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O-Zone Podcast: Dave Caldwell · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:05
Speaker 1: The Welcome to the Ozone Podcast featuring Jaguars dot Com
0:12
Speaker 1: Senior writer John Osher and Jack Buars executive producer Dave
0:17
Speaker 1: the Kennis, Hello, and welcome to the Ozone Podcast. I
0:20
Speaker 1: guess the first thing we have to do, Dave, is
0:22
Speaker 1: tell people what the ozone podcast is all about. I'm
0:26
Speaker 1: not really sure exactly what it is beyond we're gonna
0:30
Speaker 1: talk to Jaguars players, coaches, personalities, and I think try
0:35
Speaker 1: to get the viewer, the listener, the reader a little
0:39
Speaker 1: more in tune with what the team's all about and
0:42
Speaker 1: maybe what some of the players are thinking when they're
0:44
Speaker 1: not on the field, what the coaches are thinking they're
0:46
Speaker 1: not in the field. I guess, just try to get
0:48
Speaker 1: them more humanized. And I think if we can do that,
0:52
Speaker 1: it'll be a fun thing for fans to listen to
0:54
Speaker 1: each week, and uh, a fun thing for us to do.
0:56
Speaker 1: And thank you, Dave. You and I talked about this
0:59
Speaker 1: as something knew we could do during the quarantine during
1:02
Speaker 1: social distancing, and uh, you know, if something good comes
1:06
Speaker 1: out of it, I guess that's pretty cool. So as
1:07
Speaker 1: far as social distancing, how is it going for you?
1:10
Speaker 1: Dave beganis uh, it's going I have to very young
1:15
Speaker 1: children under the age of five, So that's an adventure.
1:17
Speaker 1: Everything too many in my book there yeah so so
1:22
Speaker 1: uh so it's been an adventure. We are having to
1:25
Speaker 1: be a little schooling too during the day and and
1:28
Speaker 1: every time, like during this podcast, I was during our
1:32
Speaker 1: interview recorded, I was getting poked in the side by
1:34
Speaker 1: my four year old daughter wanting a snack. So now
1:38
Speaker 1: shout out to the kids their names ages. So the
1:40
Speaker 1: four year old who will be five in a couple
1:43
Speaker 1: of weeks, is Olivia, and the youngest who is uh,
1:47
Speaker 1: I think she's fourteen months fifteen months, I should know this,
1:50
Speaker 1: But the second one I never hear this podcast. Yeah,
1:53
Speaker 1: her name is Alice so and she just started walking
1:57
Speaker 1: right at the start of the squarantineam. So that's as
2:00
Speaker 1: a whole new elements, So a lot of chasing a
2:04
Speaker 1: tiny child. My twenty three year old lives out in
2:08
Speaker 1: the garage apartment so much less intreasive that I can
2:12
Speaker 1: tell him to go away. But heronically he's learning how
2:15
Speaker 1: to walk too, so he's learning well, uh every day.
2:19
Speaker 1: Still in adventure days, they always tell you, Dave that
2:22
Speaker 1: I know you're sitting here thinking man when they're eight
2:24
Speaker 1: years old. All these problems go away. As my brother
2:28
Speaker 1: told me as soon as my son was born, they
2:31
Speaker 1: never go it's conscient. And as my father famous is dead.
2:36
Speaker 1: I told my dad once days um, I called them excited.
2:40
Speaker 1: I just read a study and I said, Dad, they're
2:43
Speaker 1: they're saying that people can now live maybe to a
2:46
Speaker 1: hundred and a hundred and twenty without missing a beat.
2:50
Speaker 1: He said, you know, the only problems living to a
2:51
Speaker 1: hundred and ten. I said, what do you guess is
2:54
Speaker 1: that your ninety year old sons calling you to borrow money.
2:58
Speaker 1: That's a good one. That's a pretty good that's kids kids. Yeah.
3:04
Speaker 1: So but quarantine has been good. It's been good family time.
3:07
Speaker 1: And uh, I think I'm more built to like the
3:10
Speaker 1: social distanct thing. I think much like you John, where
3:14
Speaker 1: I'm not like craving like to be around people. It's
3:16
Speaker 1: it's good to just be by myself with my fine
3:19
Speaker 1: and and and uh, as you know, people prefer us
3:24
Speaker 1: at a distance. I think other people are happy too,
3:28
Speaker 1: So this is a good. Uh, I'm with you. I
3:31
Speaker 1: I worked at the Times Union, as people know, for
3:34
Speaker 1: the twelve or thirteen years, and for six or seven
3:37
Speaker 1: of those years. I worked remotely coverd Florida for two
3:40
Speaker 1: years and the Jaguars for five, and you spend a
3:43
Speaker 1: lot of time out of the office and working from home.
3:47
Speaker 1: So I think for most sportswriters, for most, especially if
3:51
Speaker 1: they've been in print, there's some background in this. I
3:54
Speaker 1: think your background maybe a little less. TV people typical
4:00
Speaker 1: we are in the office and they're around people more.
4:02
Speaker 1: So I think it's adjustment for them. But for for
4:04
Speaker 1: sports journals in the print side, which is only like
4:06
Speaker 1: four or five left, this is a much more common thing.
4:10
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean for on the TV side, you're
4:13
Speaker 1: earlier really around two or three people all the time,
4:15
Speaker 1: because it's how big sports departments are in local television
4:18
Speaker 1: or or if you're working you know, if you're working
4:21
Speaker 1: a game or whatever, you're kind of doing your job
4:22
Speaker 1: and you're locked into that. So yeah, no, it's you know,
4:27
Speaker 1: it hasn't been too bad. Um, but I'm glad we're
4:30
Speaker 1: doing this podcast a way to come together while social distancing. Okay,
4:37
Speaker 1: enough talk, you know, our first guest I'm excited about
4:40
Speaker 1: it makes sense considering the time of year. We just
4:42
Speaker 1: finished up the draft, which is always his busiest few
4:45
Speaker 1: days of the year. Of course, for scouts and personnel people,
4:48
Speaker 1: the draft is the biggest event of the off season,
4:50
Speaker 1: or the season, or the year. This was maybe the
4:52
Speaker 1: most strange and exciting draft I've been around. It's certainly
4:56
Speaker 1: the strangest draft this guy has had in his time
4:58
Speaker 1: with the Jaguars. He's been around for eight years. He
5:01
Speaker 1: had twelve picks, which is the most enfranchise history. I've
5:04
Speaker 1: known him for a while, dating back, and we both
5:05
Speaker 1: worked for the Colts and I was a senior writer
5:08
Speaker 1: and he was a guy sort of coming up and
5:10
Speaker 1: making his mark. Obviously, you know by now. Jaguars General
5:14
Speaker 1: manager Dave paulswill as our guest today, the rush of
5:18
Speaker 1: draft weekend. You've done this any number of times, not
5:22
Speaker 1: as GM, but now eight times as GM. Is it
5:24
Speaker 1: always the same? Is there always a rush? And I
5:26
Speaker 1: assume when it's over, there's a feeling of looking back
5:29
Speaker 1: going wow, Yeah, there's uh, definitely an element of they
5:33
Speaker 1: let down after the draft, but generally it's a good letdown.
5:37
Speaker 1: I always said this. I always enjoyed the months of
5:40
Speaker 1: May and June, and I say, we we can work
5:44
Speaker 1: normal people hours and get to see all the rookies
5:48
Speaker 1: that we drafted and signed us college freegans and watch
5:51
Speaker 1: those guys develop and get better. For those you know,
5:54
Speaker 1: sixt eight weeks that they're here, and uh, I'm gonna
5:57
Speaker 1: miss that probably the most here in the next two months.
5:59
Speaker 1: By I always love that that month of May and
6:03
Speaker 1: ju and being out there on the practice field watching
6:04
Speaker 1: the guys developed. We'll get more to the draft in
6:08
Speaker 1: a minute, but I might ask one thing when you've
6:10
Speaker 1: got you always talk after draft and having four or
6:12
Speaker 1: five guys sort of at each spot, especially in the
6:15
Speaker 1: first round, that you like after spending so much time
6:19
Speaker 1: with these guys and thinking about him and envisioning it,
6:23
Speaker 1: is it ever just heartbreaking when you see a guy
6:25
Speaker 1: go off the board right in front of you. I Mean,
6:28
Speaker 1: I know you love the guys you get, but there's
6:30
Speaker 1: sometimes gotta be Okay, now I've just gotta put that
6:33
Speaker 1: guy away. I thought about him for six months and
6:35
Speaker 1: now that's over. Yeah. Well, I always think. What I
6:39
Speaker 1: always try to do is I always count down picks
6:41
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, we got uh five picks ago
6:44
Speaker 1: we got five guys, were like, we're gonna get one
6:46
Speaker 1: of the five guys. That's how you know when when
6:48
Speaker 1: you're either gonna need to trade up, and if you
6:51
Speaker 1: if you got five or six picks ago and you
6:52
Speaker 1: only got one guy valued in the second round, and
6:55
Speaker 1: then you're like, you know what, I think it's time
6:56
Speaker 1: to trade up and make a move to try to
6:58
Speaker 1: get one of these guys, so you're not reaching for
6:59
Speaker 1: a player that you didn't have value there. M We've
7:02
Speaker 1: been fortunate where our scouts have done a good job
7:05
Speaker 1: of and our coaches of setting the board, and we
7:08
Speaker 1: felt really good the way the players came off, uh
7:12
Speaker 1: these last three days in terms of uh, you know,
7:14
Speaker 1: we had options when we were picking, and some of
7:17
Speaker 1: the art has to be not just knowing how you
7:19
Speaker 1: feel about guys, but predicting how the league feels about it. Yeah,
7:23
Speaker 1: and this year is probably more more more difficult than
7:26
Speaker 1: any other year, UM in terms of because you had
7:30
Speaker 1: less information. You're less media information because scouts and coaches
7:35
Speaker 1: weren't on the road and talking to their peers. So
7:39
Speaker 1: I think there was a lot of unknowns as to
7:42
Speaker 1: what values guys would where they would go. Right, not
7:46
Speaker 1: as much I guess group think so to speak, because
7:50
Speaker 1: we always chart. Hey, there was acts head coach at
7:53
Speaker 1: this workout. There was this gentle manager at this workout.
7:56
Speaker 1: You can you can figure out what teams kind of
7:59
Speaker 1: have interest and or that this team brought six players
8:02
Speaker 1: to this wide receiver workout, and you kind of kind
8:05
Speaker 1: have a feeling what where teams are going maybe in
8:09
Speaker 1: the first or second round. Now, have you ever tried
8:11
Speaker 1: to dupe anybody by going to workout that you didn't go?
8:16
Speaker 1: We don't enough time to waste time, right, I got you? Now,
8:21
Speaker 1: I guess a million dollar questions. You've talked about the
8:23
Speaker 1: off season in one way, and it seems like stands
8:26
Speaker 1: and observers looking at it another way. People want to
8:29
Speaker 1: call this a rebuild. What is Dave called the call
8:32
Speaker 1: it when he's talking to people, we call a better
8:34
Speaker 1: team and then than what we were. And uh, we
8:37
Speaker 1: feel like that we've got young we we've got younger,
8:40
Speaker 1: we've got more energetic um that might be unknown. We
8:45
Speaker 1: have some unknown commodities on our team. But at the
8:48
Speaker 1: end of the day, we feel like that we have
8:50
Speaker 1: a chance to have competition at every single position and
8:54
Speaker 1: it's gonna be fun. And I think we have we
8:56
Speaker 1: have We're gonna come out of this training camp with
8:59
Speaker 1: good depth and good young players. And as much as
9:02
Speaker 1: people want to label it, I think what you said
9:06
Speaker 1: is what it's all about. You're not trying to label things, rebuild, retool, whatever,
9:11
Speaker 1: you're trying to win. Yeah, we're trying to put the
9:13
Speaker 1: best team out there we could and it may look
9:16
Speaker 1: different than it has in years past, but you look
9:18
Speaker 1: what we've done on the defense side of the ball,
9:20
Speaker 1: and and adding Joe Schobert, who's can be the quarterback
9:23
Speaker 1: of that defense, and moving Miles to will where that's
9:26
Speaker 1: his natural spot. On top of adding what we felt
9:30
Speaker 1: like is a number one corner, a very good young
9:32
Speaker 1: pass rusher Um and then some some big, hefty bodies
9:37
Speaker 1: up there, uh and Al Woods and Rodney Gunn and
9:41
Speaker 1: Um our third round pick to really solidify the run.
9:46
Speaker 1: And I think you're gonna see guys like Cash of
9:49
Speaker 1: Smarts come in and help and Rashawn Nolvin and add
9:52
Speaker 1: depth and some good young players too that we've gotten
9:54
Speaker 1: throughout the draft and uh, College fore agency, are you ever?
9:58
Speaker 1: Probably not surprised anymore? Bit struck by the difference sometimes
10:03
Speaker 1: in what you guys see in a player or what
10:06
Speaker 1: you guys see and what you're doing then in what
10:08
Speaker 1: people like me or observers believe about what you're doing.
10:13
Speaker 1: It's often to disconnect well, you know, and sometimes that's
10:17
Speaker 1: our our job to maybe put better messaging out there too,
10:20
Speaker 1: to maybe um edifire. You know, our fans are the
10:23
Speaker 1: people reporting on the team, and I try, but I
10:26
Speaker 1: think for us, we have to gauge against the other
10:29
Speaker 1: thirty one teams in the league, and we have to
10:31
Speaker 1: compare ourselves to where we are with the other thirty
10:35
Speaker 1: one teams. And if you go position by position and
10:37
Speaker 1: look at where we're at, and we study the thirty
10:39
Speaker 1: one other teams on a basis, the majority of our
10:43
Speaker 1: fans and the people will cover our team look at
10:46
Speaker 1: us kind of an efficia bowl, and uh, you know,
10:49
Speaker 1: they don't see the surrounding thirty one other teams and
10:51
Speaker 1: where they have deficiencies and where they have strengths and
10:54
Speaker 1: and we don't have you know, we may not have
10:57
Speaker 1: a strength at every position, but we're better than some
11:01
Speaker 1: of other positions and have weaknesses just like every other
11:04
Speaker 1: team has weaknesses, and we have strengths like every other
11:06
Speaker 1: team and strength. So the key is to have those
11:08
Speaker 1: guys come in and play UM together and as a
11:13
Speaker 1: team and collectively, ah, they will make each other better.
11:19
Speaker 1: I think we talked at the combine very briefly about this.
11:22
Speaker 1: The fish bowl thing maybe applies to the offensive line
11:25
Speaker 1: more than any other position. I think when we talk,
11:28
Speaker 1: you know, and you said, every fan base, it seems
11:32
Speaker 1: in the league criticizes their own offensive line, and sometimes
11:37
Speaker 1: the reality is a little different. I think we talked
11:39
Speaker 1: about that the common Yeah, there's a lot that goes
11:41
Speaker 1: into it, and um, you know, it's scheme. It's uh,
11:45
Speaker 1: you know, making sure your players fit into what your
11:48
Speaker 1: scheme is and and making sure you you you have
11:54
Speaker 1: the players in there that from a physical standpoint, can
11:56
Speaker 1: withhold the down and down out physicality of it, but
12:01
Speaker 1: also putting them in position just like you what a
12:03
Speaker 1: wide receiver or running back or a corner or pass
12:07
Speaker 1: rusher to play their strengths and there. And I think
12:11
Speaker 1: our coaching staff, Coach Warhop and coach Moro own's obviously
12:14
Speaker 1: a offensive line got by trade. And it feels like
12:20
Speaker 1: that that they can put our guys in those positions.
12:23
Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, um, you know,
12:26
Speaker 1: like I said, every team's gonna have a weakness here
12:29
Speaker 1: or there. But we feel like that our our group,
12:32
Speaker 1: there is a competitive group that you can win with.
12:35
Speaker 1: When you read online people talking about Tank for Trevor
12:39
Speaker 1: saying things like that, how absurd is that in the
12:42
Speaker 1: big picture that any GM coach, player X would ever
12:47
Speaker 1: just being around the league. I can't even grasp how
12:50
Speaker 1: that would happen, But I can't imagine what it feels
12:53
Speaker 1: like to you as a GM when you read it. Well,
12:56
Speaker 1: considering our our situation, it's very absurd you now of that,
13:00
Speaker 1: But our owner wants to win, and he wants to
13:02
Speaker 1: win now, and he doesn't want to lose a game
13:06
Speaker 1: for something that might be down the road that there's
13:08
Speaker 1: no guarantees for either. So um, I think you here, yeah,
13:14
Speaker 1: very much from and none of that from from a
13:18
Speaker 1: personal standpoint, but myself and Coach Brown too, and I
13:21
Speaker 1: think everybody realizes that this is an important season for
13:25
Speaker 1: the Jack and everybody and that we need to show
13:29
Speaker 1: good improvement and that we're in the right We're heading
13:31
Speaker 1: in the right direction, and we don't want to be
13:33
Speaker 1: taking a step backwards. By touch on what you just said,
13:36
Speaker 1: people in January, I think thought that everything about this
13:39
Speaker 1: all the season was going to be when now, when now,
13:43
Speaker 1: which usually means I guess going out signing veterans, but
13:47
Speaker 1: it felt like you guys approached this with an eye
13:51
Speaker 1: on the future. You traded a lot of UH veterans
13:55
Speaker 1: for draft, you cleared a lot of cap space. Um
13:59
Speaker 1: are you what went into that off season playing? How
14:02
Speaker 1: did you? I guess come up with it? Well? And
14:05
Speaker 1: the first thing we kind of took in stages, you know.
14:08
Speaker 1: The first thing was we had to get our sailor
14:10
Speaker 1: cap in order in order to operate and and try
14:13
Speaker 1: to put the best team out there that we could
14:15
Speaker 1: and where we could put a better team out there
14:17
Speaker 1: than what we've had in the last two years. And
14:20
Speaker 1: in order to do that, we had a um probably
14:23
Speaker 1: get rid of some salaries and some some guys that
14:25
Speaker 1: we really liked from a locker room standpoint, but just
14:28
Speaker 1: at the end of the day couldn't afford where they
14:31
Speaker 1: were at. So UM the next step was to how
14:34
Speaker 1: do we clear these guys and still get value out
14:37
Speaker 1: of out of them and make it a good situation
14:39
Speaker 1: for everybody. And with Klas and a J and Nick,
14:42
Speaker 1: it was a situation of, Hey, we feel like these
14:46
Speaker 1: guys still have value for us, but we know that
14:48
Speaker 1: they have value for other teams too, so try to
14:50
Speaker 1: put them in a spot where they can go that
14:53
Speaker 1: they feel comfortable with, that the team us gets good
14:57
Speaker 1: value for them and draft picks. And we felt like
14:58
Speaker 1: that we did that with all three of those guys, A, J, Nick,
15:02
Speaker 1: and Klais where we got good value for guys who
15:06
Speaker 1: had big numbers on the salary cap, and at the
15:09
Speaker 1: end of the day, we felt like maybe we could
15:10
Speaker 1: replace some with the younger guys that may have to develop,
15:13
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day have a chance
15:15
Speaker 1: to grow and be good football players. It's not easy too,
15:20
Speaker 1: I guess clean up the cap for lack of a
15:22
Speaker 1: better word, but it feels like you've done it for
15:24
Speaker 1: the next couple of years. How heavy a lift was that, je,
15:28
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to figure out that number, and there
15:31
Speaker 1: are some dark days for sure. I was looking at
15:33
Speaker 1: like boy, but I just looked at the numbers. Where
15:36
Speaker 1: we're at right now and where we're gonna be next
15:38
Speaker 1: year with some assumptions of what the salary cap is
15:42
Speaker 1: going to be, and we're gonna be in very good
15:44
Speaker 1: operating position. You get another nine draft picks at least
15:47
Speaker 1: for next year to come in. We're gonna be a
15:50
Speaker 1: young team this year. We expect to have a lot
15:52
Speaker 1: of young players make our team, and we'll have rooms,
15:56
Speaker 1: whether it's to resign some of our own guys or
15:59
Speaker 1: to to do some things that really improve some guys.
16:02
Speaker 1: If that's the direction we want to go into it
16:04
Speaker 1: next year and the next couple of years. People are
16:06
Speaker 1: fascinated with the draft, and there's so little real information
16:10
Speaker 1: before it, But afterward we'll ask you, you're human and
16:15
Speaker 1: you read, what percentage of what's quote out there in
16:19
Speaker 1: the days before the draft is actually real? If I mean, yeah,
16:25
Speaker 1: well I know what I'm asking. Quote my long time mentor, Dominely,
16:29
Speaker 1: he would always say, UM, believe none of what you're
16:32
Speaker 1: here in half of what you read. So I think
16:34
Speaker 1: that's pretty pretty accurate. Um, And that's one of the
16:39
Speaker 1: only dumb quotes you can share right today, probably, Um,
16:46
Speaker 1: what percentage of it that's wrong do you put out there?
16:49
Speaker 1: Do you intentionally try to misinformed? That's not your game. No,
16:53
Speaker 1: that's too uh, that's that's too much energy for us.
16:56
Speaker 1: And I always tell people, and people will call me
16:58
Speaker 1: I will never I will never rely to them. Um,
17:01
Speaker 1: but I may not tell them. If there's something I
17:04
Speaker 1: can't discuss, I always say I don't want to, I
17:07
Speaker 1: don't believe, and putting false infer And sometimes it can
17:09
Speaker 1: come back to the hunt. You, um, if there is
17:13
Speaker 1: some things out there, and there were some things out
17:15
Speaker 1: there in this year is draft, I'm not gonna I'm
17:18
Speaker 1: not gonna try to uh curb every rumor and try
17:21
Speaker 1: to grade either, you know. So sometimes things are out
17:24
Speaker 1: there that I don't mind being out there and let
17:26
Speaker 1: them uh kind of do it because we feel like
17:29
Speaker 1: at the time it might help us, or or if
17:31
Speaker 1: we need some players to follow to us that it's
17:33
Speaker 1: okay to have some of those rumors, or possibly um
17:37
Speaker 1: have value to trade back if we were looking to
17:39
Speaker 1: do that. So, but never have I put false information
17:43
Speaker 1: out there intentionally a pre draft, any rituals, any superstitions
17:50
Speaker 1: that you go through to get ready, any particularly thing
17:52
Speaker 1: you wear. I've known different guys who have to wear
17:57
Speaker 1: this to this coat. No, I like to to be
18:00
Speaker 1: honest with you today. To draft, I like to get
18:02
Speaker 1: away from from all of it, to be honest with
18:04
Speaker 1: you early on and just kind of sit back and
18:07
Speaker 1: you know, sleeping a little bit. Draft day, you know,
18:10
Speaker 1: go for a long walk or jog or bike right
18:12
Speaker 1: along along the beach and and just get away from it,
18:15
Speaker 1: clear your head, and then come back and really just
18:17
Speaker 1: spend some time with my family. Now, remember Bill Polian
18:21
Speaker 1: tell me a long time ago, a good draft rooms
18:26
Speaker 1: are not like you see in the movies, meaning once
18:29
Speaker 1: it started, there's not a whole lot of arguing between
18:34
Speaker 1: the right hand man and things like that. I assume
18:37
Speaker 1: you believe that as well. Once this thing starts, it's yeah,
18:40
Speaker 1: it's coming off the board and pretty calm. Yeah. I
18:42
Speaker 1: always tell our our our scouts and our personal people
18:46
Speaker 1: and coaches speaking now or forever, hold your piece because
18:48
Speaker 1: once we set them on the um, you know we're
18:52
Speaker 1: gonna go with it. So I don't ever want anything
18:54
Speaker 1: left unseid in the process. And uh, I always tell
18:58
Speaker 1: our our guys are are our scouts and our coaches.
19:01
Speaker 1: You know you'll never be um school that for giving
19:05
Speaker 1: me an opinion. I want opinions. And I always joking
19:09
Speaker 1: that before I drive the car off the clip, I
19:11
Speaker 1: want somebody to tell me hit the brakes. And I think,
19:15
Speaker 1: because you know, they have good wingmen and good people
19:18
Speaker 1: with good opinions to tell you, you you know, don't do
19:21
Speaker 1: this I feel strong about it, or we should do this,
19:23
Speaker 1: I feel strongly about it. Is very good in my position,
19:27
Speaker 1: and same with coach Morrow. Why else do you have
19:30
Speaker 1: those people right if they're not gonna tell you when
19:32
Speaker 1: you're wrong. You have to trust your scots, you have
19:34
Speaker 1: to trust your personnel people. And at the end of
19:36
Speaker 1: the day, every once in a while, I'll say this
19:39
Speaker 1: picks for me. Um. There was so much lead up
19:45
Speaker 1: to the virtual draft. I anything surprise you about it?
19:50
Speaker 1: I guess the smoothness of it. It sounds like surprise
19:52
Speaker 1: you a little bit. Yeah, I did, And Uh, I
19:55
Speaker 1: was skeptical at first. Um, But at the end of
19:57
Speaker 1: the day, I think the league did a great job.
20:00
Speaker 1: Everybody there. I think all the teams did a great
20:03
Speaker 1: job and just and really enjoyed seeing a lot of
20:07
Speaker 1: my counterparts across the league with their families and seeing
20:11
Speaker 1: them enjoy the day too. Did you learn anything about
20:15
Speaker 1: the process? Uh, maybe what you were doing before that
20:20
Speaker 1: you don't need that you can do better doing it differently.
20:23
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's anything that stood out of Hey,
20:25
Speaker 1: we didn't need to be doing this before, we can
20:27
Speaker 1: do this, anything like that we actually think that there
20:30
Speaker 1: can be days where we can have at home work
20:32
Speaker 1: days throughout the process. And there might be you know,
20:35
Speaker 1: the days are long and you're you're going ten, fifteen,
20:38
Speaker 1: twenty one days straight and they say, hey, let's take
20:41
Speaker 1: a day and well, everybody get away and we'll work
20:44
Speaker 1: from home tomorrow. I think that's something that's very feasible
20:47
Speaker 1: for us to do in the future, and not every
20:49
Speaker 1: day obviously like we did in the past year, but
20:52
Speaker 1: to do it where hey, you know, let's get away,
20:55
Speaker 1: clear your mind and work from home. And I think
20:57
Speaker 1: that's something that I think with technology and how how
21:00
Speaker 1: this process went, I think, uh, it would be really
21:03
Speaker 1: good and and to be able to do that and
21:05
Speaker 1: then come in the next day and really talk about
21:06
Speaker 1: it too, is something that instead of us just sitting
21:09
Speaker 1: in there with ten guys in the in the draft room,
21:12
Speaker 1: you know, grinding film for fifteen hours a day. Anything
21:16
Speaker 1: specific about this class stand out to me you haven't
21:19
Speaker 1: mentioned already. Obviously, it's it's a good bunch of guys,
21:23
Speaker 1: heavy on defense. But anything to use a GM and
21:25
Speaker 1: you look back on it that you like, I just, uh,
21:29
Speaker 1: you know, I like the fact that we feel we
21:30
Speaker 1: feel like we feel needs we created, uh competition and
21:34
Speaker 1: depth along the offensive defense side of the ball. Um,
21:38
Speaker 1: I'll sleep at night knowing that we have a corner
21:41
Speaker 1: that we feel like can be a Number one corner
21:43
Speaker 1: and another pass rusher and and I think those are things.
21:47
Speaker 1: But to to solidify, you know, maybe some competition at
21:51
Speaker 1: safety at linebacker, probably the best depth that we've had
21:54
Speaker 1: here at linebacker since I've been here. And Um, you
21:58
Speaker 1: take you know, Joe and Miles and Shack and Quincy,
22:02
Speaker 1: and those are are four guys that are all athletic, urgent,
22:05
Speaker 1: and tough competitors. So I feel good about that. And
22:10
Speaker 1: and then the receiver position, and you know that to
22:12
Speaker 1: go into camp with with really good competition, it's gonna
22:15
Speaker 1: be a fun competition for the top four spots and
22:18
Speaker 1: then who makes the team. You know, at the fifth
22:21
Speaker 1: and sixth spot, is Chanal a different guy than you've
22:25
Speaker 1: had before? He is? He is because he's so physical,
22:30
Speaker 1: and he's so tough and and and the way he
22:33
Speaker 1: runs with the ball in his hands. UM generally look
22:35
Speaker 1: for guys that are quick separators, and he can do
22:38
Speaker 1: that too. So it's gonna be fun to watch him
22:40
Speaker 1: develop and and and when Keenan gets his hands on
22:43
Speaker 1: him to to get him, uh, you know, running routes
22:45
Speaker 1: the way Kena wants to run routes and to put
22:47
Speaker 1: his whole game together. It's gonna be fun to watch.
22:50
Speaker 1: I mean, staying for a couple of days, it feels
22:52
Speaker 1: like this draft class is a change of directions somehow
22:57
Speaker 1: for the franchise. Maybe it's just because there's twelve of them,
22:59
Speaker 1: but it Do you feel that way as well? Or
23:02
Speaker 1: is that overstating it? Or I felt last year's draft
23:06
Speaker 1: class was the start of that. To be honest with you,
23:08
Speaker 1: Josh Allen, John Taylor, UM, really like you know Josh
23:12
Speaker 1: ell Or Quincy, Williams Gardner, Um, you know Rock Armstead.
23:17
Speaker 1: You know, I think all those guys really kind of
23:19
Speaker 1: came in and and and really brought their own identity
23:23
Speaker 1: and we're really great team guys. And then that to
23:26
Speaker 1: double up with this draft class, I think with a
23:28
Speaker 1: similar type of guys is really kind of what UM,
23:32
Speaker 1: I feel like, Uh, you can start to make strides quickly.
23:37
Speaker 1: Both you and Doug have talked a lot about liking
23:40
Speaker 1: a lot of these guys. Like I said, you didn't
23:42
Speaker 1: like the guys in the past, but that feeling is real,
23:45
Speaker 1: and I mean there's something there that's maybe a little
23:48
Speaker 1: different um then you normally feel. Yeah, And and I
23:52
Speaker 1: don't know if it was intentional or what I know,
23:56
Speaker 1: there was you know, different guys that we were targeting
23:58
Speaker 1: throughout the draft, and then these guys just kept sticking
24:01
Speaker 1: out in terms of not only that we like him
24:03
Speaker 1: from a uh from a personality trade standpoint, but also
24:08
Speaker 1: from a skill standpoint. And they all they all have
24:11
Speaker 1: unique skills um that can come in and make a
24:13
Speaker 1: difference for his team. You can't talk to anybody when
24:16
Speaker 1: the jail was now without talking about minshoo. Take me
24:19
Speaker 1: through your thoughts on him. What does he need to
24:22
Speaker 1: do next season to improve? Where is he at? But
24:27
Speaker 1: first of all, what does he need to do next year?
24:29
Speaker 1: What's his biggest task? Well? Right now, from what I've
24:33
Speaker 1: I've I've chatted with him and I've talked to him
24:36
Speaker 1: and people around him, he seems like he's a man
24:38
Speaker 1: on a mission and I think he can, you know,
24:42
Speaker 1: take another step up. Obviously for what he did a
24:44
Speaker 1: rookie was impressive. If he gets better, you're looking at like, Wow,
24:49
Speaker 1: we could really have something with him. Um, but I
24:52
Speaker 1: think the biggest thing, and he knows this is ball
24:54
Speaker 1: security in the pocket and probably his red zone opportunities.
24:57
Speaker 1: I think that those are two things that generally with
25:00
Speaker 1: rookie quarterbacks, Uh, it's probably the lasting for them to
25:03
Speaker 1: to kind of figure out what the speed of the game.
25:05
Speaker 1: And I think with his football i Q and and
25:09
Speaker 1: his determination in the way he's approaching this offseason, I
25:13
Speaker 1: think those are things that he's gonna take take care
25:16
Speaker 1: of pretty readily. Is he a hard guy to evaluate
25:21
Speaker 1: because he plays a little different not prototype, Yeah, he's not.
25:25
Speaker 1: And you know it's okay not to the prototype. You know, quarterbacks,
25:29
Speaker 1: they are all different. They all have different throwing motions
25:31
Speaker 1: and different skill sets and athletics. I have strong arm,
25:35
Speaker 1: someone have good accuracy. Uh, some are great anticipators, some
25:38
Speaker 1: have great pocket presence, and um, he's got a little
25:41
Speaker 1: bit of all of it. And I think, uh, you know,
25:45
Speaker 1: I think the his his biggest probably thing is people
25:49
Speaker 1: look at his hype, but there there's especially recently been
25:53
Speaker 1: a lot of quarterbacks his height have a great success
25:55
Speaker 1: and we don't see why he can't be one of them.
25:59
Speaker 1: Three more from me, uh too, specifically on the draft.
26:03
Speaker 1: Was there a player that you were worried about as
26:06
Speaker 1: you waited, but you weren't sure it was going to
26:09
Speaker 1: slide to you? They kind of stood out for the rest.
26:10
Speaker 1: I know you're always as always guys you want. Was
26:13
Speaker 1: there one guy you wanted? He was like, I don't
26:14
Speaker 1: think he's gonna get there, but I got to be patient. Yeah,
26:16
Speaker 1: claib I was probably the one from the beginning that
26:19
Speaker 1: I you know, it was funny, you knew a lot
26:21
Speaker 1: of teams liked him, right, I did. And I had
26:23
Speaker 1: a friend across the league text me right after and
26:27
Speaker 1: he's like, I called this in our February meetings that
26:29
Speaker 1: you guys were drafted him, and uh, He's like, he
26:32
Speaker 1: just kind of fits your prototype of pass rushers and
26:35
Speaker 1: athletic guys that you guys like. And I said, well,
26:38
Speaker 1: you're right, And he was a guy that from the beginning,
26:41
Speaker 1: and when you put on the L s U tape, Uh,
26:43
Speaker 1: you you evaluated a lot of players on that defense,
26:46
Speaker 1: and he was the one guy that continued to stand out.
26:49
Speaker 1: And I remember watching it because it was early September
26:53
Speaker 1: October and I was watching fifteen different guys and he
26:57
Speaker 1: wasn't really one that I was targeting on and I
26:59
Speaker 1: had to look up. I'm like, who is this number? Eighteen?
27:01
Speaker 1: Sure enough? He was draft all to him like, this
27:04
Speaker 1: guy is gonna be a high draft pick for sure,
27:06
Speaker 1: And he would have been if if we didn't take him.
27:08
Speaker 1: He was going to go in the next pick or
27:09
Speaker 1: two for sure. You talked so much over the weekend
27:12
Speaker 1: about being patient. Obviously when you say that kind of thing,
27:15
Speaker 1: people are gonna say, well, he is two patients. Should
27:16
Speaker 1: have traded up on guys? What about that? Uh? Was
27:21
Speaker 1: there anybody you were close to trading up? Uh? And
27:24
Speaker 1: what sort of convinced you to just stick to that plan? Yeah?
27:30
Speaker 1: So we were rarely never really close. I think Channault
27:33
Speaker 1: was the only guy that we were close to trading
27:35
Speaker 1: up for um. And when you asked me earlier about
27:39
Speaker 1: guys going off right before we picked, he was really
27:41
Speaker 1: kind of the last of guys we felt really really
27:44
Speaker 1: good about it, and and that was one that we
27:47
Speaker 1: were close to, but they didn't do it and just
27:49
Speaker 1: sat there and it worked out. Um. But other than
27:53
Speaker 1: that that, we felt like at every other pick, there
27:55
Speaker 1: were guys that we knew that we liked that fit
27:57
Speaker 1: our mold of being football players that could come in
28:01
Speaker 1: and compete right away and and uh fill a need.
28:04
Speaker 1: So we didn't really feel need a need to do
28:06
Speaker 1: that at any point in time. And and you know,
28:10
Speaker 1: we didn't want to waste the draft picks. You know,
28:12
Speaker 1: we had enough capital, and and if we didn't need
28:14
Speaker 1: to trade up for somebody, and then you know, that's
28:17
Speaker 1: just an extra player that we could bring in and
28:18
Speaker 1: compete for us. You may have touched on some of
28:21
Speaker 1: this already, but you know, to close, I'll ask you,
28:25
Speaker 1: what do you like most about this team right now?
28:30
Speaker 1: I guess what should Jaguars fans believe in? What do
28:32
Speaker 1: you see maybe some people aren't seeing. I like the
28:37
Speaker 1: level of competition that we're gonna have it virtually almost
28:39
Speaker 1: every position. And I like the skill set of a
28:42
Speaker 1: lot of our guys. I think we have playmakers on
28:45
Speaker 1: the offense side of ball, and we have playmakers on
28:47
Speaker 1: the deep inside of ball. It might not be household
28:49
Speaker 1: names yet, but I think in time they can do. Dave,
28:53
Speaker 1: thank you very much. Thanks John all right, that was
28:57
Speaker 1: Dave called. ID like to thank him for offering his
28:59
Speaker 1: time this week. Even though it's after the draft, he's
29:01
Speaker 1: still relatively busy. I guess, I guess he has something
29:04
Speaker 1: to do day. I thought it was interesting to hear
29:06
Speaker 1: him talk about the approach that they're taking. I think
29:10
Speaker 1: everybody thought going into the offseason that this was gonna
29:13
Speaker 1: be a win now thing, that these guys are gonna
29:16
Speaker 1: be desperate to hold on to their jobs. And I
29:18
Speaker 1: thought he was pretty frank and talking about that that
29:21
Speaker 1: he's aware that they need to win, he's aware that
29:23
Speaker 1: shot once victories this season, but it also felt like
29:28
Speaker 1: he had this approach that the right thing to do
29:33
Speaker 1: in terms of building was still the right thing to do,
29:36
Speaker 1: regardless of all the talk. And to me, this team,
29:40
Speaker 1: I don't really care what people say on the outside
29:42
Speaker 1: about rebuild tank for Trevor and all that. It just
29:45
Speaker 1: doesn't feel from being around these guys that that's gonna
29:47
Speaker 1: be there. I'm up to be honest, there are too
29:51
Speaker 1: many good players on this team to have the tank
29:53
Speaker 1: of for Trevor, mantra or thing. I mean, they have
29:57
Speaker 1: good players all over the place, and it's just it
30:00
Speaker 1: should be interesting to me that. I mean, also, if
30:03
Speaker 1: you're working in this pressure, how can you think that way?
30:06
Speaker 1: That's kind of loser's mentality. I think when you're when
30:08
Speaker 1: you're working in a game, or where you're working in
30:11
Speaker 1: a business where where your livelihood depends on when's losses. Right, Yeah,
30:16
Speaker 1: I mean it's absurd, and people forget that because it's
30:20
Speaker 1: so easy on Twitter too hashtag tank for Trevor Or
30:24
Speaker 1: two use the word tank and not when you're outside
30:28
Speaker 1: of it. But you know, I respect the approach that
30:33
Speaker 1: they've taken this offseason because it would have been very
30:36
Speaker 1: easy for them to say, we're going after needs, we're
30:40
Speaker 1: gonna bring a bunch of free agents in here, we're
30:43
Speaker 1: gonna try to try to squeeze out wins. And it
30:47
Speaker 1: feels amazingly like a GM who is who is coming
30:53
Speaker 1: in at the start with a clean slate, who doesn't
30:56
Speaker 1: have to worry about wins this year. He actually does
30:59
Speaker 1: have to worry about when. But he's still taking this
31:01
Speaker 1: approach of he traded a lot of veterans, a young
31:04
Speaker 1: rookie teen, they're going to take some growing pains. It
31:08
Speaker 1: it's a I don't stay courageous with regard to football,
31:12
Speaker 1: but it's a gutsy approach considering they know they have
31:15
Speaker 1: to win so um. But enough of that, Dave. You
31:21
Speaker 1: know what I do you question? You know, that's kind
31:23
Speaker 1: of my stick I answer questions. That's the street. Well,
31:29
Speaker 1: it started August tent fish of two thousand eleven. So
31:34
Speaker 1: it's it's uh, I counted up a few weeks ago.
31:37
Speaker 1: Because every once in a while ozone readers will ask
31:39
Speaker 1: how many consecutive days? And it's, uh, whatever that number.
31:44
Speaker 1: I could google it for you next week. That will
31:46
Speaker 1: be a topic next week. How about it's the number
31:49
Speaker 1: is slow so large you cannot do simple math to
31:53
Speaker 1: figure it out, right, It's some sort of calculus, trigonometry, isometrics.
31:59
Speaker 1: But what are right? So that exercise not a mac Yeah,
32:05
Speaker 1: we're doing about that. But I thought the first thing
32:08
Speaker 1: we or or the last thing we do in the
32:09
Speaker 1: podcast every week is answer at least one of his
32:11
Speaker 1: own question. Uh so you obviously know this. We've discussed
32:14
Speaker 1: it already so far away with the question. All right,
32:17
Speaker 1: I got it right here. So so it's Thomas from Blacksburg, Virginia,
32:23
Speaker 1: home of the Hookyes, Virginia, the Jags. Sure do you
32:26
Speaker 1: seem to be trying to push this character angle hard,
32:30
Speaker 1: aren't they? As someone who endured the Jane Smith character
32:35
Speaker 1: All Stars, that's pretty funny. Let me be the first
32:39
Speaker 1: to shrug, Well, this has so after the draft. Let's
32:44
Speaker 1: give a little background of this too. After the draft,
32:48
Speaker 1: the post draft press conference, Doug Maron was asked this question,
32:52
Speaker 1: We're a certain reporter who shall name nameless referred to
32:55
Speaker 1: the draft class classes choir boys. Yeah, there, there we go.
33:01
Speaker 1: And Doug took a little offense to this and kind
33:04
Speaker 1: of said, which I agree with them. It's like, if
33:06
Speaker 1: you have good football players and they're good people, what's
33:08
Speaker 1: wrong with that? Why are we criticizing or or talking
33:11
Speaker 1: down about these guys? And I and I mean, I
33:15
Speaker 1: think to the whole Jean Smith thing, maybe it's a
33:18
Speaker 1: an enduring scarred or a fan base about how he
33:21
Speaker 1: was drafting captains and all that. I don't know, to
33:24
Speaker 1: be honest, John, I just don't get the whole, the whole,
33:28
Speaker 1: like it's a bad thing to have good guys. Look,
33:32
Speaker 1: here's the bottom line on on really, both Gene and
33:35
Speaker 1: Dave and you know whatever, this franchise has missed on
33:38
Speaker 1: quarterbacks forever. If you draft good quarterbacks, then everything else
33:45
Speaker 1: looks so much better that all the GM stuff. It
33:48
Speaker 1: just wears me out. Um. Big Code was generally drafted fine,
33:54
Speaker 1: except except that Blake missed. I mean, that's the biggest thing.
33:57
Speaker 1: Beyond that, there is z rope problem with drafting character.
34:01
Speaker 1: I was. I was around a POLS team that drafted
34:04
Speaker 1: heavily for character for a long time, put a major
34:07
Speaker 1: amass on it, had some misses, heads, some hits with that.
34:10
Speaker 1: When you've got a quarterback, which which they did, then
34:13
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you know your character guys all
34:16
Speaker 1: look great. So there's an element of that. But there's
34:20
Speaker 1: no reason, and there's no law that says just because
34:24
Speaker 1: a guy is a good guy that he can't be
34:27
Speaker 1: a good football player. I'm not one to harp on character.
34:31
Speaker 1: When I was with the media, I was never a
34:33
Speaker 1: guy who criticized the GM from missing on character because
34:38
Speaker 1: everybody has flaws, and these guys are human beings, human beings.
34:42
Speaker 1: When you draft them, you were taking a chance on
34:44
Speaker 1: how they're going to turn out. But there's nothing wrong
34:47
Speaker 1: with this draft class, and there's certainly nothing wrong with
34:50
Speaker 1: a GM and a coach and you heard day they
34:53
Speaker 1: know they need to win. Um, it feels to me
34:58
Speaker 1: like they're taking approach if we're gonna go down, if
35:02
Speaker 1: we're gonna have this where we've got to go get
35:05
Speaker 1: it done this year. We're gonna get it done with
35:07
Speaker 1: guys we want to be around. I think they want
35:10
Speaker 1: to walk into the locker room feel good about the
35:13
Speaker 1: guys they're going into battle with or whatever. You use
35:15
Speaker 1: that horrible cliche, but I think there's an element of
35:18
Speaker 1: that where when everybody's on the same page, everybody's willing
35:21
Speaker 1: to work, and everybody's willing to pull in the same direction.
35:25
Speaker 1: I think in football that does matter to a point.
35:27
Speaker 1: So I just don't get why it's a big it's
35:29
Speaker 1: a big controversy if you can point me in the
35:32
Speaker 1: draft to a point where they said, Hey, this guy
35:35
Speaker 1: is a lot better. But I like this guy because
35:39
Speaker 1: he's good and he makes me laugh and I like it.
35:42
Speaker 1: I like Louie. He looks in a tie. I don't
35:45
Speaker 1: think that happened. So I'm fine with this class. Yeah,
35:47
Speaker 1: and hey, it's nice to have good guys, right, I mean,
35:50
Speaker 1: everybody likes staying around with matters in the point of
35:56
Speaker 1: these guys care about it. They're clearly motivated. I thought
36:00
Speaker 1: a variancing part of this draft class was Davon Hamilton's
36:05
Speaker 1: and uh and the BArch Kid from Minnesota or from St. John's.
36:10
Speaker 1: They're both guys who clearly cared about the game over
36:15
Speaker 1: the long term. Hamilton went to Ohio State and didn't
36:18
Speaker 1: really play a lot until his fifth year there. BArch
36:21
Speaker 1: went to Minnesota or St. John's and never had any
36:26
Speaker 1: inkling of the NFL until late in his career, but
36:29
Speaker 1: still put in all this work, all those smoothies. Could
36:32
Speaker 1: have been easy to put down dave Um, but still
36:36
Speaker 1: did it because he wanted to get better at the game.
36:39
Speaker 1: There's a love of the game there, and I don't
36:41
Speaker 1: know how much that's gonna matter, but I think there
36:44
Speaker 1: is a dedication and a importance to it that's maybe
36:49
Speaker 1: an intangible that it feels like that runs through this
36:53
Speaker 1: draft class and as long as there's talent that I
36:57
Speaker 1: do believe there's talent there. As long as there's talent,
37:00
Speaker 1: I don't know that that's a bad theme to have
37:03
Speaker 1: over your last two or three draft classes that you
37:06
Speaker 1: brought it up. Would you do the Ben Bark smoothie?
37:10
Speaker 1: You know, I have no reason to because I'm already
37:16
Speaker 1: so overwhelmed, Like I have no reason. Would I taste
37:20
Speaker 1: it if it? If it wouldn't add the calories. I
37:22
Speaker 1: would probably try it on a dare, but it'd be tough.
37:27
Speaker 1: I don't I don't get the topic. And they're scrambled.
37:32
Speaker 1: He scrambled the eggs because he thought the story right.
37:34
Speaker 1: It's because he thought the rides would be gross. Well, okay,
37:39
Speaker 1: then all right it. And I loved when he said,
37:43
Speaker 1: uh that he didn't want to get fat and that
37:48
Speaker 1: was his only bad meal of the day. Beat that
37:52
Speaker 1: kind of way. And and St. John's it's an incident.
37:55
Speaker 1: I don't have a seen, no advision to football, but
37:58
Speaker 1: if there's a Division one type program in Division three,
38:03
Speaker 1: it might be St. John's. They've been a a power
38:06
Speaker 1: for a long time and they are a revered school
38:08
Speaker 1: in Minnesota. They're a big deal in Minnesota. That bigger
38:12
Speaker 1: to put out a lot of draft picks, but um,
38:15
Speaker 1: they're a big time, big time program. They had a
38:17
Speaker 1: coach and his name escapes me was one of the
38:19
Speaker 1: winnings coaches in college football history until he tired. I
38:22
Speaker 1: think he passed a couple of years back. But a
38:24
Speaker 1: friend of mine went there that I knew I've got
38:27
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago, and he called him the Johnny's the
38:30
Speaker 1: whole thing, and that football program people in Minnesota is
38:34
Speaker 1: a big deal. The more you know, you learn a
38:37
Speaker 1: little something on the ozone podcast. I guess you did.
38:41
Speaker 1: That's the hope anyway, Dave. Alright, that's Edition one of
38:44
Speaker 1: the ozone Podcast. Thanks to Dave called Well for joining us,
38:47
Speaker 1: and thanks to Joe Fortunatos for doing all the editing work.
38:50
Speaker 1: Uh that for this weekend hope he didn't sing