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O-Zone Podcast: Judy Battista · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:08
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Ozone podcast presented by by Star Credit
0:13
Speaker 1: Junior with Jaguars senior writer John Osan. All Right, and
0:17
Speaker 1: welcome to this week's Ozone podcast presented by by Star.
0:20
Speaker 1: This week's guest, I think Jaguars fans are becoming familiar
0:25
Speaker 1: with her. She talked to us a lot over the
0:27
Speaker 1: years about Tom Coughlin. She was in town this week
0:31
Speaker 1: for the NFL Draft. Uh, somebody I've gotten to know
0:34
Speaker 1: better over the years we've known you said, they're a
0:36
Speaker 1: long time I couldn't respect anybody's knowledge of the NFL
0:41
Speaker 1: more than I respect NFL dot Com columnist, NFL media analyst,
0:46
Speaker 1: NFL media extraordinaire. I guess Judy Batista, Thank you Judy
0:50
Speaker 1: for joining us, and Uh, I guess first of all,
0:54
Speaker 1: you were in Jacksonville this last weekend. Just give me
0:57
Speaker 1: your overall impressions. We'll dig deep into a lot of
1:00
Speaker 1: the things you wrote, but tell me about your time
1:04
Speaker 1: in Jacksonville throughout the draft. What were your impressions. Well,
1:08
Speaker 1: first of all, thanks for that very nice introduction. It's
1:11
Speaker 1: great to see you again. Um. Well, my impression, first
1:15
Speaker 1: of all is how much optimism and energy there was
1:20
Speaker 1: last week you know, you really feel like something new
1:24
Speaker 1: is happening now. Certainly any team that is getting a
1:27
Speaker 1: player like Trevor Lawrence would feel that way. You'd be excited.
1:30
Speaker 1: But you just felt this sort of whole sea change
1:33
Speaker 1: around the franchise. I mean I spent a few minutes
1:37
Speaker 1: talking to the owner's shot com and I mean the
1:39
Speaker 1: word that popped into my head after talking to him
1:42
Speaker 1: was giddy. I mean, he was so excited. Um, you
1:45
Speaker 1: just really felt, you know, a lot of new energy there.
1:49
Speaker 1: There's a lot of times because you talked to a
1:51
Speaker 1: lot of people, and I know you as a reporter,
1:53
Speaker 1: when you talked a lot of people, you gain a
1:55
Speaker 1: lot of of knowledge. When you talk to him, tell
1:59
Speaker 1: me about your Russians with shod And I dig a
2:02
Speaker 1: little deeper on his giddiness. What overall is he most
2:07
Speaker 1: excited about. I think he's excited about not just Trevor
2:11
Speaker 1: Lawrence the person and not just urban Meyer the person.
2:14
Speaker 1: But he called this a transformational moment for the franchise.
2:18
Speaker 1: I think he just feels good about the direction they're
2:22
Speaker 1: going in, refreshed about um that you know, the state
2:26
Speaker 1: of the franchise and the future of the franchise. UM.
2:30
Speaker 1: He's obviously very excited about Trevor, but he the way
2:35
Speaker 1: he put it to me was he felt like he
2:37
Speaker 1: didn't just have the first overall traft pick in the draft,
2:40
Speaker 1: but he also had the first overall pick of head coaches. UM.
2:44
Speaker 1: He's not surprisingly very high on Urban Meyer and on
2:49
Speaker 1: all the things Urban wants to do, UM to sort
2:52
Speaker 1: of modernize the franchise. He you know, he was shod,
2:56
Speaker 1: was pretty candid about you know, you can have the
2:59
Speaker 1: same principle roles about winning and and competing, but you've
3:03
Speaker 1: got to have twenty first century practices. You can't have
3:07
Speaker 1: you can't think that the game is being played and
3:10
Speaker 1: that athletes are being handled the way they were in
3:12
Speaker 1: the twentieth century and expect to succeed in the twenty
3:15
Speaker 1: one century. That's just not how it goes anymore. UM.
3:18
Speaker 1: And so I think he feels quite good about the
3:21
Speaker 1: direction that Urban Meyer is going to take the franchise in.
3:24
Speaker 1: I mean, you know you know this, but I mean
3:27
Speaker 1: Urban has his hands on everything, and he's been given
3:30
Speaker 1: really carte blanche to reshape the franchise, you know, top down. UM.
3:35
Speaker 1: And I talked to Urban quite a bit about that, Like,
3:38
Speaker 1: you know, we always use the term culture change. How
3:41
Speaker 1: how do you change the culture of a franchise, UM
3:44
Speaker 1: when you can't even get on the field for five months?
3:46
Speaker 1: I mean, what do you do in the meantime? Obviously
3:48
Speaker 1: the best culture change is to win games? But what
3:51
Speaker 1: do you do in the meantime to get to that point?
3:53
Speaker 1: And so I talked to Urban for quite a while
3:55
Speaker 1: about that, and I guess the follow up, what did
3:59
Speaker 1: he say were some of the high points uh that
4:02
Speaker 1: he thinks he can get changed? Well, he really emphasized
4:05
Speaker 1: he thinks the biggest change they've already made is to
4:08
Speaker 1: sports performance. And that's really you know, like a catch
4:11
Speaker 1: all term for how you take care of players, how
4:14
Speaker 1: you treat players. He really emphasizes, like things should be
4:18
Speaker 1: you should have the best of the best for the players,
4:21
Speaker 1: Like this should be a franchise built around supporting the
4:25
Speaker 1: players and doing everything you can to maximize the players,
4:29
Speaker 1: which is not just good for the team, it's good
4:31
Speaker 1: for the players, right. And and that means everything from
4:34
Speaker 1: you know, nutrition, UH, treatment facilities, right, recovery facilities, UM.
4:41
Speaker 1: You know, personalized attention to their diets, personalized attention to
4:46
Speaker 1: their weightlifting regiment, just everything geared to getting the most
4:50
Speaker 1: out of players. And of course players like that. They
4:53
Speaker 1: want their bodies to be taken care of and that
4:55
Speaker 1: maximizes their career and obviously their earnings that go along
4:58
Speaker 1: with it. And certainly it has benefits for the team, right,
5:02
Speaker 1: I mean, if players are performing at their peak, that's
5:05
Speaker 1: that's good for the team generally. So he really has
5:08
Speaker 1: emphasized that, and he said he's been interested in that
5:11
Speaker 1: since he was a receiver's coach at Colorado State, Like
5:14
Speaker 1: he used to send his receivers to go run track
5:17
Speaker 1: on the theory that the track coaches know how to
5:19
Speaker 1: teach speed. He didn't know how to teach speed, but
5:22
Speaker 1: they knew how to teach speed. So he's always been
5:24
Speaker 1: sort of interested in that. And but he said, you know,
5:27
Speaker 1: it's hard to do it at college. They did it
5:28
Speaker 1: at Ohio State because they have obviously have big resources
5:31
Speaker 1: at Ohio State, be says, most college programs, you know,
5:34
Speaker 1: don't have those kinds of resources. Obviously NFL teams have
5:38
Speaker 1: those kinds of resources, and you should be using them, right.
5:41
Speaker 1: I Mean his feeling is, you know, the modern athlete,
5:44
Speaker 1: he as he put it, it's like a high performance
5:47
Speaker 1: sports car and you have to maintain it like a
5:50
Speaker 1: high performance sports car car, or just like a sports car,
5:54
Speaker 1: it will break down. You do not want players breaking down.
5:56
Speaker 1: And he said he was really inspired by you know,
5:59
Speaker 1: he would talked to his old players from Florida and
6:02
Speaker 1: Ohio State who would go into the NFL and then
6:04
Speaker 1: their careers would end kind of prematurely, and he would
6:07
Speaker 1: ask him, you know, what the heck happened, like, you know,
6:09
Speaker 1: I know you've got gas left in the tank. And
6:11
Speaker 1: they would tell him, you know, they don't take care
6:14
Speaker 1: of your bodies in the NFL. And so that's always
6:17
Speaker 1: been in his head that you know, you've got to
6:18
Speaker 1: take care of these guys, and he wants, you know,
6:21
Speaker 1: if guys want dry needling and acupuncture and plunge pools,
6:27
Speaker 1: then that's what they should have. That Jaguars should be
6:30
Speaker 1: supplying that. You know, you shouldn't have to go outside
6:33
Speaker 1: to find somebody to do dry needling. Why wouldn't the
6:35
Speaker 1: franchise provide that. So that was a big point of
6:38
Speaker 1: emphasis for him, and I think it's going to be
6:40
Speaker 1: a huge point of emphasis going forward for the franchise.
6:42
Speaker 1: And you obviously cover the entire league half for years.
6:45
Speaker 1: It sounds like you locked onto that as something that's
6:48
Speaker 1: a little different. Not every coach, not every team you
6:51
Speaker 1: talked to, takes it to this extreme. Yeah, I think
6:54
Speaker 1: I think you're seeing more and more teams do it
6:57
Speaker 1: because I think, um, I think as to get the
7:00
Speaker 1: next generation of coaches, they recognize that this is, you know,
7:04
Speaker 1: this is the way you've got to take care of
7:05
Speaker 1: professional athletes. I mean, it does you know, good to
7:09
Speaker 1: have guys you know with hamstring polls all the time.
7:12
Speaker 1: That's just useless for everybody. It's not good for the player,
7:14
Speaker 1: and it's it's certainly not good for the team's performance. Um.
7:17
Speaker 1: So I think it's becoming more widespreaded. But look, I mean,
7:22
Speaker 1: let's be honest, franchises. We all think of the NFL
7:25
Speaker 1: as one entity, but it's not. It's thirty two entities,
7:28
Speaker 1: and so they're all run a little bit differently, and
7:30
Speaker 1: they all commit their resources a little bit differently, and
7:33
Speaker 1: some teams are more all in on facilities, um than others.
7:38
Speaker 1: And I think it's probably good. You know, it's good
7:41
Speaker 1: news for the Jaguars. Um he wants to build a
7:44
Speaker 1: you know, a football facility that that will be more
7:47
Speaker 1: state of the art than what you have right now.
7:49
Speaker 1: And and I think that's that's good for everybody. Had
7:53
Speaker 1: you ever dealt with Urban before? Was the first time
7:55
Speaker 1: he never believe it or not never. This was the
7:57
Speaker 1: first time I'd ever met him. We have all been
8:00
Speaker 1: struck by how candid he's been and how forthcoming he's been.
8:05
Speaker 1: I guess it's not particularly surprising when somebody nationally comes in.
8:10
Speaker 1: Coaches often talk to you guys in more detail than
8:13
Speaker 1: they do locally sometimes, But overall, were you struck by
8:18
Speaker 1: his candidness and just he's willing to sort of share
8:21
Speaker 1: what's going on. Yeah, I've actually been struck by I've
8:25
Speaker 1: communicated that with Amy Palsick from PR. I've been struck
8:29
Speaker 1: by his candidness really the entire offseason, because he's often
8:32
Speaker 1: said things like, you know, he doesn't understand or he
8:35
Speaker 1: didn't understand the salary cap and roster management in the
8:39
Speaker 1: NFL and he had to study that, right, I mean,
8:41
Speaker 1: he literally has never had to deal with that. UM
8:44
Speaker 1: And and I you know, I've been struck by his
8:47
Speaker 1: willingness to admit that he doesn't what he doesn't know. UM.
8:51
Speaker 1: And then I was laughing. Remember after free agency when
8:54
Speaker 1: he was complaining about like, you know, they couldn't beat
8:56
Speaker 1: with the guys, like we're signing people we've never met.
8:59
Speaker 1: Like I thought that was it was hilarious, but it
9:02
Speaker 1: was accurate. And so yeah, I think he's he's been
9:06
Speaker 1: quite candid, um And certainly, and when I had conversations
9:09
Speaker 1: with him and I was down there, he was you know,
9:11
Speaker 1: he was pretty open about like what he doesn't know. Um,
9:15
Speaker 1: He's obviously got a great deal of confidence born of
9:18
Speaker 1: his success at the college level. You know, he feels
9:22
Speaker 1: very strongly about his recruiting efforts and how they were
9:25
Speaker 1: able to identify players, and he really feels like, you know,
9:29
Speaker 1: his job is to maximize players, to get the best
9:32
Speaker 1: out of people. Um. But you know, he he There's
9:36
Speaker 1: one comment which I put in the story and that
9:38
Speaker 1: he said to me is like, you know, he gets
9:40
Speaker 1: a lot of people saying like, oh, welcome to big
9:42
Speaker 1: boy football, and he's like, yeah, I get it. Like
9:45
Speaker 1: I know it's hard, I get it. Um. But I
9:49
Speaker 1: asked him about, like, you know, look that the NFL
9:52
Speaker 1: is sort of littered with college coaches who made the
9:54
Speaker 1: jump to the NFL and did not succeed, right, I
9:57
Speaker 1: mean even the best you know, Nick Saban struggled in NFL.
10:00
Speaker 1: And you know, why, why do you think you're going
10:02
Speaker 1: to be different? And he shot back and said, well,
10:05
Speaker 1: you know a lot of NFL coaches don't succeed in
10:07
Speaker 1: the NFL too, So it's you know, he's um, he's
10:11
Speaker 1: very confident, but I think he's been quite open about like,
10:14
Speaker 1: you know, he knows what he doesn't know. I've always
10:17
Speaker 1: thought when somebody is willing to say what they don't know,
10:20
Speaker 1: it expressed as a confidence. You know, it doesn't bother
10:24
Speaker 1: them to say I've got to learn a lot of
10:27
Speaker 1: coaches wouldn't say that. They don't have the confidence say
10:29
Speaker 1: I don't know this. When he's saying that he's going
10:32
Speaker 1: to learn it, he absolutely believe he's going to learn
10:34
Speaker 1: it and do well at it once he learns it,
10:36
Speaker 1: so he has no problem saying it. So, uh, it's
10:39
Speaker 1: been fascinating to watch. Tell me about your impressions on Friday.
10:44
Speaker 1: I assume that was your first time being around Trevor Lawrence. Yeah,
10:48
Speaker 1: I was really impressed. This is just a snapshot of um.
10:53
Speaker 1: You know, when they pulled up in the suv and
10:55
Speaker 1: shot kom you know, opens the door and embraces him.
10:58
Speaker 1: And you know, there was that asked full of third
11:00
Speaker 1: graders there with signs and chanting his name and everything.
11:03
Speaker 1: And he went right over to the kids and talked
11:06
Speaker 1: to them right there was He wasn't talking to the adults.
11:09
Speaker 1: He waded right in there and sorted his wife, and
11:11
Speaker 1: he was answering questions. And they asked him about his
11:14
Speaker 1: hair and how many games are you gonna win? And
11:17
Speaker 1: he handled that all so well and so um maturely
11:23
Speaker 1: and gracefully. And I was really struck by that because
11:26
Speaker 1: you know, I know, earlier in the week, like urban
11:28
Speaker 1: had said, they don't want to put too much on
11:31
Speaker 1: his plate. I mean, obviously, when you are the franchise
11:33
Speaker 1: quarterback of a team that has been searching for a
11:35
Speaker 1: franchise quarterback for years and years and years, you know,
11:39
Speaker 1: the the instinct of everybody is, you know, you want
11:42
Speaker 1: a piece of them, right Like I'm sure the season
11:44
Speaker 1: ticket the people who are selling season tickets would love
11:47
Speaker 1: to be in contact with Trouble Lawrence, and urban Meyer
11:50
Speaker 1: said something about, like his job is not to be
11:52
Speaker 1: on billboards and selling season tickets like his job. He's
11:55
Speaker 1: got to get in there and meet his teammates and
11:57
Speaker 1: learn the playbook and get to work on football stuff,
12:00
Speaker 1: and you don't want to overload him. But my impression
12:04
Speaker 1: just from that day was like, you know, I think
12:06
Speaker 1: this kid can handle it, Like I don't think it's
12:09
Speaker 1: going to be too big for him, and I'd be
12:11
Speaker 1: surprised if he gets overwhelmed by You know what it
12:14
Speaker 1: means to be the franchise quarterback. You've been around obviously
12:18
Speaker 1: a lot of franchise quarterbacks or I'm sure over the
12:21
Speaker 1: years interviewed most of the franchise quarterbacks they've been they've
12:25
Speaker 1: been in the league. I was around Payton for ten years. Uh.
12:28
Speaker 1: I don't draw too many comparisons to Peyton, but there
12:30
Speaker 1: is something about Trevor the way Peyton came into the
12:33
Speaker 1: league so prepared and so sort of over his feet,
12:37
Speaker 1: if you will, like he knew what to expect. There's
12:41
Speaker 1: a little bit of an element there. Um. Is there
12:45
Speaker 1: anybody else that Trevor sort of reminds you of in
12:48
Speaker 1: terms of boy, this kid really seems like he's been
12:52
Speaker 1: groomed for this since day one. I don't want to
12:55
Speaker 1: say groomed that it fills with some of them like
12:57
Speaker 1: they're put on this earth to be in this situation
13:01
Speaker 1: there is. Peyton is obviously the best example because he
13:04
Speaker 1: was groomed for it, but you know, Andrew luck had
13:07
Speaker 1: that quality too. He was not you know, he really
13:10
Speaker 1: felt like he could handle anything and was not going
13:12
Speaker 1: to be overwhelmed. Certainly Drew Brees, who was not the
13:16
Speaker 1: first overall draft pick, but I mean again, just sort
13:18
Speaker 1: of had that bearing in that presence around people. Um
13:22
Speaker 1: that reminds you, you know, of of Trevor. I you know, again,
13:27
Speaker 1: I think the instinct is everybody's gonna want a piece
13:30
Speaker 1: of him, and I think the Jaguars are gonna I
13:33
Speaker 1: think they recognize that and that they know that they
13:35
Speaker 1: sort of were going to have to protect him a
13:37
Speaker 1: little bit from all of that. But whenever all of
13:40
Speaker 1: that comes, I think he'll be able to handle it.
13:44
Speaker 1: And partly because let's face it, we've all been waiting
13:47
Speaker 1: in the NFL for Trevor Lawrence for three years. I
13:49
Speaker 1: mean it was clear right his first year in school
13:54
Speaker 1: that this guy is the guy and he's going to
13:57
Speaker 1: be the I mean, unless something catastrophic happened, he was
13:59
Speaker 1: going to be the number one pick. So it's been
14:02
Speaker 1: you know, it's been three years of him at a
14:03
Speaker 1: very high profile program that got a lot of national
14:07
Speaker 1: at tension, that plays a lot of big games. But
14:10
Speaker 1: you know, we've all known, and he's known, and his
14:13
Speaker 1: coaches have known that they had to get him ready.
14:16
Speaker 1: So I think that probably has served him well. He's
14:18
Speaker 1: not a super nova like you know, like Zach Wilson,
14:22
Speaker 1: who the Jets took second. He's not that who all
14:25
Speaker 1: of a sudden just rocketed up, you know, in his
14:28
Speaker 1: final year in school. I mean, Trevor Lawrence has been
14:31
Speaker 1: getting ready for this for a few years. In terms
14:34
Speaker 1: of that, I'm not sure there's a comparison that I
14:36
Speaker 1: remember other than Peyton in terms of for years every
14:41
Speaker 1: new patents gonna be one or two. I would make
14:43
Speaker 1: the argument that term might be the biggest star to
14:46
Speaker 1: enter the league in terms of everybody knowing him from
14:49
Speaker 1: college since Peyton. I'm not sure. Even Luck, I don't
14:54
Speaker 1: know that he was as big a star. Every everybody,
14:56
Speaker 1: all of us knew he was going to be good
14:58
Speaker 1: people who followed the NFL, but playing at Stanford, he
15:02
Speaker 1: wasn't quite a star the way this kid is it's
15:05
Speaker 1: a fascinating case study to watch and the fact that
15:08
Speaker 1: he came to this market, came to this town. Uh,
15:11
Speaker 1: it's it's an amazing thing to watch and see what
15:14
Speaker 1: the effect will be in your experience. And this is
15:18
Speaker 1: sort of an obvious question, but the franchise guy, Um,
15:23
Speaker 1: what are the successful teams meaning the teams that have
15:26
Speaker 1: a franchise guy, what do they do right around him?
15:31
Speaker 1: Does that make sense? What's the key to making that work?
15:35
Speaker 1: Because he's important, but there has to be other things
15:37
Speaker 1: as well well. Number one is they do everything around him, right,
15:41
Speaker 1: I mean, the whole franchisees is geared around him to
15:46
Speaker 1: making him successful. Um. And and that's why again Urban
15:50
Speaker 1: said something last week one of the post one of
15:53
Speaker 1: the press conferences at the end of the day said like,
15:55
Speaker 1: you know, over the last few weeks, they've been thinking,
15:57
Speaker 1: how do you get a guy successful? And that's how
16:00
Speaker 1: they have to think in every part of the franchise, Right,
16:03
Speaker 1: what do you have to do to give this guy
16:05
Speaker 1: the best chance of success? Right? What do you have
16:08
Speaker 1: to put around him? Because listen, I live and work
16:12
Speaker 1: in New York, and I mean I've seen this happen
16:15
Speaker 1: with the Jets and even the Giants recently, where they
16:18
Speaker 1: may have had a guy that they felt really good about,
16:21
Speaker 1: a quarterback, but they didn't have anything around him. Now
16:24
Speaker 1: the Giants have rectified that this offseason. They have put
16:27
Speaker 1: a lot around Daniel Jones, which is good, but they
16:29
Speaker 1: had nothing around him. Who knows what Daniel like? How
16:34
Speaker 1: can you even tell what he is? And that's that's
16:37
Speaker 1: what happened at Sam Donald unfortunately, right I mean, they
16:39
Speaker 1: had him and they felt really great about him, they
16:42
Speaker 1: had nothing around him, and so you know, he has
16:45
Speaker 1: no chance to succeed. The best quarterback in the world
16:47
Speaker 1: can't succeed if there's no offensive line, if there's no weapons,
16:51
Speaker 1: if the defense is so terrible that you gotta score
16:53
Speaker 1: fifty points a game like it's a team, and you've
16:57
Speaker 1: got to put pieces around him, and so I you
17:00
Speaker 1: know the fact that they're already thinking about, like what
17:02
Speaker 1: do you do to make him comfortable? What do you
17:04
Speaker 1: do to give him the best chance of success right away?
17:06
Speaker 1: Which is why I thought drafting Travis was fine. I
17:09
Speaker 1: know everybody said, like, well wait a minute, they don't
17:11
Speaker 1: need you know, running back was one of the few
17:13
Speaker 1: things that there's not a hole at I get that,
17:16
Speaker 1: but you know, he's a slash, he can catch the
17:19
Speaker 1: ball and there's a familiarity there. And the idea is
17:22
Speaker 1: to do everything you can to make Trevor Lawrence comfortable
17:27
Speaker 1: right out of the gate and to give him the
17:29
Speaker 1: best chance of success right out of the gate, which
17:30
Speaker 1: is why trying to find a pass catching tight end
17:33
Speaker 1: is still important. Right. Three final questions, what's the league
17:39
Speaker 1: go look like next year? Duty It was a weird
17:42
Speaker 1: league this year, even though they get the games in.
17:44
Speaker 1: You know, I know it's a broad question, but is
17:48
Speaker 1: it going to feel back to normal? How do you
17:50
Speaker 1: see this playing out? Or do you know yet? I
17:53
Speaker 1: think it's going to be a lot closer to normal. UM. Certainly,
17:56
Speaker 1: they want to get fans back in the stadiums as
18:00
Speaker 1: many as they possibly can safely for for many reasons.
18:03
Speaker 1: Revenue is obviously a big one, but I think everybody
18:07
Speaker 1: admits that even though they played the game's last year
18:09
Speaker 1: on schedule, which was an incredible fee that they got
18:12
Speaker 1: the schedule in. UM, but you know, something was missing
18:15
Speaker 1: without fans, without packed stadiums, So I think they want
18:19
Speaker 1: to do that. A lot of that, frankly, is on
18:21
Speaker 1: all of us like get vaccinated. That is a big
18:24
Speaker 1: component of this, like for people to get you know,
18:28
Speaker 1: that's going to be up to local officials to say
18:30
Speaker 1: you can have full stadiums. And a big part of
18:33
Speaker 1: that is they need to see the uh, the vaccination
18:37
Speaker 1: rate go up and the you know, infection rate go down.
18:40
Speaker 1: So it's really important. Um, they've got four months to
18:44
Speaker 1: get there. Um, so I think it will look much
18:47
Speaker 1: more like a normal season. I don't know if you
18:50
Speaker 1: know in September, if every stadium will be allowed to
18:52
Speaker 1: be at capacity, who knows, but you know it's going
18:56
Speaker 1: to get much much closer than anything we saw last year.
18:59
Speaker 1: Aside from that, I would like to ask you about
19:01
Speaker 1: league issues, because you follow it and you always express
19:04
Speaker 1: them very well. What story or stories or trans interest
19:08
Speaker 1: you the most right now in the league? What fascinates you? Well,
19:11
Speaker 1: I'm interested to see the impact of the seventeenth regular
19:14
Speaker 1: season game. I'm sort of curious to see how teams
19:17
Speaker 1: manage that, how players manage it. It's you know, they're
19:21
Speaker 1: getting rid of a preseason game. But um, you know
19:25
Speaker 1: you've seen some coaches do they do they try to
19:27
Speaker 1: give guys more rest so that you know, maybe save
19:31
Speaker 1: a few snaps here and there so that they're not
19:33
Speaker 1: um enduring, you know, more wear and tear by the
19:37
Speaker 1: time you get to that seventeenth regular season game. So
19:39
Speaker 1: I'm curious sort of big picture how that looks um
19:44
Speaker 1: and and if it changes anything at all or if
19:46
Speaker 1: everybody just adapts to it and it's fine. I'm I'm
19:50
Speaker 1: interested to see right now in the off season, if
19:52
Speaker 1: players don't go to O T A s Um. You know,
19:56
Speaker 1: that's a I know this is the off season and
19:58
Speaker 1: so fans are not really paying attention, but it's kind
20:00
Speaker 1: of an interesting thing. Um, if if players stay away,
20:05
Speaker 1: especially at places like Jacksonville, which has an entirely new
20:09
Speaker 1: coach and you know, in a rookie quarterback, Like, are
20:12
Speaker 1: people really going to stay away from O T A
20:14
Speaker 1: s Um? And what does that mean? Like if players
20:16
Speaker 1: don't go to OTAs this year, do we just say
20:18
Speaker 1: goodbye to O T s forever? Like are they ever
20:21
Speaker 1: coming back? Um? You know that that's that's what Last
20:25
Speaker 1: year was such a weird season and so much flexibility
20:30
Speaker 1: was required that I I'm looking to see, like did
20:32
Speaker 1: we just go back to what football was? Like, you know,
20:35
Speaker 1: is everything going to snap back to normal this year. Yeah,
20:38
Speaker 1: it feels like it can't. I mean, I I in
20:41
Speaker 1: the long run, I'm with you. The O T A
20:44
Speaker 1: question fascinates me because, you know, it just feels like
20:49
Speaker 1: not every player should be not near the game until August,
20:56
Speaker 1: you know, and not every situation is that okay. I
20:59
Speaker 1: think there are some situations where it is okay. When
21:01
Speaker 1: I was with the Colts, for example, when they had
21:03
Speaker 1: it going except for Peyton being there in O T S.
21:06
Speaker 1: I was thinking, these guys really getting that much out
21:09
Speaker 1: of it. But that was a high functioning They've been
21:12
Speaker 1: around it for six or seven years. For teams that haven't,
21:15
Speaker 1: it's hard to make an argument you don't gain something
21:17
Speaker 1: from being here in May and jail. I'm not I'm
21:20
Speaker 1: just not sure where the line is. I'm not sure
21:21
Speaker 1: how to solved. Yeah, I look, I think I agree
21:25
Speaker 1: with you. I think a lot of veteran players don't
21:27
Speaker 1: need to be there. You know, at most teams like
21:30
Speaker 1: I don't know that they're really getting much out of it.
21:33
Speaker 1: But um, look at you know, the Giants had a
21:36
Speaker 1: new head coach last year and because of the pandemic,
21:39
Speaker 1: because there were no O T A S like he
21:41
Speaker 1: literally met his players for the first time when camp opened, Right,
21:45
Speaker 1: I mean that's hard, right, Like I'm not sure Vince
21:48
Speaker 1: Lombardi couldn't succeed under those conditions, So that's hard. You
21:53
Speaker 1: can't get together, you know. I know that quarterbacks Tom
21:56
Speaker 1: Brady will get his guys together and they'll go to
21:59
Speaker 1: a high school and throw And I suspect, you know,
22:01
Speaker 1: if there's no O T A s the trebor Lawrence
22:03
Speaker 1: will probably do the same thing. Like that's what franchise
22:05
Speaker 1: quarterbacks do. Final question, how long does this take in Jacksonville? Well,
22:09
Speaker 1: I think they'll be improved this year. I you know,
22:11
Speaker 1: I don't think there are a one win team anymore.
22:13
Speaker 1: They've got much more talent um and I you know,
22:16
Speaker 1: and I think the coaching will be top notch. Um,
22:20
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's there's there's the opportunity for
22:23
Speaker 1: a fairly quick turnaround when you have as much draft
22:26
Speaker 1: capital as they had and as much salary cap to
22:29
Speaker 1: use as they had. I think there's a chance for
22:32
Speaker 1: a fairly good turnaround. And because of the flux in
22:36
Speaker 1: the division. Um, you know, we have no idea what
22:39
Speaker 1: the Houston Texans are going to be let's be honest. Um,
22:42
Speaker 1: the Cults are a very good team, but they have
22:44
Speaker 1: a new starting quarterback again. Um. And the Tennessee Titans, UM,
22:49
Speaker 1: you know, fell off a little bit last year, so
22:50
Speaker 1: because of the flux, there's there's room to maneuver there.
22:53
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean I think the Jaguars are going to
22:55
Speaker 1: win the division this year. You know that's probably too soon, um,
22:59
Speaker 1: but you know, there's just enough uncertainty in that division
23:02
Speaker 1: that you could imagine them, you know, having a pretty
23:05
Speaker 1: quick bounce back, and maybe it takes only you know,
23:08
Speaker 1: two years or so too to get in there. I
23:11
Speaker 1: could talk football with gdpt so all day. It's always fascinating.
23:14
Speaker 1: I won't force her to do that because I'm not
23:16
Speaker 1: as interesting as she is. But Judy as always thank
23:20
Speaker 1: you for join us on Jaguars dot com. My fans
23:22
Speaker 1: always enjoy here here in front of you. I look
23:24
Speaker 1: forward to seeing you down the road very soon. I
23:27
Speaker 1: absolutely enjoyed it, and I hope to see a training
23:29
Speaker 1: camp