The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Reality Versus “Well, Actually” About the NBA Return. Plus, Story Time w/ Chiefs Offensive Tackle Mitchell Schwartz.

Episode Date: June 11, 2020

Russillo shares his thoughts on the new info about the NBA’s return in the “Orlando bubble” (4:30), before talking with Super Bowl 54 champion Mitchell Schwartz about training at home for the 2020 NFL season, offensive lineman being a thankless job at times, transitioning from the Cleveland Browns to the Kansas City Chiefs, Mahomes as a leader, playing for Andy Reid, and more (16:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's episode of the ryan rossillo podcast on the ringer podcast network is brought to you by state farm just like sports the game of life is unpredictable talk to a state farm agent get a teammate who can help you navigate the unexpected just like like, can you believe that SK is 11-21 in the Korean Baseball League? They are 14 games out of first place right now. And

I did not expect that. Also, update you on the American League East standings. All five teams are tied 0-0. I love how people put those standings up on websites. I guess technically that's right. So that part wasn't unexpected, but I didn't expect that out of SK to be 10 games under 532 games in.

Get a teammate who can help you navigate the unexpected. Talk to a State Farm agent today. We are going to talk to Mitchell Schwartz. And he is an all pro at tackle. Won a Super Bowl. Should maybe have two Super Bowls. Andy Reid stories. Pat Mahomes stories.

Nerdy football breakdown stories. Recruiting stories. So the whole deal. He's going to be an awesome guest. So I'm excited about that. So that's what's coming up a little bit later. Quick shout out. Check in with Kyle.

Kyle, where you at? Same place I've been for the last two months. Home. And I got a weird desk situation. I got a fish tank and I had to get a new desk because I thought I was going to break through my table. It's a 20-gallon, so I went big. And I've been in a weird working position for the last couple months

because my chair and my desk don't really line up. That is all because of the tank yeah yeah i'm gonna take care of my guys i don't know what it is about guys in their 20s once they get a place it's like well i know what i need now a tank i want something that i'll probably lose interest in a month later if not shorter time spirit time period i need something that's really a pain in the ass to move like that's the thing about tanks is when you are most likely to be moving all the time is the age men are more most likely to or more likely to go ahead and buy a tank i had a massive fish tank with oscars in it but luckily it was my roommate my roommate pete at the time and pete pete was not he was a good roommate but he was a bad move

in move out roommate because i when i know i have to move, I'm like, okay, I'm on it. I hate it too. Like a month out. But no, I just start doing this stuff. Not so much then, but like this time around, I'd be like, look, let's get a room every couple of days out of the way. Start packing up the closet. Let's get all the stuff out of the bathroom tomorrow.

Maybe give it a couple of days. Let's hit up the closet. Let's get all the stuff out of the bathroom tomorrow. Maybe give it a couple of days. Let's hit up this room. And so when we lived together, I think at that point, I was 22, maybe turning 23. He was about the same age. He had this massive, massive fish tank. And we were moving out of the apartment. And they were like, you guys got to get out of here anyway. Because we asked if we could extend the lease because we didn't really know what we were doing. We both planned to go in our separate ways. And then we didn't prepare enough for it. So we screwed up. And then we're like, actually, can we re-up?

And they're like, no. You guys aren't a great fit in this community. And so we were like, okay. So I packed up all of my stuff. But back then, I didn't even really own anything. I mean, depending on who owned the couch or who owned the TV, the rest of the stuff's your bed, your mattress, your clothes. And that's about it. You know, and then for me, CDs, I always had a lot of CDs. So I packed up all my stuff. And as the moving truck showed up that we rented, actually, we just rented it. Like back then we just

rented the truck ourselves and drove it. I packed it all up. And then he started to pack his stuff as I just put in like the last box of things that I had. So then that meant he was so behind with it all that I had to help him move, including the massive fish tank. And then after I moved that fish tank at 22, 23, I went, I'm never getting one of these fish tanks. Never. And I wanted one. I wanted a saltwater tank. I wanted to do the whole thing. I'm like, this is going to be, look at all my tangs going all over the place.

But I'm not doing it. Tang is the right, right phrase, right? You saltwater fish guy? Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I'd like to be, but I mean, I'm having enough trouble with this thing. I know you'd like to be. You're in your 20s and you have an apartment.

Of course, you'd like to be a saltwater fish tank guy. Those are the rules. All right, let's talk some hoops. Let's talk Orlando bubble. Let's talk as many angles as we possibly can. Let's update you on what some of this means. So we know that all teams will fly down to Orlando, all 22 teams that are involved in the rest of the regular season and playoffs.

All of these 22 teams will fly to Orlando July 7th. And I think when you look at where we thought the timeline would be because we had talked about this conversation, really the conversation had been under the idea that the NBA had to be done before Labor Day, which was something that was out there and being talked about, but it wasn't some rule. And that's why even with the baseball negotiation, I will sit here and I will say as bad as it looks, as bad as it looks, we don't know until you actually have to make these real decisions.

And basketball finally was like, okay, yeah, this is an ideal, which is most of this stuff. But we don't need need to be done by September 5th or whatever. Let's figure this out. So that way, when we started reading these concerns about how quickly could players ramp it back up, you know, 30 days at least, and I'm going, man, that, like, so that means you think 45? This stuff was announced at the beginning of June. It's on guys to get in shape now.

And then you're going to fly down July 7th, and you're still going to have until the 31st before the regular season games even start. So you think basically the league is doing everything they possibly can to appease players to make sure they're geared up and ready to go but we also know that everyone's different and we're talking hundreds of players some of them aren't going to be in shape and that's just the way that go because some guys are going to say hey i like this break and i don't feel like doing anything and now i've been off this long i don't really feel like ramping it back up.

And you know what? I'll figure it out or, hey, my team isn't even that good. So I'm going to be out of shape. There's nothing you can do about that. Guys are going to be out of shape. Now let's talk about some of the revenue split stuff. If they hadn't played because I've seen this, why can't you just do the 16 teams? I'm telling you this and the NBA is telling this because they heard from the players saying, well, you don't want to just start right into the playoffs. So yes, 16 teams would be safer than 22.

You know, be safer, sim the whole thing, and we'll just have a reveal show on who won a simulation. That'd be the safest, but that's not what's going to happen, okay, because they're trying to figure out a way

to salvage the season and salvage money, and I'm okay with that. Now, if you had canceled the remaining 259 regular season games, the numbers say that that would have been about $645 million in lost salary for the players. I don't want that to happen to the players. The players don't want to have that happen to the players. So with this format where they're going to play these extra regular season games, these buffer games, they're going to save about 300

million on that salary loss. So maybe we're looking at like 350 million in salary loss when it's all said and done. Again, these numbers are loose right now. Those buffer games are going to happen over 16 days, five to six games per day. And they're going to happen before the playoffs. You know what's going to happen? If somebody's going to get hurt and that's going to be okay. I'm not saying it's okay. I'm not ever rooting for anyone's injury, but what I'm saying is that when someone does get injured, because usually every year in the playoffs, we have a significant injury that affects the playoffs to some degree. It happens and it's probably going to happen now, but it's not happening only because they started up with 22 teams. It's not happening only because they started the season again. It's because athletes get hurt playing sports. And so I am always sympathetic to the

injury. I hate injuries in sports, but I'm not going to join that train of criticism where it turns into, well, the injury happened only because of this. No, the injury happened because the injury happened. So if you go those 16 buffer days and all of these games are going to pack into three different arenas, I believe, and then they'll scale that back down. The start date, July 31st, as we mentioned, the latest the season would go would be October 12th.

The NBA Finals Game 7 schedule as of right now, that game would land on October 12th. Now, that's 74 days of basketball max. Yes, there's going to be a lot of juggling of sports this fall. Who knows what's going to happen with baseball, football, college football, what the start time for hockey would be in all of this. I mean, we are talking some serious juggling, not just for arena availability and, you know, stadiums are a little bit different because it's not like stadiums are necessarily sharing with anybody else and they can just go one day a week

and the college stadium is not like they're using them really for anything else. But for the NBA, this is why they're doing an Orlando because it's controlled. It's controlled. We know these are where we're playing all of our games and we're fine and we're good to go. As far as personnel, the number was originally floated in the 20s. Now it looks like it's 35 people per team. So that's 14, 15 players. That's five, seven plus coaches, training staff. That's not enough. Some teams are actually wishing it was more. I don't know how you do that where you keep adding to it more and more because you get to factor in the family part of this where now families are involved and nobody was going to do that argument nobody's going to say actually family can't come because a lot of the this this planning has to sound right

it has to appease a lot of different parties and that's why silver is really good at this because i think it's not just him being political i think it's him genuinely caring about some of these things where he cares about the players. He cares about the coaches. He cares about the players' families, and he's not going to misstep. And that's why he's always been like, we don't want to do this or announce this is coming back

until we understand more about the virus, until we have more access to testing and we're not taking tests away from just everyday people. That was something the NBA was very worried about. And I think originally the NBA wanted to probably wait until baseball had decided when they were going to come back, but baseball can't figure this stuff out. So I would argue there's probably some players that are like, can we leave the families out of this? Is there a way that can be passed? Now there's a bunch of rapid fire things here where

I don't want to sound like I don't care, but these are the things that the NBA had to decide. Okay. Yeah, I know that sucks. That sucks for you, but we're moving forward that the NBA had to decide. Okay, yeah, I know. That sucks. That sucks for you. But we're moving forward and we're trying to figure this out. Trey Young did a really nice piece the other day because I hate this. I hate that we're done playing.

I hate that I can't go play anywhere. I hate that it was 22 teams. I hate that it wasn't all 30 teams. All of it was on point. It sucks that you don't get to play but your team wasn't any good. So you're not going to be in this group. And you also have the eight teams that are left out

asking for some version of some OTA because they're like, we don't want to go 10 months without playing anything that's even close to NBA basketball. And that makes all the sense in the world. But those eight teams are not the priority right now. And I know that sucks for those eight teams,

but that's the reality of it. I also think, get ready for this. Just like NFL GMs that make mistakes after the draft with all of this weird stuff, and it'll be more so the NFL, you will hear media members say, well, you know, with the coronavirus and all the uncertainty at the time, that's why they missed on this first round pick. You will have teams going into 2021 where things aren't working out, where they'll go

back and be like, well, you know, we didn't play for 10 months, or was your team just still bad? So always important to remind yourselves of those things when you hear these pivoting and positioning of people defending stuff that did not work out. Mello said he doesn't really want to play. No problem with that. Hey, Mello, if you don't want to play, don't play.

Same thing with Lillard. Fine. You don't want to play? Go ahead. Don't play. No one is in position to tell anybody that they have to play if they are concerned about their own safety and the safety of their immediate family like who are any of us and certainly the nba wasn't going to punish any of these guys and that's another thing too it's like punishment again this obsession with other people's punishment

that constantly happens in this country where it's like oh well at least in sports it's like wait a minute three games no way it should be four games like yeah four four is way better yeah three just three doesn't make any sense he should be suspended four games like yeah four no one should be suspended or punished now they're saying you're not going to get paid either i would wonder if mellow were on a team that were two seed or projected to seed if he would feel differently about this i imagine he would but if he doesn't want to play i'm not going to say that he should and that's fine, and the NBA shouldn't say that he should. The age thing with coaches, this one's been all over the place, where because I think Silver wanted to say the right thing, where he goes, yeah, we have to worry about some of our older

coaches. There are head coaches that are over 70 years old, a bunch of head coaches that are over 60 years old. The more we know about this virus, the more we realize the numbers are heavily skewed towards older people that have suffered from this. But when you start to say that kind of stuff, then there was some pushback. And then it's already been kind of walked back a little bit where it's like, well, of course we love our coaches and we'll make sure that everybody's good to go because Silver can't really win on that one. And that kind of leads into the well, actually guys, because there's going to be an army of well, actually, people marching. And they are on the crest right now, peering down. And they have a great vantage point. But as I was reading the other day in my Panama Canal book, pessimists are often on the sidelines. So the magic part of this I love

because people are like, wait a minute, the Orlando Magic, why do they have to go to the bubble? They live there. Can't they just stay at home? That's the whole point of the bubble, folks. That's the whole point because all of this has to be a controlled environment with constant testing and a limited number of people, even though it still feels like there are going to be more people than you originally thought. So, sorry, Magic fans. No home court advantage for this one in sleeping in your own bed. A storyline that may have not been talked about. I don't know if I'm the first one to mention this. Did the coronavirus fix tanking? I haven't seen that headline anywhere else. Because you have the worst teams. Hey, we're not even going to have to watch your games where Philly wins for a month straight

because they're playing everybody that's tanking two years ago. Or Gerald Green has 30 a game because everybody else has checked out. The April Fool's season of the NBA that tricks us into thinking some things. Well, I guess we're not really ever going to get to see that because I don't know what to make of what we're about to see once this starts up July 31st but I'm not saying it fixed tanking it's it's altered what kind of version of tanking that we would see and finally I want to end on this because I am I don't want to make it sound like I'm selfishly happy because certainly yes I'm selfishly happy there'll be basketball back.

I'm happy that Adam Silver decided with ownership and with players that everybody is on the same page where they're giving this a shot. And as I've said throughout all of this virus stuff, whether I was on with Bill or doing something here, the longer I would go on it, I it, like, just shut up. I can read any piece from respective places from people that I've been reading and go, Oh wow. And I can come to a conclusion that completely opposes a conclusion written by somebody else. That's very convincing. And I don't know what's going to happen. Almost every one of you, I would say all of you listening right now, don't know what's going to happen. Sometimes when I look at the stock market and you're like, oh, it's gone up because they have better information than the public. And that means they know there's no second wave. And then you see on a Thursday, the stock market getting wiped out, just gains wiped out off of

this rally. And you go, does that mean they know something? I mean, it's a normal conversation for people that follow this kind of stuff, but I don't know. And that's the whole point is that I've the whole time wondered if it was overblown, wondered if this is the wrong thing to shut down the country. But then I've also thought, what if that second wave comes and all of these leagues are ramping up again and things are looser and looser and people in restaurants and you look at some of these numbers out of Arizona, you go, wait a minute, what does that mean? Is the second wave coming? I don't know. I don't know. And that's, that's really, I'll end on this. It's I've been more than willing for months to say, I don't know. I'm just surprised how many

of you are convinced, you know, congratulations to weigh down on the whole of the wire podcast, which I, uh, love because I love the show of Van Lathan and Jamel Hill. What was that name? Top 100 new podcasts by time. So shout out to them. And you get Kevin Clark and Danny Kelly on the NFL show as more and more people are trying to figure out what the hell that league's going to do. And we'll be doing probably more and more basketball as we get closer to this. So let's talk some football, though. He's an all pro. He's a Super Bowl winner, and he's a tackle for the Kansas City Chiefs. It's Mitchell Schwartz. So what's this been like for you?

I realize that there's a version of camp that you would have been on. You'd be gearing up a month from now for camp again. So football is in a different spot because baseball is trying to figure out the finances. Basketball is trying to figure out the safety. And you guys are kind of just hanging in the background. So how different has this process been for you? Yeah, it's been a little bit weird during this OTA period to not be in the facility, to not have to drive in and go to meetings, have the practice.

As an older guy, I'm kind of digging it. I'm able to stay at home. I had to find some home gym equipment because I tried the body weight circuit thing for like a week and got burnt out after two days. So I realized I needed to get some real equipment. So I got some lifting stuff, got got a rack got some dumbbells so i'm able to basically do everything physically at home that i would be doing there um the virtual meetings honestly are kind of cool they're not too bad we're covering all the same stuff we normally would it's just you don't necessarily get to

you know see people every day and it's a little bit weird for you know when coaches are talking and they can't see us so they throw out one-liners and jokes and they're not able to see our reaction so they kind of just have to assume that all their jokes landed yeah and for those that don't know mitchell's been really nice to me over the years it always means a lot to me whenever it's a player or a coach or a front office guy shooting me a note saying hey you know i like what you did here because i know there's so many times you just don't know what's going on but the biggest hookup was that mitchell hooked me up with a guy who had made all these dumbbells and they had extra ones.

And it was for Byron Nelson High School. And I was kind of excited to get a couple of them. But then all this other stuff came through. So I'm with you on that because at first I was running the staircases in my house going, this is great. And then I think I messed up my foot permanently from that. Are guys working out? Everybody says that they do.

Because with basketball, some guys are just going to be out of shape. It's hundreds of guys. With you, it's over 1,000 guys in your league. And I'm just wondering, do you think everyone is going at this the same way? Or if some guys are looking at it like, I'll get back to work when I know I'm getting back to work? I'm sure there's an element where guys were kind of taking a couple extra months to get back into it um you know training camp and especially with the NFL I mean the day you show

up you do a conditioning test so uh you know that's happening you know that you know you're gonna have practice you know right off the bat so I think guys will get to shape by training camp I'm not sure of uh you know how how good April and May look for some of them. But I would like to think people are taking it serious. I mean, it's been hard to find gyms. You know, gyms have been closed down for a while. The facility was open for about a week after COVID happened. And then, you know, between the NFL and the PA,

they shut that down. And that was tougher for some people. So I think guys are finding it. They're figuring out ways, you know, the strength staff has been good about having a couple different plans based on how much equipment you have and so i know the pa and nfl are also talking about kind of that ramp up period and needing to make sure that things are happening safely you know you worry about the achilles stuff the change of direction um but i think for the most part it seems like guys have found a place

to work out whether it's what they're used to, whether it's like you said, running stairs. I tried doing step ups on the stairs outside and it's just such a weird angle. So I nixed that like right away. They, O-linemen, I would put up there with any, any group that you'd want to hang out with. Um, you are, you are guys, your, your job is to protect. So I think you, you make good friends. I think you guys are loyal people because the job has this weird thing

because there's no glory in it. You're really good at it. But are there moments where you're like, this sucks? It sucks being an offensive lineman. Yeah, the majority of my life. Most of the Sunday mornings, my brother and I used to text each other like, hey, why are we doing this? This is terrible.

It's just stressful, man. Your job is protecting, I mean, literally protecting the MVP of the league last year. Every play, my job is to protect Pat Mahomes or Damian. We saw what he did in the Super Bowl. I mean, you have such a higher level of responsibility than pretty much any other position. I mean, a receiver drops a pass, I'll get the next one. A DB gives up a big play or misses a pass, I'll get the next one. You know, a DB gives up a big player, misses a tackle, I'll get the next one. I mean, I don't block Von Miller. He destroys Pat. There's no, oh, I'll get you next time. You

know, it's, oh my God, like, hopefully you're okay. Hopefully everything's all right. So yeah, it's a way higher level of stress. And I think that's something we kind of bond together. Like you said, it makes us, you know, kind of dependable and reliable in a way that not everyone else is or has to be. Who's the worst to go up against for you? Vaughn's incredible. I mean, Khalil Mack, I was pretty happy when he got traded away. Really, I mean, the ASU West has just been just an insane, I mean, Bosa and Ingram. You know, the weird thing is

all these guys have like every pass rush move available. I mean, the guys who are good, you know, it's very rare to have a guy who just does one thing and that's what he's really good at. I mean, everyone remembers like Dwight Farini, the spin move.

But the spin move only worked because he was insanely quick and he could also bull rush you into oblivion. And so you're worried about those two things and he feels that he has the spin move. Guys who are one trick ponies they don't seem to exist anymore so i mean bond when he was young he was you know the fastest guy i'd ever seen and then he added a bunch of strength since

then so now he can power you into the quarterback uh you know in a way that a guy that that size shouldn't be able to so um i'd say just the afc I mean, having to play those guys six times a year, you know, not necessarily the best place to sign it to, but it's been a lot of fun and obviously made me better. thing that's not normal where if you really like studied the measurements on him that i've never seen a guy that's that big that quick but then also can get almost parallel to the ground and then come back up like he can get underneath guys at this angle that doesn't seem human it would look like everybody else would just fall down so i've i've asked other people about it i don't i'm not trying to be some sort of kinesiologist here but it's just it's different with him and i can't imagine what it'd be like to try to block him well there's the element that he can just do that at pretty much any time but he's also learned how to use that to his advantage you

know those guys have their pass rush summit thing and he's kind of taught that and you know i've seen people refer to it as like a ghost technique where essentially he makes it seem like he's there and then he just dips under you and he's not there um you know he's gotten me a few times with it it's weird it kind of it's almost lulls you to sleep a little bit because everything just kind of appears the same and then that move comes out of nowhere and like you said i mean he's a foot or two off the ground um and then at that point i mean you're honestly you're kind of pushing his momentum like towards the quarterback because if you're pushing him down and he's going at that direction, you know, you're kind of propelling him into where he wants to go.

So it's, it's insane. I mean, uh, you know, credit to him for some really good genetics there and I'm sure he works at this flexibility too. So why did you sign there after four years in Cleveland? Well, I got a lot of advice to get out and go somewhere else. You know, I love Cleveland. You know, I had an incredible offensive line room. I mean, Joe Thomas, Alex Mack, John Greco, three guys who were in my wedding, you know, so some of my best friends in life. And, you know, we had fun pretty much every day. I mean, the losing sucked and, you know,

grace on you over time. But every day I was excited to go, you know, to the facility because it was just so much fun hanging out with those guys that was the only place I knew I didn't you know understand kind of the power structure the dynamics you know how things could be different and should be different and so I finally you know got a chance to break free you know just knowing Andy Reid and the success he had had in Philly and what he had built in just a few years and Kansas City was huge for me my brother had played there for a year for Coach Reed's first year in Kansas City, so I knew he loved Coach.

He loved Coach Heck, who's our offensive line coach. He loved living in the city. It just kind of fell into place. It doesn't hurt that it's got great barbecue. As a big food fan, it's a pretty good food place to be as well. That's right. Your Twitter feed is some serious, serious grilling going out back. Yeah, I know you're a huge fan of food pictures on social media.

I've got to tell you, there's a few times I'm pretty jealous of what you put together. The homemade pizzas look really good for, no offense, like an offensive lineman from California cooking pizzas in the Midwest. They almost look edible. Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it. I don't even have to stand outside in the hundred degree heat and 90% humidity to make it. This California pizza thing is really, it's, it's freaked me out. I, people told me, they gave me a heads up. They said, it's, it's not going to be what you,

what you think it's going to be. And I was like, well, I don't know what I thought it was going to be, but it's just, there's a lot of misses. There's a lot of misses out here. And yeah, I'm not living that far from where you grew up, right? Right. I grew up basically where the four or five and the 10 meet in, uh, West LA Santa Monica area. So we grew up going to CPK. So that was kind of what I knew of pizza growing up and, uh, Sparrow at the West side pavilion. So, uh, yeah, exactly. Now your pizzas look terrific. So I feel like now you think I'm beating up on you a little bit. Um, let's talk about your brother, Jeff, real quick. He's a little bit older. As you mentioned, play, I did some TV shows. What's the best part of having an older brother

who's never wrong about anything? Well, I, uh, got to learn from his mistakes. So that was always good. Uh, he was kind of the guinea pig for everything so we learned uh how to do things correctly i mean even you know from the football world going back to recruiting you know coming out of high school i mean no one freaking knows how to get recruited coming out so my parents were able to learn from that process and uh i kind of tagged along and everyone's like oh you you're pretty big at 17 but who's this you know kind of lanky tall kid over here at 14 who's already huge so i got on people's radars um you know it's funny you know going back to you know texting on game day morning uh at this point when he's able to watch my games now uh the only two texts are either you did this thing that was really awesome good job or hey this play you

sucked uh wasn't that funny like there's no in between there's no like hey that was a pretty good game. You know, you missed a couple things here. Because, I mean, he knows that I know. But the stuff that's either really bad or really good, that's the stuff we'll talk about. So I'm usually able to relive my worst moments directly after the game.

Yeah, and for those that don't know, like, that's part of the shtick is that, you know, Jeff is never wrong. And so, and I've had, you know, a few times where, you know, I admit, especially like on coverage stuff, like, and I've, I've had, you know, a few times where, you know, I admit, especially like on coverage stuff, like, and I've talked a long about this. I'd be like, what kind of adjustments are you making? Because dude, all the adjustments on defense are on the back end.

Like they're not, all of a sudden they don't just start saying, all right, all stunts now, you know, like they don't, they don't do that. And then the same thing happens with offensive linemen stuff, where I think even though I've watched however many hours of football that I've watched, I mean, never playing old line, like it's hard to always know what the protections are. It just,

it just, it's, um, it's an advanced level of watching. Most people watching have no idea what the protections are like. And I'm talking about most of us in the media too. So I don't even feel like it's that, that odd.

Yeah. That's something, I mean, he doesn't, he's done a good job with, like you said, his pod is called Jeff Schwartz is Smarter Than You. So there's obviously some schtick there.

But on his YouTube, his thing is he's trying to teach people the game. And so he went back. He did a lot of stuff. People always like to talk about empty protection, which is we're just a 5-0 liner blocking. All the running backs are out. And LSU ran a ton of it last year with Burrow. That was one of the things that really made them go and so jeff has you know shown a few clips of that and kind of broken down the rules people always love to scream with the o-line when there's a free rusher that

hits the quarterback or gets the quarterback but a lot of the times you know it's kind of planned the quarterback knows that he's able to drift away from it you know throw it to in this case i mean uh clyde hilarious now gonna be on my team and watch him throw a couple spin moves and go score a touchdown. So, yeah, there's a lot of stuff. I mean, that's something that I enjoy, too, is the teaching aspect. You know, a lot of people like to know more about football. I mean, it's so intricate that it just seems like there's a constant need for, you know, kind of teaching.

How weird was that in the recruiting path for you? Because you ended up at Cal, but you, Cal, but to have your brother go through it, play at a big-time school himself, there has to be something in there where it's like, okay. Did you ever have a moment where you thought you were going to go somewhere else or how much the experience of being able to see it firsthand, your brother going through it, knowing exactly, maybe you were a little more tuned in knowing what you would want?

Yeah, I actually started out really liking Stanford. That was also the year they went like one in 11 and lost to Davis and fired their coach and then hired Harbaugh like that December and I'd already committed to Cal. So that one kind of quickly fell off. It came down to essentially Cal and Virginia. You know, my parents really pushed the academic part of it. Tennessee was recruiting me and offered me and they were just like, hey, you know, my parents really pushed the academic part of it. Um, Tennessee was recruiting me and offered me and they were just like, Hey, you got into Stanford. You're not going to Tennessee. So we're able to switch that one off.

Wait a minute. This is a very SEC friendly podcast. So I don't know what you're saying about the admission rates at Tennessee, but if you want to retract that, you can't. No, it's a, no, it's something, I mean, they were real about it. I mean, we all get told the stats. We see those, you know, kind of NCAA thingsa things you know only one out of four million are going to make it to the ncaa and then one out of however many so they wanted me to have a degree from you know one of the top you know

schools um obviously stanford being one of the top private schools and then cal has been the top public school for like 10 or 15 years however long that's been so that was really important for me too i mean it's something that i just kind of, like you said, followed in my brother's path. I mean, he got recruited. I just figured I was going to get recruited. He went to the NFL. I figured I was going to go to the NFL, but you always want to kind of have a safety net. And so the academics were there and I didn't really want to go to Oregon. I didn't want to be Jeff's little brother my whole career. I mean, I had that a little bit in high school um but I just kind of want to do my own thing so Oregon was always there but realistically it was kind

of Stanford Cal Virginia Stanford fell off it was Cal and Virginia and then if they had switched coast I'd probably end up with Virginia it was just a little bit too far away to go um literally across the coast so your playoff run was incredible this year. And I don't know how much, just like we were talking about, like some of the grading system, like whenever something comes along, it's like, okay,

this is how these guys are getting graded out. And then people will point out and be like, well, that's not even him. So that grade's not even right. You graded out as what? The best offensive lineman in the playoffs? By some media, like that's got to be the best version ever

of searching your own mentions. So are you like do you look at yourself do you think of yourself as i don't know the best tackle but one of the however many best tackles in the league yeah at this point i think i'm one of the best i've always i've never necessarily thought i was like the best um you know just because i'd say i'm pessimistic by nature so i'm'm always kind of looking to do better and hold myself to a very high standard. I think, like you said, I mean, it was pro football focus.

They said I had the single best postseason of any player, not just O-line. I like how you corrected it. Yeah, but as well. We're talking about it. You brought it up. But no, it's obviously really cool. I mean, I think that's the thing with Pro Football Focus.

I mean, they've always graded me well, so I like them. I think that's kind of how it goes as players. The guys who don't get graded well hate them. The guys who get graded well like it. But the idea is more, you're not necessarily looking at it on the per-play basis. It's more just like, oh, this guy had a good season. They rank him in the top five. That seems like he deserves it.

Or something's weird. Maybe let me go watch the film and see if I agree. And so I definitely get helped out by our offense. I mean, we run RPO stuff. I'm on the backside of those and I just get to kind of pass block

and Pat throws a slant over my head. I mean, that counts as a pass pro win. That doesn't really feel like I'm doing that difficult of a job. We did have some, I mean, we were down in every game. So there were some points where we did have to throw the ball, but I got helped out with chips and formation stuff that coach did I mean

we played Houston you know you focused on JJ Watt and how to you know make sure he's not taking over the game you play San Francisco with those guys you really focus on you know their defensive ends and how do we influence them so yeah I'm definitely helped out with a bunch of stuff but I'm not going to turn down a pretty awesome stat either. Yeah, that's right. You graded out maybe the best ever. Would you be afraid to answer a JJ Watt question, honestly, if I asked you where you think he was at coming back?

I mean, look, he's dealt with a ton of injuries. He's probably been at his peak, one of the most disruptive players I've ever seen. And I think for JJ, it's tough to figure out if are we seeing any decline physically? Are we seeing a scheme that makes sure that he can't ruin what you're trying to do? Yeah. I mean, I think, I don't think he was in the same football shape. I think he'd probably admit that. I mean, you saw on that Buffalo game, he was on the sidelines. I mean, looking,

you know, pretty tired. There's a thing where you can work out as much as you want. And I know he's, you know, if not the hardest working guy in the NFL, he's where you can work out as much as you want. And I know he's, if not the hardest working guy in the NFL, he can work out as much as you want on your own. There's just no substitute for NFL football. That's something that you realize during training camp. I mean, you think you come into camp in great shape. And two days later, you feel absolutely awful. And you're like, man, I just did all this stuff. And why do I feel this way?

It's just football shape is different. And so I didn't know guys could come back from his injury that quickly um you know in the first half of the buffalo game it looked like he was you know maybe favoring it or you know natural tendency to think hey you know my shoulder or whatever that was uh is a little um you know gimpy or um what have you you know in the second half he started to feel it a little bit more and you could see i mean he was using it to swat and club guys um and so by the end of it he looked like he regained full trust um but i think there's always the element of you know not being in complete football shape and it's just tough he's also you know playing a different role he uh for the most part was kind of coming in on on the pass downs you know in our game there's you know for

the most part he wasn't in on those first and second downs you know kind of run in on the pass downs. You know, in our game, there's, you know, for the most part, he wasn't in on those first and second downs, you know, kind of run down, play action downs. He would come in as a pass rusher. And so for a guy who's always on the field, it's really weird to come out and only be able to play, you know, a snap at a time, come back off. And so it's a combination of, you know, the physical stuff

and also just being in a different role. It's just really uncomfortable. And, you know, he's really good at timing up the snap count too. So not being on the field, not being able to hear all the rhythms and do all those things. Uh, I think that's also, you know,

a bit of a detriment for a guy like him. Let's go back to the AFC title game loss at home against new England. And knowing that it's an offsides flag away from you guys, you know, maybe winning the first super bowl. Cause I would have thought you were going to, you know, look, I just, I just think that much of your team. I think that much of my homes and that's why I wasn't surprised to see you guys win the Superbowl this year, but let's compare those two nights.

What was that night like realizing that you guys probably missed out on a chance to win it? Yeah, it was tough. I mean, the locker room after the game in particular, you know, everyone was pretty devastated. Um, you know I know, at least on the offensive side of the ball, you don't like to split it up, you know, offense versus defense, but like, I'm pretty sure we scored zero points in the first half. So, you know, we left thinking, man, we left a lot on the field. Obviously, New England, you know, historic defense and the stuff they did in that playoff run, but you just feel like you kind of let the team down, you know, not providing anything in the first half. And so there's a frustration there. There's a disappointment. You know, I knew going into the next year, I thought we'd be pretty good because, you know, Pat and all the guys were coming back. But in the moment, it just kills you. And knowing, you know, what could have been if you had done your part better, just really frustrating.

And, you know, by the time the super bowl got played i was thought i was mostly over and then i was watching and it ended up being that really low scoring game and kind of a quote-unquote ugly football game from the outsider perspective and at that point you're like man we could be playing i think the game would be going a lot differently um they had beat us earlier in the season and that crazy 54-51 Monday night game. So they did have the leg up there. But yeah, watching the Super Bowl, I thought I was kind of over it and moved past it and ready for the next year.

But that was pretty tough and I didn't expect it to be. What did New England, can you give us a nerdy answer on that? What did they do to you guys defensively to limit you so much in that first half? Well, the big thing is, I mean, we've seen their kind of tree. They've gone to the man coverage scheme really heavily and doing a lot of press coverage

and kind of what Seattle did in the middle of the decade, just being extremely physical and kind of forcing refs to throw flags and just being handsy. And so if you're able to get on guys early and maybe it takes an extra half second to get open late, they combine that with their front five doing all those stunts and twists and causing disruption. And they were doing it with Van Nooyen and Hightower, who were really good at doing that for linebackers.

And so it was a combination of playing really tight coverage and making receivers uncomfortable, which, you know, led them to also allow the pass rush up front to get home. You know, we went into that game as an offensive line, you know, we got to stop stunts. We got to stop twist. We have to do this. This is what they're making their money on. And we didn't do it. I mean, that was our emphasis all week. And they're still so good that they're able to get home to Pat

before the receivers were getting free. And so that's one of those things, everything kind of goes in tandem. And that's something that going into this past year, that was something we really worked on because we were going to face a lot of the Belichick tree, man coverage style defenses.

So how different was it, obviously winning versus losing that game? But I think it's a different feeling though when you're that close and it's kind of this lingering disappointment that that's hard to get over i mean the team you know it wasn't the same run because pat misses some time and then you have these ridiculous playoff games including the the big comeback where i remember just watching that game being like i don't think i'm shocked that they're going to come back like i just think you guys are different. I think you're like the Warriors down 20 in a basketball game where you just

go, all right, let's see what's going to happen. What's the best memory then from winning that, that night and kind of just the redemption of a year later. It's almost a sense of relief in a weird way, just because, you know, we went that far. You know, I remember sitting there in the fourth quarter, we're down 10, just thinking like, man, this would suck if we don't win I mean you go this far you play all these extra games you do all this stuff a couple weeks before the Super Bowl and you know to show up and lose a game that's that important uh I was just like this is going to be terrible so

we ended up winning so there's definitely like that relief of hey we did it um then it turned to excitement and you're just just happy to be together. I mean, my honestly biggest memory is being on the bus after the game, going back to the hotel, and players, coaches all singing together, all happy. Usually we're pretty respectful and keep it quiet. Not on that bus. So it was just a really special moment to be able to celebrate. The weird thing about the Super Bowl is we didn't really get together

as a team in the locker room after the game because there's so much going on. Yeah, I know. First you do all the stuff on stage, and then there's 400 media people that somehow get access to the field. So you get pulled in all these different directions. You're doing interviews after. And then from there you go to the media tent. And there's, you know, the tent set up for, you know, 10 or 12 guys.

And so people are being pulled in every single direction that there's no singular point where just like, all right, the whole team's going to get back to the locker room at X time. And we're going to see each other and, you know, be all together. So that bus ride back was kind of that moment for me where you were really able to kind of celebrate together with, you know, some of the players, some of the coaches. And I think that's, you know, going to be kind of the overriding feeling for me is just remembering that moment. What's Pat like? He is, I think, exactly what you think he's like, which is really odd to be, you know, that good and that successful and have that much success this young and still be pretty grounded.

You know, he's just one of the guys who's obviously I think his youth helps him there. You know, being able to just be relatable to everybody. It's just I'm still amazed. I mean, people said, you know, after the MVP year, hey, has he changed? Is anything different? You know, he's the most competitive dude I've ever met. He always wants to be better, always looking to be better. That's something that I think you never have to worry about him.

Obviously, he's going to sign a massive extension. I'd imagine before the season, but who knows there. That's not going to change him. He's already on every national commercial anyway, so he's got plenty of that. He's just a genuine person. He cares about his teammates. He cares about winning. It's really fun to be around. He's you know, pretty good with one-liners during meetings and you know, making jokes and things of that nature. So, I mean, he's, you know,

a special dude all the way around and you know, not something that I necessarily knew about him or, you know, you kind of worry about that for that much success at that age. I had heard stories, and Kevin Clark was on this, who's one of our football guys at the Ringer, where when he was talking to front office people at Kansas City, when Pat was, they draft him and he's going to be the backup behind Alex. And people were saying, this guy might be the best quarterback in the league

like were there moments there had to have been these moments when you guys were practicing when he would get reps where you're freaking out a little bit it has to have been right yeah so i was always skeptical of that um because there's no pressure i mean yeah it's practice but like he was the backup alex was a starter he was on scout team and so you're kind of just having fun um you know if the defense picks you off on scout team that's what they're supposed to do um so you know you didn't really get to see it in live action um and that's the thing that you know you can make all these crazy throws that was the thing coming out of college that you know he was kind of downgraded for was

he took too many risks. And, you know, looking back now, you realize he did that because they were also giving up 65 points a game and, you know, he had to score that many. That was my thing is I couldn't believe the throws he made. And so I was like, well, he's going to figure these things out. What I didn't realize is that he was that smart because they didn't stop anyone that whole time. So it's, I mean, the way you described it is perfect.

I'm glad you said it because maybe people believe me. Yeah. So that was, I mean, a literal conscious effort by him in college. And, you know, people just kind of assumed as a college kid, you're taking these risks. You don't need to. But he was making those choices during the play. Hey, we need this. It's worth the risk for me.

So I got to play with him his first year that week 17 game that, you know, all the other starters got to sit out. I got to play with him his first year of that Week 17 game that all the other starters got to sit out. I got to play for my streak. But being able to go to Denver, I mean, they were out of the playoffs, but it's still in Denver Week 17. And I think the thing that impressed me the most was we had no procedural penalties. So no false start, no delay of games, typically with the young quarterback, especially making his first start on the road in a place like that. You know, a lot of delay of game stuff, whether it's taking long to call the play in the huddle,

taking too much time to line a scrimmage, you know, got to figure out the silent count. We had none of that. And then, you know, typical Pat fashion, I think we were tied at the end and he marches down the field on the field range. He did throw a pass to our tight end. And that was a Pat pass. And I went up to him like, dude, you know, just make sure you're being smart with the ball. I think, you know, he was probably like, I got this, man.

But, you know, looking back now, you realize, you know, he's just always in control and he's always got a sense of, you know, where he can put a ball. It's just, yeah, it was that game that really cemented, okay, we got something here. You know, I'm excited for the next year. What's your favorite Mahomes story, though? What do you tell your buddies? What do you tell your brother? So after it's probably after the Superbowl, um, you know, we were around the office, you know, you typically have exit meetings.

And so you're waiting, everyone got 50 plus guys who are waiting to talk to, you know, coach Reed and all the coaches. And so we were hanging out and we were in, uh, the coach's office and we were talking about the play and you know the the two jet wasp thing kind of took on a life of its own and i didn't realize at the time how crazy it was um you know you realize that the next day and you know he threw the ball 60 yards plus in the air i mean it was whatever it was completion you know 40 plus yard completion and as we know he was like 14 yards behind the line of scrimmage when he threw it and so i had just recently seen the replay and he got hit as he threw it so he was flat-footed throwing it kind of across his body

60 yards downfield i was like dude i did not realize you did that i mean that's an insane throw and he just kind of looked at me like gave me that look like yeah i know and i was like yeah like he i mean that's going back i mean he knows how good he is he's very confident his ability he doesn't really outwardly show it he doesn't come off cocky or arrogant but it was one of those moments like yeah dude i know um it was just kind of cool to see that because he's not uh typically you know letting his guard down like that and um i think that that's kind of another defining moment that just it's so cool to see a guy who think that's kind of another defining moment. It's so cool to see a guy who's that in control of

any situation just be like, yeah, I know how cool that was. I'm glad people are finally seeing it. Did he start throwing the no-look things because the first one blew up and he was like, I want to get a couple more of these? There's an element to that for sure. We had a play.

It might have been the first game of the year in jacksonville and uh you know kelsey's open right there i think he's rolling left and he kind of just dumped it off to kelsey and i think he like looks up to the pool to you know try to make it seem like he's looking into the pool there in jacksonville and throws it to him and it's like 15 feet too high you're like were you throwing someone in like the back of the end zone and there's no one there. That was when no look passes go wrong. There's an element to it. He's talked about

he practices that stuff. He wants to be able to do it in games. I can't imagine being a defender trying to deal with that. How in the world do you deal with that? Mahomes, the past couple weeks has really stepped up part of the NFL video with players talking about racial inequality.

And he's also made some really, really great statements about everything that's been going on last couple of weeks. What does that mean to a locker room when you have the kind of leader that Pat is? Yeah, it's awesome. And I know, you know, he's doing a lot more stuff behind the scenes where, like you said, he's learning. He's figuring out kind of the best avenue to use his power to to help for good for change you know he's been around sports locker rooms where you know some guys have gotten in trouble for saying it but you know for the most part sports locker rooms are very diverse everyone just you know kind of treats each other the same you're all you know bonded together for a common goal and so you know he's kind of always had that mindset when he thinks about things and so i don't think um you all of us, it's hard to imagine that it's this bad.

And so that's the biggest takeaway for me over the past couple of weeks is realizing exactly how bad it is, listening to everyone's stories, and even just kind of simple things in the workplace where you think, hey, that wasn't too bad. I mean, there's just so much stuff that's going on. And so having a guy like Pat being able to learn, you know, use his power the right way, it's pretty incredible to watch. And I'm excited to see what he's going to do. And, you know, we all got his back.

So whatever he comes up with, I know, you know, Tyron's working on some voting registration stuff as well. And, you know, the quote, you know, trying to make voting cool. You know, that stuff's awesome. I mean, you got the leader of the team and the leader of the defense who's also leader of the team you know two guys out front uh working to better the country and i'm excited to you know be part of whatever they come up with for us and um lend my hand in whatever way they need yeah that's a good point on on tyron too because he's been a big part of

on too because he's been a big part of a lot of stuff that's going on the last couple weeks okay it's time for five questions who's actually i mean i think we all know the answer here but i'm just is who's the fastest that's see i feel stupid saying is the fastest the guy we think it's the fastest because you have so many guys that are so fast on this team but i don't know if there's a difference between 40 fast and ball and hand fast well that's what i tell people is he is both 40 fast ball and hand fast and insanely quick too he's got change of direction yeah tyreek he's got change of direction he's got ability to get up to speed and he's got long speed he's got all three of those and he destroys angles like you've never seen. Okay.

Do you believe that Tarek has 1% body fat? You know, weirdly, I can believe it. You know, some of those bod pod numbers, it seems like, you know, I know we talked about the 2.5% and you'd be dead if that was the case. But there's a 3% margin of error in the bod pod. So, yeah, some of these guys, I mean, Alex Smith was crazy lean too. Some of these guys are just like that. Perfect, perfect segue.

We'll play the roommate game. Rank the potential roommates. You and this other person, it's cottage. You know, maybe it's two bedrooms. I'm not sure. Alex Smith, Mahomes, Andy Reid, or your brother Jeff? Just at the bottom, however we go there, because we can only be together for so long before that goes bad.

I'd probably go with Pat one, Alex two, Coach Reid three, just because there's still the weird coach player thing with Coach Reed. So if there wasn't that weird thing, he'd be number one for me because I think we have the most in common. So maybe post-career, Coach Reed one. Current status, Coach Reed three. What's your best Andy Reid story? He told me about a burrito that either he got john madden on or john madden got him on

but it's a chili relleno burrito and you take a chili relleno and i guess you put it in a burrito and add the cheese and the rice and the beans and you turn it into something awesome and wherever they hang out down in southern california there's an awesome place for it and he tried to get the uh the facility guys to make him that at uh at arrowhead and it just uh not quite the same but his uh he pulled that out and he was like hey you ever had a chili reno burrito and that blew my mind and i thought i knew food you know what we're ending on that because the rule with five questions that we don't always get to all five so um that was awesome that was terrific uh you want to check out mitchell schwartz you can follow him at mitch schwartz 71 and uh this was a lot of fun man i really appreciate the time i'm glad we got a chance

to kind of hang out and talk a little bit and there's a former offensive lineman who's my neighbor like the next block over and he's big for big guys and people like are like have you met the guy you know like hey you're in sports i'm like no i've seen him around because i mean he's big for big guys. People are like, have you met the guy? You know, like, hey, you're in sports. I'm like, no, I've seen him around. Because, I mean, if he didn't play football, you'd be like, what happened? And they're like, no, he played all line. But I can't figure out who he is.

So we're trying to get to the bottom of this. So I may need to call you back. Sounds good. Thanks for having me on. I had a lot of fun. And I appreciate it. Coming up this Sunday, Bill and I will be doing the 2007 Redraftables. I am fired up for the Redraftables.

We'll do some other stuff on that one. And I'll be back next week. So please subscribe, rate, and review the Resilla podcast. Tell your friends. Tell people you hate. Let them know what's up. Thank you. you