The Dave Pasch Podcast - Zaven Collins

Xavin has had an outstanding year for the Cardinals. He's really coming into his own and currently he is just one of nine players in the NFL with at least seventy five tackles, eight tackles for a loss in two sacks. He also has an interception for a touchdown and could have easily had two more interceptions over the last two games. We'll talk about how close Zaban was to getting another

touchdown in the game on Monday Night. We'll also talk with Zaban about his childhood growing up outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma, playing at a small school, and then what he learned his first year in the NFL. It's not so much like the game slowdown, like everyone's still fast as hell. Everyone's you know what I mean, Like the players are all that are all fast. You know, it's the recognition

of things and you know, processing information. Also, Zaban will discuss some of the players that he looks up to on this team, what to expect from the Cardinals the last month of the season, and what he hopes to achieve next year as he continues to roll in his role as one of the leaders of the defense. We are presented by BETMGM, the official sports betting partner are the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos. The bet MGM Touchdown Boost Token is here increase your

payout with every Cardinal's touchdown. You'll receive an extra ten percent boost of every Cardinal's touchdown and your boost can be used on the following week's game only at bet mgm, the King of sports books and official partner of the Arizona Cardinals. Visit betmgm dot com for terms and conditions. Twenty one years of age or older to wager Arizona only. All promotions are subject to qualification and eligibility requirements. Please

gamble response gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step all right, time for our conversation with Cardinal's linebacker Saven Collins. Well, Saven, this is actually the first time we've had a chance to meet, so it's it's great to sit down with you. Appreciate the time. Really enjoyed watching you this year. UM, I'm curious from your perspective. I know it's tough when things aren't going well for the team, but how do

you think you've played this year? Um? Obviously from last year it's a completely nine day difference, but you know, from like an overall league standpoint, UM, you know, just trying to I've played I think good, but just still trying to get better every game. You know, produce, UM, make the plays I need to make, and you know, UM play complimentary football for the defense and then obviously

the team. But yeah, it's been it's been good. I've been robbed the last couple, you know, big plays that you know, Chargers would have been a game ender, and then obviously last week would have been seven points for

the defense. And it's kind of nice because getting to do that with Isaiah's touchdown, my touchdown against the Seattle we like, UM, I think the Cardinals defense like number one for like touchdowns for a defense, I think, which is you know what I mean, just trying to stack those stuff like that, Just trying to put points on the board and do whatever as a defense is always fun.

Not only did you get robbed, but and I said this on the air when you were doing the game, Wolf and I both I don't understand how replay in the Chargers game overturns that because there's no way that that was indisputable video evidence beyond all doubt. Yeah, that's the thing that that that hurt me there. And then last game, I secured that the ball on my shoulder while falling, so it's not like it was fumbling around, and they said it didn't even look like it hit

the grass, so they didn't really understand. The thing that confused me last game more than both games was I caught the ball, fell ran into the end zone, went to the sideline, and was already back onto the field because they'd overturned it that fast. I was like, Dan, I was so fast because they had declared it a touchdown already, so they have to have like a you

said again in disputed evidence. I thought they're just gonna call me down by him touching me or something on a knee while I was still on the ground, and then when they overturned it all the way, I was pissed off. It was like, damn yeah, because I think looking back at it, had they still ruled in the last game, had they still ruled that an interception, they

would have said you were down by contact. But the league wants to let things play out because obviously if they say you're down but then you're not, yeah, you lose the runback. What happened to JJ Yeah exactly with the forced fumble. Yeah, and they said it was incomplete pass and he runs into the end zone and they'd blown it dead and yeah, so those two plays, oh so close. But you did have the pick six earlier in the year. And what are the plays that stands

out to me? And maybe it's because it was fresh in my memory from Monday night. Was one of the fifty screen passes they ran where you saw it, recognized it, tracked and backed. Yeah. Yeah, we'd we'd been tipped off. I mean knew that they're going to come into our game with a lot of screen. We've been getting a lot of screen all year. So whenever I saw that pump fake the other way and you can really tell

by the o liman like their eyes. Like, for the most part, when you're off the ball, like by five yards, those o liman aren't staring at you. They're looking right to left to see you know. For games, if it's pass protection, pulling a screen, they're letting the rush go by them and then they're climbing for the linebackers or you know, second level. So whenever their eyes are locked onto you and your five yards off the ball, that kind of just gives you a heads up right now,

like this is a screen. So then making that play was nice. Yeah, there was a couple of screens that I had. I had another tight end screen. That's the one where each Max Jones scrambled around and they called linman down the field. I'd actually grabbed that tight end before he could give him the ball. So is that an area where you've grown when you think about going from year one to year two? Is that what I

think when people say things have slowed down? Is that what it looks like where you're able to recognize it pre snap or as soon as the snap happens, what's going on based on seeing the lyman's eyes. Yeah, it's not it's not so much like the game slow down, Like everyone's still fast as hell. Everyone's you know what I mean, Like the players are all that are all fast.

You know. It's the recognition of things and you know, processing information, you know, it's it's that And that's the aspect that's slowed down the most for me being able to recognize things listening to the DJ's call, and because he gives us, you know, a giant call sheet each week and it has like first and second down, these are the play calls this personnel, here's the play calls,

you know, passing situations. Here's what we're thinking. So then if you take the call and kind of apply it to the situation and down, that'll tell you what he's thinking. And then you know, like ninety five percent of the time he's right. So it's like it just gives you a little head step before and you know, obviously having him in the headset, it's like he'll tell tell me to tell guys other things, so then I understand, like I am getting all the information even when he's not

even talking to me. I have to relay it. So that's what it's like. So he'll call the play, Yeah, he'll call the defense and then there may be instructions of, hey, remind Isaiah about this, Like yeah, it's not so much remind someone. It's more like, um, you know, show this or show that, or you know, remember to tell the these guys like right here in this situation, we're press belling or we're you know, we're staying, we're pressing right here.

You know, it's more of the situational reminders rather than a job reminder. Like the job reminder like that doesn't really tell me much about the game. It's the situational reminders that really, you know, help me too. How's your memory retention? So when good, So when he calls it and he tells you, he adds something like, hey, we're gonna show this or disguise this or whatever. You're boom telling guests. Ye, yeah, I mean it's just like if you're talking to me right now with this headset on,

I'm talking to you. So whatever you're saying, you're talking to Craig ray Lewis. Yeah, So I'm yeah, obviously, yeah, just letting people know who I'm. So there's three people in here, every Yeah, there's a third person here. So you're talking so one to two, and then two is

talking to two to three. But I'm talking to everyone while you're talking to me, because there's not enough time most of the time for him to call the call and meet a wait listen to everything unless it's like a stop down or you know, a long play, but like when teams are going hurry up. You know, I gotta talk while I'm listening, which is kind of a task that I've had to learn. Um sure so, but yeah, and I don't get everything, like as far as like

the situational reminders stuff like that. I don't get everything, but I mean I get most of it. Yeah, So I don't know if you watch a lot of sports on television, But so in a similar now I'm not about to get run over or run over somebody, but you know, in a similar way, like I've got somebody, you know, we may have to get a promo in or hey, there's an injured play or something happens. A producer is telling me in my year, and I have to talk while he's telling me something and then listen

to the analysts. So I get I have an idea like what you're talking about. But obviously then uh, there aren't you know, three hundred pound lineman running at me right after its running sprints. You know, the worst part is like having a twelve played drive, and then you get into the red zone and you know, red zone everything has to be neat and you know, all all eyes dotted, all tea's crossed to have a good red

zone performance. So that's like the you know, just trying to get the call to everyone and can get hectic down there sometimes. So I remember the year at Tulsa when you won the bed Nerek and the Nagurski Awards and obviously ended up being a first round pick. I know it was a weird year because it was a COVID year and I don't even remember if you guys had fans at all at any of your games. Yeah, we did a little bit, but not much. It was like spread out, no front or bottom row, so it

was really weird. And then I mean Tulsa, we didn't really have like a giant you know, Ohio State fan base, you know it was it wasn't like that, but it was a was spread out for sure. Quiet and so in in that league, are you in a similar situation where you're in charge of getting everybody lined up, and are the calls similar, Is they're less furbiage? Are there just a handful of defenses at that level or calls at that level as opposed to if you were at

a Power five school or the NFL. Yeah, so I mean at that level, No, we didn't have a lot of calls. I mean we had blitzs and pressures and stuff like that, but we didn't have nearly as much as you know what we do here. We have you know, we have personnels for thirteen. We have personnels for twelve. We have personnels eleven, you know, so eleven one tight end, one on one back, you know, two tight ends, one back. We have personnels for all of this stuff. We have

calls we're thrown in. We have such you know, situational calls we're doing. We have you know, exotic pressures I called zotics to where it means like the it doesn't look like a normal defense, like we're kind of all lined up in a really weird way, you know, like six, six or seven men down on the line or you know what I mean, like exact pressures like that. You got um goal line packages, you know, all this stuff. Just because there's so much that goes into an NFL

game like you're not just working. Like when you talk about the NFL game, you know, there's been scouts that have for the other team that are you know, three games go that we're watching you to see what their weakness is on the defense. They apply that to you know, they tell the coaches that the coaches scheme you up all week. They bring that to the players, the quarterback for their team and scheming up. So it's like, you

know what I mean, there's so much stuff. And then that's another thing that I've learned too while being in NFL so far as like you know, going back and watching film and seeing all this stuff, it really applies. It does apply to the field. But then an offense is always going to have their change up to beat you that week. Sure, and once you can catch on during the game to what that is, then you kind of start to stop that offense. There their m O for that week, and and that's the thing. So you

kind of got to be prepared for that offense. But also in a general broad aspect of how are you going to fix this? But yeah, I mean I've had some situations this year where you know, hey, I saw this on the field, I bring it to the sideline. We look at the still shots and it's like, this is where they're going to hit us if we don't fix this right now. And then you know, we fix it and you can see where they were trying to

hit us, you know, a couple of plays later. I mean, you know, like they tried it and I think it was one time as like a pressure. But yeah, it's just in that kind of like it gives me confidence, you know, to see like, hey, I saw this and I was right, because you don't want to see it and then you know, make a big doubt of it and it's like, damn, you're wrong, but you know, yeah

it's and it's not. This isn't like a week to week thing that happened a couple of times maybe, and but it's nice, Yeah, just seeing it kind of all unravel and then just trying to be a professional in the building and you know, study and know the plays and you know, once I know my job description really well,

I can help other players that come in. So like I've done the Cardinals for twenty one years, I've seen a lot of guys come through here, and seeing guys that you know, we're really good college players that didn't make it. I've seen guys that weren't really good college players that end up being terrific NFL players. And some of it is just the situation what's going on with the team at that time. And you know, you came from a small school, but you're a mid first round pick.

I mean, you were going to get picked. Whether In fact, I was told by several people that if Mac Jones and you probably know this thing you're been it, would you would have been a Patriot. Yeah, Mac, Mac was number one on their board, and then I'm pretty sure I was like, yeah, number two, So yeah, I figured that out. Like I don't know if it was after the draft or the day of the draft or what

it was. So you're sitting there watching like everything just unfolded, you know what I mean, And like, you know, ninety percent of the time, unless it's even like this year it's draft or whatever it was last year's draft, the only really certain pick kind is the first pick, and then last year's draft, you know whatever that was. Twenty twenty twos draft was kind of you know, after the first pick, everyone thought it was gonna be this dude, it wasn't and you know, you know, it's just all

over the place. So but yeah, it's a it's different for sure. So how when you got here then how much of it was a new world for you? Something? What we were talking about with with what you did, what you were asked to do a tulsa based on what you're asked to do at this level. The description of you know, take charge of the defense and call the plays was the same. The amount of plays and knowing situational stuff and processing of information was so opposite.

It was just like it was just so much stuff for me, you know, trying to learn all that stuff last year and you know, it just I just needed time to understand it all because I'm when I know something, I know in depth and know how what we're thinking, what we're trying to do, how we're trying to operate this thing, you know what I mean, I just don't know it because it's the rule. You know. Billyde which is my linebackers show, she's big on like know the why,

know the why why are we doing this? So then out on the field, if he's calling this, then you know the reason or the why behind it. You know what I mean, So it's not it's it's it makes things a little bit easier for me. And you know, like this year, I've taken I think, for myself, big steps because I can like help other players fund need to or like, you know, get people aligned if I need to, maybe not the right guys are in for a certain call I can make. I can know the call,

change the call. You know, if offensive hurry up, it's third and one balls in the you know, on the fifty yard line, what are we gonna run? Last year, I wouldn't been able to do that, no shot, just because the mental you know what I mean. Like last year, I'm studying all these calls and then this year I'm studying these calls for a situation more so it's just

a situational matter. It's just, you know, is big in this league because you can get put into anything and you got to know it and you're expected to know it. So you're from hominy, Is that how you say it? So? I was in Oklahoma a few weeks ago. I did Bedlam. It's the first time I'd done Bedlam. Obviously it was not a great year for Oklahoma, and I had done Oklahoma State, Texas and Oklahoma State won that game and then did not play well down the stretch, but obviously

that is the game in the state. You grew up north of Tulsa, closer to Stillwater than Norman. Did you grow up watching Bedlam? Were you recruited it all by either school? Were you? Did you have a school that you preferred if it wasn't Tulsa. Would you wanted to be a Sooner or a Poke? Yeah? When I was growing up, it was all owe you everything, you know, owe you over everyone, Oh you over Texas, owe you over OSU. And then like I really didn't even realize

what Tulsa was when I was being recruited. I remember I got one letter from OU and it was the general information letter that they send regular students. So and it just happened. It just happened to be, you know, it was something that I like thought was big at the time. I'm like, oh man, I gotta leary from OU. And it's like, you know, it was it was nothing

at the time, but for me it was everything. And thought, you know, I was gonna get offers, this and that just grind and you know, never really got the offers. And then obviously when I knew, and that was the time when OU was getting you know, they were getting five star after five star after four star, you know what I mean, Like I would have been from a prospect standpoint, bottom of the barrel. You know, They're coming out of small school in Oklahoma, last eleven man before

you go to eight man football. So and then the very first college game, actual college game I ever went to. I guess I would did go to OU when I was younger, but you know that I clearly remember was Tulsa versus Marshall for a church event type of deal. Really, and then you know, two or three years later, I got an offer from them, only Division one offer, and I ended up playing you know, football there for four years. It was I loved Tulsa. Tulsa coach Money, that whole staff.

Um Joseph Gillespie, he was my defensive coordinator. He's now the defensive coordinator for TCU. UM so he's had a big year this year. And uh, I mean, yeah, I can't think them enough. They you know, there's the reason why I'm here for sure. So going back to Oklahoma for a second, because you said you you did go to some games as a kid to some games in Norman.

Who did you have a favorite player? No, it was like, I'm pretty it was like Sam Bradford at the time, and you were a quarterback some up in high school, right, yeah, but this was like way before high school. Like this is young, that's true. Yeah, like I was. I was young. So it's like, you know, I'm just sitting in the stands. It was like, oh you. I think it was oh you versus Missouri, and I just remember sitting the stands watching football. I thing, I want to play football one day.

And then you know, it's like it's crazy, you know because as when you think back about being a kid and watching football and saying, man, I want to play football for the rest of my life, and then you get so caught up and playing football for the rest of your life that you forget like this is your dream job. You get you get paid to come and work, paid to be around people like guys you know, complaint. Oh I had to interview today about I mean, we're really lucky to be able to do this. So you're

not going to complain about how those pasts good? Like it's will be the first it's a it's a it's a blessing, you know, to be able to do this stuff, be able to you know, reach out and you know, be able to help the world. Um, that's you know, that's one of the things I say my pregame prayers. Uh, thank you, you know, thank you guy for allowing me to play this game. Thank you for allowing me to

provide for my family. That's awesome. Yeah. So and that's it's it just it brings jills to me because that's really what this game is about, you know, and just going out there and perform and trying to be the best. And that's what it's about. So that piqued your interest when you were you know, when did it start? Like when did you actually start to play football? And what did that look like when she started to play. I've played football since i've been knee high to a grasshopper.

I mean, I've played football forever. I mean we started flag football and like kindergarten, and then we were playing pads in like third grade, like you know what I mean, Like you're just falling on each other rather than tackling someone. But that's like where it starts. So I've been playing football longer than I've been able to drive. I've been playing football longer than a lot of things, you know, and it's crazy to think about because that's it's been

my life. And then being from a small school, you play other sports too. It hasn't been always football, but play basketball, baseball, track all growing up? Did all that? Did? I also read that you were a gymnast at one point. Yeah, how old were you when you were a gymnast? I was young, shoot, probably nine, Okay, so you weren't six three, two sixty like, no, no, no, no, Yeah. Could you do some of the stuff that you could do back then? Now? No, I could do like a backflip on like a trampoline

and stuff like that. I'm athletic, do stuff like that, cart wheel and stuff like that. But nothing like you see those people flying through the air. You can't. Yeah, you can't fly to two sixty through there. So you're not gonna do the Buddha kip up I could do. I feel like I could do that. I might try that next game. I'll probably make a fool out of myself. But if you get a pick and they actually let you keep this one and they don't take it away

from yet, do the kip up? Yeah? I know, I'll just go lay in the end zone until i want to back up, and I'm gonna try and kick myself up like Buddha. Still that the kip. And then also which I don't know if you saw the meme of against the Saints where Andy Dalton throws the pick six to Marco Wilson and Andy's walking off the field and you see Marco Wilson flying through the air behind him. So you said you played a lot of different sports

growing up. Did you think about playing another sport? It was always football, always football, Never thought about playing anything else. I wanted to go to college for football. Didn't want to go to college for anything else. Nothing. Do you have hobbies? Yeah, okay, yeah, so I mean growing up, I mean, you'd you know, you're in football. Football ends. You get it one day off, it's really half a day. You're trying on stuff for basketball. You're trying to get

your jersey fitted. You're trying to you're me and my mom are going to Hibba Sports Academy, going to buy basketball shoes, throw those basketball shoes on, and next day you're playing in a tournament somewhere, like you know, like literally the next day, like one day off playing in the tournament, after that playing basketball. You know, basketball ends one day off, you're swinging the bat and then also

running track at the same time. We had We used to get out of school, start doing our track, leave track halfway through, go to baseball. And then you had to pick sometimes would you rather go to the baseball tournament and baseball games or the track meet that day? Was this your mom who was really pushing you? No, it was just it's just I mean it's just a small school. It's not like I'm the only person doing this. It's either this is like everyone, this is everyone in hominy.

This is all my friends, you know ninety like you know, eight out of the five or five out of eight friends that I had from back there that was close to they all played four sports or you know, three sports. So and that was just what they did. And I grew up with a bunch of cowboys and stuff like so in the summertimes they were out cowboy and doing that stuff, and I was in summer basketball. And you know, but we all grew up hunting. We all go up up out at the lake doing stuff of the lake.

And so I mean, for now, my free time I hunt when I get, you know, my free time. And then whenever it's so limited during the season, like on my days that I get long days, like I'm Friday, we get out of a certain time, I'm able, we'll go, I'll go to the gun range. I'll just shoot for hours. And that's kind of what I do. What do you hunt? So I've We did a little bit more Western hunting this year, me and my friend from college, his name

is Sam Clayton. We did a little bit more Western hunting, which is like up in the mountains, hiking a lot. We killed an elk and we were going from mule deer. But this year I killed a which is South Texas hunting. I killed a giant nil guy. And what a nil guy? What is that? A nil guy is an Asian deer and it's giant. They're usually like five hundred pounds six hundred pounds. Wow, they're big. And they brought them over a long time ago from India on a boat. There's

like six of them. They put them in South Texas thinking all these things don't aren't gonna get out, and know these things run through fence. Six of them got out. They were and from six there's like thirty thousand now forty thousand in South Texas. So they're they're an animal that they call Farrell, which is like shooting anything that farrell is like you can shoot on site and leave. The meat's really good. It's one of the best meats for you in the world. It's uh yeah, it's super lean,

tastes really really good. And U so I killed that harvested that got like I think I'm getting like three hundred pounds of meat. Oh my goodness, So this is gonna last meet forever. And then and then I got a deer too, And the deer was an older and older buck, so we're not really gonna eat that, but we donated all the meat. So they got um hunters for the hungry, so donated all the meat to that.

That type of deal, so nothing gets wasted. The only thing that probably you know is like a wild boar, which is a very Ferrell animal like that'll just go through stuff. They carry a lot of diseases, lies, they're disgusting. They smell bad. One could walk in on the other complete opposite side of this building and you'd go, what is that smell? And I'd be like that swine like that's a pig. I can smell it. Like you let them out on the field, two of them out on

this field for twenty minutes. The whole field to look like it's been ran over by a tracker. That's what it's like. So it's like, you know, and I like to do that on my free time. I like to fish and stuff too. Because when it grew up on a lake. But that's it. So did you have did you get like the head and put it on a mantle of yeah? So I yeah, we um we caped it out and we got like a shoulder mount. Yeah. Wow. It's like facing left and looking right. Yeah. Big, it's

a giant. You were telling me before we started that you you do listen to some some other podcasts because this still this is still pretty new to me. We just started this last year. Um so what do you listen to? A sports or no sports? No sports? Um? I every once in a while, when I'm digging in, like if I'm on a rabbit hole, like a YouTube rabbit hole, I'll fall into like a Joe Rogan Crazy podcast will take you down, you know, just like who

knows what's being talked about today? But someone who's like talks you know, Jocko willing Is, he's a cool podcast listen to um he talks about just like I'm also in factuated with like just guns. And then like all those you know, what the service men and women do for our country. You want to talk about sacrifice, you can talk to them, you know what I mean. It's that's that's a whole different level level of self sacrifice rather than you know, than what we do as football players. Like,

that's a whole different level. They're they're they're a blessing from God. But like I listened to someone called Visions Elite, he brings in um ex military or you know, ex special forces people unless them just kind of share their experience and how it's like turned them, you know what I mean, And it's actually cool. And then also is a lot of information, you know what I mean, Things

really aren't as bad as they seen here. But um, I think the thing that about that that relays for me to football is each one of these guys is a leader in some formal way, and each one of them have a specific job and task to do every time they're tasked with one, and they perform it to the best stability. And that's kind of like you know what I mean, that's just like something that if you can apply to football and every day when you come to work you have a job to do. This is

what you need to do. Go out do it. And if you can kind of just transfer what they're saying into like you know, apply it to football, it helps me out just you know, hey, come in, get it done, let's do it. Learn it, know it, and whenever you know, starts to hit the fan, you're able to you know, figure it out. So that's what kind of resonates with me,

I guess. But you know, everyone's different. So I mean, you've got first of all, again you've had a terrific here, but just I could sit here and talk to you for an hour, but I know you've got stuff to do. Oh no, you're good, Yeah, you have, you have a life. But I do want to ask it. You know, how often do you get back to Tulsa. Are you a

big family guy? Yeah? I went back on our week long break after So you get three breaks during the season usually once right after training camp Thursday game, which is we call them, you call it mini buy, and then you have to buy by game. So those are like usually the three breaks, ones before season and then two during season, one usually halfway through, and then you know, obviously we had a bye week late this season, went back home for all of them, or tried to. I

didn't get to go home for the Thursday game. I didn't get to do that. Yeah, it was just such a short week. That's the week we killed that ELK. But we h. Yeah, I try and get home as much as possible, and then in the off season I'll go home for you know, a long period of time.

And then fourth of July. I'm I'm just curious also as we close out here, because you're gonna have a chance to go home here soon, obviously, the way things are going with the team, unfortunately, what do you want to see from yourself your teammates the last four games so that you leave this season with a good taste in your mouth, Because obviously this thing has not gone the way any of us thought it would hoped it would, And I know it's probably just as frustrating for you

as it is for the coaches and for all of us in the organization. More so, I'm sure for the players than anybody, because you guys are part of it. And obviously you guys were building something and had the hic up here in twenty twenty two. But what is it you want to look back on in a month and say, you know, we we finished strong and here's why. Yeah, I think you just never want to see like a quitting mentality. I mean, let's not give up until you know,

all zeros. And this kind of also stems from the the podcast I listened to, like don't ever give up, you know what I mean, Like that's that's too easy, way too easy, Like you know, just stick with getting. You know, if if the way we practice whatever or whatever we did that week, if it didn't work, we will just change it and we'll figure out something that does. And then we just got to keep moving and keep growing.

I think that's the biggest thing is just you know, be you know, be able to change, be able to adapt, and you know, just keep going forward, keep pushing, keep st Like Buddhas says, every every game went on three and Strain, you know what I mean? Strain And he's really good. He's someone I look up to because like I mean, I mean, has he messed up before? Yeah? And but he messes up going ninety miles an hour.

He knows everything in that playbook he makes. He makes like I'll hear buddhoo yelling calls and from one sideline, and VJ was telling me what the thing Buddha is saying, even though they can't hear each other or talk to each other, you know what I mean, Like Buddha knows what's about to be calling and he don't have the green dot. There's only one green dot on the field.

That's me, you know what I mean. So I know, like Buddha is on top of his stuff, like you know what I mean, Like he's so on top of his stuff. And he expects a lot out of you as a player, Like he expects you to know your stuff, He expects you to know your job. He expects you to do your job at a high level, more so than a lot of people, Like I mean a lot.

I mean, So I really respect him. But yeah, and he's always a no quick guy, no quit just ball, keep going, keeps driving and just you know, never give up. And that's the thing I want to see out of us is just and myself just keep going, you know what I mean? How vocal are you in the locker room with that, are you because you know, watching Hard Knocks and obviously you know that's just a snapshot of what's going on. Yeah, but I see a lot of

different guys talking. Are you one of those guys? M I'm not screaming at people, but like, you know, my my little group that I kind of like with the linebackers, Me, Tanner, Roleo, ben um Comu, Zeke, all those guys. That's during the game, it's like, hey, you know what I mean, keep going, let's go, come on, it's time to go. JJ all the guys up front in the huddle. More so, whenever it's just you know, us eleven out there, I have I'm not a big stand in front of the you

know everyone and scream at him. I have to earn that. That's one of those things you kind of have to earn, you know what I mean. This year being year two for me, you know, that's probably a role of a very vocal person. I think next year that needs to take place, especially be the mic, you know what I mean. U. But yeah, you know, obviously sometimes you do have to get onto some people, like not get on them, you know,

like we're not they're not kids. Everyone here's a grown man, but like you know, like let him, Hey, you can't really do that here because you know that this is happening behind you or you know where you can't do this stunt or whatever. But it's not I'm not you know,

I'm not not there m F and people. But it's interesting that you because obviously you're very well spoken and you're very smart, and you also recognize kind of where you are right now and that you know that that's a step you have to take, yeah, and that that will come naturally. Yeah. And another thing another person I talked to, so Buddha is more of like like he shows you like he speaks like with extreme action, and

so does JJ. JJ speaks with extreme action. But JJ also has like obviously since he's such like eleven year vet, twelve year vet whatever he is, he has also knows how to approach it with um a very vocal leadership mentality and knows how to talk to people, you know

what I mean. And that's the thing about part being a leader on this team, and what I've learned from in the past is like you got to know how to talk to certain players, you know what I mean, Like some players like me, you can yell at me or do whatever. And I'm not someone who's just gonna like snap And then you know, you got some people like you can't do that, you know what I mean, They're gonna snap back at you and you canna catch a right hook. But um, you know what I mean.

So but um, you can also get your point across by being you know, in a very serious, you know manner. And uh that's like how how JJ is? You know, And he's and I've talked to him especially recently about you know, what to do in the offseason, what to do about year three coming up, what to do about being a leader on the team, how to you know, approach certain things, how to approach um to make guys responsible. Um, that's just like all the stuff, you know, it's just

pre practice stuff you just get a chat about. And then it's he's really helpful in that aspect, as you know, as everyone thinks he would be here, he really is. Um. And it's it's nice too because I just take all that just put in a little foul cabin at the back of the brain, you know, remember it for later, and you know, just try and apply it whenever it comes well, you've got such a bright future. I can't

wait to see a play out. It's been fun watching you this year, and I appreciate you spending some time with him. Man. Yeah, I appreciate you having me on this pretty cool. I didn't know you guys did this here. This is the first time that I've heard about this. I have to go back. Yeah, so, well, this is your episode fifty two, so I don't know if you're so it's it's not just Cardinals. So and being in the media, I've had Scott vanpeld on, Jim Nance recently,

like last year. I don't even know if Greg Olsen earlier this year, got Damian Lillard on from the Blazers. I don't know if you're an Yeah, Dame was on last year. Mckel Bridges, James Jones. I'm having Mark Jackson on next week from ESPN. Had been Gundy on last year. So again, I don't know if these names are that's cool too, but yeah, it's this is a It's fun because for me it's an opportunity to get to know guys a little bit more and until it's been fun

getting to know you. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you, Thank you for having me on. I wasn't kidding. I really could have talked to Zaban and I'm sure you would have loved to have listened to zabn for another thirty minutes or so. Had so many cool things to say. Just love his perspective on the game. He really gets it. You can understand why he's really improved here in year two and it is probably one of the most improved

players in the NFL, certainly on the Cardinals roster. Just interesting how he admitted the struggles of last year and that it was such a wake up call for him, but that he's handled things much better here in year two and his hopes and dreams for year three and beyond. Just really excited for him and just a joy to talk with. We're presented by BENMGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos. You can follow us on Twitter at pashpod.

You can also rate and review us by going to your podcast platform and telling us what you think. Thanks to Cardinal's linebacker Zavian Collins, and thanks to you for listening to another edition of the day Pash Podcast.