Latest / Bussin' With The Boys / Best of the Bus: Ran Carthon Talks Firing Mike Vrabel, Cutting Taylor Lewan

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Best of the Bus: Ran Carthon Talks Firing Mike Vrabel, Cutting Taylor Lewan · Bussin' With The Boys

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What we are rolling now.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: Thank you Mitch.
• 0:01
  Speaker 3: We finally got late, We got ladies, gonna got d Yeah.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: And I did say to JP's camera it took a
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: little hunting, It took a little.
• 0:11
  Speaker 4: Text let's not do that's that's not Can I tell you?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Can I tell you from my from okay with them?
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: So when did you you got the job? What?
• 0:22
  Speaker 5: In January January of twenty three January twenty three seventeen,
• 0:27
  Speaker 5: being outside of Rabel's office sitting with Stretch and you
• 0:31
  Speaker 5: came in and the way the last GM was it
• 0:34
  Speaker 5: was like you gotta be a little tighter around it.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: And you came in, dap me up, Hey love the show.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: First thing you said to me, I'm thinking we got them?
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, to come on. I love to come
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: on sometime.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Next time I saw you, you're releasing me, which we
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: all knew was gonna happening to that story, that story.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: You guys released me.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: And I think like forty eight hours later I hit
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: you with the text like, hey, you want to come
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: on busting with the boys? Nothing right, Yeah, But finally
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: it's been a year and it's it's awesome that you've
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: come on now instead of then because what you have
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: been able to acquire and do in this past offseason
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: has been awesome. So it's exciting to see it better
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to have.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: You on the And the only friction, the only like
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: part that was like, okay, chill out. He came up
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: to us in the facility when you're gonna have me
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: on been waiting on y'all.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: And as we're saying this, I literally said, in a
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: year later, it's been like five months, So I'll mess
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: that up.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about Let's start off, let's talk about the
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: you cutting him.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, let's go. So so the day that you know
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: we were doing it, you know, we meet in Frames's
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: office and we come in and we're just chatting and
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: just just talking, literally having a conversation that kind of
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: goes into I got a composer pause and so I
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: you know, we're just sitting there having a conversation and
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: I can't even remember what the topic of the conversation was.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: And then just him, Okay, so you're releasing me. Transition,
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: no segue, no nothing, just all right, So you're releasing me.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: And then I'm like, uh, yeah, I mean I think
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: you kind of knew it was coming, you know, and
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: that's how the conversation.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: When we got back after Mexico, right, yeah, because I
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: was in Cabo and Vrabel shout out ravees in this
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: because a lot of guys don't get to choose when
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: they get released. Because we all knew, like the minute
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I had to get my knee done again two out
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: of three years, like you're here getting canned, brother, You're
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: not going to be making that kind of money and
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: not playing on the field. So he calls me and
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: he's like, hey, we obviously have to release you. You
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: let us know when the best thing for you is.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I was like, all right, these dates work, and he's like,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: can you do it before the combine? I was like, yeah, absolutely,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: these days now work. So when I went in, I
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: had like I kind of came in. We all knew,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: and Rave and I were sitting there talking about Jen
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: and their skiing and it's kind of cool. It's like
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: it's like a nice last meal before a gun gets
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: put through your head, right, and yeah, you sit down.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: We haven't really talked at all the last thing I said,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: and in my head, I was like, we just got
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: to get this going because I know it's kind of
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: awkward for everybody you're new, Like you and I hardly
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: know each other. Ray and I've been here for five years.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: We all understand what's about to happen here.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: So it's like I say, this the tough part for
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: me obviously coming into this role, you know, this new
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: role and being from Afar and you know, having respect
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: for this team and having respect for certain guys, like
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: having to release you and like dang, like I remember
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: this dude coming out of Michigan. I had him rated high,
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: liked him coming out and watching them become a Pro
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: Bowl player, and even guys like Robert Woods. You know,
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: I've missed him at every one of my stops. So
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: I was at the Rams when we signed him and
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: then leave a month later, so never got to see
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: him on the field. I even have Robert Woods in
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: my GM presentation about players that we've I've been a
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: part of acquiring, you know, the different Pro Bowl caliber players,
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: but I always have him in there as an example
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: of a person that's going to come in and change
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: the culture, you know, of the building. And then I
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: get here and have to release him, you know. And
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: so I finally met Robert Woods when we played at
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: Houston last year and just kind of walked up to
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: him like, hey, man, like a ton of respect for you.
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: I met everything I told you on the phone when
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: we talked that day, Like, have nothing but respect for you.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: It's just part of the way this thing works.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: Is it hard? Like, yeah, I know it's hard, but
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: you come in and it's like he's highly graded, you
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: know who he is, He's had his career, and on
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: that last year, it's like it's the getback year. Like
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: it finally it's like you got to put everything on
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: and then that first player, second play, a buffalo happens. Yeah,
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: And in your mind as a GM, are you basically
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: was it fairly simple at that point, like, hey, this
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: is going to be a guy we're going to have
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: to release due to money and everything else.
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the the strategy of it is simple. But you know,
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: and I think you and I share this and being
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: undrafted guys. And I don't know about you, but I've
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: been cut a multitude of ways, you know, some good,
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: some inhumane. Uh, I won't say the team is two one.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: I knew I was getting cut. You had to be
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: cut down coming. I think it'll be pretty easy to
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: figure it out.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: But you had three years.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: So we're playing a preseason game. We're playing in a
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: place where my wife and my daughter are living. And
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: so when I come back, when I come on the
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: team flight, I bring all my stuff home and so
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: I go to the team after the game. I barely play.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: I hadn't doesn't get any practice reps. So I say, hey,
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: I know what's coming tomorrow. Can I just stay, Like,
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: we can do the cut right now. I'll sign whatever
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: you need to sign. I'm healthy, that's nothing wrong with me.
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: It's just more convenient for me to just leave with
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: my wife and my daughter and go home. I live
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: fifteen minutes from here. Oh, we don't know what we're doing.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: And I'm like come on, man, Like I was like,
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: cause if I go back, I'm only bringing what I
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: have on my body and my wallet. I'm not taking anything.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: And players are in tune with like, well.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and so they, oh, man, we don't know fly back.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: First person they called next morning is me, and I'm like,
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: so I go in the building. I already knew that
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: there was like an eleven o five flight leaving, So
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: I was like, hey, look, can you just book me
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: on the eleven oh five like, no harm, no, file like,
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: I don't need to meet with anybody, Like I'm good,
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: I just just want to go home. And well, you
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: know you need to meet Nah. No, I don't like,
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: do meet each coach? Yeah? Yeah, And I get the
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: reason why you do that, but at that point I
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: was like sure. And then the other one, my my
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: wife and my daughter are actually getting ready to move
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: back home to Miami and we're doing a going away
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: deal at my daughter school. I'm passing cupcakes out to
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: the kids on a Tuesday and get the call in
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: the middle of passing cupcakes out and I got it.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: I look at the phone and I look at her,
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: and she's like, now, because we I mean, we went
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: through it. So I say all that to say, like,
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: when it's time to cut people like you try to
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: do it the most tactful and most professional and humane way,
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: just because I've been through it, and you know, you
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: try to be honest. You know, you try to be honest,
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: you try to be up front, and you know, I've
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: had it to where there have been guys that you know,
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: I didn't particularly see as an NFL player, So you
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: try to have that conversation doesn't always go well, you know,
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: but you try to be cause I see it a
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: lot these guys. You know, you're you don't know what
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: to tell these guys. So sometimes it's hey, man, you're
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: going to play a long time in this league. You know,
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: this is just something we gotta do. And now this
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: team is numbers game, and now this guy's still training
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: looking for opportunity three, four years, five years. When if
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: you were honest and said, hey, look man, like this
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: game is probably not for you at this level. You know,
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: you got a college degree. You might want to start
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: exploring these things, you know, having that conversation at least
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: get that in their mind. Like I knew personally, I said,
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: if if I got to the point where my number
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: of teams outweighed my years of service, it's time to
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: do something different. And I got there quick. Five teams
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: in three years.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: It's time to go five teams in three years.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: When you're who's a answer?
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: Answer?
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: I put it on What's up, Bubba? I got you
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: on the.
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: Jelly roll?
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: What's up, Bob? How could I help you? No, we're
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: getting after brother, we gotta bank these things getting ready
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: for June.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: We need you.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: I'm prime.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: You really are you really are having that contract to
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: you right now.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: It's going nuts. I'm so happy for you.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: I'll call you after this, right, I love you to
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: see you were just talking about him. But when you're
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: when you're cutting guys, do you find it harder to
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: cut rookies or cut vets.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: It's probably hard to cut vets. Sometimes they see it coming,
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: sometimes they don't. So that's the that's the hard part.
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: And vets you generally have a longer conversation, you know
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: what I mean, especially you know, guys like yourself, who's astute,
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: and you want to know the why. You know why, Hey,
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: look I thought I was playing better than you know,
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: this guy and this guy. So you have to have
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: those conversations most of the times with the rookies. The
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: hard part with them is you see the emotion, you
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: know what I mean, because you got to think about it.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: Most of these dudes, this is the first time they've
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: ever been told they weren't good enough, right, you know,
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: and so you're the first person to ever tell them that.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: You have to have that conversation. I mean, you live
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: through the emotion with them, and so you know, I'm
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: not that brutal of a human you see the emotion
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: of a of another man. It kind of kind of
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: gets to you a little bit. But then it's you know,
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: it's it's it becomes one of those things like I say,
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: if I ever get to the point where it doesn't
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: affect me, you know, to cut somebody's probably time for
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: me to look for something else to do.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: What's been your stickiest situation cutting a player or maybe
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: you're fumbling over your words. Oh shit, this is not
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: going like I thought.
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: No, I've I've had a situation where you try to
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: have that real conversation with a player like hey, man,
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: like you know, it's probably time to transition, you know,
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: and look for something else to do. I don't know
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: what you're interested in, you know, by all means like
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: let us help you, you know, connect you with the
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: player engagement guy. We can help you figure this out.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: And what are you saying. I'm like, well, I don't
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: think that you're an NFL player, you know what I mean.
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: And you try to have that conversation and then it,
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: you know, it gets gets a little hostile. You kind
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: of feel that heat. And I mean, I'm not losing
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: at home, you know, like you're my office one of
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: us is coming out. It's gonna always be. I don't
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: have the win to sit there and box with you. Yeah,
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: I'm so, I'm not doing that. So I have stuff
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: strategically placed if I need to grab and defend myself.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: If you felt like attention there, no, I have.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: Like when I was much younger, I felt I felt
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: the tension, you know before, and it's like, oh man,
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: this could be to day, you know, and it's never
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: it's never got to that point. But then I also
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: have to think about it. Sometimes it's like you're essentially
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: fired somebody, and so if that person wants to be
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: upset and express it like, it's probably best to just
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: deal with it, you know what I mean, and just
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: let that person have the emotion because it is their
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: right to be upset, you know what I'm saying. So
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: I just uh, most of the times you have to
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: sit back and just like hey, man, like I understand,
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: I got you. You know.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: It's so interesting you say it's like it's harder to
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: cut vets, and I get that for like the relationship standpoint,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: But every vet I've been around that's like above five years,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: they always kind of see the right you're in the
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: game long enough to realize, okay, when it's about to happen.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Every single training camp, there is always at least one guy,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: one rookie that you just there. You can see there
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the ignorance of they've been in high school, and in
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: high school say next year will get them, next year
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: will get them. There's never a cut college. Hey, I'm
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: going to grow and develop and next year I'll be
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: a starter. That type of thing, and they just think
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I'll get them next year if I'm not a starter
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: this year, and then all of a sudden they come
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: in the locker room and they're just balling their eyes out.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: I feel it's got it for me.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: It's just from the outside watching it seemed like the
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: rookies always just took it the hardest over the vets.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's the that's the emotion that you have
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: to deal with. And one of the things I've always courage,
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: even when I was just a pro scout. When I
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: was a pro scout, my job was going to get them,
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: you know. So I was the reaper or whatever they
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: call them, the turn. But what I always tried to
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: do was I always tried to do it. And because
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: again I've been cut every which way, and so if
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: I especially a VET, I would never follow behind the vet.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: I would catch the vet one on one. Hey, look,
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: you need to come up and see coach. You go
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: see coach, and then I just tell them because now
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: I have to walk you around through the exit process,
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: and I'm like, hey, look, to help you avoid the
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: questions from your teammates, we're gonna go from here. You're
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: gonna go to medical, from medical to equipment and then
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: I'll be loosely by you without anybody suspecting me around.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: So I would just blend in, you gotta go see medical,
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: as why are you meeting with the trainers. I'm over
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: here joking with this guy, talking to this guy, make
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: eye contact with the trainer like hey, are we good?
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: And then when they leave go to the equipment room.
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: I kind of loosely follow behind, so when I was
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: doing it, you would never know that I'm following this dude. Yeah,
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean. And so when I got
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: in a position to have other people do it, I
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: would say, hey, like give them the respect, don't try
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: to walk behind them with the paper and like, no,
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: you need to go, like give them the respect. Because
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: the last thing you want is for the walk through
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: that locker room, and everybody's like, damn, you got cut everybody.
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: That's the last Yeah, that's the last thing you want.
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: So I always try to do it with respect.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Is that like I think you've acquired over time, or
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the first time you knew you were gonna have to
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: be the grim Reaper, you were like, I have to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: be as respectful as possible.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: Well, the first time, I'll never forget the first person
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: I cut. It was the day they're saying I have
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: to get this guy. He decides to do extra. No
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: he didn't. He didn't play after that, and so he's
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: doing extra on the field. It's ota and I'm like
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: waiting and I'm trying to catch him, you know, catch
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: him one on one. So he huddles up with a
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: group of vets and he's walking. I'm on a time limit, right,
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: because they were like, we need to have him up
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: here about twelve fifteen. It's like twelve oh five, and
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: I'm like, and I'm trying to make eye contact with
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: him as he's walking with the vets and he's not
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: making an.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Eye counts knows he of course he knows.
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: I don't know, he's.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: Like your money as a player, Like, what do you
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: think is gonna happen?
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: Like you're.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he'll just be on the week one roster.
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: So then I had to like, hey, uh, let me
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: holl at you for a second. And he comes up
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: and say, hey, man, like we need to go up
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: and see coach right now. So we go up, We
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: do the whole thing. I still give him the respect
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: or whatever. That weekend, I decide, you know, hey man,
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna I'm gonna hang out this weekend. Can't make
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: this up. I get to the bar. I go to
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: the bar, I order a drink. I look up and
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: he's at the corner of the bar and I was like, nah,
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: I cancel that drink. I was like, I'm good. I
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: need to keep him in view. I don't know if
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: he thinks it's me, yeah, you know what I mean.
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: And I ended up being there for like twenty minutes.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: I was like, I gotta go, I gotta get out
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: of here.
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: And I just remember me and him locking eyes and
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: I was like.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, safety. I feel like a vet would be
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: harder too, because like rookies, you'll cut him or whatever.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: They'll probably be more emotional because it is their first
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: time kind of being told no. And not only that,
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: but everyone ever rookie, like everybody wants to be the best,
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: and you have the weight of whatever pressure expectation you
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: have on yourself because you've identified as a as a
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: stud player. It's like now you got to tell your family,
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: with everybody at home with a thing, man, I feel
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: like a loser. Like there's a lot of that weight.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: I feel like with vets you'll have the longer conversations
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: because sometimes it's probably not easy because there could be
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: games going on, right like Okay, I'd been playing, or man,
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: I've been getting more rips to him, or the reason
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: that this didn't work out is because did you ever
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: talk to the coach or this film?
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: That film?
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: I feel like there's a lot.
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: Of its kind of a lot more conversation that goes
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: into it, you know. And like I said, it's just
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: never easy with a ved especially a guy that's just
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: been with that organization, right, you know what I mean.
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: I think it's a little bit easier conversation for you know,
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: the quote unquote journeyman that's bounced around, But for a
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: guy that's been with a club three, four or five,
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: six years and then you got to deliver this message.
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: It's like whoa, Like this is all I know. This
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: is and most times you have to explain to him
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: how the process goes because they've never gone through it,
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean. And so it's like I said,
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: it's a lot further conversation.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: That was such a hard Like I thought I would
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: have to sign something because I rememberre sitting there and
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: being like, we'll have to sign, like, oh no, we
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: just have to tell you we're releasing you.
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, tell your release, you walk you through the process
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: and you know.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: That because that was my only time here.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, to me, man, that's crazy.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: Man, I needed to.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: Hey, ran first one.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: Who you want first? He goes seventy seven. Yeah, that's
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: the guy. Get your money.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: Here's how we're gonna freedom fairly quickly.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna get that guy.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: That was wild because I thought there has to be
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: like some sort of like signing.
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not, it's not too formal, you know, if
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: you will it is you know for you, you know,
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: you were still rehabing. So it was one of those
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: things like for a person that's you know, fully healthy, Hey,
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: I'm signing out fully healthy, and then for a player
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: that's rehabbing, it becomes an extended process because now you
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: got to go get images and all these different things.
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: It becomes a much longer process. So that's really the
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: difference in yours and whoever else we did around that time.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: Man, what got you into going from player to wanting
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: to get in to the other side of getting into
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: the floor above the front off?
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: You think about a guy gets cut five times in
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: three years, I feel like that's something you want to
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: stay away.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: From more than five times. It's three years. I played
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: for five teams in three years, I got cut, got
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: out there exponentially more. Yeah. No, it was something that
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: I always knew I wanted to do. I've always been
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: like a big fan of the draft, and before I
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: even knew that that's this was an industry, draft weekend
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: would come. I would go buy the magazines, I get
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: a legal pad, and I would sit in front of
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: TV in my room and try to, you know, based
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: off of me reading these magazines and watching college football,
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: try to predict who was gonna take who. And then
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: you know, my dad played eight years in the league
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: coach for nineteen and he always wanted to be on
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: the personnel side, but when he was done playing, parcels
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: forced him into coaching. And so my dad. All the
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: teams my dad was with when I was in college,
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: when he came down for pro days, whether it was
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: him or someone from the staff, he would say, Hey,
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: you're gonna get up, You're gonna meet them, watch film
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: with them at six in the morning, whatever it was.
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: You're gonna chart their numbers, you know. And so when
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: I was in college, you know, I'm running the stopwatch,
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: you know, and doing I like went on to Pro
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: day whenever, whether it was my dad. I remember one
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: time Tony Sperano got rest his soul, you know, he
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: came down. I remember one year it was Terry Rubisky,
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: you know, when he came down. And so I'm holding
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: I'm running the clocks, you know for these guys, and
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: being amongst the scouts as they're talking about the different
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: times and everything and charting all this, and then you know,
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: they would ask me questions about my teammates, like hey,
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: what do you think about this guy? Like is he
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: a good teammate? And you know, how do you think?
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: What do you think about him? On the field, and
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: so that started it. And then, like I said, when
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: years of service outweighed, when teams outweigh years of service,
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: it was time to transition. I tried to coach. I
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: coached high school ball down in Miami at North Miami
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: Senior High and O seven H knew probably the first
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: two weeks that that wasn't a route for me. Didn't
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: have a patience for. Yeah, didn't have a patience for
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: and I quickly knew. I was like, okay, let me try.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: So then I started taking workouts with teams because I
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: was like, how else am I going to meet the gym? Like,
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: I don't have GM's phone numbers. So I knew I
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: didn't want to play anymore. But teams were still called like, hey,
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: we want to try you out, you know, And so
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: I would go in and do a tryout just to
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: be able to meet the GM and so yeah, and
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: so when they were still and so they would say, oh,
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: you know, sorry, you know, not going to sign you,
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: and I'm like, cool, Yeah, can I get your card?
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: Because I want to do what you do? One day
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: and that's how I meant less need. I went and
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: did a rookie mini camp tryout with the Falcons. Didn't
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: get a single rep the whole mini camp, which was perfect,
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: and yeah, I was yeah. I was just like, no,
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: I'm good. And so I remember we were walking out
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: of the front of the building and Less was, you know, hey, hey,
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: thank you, thank you for coming, you know, and I
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: was sugar hand. I was like, hey, man, like let
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: me get your card, you know, let me get your card.
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: I was like, I want to do what you do
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: one day and he was like, I don't have any
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: on me, but just reach out. And so when I
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: was trying to get back in, I remember that conversation
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: and my agent that I had at the time, Kevin Connor,
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: he had two players on the Falcons team. So I
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: was like, hey, man, like call the teams that you
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: have relationships with and let them know I'm sending cover letters,
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: resumes like all this stuff. And he he called me.
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: He was like, hey, man, I talked to Less. He said,
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: they doesn't have anything, but he wants to bring in
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: an interview and talk with you and interview with it
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: with Les and Thomas de Mitrov and Lino Vital and
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: Dave Calwell, all who I was with the exception of Thomas.
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: I had different connections with them, unknowingly right, and so
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: about two weeks later, Man, let's call me and offer
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: me a job. That's how I got it.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Yo, that's fascinating, Like obviously somebody like that growing up,
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: magazines everything else. Like you've loved football for the longest time.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: And usually, like the guys, once you start playing and
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: you understand the business, like getting cut a few times, Like,
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: once you understand the teeth of it and how cut
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: through it can be, it kind of jade you a
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: little bit. As a player. You maintain you're throughout this
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: whole thing. You're maintaining that that love for still wanting
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: to be in the business.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean for me, I've been blessed to have
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: great mentors. And one of my primary mentors back home
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: in Key West, Bill Spots. Would you know his You
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: know him and his family. They do real estate development
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: amongst other things, and they owned a couple of hotels.
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: And I remember him telling me a story when he
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: was younger, you know, he told his father like, hey,
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: one day I want to own my own hotel. And
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: his family owned a couple of hotels, and so his
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: father then put him in the business, and he worked
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: every level of the hotel from a bellman to run
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: in the elevator to then being behind the counter, and
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: worked his way up until he became owner, you know,
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: of one of the family hotels. And so that's kind
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: of how I see my journey. You know, I've been
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: on the field, I've been a scout, I've been a director,
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: and now I've been a GM. So I've worked my
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: way through an organization, you know what I mean. So
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: I've seen it from every level, and it puts me
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: in a position to be able to identify with everybody
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: in the building. Yeah.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Man, that's when you're when you finally get that call
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: and say, hey, you want this job.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: You take it. Did you have any idea not the GM.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Job, just like the starting out getting in with us everybody?
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Did you have any idea of like how much of
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: the bitch work and all that that stuff you would
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: have to do?
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: Oh? Yeah?
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: He was there ever a pointer like is this really
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: what I'm trying to do? Is it?
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Is this worth it?
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: Uh?
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: No? So the pay pay and listen, I knew I
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: wasn't coming in making forty million dollars, Like I knew
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: that that's not what the what the job is. And
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: you honestly don't get in the personnel to make money.
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: You know, you get in because you love it and
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: you're passionate about it. But I remember getting the job,
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: and I knew that I was gonna have to do
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: a lot of the grunt work, and I wanted to
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: because there was a stigma attached to former players that
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: we don't want to do the menial task, and so
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: I wanted to be able to be the guy that's like,
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: oh Na, like you need me run to the airport
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: that's an hour away. Cool, I'll you know, run to
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: the airport that's an hour away and sit in Atlanta traffic,
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: you know, for two hours to get there, just to
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: more so knock down that stigma, to be able to
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: let other former players have a shot, you know, at
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: getting in. But it's like when they when the pay
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: is is what it was, I tell you guys off air,
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: and it's like you're rubbing Nichols together every two weeks
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: like ooh, you know, it's like man, it's I'm like
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: I could have been doing a bunch of other things
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: making more money than this. But again, like I said,
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: you don't. You don't get in to make money, You
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: get in for the love of it.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's a testament to your drive about wanting
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: to do something and being in the seat you're in.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: What is the relationship with Less need the most important
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: relationship you feel like you've made throughout your journey of
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: climbing to where you are now.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: No, it's definitely my foundation one. Like I said, everywhere
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: I've been, I've been able to foster relationships like my
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: relationship with Less. When he got the GM job at
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: the Rams, he hired me and gave me my first
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: director job. You know. From there I was able to
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: you know, work with you know, Jeff Fisher, our new
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: de coordinator, Denard Wilson. We worked together at the Rams
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: and the Frank Bushes and the Greg Williams and guys
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: like that. And then transitioned to Sean mcvayh and his
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: staff coming in and all those guys that we were around,
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: you know, Sean was there, you know, Mattie LeFleur was there,
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: Guys like Aubrey Pleasant, you know, all these guys were around.
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: And then go to San fran and then I mean, shit,
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: in what twenty nineteen, our draft room featured I guess
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: now five gms and four head coaches where and we
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: were all in the same draft room in twenty nineteen.
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: And then you develop relationships with guys like Paragua Maraate,
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: you know, who's run the business side for San franc
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: Cisco for twenty plus years. He was originally hired by
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: Bill Walsh. And then have a guy like that take
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: you under his wing and start showing you the contract side,
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: and you know, working with guys like Koasi Adolfo Mensas
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: showing you how to incorporate analytics in football. Like it's
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: a bunch of different people who've poured into me from
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: a football that's just football. But then you meet people
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: outside of football that pour into you from a business perspective,
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: because we have to remember football is football, right, That's
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: what we've done our whole lives. That's what we came
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: up doing. But at the time, Jerry Richardson was the
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: only owner that had played in the NFL, and so
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: a lot of the owners are come from the business background.
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: So being able to have you know, certain mentors to
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: teach you the business side allows you to speak that
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: language you know, and you know, be on the same
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: page with the owner from a business perspective, So it's
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: been a ton of people that have poured into me
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: to help me get here.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: That is wild, man. It seems like you're very aware
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: of all the people that have helped you and gotten
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: to the point you're at now, which is so awesome.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: When it comes to the war room on the first
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: draft night, talk to me about the intensity that goes
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: down in there. How like this draft, we know the
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Titans want to take a tackle or pull up Bengles
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: and our quarterback got hurt, We're still going to go.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: Get a wide receiver type of situation.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: When you guys are sitting there and Callahan, who was on,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: he said, you guys were happy with Jacon Latham or
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Joe Walt, Like as it starts ticking and Joe Walt
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: goes out at five, Like where is Like?
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: What's the energy like in that room?
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: So it's a ton of work that goes into it beforehand.
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: And I will say, and we were talking about this
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: at the office last week, I will say, of every
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: draft room I've been in, this was probably the most
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: accurate board that I've ever been a part of. From
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: because we rank them vertically. Then we rank them horizontally
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: right by position. This was probably the most accurate board
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: I've ever been.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Now, when you say vertically and horizontally, are you talking
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: about best players vertically?
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: Yes, we have the positions going horizontally right, just straight
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: across split offense, defense. And so if we got quarterbacks here,
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: you know, we rank them vertically, you know, from one
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: to whatever, and you do that for every position, and
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: then you go across horizontally like, okay, is this quarterback
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: better than this receiver? And then you start adjusting the
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: cards as you go. So it's kind of like this
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: as it goes across you know, the board. And so
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: we pretty much knew just based on our research. We
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: knew exactly where the first four picks were going to be.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: And for us, the draft started at five at the Chargers.
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: And then you get to the spot where you're like, okay,
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: we have three guys you know over these next three
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: picks that we're good with any one of these three.
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: We don't have to make any sudden moves to jump up.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: You know that it's going to cost us in the future.
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: And so it was it was a waiting game. We've
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: done enough research to know that the Chargers were going tackle,
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: and so you sit there and you're like, okay, which one,
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: and then you start playing the Well, you know, they
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: got Rashaun Slater at left tackle, so I could see
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: JC going because he's played right tackle, you know what
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: I mean. But then you're like, well, you know, the
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: Chargers were at the pro day, at Joe Waltz pro day,
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: and you start hearing like they really like him, and
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: so you're like, yeah, I could see that too. So
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: you start trying to you know, you do that part,
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: but then you got to take it a step further
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: because the Giants are right below you, and you're like, well,
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: the Giants have you know, drafted pretty well on the
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: old line and they got some guys. But it's like,
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: all right, well what if they go what if one
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: of the tackles say whoever they take, whether JC or Joe.
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: But what if the Giants decide we're going to take tackle.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: I'm like, okay, then that pushes one of the other
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: guys to us, and we got to be comfortable with that.
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: So we work all those scenarios. So when we got
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: there and we're just sitting there and it's like you're
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: you're at the behest of the Chargers. So now you
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: start hitting your contacts like, hey, what are you hearing?
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: What do you know? You're hitting your contacts that are
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: in the green room, like, hey, what does it look
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: like over at this table? In this table? And then
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: you know, we so we usually find out a little
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: bit before you know, the it's announced, and so it's like,
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: you know, Chargers pick us in, and then it shows
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: on our screen and it says Joe out, and so
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: we're like, okay, and that before yeah.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: So as soon as they put put the car before
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Goodell walks up.
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we know because because the next team is
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: immediately on the clock. And so we're like okay, and
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: now we wait, you know, to see what the Giants do.
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: And when once we saw that Joe went to the Chargers,
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: we were pretty certain that they were going to take
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: that the Giants were going to take Neighbors, and so
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: it was like, you know, say, Sagi, you know, get
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: me j C's number. And you know, Sagi's been here.
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: I think this was his nineteenth draft with the team,
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: and he's like, hey, do we want to jinx it?
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: And I was like, listen, if we got to rip
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: it up. We rip it up, and then we called
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: the next person you know what I mean. I was like,
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: but just have it ready, and so he got me
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: the got me the number, and we waited and when
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: they took neighbors, I was like, all right, we got
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: the big fellows.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: When you know you're gonna take JC and the teams
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: behind you don't have a needed tackle is there? Like
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: are you trying to act till you figure out like, hey,
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: y'all want to come up?
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: No, it was some teams like that called and they
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: were like, hey, like we're interested in coming up. Was
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: a close no because for me it was like we're
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: not going to pass on a dude that we think
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: like super highly of, like just to gain like move
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: back a couple of spots. And yeah, it was. It was.
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: We filled it all probably the first five minutes we
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: were on the clock just to see, you know, if
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: anything was gonna blow us away, and didn't didn't come close,
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: And so we picked up the phone and called a
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: big fella and was damn happy to get him.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: What's been the craziest draft room moment You've been a
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: part of.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Everyone here watching right now thinking about the movie draft day, Yeah,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: tradings move and maybe the place talk about one where
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: the players not playing anymore where you could talk about it.
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: No, no, I'll tell you. Last year, we get on
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: the clock in the third round and Raves and I
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: are sitting there and we're discussing, like hey man, I'm like,
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: let's let's go running back, you know, right here, and
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: you're looking on the board and you know, we were like, hey,
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: let's let's go with the Tulane kid, you know, Taj.
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: So then a team calls and they're like, hey, we're
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: interested in coming to the to your pick, and they
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: made an offer, and so we had like I have
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: these screens in front of me that has like the
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: trade calculator, and so you know, I started looking at
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: what I was like, no, that's not gonna get it.
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: Oh is your trade calculator like Madden? Like it's just
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: green green.
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's it's I don't know because I don't
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: I don't play I don't play mad trying to click
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: it in, Yeah, I'm like, I don't play Madden like that,
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: But it's like similar. So there's like there's a bunch
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: of different ones that you can use. Trade charts but
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: mostly everybody used the Jimmy Johnson trade chart, so just
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: clicking through it. I told him that offer didn't work,
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: and then I was like, but hey, if you give
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: us this this and the next year's this, then yeah,
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: we could do it. And then the guy, the guy
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: who I was speaking to, he was like, na, we
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: you know, we'd be out. I was like, all right, cool,
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: we're going to make the pick. So I tell SAG.
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: I'm like, hey, can you give me tay J. Spears' number.
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: I think by this time it's probably let's just say,
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: three minutes on the clock, and I'm literally downing the number.
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: Hit the last number. That team calls back and they're
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: keep calling. They want to do the deal, the one
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: that you proposed, the one that I proposed. They said no.
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: And then they came back right as we're calling to
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: accept the deal, you know, and I'm like, it's too late,
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: So pick up the phone answers. He's like hello, and
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: all I say is and he goes crazy, like screaming.
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: Everybody in the family everybody's cheering, and I'm like, yo,
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: like I haven't said anything yet, and he's like, let's go,
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: let's go. So I'm like hey, man, like hold on,
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: like you know, let's let's talk. And he's going he's
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: going crazy.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: Thinking about taking the deal.
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: No, no, I'm not going you're about to be hold on.
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: But then click, phone hangs up, and so I'm like,
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: call back. So I called back. My bad, my bad,
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: my bad. Hey, y'all got to shut up. And so
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: I get back. I'm like, hey, man, you know, call
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: him like, hey, we're gonna take you with this pic.
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: And everybody's still going crazy. By this time, it's like,
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: I see it now, it's one forty eight on the clock,
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: before we run out of time. Click phone hangs up again,
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: and at this point I look at Vin Marino. I'm like,
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: just turn it in, like we've tried him and his
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: family to see it, come up on it, Like, just
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: turn it in. So we called back again and he's like, man,
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was like, well,
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: hold on, I said, I'm gonna let you talk to
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: coach Rabes, and of course, you guys know Rabes. Rabes
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: gets on the phone. He's like, hey, listen, man, if
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: this is the start of your NFL career, you're not
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: getting off on the good foot. You know what I mean. Yeah,
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: and they talked for a little bit and then I mean,
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: obviously Taj is great, you know, it's just super good.
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: Dude works his behind off. But that was like a crazy.
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: Are you thinking? Like as you're down the number and
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: then the team wants to accept whatever the trade is
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: as a party is like I've already dialed the number, I.
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: Can now And that's always my thought process. It's like,
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: once I make up my mind to pick, like I'm
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: it's it's over, you know, like I'm I'm moving on,
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: like I'm not entertaining that. And I mean for us,
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: you know, obviously you you document everything. You got a
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: camera right in your face as you're doing this, so
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: you gotta maintain maximum composure, you know. And it's, uh,
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: but again like once once we make our mind up
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: to pick, we're picking.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: So what you talk about the camera?
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: Man?
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: I think about that Aj Brownshade, Yeah, very able, standing
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: up walking kind of doing one of these things right here.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: That was It's one of those not composure moments.
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, and and again it's it's you know,
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: because you have, you know, you have a responsibility to
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: your fan base to try to give them as much
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: as possible and show them everything that you're doing. But
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: when it's when it's that now I'm what I'm feeling
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: on the inside versus what's being shown could be totally yeah,
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean. Like, and everybody has their
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: little things that they do. You know, I have a
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: baseball that I'm usually like have with me, whether I'm
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: you know, squeezing the hell out of the baseball, you know,
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: underneath the table or whatever the case may be. I remember,
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: you know, Less would have his little shards of paper
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: that he's just kind of ripping up. I know, Jeff
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: Fisher had a lucky coin you know, that he had
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: with him, you know, on draft night. So everybody has
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: their little their little deals to just you know, help
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: them keep composure.
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: You mentioned earlier like this is the most accurate board
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: you've ever ever been a part of. What do you
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: mean by that?
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: From just from the way that we had them ranked
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: to how they came off the board. You know. So
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: some teams, everybody does it difference. Some teams stack the
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: board just for them in how they see it and
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: who fits them, you know. So there may be some
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: good players that are not on your board because it
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: doesn't fit your scheme, and then you have some teams
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: that stack it based on okay, this is how we
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: think they're gonna, you know, come off the board, and
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: for us, we stack it for us. You know, we
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: don't care what everybody else think. We stacked the board
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: for us. And as we're sitting there and we're watching,
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: I mean, it was I mean, I think everybody felt
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: Caleb Williams was going number one, so you knew that
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: how that was going to go. But then as we
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: started going positionally, you're looking and they were just coming off,
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: you know, the exact way we predicted it to, which
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: which is ultimately what led us, you know, in the
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: second round at thirty eight, you know, to take big
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: sweat you know there. And what I like to do,
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: you know, particularly with miss Amy and Kenneth is you know,
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: leading up to the draft, like hey, come on in,
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: let us show you the board and here and we're
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: gonna we're gonna talk through every position and this is
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: where we think, this is how it's gonna go. And
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: we got to the second round. We met earlier that
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: morning and it was like, hey, this is what I think,
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: this is how the second round is gonna unfold once
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: this team here is gonna pick this, and then once
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: they picked this, it's gonna be a run at this position,
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: and then it's gonna be a run here, and then
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: it'll be this, and then once this person goes there's
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: gonna be another run. And it just went exactly.
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: I didn't know if you meant every whoever's a part
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: of the entire draft process. You guys all kind of
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: accurately saw it the same versus you're like, all the
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: times you've been in the with all the different teams
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: in all different years.
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: I'll tell you what is different pages there's I'm pretty
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: sure there's been other times in my career, but the
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: one that comes to mind for me, the first time
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: I've ever seen, I say, the first time I've ever
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: seen all the scouts and all the coaches have the
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: exact same grade and thought on a player was Rob
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: Havenstein when he came out of Wisconsin and I was
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: at the RAMS and we took him in the second round.
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: He had consistently the same grade by every single person
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: in our organization. That that was the first time I've
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: ever seen it. I don't I can't remember seeing it recently. Again,
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: and sometimes it's I mean, most of our grades are
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: color you know, they're color based with the number and
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: decimal system in between. And sometimes you have like everybody
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: thinks this guy is a red starter. This guy's gonna
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: be a good starter for a long time. Red is good?
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: Is that the best color? No?
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: Blue? Yeah? Blue is blue is the you know, And
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: a lot of times, yeah, a lot of times we
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: talk in colors, right, hey man, this guy is a
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: red player, he's a blue player, and so we talking colors.
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: And so sometimes even within the red, the red grade,
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: it's like a couple of couple of decimals, so it's
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: different levels of red. But then to have for every
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: single body, every single person to have the same exact
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: number grade in color grade on on a guy was
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: it was like a cool thing to see.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: You know how you can figure out exactly what the
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: draft is going to happen? You just hire Os the mentalist.
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: You know what. I didn't see the clip, but I
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: see all his I'm a big YouTube short guy because
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: I don't have social media, and so I see all
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: his stuff and I just think it'll be so dope
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: to I hope he he's watching, uh to have him
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: come in during camp. Yes, yeah, who else he's yeah,
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: he's done.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: He showed you see he predicted the first thirteen picks.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: No, bro, no, I didn't see that.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Oh he like did I think it was the Raiders
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: And he was like Raiders brought bours at thirteen and
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: then he had a small little sheet next to us
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: are unraveling. It was like trade here, this pic, this pick,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: this pick, every single pick, the first thirteen picks.
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: Someone he's going to have to be our consultant.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he comes in lets war room next year. That's
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're going to pick this guy, but he has
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: to do it an elaboratory single time.
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: Can you imagine how funny it would be just to
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: show him in our draft room standing over Cali and
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: I shoulder like the camera. Yeah, bro, it was this
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: is our secret weapon to.
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: Day.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Finally it's like, this is your pick. It's like he
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: was right, Yeah it was our pick. Dude.
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: What was your thought on the Atlanta Falcons taking Pinnix
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: GM chair. You kind of see too the video of
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: the owner talking to Terry the GM and people are
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: kind of like saying whatever, like oh, wonder what this
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: conversation is.
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: That's I kid you not like we had a we
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: had an inkling that that was going to happen, that
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: they were going to take them. You got to understand
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: our assistant GM, Anthony Robinson, he just came from Atlanta,
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: so he spent his whole career in Atlanta. I started
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: my career in Atlanta, you know, with him, So you
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: kind of get a feel for how things are done organizationally,
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: regardless of who's running it. But we we probably about
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: two weeks prior we were we were sitting around, we
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: were talking about all them. We called it team Needs
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: and we're kind of going through it, and we were
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: like quarterback and it was like so you start playing
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: with it, and then it kind of became clear. It
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: was like man, like they really could go pandis right here.
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: And so when it happened, I wish you could see,
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: like our room, we kind of like boys kind of
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: looked at each other like so it wasn't a real
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: surprise to us.
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, how do you obviously there's so many variables, but
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: as a GM, like how do you see that pick
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: for like Atlanta? I mean it's a wild question. How
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: do you feel that.
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: No no, I mean I understand, Yeah, I understand, because
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: you you always have to have a plan for the future,
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: and that's at every position, right, I mean I can
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: remember because you study other people's drafts, right, You study
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: how people do it, you know, organizationally, teams that like
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: like Seattle with John Schneider, they've done a good job
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: of always staying, you know, ahead. Mickey Loomis in New
• 44:42
  Speaker 4: Orleans is usually the first one that comes to mind
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: for me, especially when they were rolling they had Drew
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: and Sean Payton was there. They always drafted a year
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: ahead of a need, so you had a young guy there.
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: You think back when they had Jeremy Shockey, they draft
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: Jimmy Graham in the third. You know, all those times
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: they had, you know, guys up front. I remember when
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: they took Andre's Pete played them at guard early, then
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: he became the tackle. Like they they always drafted year
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: ahead of need. They did it at corner, they did
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: it at receiver, they did it at running back, where
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: you might look heavy at that position. But then the
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: next year they move on from a guy or guys
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: a free agent, they don't pay them, and then they
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: got the next guy already he's already been in the
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: system for a year and now you just step into
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: your row.
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: I was just gonna say, it feels like to be
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: in that spot of being able to draft a head.
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: You have to do so well in the drafts, you know,
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: leading up to it, like you hit on guys, you
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: have a good room, because if not, you have a
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: glaring hole that it's like, well, we can't really afford
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: the draft to head.
• 45:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah. No, they tell you all the time, like when
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: you're coming up in this business and you're learning, like
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: the draft is where it happens, is where you really
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: build your team, and you know, you you cut your
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: teeth and you you make your way building through the drafts,
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: you know, because it gives you, you know, such leeway,
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: like we don't we're not able to make the free
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: agent moves we made if we have to pay our
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: quarterback fifty million, you know, right, So we got a good,
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: you know, promising young quarterback who's on a rookie deal.
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: What gives us more room to kind of build around him? Now,
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: Prayer forly. You know he's going to flip soon, and
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: you know he plays extremely well and you know his
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: his contract, you know, shows that, and so now it's
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: back to us building through the draft because we're going
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: to have to surround him with young talented players because
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: you can't go out and pay you know, everybody, you know,
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: especially with the with the with the cost of doing
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: business now, you know, you can't afford to pay everybody.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when you're going through the draft and stuff like that,
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of owners want to be
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: more part of it, less a part of it, and
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: kind of give their opinion more oftentimes than not.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: How is miss Amy when it comes to the draft?
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: How did she handle it?
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: She's the best because miss Amy is miss Amy. She
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: trusts when she hires you to do a job, she
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: trusts you to do the job. And so she doesn't
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: come in and say, hey, no, let's make this guy
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: number one, or I like this guy more. She just
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: wants to know the why. And so that's why we
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: do a good job. I think of over communicating with
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: her and we bring her in a couple of days
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: before the draft and we show her the entire board.
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: Here's why you know we like this guy, Here's where
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: we think this guy can fit. And it's just a
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: group of us in the room. We close the door,
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: we lock it, and we're in there for a couple
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: of hours, and we explain the whole board to her
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: and again, and when once she sees it and she
• 47:34
  Speaker 4: sees how it's unfolding, and it's unfolding the way you
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: said it would, and now she has a little bit
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: more trusting you, you know, and so she just she
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: trusts us to do our job, which is the best.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Have you seen it the other way where owners come
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: in and they're a little more won their finger on
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: the pulseter want to make the decision.
• 47:51
  Speaker 4: Well not, because I've been with what four clubs, I've
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: never seen it to where the owners like, hey, we
• 48:00
  Speaker 4: should take this guy. But I've seen, you know, I've
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: seen it where the owner not only wants to know
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: the why, but he's like are we sure? Or if
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: a player goes like, hey, why didn't we take this guy?
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: You know, I've seen that, you know, that question before.
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: But I've never been in a place where the owners like,
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: you know, hey, I watched tape last night and I
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: like this kid?
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Do they come do? A lot of the owners come
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: in kind of well versed in what's going on in
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: that first round?
• 48:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah and yeah, and I think I think I'm not
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: going to make it seem like we're the only ones
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: that communicate with our owner, because I think all gms
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: communicate with their owner and what they like. But I
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: think everybody informs their owners of hey, here the here
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: the pot of guys that we like at this pick,
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: and so they're aware. I won't give our secrets of
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: what we do, but I miss Amy's well informed, you know,
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: every guy heading into to the draft.
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: How do you feel like your role as GM has
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: developed from you one year two? Because you've obviously had
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: a different You had very last year, you have Callahan
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: this year. Talk about those relationships, talk about how your
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: rules developed as a GM.
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: I think my role has developed. It's just developed more
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: because I'm more comfortable I have another, you know, a
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: year doing it last year. Last year, I couldn't imagine
• 49:22
  Speaker 4: doing it without Rapes, you know, because he was He's
• 49:26
  Speaker 4: a vet, you know, one of the smartest you know,
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: football minds I've ever been around. And just having him
• 49:32
  Speaker 4: there to bounce things off of, you know, because I
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: don't I don't give damn what position you're in. You've
• 49:39
  Speaker 4: never done it till you've done it. You know, you
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: can read every book there is. You know, I can
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: go and read every book there is on how to
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: play basketball. But I've never played basketball till I've been
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: out there on that court. And and so that's how
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: it was for me in a GM spot. But I
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: had a guy in Mike that I can go and say, hey, man,
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: like how does this part work? You know, not sure
• 50:01
  Speaker 4: you know about this? And so this year I'm more
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: comfortable because there are more things that have come up,
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: like okay, like I know how to handle that, and
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: you know, go through that phase of it. But that's
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: the that's really it. Like the more time on task,
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: the more comfortable you're gonna be.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: With Mike and his departure from the Titans, it seemed
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: a little bit abrupt because I think, as as a
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: fan base, Jackie McPherson with the Titans hat in the back,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: he's been a longtime Titans fan. A lot of people
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: were saying like, oh, okay, we obviously have issues because
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: we're not wanting a whole lot of games and Mike's
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: not the problem. And then shortly after the season end, Mike,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: Mike is gone.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: How was that transition for y'all? How how those discussions
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: for what you can say.
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: I'd say it was it was it was tough. That
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: day was really tough. I speak personally, it was one
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: of those you know, and this is just being full transparent,
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: you know. When it happened, I called my wife and
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: I was like, hey, like this this just happened. And
• 51:00
  Speaker 4: and the first thing my wife says is, you know,
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: you need to call Rea, which is my daughter. And
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: I'm like why She was like, because she doesn't need
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: to hear that coach got fired from one of the
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: kids in school, you know, because my kids don't have
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: social media, and so my daughter had a really close
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: relationship with Mike and if you look on her screensaver
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: on her phone right now, it's a picture of her
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: and Mike, you know, and that hasn't changed. And so
• 51:28
  Speaker 4: you know, not only to have that happen to him,
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: but to now I got to communicate this to my daughter,
• 51:35
  Speaker 4: you know, and then to have my he's now seven
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: year old son, who he thinks he's the GM and
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: the owner and the head coach. He legitimately when he
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: got out of school, my wife told him and he
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: was like, like, what are you doing? Like my son said,
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: this to me, you know what I mean. And so
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: it was tough, you know, it was tough. And then
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: to you know, go out and you know, you again,
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: I'm not on social media, but you can feel heat,
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean, you can you can feel heat.
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: And I knew what it was, but I also knew
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: that it was, you know, unfortunate that it happened. And
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: I and and again listen, Mike will be coaching at
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: no time. You know, he'll be back on the sideline
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: in no time, and he's going to do well wherever
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: he goes, because that's just in his DNA and who
• 52:22
  Speaker 4: he is. But you know, I knew after that happened,
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: it was no time to sit back and soak and
• 52:30
  Speaker 4: you know, lick your wounds. It was like, we have
• 52:34
  Speaker 4: to deliver the next guy, you know, and how And
• 52:37
  Speaker 4: it was a man. That happened on a Tuesday, and
• 52:43
  Speaker 4: literally you work through Tuesday night putting the list together.
• 52:47
  Speaker 4: And mind you, I've never interviewed a head coach before,
• 52:50
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean. So then now yeah, and
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: so now it's like you spend you spend Tuesday identifying
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: a list, right, And that's a lot of conversations with
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: a lot of people. You do that until Wednesday, and
• 53:03
  Speaker 4: then you get the request out to the clubs because
• 53:06
  Speaker 4: it's that time of year everybody's trying to interview. And
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: then you spend all day Wednesday, all night Wednesday, all
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: through Thursday putting the structure in the interview together, also
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: scheduling interviews, and then boom Friday, you have your first interview,
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean. And so oddly enough Calli
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: was our first interview, and so you try to for
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: me personally, I was like, you know, we need to
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: be ahead of the curve, you know, when it comes
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: to it, We need to be ahead of the whole
• 53:40
  Speaker 4: hiring cycle because there were so many jobs open, and
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: we were like, you don't want to get behind in
• 53:45
  Speaker 4: this phase. And so we were, you know, we were
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: very detailed, and you know, we took a really good
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: approach to it. You know. However, it was like it
• 53:57
  Speaker 4: was pretty clear, you know, once we sat with Calli
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: that that he was the guy.
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: I got a two part question. As you were experiencing
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: the interview process for the first time, what do you
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: feel like ended up being the most important question in
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: the interview? And then the second question is what jumped
• 54:13
  Speaker 3: out about Cali that was like, we can't really let
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: him hypothetically leave the building.
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I think the biggest thing for me, And again,
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: I've been around Rabes, I've been around Kyle Shanahan, I've
• 54:25
  Speaker 4: been around Jeff Fisher, been around Sean McVay. These guys
• 54:29
  Speaker 4: are excellent at situational football, you know, just overall just
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: situations of the game. And so it was talking about
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: concepts like that, you know, in the interview, but then
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: you follow it up with who's your coaching staff? Who's
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: your coaching staff gonna be? And again, anybody can come
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: in and say, you know, I'm gonna hire Vince Lombardi
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: be my head coach, Bill Belichick's gonna be the decordinator,
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: and Bill Walsh is gonna be my offensive coordinator. You know,
• 54:57
  Speaker 4: but who can you really deliver? One thing that stood
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: out with CALLI was he had a depth chart of coaches.
• 55:05
  Speaker 4: And I'm not saying when I say a depth chart,
• 55:07
  Speaker 4: I don't and he literally had a three deep. But
• 55:10
  Speaker 4: it wasn't just like all right, I want this guy,
• 55:13
  Speaker 4: and if I can't get this guy, then this guy's
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: the backup. And if I can't get him do this. No,
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: he had these are three tier one, here's three tier two,
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: here's three tier three. And he had that for every
• 55:26
  Speaker 4: single position. And so you knew looking at that, like
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: this guy's put a lot of thought process into this,
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: you know, and he's well thought out. He's well researched.
• 55:36
  Speaker 4: And I can say, because I was looking at it
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: the other day, like we legitimately got number one on
• 55:43
  Speaker 4: every one of his positions.
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: Damn he had his old man.
• 55:47
  Speaker 4: He did not. He did not have his old man
• 55:48
  Speaker 4: on the list he was. And I talked in the interview.
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: I was like, hey man, elephant in the room, what's
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: up with pops? Are we trying to heat And he
• 55:58
  Speaker 4: was like, hey man, honestly, we haven't had to come conversation.
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: He said. We talked about it briefly last year and
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: just ultimately decided that it wasn't the best thing. And
• 56:07
  Speaker 4: he was like, we haven't had the conversation. Man.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: That's perfectly aligned with what he said, because he had
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: said the same thing, like when the opportunity might have
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: come up last year, his dad was essentially like no.
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: And then after when he gets this job, his dad
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: calls me. I was all think about it without even
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: any context.
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah about it.
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: I'll be honest with you, because I I called Bill,
• 56:27
  Speaker 4: I called him big coach. I've asked big coach. You know.
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: I was like, there was it ever a thing? Because
• 56:33
  Speaker 4: I know from my dad, my dad always wanted to
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: coach me, and my dad ended up being my position
• 56:37
  Speaker 4: coach in Dallas. And that lasted two weeks, you know,
• 56:41
  Speaker 4: and it was like, this is not gonna work. Is
• 56:44
  Speaker 4: it didn't work? But you know he was like he said,
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: Bill told me. He said, it wasn't until I watched
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: this press conference that I really started thinking about it. Really, yeah,
• 56:56
  Speaker 4: he said, it wasn't until he watched the press.
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: His press comments was a little bit emotional when talking
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: about his wife and everything, and it was really.
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: Cool to see.
• 57:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And like I said this, and you know, when
• 57:06
  Speaker 4: you guys come around like this coaching staff is it's
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: it's something man like the defensive staff they are they're
• 57:13
  Speaker 4: their own people, and our offensive staff and just you know,
• 57:18
  Speaker 4: just to be through the building and the energy and
• 57:20
  Speaker 4: the juice you know that's in the building, and it's
• 57:24
  Speaker 4: just it's just been cool. And again, you I know
• 57:26
  Speaker 4: some of these guys because I've worked with them and
• 57:28
  Speaker 4: a lot of guys I don't know, but I mean
• 57:30
  Speaker 4: we're a couple of months in and it feels like
• 57:33
  Speaker 4: I've known these dudes forever.
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you feel like that was that was one that's
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: been one of the bigger differences, the juice and energy
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: with the staff and in the building.
• 57:41
  Speaker 4: Well, I say this, I say the I know when
• 57:43
  Speaker 4: CALLI was putting his staff together, and the cool you
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: know thing that he afforded me was he was like, hey, man, like,
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: I don't want to just hire people, right, just hire
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: my buddies. He was like, I want you to feel
• 57:55
  Speaker 4: good about the coaches that I want. He was like,
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: so let's interview them. And he was like, and I
• 57:59
  Speaker 4: want you in the interview to, you know, ask as
• 58:02
  Speaker 4: many questions, you know. And so everybody that we brought in,
• 58:05
  Speaker 4: like I was a part of interviewing them and getting
• 58:07
  Speaker 4: to know them. And so you feel that. But the
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: one thing that CALLI talks about a lot is connectiveness.
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: And he was like, in our staff, we have to
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: be the example of that for our locker room, you
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: know what I mean. And so it's those guys are
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: always together, never not together, you know, And like I said,
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: it's just a cool group of dudes, and it's competitive
• 58:30
  Speaker 4: as competitive as hell. We even have like a four
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: thirty workout group with our strength coach, and it's like
• 58:38
  Speaker 4: anywhere from ten to twelve of us at four thirty.
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: And listen, when I'm out there, it looks pitiful, you
• 58:43
  Speaker 4: know what. I like running hundreds and you know, all
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: these things. But it's another way for us to connect,
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: you know, and build together. And I think the players
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: see it, you know, and feel like, hey man, these
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: dudes are really together and they're not just talking.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's sick to see that you guys are gonna
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: line because it seems like that's always like a main
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: thing of the downfall of a program, whether it's college
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: or NFL, Like the ad and the head coach don't
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: get along, that falls apart, and then inevitably.
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: Both of them are go on.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: And with you and Kelly, it just seems like just
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: hearing you guys both talk. So because we've shot these
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: episodes within what two days, hearing you guys both talk,
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: you seem so aligned on the vision and what you
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: guys want to do. But it took a lot to
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: get there. You look at the end of this past
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: season and you're looking at a pretty destroyed roster the
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: King leaves, you know, you're missing a lot of pieces
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: and it's essentially like an everest to build up. And
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: now we're sitting in the middle of May, and you guys,
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: are the Titans are in the best position in the
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: world because you look at the power rankings of the
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: NFL and everyone thinks you guys are shit. But if
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: I were to read you a list of your roster
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: and you'd say, is this team gonna be good or bad?
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: Just talent alone?
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: It's like these boys can they got something cooking over there.
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: So truly the best position you can possibly be in
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: in May before the coming up football season. Like what
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: when you were looking at this big project going into
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, where was the starting point for y'all?
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: I mean, honestly, the starting point. It didn't start when
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 4: Calli got here, you know what I mean? Because the
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 4: free agency work, the free agency part, it was, the
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: front end of the work was done in December, you know,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 4: with the staff that we have, and so when Cali came,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 4: obviously scheme changes, so some players are shifted in move
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 4: like okay, this guy fits better, you know now, And
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 4: so that's the adjustment. The cool thing that him and
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 4: his staff did when they came in, they we all
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 4: met all our scouts, and we're lucky because all of
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 4: our college scouts lived here in town, and so we
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 4: had our whole staff and the whole coaching staff. And
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 4: then they showed us they put highlight tapes together positional profiles. Hey, look,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 4: I want my left tackle to look like this. This height,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 4: this weight, this arm length, this speed. Here are the
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 4: traits that we're looking for with examples, right, and so
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 4: now you know, we get to see it. We get
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 4: to see the visual. Okay, well, now we know what
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 4: they're looking for in each one of these positions on
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 4: the team, and it makes it easier for us to
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 4: go hunt and go find it. So that makes our
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 4: job easier. But just even looking at it, it's like,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 4: you know, obviously, to you know, lose a player like Derek,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 4: Like that was the number one question I got the
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: most when I was around town, like, hey, better than
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 4: I let Derek leave? Or what's going on with Derek?
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 4: Like I understand the magnitude of that because in my mind,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 4: you know, prior to coming here, when you thought about
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 4: the Tennessee Titans. You thought about Mike Rabel, You thought
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 4: about Dereck Henry, you know, and Taylor m to one,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 4: you know, and so cornerstone, you know what I mean,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 4: Cornerstone people Argerschule, and so you know that's these guys
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 4: are are identifying factors for this football team and the
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: way the football team played, and so you want to
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 4: keep some of that. But then it's like, all right,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 4: how are we going to build this in Cali's image
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 4: and what is it gonna take for his scheme? And
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 4: so you have to make the tough decisions, you know
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: what I mean, and you have to be aligned, you know,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 4: in those decisions. And so we start piecing it together.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 4: And then again you and you hear me talk about it.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 4: A lot is relationships, you know. I mean, if you
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 4: look at our free agency class, there are relationships all
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 4: along the way. You get a Calvin Ridley because you
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 4: have a relationship, you know, or I'm not even gonna
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: say we had a relationship. We created one, you know,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: out of thin air. And being able to just be
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 4: relatable is what got him here, you know, cheat oh Bay.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 4: He was with Cali for how many years in Cincinnati,
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 4: so he kind of knows what the program is going
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 4: to be. You know, Tony Pollard's from Memphis, you know,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 4: wanted the opportunity to raise his kids, you know at home,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 4: you know where he grew up. Gives you a leg up,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 4: you know, all these things, you know, coming to play,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 4: And like I said, this city in this state is
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 4: it's like you said, it's slept On. You know, it's
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 4: slept On. I've never been anywhere in the in the
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 4: National Football League where all your scouts lived in the
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 4: town like that is an that's a competitive advantage. And
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 4: then think about just historically you weren't drafted here, but
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 4: where do you live now in Nashville. Every player that
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 4: comes here, whether they were drafted here, signed a long
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 4: term deal or a one year deal, they come here
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 4: and they stay yea, And so it's weird.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 3: You see a lot of the tight ends too, and
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 3: the off season kid on them like people.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 4: Everybody comes here. So it's a competitive advantage and we
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 4: just put ourselves in position to take advantage of that,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean. And like you said when
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 4: we were walking up to the bus, like it's like
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 4: an unwritten thing with this city. You know, and we'll
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 4: say higher profile people like those people feel comfortable here.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 4: The people in the city show you love, but they
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 4: respect your space. So everybody here you feel a part
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: of the community. I'm leaving my daughter's flag football game
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 4: a couple of weeks ago, and I looked at my
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 4: wife and I was like, of all the places we've
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 4: ever lived, like, I feel a part of the community
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 4: here when I'm at her games, my standing with the team,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 4: none of that matters. I'm just one of the crazy
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 4: dads in the stands giving the refs hell, you know
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 4: what I mean, And like I don't have to wear
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 4: Titans GM hat. Yeah, I'm just Rhea's dad, you know,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 4: at the game and I'm cheering, like my daughter's team
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 4: they won, They won the championship for the third year
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 4: in a row for a girl's flag and I'm standing
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 4: on the top of the stands screaming three peat and
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 4: got the crowd going. And you know what I mean,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 4: Like my daughter hurt her back in one of the
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 4: tournament games. I'm down there stretching her out, you know
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 4: what I mean. Like, I'm just being a dad, and
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 4: I think this city is what allows that to happen. Like,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 4: I don't have to always feel on if you will,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 4: I could just be one the people. And that is
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 4: a true competitive vantish about being here when.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: You look at you, Bob, Calvin Ridley, and I think
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: when I think Calvin Ridley obviously is an awesome talent
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: and wrongly accused for gambling as well, but that's a
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: different story. He goes from the Jags to hear and
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: during this press conference he's like, honestly, I want to
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: stay with the Jaguars. As you see that as a
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: pro or a con when hearing that statement, because to me,
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: it's like, now, you know, two times a year he's
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: got those he's got those games circled because they you
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: get in your delusional football mind that we've all had
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: use that as oh they didn't want me when.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: Maybe the number was just a little too big.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 4: No, I'll be I'll be perfectly honest with you. Everything
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 4: was comparable, you know. And he had the he had
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 4: the option to go back, whether the numbers, I'm good,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 4: appreciate the offer though Southern hospitality. Uh. He had the
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 4: option to go wherever he wanted to go. But I
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 4: think it's more of a positive in that we made
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 4: him comfortable, you know, coming here, and then the lesser
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 4: known of the of the deal was again here Nashville, Tennessee.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 4: His wife's family from Huntsville know that right down the road,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 4: you know, makes it an easy transition for her to
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 4: still be Now you're closer to your family, you know,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 4: and so it again competitive advantage being here in Nashville.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: I have a tier talk for my tier talk for
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 3: for rand is you rank them your top three. You
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 3: can throw an honorable mentions. You started three.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 4: I don't know where this is going.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 3: I think you'll have fun with it. But your tier
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 3: talk of your the best, like scouted players you've seen
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 3: in your years.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 4: In my years, Uh, I'm gonna say that I was
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 4: of the teams that I played for. And I know
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna get hell for this because I have a
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 4: lot of good relationships with all these.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: Dudes I started three.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 3: If there's one that you're like, damn, he doesn't make it,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 3: but shout him out.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 4: That's an honorable mass all right. I'll say this, and
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 4: it's it's the I'll give you the little synopsis behind it.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 4: I'll say, damn, all right. Three Todd Gurley, coming off
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 4: of torn a c l I thought he was still
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 4: the best player in that draft class and just was
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 4: what it was. And he had that short run in
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 4: the league. But man, he was explosive and dynamic. And
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 4: the problem Number two Nick Bosa outside of my number one,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 4: I don't think I've ever seen anybody play with the
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 4: type of hand use, you know, and leverage he has.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 4: Nick has this unique thing. And you know Taylor as
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 4: a tackle to be able to catch the elbow and
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 4: catch the wrists at like a super high rate, like
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 4: it's his hand eye is unreal. Number one Aaron Donald,
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 4: I think that was easy, man, child, goat if you will. Uh.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 4: What I was going to add in before I thought
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 4: about one was Fred Warner honorable? Mentioned? What makes Fred
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 4: to me is Fred never played in the box in college.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 4: He was like a big nickel where he aligned over
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 4: the slot. And you know, shout out to Robert Salah
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 4: and Demico Ryans. They had a vision for being able
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 4: to put him in in the box. Third round pick,
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 4: rookie starting at mike, making all the calls and all
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 4: the checks, and obviously Fred is Fred is Fred, you know.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 4: And when the schedule came out the other day, my son,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 4: my oldest shout out to my boys, Roman and Reese.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 4: Roman says, so when we played the Niners in the preseason,
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 4: can I wear my Fred Warner jersey? And I was like,
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 4: I was like, I said, I said, you call Fred
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 4: because he's my son. Is boys with Fred, like they
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 4: talk all the time. I say, you call Fred, and
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 4: then Fred get you tickets and you sit with Fred's family,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 4: then yes you could wear your freds. So, by all means,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 4: but those would be my four shout out to Debo.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 4: I think he created a position in football, and I
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 4: think he he helped usher in a new way of
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 4: what we call positionless football. You know that I've been
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 4: a part of. Damn. I left Big trend Out.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: I was thinking to bring that up.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 4: I left Big trend Out.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: Arguably the best player in the league couple of years.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I mean he's yeah, he's You see him
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 4: do stuff and you're like, yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: Like that clip against the Cardinals, I.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 4: Was thinking that I didn't want to, you know, God, yeah,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 4: And I'm glad you said it wasn't. It wasn't Isaiah Simmons.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 4: I won't say it wasn't. No, I know who it was,
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 4: and I don't want to say his name, We'll say
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 4: it right, Nope.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: Pull it up, pull it up.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: We'll just we're not talking about it, but just pull
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: up Trent Williams.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: Because that.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: Not only is that extreme explosion and amazing content contact,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: it's also one of those deals where to take the
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: risks to run full speed at a linebacker and.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 2: Hope you hit him. But it's crazy. That's a crazy
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 2: look at him?
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 3: Just man?
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 4: Was that like, you don't expect human of that size
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 4: to get on you that.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: We're in a four eight forty not not bad body bar,
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: but he is truly mentor.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 4: You know this.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 2: Do you do this cap personally?
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 4: No? I don't know him personally. Yeah, you've you've been.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: Doing an amazing job of not saying names.
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Like that's your you're pros pro in that way.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 3: Do what's the most fascinating thing or something that you
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 3: experienced in the front office world that you think players
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 3: would be intrigued to know.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 4: Most intrigued and fascinating.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 3: Whether it has to do with contracts, No.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 4: I just think learning the business and the one thing
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 4: we hear and I'm sure you guys have said that,
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 4: Hey man, it's the business I hate that term because
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 4: I think saying it's a business, for a lack of
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 4: a better way to say it, I feel it's a
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 4: cop out because it doesn't allow you to deal with
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 4: the emotion of what you're feeling. And I think you're
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 4: allowed to feel a certain type of way. But when
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 4: you say, oh, man, you know it's it's it's a business,
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 4: then that gives you that cop out of like okay,
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 4: like it's supposed to happen. But I think if if
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 4: more guys were in my position to have exposure to
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 4: how the business works, and they would understand like, oh okay,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 4: I see it clear now, like myself, Like, and I'm
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 4: sure you felt the same way as fellow undrafted guys.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 4: You first round guys don't have nothing.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 3: He's got the red, blue cards, cards.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 4: Hours, Yeah, just white Like that was me. Yeah, Will come.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: Do you remember evaluating Will Compton?
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 4: I wrote you, I will find the report and I
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 4: was I wild text it right, But I will tell
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 4: you this. When I was doing my draft process, like again,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 4: I'm realistic, I know what it was. I was like,
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 4: I'm at least a third rounder, you know what I mean.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 4: I'm at least a third rounder. And then I remember,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 4: you know, you can't make this up. I got a
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 4: call in the fifth round from a team says, we're
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 4: taking you with our next pick. And I'm in the
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 4: room and I'm with my now wife, and my mom
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 4: and my brother were in the in the living room,
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 4: and so I was like, okay, cool, like I'm excited.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 4: And my wife had just got accepted into grad school
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 4: in that same city, and so I was like, this
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 4: is perfect. And I got up to go tell my
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 4: mom and I was like, you know, I'm gonna let
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 4: me see it on TV. Yeah, And I sit there
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 4: and they announced the pick and it wasn't me, and
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 4: I look at her and then the team called right
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 4: back last minute we decided to Oh and long story short,
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 4: I don't think that player made it through the season
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 4: with him because I ended up playing with him somewhere
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 4: else and so like and hen I end up becoming
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 4: really good friends. But a man I had smoked for him.
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 3: I was.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 2: Fifth round to walking through, walking down.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 4: But again I thought I was going to be, you know,
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 4: wanted to be a first rounder.
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 3: But I was like, at least and you played too,
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 3: like you know, hey, we could be one of those
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 3: like Bill Belichick just randomly draft somebody in the higher
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 3: rounds and just come out of nowhere.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 4: And listen, I had, I had, I knew what the
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 4: signing bonus was going to be, and I'm like, okay,
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 4: this is how we gonna allocate the money, and yeah,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 4: we're gonna, you know, planning it out.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 3: And now, dude, you play with your You played four
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 3: your dad for two weeks in Dallas awful heat, and
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 3: he cut you.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 4: No. Luckily enough, I had got cut by Indy. This
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 4: was my rookie year, signed with Dallas on the practice squad.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 4: My dad was my running back coach. Our running back
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 4: room was Eddie George. Julius Jones was their second round
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 4: pick that year. We had Richie Anderson. Yeah, that was awful.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 4: That was like my worst football experience. Me and my
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 4: dad got into a fight. Now it wasn't at like
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 4: we had a We went back and forth on the
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 4: field to the point where Parcels was like, all right,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 4: that's enough, and so I can tell this story. It's funny.
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 4: But my dad shout out to Frank Paranho because he
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 4: loves this story. My dad was chirping across the field
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 4: with chirping back and forth, and so Richie is like, hey,
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 4: little bro, like, come on, man, like, you know Dad
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 4: loves you. So I say some choice words about that,
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 4: and then my dad yells across, hey Richie slapping. So
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 4: I yelled back. I'm like, no, you slap me. So whatever,
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 4: I go home, and now I'm like, I'm gonna know
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 4: this whole playbook. Like he's never gonna be able to
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 4: say nothing to me. I'm gonna know it better than him.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 4: Mind you, I'm living with him, right, I'm on the couch.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 4: I'm on the couch and I'm highlighting and taking notes
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 4: and I'm tearing this playbook up. And so I doze
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 4: off and I'm sleep and I hear the door open.
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 4: But my cousin lived there too, so I was like, oh,
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 4: it's just Chris. Then now I'm oh and I look
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 4: up at my day dad standing over me, and he's like,
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 4: I slapped you.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 3: Now what?
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 4: And so I started laughing and I'm like he's like,
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 4: what you laughing for? You? You said slap you? I
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 4: slapped you. You didn't do nothing, now what. I was like,
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 4: I won? He was like, how did you win? I
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 4: was like, because it's been on your mind. Ever since
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 4: I said it, and I'm like, I was like, and
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 4: you know what. I was like, Now, you better take
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 4: your ass back to the office before Parcelles finds out
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 4: you not there. I was like, and I will call
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 4: him right now and tell him to you better get
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 4: your ass back to the office. He was cutting you.
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 4: And then literally like that was like, uh, that was
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 4: like a Thursday. That happened Wednesday or Thursday. And then
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 4: the following week the coach called to bring me back
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 4: on the roster, and so they sent my dad home
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 4: to like talk me into stand and my dad was like, son,
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 4: you gotta go. He was like, because not only is
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 4: this gonna give your opportunity to actually play, he was like,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 4: but for the second of our relationship, you got to
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 4: get the hell out of here.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 2: If it wasn't jac or Joel, who would it be.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 4: We'll talk off.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 3: Before we let him go, because he's got a roll.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 3: You have a twisted question for him. He's GM, he's
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 3: not the head man. That's a that's a that's a
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 3: question specifically for the head coaches they cut their piece
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 3: off for a Super Bowl?
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 4: Would you I got five kids, so you would I
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 4: said I got five kids. I just said I have
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 4: five kids.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 3: All right, we just need you to say yes.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 4: I said I just got five.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 3: We got that insurance.
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 4: I got five.
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 2: Five kids is a lot of kids. Jaggie Peerson, any questions?
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, before we let him.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 6: Go, we asked Calie this question yesterday. But you being
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 6: with the Titans very year now you will understand this.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 6: Is there a way to bring back the OG pain
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 6: Train video that we play at the beginning of the
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 6: fourth quarters because we changed it two years ago. The
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 6: fan base needs the O G One back.
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 4: All right, So I'm not familiar with the OG.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: You remember, yes, Okay, So it's Terry Tate office linebacker.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: He goes the pain trains coming and then does the woohoo
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: thing and then Johnny cash fullsome prison blues, right yeah,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: starts playing.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 4: All right, let's do it.
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: This is awesome, so.
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 2: We too, can we bring that back?
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 4: We might be able to do something.
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 6: And can busting with the boys be the twelfth Titan
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 6: and swing the sort of honor?
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that would be pretty sweet. I'm not gonna lie.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 3: There we go.
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 4: I think you guys, we have the I think the
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 4: crowd will go nuts to see now here's the thing
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 4: we have with these two. We gotta cut the mic.
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 4: It's got, it's got, it's gotta be it's got to
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 4: be a delay so we can at least have the.
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 3: Very fair to say.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 4: I will say this.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 3: Every college we go to, every like we were at
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 3: in Atlanta, every spot organization we go to, it's like
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 3: they're always like, hey, we're down for you guys to
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 3: do this. We've seen some of your stuff. You could
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 3: just be on your best behavior. We could. We're capable.
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 3: We're capable. It will be on our best behavior.
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 4: Like I said, just just they might the might the
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 4: MINS button, Yeah, I might need to have that button
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 4: seven second delay. Weppreciate you coming on, man. I appreciate
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 4: you boys. Man not man, I appreciate you.
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: Tell you this bus and all of us in here
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: are so excited about what the Times are doing. We're
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: so stoked on what you've done in free agency, in
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: the draft, all the things about Jacon Latham coming out
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: and the rest of your draft has been so positive.
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: People should be excited national Tennessee about what's coming this one.
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 4: I appreciate it, man. I just think in the grand
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 4: scheme of things, it's it's our job to provide this
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 4: this city, in this state with something to cheer for,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean. It's something that can identify with.
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 4: So let's just stay healthy and get to September.
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 2: Do you think there's a chance that we can get
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 2: will comped in a work out in October December?
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 4: Let's say December December? Yeah?
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 2: Crazy, you don't want to do that. You want to
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 2: do it before Thanksgiving because you know what you're doing.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 3: Workout October potential sign in December?
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean you can. You can go over to
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 4: Fitness nineteen. They got all the equipment you need to
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 4: work out. Get you set up over.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 3: I'm actually on at Boost with a couple of your
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 3: guys in the front of it. Matt Miller's Mad Mad
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 3: in there.
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 2: I've known Mad since he was in high.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah matter my guy, man, he does a hell of
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 4: a job going to his wedding. Yes, I will be there.
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 4: That would be there, just R S v P two
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 4: weeks ago.
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 2: I love it. Well, thank you so much for.
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 4: I appreciate you. That was awesome, bro, appreciate you.
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 3: We could talk all day long too, because man, you're
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 3: an undrafted gritty cat Jordan's He's still he's still playing
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 3: to he's with the vikings right