A Conversation with Jets QB Joe Flacco (9/7)

the starting quarterback on the play. When did I find out on a plane? I don't remember exactly when I found out that I was gonna be starting for sure, you know, I I remember, Um, I think it was the week of we were playing St. Louis in the preseason and Kyle Bowler like tour something in the shoulder, like that week of practice. I wasn't supposed to play at all. In the third preseason game. That was like, you know, Kyle and True we're kind of going at it.

So Kyle goes down and then Truy comes up. Troy Smith gets um, you know, he he gets really sick, and we weren't sure how series was at the time, and um, even the night before the game, it was like, we don't know what's going on with Troy. He might be he might come in and play, you know whatever. And I think it was like ten o'clock the morning of the game that they told me like, all right, Joe, like you're the only quarterback we have. You're playing the

whole game. And I remember going all time room like and just you know, you're a rookie. And I remember thinking, oh my gosh, here we go, and like just going through my stuff, making sure I'm on top of it and all that stuff. And you go out there. And I played the whole game against the Rams and the third preseason game and did a good job, you know,

for the most part. Um. And then we had the Falcons the next week, uh, in the fourth preseason game, and they flew Casey Bramlett, who played in Miami with Cam Cameron. They flew him in overnight. I think he landed sometime like overnight the day of the game. And I played three series I believe, in the Atlanta Falcons the fourth preseason game and then he played the rest of the game on like a couple of hours of being in Baltimore and then we went right into Cincinnati

and that was it. Does it feel like yesterday, though, because now as you're approaching a game week one of the two thousand twenty two season, you're laughing oftentimes here at Once that Strive where the guys are saying, hey, Flackle, you you're the old guy at thirty seven. Hey it I mean when I when I think back at that right there, I mean, I can I can kind of put myself right back in that hotel room and in

those situations. So, yeah, it feels like yesterday. I got plenty of stories to tell about Bart that you can't necessarily tell on on any kind of media, even podcasts. But no, it feels like yesterday. And I don't view myself as being you know, this is my fifteenth year.

I don't view myself as that. You know. I remember when I was playing with Bart, and like ray Lewis was on the team, and I do remember how I looked at him and like and these guys when I was younger, you know, you grew up watching them play. And but I don't necessarily think of that when I like, you know, not to like talk about ray Lewis and myself, you know, but like I don't view myself off as being in the league fifteen years. I just view myself as a player. You know, this is my fifth year,

I'm seven years old, whatever it. Maybe that's how I view myself. And then every now and then you can kind of view you can kind of see that these young guys are looking at you a little bit different, like they're looking at you a little strange, like, man, how long have you been around? You know? And that kind of puts that kind of wakes me up a little bit and reminds me of how long I've been doing it. So you got a little salt and pepper a little bit on. But now life kind of comes

full circle. As we can call this the Flacco Bowl, or we can call it this to C. J. Moseley Bowl, but you know, kind of going full circle all the way back to where it all began, going against a familiar opponent organization that you know, well, like, how are you preparing for that emotionally and physically? Um, you know for a week one in a in a tough environment. Yeah, I think it's I think it's ultimately going to be tough to completely prepare for it. Because I've never been

through it personally. Um, I mean you've you've played I think you played us that next year, you know nine right up here, open up here, like we almost got we almost got a pregame. Um. I've seen some people go through it. I've definitely seen uh, some people play some old teams that were significant players on the teams

that they came from. And as much as they tried to keep it in check and and do all that, you know, that's all good to say and talk about until all of a sudden, the lights turn on it's game time, and you know, your emotions get the best of you, and um, you know, so, like I said, uh, it's honestly this that's what's great about football. It's a team sport. It's about the team. You just gotta play your role. So I'm gonna make sure that I try

to do that as much as possible. But you know, like I said, I've been through it enough times to see how emotional it can be. So I think I'd be a little bit naive to think that there's going to be zero of that. You know, when Zack Wilson goes down in Philadelphia, what do you think automatically, and then after some time goes by, when does it start comedy the realization that it is going to be week

one it is the Ravens. Yeah, well, I think you initially just you know, you you you put yourself in that situation, and you feel for the player and you hope that he's actually, you know, ultimately okay. Um, so obviously like the depending on what you were thinking in that moment um, it's probably the best possible outcome for him, you know. Um, But immediately your mind after that kind of goes to okay, like does this mean I'm gonna play right away? Here? You know, I got you know,

I'm ready, but like let's go here we go? Um So yeah, I mean I've been in enough situations now in this role to kind of be able to know that I'm gonna prepare and have been thrown in there right away, like in the middle of a game. So it's all a little bit different. And you know, there's obviously you see, oh man, we're playing Baltimore this year. That's going to be interesting. Even if I was going to be on the sideline, Um, I didn't necessarily I

was like, okay, we're playing them in New York. That'll be cool. You know. I think now that I'm playing there would be something extra cool about playing in Baltimore. But either way, like I said, like all the things that we just talked about, Um, you know, listen, it's a completely new team for the most part. There's you know, there's a handful of players obviously. I mean, the last year I was there was eighteen. It wasn't that long ago,

so there are some players that were still there. But if you're talking about the bulk of my career and the guys that I actually played with, in terms of that, it's a completely new football team. It's just the same organization. So you know, sometimes we make too big of a deal out of these things and stuff like that. You know, guys switched teams all the time. You know, I think I'm a quarterback, So obviously there's a little bit it's

a little bit different for whatever reason. Um, you know, and and coach Hardball still there, but a lot of the coaching staffs, you know, probably pretty similar to how I was an a team, but even that's a lot different, you know what I mean. So you know, the great thing about playing opponent is they think they know you. You know there they are meetings. Now okay, he doesn't like to do this. He doesn't get off the spot.

So you know that stuff. And like you know, when you became the starter and we got got named the starter, you think about all the young guys that you have there. Initially immediately you have to start getting that non verbal communication with the young players. And now they're looking at you because you're the savior, right you you have all the answers. You know you're the o G. Now you

have all the answers. So how is that week, the weeks of preparation and even the preseason, but with trying to get that non verbal communications and you learning how your receivers, where they like the ball at, what their strengths are, the weaknesses, how it looks when they're coming out of a break. I think it's an exciting opportunity. Like when you have guys like that that are you know, really good football players with a bunch of ability, but

they're young and they're gonna make mistakes. You know you don't you don't necessarily like you're not okay with the mistakes, um, but you better not be getting too out of control emotionally when when the children prepared you for that, prepared to sure and like. And I've found out that at least with my kids, I'm not as patient as I thought I was. UM. But in this, in this situation, I actually I do really look forward to it. I I feel like I like this situation of being that guy.

I hope that people look at me and say, Okay, at least you know, Joe's in the huddle like we're good, you know, like you know, and they can and and that allows them to move on to the next play and wipe the last one out because you know, ultimately in in in a football game, there's gonna be things like that that happened and you have to have something to ground you and move you on. So I hope

that I can be that. UM. Obviously, there's times where you're gonna have to push those guys and and and get the and in order to get the best out of them, because they're going to go be going through things mentally that may slow them down because they're thinking too much and you're gonna have to be able to push them through those things. But I definitely look forward to it. How is it all tied together when you're playing against a team that throws some exotic pressure packages

at you. Everybody focuses on the offensive line, but you're talking about young receivers, you're working with two. How much do you have to emphasize precision against a team like Baltimore? Oh yeah, it's always a team effort. Obviously the offensive line when in terms of sacks and things like that, but it is a team effort. And um, you know, listen, we run an offense where you know, hopefully the receivers don't have to do too much thinking about those things.

They can just go play and and and and run their routes, play their game and not have to worry about that. So as long as they're in the right places in the right timing, then it's up to me to be able to identify those things and understand when I have to get the ball out of my hands and when I have a little bit of time to

maybe you know, go through my progression. Now, you know, you you're you're with the floor like he's new to to the to the game as well as far as being an offensive coordinator, but you know, you're a veteran and how much input have you had and kind of maybe anticipating some of the dexotic blizz because we don't really know because Wink Martin Neal is not there anymore,

so we don't know really what to expect. But how much of the ownership have you been given to kind of make adjustments and freedoms to kind of use your you know, your football acumen to make adjustments on the flood. I think most of it comes down to, like, hey, do we think we could do this or do we think we should just not worry about doing this and just stick with this? And you know, it's those back and forth what what we think we can get away with and maybe what we don't think we can get

away with. I know, Mike's a young guy, and you know he's he's only called offensive for you know, he's only called plays for a year. Um. You know, these guys come from a good background and at the end of the day, UM, it's about trust either way. UM. So he is the coordinator on the quarterback, you know, and I do want to have a little bit of input, you know, in terms of you know, certain little things

here and there. But at the same time, you know, I want to be able to rely on him to do his thing and put us in good situations because that's what he's there to do, and you know, we as players are there to execute it. And I'm no different in that. How far has this roster come? You've played here in two thousand, twenty and twenty one, and now we talk about the transformation that we've seen over the last eight team months. Just watching on the practice field,

you see the speed, you see explosive ability. You think about, hey, listen, we don't have to rely on twelve play drives to get down the field. We got some home run hitters. And then also the depth on this roster. Yeah, no, it's exciting. Uh, you know, we I've talked about it a lot. It's It's obviously a topic of conversation with people.

I feel like we're at the point where we can where we sense that, you know, we sense like, hey, like we're pretty good, I think, right, you know, like you know, and the young guys, like a lot of them don't know any better. They're good. They feel like they're good, you know. They so they haven't necessarily experienced the last couple of years of not winning a lot

of games, so they feel good. Um, but I think we definitely have a lot of momentum behind us right now, but we still haven't done it on a Sunday consistently. So while while we're getting there, while that confidence is kind of starting to take off a little bit, uh, we still turn the corner um, which is going out

there improving it on Sunday. So I think we're right in that area there now that you know, I'm hoping that we're dangerous because of it, you know, and I hope that we realize sooner rather than later how good

we can be and then then you never know. I'm and when once you get that little bit of boost of confidence and guys are playing, you know, without thinking about a lot, and they're just going out there and playing football and they're being physical, you know, that's when it really comes together, you know, because you can go out there and you can be assignment, you sound, and

you can take care of the football. But if you're just doing the right things and you're kind of like just you know, you're, yeah, yeah, I did that right, and I'm happy with that, then you you'll be okay. You know, you won't make mistakes, will be okay. But you know, I think we're getting right on the edge of getting to the point where we know what we're doing. We're confident about what we're doing. So now we can

actually play football. We can go get people, be physical, play fast, you know, not settle for the fifteen yard completion. We can catch the ball with our feet in the ground and turn up field and break one. You know. So I think we're getting close to that spot. But leaves a powerful thing right when you came in as a rookie, you know, expectations weren't that high for us as a team, and we kind of snuck into the playoffs and we caught fire. We came together as a team.

A lot of that was the off the field relationship said we had as far as building bonds and things like that. When you talk about, you know, this this team and this roster and when you look back, does Joe Flacco still have something that he wants to prove to people? Are you just playing with house money? I mean you're a Super Bowl m v P. I mean people forget about you know, when you came in this league, how many playoff games you won every year? You guys

were a legitimate threat. Your record on the road in the playoffs going up to New England taking care of business? Right, Um, all the successes you've had, do you still have something to prove and what gets you going and what continues to motivate you? Because you could have called it a career. It had been a beautiful career. Ten of five in the postseason former Super Bowl m v P H and who has the corvette? By the way, it's in the

garage and house. My brother's staying right. Did you sign it? Like? Are you preserving it? Are you just like man? You know, to the Bowl? But it is it's kind of like a trophy. It has like you know, it has it has Super Bowl m VP right next to the VN number. You know, there's something kind of cool about that. I mean, your kids, this is really important. They look like idiots driving that thing around. I don't think so. Maybe maybe

my daughter, I don't know. Um No, listen, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't still feel like I can play the game. Um. I still feel like I can play and play at a high level. And that's

ultimately what motivates me. Um. There's some different things in there, you know, Um, but it's it's ultimately about me believing that I can still playing and owing it to myself to go play and now, you know, obviously there's a level of proving it to other people and feeling like, you know, why haven't I gotten a chance to go

do it? And you know, but like and and then I had an injury where I you know, got surgery on my neck a few years ago, and like that kind of gave a little bit of glimpse of man, am I gonna play again? I'm not gonna be able to play again if somebody gonna sign me. And it like that wasn't a good feeling, you know, So that gives you that extra like oh yeah, Like it kind of gives that little extra reminder like oh man, like yeah, I still love this game, Like you know, let's go

out there and get going. Um yeah, and listen, like it's it's it's not the most fun in the world when you know you're you're you're sitting there and you're the backup and you feel like you can contribute, but it's not. It's not your role, you know. So like I've come to the realization of that to a certain extent, and I'm willing to do that. And that's why I'm excited to That's why I'm excited, you know, to possibly have the opportunity here to just put my team in

you know, put our team in a good position. You know, early in the season, you're not playing against Lamar Jackson. I mean, obviously you guys will have different uniforms on and only have the former uniform mine that used to wear. But with that being said, what did you see from him early on? It could you have predicted what was to come for him? I don't know if anybody can predict you know, the extent of it. Obviously you can see,

you know a lot of what he's good at. You can see pretty early on, you know what I mean, Like, uh, he jumps off the field. You know, he jumps off the film and in person in terms of how good of an athlete he is and and all those things. So, um, you don't always know where that's gonna go and stuff like that. I mean, you've seen plenty of players that you feel like ken play and they don't end up being a you know, they don't end up working out

for whatever reason. But like I said, a lot of the things that he does well and that you see him do, it's it's not like you can hide a lot of that stuff, So how do you simulate that in practice? Again, you don't have to worry about it, but you can't know. Yeah, I mean, you just gotta make sure you're playing defense the way you know, sound good defense and playing as a team. And you know, obviously guys are gonna make their place here and there

and and and do what they have to do. But you know, you just have to make sure everybody understands what the goal is and that they're out there to play good team defense and and and do the right thing each play. Because I got because I gotta, I gotta, I gotta go there, right because all my radio show, all week radio show, no shameless plug. But you know, like you were the last raven to bet on itself and Lamar Jackson finds itself and that's in that similar position, right,

like you bet on yourself. And I've negotiated with Ozzy, like and you've negotiated with OZI or Eric Decas, so we know what that's about. But it seems like he's betting on himself and maybe he's trying to harness his inner Joe Flacco to be able to bet on itself on a contract year and win the Super Bowl and possibly m v P. Now do you think you guys are gonna have a little moment when you pull him to the side, like I feel you good luck on that or or you guys are gonna bring it up?

He might yeah, who knows? Who knows? How Listen, man, we're talking like two and a half times that these days. That's why you should play as long as you can. I said that, you know obviously that it's crazy. I'm sure that will not come up, to be honest with you, I mean, Lamar was Lamar is a good kid, and I'm sure I'll be worried about just playing the football game. But who knows, some some guy decide might bring it

up randomly. You never know. Part might be out there in the fifth yard you know is gonna mag that. But how how crazy is it? Right? So? I feel like, you know, the quarterback position has become embolded. We all bost call it the n B the lebronalization of football, where like, you guys understand your value, you're worth. You guys are basically the CEO of the organization. You guys are the brand to face and you know you talk

about the guaranteed money. Now, it's crazy you talk about you know, hundred eighty and nine million dollars to to um um Kyler Murray. He hasn't even won a playoff game yet, Like, did you ever think that I knew, you knew that it was going to go on a on on a great trajectory, But did you expect it to ever be at this point? Are all your kids gonna play quarterback? Hey, listen, I don't know if my kids you know, who knows how many positions my kids

can play the sides, quarterback? Um, so they may be. There's lucky in that sense. Um, it's crazy. I mean, by the time my kids, my oldest kids ten than eight, almost nine, I mean I talk I was telling how we're joking about this in the locker the other day. By the time he's in college, he might make million dollars in college, and then he might sign a billion dollar contract if he can make it through his first four or five years in the NFL and p halfway

decent he signed a billion dollar contract. Because it's like, it's it's it's crazy. It's crazy. Um, you know, and obviously you know it's all good, you know, and the league's doing so well that it is what it is. I remember back in a day like when, um, I think I was going into my fourth year and we were talking about how you know, it was the first it was the first c B A like negotiation I've been through. And back then the topic was you know, why are rookies getting paid so much and shooing all

the other veterans to be getting paid. And I remember trying to tell guys like, now, listen, we've done so well that everybody is getting paid these days because the league has done so well. But I mean, listen, if you're one or two, three pick and you're going to the worst team in the league, I mean, I think there's a big argument for the fact that you deserve that eighty million. You know you're gonna go get punished in your career might be over because you went to

the worst team. Um. And also I think a lot of the veterans thought like, oh, man, like if they don't get the eighty million, we're just gonna get it. And I tried to guy's the quarterback is gonna get it. The quarterback and maybe the corner left tackle, like those are the guys are gonna get the money, You're gonna get the same thing, you know, And that's kind of the way it's gone. But we have done so well as a league that really everybody, everybody has multiplied so much,

so it's all good, all good. Who is the first person to give you the Joe cool Moniker? I don't know. I don't know. I don't really know if I actually was like called at all before. Maybe somebody kind of called set it on air at something. You know, I'm not not in person, and you know I had a different nick name for him. We can't know, we can't say it. He threw an outright and I stopped calling it,

all right, won't go with it. That generational gap. You often laugh about that a little bit, but you got five kids and all this is ten, so they keep you youngly, got hard too, Yeah, Hey, I I joke like Sauce is a lot closer to my oldest son that it's fenty is me. You know, every generation I think looked at the generation ten fifteen years younger than m says man, what are these kids dealing? You know, Like I was looked at it some way at some

point like that. So I have to remind myself that you know, it's the same thing, it is different, Like guys are different these days. When they were in year old, it's different. You saw the evolution of a locker room. Like how is the player different from when I was in Baltimore. I don't know if I didn't notice it as much because there was enough guys that I was there with a long time, and like the situation was just so consistent in so many ways that I didn't

notice it that much. But it wasn't until I left there that I realized, oh, man, like it's changing, Like things are different a lot of the guy. Like when I came into the NFL, like all the hit of the helmet and all the different rules started coming in, um training camp rules, how much you can be on the field, all those different things. They've kind of been in the league the whole time I've been in the league fifteen years. They've always been making an effort to

do those things. But you know, I grew up playing high school and college and stuff like that, and even a little bit of the NFL with just starting on those things. Um, so I've been through it a little bit.

These guys today have never even seen football or heard of football, like where the quarterback can't get hit in the head, you can have two days or any they've never been through it, never like we had going to say when we were in Baltimore in my first year, like I didn't know any better either, like I was a rookie, Like I just did it. You just do it.

Like we were having two and a half three hour practices twice a day, you know, and and guys that are thirty years older than mayor laughing at me, but like they were legit practices. And then and then when we went into the c b A that in like two thousand and eleven, after that first cb A that I was a part of, you could do four hours on the field. Three hours was the max that you could do at one time. So a horn blew and we went on the field, and then a horn blew

three hours later and we came off the field. Guys were dying. Those were almost harder than like the first couple of training cancer because they they worked us for straight three straight hours. And in Baltimore, like John wasn't given us any stretch time or anything like it was a full three hour practice, like special teams was the very big like yes, you were stretching the locker room.

So you know, it's just it's just different and like and believe and like I tell guys like we we we bitched and complained about it back then, Like it wasn't like we just did it and we're tough about it. Like no, we complained about it. But like now nowadays, we're doing forty five play practices and guys are like, man, you know, it's like we had a ten plays scripted, not forty five. You know. So it's just and like I said, I gotta remind myself, like we've all every generation.

These guys, if they last fifteen years, they're gonna be saying the same thing in fifteen years about the guys that come into the league. So it just is what it is. Well, we enjoyed our visit. We know you gotta roll. Um Ba did say the other day that you'll always be a raven. But with that being said, that's yeah, but you'll be leading the Jets Sunday. Good luck to you. I appreciate great stuff. They're from Joe Flacco.

That is the way we start the regular season. A former teammate Man House, Absolutely, I mean you couldn't you talk about the storylines that couldn't be better, right, Joe Flacco, you know, going to the team that decided to move on the team that he had so much success, And I've sat in the same seat that he said sat in, and he wants to do well. You know. You know he didn't get Joe cool for a reason. You know, he's always been cool under pressure. He understands to grab

me at the moment. But I think he's going to face something that he's never faced before. Because he may not think that it's going to be emotional, but it is going to be emotional. He doesn't have to have Ray Lewis on the sideliner and read. Once he sees hard hardball, he's gonna get all those feelings and he's gonna see Lamar and those competitive juices that are going to get going. And you know, I just can't wait to see how he reacts. You never know, um, but

this is a unique matchup. You know, you got a team that comes in with the exotic defense. We really don't know what this Raven team is going to be all about because they don't have Wink Martindale there anymore. They're going to be a more conservative defense or are they going to be you know, as they've been in the past and aggressive attacking you know, uh defense that's going to create opportunities down the field. Remember, they're trying to implement a rookie into a defense that you know

can be Hampton. That can be very difficult to to kind of pick up and early on communication. That's why I would look, you know, I would like to see La Fleur come with a lot of ships and motions to force that young kid to have to be able to communicate and when you have the opportunity to make make some big plays on the field, I think there's going to be a tight game. Um, the Ravens are gonna try and post their will with the running game, and that's a tough that's a tough task for any

defense coming in have to learn those principles. With Lamar Jackson, the threat of keeping the football, he has ability to really change your angles. So it's gonna be dynamic to see who has a better game play. Because remember, no matter what we saw in this preseason, everything has led up to this first game getting up to a good start. So all these plays that you put on film that you really put onto your opponent and see him. Everything is to this point has been to to really um

prepare for the raven game offensively. Where can the Jets take advantage of the Ravens speaks? When you look at the Ravens, at least on paper, they say they've got really good cornerbacks. Right, you're managing the rookie safety. I'm looking into the Jets running backs and tight ends. Maybe they can do damage in this game. Well absolutely, you talk about up the scenes. So Hamilton's um is a range e tall guy, but not a speedster. If you can take advantage of him, I have been bad eyes

and you have to do that. To do that, and I know we say this every year, you have to establish the run. You establish a run, you get this guy creeping and peeking and maybe he sees something that he's not supposed to see. And also on the outside, I don't even know if Marcus Peters is healthy for this game. You're coming off the A C. L surgery. But you have Marcus Peters who has always been, you know,

a feast of famine type of cornerback. You know, he's a guy that's gonna believe in his eyes and sometimes that gets him in trouble. So if if I ever see those two to the same side, that's I'm going there because that's that's that's a recipe that's trying, you know, get bad communication with a young rookie, you know, and and bunch routes. Right when you have a rookie and you have to talk about you, if you identify man coverage, you can get him in where he has to communicate.

And all the time they don't use their words, you know, And it should be a loud environment, a hostile environment, you know, chearing excitement and sometimes you just don't hear the correction when you have a shift of motion and bunch packages and that's where you take advantage of. It's gonna be explosive places, but I think it's gonna be tough sledding on both sides. The Ravens don't have tremendous pass rushing. They got more um you know, Houston, just

in Houston. And on the other side, Old Way who had a great season for rookie, but it wasn't one of the best seasons. It wasn't a ten sex season. He gets a lot of pressure, but he's still green as far as being able to go against a veteran you know, you know, like like Brown, you know, you get him to that side, maybe you can take advantage

of them. Because that's what I want to ask you real quick about the Jets offensive line, any concerns there, because I thought that really fortunate to get a guy like Dwayne Brown after McKay back then goes down, and I think he's a very good player. With that being said, this offensive line hasn't played together that much. We saw him a couple of snaps against the New York Giants. But across the board, if you go left and right, you say, the players are definitely there. What's the challenge

communication wise? Now they're gonna be ramping up and playing sixty sixty plays this game or seventy. Well, you also look at Breece Hall, right, because if he's in it, is he's going to be built into that or Michael Carter going to be built into that that that past protection and you know, are they on the same level. Are they seeing the same thing, Because at the end of day, the running back has to make somebody right.

And what gives you, what gives you peace, is the fact that you understand that they have two veteran guards, and you know, you don't want instant interior pressure. And you know, you understand that guys like Dwayne, even though you know he's on the outside, he understands that I got the whitest guy. I'm responsible for the whitest guy unless we're full sliding and we're gonna try and let the running back it. So you you have to keep your packages really tight. We don't know what type of

Ravens defense we're gonna see. I just don't know. Like Wink Martindale, you know, as a coordinator, Blitz more than any of the Ravens, Blitz percentage were hired than anybody. But this is a different outfit and they don't have the same personnel that they have before. You know, can

you take advantage of Patrick Queen? Can you take advantage of whoever's not Patrick Queen on the second level as far as getting them into the communication routes things of that source, you know, But it's going to be imperative that they're able to consistently flip the field No. Three and outs, move the ball and try and win the field position battle, because the first team that has a mistake is gonna put their team in a in a bad position, and that could be the difference in the game.

Lamar is gonna get his yards, we know that, But what's the key in terms of containing him making sure he doesn't go off and have one of those all star like performances that we've seen oftentimes from him. He's such a tough guy to prepare for, you know, and then he you can't compare him to anybody in fight. Maybe Kyler Murray is the only camp that you can say, okay, a guy that can kind of give you fits. He's faster than you know, fast and quick, but he's still

not Lamar Jackson. But that's a close thing. You have to you have to try and make him beat you with his arm. You know, you can't allow him to beat you with his legs. You know, he's able. He's one of these rare athletes or quarterbacks that can have explosives with his legs and his arm. You know he can just as as as easily you'll turn a run to a yard run in a blink of an eye, especially if you dare to play man and man coverage. Because now you play man and man coverage, everybody backs

her turn, he breaks contained. That's why you're gonna have to be disciplined. You want to try and flush him to his left to force him that if he does flush to his left, if the pressure, if you're going to give up an edge, you give it to your left because he's gonna run because anything else would be thrown across his body. And that and that's you know, quarterbacks aren't accurate. But last year everyone, for the first time, he really, you know, struggled. He had some games where

he had three or four interceptions. So you want to try and understand that, Hey, his target is Mark Andrews. You take that away and you and if the other guys beat you, do you spyre him? And also you mentioned Andrews. He was targeted something like a hundred and thirty times last year, something ridiculous. What do you do from a coverage perspective, Well, you have to bracken him.

You have you have to bracken him, and you have to lean on on your safeties as far as and and maybe sometimes you know you're getting getting the piece ofthing. But they'll do a good job. They'll move them around, they won't have them predictable positions, and you have to do a good job to understand that eventually that ball is going to him. So if you gotta you know, death by thousand paper cuts, you you say, Okay, I want to see if you can triculate the ball down

the field. See if you can you know, dink and dunk and stay patient without getting the whole im penalty with all these exotic runs that you do, without getting an illegal procedure, a false start. Let's see if you can go down the field no explosives, because you know, if he if Mark Andrews is making a catch, it's usually on the hashes or the numbers, and you know that's that's Lamar Jackson's safety valve. What's the jet ceiling

this year? Yeah, we just talked to Flacco about it before since that, Hey, we do have a lot of talent, but there is a lot of unknown as we approach the season. And that's the beauty of when you don't know that you shouldn't have a fear of anybody. You know, if you play at your game and and you know, you have a lot of young guys that are you know, coming from college, that have a lot of provido, a lot of swag, right, you know, you look at Gary Wilson.

He came from a winning program, and you know he's gonna think that he can, you know, do the same thing and not missing stuff because it has been guys who have come in rather Jamar Chase, rather justin Jefferson, that have come into this league and that kind of hit it, hit it, you know, full strike, you know, and so he should have the same um goals that he can be one of those guys and not be one of these receivers that struggle because receivers come in

the league now and they're able to have productivity. Look at look at the Loja more. You can have productivity because the game in college now emulates the game in the pros, not vice versa. You know what I mean. It's not used to be that college used to influence the pros. Now is that that the pros and the guys that come from college because they throw so much in college, the passing game is ahead of even a

running game. And understanding you know, zone concepts and reading the three technique, the five technique and when to bounced the ball, when to cut it back. I think they have to really lean on on that. And also the fact that you know, Breece Hall should have a lot of confidence. He's a first round draft pick. He's my dark horse for Rookie of the Year. Joe Douglas said, we gotta be playing meaningful football in December. We expect

to be playing meaningful football in December. Now connect that with Robert Sala Sala saying we gotta really could a cool group, but it's gonna be teams is interesting to see who's gonna grab the bull by the horns in the fourth quarter. Who are our dudes gonna be because on paper and what we've seen on the practice field that Jets have a lot of explosive talent, But who

are the guys gonna stop up and crunch time? I mean, you have to lead on your leader leaders first, right, and then you hope that the young guys get the experience on the beginning year and you watch you know, the pros, pros walking around about how to prepare and how to take advantage, right, because teams in the in the league are gonna say things for certain game plans, game team specific, but also situation specific, you know, So how do you try and educate these young guys that

have a lot of talent, but teach them the nuance of the game, right, you know, how do you build up their football acumen? Like, how do you tell them, okay, expect this in third down you have to get to the sticks. You can't come short. You have to get

past the sticks and come back. It's all the small things that that add up to winning and losing, because most games in the league are lost, not one, right, So let's not beat ourselves else, Let's not have untimely penalties because we're undisciplined, and let's take advantage of the opportunities we get when the other team, you know, makes

their mistakes and jump off sides taking shots. Being on the same page, one thing we know about Joe Flacco his arm is always live and he can push the ball down the field, so you know, make plays for your quarterback. But also defensively, you should take it personal to the fact that you would consider one of the worst defenses in the league. Now, everybody's healthy, you know, you have you have you know, Karl Lawson, you have, you know, a healthy quinnin Williams, Franklin Myers moving back

to his more natural position. But now we need guys like Johnson to step up, right, But we have to educate him because it's gonna be certain things he's gonna struggle with. You know, let him know, Hey, we don't let anything, especially this week you get in. We do not lose contain on Lamar Jackson. That is the job. Everybody does your job so we all can succeed. How

charged up is that environment going to be? One of my favorite moments working here was the nine eleven game against the Dallas almost ten years after September eleventh, of course, and now Sunday Jets Ravens twenty one years after nine eleven. Um, it's gonna be emotional. It's gonna be emotionally. Everybody can kind of remember where they were when nine eleven happened. We understood that it was sports that brought this time back together, right, that that that gave them piece a

sense of normalcy, you know what I mean. So like now you talk about celebrating it once again coming around, I think the fans will be emotional, passionate, and I think just the fact that it's the start of the football season, it's going to app it up to a to a level that's going to be ridiculous, you know. But you know, when you look at it as far as being a player, you have to keep your emotions and attack understanding and they can be emotional. You have

to be you have to be professional. You have to understand that you can tire yourself out and warm ups. You know, for the first time first game, what happens is you you aren't prepared to go a full game yet because you haven't taken yourself there. You haven't played eighty snaps as fast as you and go with special teams, you know, and a lot of these guys are finding out this week once the cuts happen. Now you are the look team. Now is nobody that looks say okay,

can you go? I'm a little tired. You have to build that cardio up. So that's why you want to make sure that you're able to be disciplined because those little things happen. You worry about special team mishaps, and you worry about, like you know, receivers and defenders. Receivers not running the right routes leads to interceptions, and also the communication on the back end. If you can get guys mixed up with crossing routes and things of that sort,

we're off to a great start. Um, we go back to two thousand nine at Soony Courtland when Yeah man, I tracked you down. I begged you let's do some Jets radio and he said, I don't know if I want to do any of that. I don't know if I want to do with any of that. Now look at you, it's like it's like SpongeBob. Thirteen years later, the band is back together and hopefully y'all like to like this great review. Subscribe will also be on YouTube throughout the sea. Subscribe. I won't get no cheese on

my taco. No, yeah, make sure you get your cheese this year. There's not about that. And we'll see you all next week