Jordan Palmer on Sam Darnold (5/14)

to discuss all things Sam Donald. Because if you don't know, Jordan Palmer and Sam Donald and Josh Allen, who is now quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, all worked together in the offseason. Jordan does tremendous things with the top quarterback coming into each year's draft. Last year he worked with Deshaun Watson and this year worked with Donald. Josh Allen. It's just gonna bring that up Green. Where did Kyle go? Do you remember? Up right now? That's one thing. I'm

pretty sure he signed with the Panthers. He was undrafted, But Kyle Allen went to Houston has no relation to Josh Allen. And here's a little fun fact, Sam Donald and Josh Allen, we're both in attendance for the draft and Sam actually brought Kyle Allen as a part of Day one festivities because all three of them trained together and he wanted them all to be together on that night, even though Kyle did not und then. Yeah, but it's

still a very nice gesture from Sam Donald. But regardless of Jordan Palmer worked with all three of these guys. Sam Donald and Josh Allen are best friends. We're gonna get into that a little later. They will not be friends when they play each other on Sundays. Don't worry, They're not gonna take it easy. Well, I don't know if they're best friends, but they know they're very good.

They definitely forced a great relationship. And Jordan's Palmer is somebody that I've been really trying to tray down for months. We were we were at the NFL owners meetings, and we were at the reception greens and the NFL does it right, has this monstrous reception and food everywhere and entertainment, and you know, owners and gms and head coaches and their families and media members, everybody's together. At that moment.

I feel a little bit uncomfortable about going up and setting up an interview, so I just introduced myself to join briefly because I wanted to talk to him about at a later date about some of the top quarterbacks coming out. And when you know it, the Jets ultimately picked Saint Donald one of his proteges. So now we have Jordan's Palmer lined up for today. So I'm very

excited to get a chance to talk to him. But I was not going to talk shop too much when we're all partaking in, you know, whether it's the food or their festivities and things like that. I just introduced myself quick, and he's a busy guy. You know, he's got family out there in southern California and he does this QB summit. But this should be cool. If there's anyone that knows Sam Donald, it's definitely Jordan Palmer, considering that they spent three months seven together, eating dinner at

Palmer's house and everything that's encompassed in that. So I think we should just dive in right with j P. Let's bring in Jordan Palmer, who knows Sam Donald better than anybody at this point after spending a lot of time with him in the pre draft process. Jordan, how much did you know of Sam prior to really working with him at QB Summit. Well, you know, I met Sammony was fifteen years old. You know, he's just been a guy that he's a local guy who lives on

the street from me and grew up there. And I've been been lucky enough to be a part of a thing called a Leada Levin for a long time, and we have a top high school quarterbacks in the country and a lot of top college players in the country come through. And then I started running my own camps called QP Summit, which a lot of young guys and

and and a lot of the top college players. So I've just been able to just gonna stay involved and be helpful at certain times and kind of stay out of his way at other times, and just trying to be helpful as I kind of go along their quarterback journey. And and so Sam has had a really fun one and because it's been so luckle, I've been able to be really involved. So speaking of Sam, Jordan, there's your

two year old son. We can hear him in the background, and you said that he really grew fond of Sam over the last couple of months. In fact, he said he referred to him as his favorite uncle. Yeah, he's uncle Sam. Anytime he sees a guy with red hair or he sees a guy with a red shirt, Jordan, can you talk about making sam left hand dominant prior to the draft? And you know, Green's and I are always talking about basketball who can go to the left hand?

But what you did and we got a chance to read about that, can you talk about that process because people point to Sam's turnovers last year and maybe what he was or wasn't doing in the pocket, and that

was something that you stressed throughout the spring. Yeah, you know, I think it was regardless of what the quarterbacks issues are as they go through that draft training program, We're really just trying to figure out what are the biggest areas of need for them to work on, and then how do I put them in a position to do

that as much as possible. So, you know, if it was Josh Allen who was kind of over striding and stepping too far, I just built a bunch of drills that made him step too far so he could really isolate it and work on it. And with Sam, what we did very simply is just make sure that he's just kind of held onto the ball with his left hand all the time sounds pretty oversimplified, and it is, but it's really just anytime somebody gets comfortable with having one hand on the ball at the time, we try

and and isolate that. And so with him, uh, I think I get helped. But but honestly, you know, it's gonna come down to, you know, the coaching staff and him making a point of emphasis as he starts his rookie year, and I just don't really see it being an issue. You know, he also took one hand off the ball and run around and made some amazing plays.

You don't want him to lose that edge. And so I think it's just gonna be him managing and mitigating that risk reward of how he carries the ball in the pocket, because I think the future of the quarterback position is the quarterback's ability to create time and space

to buy more time in the pocket. And you don't have to run a four three, and you don't have to be really tall, and you don't you have to be anything, because I've seen guys like Tony Romo who aren't incredible athletes in terms of their quickness and their forty times, but we're very athletic in the pocket and could buy time. Kurt Warner is another example. So with Sam being that, that's one of the biggest parts of his game, and I think it's it's the future of

the position. You know. I don't want him to lose a lot of those things that he has, which is that creativity in the pocket, and I don't think Coach

Bates and the staff does either. He's in really good hands to be able to learn that and honestly learned behind Josh mcown because I think Josh is a great time of buying time and buying space and he does that through experience in athleticism, and you know, Sam's just in such a good spot to learn all those things and to kind of foster that part of his game. You brought up Josh McCown. I was actually gonna bring that up after that, So thank you for doing that

for me. But Sam, when he was drafted, mentioned that you had actually talked to him about Josh McCown because you played together in Chicago. So how nice of a room of a situation is it for Sam to be joining a room that has someone like Josh McCown for him to pick his brain, And how important is it not only in this case, but in general, for a rookie to be able to lean on a veteran like

Josh McCown in his rookie season, it's huge. If there was a draft and you could draft you're veteran quarterback to help your high pick rookie like Josh would be my first pick in any draft. That'd be like the number one overall taken player for me in terms of picking veterans. And I played with some good ones. My brother is a phenomenal VET. Chad Henney is a great VET. He's helped borders of time. Very smart for Kansas City to bring him in there, and helped felt Patrick Mahomes.

He learned from Chad Pennington. So I got a lot of Chad Pennington stuff. Um, you know, I played with Josh McCown. My first veteran guy that I learned from was Mark Burnell. What a great VET there. You guys have probably spent some time with Mark, and so I just think it's imperative. My brother at John Kitna, Carson didn't play a snap his rookie year. John Kitna Comeback Player of the Year eight Nate. And so when you think about how important that position is. I think this

would be an interesting study. And I think and if you were to interview really good quarterbacks, current or former players, right retired guys, and you asked them name the one person who taught you the most ball, I bet you most of them would say the name of a veteran quarterback before they'd say the name of a coach. When you get a good veteran around you, you get an opportunity to learn from watching whether they want to help you or not. But when you get a good one

who does want to help you, essentially a coach. Me think about it, I had zero starts in the league and I'm training some of the future of the NFL quarterback Jorgan. What do you think of Sam's temperament. This kid is twenty years old, and he doesn't seem to be flustered or taken away by the moment per se. He looks at he's in the locker room or sixty cameras around him. He says, this is great. But with all that being said, he's not a guy who's looking

for the attention. In fact, he's embracing being around his teammates. I see natural leadership qualities in him and he's a guy who you know better than most or he wants to talk ball and he wants to be on the field. Yeah, he's all ball, you guys. You know I, guys, I don't want to describe too much of how he is and how he's going to be because I want you guys to be able to see it. But I know this, it's not going to be the big one. He's not going to get burnt out on it the way that

other guys get burned out on it. And he's not going to look for it either. He's not going to look for that attention. He's not going to make a great play and look around and see to make sure that everybody got that on the camera. He just wants to play and he has something really cool during the interview process. So I work with the guys on their interviews and with the teams um like their GM interviews

and stuff, not not on the media so much. But I had said, you know, you're gonna have to be able to tell these teams why you think you're the greatest quarterback ever. And he had a little bit of a hard time with it my first year action. I was like concern and then when I heard his answer, I was like, and it was so genuine. I'm like, this is like the best answer I've ever heard. Now, he had said, you know, I don't honestly care about

being the greatest ever. I just want to be on a team that went and just went on a run and built a dynasty. I want to be the quarterback on that team. And these are his words, like, I know how important over roll that quarterback is gonna play, but I'm not as concerned with being the greatest player ever. I want to be the quarterback on the best team ever. That was not like how does this answer sound? It

was more like apologetic, like is this a bad answer? Well, wait a second, Like because I know Sam will enough to know, like, no, that is genuine. This kid is incapable of BS And it's just absolutely what I think is gonna play out for you guys. I think that's what I think you guys are gonna at some point look and go. Man. Jordan was right. That really is his that really is his intention, which is just so cool.

How exciting is it for you to have trained Sam and have watched him over the last five or six years, the way he's developed and now he's the number three overall pick with the Jets. And then you watch another one of your protegees there and Josh Allen go number seven overall the Buffalo Bills, and maybe, hey, maybe this is going to become a big time a FCS rivalry that will be able to watch for five times fifteen years. This is absolutely going to become a big time a

FC East rivalry. We're gonna be able to watch for ten of fifteen years. Absolutely, Josh is a total stud, very different players, pretty different personalities. These guys actually became best friends. Um, you know, you always hear about these things where like the draft party afterwards, it was just Sam and Josh and I and a couple of their friends hanging out late. It was just cool, like there,

that's how they chose to do it, you know. Um, these guys are just really really tight And the fact that their first reaction after Josh got picked was like, oh my gosh, when the FC East together, we get to play each other twice a year? How cool is this? So? Um, this would be really cool. I actually I haven't really seen that before. You know, you go through these divisions and you go, all right, which of these rival quarterbacks are like really good friends, you know, curarently do that.

Everybody gets along, you know. I'm sure before the game, Eli and Carson went to say what's up and how you doing and how your kids and all that stuff, and it's great. These guys are actually tight. So their roommates for three months, but it's not just three months, it's seven three months, you know, and so it's so cool. And and they just have such a respect for each other. Josh's path was not a normal one, no offers to go all that, so Sam has so much respect for him.

And then Josh has so much respect for a guy because Sam's kind of from a small town too. They've shared and they've had lots of deep conversations that I don't even know about. It's really cool. So Josh has so much respect for Sam for different reasons that this is a really special thing. So for me to encapsulate how I feel about that, you know sentence, I don't think it's possible. And what were the followers like at the house you guys set up for for a few months. Uh?

I read a couple of stories about them playing Fortnite and also uh also quoting from movies and their personalities. Real they took off is that they got a chance to know each other more. And like you said, it's got to be awesome for you to see how much respect in the genuine likeness they have for each other. Yeah, it's it's real. It's um and they competed every day to write. I mean, they both think they're the best player in the draft, which is great. Do you want that?

I wouldn't want that any other way. It was just never an issue, was never awkward. One guy had a better day than the other guy. It was just support and then the guy who didn't have the better day would probably figure out how he was gonna beat him the next day. You know. It was just really cool. You know, I played a long time and in this last three months ters about as much fun as I've

had doing football stuff as I've ever had. About that, without giving away secrets, what makes your interaction with the young quarterbacks coming up unique? Jordan? You have that the determinous experience. You just mentioned. You didn't take a snap in the National Football League, but you played for seven eight years. Know everybody, what makes your camp unique as far as maybe the philosophy and also from a drill perspective. Well, I think it starts with I'm living in my purpose.

So my purpose is used my experiences on and off the field to help entrepreneurs maximize their opportunities on off the field. So I really only worked with the quarterbacks that I think treating their career like a business. And I have some high school kids to do that, and so I don't really do a lot of private training. Is not my full time job. I have a business unrelated. So I really like to the kids who see this as the opportunity to take that next step in their life.

And and and you don't play football forever. My brother just retired the thirty nine. It's got two year old son.

He's got a lot of LFE left. And so really positioning yourself to squeeze everything you can out of your football career, whether that means starting one game your senior year, or being the third pick in the draft, or you know Carson who's statistically like the twelfth greatest quarterback of all time, whatever your journey is, you know, I really want to use my experiences to help them maximize our opportunities.

And so it comes from that place. And then the second you know, I know as much as what it takes to be a franchise quarterback of I think anyone in the world ever who wasn't a franchise quarterback because it wasn't just my brother who was one, but I, you know, I did play, you know, a better part of eight years around some really good ones. And and I also backed my brother up for three years, and I intimately know the things that he went through more

so than most backups now. And this is my best friend. So there's just so much stuff that happens that I've been exposed to that I can share before it happens, but also can be there, you know, during the high times and the low times and uh. And so that's been something that's been really really valuable for me to help these guys on their journey and and I just enjoyed doing it a lot. Well, that's fabulous insight. We really enjoyed catching up with you, and thanks for coming

out in the pot. Thanks guys. Great talking to Jordan Palmer. I mean, tremendous insight really from someone spent three months with Sam Donald and we didn't talk about this with him, but I heard on a separate interview that when Jordan's first met Sam Donald, he called him a dead ringer

for his brother Carson Palmer. As far as what he looked like or the player, I think he just met kind of like an all encompassing kind of thing, because remember we just talked to him about it, and I think I was aware of that before, even before I asked that question. Southern California's football is big, obviously, and Jordan was familiar with Donald at fifteen, so he must have been a pretty darn good athlete at fifteen probably. I mean we've talked about this before. He played linebacker

in high school. He was a point guard. Actually, Trent Dilford, who was the first point guards average he's like you, probably because you know you like to put the ball up. The guy average more than a game. If you're a point guard, average is more than twenty a game. Are you a point guard? Is that what you're saying, Well, he's James Harden a point guard. You're like a one slash two. You're everything it No, Cheese Hard is not a point guard. Chris Paul is a point guard. Is

Ben Simmons a point guard? It's a great question. But regardless, Sam Donald played point guard I don't know what his teammates were like, so maybe he needed to score. But he's a big guy to my mom said that after I interviewed him and said, wow, he's such a big guy, and I said, well, mom, I'm not that big of a guy. Okay, well neither mi. But so so so what Jordan's said there, and I tend to agree with this,

is that he thinks the NFL is changing. He thinks the quarterbacks are going to have to make plays out of the pocket. So are we seeing as like, uh, the old hockey analogy. I used to play goalie grown up, and folks used to talk about the stand up goalie. There's no such thing as a stand up goalie anymore. Everybody pretty much in the National Hockey League is now a butterfly goaltender. So now are we gonna be talking in ten years as far as our or any true

prototypical pass remain. Do they remain or are they going to be dinosaurs? Because our guys like Donald who listen, he doesn't live out of the pocket. But the big key there is that he can win and succeed on Sundays because he doesn't need to necessarily stay in there he can make plays off script. I guess we'll find out in both Donald's case and the evolution of the NFL.

But I think that what Palmer is saying is true is that if you look at the quarterbacks coming out, I mean, Josh Rosen was the purest passer, but he wasn't the most mobile. However, there are a lot of guys that are like that anymore coming out of college. And I mean we'll see, I mean not only the quarterbacks, but you know, Charles Davis at the Common said the running back renaissance is real, and a couple of years ago we were talking about that the running backs are

no longer as important as a once were. So what we'll see, it's a constant evolution. And that's just the way the NFL go. Four quarterbacks. One of the top ten. You mentioned Rosen, and he's the guy who's most likely to try and to beat you from that pocket position. But Baker Mayfield has tremendous feet. He's gonna make the transition from Oklahoma's offense. But he's an accurate pastor. But he can buy time. We know Donald can buy time.

We know Donald can also pick up yards down the field with his feet, he's tough, he's got more of a bigger body. And he also had some interesting comments on Josh Allen. There because Josh Allen, people are like, oh, he's just an arm He's a really good athlete. You might get you might see the Bill sometimes dialing up some of r p os for Josh Allen. He's told forty Time will Tell not only the NFL but other

official Jets podcasts. That's all We got big thanks to Jordan Palmer hit us up on Twitter, Ellen Jets, Ethan Greeney Jets. That's all Ethan Greeney. Yeah, I'm changing it. Eat Greenberg though. H