'm not even from Eidina, but that's the thing is I went to high school there and middle school there, obviously, so that is from Eidana, I guess. But yeah, that's the thing about Eidina. They don't treat me like I'm from Eidina. But then everyone, if I say I'm from Eidina, everyone goes, oh, you're from Eidina. Yeah. how it goes.

Edina, every day I need attention. That's the little Minnesota moniker slogan for Edina folks. Have your cake and eat it too, man. Fucking cake eater.

Dude, I remember we played you guys in high school when you ran like this funny offense where like the O-line splits were like two, three yards apart. And I was like, what was going on?

Yeah. You guys shredded us because you ran a three, you're the only one that ran a three-four. Yeah. In high school, right? Because you were the freaking nose. I was like two gaping. Yeah.

I was like, 280, 270 pounds. And you guys dropped. eight every snap and it sucked we either dropped eight or blitzed eight yes like no in between it's stuck it was the best defense to go against our offense yeah yeah back in the glory days yeah yeah football night good times thanks for having yeah all right so now where we go okay wisconsin glory days we could just go chronologically from here yeah exactly no I mean

shit those are the real good times I see the i see the wisconsin football home in the back man yeah I know it's the best that's the uh I can't was that my senior year was that the Oregon one. It's the one with the rose print. Yeah. Yeah. Remember that? It was so funny because Oregon had like the fancy like, badass uniforms of chrome. And then Bielma was like, yeah, we're going to do something really fancy different to. We're all like hyped. And they just had like a little rose decal on the number. That's it. That you can't even see. Like you know, everyone's see this right now. I can't even see it. Like that's the thing. But it's for us. It's for us. That was our swag. In the year before your freshman year, it was the red pants.

Yeah. That was that was our swag. I actually did kind of like the red pants. It was a nice, like, alternate, especially, yeah, it looks better with the white cleats, though. Yeah. Black cleats in. All right. Let's talk some NFL football day. You were just in Minnesota, right? Back in, back in this lovely state.

I'm in Minneapolis right now, but you checked out Vikings camp. What was it like returning to, you know, Vikings camp? You spent a number of time, you spent a lot of time at Vikings training camp, right? Yeah. That one was a Mancato, though. This one is Egan, super mega complex. Yeah. Have you been on that thing?

I've been to like training house and like, uh, Twin Cities orthopedic has a whole like center there. I haven't been to the new Vikings facility itself, but I've heard it's incredible. It's a campus. It's like a college campus. It's insane. But yeah, it was great. You know, everyone there is very professional. Now it's a far cry from Winter Park where I grew up, which was like a duplex.

Yeah. So way different. But going to practice there, it's fun watching them. And this kind of was stuck out to me. And I know, I know you've had experience with kind of, uh, kind of like, practice regimes and different head coaches not to go about it. I know Chip Kelly was probably a whole whirlwind of an experience too, but like watching how practice was structured, a lot of walkthrough, a lot of teaching, a lot of all that stuff. It was kind of like, oh man, this is how it all goes now.

Because I did that in the Cardinals practice, like 45 minutes of walk through an individual and everything, which I think is great. But that was the thing that stuck out to me. It was like, wow, these guys really kind of teach their stuff. God, it's a slower pace. So much slower pace. And it's just very more way more learning focused not no repeated plays or anything when they get to team and everything. Yeah, just very teach oriented. And it was it was cool. It's just so different to me. I'm so used to so much. I mean, even in college, Wisconsin practices are so high tempo. And then even the pro teams I was around kind of were more kind of high tempo too. So it was just no, I've saying it in a good way. It's really. No, that's interesting. The younger just do that. Yeah. If it's a product of KOC being a younger younger, younger. coach or maybe if the fact that they have a rookie quarterback has something to do with that, a little bit of both maybe? Yeah, a little bit of both. And I think it's KOC.

I saw it kind of a couple years ago. And now, as you know, like, once I head coach, kind of feels more comfortable, like, this is my stuff. I think maybe he's like, this is how I actually want to do it. He's a McVeigh guy, too. And they have that. They also have the screens to show replay of every play or every play. Oh, on the practice field.

They have two screens. Oh. I mean, jumbo, jumbo screens that it replays the previous play, like all 22. clip just though that's really interesting i didn't know that that's a mc vay rams thing in that kocke uh-c o'connell copied in minnesota yeah that's just saying i know i guess it makes sense because if you think about it if you're on the sideline of a game you have access to the surface tablets yep and then obviously like you have you know instant replay too and sometimes you'll be on the field and you'll catch yourself like i remember playing in dallas and i'm like

oh yeah i can't help yourself replay and it's like such a massive you know it's like screen because it's helpful on the field like what actually happened there and you know if they like bust a big run or something and you're looking up and trying to trying to see so that's interesting that they'd have it a I guess that makes sense is like using technology in a way to you know help your players and get the most out of your practice reps like I liked it a lot yeah and you can see like really and especially with coaches on the sidelines because then they could really see like oh who busted that right like this to you yeah yeah it takes that kind of instant lying like you know we get actually answers I was in my gap I swear exactly yeah yeah yeah he went underneath no I went over the

top like yeah yeah I know you didn't buddy it's right you're fucking there oh yeah all right i ran the right route yeah that's how it goes but i yeah that just kind of really is what struck me more than even just the players and everything but you know o'connell's impressive he he's a really good communicator explains football really well i really really dig talking to him so he's really cool watching the quarterbacks darnold looks comfortable McCarthy had a rough kind of first day i was there but that's really good second day and that's what interesting is this this time of the year especially i I mean, look, football media is very reactionary, and we're kind of part of that group,

but it's funny because in camp, like, it's the same storyline that's like, I remember seeing it on my algorithm on Twitter, it's like, is JJ, is he ready? Is he ready to go? Like, he had a bad day. And then like, literally the tweet underneath it was like, JJ McCarthy is ready to lead this Vikings offense. Here's a great throw he made. And it's like, you know, it's hard to separate the truth from the bullshit sometimes,

especially during camp. Also, when they don't know what periods they are. Like, people don't realize, like, that's a two-minute. drill or that's one on once. They just say, great throw from McCarthy. Then you see the actual clip. There's like, oh, that was individual. It was Pat and go.

It's a right. Rout's on air. Yeah. Yeah. So that take the all with the great. Like tape is the resume. Once we get to preseason, that's when we're going to, that's when I can, you can have some real takes.

That's the resume. I mean, I trust you're, you, you were a quarterback. And so I'm going to really lean on you during this interview about, you know, quarterback play, especially across San Jose, dude, I was a nose guard. I don't know what the fuck. I'm looking at. You're well read. I remember my mom bringing your books. I do that.

That was going to come up at some point. Because my mom was doing the same thing. That's what it was so funny about it. Yeah. Oh, God. So Nate saying back when we were in college, like my parents would always come to the team hotels. And these are two things I always remember.

My mom would always bring me little goodie bags with like candy and books in them and stuff. And then my birthday was always in November is always, whatever reason we were like always on the road or like during the season. and my mom would come to the team hotel and bring a big cake and like give it out to players like after meetings and stuff. It's funny the shit. And I walked right. I walked right by when it was happening and I haven't like forgot about it.

Because it was just out of whatever the book you got, I was like, oh, I didn't know you're like reading that kind of stuff. That's cool. Hey, Bob. Cultured. I try. Anyway, getting back to the Vikings camp, were you impressed with the, you know, the rookie quarterback, J.J. McCarthy or Sam darn. I mean, you said Sam seemed really comfortable in Paul. But, you know, it's tough to, you know, we don't want to make these sweeping generalizations like we all do.

But I don't know. What did you see from those two during camp? It's, you know, Turnal's so talented. And that's always, he's always had talent. It's just always about kind of consistency with him. So you can see his live arm. You can see some of his movement stuff. You look like this offensive line for the Vikings is pretty good.

Yeah. Across the board. Maybe we have just like one little deficiency at one of the guard positions. But then this defense isn't easy to go against, you know, Brian Forrest stuff. And it's, I kind of said it's the kind of defense that takes away training wheels for a quarterback. You have to drop back and throw.

Like that's how you beat this defense. So you can't play action. You can't bootleg. You can't. There's no gimmick stuff. And sometimes you got to throw hot too with these exotic glitzes. You got to be able to diagnose it. God, you like, you fell right into my trap.

So right is that was what was cool to see from McCarthy on day two is they were heating them up because they were doing first down, second down, third down, you know, scripted. I think, or maybe like first, first, second third or first, second, third, third, one of those kind of sequences for each, for each unit. And there's a third down, like a third and five, hot, A gap doesn't get sealed up, you know, kind of just straight pressure from the linebacker. And McCarthy drifts just one step and hits like, hits the hot, like a slant over the middle.

First down, boom. Like, pro quarterback has to do that. But seeing a rookie week, you know, week two of training camp, okay, that's really good to see more than even just the arm. All these guys have good arms. Right. It's like when you're on defense line, it's like all these guys are bigger fast. It's like, it's like, can you do it all?

It's a prerequisite. It's a standard. Yes. You have to, there's a threshold. And so he has a live arm. You see the athletic and you see all that stuff. So little things like that is what kind of impressed me. He had a throwaway even on his bad,

rougher day, I would say. Yeah. Not all bad days. He had a throw away that I thought was good because he got pressured right away, through the ball away rather than see what a lot of young quarterbacks do is run around and take like a 20-yard sack, 50 yards sack, throw a bad pick. Yep, it gets tipped. And then there's.

you guys going to pick and it's all hilarious you know like you get the bjaji in the end zone and but he just he drift and threw it away and it's just little things that's what i thought was more encouraging than anything even just uh the other stuff also helps have this guy and i'm named justin jefferson yeah exactly it's insane man yeah he is insane to watch it because he practices hard too yeah and so he's going up and getting stuff and he's they're moving him around everywhere so it's i'm excited to see him no matter who the quarterback is because i think darned is going to give him, you know, a live opportunity to. So it's going to be a fun offense.

So it really is once Hawkinson comes back to you. Right. Exactly. I was going to say, great player there at tight end as well. It's nice to have the security blank and J.J. Jeff. So excited to see what, you know, I'm, I'm a lot.

Like, I have so many buddies from Minnesota and like they all talk Vikings football and they send all the stuff. And I like kind of found myself rooting for the vikes a little bit, you know, it's just like kind of first time I like. They're neutral plus for me. Yeah. I'm neutral by everyone. See, you're neutral.

neutral plus or neutral negative. They're neutral plus. Yeah. So I want to continue to talk about some of these quarterbacks around the league. You know, I think that's an area that you're a lot more comfortable with than me. So one of the big things, again, reactionary media is, and especially like it's so fun to overanalyze the rookie quarterbacks in these different situations. Another big one is up in New England. Patriots.

I saw a report that, you know, I think Drake May was being outperformed by Joe Milton. I don't know if you saw that. But Chris and I talked about that on Greenlight last week. Obviously they have Jacoby Brissette up there, who I have a lot of respect. for you know i see him as a little bit of a gino you know gino smith maybe uh kind of scenario for him hopefully i think that'd be a great scenario but what were you hearing about like drake may and joe milton there's anything coming out in new england where you're concerned about them or excited or how do you feel about that quarterback situation yeah i was super high on may in the draft and i'm still

high on him well i've kind of heard is they're not worried about him they're actually pretty impressed with some of the mental stuff he's shown same same some of the blitz stuff i have seen quotes on that but just even people I talk to, but they're worried about the offensive line a lot. That is more glaring than anything. And I think Albert Breer had kind of similar sentiments today. But this is a great example of who watches the watchman, kind of a source of sources. You know, who who's dropping the Milton line and everything like that. And so that was a great.

Intrigue and media, you know, up in New England, crazy. Oh, my God. See, every year I get as more of a national guy, not say that with like, I'm, I'm not saying that with like my chest out. But it's, but I get exposed to kind of like a new beat regime and ecosystem of fandom. And it's kind of this year has been New England. And that's been,

that's been, that's been, that's been, oh yeah, this is a widely covered team that when they then had stability over all these years, that kind of kept them all in check. This is kind of crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. The floodgates have opened the media department a little bit up in New England. And that's what it feels like. They're getting a little more exposure. you know yeah yeah feels more philly yeah exactly yeah uh so that that's been uh that's been just something as me just my own perspective but i'm i'm still high i may i think he was always mentally more advanced than people thought i just thought that offense was more of a college spread it out simple read offense that that's why it's a can't or won't situation it's like

is the coach is not just asking him or is he can't do it and it was more of the coaches just than ask him because he showed some sharp things so that's a surprising amount of levity about a you know about a college quarterback coming out, you know, people, like, so scheme dependent too. And so much. Oh, and the college game is a lot of different. He's handling protections in college as a retro sophomore. Like, that's super impressive to me. It doesn't matter who you are.

But like you said, Jacoby is, I love how you compare him with Gino, too, because Jacobi's like, should start in this week. Like, they're, like, there's, it's crazy to me. Maybe the Raiders didn't go after him. Maybe a few, like, he's outperformed Deshawn Watson when he was the starter before it. But Deshaun came back in Cleveland. Like, he's like a solid.

quarterback. It's the highest end backup you can get like this guy can be that mid-tier quarterback, which is you see what some other quarterbacks get paid. It's kind of like, this is kind of a nice thing. And he's a great teammate. We hosted them at Wisconsin years ago. I didn't know that. Yeah, the, the Ohio State game. Your freshman year with, yeah, yeah, great game. That was a good one. Yeah, him and Nicolieri. We went, oh, yeah, went O for two. Yeah. But yeah, Jacoby was great then. And he hasn't. change at all. A great teammate, great person. So it's like, you know, if May has to sit, this is the best person to sit behind and compete with. He's going to actually teach him.

And it seems like they have a great relationship already. And he seems like a really good pro too. Like he doesn't seem like kind of withhold information or, you know, you know, you kind of understand what I'm getting out there. Yeah, there's a, yeah, you know, yeah. There's a lot develop a young, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's not going to be just breadcrumbs. Yeah, it's actually stuff he can use. Yeah. So I want to talk about another, you know, Wisconsin alumni, guy you spent some time with Russell Wilson. Obviously, a change of scenery for him in Pittsburgh. Scotty Miller, who's a buddy of mine from Tampa, came on and, you know,

was talking about his time with Russ. And obviously they have Justin Fields too. How do you think that situation is going to unfold? I mean, I'm a little bit of a, I'm a fan of Russ. I'm a little biased. And I'm hoping that he, you know, has a great season for the Steelers. But just kind of wondering how you think that might end up. There's aspects of it I like and there's aspects I don't.

I like the, I really do like Arthur Smith as a play caller. Maybe head coach is in his bag, but as a play designer, he's good. He's, I would actually say really good. So I think this is a, that was a good hire, especially for the Steelers personnel. You know, they got some jumbo tight ends. They've really invested their old line. Like they're, they have George Pickens, who's big and kind of fits in this type of offense. They have two backs that are work, workable.

So that, that all I like. Russ is going to push the ball. He's best in play action. like a Wisconsin offense like was keep referring with keep referring the badgers that's what his best ideal system was like good run game play action let because he throws a beautiful deep ball right let him just go bombs away especially like so you know a deep ball off of I mean historically for Russ a deep ball off of a broken pocket things like that you know he does that back shoulder that spin out you know um the fake spin out stuff yeah exactly and obviously he's lost a little bit of

mobility but I was talking with scotty miller who's a great you know that he is a deep ball wide receiver and he was really excited about working with russell but he doesn't have the same mobility that and athleticism at this stage in his career that justin fields provides you know well that's what i just as a football i wish it wasn't russ because it's just like i i just want to see fields in this offense because fields if he can do arthur smith is really good at designing qb run game stuff like especially in the red zone you know when you guys especially on defense are all gapped out and you guys are just boom that so he's really do that a ton with jalen hurts and it's a run when you have a running it really is on you always as a delinement like you always have to know

that you have to crush the pocket and be ready because that's i mean he's not accounted for him you know he's just look at all Lamar and josh allen these that's why these guys are so valuable they just can create touchdowns inside the 10 and so he's really good design and stuff even with ridder who's fast but not not a not a good runner you know there's difference like he's not a that like he's not bendy and couldn't really turn a corner he was still dialing up stuff for him he had marquis marriota doing stuff even tana hill in tennessee he was doing some stuff with him so yeah i'm if it's fields back there like you mentioned russ has kind of dropped in some athleticism fields hasn't and he's bigger so at the very least i want and i think they've already hinted at it i want to see some more

design run stuff like i think that'll be really cool maybe it's some quarterback situation they bring them in for some zone read stuff they're not committed to anyone they can do whatever you know it's Yeah. Yeah, it's not like one guy is some highly drafted, highly paid guy. These guys are both mercenaries. Right. I mean, they got Russell. They got Russell on a pretty good contract there for a good deal that, you know,

with his resume. Yeah. Yeah. Interested to see how that unfolds. It's kind of, again, we're going to do a lot of QB talk today, Nate. So buckle down. I think that's, you know, like I just had Gerald McCoy interview with Gerald, talked about a lot of D Lyme and stuff with him.

We'll stick with quarterbacks because you can carry that conversation a little better than me. But, you know, we got to talk about the first overall pick. Caleb Williams, how ready do you think he is for a bear's offense that I think actually has a lot of really good weapons? I do think he's going to be mentally ready. I think even maturity-wise, he seems like a pro already. Like, I thought some of the stuff that got, he got knocked for this year was so unfair. I'm happy to say that, because I agree, too. It's weird. It just seems like a lightning rod for easy, kind of weird. Lazy stuff. Tidbits. Yeah. It kind of frustrated me because I think, thought he was tough as hell.

Like, watch him on the goal line. He'll, he'll lower his shoulder and stuff. And he'll stand in there. He did the, that old line was, like it was, they took turns, like a guard would lose, a center would lose. And they ran a lot of long play action stuff. So he's just back there. He'd hit his back foot and there'd be like a nose tackle right in his face.

And so he's doing, has to do his stuff. He wanted to play quarterback, though. Like he wanted to drop back and just throw in the pocket. He was trying to work on that stuff, which made me optimistic that like, he's going to be, he's going to, not once I would say hit the ground, running, but he's going to be more apt and more take to a real NFL offense better than maybe some guys coming out of that offense, Lincoln Riley offense slash cliff. But I think the, I'm worried about the interior line that that more than anything because everything I just mentioned

about USC, that's what's kind of the bears happening with the bears. I really like their tackles and stuff, but they just can't, no one can stay healthy, it seems like. Yeah, I mean, and there's some good interior rushers in the NFC North. North. Kenny Clark comes to mind. Craig Lee McNeil, you know, guys that can really push the pocket and get. up in a quarterback's face in the pocket, you know, which is tough for a guy who's not super, super tall like Caleb Williams. Are you fired up about that lines, detackle pairing? Yeah, I am, actually.

I've been hearing a lot about Zytler, Kevin Zyler. Yeah. Badger was gassing up that other kid. Every segment, man. Every second. Yeah. Yeah. Was gassing up that other.

I can't remember the young Buck's name from the Lions, but apparently he's having an unbelievable camp. And then DJ Reader, he was kind of coming off injury, who I have a lot of respect for as a player. So yeah, I mean, I think there's some good defensive line, especially at Detroit. I like how their team is structured, man. I do too, man. They just keep infesting in their guys and they let them develop. McNeil went from like after his rookie year.

He was like, whatever. After his second year, he was like, whatever to meet. It's just to me. And then last year, like, in the first month, I was like, who, who the hell is a Lee McNeil? Yeah. A lot was made out of his, like, he recomped his body. But guys take that jump, you know, where they just get comfortable. They learn how to be professional football players.

And sometimes it happens after your rookie year, sometimes midway through your second year. But like there's a point where you can kind of pinpoint every guy where they really just click. And you're like, hey, this guy is playing well. He's understanding his game. He knows his role in the team. I think that's kind of what happened. Frank Ragnow is another Minnesota guy. He came on the podcast a couple weeks ago.

And he was talking about Aleem and how well he's playing and how he's such a bitch to go against in practice. I'm like, yeah, I bet. I bet. Rag now rocks, man. He's like one of my favorite player. Great, dude. Really tough player. good guy.

Such a tough guy. He grew up in. Yeah, he went to Chanhas and he grew up in like Victoria, Minnesota. Okay, I had, I had a stat. It was kind of a quasi joke. It was like, you know, the lines were rolling and stuff. He got hurt for two games. Yep.

And I did a like, with Frank Ragnow on the field, the lines are like this, this and this. Without Frank Ragnow, they're like 32nd, 31st, 30th in the NFL. And people were like, Ragnow MVP? Like that. It's just like, hey, just look at the stats. He's a lynched into their offensive line, man. and they build that team around, you know, I feel like their trench play. So a huge, huge part of that Lions team.

Absolutely. I know. I just, I just see how I detoured the quarterback conversation. Yeah. No, no, but no, but no, but it's no, Caleb, I, but I will say this. This is the one thing with Caleb is I do think like any rookie quarterback, it'll have some down moments. It's just going to happen.

He'll, he tries stuff. So he's going to get punished in the game, like where he has two picks and a fumble, three picks. Right. It's just like we're just talking about. camp clips. It's okay. It's okay to make mistakes. So I'm kind of picturing like Kyler's rookie year where it was like a it was it was nice, but it was, you know, like a 20 touchdown, 10 pick kind of thing, 12 pick thing, good yards, good run moments. I would say the bears are a better

team than when Kyler was with the Cardinals that year. But that's kind of how I picture in my head like the kind of some ups and downs, but overall very good. Yeah. And I think there's a lot to be optimistic about for the bears offensively. Like they have good weapons. I like Cole come out a lot. I think he's a beast um yeah he's Allen they brought in um you know so they have some tools for a young quarterback to work with which is which is always a plus but we do i don't know if you watched him doonese their first out pick the other receiver he rocks he would have fit in in wisconsin yeah i interviewed him at the common or uh right before the draft actually super cool guy like yeah he was a great playmaker in uh in college too i've heard great that he Caleb will and was stoked when

they drafted him also i was fired up about that yeah he does everything right yeah him and dj more like like yeah yeah i know it's it's gonna be cool offense it's just yeah we'll plug j more to chris long interviewed him on green light last week so check that out um always got to plug your own shit ate you know um pay the bills pay the bills let's see what else we have oh a couple quarter quarterbacks got paid jordan love with the packers how did you feel i think a lot of people were very surprised that him getting paid like that personally i wasn't uh that's kind of how it goes uh what are your thoughts on on that yep how it goes i don't know how everyone gets surprised by this or all the time i know right everyone's just gonna top each other it's the cap goes up

as long as that cap goes up that's how price points go up uh i i think he rocks i'm i i even before he's kind of it wasn't even a half season stretch i'd say like a 10 week stretch at the end of the season even before all that he was still showing good stuff the kind of stuff that i think is sustainable. To me, that's, you know, a little bit creation, you know, not just like scrambling around, but scrambling to throw, you know, breaking contain and looking downfield, guys that are aggressive, guys that hunt for home runs and triples and doubles over singles. There's a, there's a sample size of that in Green Bay, you know, breaking the pocket and throwing down field with the corrects and had the pass. It kind of works. I know. It's like, yeah, I mean, even just going

all the way back. Yeah, yeah, but each guy. And, but the thing is, too, is that he will throw over the middle. He'll throw the hard throws, the benders, the seams, the digs, the big boy throws. And that to me is why I think it's all sustainable. He's another guy, though. He'll have games where he gets punched. He tries stuff, though. The best guys right now, try stuff. You don't want the nickel and dimers. You want the big boys throwing, hitting for home runs and then scrambling. Staying in the pocket, taking shots. Have to. Have to. Neat chucks. All your defense, all the defensive guys want you to nickel and dime. So you don't think there's any cause for concern, in Green Bay or if you're a Packers fan

for paying a quarterback who's maybe unproven this much money? I went on Mina Kimes' show, not trying to name drop, but it's a drop away, baby. It's a big circle jerk industry, man. Oh, great. Yeah, I know, exactly. Yeah, no, we're going to look like Randy Marsh

at the end of this. But we did a, so it's like next three years, who did you just have, like, what quarterbacks are, you know, Mahomes, Juan, Alan, all these guys. I took Love 5 because I just think you know, I think it's going up. Like, he just does the real stuff, and I just think that was just the baseline.

I think it's going to be, I'm really excited about the past. I'm high on him. I was loving him at the end of the year. He played really well at the end of the season last year, and it's like, I think it's real. Some guys get paid off of one game, you know? It's like, he's had a great stretch,

and, you know, he's now in the driver's seat in Green Bay, and I think rightfully so. So expecting big things out of him. We'll see. I want to ask you about a quarterback battle that nobody is talking about. That's Aiden O'Connell versus Gardner, Minchu, in Vegas. What are your thoughts on this? Is this kind of flying under the radar or where you are at with this? A little, a little, but I almost think deservedly sell. I'm kind of, I'm kind of disappointed in the Raiders. Like that actually is I brought it up earlier, but I thought they would be a good Jacoby percent team. Right. Um, I, Gardnerman issue to me is that we saw kind of what he was with the Colts Lester. He's a high and backup, a good spot starter. Gets you through some games. Does the right things. But, you know, he has a limited ceiling. But he's a guy that we love, you know. He's a great personality. The lock, he galvanizes the locker room.

That's what they say, right? They all love that. I know, but that's the backup quarterback, right? Like, that's the guy. But to me, it's, okay, but are you going to draft another guy and then have him with Minchu? Kind of like with, you know, it didn't go great, but with like Trevor Lawrence, the rookie year and everything.

Okay, but the guy that you are comfortable with, if you has to start, the rookie's not ready to take the reins. So after that kind of was, and, you know, kind of showed some nice things as a rookie, but it wasn't overwhelming. So it's just, I don't know, it's kind of, if a quarterback battle happens in a forest, like, and no one hears it. Does it actually happen? That's kind of how it's kind of how I feel about garden. I mean, he's just, he's one of those guys.

Yeah, I don't know. Like, I can just see him getting so hot at the beginning of the season and then, you know, having one of those games like Fits, you know. Yeah. And I love Fits. Like there's not a bigger Fits fan out there than me, but like throw four or five picks and everyone's like, why the fuck is he out there? Like, where is A. in O'Connell. That's why he's him. You think Minchew's going to end up winning that one?

Or what was your heart tell you? I do. I think they want more of a guy that they feel is ready to play, quote-unquote. You know, it's all different thresholds for that. Not that, you know, O'Connell's not mature, I think, but just maybe I think this is how they argue it. And I think he's kind of already taking the reins a little bit. I just think with that, that offense is so close. You know, they get such good pass catchers.

The tight ends are cool. And then the O-line's workable. Yeah, I don't think their O-Lines bad at all. Yeah. So, I don't know. why I'm kind of, I wish they had a bigger splash maybe at that position to that would maybe, maybe put me over the top. The defense could be cool too. Yeah. So, I mean, they've got some great rushers over there. Oh, man. The front's cool. Patrick Graham does some

nice things as a coordinator. Yeah. I know the defense's not bad. Well, we'll see how that one goes. A couple other quick hitters that we don't need to get super into. Just continuing the quarterback talk. Is there any reason to have confidence in Bryce Young and Carolina at this at this stage? I mean, I try to be as positive as I can in the media. And you know how it is when you're a player, a former player. Like you fucking, you don't like dog in and out. I'm not saying like that, but you get what I mean, right? Yeah.

You don't want. Yeah, because you feel it's unfair, especially you can't give all the answers about why certain things happen. Watching him was a little bit of the offense didn't help last year, but also it showed that how much tools do matter in the league. We talked about threshold stuff. I think he his ceiling even if it all all goes right is like an average starter you know that and that's the ceiling not saying and maybe that that's not what he draft at number one you draft you know needle movers at number one and you can find we just talked about Jacoby percent and even Gardner Minchu and I would say he's Bryce maybe I've old better than that but his arm is just is below average like he can't really throw outside unless he's perfectly in rhythm so if he has to take an extra hitch or he's. he feels late on something, like he can't push it.

Like he doesn't have that room for error. And he's a solid athlete, but he's not excellent. Like in if you're going to be smaller, hopefully you're like running. Like you're like a four three guy if you're going to be undersized. Yeah, like Kyle, exactly. And even like guys that are skinnier, you know, that like you got to be able to roll. So those right away is why I'm like, okay, I don't know. And just seeing he's smart, but he kind of knows what he is.

And that's a double edged short. So he's safer. So like I just talked about hey I really like love because he pushes it. It's not just about big arm. It's just like willingness to push the ball. He kind of only does it when it's perfect. And you know, in the NFL, it's not always perfect. Yeah, you kind of expect that as a defense.

Yep. It's un-even. Yeah. And so I do like Canales. I think he's going to get the most out of him. But it's just, yeah, I just think this is what you got to work with. And it's just I think that ceiling is going to be highly cat or lowly capped. Yeah.

So temper your expectations. I'm glad. Yeah. Let's go. Long story. temper. I'm glad you brought up Dave Canales too. I did want to talk about Baker, just kind of wondering if he's going to be the same guy without Dave Canales. I think I love Baker as a guy. I've hung out with him in Tampa a couple times. And he's, he's one of those guys, I think, I'm happy to see this,

you know, resurgence in his career. And you never, I mean, it's just exciting to see guys kind of who bounce around or whatever. And then they kind of clicks or they find a home. And that kind of, to me is always a fun NFL story. And I like Baker a lot. He's got great weapons down in Tampa with Mike and Chris Godwin and who they bring in. Stirling Shepard. They drafted McMillan. Yep.

And McMillan's good. Like, we talked about Roma Dunn. Like, dude, he's a good player too. And then Jim and Polk with the Patriots. Holden.

Yeah. The third guy was great too. I know. Three of them. Yeah. But so, I mean, are we concerned at all about Baker without Dave Canales?

Are we excited about him signing back with the bucks? Because they exceeded expectations last year. They did. I thought what Canales did. best is Baker. Baker's an air raid quarterback. Get him in the gun, let him just straight drop back and chuck it. That he's not a play action guy. He doesn't do well when he has to turn his back to the defense. That's just not, even though he has a good arm, that's just not his game. He has to take kind of deeper drops. Like he doesn't throw those great. I've never thought that. I always thought

he had a cap on that. But when last year, Canales had Baker just straight drop back, no play action, no RPO more than he ever did in his career. Like I kind of, I had numbers for this on my show. But that's a real stat. And I thought you saw Baker kind of thrive in that. Like some of it was he's going to be a high variance guy. Like he's going to push the ball and take chances. When you have Mike Evans and Godwin. Yeah.

That's fine. Like that's good. Like that's what Mike Evans can make you right. His catch radius is like 15 yards. He's like immortal now. It's like he's just can get you 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns. I love Mike Evans. I love Godwin.

And McMillans came on. Even Trey Palmer last year had some moments. Yep. Kate Otten was coming along too. I liked him at Tide End. And then who's the other guy? Co Keeft. He's a Minnesota guy.

Yeah, I love Coe. He's a good buddy of mine. We go out and have some beers sometimes. He'll thump it. Yeah. He knows his role, man. He does. Yeah.

He plays like a guy who's named Co Keeft. Exactly. And also he's number 41 at Tideon, which is, I think is just beautiful. He's like Jimmy Klein sauce or something. Yeah. Great throwback. But more than anything, what I liked is they added green. and Barton from Duke in the first round.

I loved Barton. And I thought he could get a chance at tackle. I thought he was a true four spot guy, maybe not left side, but he could play the other four spots and be like good or better. They want them at center, which I think is great. They got big shoes to fill at center. Yeah. Right.

And they've been trying and they've been trying to. And I know Ryan's, yeah, try to come back. Oh, yeah. So sad. But yeah, but that's, but that's why they need it is because without Ryan, it's kind of been, they had the worst run game in the league last year. Right. And I think this new office coordinator is still going to want to,

Liam Cohn, because he's a McVeigh guy. They, they, the under center play action stuff. So that's why I'm like, I have some concern. It's like, okay, make sure you watch what Canales did and make sure Baker drops back.

But I think that he, he will. I think he's smart enough to do it. So I'm pretty optimistic about it. Well, thankfully they locked up Tristan too. Oh, he's a fucking stud.

Yeah. Freak athlete and good dude. So that'll go a long way for him. I want to talk Jets really quickly. This is a little bit out there, but, uh, they finally had,

they're starting O line take reps together in practice and that didn't happen until week one of 23 how important is that going to be for a guy like you know Aaron rogers or you know just kind of create that cohesive feel for their offense headed into week one oh gigantic uh yeah we're like like offense a line play especially it's all about timing and and trust with the other so just reps communication especially there are such a heavy zone team yeah so that's more than any other concept you know run concept because that's all right when do you leave on the double team when did you you know you me and all that stuff they do up front but that that that's why i think more than anything that's matters so much and i think camp is this is the most reps you're going to get at it because

once the season starts it's limited reps so you got to squeeze out guys get banged up move parts six man o line i think is always one of the most important parts on the most underrated roles on a roster. That's why it's always impressed to me, like kind of what Kyle Shanahan can do sometimes with his hodgepodge line. It's just, I mean, everything they do. I'm just like, God, this is, I can never do coach this up, man.

But it's like, they'll just have some practice squad guy. They signed off the street of the week before and that guy starts and you wouldn't even notice that. Like, you don't even notice him the whole game because he just did his job. But yeah, but I, it's going to be huge. Like, especially Ferret Tucker at guard. He had some real moments as a rookie. He's just battled injuries.

So I'm hoping that if he stays that he can really come along. Simpson's a thumper. Tyron Smith, of course, everyone knows Tyron Smith as long as he's a fucking pain and ass to go against when I was in Philly and he was at left tackle and my God. Down in Dallas, it's like, I'm down in my stance

just trying to look and I'm like, yeah, are you double team in me? Like, please, please know him. Anchor? Yeah, let me widen my stance here a little bit. Let me just go down to one knee. Yeah, seriously. Classic anchor.

Yeah. But no, it's huge, especially just what their offense is. Because they're going to be Hackett likes his own stuff. And they like to boot stuff off of it. Like, you know, that's kind of what their fastball. So yeah. So what's the ceiling for the Jets this season? What's the floor?

You know, I never know it to expect with the Jets. It's, I mean, the ceiling if everyone's healthy is like legitimate fighting top 10 offense and like playoff team easy. I think because that defense is sick. Yeah, the defense is fun to watch. And they watch some pass rushers, but still they have, I mean, shoot, shoot the, the guys in the middle are just phenomenal. Quinn and Williams,

unbelievable. They've got a lot. His brother's sick. Yeah, I know. I love these guys a lot. They brought in, they lost Huff,

but they brought in, you know, Radick, hopefully you can get it all. Hopefully that figures that out. Yeah, I mean, you see those fine numbers.

Hopefully it gets figured out. Seriously. Oh, my God. I figure that shit out soon, man. It's a lot of money. I'd be like, hey, agent,

you sure? You sure about this? Let's get this tightened up here, brother. So, this is a playoff team, but the thing is, it's always with the caveat if everyone's healthy, you know,

because even if Rogers, you know, Achilles and everything, it's still Rogers. Like I'm just latching on to that one preseason drive last year with Garrett Wilson. They were phenomenal. So, yeah, I don't know. I think this is, yeah, this is a good team. Again, if they're healthy, but at the very least they have a good defense and potentially a good offense.

Yeah. Well, Nate, man, I feel like I got a lot out of you. Talked a lot of good, you know, high level stuff. I'd love to have you come back on. Again, want to give you some love, staff writer at Yahoo Sports. and then your new podcast is football 301, right? You want to tell me a little bit about that? Yeah, it just started off doing it with Charles McDonald,

aka at 4a Verz and Matt Harmon, who does a lot of fantasy work for Yahoo, great fantasy work, mostly with receiver stuff, but kind of, he knows ball. He can hang in other ball discussions. But yeah, we started off from top 10 off and top 10 defenses to get some listicles out there. Just to get the juices flowing.

But yeah, once the season starts, we'll have some nice recap pods, you know, previews for the weekends, once, you know, whatever, happening week two, week three, onwards, you know, it's kind of rates itself. So I'll come on some some time. We can do some cross pod pollination. Can't wait. Home and away. Exactly. Love it. Hey, yeah, get scouting already. I'll send you a list of D. Lyman for the next year's draft. I'll start crunching some tape for you, brother. It'd be great. But yeah. Watch the Michigan guys.

Exactly. Great catching up, man. Always fun to talk to back former badger and then Minnesota connection too. So I'll have to do it again sometime. Appreciate you, man. Thanks for having me.