And now move the sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks. What's up, everybody? Welcome to move the sticks. Dj Buck back with you, Buck. What's going on man? Not too much, Djay.
Middle of the week, trying to get ready hump Day, trying to get on the other side to get to another exciting football weekend.
Yeah, looking forward to a fun weekend of football. We are going to run a conversation I had yesterday with our colleague at the NFL Media Group, Coach Ron rivera those that don't know, Coach rivera former head coach of
the Panthers and the Commanders, played for Chicago Bears. Really highly respected around the league, not only as someone was a good player and a really good coach, but someone who was really the highest character who's just very well regarded for how he treats people and his leadership ability.
I had a chance to visit with him Buck really right on the heels of the trade with the Jets acquiring DeVante Adams, so we have a chance to discuss that, as well as his thoughts on the rookie quarterbacks, including one he could have used in Washington when he was there. In Jaydeen Daniels. So, without further ado, here's my conversation with Ron RIVERA well coach. He appreciates taking the time
for us today. I guess it's fortuitous that we're going to have you on and we get a big in season trade, which we don't see a lot of in the NFL. But just a first reaction when you heard the news DeVante Adams no longer Raider, he's going to rejoin Aaron Rodgers.
Well, my first thought was good for New York. Honestly, I really did think that, you know, Aaron Rodgers is going to have somebody's very comfortable with, a guy that already knows and knows his mindset as to what he wants to do with wide receivers, how he wants to use them, what he expects of them. But I also think this is a guy that's going to help their football team more so anything else. I believe that. I believe the offense will get better. I think what will
happen is Aaron will play with more confidence. He'll also play knowing that he's got his safety, his safety valve, he's got a guy that's very familiar with him. And then I think he's also going to know that DeVante's going to help that young room of receivers. He's going to help those guys grow and develop and be better football players just by example that he's going to set. It's going to help the running game as well, because the running game will not have to face as many
eight men boxes. I think it'll also help the offensive line because there are some quick throws that he makes to DeVante that's going to get the ball out of the quarterback's hands. The offensive line is not going to have to sit there and try and protect as long as he's had to, So I think that's the plus as far as the offense concerned. Defensively, it'll help them as well. Why because I think on some of them
third downs, the drivers are going to be extended. They'll spend fewer plays on the field, the offense will handle the ball a little bit longer, and I think eat up a little bit more clock. I think overall this is a good thing for the New York Jets as far as the Raiders are concerned. I think now the players won't have to deal with the question of, Hey, when's DeVante coming back or does he really want to
get traded? That distraction is gone. I mean, so let's be honest about that as far as that'll be a plus for the Raiders. Plus they get a third round pick that could become a second based on a couple of things happening.
I always look at it from a team building side coach, and I've always said, I think it's important that you know what window that you're in. You know, are you in your win now window or is your window in the future. And understanding that from the Raiders, I thought it made a lot of sense. I mean, they're not ready right now, they need a quarterback. Their window is often the future, whereas the Jets with Aaron's age, I think you could say, man, that window is it's open,
but man, it's closing quickly. So I thought from a windows standpoint, you can make an argument this was a no brainer for both of these teams.
Most certainly a no brainer because again, the Jets are in that win now mode. You see it based on the fact that they have Aaron Rodgers out on the football field. They try to, you know, spend some money to protect him, and now they spend some money to get him his pass catcher and that's a big move and.
For the Raiders. You're absolutely right.
It's a young football team with a young head coach that's going to go through some growing pains. But why not take the time, Why not go ahead and see if we can get as much of this draft capital as we can get this currency that we need to be able to build this team and get into a great position. If you look at what happened for the Bears,
look what happened for the Commanders. You know, these are teams that had a lot of draft capital to come into this past draft, and they were able to not only get their quarterbacks of the future as we're starting to see, but they were also able to get them some offensive weapons.
And you led me right there. That's where I wanted to go next, because what we're seeing right now with these rooky quarterbacks, not only the performance, but in the teams they're having success now Drake may Will put him off to the side. He got his first start the other day. Spencer Rattler as well. But let's focus on the guys that the three guys that have played a lot this year, starting from the jump with Jayde Daniels and Caleb Williams specifically, let's start with those two. We'll
get the bow Nicks in a minute. But the team's success to go along with the individual success. What's been most impressive there from you?
Well, I'll be honest, I thought Caleb would start off a lot faster. I really did. He got his win, but it really wasn't his. It was the team's win. The defense went out, played lights out, special teams made a huge play for them. Against Tennessee. He collects his first win his second game.
It wasn't no better.
They lose a game that they had a chance to win. But then since then, he's played very well. He's gotten better progressively, and I think a big part of it has to do with the fact that I believe they've learned how to coach him. And by that I mean there's a little bit of a formula that people have talked about the best way to handle a rookie, and that is make sure you have a good running game. Okay, that takes a lot of pressure off him, It makes for a better play action, which is a good friend
to a young quarterback. And then get get the ball out of his hands with quick throws. Okay, so again, protect him, get the ball out of his hands. With quick throws, run the football, okay, and then use play action.
Well, when you.
Look at it and some of these numbers are you know that I have. I've been tracking it the whole year, okay, and you look at this thing, and this is what's interesting.
Daniels Jayden.
He gets the ball out of his hands two point six seconds from snap to release, two points seconds. It's the fastest in the league. The league averages at two point seventy nine. Caleb Williams is at two point eight zero, so he's right around the average, but he's getting this out of his hands quickly. And it's been really cool to see because of certain things. But the one element that both these young quarterbacks have that helps them is
their ability to run. Okay, Because they run the ball and because they can extend plays, a lot more teams are playing zone against them as opposed to man. Okay, Caleb got a lot of man early on. They got a lot of pressure against him early on. But because he's able to tuck the ball and run and either extend the play thrill the ball downfield. Because both these guys are playing with their eyes downfield or just run it, teams are saying man we gotta play zone. We got
to keep our eyes on the quarterback. And because of that, their separation for the receivers has been really good. Both Daniels and Williams have three point eight receiver separation, where the average is three point five. So well, that's not that big. Well, actually it is, you know, because again, just being a step or two away from a defender gives what looks like a big target for the quarterback. And these guys have learned to throw the ball away
from the leverage. So if I got a defender on my left, they throw the ball to the receiver's right. So these guys are very good at that already. So that's another thing that's been helping these guys an awful lot. And then you know, you go to you go to the play action, Okay, and when you look at it, for the most part, Daniels, they're using his completion percentage seventy six point one, league averages sixty seven point one.
Caleb's at sixty two point eight. But again they're both around well, one's above average and ones just slightly below. That's just telling you. Play action has been big for both these guys, but biggest for Jayden and with his completion rate. So that's another big plus that's been going on with the development of this young quarterback.
It seems like coaching I was watching them, you can look at that there's differences. Obviously, I did think Jayden would be a little bit ahead early on, just played so much more football than Caleb had. I think that was helped him get off to a little bit of a faster start.
Jag, that's an amazing That's an amazing comment and fact that you made, because when we were looking at these guys coming out of college football, one of the things we talked about was the fact that you know, Jaden's bounced around, He's played in four different offenses, and he's played for five years. Yeah, because of the COVID year, he took advantage of that. Caleb has been in the same offense throughout his entire college career, has been very
successful in the same offense. So what was interesting was I had a conversation with Cliff Kingsbury one time. I said to Cliff, I said, what did you do to help Jayden so much? And he said, well, Coach, one of the things that we did was, you know, we reached out, We talked to those folks at LSU and said, hey, what are some of the best things he did? You know, what can we see on tape? What should we be looking for? And they looked at those things and they've
taken that and they've incorporated into what Cliff does. I mean, it's brilliant about what Cliff Kingsbury has done giving his quarterback the best. You know, a situation now, when we drafted Cam Newton number one. You know, kudos to Mike Shula and Rob Shazzisky. They go down to Auburn and did the same thing. They went out and they said, hey, let's find out what he does best. Let's take it. And this incorporated to what we want to do. And we had that in our offense for the entire time
Cam was there, and his success was undeniable. I mean, he was the NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
I mean he was the.
MVP because of those situations, because our coaches took the time to find out what does he do best, didn't try to force him to do something he's.
Not good at. Yeah. Absolutely, And I think when you also watch it, coach, if you talk about the ball getting out of your hands quick, it feels like when you're just going through these games inside the pocket, hey balls out and they're using that orbit motion what Cliff's doing an awesome job with all the orbit motion stuff. The Bears really started doing a little bit more of that where you've got like an RPO, you've got to give, you've got the orbit and then they even had a
tunnel coming inside of it. So I mean, you've got three options there, none of which are very difficult. So it was like quick inside the pocket, and then if we want to push and we want to stress the ball down the field, now we can use the athletes here, get them out outside the pocket. You've really you've cut the field in half and now they've got options to run or they can maybe get some shots. But not
asking these guys to sit back there. We're not taking seven step drops and asking these guys to live inside the pocket and read this thing all the way out.
You know what's crazy about that, though, is if you get a young quarterback that has that ability, and I think Jayden has a little bit of that. I think Caleb has the ability to do it as well. But when you have that opportunity to take a seven step drop, take the snap and just back up and look at the field and if you want to make that quick throw, you can. But if you have time, or you can create time by extending to play with your own ability without it being called to move the pocket and find
those guys down. So you've seen that, and you've seen it a couple times, and his obvious target has been Terry McLaurin, who really has been really big for him. He really has. And that's one of the things that has been very impressive too, is just his ability to extend plays and then create off the move.
Yeah, no doubt, And I think the thread line with these guys has been poised. And I thought early in the season you mentioned it, Caleb got heated up. They couldn't run the ball, they weren't protecting, they weren't communicating up front. He was getting hit a bunch. And if you when you go through those games, there's misses, they weren't huge misses. And that's why I was hopeful with Caleb Man. Jayden's playing great and people are killing Caleb.
I'm like, well, you watch it, he's getting drilled and they're just small misses. I'm like, if they can just get a little bit more on the same page, a little more protection, take a little pressure off, or run the ball. And then when you have some success, coach, it's like basketball, man, you see the ball go through the hoop all of a sudden, Now you get a little more confident. Well.
And one of the things that you know, when you want to credit the Bears, you know you have to look at the defense because one of the things the Bears are doing is they're taking the ball away at a tremendous rate right now, and not only taking it away, but they're putting it in scoring position. So Caleb has that benefit of being able to use a shorter feel. Now he's taken advantage it. They've taken advantage as an offense,
and they're scoring points. When you watch Jaden, and this is where people talk about, you know, who could be the rookie of the year. And I thought Caleb would be in the lead right now. I was wrong. Jaden has really stepped up. Initially, he's in the lead, but he can also be considered as somebody to talk about
as league MVP or offensive MVP. And the reason I said is because not only is he playing well in the offense, but he is lifting the play of his defense, you know, getting the leads like they've had early in games. The defense has been able to cut loose and really go out and make plays and make things happen. So I see that for Jaden, and on the other side, I see Caleb. He being lifted by his defense. So
you're getting two different dynamics. But it's, you know, really what you expect from from from a rookie quarterback as far as Caleb is, and that is to rely on his defense. But Jayden raising the play of their defense, that's pretty special.
Yeah, no doubt and quickly coached on bow knicks. And it's a different situation where he is right now. I was curious with him and Sean. Everybody had said, oh, he's got his Drew Brees, and I'm like, well, he's not. Fully, he's obviously not going to compare him to Drew, but he's got some Taysom Hill to him as much as maybe he does kind of Drew to him. So they're moving him around. I was at that called the Charger game,
uh this last week and saw him live. In the first three quarters, they could not I mean, they didn't do anything. They could not move the ball at all and then the fourth quarter he had a little magic where he was running around. But it's not it's not as as smooth as sailing as we've seen with the other two guys. No, it's not.
And it's been pretty tough. And I will say this so and and again credit to to to what they're doing on offense because because I really do think that he's going to be a really good quarterback. And I think Sean's going to figure out how to how to incorporate his ability to move within the pocket, because you're right, when that young man was moving, he was making things
happen downfield, he really hasn't. Again, as he continues to grow and develop as a young player, we're going to see a lot of positive things come from his growth and development.
Well. And no doubt, one last thing, Coach before I let you go, you talked about Cam. We've always used the word hope, man, like you could be a franchise and you can be maybe drifting or going one way or the other. But man, when you hit on the young quarterback, what type of hope? What type of energy does that give not only to downstairs, but really throughout the whole building in the whole city of a fan base. We got our guy.
I mean, I'll be honest that if I spent four years in Washington looking for a guy, you know, it's unfortunate. You know, Alex Smith was a guy and unfortunately had the leg injury. Those are the kind of guys you want to find because they're smart, they're athletic, they've got great arms, they make great decisions, they can protect a ball, they can make plays when you need them to make plays. And when you have that guy, everybody always believes you
have a chance. Like you said, you have hope, and that's really important because in that building, hope is a very powerful thing. On the field, it's even more powerful because if you have a chance to win and you believe you have a chance to win, you're gonna win. I mean, so when we got Cam we saw glimpses of it from the very first game. He throws for over four hundred yards his first two games. It was phenomenal,
and our players started to buy in and believe. The next year we improved, we got better, and then our third years when we won the division, and then we win three straight divisions and go to a super Bowl, all because of what was created by the hope of having that quarterback, having your guy. This is a quarterback
driven league. Everything starts with your quarterback. You have a guy that can be a game manager, can also be a guy that needs to make plays when you need to have them make plays, and can protect the ball. That's going to give you every opportunity and more importantly, like you said, hope to win football.
Games, Well, that is absolutely one hundred percent of the case. And you saw it firsthand. Coach, You've been generous with your time today. It's great to have you as a teammate here at NFL Network, and hopefully we can do this again soon down the road.
Now.
I appreciate it. We'll be right back after this, all right, Buck, It's always great to catch up with Coach Rivera and and you know, we use that word that you and I have used a million times, hope. Right, you get a quarterback, you hit on them. It just provides so much hope and energy to the entire organization.
It does. It gives you an opportunity to build it the right way.
We talk about the league being a quarterback driven league, and if you have a young quarterback, we can talk about all the posities when it comes to the Savard cap, But it's about position for a decade and being able to have that security knowing that you have the right
guy to lead your franchise. You can build it, tear it down, rebuild it because as the quarterback is transitioning from manager to playmaker, he can help you sustain it when you have to kind of turn the roster over once you commit to the big payday.
Yeah.
I mean, look, I think it's what every general manager, what every head coach is looking for.
You're looking for that QB one. It has elite potential.
He talked about with Caleb. He thought the coaching staff had learned more how to coach and how to use him after some time with him. What did you see in studying them in the lead up to your game last week versus what you saw live in person there against Jacksonville first.
Three games, it appeared that, you know, the Bears are trying to have him run their system. They were trying to kind of put him I won't see in a box, but they're trying to make him play traditional NFL quarterback, and Kayley Williams is not a traditional NFL quarterback. He has the ability to do a bunch of that stuff. But he also has some added dimensions to his game that you want to unlock and really utilize to take your offense to another level. What I'm seeing now is
looking he always he already talked about. They simplified it, They lightened the load a little bit. They made it very, very easy for him. The one thing that they're doing I think more teams should do DJ playing with tempo. The conversation that we had about the college game with Lane Kippen and Lincoln Riley and how when you have the headset staying on the fifth teen seconds, Well that's what the Bears are doing.
They get it going.
They get you to the line of scrimmage, and it's all the processing of information with the assistance of the mentor in your ear being like, hey, here's what.
We're gonna do.
Remind it look left to right. This is what we have. Oh, it looks like they're and just look whatever. He's playing really well. He's very confident. And they haven't even unlocked the weapons yet because there's a lot of swing passes to Smith. Cole Komet was the playmaker of the day in and Allen DJ Moore have relatively quiet days. Man, If they ever figure out how to get all of the weapons going at one time, the Bears offense is.
Going to be unlike any that we've seen in the Windy City.
I also think it's interesting when you have a quarterback, especially a young quarterback, when you can run it a little bit and have a little protection, they look a little different. You got to give those guys around them a lot of credit there.
It's the same thing we've always talked about.
The running game just creates so many different things in terms of just being able to clear the pitchure up for the quarterback and then DJ tempo empty package.
I mean, it's not hard.
I feel like we've been saying the same old song for fifteen years, like let's go empty, let's see where it is, let's motion the guy into the backfield manor zone.
Now let's make the play.
We're on the clock so I can talk to him.
It is formula, tried and true. It works.
I mean, it always works.
It's time for Hot or Not, brought to you by with Sabi. So looking for somebody who's hot and somebody who's not. I'll give me somebody who's hot. And that's say Flowers, seeing him continue to evolve and grow inside that offense there in Baltimore. I use the comp you know, he's not as you know, he's not Steve Smith, but he has a little bit of Steve's kind of DNA in him in terms of he plays bigger than he is and he is just dynamic getting in and out of breaks. Man.
Yeah, he's dynamic. Man, he can get in and out of breaks. He asks.
And I'm gonna say this, man, because I was skeptical of this offense and how they incorporate all the many pieces that they had Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, Jay Flowers, who's emerged, Isaiah Likely, Mark and all of this stuff, and say Flowers is so good and the fact that they're able to have a one hundred year rusher, one hundred yard pass receiver.
They got other compliments to it. Braver's gonna be there, man.
They're built for this, and I know they got to answer their postseason woes, but man, their offense is dynamic, is explosive, and it's really humming right now.
Yeah. Nine for a buck thirty two for Jay Flowers, who's in a nice little run right now. How about yourself, Buck, Who do you like? Who do I like?
I love what Will Anderson is doing for the Houston Texans. I mean he's playing great. I mean he's just talking about being a dominant player. Three sacks at eight tackles, dominated the game. You're talking about a guy coming on the heels of a defensive Rookie of the Year award and he just continues.
To get better.
And what I like about Will Anderson is just the way that he represents the franchise.
Dimiko Riinas has not been afraid to put a lot on him. He and CJ. Stroud are what the faces of that team.
And even though they brought terans around him to Neil Hunter and those guys, look, it's clear and a parent who's the number one pass rush, number one defensive playmaker is they're leaning on him to make those plays and he stepped up.
He was up to the challenge this weekend. Yeah, I know, he was awesome. It's been fun to watch him and a team. By the way, if we were I mean, we could do this another episode. But if you're drafting, we talked about this when you were gone. If you were drafting contenders right now and Houston. You're not waiting long before they come off the board.
Now they're coming.
They're coming off the board because they have arguably the most complete offense. When Joe Mixon is healthy and Joe Mixing and Damian Pierce are playing well, their running game is formidable because they hit you between the tackles, and then when Stepan Diggs and nic O'Collins and Tank deal, they can get at you a few different ways, with Dalton Schultz also being a playmaker.
Really good offense quarterback is spectacular.
Yeah, you're right, man, the end of the list of contenders, because we didn't even really spend a lot of time talking about their defense, even though we started the segment talking about Will Anderson.
Yeah, no, they've been excellent, really a complete football team. That was this week's Hot or Not segment, brought to you by Wasabi, the world's hottest cloud storage provider. All right, buck uh, safe travels, man. You got a high school game Friday night, then you're out Saturday.
Morning, Saturday morning, right and early?
All right, Well, I'm I'm I'm bummed you don't get to lay down on that flight, but hopefully.
I am too. I mean, if you want to if you want to stand Uh are you?
Are you a get up? Are you a get up? And just like walk down the aisles. That's a long flight. You got to move around. Man.
Oh, you know, I'm like Russell Wilson. I'm doing my high knees on the plane. I'm nice, trying to make sure I break it drops in.
Yeah, into do my stuff. I may even wear my helmet. I may even wear my helmet A kind of dude. Oh for Russell Wilson deal.
Speaking of Russell Wilson, we'll have more UH later in the week on what that looks like for the Pittsburgh Steelers, UH and UH in their upcoming game against the New York Jets, two teams that are going to be heavily in the news as we head up towards that ball game. All right, that's gonna do it for us today. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Appreciate with Rivera for coming on. Just a really good dude. Enjoyed that conversation. We'll see you next time right here on. Move the sticks, m