The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Baker and Jamal vs. Everybody Plus QB Talk With Trent Dilfer | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Episode Date: November 1, 2019

Russillo talks about Baker Mayfield and Jamal Adams (5:25), before taking with Trent Dilfer about coaching high school football; athletes' airing grievances to the media; young QBs including Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Mitchell’s Trubisky, Gardner Minshew II, Jimmy G, Jacoby Brissett, Kyle Allen, and Baker Mayfield; where Tom Brady is in relation to “the cliff"; and more (19:20). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

hey it's friday i'm in a great mood up early we have trent dilfer why not be in a great mood when you have trent dilfer we're gonna talk some football and we're probably not gonna talk warriors with him maybe a little warrior doubt it though the warriors are not good now steph curry is out with a broken hand and i have have some thoughts, but I'm not sure. I know how many of you want the NBA stuff, but I'm pretty excited about this football thing. And my Open, today's opening segment, the Open, is about Baker Mayfield and Jamal Adams and the NBA a little bit.

So get ready for that one. Today's episode of the Ryan Rosillo Show is brought to you by State Farm. If you're fumbling with insurance, State Farm agents are here to help because with over 19,000 agents, they're local to you and available to help. Whether you connect in person by phone or through the State Farm mobile app, agents are here to help. So go with the one that has coverage and agents you can count on. State Farm, talk to an agent today and make sure you continue to subscribe, rate and review to the podcast. I know I probably mentioned it and it always can come off as like, oh, good for you. But when you take a big move and you leave ESPN after 14 years and you go to the ringer and it's been two months, there are three podcasts in the country that have multiple

episodes ranked in the top 10. It's Bill Simmons, it's my buddies, the part of my take, and it's this podcast. And without you guys listening and to have it happen this soon, we're about four weeks in, like you get that opening bump where everybody's podcast is ranked really high and then it just sort of kind of filters out. And that's what really happens in the business. And then it's like, am I going to stay? Am I going to still stay up there? Like I said, three podcasts in the country that have multiple episodes in the top 10 rankings. And this is one of the three. And I couldn't be more thankful. Yeah, I'm happy, but I'm very thankful that I have so many of you that care about like what

Chris and I are doing or any of the stuff we're doing and some of the different things like you guys all seem to look, I'm not saying it's a hundred percent approval because maybe you just didn't tell me you didn't like it, but you seem to like the billion dollar whale story and we're going to do more of that kind of stuff and then Anik and the poker thing. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I can't like just a million thank yous. It means a lot. DraftKings. I'm excited to announce that DraftKings, a longtime supporter of mine throughout the radio days and now with podcasts and all of the stuff that I've done are now sponsoring this show for the rest of the football season. So when you're watching football,

every run, throw and catch mean more with a DraftKings lineup on the line. It's simple. Just draft your lineup, stay under the salary cap and see how your team stacks up against the competition. With tons of cool features for the rest of the season, DraftKings has something for everyone. For rookies just starting to veterans who've been playing DraftKings for years. Let's pull up a number because I knew this was going to happen as soon as it happened. May sound redundant. Not really, though. Kenyon Drake. Kenyon Drake. I found out I was in a fantasy league four weeks after they'd been playing and somebody goes, you know you're in this league, right? I was like, ooh,

how am I doing? I'm like, not good. You're 0-4 and Roethlisberger is your starting quarterback. It auto-drafted for you. I went, oh, that sucks. I don't even like Ben. Unless he's a dude. But as a quarterback, if he's healthy, maybe not a terrible pick.

I go, let me guess. I got Kenyon Drake too again? They're like, yep, you got Kenyon Drake. First round pick. I'm like, great auto draft. So I have for years had a problem with Kenyon Drake as a fantasy guy or no, it really wasn't that it was, I had a problem with fantasy people telling me how good Kenyon Drake would be all the time. And you're like, look, I liked him at Bama and everything. Well, guess what? Pick them up. I'm back on it. 15 carries 110 yards, a touchdown. He also had four catches for 52. We're

talking 162 from scrimmage for Kenyon Drake. So there you go. DraftKings away. I'm back on it, man. Fantasy guys rule. Download the DraftKings app right now and use my code RUESSILLO, R-U-S-S-I-L-L-O. New users will get a free shot at over $1 million in prizes with your first deposit. That's code RASILLO for your shot at $1 million in prizes with your first deposit only at DraftKings. Minimum $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See DraftKings.com for details. I'm going to add to this DraftKings thing real quick

because when I was younger, I don't do it now. I don't know why I don't do it now, but when I was younger, date, didn't have any money, had a bunch of singles, relax. And I was like, let's play this game where I'll bet you a dollar it's a run. And then if it's a pass, you get a dollar and then we can make it, hey, it has to be more than three yards. And it's three to one odds on this and all these different things. It's an unbelievable icebreaker. Okay.

It's a great way if you don't have any money and somebody's just hanging out and it's not as weird as Netflix and chill. And you're like, okay, does, does she like blacklist or does she like me? Um, just do it on draft Kings now. So there you are, you're there with your girlfriend and somebody new, you introduce her to the app. She puts the app on the phone. You start picking out different things, and you can do it just boom. You don't have to wait three hours for the result to see who covered the spread. You can do it this way.

Very interactive. So there you go. Download it now, DraftKings app, Priscilla. They got bonus coverage on that one. And that's the whole point. We want to take care of the people that take care of us at the podcast. Trent Dilfer, but first, today's open is about Baker Mayfield and the NBA and the little Jamal Adams. So how am I going to do this? Okay, well, I'm going to explain to you. There has been a push on talk shows to say the

NFL wants to be like the NBA when it comes to player empowerment. Good luck ever getting there. Okay, now, as much as I'm sure NFL players are like, look, these NBA guys, these stars, all they do is complain long enough, even if they're under contract, and then they get traded. And a lot of times they get traded to a situation they like a lot better. That's the NBA. And if you don't like the NBA because of that, I'd actually tell you, you know what? It's a really good argument, and I don't have a counter to it. I don't know that long-term it's awesome that everybody just gets to get mad and decide to go somewhere else. I know some of you listening are like, look, it's a business. The player should be able to take care of himself. If the team wants to trade him, why is that any different than the player deciding,

I want to move out? I'm out of here. Well, I would think the contract has something to do with it, but then again, that's thrown back in my face. So there are theories I'm open to debating, but it doesn't mean you have to like it every single time an NBA player decides, hey, I'm out of here. So to suggest, because Jalen Ramsey wanted out of Jacksonville, as we had told you on this podcast over a month ago, that look, people that I've talked to around the league are saying that Jalen's never going to play for Tom Coughlin again. Jalen's reps were telling people that he's never playing for Coughlin again. And that's exactly what happened because unless Coughlin's going to be running the Rams and Jalen's going to be on the Rams because

they love paying everybody in Los Angeles, that's not going to happen. So Jalen's going to be on the Rams because they love paying everybody in Los Angeles. That's not going to happen. So Jalen forces his way out and it becomes this talking point. It's like, is the NFL taking its cues from the NBA? Will we see this shift? Will we see it look like the NBA? The simple answer is no, because it's still the top players in the NBA, whether it's 8 of 12, 6 of 10, forcing their way out. We have had an unbelievable and unprecedented amount of turnover at the very top of the league. The most talented players in the NBA have decided to

bounce. And in the NFL, my guess is, I don't even want to call it a guess, my prediction, I'm telling you, I doubt that that's ever going to happen the same level that we just saw in the NBA the last few years. So the other part of this is the unhappiness. Baker Mayfield right now is an unhappy guy, and he's unhappy because the team is losing. And just as Simmons and I had last season very early on gone, man, if you go down, not just players that have changed addresses in the NBA, why is it that eight of the top 10 players all seem miserable? Why is it that arguably the top five or six all have ad campaigns talking about the haters? Part of that is they have more access to the haters than any generation of athletes that we've ever seen before. But it becomes this persecution complex where everybody's out to get me and everybody hates me.

Baker's feeling that right now in Cleveland. And it's not because he has changed. It's because the record has changed. Now, Baker got into it with a reporter this week. It's a longtime reporter in Cleveland who he's had a problem with. The reporter said, look, he hasn't liked me since I mentioned that he suggested that he should get first-class flight tickets for he and his companion. And, you know, I know he's married now,

but I don't even know if it was his girlfriend at the time. My point is that the report was that Baker wanted two first-class tickets, and then the reporter wrote about it in Cleveland, and then he's like, look, Baker's hated me ever since. I've tried to talk to him. He has no interest in talking to me and we know that about Baker like once he feels like you've done him wrong he's just never going to talk to you anymore that part I actually get I can be that way certain times too and I also could understand like not to do this

but there's an element of watching athletes be asked the same questions and if they aren't great questions how frustrating that can be and Baker's definitely frustrated and part of it is his own personality you can call it immaturity you can just flat out say he's a jerk or you could say and if they aren't great questions, how frustrating that can be. And Baker's definitely frustrated. And part of it is his own personality. You can call it immaturity. You can just flat out say he's a jerk. Or you could say he's repping Cleveland, and this is exactly what Cleveland has needed because Browns fans will tell you, hey, we wanted a guy like this.

We wanted somebody who was abrasive, but a guy who liked being here and a guy who liked sticking up for us. Here's Baker going at it with that reporter just this week. To the block field goal at the end of the first half, a two-minute drive. Here's Baker going at it with that reporter just this week. behind the chains. No, no, no. Stop saying but. I just told you the clock was running and we had a penalty. Do you want to give them the ball back? No. You don't play. You don't know it. That's just plain and simple.

Was I happy with the drive? No, we didn't score points. That's the dumbest question you could ask. What? Jesus. Now, Baker was mad at Hugh Jackson because he didn't start right away. But guess what?

A lot of first-round picks. I mean, we can go through this whole thing. But it's just... It's very repeatable. Like, when he was saying, but it's just, it's, it's very repeatable. Like when he was saying, Oh, you know, I'm not going to be able to, you know, I'm not going to be out there and playing. And they put in Tyrod Taylor. I'm not telling you like I'm the biggest Tyrod Taylor guy either, but it's very consistent that first round picks don't always play. I don't know why coaches do this. Maybe they do it because they can play the

vet early on. He's the guy that signed there that vets probably pissed off anyway, because he was signed before the quarterback was even drafted. So he's like, look, it's easier to bench the vet and then bring in the rookie than it is to start with the rookie bench, the rookie, and then have to bring the rookie back in again. I don't know, man, but it happens all the time. So for Baker to make it feel like it was personal about him and Hugh, he wasn't really paying attention to how the industry works because not everybody gets to be Kyler Murray. It's usually a daniel jones or the giant solos who's gonna take forever and then you realize like week two wait a minute maybe we should just get him in there duane haskin still hasn't gotten in um if you go back to other first rounders uh josh allen was he right away you know

what josh actually did get in but he didn't start week one i mean uh right like here we go again oh obviously like oh we can't we can't do that all right yeah actually let's get him in there um rosen lamar didn't start right away um trubisky didn't start right away my home sat on an entire year so it's just on and on and on so when baker made it about himself saying you know i can't believe i can't believe they would sit me down no no that's that's actually exactly what happens all the time okay but they finished up five and two last, and that was the rallying cry. And that's why when Baker was winning these games and going 5-2 to close in the last seven, he's like, man, this guy's got something. He's got a little edge to him, a little snap, a little snarl.

Who are the teams they beat? Should we have paid more attention to this? The Ws. Atlanta, Cincinnati, Denver, Carolina, Cincinnati. Two fired head coaches, no playoff teams out of those five I think we should have paid more attention to that but I'm still not going to sit here and tell you that Baker's a bad guy I'm not going to tell you that he's a bad quarterback I'm just telling you I don't know and I also understand that look man when it goes wrong and you're not winning games this whole me against the world thing nobody wants like you're not Tupac you don't get to be Tupac through the whole thing and the funny thing is is Baker actually understands that because then he tweeted about

it non-stop after the fact going hey don't you know it's when it's going well it's passion but when it isn't you know don't don't start piling on me or don't start applauding me when this whole thing turns around because really simple let's listen to the clip again and you tell me what Baker sounds like there's a penalty so we were negative yardage. There was a lot of time between snaps. Well when the penalty happened and we're behind the chains. No no stop saying but. I just told you the clock was running and we had a penalty. You want to give them the ball back? No. You don't play. You don't know it. That's just plain and simple. Was I happy with the drive? No we didn't score points. That's the dumbest question you could ask. What? Jesus.

Kind of sounds like an asshole, right? Not fair, but that's what it sounds like. You want to know what else isn't fair? Because this guy is thought of as a genius. What are we talking about here? I just meant,

is it something that kind of frustrates you because it takes the focus off of him taking coaching from you, in your opinion? There's a lot of pronouns. I don't really know who's talking about what. You're there?

Sorry. No, that's a bad question. That's Bill Belichick being asked about off-the-field distractions where he just literally walked away from the podium. I could have come up with a million examples of this, but Bill, when he decided, he's done. That guy's got 300 wins. I'm not telling you Baker's Bill Belichick.

I'm just saying that Baker actually has it completely figured out. But he's unhappy right now, just like Jamal Adams. Now, Jamal Adams had a different reason for being unhappy. He wasn't unhappy about the coverage. He was more than happy to sit down and talk with everybody, which I did think was funny. And shout out to Carl Anthony Towns, who I think should have gotten one more game suspension than Embiid because his comeback game was so bad. And I even thought it was funnier that Simmons was somehow the peacemaker in all of this, but we're just

going to leave that for the NBA pod that we do here soon. But Jamal Adams, who was like, I'm not really ready to talk except I'll do videos on Twitter. I'll go ahead and sit down and talk with the media. I just don't want to talk to the front office. Now, Jamal was mad because of the trade deadline. He felt like he was being shopped around. I don't know enough about the specific answers here to know if Joe Douglas decided, hey, let's find out if we could trade Jamal Adams. Jamal Adams, who's not one of the best safeties in the NFL. He's one of the best players in the NFL. Jamal talked of the best players in the NFL. Jamal talked to the media after the trade deadline went through and like everybody else in the league, actually wasn't traded. Well, you know, man, you know, I woke up Monday morning

and, you know, I kind of found out through a couple of reliable people that I have a lot of trust in that I was being, you know, shopped around. You know, at the end of the day, I know he has a job to do and I respect it. But I hold myself in a high regard. I've done everything they've asked me to do since I've been here for the three years. I didn't take that lightly. I really didn't.

But, you know, when I heard that my agent called me and he told me what was going on, you know, it definitely hurt me. You know what I mean? I hold myself at a high level. You know, the Rams don't take calls on Aaron Donald. The Patriots don't take calls on Tom Brady. You know what I mean? That's where I hold myself in that regard. So regardless of I understand that you have a job to do, that's the way I took it.

So this really comes down to a debate of was he actually shopped or did people call about him? Because if people simply called and the Jets answered the phone, they were doing nothing more than doing their job. I don't know enough about it that if Jamal, when he talked to the front office on Friday and they said, hey, you're a cornerstone, and if his information is that they actually were actively shopping him, then I'll side with Jamal Adams. But there's part of me that wonders, like, wait a minute, are you doing the thing where you're just really mad because you're in a trade rumor? Because if you NFL guys want to be like NBA guys, get used to trade rumors, a lot of them, because that's the reality that NFL guys want to be like NBA guys, get used to trade rumors. A lot of them.

Because that's the reality that NBA guys have to deal with all the time. So Jamal, if it's just about saying, hey, you would never take a call on Tom Brady, you would never take a call on Aaron Donald, well, let's revisit history on that one. Because guess what? John Lynch called Bill Belichick about Tom Brady. Jay Glazer reported

that. Where Lynch calls up Bill, he goes, I know you don't want to trade Garoppolo. Would you trade Brady? And Belichick's like, are you serious? Did you just ask me if I trade Brady? But he asked him, does that mean Brady, if we're applying the Jamal Adams approach to this, does that mean Brady could be upset with Bill? And again, I'm covering myself here that I don't know for certain how the Jets handled this. If they just answered the phone, the Jamal Adams needs to get over this. And are you telling me you don't think the Rams took calls and had multiple offers on Aaron Donald once that contract thing was getting dragged out? Of course. I'm sure most of the teams kicked the tires and called up Les Snead and said, hey, what's going on with your boy Aaron

Donald? Like, do you want to move him? Because a guy like Khalil Mack can be moved. So if it's just about calls and those conversations, and that's the information that Jamal Adams got, then you know what? I'm not going to side with Jamal Adams, and I may even side with the Jets. Here's the final thought on all of this. As much as guys want to say, it's a business, I got to take care of myself, which is always the pro player argument when it comes to the NBA. And I think some media members hoping that that would carry over into the NFL. If that's what you're applying here to defend every player for being

upset, for feeling disrespected, when players do this thing where they say, hey, we're human beings, that is not breaking fucking news. We know that you're a human being, okay? Except for people on Twitter bitching about their fantasy team. But if you're saying, I have to take care of me, I have to look out for me. This is the business that I'm in. And I don't always agree with it. Okay? It doesn't mean that you should just be able to do whatever you want. If that's your defense of being emotional, of being upset with your team, being upset with the media and all these different things, understand if you're applying those principles that it's just about business,

because I hear it all the time, then you have to apply those same principles to an NFL team that's just answering the phone when people call about their best players. That's today's Open. We're going to talk to Trent Dilfer. Fight fans, it's fight season on DAZN. This fall, you get a stacked lineup of the biggest fights featuring the biggest stars in boxing like Canelo Alvarez and Andy Ruiz Jr. only on DAZN. With a DAZN subscription, you can watch Canelo vs. Kovalev on November 2nd. That's Saturday, guys. Canelo's moving up two weight

classes to face Kovalev. For the light heavyweight world title, can he clinch yet another title at the new 175-pound weight class? You also get the Ruiz vs. Joshua rematch on December 7th. After an unbelievable underdog win against Anthony Joshua, Andy Ruiz determined to cement

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you have to do is download the DAZN app to start watching. Exclusive home of Canelo Alvarez and Triple G. DAZN, big fights, any device, one price. Download the DAZN app or sign up at DAZN.com. DAZN, that's D-A-Z-N. Trent Dilfer, Super Bowl champ and Lipscomb Academy head coach. Trent, good to talk to you again, man.

I know how busy you are. How's high school going? It's awesome, man. Well, hi to you too, Ryan. It's great. It's a challenge. It's everything I thought it would be and more. It's as rewarding as anything I've ever done and as challenging as anything I've ever done. But you've got to be in it for the right reasons because it's not always about winning and losing. You want to win and lose. I'll never minimize that. We're trying to win every single game, every single practice, but there's times because you're dealing with 14 through 18 year olds and their families and a community that you've got to see the bigger picture.

And when you keep seeing the bigger picture, it becomes more and more rewarding. I don't want to get you in trouble here, but how tough is the parent part of this? You know, it is hard. No, this is where, you know, I'm brutally honest. I mean, we do these coffee with the coaches on Thursday mornings where the parents can come and ask me questions. And I'm brutally honest. I tell them, like I told them yesterday morning, I'm like, hey, you guys, your little issues are not big issues. You think they are.

But your little issues are disrupting our ability to get better. Just because it may seem like a huge deal to you as a family, it's not that big of a deal. And if we handle everything as little things and not let them become big things, then we're all better because of it. But I think they appreciate the honesty. Now, I'm sure they go home and are like, oh, he doesn't get us, and we are the most important thing. But you're always looking out for the tribe, not just one tribal member.

As the head coach, you're always focused, not just one tribal member, you know, as the head coach, you know, you're, you're always focused or I'm always focused with the entire tribe and what's best for the entire tribe. And when I can show them that thought process, I think at least softens their, um, over investment in their child alone. Okay. All right. Yeah, that makes sense. And honestly, I think it would be tougher to go at you than just a regular high school coach. But you know, I've had, I've had friends that coach that played pro sports that go, man,

I do this all the time for the parents. So parents listening to this podcast, if you have a kid in high school back off. All right. Let's let's talk about somebody who probably could be described as a difficult one, and he could be his own parent. That's Baker Mayfield. And I'm dangerously close to going, you know, we talked about him being a backup in the NFC.

It was my open of the podcast today, you know, his emotions. And I think he's really smart in basically figuring it all out. Like, hey, you guys think I'm a jerk now, but you love me last year. As you watch him, the player and watch how he's interacted here. What are you seeing? Like, are you concerned? Which path? What would you say to him?

I think it's really interesting. And you teed it up perfectly. It's okay. What are you seeing as a player, and what are you seeing off the field? And I think it's a really interesting dynamic. He is authentically him off the field. He has never changed.

He was pissed when he was 16, and we didn't let him in Elite 11, and he's held a grudge ever since. Will not talk to me. And I love that. I love it about him. I love and he's held a grudge ever since. Will not talk to me. And I love that. I love it about him. I love that he's edgy. I love that he's never changed. He needs to mature, but he's not going to change who he is.

The number one thing that kills quarterbacks is they're told they need to be a certain way. They need to be Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or whoever it is. No, they need to be a better version of themselves. So they need to know who they are. And he knows who he is. He's a chip on the shoulder, confrontational, high energy type guy. And there's probably a better way to explain them. And I don't think he should change that.

I think he should be more respectful in how he does that. He should grow as we all grow as human beings, but never sacrifice who he is. But the interesting thing is he doesn't know who he is on the football field. And that's my big thing right now. And I've been saying it since the draft. If you study the football playoff against Georgia, it was very clear who he was. He is a precision timing guy that when he thinks he's an athletic guy, he gets into a bunch of trouble. When he thinks he's an extend the play guy, he gets into a bunch of

trouble. People forget when he was at OU, he had five offensive linemen that went to the NFL. Um, people forget when he was at OU, he had five offensive linemen that went to the NFL. Um, he, for the most part, the bulk of his production was rhythm, timing, precision, execution, be part of the system, not be bigger than the system. And when he does that in the NFL, he's very good. As soon as he starts trying to play outside of the X's and O's and put on the Superman cape and be the creative, artistic Steve Young type guy, he's just not big, physical, and talented enough to be consistent doing that. He can do it at times, and everybody in Case Kingdom can do it at times, but that can't be his primary pitch. And he gets himself in a ton of trouble when he's overly aggressive, when he tries to be something he isn't on the football field.

So it's the dichotomy of he knows who he is off the field, and I'm okay with that. He just needs to grow and mature. He doesn't know who he is on the field, but as he begins to grow and mature in that, if he's introspective enough to look at the tape and say, this guy doesn't lie. Look at when I'm on rhythm, when I'm on time, ideal. Okay, yeah, I made a play here. I made a play there.

But if you take the 15 times that I didn't play on rhythm, wow, eight of them were bad and they hurt my team. Well, maybe I shouldn't do that as much. And I just think it's part of this natural growth curve that quarterbacks go through. So it takes some of us longer than others to figure it out. You're really not to say like, this is surprising, but you're so right about his extending the plays as an asset versus extending the plays as a last resort. And he reminds me of different guards that I'll look at getting ready for the NBA draft where I'll say, okay, you finished at the rim here,

but there's a whole run of you guys that when you get to the NBA, it's always funny. You'll see these rookie guards get into the league and they try to finish at the rim. And you're like, hey, that's not going to happen. Like Kyrie could do it. Sebastian Telfair never could. There's just certain guards you go, that's not going to happen. Like Kyrie could do it. You know, Sebastian Telfair never could. Okay, there's just certain guards you go,

that's never going to work, and you're going to have to figure out how to be a driving kick guy, or you're going to have to figure out that like every contested layup isn't even worth bothering with. And when we had McShea on, he was like, look, he doesn't test off the charts,

but everybody sees him running around Oklahoma thinking like he's this dual threat guy, and he isn't't. But you know, the biggest thing that I see with him when, when it was like, Oh wow, he's going to go number one when it is right. It looks really, really good. Like it, you were like, man, look how quick he gets the ball out. Look at all these different things. So what I'm wondering is, is it his emotions getting in the way of this? I always worry about a guy like Odell and maybe to a lesser extent Jarvis with a quarterback that they get frustrated with. Cause I think, you know, they've, they've proven they'll check out on dudes. Um, and then I look

at the Freddie kitchens thing where I know, I, I know what I don't know about this sport, but when some of the examples are so obvious that your lack of organization is just screaming at everyone at home on a Sunday watching TV. It makes me wonder, like, what's it like in the building Monday through Saturday then? So I'm at a real point with him where I don't like to write off anybody. I also don't annoy anybody after half a season either. But I'm just sitting here going, I wonder how this story ends because it looks bad now on the field and off the field. We're married to Baker, uh, at least for four years, probably five.

And if you think as an owner, it's probably ownership, then president, then GM. If you think you made a mistake with your head coach, because he doesn't have, and this is the word I've used on every time I've talked about Freddie Kitchens, cause he's a good guy. I think he's a good coach,

but I don't think he's highly sophisticated. I don't think he has that, that level of sophistication that the best CEOs have. And if you think that is getting in the way, you have to cut bait. Like you just have to, you can't, you can't have another year of

this. And it's not the win-loss record. It's exactly what you say, that it screams at you that they're getting out-sophisticated. I don't want to say coach. They don't see it from 30,000 feet. They don't see the big picture. They don't have that CEO leadership come day, game day. And if they don't have a come day, come game day, sorry, I can't talk, then they for sure don't have it. What'd you say Monday through Saturday? I mean, I've been in those rooms. I've been around coaches that to this day are really good friends that are great men that are really good position coaches or even coordinators. that are great men, that are really good position coaches or even coordinators.

But once they put the big hat on, it overwhelms them. And they can't go above the granular minutia and see the bigger picture. Therefore, everybody becomes a prisoner of the moment. And that kind of is what it feels like. I don't think they do a great job of understanding who they are. You can have really talented guys, Odell's and Landry's and Chubb's, and you can have those guys and still play a sound, fundamentally right, somewhat boring type of football that wins for you. You don't have to be NASCAR.

I mean, you don't have to be pedal to the metal all the time. Plays will naturally happen within the schemes if the schemes are sound. And it seems like it's kind of a spitball offense. It's kind of like, oh, okay, let's go empty here because we have five guys we can go and empty, or let's take a shot here. Well, why not run the ball a couple more times? Or, hey, we're running the ball. Why not do run action off of it?

It just doesn't seem as put together as obviously the highly sophisticated teams. And I think Baker's struggling because of it because if your head coach can't tell you who you are, how in the heck at 23, 24, 25 can you figure out who you are? I know I couldn't. I maybe have asked you about this. I know it teed you up this week when we were talking about coming on.

I look at Baker's frustrations. It was the opening of the segment about Jamal Adams going off and being really upset. And I try not to be, you know, older guy being like, why are you guys so upset about this? Because I just thought it was funny. Like how many NFL guys are like, we want to take our cues from the NBA. It's like, well, if you do get used to being in every single trade room or the entire season, um, even that passed the deadline, which is not necessarily what's going to happen in the NFL. When you see Jamal Adams be really upset with his front office, do you look at it specific to the team or do you still feel like you have an old school mentality about it of like, Hey man, like you're a great player and people are going to call. Like, what are you like? What's Trent Dilfer like when he's watching this

stuff happen this week? It's who it is. Uh, when Baker does it, you know, when he acts out, you're like, yeah, that's who Baker is. And he'll grow. Um, when Antonio Brown does it, you're like, yeah, that's Antonio Brown. He's never going to be When Antonio Brown does it, you're like, yeah, that's Antonio Brown. He's never going to be happy. When Jamal Adams does it, it's an issue. Jamal Adams is one of the finest people, one of the finest pros, one of the hardest workers, one of the best leaders I've ever seen at 17, 18 years old when he was at the opening.

He comes back every year as a counselor to help mentor young kids. He's a pro's pro. He's one of the best players in football and a pro's kids. He's a pros pro. He's one of the best players in football and a pros pro. He's everything you want as a teammate. He's a 10 as a teammate. When he's pissed, there's something going on. You know, when he's going to speak up, when he's going to show his frustration, that's not who he is. You know, he's not a guy that's going to overreact to stuff. Um, so it just depends who the person is. And, um, you know, I, again, nobody cares about grumpy old man stuff, but you know,

it was like when certain guys on your team spoke up, kind of just rolled your eyes. You're like, shut up. You know, you don't see, you don't speak for us. And you haven't earned the right to have a voice but then when like a Paul Gruber speaks up who nobody in the world that's listening knows who I'm talking about he's a 15 year pro left tackle Tampa Bay Buccaneers was there for the ugly years got to experience one of the good years under Dungy, pros, pro, man's man, quiet, best worker, best leader, best, best, best, best, best. If he got upset, everybody was at attention.

Like, oh, yeah, there's something going on if he's upset. And that's how I look at the Jamal Adams situation. What's the most heated you got with a – would it be a front office? Did we already cover this? Is this all the Ravens exit stuff? I was – I mean, anybody knows me knows that I don't mind conflict. I actually like it. I think growth comes through it. I was very mature early on, thought I knew more than I really did. And then when I actually

did figure it out, I wasn't very good because my body was broken down. But, you know, the back half of my career, I was that guy. I was the team spokesman. I had earned that right. I had the pelts on the wall. I worked harder than anybody else. I had grown up a ton. I had older kids. I think there's something to,

when you have teenagers in a locker room and you're dealing with teenagers sometimes, there's some gravitas that goes with that. So yeah, I fought front offices. I fought coaches offices. I fought coaches. I tried to do it in a respectful way. I think I still have really good relationships with those people I fought with because there's a good way to have conflict, a healthy way. But yeah, when I felt like there was an issue with the team or I felt like ownership or front office was doing stuff that hurt our ability to prepare

and win. These are our livelihoods. And sometimes those get a lot of those guys on the team don't have voices or they don't know how to express their voice quite yet. They're still learning. They're still growing up as humans. You know, when you lose a son at 30 years old, when you have three other teenage kids, when you've won a Super Bowl and been kicked off a team, when you've gone through major injuries, when you've gone to Pro Bowls and then been discarded, you know, you have enough pelts on the wall that you feel burdened to be your team spokesman.

And yeah, I had a lot of those situations. I mean, heated, heated stuff with coaches and front office people. But again, there's a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. I think any time you do it through the media, it's a wrong way. And I made that mistake. The media is not your ally. And, you know, the media isn't as powerful as they believe they are, but they can turn on you real quick and be very powerful in a negative way. on you real quick and be very powerful in a negative way. So you have to have the sophistication and know what the place is for the media as well. So there's, again, like everything, there's a lot

of layers to this, but yeah, I had a ton of run-ins. None of this is surprising. None of this. So no, you know me. Yeah. But you know, I, I know sometimes I can be the same way. Like when there's a meeting granted maybe i shouldn't even have said that sentence but and somebody be like hey you're worried about today i'm like are you kidding i can't wait to do this like what yeah like yeah like i can't wait to go in there and say how i feel and see how it you know how they react and as you know someone that can sometimes seek conflict and enjoy it and look forward to it's like okay that backfired again so um i don't know i mean let's talk about the espn thing why do you think i'm not with the can sometimes seek conflict and enjoy it and look forward to it. It's like, okay, that backfired again.

So, um, I don't know. I mean, let's talk about the ESPN thing. Why do you think I'm not with ESPN? Do you think it wasn't good? Well, we both know that that's not. I'm not with ESPN because I fought. I fought. What happened? I fought for what I thought was right.

I fought for better television. I fought for smarter television. I fought producers that were crappy. I fought front office guys that I didn't feel were doing what's best, you know, long term for the shows that we were on. You know, I wasn't a juror. I don't think I disrespected anybody, but I didn't. I voiced my opinion. And sometimes it's a lot easier to deal with somebody that's not going to voice their opinion. lot easier to deal with somebody that's not going to voice their opinion. And I understand that. I mean, my last conversations with John Skipper were awesome. To this day, I count him as a friend. And I understood why I was more difficult than others, but I was difficult for the sake of the team and trying to do something smarter and better and more insightful than shock and jock television, you know, where it's like,

let's just do debate all day long. Well, what if there's no debate? What if we just want to be smart? What if we want to tell a story that isn't being told? Yeah, no, nobody wants that. What do you mean? Nobody wants that. You're going off the Nielsen ratings. Really? That's what we're basing our, our television off is the Nielsen ratings. Come on, man. Let's be smarter than that. And when you're willing to stand up and voice your opinion for something, there's a lot of people that just don't like conflict. It's easier not to have it. And I'm okay with that.

If it's your business, but when it's my business, I want to get to what's best. I have one objective in everything I do. Let's find what's best and live there. So when you were let go, and these are all part of the layoffs, a lot of times you would just go, well, that person was let go because they made a lot of money, and I'm sure you were doing fine. But they told you that it was more specific to you being competitive? Well, I knew what it was.

Well, I'm asking. You. You know, you know. Well, I'm asking. I don't, we've never, you and I haven't really talked about this because, you know, we were trying to keep track of everybody and what happened and everything. So like, what was it? I, you know, again, I'm not,

I also don't like to go through the media, which this is a podcast, we're friends, but I'm also not going to, you know, throw people under the bus. There were conversations that was difficult and I understand that. Okay. All right. Yeah. I, uh, I always thought it was a huge loss, man. So not just cause we're friends. I, um, I, you know, some of the politics of it, I didn't, I didn't know, especially on the TV side, you know, I, I didn't always know it, but I do know that I remember I had, I did have a stretch where I was

coming in during the playoffs and I was doing actually actually it wasn't even the playoffs, it was regular season. That's why I did it. And we would do segment preps and I would get an email every night and I would send out like, okay, well let's try this. Let's try this. Maybe we get this cut. And this is something I'm looking forward to. And after five or six of them, they're just like, I don't want to, we're not doing any of those things. What are we doing? Like, all right, the Warriors, could they beat the Bull bulls and then the segment producer after like 20 straight warriors ideas that were not original and it was the same thing like 20 sports centers in a row i went and met with the person i go hey you know we need to be a little better

here we need we need to figure out a way to to put a twist on it for the radio show i wouldn't just say hey warriors are good warriors are good for 20 opening segments i'd say hey you know so that's that's always been one of the things with ESPN that I try to explain to people is that there are people there that are amazing. And then like any business, there's times where you go, this is, this is it. Like, that's all we're doing. And then when you do say, Hey, we need to, we need to try to make this a little bit better here. You get this eye roll of like, Oh, like, you know, television. I go, well, I know topics. I know. Interesting.. I know not interesting. And I know with the Warriors beat the Bulls 20 days in a row isn't interesting. And you're right. So I don't, I think, I think the stuff you're hinting at is a little bit more

political than anything I was dealing with. But I always, I always thought it was interesting in, in the like mapping out a show. And then when I started mapping out shows, I'd be on this one NBA thing where they were like, where are you? I go, well, I'm the analyst. So I'll see you guys tonight analyst so i'll see you guys tonight and they go no no we need you in the production meeting i'm like wait a minute i'm producing your show now like why i've been like well because your ideas are good so yeah that part of um i don't think that's even specific to espn i think that's just television i think there's creative people everywhere that go like no i want to try this and then there's somebody who goes nope that's not what the research. Shut up and just sit in the chair and say Warriors Bulls. Amen.

Okay, sidetracked there a bit. I don't want to get you into trouble there. I had to follow up, but I didn't know what, you know. I don't know. Now I feel like I'm prying a bit. Not at all. Let's do this. Let's go through young QBs.

I don't know what my threshold for young QBs. Like Deshaun Watson is young. I don't need to ask you whether or not he's a dude too soon or not going to happen because he's turned into one of my favorite players in the league. All right. Is that fair? Yep. All right. Good. Yep. And I know it took me a little bit longer than some other people, but the stuff that guy does every week now, I'm like, I give up. I remember the show I did with you and Danny before the draft. I could tell you where I was sitting at my house in Saratoga on our Tuesday morning that we did that show. And you guys were pushing back on, is Deshaun really?

Like, what makes him so great? And we had this big, long conversation about, you just got to spend time around him. Like, it's unfair to judge Deshaun until you spend time around him or until you see a lot of his play. I hate when people say this, but it's true. He's magical. He has magic. Like, he does stuff that others can't do.

It's unbelievable, but I think my problem is somebody who watches all day on Saturday, I go, how come he's not as good this year? But maybe you looked at the tape and said he's just as good. It's just the handful of plays that are making you think it's not as good or they were just, I don't know. I don't know what it is. And then we watch him at the end. I was there on the sidelines for both those Alabama games.

And you go, all right. But now I'm all in. So you were right and it took me too long okay so here's the game he's a dude too soon meaning we don't know yet or it's not going to happen all right are you ready got it i love it josh allen too soon sam donald dude okay what'd you think of the ghost thing that sucks for him because it's going to follow him we all have said it every one of us has said it dan marino said it john elway said everybody said it sometime like what am i seeing out there like that's not what i study that's not

we you know you don't say ghost a lot of there's just days. You're not seeing it. Well, like my high school quarterback the other night, we lost a game, but I could tell he was seeing it good. Like he was seeing it. I'm like, bro, for the first time you're seeing it, he goes, yeah, like boundary to boundary 16 years old, I can see it. And I remember those nights where you can see it. And those nights are like, you have no idea what you're looking at do you no it's that safety's not it looks like he's four yards no he's at 14 no i swear he was down in the box nah he was going to the halves like that linebacker came man no he didn't he took one step that corner's inside no he's not he's nine yards off like it just happens now it's tragic that they heard you know they got that sound and then they cleared it johnny that's the

thing because all sorts of stuff somebody can't clear you can't clear that anyway you can't clear that i would be in that office saying what in the heck are you doing to me? Like, you just so threw me under the bus. You know, it's a tough deal, man. I mean, every quarterback goes through. I think the older you get, you have a play or two of that or three or four plays of that. Then you kind of, we always say, settle your eyes, you know, know what you're looking at. Are you looking at the right things? Are you looking at the right information players?

Did they just trick us on scheme? Hey, let's go to the sideline. Here's what they're doing. And, you know, you calm yourself down your process and you move forward and then you stop seeing those quote unquote ghosts. But I mean, every quarterback's gone through that. I'm surprised more guys nationally didn't step up. And I don't watch very much TV anymore in the NFL, in terms of the pregame shows. In fact, I don't watch any of it. Maybe they did, but I'm hoping the Bradshaws and the Hasselbacks

and the Warners and, you know, the Aikman's, you know, guys that are, you know, big voices on television right now that were quarterbacks were honest enough to say, oh yeah, I went through that. You know, we've all gone through that. Somebody did. I forget who it was. I don't know if it was Aikman or not. And look, from an entertainment standpoint, that's great. I've always thought that it would be unbelievable to just mic up everybody for an entire game and then edit it that way and replay it for three hours or something with every single piece of audio spliced in. And the NFL Films element is what keeps, you know, it's easier to keep track of all the NFL stuff

because it's just far less games. But the historic context that they can put everything in, I mean, this league is so incredible at all that stuff, but I just, yeah, I'll admit I had a moment on the couch where I'm like, here's a dude who I still think can be good. And now every time he has a bad game, it's going to be this and it's going to be ghost headlines for as long as he's in New York. All right. Let me keep moving here. Rapid fire. I'm not even going to pick anybody for the dolphins.

Cause I don't know how you would go on Rosen at this point. And I think Fitzpatrick's been around long enough. Okay, Lamar. That's probably the hardest one. I think I'll try to give a long, dull answer, but it has to be a little bit longer answer. He's a dude if. He's a dude if they just stay true to what they're doing with who he is.

Don't try to make him an NFL pure passer. Let him be Randall Cunningham, Steve Young early. You know, a guy that is, he's such a threat as an athlete and he can chunk it, but it's never going to be precise because that's not how he grew up playing the game and it doesn't need to be. But if they confuse what they have with what they try to do, then it will ruin who he is. But if they let him be Lamar and say, okay, maybe it's only a seven-year run because eventually he'll get beat up,

but he's going to light it up for those seven years, then I would say, dude. I think that's really fair. I am really looking forward to the matchup against Bill this weekend because I love the guy. I love the player. Yeah, it's the only game I want to watch. It is must-see TV.

Right. If you know anything about Bill, he is built for this kind of game. Like, oh, you guys are on TV saying, like, I was watching Get Up this morning, and I'm like, have you never watched a Belichick coach team before? I'm like, what are you guys talking about?

Like, he is so excited about, okay, you guys think this? You think he's going to run all over us? And the thing with Lamar, like, I'd give him more of a chance than anyone I've ever seen of still breaking two big ones despite a week of preparation of containing him. But it's contain him, and then the Hollywood Brown thing obviously hurts their ability to stretch the field. So maybe he thinks, okay, it's all underneath.

So we do contain at the line. No one get upfield. Take away the underneath throws. And you're going to have to beat us deep against Gilmore in our secondary. Good luck. Like, that's what I would think he would do. How about that? Did you just, were you just impressed, Trent?

That was really good, by the way. I'd add, I'd only add one thing to it. It's these quarterback runs. It's the stuff that now i'm a coach and i'm learning all these college schemes there are extra people like you bill now has to deal with what all these college coaches had to deal with when these design quarterback runs came in like everything is gap sound right there's only so many gaps and you got to fill the gap in the run,

and that's the basic way to say it. Well, they cheat a gap. Like, you add a gap to the offense when the quarterback's running and when he's got misdirection and a lead balker coming from the other side and receivers crossing the field and backs inserting here. It's like the rule break. Here's the easiest. It just breaks your rules on defense.

So you almost have to reestablish a new set of rules. Now, Phil's also like, great, he'll beat us on some quarterback runs four or five times and we're going to blow him up. But you're not going to slide every time. And we're going to blow him up. And over the course, it's like Rocky beating Drago, right? When Rocky turns the corner on Drago in Rocky IV, it's like Rocky beating Drago, right? When Rocky turns the corner

on Drago and Rocky four, it's all with those rib shots, right? And he wakes them up by breaking a rib. And then you see Drago's face go, Oh, well that's, you hit a quarterback enough that the face goes, Oh, he becomes Drago and he's kind of done. Um, and I think that's, that's probably like when we face quarter running quarterbacks, that's what we're preaching is, yeah, they're going to get some, but let's get ours. And let's get the same in the fourth quarter and see if he's still running these design runs. And I think that's the NFL model that has kind of done the most good

or has the most positive effect defensively on stopping these dynamic runners is the body blow mentality. And that's what I'm curious to see is how many design runs can you run in a game? Because you're right, with Al Hollywood Brown, it's not that run action, take the top off, hit the home run. He's going to have to run the ball physically with the backs, and he's going to have to run, and they're going to have to convert on third and short, which will be man coverage with change-offs.

Cause that's what Bill's doing these days. And there's good as anybody doing it. So I can't, I cannot wait for that game. It's the only game I want to watch this weekend. The other thing I want to say is how good is Dan Orlowski on TV? He is by my far. He is to me.

He's your favorite guy. Wow. Him and Tim are my two favorite guys. I can listen to Tim Hasselbeck and Dan Orlowski talk about football all day long. They teach me something every week. No, Dan's really good. You know what's funny is whenever I did the studio show with him, he was so loud, they have to turn his mic down.

So I don't know if you've noticed that. Yeah, he did a little too. And I text him to get up. He doesn't have to yell at everybody. You are smarter than the people you're arguing with, so you't have to yell you're just smarter just beat them with your argument another thing to point out too with lamar why i think this is more impressive at times than than people because i you know i'm still like okay what do we uh we got and i can't wait to see this matchup and it's funny because like in a weird way i'm rooting for him because i

like him so much and there's all these little things that he'll do. He'll say every now and then you're like, God, this kid is awesome. That defense isn't that good. It's a little bit better. I think it's gotten a little bit better on some of the metrics, but this is not a Baltimore team that that's carrying their quarterback right

now. He's carrying them. All right, let's, uh, let's do a bunch more here. Cause I still feel like this is fun. Um, we did Lamar Mason Rudolph, probably a little too soon, here because I still feel like this is fun.

We did Lamar. Mason Rudolph, probably a little too soon, unless you want to just write him off now. Yeah, I mean, way, way, way, way too soon. Right, right, right. That's what I figured. You're fair here. Fair, but stern. Baker. Gosh darn it, I thought we were done with the Baker.

We can be done. No know i think too soon uh and i'm a baker fan always have been even though he hates my guts big fan but i think it's too soon because there's things outside of his control you are tied to your head coach play caller offensive coordinator and right now i don't like the combination. Okay. He hates your guts, huh? He's just that. I kind of love it about him, though. I love the fact that he holds grudges against people that he feels wronged them.

Listen, he was a short, little, fat, pudgy kid that threw the ball nice when I saw him at 16. I'm not taking that for Elite 11. I want dudes. He became a dude later Jacoby Brissett dude too soon dude

super dude long term solution that's Long's favorite guy he loves him he's really good Gardner Minshew dude my

I just did a thing with Colin on Monday I said he's the next Tony Romo. Who? Tony Romo. Oh, Colin. Yeah. Yeah,

I did it with Colin on Colin's show on Monday morning. I said, I got, I got your next Tony Romo for you. Everybody's always looking for the, you know, the late round or the undrafted guy that has a chance to be a long-term franchise guy.

You can build around. And I think Gardner's that guy. Wow. That one kind of threw me off. They don't think that, but I think it. Jacksonville doesn't think it. I don't think so. Are they going with Minshew or Foles this week? I felt like last night

I still didn't know. Sometimes it's the head coach and the coordinator are the only two that know. I guess we'll figure that one out this weekend. How many more guys do we have here? I don't want to do Dak and Wentz. I feel like they've been around long enough. Trubisky? No.

Out. I would have... Trubisky is a great example of the love button scenario. Have I ever told you of the love button scenario. Have I ever told you about the love button scenario that goes on in NFL? I want to hear it again. So the love button dilemma is when you fall in love with a guy after the pre-draft process for his personality, his characteristics, your connection with him, and then you're wrong, which is fine. People are wrong, but you stay true to your love button. Like I'm going to fight. I believe in my love, but that's my boy, man. I found him. I overdrafted him. I convinced everybody. He's

the guy. And if I admit that I'm wrong, I'm not just admitting I'm wrong to my organization, but, man, I'm breaking my love button's heart. And it happens. It happens in every sport, especially with quarterbacks in the NFL. And this is straight love button syndrome right here, where the GM, that was his love button, and he's holding his team hostage because of it. Now, I'm not saying Mitch can't be good one day,

but he's not the answer right now. Fair. I think you're being nice, but that's good. That's good. Okay, let me see here. What did you see out of Kyle Allen? Yeah, I'm probably not. Kyle is one of my, he's a dear friend.

He's one of my favorite Elite 11 guys. I am 100% biased here. I called North Turner on his behalf. I called Kyle Shanahan on his behalf. I called, you know, every NFL owner, GM, I knew about Kyle. I think he is an NFL quarterback. I don't think he's a franchise guy, but I think he's a,

now again, people weren't sure he was an NFL quarterback. Um, he's proven he's an NFL quarterback. He is, he's Matt shop. Okay. He's,

he's that guy. He can play 15 years. He'll start 45 games or more. Uh, he'll throw for a bunch of yards. Um, I, I don't know if he's a, he, if he's a franchise guy yet, I want to say is cause I'm so, I love him so much as a kid, as a competitor. Um, but I'd have to, you'd have to take it as a grain of salt because of my relationship with okay supervised but at least you admitted it um that's good what about garoppolo who i'll point out last night was the first time all season where i went okay we've got something here i still think there are underneath throws with him that I don't always love.

Some of the crossers will go back and look and be like, do you lock in on the first guy and then don't follow the rest of the stuff? And as I'm sitting there going, oh, here we go again, my doubting Garoppolo, his outside guys weren't really much, and now he's got Sanders, which changes everything. They couldn't run it last night. It wasn't the defense.

I was so excited as that game developed, his throws, and the fact that he had to be the guy instead of 200 yards on the ground in one of the greatest historic defenses we've ever seen and going, I still don't know if the quarterback's any good. I'm not saying case closed now on Garoppolo, but the Thursday nighter was awesome news if you're a Niners fan. He's a dude for the same reasons I'm not sure Baker's a dude. I love his connection. I think Kyle Shanahan is one of the top five minds in all of football. I think what they're doing around him is really good.

So for why I'm skeptical on Baker because of Freddie Kitchens, I'm full dude on Jimmy Garofalo because he's connected with Kyle and he has the Brady Belichick pedigree. Like he's getting all the right answers. Like he's, I'm trying to think of a good metaphor here. You probably will come up with one, but like when you have your, the table is set for you. You're getting all the calculus before the test. You have all the answers to the test before you take it. You're taking the bar exam and you already have the answers.

He's getting it all. There's nothing he doesn't have. So the table's set for him to be a dude, whether he's a dude or not. Like you can't fail. You cannot fail if you're Jimmy Garoppolo. By who you were drafted, who you got to watch, who you got to learn work ethic from, how you got to look at the game of football.

Oh, and then I get traded to the 49ers where I have another one of the top five minds in all of football and a GM that's getting me dudes. Like it's just perfect. It's absolutely perfect for Jimmy Garoppolo. Then I see the same thing you see where he locks on the deep over routes and then comes back two plays later, goes back, looks to the right, one, two, comes all the way back to what we call a corner stop,

a seven stop, and throws it soft early inside to throw Emmanuel Sanders open on third down. I'm like, okay, that's all I need to see. That Sanders throw was was ridiculous acheman was about to lose his mind and i think there's times maybe we can overrate those people from the outside but then when acheman's doing it you're like oh okay never mind like i used to i don't see that a lot anymore i thought acheman was really interesting in pointing that out that yeah i feel like when i was younger you would see those those throws before the route

is over way more than you do now. So seeing it, I'm like, oh, that's right. I feel like that used to happen more. Is that true? Yeah. Anticipation, boundary to boundary, quarterbacking used to be way more important. As the game is spread out, as there's more RPOs, as there's more conflict you can put on defenses with formations, personnel, grouping, schemes, we typically live in a pick-or-stick world. Andy Dalton's played his whole career as a pick-and-stick quarterback. You can get away with one-twoing it in the NFL where you couldn't. When Troy played, you couldn't.

When I played, you couldn't. You had to be boundary-to-boundary. You had to throw guys open. You were only getting three guys out sometimes. The windows were smaller. Quarterbacking was way harder 10 years ago than it is now from a physicality standpoint, from a scheme standpoint. You name it. I mean, what Dan Marino would do to the NFL right now, what Brett Favre would do to the league right now, what Troy Aikman would do to the league right now, Kurt Warner would do to the league right now.

Young, Steve Young. What Steve Young would do to the league right now would be criminal. Like, that's why I love Patrick Mahomes. I love Deshaun Watson. I love these guys. I think they're fantastic. But people say, oh, it's the first time we've ever seen that. No, you're an idiot if you're saying that.

Brett Favre did everything Patrick Mahomes is doing right now and did it better and did it when it was harder to do. I know you – can I jump in only because I know what's going to happen? There's going to be young people listening and be like, hey, we're jumping in. And I lose my mind when it's the older NBA guys trying to act like what these guys are doing today wouldn't happen. When I'm like, you guys would, if you did time travel and drop the Warriors into a nineties game, they'd be like, wait, everyone can shoot. And they shoot from out there the whole time. Like that would screw them up. But when I asked Steve Young about,

you know, today's game, just as you're saying, he saying he was dying laughing and i it wasn't in a disrespectful you know grandfatherly dismissive way it was just hey man he goes the middle now versus what we dealt with it's a real thing and it's great that it's safer he's like it's great that people don't have the head injuries that i had to deal with but he's like it is laughable to think of what i could get away with throwing like stuff I could throw to now where those areas were all off limits because nope, like you just, you couldn't make plays there. And now it's wide open and it's all over the place.

And to suggest that it's not way easier now is just, and it's Steve's smart analytical, like, you know, his mind, it was really convincing. And after that point, like I'm with you, you're just denying. It's not saying these guys aren't great, but you're denying how much the game has changed in a way that maybe is a little harder to identify. I'll go stronger than that because I'll preface this by saying I stunk then, I would stink now. This has nothing to do with me, okay?

So take me out of it. If you hate me, if you're one of those guys that say you only want to support because your defense is great, you're right. Don't care about you. Let me speak on behalf of my peers it was 10x harder to play quarterback than it is now let's see all the reasons Steve is saying but talk about the physical part of it I show my kids like my kids will YouTube me now my high school kids will YouTube stuff for me and they're like coach they were trying to kill you.

Like we're watching YouTube videos and they're hitting your knees and your face and putting their elbows in your throat. And they're hitting you a second after I'm like, yeah, that was every snap, every snap. When you drop back on third and 10, you were getting lit up.

Go watch Troy Aikman videos. You lit up like toughness was maybeikman videos. You lit up. Like toughness was maybe more important than how you threw the ball. So not only were Troy Aikman and Dan Marino and John Elway and Steve Young and I can go, you know, whoever. Not only were they every bit as good,

if not better as these guys, they were exponentially tougher too. Like it was, you were in pain all the time. You couldn't practice till Thursday some weeks because you couldn't walk. And then you went through for 370. Like come on now. Like Patrick Mahomes

boo-boo ankle before his knee and you would have thought the world was over because Patrick Mahomes had a sprained ankle. Brett Favre played two years like that. I'll just defend my peers. I love these. Listen, I coached most of these kids in Elite 11, so I'm not saying they're not good. I love these kids. Like my sons, I am the biggest cheerleader fan for quarterbacks in the world. It's not close.

It's not even comparable to how much more difficult the position was to play. Last thing, because I've already kept you longer than I thought. Is that all right? Because I sent this in the mail last night, and I think it's really important. It was easy to tell when it was over for Peyton because it was like that. Those first years in Denver, you're like, man, this guy is good to go and then last year ironically I mean it's the most ironic thing ever he struggles all year like he's not that good he's not that good he's not that good oh they're gonna win a Super Bowl and you know let's face it it had a lot more to do with

the defense but he was smart enough to make the right play and cover up from some things even though it was shot it's gonna happen at some point for Brady. I'm not saying now. I'm not even saying like when I talk about the top five quarterbacks, I would still put him in the group of a guy that I want to go out there and win a game. And it's different now because of the defense. He's had some slow starts. I've looked into the numbers. It is better in the second half, but it's not dramatically different.

It's not like he's a 40 QBR guy versus an 80 QBR guy first and second half. But do you notice anything or what will you look for if it isn't the answer yet of, of Tom at some point slowing down? Cause he's had some first halves where it hasn't looked great. And then it's like, okay, it doesn't matter. He's back in the second half and he's fine. I'm just, I'm not suggesting it's happening now. I'm almost just asking the question to get ahead of it.

I see nothing physically. A lot of it's the reasons I just said, and he would probably admit that, that you don't have to be as physical, as tough, as athletic to play his style of football. His arm, his throwing mechanics, his foot quickness is actually better at 40, whatever he is now, than it was 10 years ago. There's zero physical signs.

The only thing I'm seeing that is just a note. It's not an alarming thing. It's just a note to put on the note board is, why is he so much more aggressive? He's taking so much more aggressive? He's taking so many more risks with the ball than he's ever done before. And maybe it's purposeful. Hey, listen, he's forgotten more football than I know. So maybe he's very intentional about, I think I can take more risks. If I get us a 10 point lead, I was this way in Baltimore.

I knew if I get us to 10, nothing, we were never losing. We can play a hundred football games. We'd never lose. We us to 10, nothing, we were never losing. We can play a hundred football games. We'd never lose. We got up 10, nothing. And if I threw a pick, then they get the ball, their own 22. I'm going to get it back at my 36. So it wasn't the end of the world. Maybe he's taking that mentality.

I don't know what it is. I haven't talked to Tom about it, but the note there is that why are you more vertical shots, But the note there is that why are you more vertical shots, more middle of the field cluttered window shots, more isolation on a back down the boundary shot. It's just way more aggressive than the surgical, like, I'm just going to make you bleed out by a thousand cuts. Like that was his thing. That's where I came up with that term was death by a thousand cuts and just make you bleed out slowly. It was studying Tom for year after year, after year, after year. I just said, okay, I got it. I wish I would have played this way. This is what he does. He just nicks you. He's like, okay, I just got you a little bit on the wrist there. I got you on the heel. I got you on the belly. I got you on the shoulder. And eventually you're

going to look down, you're going to be in a puddle of blood and we're going to win. That's where I came up with that metaphor was watching him play. Now, when I study him, it's like, Whoa, got the machete out. Why are you trying to jump off the head in the first quarter? And he listened. I trust him. I just, it's his note. Why are you doing that?

I just don't know. I don't know the answer. I don't know it either. If you don't know it, I don't know it. You're the best. I always appreciate our time together. And, uh, how many more games you got there with Liscombe? Big game tonight, baby for the two seed against, uh, a team that's loaded with like power five guys. Uh, but let me give you my analogy. I gave the team this week. You'll like this. So I got them together Sunday. Okay. Here's our team. I always try to do this, frame our opponent, give them one big metaphor to think about. Like the one thing I want them thinking about. And I

said, okay, what's the fastest animal in the world? And they, you know, a bunch of knuckleheads, cheetah is what we came up with. Great. All right. What's the strongest animal in the world? And I heard grizzly and I heard this, I heard that. We collectively decided, let's just call a silverback gorilla. I said, awesome. And we have this awesome team room that looks down over our stadium. I'm like, look at the stadium. I said, if a cheetah and a gorilla went out there, who would win? And they're like, well, the gorilla would never catch the cheetah.

I'm like, exactly. It'd just be forever. The gorilla would be running around trying to chase the cheetah around. They'd never catch him. I said, what if they were in this room and it was a steel cage who would win? And they go, oh, the gorilla would pin the cheetah and rip its limbs off. I'm like, yes, we're the gorilla. We're going to make them play in a steel cage. So we got all these dudes we're playing against and they're good. They're really, they're really well coached. They're good kids.

They're, they're fast. They got guys going to Purdue and Indiana and this, this, and that. And we're going to get muddy and gross and put a tight end of the game and get physical and run through the A-gaps and take shots and see what happens. I have the biggest smile on my face, man. I'm excited, and I don't even get to play tonight. So good luck, and we're going to talk to you soon. Thanks, Trent. All right. Talk to you later, So good luck, and we're going to talk to you soon. Thanks, Trent.

All right. Talk to you later, bud. Okay, everybody have a great weekend, and don't forget the UFC deal as well. I think I'm going to try to pull that off with the college games, although Oregon's here at USC. Now I'm rambling. I don't know that anybody cares about any of this, so I'm just going to go ahead and say goodbye,

and make sure you subscribe so you have our Monday recaps with Chris Long, we'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Thank you.