The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - The QB2 Series: Kyle Allen shares his story on life as a backup

Episode Date: December 2, 2022

In the latest installment of the QB2 series, Kalyn Kahler sits down with Texans quarterback Kyle Allen, who will start his second game of the season in Week 13.Subscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is The Athletic Football Show. Hey, everybody. I'm Kaylin Kaler. I'm a senior NFL writer for The Athletic. Welcome to QB2, the show where we talk to only my favorite players in football, the backup quarterbacks. The backups are rarely in the spotlight. But here on QB2, we celebrate them and we give them their moment to share their knowledge

and stories with us. QB2 is also a very loose term because these guys in this role are regularly shifting up and down and up and down the depth chart as their careers go on. on. And today's guest knows that roller coaster very, very well as a high school senior who was the number one quarterback in the nation. He had 18 Division I offers, but after a tumultuous college experience, he went undrafted. He signed with the Panthers as an undrafted free agent in 2018. And while he was there, he ended up starting 13 games for injured Cam Newton and Taylor Heineke. He became a big story in 2019 when he won four straight games in relief of Cam.

He started four more games as a member of the Washington football team. And he's now in his fifth NFL season, his first in Houston, backing up Davis Mills. Welcome to the show, Kyle Allen. So the long intro right there. That's a long story. You got it pretty good. Thanks for having me. Listen, you've had a long career.

You've had it's, you know, in terms of years, not that long, but a lot has happened in that time. Yeah, a lot of. Yeah. So as I mentioned in sort of the intro, the title of this show, QB2, it's loose, right? Mm-hmm. You know, you are a QB2 right now. You've been a QB1 in the past.

you probably will be a QB1 again at some point in your future. So I've had guys that I've approached to do this show who have said no because they don't view themselves as backups. They just don't even like the term QB2. So I'm curious for you right now at this point in your career. Like how do you see yourself? How would you describe, you know, what your, you know, your career in this moment? I mean, it's kind of interesting you say that.

I mean, I've been QB4. I've been QB3. I've been one. I've been two. I mean, it's just the seasons of life. Like, you're in different spots. You're in different scenarios. Like right now, I'm the QB2. And I think right now my job is to be ready when it's my time to play and to help Davis, a young, really talented quarterback, get ready to play on Sunday. And I think each team and each situation you're in, you have a certain job title that's not really on paper, but you know what you've got to do to help the team win. And I think being a quarterback, no matter if you're the one, the four, whatever, I mean, I remember I was a quarterback three, my rookie year as a practice squad guy,

and I was just, how can I help the team win, you know, just try and find ways to be valuable and help the team win. So you have a job, and it's whatever job you make it, and it really doesn't matter the label, you know. But right now it's, I guess it's QB2 as the show states. Yeah, yeah. So I talked to, my last guest was Charlie Whitehurst, who, you know, by the nickname, clipboard Jesus.

Yeah. He had a really interesting perspective. Like he said by the time he got to his like seventh or eighth season, you know, he kind of realized like, all right, I'm not going to be that, you know, franchise quarterback making the huge, huge contract. Like that's not in the cards for me. And he said it allowed him to play really free for the rest of his career. When he got chances to play, he was like, this is fun now. Like, I'm having a good time. So I wonder, have you gotten to that point or are you still in the mindset of like, I'm striving.

I have that in me. It's coming for me. I think to Charlie's point, I think the further along you get in your career, the more you kind of solidify yourself to yourself and to the league, like you solidify yourself as a player, the more tape you get out there, the more games you play, the more you can just start to say, F it and just play your game and do your thing. And within reason, obviously, I think Charlie has Charlie got older, clip where Jesus came along, you almost become a character, you know. But I think the more you play and the farther you get along in the league, you realize that. that your time in the league is short. So whenever you get that chance, you got to leave it all out there and just be you and play your game.

And whatever's going to happen is going to happen. I've had fantastic games. I've had horrible games and all of them in between, you know? So whatever's going to happen is going to happen. And you just prepare yourself to play. And then when you go out there, play as free as you can because you talk to any quarterback when you're playing free and you're playing your game, that's when you're playing your best.

So I usually don't get into college career as much on this show. But yours is so interesting because of, you know, the way it went versus all the ways that it could have gone based off, you know, how highly recruited you were. So, you know, you end up at A&M. They bring in Kyler-Marie. You both end up transferring after that year because they bounce back and forth between the two of you. You go to Houston. The coach you went there for isn't even there when you finally get to play. So you end up deciding to go to the NFL foregoing your last season of eligibility. You didn't have a ton of college tape to go off of. What made you feel like you, you

could make an NFL career at that point? Like, was that a huge risk for you? Yeah, I mean, it was huge risk, but my thinking was at that point, my career at Houston is my fourth year. The situation I was in, the people I was around, the coaches I was around, I just felt like if I was to stay another year, and that year I got benched, I didn't play the last nine games, you know? So it's either like, do I stay here and try and win out the job that I just got benched in or do I transfer again? which transferring is just like it sounds great and then you do it and it's a hell of a lot worse thing. It actually sounds terrible to me. It sounds like, you know, like the grass isn't always greener, you know.

But and then the third option is like I always felt like I had the ability to play in the NFL. I always felt like I had the skill set. I was good enough. I was confident in myself enough no matter what the situation was. So I was like, I'm going to try and go. I figured I was going to go undrafted. I didn't expect to get drafted. I'm going to do as much as I.

I could from January to April to show teams or do whatever. And then hopefully get an opportunity to show myself. And then when I got picked up by Carolina, I was the four. It was Cam Newton, Taylor Heineke, Garrett Gilbert. And then me, I got like six reps, all of OTAs, you know. And it was just like, oh, Kyle hasn't played in a while. We should probably get them in there for some reps. You know, it was like one of those things.

And then I didn't play in a preseason game until the last preseason game of, it was the fourth one, the second half. thankfully we were down by a ton of points. So we threw it like 30 times. And I played great. And so that kind of just got me an opportunity to be on a practice squad. And I got cut the next week from practice squad. And I end up getting bring back.

But I'm sure we're getting all that. But I think when you look at my journey from after college football to this point, it's just all about taking advantage of opportunities. I wasn't going to ask you this, but something you just said, made me think about it. You said, you know, it wasn't until the last preseason game that you even get a shot. Now there's one less preseason game. Do you think guys are, do you think that's detrimental to guys like you who maybe aren't getting as many opportunities as they could have?

Yeah, I think it goes both ways. I think it hurts some of the bubble guys. It hurts some of those guys that may not be getting a chance, but also some teams the way they're setting it up, their guys are just playing less than preseason and they're still playing all those guys. So it really just comes down to like who your coach is. Like the Rams, the Rams don't play any. in preseason. Right. So their guys are playing the whole preseason. So they got the whole opportunity.

But in places, they play our stars a lot. So, I mean, it's more situation, but there's less games. There's less reps to throw around. But there's not that mid-camp cut anymore. So the guys are there most of camp.

Mm-hmm. That's a good point. You mentioned, you know, you get six reps during OTAs that year, which is obviously like nothing. Is there, is there any way,

obviously there's only a certain number of reps and there's a certain number of quarterback so you got to split it up so it's hard to you know find those extra reps for guys at the bottom of the depth chart but can you ever ask for reps like is that allowed or is that like don't do that i mean so in training camp that year i was the same situation i hadn't gotten a rep in like a week and a half and i'm just like i'm not a guy to be like coach why are you playing me like what's the deal like yeah i just go back to my dorm room at night and i text my agent And I was like, hey, I haven't got a rep in like 10 days.

Like, should I go say something? Or like, what's the deal? And then he like humbled me and he was like, you got to realize like you're the fourth quarterback. You're the least of their worries right now. I was like, be a little selfish. But hopefully you just wait for your opportunity and coaches are good about giving guys opportunities for the most part.

And it's like I said, you just, it might be one opportunity. You got to take advantage of it when it comes. So do you have like a mental track? you're like, okay, it's now been six days. Now it's seven. Like, how do you? Hopefully, I mean, thankfully it doesn't happen much anymore. I'm getting a little bit more rest nowadays.

But back then, I was like, all right, am I going to be able to show anything here or what? Yeah, yeah. And I wanted to ask you, you mentioned this. You know, they, the Panthers, you're there, you're on director of free agent, you're KB4. They end up releasing you. And you've told this story before, but you saw Connor, cook who is another quarterback in the elevator at your hotel and you're like oh no and then and then you get released so when they release you I know a lot of times with these you know you could call it

fringe quarterbacks the kb4s QB3s who are kind of up and down practice squads getting cleaned released all of that a lot of times teams end up bringing them back it's just kind of a procedural thing when the Panthers released you at that point did they say anything to you like hey you know stay ready we're going to bring you back later was there any kind of kind of communication like that? Yeah, I mean, so after training camp, they released Garrett from, because they were going to keep one active backup, and then they wanted me on track squad. And then you know how that goes after training camp.

Everyone else gets cut around the league, and then coaches get a chance to see who else is around. And Connor Cook was a guy who had started a playoff game a couple years back. Great, but had experience, you know. And so when he hit the wire, I think they were just, they want. wanted to see what he had. That was essentially what they told me. They were like, hey, it's nothing against you. We just like want to see what he has. He has a little bit more track record. And obviously it was like, stay ready. Like we might bring you, it's, I mean,

I feel like you'd say that to everybody. Yeah, yeah. It's no skin off their back to say that to you. But, I mean, when I got cut, I didn't hear from them until Cam started having shoulder issues later in the year. Yeah. Connor came. I guess Connor didn't play super well. And so he was released only a couple weeks after that. And then they had two quarterbacks for most of the season. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's interesting. And when that happens, like you mentioned, like, you know,

Connor hits a waiver. Are you, I mean, I'm sure now, as a QB2, you might pay less attention to this stuff, but like, do you keep an eye on that around the league of like, who's getting released? I see everything. I'm on it. How do you do it?

I just love it. I don't know. I'm on Twitter. I'm on Shepster. I'm on PFT. Yeah. I have all the QB news I'm on it and me and if you've seen the clip of me talking about honor me and Jordan Palmer we have a show too where we talk all things quarterback called

the room so we're on top of all that stuff too that's awesome do you have like alerts set up for every time like Shepter or Ratschews I'm just on my phone all the time I'm addicted to my phone so that's amazing that is amazing you could make a good agent someday you know with all this knowledge so going back to Carolina um I will never forget the first time I have ever saw Cam Newton in person. I think it was like training camp of probably 2015. I was just stunned. His physique, I just, you know, you see right away why his nickname was Superman.

So what was your first impression of Cam Newton? Man, the thing about, I mean, obviously like he's physically insane, but he's also just like a really intimidating person. And he loves to like get in your head and like ask you. questions that make you really uncomfortable, especially new guys. Like any new guys, he just tries to make you super uncomfortable. And so I just remember, like, my first couple weeks in that quarterback room, like, I was just, like, waiting for him to say some shit to me. And, like, I was just trying to, like, say the right answer.

And I, that was, like, the uncomfortable thing. But then, like, that just under, like, he's just one of the funniest dudes ever. Like, I started to understand his humor and get along with it. And me and Cam got along awesome. Like, Cam made football fun again for me. Like, college, like, you read off my. college career. College is like me.

Yeah. And then being able to be in that quarterback room and not have to play right away and kind of sit back and learn from a lot of like awesome vets on that team too, Greg Olson, Ryan Khalil, Luke Cooley, Cam, like, so many good vets just to kind of sit back and see like how football really is and how much they enjoyed it. Like that was such a good NFL reset for me. Like I just loved football again after that. What was one of like, do you have an example of something Cam would say to like,

He wouldn't want to be. He won't. He won't get to. No. Come on. It's too racy for here. Oh, my gosh. Left in the coreback room.

Oh, all right. Audience, see, we can just use our imagination there. And Cam, if you're watching. We just go to Cam's YouTube channel. You see Cam. Yeah. That's crazy stuff on there. Yeah, that's so true.

What did he, like, I know different starters around the league. They like their quarterback room set up in certain ways. Did he have anything. specific that like he wanted his backups to provide for him or you know what was his style I guess I mean I was the rookie so I was his rookie so my job was to carry around his briefcase everywhere like his backpack briefcase but with his binder so funny story um when I got re-signed the team yeah like week eight or nine I think the next week we had an away game and he always shows up like 30 seconds before the bus leaves to go to the airport to get on the bus.

And so he was like, my nickname was Lovey Dovee there. That's what he called me. And so why? That's another story. I'll tell that right after this one. Okay, okay. He was like, Lovi, my briefcases in my locker. It's your job to bring it on the bus and bring on the plane.

So it has like game plan, all his notes, like super important. I get on the bus. I forget it. Totally spaced. Thankfully, like he had to go grab something from the locker. room. Oh my God. The bus had to wait for him. Then he walks up with his briefcase and he just stares me right in the eye and goes, that is a massive fine. That's a huge fine. And I'm just like, oh, God. And I knew it right when he walked on. I knew exactly what I did. Oh my God. How much did he

find you? Do you remember? Well, he knew I was broke. So he didn't actually find me. It was wonderful. My signing bonus was like three grand. And I was on Peace Squad, but he knew I was broke. Oh my God. That is amazing. I'm sure it was like a really nice like Louis Vuitton briefcase or. Yeah, that was something like that. I remember it was really important. It had all his notes in there. Wow. Okay. What and where did Lovey come from? Lovey came from, I think I stole this story last night. Lovey came from early on in OTAs. I was coming up to practice one day and we were just all sitting in stretch, you know, the whole team stretching. and Greg Olson in front of like the whole team goes like,

Kyle, I was on your Instagram last night. Like I got like caught. I scrolled like 100 pictures down. And I'm like, oh God. Oh no. And I've been dating the same girl since high school.

And he goes, he goes like every single picture of you is you and your girlfriend. Like every single one. And he's just like roasting me in front of the whole team. And I was just like, I was like, screw it. I'm just going to own it. So I was like,

I was like, Yeah, of course it is. Like, what are you talking about? And so Cam has a nickname for everyone. My nickname after that was Lovey Dovee. Oh my God. And it like caught on to like the social team for the like social media team on the team. Like anytime they post anything about me, it was like the dove emoji with the heart.

Oh my God. That was my name in Carolina, even like the fans too. That's amazing. Does anybody still call you that? A couple people do. I know old teammates from there do. Like Greg Olson when he's calling our games, he sees me, it's always lovey. It's never.

Oh, my God. That's so great. I love that. Um, so I want to talk about you and I had training camp, I had a really interesting conversation about Cam Newton's unique cadence. Yep. And one of the most important parts of being a backup is to be able to mimic the starters cadence perfectly because when you have to come in, you don't want your all kinds of line to get confused and have any false starts. So, you know, can you, first thing I want to start with, can you give us a Cam Newton impression? Oh, I know you're going to play the clip after.

Yeah, yeah. We've played before, but all right. You can hear it. I don't want to give away any secrets, but I think Washington, like, they still have a similar cadence at least we had last year because it was just caught on in the same offense. So he drags it all out. Like, Cam has, like, huge human, massive lungs.

Like, he can hold it out. His whole thing was, and the offensive line knew this, he wants to hold it. So, like, the D-line will get on there, like, toes. They'll, like, get off balance. And so when he really wants to snap it, they're not on balance. So you got a start, he goes, ready. Gets everyone ready. Right?

Has he got any motions or anything? He sends motion. He goes, Woody. A lot deeper, obviously. Not that high. But the whole time when he's holding that white lady, when he's holding it,

he's just, well, I had to do it for, for frigging that whole year. He's looking at safetys. He's trying to get a line to jump off. He's just, and it was tough to get,

like, new old linemen to actually figured that out because they're used to like you listen to anyone else's kid and says what did he what did he said hut and so it like rolls you know is is just you don't know when it's going to happen he's just right when he like basically like right when you go why did he and you pause that's when the ball is getting snapped you just roll it I love let's see if I did good okay let's see how you did let's see how you did just compare it to the real thing hopefully it's one where he holds it out and of course of allmer and led him to the national championship and like

Bradford, a number one pick in the NFL draft of the year. Nothing really the challenge, but he thought they had it. They don't, second down in the long yard. That was good. Pretty good. Pretty good. I think you even got pretty deep, too. I know it's hard to sort of to see the actual, like,

sound of someone's voice, but that was pretty good. Yeah, I think I had a couple of voice cracks early on when I was kind of it, so it's not good. And you told me a story from training camp where you were struggling and you got taken out of a drill, I think, because you couldn't get it right. That was a little, that wasn't because it's cadence, but that was a nice rookie moment for me. We had an old line coach who, you know, I mean, just typical line coach, like any new guy or rookie, he was just getting on just to be an asshole for better words.

Like, me and him are in great terms now, but early on he did not like me. I went down and like basically the O-L lineman, D-Lyman do like one-on-one pass rush drill. Yeah. I need a quarterback just to do the cadence and stand there. And so he is like, normally you just be like, hey, do it on one, on two, like, on first sound. But he didn't want the delimond to know. So he looks at me like real quick and goes, hey, this is on one on two on first sound. And he just gives me all these signals.

And I was like, I was like, okay. Like, I knew it. I didn't want to ask him. Yeah, right. It gives me one of them. And I give the wrong cadence. Cusses me out. Gives me another signal.

It changes it. And I was like, oh, man, I don't know this one either. I screw it up. And so he just kicks me out of the drill. And then I went back. The rest of the quarterbacks are doing seven on seven. They go, what happened? Why are you here?

I was like, I got kicked out. I don't know. I don't know what to tell you, man. It was funny, though. Yeah. And with Cam's, like, as you mentioned, like, his long power, he's just able to hold that syllable for so long. What did you have to do?

Do you remember if you had to do any, like, breathing exercises or anything to get it right? I just reps. I just had to keep doing it and doing it. I was like gas, like by the time the ball was. nap early on. But it's got like once you figure it out it is it is good. You just got to get your linemen to hold in there. Yeah. And I talked to Taylor Hineke recently actually after uh, it was before he was the starter in Washington, but we were talking about the same thing. And he was like, yeah,

he still does it a little bit like, um, because he thinks it's helpful. He's like, yeah, if I see something, if I see the defense change, like I hold it out and, and my lineman will know what that means, you know? So it is really interesting. Um, All right. So I want to ask you now about, you know, your time coming in for CAM in Carolina. One thing I think I want to know from you that I don't know the answer to is obviously, like for us in the media and for fans, like teams are very secret about injuries and, you know, the severity of them and what's really going on. So I wonder for you when you are playing for CAM, I mean, is the team internally pretty candidly? with you about what's going on with whether it was his shoulder or his foot in 2019. Like, are you kept like close in because it affects your job or is it also kind of equally as,

you know, hush, hush. I think you'll probably find this in most teams in general. Like, everything is hush, hush. It doesn't really matter who you are. Like they did like, we're going to disclose as much information as we need to, essentially. And so for me, I think KAM had that Liz Frank sprain in preseason. against New England. And he got hurt in that game and I had to go in.

And I was like, oh, it'll be fine. Like, whatever. And because he ended up playing week one and in week two, right? So I thought he was going to be fun. And then he just, it just was like hanging on and aggravating him. But he was playing early. And so they were like, okay, we're going to give him a little rest. Like, you're going to play against Arizona.

All right. I was like, okay, great. Perfect. Play against Arizona next week. Yeah, we're still resting him. Like, you're going to play against Arizona. who was at Houston. It was here.

And then it was kind of like after we won that game, they were like, okay, we're just going to give them to the bye week. And then we'll reconvene from there. And then we went two more games. We get to the bye week. And I remember texting my OC and I was like,

what's up, but like, am I going to play the next week or his camp coming back? And he was like, what do you mean? You're playing next week. And I was like, how am I supposed to know? No, no, I'm telling me anything, you know? And so it was basically like kind of like that until he went on IR. And then on the on IR, it was obvious from that point.

But I think you're like just with any type of information like that, teams in general are pretty like hush, which I wish they weren't. But that's just kind of this. That's so interesting because it's like, you know, it directly affects you. And I wonder like, did you at least know by Wednesday of that week that you were going to be the starter?

Yeah, I knew early that week. I knew like going in. So like the whole week of practice, I practice. Okay. Which is all the time you need. really, but long term, I definitely had no clue until I are. That is so crazy. So it's really interesting.

I feel like every year there's a backup who has sort of like what happened to you in 2019 where you have this really, you have a streak of like four super good games. And then, you know, it doesn't last. It ends up not lasting. You know, this year, I mean, Cooper Rush did his, held his own in his time this year. And, you know, we're kind of seeing maybe. Bailey Zappi coming in that in that range and I wonder do you have a name for that phenomenon or like what would you what would you call like Mike white last year like what would you yeah I think I think it's just

kind of is like refreshing for everyone in the building not like oh like we need a new guy in there to like spice it up it's just kind of like you got a guy with a different skill set like everyone has a different skill set right. I have a different skill set. Um, usually these guys are playing for their life, you know, like I was playing for my life. So you're like maybe just an extra tick locked in. Defenses and defensive coordinators don't know exactly who you are yet. They don't know exactly what you run. So stuff is maybe a little bit more basic. And then I mean, some guys are just prepared and ready for it. You know, like Cooper Rush, been around in the lead for a long time. And I've heard nothing but like great things about how smart he is and how good he is and make a

decisions and how even Kellan Moore are like the two smartest people in that building. And I mean, Bailey Zappy played a ton last year in college through one. You know, like some guys are just ready for their moment and their opportunity. And then I think you also see a lot of times these things kind of get swept under the rug because it's bad play. But sometimes you see guys who aren't ready for their opportunity and probably didn't want to play on this early on in their career because they're not ready and they don't want to get found out yet.

And it's kind of interesting because there's guys that can hang around for a while who maybe aren't as good of players, but they just haven't had to go in and play. You know, they've only had to practice. And then some guys get exposed out there. They're not ready or they're not built for it. But I think the more you see the league grow and the more, I think it kind of starts from high school now with like all the seven on seven and the quarterback development and in college football, like all the lot of better college football quarterbacks coming out this year, especially, I think the development's just getting a lot better. And these guys are just more prepared to go in and play.

And so I think you look around the league, I said this before, you look around the league, there's probably half the league has capable backups that can go in and win games. It's so true. And you see teams investing a lot more in the position too. And that's really interesting as well. So you played for three different teams out. And each of which I would kind of say are struggling to win,

consistently when you've been there. You know, kind of informative years for those teams. And each club, like I've had players describe it to me, like each team is like an independent business. Like all these different teams have their own vibes, different owners, different ownership styles. What difference have you seen in the three places that you have been as far as like the ownership and how players are treated

in just sort of the cultures of the organization? I think for me in Carolina, I don't think like the ownership. I like, I know owners are all different and, you know, the owner, the new owner in Carolina is a much more hands-on and there's owners that are different, like, different. But I don't think ownership matters as much to the players day to day as many people think. You know, you're kind of, you're kind of just head down and like with your coaching staff and your players.

But for me in Carolina with Rivera and all those vets like I talked about earlier, that was just a great situation and awesome a ton of those guys that were on the Super Bowl team in 2015. So I just got to learn a ton. Like I was very open to learning, very open to growing. I got to learn a ton from a lot of smart guys. North Turner was my OC, like legendary. Like Scott, his son was a quarterback coach, great quarterback coach.

I just felt like I grew a ton over those years. Like I got a ton better and I was around a lot of good bets. And then go to Washington, very similar coaching staff, new players, different situation for me. I've already played a bunch. I'm kind of the guy on that team that knows the offense. And so I'm teaching everybody the offense there. And then the ownership was, you know, there's a lot of stuff going on with the team, you know, going on with the training staff when I was there. There was just a lot of random stuff, which I think it's blown up more in the media than it is in the building. Like it happens and you're kind of like, oh, wow, that happened.

But it doesn't really affect players on day to day as much as you would think. And then here, it's my first time not being with Rivera. So a totally different coaching staff, new offense, new OC. I didn't know one player on this team when I got here, but I think it's one of the coolest things is being able to go into a different locker room and meet all these different people and create all these new relationships. It's hard you've got to put in the effort to create the relationships, but I think it's so cool.

And then being able to see these guys later in your career on different teams, like that's one of my favorite parts about the league. But the ownership here, I mean, the McNairs have been awesome. I think they're around a lot more than I've seen most owners and not in a bad way. They're around just to be around the team, be around the players, let everyone know they're supported. Hannah and Cow just super helpful. They do a really good job with the women's group with like the wives and fiancée's and girlfriends. Like from a support standpoint, this is the best I've been around.

Yeah, I was going to ask you how much sort of ownership drama affects players. Because obviously you were in Washington when, you know, those workplace investigations, were going on and things like that. Did you ever interact with Dan Snyder personally? Only once. When I broke my leg, he, um, me and Ruben Foster were going to get surgery in Green Bay at the same time. He let us fly on his plane to Green Bay and back, which was like so nice. Yeah. Going through, uh, airport security with a snap leg, it didn't sound awful. Oh, God. Yeah. And so he let us fly on his plane back. And then like I saw him in the parking lot like a week later. It was the first time I ever met him and saw him.

I just shook his hands and said, thank you. Like, really appreciate that. But that was really my only interaction with him. I never had any interaction. Like, a ton of stuff going on. But all that stuff, I mean, at least for me, it just never really affected me because, I guess it's like, it's going to get itself figured out at some point. Something's going to happen. And either way it happens, it's not really going to affect me.

Like, the only thing that I can really control is just trying to win for the team. Like winning kind of cures everything, you know? So that's what we were focused on. And last thing for you, since you have your own YouTube show with George Palmer, or Jordan Palmer, sorry. And for those of you who haven't watched it, it is really interesting, you guys. So check that out. Thank you.

It is. Like the Josh Allen episode was awesome. So since you are now an experienced interviewer, what should I have asked you? What question do you want to answer? Oh, you asked some good questions. You asked some good questions. I like that you tried to pull a little bit out of me from the quarterback room. I think it's always good to like walk the fine line of like teeing them up to to say something maybe they wouldn't normally say.

That's why like our show we call it the quarterback room. Like I said, like there's a lot of stuff that goes on in the quarterback room that people don't get to see or here. And like we're in there all day long. And I think some of the funniest conversations happened there. I remember by rookie year when I was with Cam, we were on the Amazon show all or nothing. Yeah. And we had like the camera I'm using right now. It was similar.

It was in the corner of our room, right? They place all those cameras in the corner of the room. And you know Cam. Cam's liable to say anything at any time. So we're sitting in there and I'm like, every time he says something, I'm like, oh, God. Like, and you'll be sitting and we'd be sitting like on a Wednesday night watching film. And, you know, you'd be talking, like laughing, saying some stupid. And then all of a sudden you look up in the corner and the camera goes,

and they would point at you, you know, and you just, you just stop. I mean, you know, someone in some room is over there probably laughing or being like, what the hell are they talking about moving their camera over? Oh, my God. I don't know. I thought you were good. Sorry, I got off tangent there, but. No, that's great.

Last one for you. This is a quick one. Who is a backup right now that you think needs an opportunity because they are very talented? You know, maybe we're touching us. what'd you say? Geno, I mean, yeah, Geneal.

I think the first one that comes in my mind is probably Gardner. I played against Gardner when he was in Jacksonville. And he's a gamer, he's a baller. And he's like, I don't know, I've never been around him.

I don't know him at all. I probably think he's having a hard time being a backup. You know, he's just an absolute, like, you saw him going and play last year and how much that meant to him

and how well he played. And he's a really good player, you know? I mean, that was the year when I was playing as a back. He was playing as a backup. Eddie Bridgewater was playing as a backup.

Tona Good, like, I didn't get my spotlight that year. Everyone was playing good, you know? But I remember we played him on Jacksonville, and he, it was a really close game. We ended up winning because McCaffrey ran for like 200 yards that game. But I think he's a great player. And I think I was surprised after last year someone didn't take a chance on him. Awesome. Well, Kyle, thank you so much for joining us here on QB2.

This was awesome. I could talk to you for hours, but I will always. let you get back to your work day. Unfortunately, I got to go work. I'd rather do this. Thank you so much. Thanks everybody for watching. Thanks.

Thanks.