Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Making the Vikings a modern off offense, part 2 with the XFL's AJ Smith

Episode Date: January 8, 2021

Matthew Coller is joined by AJ Smith, wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator of the Houston Roughnecks to talk about what makes a modern NFL offense and what the Vikings can learn from this season. Smith, who worked under Run 'n Shoot legend June Jones, tells the stories of how a gameplan is put together, how analytics dictate gameplanning, how the passing game can set up the run and then Matthew and AJ share Run n' Shoot favorites. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Folks, do you feel like everything these days is go, go, go? It's nonstop from work to friends to family and a million pressing issues. Sometimes you just need to take a playoff and hit the reset button. That's when you reach for a Coors Light. It's made to chill. Hey, it's that time of year in Minnesota again to get out on the lake, go to the cabin, sit back, watch some baseball. Coors Light is the perfect refreshment to chill during these summer months. There's only one beer out there that's made to chill.

The mountains on the bottles and cans turn blue when your beer is cold, and that way you know it's time to chill. Hit that reset button with some mountain cold refreshment. Coors Light is cold lager, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's literally made to chill. It's crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Coors Light is the one you should choose when you need to unwind. When you want to hit the reset button, reach for the beer that is made to chill.

Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and we continue our series looking at what makes a modern NFL offense and joining me I'm very excited to talk with AJ Smith who's the wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator with the Houston Roughnecks of the XFL and AJ I just want to tell you that people on this podcast people who listen to the show realize how excited I am to talk to you having you having worked in the XFL because I love the heck out of the XFL. And I was very sad when, you know, it got shut down like so many other things with COVID, but your roughnecks,

we're dominant. You went five and oh, you deserve championship rings. And it's very cool to talk with you, man. I know. Thanks for bringing me on and we're, we're coming back. It ain't over yet. Might've been a hiccup and I don't like this whole XFL 3.0. It's still the XFL, baby. We're coming back. So we're ready to roll. All right, good. Well, I'm looking forward to it and I am excited to see what changes the rock has in store for us with the XFL. But I really thought that of all the leagues that have ever tried to come back or try to you know there was the ufl and there was the first xfl and the aaf that the xfl had it figured out the most the

quality of play was terrific and you guys had pj walker who's the backup quarterback this year for the carolina panthers so you and i uh talked initially um for an article about play calling. And maybe before we dive deep into the modern offenses and what it means, you could talk about working with June Jones in the process of designing your offense and what goes on kind of on a weekly basis. Because again, you know, excited to talk with you, but also about June Jones, because that's if you grew up in the 90s watching the NFL, you know, run and shoot, you know, his philosophies. Or if you were a late night college football watcher of Hawaii, then you know those things. So I'd love to hear you talk about the process of designing an offensive game plan and executing it.

Well, first off, when you start talking about game planning and offensive schemes and stuff like that, I think you come down to two things in identity. You've got to figure out who you're going to be, and that simply comes down to two things. You're either going to be a team that runs to set up the pass, which is probably 80% of the NFL now, though it's evolving the other way, or you're going to be a team that passes to set up the run and what june did going all the way back to like you just mentioned the 80s and nfl with the oilers they passed to set up the run when there was only a handful of teams maybe one to two with him and

bill wash and coriel had done it before that that thought like that what made them so different was saying hey we're gonna do only four wide receiver sets which was unheard of and that's almost a standard now in the NFL so you got to figure that out and then so when each week you're going into it I would say about 60 to 70 percent is what you do this is who we are we've been practicing this since training camp you know you just now you're deciding in your game plan, when am I going to call it? Do I like it on first and 10? Do I like it on second and five? Because like I've mentioned when we talked before, it's not all of a sudden fourth and two, and you don't know what play you're going to call. And it's like Madden where

there's a hundred plays and you're trying to pick one. No, there's three plays that's been discussed all week. This is how we're going to do it. And then so then that last 30%, so 70% is what you do. That last 30% is kind of the element of surprise. It's like going into war. This is my chance to kind of hit you with a sneak attack. Maybe I've shown you when I'm in this formation, say it's a tight trips look. We are 100% pass to the right, and it's always this one play.

So defenses will overcoach that, and they'll say, hey, every time it's this, and then now we know that. We got the analytics, too, and we'll go, hey, we're going to run a screen to the left because they're going to pass pros harder and go over here to the right, run the screen to the left, let's see if it works. Now you're getting into some new plays and game planned in. And that's kind of a general sense of how that world works. A lot of tendency breakers,

a lot of just doing what you're doing and game planning when and where you're going to call it. I definitely want to get into the run to set up the pass or pass to set up the run because Vikings fans know exactly where their team and their head coach stands on that matter. And it's the exact opposite of June Jones. But I want to follow up on the analytics point because Gary Kubiak has mentioned that they get so many different numbers every Monday and they look them over and they kind of break down different things that they get from a numbers perspective. From a journalist using numbers, we look at things like what PFF says about the grades. We look at play action numbers. We look at, you know, how often you run on second down and 10, for example,

like we can look at all of those things, but when you're actually trying to use those numbers to succeed against an opponent, how do you apply them? Yeah. The numbers I could see where that could overwhelm you, because especially pro football focus, unbelievable. I mean, that's like replacing young coaches. It's a boom.

Everything ends right there. I think one thing that there's so much numbers based on coverages and statistics, and it gets so analytical on the schematic part. Some of these numbers you got to use to your advantage go back to just football. And what I mean by that are players. What is this player's numbers? I'll give you an example that there was a safety on a team up north in the XFL that was giving up 47% of passes that were thrown his way, which led the whole league. So forget about, Hey, I'm going to get the perfect call versus how do we get our best guy on this guy deep down the field?

Cause we got a 47% chance. If we just push it down the field to this guy, those are things I think we looked at first before we got to the schematics and then so you take that information and then you start looking at it and you're going okay how do we get this guy one-on-one because at the end of the day football is numbers and basically every coverage there is there's some type of one-on-one giving up even in cover two you're running backs first to Mike one-on-one when you think you got too deep down the field where you got one-on-one underneath. On a three-deep zone, you're one-on-one with the corner. So how do we get this safety one-on-one?

Well, what we did was we figured out at Tennessee when they're in empty, they were cover two 80% of the time. So we ran a scissors route right at them, which made them have to choose one or the other. And we went deep right at them and guess what? We scored. And there's, you know, analytics like that playing through where it's not so much of, you know, you line up like this, here's, it's not always about coverages.

So there's just so much data out there that if you're a weakness as a player or weakness as a play caller, it'll get exposed. Yeah, and that's a really great point. And we can apply it to the Vikings this year that their roster had some severe weaknesses of players that, and I don't mean disrespectfully, but could be playing for you in the future, you know, guys who just are real fringe NFL type of players who could be sort of bounce around type of guys who were playing 600, 700, 800 snaps. And what we saw as we went along was opponents figured this out and they started to attack. And every third down in 10, we're seeing the left guard get attacked on a stunt or a twist or something like that every single time as the season went along. And you've got to figure that's, you know, opponents figuring out, all right, this is where your weakness is and this

is how we're going to attack it. And then it's your job to try and fix it. The run pass ratio thing is really fascinating because the Vikings traded Stefan Diggs to the Buffalo Bills, and then they decided they were going to throw to him every play. I mean, it's remarkable the number of yards and catches and targets that he got. And I think that, you know, that's a team in Buffalo who decided they were going to pass to set up the run, you know, or just keep passing in their case against Miami. And the Vikings have committed to the we're going to run Delvin Cook first, and then we're going to play action off of that.

I just want you to break down kind of the different philosophies behind that. I think that just from talking with you, you're more of a pass to set up the run guy. And I agree that a lot of the more modern offenses are going that way, but we still do see, you know, Shanahan is doing, you know, a lot of successful things in the run. Even the Packers who have an insanely good passing game are still doing a lot of things, play action off of the run.

So kind of break down the differences between those philosophies. I think it's funny you bring up the Bills because if there's any team that does what we did in the Houston Roughnecks, it is the Bills. June has a relationship with their offensive coordinator that we were sending film and started when they drafted Cole Beasley, who June played for at SMU. And he started asking questions about the run and shoot,

and they started doing some of our drills. And if you watch their game, you'll see things that we've done, and they spread it out, and they're very close to what we do. And I think, you know, you talk about having a modern offense. It's always, even in June, you talk about a guy that was doing in the 80s and in 2020 his offense looked nothing like what you saw warren moon back then right it's always trying to stay one step ahead of the game and that's what i with the bills they were that their offensive coordinator was always looking for something what can give me that edge What can give me that edge? What can give me that edge? So, you know, the pass to set up the run is basically saying we believe our quarterback can be the best

player out on the field. We have high risk, high reward, but we're going to do this so much, no matter what coverage you run, our quarterback's always going to get right. And I think especially with you're starting to see more spread sets in the NFL, quarterbacks coming out of the draft, and you look at this draft and the last two drafts, they don't need five or six years like Aaron Rodgers had to go through anymore. It's almost out their first year. I mean, Mahomes was giving the keys the second year. And what's happening is through the last 10, I don't know if it's a Madden generation I don't know if it's all the seven on seven these quarterbacks are way smarter than what they used to be and also what I think is key is they're also way mobile way more mobile of a

generation in the last 10 years than we had ever in NFL so what happens is when you spread them out even now and as tall as he is can move around. Same thing with Rogers. You're playing now 11 on 11 instead of 10 on 11, you have to account for that quarterback. So when you, when you pass the setup that run, basically, and then we'll flip it to the other, because it's I'm going to say the exact same thing for that one. I'm just going to flip the script. You're saying we're going to pass,

no matter what you can't stop us. These are our best plays, but when we decide to flip the script. You're saying we're going to pass no matter what. You can't stop us. These are our best plays. But when we decide to run the ball, it's going to be for chunks of yards. So usually those type of teams, like run and shoot teams, will average. I remember our draw play in the XFL averaged nine yards per carry. A lot of people would take that. And then I thought, oh, my God. So what we always said was, well, you know, that's great.

We averaged nine yards per carry on the draw, but we're not going to run it more. We're just going to run it further. That's since it's always been our philosophy. We're just, we're going to continue to put up massive yards because we we've done such a good job that now these, these coordinators I want to play aggressive and blitz you and, and, and be, well,

now they're playing too high and they're giving up a guy in the box and they're so scared about your deep ball that they got to give that up and now you're really eking out them I think it's Bill Walsh who said this he said uh you know if you run the ball on the defense and get three yards they think uh you know you just kicked their ass but if you throw a swing route and get three yards and they stop you they think they kicked your ass it's still three right and bill wash did say that i remember now and so you know it's just getting to i don't like how you're calling it's just the modern three yards is three yards.

This is our new modern way of doing it, playing in space, all 11 guys using our speed, spreading out. And there's so much money on the quarterback these days, too. We'll put it on him. We're going to put it on him to do it. And then, you know, there's the old school philosophy, and I think who's doing it better than anybody right now is Tennessee, and they are a run to set up the pass and now it's flipped we're going to run power at you we're

going to run iso at you we're going to get three yards there's nothing you can do to stop us put all 11 guys in there we're going to get our three yards but when we throw it it's going to be for the touchdown right just like when we run it it's going to be for massive yard. So that's really the difference between the two. And I can tell you that it's much easier to run the football the quarterback is the best player on the field and executed at a high level, that's where you always see the winners. You just look to the quarterback and yeah. Want to remind you to go to SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports inspired goods. There are many great designs. Someone on Twitter recently sent their john randall shirt and there's the can't stop the theolin hats the tech mobile throwback shirt and

much more all of their apparel is screen printed here in minnesota on super soft super comfy shirts and hoodies you will love it we're going to hook you up with free shipping on your next order use the code purple insider for free shipping that's s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com soda stick original minnesota sports inspired goods code purple insider for free shipping well and from uh the other thing about the the pass um to kind of go back to that old saying of what three things can happen. Two of them are bad or whatever. Right. But from an expected points added perspective, you see that sacks are real drive killers. And, you know, I think that a lot of those coaches who want to run to set up the pass, at least we see this in Minnesota is they're trying to kind of limit how much damage their quarterback can do to them. And, you know, sometimes that

might be good. And sometimes that might not be good. I mean, in the case of Kirk cousins, he still was toward the top of the league and interceptions and sacks. So it didn't really limit the amount of damage he could do because unfortunately for them, they were in third and four all the time, because like you said, if you get two, three yard runs, or you get a five yard run, and then you get stuffed at the line of scrimmage, then all of a sudden you're in third downs. And I noticed one of the guys from PFF did a study on third downs that found that third and two, isn't that much different than third and eight in terms of the percentage chance that you're going to get a big play off of it, or that you're going to convert. There's not a massive difference once you get to

third and three, third and four. So you want to stay out of those, obviously. And Vikings fans saw Cousins get sacked a lot on third and four, third and five. But I think that it can work though, if you don't turn the ball over and you don't take sacks and if you have deep weapons. And so I don't think that the Vikings running to set up the pass is like the worst thing in the world. I think I understand why they do it and it can work, but they can't have those big negative plays. What I would say about this with all the money they've put in the cousins, you would think it would be the opposite because he's getting paid to be one of the best in it, but he's not given the opportunity to do it.

And I love cousins. I love his work ethic going back to the Redskins and requesting his own offense and just drawing up plays and plays and plays. You know, you mentioned the sacks. Good spread teams, you rarely see sacks as an issue because they get the ball out so fast and they practice pass pro, pass pro,

and they see defenses spread out. The situation you're describing is when these run defense and they're under center and they boot and their play action takes three seconds and they're up against a run defense who may be run blitzing or something and gets a guy up. It happens all the time because those guys aren't used to pass blocking. They're looking at nine guys instead of five or six. And, yeah, that can be a big uh drive killer but it's interesting you bring up the third and two

and third and eight it made me remember one quote from uh my time hanging out with matt rule with who's with the panthers now and he was giving this big lecture about third downs and he started talking about uh all this study he had done in the cfl because in the cfl he's basically said that's where you learn how to convert your your possessions in each drive because in the cfl you basically have to look at it as second intent and what he was saying was how do you stay how do you get a high third uh third down percentage as far as your ratio of completing it or moving the sticks? Stay out of third down. It's like you just said, third and two to third and eight in the league this year

is almost identical. So if you can get your first and ten calls to second and five and convert them second to five, you're good. I remember you said this too that always stuck out to me, that if it was second and one and the ball is in the air, somebody's getting fired. You got to go with the you know analytics and precision you get that one yard boom you're staying out of third now and so yeah there's some good stuff in that yeah and uh i i think that um when vikings fans are thinking about their current offense and maybe it's possible that gary kubiak's

going to walk away after this year. And then, you know, they'll have an opportunity to have somebody else that they're looking for the run pass ratio and the philosophy to kind of just move the slider a little bit more, because even some of the offenses that you're talking about that are similar to the Vikings, they still throw it a little bit more or they only are running when it's,

when it's when it's when they're ahead and and that's another thing that I think a lot of the offenses will do that are the best is you'll get ahead with the pass and then finish teams off with the run and even Seattle that was based around Marshawn Lynch for a long time it was Russell Wilson getting them ahead and then beast mode finishing it off and you know maybe give them the ball at the goal line. I'm just saying, but you know, I, I think that that's a really interesting discussion to have, but knowing that second down in 10 is not a time that you want to run and get to third and five is a problem that the Vikings seem to have consistently. And I think just understanding kind of the data and the math on that would help them immensely go from a very good offense to a

great offense yeah and and just to build off that too I mean you know again it all goes but always goes back to your trigger man and and what you believe he can do and I would just love to see because even thinking about Cousins time at Washington I just love to see him have the opportunity to say hey hey, be alpha. You know, we're going to give you two plays. You check to the best one because quarterback is a position you can only get better at when you actually play it. You can practice as much as you want until you get that game experience.

And with the scheme, it's just, you can't get better from it. So just to see him do that, I'd love to see that. And I think it's just the trend and what you're asking and you're seeing more and more of the old school way of moving, moving away from that and opening things up. I just think that's, that's the way it's being done with the top teams in the league right now. And it'd be interesting to see cousins and that type of offense, because I think you could do it. People have probably gotten tired of me bringing up this stat, but if you look at the expected

points added from passing all of the last 10 teams to make the Superbowl, we're in the top five and expected points added in passing. And the Vikings have never been there with Kirk cousins or at any point during Mike Zimmer's career. And it's interesting, you mentioned like giving the keys to Cousins because early in the 2018 season they did, but Mike Zimmer got frustrated with some of the play calling because he wanted more running. And then there was head-butting between he and John DeFilippo, which ultimately led to them changing to the current system that they want to use now. So it's kind of, you know, the interpersonal dynamics that go on when it comes to deciding on what the head coach wants, what the offensive coordinator wants and all those types of things.

Now, I want to ask you about some of the kind of the details of modern offenses that are interesting to me. And one that gets brought up a lot is motions, because I think you see a lot of the more successful offenses using a ton of different motions. And maybe you can explain kind of why that works so well, because the numbers point to you should be doing this a lot, and the Vikings were not necessarily last year. Yeah, it's funny you bring up the motion because June and Mouse were really ones of first ones to use it almost every play if you remember the old school run and shoot uh they would either motion across or motion in the motion out and it was and it's what mcveigh came back to and kind of brought it back was to try to just to see the coverages are you running with me and if you watch

those receiver motioning uh they're they're looking they're not just coming across as fast as they can they're looking for one high two high they're looking for keys and indicators and you know we start out that way in houston every training camp just so we can get those guys making sure they're looking down the field for stuff and not just have something predetermined in their head they're about to do and uh then we kind of evolve to it because they away from it because they know now the coverage and stuff but i'll say this about motion and uh it's a it's a saying in coaching that when you know an offensive motion comes it causes it causes a defensive emotion so motion causes emotion and you'll see it where, you know, they're all set. You're in trips.

You're going to do this all of a sudden. So emotions in the cross ball snap. Okay. Do I have three or number two? Cause a lot of things I've made motion difficult is because how defenses are trying to outsmart themselves with these complex coverages and matching zone where they got to know who number one and number three. So when it happens just like that, it's no longer, man, I'm taking the flat. I got the hook like the old school way of doing it. I'm taking that deep right here.

They're so complex that you'll see a middle safety just jump a shallower out because that's what his rule is, and he's leaving the seam right over the middle. And just think of all the highlights you've seen the teams doing that, mainly I think who's made it, who's done the best job of it, has been the Rams in the past three years. But, yeah, and with them doing that and have such a high success, the analytics are favoring way towards their side. And it's difficult to prepare for,

but you saw what Belichick was able to do when they knew it was coming was to show one thing and then present another, which is a big reason why we kind of evolved from it, because teams will get smart in doing that. So there's some pros, but some cons to it as well. It can trick you. Yeah, and it's the fun part about football, right, is that it's always evolving and there's always that cat and mouse chess game

going on. And I've noticed, and tell me if you have too in studying these things closely, that I think that the NFL is going back to two safeties playing deep. And I think the teams that did it against the Vikings had more success as opposed to loading up the box

and playing one single high safety because of the number of play actions is just shooting up. Even offenses that aren't necessarily a Kubiak like bootleg offense are using a lot of different play actions and stuff. And I think that that's sort of the, the reaction to the way that things have been going. Have you noticed that yourself? Yeah, I would say it's, it's all relevant.

And there's still going to be these, these guys that are three deep and man free and, and then there's going to be these cover two guys, but I think quarters, the whole match coverages is getting a little bit more popular. You're seeing more teams doing, but that's, I think it's all preference to what the defensive coordinator likes and what he's doing. And, but that, you know, with defensive guys, it's, it's different because on offense, we're going to do what we do.

And defensive guys, they're always reacting. It's just the name of being defense. So the name of game on defense. So if they see something and it worked for one team, I mean, I know this is college football, but just think about what Mike Leach was doing this year. And one team played three down and dropped eight, and then that's all they saw for the rest of the year.

And even the Saban, who's never played three down and drop eight and then that's all they saw for the rest of the year and even the Saban who's never played three down drop eight uh but now all of a sudden that's so some of that is adapting and reacting to what's working versus this particular week and boom so yeah it's it's it'll continue to get popular I want to tell you about Blue Wire Hustle a brand new program where you can host your very own podcast here at Blue Wire Hustle, a brand new program where you can host your very own podcast here at Blue Wire. Hustle was created to give everyone the opportunity to take your podcast to the next level. Or if you want to host a podcast and just don't know where to start, Hustle is the perfect place for you. As part of the program, you'll receive a personal cover. As part of the program, you'll receive personal cover art, Q&As with Blue Wire's top podcasters,

access to our community Discord and e-learning course full of tips and tricks. And on top of that, we'll help you get your show pushed out to Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, and all listening platforms. The best part is you can get all of this for $15 a month,

the same rate as any other hosting site would charge for an initial setup. So whether you're starting from scratch or have an existing show that wants to grow, Hustle is an open door leveling up your sports experience. Acceptance of the program is limited, so get your application in today. Go to bwhustle.com slash join. Check out the description box to find out more. That's bwhustle.com slash join. Check out the description box to find out more. That's BW hustle dot com

slash join. All right, before we wrap up, and this has been fantastic, just just as I hoped, because I knew that you're an incredibly knowledgeable guy. I want you to give me your top three favorite 90s run and shoot players, Because I'll tell you from, from my perspective, the Atlanta team that June coach that had, I think what Eric Metcalf was on that team and Michael Haynes and Jeff George has a winning season and just throws the ball over the place to me. That's my favorite one, but the Houston Oilers with Haywood Jeffries, Ernest Givens, Lorenzo White coming on the backfield, Warren Moon,

who's obviously well-liked here in Minnesota. I mean, those are my favorites, the one that I could use on the old Super 10 mobile games. The Sega Genesis. Exactly, exactly. Are you one of my favorite three players or teams? Well, either one. You can go with teams if you want.

Teams. Well, I mean, the favorite one by far, I'll go team. I'll go one – there's only one favorite team that stands out, and then we'll talk favorite players. But the 91 Falcons, oh, man, with C. Mill, who was our quarterback coach with the Roughnecks, Chris Miller, and Andre Rison, Michael Haynes. And it's one of the greatest plays in football history happened.

So they go 11-5 they're they're dubbed like the most fun team in the NFL uh they have MC Hammer in their videos you know on that team and the whole thing was too legit to quit they're all in that video and so they go to New Orleans for the first round of playoffs and that game they get up 27 to 20 or 28 21 it was those they're up a touchdown and so they're driving down the field new orleans is to try to tie the game and boom intercepted with about 45 seconds left everyone go look at this on youtube this is most like and even i've had this talk with deon sand, and he goes, man, we were ignorant. We were so ignorant. So what happens is the hire picks it off.

And the rule was, okay, you get the pick, get the ball to Deion, because Deion was going to take it back. So the game's over, playoffs on the line, 45 seconds left. Boom, the ball's starting to get pitched back on defense. And they pitch this thing all the way back to Deion who rolls to the right and as he's getting tackled pitches it back again boom touchdown and the game's over the game is completely over they just need to kneel it and take the knee yeah they're putting pitch back to go make it a two-score game this one's the most craziest but that was the 91 Falcons under Jerry Glanville.

June Jones was the offensive coordinator. Both of them are like fathers to me. I mean, just look up 91 Falcons. And see the thing about that team too, is that team historically, and you got to think of all the great offenses, 1998 Vikings, when they had Randy Moss and Chris Carter. Think about 07 with Tom Brady, Wes Welker, Randy Moss, okay?

All those great offenses ever. The 91 Falcons were the most explosive team in NFL history if you looked at yards per play outside of the red zone not scored so when I say mostly they had the most yards when they threw a touchdown than any other team in NFL history and I had a lot to do with Michael Haynes I mean he uh he was unbelievable yeah he would catch an 80-yard touchdown this run in the nine route and uh and they would throw it so uh yeah I mean by far in the NFL, the 91 Falcons,

and you just talk about players and you mentioned them more than, I mean, he, he was a, he was a goat. Yeah. And the, you know, those are definitely some great run and shoot memories there, man. I love the fact that the, the running backs of the 91 Falcons, like why even bother? I mean, it's just great it was like throw throw at every play the leader in rushing that year I just pulled this up had 449 yards rushing it's just they kind of were by a trio then I know Mike Rozier was one of them yep yep and uh Steve Broussard and Eric yeah yep yep uh let's see total rushing yards was only yeah only 1600 total rushing yards but

Michael Haynes averaged 22 yards a catch oh that's amazing with 11 touchdowns and people do not realize because I guess we're old now they do not realize how great Andre Rison was at a time Andre Rison was like the you know upper echelon wide receiver for a while. And then things got a little bit crazy with Andre Rison, but yeah, that's a great pick. That's, that's a phenomenal pick is the 91 Falcons. Well, people can follow you on Twitter at Austin James XFL, and you are from what I understand, going to be coaching in a fan operated football league for a while here before the XFL comes back. Tell me about that. Yeah, it's going to be coaching in a fan-operated football league for a while here before the XFL comes back. Tell me about that.

Yeah, it's going to be very unique, and I think it will be really cool for the fans, especially anyone listening to your audience who are obviously digging into the X's and O's and want to get into the meat of football. And so what it is, I'm not the head coach. They're giving me a unique name. I'm like the head coordinator of one of these four teams Marshawn Lentz is involved in it uh Richard Sherman there's a other few guys that are owners

and the reason I'm not the head coach is because the fans are the head coach so yeah you know I'll coordinate my team each week and uh you know we get to the game and the fans are calling the plays and it's all going to be done on Twitch. So just like you're used to getting on Twitch and maybe donating the shout out to one of your favorite streamers. Well, now you get on and you pay the call to plays. And then you can bet on what play is going to work. And then each week, if you're part owner of the team and you sign up to join one of the teams you want to be a part of, you're literally drafting each week what your team's going to look like so you know i and johnny manziel's involved

in it so if i have manziel and he goes off for my team the next week and you're on the other team as far as one of the commissioners or you know executives for the team uh you said well we want manziel in the first round and then you get. So each week it changes. So it's going to be a very cool, fun deal, a lot of betting involved, a lot of fan control involved. And it'll last from about February to March all indoors, and we'll be exclusively on Twitch. That sounds really fun and really fascinating. And I guess Madden players like myself,

that's like the dream to have the players actually running things that you want them to run. So that's very interesting. And also I learned today that a former Minnesota Lynx player, Renee Montgomery is also involved in Marshawn Lynch's team. So that's a little Minnesota connection there. Well, AJ, you are super insightful. You have a big giant football brain. And I love that we're like sort of the same age

so we can talk about old nineties football. So this was great. I learned a ton as always. And I hope we can're like sort of the same age so we can talk about old 90s football. So this was this was great. I learned a ton, as always. And I hope we can connect again, man. Absolutely. Thanks, Matt.