New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce - Engagement Advice, Eagles Banner Night, Chiefs in Brazil & NFL Season Preview with Alex Smith | EP 152

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

92%ers, welcome to another episode of New Heights brought to you by Reese’s Oreo Cups! On today’s episode, we get right to the announcement that took over the internet last week, Travis shares his advice for other 92%ers thinking of popping the question, Jason clarifies who brought jorts for Jason at the Bearcats game, we also break down the Chiefs week 1 trip to Brazil, and the Eagles hanging a banner in front of the Cowboys. Later Chiefs legend Alex Smith joins us to help break down everything about the upcoming NFL season. We get into his favorite stories about rookie Travis, what life is like as a #1 pick, the QBs he can’t wait to watch this season, his thoughts on the Ben Johnson hire in Chicago, why he thinks the Jags might be a sleeper playoff team, and we take a few calls from the Heights Hotline. You can also listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. ...Download the full podcast here:Wondery: https://wondery.app.link/s9hHTgtXpMbApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-heights/id1643745036Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1y3SUbFMUSESC1N43tBleK?si=LsuQ4a5MRN6wGMcfVcuynwFollow New Heights on Social Media for all the best moments from the show: https://lnk.to/newheightshowCheck out all the New Heights merch at https://homage.com/newheights Support the show: REESE’S: Grab REESE’S OREO Cups today, wherever candy is sold!GILLETTE: Visit https://Gillette.com/NFL for more information!YOUTUBE: Set a reminder now at https://youtube.com/nfl and don’t forget to TUNE IN on this Friday, September 5thSEAT GEEK: Use our code for 10% off your SeatGeek order*. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/NEWHEIGHTS ($25 max discount) *Restrictions ApplyALLSTATE: Checking first is smart. So, check https://Allstate.comfirst for a quotethat could save you hundreds.LIQUIDIV: Tear. Pour. Live More. Go to https://liquidiv.com and get 20% off your first order with code NEWHEIGHTS at checkout.DRAFTKINGS: Don’t miss out on all the action this week at DraftKings! Download the DraftKings app today! Sign-up using dkng.co/newheights or through my promo code NEWHEIGHTS. GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/textHOPENY (467369) (NY).Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT/OR/NH. Eligibility restrictions apply. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS).1 per new customer. $5+ first-time bet req. Max. $200 issued as non-withdrawable Bonus Bets that expire in 7 days (168 hours). Stake removed from payout. Terms: dkng.co/dk-offer-terms. Ends 2/9/25 at 11:59 PM ET. Sponsored by DK.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 2014, when you were a rookie with Travis, when he first arrived at the Chiefs, let's start there. Yeah. Did you expect that we'd end up where we are right now? What were your expectations for a young Travis Kelsey? Did I expect him to be, what, like a Hall of Fame career? Yeah, yeah, that's a crazy question. Hell, hell no. Hell no.

What threw you off? Welcome, Back to Melville Heights, 92 percenters. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, a Wondry show. Brought to you by Reese's Oreo Cups and, uh, God, those things are tasted. Yeah, baby. Two of my favorites combined into one. We're your host.

I'm Travis Kelsey. This is my big brother, Jason Kelsey out at Cleveland Heights, Ohio. University of Cincinnati grads. I'll tell you what, Bearcats, man, didn't end the way that we wanted to. But I'll tell you what, baby. We fought. We fought. That's all I wanted to see some fucking heart.

And that's what I fucking saw. And we got a hell of a team, man. Yeah. Let's go, baby. Take over the Big 12. Subscribe on YouTube 100 plus wherever you get your podcast and follow this show on social media at New Heights Show with 1S. Jason, I think this is where you tell everybody what we have coming up next. 92 percenters.

Football is back. Yeah. We're going to talk about all the biggest news from last week, including the preview, the Chiefs, heading down into Brazil. We're also going to get into the fallout from the Parsons trade and dive into the rest of the NFL season with three-time Pro Bowler and Chiefs legend, Alex Smith, Smitty. But before we get to all of that,

we're going to get into a little bit of that new news. New news. Travis, we got to talk about it. I don't think we have to, but go ahead. Okay. Well, in case you missed the Instagram post heard around the world, Travis and Taylor are engaged. Yay! Well, and thank you guys for the congratulations that you sent out last week.

You saw it? Yes, I did. It was very nice of you, Jason. Thank you. It was very nice of you. Although you had already congratulated me, you had to do it on behalf of New Heights. It felt like you would have been weird if we didn't do it. We wanted to send that message.

What? No, thank you guys. And I appreciate everybody that reached out and sent something and all the posts and all the excitement that's been going on. It's been really fun telling everybody who I'm going to be spending the rest of my life with. Well, how was the last week, Ben? Exciting.

It's been awesome, yeah. Isn't it, there's something different about calling somebody your fiancé? Yeah. There's a comedian that has a whole bit about it, but I think they nailed it. I'm talking about, like, my, oh, is John Mullaney, I think, is talking about girlfriend versus all of a sudden, you're like, this is my fiancé.

or my wife. There's something more, way more official to it. Yeah, 100%. I felt that at the game, actually. It was my first time introducing Taylor as my fiancee to a few of my teammates. There we go. So, yeah, it was pretty cool. Don't you get giddy saying it?

I did. Yeah, I still get giddy. I love it. It's exciting times. Still fresh. Do we have any advice to other 92%ers that might be popping the question? Man, you got to know your gal. you got to know your gal or your significant other you got to know them you can't it's got to you can't let

how somebody else does it make you feel like you need to do it that way you can't read about it in a cosmopolitan magazine expect that they're going to know your person you got to know your person yeah you may be might be able to get some ideas from how other people did it no fuck that fuck those other people i hear you they might get the creative juices going there you that's okay I got you. I would just say, know your partner, know who you're doing it for and do it for the right reasons, baby. Everything else would be beautiful.

I cannot wait to hear more of the planning and everything that will take place. Travis, you are going to, you are about to embark on the wedding planning phase of a relationship. Yep, I've heard about that. And get ready. It is a lot of fun. Have you ever heard Mike Leach talk about planning wedding? No, but that is a, that's a wild. Go ahead. I'm not going to, I can't even do it justice.

You're going to have to watch that clip yourself. But Mike Leach is pretty, he's a funny man, funny man. Yeah. No, it's a very exciting time trying to figure out where, dates, all of these things. There is a very important question that Jake and Brandon required me to ask on this show, which is, are they invited to the bachelor party? Bachelor party, man. How do you even know there's a bachelor party coming, you know?

I don't. I'm just asking this question on behalf of Jake and Brandon. I haven't thought about it one second. Yeah. So this is a good way to defer. Yeah. Well done. But I invite you guys everywhere.

Are they invited to the wedding at least? You know, we're going to see. We're going to see how it all shakes out because I don't want to put them at a table that they wouldn't mesh with. Well, let's, I would just, let's segue here. Let's segue here. Let's segue here. 92% is for those of you that are unaware. Travis was not the only member of New Heights that has recently been engaged.

Hey! Intern Brandon has gone in day! Let's go! So, intern Brandon, I now flip the question on you. Are Travis and I invited to your bachelor party? Of course. Yes. Of course you are.

I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to do for. wedding this is news to me of course we just i think we just strong armed our way into you're in no i don't i have no shame i am perfectly fine strong on my way into this a few of my friends texted me like hey man so congrats are happy for you are we going to get to hang out jason and travis and i was like oh cool that's like your second question is are jason travis like going to fucking hang out with us and i'm like no not now but no you guys we'll figure out what we're doing brandon intern brandon got engaged in an ocean

I did truly fantastic. Can we put that photo up? My little head bobbing in the water like this and the ring is floating and it's a great photo. Travis did it on land, which is much safer. Land mammal. I got warned. I got worn. I got warm. Brandon went aquatic.

I went aquatic in. I once thought I would do it on water, but you, you did it. He didn't do it on water. He did it in water. Holding the ring while kicking your little feet trying to fight the current, terrible idea. Don't recommend it. That's my advice. Heart.

You showed heart. It, listen, that's the most athletic thing I've ever done in my life. Brandon, I'm sure you have had a lot of people reach out. Not as many as I think Travis had. Travis has had so many that I've had people reach out. And that's been one of the more fun things is hearing from coaches and former friends of ours. Like, hey, can you tell Travis congratulations? Nice, man.

Sure, absolutely. We'll do. It's been so much fun hearing from everybody. Seeing the internet go crazy. Cleveland, Cleveland, Twitter page, the city of Cleveland at City. of Cleveland put up there. Local man and his new fiance stunned an engagement

picture. I thought that was absolutely that's a great. Local man is a great way to go. That's so good. We also got a great tweet from awful announcing. NFL podcast host announces engagement to recent guests. Very accurate.

Speaking of announcements, speaking of announcements, congratulations. again, Trav. Very happy for you, Ante. And can't wait to see what the future holds for both of you. Now we can transition to announcing another thing,

which is the New Heights Tailgate in KC. Oh. That's right. September 14th, starting at 11 a.m. The New Heights Tailgate, sponsored by Audible is coming to KC. Live in the Power and Light District. KC. P&L. Baby. Ultimate New Heights fan experience with food, of course, barbecue.

Tons of contests in New Heights merch giveaways, a photo booth to your game day photos DJ to keep the vibe going cornhole who doesn't like putting on now putting a sack in some cornholes uh cornhole game to compete with your friends a giant TV to watch NFL games live and plenty of places to hang out for you and your friends and it's completely free free for all fans because we appreciate you guys so much and we want to have a kick-ass time and typically that more the merrier so you don't need to sign up you just show up capacity City will be limited to first-come-first-her basis.

Let's go, baby! Walnut Street between 13th and 14th, just outside of Casey Live and the Power and Light District of Kent City next week for the Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles game. It's going to be a barn burner. Oh, yeah. A little Super Bowl rematch. Come on, baby.

Yeah, come on, baby. We won't get too far ahead. We'll get too far ahead. Just want to let you guys know. We're on this week. Just want to let you guys know that's what we got coming up. And make sure you show up and show out, baby. Casey always shows up.

Casey P&L is always. a good-ass time, man. I've never had a bad time there, and sure enough, New Heights is bringing it. That wraps up new news. Let's get to Out of the House, Travis. Out of the house is brought to you by Gillette. The best a man can

get. I see you stroking the beard. You're feeling them gray is coming back in? It's coming. Thank God. Yeah, I see him. My wisdom is coming back by the day. You lost it for a second. Out of the house.

the Kelsey's hit up Arrowhead for the Cincinnati, Nebraska games. Shout out to Nebraska, but shout out to UC, man. No doubt. Nebraska played a hell of a game. Went down to the wire since he showed all the heart in the world, baby, and showed that we got some ball players, man. We got some ball players and we can make some plays with the game on the line. And, yeah, we got one play that we can learn from.

And it's early on in the season. Can't let that game or that play define us. We got a lot to be proud of about that game and a lot to learn from as well. It felt like a first game. It felt like a lot of just, you know, not like catastrophic mistakes, just kind of like sloppiness, you know, drop ball here, false start here. Like we had 35 yards passing, I think, up until the fourth quarter. But it didn't feel like Soresby was playing that bad.

Like he threw some really good fade balls. And I don't know. It just was one of those. And hats off to Nebraska. Nebraska played a great game. They controlled the ball. I think they had like 35 minutes or something like that, close to 40 minutes, It's a time of possession.

You know, we just didn't stay on the field as an offense. We kind of got behind the sticks. We'd run the ball really well, then all of a sudden getting like a third and long. You know, we had the turnover before half, and then obviously the turnover at the end of the game when we were going down to tie or win it. But I'm with you.

I came away like Cincinnati has something to him this year. Soresby, I like him. I know it didn't, it wasn't his probably, he'd take back that last throw and maybe some other ones, but I liked him as a player in the game. I think they got some, the running game with great. Walker, number three, he was, come on, he was, come on. He was giving this little putting that foot in the ground, making some guys miss.

Soresby doing it with his legs, man. Show that he's a game here. He's like, listen, I'm going to find a way. I'm excited about Cincinnati the rest of the way. I think they'll clean up a lot of these mistakes they had in this game. I also think Nebraska's probably a good team this year. So I think, I think since he's going to do well in the Big 12, I'm looking forward to watching them the rest of the way.

You know it, baby. You know, and I got to give this shout out. My guy, Terry Braden, man. He's a defensive line coach over there in Nebraska. Yeah. He had been in Kansas City just about my whole career, man. One of my favorite guys of all time in the building, man. And he's one hell of a coach.

And sure enough, man, he's got them Kern Heskers rocking and rolling on the D-Line. Dude, them cornhuskers had Arrowhead rocking and rolling. It was, it was loud. You see what you see was there. UC was there. We had a, but when Nebraska is right down the street, man. You see it was there. What are you talking about? It was filled like it was like 90% Nebraska. But you felt that because both teams were red. I felt that because it was 90% Nebraska. I mean, UC travels well, but let's be honest, that thing was, I mean, they could have been shucking.

They could have. Yeah. There was a lot of corn going on. All right. You got me. We also have a little thing that they have written in. Jason brought jorts for Jason with this. Yeah, he did. Yeah, except I didn't. These are Travis's jorts. I stole them from his closet.

But everyone liked them. They did. On Jason. So that's all the matters right there. But that was, I did go on busing afterwards with Will and Taylor. Oh, yeah. We love those dudes. Pissed I didn't get a beer with him at the game.

Trave had already been on and it's, I had never been on there. They, uh, I also told a story. of us drinking non-alcoholic beers, which I don't think we, I mean, listen, if you're in the non-alcoholic, it's just something weird when you think you've been doing something for the last hour and a half, two hours, and then all of a sudden you realize that it hasn't been happening and you just feel deceived. How could I be so naive to not even check what that was? But, yeah, I think.

It was a crazy realization, because that was the first one that caught it. And I'm sitting there. I had poured a real beer and I had poured the non-al alcoholic beer. And I found the taste difference. Yeah. And I was like, hmm, this one's like a little sweeter. That's crazy. That's actually a really like delightful taste.

And I looked at the can. I'm like, oh, let me see what kind of what zero? Because all I read at first was zero something. Yeah. Like I had zero in bold letters. I just saw a beer and I just assumed it was beer. But. I saw zero.

And I'm like, zero, what kind of is this? is like zero calorie, zero sugar? I'm like in my head. I'm like, that would be the first zero calorie beer I've ever heard of. I just, I saw a bunch of people coming. Like, how did you not know? Like, you weren't buzzing. I was drinking before I got in the suite.

Like, it wasn't like I showed up sober. I did. I showed up sober. And I was sober going into the second half. And I was just like, what the fuck is? I was drinking all morning at the golf course. Let me drink two and get to where I need. to be right now.

Yeah. Knowing how that first half just ended. Yeah. Either way, absolutely hilarious. I told you, we started dying laughing at this. She made sure to tell you. Then I'm back there. I had just gotten another one out of the fridge.

Like, hmm. Delicious. What? What? Zero alcohol. It was an electric experience. Arrowhead. Fantastic job.

Creating that environment. Nebraska, fantastic job. Good luck the rest of the way. And I got to give a shout out to you. UC one more time because they knew that they were going into Nebraska territory with that home game. They did. They knew that that stadium was going to be mostly Nebraska. So they took a home game, went to their territory, put up a fight baby. I love them for it. I thought it was a ballsy move. They got paid like $2 million for it. Oh, that's it.

Did you watch any other college football this weekend? I watched a whole lot of college football. And one of the most touching moments of this past weekend was seeing Lee Corso. No doubt. Yeah. Hanging up, man. Just give it one time. One time for Lee, man. I can't tell you how much of me is like, I fucking love that guy.

Never met him once. But I fucking love that guy. How he drove the love for college football, for football in general. Yeah. Man, I can't thank him enough for his efforts for wanting to make it fun. for making it seem so effortless to enjoy this game. And, man, what a remarkable career and went out on his terms, man. It was awesome.

I'm with you. I mean, an icon, an icon of our childhood, an icon of college football in the entire landscape. We're going to miss you, Lee. Congratulations on an incredible career. Went out swinging. I mean, come on, baby. Calls the Florida State upset over Alabama. Come on, baby.

I know he did it. I know he did it with zero expectation that was going to happen. But, I mean, come on now. What a, what a beast. What a freaking beast. All right. Once again, that was out of the house brought to you by Gillette. The best a man can get.

Real quick, before we get to the Alex Smith interview and some of the other things going on across the league, we're going to start with bold topics. That's right. Bold Topics is brought to you by YouTube because we've got some. some absolutely fantastically massive news. This Friday's Chiefs' Chargers game is making history. It's being offered completely free around the world for everyone. That's fucking crazy.

For the first time ever, there are no subscriptions, no paywalls, and no requirements. YouTube is bringing the NFL directly to you so you can watch on the big screen without any hassles, no matter where you are. So here's our suggestion. Cancel your Friday plans. gather your friends and family and celebrate NFL kickoff weekend the right way and let's watch some I mean what else are you going to be doing Friday night you might as well watch the freaking Chiefs and charges go ahead of high school football is back in action but you can just watch you can watch it on your phone YouTube that's a good point you go to the high school game and

then just stream the game live stream the game live we're doing them both this is why YouTube dude fuck you all right chiefs charges in Brazil traf how is this week different Eagles traveled to Brazil last year I've I remember a little bit of the talk but what are you guys getting ready for this is the most unique uh i think it's been yeah in terms of traveling to a game um it's not like you're going to the other side of the world in terms of like time zones and stuff we're only going two time zones away but we're traveling half a day so it's it's interesting you typically you would go to london and time it up to where you get in london or you get overseas in europe and you have a whole day in front of you so you can

sleep on the plane you can or at least try and get some sleep on the plane to like take up the time of the flight yep it's it's a whole thing right now of like trying to get there and get acclimated without losing the sleep schedule keeping you in tune with you know just the times you're waking up and the times you'll be at your peak athleticism you know throughout the day so it's a bit of juggling that um i know the the stadiums two hours away from the hotel that'll be a unique experience driving to the game for two hours, the old college football way that we used to drive Miami, even though that wasn't that far away. We were a Delta hand, and, you know, we got to play it.

And it is what it is. I think it'll be rewarding if we go down there and find a way to win, knowing that this is such a unique schedule and unique experience. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to go down to Brazil, man. Dude, it's going to be electric. It is going to be so much fun, man. And the international games are always a fucking blast, getting to see new fans and how they react to big plays

and just how they show up to the game, how they act during the game, whether I'm going to hear chance and stuff. I'm excited for all of this. Yeah. And it's going to be, I already know that the Brazil fans are going to go fucking nuts. And it's going to be a blast, man.

Yep. And I think what you're kind of alluding to is like, there's no time zone changes, so you can't, like, save time overnight and whatnot. Like, you guys are going to lose a whole day, Wednesday, and just travel. Because it's 12-hour flight, and you're not gaining or losing, there's no way to manipulate it. Yeah. So you're just going to be, get up in the morning, fly down to Brazil, and get nothing in that day other than maybe some film on the plane or film when you land, right? Yeah.

Yeah. So. Got to be smart with your time, a little bit more strategic with your days. Get your race on. sure you start doing high knees in the aisle you know make sure you're you're moving around i don't i don't know if i'll be doing that but i um i got my nintendo switch too nice and i'm going to be mario golfing and and they got Mario golf oh yeah gosh get hip guys i can't dude i'll be on it all day i just know it i got to stay out of it i got to stay out of it all right let's move on it went uh

To have on a international division game, is it weird to have an international division game? I mean, this would be my second one. We played the Chargers in Mexico City. That's right. We only had one game international. It was London. I wish we would have been able to play more when I was there. I'd like the international games personally.

It's a blast. This would be my fifth country I've played in. Fifth country. It'll be your second continent, right? Europe and South America. Well, third continent, I guess North America, Europe, South America. America. You're just missing Africa, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. Yep. So, NFL, we've got to keep expanding.

Yeah, we got to keep going. We've got to keep going, boys. Australia's coming. That one is not far off. No, the Aussies definitely love some football. They love some competition, baby. Does this counts as a home game for the Chargers? Sucks to suck. Do you expect more Chiefs or Chargers fans? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I, um, I was, I don't want to say I was caught off guard, but there were more Chargers fans. I felt like in Mexico City than there were at the game in Los Angeles.

I'm not sure if because they're, closer to the border. Yeah, their original team, San Diego was so close to the border that they had a bunch of like fans built up from that. But yeah, I don't know how far down south, like into South America, their their fan base goes. But I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have scheduled this if like there wasn't a lot of fans for, both teams, you know. We'll find out. Other chiefs have been weighing in on the topic in the trip to Brazil. McKenzie Nelson, everything Xavier Worthy knows about Brazil.

He says, comes from the Fast and Furious movie. One way to do your research, Xavier. One way. Nice. I have to watch that on the plane. Pat let us know he had to explain to Travis how a globe works. First of all, uncalled for, Pat. I think more than anything, it was just explaining to some guys how far

the trip was. Some guys didn't understand how far the travel was, Travis, even though he just was down there like last year. So I was just explaining to him how the globe works. Very uncalled for. Had no idea that Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo were that close. I knew Brazil was down there. I didn't realize it was that far down there. Argentina and Brazil are heated rivals, just so you know. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Just hadn't put those two together. Yes. Well, actual football preview, the charges are in year two of the Jim, Jim Harbaugh experience

in Los Angeles. Yeah, what are the staples of a Jim Harbaugh coach team? I mean, freaking, they're going to, yeah. Tough as nails. They got hard. They're going to play all four quarters in every single phase. You know, you're going to get a well-disciplined football team. It's like your NFL, it's like your football's football team.

It's going to be a lot of 12, 21 personnel. They're going to establish a run game. lineup play actions off of it. There are always physical teams on offense and defense. It's an old school mentality that Jim Harbaugh's teams bring to the game, and it's refreshing in a lot of regards. And I can't wait to see what year two looks like for the charges. I really can't.

I mean, I hope they lose this first game, obviously, but I'm optimistic about how they do from here on out. I like that the NFL is doing this with week one opening games with divisional matchups. You got the Eagles versus Cowboys. We're going to get to that one. in a second to start the season off you guys in the chargers i'm going and doing the monday night count down with bears vikings there's just a lot of good games in this week one that i can't wait to watch the games this weekend it's going to be so much fun we got some key matchups potentially

we got josh simmons hell of a rookie debut he's got calil mac one of the best pass rushers over the last decade in the NFL to definitely a hell of a welcome to the NFL for the young buck. Chargers have added Najee Harris and Mackay Beckton. Although I don't know if Mackay has practiced yet. I think he's been... Yeah, I think both of them have kind of been up in question, but maybe Najee has got the thumbs up as of late, but either way, if they don't play this game, they'll definitely contribute to that team, both great players. And actually, it looks like that Harris will split reps with rookie Omari on Hampton. So, yeah, getting him kind of

slowly back incorporated into the offense, I guess. Chargers left tackle, Rishon Slater, unfortunately, is out for the season, man. The worst kind of news you ever want to come across, such a great player, man. And, I mean, as much as, you know, that team is going to run the ball this year, having a healthy old line is a huge component, especially early, man. He just hate to hate to see that for such a great, great player, man. Absolutely. I mean, even from his rookie year, it's been one of the better tackles in the

league he's a blast to watch and hopefully the big guy can come back even stronger we got they they aren't the only ones missing a star player though where she rice will officially start his suspension this week he will be out for the first six games um and you know i think everybody in case he's looking forward to seeing him back out on the field opens up a lot but you know listen this is what you're going to have to deal with right trav yeah and i think the the biggest thing is that you know I want to say we saw it coming, but we've had to prepare for this, you know, knowing that there's going to be some amount of games that he's going to end up missing. And Rishi knows that.

And, you know, he's going to attack these weeks and make sure that he's ready for when he's allowed back in the building. And, you know what? I think it's going to create, you know, that much more love and that much more fight out of them. I think he's got a lot to prove still in this league. And I think I saw a certain type of work ethic. and attention to detail that, you know, he's taking it up a notch when he's out there in practice. So I can't wait to get that guy back in the building, but we're going to have to hold it down

without him down in Brazil, man. Yeah. Trave, have you guys brought up any keys of the game? What do you think is? Of course we have. There's a fucking, there's a bunch of them. Let me guess. Let me guess.

Let me guess. I'm not telling you guys any of our keys. Don't turn the ball over. That's a huge one. Which I love the keys. I always love going in the keys of the game. all right take care of the football i mean stats are stats dude over the over the like last like four years the the amount of fumbles in the first week of this first week it's insane yeah amount of

fumbles and amount of missed tackles it's through the fucking roof it's always it's always the same hey take care of the football where you are take care of the football create turnovers on defense take care of the football and offense uh stop the run limit Penalties and mistakes. Eliminate penalties. A little of the penalties. We've got to be going forwards, guys. We can't be going backwards.

Deliminate those. Stop killing ourselves. We need to be playing the other team, not ourselves. That's right. That's right. If we beat the Kansas City Chiefs, we'll beat them. No, we can't beat ourselves. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry.

If we don't beat ourselves, yeah. There we go. All right, let's keep this thing moving. We'll see you guys down in Brazil, baby. South Paulo, baby. Get ready to get this thing. Do you have any, do you know any words in Portuguese? No, no, but if, if I, I'll make sure I learn some down there.

Bring some back with you. I'll bring some good ones back. The only two I remember are Obligatu and Servasia. Nice. Let's talk a little Eagles, Cowboys, baby. Come on now. First game of the season for both these teams. And man, what a matchup to get this thing going.

A lot going on in the Cowboys world and the defending champs. I mean, could you think of a better way for the Philadelphia Eagles to start? the NFL season coming off of a Super Bowl and playing the Dallas Cowboys to start the NFL season and dropping a banner like I mean the front of the boys dude the NFL is so good at these scheduling things the environment this Thursday I cannot wait I cannot wait to experience this it is going to be so fucking it's going to be it's going to be insane it is going to be absolutely bedlam it's going to be nuts so I am I am kind of kind of pissed that I never got to go to you playing against the Cowboys.

Fuck me. Like I never got, I only got to experience those on like, Monday night, Sunday night. We got plenty to go to. I don't need to be playing. I wanted to go.

I wanted to be in the stands as an Eagles fan watching it. With Cowboys fans around and feel that. You know what I mean? It's, it's a great time when you're in Philly. It's not as much fun when you're in Dallas, but it's a great time when you're, you don't know that.

No, I do. We lost a lot of games in Dallas, unfortunately. Oh, okay. Anyways, no, this is going to be, I'm looking forward to so many things. There's a lot of guys that I think, dude, they've been putting in so much work. And they've been doing it now for all the training camp. And they're trying to stay focused at the task at hand to repeat and have another great season.

And I think the mentality has just been so good across the board from the coaches to the players. They're returning so many pieces offensively. I mean, really the only new pieces are their right guard. Tyler Steen, who's been there. He's just now he's going to be starting. And that's it. I mean, the offensive coordinator is the other new one on offense. And the other one I'm really looking forward to is defense.

I think Moro Jomo, keep that name in the back of your head. This is a guy that, and I know Brandon, intern Brandon, shout out to Interim Brandon. He knows what I'm talking about because he went to UT. And Brandon knows everybody from fucking Texas. But, dude, this guy, you know when you can. can't tell when there's a guy balling out on scout team. If it's just like he's given great effort, so is he catching guys when they're tired,

a little bit fatigued on like a Wednesday and Thursday? So you're like, all right, he's got some juice, but I'm going to wait to see how this goes. Then he just keeps getting better. And he has this great disposition to him that he, from the moment he's got there, he's been inquisitive and asked questions and is always trying to get better.

And it brings me back to, we had Kobe Bryant talked to the, team in 2017. And one of the guys asked him, do you have any advice to young players trying to make it in the NFL? And this is my favorite thing Kobe said all speech. Other guys referenced some of the other stuff. But I really love this.

He said, be curious, right? Ask questions. Try and learn as much as you can. And Stout always says it in a different way. Knowledge is our greatest resource. He's always been asking questions to some extent, like annoyingly. Like guys like, God damn, Morrow just keeps on. talking to me and asking me questions. He has had a relentless effort when he's on the field.

He's had a relentless effort off the field. He wants to be great at football. I think he's going to have a really good year for Philadelphia. I'm putting it out there. He's playing alongside Jalen Carter, who's going to get a lot of attention because he's one of the best defensive tackles, if not the best in the NFL. And I think it's going to be, I'm looking forward to seeing him play. And I'm looking forward to seeing, you know, I'm just looking forward being back at the link and watching the eagles line it up again a lot of guys going into their second year especially on defense or second or third year let's and we're seeing are they going to be able to keep up are they going to be able to do it again Vic Fangio um yeah I don't know man

I'm just really excited to watch this first game I mean it's going to be fucking absolutely insane of a of an atmosphere um hopefully the game resembles that knowing everything that the Cowboys have going on with the first-year coach and, yeah, getting their star defensive player traded a week before the season starts. They got a lot of noise. But the banner, I want to talk a little bit about the banner games, man. I've been a part of them where somebody else was raising a banner, and I've been a part of them when I've been raising a banner.

You've been a part of them definitely when you've raised a banner. Have you ever been the team going into the stadium? No. Well, I was in a banner game. game for, not for winning a strip bowl, but I was, we played in New England in New England when they retired Tom Brady's jersey. Oh, which was arguably bigger than a banner game. Big time.

It was a big time environment. They almost won the game too. That's what I'm saying, man. It can go both ways. But at the same time, Coach Siriani said that the Eagles will not be on the field for the banner drop. You beat me to it too. They've been, they've been, I think they're handling it the right way.

And I think 100%. You can't be out there. You got a game. That's last year. Yeah. It's last year. They've all turned the page and you have to focus on this year. But the banner isn't for them.

It's for the motherfucking fans. And they're going to be going absolutely crazy. And that's why I'm excited about it. Because I'm not playing it anymore. I can be excited about a fucking banner and watching the Cowboys. Like, I don't have to worry about being in the moment in this season. But they're handling it the right way. I think Cam Juergen said something similarly this week about, you know,

not giving a damn about a banner. They're all focused on this season and moving on from last year. Give a damn about the next banner, you know what I'm saying? That's right. Dude, I went, this reminds me talking about banner games.

I went to one of the most legendary days in Cleveland sports history. I got to literally be the biggest kid in the entire world. What's that? I went to the Cleveland Cavaliers banner game. after they won the NBA championship.

Yeah. And that same day, go to a Cleveland World Series game. Holy cow. It's a hell of a day. And I took dad and it was fucking electric. Yeah. And as a little kid standing in Gundarina,

knowing that I'm about to go and take my dad to the World Series after this, dude it was insane that's all I have for you I just wanted to make sure you you knew that I did that well I'm happy that you did it and didn't invite me you fucking asshole that sounds like a great yeah that was another thing it was during the season so you were probably playing football and I was on my bye week all right so what are your keys to the game take care of the football don't eliminate mistakes no penalties we can't be

You can't beat ourselves. Yeah, yeah. But seriously, hold on in the football. All right, here we go, boys. That wraps up bold topics. Brought to you by YouTube. Hey. Reminder to mark your calendars,

hit up your whole group text, all your messages, all your group chats, and get ready to be part of football history. Coverage starts 7 p.m. This Friday, September 5th, only on YouTube. Game available via YouTube globally, except Canada, unfortunately. Sorry to our friends up north and other certain countries, unfortunately.

The game will also be available on free over-the-air broadcast television in local markets of participating clubs. Before we keep going, we want to say a big thank you to our partner, Draft Kings, that's right. It's been a long summer without football, but we're back. And we're ready to play some bets with our partners, Draft King Sportsbook. All right, single game parlay. We're going to look at the kickoff game for the season.

Cowboys at Eagles. Jake, with the first two picks of our single game parlay, what do you have? All right. So I wanted to pick one from each team. I know Jerry Jones has said that the Cowboys are very committed to stopping the run. I'm not sure that I believe him. So I'm going to be taking Saquan Barkley over 100 rushing yards. They're going to commit whether they'll be able to do it as a different story.

Right. I think losing a star defensive lineman, even though they got Kenny Clark back doesn't necessarily bode well for being able to stop the run. Second pig is a little inspired by Beer Bowl. I saw Cooper DeVine flying out there on the obstacle course. I know

that Eagle's secondary is going to be going crazy. So I got Dak over 0.5 interceptions. I think they catch a pig from death. We're making you. There you have it, folks. I do. I do. I make our picks based on Beer Bowl observations. That's insider information.

That's insider information. I don't know if we're even allowed to legally do this. That man wanted that. He wanted it. Well done, Jake. All right. For the final two picks of the single game parlay, I'm going to go with Jalen Hertz, anytime touchdown. I think Jalen's going to find the end zone one way or the other.

I'm also going to go with Jalen Carter over one sack. I love Jalen. I love betting on sacks. Jalen Carter is going up against the rookie Tyler Booker from Alabama. Um, it'll be, that's one of the matchups. I forgot to mention this up top. I'm looking forward to watching that one this game because, yeah, I don't know, man. That is our single game parlay for this game, which comes out to plus 1,000 odds.

Meaning, if you bet $10 on this and the bets hits, you get $110. Check out all of the odds for the playoffs and more over at Draft King's Sportsbook. Now that everyone knows about some of the awesome bets that are available on Draft Kings, you're ready for the big game. I know I am. it's been a long time coming a long summer without any football but fear not my friends it's back i might not be on the field but we can still stay in on the action with draft king sports book those of you who haven't checked out our partners at

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Throw it back to the 90. dude my dude high school oh yeah i had an aggressive chin strap um yeah i have no idea i think i'm just gonna keep this look i might you know it's getting a little furry i might trim it down a little bit but i think uh this is the look for the start of the year at least regardless jillette's best shave also has a new look this season we're talking about jillette labs baby yes sir jillette labs is here with an official NFL licensed razor a must have for any fan Featuring the iconic colors and logos from 12 of your favorite NFL teams alongside Gillette's best blades and flex disk technology.

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Let's do it. Jason, do the honors, please. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome three-time pro bowler from Helix High School. He was the first pick in the 2005 NFL draft, the 2020 NFL comeback player of the year, the quarterback who threw Travis, his first ever NFL touchdown. Please welcome Mr. Alex Smith, baby! Let's go! Smithy. Thank you. Thank you, Jason. Thank you. Let's go.

A little wise shallow cross down in Miami. You kidding me? Was that the first one? I've actually never been introed with that accolade before as the first person to throw you a touchdown. And it actually is not a bad accolade, man. I'll take it. I've been called worse. For sure. All right. Well, let's get into it in 2014 when you're a rookie with Travis, when he first arrived at the Chiefs. let's start there yeah uh did you expect that we'd end up where we are right now what did you

what were your expectations for a young Travis Kelsey did it did I expect him to be what like a Hall of Fame career yeah yeah it's the question fuck no crazy question that hell hell no what what threw you off well I mean obviously like there's not many guys you come in and you have that expectation that you think that right away well it's basically i mean what third round pick right yeah and so no i mean there's no third round picks that come in you're like this guy's going to be the greatest past you know the greatest tight end ever no it just and there were there were some there were some question marks about trav and his professionalism um you know coming in that were understood in the building yeah

yeah dude but no i mean like this is the crazy thing when you think about i'm sure everybody looks at traves career and it's like oh look it was just like so great and destined. I mean, he didn't even plays workier. You know, like, dude, I remember you out there trying to run through, like, routes that summer. Hobbling around, bro. I remember you, like, hobbling around on that knee, just, like, trying to get through it.

And I felt so bad. I'm like, this is a young guy, and he's, like, dealing with knee issues already. No, there were, like, huge question marks, Jason. You know, I think there was a ton of positivity in the building. Like, from the moment we drafted him, though, like, Andy, Doris at the time, John Dorsey, the GM. Like, there was a ton, like, they were like, we got a guy. Like, that was the belief.

Like, like, listen, we got a guy in the third round. We're super, you know, we feel like he can be a player. But he didn't play for a whole year, you know? Like, it was, that's crazy to think back about, right? I mean, and then, you know, a big, a big procedure. Yeah, huge knee, huge knee surgery and micro fracture at that point in my career. I was lucky I was young enough to where it paid off. Yeah, there was still, and in terms of the professionalism, it kind of worked out in my favor because I got to see everything from like, I just got to sit back and watch guys like you, guys like Fasano, then guys like Jeremy Macklin come in and like be pros and show me how it's done at the professional level.

And it's, I ended up catching on not the second year or the third year, but eventually it clicked for me. I kind of say it in jest, right? Like half joking, obviously, about the professionalism. But I also think the cool thing is that I think in the same time that, you know, when you got drafted, I'll never forget, it was like, hey, again, they think you're, you know, a hell of a player. This is going to be great. They also immediately understood, like, like, who is, fresh out college.

This guy's got some, you know, he's got to learn a little bit. It's going to be a process. He's going to grow. He's going to mature. Yeah. And I mean, like, but that, that doesn't happen everywhere. You know, I think that was the cool thing about. about, especially about Andy, right?

Like, Andy doesn't, you know, I'm saying, like, there's no judgment, right? Like, he, he remembers what it's like to be a 21-year-old kid, you know, and like, hey, like, if you're late to some meetings, it wasn't the end of the world, you know? And Trav happened, you know, Trav got called to the principal's office a time or two, those first few years. Just a tap on the shoulder. Hey, Andy wants to see you. Oh, I wonder why.

I tell people this all, I feel like Andy just has this aura about him that there's, like, this presence that is downright, like, you're a friend. of him in certain instances like he has like that kind of like feeling but at the same time you always feel like he like loves you and just wants the best for you like he has he toes that line of being a disciplinarian and like a players coach better than anybody I've been around like he's not going to accept anything from you that isn't your best but at the same time he's like forgiving to like a fault like it's I don't even know how he's mastered both of those avenues, but it's hard to explain, but that's kind of the vibe I always got from.

No, I think you hit it on the head. Like, he's, I mean, that's what coaching is, right? Like, tough love, right? You got to be both, you know? You got to have, like, high standards and hold people to them. But at the same time, I think the best thing about Andy is, again, like the no judgment, right? Like, if you mess up, if you air, whether it be on the field or like in your personal life or something professionally, like he, it's not the end of the world, right?

Like, you know? And so he will welcome you back in. and I think, you know, and I think you appreciate that as a player for sure. Hell yeah. Do we have a favorite story from Travis Rookie Year? I mean, I know we just said a couple, but like, favorite story. Even if it's not rookie year, let's say second year. What's a favorite story from a young Travis Kelsey?

God, let's try to think. Like, you know, for me, I can't get out of my head. I know maybe some tight ends had like broken out into dance occasionally. But like the first touchdown pass, the first touchdown pass, no, like I remember all of a sudden him and he breaks into choreographed dance in the fucking ends up it was pre-planned there's no way you just do that no I remember distinctly being caught off guard right like I just didn't see it coming I knew I knew he was talented but not like that like no and then every week it was like a new one right I mean just from there on out I had him in the back pocket ready to go yeah I don't know

if trap have you ever remember this play I actually broke this down on on Sunday countdown at ESPN, but we were playing, it had to be your second or third year, and we were playing the Denver Broncos. And we called, like, early in the, early in the game, you started out wide and we motioned you down and we ran strike, which Jason's just like a fake, a little fake in and then come back out, right? Like on the third and three. And we converted it, right?

He killed the guy, the DB, it was man. The guy came running down with him in the motion. Like a little pivot thing where you come down, come back? So he kind of takes down, he comes out. Yeah. Well, we like save it and we come back to it in the second half. half like in the fourth quarter in like the biggest moment of the game and i think we thought like we were going to get him again and the db was like pretty veteran and we had the same look it's man

and this guy just sits hard on the outside right like he's not taking the cheese well trav just kind of like feels it so he just keeps fucking running the just runs all the way across the field right like this is the NFL you're supposed to go in and come back out and he just kind of like saw the guy outside and just kept running across the field and i threw him the ball for some reason and it turned into like a 30 yard game and i think and i think everybody on the field like including big red it was like what just happened right and it was kind of the early dawn of trav doing some of these things right trav full disclosure did you know it was strike or were you running the wrong route what was going on i knew exactly what it was but all right well

The thing is, I get the first down and I, like, get pumped up. I do a first down and then I start to slowly look at Coach Reid on the sideline. I'm like, is he going to fucking, come here. This is the beginning of the moment. Don't never do that again. This is the beginning of the moment where he started to get some leeway into doing these things. Is that what I'm hearing? Yes.

Yeah. The early dawn of the trav improvisation, which, by the way, there's like in every little route, there's little things you can do. I mean, this is a full, like, you're supposed to, you're supposed to break right and you broke flat. You're supposed to be in the flat over here, and you're all the way on the other side of the field. Yeah, yeah, big difference. I knew Alex wanted me to do that. Because you think about the game as like a quarterback.

Did you like that he did it, Alex? Oh, heavy outside leverage. Don't love strike against heavy outside leverage. That's right. Just keep going. Who am I hurting going across field? Nobody. And it works.

There's nobody over there. That's what you got to do. You can't be selfish enough to ruin somebody else from getting a catch, which I've done that and I've had to reel a back. Alex, we've talked about it when I was with you guys before the Super Bowl. But what do you think of Travis's ability to audible? You just talked about the first time you ever did it. From a quarterback's perspective, how do you feel about somebody doing something that is not pre-planned? Yeah, it's funny because I was young.

As a young QB, you're like, no, I need to know you're going to run the line on the paper. right like i need to trust that you're going to be in the right place at the right time and it's so funny um like as you as you move on and you play longer i want a guy that can separate the number one attribute i want and somebody that's running routes is separation that's all i want somebody open be able to separate and trav and the crazy thing about a tight end is you got to know and i actually think it's the second hardest position to play as a young guy on offense behind qb just because like you're involved that you're in all the shifts in motions right you got to in all these formations.

You're involved in the run game blocking. You're involved, obviously, in past protection sometimes. And then you've got to run routes. But, I mean, you're running routes against linebackers. You're running routes against safeties. You're running routes against corners. And, like, to his point, you do have to realize what your advantage is versus all these different guys.

Thank you. Dude, but I, you know, there are all these like, listen, half the time you're running like a stick route, right? Like for everybody out there, like the stick route is like the most basic tight-end route. It's this little five-yard out. If you run the line on the paper in the NFL, you will never be open, right? you just won't and it got pretty quick and I think the cool thing I don't know about you travel like we're in the same division obviously with Antonio Gates who also kind of played with

some of this 100% yeah you could tell like you would watch in the same page yeah yeah but you know the routes you would watch it on film you're like that's definitely not what that looks like in the playbook right like he put a little sauce on it he put a little wiggle on it he ran it at like one yard not five yards you know and so I think pretty quick you got to the point with trabb that it was like is working right and i and i will never forget i don't know if i told you this this was later this is probably like your fourth year we were struggling on offense you may maybe it's when we started one and five to be honest do you remember when we started one and five or and we were i mean we were not playing good on offense and i'll never forget naggy called me in

monday after the game we just lost i think the fifth game uh everything's looking bleak and we watched every pass play on offense and i'll never forget like kind of like looking for some tendencies like what can we do better what are we missing and the number one takeaway from the meeting was Travis doesn't always run like the route like it's supposed to be but he's always open right and like the number one takeaway from this offensive meeting was like hey when in doubt we should probably just find this guy right because he'd be like running a corner route and you're like it's not supposed to be open versus look but he would like he would run like a seven yard out route instead and it was like well he was open right like everything kind of had a twist he could just

like he wasn't just going to run and get covered you know it was right it was nice no and so to to that point like once you trusted that and you developed that relationship was like no Travis is going to get open for me Travis is going to work right like and again like there's a maturity and there's a lot of guts in some of that like as a route runner to do you know do some of that but well we we were talking we're kind of throwing a little bit of like uh not shade but kind of poking fun at Travis a little bit for being a little bit immature and kind of being a happy go lucky free spirit. But I think that that directly plays into, like, you got to be a free spirit to just all

a sudden whip this out in the middle of the game. Like anybody that's analytical reading the playbook and showing up on time to meetings is not doing this. They're not taking a strike round going all over across the field. No way. You totally right. You know what it is, though, is that the strike route actually comes off of another route. It's like the complimentary route to flanker drive.

So it's like, in my mind. mind, it's like that's the, yeah, those two go hand in hand with each other. It has evolved since then to understand what else is around you and like to understand like, I don't know, what the quarterback's seeing versus certain coverages, where the coverages are weak and where the holes are in the defense and things like that. But it 100% was the luckiest instinctual decision I made that really paid off because it, like Alex said, it started to like kind of unravel into, oh, in practice, I'll just try it in practice. And if it doesn't work in practice,

then I won't put that on the quarterback in the game. You know, I'll try my hardest not to, like, I don't know, catch him off guard. And it just turned into like, well, just be definitive. Professor Traff here dropping knowledge. Dude, the other thing, I don't know if you remember this, to that same point, like, if you were running a shallow cross, right, like, for everybody out there again,

you're just running across the field as fast as you can. Right. But, like, if there was a corner running on you, you constantly would like you would do what you did in that tape you would like deadleg him and try to like oh yeah no i'm fucking with them until again none of that was on like the route like none of that was installed and again it was like your way of like listen i got to win some way right i got to separate and get open yeah 100% man well seven step timing again to understand the quarterback's progression and footwork it's like just like it's like a it's like a timer

going off in your head you know what i mean and don't Don't let it get to that third, that third second. Like, if he, if, if I can feel that the quarterback's at the top of his drop and gets two hitches, I'm botching the route anyways because what we called isn't working. And he needs to get that fucking ball out. So I'm doing something else anyways. Oh, shit. Thank you to our partner, YouTube.

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new heights at checkout that's 20% off your first order with code new heights at liquid ivy dot com let's rewind we're we're all in alex smith kansas city era travis kelsey let's talk about alex smith san francisco era was there anybody else that operated like this in san franc what was your time and San Fran like it took me a long time Jason like I I battled you know being the number one pick and signing like this was before the rookie weight scale so I signed a massive contract right yeah yeah you know and being a first time professional and the number one pick and going to the San Francisco 49ers right I mean it was like I mean I felt like I had to be like Joe Montana Steve Young I'm also the number one pick so I got to be Peyton Manning and John Elway and I got to be all those things right now. right now right now and it just it was like I carried around so much weight as a young professional like I felt like I had to be perfect and also I this is real like it was real imposter syndrome right like it was like interesting how long how long Jason until they find out that they made mistake you know like especially playing right away and this was the crazy thing travel like I didn't

I mean I played week three my rookie year and like I never there weren't a ton of it wasn't until, like, a few years later, like, I actually got to be around some veteran quarterbacks and actually see what it was like to be a NFL QB, you know, like preparing Monday through Saturday, what it takes, you know, just had no idea. So it was, it was rough. It was rough. Dude, a lot of late nights by myself, just watching film and having no idea what I was doing. Trying to figure it out. Yeah, no clue. That's tough. So, you go to Andy Reed. Yeah. Why was it so much more successful?

Like the Chiefs before you got there, we were just talking about this. I mean, they had a great defense, but they had not been successful really at all. So what is it about Andy Reed and going there that all of a sudden you enjoyed probably, I think, safe to say the best years of your career? Yes. Yeah. And then also as a team at Flores. Like what is it about the system, the coach, all of it? Yeah.

I mean, I think a couple of things. One, the fact that it's not a system. Like, again, like, think about all the QBs that Andy Reid's had over the years, you know, from Donovan. And they all play well. Before that, obviously, Michael, you know, me, Pat, like this. And there's a bunch of guys in between, too, that he had for little stints. And guys that all have different strengths, you know, very different strengths. And I think that's the beauty.

Like, Andy doesn't run some, like, cookie cutter playbook, right? Like, we're not running the stuff that they, you guys were running in Philly, right? Like, we're not running the stuff that they were running in Green Bay before that. Patrick's not running the stuff that I was running, right? like that just he's going to tailor it to your strengths he's going to put you in a position to succeed and then i think there's like again like i just talked obviously about you know for me my mentality at that point again it was like it was it was heavy when i was young and then you get to kansas city and there's like a lightness to andy right like i mean he again like i didn't i didn't feel

like if i messed up it was the end of the world right like and he constantly was like let your personality show be you right like he constantly in the qb room his favorite saying would be like hey, when in doubt, go deep, right? Like, I mean, he can't, you know, and I'm sure some of that he felt in me. But again, that's kind of the beauty of his coaching, right? Like, it's not the same for everybody, right? Like, he morphs it and changes and adapts to who he's got in front of him and what they need. Let's talk about a little Jim Harbaugh.

Oh, yeah. Harbaugh, man. I'm going down to South Paulo. Yes. I'm going down to Sao Paulo to see him for the second time as a charger. Obviously, we saw him a little bit as when he was in San Fran still before he went to Michigan. but I remember meeting Jim in San Fran when I was getting drafted, and the guy is just wired different, man.

He is, he eat, breathe, and sleeps football all day, every day. And, you know, that's what you want out of your head coach. But how are some of his, like, coaching methods different than Coach Reed's? Yeah, I mean, again, dude, both these guys. I mean, Jim definitely changed, had a huge impact on my career, huge impact. Like before he arrived here in San Fran, honestly, like, I'm probably walking around with a bus label, you know, at this point. And he has me back, signs me back. You know, he's coming from Stanford.

But, I mean, this is a guy that played 15 years at quarterback in the NFL. I mean, he definitely understands crazy parts. He played for the Chargers. And I grew up in San Diego. So I remember watching him play as a kid. But you're dead on. Jim's different, like different. Like, it's like a real life Ted Lassow a little bit, right?

like these like off the wall saying right like you quote you Shakespeare um you know like he just has so much gratitude to for football to your point like this guy loves football like and like I'm not just saying that like I remember at times he told me his life aspirations were to play football as long as he could then coach football as long as he could and then die right like that like Life goals. He's got to figure it out, maybe. That's a very simple man right there. It's not overcomplicate this.

Like, I'll never forget my first game again. I love it. You know, like here I'm getting ready to play. I think you're being a bit dramatic, coach. Have you seen what he does before the game to the quarterbacks? He's got the gloves and he's playing catch. Right before kickoff, dude, he comes over. And I'll never, like, I'll never forget the first game we're playing.

And he comes over and he's got this, like, look in his eyes. And again, he's like, he's so, like, happy for you that you're going to get a chance to play football. And he starts smacking you around in the helmet. And he, like, starts jacking you up in the chest. And, like, I remember I could, like, just feel, I could feel how much. It was funny for me at this time because I think I, in some ways, had taken it for granted. But, like, it wasn't going to last forever. And I remember, like, seeing that in his eyes, like, how much he would give to play one more time.

Right. Oh, yeah. And it wasn't in, like, a glory days type of thing. But, like, again, like, it was really. it was like oh man this you know like it was infectious they're like when the head guy just loves ball that much and then for me he just like again he took so much pressure off of playing quarterback right like prior to that i'd always felt like i had to stretch or do something special or like make a play and with jim it was like no man just run the offense yeah if if it says to throw the flat like

if the read is to throw the flat just throw the flat right like i never felt like it was the first time in my career that I felt like I could just kind of be me right like I didn't again I didn't have to like do anything remarkable well who you taking chiefs chargers Brazil week one chargers have made immediate impact with Jim I mean immediate this is going to be a big one dude he'll tell you what like he'll always have a tough football team right they're always going to be well coached you already know physical um and it's funny these two coaches two of my favorite like things about them are actually like pieces of attire that they wear so i know if you guys have seen this one of my again it was one of my favorite things when jim came to to sam fran because he gifted every guy in the team

these blue collar shirts and so you would get your own blue collar shirt and it had your name on it and he told this whole story of like what is a blue collar shirt and right somebody in our life and our someone in our family paved the way for us and worked one of these jobs right and kind of again going back to this like gratitude of playing yeah and then the night before every game big reds wearing an aloha shirt right and it kind of just like sets the tone it's kind of you know night before the game he's got the aloha shirt on it kind of just like calms everything down a little bit so we got the we got the blue collar shirts versus the aloha shirts uh you're going at it in south paula i love that blue collar shirt i don't dude i would get so fired up

for a blue collar shirt with my name on it and that whole i can envision him giving this speech i'm getting goosebumps thinking about this right now you used to be wearing blue collar shirts not suits suits to away games we're working men i'm not a business man yes yes thank you i dude i hated wearing suits to games i felt so like you know again it was like it like personified the weight of like the professionalism right again like again like i when i was struggling with it and i dude i could just put on my blue collar shirt and a hat go to work man that's all i need is go bring the lunch pale well you actually want a prediction for this game no you're good yeah i don't even know why i say that's fine we're not going to put you on the spot like

I'm just excited to watch it. Well, we talk about coaches and your time in KC. Let's talk about the introduction of Pat Mahomes. He credits you very often with welcoming him to the NFL and kind of being that mentor. What was that relationship like for you right away? I mean, I'll never forget when I first talk to him. It's the frequency, dude. It just, go ahead.

It's different. I mean, like, we were a good football team, right? I mean, we'd won a bunch of divisions. I was gone to Pro Bowls. Like, we'd gone, you know, obviously won a playoff game, I think the year before. So part of you was wondering, I mean, yeah, who are we taken in the first round, right? Like, to go help us. And you're never expecting, obviously, to trade up, right?

Like, oh, we're traded next year's first round two to go up and get a quarterback. I mean, you're definitely, like, it's not, it's not what anybody wants to hear, right? Like, I mean, that's not for sure. But I think the crazy part is. again, going back to my experience of having been, like, the number one pick and an early pick. Like, you just have such, you have no control, right? Like, you're thrust into this process. And you're like a completely, you're a cog in the machine.

All expectations. Right. Like, you go where they tell you to go, pick number, whatever. You know, even now, you sign the contract that's slotted for that, you know, deal. I mean, obviously, there was some empathy, you know, still for me as being an early pick. Like, obviously, Pat didn't pick this. I didn't pick this, right? like the powers that be again i i'd spent so many years alone my first few years in the league right

like again watching film on my own and just like had no idea what i was doing and remember how much that sucked right i got sucked uh and and so to fast forward to when we drafted him also within that too right like i i had spent early part of my year kind of distracted myself right like i mentioned like the imposter syndrome and like the self-doubt and like was i good enough and dude i would i would be ready i'd be going out there to play and my mind would be like, what are they going to, what if I throw a pick? What are they going to write about me in the paper tomorrow? Like, God, what if they start booing me?

Right. Like, I had distracted myself with, like, my own internal dialogue and, like, doubt. And, like, I was determined when I got to Kansas City. Like, I will never be, I'm not going to be distracted anymore, right? Yeah. And so even once we drafted Pat, too, there was almost like this great challenge. Like, am I, again, everybody pitting us against each other? Am I going to look over my shoulder and be distracted?

right like Andy still had told me like listen I got the keys of the car that year I don't know so there were all these conflicting things right and going on emotionally and I think the other thing that just comes down with Pat and I try to tell people this like you give respect you get respect right and like from day one Pat came in and like there was never there was never like a prima donna ego there was never like he's the man he came in humble ready to work just like a like a like a like a a good kid and it was pretty quick it was like no big deal honestly yeah yeah no big deal that's what i give i give pat so much credit for that that year of just being a great teammate like yeah he didn't get he didn't yeah he came in with like you said that that ability to just like you know what i'm just going to make sure everybody's like having a good time today yeah totally we're going to find a way to get better at football but he was i think i think i think seeing you as the as the leader of that football team as the leader of that offense how you how the offense had started to like really change into you know this air raid this down the field offense

with tyreek and yeah and all the weapons that we had with d rob with with chris conley like it was it was starting to play more downfield and and it was just it was fun to kind of see you take that offense to the next level and then kind of just hand it off to to pat um after that year was over with me. Let's be very clear. Like, first off, I get way too much credit in, like, the, like, the patent development story. Like, way too, way too much credit.

We need more credit. Let's, we need more credit here. You know, could Pat have played that year? Like, clearly, you know, but again, to the point, to the point, like, I don't know, the beauty of, like, what Andy set up and, like, the QB structure. And this is kind of the beauty of the QB room. And it's not like this everywhere, right?

like you do everything together everything together you eat together you live together you rehab together you watch film together you obviously practice together and like come season i mean i i'm spending more time with the qbs than i am with my family right you know given weeks and so it was a cool way like pat like i was in year 13 at that point right like i had i'd become i had three kids like i i had the week down to the minute of what i needed to get done on a given day to prepare to play well on sunday And so the cool thing is, like, Pat for a year got an up-close look, right? Like how I did it. And again, when he finally got his opportunity, obviously, to roll,

he could take what he liked, right? He could build off it. He could, you know, it obviously not all for him. But, and that when he did start playing, right, and this is the beauty of, like, taking a quarterback early, they did everything in their power that, like, when Pat stepped foot on the field for the first time, like, he was going to be successful. Right. There was no, like, rolling the dice.

let's hope this goes well, right? Cross our fingers kind of thing. And I mean, obviously, it's rare in the NFL. There's only a couple organizations that have done it like this. And, you know. It drives me crazy. And I watch it, watch a high draft value. And then I see like a defensive head coach being selected.

I'm like, are we not trying to put this guy like in the best position to be successful? Like I get a veteran quarterback that's been around. Like, yeah, let's get a defensive guy. Let's get this guy a defense. but like a young player, like we just put so much stock and value into this position. Why are we not allocating everything we can to make this guy successful? It blows my mind when I see that across. No doubt.

Yep. Just fucking rolling the dice. I do want to touch on this because you brought up for the second time now, imposter syndrome, self-doubt. And one of the things, one of the most important things, I think a person could give to another person is belief, right? And mainly like a belief in yourself. And like you ever, all of us remember those individuals that were around.

You mentioned Jim Harbaugh and how he made you feel gratitude towards the game. And, like, I think I remember the coaches, Jeff Stoutland, Howard Mudd, like Paul Longgo, all these guys where when I had self-doubt in my career, these guys were there to reaffirm me and like make sure that I knew how good I could be and how good I had the potential to become. So I had to mention that because I always get fired up here and about like every player goes to that. Any player that says they don't go through it is full of crap. And it's because you're surrounded with great people. great teammates, great coaches that you end up coming out of that.

So I'm going to transition to this. There's a lot of rookie quarterbacks from last year that are coming up on their second year this season. Who does Alex Smith have belief is going to take that next step forward? Who's going to be the best of the bunch to kind of have breakout seasons? Yeah, dude, I think this rookie, the rookie class from last year, to be clear, that the second year group going in this year, I think it's going to go down as one of the greatest QB classes of all time.

Oh, wow. Maybe the best of all time. I think it has a chance. I mean, we just saw literally Jaden Daniels. It is the greatest rookie season, I think, in all of American sports. It was electric. It was very electric. I mean, unbelievable.

Bo Nix, I mean, you saw it a lot of, I like that. Dude, Bo Nix is a baller, man. A baller, right? He's the sixth guy taken. I mean, I think about that. It's crazy. There's a few guys on that note that I'm really excited about. I'm excited for Caleb, again.

And another number one pick, like getting Ben Johnson, I love the Ben Johnson hire. Like, I think you're going to see a side of Caleb this year. I think he's going to flourish in it. I think they needed, you know, again, the next several years, he'll get to play in this system that is so good. And I think he's really going to take out. They got a bunch of weapons. That division's a monster. That division is a monster, though.

It is. That's the problem. By the way, so is yours, Trav. Yeah. No, I'm very aware, very aware. You get a bunch of legendary coaches and throw them in a division. You're going to get some competition in there, man. I don't know if I told you this.

Do you know it's the winningest division in NFL history when it comes to head coach's records? Dude, the AFCW. I really heard that. That's a crazy stat. History. That is crazy. Anyway, I go, boys.

Buckle up. Dude, but I think Caleb's going to have a great year. Dude, I mean, the guy we haven't seen is J.J. McCarthy. Right. I mean, playing for Kevin O'Connell, who I was lucky enough to. you know another san die go way back to high school with i played for him he's one of the best kuby minds i think in the game and then think about he's throwing to right you got you know you got jetta you got jordan edison tj hawkinson i mean they got a lot of weapons there um i think he's

going to have a big year and then drake may i like drake me a lot like i think i'm basically naming all of them so yeah i get that but dray i think i think new england i love verrable getting hired josh mcdaniels coming back as the oc i think he's also unbelievable offensive mine like I really do. I love all these guys. I don't even mention Pennix who might have the best supporting cast from weapons standpoint.

Yeah. I just think... It's everywhere. I love it. I think they're all... I think all these guys are going to take steps this year. Awesome.

All right. Well, what about... Is that just the worst answer ever? I just named all of them? No. I mean, first of all, I just got me fired up for football. I'm going to the Chicago Bears game

for Monday night. I can't wait to watch Caleb Williams and freaking J.J. McCarthy go at each other. I mean, that's going to be a blast. So, all right. What do we got? What about the rookies this year?

I mean, it's like, it's funny. It's slim pickings. And this always happens, right? Like after a big year, the next year course. I mean, you got, all eyes are going to be on cam, right? Number one pick. Sure. I think he, you know, by all accounts was the consensus guy there, right?

Like, that was the most ready. The thing I like about him so much is like the, he's a gamer, man. Like the craftiness. Like he's so, he's like the opposite of what I look like as a rookie. Like, I was so stiff and like a robot, you know? Like, this guy's played a lot of football, right? He's played at three colleges. He's played in multiple systems.

He knows what he does well. You know, he's got a great skill set, does a little bit of everything. I think he's going to play good. And then, you know, we'll see if any of these other young guys even play. Jackson Dart may not play. So I like, again, Cam, Cam's the guy we're all going to be watching, in my opinion. All right. Fair enough.

We had some crazy news break last week in the NFL. Michael Parsons finally got traded. Yeah. There was a lot of debate on whether they were going to get a contract done, and then it just became war between him and the owner. Yeah, Jerry Jones, and Michael Parsons is officially a Packer. What was the first reaction when you saw the news? Couldn't believe it.

I just, like, could not believe they actually traded him. You know, I felt like it was like deja vu, right? Like, he had a contract dispute with DAC, and it got done the last minute. He had the contract dispute with CD. It got done last minute. And it kind of just seemed like, well, here we go. they're definitely not letting Micah Parsons out of the building, right? And I could not believe it when it happened.

I still can't believe it, man. And now that it had like a little time to digest this thing, I don't think it's insane to say if you wanted to like move him, right? Like he, listen, this is a generational past rusher. He's 26 years old. Like the next five years for him are going to be ridiculous. The best five years of his career. like coming up and if you wanted to move him and you were going to get a Herschel Walker type trade.

Like if you were going to get just somebody offering so much that you couldn't turn it down because you wanted to press reset, I could understand it. But to just to get what is going to be too late first round picks and I'm nothing against Kenny Clark, but like, to put this in perspective, the Niners traded three first round picks for Trey Lance. three for a guy that had never played a snap in the NFL. And you're telling me that, again, they're talking about him like Reggie White. Like, he's had 12 sacks. He's the only guy since Reggie White to have 12 sacks to start a career this many years. Right. Like, again, he's a monster.

Even when he doesn't, even when he, and you guys know this, right, like, even if he doesn't get the sacks, the pain he is to game plan for. Like, when you come in on, you know, Wednesday morning, the giant circle that's around Micah Parson is like, we cannot let this guy cost us the game. We are going to do. The run game's going to revolve around where he is. The past game's going to revolve around where he is. We're going to chip him in double time, double team.

Hey, Trav, you're always going to be lining up where he is to try to give an extra gap for the tackle. Like, you just do, you bend over backwards for this guy just to like try to take him away, you know? Yep. It's crazy. I think it is a horrible trade. Right. To be very clear. Very clear how I feel about this.

There is a chance that it can work out if one of these first, or both of these first round picks go and are successful. But like statistically, the chances of that happening are like so low that you're going to find somebody that affects the game like this. Like that's what I think recently has been things coming out like he's not great against the run. And I'm not normally a guy that like cares that much about like sacks. I think that number sometimes gets overblown somewhat.

This guy affects the game on a level. that maybe only two or three other guys in the NFL do across the league on defense. Like he is that big of a difference maker, your entire game plan. We played the Cowboys without him. It is so different, so different. And I love Kenny Clark. Kenny Clark is a great player. And I kind of feel bad that he's a part of this and being compared to Michael Parsons,

because as a detackle, he's really good. But it's just he's not affecting the game the way that Michael Parsons is. And the way they're trying to sell this. I think is funny because they have to at this point, but the real reason this isn't happening is flat out egos. And it sucks that that is the reason why this whole thing is happening. You're spot on. The only way this ever, you know, 10 years from now,

this looks good is if they draft two Hall of Famers with these two picks. The odds of that happening when you're going to be picking probably like pick 24 or higher, it's not, you know, again, not looking good for them. I couldn't agree with you more. This is all about this is all about hurt feelings. and egos. And on this note, this whole idea of Jerry negotiating directly with this guy, he's 25 years old. He's never negotiated a contract in his life. He has professional representation that everybody knows he has to have hired to do this for him. And you're the,

how old are you, Jerry? And you own the most valuable sports franchise in the world. You're the GM and you're going to go like the power dynamic of this that you're going to go negotiate directly with this guy it makes me like I feel dirty like you know it makes me feel it makes me feel it like come on man that's like that's so wrong yeah I'm not I can't disagree with anything you're saying right now I mean it's it happened I feel like it's never happened in Philadelphia apparently this has been known to happen in other places what I'm talking about like a GM and negotiate. I mean, you'll, oh, I was going to say, I thought you were going to say somebody traded away like your star player, because it definitely happened.

Oh, no, that's happened everywhere, buddy. That's not, this, this one feels different, though. It's not like a monetary thing. Kansas City traded away their star player in 2018, just to be clear. Yeah, they did. Yeah, they did. Yeah, it's, it just feels. You know, everybody. You can throw it downfield. Touchdowns. Dot, God, man, fire me up. All right. We'll move on. Sorry, Jason. Sorry. No, no, no, you're good.

You're good because it segues in nice with what Travis was saying. Has there ever been a trade like this before? We have some name. We've definitely got some in front of us, which are cheating. Sure, in history. I mean, what? I mean, the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth, right? I mean, like, there's been trades, big trades.

I mean, Dallas obviously knows it well here recently. Luca on the move. Luca. I'm trying to think it's quick all. I mean, obviously, Khalil Max, probably the closest thing. you know, to like a difference-making, you know, edge rusher, getting traded for a bunch of picks. I still, I don't know. I mean, Mike is different, man.

Yeah. He's so talented. There's a name on here, but it's not a trade, which I would assimilate this too. And this is, like, how bad it can look if this doesn't work out for Dallas, which is the Saquan going to Philadelphia last year. And that was a free agent, like they let him go and he got signed. And so not at all applicable, but like if Micah goes out and balls out this year in Green Bay, which it probably will happen, and Green Bay gets substantially better, I just, the optics of it are just going to be so, so, so bad.

Well, that's if, that's if they don't go out and they, they don't perform, you know, if. Talk about Dallas? Yeah, if Dallas goes out and plays football. Yeah. They got some good receivers and DAC is a good quarterback. And I just think defensively they're, and I like Matt Eberflus, he's a great de-coordinator. that was the guy on the defense that was creating all of the issues to be clear if you're gonna do this again like i don't mind the idea of like we're a full reset but you do this in the off

season and you don't do this in the quiet right like this is like you you you announced this to the world that this guy's available you create a bidding war right like there's 30 teams that would have i think given up a similar bounty this i think there's plenty more that would gone overboard, right? Like, I just think this did, it was so rushed. It seemed so quiet in last minute. Like, I don't know. It didn't maximize what they could have got for this.

I mean, in my opinion. It honestly feels a little bit like Jerry was like, what's the coldest, most miserable place I can send Michael Parsons to this? Green Bay is willing to give us this. He's like, perfect. But you send them to now, like, some people think they're like a, I mean, huge expectations in Green Bay now, right? And like they may, for sure.

people already like they may be super bowl favorites in the nfc right like some people already you know are they now one of the two three best teams in the nfc with this to that point move for them like trade them to new orleans maybe you get a top five pick maybe you get a top five pick you trade him to green bay you might be getting picked 32 you might be watching them all playoffs long yeah sorry new Orleans fans i didn't mean to yeah didn't mean to throw shade all right here we go so uh you were just talking about the Cowboys maybe just pressing the reset button. New coach. A lot of first year coaches, there's always that turnover in the NFL. But Dallas is one of them with Schadenheimer. We got Ben Johnson and the with the bears that we already talked about, Braves as well.

Back over there, obviously not first time head coach, but first time, first year over there in New England. Aaron Glenn over with the Jets. Liam Cohen, Kellan Moore with the Saints, who you taken for the most successful year one coach there's seven of these guys right seven yeah um yeah dude uh this is uh tough i think again like i want to be clear i love the ben johnson hire but i don't i mean that division again is is stacked so i i think it's great i don't know how many wins it's going to directly you know go to this next year i the mike brable you know so much of this is your division and what your division looks like the mike Rabel hire in New England. I know, you know, obviously Buffalo is awesome, but the rest of that

division is kind of wide open, in my opinion. And I think that, you know, again, Drake May is a guy. Like, they're going to, by the end of the year, I think they're going to be promising. The sneaky one, I kind of think, is I wonder about his first time head coach is Liam Cohen. Yeah. Right? Like, I think Jacksonville from a roster standpoint is closer, like, to winning a lot of games. And again, this, this AFC South, like, you got Houston. It's a little wide open after that i could see you know i like trevor lawrence i think he's super talented they got two great edge rushers down there young edge rushers they got brian thomas junior is a baller outside like i i could see them getting good fast and they're doing something right now that i think between

um what canales then did over uh in carolina like baker goes down there he has a rejuvenation of a career combined with other great talented players and he's great talent then all of a sudden When Bryce Young is playing well in Carolina. I like some of the schematic things that are doing. They, like, flood different zones or utilizing, like, fly motions into the flat, distress flat defenders. They're doing some really cool things. I'm excited to watch William Cohen and Jacksonville as well.

And I'll say this, too, with Ben Johnson with the Bears, the other one is, I think Dennis Allen's a really good defense coordinator. He always, like, gave me fits down in New Orleans. He can scheme things so well, especially he can stop the run in a shell by moving to D-Lyman and having the linebacker. players play a certain way that it was always kind of like an issue and I respected the heck out of it. Totally agree.

I know Dennis Allen hasn't had a ton of success as a head coach, but as a de-coordinator to your point, and it's unorthodox. Like how he gets to things is unorthodox. And for me as a quarterback, I hate it going against that. Like I love textbook defenses, right? And like it was a hundred percent. It was always a pain in the ass to go against these weird ones. So.

Yep. And then obviously I got to give my man Chip Kelly some love. Back in the NFL, offensive coordinator for the race. Raiders. I cannot wait to see Chip Kelly back in the NFL. Yeah, we forgot to, yeah, we forgot to mention Pete Carroll with the Raiders, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he's one of those seven. How about that? How old is he? I mean, it's crazy. He's in his 70s. Well, you want to talk about a positive mindset. Have you ever been around Pete? I just like, I mean, he's one of the guys like his, his, one of his core like fundamentals is like joy. Just like bring joy. I mean, it's amazing. Just still chewing on gum.

He'll chew it hug. Do you have a sleeper pick? Who's your sleeper team to compete for a Super Bowl title? Wait, sleeper for the Super Bowl? Yeah. Well, I guess just sleeper team to overachieve. Let's say that. All right, I'll give me.

I'll give you a little bit of both. I think like when I think about who's poised to have like a big turnaround. Yeah. I think the New York Giants could definitely have a big turnaround. I mean, I would have three games. Dexter Lawrence, maybe the best player. and nobody knows about. He's unbelievable.

And they've got, how many edge rushers do they have at this point? I mean, they've got the Abdul Carter kid. I mean, obviously, they still have Brian Burns. I mean. Burrne Burns, yeah, from Carolina. They got a bunch of guys. I think they got a chance for a big turnaround. To me, again, it's some of these where I go to these divisions and it's like the

NFC South, right? Like, I think the Bucks, I think the Tambay Bucks are so good. That's my sleeper team. I think they can make a real run. One of those stacked rosters when you really look at it. Dude, before Mike Evans got hurt and Godwin got hurt, they were competing with anybody. They were right up there with the top of the NFC. And then they kind of took a nose dive a little bit during that little downturn.

Yeah, but then they found that run game, that two-headed, like, running back room that they had. They found that more once the water season was going on. Buckie. Bucky, all player, man. You get them with a one-on-one matchup, man. They barely lost the commanders in the playoffs. what they were they beat the eagles last year i mean in the regular season and you know it was early the eagles got a lot better throughout the season but the other the other division i think that

some some team's going to come out of is the nfc west right like the rams i love the rams i love stafford like jared verse come on jared verse is a problem dude a problem man child they came up to philadelphia there's a lot of noise about jared verse and really the whole d line and they They run games really well, and they do all these things. And I'm like, man, they're playing Phillies O' line. This isn't going to be like they're not going to even affect the game. They got after us in the snow, which too, everybody knows, like, snow is usually to the offensive line's advantage. Like, and I'm like, dude, these guys, I got a lot of respect for these, these guys are run.

They're coming. And Jared Verst was talking on some trash before the game, backed it up during his play. And whenever that happens, I might do respect. Yeah. You start yapping off coming into Philly and then come and play your ass off. Like, all right, I'll take a notice. There were a couple of clips where him and Milata going at it, and those are two big cats. For sure.

He won a few of them. And I was like, I mean, super impressive. But then I think, again, in the same, like, are the Cardinals got a chance to be good? If the Niners stay healthy, I think they got a chance. So they're not really under the radar. They're not a sleeper. Yeah, but I do think the Niners are a little bit less talked about this year because of the way the season went last year. And you forget that they have one of the best coaches in the NFL, George Kiddell.

McCatley, they have all these pieces in place. The defense took a downturn last year, but they've been one of the best defense of the NFL and they got Robert Sala back. Like, I think a big get for them. Come on, Matthew. Let's get some Bengay on that back. I want to see the Rams doing something this year.

Let's go. I'm losing it up. I think he will. I think he will. I think he's going to be right. No, he's definitely. He's a Bengay guy. He's a gamer.

He's not, he's not icey hot. He's not an icey hot. He's not a tiger ball. He's a guy. Let's get to some no dumb questions. Smitty, we asked 92% as our fan base here to send their preseason questions. So let's check out this preseason edition of no dumb questions. Because there's no such thing as dumb questions, Alex.

Just dumbass people. That's it, man. Two of us, really. We got a list here, which rookie will shock everyone. We kind of already did that a little bit. NFL Soft. I don't know. Who knows what that means?

Yeah, let's do that one. Let's do that one. I like that one. NFL Soft. Alex was a part of the years where you could really take someone, head off. Hey, Jason. Recent news, NFL, got rid of the smelling.

This week's gone soft, man. What happened to the winged teeth? What happened to these Patrick Willis personality? Jack Lambert. All the big, hard hitter, L.P. You can't forget that L.P. Now we got all these prima don't want to be a team player. And we got freaking rivalities don't mean anything anymore because everyone I want

to jersey swapping everything. What happened? smash mouth football you know just run through a motherfucker's face now we just spread it out spread it up all about

Sean Lynch I just can't stand it NFL doesn't need anything I don't know man I just want to get that off my chest thank you Jason thank you Jason why was that only

why was that only excuse me he was addressing me let me let me answer the man I cannot tell you how much I love that that rant started from the NFL banning smelling salts. We went from smelling salts. That's just a not-stop rant about the game has changed over the last two decades. Did he drop Patrick Willis's name in there?

He did. Okay, let's go. Oh, yeah. Just in the mystery, these old-timers. Just like Morris Taylor, Patrick Willis only retired like six years ago. Yeah, no, but he was a part of that. All the fame. I'll tell you.

I think he is spot on on one of these things. And it does not sit right with me sometimes is the post-game public jersey swap. Yeah. I think if you're going to do the jersey swap, it was so often was like if you saw a guy after the game, you could talk to him. And then you would go to the locker room and you would send it over, right? You would sign it and the equipment guys would take it over. I do think sometimes in big game, it is weird to like see these guys like taking pictures with their jerseys post-game on the field.

One of you just got your ass kicked. And like, I don't know. There's part of that, like, I think the optics, the optics of it, it should be more old school, like the clubhouse, just send it over. No one needs to know. Yeah. I don't know. You don't have to do it for the gram or anything, you know.

Even just for the optics. I was with them on smelling salts. I was with them. As soon as he said that, I was in on it. But I don't get the story behind that, by the way. I mean, it's like universally loved. I don't know anybody that, like, doesn't like smelling, you know? Like, was there somebody that, like, put in a complaint?

Well, I think the only reason they banned him is because there's probably an argument. I mean, the reason they were on the sideline initially was for guys that got their bell rung to do a little smelling. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. And then go back out of the field. Travis, in the time of the playoff game. Well, I would do them before every, before every first play, first series of the game in the first series of every half, I would do one, just to kind of get the system going again. Yeah. Dude, when you play, when you play on the West Coast and you play the one o'clock,

kickoff on the East Coast. It is early. Man, it is my first eight years in my career. You go there, bro, you're waking up at like 5 a.m. your time. You're in pregame meals so early. So like the smelling salts, pregame,

I mean, you, you like had to have them. Get yourself going. Yeah. And now you got it on the sideline where it's like a fucking drug deal. Guys are pulling them out of their pockets and shit. No, yeah. They got like, what are we fucking doing? What are we doing? The team stopped providing them and they acted like,

there was like a shortage on smelling salt and it's like I don't think there's a shortage on smelling salts I'm pretty sure you guys are just trying to tear on the smelling sauce I think the NFL has been trying to move away from anything associated with concussions for a long time now the real veteran move did you guys ever like stuff like 80 of them in a water bottle oh yeah yeah for sure yeah like a bottle and you shake it up and then you could like the only way to do it little squeeze it would like light you would light you up yeah just You turn into macho man, Randy Savage for a second. No, it was, man, I don't know, man.

I think we all agree on a certain extent that the game is changing and sometimes you're not always happy with how it's changing. And you miss the barbaricness of it. Like, I miss the wedge unit, locking arms and running down like a human wall. But I also acknowledge that we probably shouldn't do that anymore. Like, it was just absolutely terrible for those individuals. And I mean, I miss the hits going over the middle. I'll be honest. Like, I think about these.

I loved watching somebody get completely obliterated going across the middle as a fan. But I think we can all acknowledge that it's probably best that we've moved on from this as part of the. As somebody who's, as somebody whose leg was broken on, you know, national TV, it's still fairly physical game. Yeah. Yeah. No, the guy named J.J. Watt, just pretty big dude. All right. Let's do another one.

Let's do another one. NFL running back plus average fan, O-Line game, one yard. We've done that one a thousand times. Oh, wait, no, that's a different one. Let's do that one, then. Well, I kind of, yeah, go ahead. Hey, boys, it's gravy from Wisconsin. He's calling in.

You got to talk a lot about doing, A average person getting a one yard in the NFL, I want to know how many of the NFL running backs could get guard with the average people playing their offensive line. From center guard, to tackle. Do you think the majority of the NFL running back could get a yard with average people playing their offensive line? Is this assuming that there's NFL defensive?

If that's the case, there's precisely a 0% chance this is going to get a yard. It doesn't matter who you give the ball to. I mean, you can run the tush push. You're not getting a yard. And there's nothing you're going to run that's going to get a yard with average guys playing O'Line. Unless you maybe if you run like some gadget play or like a toss crack with like an actual legitimate players blocking on the perimeter. But outside, I just not a chance in hell that's getting a yard.

No, I agree. There's not a single running back. You're not even King Henry. Nobody's getting in the yard. They're going to get hit. They're going to get hit five yards deep. Correct. Like they're not even.

By the offensive linemen who's going to get dwarf thrown into them from that. Well, then answer this question then. What is the most exciting position to make an average person play? What would I want to watch? Yes. I'd like to watch an average person play D-line. A defense attack. watch it put an average guy at noseguard and let's see how that goes if each team had to play with one average guy where would you put him yeah where are you throwing what's the most for the most exciting like when you turn on that film the next day you're like i gotta see if you put him if you put like middle linebacker if you put average joe mike linebacker like yes watching that I mean just completely lost getting put the go pro on him and let you know

You know, it'd be a good TV. Oh, my God. That would be a fucking beautiful. I'm just picturing a guy just lost. Oh, holy shit, that is so good. Just getting launched. In the middle of the field. Have your head on a swivel.

Just getting cracked blocked. Boom. Let's do one more. One more. All right. Let's do it. Let's do this Twitter question from Aaron Clinton. Who taught you how to watch film and how long did it take to recognize coverage live and game?

Alex, you want to take that first? Oh, sure. Well, I mean, I've obviously talked about. Like, I watched a lot of film by myself. A lot of early on. The crazy things back in the day, and you probably saw this too, you used to get these like textbook coverages. I mean, like teams either played like cover two.

And it looked like this is how every team plays cover two. And they played cover three. And then they played man. And there were all these very identifiable, like they fit in a bucket kind of thing. And then it was probably like halfway through my career that that all went out the window. And everything were these kind of like hybrid coverages. and you couldn't even really tell. You're like, is that covered three or quarters?

Like, is that rotation? I don't know. Yeah. What, you know, all these kind of combination coverages, weird fronts. And it can change on the fly, like a motion to like a three by one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and so it was way harder to identify, like, what the hell is going on pre-snap from a quarterback's perspective in that regard.

I mean, you still can to a certain extent, but not as easy. Who taught you guys how to watch film? I was going to say, yeah. What about you, Jay? I feel like I talked to Jeff Saturday early in my career because Howard Mudd coached him and he thought it would be good after my first year to go meet with Jeff in the offseason. And I definitely learned a lot of things about how to study defensive linemen technique, their feet, foot back in particular, like a head-up guy.

You know, you think he can go either way. But a lot of times his stance dictates what his foot is going to step with first. And if you really watch and tape how guys get. getting their stances, what techniques they're in, what the coverage is behind it. A lot of times I can dictate where these guys all end up and everything. And I think that talked to him a lot about, you know, you watch first and second down Wednesday, which you do as a team anyways, right? Like my thing was I always wanted to maximize my time and I didn't like going back

and watching stuff that was just going to watch with Stout anyways. So like first second down tape, I knew I was going into a Stout in the meeting room. I always knew that we were going to struggle getting to like two minutes scenario. what are the games that they like to run and like what are the down and distances that they like to do that stuff are there any tells that the de linemen give away on third and long as to like what games are running or like if they're doing a three man game or a two man game coverage is all i cared about with coverage was what the box look was going to be like or if the they were tipping away pressures from like a safety standpoint right so like if the blindbackers were stacked there was a good chance it was either going to stay some type of shell quarters too high look or the nickel was going to pressure if the backers were bowed or bossed somebody's coming into that space so I love I don't I love they were like watching film and it's like all these coverages and you're like trying to break him down from a quarterbacks perspective you're like Jason have you and you're like well if his right foot

was a little further back I knew he was going left you know like the full like the game is so simple at the line you know like the only line and you're like well his knuckles I don't like to give away a lot. His knuckles were white, so I knew he was really, you know, he was really going to come off the ball. I asked this. We would have, like, we would have like an alert call from like the tackle, right? And the tackle would be like, all right. And there'd be nothing telling me that the nickel was pressuring.

And J.P. was the best of this. He would just be like, hey, give me the alert that they're going to blitz over there. And I'm like, dude, there's no way. And sure enough would be a blitz. And I'm like, JP, how the hell did you know he's blitzing? Oh, the end was tighter. That was it. The end was a snugger alignment.

And that was all he was operating on. I'm like, dude, keep letting me know that information because I'm not going to see that. For me, it was a, it was like an eye-opening experience. And don't give you wrong, I've like kind of like over the course of my career understood like defenses just from being in the QB room and then hearing a guy like Doug Peterson talk about it, hear a guy, hearing guys like Matt and Aggie. And then when when you're out there running these plays, you hear like the conversations I had with you and with Pat.

And then you start to identify like why we're calling these things and like how I can run my routes differently and how I can kind of manipulate guys, keep guys like froze so I can open up windows and things like that. But early on in my career, I was like, I think this is like my second or third year in the league. And I like had just started to like, I think I'm a starter and I'm having success. And I'm like kind of like feeling like, yeah, I got the hang of this now. You know what I mean? I'm rolling and everything. Then I walk into the training room on like a Tuesday after a game and my my guy Mike DeVito big Mike DeVito D-Linman he's sitting there like just like getting his ankle worked on and one of the one of the guys from the defensive side come in with

a spreadsheet and he hands him a spreadsheet and it's like every everything the team that we're playing that week does out of every formation out of and he had it like categorized and I'm over here like playing at such a basic level compared to like getting a spreadsheet every Tuesday that I would look at that. I was like, I got a fucking long way to go. I'm not even thinking about their percentages of like the the coverages that they're running. I'm just like trusting coach read that when he dials up shallow cross, it's man. You know what I mean? Like I'm just looking at the pictures on the install of like the concept we're running. And it was a shout out to Mike DeVito, man he was always like one of the most prepared and like ready to go guys and his like how he how he

attacked every single week i like i just grabbed that one like day in the training room i just grabbed and i'm like man that's what make that that guy like accountable like he understands this to like the point of like yeah it's like a scheme that he understands and and i was just like man i didn't take it to the point of getting an excel sheet but every single time i looked at the install now i look at all the percentages and all the numbers and everything they got for you well good To be clear, Mike DeVito is a defensive tackle. Dude. By the way, what are the chances he's from, what are the chances Mike was, I'm almost positive.

Is he from New Jersey? I think he's from New Jersey. I mean, I think he's with the name. I don't even know. He's fairly positive. He's from New Jersey. All righty. That wraps up our moving discussion with Alex Smith.

Round of applause, Alex Smith, everybody. Alex, you're the man. Appreciate it, fella. Thanks for having me on. Thank you for coming on. This is awesome. Thank you. You always, always fun to catch up with you, brother.

I appreciate you. Best your look down in Brazil, bro. Go get them. I appreciate it. Heck yeah, baby. Let's go. And that wraps up another episode of New Heights. That's right.

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And thank you to our production for making us look way better than what we are. We'll see you guys next week after the first week of the NFL, baby.