00:00We're in an interesting spot with this commander season
00:02because nationally people think very little
00:09of what the organization has.
00:11And we talk over and over about we want this to be a ball club
00:17that does not have to be overly reliant on Jaden Daniels being Superman.
00:23But how much have they evolved from that?
00:28I think they've evolved because of the defense.
00:31Everyone just keeps looking at the receiver.
00:34And when you asked me this thing before, I think last week,
00:37about what positions needed to be better to help Jaden,
00:43I say the defensive line.
00:45And I believe if they can go and slow people down
00:48and get the ball back and pressure all the quarterbacks
00:51and Jaden have more opportunities and Jaden has more opportunities
00:54instead of feeling like, oh, they give up a touchdown,
00:56I got to score a touchdown.
00:57They gave up two, we down 14, I got to really try and score.
01:01That helps them out.
01:02And I believe if they're doing that,
01:04the other guys now get a chance to develop and play.
01:08But if you're always going out on the field and have to just air it out,
01:12you're not going to get to where you want to go.
01:14So I believe that you can't judge everything based off
01:21of what the outside people think about this team.
01:24In 2024, the outside people thought they didn't have nothing that either.
01:28But they performed.
01:29Yeah.
01:30I believe inside the building.
01:33And when you and I talked about this stuff,
01:35as soon as the schedule came out,
01:37first thing I said is the intensity has to go up
01:40in every damn thing that they do.
01:42Because you can't wait until the season starts to get this done.
01:45And if they're practicing at a high level
01:47and getting themselves prepared,
01:51all these guys that are here that haven't even made a name yet,
01:54guess what?
01:56They're upper echelon athletes because they're in the league.
02:00They have to be tested so when everything starts,
02:04you know who you can trust and you know who you can't trust.
02:07Because as a player, when we stepped on the football field,
02:10we knew who we didn't want to play.
02:13And that's why when the guy was 80%, he played
02:16instead of letting the other guy play
02:17because we knew that was going to be a problem.
02:21I mean, defensively, just by the numbers last year,
02:27it was so awful.
02:28Like, you know how there are times where the numbers
02:31don't validate the eye test?
02:33Like, frankly, the Chicago Bears defensively last year,
02:38the eye test versus the numbers,
02:40like you can't just depend on turnovers like that.
02:44They were dead last in the NFL in yards allowed.
02:4827th in the NFL in points allowed.
02:50And I can think of two games top of my head
02:52where they could have given up 60 if the other team
02:54didn't call it off.
02:55The Dallas game in Dallas and then the Seattle game here.
02:59Didn't generate barely any turnovers.
03:02They were 31st in takeaways.
03:04And that's only because they weren't dead last
03:08because the Jets haven't had an interception in two years,
03:10which is astonishingly terrible.
03:13I mean, I can keep going.
03:1631st in the NFL in first downs allowed.
03:20It was just awful.
03:22And I think offensively last year was clunky
03:26and injury-riddled.
03:28And even the rare times where Jaden was considered healthy,
03:32he didn't look his best.
03:34But offensively, they still moved the ball decent, right?
03:38Yeah.
03:39And it's kind of hard because if you look at the entire season numbers,
03:43you start talking about three games with Josh Johnson starting
03:48that's going to limit some stuff.
03:49But still, they ran the ball decent.
03:52They just didn't run it enough.
03:54They were 31st in the NFL in pass attempts.
03:58Now, some of that is driven by getting your ass kicked all the time
04:01and having to throw it.
04:02When you're down by 30, you're not going to be going to.
04:04Right.
04:05But the thing of it, Jaden, football, everything matters.
04:10You spoke about the Bears just now.
04:14And I know you can't depend on the turnovers every year.
04:18But if they're better against the run,
04:20they don't necessarily need to have all those turnovers.
04:23If they're better at giving up points,
04:27they don't have to worry about the turnovers.
04:29But they were able to get the turnovers with those horrible things
04:32and still, what were they, 10-6 last year?
04:3511-5.
04:36What were they?
04:37I think they were 11-6.
04:38Yeah, 11-6.
04:40You know what I'm saying?
04:41They still had opportunity to win games because they kept putting the ball
04:45back into the hands of that offense.
04:48And Caleb didn't have the highest percentage completion thing.
04:52Unbelievable.
04:52But he has a knack for the big play.
04:54He does.
04:55All those little things add up.
04:57So if this defense is much better against the run,
05:01much better at giving up points,
05:04Jaden gets the ball more times.
05:06You believe he's a top 10, top 5, can be top 5.
05:10Sure, I do.
05:10If I give the ball to that guy that many times,
05:14he's going to make somebody around him better.
05:17And I agree with that.
05:19And I think you're playing an offense,
05:22you're deploying an offense anyway,
05:23with more balance and more.
05:29Listen, it was interesting because
05:32talking with Bobby Ingram last night,
05:35he said, I asked him just kind of about the new offense
05:38and how that should help the receivers.
05:40He's like, definitely.
05:41Play action helps receivers, period.
05:43Playing the receiver position is about getting separation.
05:46True.
05:46And play action helps us get separation.
05:49But he said repeatedly,
05:51and I think the best coaches say this,
05:53players make plays.
05:54The offensive scheme doesn't make plays.
05:57Players make plays.
05:59And a lot of this is just going to come down
06:02to what happens on the field.
06:03Can you beat the press corner in front of you?
06:05Can you?
06:07One knock on De'Ami, I would say,
06:09earlier in his career,
06:11he rounded his routes.
06:13He rounded things out at the top.
06:15That allows the DB to get right up on you.
06:19True.
06:20Because you're not pushing the route.
06:22You're not forcing him onto his back foot.
06:24You round that thing out.
06:26You don't cross the face of the safety.
06:28Like, you have to play the receiver position like an ass.
06:33You have to be physical and tough.
06:35It's not all precision and poise.
06:39And, like, you have to show the ability to be tough out there
06:44to make them defend the entire route tree.
06:46You always have to make them think you're doing something you're not doing.
06:50Right.
06:51Just like if you're running just a regular old comeback route.
06:56When you take that two-step up that stem,
07:00they need to be getting ready to turn.
07:02Or you need to make them turn.
07:04And then you put that foot in the ground and come back down the stem.
07:07If you're running a square end,
07:09you want them to, you run full speed,
07:12you still want them to think,
07:14I'm going deep.
07:14And then you, boom, hit the right foot in the ground
07:18and go across the field.
07:20You go across at 14, 18, whatever your depth is.
07:24But you don't want to start at 14 and end up at 20.
07:28You get what I'm saying?
07:29Yeah.
07:30So all of those things matter.
07:31But I still look at it like this.
07:36If you have the other positions playing well,
07:41the guys on the offense get more time to play.
07:45More time to develop.
07:47And if Jaden is out there, his accuracy,
07:50if he keeps hitting somebody in the chest
07:52and they keep dropping the ball,
07:53they won't be on the football field.
07:55What do you hope, right?
07:57Yeah.
07:57And I just think that what they've started
08:00and as they go,
08:03intensity, intensity, intensity.
08:06And that doesn't mean reckless.
08:07I mean, be precise.
08:10Run fast.
08:11Because when the games start,
08:12and I understand,
08:13in practice,
08:14you can't go all out like you do in a game.
08:17But you can get as close as you damn possibly can.
08:19That's what Rye told me
08:20because I asked him about increased competition
08:23and he's like,
08:24listen,
08:25I recognize we're not playing real football, right?
08:27We don't have pads on.
08:28There's no linemen hitting each other.
08:29These are simulations.
08:31These are simulations.
08:32But these simulations have to be full go.
08:34Yeah.
08:34This has to be as hard as we can go all the time.
08:37And I think that's a real change.
08:39And I don't know that DQ has to own,
08:43like has to publicly own,
08:44that he didn't push it hard enough last summer.
08:48But there's almost like a tacit acknowledgement
08:50that we didn't push it hard enough last summer.
08:54This has to be increased.
08:57And I think that's a positive for the organization.
08:59I think it's a positive for the players.
09:02I mean, if you just look-
09:03I think all these players have to understand,
09:04dude, you play football.
09:06So all of this stuff about taking it easy on it and buy,
09:09no, no, no, no.
09:10Get ready to play football.
09:13Because football is not like the other sport.
09:15Football is like hockey.
09:17Hockey is like football.
09:18It is way more physical than the other two sports.
09:21And you better get ready to play it.
09:23Because if football was not as physical,
09:28you could play four or five games a week.
09:32Try doing that.
09:33It won't work out for you.
09:35I'm not going to name the player,
09:37but I saw a player after a game
09:43who these guys still get random drug tests, right?
09:47And what happens is like the dude comes into the locker room
09:50and doesn't leave until you pee in the cup.
09:53And I saw a player after a game.
09:56I mean, this is like when-
09:58What time do you figure the locker room clears out after a game?
10:02Lost, sometimes it happens a little quicker,
10:03but it's like a 45-minute period generally
10:06before all the players are gone,
10:08maybe an hour before all the coaches are gone.
10:10And then like the staffers kind of clean up and stuff.
10:13We were at the period where the staffers were cleaning up.
10:17And there's a player still at his locker.
10:19And in each hand, he has a Gatorade and a water.
10:23And not the Gatorade we drink.
10:24They have those super Gatorades that they have, right?
10:26You can't buy it.
10:27Like they dump electrolytes into it.
10:32And this dude is just chugging it.
10:34I'm like, dog, what are you doing?
10:35He's like, I got a drug test.
10:37And I was like-
10:38Gotta pee.
10:39He's like, I can't.
10:40Like I have nothing left in my body after that game.
10:42You're drinking yourself.
10:43So, I mean, he's literally chugging water and Gatorade simultaneously
10:46just so he can pee enough for the drug test.
10:50I don't think people realize the level of everything left on the field
10:56following an NFL game.
10:57But like what I would tell him, he got to drink more during the game.
11:00Yeah.
11:01Same thing when I ride this bike.
11:03There are people who like, okay, we got a rest stop at 18 miles.
11:07You don't wait till you get to 18 miles to start drinking.
11:11Every 10 to 15 minutes, you need to be doing something.
11:13And you keep yourself hydrated.
11:16He, when you let yourself get to that point,
11:18if that game had to go to overtime, he was going to lock up.
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