Latest / Mac & Bone Podcast / Mac & Bone Show - JJ Jansen Interview
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The Ironman of your Carolina Panthers, America's long snapper, joins
- 0:04Speaker 1: us for a little special Victory Tuesday Snapchats.
- 0:07Speaker 2: JJ, how you doing, man? What's going on?
- 0:10Speaker 3: Speaker 4 0 1. Well, look, I got a couple
- 0:11Speaker 3: of things I got to comment on. I have, and
- 0:13Speaker 3: often I'm called a dinosaur, but unrelated to why cam
- 0:16Speaker 3: was commenting on different things at that point. I'm going to,
- 0:23Speaker 3: I'm going to jump into the coker conversation. Marcus Jones
- 0:25Speaker 3: is the best part returner in the NFL last year.
- 0:27Speaker 3: He's the full-time nickel corner for the new England Patriot
- 0:32Speaker 3: was the best one in the league. That's a good
- 0:34Speaker 3: couple more. I'm going to throw a couple more stats
- 0:36Speaker 3: at you.
- 0:36Speaker 4: Cause I'm ready for this conversation last year, last year,
- 0:41Speaker 4: we had 24 total punt returns in the entire season,
- 0:45Speaker 4: like caught and returned 24.
- 0:48Speaker 3: You guys are talking like it's like 37 plays a game.
- 0:51Speaker 3: It's a couple very important plays. And obviously Jalen was
- 0:54Speaker 3: fantastic led to 50 yards of a part return yardage.
- 0:58Speaker 3: And obviously there was a lot of reasons why we
- 1:00Speaker 3: had such a good job in the field position game.
- 1:03Speaker 3: That was you said something kind of interesting that was
- 1:06Speaker 3: 20 yards of field position difference between us and Atlanta.
- 1:10Speaker 3: But that was like on 10, that was like on
- 1:12Speaker 3: 10 or 11 possessions, meaning 200 yards in the game.
- 1:16Speaker 3: It's a really important, it's a really important job. Jalen
- 1:19Speaker 3: obviously did a fantastic. And the last piece to this
- 1:22Speaker 3: whole conversation is I think there's something very special about
- 1:27Speaker 3: having a guy back there that is, has a bigger
- 1:31Speaker 3: role with the rest of the team. It takes the
- 1:33Speaker 3: pressure off of that ball in the air, that play,
- 1:36Speaker 3: because he knows that not only is this one of
- 1:39Speaker 3: the plays he's playing, but he has other ways of impacting.
- 1:42Speaker 3: I always thought the toughest returners to go against We're
- 1:45Speaker 3: the West Welkers, the Julian Edelman, the Rashid Shaheed, not
- 1:49Speaker 3: only are they fantastic returners, but they have such a
- 1:52Speaker 3: big role on offense or defense that they are more fearless.
- 1:56Speaker 3: And that's really tough to go against when someone isn't
- 1:59Speaker 3: worried about like, Hey, the ball's in the air and
- 2:01Speaker 3: this is my only job. Those guys are easy to
- 2:04Speaker 3: play against because they're They're filled with fear and that's
- 2:08Speaker 3: easy to go down as a punt return guy. So
- 2:10Speaker 3: also good morning.
- 2:11Speaker 2: How are you guys doing?
- 2:13Speaker 5: People are mad at JJ for bringing facts into the show.
- 2:16Speaker 5: Let our guys just be themselves.
- 2:19Speaker 2: JJ, good morning. And you know what?
- 2:21Speaker 1: You talked to me into it. Coke man, keep returning
- 2:23Speaker 1: those punts, baby. Another texter accused us of acting like
- 2:28Speaker 1: peewee football moms with this fear over Jalen Coker's health.
- 2:32Speaker 1: He's a grown man who plays football. I'm just protecting
- 2:36Speaker 1: our guys hamstring. That's all I'm trying to do here.
- 2:40Speaker 3: Oh, but I think, I think you guys, I think
- 2:42Speaker 3: you guys are right to be concerned and keep a lookout.
- 2:46Speaker 3: Like certainly TMAC and Coker and XL were fantastic this week.
- 2:50Speaker 3: And you certainly don't want to take anything away from
- 2:52Speaker 3: the office or if a defensive player went back there,
- 2:55Speaker 3: I just want to add to the conversation that it
- 2:57Speaker 3: is so challenging for the other team when the guy
- 3:01Speaker 3: standing back there is fearless. And obviously we saw Coker
- 3:05Speaker 3: never been back there in an NFL game catches it
- 3:07Speaker 3: and runs for like 39 yards up, up the sideline.
- 3:11Speaker 3: And then the underrated play from his perspective is they
- 3:15Speaker 3: hit a really good point in the second quarter. That was,
- 3:19Speaker 3: would have gone out of bounds at the seven yard line.
- 3:21Speaker 3: He catches it, makes one guy miss and gets the
- 3:23Speaker 3: ball to the 20. And that's where we started drive
- 3:27Speaker 3: that I think we went down and scored a touchdown on.
- 3:29Speaker 3: So that's the stuff that sometimes those unheralded plays, we
- 3:34Speaker 3: call it in our room the first first down, and
- 3:36Speaker 3: he did a really good job with that as well.
- 3:38Speaker 5: JJ, the other day, obviously there's a lot of storylines
- 3:41Speaker 5: we can talk about, but the performance of Devin Lloyd,
- 3:44Speaker 5: we're talking historic in nature in a lot of ways.
- 3:47Speaker 5: You've seen, all jokes aside, a lot of great linebacker
- 3:51Speaker 5: performances from your teammates, and you know all about the
- 3:54Speaker 5: ones of the past. But of the ones you've been
- 3:56Speaker 5: involved in, defensive performance-wise, how high up does that rank
- 4:01Speaker 5: of Devon's game on Sunday?
- 4:03Speaker 3: Well, I think when you consider the complete package of
- 4:06Speaker 3: everything that he did, I think that's probably the best
- 4:08Speaker 3: individual game. The, the, certainly the two others that come
- 4:11Speaker 3: to mind, we've talked about them on the show before
- 4:14Speaker 3: the Kinkley's two games, the one in Dallas with the
- 4:17Speaker 3: two interceptions and the touchdown. I don't think he got
- 4:20Speaker 3: a sack in that game. So Devin one ups in there.
- 4:22Speaker 3: Now Devin didn't punch the quarterback in the face like
- 4:25Speaker 3: Luke did. So maybe that's an unofficial stat in the,
- 4:28Speaker 3: in the record book on that particular category. But And then, obviously,
- 4:35Speaker 3: we've talked about it. Luke had the 24 tackles and
- 4:37Speaker 3: the interception in the playoff clinching game versus New Orleans
- 4:42Speaker 3: in 2013. I thought Devin was fantastic this week. Him
- 4:46Speaker 3: and Bobby O'Kara K were fantastic on the inside, both
- 4:50Speaker 3: tipped balls for the other guy, as we went through it.
- 4:52Speaker 3: I mean, that was, that was pretty good. I mean, there,
- 4:54Speaker 3: there could have been one or two more interceptions by
- 4:56Speaker 3: the linebackers, a couple of tip balls. You know, Bobby
- 4:59Speaker 3: had the one that just barely Nick, the ground would
- 5:02Speaker 3: have been another interception. So those guys were really active,
- 5:05Speaker 3: you know, certainly a ton of credit needs to go
- 5:08Speaker 3: to the, you know, the front four front five getting
- 5:10Speaker 3: after Cooper rush and strand. But, but I mean, he
- 5:14Speaker 3: was so active in the game, the fourth down stop
- 5:17Speaker 3: kind of gets washed away because of the sacks and
- 5:19Speaker 3: the interceptions. But that was a big play in the
- 5:22Speaker 3: game when, when the game was certainly very much in
- 5:24Speaker 3: doubt and being able to sniff out sort of a
- 5:26Speaker 3: trick play there on fourth and one was a big,
- 5:29Speaker 3: big stop for us as well.
- 5:31Speaker 1: Multiple people are pointing out, JJ, that Luke's pick six
- 5:34Speaker 1: did not involve a teammate dropping the people's elbow on
- 5:38Speaker 1: a member of the team. Travis Gibson went on social
- 5:42Speaker 1: media and explained what he was doing. Says, I was
- 5:46Speaker 1: trying to jump over Devin Lloyd and avoid hitting Devin Lloyd,
- 5:50Speaker 1: but the way he landed was on top of a
- 5:52Speaker 1: falcon and it looked very much bone like a wrestling maneuver. Yeah.
- 5:57Speaker 2: He says he was trying to avoid Devin Lloyd.
- 5:59Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 5:59Speaker 2: That was hilarious.
- 6:00Speaker 3: Avoid Devin. He felt mildly humorous and bad about that simultaneously.
- 6:06Speaker 3: We call him POV for very obvious reasons for those
- 6:09Speaker 3: of you that follow him on social media. And that
- 6:11Speaker 3: was definitely a POV crush the Falcons on your way down.
- 6:15Speaker 3: But yeah, those plays get a little funky. It looks
- 6:19Speaker 3: so awkward, but when guys are getting rolled up on,
- 6:22Speaker 3: Sometimes they know just to get their feet out of
- 6:24Speaker 3: the ground. And unfortunately it kind of landed into a
- 6:27Speaker 3: WWE move, but that was a, that was definitely a
- 6:30Speaker 3: whoopsie from the game, but certainly funny for social media.
- 6:33Speaker 5: He avoided Devin better than Atlanta did. The quarterbacks couldn't
- 6:37Speaker 5: do that. No doubt about it. Travis Gibson.
- 6:40Speaker 1: Also JJ, I don't know if you, you probably got
- 6:43Speaker 1: better things to do than sit around and watch like
- 6:45Speaker 1: ESPN's Monday night pregame show.
- 6:47Speaker 2: I do not though, sir. They do a thing. Jason
- 6:49Speaker 2: Kelsey does a thing. What is it?
- 6:51Speaker 1: Find that work or whatever. I guess it's a new feature. And,
- 6:55Speaker 1: you know, it's it's guys given the extra mile. And
- 6:57Speaker 1: he he featured the Panthers defense on Devin Lloyd's first
- 7:01Speaker 1: interception return, the one where he stiff armed and got
- 7:04Speaker 1: the most yards. And they showed all the guys on
- 7:07Speaker 1: defense blocking. And that included Travis Gibson, who was way
- 7:11Speaker 1: behind the play, but still drove a Falcons player like
- 7:14Speaker 1: 15 yards backwards away from the play. Like it was
- 7:17Speaker 1: it was sweet, man.
- 7:19Speaker 3: Yeah, those guys are well coached up on it. That
- 7:22Speaker 3: is part of the drill work, especially in training camp,
- 7:24Speaker 3: but even as we go through the season, finding work,
- 7:28Speaker 3: blocking the intended receivers, finding the quarterback if he wants
- 7:31Speaker 3: to get involved. That's a highly detailed work. And the
- 7:34Speaker 3: cool part is, and I think you saw it come alive,
- 7:36Speaker 3: is once that happens once in a game or in a,
- 7:39Speaker 3: in a season guys realize, Hey, that's this guy blocks
- 7:42Speaker 3: for me once, let me go block for him. And
- 7:44Speaker 3: it becomes a really kind of infectious thing, especially when
- 7:47Speaker 3: the ball is getting turned over. And those things seem
- 7:50Speaker 3: to come in bunches as they did on Sunday, but
- 7:52Speaker 3: it's all about guys finding work and getting to the
- 7:55Speaker 3: ball and then, and then blocking for one another.
- 7:57Speaker 5: JJ, I was texting with Colin Hoggard, our boss here,
- 8:01Speaker 5: on Sunday or Saturday before you played Atlanta. He pointed
- 8:05Speaker 5: out the Atlanta game was your 35th career game against Atlanta.
- 8:11Speaker 5: And then we started talking about, is JJ going to
- 8:13Speaker 5: get to the point when he starts to play against,
- 8:16Speaker 5: you know, the sons of former teammates or people that
- 8:19Speaker 5: played in the league? And I immediately thought, OK, your
- 8:23Speaker 5: first game as a Panther, JJ, was 2009, right?
- 8:28Speaker 3: Yes.
- 8:28Speaker 5: And Jeremiah Trotter was on that Eagles team in game one,
- 8:33Speaker 5: and now Josiah Trotter's on Tampa Bay. So this year,
- 8:36Speaker 5: there might be other examples, but I know for sure
- 8:38Speaker 5: this year you will play against Josiah Trotter twice, having
- 8:42Speaker 5: played in a game against his father in 2009.
- 8:46Speaker 3: I'm trying to think, you know, certainly go to all
- 8:48Speaker 3: the juniors. Those are always the easier ones to figure out.
- 8:51Speaker 3: I don't know if I had played against Joey Porter senior.
- 8:54Speaker 3: That might've been another one. I can't quite remember. I'll
- 8:58Speaker 3: have to go back and look, but yeah, I'm sure there's,
- 9:00Speaker 3: there's probably a couple of guys that were a little
- 9:01Speaker 3: bit older when I came into the league. and the
- 9:05Speaker 3: genetics and football are strong. So if you have a
- 9:08Speaker 3: dad that played in the NFL, there's a decent chance.
- 9:10Speaker 3: You've got a shot at making it yourself. Speaker 0
- 9:11Speaker 3: 5,0 Yeah.
- 9:11Speaker 5: Joey Porter did play at a 2011. So I'm sure
- 9:14Speaker 5: somewhere along the way, you keep going JJ and you
- 9:17Speaker 5: will Thomas Davis's son will eventually make it to the league.
- 9:20Speaker 5: You may have a, a moment where you're playing or
- 9:22Speaker 5: playing with TD side.
- 9:25Speaker 3: And the best part of that is he's at Notre Dame.
- 9:28Speaker 2: Oh, there you go.
- 9:30Speaker 3: It is perfect, because I can just keep turning the knife.
- 9:32Speaker 3: As much as TD gave me crap for all those years,
- 9:35Speaker 3: at the end of the day, he selected the Irish.
- 9:38Speaker 3: So that's all that you need to know. That's all
- 9:41Speaker 3: you need to know.
- 9:42Speaker 1: I love it. We got a texter suggesting that JJ
- 9:44Speaker 1: stay around long enough to play against a grandson of
- 9:47Speaker 1: a guy he played with.
- 9:49Speaker 2: Or against.
- 9:50Speaker 3: That would be unbelievable.
- 9:51Speaker 2: Can you imagine what.
- 9:55Speaker 3: You guys imagine what the league minimum will be in 2060?
- 9:57Speaker 3: That'd be unbelievable.
- 10:00Speaker 2: Keep working out, baby.
- 10:01Speaker 5: A lot of people bringing up the Harrisons, Marvin Harrison
- 10:04Speaker 5: and his son. That's got to be one, right?
- 10:06Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, that would definitely be one for sure.
- 10:09Speaker 2: Frank Gore, Frank Gore, and Frank Gore Jr. There's a
- 10:12Speaker 2: lot of them. That's crazy.
- 10:14Speaker 3: We're just going for the juniors. See, that's how everybody
- 10:16Speaker 3: else is working. I bet you there's somebody that isn't
- 10:18Speaker 3: a junior out there.
- 10:19Speaker 1: That's the challenge. Come on, audience. Come on, listeners. JJ
- 10:25Speaker 1: has issued a challenge to you.
- 10:26Speaker 2: All right.
- 10:27Speaker 1: I want to make sure I ask you this while
- 10:29Speaker 1: we have you on. Um, it's, it's awesome to me
- 10:34Speaker 1: to see how downfield this passing game has been the
- 10:37Speaker 1: average distance of target about 10 and a half where
- 10:40Speaker 1: last year for Bryce, it was 6.9. The average play
- 10:44Speaker 1: action depth of target the other day was 13. It
- 10:47Speaker 1: was high on the first day too. So it's more
- 10:50Speaker 1: pushing the ball downfield. It's more play action downfield. These
- 10:54Speaker 1: are things we really wanted. And I like from your perspective, what,
- 10:59Speaker 1: What do you think is the reason here? Because we
- 11:01Speaker 1: on the outside say, oh, this is something Idzik much
- 11:04Speaker 1: want to do, and he really was pushing Canales. Now
- 11:06Speaker 1: that I'm calling the plays, can we do this? Maybe
- 11:09Speaker 1: it's not that simple. Why do you think this has
- 11:12Speaker 1: been an emphasis so far?
- 11:14Speaker 3: Well, I think as the league is continuing to evolve,
- 11:17Speaker 3: there is, there is the opportunities for teams to sort
- 11:20Speaker 3: of learn, Hey, what is going well? And I think
- 11:23Speaker 3: there's a big part of even Bryce's growth, right? You
- 11:26Speaker 3: come from college, you're in the shotgun and all you're
- 11:29Speaker 3: doing is kind of the more of a spread style
- 11:32Speaker 3: of offense. And I think there's, there's room for development,
- 11:35Speaker 3: getting centers are getting quarterbacks under center and turning their
- 11:39Speaker 3: back to the defense and is a very challenging skill
- 11:42Speaker 3: that has to be required. We all sit back and go,
- 11:44Speaker 3: we'll just run play action. That's the best play in
- 11:47Speaker 3: football on first and 10, which it is, but asking
- 11:50Speaker 3: quarterbacks to turn their back to the defense for someone
- 11:53Speaker 3: that has watched the defense, his entire career is a
- 11:57Speaker 3: development and it is a learning process. That being said,
- 12:00Speaker 3: this is the best receiving core Bryce has had. We've,
- 12:03Speaker 3: we've got three or four guys that are really good.
- 12:05Speaker 3: They're excellent with contested catches. We saw both really all
- 12:09Speaker 3: three of them make outstanding catches. A couple on the
- 12:11Speaker 3: sideline XL, the thing that the TV broadcast didn't catch
- 12:15Speaker 3: on the XL ball is when Bryce first threw it,
- 12:18Speaker 3: I thought he overthrew XL and, and X hit another
- 12:22Speaker 3: gear to go run that thing down. Like that's, that's
- 12:25Speaker 3: some of the unspoken talks about like depth of target. Like, uh,
- 12:30Speaker 3: do you have guys that can go make one-on-one grabs?
- 12:33Speaker 3: Do you have guys that can go run a ball down?
- 12:35Speaker 3: Because really in that particular case, not only is it
- 12:38Speaker 3: a two minute drive that we're trying to get down
- 12:40Speaker 3: the field, but But Bryce is throwing the ball away
- 12:42Speaker 3: from the defender. So you got to have guys go
- 12:45Speaker 3: get it. So from that perspective, I think the wide
- 12:47Speaker 3: receivers are as much a part of the conversation as Bryce,
- 12:51Speaker 3: as Idzik, as Coach Canales. I mean, who's calling the
- 12:54Speaker 3: plays is obviously a big conversation. But the entire staff,
- 12:58Speaker 3: you know, Coach Bevel has come in. He came from Miami.
- 13:00Speaker 3: They ran a lot of play action. I think there's
- 13:02Speaker 3: new creativity throughout that room, different voices, new concepts. but
- 13:07Speaker 3: really Bryce has been the one that's made it alive. And,
- 13:09Speaker 3: and just from a, from a fan and an observer, like,
- 13:13Speaker 3: like myself on the sideline, not only do I think
- 13:16Speaker 3: we've had a really good job with the scheme and
- 13:18Speaker 3: we've moved the pocket, but Bryce has really found his
- 13:22Speaker 3: footing in terms of being able to manipulate the pocket.
- 13:25Speaker 3: I don't think there's anyone better in the NFL at
- 13:28Speaker 3: throwing the ball. Like when his mind says now the
- 13:32Speaker 3: ball comes out so fast and, And you see it.
- 13:34Speaker 3: He doesn't always need his feet. He's got all the
- 13:36Speaker 3: different arm angles. The creativity comes alive. And on the
- 13:40Speaker 3: play action passing, his ability to access all different parts
- 13:43Speaker 3: of the field has been really impressive to watch.
- 13:46Speaker 5: We didn't bring up the note about you and the
- 13:49Speaker 5: fathers and sons to have you disrespected by the.
- 13:52Speaker 2: Text line this way. You did not play. against Archie Manning, Peyton,
- 13:56Speaker 2: and Eli, all right? Of all people.
- 13:59Speaker 5: A lot of people bringing up Joe and J.C.
- 14:01Speaker 2: I did play.
- 14:01Speaker 3: Against Peyton and Eli. I just missed Archie.
- 14:05Speaker 5: Now, a lot of people are saying Joe and J.C.
- 14:08Speaker 5: You missed Joe Horn by a couple years, right, on
- 14:10Speaker 5: his end?
- 14:11Speaker 3: Yeah. I wouldn't have been by much, though. I've got
- 14:14Speaker 3: to be honest.
- 14:14Speaker 2: It was two years. Two years. You were two years
- 14:17Speaker 2: after Joe.
- 14:18Speaker 1: Here's a hell of an idea. Here's a hell of
- 14:20Speaker 1: an idea. Multiple people want you to pull a LeBron.
- 14:24Speaker 1: They want you to train your son to long snap.
- 14:27Speaker 1: You and him long snap in the league at the
- 14:29Speaker 1: same time, JJ.
- 14:32Speaker 3: Again, I cannot wait to see what the league minimum
- 14:35Speaker 3: is in 2045. That'll be a fantastic opportunity.
- 14:40Speaker 2: I saw you out there. I saw you work with
- 14:43Speaker 2: him on long snap.
- 14:45Speaker 3: Yeah. This isn't going to shock you, but my son
- 14:48Speaker 3: is the long snapper at his middle school team as
- 14:51Speaker 3: is TJ Olson at his middle school team. And so
- 14:54Speaker 3: there are some, there are some family heritage there. I
- 14:57Speaker 3: don't know that Greg cares that, that his son is
- 15:01Speaker 3: doing long snapping as much as it is playing tight end,
- 15:03Speaker 3: which TJ also is, but just so we can, we
- 15:06Speaker 3: can maintain the heritage of sort of a one, two
- 15:08Speaker 3: long snapper Jansen and Olson.
- 15:11Speaker 2: I love that. Well, Greg always thought he was better
- 15:12Speaker 2: than you, didn't he? Isn't that what you say?
- 15:14Speaker 1: So now he's got his son trying to prove that
- 15:15Speaker 1: an Olsen can snap better than a Jansen.
- 15:17Speaker 2: He still thinks he's better than me. Of course.
- 15:20Speaker 3: That sort of stuff doesn't change.
- 15:21Speaker 1: Did you know that Olsen made an appearance in the
- 15:24Speaker 1: Fox broadcast of the game on Sunday? Did you hear
- 15:27Speaker 1: about the broadcasting snafu for Fox where they were playing
- 15:30Speaker 1: the audio of other games, including Olsen doing the Bears?
- 15:34Speaker 3: I didn't know that Greg's game made it in. I didn't.
- 15:37Speaker 3: I can assure you, not only being a Panther fan,
- 15:39Speaker 3: I think based on how ugly that game was in Chicago,
- 15:42Speaker 3: you wish he had our game here last week.
- 15:45Speaker 5: I got to tell you, it was the best of
- 15:46Speaker 5: both worlds, JT. We got Olsen doing the Panther game,
- 15:49Speaker 5: but he wasn't actually doing the Panther game. He was
- 15:51Speaker 5: doing his own game. We had Greg on the call,
- 15:53Speaker 5: but it was a little confusing here.
- 15:54Speaker 3: For a while. I think it was like Kevin Harlan
- 15:57Speaker 3: a couple of years ago was doing the play by
- 15:59Speaker 3: play of a game of like some other game. He
- 16:01Speaker 3: wasn't even at, I mean, look, Greg has many jobs.
- 16:05Speaker 3: I'm sure he would love to dual call games, both
- 16:07Speaker 3: again in Chicago and in Carolina.
- 16:09Speaker 2: Just ask, just ask. All right, man.
- 16:13Speaker 1: Good talking to you. Congrats on the wind, man. We
- 16:15Speaker 1: enjoyed it as fans. Best of luck in Cleveland. Thanks
- 16:18Speaker 1: for coming on, man.
- 16:20Speaker 3: Absolutely. Just remember we're all coke heads.