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O-Zone Podcast: Abry Jones · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Ozone podcast presented by by Star Credit Union,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: featuring Jaguars senior writer John Osher and executive producer Dave
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: decandis this week's guest. I think most Jaguars fans who
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: have followed this team for a long time know him,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: but maybe people don't know him quite that well. He
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: hasn't been a full time starter his whole career. Hasn't
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: been a pro Bowl front line, always on the interview guy.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: But what he has been is a rock solid part
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: of the defensive line rotation, a key leader on this team.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: And finally, he is a leader in the sense of
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: being a captain this year. I'm talking about nose tackle
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Avery Jones. It's a guy who gives a great interview,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: great personality. I think people are going to enjoy it. Avery, welcome,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: We appreciate it. And I am talking to you for
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: the first time as Jaguars captain. What does that mean?
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Do you assume knowing you that that means a lot? Uh,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: it means a great deal. I mean I've been here
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: for years, as you know people would know, and I've had,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: i guess the privilege to be behind some great leaders.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Roy Miller Moleague Coles saying buzz is always a great one. Uh. So,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: you know, I was able to be behind them, we'll
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: follow them as they led the teams in the past
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that, and getting the loss of so
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: many people that we had on this team and just
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: being so one of the things that hasn't changed. I
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: really felt like it was my year to really step
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: up and take on that mantle. And talking to you
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: over the years, I can imagine that when you first
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: walked in the door in two thousand thirteen, which is
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: a long time ago now, Avery, it's uh, I can't
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: imagine that you ever thought at that point that this
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: day would come. Mean, that's a long, long journey to
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: become a leader, and that's pretty rare in the NFL.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I guess how proud of you or how proud are
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: you of the longevity, the perseverance all of those things,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: because that's not always the case in the NFL. It
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: can be a short career. Oh most definitely. I Mean
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: when I came in, I was thinking, maybe I just
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: get me like a couple of years on practice squad
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and find a way to really make my niche in
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the league. You know, get with a team and you know,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: live out my dreams and you know, stuff you think
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: about coming through high school and stuff like that. But once, uh,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: once I saw I was actor roster from the get go,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: I was really just starting to see this is something
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: I can do. This is I can really make a
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: career out of this, and uh, I just gotta work
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: hard for it. So I mean, I'm extremely happy. I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: mean it's changed my life for the most. Uh got
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: to live out my dreams playing for an NFL team,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: being an NFL player, and uh, I don't know, it's
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: how it's really hard to putting work. I mean, you
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: come in and you know how the league is. You know,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: when you're outside the door, it's all glitz and glamorous,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: and you come in and you really see how much
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: of a business and how cutthroat they can be. And
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: for you to be able to stand eight years later,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: still in the same spot looking around the locker room
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: was like I knew. I remember when he came in.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I remember when he came in. I remember when he
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: used to be numbered whatever and stuff like that. It's
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: you know, it's really big, and you know, sometimes I
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: might get I don't want to take the placing, but
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: you know, just feel like it's the norm. And then
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: we'll get new people to the team and I'll talk
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: to them and they asked me how long I've been
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: in the league. I'm like eight. And then you know,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: the next question is always like all here, and I'm
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: like yeah, And you know, once I was sailing like
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: you know, they've all been here. It's really just a
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: look goes in the eyes and has really just shown
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: like how big of accomplishment this is. For um, You've
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: come a long way from Rby Jones. Right, Oh man,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: the locker was spelled day one. I don't know how
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: that happened. It was spelled that way in the locker. Yeah.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: When I first got here, my first day of locker
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: room was Rby. I thought it was just some some
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: joke because I met Washing the combine and I knew
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: he was a funny guy, so I thought from him.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: But they, you know, I guess it was an honest mistake. Okay.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: I think I misspelled it in the first story that
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I wrote, and I saw it in different places misspelled,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: but I didn't realize that. I mean, it's it's obviously
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: an easy mistake. Avery's not an incredibly common name Arby's
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: out there, so I guess it makes sense. But I
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: mean that just shows you they really didn't know who
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: you were when you came in. Nah, and there was
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: just enough. And then the name thing is just something
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I've been fighting my whole life. So I was just like,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: I tell him, whenever I get a chance, you know, hopeful.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I told him that afternoon. It happened like aufter a day.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know the hope you do making those things,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: but it was fast about it. I appreciate that. What
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: do you think the biggest reason is avery that you've
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: been able to last is long? Really stay healthy? I mean,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: I guess that's part of it. But there's got to
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: be a professionalism, a daily routine that you have because
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: you see a lot of guys who come in who
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: you figure out pretty quickly aren't gonna make it, and
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: you just sort of keep going. Is there a key
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: to it? Oh, you just gotta love ball. I mean,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: I think that's pretty much what it comes down to.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: I think one of the things that helped me on
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the early beginning was that I didn't have trouble getting
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: the playbook. I didn't have trouble getting the terminology, I
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: could speaking back, you know, and that type of thing
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: builds confidence and coaches. When you know the lingo and
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: you can talk properly, you don't mess up on and
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: feel things like that. And I think another plus is
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: just my side. You know, I play knows, but I
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: can also play three technique I played in I played
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: rush before, you know, on heavy packages or when somebody
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: just went down. So I think, you know, just go
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: back to the old adage of the more you can do,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: the better. So I always try to make your models
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: available to do many different things. So I always try
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: to be a nice little Swiss uh Swiss army knife
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: for the D line. I got you something interesting, and
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I want to get to obviously this team and your
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: thoughts on it here in a minute, because you have
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: better perspective on where a team is at than anybody.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: But something you said in your first media availability about
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the COVID stuff really stood out. When you were asked
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: about if you thought that the team would make it through.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: I forget the warning of the question, but your message
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: was basically, the older guys were telling younger guys, this
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: is serious, and you don't want to be the one
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: that causes a problem with this. And I thought that
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: was a really insightful quote of I think fans on
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: the outside didn't really realize how seriously players were gonna
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: take this, how seriously players were going to take to
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the rules. How much of a message was that if
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm getting at, just hey, young guys,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: this is our profession, this is real. We all need
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: to be on the same page on this one. Um.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: I mean this stuff we talked about really daily in
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: the locker room with the coaches and you know, just
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: in between ourselves and stuff like that, because uh, you know,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: when we first came back, uh MP told us as like,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: you know, hey, you came back for two reasons. Either
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: you love ball or you love getting paid. So yeah,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: oh both. And my thing is just you know, trying
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: to tell them is that I understand you're new in
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the league and things like that, and this is kind
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: of a weird year to come in, but you gotta
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: do everything to protect yourself because protecting yourself is gonna
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: protect this team and it's gonna keep the virus out,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: it's not gonna spread. Uh And then but then again,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: also you just gotta understand that young guys are gonna
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: be young guys, and if they want to do young
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: guys stuff, you gotta tell them. You know, there's you know,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: there's ways to do it. You know what I'm saying.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: If you want to spend time with people, have people
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: come see and stuff like that, make sure they get
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: a test where they come see you. You know what
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I mean. You're making a lot of money. Now. If
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: you got someone to come see, you need to put
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: them in the hotel too. You know, They're absolutely clear
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: things like that. To protect yourself because this is your
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: career too. You know a lot of bone head and
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: mistakes are not forgiving at this level. And you know,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: seeing as you know, they might have a vaccine sometimes soon.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: I was reading something about that. But you don't want
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: to be known as a guy that brought it inside
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: the build it and you got somebody sick, and lord
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: forbids you get you know, someone high profile sick. I
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: mean you come in and you was running the streets
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: and and you got gardens sick. You're gonna have the
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: whole city against you know, Team City everybody, you know
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: what I mean, and so um other teams see that.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: So you don't want to be known as the bone
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: headed guy. They couldn't stay indoors. Now, obviously, you guys
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: read things. Everybody's talking about this team, everybody's talking about Tank,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: everybody's talking about draft picks next year. I know that's
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: not how players think when you guys are together talking
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: about this What are you guys thinking about the season
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: right now? Oh, pretty much like my thoughts and what
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I pretty much sell the line is just like you know,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: you know, um people want to go. They can say
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: all they want, Like I don't listen to the media,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I don't read Twitter. Like to me, I just think
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: that's like a lie. You know. You know, I'm you know,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: quote unquote, I guess the old guy now in the league.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: But you know, I came up on Twitter, you know,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: pretty much like I was around the first grade. And
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: so I mean, I'm still on Twitter and things like that.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: So I'm not gonna believe that you don't see what
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: they're saying about us. And when it pretty much comes
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: to the D line, I'm just letting them know that
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: these past couple of years we have lost really great players.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: People might be thinking out loud, might be talking out loud,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: just thinking that the production is gonna go down in
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the D line room, and I'm just want to continue
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to tell them, like, you know, we got a playmakers
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: still here. I know there's been a lot of fan
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: backlash on Tavin, but I've I've really loved his growth. Uh,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Josh had an amazing year last year. He's gonna continue
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: to grow, especially trying to fill that void of Calais
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: and Yon being gone. I've told him, like, you know,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: this is really what you go have to shine like
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: there's no more one on ones, like they're scheming on
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: you because you are you know, you are our best guy.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: And you know we got new guys in with Adam,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: he's filing in the big ind so, you know, just
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: try to catch him up to speed. But he's been
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: doing a great job also being a strong man at
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the point of attack for that for us like Las was,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and just also just trying to make sure I stay
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: up on my game and keep everybody corrowd and keep
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: everybody together and let them know that this new D
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: line that we have is gonna make plays. I mean
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: from top to bottom. You know, we just got d Ham,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: We definitely got Casey, you know, we got Smooth. I
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: definitely want a big year out of Smooth. I told
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: him last year. You know, he finally got his chance.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: He ended up with sack with six sacks, but I'm
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: gonna need him get more productive on the third down
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: and his chances on on first and second. I need
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: ten out of him. And just you know, that's our
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: mindset right now that people might be looking down, but
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: we know we got a room full of ball players
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: and we're gonna go out here and make some shaping.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: And it's pretty much it's been a team all off
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: season stopping the run. Feel better about that going in
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: then you did at the end of last year from
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: game you feel like the steps have been made and
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: you feel good about that area. Yes, and um, you
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: know we're not doing nothing new drills or anything, but
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: it's more accountability within the d line room. I mean,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: we got guys telling people like A, you know, we're
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: seeing someone film that's not good enough. We don't like it. Uh,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: different strategies you can use it defeat those blocks, telling
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: each other what we see that that's bringing the blocks,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: so we can know beforehand, you know, trying to be
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: more uh discipline with our eyes and how we see things,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: so we can you know, uh, stay in place on
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: our blocks and really emphasizing on attacking. You're inside, everybody
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: else's outside. Tell me why being on the inside, What
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: do you believe about this team that gives you confidence?
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: What do you see about this bunch that you like
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: that nobody else on the outside can see because they're
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: not in there. Confidence? I mean, that's really what I see.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I see people go out here that want to work.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: They communicate, They're not worried about the outside world. They're
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: not worried about the gathering of draft picks or if
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be here or I'm gonna be there, or
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: if I'm trying to get paid this year. It's just focus.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: It's team. Guys are saying like how far are we
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: gonna go? You know, there's not too much individualism. There's
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: always gonna be some which is I feel like I'm
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: perfectly fine with because if you want to make yourself
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: a great player, then you're gonna make this a great team. So, um,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: the confidence is there, the communication is there. Um, I
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: really see a growth. You know, I feel like we
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: got a lot of young people on this team, but
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: the youngest isn't really there. There's no horse playing. Um,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: there's always gonna be laughing and things like that, but
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: that's because one big family. You know, funny stuff happens.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: But the confidence is that we take when we hit
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the field for practice and how we go over things.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: It's really what you know, you really can't see until
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: some dug said on Monday that he thought this team
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: was gonna be able to handle anything thrown at. It mean,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: it was gonna be able to handle adversity. And I'm
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: assuming he's talking about the same thing you're just talking about.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Meaning it's a bunch that is all on the same page. Uh,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: you sort of agree with in there. There's gonna be
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: a bunch that's gonna be able to handle when something happens,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: maybe better than the last couple of teams at Oh yes,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: most definitely. I think we really adopted you know, control
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: what you can control, and what we control was on
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: that field. I think Guy's gonna go out there and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: we want to play ball. We want to win, Uh,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: you know, we want to win big. We want to compete.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: We want people to know we're not an afterthought. We're
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: not waiting till next year. You know, we're here now
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: and we're gonna play like it. One question on a
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: specific player. I know he's not in your defensive tackle room,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: but he plays by you. You've seen a lot of
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: guys come and go, Uh. What makes Josh Allen different special?
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Besides thaticism? Obviously he's got that. UM. I think one
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: of the things that annoys me and and I love
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: about Josh at the same time is that he's one
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: of those people you know, when you talk in the
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: room and someone says, if you've got a question, ask it.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: There are no dumb questions. He's always gonna ask you
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: know what I mean? Uh, you know, coming out of college,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: being a top ten pick, playing as good as he
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: did last year, and trying to expand on that this year.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: He's not afraid to raise his hand in the room
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: and say, hey, I need a better understanding of this. Hey,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: can we go over this, because I'm really confused on that.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: And I think when you have a person with his athleticism,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: his talent, the biggest thing that you take away from him,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: the biggest thing you really love about him is his
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: ability to be coached. I mean, great players that are
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: are willing to be coaching don't see themselves above coaching
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: are gonna do great things. And I think, uh, he
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: understands that. He understands he needs to know more about
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the game to make more plays, make bigger plays, to
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: expand himself in this league, and things like that. And
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: I'm really happy to watch the process. You like where
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: this thing's going, don't you. I can kind of hearing
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: your voice. Oh yeah, definitely. I Mean my biggest concern was,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: you know, new guys coming in and learning defense and
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: playing fast. And I feel like coach Revs and Coach
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Wass have done a great job with the D line,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: keeping people up the up the speed as well as
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: the rest of the defense, and keeping us communicating and
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: you know, really cutting down on the mistakes. So as
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: long as I know I can get guys to play fast,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: it'd be good. And I just know the type of
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: guys we have in this room, how we're really clicking,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: how we're communicating, how we're really playing together, and you know,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: it's I'm feeling a nice bond that you really shouldn't
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: be feeling right now, you know, the whole thing going
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: on with COVID because there's no hanging out outside of
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: the building, you know, what I mean. You know, we
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: can we can eat much together, but there's barriers every
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: you know, between us and stuff like that, so there's
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: no real time to really sit sit down and have
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: a real pow wow and you know, get to know
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: each other. You know, we just some icebreaker type stuff,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: talk about your past, where you're from, and things like that,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: but you know, to really just hang out without coaches
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: and really just you know, let loose and get to
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: know each other. We're building a bond without that whole process. Avery,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: nobody's calling you RV around here anymore. Nobody will for
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: a long time. I appreciate you being here. I I
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: think I want to tell you I have enjoyed covering
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: you for eight years, enjoyed watching you grow into a leader.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: I hope there years as good as you expect. I
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: appreciate you joining us today, and we'll talk to you soon.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: All right, Thank you, Thank you for all the supporting
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: all right, thank you. I appreciate you for players to
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: join us in an expended interview like this. It's not
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: a guarantee. They're busy during the week, so it's our
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: appreciated And Dave, you've known Avery as long as I
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: have you maybe know Avery as well as I do,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: because he's a guy who will hang around in the
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: locker room, talk to players. I mean I talked to players,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: talk to anybody who's around, much like Josh Allen, I think,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: although it's less surprising for an older guy like Avery,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: he is a guy who very approachable and appreciates being
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: in the NFL, doesn't take himself too seriously. And I
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: knew i'd enjoyed the interview, but I've really enjoyed being
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: around Avery for seven or eight years. Yeah, Avery is great.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: He's uh, one of my favorites to be around. It's
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: been for a while actually, Patrick Kavin and I were
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: talking about that, uh during the interview. I actually have
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: a funny not funny, but an interesting it's funny where
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: where it was now? The story about Avery Jones. So
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: in two thousand thirteen, the Jack's been a week out
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: on the West coast because we've played Oakland and Seattle
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: back to back, so we so the team just stayed
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: out there. So when the team hotel, it's very it
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: was a very odd team hotel. We're kind of just
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: off the highway. It wasn't really allowed place to walk
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and stuff, Fremont, Fremont, Fremont, California. So myself and I
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: believe it was Brett Martineau. We're out in front on
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the Saturday when we got there, or we got there
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: on a Friday, so it was that Saturday and we're
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: standing out front of the hotel and it was before
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: like uber so I think we were waiting on a
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: cab and a cab pulls up and it was two players.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: I think Sin Derek Marks was one of them because
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: he talked to us. So we were talking to Sin
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and then there was this kind of this defensive lineman,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: this anonymous defensive lineman who was, you know, just standing
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: there in a Georgia T shirt, Georgia football t shirt,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and he just didn't say anything, kind of kept his
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: head down. Whatever. They get in the cabin leave. I
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: remember going to Martineau, who was that's like, I'm not
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: sure I did it's a practice squad guy. And we
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: looked at we We then pulled up a roster on
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: on a phone because we didn't know who he was.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: That was Avery or like, oh the Georgia kid. Okay, yeah,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: that's it's just kind of funny. Is now he's still
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: here because at that time, I'm sure the thought went
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: through our heads. Okay, practice by guy, he'll be gone.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: He'll be gone sometimes this year. So uh, it's just, uh,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: just kind of funny. How like the NFL works is
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: you never know who's gonna hang around and uh, and
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Avery has not just hung around. I mean he's carved
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: himself a nice role on this team. And also as
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: far as like what we do, he is super helpful
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: and is always entertaining and as always always plays along.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: So you know, Avery's will definitely been one of my
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: favorites to to be around with this team. Well from
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: a football standpoint, you know, thank you. Sometimes fans and
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: what I would call more casual observers maybe don't grasp
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: how rare it is for a guy like Abriel who
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't a first round pick, not necessarily a Pro Bowl guy,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: not necessarily that you know, I would say level that.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: You know, he's not going to be known nationally, but
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: teams need guys like that, franchises need guys like that,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: And it's hard to be a seven, eight, nine year
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: guy in the league, especially when you always have to
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: earn it when you don't come in as a first
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: round guy when you don't have you know, Pro Bowls,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: ten SAT guy in your resume because he's a defensive tackle.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: That's not what he does. It's hard to continue to
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: be showing value to your franchise every year because look
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: at all the offseason cuts this year by the Jaguars.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: You know, teams look for reasons to get guys out,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: either from the cap, either from whatever. For you to
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: be a guy who they keep needing to bring back, well,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: it's a rare thing, and it speaks to it because
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: here's a guy who's now going into is what eight
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: year here. He's the most tenured guy. He's been around
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: here longer than longer than most. You can say, well,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: they've been releasing a lot of players. Eight years in
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the NFL is a long time to carve out a
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: niche with one team. So credit to him. I'm glad
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: it's him, And to sort of wrap this one day,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: it's interesting, I really wanted to ask him about his
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: feeling about the team because there's been such talk about
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: tanking among outsiders and everybody thinks they know what goes
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: on with the team, But if you really look at
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: this team, you've got a veteran offensive line. You paid
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Joe Shobert. This team inside of it believes they're going
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: in the right direction, and the players believe a lot
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: in you know, we're all on the same page. I
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: thought what Avery said, and he was nice about him,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: but what he said about nobody staying about getting paid,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: nobody's thinking about themselves. There's a wee element, you know.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I get the fans think that's a cliche, but that
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen team that surprised people sort of had that.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: It was before a lot of the egos took over.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Nobody thought that team was doing anything. I'm not saying
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: it's gonna repeat two thousand seventeen, but it feels like
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: things are going in the right direction in terms of attitude,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: and I think Avery reflected that a lot when we
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: talk to him. Just now, Yeah, that's funny you mentioned
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: two thousands seventeen. I've been kind of having that feel
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: as well. I'm not sure you can repeat the season
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: they had, but just as far as kind of everybody
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: was down on the team outside me, outside the team,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: there was a whole lot of hope, and then all
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, they come out against Houston, and and
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: did what they did, and and then you know, and
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: then it seemed like a switch flip with that team
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: and was like, Okay, they believed in they knew everything,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: they felt that the direct and was right. But now
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: they both really believed it was confirmed by the way
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: they beat Houston. And you kind of wonder if is
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: there a game like that for this team where all
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: of a sudden everything will just click and then the
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: switch flips of the team and go, Okay, there's a
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: lot of rookies on the team and all that kind
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: of stuff. So that's another thing to overcome. Um. But
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: going back to Abery, I think it's it's a testament
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: to who he is that he was selected captain after
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: eight years and eight years of being essentially a role
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: player on this team. Last year was a starter, but
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: he's much more of a rotational guy because of positioning plays.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I think that says a lot about him, his personality
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: and what the team thinks of him. Yeah, and it
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: kind of closed. I was fascinated when he said it.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Fascinating when he came back and talked about it. His
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: first quote this training camp when he talked about COVID,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and it was very pointed that they had told younger guys, Look,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: this isn't just about you, pal, this is about the team.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: This is about people's families around on here. Um. You know,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Avery kind of talks like an old man's only twenty
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: or twenty nine, but within the context of the NFL,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: he is an experienced guy, and we've talked about in
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the podcast a couple of times. I think that is
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: lost sometimes with fans. How seriously guys take this how
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: much they wanted and frankly, how much they want to
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: get paid. You know, if something breaks down and you
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: start costing guys their health and their careers. I think
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Avery's point a couple of times I've hear him talk
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: about it is that's not gonna be cool. You know,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: it's not gonna be like you can you know, saunter
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: into the locker room next day and everything's gonna be
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: all right. Look, you knew about this beforehand. You don't
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: want to be the guy getting mentally stick. You don't
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: mean the guy's teening your teammates Deick. And again, I
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: thought it was interesting that Avery said that early on,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: and I was sort of willing to put that out there.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: An example of why he's a team leader, and you
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: know he's always willing to be honest and always willing
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: to sort of I think let people inside the uh
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: I guess behind the NFL wall, if you will. So again,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I appreciate him being with us. I always appreciated Day,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: appreciate dual fortunate of making this thing sound a lot
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: better than I'm capable of making a sound. Uh. We
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: appreciate everybody being with us. I don't think this one sucked,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: and we'll try to be better next week