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Huddle Up | Shaking Off the Rust, Avoiding a Week 1 Surprise · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to Huddle Up. Jaguar senior writer John Osher and
0:06
Speaker 1: NFL network analyst and former Jaguar Bucky Brooks bring you
0:10
Speaker 1: the latest on your Jacksonville Jaguar. Huddle Up starts right now.
0:16
Speaker 2: All right.
0:17
Speaker 3: Welcome into Huddle Up with Bucky Brooks. I'm John Osher
0:20
Speaker 3: from the Hyundai Studios in Jacksonville at the Miller Electric Center.
0:24
Speaker 3: Bucky Brooks, as always, I'm assuming is in Los Angeles. Bucky,
0:28
Speaker 3: we're in week one, buddy. We're in week one.
0:31
Speaker 2: It's finally here. We finally get to talk about real
0:32
Speaker 2: ball in that preseason. The games count.
0:36
Speaker 4: And so there's a lot on the line for the
0:38
Speaker 4: Jaguars taking on the Cleveland Browns this weekend.
0:40
Speaker 3: It's I always am struck by how much you feel
0:45
Speaker 3: the energy change. And I guess it's you almost never
0:51
Speaker 3: get used to it, even though, you know, it's coming.
0:54
Speaker 3: And I think you generally really feel it. I've always
0:57
Speaker 3: said you feel it in that first quarter and the
0:59
Speaker 3: third quarter of that opener when you're watching it. And
1:05
Speaker 3: I always get this sensation of, oh, this is so
1:08
Speaker 3: much different than regular season, I mean, than preseason. I mean,
1:12
Speaker 3: it looks realer. And there are years I get a sensation, Bucky,
1:17
Speaker 3: of I got fooled again. Meaning I forgot how different
1:22
Speaker 3: the offseason and preseason games are because you see teams
1:26
Speaker 3: running the ball. You see teams just bringing more. You
1:30
Speaker 3: see guys who, veterans who know how to prepare and
1:34
Speaker 3: get through preseason. They ain't doing that anymore. They're playing.
1:38
Speaker 3: And it's just a different, it's professional football. And I
1:43
Speaker 3: get all this is obvious, but you just feel it
1:46
Speaker 3: so much week one.
1:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, you do feel it.
1:50
Speaker 4: John, I remember coming into the league and they talked
1:51
Speaker 4: about there are four different speeds when it comes to playing.
1:55
Speaker 2: There's preseason, there's regular season, there's postseason, and then there's
1:58
Speaker 2: Super Bowl.
2:00
Speaker 4: And every time you step up a notch, the game
2:03
Speaker 4: gets faster and more physical. And we have heard the
2:07
Speaker 4: Jaguars talk about playing with the level of violence and
2:09
Speaker 4: unleashing that violence on their foes. Well, now in the
2:12
Speaker 4: regular season, that's when you begin to really see that.
2:15
Speaker 4: You talk about running through demand when it comes to
2:17
Speaker 4: making contact. You talk about finishing your blocks with a
2:20
Speaker 4: lot of force. You talk about finishing your runs, falling forward.
2:24
Speaker 4: All of that matters. And so you will see a
2:26
Speaker 4: different urgency than we've seen during preseason and in training
2:30
Speaker 4: camp because now it really matters. And when you only
2:33
Speaker 4: get 17 opportunities, yeah, you better bring your A game
2:37
Speaker 4: each and every week out.
2:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're going to talk a lot about physicality in
2:40
Speaker 3: the next segment, but... Huddle Up with Bucky Brooks is
2:44
Speaker 3: brought to you by Fields Auto Group Jacksonville. See Fields first,
2:49
Speaker 3: Jacksonville's premier luxury auto group. Go to fieldsauto.com. Bucky, the
2:54
Speaker 3: first thing I want to do is just get an
2:56
Speaker 3: overall look at this team heading into week one. We
3:00
Speaker 3: haven't talked since a couple weeks ago. Team's been cut.
3:05
Speaker 3: You saw three preseason games, all of that. They play
3:08
Speaker 3: their reserves all through preseason, which I think, you know,
3:12
Speaker 3: it Buckle up on that regard because that's what teams
3:15
Speaker 3: are going to increasingly do. It's clearly Liam Cohen's philosophy,
3:19
Speaker 3: focused on the joint practices. To you, Bucky, and maybe
3:25
Speaker 3: you can't really tell because you weren't at the joint practices,
3:28
Speaker 3: but how ready does this team feel? I'll throw it
3:30
Speaker 3: up to you, the analyst, to discuss that as we start.
3:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like they're ready to go.
3:36
Speaker 4: And it seems like that first joint practice session, against
3:39
Speaker 4: the Saints was a wake-up call.
3:41
Speaker 2: I would liken it to getting a little water splashed
3:43
Speaker 2: in your.
3:43
Speaker 4: Face, understanding the different levels that you have to go
3:47
Speaker 4: to when you're facing another team. And then we heard
3:50
Speaker 4: resounding sounds of dominance when it came to the way
3:54
Speaker 4: that those joint practices looked against the Panthers in terms
3:56
Speaker 4: of the physicality.
3:57
Speaker 2: And the same thing was said when they later took
3:59
Speaker 2: on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
4:01
Speaker 4: This team certainly understands how they want to play and
4:05
Speaker 4: who they are when it comes to the physicality and toughness.
4:08
Speaker 4: But now it's taking it up a notch because the
4:10
Speaker 4: team that is coming in, regardless of what people will
4:12
Speaker 4: say about the record, the one thing that has always
4:15
Speaker 4: been talked about when it comes to the Cleveland Browns
4:17
Speaker 4: is their physicality and toughness. And so can the Jaguars
4:21
Speaker 4: turn the crank a little bit to make sure that
4:23
Speaker 4: they don't wait to kind of warm up to get
4:26
Speaker 4: into the game, but from the opening kick, they're on
4:29
Speaker 4: it and they're ready to play at a high level.
4:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can lose sight of it, but I think–
4:36
Speaker 3: There was something about the joint practices this year and
4:39
Speaker 3: the last couple weeks. I'm kind of going over some
4:41
Speaker 3: stuff we talked about in the last podcast, but this
4:46
Speaker 3: just struck me as a professional team getting ready for
4:49
Speaker 3: the season. I think in year two under Cohen, they
4:52
Speaker 3: sort of understood his message maybe a little bit of
4:58
Speaker 3: after that Saints practice, when he talks, they listen, and
5:04
Speaker 3: they respond, and they understand what he's getting at That
5:07
Speaker 3: seems very routine and logical, but I don't know that
5:12
Speaker 3: it happens on every team. But to me, this felt
5:15
Speaker 3: like a team that knew how to get ready. As
5:17
Speaker 3: soon as they got that little wake-up call and Liam said, hey, guys,
5:21
Speaker 3: this is not how we prepare. This is not how
5:23
Speaker 3: we do it. The next two were exactly what you want.
5:26
Speaker 3: It just feels like he knows this team. They know
5:29
Speaker 3: each other. They know the coach. Those are all the
5:33
Speaker 3: little things that I think maybe people who aren't around
5:35
Speaker 3: it all the time might miss. But I think it's
5:38
Speaker 3: really important. They're a big favorite, Bucky. Seven, eight points.
5:45
Speaker 3: But in week one, you've been around it as long
5:50
Speaker 3: or longer than I have. Point spreads never mean anything
5:54
Speaker 3: in the NFL. Favorites never mean anything, all that stuff.
5:57
Speaker 3: But week one of the regular season is really when
6:01
Speaker 3: none of it matters. Once you're into that second series–
6:08
Speaker 3: It's go time and weird stuff happens in this week.
6:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, we never know.
6:12
Speaker 4: I mean, the NFL is different than college where you
6:15
Speaker 4: have preseason polls, but you don't have scrimmages or things
6:18
Speaker 4: where you get an indicator of an indication of how
6:21
Speaker 4: good or bad a team is. We have preseason games,
6:24
Speaker 4: but that's like a completely different season. Like the people
6:27
Speaker 4: that are playing are your backups, your bubble guys, not
6:30
Speaker 4: necessarily your starters in the first ring. So we really
6:34
Speaker 4: don't know how good the Jags team are. and we
6:38
Speaker 4: don't know what the Browns are doing because the Browns
6:40
Speaker 4: also have.
6:40
Speaker 2: A new coach. So this will be a bit of
6:42
Speaker 2: a feeling out process early. I'll say this. You're just
6:48
Speaker 2: trying to survive the first game.
6:50
Speaker 3: Right.
6:50
Speaker 4: You're just trying to get through the first game so
6:52
Speaker 4: you can get the film, make the corrections, and get
6:55
Speaker 4: to the second week. And I think I have to
6:57
Speaker 4: warn people, last year, the Las Vegas Raiders absolutely hyped
7:02
Speaker 4: the New England Patriots.
7:02
Speaker 2: The first game of the season.
7:03
Speaker 3: That's right.
7:04
Speaker 2: And we saw how that ended up. So.
7:07
Speaker 4: We don't want to overreact to anything. We certainly hope
7:09
Speaker 4: that the Jaguars are ready to go. But, man, the
7:13
Speaker 4: first week of the season, it's anybody's guess in terms
7:16
Speaker 4: of what these teams are going to look like when
7:18
Speaker 4: they take the field.
7:19
Speaker 3: Final thing in this segment, it really– sometimes when coaches speak,
7:25
Speaker 3: you hear them talk so much that you don't really
7:27
Speaker 3: listen and you assume that most coaches are just kind
7:30
Speaker 3: of saying stuff. But Liam's not like that. Yeah. I
7:34
Speaker 3: think in both of his press conferences this week, he
7:37
Speaker 3: has talked about there being a little bit more of
7:40
Speaker 3: an element of this one's about us and it's always
7:45
Speaker 3: about us, but there's, it's so tough to game plan
7:49
Speaker 3: for week one. And again, just from being around Liam
7:53
Speaker 3: a little bit, he really loves game planning. So, so
7:58
Speaker 3: these week ones where he doesn't have a lot of tape,
8:01
Speaker 3: it's like, It's like the kid who can't get into
8:03
Speaker 3: the science lab, right? He can't quite get what he
8:06
Speaker 3: wants to do done. Not that he's not game planning,
8:08
Speaker 3: but you know what I'm getting at. It's hard to
8:11
Speaker 3: see tendencies. But you really are just playing this week.
8:16
Speaker 3: It's about who's better and who executes better. There's less
8:20
Speaker 3: pencil whipping going on in week one than there is
8:24
Speaker 3: other weeks.
8:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
8:26
Speaker 4: This would be like a Tony Dungy special. We're just
8:28
Speaker 4: going to do our stuff and not worry about what
8:29
Speaker 4: the other team does.
8:30
Speaker 3: Right.
8:30
Speaker 4: And I think in the opening game, it has to
8:33
Speaker 4: be like that. Like you have a generic game plan,
8:35
Speaker 4: which is generic coverages and those things. And as you
8:39
Speaker 4: get into the game, then you can begin to kind
8:42
Speaker 4: of start honing on what the other team is doing
8:45
Speaker 4: and whatever. So to me, the way this game looks
8:47
Speaker 4: the first quarter, it'd be completely different by the time
8:50
Speaker 4: you get to the third quarter in terms of understanding
8:53
Speaker 4: what the other team is doing, understanding, okay, what do
8:56
Speaker 4: we have in our playbook specifically designed to take that away?
9:00
Speaker 4: And it goes from guessing to now reacting to what
9:04
Speaker 4: they show. And you have to be able to, in essence,
9:09
Speaker 4: weather the storm early so we.
9:11
Speaker 2: Can get them late.
9:12
Speaker 4: And I think that's the approach that everyone needs to
9:14
Speaker 4: walk into the stadium with.
9:16
Speaker 2: It may get a little rocky early, but we'll settle in.
9:19
Speaker 4: And normally when you settle in, the better team will
9:21
Speaker 4: win in the end.
9:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I always encourage people to listen to Liam's pressers.
9:24
Speaker 3: Not every coach that I've covered I would encourage all
9:27
Speaker 3: the time. But he actually lets you in a little
9:29
Speaker 3: bit on that subject, Bucky, where he said this week,
9:32
Speaker 3: something along the lines of, yeah, you just want to
9:35
Speaker 3: get into week one and then look and see what
9:38
Speaker 3: they're doing, see what they believe in, see what you saw,
9:44
Speaker 3: what's coming. He wants to get something he can chew
9:47
Speaker 3: on that's real, that he can tell the guys, okay,
9:50
Speaker 3: this is what they're doing. Here's how we're going to
9:51
Speaker 3: counter it. And you can kind of tell he goes
9:54
Speaker 3: into it with a bunch of stuff, but not really
9:57
Speaker 3: wanting to give him too many answers because you don't
9:59
Speaker 3: want to confuse him. So there's a lot of game
10:02
Speaker 3: planning on the fly, if you will, like in real time,
10:04
Speaker 3: which is sort of fascinating.
10:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is one of those things.
10:08
Speaker 4: So one of the things that Liam has always talked about, man,
10:11
Speaker 4: I want the team to play fast.
10:12
Speaker 2: I want them to be free.
10:13
Speaker 4: I don't want them to be hesitant based on, what
10:17
Speaker 4: it is that is cluttering their mind. And so you
10:20
Speaker 4: go in with a very generic game plan. Hey, let's
10:22
Speaker 4: just run our best stuff. Whatever our best stuff is,
10:25
Speaker 4: what the quarterback likes, what the running back, the receivers like,
10:27
Speaker 4: let's do those things first. And then as we get
10:30
Speaker 4: into it and we find that there's some opportunities to
10:33
Speaker 4: specifically attack them with some other things.
10:36
Speaker 2: On the call sheet, we'll do that.
10:38
Speaker 4: But part of why you do all the things that
10:40
Speaker 4: you do over the course of the offseason and OTAs
10:43
Speaker 4: where you're building these other things out, right? He talked
10:47
Speaker 4: about the passing game and how they worked on the
10:49
Speaker 4: passing game during the spring. Well, part of it is, hey,
10:51
Speaker 4: let's have some of these things in the holster where
10:54
Speaker 4: minimum practice time, but maximum execution because we've done it
10:58
Speaker 4: so much in the spring. Hey guys, we know, remember
11:00
Speaker 4: this play? Let's just call it a bomb. Now we're
11:04
Speaker 4: going to go to it in the second quarter. We
11:05
Speaker 4: haven't practiced enough, but remember where everyone is lined up.
11:08
Speaker 4: So some of those things you have in the holster,
11:11
Speaker 4: and you're just making sure, okay, this is the time
11:13
Speaker 4: when we can use it because this team affords us
11:16
Speaker 4: the opportunity to attack. We may not have repped it
11:19
Speaker 4: a ton, but we have so many reps in the
11:21
Speaker 4: bank that we still can call and feel confident about
11:23
Speaker 4: it being executed well.
11:24
Speaker 3: All right. When we return to the Huddle Up podcast
11:29
Speaker 3: with Bucky Brooks, we will look ahead to week one
11:32
Speaker 3: and specifically the Jaguars offense and the Browns defense.
11:38
Speaker 5: I think you always want to start off fast. You
11:41
Speaker 5: want to start fast. You want to win for momentum purposes,
11:46
Speaker 5: for whatever the next steps are. But I don't think
11:52
Speaker 5: there's so many teams that obviously have poor starts and
11:57
Speaker 5: end up having really good years. So it's like trying
11:59
Speaker 5: not to live and die by every game, especially not
12:02
Speaker 5: the first one. You're like, there's enough on these guys
12:05
Speaker 5: as it is. There's enough anxiety involved. um for week
12:09
Speaker 5: one in general all.
12:13
Speaker 3: Right welcome back to huddle up with bucky brooks i'm
12:16
Speaker 3: john osier and sunday's game against the browns bucky is
12:19
Speaker 3: presented by publics where shopping is a pleasure um i
12:24
Speaker 3: like what he said there at the top uh i
12:27
Speaker 3: like that he's a professional football coach and knows that
12:29
Speaker 3: you have to balance uh look you want to win
12:32
Speaker 3: week one but This also can't be college football where
12:36
Speaker 3: the special teams coach is jumping all over the field
12:40
Speaker 3: and jumping over his guys and being so fired up
12:44
Speaker 3: that if you lose week one, look, is it a
12:47
Speaker 3: must-win game? Well, I don't know. We've got 16 more
12:49
Speaker 3: to play. So you have to keep it in perspective. And, again,
12:53
Speaker 3: I think he always does such a great job at
12:55
Speaker 3: that that I'm not surprised. But it's the NFL. So
12:59
Speaker 3: I want to get into the offense a little bit, Bucky. Mm-hmm.
13:04
Speaker 3: Trevor Lawrence is interesting to me because it seems like
13:09
Speaker 3: people are assuming that he's an inconsistent guy who's got
13:16
Speaker 3: to prove himself and that he's not what he was
13:19
Speaker 3: the last 10 games. Bucky, I think he's what he
13:22
Speaker 3: is the last 10 games. But I get that that's
13:26
Speaker 3: a storyline. I think for the first five or six
13:29
Speaker 3: weeks of the season– We haven't talked about it a
13:32
Speaker 3: whole lot, but I think that's going to wind up
13:34
Speaker 3: being a big foundation piece of the first five or
13:38
Speaker 3: six weeks. If he's that, this team is good for
13:41
Speaker 3: a long time. And I think he is that.
13:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think he is that because he has a
13:46
Speaker 4: coach that believes in him and he believes in the coach.
13:49
Speaker 4: You see that this is a relationship business and how
13:52
Speaker 4: important it is for everyone to be on the same page.
13:55
Speaker 4: And Liam and Trevor certainly have a trust and a
13:58
Speaker 4: bond that is solid and And it's been built and
14:01
Speaker 4: established in terms of being able to go through tough
14:04
Speaker 4: stuff together.
14:05
Speaker 3: In the fire.
14:05
Speaker 2: With Trevor. Yeah. With Trevor, he.
14:08
Speaker 4: Has shown in this offense that he absolutely can play
14:11
Speaker 4: at an MVP level.
14:13
Speaker 2: And he showed that down the stretch.
14:14
Speaker 4: Now, the next thing to go from good to great
14:17
Speaker 4: in terms of him getting the respect that he deserves
14:20
Speaker 4: is about him stacking together consistent performances and this team winning.
14:25
Speaker 4: We can talk about the team performance in terms of
14:26
Speaker 4: being up and down. Have a great year, then follow
14:29
Speaker 4: it up with a not so great year. Have a run,
14:31
Speaker 4: but not consistently put it together. The thing that everyone
14:35
Speaker 4: is hoping for from the organization is that if number
14:38
Speaker 4: 16 is consistent and consistently playing at a high level, well,
14:42
Speaker 4: the team is going to be consistent and always one
14:44
Speaker 4: of those teams that we talk about. So, yeah, like
14:46
Speaker 4: there's a lot of kind of wait and see around
14:50
Speaker 4: Trevor Lawrence. But, man, I'm as confident as I've ever
14:52
Speaker 4: been that number 16 is that dude.
14:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, I really am too. You never know in this league,
14:58
Speaker 3: but I just kind of believe what we saw late
15:02
Speaker 3: last season. I think the first part was about him
15:04
Speaker 3: figuring out. It was about him and Liam gaining trust,
15:08
Speaker 3: and once they did, it took off. So that brings
15:11
Speaker 3: us to the running offense. Sort of tie this in together.
15:17
Speaker 3: Offensive line had some– it's been a storyline, but to
15:20
Speaker 3: me in the preseason– It's been a storyline that I
15:26
Speaker 3: don't worry about that much. I don't know how good
15:31
Speaker 3: the offensive line is going to be. I mean, I
15:33
Speaker 3: don't know where it's going to rank. But I guess, Bucky,
15:38
Speaker 3: am I wrong to trust that it's at least going
15:41
Speaker 3: to be functional? I mean, it was functional all last year,
15:44
Speaker 3: even in the spots where I think even they would say, yeah,
15:47
Speaker 3: it wasn't our best game. But it was never disastrous.
15:50
Speaker 3: So I think I know where the floor is, and
15:53
Speaker 3: I just feel like there's parts and there's consistency and
15:56
Speaker 3: there's depth that I think it's going to be something
15:59
Speaker 3: they can rely on whatever level that reaches.
16:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I can't remember if you were in the
16:04
Speaker 4: production meeting when we had Robert Hainsey come in for
16:07
Speaker 4: one of the preseason games, and he was just talking
16:09
Speaker 4: about the continuity and the chemistry and how important it
16:11
Speaker 4: is for that group to work together and how important
16:14
Speaker 4: it is in that room to share information because– They're
16:17
Speaker 4: the only unit that really has to operate five as one.
16:21
Speaker 4: And when you have the kind of interchangeable parts that
16:23
Speaker 4: the Jaguars have shown that they.
16:24
Speaker 2: Have by moving guys around.
16:26
Speaker 4: Going from right tackle to left tackle and playing tackle
16:29
Speaker 4: and guard and musical chairs along the front, I think
16:32
Speaker 4: there's a lot of confidence that no matter who's up
16:35
Speaker 4: and who's available, that this offense and this offensive line
16:38
Speaker 4: will be able to play at the standard. And when
16:41
Speaker 4: we talk about the standard and what they really want
16:43
Speaker 4: to be, a physical football team that can run the
16:46
Speaker 4: ball whenever they want to while also protecting the quarterback
16:49
Speaker 4: and taking shots.
16:49
Speaker 2: To create explosive plays.
16:51
Speaker 4: This offensive line is certainly good enough to be able
16:54
Speaker 4: to do that. And with Cole Van Linden returning and
16:57
Speaker 4: with Emmanuel Pregnon kind of seeming like he's going to
16:59
Speaker 4: carve out a role, and Anton Harrison settling in at
17:03
Speaker 4: the left side, man, I am optimistic that the group
17:07
Speaker 4: that we really worried about last year may go from
17:10
Speaker 4: being a weakness to to potentially a strength for the team,
17:14
Speaker 4: which would be great to see.
17:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny. As you cover the league and around
17:19
Speaker 3: the league for a little while, sometimes there are storylines
17:25
Speaker 3: that Nationals talk about, and then there's the real stuff
17:30
Speaker 3: around the team that you know is sort of going
17:32
Speaker 3: to decide the season. Everybody nationally talks about Trevor Lawrence
17:36
Speaker 3: and Travis Hunter, et cetera. To me, the offensive line slash–
17:42
Speaker 3: Chris Rodriguez, Bashell Tootin. This team was dynamic offensively last year,
17:48
Speaker 3: but it wants to run, and it wants to be
17:52
Speaker 3: a more reliable running team. And that's the spine of
17:57
Speaker 3: the team going into the season. That's what Liam wants.
17:59
Speaker 3: I think that's what he wants to see. Tying that
18:04
Speaker 3: in with the Browns, this is a tough task on
18:07
Speaker 3: that front. So I think that's where it's sort of
18:10
Speaker 3: man against man on Sunday.
18:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
18:13
Speaker 4: It is going to be a tough task because they
18:15
Speaker 4: are going to get after it. I mean, Jerry verse
18:17
Speaker 4: comes over from the LA Rams. Malik Collins is a
18:20
Speaker 4: guy that is certainly there. Mason Graham was the fifth
18:22
Speaker 4: overall pick when we drafted Travis Hunter. They have some
18:26
Speaker 4: really good talent there. Carson Schlesinger was defensive rookie of
18:29
Speaker 4: the year. And he's a guy that we talk about
18:30
Speaker 4: being potentially a Perenna all pro. So that front seven
18:34
Speaker 4: is going to test the metal of the Jaguars front
18:37
Speaker 4: line and also.
18:39
Speaker 2: The running backs.
18:39
Speaker 4: And, I am curious to see because there's been a
18:42
Speaker 4: lot made about Travis Etienne going away and who is
18:46
Speaker 4: going to be the answer at running back and how
18:48
Speaker 4: they're going to do it by a committee. And there's
18:50
Speaker 4: a lot of trust in the building and Chris Rodriguez
18:52
Speaker 4: and even Basil Tutin. How does the flow of the
18:55
Speaker 4: game dictate who's on the field? And do we see
18:58
Speaker 4: and feel a difference in the running game with Rodriguez
19:02
Speaker 4: and Basil Tutin?
19:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, you've got that and you've got how do they
19:08
Speaker 3: use Travis on her? And you've got 12 and 13 personnel.
19:13
Speaker 3: I mean, I trust it because we saw last year
19:20
Speaker 3: with Liam Cohen that you can trust his offenses. Whatever
19:22
Speaker 3: he's going to do, I think you're going to figure out.
19:24
Speaker 3: But this could look a lot different, Bucky. And I
19:30
Speaker 3: don't know that I got ozone questions a lot during
19:33
Speaker 3: the preseason. Well, why haven't we seen them use 12
19:36
Speaker 3: and 13 personnel? Well, because their tight ends weren't playing yet.
19:39
Speaker 3: I mean, they weren't playing starters. I mean, you didn't
19:42
Speaker 3: have Strange and Borkature in there. I'm not sure you're
19:43
Speaker 3: going to see the title. But this could look from
19:48
Speaker 3: a guy, I know you love breaking down X's and O's.
19:52
Speaker 3: I got to think after this game, you're going to
19:53
Speaker 3: have a lot to look at because you haven't seen
19:55
Speaker 3: it yet.
19:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's interesting, right?
19:58
Speaker 4: And we know that whatever the Rams are doing, the
20:01
Speaker 4: Jaguars aren't far behind when it comes to trends, right?
20:04
Speaker 2: Naturally, when you have a mentor.
20:05
Speaker 4: Who's had the success that Sean McVay has had, you're
20:08
Speaker 4: going to kind of Pay close attention to what they're doing.
20:10
Speaker 4: Last year, the Rams led the league in the deployment
20:14
Speaker 4: of 13 personnel.
20:16
Speaker 2: They had 331 snaps of that.
20:18
Speaker 4: They averaged 69.5 yards rushing in that, and they had
20:23
Speaker 4: about 38 explosive plays out of that packaging.
20:27
Speaker 3: Which is a ton for that package.
20:28
Speaker 2: What did the Jaguars do? Yeah, the Jaguars then go
20:31
Speaker 2: and get two tight ends. They draft.
20:33
Speaker 4: They go sign Brett and Strange to an extension. And
20:36
Speaker 4: we absolutely know that they're going to go 13 personnel
20:39
Speaker 4: because what it does is it dictates the terms to
20:42
Speaker 4: the defense. Now, hearing how the Browns want to play defense,
20:46
Speaker 4: they want to play nickel personnel all the time. They
20:49
Speaker 4: want to basically be the college version of a 4-2-5
20:51
Speaker 4: with three safeties or three corners on the field.
20:55
Speaker 2: Well, the one thing that.
20:55
Speaker 4: You can't do, you can't trot that package out against
20:59
Speaker 4: 13 because if you have all those little guys against
21:03
Speaker 4: a big package.
21:04
Speaker 2: They're going to run you out the building. And what
21:06
Speaker 2: the Jaguars want.
21:07
Speaker 4: To do is they want to have the ability to
21:09
Speaker 4: dictate to the Browns and say, you're going to get
21:11
Speaker 4: out all this stuff that you worked on all offseason.
21:14
Speaker 2: We're not going to let you get in that.
21:15
Speaker 4: We're going to make you play a base defense where
21:18
Speaker 4: we can put you in a precarious position and we
21:22
Speaker 4: run it down your throat or we find a way
21:24
Speaker 4: to create some explosive plays in the passing game or
21:26
Speaker 4: boost some play action.
21:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny. Liam talked today a little bit about,
21:30
Speaker 3: you know, the Browns have seen, you know, I'm paraphrasing
21:35
Speaker 3: a little bit, but the Browns have seen more of
21:37
Speaker 3: his stuff than he's seen of their stuff. I got
21:41
Speaker 3: a feeling that there's going to be a lot Liam
21:43
Speaker 3: brings out that nobody's seen. So I kind of trust
21:47
Speaker 3: that they won't have scouted everything the Jaguars do on Sunday.
21:51
Speaker 3: We'll be back in a moment talking defense and the
21:53
Speaker 3: matchup with the Browns. This is Huddle Up with Bucky Brooks.
22:01
Speaker 5: Here's the thing I always know about his offense. It's
22:03
Speaker 5: going to be multiple shifts, motions, multiple in the run game.
22:08
Speaker 5: They don't just say, all right, we run zone and
22:09
Speaker 5: that's what we do. There's going to be multiple different
22:12
Speaker 5: auxiliary runs, gaps, traps, whams, perimeters. I've always had a
22:18
Speaker 5: lot of respect for Monk. Monk helped me out tremendously
22:22
Speaker 5: when I got the Kentucky job. We talked a ton
22:25
Speaker 5: about game planning, about the field dimensions, about splits, about tempo,
22:31
Speaker 5: about all that stuff. So I've got a lot of
22:33
Speaker 5: respect for Monk.
22:36
Speaker 3: All right, welcome back to Huddle Up with Bucky Brooks.
22:39
Speaker 3: That was Jaguars head coach Liam Cohen on Browns head
22:42
Speaker 3: coach Todd Munkin. The defensive coverage of the game presented
22:47
Speaker 3: by GEHA, Government Employees Health Association, benefits for federal employees
22:53
Speaker 3: and retirees. Bucky, I want to talk about the– jaguars
22:58
Speaker 3: run defense um i think this is maybe the most
23:06
Speaker 3: overlooked important strength they have because people don't love to
23:11
Speaker 3: talk about run defense in the nfl anymore because it's
23:13
Speaker 3: a passing league but i've always said if you can't
23:15
Speaker 3: stop the run you're never going to right because all
23:19
Speaker 3: the other team all the other team will do is
23:21
Speaker 3: turn around hand the ball off so unless you can
23:24
Speaker 3: stop that um but Do you feel like that automatically
23:29
Speaker 3: translates year to year? To me, run defense is a
23:33
Speaker 3: thing where it travels, it's consistent, because you've got Devon
23:38
Speaker 3: Hamilton and you've got Trayvon Walker and Josh Hines-Allen and
23:41
Speaker 3: those guys are, and Foye, and those guys are stout
23:44
Speaker 3: against the run. Do you see that still being the
23:47
Speaker 3: calling card?
23:48
Speaker 2: Absolutely. It's the number one thing that we have to
23:50
Speaker 2: talk about.
23:50
Speaker 4: And I believe that we're in the, like, There's a
23:54
Speaker 4: trend that's about to come back where we're going to
23:56
Speaker 4: turn back the clock and not quite go back to
23:58
Speaker 4: the 80s, but it may look like the early 90s
24:00
Speaker 4: where we're running the football effectively. Because we're seeing the
24:04
Speaker 4: last few years, teams have really made.
24:06
Speaker 2: A concerted effort to take away the big play on defense.
24:09
Speaker 4: Two high shields, softer zone coverage, not giving up the explosives,
24:14
Speaker 4: and willing to die slow death with the running game,
24:17
Speaker 4: chewing up yards, but not being able to kind of
24:20
Speaker 4: finish it off with the drives. Well, the Jaguars are saying,
24:23
Speaker 4: we're going to turn off the spigot. We're not going
24:25
Speaker 4: to allow you to run the football. And then we're
24:27
Speaker 4: going to force you to throw against our exotic looks
24:30
Speaker 4: on second and third, second or third and long situations.
24:34
Speaker 4: And if you get that, then you get the turnovers
24:37
Speaker 4: because it's all a part of a strategy.
24:40
Speaker 2: Get you backed up. It's obvious passing downs.
24:43
Speaker 4: Bring your exotic pressures up front. Get turnovers off tips
24:46
Speaker 4: and overthrows because the quarterback is being harassed. That has
24:50
Speaker 4: been very effective for the Jaguars. I expect that to
24:53
Speaker 4: continue because they put such an emphasis on stopping the
24:57
Speaker 4: run in Jacksonville.
24:59
Speaker 2: You saw it in the joint practices. You continue to
25:01
Speaker 2: see it in preseason.
25:03
Speaker 4: The Jaguars are not going to allow teams to run
25:05
Speaker 4: on them. And because of that, that's going to always
25:08
Speaker 4: give them a chance to be on the positive end
25:09
Speaker 4: of the takeaway game.
25:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's one thing that fans and people, I think,
25:16
Speaker 3: generally miss is that when I tell them what the Jaguars–
25:21
Speaker 3: emphasize the run well it's a passing league but it's
25:25
Speaker 3: as you said it's so important situationally to be good
25:30
Speaker 3: on first down against the run because the difference in
25:33
Speaker 3: second and six and second and nine in this league
25:37
Speaker 3: dramatically affects how good you are against the pass on
25:40
Speaker 3: those other downs and it's it's maybe the most hidden
25:44
Speaker 3: part of standard NFL analysis is how many people forget
25:51
Speaker 3: You get teams into second and nine, it's a different
25:53
Speaker 3: beast than second and six. And I thought that was
25:57
Speaker 3: a huge key for the Jaguars last year. There were
25:58
Speaker 3: so many plays where if you're watching the game and
26:01
Speaker 3: you feel it, a run would start and you're used
26:05
Speaker 3: to seeing that be a six or be a four-yard
26:08
Speaker 3: run and it stopped in their second and eight. And
26:11
Speaker 3: those two yards can be that huge difference in getting
26:14
Speaker 3: that drive started. When this team tackled people last year,
26:18
Speaker 3: they stopped them for none rather than letting them go
26:20
Speaker 3: for two more I mean, I'm a little in the
26:23
Speaker 3: weeds there, but that's a huge deal for this defense.
26:25
Speaker 2: I thought.
26:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, like Campanelli's really big. They're really big on putting
26:31
Speaker 4: your pads on people. And talking to Cam early in
26:33
Speaker 4: the summer, you talked about there's a human element to
26:35
Speaker 4: the game that we have to embrace, and that's physicality
26:37
Speaker 4: and violence. And what you're talking about early, when you
26:41
Speaker 4: say like stopping the run on early downs and there's
26:45
Speaker 4: a difference between second and sixth and second and ninth,
26:49
Speaker 4: The hardest thing for a defense coordinator to do is
26:51
Speaker 4: to call a defense on what we call a mixed down,
26:53
Speaker 4: meaning it's second and five.
26:56
Speaker 2: They can run it. They can throw it. What's the
26:57
Speaker 2: perfect call?
26:58
Speaker 4: The best down to call a defense is when it's
27:00
Speaker 4: a very predictable situation.
27:03
Speaker 2: Second and long, third and long, obvious pass down.
27:05
Speaker 4: Okay, now let's heat them up and bring the exotics
27:07
Speaker 4: that we have or let's play a loaded zone to
27:10
Speaker 4: make sure that we take that away. You want to
27:12
Speaker 4: be able to win first down because it gives you
27:14
Speaker 4: as the defensive coordinator a an easier path to be
27:17
Speaker 4: able to create pressure and to create more disruption. That
27:20
Speaker 4: is why there's such an emphasis on stopping the run
27:23
Speaker 4: because when most teams run, it's going to be on
27:25
Speaker 4: an early down situation to get to what you talk about,
27:28
Speaker 4: a favorable mix down on second or third down.
27:31
Speaker 3: All right, Bucky, give me a little, I'm going to
27:33
Speaker 3: ask you an impossible question because you can't know that
27:36
Speaker 3: a team's going to do week one, but from what
27:38
Speaker 3: you know about the Browns, what you know about Munkin,
27:40
Speaker 3: his approach, uh, as best as possible, sort of project
27:46
Speaker 3: what the Jaguars defense might see out of the Browns
27:49
Speaker 3: this week.
27:50
Speaker 4: Well, and talking to people around the Browns, they feel
27:52
Speaker 4: really good about their rebuilt offensive line.
27:55
Speaker 2: They have five new.
27:56
Speaker 4: Starters that were not on the team last year.
27:59
Speaker 2: An entire new offensive line.
28:00
Speaker 4: They have a young dynamic receiving core where Jerry Judy is.
28:05
Speaker 2: The old head.
28:06
Speaker 4: But yeah, Isaiah Bond was last year undrafted free agent.
28:09
Speaker 4: They got two guys, Denzel Boston, their second round pick,
28:11
Speaker 4: Casey Concepcion. who some will probably liken to Parker Washington
28:16
Speaker 4: in terms of the way they play and those things.
28:18
Speaker 4: They feel great about those guys. And Deshaun Watson, in fact,
28:23
Speaker 4: he's the X factor, right?
28:25
Speaker 2: He's the X.
28:25
Speaker 4: Factor in terms of this offense has some elements to
28:29
Speaker 4: it that he really thrived in when he was at Houston.
28:32
Speaker 4: And people are talking about, that was a long time ago. Like,
28:35
Speaker 4: why are you going to go back to 2020 when
28:36
Speaker 4: he led the league in passing? Because that's the best
28:38
Speaker 4: that we've seen of him. And I think that appeal...
28:41
Speaker 4: That flash is why Munkin is going there. But I
28:45
Speaker 4: got to tell you, I'm looking at the numbers. Like, John,
28:47
Speaker 4: at one point, Deshaun Watson was the best deep ball,
28:50
Speaker 4: one of the best deep ball throwers in football, where
28:52
Speaker 4: they pushed the ball down the field. It is going
28:53
Speaker 4: to be really important that the Jaguars don't give him
28:56
Speaker 4: an opportunity to find that again.
28:58
Speaker 2: He has been bad.
28:59
Speaker 4: Of late in terms of pushing it down the field,
29:01
Speaker 4: really reluctant to push it. So don't bust the coverage early.
29:05
Speaker 4: Don't give him a cheap one early where he sees
29:07
Speaker 4: the ball go in the basket.
29:08
Speaker 2: You want to continue to put that in.
29:11
Speaker 4: The people around town are saying, this is a two-game
29:14
Speaker 4: audition for Deshaun Watson. Everyone knows their first two games
29:18
Speaker 4: are on the road. If he does not play well,
29:20
Speaker 4: there is an expectation that he will not be the
29:22
Speaker 4: starter in week three. So does that make him play tight, intense,
29:27
Speaker 4: or does he say, screw it, not caring to win,
29:30
Speaker 4: I'm going to let it rip? The hope is that
29:32
Speaker 4: he doesn't let it rip and have a lot of
29:34
Speaker 4: success because then that confidence changes the tenor of their offense.
29:38
Speaker 4: We want them to have struggles early so he plays
29:41
Speaker 4: conservatively and he doesn't give the Jaguars fits like he's
29:45
Speaker 4: given them in the past when he was with Houston
29:47
Speaker 4: and the Texans.
29:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't want Deshaun Watson to be the feel-good
29:50
Speaker 3: story of week one. So that's... That would be bad, Bucky.
29:57
Speaker 3: When we return... we'll close the show talking a little
30:00
Speaker 3: bit more about the Browns on Huddle Up with Bucky Brooks.
30:06
Speaker 6: I got to talk to a couple guys this week
30:07
Speaker 6: about it just feels good to be at week one
30:10
Speaker 6: and game planning and prepping for an opponent. Like you
30:13
Speaker 6: go in the training camp grind just every day, installing
30:16
Speaker 6: kind of every play that you have in your offense
30:18
Speaker 6: and then you get to the end and you know,
30:21
Speaker 6: you've just been doing the same stuff against your defense
30:23
Speaker 6: and I think having the direction now of preparing for
30:27
Speaker 6: an opponent and you got something to game plan for.
30:30
Speaker 6: Like that's the fun part in the puzzle you put
30:31
Speaker 6: together throughout the week and you're mastering your plan and
30:34
Speaker 6: getting ready. Like as a quarterback, you love that because
30:36
Speaker 6: you know what you're doing and what you're trying to get,
30:38
Speaker 6: get to every day.
30:39
Speaker 2: Um, so that's, that's been fun.
30:41
Speaker 6: And I think guys are really excited to be at
30:42
Speaker 6: week one.
30:42
Speaker 3: All right. Huddle up with Bucky Brooks is brought to
30:46
Speaker 3: you by Fields Auto Group, Jacksonville. See Fields first. Jacksonville's
30:51
Speaker 3: premier luxury auto group. Go to fieldsauto.com. Welcome back to
30:56
Speaker 3: Huddle Up with Bucky Brooks. And, uh, Trevor just talked
31:00
Speaker 3: about it, Bucky. It's a different thing week one. They've
31:04
Speaker 3: been through the grind. I'm excited to see what this
31:09
Speaker 3: team really is. But I guess I'm less, I don't
31:17
Speaker 3: want to say nervous, but less uncertain about what I'm
31:19
Speaker 3: going to see. Because you do sort of know what
31:23
Speaker 3: they're going to be and what they want to be.
31:26
Speaker 3: And I guess I'm confident for the first time in
31:28
Speaker 3: a long time that they're going to be that.
31:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, me too. And I think it's really important.
31:32
Speaker 4: And I know people are going to say, how can
31:33
Speaker 4: you even talk about not worrying about the scoreboard or whatever?
31:37
Speaker 4: I think it's really important the first couple of games,
31:39
Speaker 4: ignore the scoreboard and trust your eyes and really get
31:43
Speaker 4: a feel for the team.
31:44
Speaker 2: How does this team feel?
31:46
Speaker 4: Does it feel like they're playing to their standard or
31:49
Speaker 4: like in terms of like the words that we've heard
31:52
Speaker 4: Liam talk about what this team wants to be? Do
31:55
Speaker 4: we begin to see that play out? Are we a
31:57
Speaker 4: physical team? Can we run the football effectively? Do we
31:59
Speaker 4: see the big plays come back? What is Parker Washington
32:02
Speaker 4: and Brian Thomas Jr., Jacoby Myers, Travis Hunter, what are
32:05
Speaker 4: they doing in the passing game to impact it in
32:07
Speaker 4: a positive way?
32:09
Speaker 2: How about defensively? Do we see the physicality show up
32:11
Speaker 2: when it comes to stopping the run? How are we
32:13
Speaker 2: in coverage? Because the code word had been stickier coverage
32:17
Speaker 2: on the outside. Are we playing more man, more zone?
32:20
Speaker 2: What does it look like? Are there leaks? Are we solid?
32:23
Speaker 4: Because defensively, If we're doing the things that align with
32:27
Speaker 4: what the coaches are talking about, regardless of the result,
32:30
Speaker 4: that is a positive benefit that will certainly set us
32:33
Speaker 4: up for success later. Remember, the first half of the
32:36
Speaker 4: year is putting yourself in pole position to make a
32:39
Speaker 4: run down the stretch. So no matter how it starts,
32:44
Speaker 4: can we put ourselves in a position the last eight
32:47
Speaker 4: games to be really ready to make a playoff push
32:50
Speaker 4: and to put ourselves in a position to get into
32:51
Speaker 4: the tournament and do some damage when we get into
32:53
Speaker 4: the tournament?
32:54
Speaker 3: What do you trust the most, Buck, about this team?
32:59
Speaker 4: I trust the most in terms of the chemistry and connection.
33:03
Speaker 4: But I trust the defense being able to stop the run.
33:07
Speaker 4: I trust the defense being able to make critical plays
33:10
Speaker 4: in key moments because they've done it time and time again.
33:13
Speaker 2: And I'm going to say this, what I trust the
33:14
Speaker 2: most is number 16.
33:16
Speaker 4: I believe he is going to exceed expectations in his
33:19
Speaker 4: second year under Liam Cohen. There is a synergy that
33:23
Speaker 4: exists between those two. that it's going to unlock him,
33:27
Speaker 4: and he is going to be the player that everyone
33:29
Speaker 4: thought he was going to be when he was the
33:30
Speaker 4: number one overall pick.
33:31
Speaker 3: Biggest area you're watching that you want to say, okay,
33:35
Speaker 3: I wasn't sure, and now I'm sure?
33:38
Speaker 2: The biggest area I'm watching is the run game.
33:40
Speaker 3: Right.
33:40
Speaker 2: Just because, like, the uncertainty. Like, you have unknowns.
33:43
Speaker 4: Chris Rodriguez, to me, is still an unknown commodity, and
33:46
Speaker 4: I'll say the same thing about Pedro Tutin in the
33:48
Speaker 4: second year.
33:49
Speaker 2: We just don't know what we don't know about them.
33:52
Speaker 4: They could turn out to be a great combination of,
33:55
Speaker 4: that maybe reminds us of Fred Taylor and MJD. But
33:58
Speaker 4: we just don't know because we don't have any tangible
34:00
Speaker 4: evidence that they're going to be that. We're hopeful that
34:04
Speaker 4: they're that.
34:05
Speaker 2: But, man, I don't know. So we need– I have
34:07
Speaker 2: a lot of questions about that.
34:08
Speaker 4: And so I need some confirmation that, oh, okay, we're
34:11
Speaker 4: in good hands.
34:12
Speaker 2: The running game is solid.
34:13
Speaker 3: Final question. Not necessarily predicting, but how do you see
34:19
Speaker 3: Sunday going? What's the vibe? How are you going to feel?
34:25
Speaker 2: I think we win.
34:27
Speaker 4: I think it's going to be a clunky game early,
34:30
Speaker 4: and then we settle in, and in the second quarter,
34:32
Speaker 4: we kind of begin to have our way in terms
34:34
Speaker 4: of being able to run the football and kind of
34:36
Speaker 4: finish it the right way.
34:37
Speaker 2: But early games, you're looking for the miscues, right? Like,
34:42
Speaker 2: can we avoid beating ourselves?
34:43
Speaker 4: Turnovers, silly plays, blown assignments, trying to do too much
34:47
Speaker 4: where we're not on the same page. To me, this
34:49
Speaker 4: is a game where not that we have to keep
34:51
Speaker 4: it close, But if we just line up and play
34:53
Speaker 4: and do the things that we've done through our camp,
34:55
Speaker 4: we'll win the game.
34:56
Speaker 2: It might be tighter than some people think, but I
34:58
Speaker 2: expect us to win.
35:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, what you just described is how perennial playoff teams
35:04
Speaker 3: win in week one. That's the blueprint. So that's what
35:10
Speaker 3: people expect and want the Jaguars to be. So we'll
35:13
Speaker 3: start finding out Sunday if that's what they're going to
35:15
Speaker 3: be this year. That's a little segue into the closer, Bucky.
35:19
Speaker 3: That was professional– Hosting is what I just did there.
35:23
Speaker 2: Professional hosting.
35:24
Speaker 3: We're going to say goodbye because that's what JP told
35:26
Speaker 3: me to say at this point. Thanks to Brent Reber.
35:29
Speaker 3: Thanks to Joe Fortunato. Thanks to Bucky Brooks. I'm John
35:32
Speaker 3: Ogier for Bucky Brooks. This has been the Huddle Up Podcast.