Latest / The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network / Sara Walsh's Notes From Jaguars Training Camp | 1on1 Interview
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Jaguars dot Com training camp coverage continues JP Shadwick and
- 0:03Speaker 1: if anybody knows the Florida heat in Jacksonville in the summertime,
- 0:08Speaker 1: it's Sarah Walsh, NFL Network. Thanks for coming upstairs, you
- 0:12Speaker 1: and f Grad soccer star for the asprays, welcome back.
- 0:15Speaker 2: Thank you.
- 0:16Speaker 3: As soon as you told me that we could go
- 0:17Speaker 3: do this inside and air conditioning, I said, enough, I
- 0:19Speaker 3: don't need to talk to the players out on the field.
- 0:21Speaker 2: I'll talk to JP and the air conditioning. Yeah.
- 0:23Speaker 3: It's so funny though, when I come up here in August,
- 0:26Speaker 3: it is steam steamier here. Not maybe hotter, but it
- 0:29Speaker 3: is steamier in Jacksonville than anywhere else. I was just
- 0:31Speaker 3: in Tampa and it is not this hot in Tampa.
- 0:33Speaker 3: But I played soccer for you enough, and we had
- 0:35Speaker 3: two a days in August and I sit out here
- 0:39Speaker 3: and I'm like, how did I barely can get through
- 0:40Speaker 3: live shots sitting in a chair and I'm just melting.
- 0:43Speaker 3: And I ran around like a lunatic twice a day.
- 0:46Speaker 3: I'm not sure how I survived. I'm not cut out
- 0:48Speaker 3: for that anymore, but I did do it back in
- 0:49Speaker 3: the day.
- 0:49Speaker 1: Are you still a record holder? In certain statistical categories.
- 0:55Speaker 2: I don't keep up with it.
- 0:56Speaker 3: I certain at some point I think I had some
- 1:00Speaker 3: I'm not sure if those still stand. I don't regularly
- 1:03Speaker 3: check in on them my records.
- 1:07Speaker 2: No, I would assume maybe I'm not, but I don't know.
- 1:09Speaker 1: Okay, fair enough, Sarah Walsh with it. So all right,
- 1:11Speaker 1: you're blossoming at NFL Network. It feels like I've seen
- 1:16Speaker 1: you in Good Morning Football a good bit over the summertime.
- 1:18Speaker 1: It's a good step in the right direction. Now the
- 1:20Speaker 1: training camp circuit is here, So how are you liking it?
- 1:24Speaker 2: I love NFL.
- 1:25Speaker 3: The people I work with there are just so nice
- 1:28Speaker 3: and lovely. And I was talking to someone about that
- 1:30Speaker 3: because it is that same vibe here in Jacksonville, and
- 1:34Speaker 3: not just myself but reporters from the network. People fight
- 1:37Speaker 3: about who wants to go to Jacksonville because we're treated
- 1:40Speaker 3: so well when we come up here, and I mean
- 1:41Speaker 3: by the coaching staff, the players, the pr folks. Everyone
- 1:45Speaker 3: here is just really welcoming and wonderful. So we love
- 1:49Speaker 3: coming to Jacksonville. And my experience at NFL Network has
- 1:54Speaker 3: sort of been similar. And I think the older you
- 1:56Speaker 3: get and I feel like I'm old now, and I've
- 1:58Speaker 3: been in this business for a really long.
- 2:01Speaker 2: For when I think.
- 2:02Speaker 3: About Sarah U and f as is that was a
- 2:04Speaker 3: long time ago. That wasn't a couple of years ago, JB.
- 2:07Speaker 3: We're talking decades ago. And I was running the teleprompter
- 2:10Speaker 3: at the local TV station while I was in college.
- 2:13Speaker 3: Which station, so I do? It was the ABC affiliate.
- 2:17Speaker 3: This is where it's gonna confusing. The ABC affiliate that
- 2:19Speaker 3: was on Butler Boulevard. And I don't know if you
- 2:21Speaker 3: remember back in the day. You remember they erected a
- 2:23Speaker 3: huge field goal and you could there was like some
- 2:25Speaker 3: contest you could kick and win, and so you'd be
- 2:27Speaker 3: going down Butler Boulevard and there was a huge field goal.
- 2:29Speaker 2: And as a soccer player at you and F I
- 2:31Speaker 2: was always thinking I could. I mean, I want to
- 2:33Speaker 2: go over there and kick field goals. I didn't do that.
- 2:34Speaker 3: I got a job running the teleprompter, and I would
- 2:37Speaker 3: get yelled at a lot, actually, because when the weatherman
- 2:39Speaker 3: comes on. This is really I'm really digressing. I love
- 2:42Speaker 3: the weather man comes on and it flips so he
- 2:44Speaker 3: can see himself in the monitor, so he doesn't read it.
- 2:46Speaker 3: The weather guy's always ad lips, so they need to
- 2:48Speaker 3: see themselves and where they're pointing, and then you have
- 2:51Speaker 3: to flip it back to teleprompter so that the anchors
- 2:54Speaker 3: can read.
- 2:55Speaker 2: And I always I wasn't quick on the flip or
- 2:56Speaker 2: i'd zone house.
- 2:57Speaker 3: I wasn't the best at the teleprompter, and and they'd
- 3:00Speaker 3: get really mad at you.
- 3:01Speaker 2: So I wasn't great.
- 3:03Speaker 3: I worked at the it was the ABC, but right
- 3:05Speaker 3: after I took that job, it merged with First Coast
- 3:08Speaker 3: New There was like a merger, so it was like
- 3:10Speaker 3: a weird thing. And I had already been hired, but
- 3:12Speaker 3: I hadn't started. And they're like, so you're hired, but
- 3:14Speaker 3: you're also losing your job. Do you still want to start?
- 3:17Speaker 3: And I always tell people in the business they take
- 3:19Speaker 3: whatever opportunity. I'm like, sure, I'll run the teleprompter for
- 3:22Speaker 3: a couple months and be terrible and then I'll lose
- 3:24Speaker 3: my job, but we already know that's coming.
- 3:26Speaker 2: So that was my TV business start.
- 3:28Speaker 3: And then I went and I was a writer for
- 3:30Speaker 3: The Beaches Leader newspaper covering the Jacksonville Jaguars. And I
- 3:33Speaker 3: was twenty one years old in the locker room, younger
- 3:36Speaker 3: than a lot of the players, most of the players,
- 3:38Speaker 3: and now I could probably be the mother of a
- 3:40Speaker 3: lot of.
- 3:41Speaker 2: These players, which isn where it gets really depressing.
- 3:43Speaker 1: Full circle. Sarah Woalsh, NFL Network with us. All Right,
- 3:47Speaker 1: Jaguars team here in twenty twenty three. Expectations are high
- 3:51Speaker 1: after the epic stretch run last year, come back victories,
- 3:56Speaker 1: the playoff come back, everything that comes with that. I mean,
- 3:58Speaker 1: they were one play away the last month and a
- 4:00Speaker 1: half of the season from not having any of this
- 4:02Speaker 1: conversation at all, but it all worked out. But now
- 4:06Speaker 1: from that point to twenty twenty three, they're the favorites
- 4:09Speaker 1: to win the division. They've got weapons all over the
- 4:11Speaker 1: field on offense. Can they handle the expectations, I think
- 4:15Speaker 1: is the big question.
- 4:17Speaker 3: I hope so, but it definitely changes. And I was
- 4:19Speaker 3: just talking to Trevor about this on the field a
- 4:21Speaker 3: year ago. I was here and we do this back
- 4:23Speaker 3: together weekend in the NFL and I was assigned the Jaguars.
- 4:26Speaker 2: We're out on the high school football field, which you
- 4:28Speaker 2: well know, not in.
- 4:28Speaker 3: This beautiful facility, and it was just, man, we hope
- 4:33Speaker 3: we can get things going in the right direction, Like
- 4:35Speaker 3: that was the goal, right like you just want to
- 4:37Speaker 3: get things going in the right direction. And so to
- 4:39Speaker 3: think where this team went from there to where they
- 4:42Speaker 3: ended up, I mean hanging with the Chiefs. I mean
- 4:44Speaker 3: that was a game and I think that maybe was
- 4:47Speaker 3: the most It didn't end up in a win, but
- 4:49Speaker 3: that was the most eye open.
- 4:50Speaker 2: I mean they were.
- 4:51Speaker 3: There, that was a ballgame, and it gives you a
- 4:54Speaker 3: glimpse of how good this team could be. And then
- 4:56Speaker 3: fast forward to this year, beautiful new facility that they
- 5:00Speaker 3: will come kind of mentality right, and this thing is
- 5:02Speaker 3: in the right direction. But man, it takes what one
- 5:05Speaker 3: year for those expectations to flip, because you know, this
- 5:09Speaker 3: entire offseason has been like it's it's not just getting
- 5:12Speaker 3: in the postseason anymore, it's this can be an elite
- 5:14Speaker 3: team in the AFC. But the one thing I to
- 5:17Speaker 3: your point about how do you manage those I was
- 5:20Speaker 3: thinking about Trevor right, because everything goes through Trevor. This
- 5:22Speaker 3: is a guy that played at Clemson and what was
- 5:25Speaker 3: his margin of eric Clemson. When you're vying for national championship,
- 5:28Speaker 3: it's you don't have a gimmea game where you can
- 5:30Speaker 3: lose one game. So that's not you know, I kind
- 5:32Speaker 3: of talked to him about that today, like that's not
- 5:34Speaker 3: new for him. Like, when you want to talk about pressure,
- 5:37Speaker 3: I don't know that there's any more pressure than when
- 5:40Speaker 3: he was the quarterback at Clemson in that era. You know,
- 5:42Speaker 3: the pressure certainly on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, right,
- 5:45Speaker 3: and there's pressure on the Jaguars. But this is not
- 5:48Speaker 3: new for Trevor. It's new for him in the NFL.
- 5:51Speaker 3: But you're not talking small time football. You know, he's
- 5:54Speaker 3: in stadiums with a one hundred thousand people expecting him to
- 5:57Speaker 3: win every day. Anything less than a national champion isn't
- 6:00Speaker 3: good enough. If anyone's equipped to handle that kind of
- 6:03Speaker 3: pressure that they're going to feel here, I think it's
- 6:05Speaker 3: Trevor Sarah.
- 6:06Speaker 1: They've got the horses to match almost any offense in
- 6:10Speaker 1: the NFL right now. It feels like Kirk played big
- 6:13Speaker 1: last year's say Jones obviously at Calvin Ridley, who's as
- 6:16Speaker 1: motivated as you'll ever find coming off almost two years
- 6:20Speaker 1: away from the game and in a contract year. Evan
- 6:23Speaker 1: Ingram just signed a new deal. They have running backs.
- 6:27Speaker 1: What else do you need on offense right now? This
- 6:30Speaker 1: has the ability to be right there with those teams.
- 6:33Speaker 3: It feels like, yeah, and I think that's a good
- 6:35Speaker 3: thing for Trevor because, right, the quarterbacks get all the attention.
- 6:38Speaker 3: But you just named a litany of potential big name
- 6:42Speaker 3: stars in this league, and it's not one. It's not hey,
- 6:45Speaker 3: this one receiver goes down and then what happened? I
- 6:48Speaker 3: brought it up on the air today. Everything seems to
- 6:50Speaker 3: be centered around Calvin Ridley, deservedly, so people are excited
- 6:53Speaker 3: to see him back out there. I was at Bucks
- 6:55Speaker 3: practice Thursday and people will pulling me aside to show
- 6:59Speaker 3: me of Calvin running routes because they were like, look
- 7:03Speaker 3: at these guys running routes and then look at Calvin Ridley.
- 7:05Speaker 3: I mean, this is down Tampa, people like you got
- 7:07Speaker 3: to see this video. And but you know, I mentioned
- 7:10Speaker 3: on Eric Christian Kirk's.
- 7:11Speaker 2: Coming off a career year.
- 7:12Speaker 3: Like you know, you're over a thousand yards career year
- 7:16Speaker 3: for him. We're not even talking about him, which I
- 7:18Speaker 3: don't think is a bad thing either, right because it
- 7:20Speaker 3: just shows the depth that they have on this team.
- 7:24Speaker 3: But man, one thing I noticed, and I'm sure you've
- 7:26Speaker 3: seen it for days now being here when zero touches
- 7:29Speaker 3: the ball, this place goes crazy.
- 7:31Speaker 2: It can be like a little five yard pass, it
- 7:34Speaker 2: can be a thirty yard bomb.
- 7:35Speaker 3: When Zero touches the ball, the fans go ballistic, and
- 7:39Speaker 3: I think it's really cool to see. It's got to
- 7:41Speaker 3: be cool for him to feel that love. I know
- 7:44Speaker 3: he probably feels the pressure and you're coming back and
- 7:47Speaker 3: is just going to be the same guy. But man,
- 7:49Speaker 3: it feels like this community is so excited to have
- 7:52Speaker 3: him on their team, and they should be. And so
- 7:55Speaker 3: that was really that like my biggest takeaway today as
- 7:59Speaker 3: someone who afar has been reading and seeing all the
- 8:01Speaker 3: Calvin stuff, to see it up close and personal and
- 8:03Speaker 3: to just see the reaction that people are having to him,
- 8:06Speaker 3: it's pretty cool.
- 8:08Speaker 1: Sarah Walsh with us NFL Network. Jaguars defense last year opportunistic.
- 8:11Speaker 1: I'd say they were in the lower ranks and total
- 8:14Speaker 1: defense and pass defense, but well, they took the ball
- 8:17Speaker 1: away at the right time. They'd give up four hundred
- 8:19Speaker 1: yards but then they intercept the ball three times or whatever.
- 8:22Speaker 1: But it worked out for them. But it gave the
- 8:24Speaker 1: offense opportunities down the stretch. They didn't have a lot
- 8:26Speaker 1: of changes on defense in personnel. It's a lot of
- 8:29Speaker 1: the same group, but those first round draft picks have
- 8:32Speaker 1: to take a step. It's Josh Allen's contract year, Trayvon Walker,
- 8:36Speaker 1: Devin Lloyd from last year. They're counting on development on
- 8:40Speaker 1: the defensive side of the football, and they really just
- 8:43Speaker 1: need to be a tick better, right, and that gives
- 8:45Speaker 1: the offense the opportunity if the defense can get an
- 8:48Speaker 1: extra takeaway a game.
- 8:50Speaker 2: I mean, I think that's fair too, though.
- 8:52Speaker 3: You know, there's insane expectations on these guys, especially like
- 8:56Speaker 3: let's go to Treyvon. You're number one overall And I
- 8:59Speaker 3: heard Doug today, do you he's always going to be
- 9:03Speaker 3: one overall? Right, I mean, that's never going to change,
- 9:05Speaker 3: but you get further removed from everyone just watching you.
- 9:08Speaker 3: And Doug was asked at which he was very funny.
- 9:09Speaker 3: He said, well, I don't know what that's like. I
- 9:11Speaker 3: wasn't number one overall pick, like Doug was very funny
- 9:13Speaker 3: about it, which Doug is. But I do think that
- 9:16Speaker 3: that target comes off his back a little bit. I mean,
- 9:18Speaker 3: you're always expected to be great, right, like that's why
- 9:21Speaker 3: you were taken there. But I think maybe it'll give
- 9:24Speaker 3: him some of that breathing room to make the improvements.
- 9:26Speaker 3: But we saw Trevor make huge improvements from year to
- 9:29Speaker 3: year two. I remember when he got drafted. I spent
- 9:32Speaker 3: that whole week here and even talking to him. I mean,
- 9:34Speaker 3: this was someone that didn't really have a lot of rest.
- 9:36Speaker 3: He went into the National Championship, then you go into Combine.
- 9:39Speaker 3: I mean, I just think, given who he was and
- 9:41Speaker 3: where he was taken, and there was so much thrown
- 9:43Speaker 3: at him early on that I think that he probably
- 9:47Speaker 3: will have more breathing room to develop, and Doug and
- 9:51Speaker 3: those guys are figuring out different ways to use him
- 9:53Speaker 3: more effectively. And I think three and a half sacks
- 9:56Speaker 3: last year, I think that's going to go up. I think,
- 9:58Speaker 3: you know, you look at him and so much of
- 10:00Speaker 3: what people loved about him as his potential, and now
- 10:03Speaker 3: he has the chance to obviously take another step further.
- 10:07Speaker 3: But look, most there's it's not like players go from
- 10:10Speaker 3: your one and then get worse than your two. It's
- 10:12Speaker 3: there's a reason people talk about year one to year two.
- 10:14Speaker 3: And you saw Trevor do it, and I think you'll
- 10:16Speaker 3: see Trayvon do it, and I think you'll see Devin
- 10:18Speaker 3: do it, and I think that they had a good base.
- 10:20Speaker 3: But when you talk about you don't change pieces, I mean,
- 10:22Speaker 3: that's a recipe for consistency.
- 10:24Speaker 2: And we know that Doug preaches that, and.
- 10:26Speaker 3: We know the teams that are really really good do
- 10:28Speaker 3: things consistently for a long time, the same He hasn't
- 10:31Speaker 3: had a long time.
- 10:31Speaker 2: I mean this is only year two for Doug.
- 10:33Speaker 3: But so I think that you'll see not changing a
- 10:36Speaker 3: lot of those pieces out keeping this core. I think
- 10:38Speaker 3: it's going to make a real difference. I think it's
- 10:39Speaker 3: going to be a huge difference for Trevon.
- 10:41Speaker 1: You've seen them one day, but it's a division.
- 10:44Speaker 3: Super Bowl, you know, from what I saw at practice
- 10:47Speaker 3: staying by the way. Half of what I saw was
- 10:49Speaker 3: my back was to practice because I was doing live
- 10:50Speaker 3: shots for NFL Network.
- 10:52Speaker 2: But JP like, they're probably going to the super Bowl.
- 10:54Speaker 3: No, what I see and what I notice is a
- 10:56Speaker 3: team that has confidence in a fun not cockiness.
- 11:02Speaker 2: Confidence not cockiness.
- 11:03Speaker 3: I think that it appears to me you come out
- 11:06Speaker 3: here and it feels like people are having a good time.
- 11:09Speaker 3: Now granted the season hasn't kicked off, you haven't lost
- 11:12Speaker 3: a game, but you get a vibe and I felt
- 11:16Speaker 3: like this last but I felt like this last year
- 11:17Speaker 3: here too, and I think it ended up showing like
- 11:20Speaker 3: people are excited to be here. And you know, Trevor
- 11:22Speaker 3: even said, you pull up to this building now, in
- 11:24Speaker 3: this facility, how can you not be excited to be
- 11:26Speaker 3: here and be at work. The one thing that I
- 11:29Speaker 3: think is interesting is you're always sort of judged on
- 11:32Speaker 3: what you do at the end of the season.
- 11:33Speaker 2: And this is the same with the Detroit Lions. They
- 11:35Speaker 2: got hot. You know, people write them off.
- 11:36Speaker 3: They get hot at the end of the year, and
- 11:38Speaker 3: then you just assume that that's going to roll into
- 11:40Speaker 3: next year. Well, they won their last five, so now
- 11:41Speaker 3: they're going to start hot. And and the NFL, and
- 11:44Speaker 3: this is what makes the NFL so great. There's so
- 11:46Speaker 3: much parody. And I think I was talking to you
- 11:48Speaker 3: about it, like a year ago, or the Jags had
- 11:51Speaker 3: won three games, who would have said they're going to
- 11:53Speaker 3: win the division, They're going to go to the playoffs,
- 11:54Speaker 3: They're going to take it to the Chiefs in a
- 11:56Speaker 3: playoff game at Arrowhead. And so I always think, in
- 11:59Speaker 3: my mind, who's now, who's the Jaguars, Like, who's the
- 12:01Speaker 3: team that we're not thinking of because it doesn't always
- 12:03Speaker 3: just carry over from one year to the next and
- 12:06Speaker 3: just because you're a good one year. And I think
- 12:08Speaker 3: the Jags, like the Lions, have a lot of that
- 12:11Speaker 3: excitement because of the way that they finished, and it
- 12:14Speaker 3: doesn't necessarily translate exactly the same. You have to have
- 12:17Speaker 3: a lot of things go right, right, And I think
- 12:19Speaker 3: that starts with health, right, And I know there's linemen
- 12:21Speaker 3: that have to get healthy on this team that they
- 12:23Speaker 3: desperately need to be in there and.
- 12:25Speaker 2: Be really good.
- 12:27Speaker 3: And so there are a ton of positives. But I
- 12:31Speaker 3: always think that you have to have a lot of
- 12:32Speaker 3: things go your way. And Doug preached it too, like
- 12:36Speaker 3: you got to have guys stay healthy. You got to
- 12:37Speaker 3: get through this and unfortunately, like that's the toughest part
- 12:40Speaker 3: of this game, right, Yeah, so you have to have
- 12:41Speaker 3: some luck on your side. But should this team win
- 12:44Speaker 3: the division? Yeah, I think they should win the division.
- 12:46Speaker 3: Should they'll be in the playoffs? Yeah, I think they
- 12:48Speaker 3: should be in the playoffs. Should they go further than
- 12:50Speaker 3: last year? I think they should go further than last year.
- 12:52Speaker 3: The AFC is a beast, Like that's tough, it's really
- 12:56Speaker 3: really tough.
- 12:56Speaker 2: But does this team have the star potential to be there.
- 13:00Speaker 2: I think they do.
- 13:02Speaker 1: You know how we're fortunate today Sarah Walsh was in
- 13:04Speaker 1: our studio.
- 13:05Speaker 2: Oh stop, thank you, this beautiful studio. By the way.
- 13:08Speaker 2: I love the palm trees. See this is what I mean.
- 13:10Speaker 2: This is real.
- 13:11Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 13:11Speaker 2: No, they're not.
- 13:12Speaker 1: No, Oh you gave it away.
- 13:14Speaker 2: They're one hundred percent real. I mess that up. Cut
- 13:19Speaker 2: do it again. No, this is beautiful. Everything here is awesome.
- 13:23Speaker 3: Everybody has every reason to be so excited about the season,
- 13:27Speaker 3: including you and your new fancy digs with the real
- 13:29Speaker 3: palm trees.
- 13:30Speaker 2: It's a good vibe in Jacksonville.
- 13:32Speaker 3: I hope this rolls right into the season and I
- 13:35Speaker 3: get to be up here a ton covering this team.
- 13:36Speaker 1: So I hope we get to see you a lot,
- 13:38Speaker 1: and thanks for the time today, and we'll see you
- 13:41Speaker 1: down the lines.
- 13:41Speaker 2: Yeah, hopefully, very very soon. Swoop swoop, I get I
- 13:44Speaker 2: get all the swoops out here at practice. I love it.
- 13:46Speaker 2: I go.
- 13:47Speaker 3: I don't get you and f stuff hardly anywhere else.
- 13:48Speaker 3: I come up here and it's a unfes so it
- 13:51Speaker 3: just brings me right back home.
- 13:52Speaker 2: I love it.
- 13:53Speaker 1: Sarah Walsh, NFL Network at Jaguars training camp,