Latest / The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network / Pete Prisco on Jaguars Improvement at 2024 Owners Meetings | The O-Zone Podcast
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Welcome to the Ozone Podcast with Jaguars senior writer John Oser.
- 0:14Speaker 1: All Right, welcome into this week's Ozone podcast. I am,
- 0:17Speaker 1: of course, John Hosier, and I'm joined by a very
- 0:19Speaker 1: familiar face and name the Jaguars fans, Pete Prisco Cbs.
- 0:24Speaker 1: And we're here at the NFL Owners meeting. What number
- 0:27Speaker 1: of owners meeting is this for you? I know you
- 0:29Speaker 1: can count your combine the owner's meetings goes back even
- 0:32Speaker 1: further because you were doing it. Oh it does when
- 0:34Speaker 1: you're covering expansion.
- 0:35Speaker 2: Let's see, I probably started going to the owners meetings.
- 0:39Speaker 1: And and you spent six years to standing around lobbies
- 0:44Speaker 1: waiting for every everyone.
- 0:46Speaker 2: And it wasn't just this one. We went to the
- 0:48Speaker 2: spring one, and there was a fall one. We had
- 0:50Speaker 2: to go to that one too, So it was three
- 0:52Speaker 2: per year. And it was yeah, so fifteen probably leading
- 0:55Speaker 2: into the teams, maybe eighteen leading into the team getting there,
- 0:58Speaker 2: and then one a year after.
- 0:59Speaker 1: Did you ever imagine in a million years, because you
- 1:01Speaker 1: don't think this way, that when you're standing in those hallways,
- 1:05Speaker 1: you'd be talking about the Jaguars maybe having a second stadium.
- 1:10Speaker 2: Like you know, that should have happened a long time, right, But.
- 1:14Speaker 1: It's been that long You've now seen a generation, because
- 1:17Speaker 1: really age in the NFL is now like how many
- 1:20Speaker 1: what stadium is a team on? And now are you're
- 1:23Speaker 1: that far into it getting ready to retire?
- 1:24Speaker 2: Not just that the generation of fans is sure, Yeah,
- 1:28Speaker 2: they've changed. Don't retire me. I'm not retiring.
- 1:30Speaker 1: I said we, Oh, we're not retiring. I may retire
- 1:33Speaker 1: for you to you.
- 1:33Speaker 2: Probably will because I'm one of those guys that if
- 1:35Speaker 2: I retire, I think I croak.
- 1:36Speaker 1: What are you gonna do? So well? And here we
- 1:39Speaker 1: are now in year three of Doug Peterson, year four
- 1:44Speaker 1: of Trent Balky. The off season clearly to me feels
- 1:48Speaker 1: like a reset break down the off season right now?
- 1:54Speaker 1: Are they a better team now than they were at
- 1:56Speaker 1: the end of last season? Long?
- 2:01Speaker 2: They're better? They're better. Well, they're better because the quarterbacks healthy.
- 2:05Speaker 2: That's first and foremost. And I think he was hurt
- 2:07Speaker 2: far worse than they let on at the end of
- 2:09Speaker 2: last season. That's that was evident, And I think first
- 2:12Speaker 2: and foremost that makes them a better team. Are they
- 2:15Speaker 2: better on the offensive line? Yes, because Mitch Morrise will
- 2:17Speaker 2: be the starting center. Is he a great player. Is
- 2:19Speaker 2: a power player, No, but he's a good player and
- 2:21Speaker 2: he's better and he knows what to do how to
- 2:23Speaker 2: do it. You know, he's not look I beat up
- 2:27Speaker 2: on Fortner a little bit, but Fortner stood straight up
- 2:29Speaker 2: he wasn't strong enough. This kid knows how to play
- 2:32Speaker 2: the angles to make it work. He's not a strong
- 2:34Speaker 2: center either, but he's smart. So they're gonna be better
- 2:36Speaker 2: on the offensive line because of him. I think getting
- 2:40Speaker 2: Harrison into his second year will make him better. He'll understand,
- 2:43Speaker 2: like in the run blocking, he never was that good
- 2:44Speaker 2: in it because you didn't know how to get to
- 2:45Speaker 2: the angles. He'll be better at it, so that'll be
- 2:48Speaker 2: better wide receiver. I think probably if they're healthy, they're better.
- 2:54Speaker 2: That is the problem. Last day they were never healthy.
- 2:56Speaker 1: If they can get on the same page at wide receiver,
- 3:00Speaker 1: I think there's a school of thought. I said all
- 3:03Speaker 1: on they should have resigned Calvin Ridley. I wanted that
- 3:05Speaker 1: to happen for them, but you had You had to
- 3:08Speaker 1: draw the line at a price, and I don't think
- 3:10Speaker 1: they could go that high.
- 3:11Speaker 2: But there understand the price not going that high.
- 3:15Speaker 1: There is a school of thought, though, and I think
- 3:18Speaker 1: I believe this that the offense when it was healthy
- 3:22Speaker 1: and you had Marvin Jones and Christian Kirk and Evan
- 3:26Speaker 1: Ingram and Za Jones all healthy, all going, this offense
- 3:30Speaker 1: operated okay and it was efficient. If you just say
- 3:35Speaker 1: in that equation that gave Davis place in Marvin Jones,
- 3:39Speaker 1: is this core that much worse than that?
- 3:41Speaker 2: No?
- 3:42Speaker 1: So I mean, and I think they will work like this.
- 3:45Speaker 2: They will add to it. I would It wouldn't astound
- 3:48Speaker 2: me to see him add to it in the first round.
- 3:49Speaker 1: By the way, people, I'd be stunned. He here's at seventeen.
- 3:53Speaker 2: Here's why the corner. The top two corners, the Mitchell
- 3:58Speaker 2: kid from Toledo and Arnold from Alabama both might be
- 4:00Speaker 2: gone by the time they pick. Untackled a great fit, right,
- 4:06Speaker 2: and he's a good man player, so he would fit
- 4:08Speaker 2: from that standpoint, But he doesn't tackle that well. It's
- 4:09Speaker 2: a knock on him. So then you're dropping down that
- 4:12Speaker 2: you're forcing a corner pick there, whereas you could sit
- 4:14Speaker 2: and take a wide receiver, or you can drop down
- 4:17Speaker 2: and get extra picks or something. But if you sit
- 4:18Speaker 2: and take a wide receiver, you can get the guy
- 4:20Speaker 2: who's going to be around when Trevor's around to be
- 4:22Speaker 2: a generational quarter because you don't have that now.
- 4:25Speaker 1: But if they do that, what are they gonna do
- 4:27Speaker 1: at corner?
- 4:27Speaker 2: Then you come back in the second round, you take it, okay,
- 4:29Speaker 2: because you can go wide receiver, corner, corner, wide receiver.
- 4:33Speaker 1: See I see corners in knee. I'm just looking at
- 4:35Speaker 1: corner as in need because of not only this year,
- 4:37Speaker 1: but you don't know if Tyson Campbell's coming back.
- 4:45Speaker 2: Is the number one need. There's no doubt about that.
- 4:47Speaker 2: But I'm saying if the two top guys are gone,
- 4:49Speaker 2: then I think you're gonna be the position where you're
- 4:51Speaker 2: forcing number three. Rather than take a wide receiver, I
- 4:54Speaker 2: think it could be a generational wide receiver. And I'll
- 4:57Speaker 2: give you the Thomas Kidd from LSU, six foot three,
- 5:01Speaker 2: runs like a deer. He's probably best football is in
- 5:05Speaker 2: front of him.
- 5:05Speaker 1: They haven't had that guy in a while.
- 5:07Speaker 2: No, so, and if you think about the big picture,
- 5:11Speaker 2: you can't always okay, you can't always think about right now.
- 5:14Speaker 2: You have to look at you have a generational quarterback,
- 5:17Speaker 2: you think, and so for him to be that in
- 5:19Speaker 2: three or four years, Kirk's probably not gonna be there,
- 5:22Speaker 2: Jones isn't gonna be there, and Gave Davis probably isn't
- 5:24Speaker 2: gonna be there. You have to have a guy, and
- 5:26Speaker 2: if you can get that guy, that's all one theory
- 5:28Speaker 2: of putting out there. I would lean to one of
- 5:29Speaker 2: the corners. I'd probably lean to Arnold and Mitchell, which
- 5:32Speaker 2: everyone is there if I could get one. If I
- 5:34Speaker 2: can't get one, I'm looking at wide receiver. People talk
- 5:36Speaker 2: about defensive line. Yeah they need a big defensive lineman,
- 5:39Speaker 2: but they don't. They got Armstead they don't need. If
- 5:41Speaker 2: Hamilton comes back, I think Hamilton will be fine. You
- 5:45Speaker 2: know he had that issue last year and he's gonna
- 5:48Speaker 2: get his weight back. He's gonna be fine. So you
- 5:50Speaker 2: have a nice four up front, so you don't really
- 5:52Speaker 2: need that. I think the needs are corner immediately, wide
- 5:57Speaker 2: receiver for down the.
- 5:58Speaker 1: Rod sneaky need too. I would say offensive line there
- 6:01Speaker 1: if the right guy was there. You could see that
- 6:03Speaker 1: making sense because it came and walk with their book
- 6:06Speaker 1: being in the last year.
- 6:07Speaker 2: What what do you take there? Though? Tackle? Yeah, they're
- 6:11Speaker 2: not gonna take are not gonna take a center there?
- 6:13Speaker 1: If you no if a tackle, I suppose this is
- 6:16Speaker 1: a really good offensive line draft for tackle. If it's
- 6:19Speaker 1: there and it's staring in the face, where it's that
- 6:22Speaker 1: much better than the other two positions, it would make
- 6:24Speaker 1: sense just because, well, there's a couple.
- 6:27Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a couple of guys. The Washington kid Fatano
- 6:31Speaker 2: and then the Oregon State tackle. Both of them have
- 6:34Speaker 2: the look of guys who are right tackles but would
- 6:37Speaker 2: be immediate guard starters, right, So you could do it
- 6:40Speaker 2: from that safe. The only problem is they're physical. They're big,
- 6:43Speaker 2: power guys in their offense. That's not that's not what
- 6:46Speaker 2: they do right, So it would be in trouble to
- 6:49Speaker 2: play them.
- 6:49Speaker 1: But if you're watching the interior of this line play
- 6:51Speaker 1: last year, you wouldn't mind a big, physical guy.
- 6:54Speaker 2: No, And you need to write you need a right
- 6:56Speaker 2: guard particularly, it's not just for this year, for the future.
- 6:59Speaker 2: But you're talking about drafting the tackle, letting Robinson and
- 7:03Speaker 2: Little out the door and moving Harrison over to left
- 7:05Speaker 2: tackle or the other kid played left tackle for the future,
- 7:09Speaker 2: which makes sense.
- 7:09Speaker 1: I guess I'm just talking that with Trevor and with
- 7:14Speaker 1: you know, I think the offensive line, I think I
- 7:17Speaker 1: think what Doug said on Monday morning is right. I
- 7:18Speaker 1: think the offensive line would be better with Mitch Morris.
- 7:21Speaker 1: With continuity. It would not bother me to see this
- 7:25Speaker 1: team just take the attitude if we're going to invest yearly,
- 7:29Speaker 1: somewhere on day one or two in that position and
- 7:33Speaker 1: continue to be strong.
- 7:34Speaker 2: I would do that.
- 7:35Speaker 1: It's been a thing where it's felt like we could
- 7:38Speaker 1: be a little better, we could be a little better.
- 7:40Speaker 1: Just get strong there, right, And I know you can't
- 7:43Speaker 1: do that every year, but philosophically, I would not have
- 7:46Speaker 1: a problem with that approach. Considering that Harrison was the
- 7:52Speaker 1: first first round offensive lineman they had taken since Fortner
- 7:56Speaker 1: back in fourteen. It's a long time to go without
- 8:01Speaker 1: having elite there, and they had not Fortner. I'm sorry,
- 8:05Speaker 1: Anton Harris, Yeah, since Luke jokel Yeah, in fourteen. That's
- 8:09Speaker 1: nine years between first round offensive linemen and I get there.
- 8:12Speaker 1: There's some other things you have to do that, but
- 8:14Speaker 1: somewhere you every five years it feels like you need
- 8:17Speaker 1: a first round.
- 8:18Speaker 2: Or up there. Yeah, I would. I would consider offensive
- 8:21Speaker 2: line in that spot if the right guy felt him,
- 8:22Speaker 2: but I wouldn't sit him. I play him right, He's
- 8:25Speaker 2: gonna be a guard. He's gonna be my right guard. Sorry,
- 8:27Speaker 2: he's gonna be my right guard. And I don't I
- 8:30Speaker 2: can't see them doing that though.
- 8:32Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I could also see a scenario. You know,
- 8:36Speaker 1: Cam Robinson, the cap number is still there, you draft,
- 8:40Speaker 1: and maybe Cam after the draft gets traded because of
- 8:46Speaker 1: the cap being a situation. Then you've got that linemap. Understand.
- 8:50Speaker 1: I don't necessarily think that they that they want to
- 8:52Speaker 1: do that. If the draft forces their hand, that could
- 8:55Speaker 1: be an option.
- 8:55Speaker 2: See here, here's the problem with that scenario. Okay, it's
- 8:59Speaker 2: not the problem, but this is the the X factor
- 9:01Speaker 2: in that scenario. That means you're emitting. You blew the
- 9:04Speaker 2: Walker little pick.
- 9:07Speaker 1: Well, it feels like him not starting is already sort
- 9:11Speaker 1: of admitting that. Yeah, I mean what if if the
- 9:15Speaker 1: admission is there. I don't know that there's a big
- 9:17Speaker 1: difference between doing what we're talking about and not starting it.
- 9:22Speaker 2: Yeah, they talked about last year. Well when I said
- 9:25Speaker 2: mentioned that, and well, you know he could he could play,
- 9:28Speaker 2: he could beat that, you know if they get rid
- 9:29Speaker 2: of Cam Robinson. Well they didn't get rid of Cam
- 9:30Speaker 2: Robbins brought him back and so Walker Little went. The
- 9:33Speaker 2: garden didn't look comfortable there, and from what I hear,
- 9:36Speaker 2: he didn't like it there, So what what do you
- 9:39Speaker 2: do with him? So basically you're looking at it the
- 9:41Speaker 2: second round pick as a blown pig. I'll say it.
- 9:48Speaker 2: I mean those are those are things that I get
- 9:52Speaker 2: what you're saying, and you can flip it forward that
- 9:54Speaker 2: way and it makes sense. But when you look at
- 9:57Speaker 2: it from that standpoint, you you blew that pick. So
- 9:59Speaker 2: and growing picks is where you have to do these things.
- 10:02Speaker 2: That's the problem. Ultimately you're gonna Ultimately you're gonna have
- 10:05Speaker 2: to get rid of high priced guys. That's just the
- 10:07Speaker 2: nature of the beast. You get to the end of
- 10:09Speaker 2: your contract, he's got to go. He's not worth it.
- 10:11Speaker 2: Now you get you grab one of the other guys
- 10:13Speaker 2: and young guys to let him play. But that's not
- 10:14Speaker 2: what you do.
- 10:14Speaker 1: But it's also important not to necessarily hold on hold
- 10:18Speaker 1: on to situations and be willing to make the personnel
- 10:21Speaker 1: moves that you need to make. You mentioned Trevor Lawrence,
- 10:24Speaker 1: We all lot to free the guys to talk about.
- 10:27Speaker 1: I'll throw a stat at you that I've thrown around
- 10:29Speaker 1: to anybody who'll listen to me. Pre injury, because you
- 10:32Speaker 1: mentioned Trevor's injuries and people hate talking about injuries, but
- 10:34Speaker 1: I think they were real with Trevor last year, he
- 10:36Speaker 1: gets hurt against Cincinnati. Before that injury, Jags are thirteen
- 10:41Speaker 1: and three in their last sixteen games and he's twenty
- 10:45Speaker 1: nine and nine. Making the case that you just made,
- 10:50Speaker 1: I think people who look so strongly at the turnovers
- 10:53Speaker 1: late in the season at the poor play because he
- 10:56Speaker 1: played bad in some cases, how significant is that stat
- 11:03Speaker 1: to you? And where do you think Trevor Lawrence can go?
- 11:06Speaker 2: Oh, I thought he was going to be the MVP
- 11:08Speaker 2: last year. I thought he'd throw thirty eight touchdown passes
- 11:10Speaker 2: and you know, nearly five thousand yards, right, And so
- 11:14Speaker 2: from my standpoint, it was a major disappointment he didn't
- 11:16Speaker 2: play as well as I thought he would. But I
- 11:18Speaker 2: think there were a lot of reasons that plague. One,
- 11:20Speaker 2: he was sped up and the offense was sped up.
- 11:22Speaker 1: Now there's a difference in sped up. When fans here
- 11:27Speaker 1: sped up, they oh, ghost you's seeing ghosts. I say,
- 11:30Speaker 1: there's a dimonst between between being sped up for a
- 11:33Speaker 1: reason and being worried about the pass rush.
- 11:37Speaker 2: Well, he's a long strider when he throws the football,
- 11:40Speaker 2: so you better be stout in the middle, and they
- 11:41Speaker 2: certainly were not stout right. And so when you have
- 11:44Speaker 2: a quarterback who's a long strider, his initial inclination when
- 11:48Speaker 2: he sees any sign of pressure is to get the
- 11:51Speaker 2: hell out of it, right, So he was sped up
- 11:53Speaker 2: from that standpoint. The other part of that equation is
- 11:55Speaker 2: sped up in that you throw at levels, and I
- 12:00Speaker 2: think early in the year there were times where he
- 12:01Speaker 2: wasn't waiting for level number two to come open. He
- 12:04Speaker 2: was throwing level one before he could give level two
- 12:07Speaker 2: an opportunity because he wasn't he was afraid of what
- 12:10Speaker 2: was coming inside. So that's what I mean by sped up.
- 12:12Speaker 2: And then the third part of that sped up equation
- 12:16Speaker 2: is they threw sixty five thousand bubble screens because they
- 12:20Speaker 2: were sped.
- 12:20Speaker 1: Up, right, And so you throw horizontal R means you
- 12:23Speaker 1: don't trust the offensive all right.
- 12:25Speaker 2: So add all three of those fastest together and that's
- 12:28Speaker 2: why you didn't have a good Trevor larn.
- 12:32Speaker 1: How impactful two guys morse from your experience? How much
- 12:40Speaker 1: can solidifying one spot help other spots? It's a weakest
- 12:45Speaker 1: link thing, right.
- 12:46Speaker 2: It's definitely the weakest link thing because and I'll give
- 12:49Speaker 2: you examples. Somebody told me the year before when in
- 12:52Speaker 2: two thousand and twenty two Sheriff didn't play very well
- 12:57Speaker 2: that year either.
- 12:58Speaker 1: He was heard right, But what they got out of him,
- 13:02Speaker 1: he's gritty enough to make up for it.
- 13:04Speaker 2: And he helped Jawan Taylor have the best season of
- 13:06Speaker 2: his career, in fact, make a boatload of money, even
- 13:09Speaker 2: he wasn't as good a player as that money indicated.
- 13:11Speaker 2: So sometimes you have one guy in there that can
- 13:14Speaker 2: make the other guys better. And I think that's what
- 13:16Speaker 2: Morse will give them. Morse will make that look. I've
- 13:19Speaker 2: watched a lot of Mitch Morrese tape. He is athletic
- 13:22Speaker 2: as hell. He knows how to play the angles, which
- 13:25Speaker 2: is what Fortner didn't know how to do. So in
- 13:27Speaker 2: other words, he knows when they get off the double
- 13:29Speaker 2: and get to the second level, and he can get
- 13:31Speaker 2: to the second level. And you know, a lot of
- 13:33Speaker 2: times their angles are so bad on that offensive line,
- 13:36Speaker 2: they have a double and then you're supposed to get
- 13:38Speaker 2: to the next level. And by the time they think
- 13:40Speaker 2: they're getting to the next level, the guy's over already
- 13:42Speaker 2: run from that spot, so they can't get to him.
- 13:44Speaker 2: So the guy makes the tackle and all of them
- 13:46Speaker 2: were guilty of it. That's why they bought Cleveland back
- 13:49Speaker 2: because he's so athletic. They love that.
- 13:51Speaker 1: Yeah, Eric Armstead, I'm always a little gun shy when
- 13:55Speaker 1: you're talking about signing not ten year veterans long enough.
- 14:00Speaker 1: If that worries me a little bit. But if healthy,
- 14:04Speaker 1: what is he and how does he help him out?
- 14:06Speaker 2: He wasn't healthy last year and that showed up. They
- 14:09Speaker 2: got run on a lot at the end of the year.
- 14:11Speaker 2: You saw the playoffs that were run on by everybody.
- 14:14Speaker 2: The Cardinals ran on him for one hundred and ninety
- 14:17Speaker 2: yards at the end of the year, and a lot
- 14:18Speaker 2: of that had to do with the fact that he
- 14:20Speaker 2: wasn't healthy. In the Super Bowl, he was healthy, and
- 14:23Speaker 2: you saw he was healthier, and you saw a guy
- 14:25Speaker 2: who made plays, and he made a lot of plays
- 14:27Speaker 2: because he's a big, physical, power player. Here's what else
- 14:32Speaker 2: he is. He's a great dude and a great teammate
- 14:36Speaker 2: and everybody will respond to him just like they used
- 14:39Speaker 2: to with Kalayis. Okay, So I think that's the Klayis
- 14:41Speaker 2: Campbell signing. What year was Klayis when.
- 14:43Speaker 1: He got in year in the league? I want to
- 14:46Speaker 1: say he was nine, but he was very similar.
- 14:51Speaker 2: That's that's what they're getting from it. That's exactly that signing.
- 14:55Speaker 2: That's the equivalent of it.
- 14:56Speaker 1: And how much do you put because clearly from listening
- 14:59Speaker 1: to Doug today, he believes it's a big factor. Uh,
- 15:03Speaker 1: every significant free agent from a team that is used
- 15:06Speaker 1: to winning arms you know, Uh, two players from the Bills,
- 15:11Speaker 1: player from the Packers, U two from the Ravens. You know.
- 15:15Speaker 1: So these are franchises that have been in the playoffs
- 15:17Speaker 1: seventeen times in the last five years. Armstead is sort
- 15:20Speaker 1: of the I guess the crown jewel of that. Does
- 15:24Speaker 1: that make that much of a difference? Can veterans bring that?
- 15:28Speaker 1: Do you have to grow it? You know? I'm getting
- 15:30Speaker 1: at that kind of culture that comes.
- 15:31Speaker 2: Yeah, No, that's because they be.
- 15:33Speaker 1: For homegrown culture.
- 15:35Speaker 2: Right.
- 15:35Speaker 1: If you can't get it.
- 15:36Speaker 2: You get guys that have been in winning cultures and
- 15:39Speaker 2: that bleeds on the Otherlazers. Like last year, I'm sure
- 15:42Speaker 2: it's spun out of control in that locker room. A
- 15:44Speaker 2: couple of different times when they were eight and three
- 15:46Speaker 2: and the number one seed, and reading the press clippings
- 15:48Speaker 2: and everything else, you need a guy like Armstead or
- 15:51Speaker 2: Morse to kind of rain him in a little bit. Look,
- 15:53Speaker 2: we've been in this spot before and we've lost super Bowls.
- 15:55Speaker 2: We know what you know, Armstead lost Super Bowl. He
- 15:58Speaker 2: knows what it's like to not get there, and this
- 16:01Speaker 2: is what it takes to get there. So I think
- 16:02Speaker 2: that'll actually help them.
- 16:04Speaker 1: Looking at it right now, I haven't drafted yet. How
- 16:07Speaker 1: do you see this team? I mean, it was it
- 16:10Speaker 1: was over the top enthusiasm last year, and I think
- 16:13Speaker 1: fans are now sort of reluctant to feel that again
- 16:17Speaker 1: because you just saw them lose five out of last six.
- 16:20Speaker 1: They're clearly better than a one in five team at
- 16:22Speaker 1: the end of last season. Are they as good as
- 16:24Speaker 1: the eight and three team? Where are they? In your mind?
- 16:27Speaker 2: They're probably a little I didn't think they played that
- 16:29Speaker 2: well to get the eight and three.
- 16:30Speaker 1: To be honest with you, but they were to me.
- 16:33Speaker 1: They were scrappy and savvy and they played.
- 16:36Speaker 2: Like I thought they would, right, And so I still
- 16:40Speaker 2: think there's better football in that. I think the offense
- 16:42Speaker 2: will be significantly better.
- 16:44Speaker 1: And it's it's so much Pete, and you know, I
- 16:49Speaker 1: agree with you. I'm gonna sound like a coach here,
- 16:51Speaker 1: but to me, last year everything started and the reason
- 16:55Speaker 1: you didn't, the reason you never felt like they were solid,
- 17:00Speaker 1: was because when they were in third and one, you
- 17:04Speaker 1: didn't feel like they were automatically going to pick it up.
- 17:06Speaker 1: And when you can't trust that, that's why the red
- 17:10Speaker 1: zone struggled. That's why you know on third and one.
- 17:13Speaker 1: I can remember sitting next to Kaya Stevens in the
- 17:15Speaker 1: press box multiple times and saying, boy, this feels like
- 17:18Speaker 1: a long down for this team. And I'm not trying
- 17:21Speaker 1: to insult anybody in the line, but that's if you
- 17:23Speaker 1: watch the scene, that's how it felt. You get away
- 17:25Speaker 1: from that and then there everything else falls into place. Right.
- 17:29Speaker 2: Well, but that was the whole idea. You drafted the
- 17:31Speaker 2: tight end in the second round, you drafted the running
- 17:33Speaker 2: back because he was a physical runner. You're gonna be
- 17:35Speaker 2: better in short you arden situations, but you never replaced
- 17:38Speaker 2: the center.
- 17:38Speaker 1: That was the point, right, and that sort of came back,
- 17:41Speaker 1: you know it. You're not trying to pile on Luke fordhims.
- 17:43Speaker 1: I think it was more upfront than that.
- 17:45Speaker 2: Yeah, but.
- 17:47Speaker 1: To me, if if you're twenty five percent better in
- 17:51Speaker 1: short yardage or need to run downs, I guess you'd
- 17:54Speaker 1: call him you're twenty five percent better there, that makes
- 17:57Speaker 1: you twenty five percent better everywhere else. And that's a huge,
- 18:00Speaker 1: huge jump in the NFL.
- 18:01Speaker 2: And I think you know, their run defense had issues,
- 18:03Speaker 2: and I think getting Hamilton back to being a three
- 18:06Speaker 2: hundred and thirty pound guy and not two hundred and
- 18:08Speaker 2: ninety pounds or whatever he was playing at because he
- 18:10Speaker 2: was getting blown off the ball and that guy never
- 18:11Speaker 2: got blown up. The getting him back into that line
- 18:14Speaker 2: next to Armstead will make them much better against the run. Now,
- 18:17Speaker 2: there's still some issues. For example, Luakon's a good player,
- 18:20Speaker 2: but he makes a ton of tackles down the field.
- 18:23Speaker 2: Needs to be better at that. Devin Lloyd that, I mean,
- 18:27Speaker 2: let's be real.
- 18:28Speaker 1: They tunlocking him as the key.
- 18:29Speaker 2: Yeah, he traded up to get him, and he's got
- 18:31Speaker 2: to become a better player. He had a couple of
- 18:33Speaker 2: games earlier season where he said, Okay, maybe this is
- 18:35Speaker 2: the year and then it went went left, and I
- 18:37Speaker 2: think he's got to get back on track. Did Doug
- 18:41Speaker 2: say today that Savage is going to play the Nickel.
- 18:43Speaker 1: Well, I think what they're doing Nickel right, Yeah, And
- 18:47Speaker 1: in this defense, my understanding is it's probably best to
- 18:51Speaker 1: call it a four to two five than a four
- 18:52Speaker 1: to three four. So it sounds like they're going to
- 18:55Speaker 1: have safeties meeting Antonio, Johnson, Savage, uh Wind Guard, Cisco,
- 19:03Speaker 1: all sort of playing multiple roles at safety rather than
- 19:06Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't think that they see Savage
- 19:09Speaker 1: or Antonio as a true cover Nickel.
- 19:12Speaker 2: Well. Saints did it when they were like hybrid. I guess,
- 19:16Speaker 2: like with Honey Badger when he played like down in
- 19:19Speaker 2: the box and played yeah yeah.
- 19:21Speaker 1: So I think it's more in the spirit of that
- 19:23Speaker 1: than thinking that he's coming in. I want to say
- 19:26Speaker 1: cover Nickel.
- 19:26Speaker 2: But what I want to know is on third and five,
- 19:31Speaker 2: if you have a quick, little shifty slot receiver who's.
- 19:34Speaker 1: Covering them, is it a bubble screen?
- 19:37Speaker 2: No, the other team won't run a bubble screen. Don't
- 19:39Speaker 2: throw it. Yeah. That means like, okay, for example, that
- 19:42Speaker 2: the Andy Reid was talking today about Marquise Brown and
- 19:44Speaker 2: how they'll line him up in the slot sometimes. Okay,
- 19:47Speaker 2: if Jacksonville's lined up on third and six, and Marquise
- 19:51Speaker 2: Brown is in the slot.
- 19:52Speaker 1: That's why you gotta draft corners, which.
- 19:53Speaker 2: One of those? Which one of those? If you're not
- 19:56Speaker 2: if one of those guys is actually playing the nickel,
- 19:58Speaker 2: who's playing the nickel? Antonio Johnson doesn't have the hips
- 20:02Speaker 2: to turn and flip them.
- 20:03Speaker 1: You need to get Ryan Nielson on.
- 20:05Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's that's a I don't know. If I'm
- 20:09Speaker 2: matched up and I see Savage or Antonio Johnson on
- 20:11Speaker 2: Marquise Brown, I'm going there, baby, because that's gonna be
- 20:14Speaker 2: my you know. And that's not a slight on those guys.
- 20:16Speaker 2: Say they're gonna be good saying I think Antonio Johnson's
- 20:18Speaker 2: he was one athlete. He showed up weekend and weekend.
- 20:21Speaker 1: Right, it's hard. It's hard to see right now three
- 20:24Speaker 1: corners that you love.
- 20:30Speaker 2: Okay, let's say guys, let's say they draft Arnold right,
- 20:35Speaker 2: who plays inside in the nickel?
- 20:38Speaker 1: Probably whoever you're drafting third or fourth round. Well, okay,
- 20:42Speaker 1: so oh so you're saying Arnold or Darby, I don't.
- 20:45Speaker 2: Know, he's not inside guy.
- 20:46Speaker 1: Right.
- 20:47Speaker 2: So it's just so there's so many that that nickel
- 20:50Speaker 2: Lea and then Nichol is is on the field, sixty
- 20:52Speaker 2: five percent of the.
- 20:53Speaker 1: Nicholas become a tough, tough, tough spot in Ellie. Yeah,
- 20:55Speaker 1: because it's I'll tell.
- 20:57Speaker 2: You a lot. Draft Mikey Sanderstroll from Michigan in the
- 21:00Speaker 2: third round and he'll be a nickel. That will be
- 21:03Speaker 2: I'm telling you he will be a star nickel. You
- 21:05Speaker 2: will love him well.
- 21:06Speaker 1: The strong school thought that your nickel is best as
- 21:09Speaker 1: a five or six year guy because of how much
- 21:10Speaker 1: experience it takes.
- 21:12Speaker 2: While you're rolling your eyes over there, Mikey Sanderstrom from
- 21:15Speaker 2: Michigan will be one of the star corners in three
- 21:17Speaker 2: years in this league. And as a nickel corner. You
- 21:19Speaker 2: know how Mike Hilton is for the Bengals, how he
- 21:21Speaker 2: makes all those big plays and there's a lot of scrimmage.
- 21:24Speaker 2: That's what Jacksonville needs. They needed. Can't have the guy
- 21:26Speaker 2: who can't cover anybody.
- 21:28Speaker 1: You've been saying that since nineteen ninety five. You've been
- 21:31Speaker 1: saying a lot of things. This nineteen ninety five Tete,
- 21:33Speaker 1: I can talk to you all day. It's the NFL
- 21:35Speaker 1: owners means you got to cut this short. Thank you
- 21:37Speaker 1: for joining us one podcast. We'd have you on every week.
- 21:40Speaker 2: I love talking to you, Budy.
- 21:41Speaker 1: I appreciate that