00:00So the context I'm going to provide is we are hearing, we heard in the filibuster from Calvin Shepard, there
00:09was a disconnect and a lack of understanding on the players side of things.
00:16That's coming out of the Buffalo game. Hey, we got 10 days to fix this. Let's fix it. All right.
00:20And then earlier in the week, it's Dan Campbell saying players got to be where they're supposed to be when
00:26they're supposed to be there.
00:27And now we're hearing those are the right calls and the blitzes. And when pressed on it, well, those are
00:36private conversations, meaning, yes, those are conversations he's having with the players where they weren't doing and executing what they
00:42were supposed to do.
00:43And then, and this is on the offensive side of the ball, Scotty Montgomery talking about, hey, every target to
00:50JMO should have been a catch in that game. You can't be boom or bust. That's average.
00:56So, so I understand the mechanism. Shep's not going to call out a specific player and light them up in
01:01the media at that podium, which is why he said, let's keep conversations private.
01:05I guess maybe it's just my frustration boiling over. If I have to hear enough times that guys aren't in
01:10the right spot, I'm just supposed to believe it's an uncoachable roster or is that coaching?
01:16No, I, I, I, I, I'm just giving you context of why I'm talking about, Hey players. And he talked
01:23about it. Like if you're supposed to be six inches one way or the other, he mentioned that we don't
01:27have that audio right now, but I know I watched it.
01:29And that's one of the things that he's talking about. But if you have players and we always say, you
01:37know, it, especially in the league, like if you can't do it, we'll find somebody who does.
01:41Well, at this point of the season, you can't just swap players for players. Okay. That's a, that's a next
01:48season solution, but you're looking for those solutions.
01:51Now we still got three months and you know, Brad Holmes, hopefully he's mining the NFL for possible solutions. And
01:59I don't know if that means, Hey, it, when Cade Mays is back, is you scrugs on the trade market?
02:03Because the value of having him is not as great as the value of somebody on defense, like, or is
02:08it, is it draft capital? Like all of those things should be going on right now. I don't know if
02:12they are or not.
02:13I would assume they are, but we keep hearing the coaches talk about the players, not calling them out by
02:23name, but I think we can all read between the lines and see that they believe they're due.
02:29The coaches are doing the right thing. So I guess the question is to the, to the audience, do you
02:35believe it's the players? Do you believe it's the coaches?
02:37Right. And if it's the coaches is the time to move on in the, the bi-week? Well, I do
02:44feel like, feel like I don't have any Intel, feel like Shep's coaching for his job this Sunday, the bi
02:49-week follows, you know, and, and Dan was on with us and he was much more fired up with us
02:54than he was at the podium on Monday.
02:56And I don't know if it's dialing up the urgency. Cause he knows, Hey man, we gotta, we gotta get
03:00this team to the bi-week because then we can clean things up more thoroughly. And John, maybe that entails
03:06a change.
03:06I mean, if this defense doesn't get any better, they have to make a change. Otherwise they risk sinking the
03:11whole season.
03:11And there are, there are a couple of guys on the staff that have had that in their repertoire, in
03:16their resume of being a defense play court. It's been a long time, but is there also in, and so
03:24people will say, well, if they're all a part of the staff right now, why would you think things would
03:28improve? Well, I don't know that they can get any worse. You're already the worst team in the NFL defensively.
03:32Yeah.
03:32So it may just be a different voice, a different way of getting it across. And it all, there also
03:39may be some conflict where you have some defensive coaches that behind closed doors and only in coaches meetings are
03:49arguing with Kelvin Shepard saying, we shouldn't be doing this.
03:54Yes. We should be doing this, which is healthy again. I wish go ahead. Finish the point. I'm sorry. But
04:00if Dan is hearing those and he says, you know what, what Calvin is doing on game days is not
04:07working. Let's, we're not going to, we're not changing the defense, but we, maybe it is time for a different
04:13voice.
04:13Nice. And he decides to elevate somebody as interim DC to get through the rest of the season. Yeah. The
04:21application of what they have already installed could be done better by somebody else would be the theory that you'd
04:25need to test it. This just doesn't get better. It's what's the harm in trying something else at that point.
04:30You're never going to get the straight answer because Dan Campbell's not going to fire someone over the radio before
04:37he actually makes the decision privately. And he can't make that decision probably this week with the bye coming.
04:43Right. Right. So he was kind of between the right. So he goes, you know what, this is me inferring.
04:49I'm going to throw everything out, hellfire and brimstone. And we're to push this team over the hump, get to
04:55the bye week, and then I can make the change I want to make.
04:59And who knows behind closed doors, he may have said, you either get a fix this week or you're done.
05:03Right. Well, wouldn't it? We don't know if he actually said that, but wouldn't it jive with the way Shep
05:08was at the podium yesterday? Kind of a defensive. Oh, sure. Hey, I know my ass is in the jackpot.
05:13This Sunday. That's, that's kind of the vibe I got from his, from Calvin Shepard is I know the walls
05:18are closing in. I know my unit, whether it's my fault on the blitzes or the players alignment or this,
05:24that, and the other, it has to be better than ASAP this Sunday.
05:29Okay. Let's go to the phones. Jojo in commerce. Jojo. Good morning.
05:33Hey, good morning. Um, basically the players are playing like they don't respect him and that's not going to change.
05:40So you think the players are, the players have the mindset that I know better.
05:45Yeah. Well, they just don't want to work for them. Whenever you have somebody that you don't want to work
05:49for anymore, it's obvious in their performance.
05:54And that's how they're playing. They're not executing. Probably what he wants to keep private is probably the players being
06:00like, I don't respect you.
06:01You know, who knows they're not saying that, you know, who knows that's the, that's not the conversation that they're
06:07having.
06:08You know, maybe they don't like the playbook. They don't respect the playbook.
06:11They don't, you know, and they don't respect it from day one. What makes, that's not going to change. It's
06:16already, uh, it's already, it's already a toxic, uh, relationship.
06:21So it's time to move on because you can't fire all the players, you know, you can go ahead and
06:27test it. You know what I mean?
06:28We can't get any worse. So the change has to come there. And obviously it's Brad Holmes is the ultimate
06:35guy that needs to go and all this.
06:37And the thing is we were playing good when everybody trusted the process, right? But they're not playing like they
06:42trust the process as fans.
06:44We don't trust the process and the players probably don't either. They're just not saying it. So they don't, they
06:52don't, they probably don't want to do that.
06:54You know, name names and stuff. And, and obviously, you know, he can't name names because there's probably too many
06:59of them.
07:00And the players don't want to do that because they're just going to say, Hey, you know, this guy is
07:04going to go, they know it, you know?
07:06And so basically what I'm taking away from this is in 23 and even in 24, they trusted Aaron Glenn
07:13much more than they trust Kelvin Shepard.
07:17That that's the interpretation. Well, yeah, because what he's talking about is in 23, our secondary wasn't much better in
07:2523.
07:25Yes, you had Kirby Joseph and Brian Branch, but it was a young Brian Branch.
07:29Do you remember last year when the Johnny Morton thing was starting to go off the rails and he had
07:35some comments?
07:36I don't even remember exactly what he said, but there were people who said, you can't throw the players under
07:40the bus.
07:41You know, you're the coordinator. You can't throw the players under the bus.
07:44That that was kind of the beginning of the end for John Morton, because that's the big no, no.
07:49How is that any different than Kelvin Shepard?
07:51Well, because at that time, you're still talking about a top five offense and against the better teams, they weren't
08:02producing.
08:02And I think we all were smart enough to look at it and go, well, they just don't have the
08:07talent up front on the offensive line.
08:10But you can't say that because that'll get you fired. You can't throw your players under the bus.
08:14But they're ships going. These guys can't get a line right. My calls are the right calls.
08:19Yeah, but so go back to my other point is he's Kelvin Shepard is echoing what Dan Campbell said.
08:27So you can't say that he's throwing the players under the bus.
08:30You have to go back to Dan and say if the players are supposed to be there, right, and they're
08:33being coached that way.
08:34It's it. And he's saying the players aren't there.
08:38Then I agree with you. It still is a coaching issue because you have to figure out how to get
08:44that message across to them.
08:45They have to receive it and they have to understand how they fit into the scheme of the defense.
08:50If we're doing this on blitz, the reason we're asking you to be at this spot inside a receiver or
08:56outside or head up or pressed or at five yards, not six,
09:01is because of what is going on in some other part of the field.
09:05Yeah, I guess that going back to the clip we've played a bunch, Shep's not going to give away X's
09:10and O's, but yeah, the blitzes were right.
09:12We were aligned wrong. Our leverage is wrong in coverage. We were half step slow here, half step slow there.
09:17Instead, it's those are the right calls, right? I'm the smartest, best, most toughest.
09:22You know what? Easy, buddy. Easy, buddy. But you can tell there is an added pressure. He's feeling it.
09:30There's no question. I mean, it would be a shock if he wasn't right.
09:33Right. It would be. And we would be talking about like, does he even care?
09:36Does he have a pulse? Right. Yeah.
09:37Text says, I don't think Birchie's had that much resistance since fighting Wojo for the last hot dog at the
09:41buffet signed to John and Lake Orion.
09:43That can get physical. I could see that getting testy, too.
09:46What's the over under on days until Shep is singing? You raise me up, Jared and Jackson.
09:51Oh, God, that's a that's a that reference hurts.
09:55Shep saying that, you know, don't disrespect this group.
09:59Text says truth hurts, Shep. Get to work.
10:03Shep is a used car salesman, Patricia 2.0.
10:06How are our people not making that comparison?
10:08If the whole defense doesn't understand, that's the definition of coaching.
10:12I blame the players, but then that actually means I'm blaming, blaming Brad Holmes for his personnel.
10:18Signed an unnamed texture.
10:20Right. I mean, this is the ultimate chicken or the egg conversation.
10:25Yeah, you guys got a lot to say.
10:27We're certainly gonna be talking a lot of lines today on this football Friday.
10:29Picks are next. It's 97 one.
