All right, pencils down, heads up, Steve, It's time for the NFL Report.
Steve White, James Palmer with you, and we have the man Steve who.
Was spending every waking hour with the number one overall pick, Bryce Young. That's Panthers offensive coordinator Thomas Brown gonna join the show for an exclusive interview. Just wait, do you hear what he asked to say about about the number one pick?
I get?
Just wait until you have.
I can't wait for it because I used to cover Thomas and college when he was a running back at Georgia. So I'm really excited about this. But Jay PMLO down the dumps. You know, two days ago a water main breaks, a waterminon breaks in the house, so I got a whole room flooded. My wife's got her family up, My wife D's got her family up from Jamaica, so we got this whole room now that's flooded, waters everywhere. But that's not why I'm really down on the dumps JP.
It was the plumbing.
Duw.
Yeah, you know, they're like it's gonna cost you this much. I felt like Vonte is perfect. When I got fined by the NFL from my fifteenth hit for unnecessary roughness and do you know how big that fine those fines are.
Yeah, that's from Owen lawns around the neighborhood.
That's where I'm right now.
But look, we're also gonna have Brian Baldinger, and we are gonna have all kinds of different angles on this Aaron Rodgers subject, from how you know Aaron Rodgers history to how it affects not only the Jets moving forward, but at least one of their opponents.
You're not gonna want to miss that. We've got Stacey.
DL's, Brian Baldinger, Mike Grefolo, Judy Batista joining us JP and first up, this is a game I don't think either one of us can wait to see. Coming up, we've got the Kansas City Chiefs coming off the l to the Detroit Lions playing the Jacksonville Jaguars who win the opener and James. This doesn't say anything about the Chiefs, but the fact that we're talking about how they could open the season with back to back losses against the Lions and Jags tells you the state of those teams right now.
Steve, you've been down to the dumps too much, so I'm not gonna go negative. I'm gonna swing it over to Jacksonville and go positive for us here. Imagine what this benchmark game could be for the Jacksonville Jaguars organization. If they take down the defending Super Bowl champs in Week two and this might happen. I think, Steve, because of when this game is happening, it's early in the season. We know Chris Jones is back, we know he's been doing two a days down.
In Miami, but he's not Nick Bosa.
I'm curious how many snaps he can go and how that affects them getting after Trevor Lawrence because there's some issues injuries wise up front on that offensive line. Can they still be explosive and they can put some points on the board. And then on the other side, we know Travis Kelce probably coming back for this game. I was told when an injury happened, a one to two week injury. Is he one hundred percent? This could be shaking up for a really good spot in the season
for Jacksonville to come away with a win. The closing part of this, Steve, is closing out games. That's something that the Jaguars know that the Chiefs are very good at We know that Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid are great in the fourth quarter.
They get better as the game goes on.
But talking to people in Jacksonville, they believe that's a trait that they're developing as well. And if they're able to compete in the fourth quarter and win a tight game over the defending Super Bowl champs, a game that they believe they should have won in the postseason, right talk to Doug Peters in this offseason. He truly believes they should have won that game in Arrowhead. This could be a massive game for the organization, for the Jacksonville Jaguars,
and they're treating it as such. It's a playoff atmosphere, I'm told down there in.
Jacksonville, well as it should be.
Look Kevin Calvin Ridley and the way he performed in his debut last week is great reason for that optimism.
And the fact that he talked about that the.
Jags actually had the Chiefs on the ropes to some degree in that playoff game last season, I mean that says a lot about where they are. And I remember this was the game when Patrick Mahomes first had that got that high ankle. Spraint lingered all the way through the Super Bowl, so that was part of it.
But you brought up Travis Kelcey.
He had fourteen catches and two touchdowns in that game. He is that much of a difference make. But we'll make a difference with this receiving corps that did not play well without him in Week one? Or will arrest of the guy step up to help booie Travis Kelsey, Because all of a sudden, if Kelsey's not one hundred percent, those guys aren't showing up that and we have to start to wonder if the Kansas City Chiefs have I have some greater underlying issues.
All Right, I'm really curious where Joan Taylor is going to line up, Steve. I'm really I'm really curious how far back he's.
Gonna going to left tackle. You were talking about depth from the line of scrimmage.
And guess what, I think Doug Peterson knows a thing or two about about his former tackle.
Let's move to the game that I'm going to be Yeah, and I think this is a great game. This is Ravens at Bengals.
And I had a chance to talk to a couple players on the phone this week, had a chance to talk to Tyler Boyd, who told me that, yes, that is the worst he has ever seen Joe Burrow play. But the interesting part Steven in our conversation is he said, you know why he's so even keel all the time, because he said, this week, nothing has faced him. He's been the same guy each and every day. Bothered him that he went out and threw for eighty two yards. Yes,
he did to get a haircut. He said that was partially because of the way he played, not entirely, but he said, this is why he's wired this way. He goes to Ohio State, my university, makes a terrible decision and moves on from him.
He transfers to LSU.
And his point with this is he has had to grind each in every spot he's been. Nothing's been handed to him in any of the spots he's been, which is an interesting thing to say for a former.
Number one overall pick.
But he said that's why he has this mentality that he can go out and bounce back from things because of what's happened to him in his path getting to the NFL and being the highest paid player in the history of the league right now.
JP, if we think he is not going to bounce back, that we need to go get drug tested or something. You know, I need to go have more pipes in my house burst or something.
Because he's going to bounce back. He's gonna bounce back.
The issue of this game is not going to be Joe Burrow against This Ravens defense is down some dbs right They've already had some injuries on their defense. The issue is going to be Cincinnati's defense because no matter what we want to say about this expanded Ravens offense, they're still going to try.
To run the ball. And Baltimore's offense.
Was not great in their opener against Houston. They barely surpassed one hundred yards on the ground. Lamar Jackson was a little bit here and there when it came to the pass game.
They've got some things to work out.
But after seeing the Bengals surrender more than two hundred rushing guards against the Browns and they really didn't adjust to fix it.
Now, the Ravens they don't have JK.
Dobbins, you know, they don't have Nick Chubb that Cleveland did, But that defense has got to button it up or else, John Harbaugh, Todd Munket, and that that run offense is going to continue to trying to pound the rock.
Steve.
I look at one word that sums up I think this entire game, and that is communication, and that involves the Ravens. What are the two position groups that need the really the best amount of continuity communication within a game. It's offensive line and it's the second death second right, those are the two spots that need to continue to talk to each other throughout a game.
You mentioned it.
Marcus Williams, the leader of that secondary, most likely not playing in this game, hasn't practiced all week with the peck injury. Marlon Humphrey not back yet from the foot injury. Down both those guys. Kyle Hamilton talked about it at length this week about how communication is an issue back there. Yes, they all play call of duty with one another. That does happen in the secondary when they're having their downtime, but on the field, having the proper amount of communication
against these three dynamic wide receivers is important. And then Ronnie Staley and Tyler Linderbaum, their center and their left table have not practiced all week.
The game on Sunday.
That's difficult upfront, when you're working in a new system and just your second game with it. You want to run the football, and we know DJ Reader and company up front with Luena Romo can make some damage. Those are the two spots I'm really keeping an eye on in this game when I'm going to be there on Sunday.
Yeah, I mean talking about interesting defenses.
We saw the Dallas Cowboys put a forty long dunk on the Giants in the open of Micah Parsons.
At every level they dominated.
Well, guess what they've got Zach Wilson and the one to o Jets this week. But on paper, it looks like an absolute domination for this Cowboys, going up against a quarterback who has still not found himself.
He was Aaron Rodgers backup.
But this is what we're gonna do because we're gonna talk about Aaron Rodgers exclusively.
But I'm gonna tell you how Aaron Rodgers injury affects more than just the Jets.
Within minutes of him going down Monday night, you better believe all the Cowboys coaches, analytics people, scouts, everybody had to scrap their game plan for their defensive install against Aaron Rodgers. Remember there are coaches on the Cowboy staff who were with Mike McCarthy and the Packers that you know how Aaron Rodgers operates, scrap.
That get ready for Zach Wilson.
So what do they have with Zach Wilson preseason tape with him in the Daniel Hackett system. So they had to go scour that and we know in the preseason they don't do too much. They had to watch this game again to see what worked for the Jets, and then they had to also go back and maybe look at some of Jack Wilson stuff that he did the last couple of seasons when he didn't play well. You have your scouts going back look at their their reviews out of him. But he was coming out of BYU.
So there's a lot of detail for the opponent this week, the Dallas Cowboys that.
They had to go to that they were not expecting to go to. That's just another.
Trickle down aspect of Aaron Rodgers' injury JP.
And you have to think it's week two, right, So some of this work is done by some people in that building during the end of preseason.
I mean they were probably a weighs.
Down in terms of their preparation about where they were with this and because of their understanding of Nathaniel Hackett and the thunderstanding specifically of Aaron Rodgers, and I'd like to talk about Rogers moving forward, and we're going to talk back up quarterbacks and their importance with Damas Brown coming up in his interview, because I think they have an experience, very good one there in Carolina.
And so.
There were questions Steve, going, all right, where do the Jets go? Who should they bring in?
The best quarterback if you ask around the league for the Jets right now, is Zach Wilson because he has an understanding of the system, and anybody you bring in that has to learn that system and play x mentally better than him probably doesn't really exist for your liking or your ability to go and get that quarterback. What I'm curious about is because these two have sparked up a very good friendship throughout this training camp, and that's
Aaron Rodgers and Zack Wilson. Is Rogers going to stick around and work in the room with Zach Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett and company and making sure this young quarterback is set up to succeed the best he can. Now, again, I should put this clearly, that is not Aaron Rodgers' job right now. His job is to get healthy, and his job is to rehab and go through all this. But he has talked about how rejuvenated he has Ben Steve coming and wing with these guys, throwing with everybody
in the offseason and being around this young group. He could do wonders for helping out Zach Wilson because he knows this better than anybody else.
I'm curious to see what role he plays moving forwards.
And this is why I'm so glad.
I asked scy Dale's on Rye Stacia, world class athlete and Olympic basketball player. It seems like it's a fairly simple ask of Aaron Rodgers. Hey, once you've had your surgery, come back and help. But we don't know what Aaron Rodgers is going to be going through. We don't know what he could be dealing with. We've heard so many athletes talk about maybe going into dark pockets during rehab.
And things like that.
So to say Aaron, you need to be there for him, that's not necessarily as simplistic of an ask as it could be.
But I think your point of the fact that just a few.
Months that he's had together with Zach Wilson, the relationship that they've had, he might be able to have sprinkled some of that magic faery dust on him that it looks like he sprinkled for three seasons on Jordan Love based on how Jordan Love came out of the gate last week.
Man, I was talking to Tracy Wilson in Foxborough last Sunday.
She goes, we have the Jets Cowboys. Can you believe it?
I can't remember last time we did a Jets game for our big broadcast on CBS. Well and Zach Wilson against the Cowboys.
Well, coming up, we.
Have the number one overall pick, Bryce Young's mentors sidekick, the guy who was molding him, Thomas Brown, the offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers.
This is going to be ridiculous. Stick with us on the NFL Report.
All right.
Now, we have a very very special guest and JP. This is what we love, right We're bringing people insiders and information that they're not going to get anywhere else. And we got Panthers offensive coordinator Thomas Brown joining us here.
On the NFL Report TV.
Let's go, let's go. Excited to be here.
That's what I'm talking to. Man, you're looking good.
Hey, shit, hey, appreciate it.
You know for the folks who are listening on the podcast, they want to see. But Thomas, he's got off the shrugs machine. He's kind of jacked and swollen right now.
In our shot, you only get one body of life, right, got a maximize that take care of it, work out every day.
Yeah, they had to widen his shot to fit him in there. We're scrunched on the sides. Make sure he looks good in the middle.
Hey a Thomas, Just just for timeliness of this before we get on to a couple of years ago, you blew out your achilles tendon, you know, when you were with the Rams.
You're rolling around on the scooter and everything.
What you look You're you're a former world class athlete, NFL running back, college running back. But what is that experience like and just kind of walk as quickly through your rehab.
Yes, it was rough.
So I would say I was going through a number routine on the field, doing the individual drill.
So every day we have.
I would say twenty minutes of individual So I have the running backs and quarterbacks going through ball handle and so I'm just kind of making those guys react.
Off of me.
And I make one step and I feel like that somebody just threw a football at the back of my ankle. So I turned around looking behind me try to see the ball was on the ground. I realized there was no ball there, so I tried to go take a step and I just helped.
My whole kind of ankle and foot drop.
So I turned to Reggie Scott and Sam McVay was kind of standing by each other, and said, I think I just told my achilles, and so they thought I was joking, but I was. I was very serious about tarring the achilles, and so Reggie asked me, are you sure, And I said, Reggie, I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty try. I know what happens, will goes in between the same little spot, and it's missing right now.
And so my first thought was.
You know, can I get off the field and I walk off the field, So I tried to. I did walk myself to the training room, and so a number of motions are going through.
My brain, you know.
Luckily, for me in that position, I'm no longer playing, so it won't affect that aspect of it. I can imagine from a players standpoint, right how devastate it is going to be when it comes to the initial injury being out for the entire year, but thinking about just the rehab process going back and kind of recovering from
the injury. And for myself, I mean, I'm a fairly older dude now, I try to still be somewhat relatively young, but it took me a good, you know, eight to nine months to get back to doing everything I want.
You're like thirty, you know, you're younger than Rogers, Yeah, for sure.
So I mean I think being able to try to build back and get back into one hundred percent shape was was a tough challenge for me my life. But it's different when it comes to being a washed up coach versus being a player.
And you're problem right now.
But I'm kind of curious in this so when this happens, and not just what we saw Monday night with Aaron Rodgers, but in any instance where you know your starter goes down, what's the first conversation on the sideline that you have as a play caller, as an offensive coordinator, as a part of the offensive staff. With that backup quarterback that's going in what initially happens on the sideline right away, Well.
The first thing for me is just trying.
So it makes me ease his mind when it comes to the moment of having a to come in that top opportunity.
I think every time you have a major injury on the field, I think every player.
Kind of has that that thought in the back of their mind about some significant injury happening. So my role is going to be a tight hole. All those guys done as much as possible. All those guys will play with a quiet in mind and kind of get those guys rolling.
I want to play starts.
So Thomas, with that situation, you know, so we know the big deal with Aaron Rodgers going to the Jets the quarterback, you guys have a very capable backup and Andy Dalton. I mean, right as we're looking around the NFL, not every team is as fortunate as you to have somebody like that. What about you guys in Carolina having someone like Andy Dalton who's there just in case of a worst case scenario.
I mean, I think just from the standpoint of what you mentioned Steve about being worst case scenario, but I think more importantly the everyday process of him being a poor into Bryce from his experience right his exposure for being in this league for a very long time, how open Andy is, how he communicates in the media room, but also given Bryce kind of just subtle tips and sails on the football field, that was what his overall development is awesome for us.
So he's been through a lot of games, Andy Dalton, and he's watched the film the next day with coaching staffs a lot. Bryce did that for the very first time after your game on Sunday. If you could take us Thomas into that room and kind of what that first film session was like after Bryce's first game, what.
Went down in there.
Well, first off, we're all very disappointing about the outcome of the game. I think any time we lose a football game, I've always been a very sole loser, my mom reminds me from time to time, from the age I was eight years old up until now. But I think being able to build upon some of the positive things we did offensively, but more particularly when it comes
to Bryce and his overall growth, and development. You look at the tape and talk about the positive takeaways, you look at how you operate the system from a huddle standpoint, but also the saline communication I thought was really good, especially for.
His first opportunity time being out.
But what an opportunity to learn like first week one have adversity, and what I love about adversity is the opportunity to be able to take on the challenge to learn and grow from it. And Bryce is is as good as as I've been around when it comes to taking on those challenges.
So when you're when you're game planning, now now that you've got a baseline right from the game against Atlanta, now you go through the Saints on Monday night, I mean, what is Bryce's approach? Because everything we saw in college was Okay, let's go get it.
We know we did wrong, let's go get it. Kind of tell us what it's been like. Work with him. Going into week.
Two, I'm in the exact same way. I think. One of the things I love about Bryce is his overall approach back.
We were kind of going through the process of evaluating quarterbacks. We're on a couple of planes start around the country to interview quarterbacks, but also watch those guys throw in person. And so I meet with all the quarterbacks and the Maximus guys some similar questions, and one of the questions I ask all the quarterbacks was just take me through. Okay, the game is done it Saturday night. What's your weekly process from the time of the game end to the
next game. And so most quarterbacks had probably I would say ten to fifteen minute response. Right, So we're seventeen minutes into the and to Bryce answering the question, and we're still on Tuesday morning, So I think being it when it comped this overall development, he has a great approach, a great process towards understanding how to move on past the game, learn from those mistakes, but also build upon what he did well as well.
Also, well, Thomas, there was all of you guys on that plane, on this offensive staff going around. So I saw a bunch of you guys at Ohio State at CJ. Shroud's pro day, and you guys were making the round. With that said, all of these offensive minds you guys have on this staff, how do you, I guess in this process with a young quarterback, the number one overall pick is talented as Bryce is kind of divvy up who does what? How does it get split way?
Is there a meeting.
Before, like, do you guys devise who handles what? How does it operate within the staff when you're trying to mold him early on?
Yeah, I didn't.
The great thing about our setup is that we have a great operation when it comes to delegating roles and responsibilities.
I think sometimes when it comes to.
Having so much, you know, whether the mental capacity or experience in one room, depending on who you had, it can become an issue. We do a great job when it comes to always checking your ego at the door. We're all about trying to find ways to figure out what is right versus who is right. So I think the collaboration process we have has been amazing.
It's been awesome. I look forward to kind of building that every day.
And Thomas you talk about, you know, the collaboration forging a identity. Right, you're a former running back, you've coach run. What about the run game and how important that is. It's not only helping Bryce develop, but you guys establishing what type of character you're going to be Offensively?
Yeah, So I mean we break down offensive identity. So we talked about this from day one we got back here in April when our players came in. We broke it down to kind of three different categories, all right. Number one was being the physical at every position, and so you mentioned a running game. Everything starts with that
approach for us. One of the biggest positive takeaway from our game is that the really good job of being aggressive attacking running back to the really good job when it comes to running after running, make a contact after the ball, kind of from a contact standpoint, fight infective yards when it comes to the overall development of a young quarterback, but also offensively in general, everything deals off
of that. You're talking about your play pass, your keepers, your nakeds, and obviously drive back offense as well.
Tomas, does that playoff of what you?
I mean?
Obviously you look at what everybody else is doing, right, and everybody kind of sees and steals from one another. Is it looking at what is a trend in defensive football in the NFL alters what you want to do offensively or do you look more at at offensive football around the NFL and then kind of build it off that obvious it is off of your personnel but still, what side of the ball do you look at more to kind of build that identity what you said.
Last part, the most important thing is you kind of already mentioned when it comes to understanding your personneling what you guys do well offensively upfront, quarterback wise or skilled players. But I mean to me, it's kind of a combination
of both. When you look at trends around the league from an off of the standpoint defensively, you can get certain ideas from there from the offensive perspective, but we kind of hold true to our identity, our philosophy, trying to build upon every single week, but also doing a great job of self scout. So once we have a game, obviously kind of correcting those corrections, but what do we
put on tape? What can we build off of that kind of our opponents is watching to kind of, you know, make it more difficult for those guys to defend us moving forward.
And Thomas, we saw in preseason second half of games you were calling the place. Frank Reicher said, at some point, you guys are going to make the transition, whenever that is this season, next season, whatever, You're gonna be.
The play caller. How do you guys work with that.
How has Frank work with you and when you coach under Sean McVeigh and maybe teaching you some of the things and taking your input on some things you guys can forge when that transition takes place.
Well, one, I've always been a sponge, so have an opportunity to, like you mentioned before, being in the environment with so many great minds around us, but the kind of one on one time with Frank every single day we kind of put together that game plan and talk about certain ideas.
Obviously winning on guy like coach call what as well, who can kind of obviously.
Add advice from his vast experience from a behind the scenes standpoint, But I think it's about the daily collaboration and me understanding more about him and kind of vice versa in combination, will putting out buzzing a pleasant in the best spot to have success right we cand and week out.
Tom, I'm fascinated by play callers. I love when guys say there's so much in the zone. They're not even looking at the sheet, right, They're just they're just calling it. But everybody kind of has a different description of it.
Right. Some guys say it's a science. Some guys say it's an art, some guys say it's a feel. How would you describe play calling?
I think the biggest part of it is about preparation, you know, so obviously being able to have a fill on game is important. Being able to adapt in the just depending what the opponent is giving is going to be a big part of you having success on game day.
But it's about what are you doing throughout the week putting the game and putting the game on from a game plan standpoint, how you bring it to life More importantly, how you explain those details to your players, because all boils down to not how smart you claim to be a want to be as a play caller, but how smart are your players? What those guys can activate on game day?
All right, Thomas, let's take it back when we got that number twenty on at Uga.
Okay, we're going back to running backs. All the conversation is off season is our running backs are devalued. But every week all I hear is how valuable the running game is?
Right, what is the difference between the value of running backs and the value of the running game.
Well, Steve, I'll say this, staying in the frustration the round the league when it comes to some of these elite players who will continued to produce on a consistent basis and want to.
Be rewarded for it.
But all can do is speak for us as from an organization standpoint and our value.
And I went off a guy like.
Miles Sons, for example, who had great value for us, and people may say from a market value standpoint it was a little bit higher, but just as far as how we want to be built identity wise, it was a perfect fit for us when it comes to how we're building your system, but also a great for rookie quarterback as well.
Miles can do it all.
We all know that he can do a lot of different things as a running back Thomason And so last one for me is you're going into your second game with your quarterback. Everybody talks about adversity when things don't go right for young quarterbacks. How do they bounce back? How do they respond? What was your take on this week? What may be instances if there is one that sticks out to you most about Bryce where you said, oh okay.
This is kind of different than this guy, Well.
I think, to me is what I've seen every single day and he stepped foot on in his organization. From a practice standp went preparation wise, Pross.
In the media room.
I mean, he is calm, cool, collective.
But one thing I did see that I love is obviously from a game play standpoint, just to fire the emotion of the theme and the solid when it comes to making players, getting guys going, but obviously wanting to have the ball in his hands when it counts the most, so we can definitely build upon when it comes to our overall operation.
Thomas Brown, offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers, thank you so much. Now that you finished shruggs and shoulders, don't forget leg Day, Thomas. Your gotta stay balanced, man.
Start every Monday with leg Day.
That's what I'm talking about.
The big farm, That's.
What I'm talking about. Thomas, Thank you so much.
Thank you for the time.
He never misses his leg Dare.
That's Brian Baldinger and he's gonna be here later and tell us about Packers quarterback Jordan Love. The eye and the sky don't lie, and neither is Brian Baldinger.
Welcome back to the NFL Report, and just like every Thursday, we're joined by Brian, balding Er and Baldi. We love that you get to listen to our interviews each and every week.
And Thomas Brown's breaking down play calling.
I was in.
Foxborough last Sunday watching Brian Johnson go out there and call plays for the first time in the NFL. I'm fascinated by play calling, and I know you have an interest in it too, just in the manner in which it's done successfully.
Well.
Look, I mean if you look at like, why would Brian Johnson change what change Psychin did last year with Jalen Hurts, Like, you know, they're a deep shot team. Okay, they were a quarterback. You know, you got to count for him in a run game. They're a power run team. Like they just do certain things that they're really good at. And the Patriots do that. And the Patriots had a good game plan. They were they played a lot of his own.
They clouded all their deep shots that Eagles didn't get one play down the field the AJ Brown or to Plant Smith, not one. They averaged five yards you know an attempt like they should be up around eight yards in a temp. All right, we're not getting carried away with stats. But and then they played a five minute defensive front with one linebacker, and they basically said, okay,
move us off the ball. And those all those mercenaries up front that played Patriot football, they didn't get moved, you know, they didn't get moved by Jordan Mulatta and by Kelsey and Lane. Like they held their ground really well. They shut down on what was a powerful running game a week ago. I mean it was it was good balance what the Patriots did defensively.
Hey, Baldy, the folks are listening to the podcast won't be able to see it. But you got a pillow behind you, man, are you like sleeping in the office there?
Bro.
Every once in a while, the eyelid they get heavy steams and they got a rest just before it, you know, like in the fifteenth hours. Sometimes you need to sneak right there. I see it, I see it. That's good eyes right there by youth peper. Sometimes it was eyelands get a little heavy, like even two fifth they keep the eye open, you know.
I mean, this is this is how dedicated you are, Baldy. But you just talked about that Patrio's defense.
Well, this week they faced a buzz saw of an offense with the Miami Dolphins. We saw them hang thirty six on the Chargers. I mean, the passing game layered all over the place. I know Mike mc daniels said he wanted to run the ball more, but Jesus man, it seemed like they were throwing the ball all the time with routes that could not be denied.
Well, look, I mean Tyreek had you know, one of those days, okay, And I was just shocked that the Chargers never adjusted like you got. Like I've seen Bill Belichick play elite receivers and they will cloud them. I don't care what the name of the back of the jersey was. Could have been Chad Johnson back in the day. You know, they had a cloud over the top. And this throw right here by Tyreek, Like, where is the safety over the top on that at thirty five yard touchdown?
This game winner right here, you're gonna put Mike Davis on him. There was nowhere else that to was going but to Tyreek. And so like this the first play the game, I don't know, they're in some kind of a walk away with Khalil Mack. The safety wasn't sure if they were going to clamp him in his own like he.
Was just too wide open all day.
And I just don't believe the Patriots will let that happen. Like maybe Jalen Wide gets some you know, maybe the running backs get a few more, but I don't think Tyreek Hill is going to run wide open and open freeways up there in Foxborough this week.
There.
I'm curious, aboudy what on the other side of the coin with the way Mike McDaniel does things in terms of when he sees this Sunday and you want to see what Bill Belichick's trying to take away early? What does he do as an offensive mine to adjust to to an experienced defensive caller like Bill Belichick.
Well, there's you know, there's formations like how are they playing informations James, I mean bunch formation. Are they manning it or they's owning it? You know, there's so many different factors that you're just sending indicators. You know, is there gonna be a lot of more pre stat motion this week? And how the Patriots handled that? They do the Patriots disguise their motion and tell you that they're
playing man and then play zone off of it. You know, I thought it was interesting last week Eagles took a deep shot to AJ Brown and you know it's a classic to Jalen Hurst and A J. Brown, And there's Gonzales and Maypou, two rookies that bracketed it. You couldn't have walked through it on Friday afternoon any better than they executed it. Mike wants to see that, like, are they going to bracket our deep shots? Are they going to cloud it? And if they do, then the underneath
should work, should open? Are they gonna play zone? Are they gonna mix it up? Are they playing half field man Halffield zone? Like Mike's looking for all those indicators and then for any indicator that he sees, He's got a beater for it, you know, whether it's a man beater, whether it's flooding the zone. But the good thing is Tua was so clear in what he was looking at last Sunday. And people can argue all they want about too.
If that guy going back to Alabama days is mechanically sound, his feet gets set, and when his feet gets set, like he makes one stick throw after another like right here, like in stride, you're gonna get aldiac Like he is a deadly accurate thrower and his deep ball, like you can't throw it any better over the top. Now that's the fourth corner right there.
You know, the Chargers. Why not go after.
Hey, Baldy, speaking about mechanically sound and indicators, Let's go to Jordan Love because for a couple of years we heard there was no indication that he was gonna be able to play.
Quarterback in this league.
And from what we saw in the preseason and his debut, he looks like he's going to be just fine.
Well, I mean, just think about the receiving card he's throwing a Jaden Reid their second round pick. Yeah, Romeo Dobbs the second round you know, for a year or two right now, that touched the floater to Romeo Dobbs. All right, just a back shoulder fade in the corner of the end zone. We've watched far do it for fifteen years. We want Sharon Rodgers do it for fifteen years, and we might just watch Jordan Love Jeordan for fifty because he threw it just the way both those.
Hall of famers threw it.
Yeah, like it was he knew exactly where to put that ball and let doms go get it, all right.
Baldy, that's really great stuff.
We're gonna make a transition from Jordan Love to the story of the week and Aaron Rodgers and Baldy we will see you next Thursday. But here's Rogers post surgery on IG. Thank you to every person that has reached out, called Texas DM, connected to a friend, et cetera.
Has met a ton to me and I'll try to get back to all of you soon.
I'm completely heartbroken and moving through all the emotions, but deeply touched and humbled by the support and love. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I begin the healing process today. The night is darkest before the dawn, and I shall rise yet again proud of my guys. One and oh, so Aaron Rodgers does not sound like his career is gonna.
Be ending getting carted off of a field.
And now we bring in Stacy Dale's who out of all the people in NFL media staff, I spent the most time around Aaron Rodgers.
But Sat, I want to get this from your perspective again.
You're your Olympic basketball player, you are a world class athlete hooper at Oklahoma. An injury like this to someone like Aaron Rodgers, who again you spent years around at thirty nine, the coping mechanisms he might have to put in place or whatever, Like, what can you tell us about maybe what he's going to have to deal with here?
Yeah, no question.
Good to be with you guys.
And I do have a pillow in the background.
Like Baldy and a dog.
I see with Aaron Rodgers, it was time for him to move on, right, And you just spoke with Baldy about Jordan Love and just how efficient he was, and they've really given him the keys to the to the jeep if you will. I mean in Green Bay, and there's got to be something about the water in Green Bay when you come out and have a performance like that.
But I would just classify this as traumatizing, and Jeff Collette, the producer, could probably attest as a Packers fan like traumatizing and devastating for any player to suffer an injury in the first game, but for it to be Aaron Rodgers, who will be a first ballot as we all know.
And I can't recall like you and I spoke Steve this week on the phone, and I just can't recall a player of this magnitude in Week one, suffering such a distinct injury, it's and then the questions sort of prevail, like is this going to be the end of his career?
We were told.
Basically in that post that he gave us all on Instagram. No, and then Nathaniel Hackett spoke today as well about the fact that they fully believe, at least there in the Jets building, that he's going to come back. And that's going to be I think the most interesting thing because he's played their injuries in his career. This is achilles injury. It's unlike you know, other injuries, and it takes a long time after the surgery to heal and to really get back your feet again, if you will. But yeah,
it's devastating. It's traumatizing for the team, and I think we've all learned that given some of the comments and interviews done this week.
Stasey, I'm curious about the man that's always so closely tied to Aaron Rodgers, and that's Nathaniel Hackett, And now that he is there and he is not going to be working this season with Aaron Rodgers, how much of a spotlight is there on Nathaniel Hackett now that it's going to be him and Zach Wilson and not him and Aaron Rodgers.
I think you nailed it, James, and you were there obviously for a lot of what took place in Denver right as he embarked upon his head coach. I was in the NFL, Yes, you were. He's going to bear the responsibility fully, and I think you'll have an Aaron Rodgers who's very involved. Aaron's a coach on the field. Aaron dictates, as he's done his entire career, so much of what happens at the line of scrimmage he doesn't. You could argue, like Tom Brady doesn't need a play call.
He's going to call the game himself. And when you have that kind of a blankie, it makes your job as an offensive coordinator a lot easier now, Like it was really interesting when they were together in Green Bay. I had some great conversations with coach Hacket. You know, he runs the stairs before the game, He's out there about three hours early. Those are the best times to grab a coach because the game plan's been set all week.
They're finally ready to just go let it rip, and you know, finding ways to stimulate Aaron Rodgers every single day, with every single game plan is extraordinary to hear from the offensive coordinator. So now fast forward, and he's going to have a great deal of responsibility and making sure Zach Wilson is capable and in good situations to get the football out and make sure this team believes in him. But I'll tell you what if you can run for one hundred and seventy two.
Yards like they did.
Despite Rogers going down, and you've got Bryce Hall who's over one hundred on the ground and Delvin Cook, I would say there, there's the formula to start with. If you're the New York Jets.
Yeah, it's the formula that got them to five and two at the start of last season. I see some pause moving around over there. Stacey sleeping dogs.
I know that.
I know that from the streaming.
We're in dreamland right now. She is in dreamland. And you know who's in dreamland right now? All of Detroit after they took down the reigning Super Bowl champs in the first week. Let's hear Dan Campbell after that win before we get back to Stace.
I didn't learn anything. I got verification on what I already knew and this is a resilient team. It already was a resilient team. And we added pieces to that resilient team. So we're built to handle some some stuff. And and we did that today against a very good.
Opponent, Motor City Dan.
They didn't do that. Hey, they did do that.
Stays.
How different is that building now with that man and where they are right now, Stacy, where is that building.
In terms of their mindset?
I am so passionate about this, Like, okay, if you don't believe in the Detroit Lions, and I'll put my neck out there for this team. These are a bunch of ballers when you walk in that building, this is a group of winners. I mean obviously, you know, we saw them go on the road. I don't care you know, No Travis Kelcey, no, Chris Jones. I mean yeah, obviously those are really incredible players and are going to be,
you know, impactful for the Chiefs this season. But that is as you know, James, you're there all the time at Arrowhead, that that environment, that's one hundred and forty two decibels of noise in your ears. Now here's what I'll say about Detroit that Ford Field is going to be obnoxiously loud. So when you cover a game at Ford Field, they've got an open press bock in press box. So listeners out there, what does that mean? You guys know it's the there's no shield, there's no glass, it
is open. So when I do a game there, I literally have to take my noise reducing headsets or my ear plugs, and I got to put them in because it is deafening at that field. And the culture is really incredible. Jared Goff has been revitalized. He's playing I wrote it down three hundred and fifty nine pass attempts with that an interception? Are you kidding me?
Yep?
I mean third long streak. Ever, their rookie has been sensational, so it's an exciting time in Detroit.
And says the fact they're playing a Seahawks team, it's gonna be desperate. I just want to know the Blue Man group. Jaunty Gardner. Johnson's calling for everybody in Detroit to come in with blue scheme mask. You have five seconds. If you were there, would you be rocking.
One one hundred a HONDI P one hundred pee?
There we go, There we go Stacey.
Dale's You're gonna be back even decumber yet, we're just clearing our throats to that you are fantastic.
We love you.
Go pet the dog that's in dreamland right now, because when we come back to the NFL report, we're gonna take a deep dive on the Aaron Rodgers effect, and we're gonna hear from Mike Garrifolo and Judy Batista who were on hand when things fell apart kind of Monday night.
I feel more for Aaron than anyone, you know, he is. He's invested so much into this organization, so much into this journey that he's embarked on and wanting to be a part of what we've got going here, and how much he's invested in not only this organization but his teammates himself. This fan baby.
It was Jet's head coach Robert Salla. Obviously the news of Aaron Rodgers were joined. I was watching this game and the Achilles popping from my couch. Both of these individuals, and Judy Batista and Mike Carrafulla were there at MetLife and Mike, I want to know right from the jump, when you see it happen, do you jump out of your press box seat. Run me through how you got to the tunnel and what happened once you were there, trying to be the intrepid reporter on.
The scene that you are, Mikey g.
Well, when you're in the press boxes, Judy and I were the first thing that you want to acknowledge. And if you hear this music, by the way, it's the music of everybody warming up here before the Eagles Vikings game is we're getting ready for You want to be the eyes of the ears of the people who are watching at home, and they're not getting constant updates. So as soon as I see the cart headed for the blue tent, I said, all right, tweat it out.
There's the cart.
And then he leaves on the cart and I said to Judy that's it. We're not gonna get anything else from the press box. Let's go down to the tunnel. We're looking for the X ray room because I have a strong feeling.
He's headed there.
And I said to Judy, I said, I know where the giants is. Do the giants have a separate or did jets have a separate one? And we were trying to figure that out and Eventually we hit a dead end. We couldn't walk any further. We said, God must just be the one X ray room outside the giants locker room.
Let's head back.
So we start heading back that way, and I can hear on the walkie talkie's of security they're getting ready for something. I said, Judy, he's coming out any second now. And all of a sudden, I heard are you ready? And the guy goes, yeah, they go clear this hallway. Everybody's got to go inside. I look at you. I go, these guys got another thing coming. If they think they're
gonna tell us to go inside, Judy's like absolutely. So then the cart comes by me and I start taking video, and if you can see, at the end of the video, the gentleman tries to jump in front of me to block the video, which was hysterical, and then his supervisor comes over and says, excuse me, what are you doing? I said, what do you mean? He goes, you're taking video? I said I know, I am, and he goes, why are you doing that? I showed up my put paths
and I said for information distribution purposes. He goes, but are you allowed to do that? And I said yes, and he goes but ethically, I said, I'm not worried about ethically, I'm worried about journalistically. Yes, So I tweeted the video out and the rest was history.
Hey, on to the fourth of State and Mike Carrofolo for the hustle, Judy Miyo. Mike was there in the tunnels doing his job like the A one reporter he was, And by the way, postgame, he absolutely killed the grasping of the emotions from pregame to you know, the injury, to the actual celebration of a win. But Judy, you were there the following day with the Jets moving forward. Now, what is kind of the feeling is that, Okay, everybodbody else you have to gird Zach or is he really our guy?
I don't know if they're talking themselves into it, but yesterday, which was the first time that the team was gathered since then, you know, he is their guy and they're going to line up behind him. Frankly, they don't really have much of a choice.
He's right now.
He is certainly their best option. He knows the offense, he's been there, and they all talked about how improved he has been since OTA's and training camp. So I think the message had come from Sala, like, Okay, you had like the forty eight hours to sort of mourn this injury, and now you've got the Dallas Cowboys and you've got sixteen games and you're one to zero, and so it's time to get ready. With Zach Wilson. You know, Dalvin Cook, who is like basically the newest member of
the New York Jets. I thought I had the most interesting balance of emotions because he was a little bit wistful. He said he had come there hoping to get a handoff from eight, he said, from a great Obviously that's not going to happen this year. But then he said, like Zach knows, we've got his back, like we've all
got to play better for Zach. And then he talked again about how much confidence he has, which is a big thing for the Jets because last year that was a shattered quarterback and so the fact that he's got confidence in himself and that the team around him has confidence him is a big, big deal if this is going to work.
Yeah, Mike, I want to ask you about that shattered quarterback. Have the Jets looked elsewhere. Yet I'm assuming that started and he'd look at a backup, a veteran backup. What are their options around Zach Wilson.
Yeah, backup is.
The key word, because they don't want to bring anybody that anybody else would be clamoring for, any of the fans would be clamoring for. They want to make it clear that Zach Wilson's got a clear runway here, So any of the options would be uninspiring for the starting extent, but not that there are any inspiring ones. Jet Sores told me here immediately, Zach Wilson gives us the best chance to win, so they definitely want to make sure
that he's got his right mind about him. Right now, they're going to elevate Tim Boyle from the practice squad. They've got three elevations that they're allowed to do before they have to add him to the roster permanently. So wouldn't be surprised if Zach Wilson is the only quarterback on the active roster, perhaps for the next couple of weeks while they bounce Boiled back and forth, and then maybe add another long term sinus.
All right, Michael Judy, we know you guys are on the clock, So look to Mike Gara follow for talking through the sound checks. That is a very difficult part of the things that we have to do. So props my brother Judy great cooms at credit cale dot com slash Batista, So make sure to check out the column on the Jets' future and JP that Aaron Rodgers' injury has sparked a new conversation about artificial turf versus grass.
So when we come back on the NFL report, what's it going to be like underguy's feet.
Well before it.
Back in the NFL report, and Aaron Rodgers' injury sparked another huge debate, JP, and that is to turf or to have natural grass. As the NFL PA came out and said that all fields should be natural grass. David Botiari, the left tackle for the Packers during the game, said, this is another incident of artificial turf leading to an injury.
But JP, we've heard the discussion. We know it's not going to happen.
There are some teams that are just not going to put in natural grass. It could be to climate, it could be to a dome.
There's no natural.
Grass going in Mercedes Benz in Atlanta or the super Dome in New Orleans. So this is going to be a continued debate, James, And so to tell people really about it, we're thinking about stadiums a lot when it comes to artificial term for grass.
But this is practice.
Fields, this is indoor facilities as well. There's a lot more to it than just natural grass at stadiums.
That's exactly right.
I was at Broncos when Russell Wilson talked about this this week and it was actually, I don't know, maybe it's a rarity, a very honest moment from Russell Wilson where he took a stance Dave.
He had an opinion.
He said, specifically practice He wants to be on grass fields for his ankles, for his knees. He brought up the indoor facility that the Broncos have and it's a newer endoor facility that they have. And if that doesn't show you the way veteran players that we talk to Steve around the league feel about indoor practice facilities. Usually if there's weather or something that happens, the team has to go indoors. There is every veteran on the team that is throwing on the sneakers and they are like,
I am done for today. I am doing a walkthrough. That is the extent of what I'll do on this indoor practice facilit That's usually what happens yep, during the week. It's funny that that's their thinking, right Steve. But at the same time, then on Sunday they're going to go out and play on a turf field. And you brought this up earlier their first instance into the NFL as a young prospect, that the NFL combine is on what surface.
It is not on natural grass, it is on turf, I mean, and that's part of it. And this is where Joe Burrow, JP and you were talking about this when he came out to if we're going to have turf, it should be universal turf at all of those sites idea, And speaking with the NFL, it is up to each individual team on which turf manufacturer they want to use for their stadiums and for their practice facility.
So that is a good idea by Joe Burrow. Why don't you elaborate.
Yeah, I love that Joe came up with that idea, considering he's a guy that's also had an ACL in the past, right, and also is somebody that spends a lot of time on the turf depending on how his offensive line plays. But having a universal turf from field to field, at least in his mind, would give players an understanding of what they're going to be playing on and a knowledge before they get to that game on what playing surface they're going to be playing on. But
again we'll find out if that happens. There's a lot that goes on in these stadiums moving forward in different types of events, monster trucks, all sorts of stuff. Steve, it was a pleasure. I'm going to see you Monday. We'll recap some Week two games on the NFL Report.
See you guys on Monday,