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O-Zone Podcast: Josh Allen · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:05
Speaker 1: The Welcome to the Ozone podcast presented by by Star
0:12
Speaker 1: Credit Union, featuring Jaguar senior writer John Osier and executive
0:16
Speaker 1: producer Dave de Candice. This week, guests, I can't tell
0:20
Speaker 1: you how I'm excite, how excited I am about it.
0:22
Speaker 1: It's it's Josh Allen, second year defensive end for the Jaguars,
0:27
Speaker 1: And really that description doesn't describe him well enough to me,
0:31
Speaker 1: and I talked about it with him during the podcast.
0:33
Speaker 1: To me, he's the future of the franchise. He's the
0:36
Speaker 1: guy this franchise can depend on going forward, and the
0:39
Speaker 1: best draft pick they've had in a long long time. So,
0:42
Speaker 1: without further ado, Josh Allen one of the most impressive
0:45
Speaker 1: rookies to come into this franchise in a long, long,
0:48
Speaker 1: long long time. Last year when most impressive young players,
0:52
Speaker 1: And Josh, I'm curious to start off with as you
0:55
Speaker 1: come into season two. Everybody, when you first talked to
0:58
Speaker 1: the media asked about leadership, and I was fascinated by
1:01
Speaker 1: your answer that you can't force it, but obviously you
1:05
Speaker 1: know that you're a leader and guys are looking to you.
1:09
Speaker 1: How have you handled it so far? How this first
1:11
Speaker 1: few weeks gone on that front. Uh. I mean, I
1:14
Speaker 1: feel like the biggest pressure of that being said is
1:18
Speaker 1: not even leading others, is how I carry myself. Is
1:22
Speaker 1: how I lead myself, is how I you know, like
1:24
Speaker 1: I said, carry myself in the locker room, out there
1:27
Speaker 1: on the field, any meetings. Uh that's because you know,
1:30
Speaker 1: I'm a guy that that that once lead the way
1:33
Speaker 1: that I felt like the things should go. I feel
1:36
Speaker 1: like we're in a different time in the Jaguars organization
1:39
Speaker 1: where different guys have to step up and uh just
1:42
Speaker 1: just just you know, doing what I mean to do,
1:44
Speaker 1: being on time, being in the right place, practicing hard
1:48
Speaker 1: every play, running too the ball, doing things like that.
1:50
Speaker 1: Uh that's stuff that guys see and uh that's that's
1:54
Speaker 1: also just being a leader in that way. And that's
1:56
Speaker 1: the thing that I have to control myself. Here's what
2:00
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do. I'm not gonna ask you about
2:02
Speaker 1: Klias because here's my theory. Everybody assumed that with Klis
2:09
Speaker 1: out of the picture, now you're the leader. And I
2:11
Speaker 1: know you were on his hip a lot last year,
2:14
Speaker 1: but my interpretation of it is that you, even without
2:19
Speaker 1: his influence, you're the kind of guy who's gonna take
2:23
Speaker 1: the right professional approach. Did that happened before you met him?
2:26
Speaker 1: I guess he's yeah, it's my thought when you came
2:28
Speaker 1: in here, what, um, where did that come from? Where
2:34
Speaker 1: do you think you got that before you got to
2:36
Speaker 1: the Jaguars because you came in with the maturity and approach. Yeah,
2:41
Speaker 1: I mean just going back to college, I just wanted
2:44
Speaker 1: to be a part of a program, like going to
2:45
Speaker 1: the University of Kentucky was a program that was always
2:50
Speaker 1: slept on as not being a good program, not being
2:52
Speaker 1: a good football school, being as a walkover just a
2:54
Speaker 1: walkover game, and just I was tired of I was
2:58
Speaker 1: fed up on that. Teammates and I got together, stick together.
3:02
Speaker 1: We came up with a plan on how it was
3:03
Speaker 1: going to be successful. Uh So that really started there,
3:06
Speaker 1: just pushing myself to the breaking limits to push my
3:09
Speaker 1: teammates as much as they could. So when we do
3:11
Speaker 1: start playing, you know, teams that you know are considered
3:15
Speaker 1: the best, that we're gonna be the better team. We're
3:17
Speaker 1: gonna be the better shape team, and just start being
3:19
Speaker 1: there guys looking at me as being the top players,
3:22
Speaker 1: being one of those guys that like we like we
3:24
Speaker 1: have Now that Okay, he's our leader. He's the guy
3:27
Speaker 1: that makes the most plays. Well, heck, I gotta make
3:29
Speaker 1: the plays, you know, for guys to follow that. And
3:31
Speaker 1: also I gotta do things right, push myself, pushing my teammates.
3:34
Speaker 1: That's the stuff people see. And I've really started from
3:37
Speaker 1: my senior year. As you can tell when ten the
3:39
Speaker 1: three We've never done that before and just being a
3:44
Speaker 1: part of being a part of that is um really
3:47
Speaker 1: really got me to where I want to be. Make
3:50
Speaker 1: changes organization. Man, I want to do things that we
3:54
Speaker 1: have never done. I know we had a great season too,
3:56
Speaker 1: the seven team. We can't go back on that, but
3:58
Speaker 1: just looking forward and of years to come, just trying
4:01
Speaker 1: to be building and be better every year. I may
4:04
Speaker 1: have to put the dog outside. Sorry about that very well?
4:09
Speaker 1: Yeah I do too. Mine's twenty four and he's still
4:12
Speaker 1: it is a burden. So UM, how much does your family,
4:19
Speaker 1: your upbringing up on that front? We haven't talked a
4:22
Speaker 1: whole lot about that since you've gotten here, but in
4:24
Speaker 1: reading something about you and sort of listening to you,
4:27
Speaker 1: they're a huge influence on you, aren't. I Mean there
4:30
Speaker 1: are a lot of why you're here and a lot
4:33
Speaker 1: of your personality correct, Yes, sir, family my meeting like
4:38
Speaker 1: my brothers and sisters, mom and dad family, or my
4:42
Speaker 1: kids and my wife family. I come from a competitive family.
4:45
Speaker 1: I grew up competitive. I came out the probably became
4:48
Speaker 1: my my mom trying to be I was a twin,
4:51
Speaker 1: so I probably came out trying to be him out
4:53
Speaker 1: but he kind of wants So that's probably one over
4:55
Speaker 1: a competitive as sometimes but I just joke on that.
4:59
Speaker 1: But yeah, growing up, my sisters were all UH Division
5:04
Speaker 1: one athletes, the best. They were considered. My sister who
5:08
Speaker 1: was considered the best player in the state of New
5:10
Speaker 1: Jersey coming out of high school, being a McDonald's All American.
5:14
Speaker 1: My uncle, my uncle is a Hall of Famer basketball.
5:17
Speaker 1: So having that competitive sport, having that competitive edge out there,
5:20
Speaker 1: really pushed me to continue to do that, and I'm
5:24
Speaker 1: to this day. I'm still compete with my family. My
5:27
Speaker 1: sister is a w n B A champion um and
5:32
Speaker 1: that's something that she's won up in me right now.
5:35
Speaker 1: So being competitive about it, no, that's I'm really self competitive.
5:40
Speaker 1: I can compete with anybody like the other person might
5:43
Speaker 1: not know, but I know in my mind that I'm
5:45
Speaker 1: competing on on trying to beat this person out. Uh
5:49
Speaker 1: So when my sister got drafted, I told myself I
5:52
Speaker 1: want to be dropped hiding her and I didn't thought
5:54
Speaker 1: I was up one and then there you come. She's
5:57
Speaker 1: a world champion. So now I have to, you know,
6:00
Speaker 1: be a world champion plus winn m VP. So that's
6:03
Speaker 1: definitely my goals and uh just the one up. And
6:06
Speaker 1: that's just how I am, And that's you know, I
6:09
Speaker 1: don't force it's just that's just who I am. You know.
6:12
Speaker 1: If my kids come on like that, I can't blame them,
6:15
Speaker 1: you know. But there's what it is for listeners who
6:19
Speaker 1: aren't around Josh every day. One thing that strikes you
6:24
Speaker 1: about being around Josh Allen around the Jaguars is a
6:27
Speaker 1: lot of rookies who come in. It takes a while
6:31
Speaker 1: for them to appreciate where they are and to have
6:35
Speaker 1: sort of a mature perspective. With you, Josh, I get
6:40
Speaker 1: the feeling there's something a thirty thirty one years old
6:44
Speaker 1: about you, old soul or whatever it is that you
6:48
Speaker 1: kind of get it. I mean, you're a guy who
6:50
Speaker 1: I see before COVID, you would walk around the building
6:55
Speaker 1: talking to people, you would ask them what their jobs were.
6:59
Speaker 1: Very self aware for a rookie. UM, I'm wondering where
7:03
Speaker 1: that comes from. Have you always been like that? My
7:07
Speaker 1: theory is maybe you weren't a five star recruit. You
7:11
Speaker 1: had to sort of prove yourself coming up. Did that
7:15
Speaker 1: have anything to do with that? Just always sort of
7:17
Speaker 1: having to prove yourself and work a little harder. I'm
7:19
Speaker 1: a social bug, man, I if I talked to it,
7:23
Speaker 1: literally everybody, like I feel like I'm best friends with
7:26
Speaker 1: the cafeteria people upstairs. They give me right so you know,
7:29
Speaker 1: I got you know, so I'm like best friends with them,
7:30
Speaker 1: gonna know everybody's name. Um. So it's just me being me,
7:36
Speaker 1: just trying to show people that I am just more
7:39
Speaker 1: than just an athlete, just more than just a football player.
7:42
Speaker 1: I am, you know, a great guy if you talk
7:44
Speaker 1: to me. I like to have a different conversation with
7:46
Speaker 1: people like well, Alex, you know Brooks, I love talking
7:49
Speaker 1: about I want to know about his family. I want
7:51
Speaker 1: to get personal because I feel like it's more than
7:53
Speaker 1: just work. You know, it's more than just work. I
7:56
Speaker 1: wanna tell you, like know you that I'm a personal guy.
8:00
Speaker 1: I want to know how his mom's doing, you know,
8:02
Speaker 1: because it's bigger than just what we do. You know,
8:04
Speaker 1: if you ask me by my family, that's great. I'm grateful.
8:07
Speaker 1: I love to talk about my family. And I feel
8:09
Speaker 1: like guys like talking about people like talking about their
8:12
Speaker 1: family and just how their day's going. And that's just
8:14
Speaker 1: the type of person I am. And that's just how
8:16
Speaker 1: I was raised. Uh, just the you know, never waste
8:20
Speaker 1: the time because you don't know what that person might
8:22
Speaker 1: have h that, what that person might teach you, what
8:25
Speaker 1: that person might give you back. So you know, I'm
8:27
Speaker 1: so always you you never you just you know, and
8:31
Speaker 1: you never know who you're gonna come in contact with.
8:33
Speaker 1: You don't never know what this person is gonna be. Story,
8:36
Speaker 1: just you know, it's real. Quickly that was at the combine.
8:39
Speaker 1: I ended up sat at the bar, randomly started talking
8:43
Speaker 1: to this person. Come to find out randomly this person
8:46
Speaker 1: is the CEO of Omni Hotels. Like just just having
8:52
Speaker 1: a small conversation, just asking how how how how do
8:55
Speaker 1: your day has been? And it just starts like that
8:57
Speaker 1: and then come to the end of the conversation tell
9:00
Speaker 1: me who she is and gives me her card and
9:02
Speaker 1: says call me if you ever need to stay anywhere.
9:04
Speaker 1: And that's something. I didn't know who this lady was,
9:06
Speaker 1: but that's just who you're talking. Just just talking, you know,
9:10
Speaker 1: you never know that person might have a bad day.
9:12
Speaker 1: Just talking to them can cheer them up. You know.
9:14
Speaker 1: I never tell them who I am, what I do.
9:16
Speaker 1: I just talked to him as I'm a regular person.
9:18
Speaker 1: And if it comes to be who they are, it
9:21
Speaker 1: is what it is. Uh. So that's just how I
9:23
Speaker 1: care myself. I tried not to care myself as a
9:27
Speaker 1: bad guy. I talked to everybody like you say, and
9:30
Speaker 1: just do what I can. Before we get into the jazz,
9:33
Speaker 1: which I want to talk about it for a few minutes. Uh.
9:35
Speaker 1: One thing I've read about you, and I wouldn't have
9:38
Speaker 1: known it if I hadn't read it. Um, you as
9:41
Speaker 1: a child had a stutter. I had the same thing
9:44
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. I still fighted at times. Um,
9:48
Speaker 1: how did that shape you? And because I've read a
9:50
Speaker 1: little bit that you think that sort of shaped you
9:53
Speaker 1: a little bit coming up, and I'm just curious. You know, again,
9:58
Speaker 1: I would never even know it, so obviously it's in
10:00
Speaker 1: your past. Oh yeah, man, growing up, I had a
10:04
Speaker 1: very bad stutter. Uh So kind of uh took me
10:09
Speaker 1: away of learning because I had to get out of
10:12
Speaker 1: some classes to go my study, my tutoring um stuttered counseling,
10:16
Speaker 1: So that kind of held me back a little bit
10:18
Speaker 1: on the on the on the learning process. So it
10:21
Speaker 1: was like I was kind of being held back from that.
10:23
Speaker 1: Uh So I tried to work my best, try to
10:25
Speaker 1: work my artists to stop doing that. So then that
10:27
Speaker 1: just made me just breathe, you know, when I talk,
10:31
Speaker 1: when I feel like I'm getting to that situation, just
10:33
Speaker 1: to breathe, take a step back and just I think
10:36
Speaker 1: before I speak, and uh just trying to do that
10:40
Speaker 1: constantly doing high school. I had a student problem during
10:42
Speaker 1: high school. I still stutter here and there, but I
10:45
Speaker 1: once I feel like my mind because my mind would
10:48
Speaker 1: just go just thoughts, thoughts. So I just want to
10:51
Speaker 1: say everything all at want. Uh So just to really breathe,
10:56
Speaker 1: be calm, and just articulate what I want to day.
11:01
Speaker 1: I didn't start learning. I didn't start to do that
11:03
Speaker 1: until I got to college. I feel like in high
11:06
Speaker 1: school I was still trying to get everything out until
11:09
Speaker 1: I started to start, until I had to really start
11:12
Speaker 1: writing papers and talking in front of classes and not
11:15
Speaker 1: trying to embarrass myself. I really got back to just
11:19
Speaker 1: breathing and just relaxing and just you know, taking my
11:23
Speaker 1: time when I speak, and I feel like that's something
11:26
Speaker 1: that that helped me out and that public can help
11:28
Speaker 1: a lot of people out. A lot of people have
11:30
Speaker 1: different stories and how they deal with it. I tried
11:32
Speaker 1: not to look that effect uh the person who I was,
11:35
Speaker 1: because I still talked to everybody. But it kind of
11:38
Speaker 1: made a little harder around my my clap my peers
11:41
Speaker 1: because they didn't think they didn't know that I was
11:43
Speaker 1: dealing with that. They thought I was dealing with some
11:45
Speaker 1: other stuff. So it kind of made me separate myself.
11:48
Speaker 1: But I had a big family and I talked to
11:51
Speaker 1: my family a lot, which helped me a lot, and uh, damn,
11:54
Speaker 1: who I am today from it just breathe. I heard
12:00
Speaker 1: so much talk and so much stuff has happened the
12:02
Speaker 1: last a few days with Leonard with unique I'm curious
12:07
Speaker 1: if you can tell people listening to this what players
12:11
Speaker 1: are thinking about this season right now. There's been a
12:13
Speaker 1: lot of stuff, but my experience is usually guys talk
12:18
Speaker 1: about that, but there's still a focus on the season
12:21
Speaker 1: and I assume you guys feel like this is all
12:24
Speaker 1: systems go, even with these losses. Uh. I mean to
12:28
Speaker 1: be honest, we gotta go. We got a job to do. Uh,
12:33
Speaker 1: it's the next man's up. Mentality is the NFL. This
12:36
Speaker 1: is stuff that I heard about coming to the NFL.
12:38
Speaker 1: Stuff like this happens all the time. And for players
12:42
Speaker 1: such as those two wishing nothing but the best. Um,
12:46
Speaker 1: you know, I can't speak on their situation. I can't
12:48
Speaker 1: speak on what the front office situation. I can't only
12:51
Speaker 1: speak on what I what what I have to do,
12:53
Speaker 1: and that doesn't affect what I have to do. Uh,
12:56
Speaker 1: And I try to, you know, relay that against that.
12:58
Speaker 1: You know, everybody else we have a job. Uh, it's
13:02
Speaker 1: the next month up, so the person behind them has
13:04
Speaker 1: to step up. I had to make a play. I
13:06
Speaker 1: had to earn a job. So it's just makes a
13:09
Speaker 1: lot of people more hungrier. And I wish some nothing
13:12
Speaker 1: but the best, like I said, but you know, we
13:15
Speaker 1: have a job to do. We have a lot of
13:16
Speaker 1: games that we need to win. But first game we
13:18
Speaker 1: have to focus on, which is the coachs and uh,
13:22
Speaker 1: we just have to prepare on that and execute what
13:25
Speaker 1: we need to do and hopefully everybody comes out healthy
13:27
Speaker 1: both sides. And Uh, but we come up with the wind.
13:32
Speaker 1: Two final questions, UH, tell me about you as much
13:37
Speaker 1: as you can talk about it. Your goals for this season? Uh?
13:41
Speaker 1: Is this your breakout season? And what does that mean
13:44
Speaker 1: for you when you think about it? Uh, I mean
13:48
Speaker 1: breakout season. I gotta have a breakout season every year. Uh.
13:51
Speaker 1: They consider I had a breakout season last year. Um,
13:55
Speaker 1: they could said I'm gonna have a breakout season this year.
13:57
Speaker 1: It's about what I want to do, what the team
13:59
Speaker 1: goal is, but my but my goals is team first. Um.
14:05
Speaker 1: Individual success comes with having to team success. When the
14:09
Speaker 1: team is going good, like when like when we have
14:11
Speaker 1: a lead and we get to pin our ears back
14:14
Speaker 1: insack the quarterback, that's when I have my best games.
14:17
Speaker 1: But when we're not playing together and nobody's really doing
14:20
Speaker 1: anything defensively offensively, you know, it's a lot of minimal
14:25
Speaker 1: plays you can make on that. So being team orientated
14:28
Speaker 1: and just working with the guys you have and just
14:30
Speaker 1: doing your role. Uh, that's when people have individual success.
14:34
Speaker 1: And then that's when I can say, all right, it's
14:36
Speaker 1: time to get this money. It's time to go pay
14:38
Speaker 1: my ears back and get sex or get my tax
14:40
Speaker 1: for losses. But I felt like we have a great
14:43
Speaker 1: group of guys this year. I got to talk to
14:45
Speaker 1: coach Wasss this morning and he talked about just the
14:48
Speaker 1: way he can see the defense has changed. You know,
14:50
Speaker 1: a lot of guys say we lost a lot of
14:51
Speaker 1: key players, but we got a lot of players that
14:54
Speaker 1: play with that play within the system, and a gut
14:57
Speaker 1: of guys that he can call different players because of
14:59
Speaker 1: those eyes. Uh So I'm really excited about what we
15:02
Speaker 1: have going on this year. Um, Like you said, look
15:06
Speaker 1: outside looking in, they might not think we have the talent.
15:09
Speaker 1: But if you're in our locker room, if you're in
15:11
Speaker 1: a meeting, if you're out there on practice, you see
15:12
Speaker 1: what type of guys and you see what type of
15:14
Speaker 1: schemes we run, and it's gonna be really scary for
15:17
Speaker 1: a lot of people. Man. And uh, I can't wait
15:19
Speaker 1: to see you can't wait to put those paths on
15:21
Speaker 1: somebody else and just to really show, you know, show, show,
15:25
Speaker 1: show what we're talking about, Show what we've really been
15:28
Speaker 1: putting is working in. For final question, I'm fine of
15:31
Speaker 1: saying that you along with DJ and maybe Juwan Taylor
15:35
Speaker 1: and some guys. If any of you, I feel like
15:37
Speaker 1: you're the future of this franchise, you can be it.
15:40
Speaker 1: When people say that, is that something you're comfortable with,
15:42
Speaker 1: I guess is a top ten pick. You knew that
15:44
Speaker 1: was gonna come along with it. Man, I just gotta
15:49
Speaker 1: do what I gotta do. You know, Clay's told me
15:52
Speaker 1: this a dog gonna stay a dog. And I believe
15:55
Speaker 1: I'm one of the best. And that's how I'm gonna
15:57
Speaker 1: carry myself. That's how I'm gonna play every play. So
16:01
Speaker 1: that's you know, if if I got to do what
16:05
Speaker 1: I gotta do, I got a family to feed by
16:07
Speaker 1: the end of the day, I got, I got a
16:09
Speaker 1: reputation I gotta uphold. I got a character that I
16:12
Speaker 1: gotta maintain. And you know, my goals, my goal, my
16:17
Speaker 1: my my goal of why I play football is to
16:20
Speaker 1: be the best player. Is that we're go jacket at
16:22
Speaker 1: the end of in my career, and I don't look
16:25
Speaker 1: for seasonal or yearly stats. I'm looking long term. My
16:31
Speaker 1: long FIM goals to be a Hall of Famer. And
16:33
Speaker 1: I look at those guys, the guys that are Hall
16:35
Speaker 1: of famers, and see how they carry themselves and talk
16:38
Speaker 1: to those guys. Talking to Bruce Smith at the Pro Bowl,
16:40
Speaker 1: learned so much about him, learned so much about why
16:43
Speaker 1: he played the game and how he played the game.
16:44
Speaker 1: And that only few me to you know, the the
16:47
Speaker 1: stick on to what I'm doing this year. And I'm
16:50
Speaker 1: really excited about what we have going on. Man. Uh great,
16:53
Speaker 1: we have great players, you know, guys. People whoever sees this,
16:57
Speaker 1: they might not think we have, but we have a
16:59
Speaker 1: lot of great player is on this defense man and
17:01
Speaker 1: we're trying to come out of season for everybody, not
17:03
Speaker 1: just for myself. So Smooth, let's talk about Smooth. I'm
17:07
Speaker 1: looking for him a huge year. A lot of people
17:10
Speaker 1: might not know Smooth as a dog man, and he's
17:12
Speaker 1: going to continue to be a dog and I can't
17:15
Speaker 1: wait to see him have success this year. Tavin, Brian,
17:18
Speaker 1: Avery Jones, Tim Timmy John Again. Uh, the list goes
17:22
Speaker 1: on with guys that I can just name. That's I
17:24
Speaker 1: feel like I can have a breakout season. But we
17:27
Speaker 1: play within our means and you know a lot of
17:31
Speaker 1: times we might not make the play, but we can
17:32
Speaker 1: factor to our teammates making that play. And that's the
17:35
Speaker 1: mindset we all have this year, and I'm really excited.
17:38
Speaker 1: I'm really excited what we got going on. Josh, your
17:41
Speaker 1: professional beyond your years. I think fans are listening to
17:44
Speaker 1: this today. I can hear that I appreciate you. Get
17:46
Speaker 1: back to work and I look forward to working with
17:47
Speaker 1: you for a long time. The sir, thank you so much.
17:49
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you later. John all right, I don't
17:52
Speaker 1: want to thank Josh for joining us and our Dave.
17:55
Speaker 1: I said at the top that I was excited about
17:57
Speaker 1: this when and it's hard not to be excited about
18:00
Speaker 1: talking to Josh Allen watching them plays great. But as
18:03
Speaker 1: I mentioned to him in the podcast, I could have
18:06
Speaker 1: gone on with that one forever because he's so interesting
18:08
Speaker 1: to talk to. But as I've covered this league for
18:11
Speaker 1: a while, I guess I've developed more an appreciation for
18:14
Speaker 1: mature professional players. And there's something about this guy from
18:18
Speaker 1: the day he walked in the door. There's a maturity
18:22
Speaker 1: and a professionalism and a class that usually when you've
18:27
Speaker 1: got that and you've got talent, it's hard to miss.
18:33
Speaker 1: He's the whole package, and I just think he's gonna
18:37
Speaker 1: have an unbelievable career. But I know you deal with
18:40
Speaker 1: players as well. You dealt with a lot more of
18:42
Speaker 1: him last year than we are this year because of COVID,
18:45
Speaker 1: But I imagine your impressions are the same that this
18:47
Speaker 1: kid is a great a personality, a great a worker,
18:51
Speaker 1: and uh again, to me, he's the future of the franchise. John.
18:54
Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question. How many second year
18:57
Speaker 1: guys going into their second year have known your name? Yeah,
19:02
Speaker 1: that's right, I'll say this, Uh minshows who I also
19:06
Speaker 1: considered very self aware or very aware. He knew it
19:09
Speaker 1: early last year, and that was another thing with with
19:13
Speaker 1: him that I said, Okay, this cat's a little different,
19:16
Speaker 1: But to your point, it's really rare. There are a
19:19
Speaker 1: few guys Aaron Colvin I would talk too early. Um,
19:26
Speaker 1: mainly because his dad was a reader and talked to
19:29
Speaker 1: him about the stuff I wrote a lot, so he
19:30
Speaker 1: knew me. But your point is exactly right. Josh knows
19:35
Speaker 1: everybody in the building. I remember instances last year we'd
19:39
Speaker 1: be sitting up at lunch and it would be a
19:41
Speaker 1: couple of us who work in the broadcast department or
19:44
Speaker 1: someone from PR and he would come over and sit
19:48
Speaker 1: down and be like, Hey, how's he knows my name,
19:51
Speaker 1: he'd be like, hey, how's your kids? You know you
19:54
Speaker 1: can't fake that. And you know, for people who are
19:57
Speaker 1: listening to this and saying, well, I don't care about
19:59
Speaker 1: a guy being a good guy, and I guess what
20:02
Speaker 1: I would say, And the reason we're talking about in
20:04
Speaker 1: the podcast. It's important from a football standpoint too, because
20:09
Speaker 1: there's something about that maturity and awareness that plays into
20:14
Speaker 1: what I call getting it, and most great players on
20:19
Speaker 1: some level get it. He just like him talking about
20:25
Speaker 1: talking to Bruce Smith at the Pro Bowl. He's not
20:28
Speaker 1: gonna waste any time. He knows it's a short career.
20:33
Speaker 1: All that stuff plays into it. It will help him
20:36
Speaker 1: on the field. I mean, I've been back here since
20:38
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven. I have more confidence that Josh Allen
20:42
Speaker 1: is going to be a great pride to the Jaguar
20:45
Speaker 1: level player then any player who has been drafted here,
20:51
Speaker 1: and that includes Jalen because Jalen had the unbelievable talent.
20:55
Speaker 1: But if I walked up to Generatorcy right now, I'm
20:58
Speaker 1: not sure you know my name, And I think most
21:00
Speaker 1: people in the Jaguar is probably feeling that's not a
21:02
Speaker 1: knock on Jail and it's how most rookies are. It's
21:05
Speaker 1: how most that's how a lot of players are. There's
21:08
Speaker 1: something about having that total package. I just I would
21:11
Speaker 1: be stunned if Josh Allen, if Josh Allen falls off
21:15
Speaker 1: the table, if he's not a great player. And again,
21:19
Speaker 1: he's the top ten pick that this franchise has been
21:23
Speaker 1: trying to get right for a long long time, and
21:26
Speaker 1: I get that they should have gotten a lot more right,
21:29
Speaker 1: but they've got it right with him, and they want
21:34
Speaker 1: they want to say that. It's hard to ask the
21:36
Speaker 1: player his age about it because he doesn't want to
21:39
Speaker 1: criticize what's going on in the past. But to me,
21:43
Speaker 1: Josh serves as the breakaway point from some of the
21:46
Speaker 1: issues that they've had in the locker room over the
21:49
Speaker 1: past few years. I see Josh as a player who
21:54
Speaker 1: will be a a builder of bringing together of players.
21:59
Speaker 1: He's gonna go to DJ Shark and Joan Taylor and say, hey,
22:05
Speaker 1: we got to talk to our guys. This isn't going right.
22:09
Speaker 1: This is you know, he's gonna be a leader, and
22:13
Speaker 1: he's gonna say team first an interview and he's gonna
22:15
Speaker 1: mean it, and he's gonna walk away. And if he
22:18
Speaker 1: sees somebody criticizing a coach or all this stuff or
22:21
Speaker 1: all this stuff when you're just talking about your boss
22:24
Speaker 1: as we all do. You know, we all talk about
22:25
Speaker 1: peak ab and we know what that is. But yeah,
22:29
Speaker 1: it's it's a they're not gonna let anything in the
22:34
Speaker 1: locker room get out of hand. And again, to me,
22:39
Speaker 1: he is the hope. Somehow they got fortunate and he
22:44
Speaker 1: fell to him and it was a gift from the
22:48
Speaker 1: football gods. And uh, in terms of the interview itself,
22:53
Speaker 1: I was wonder if anything stood out to you, Dave Um.
22:57
Speaker 1: It was very interesting to me. I'm always been fascinated
23:00
Speaker 1: by his upbringing. We didn't really get into it, but
23:03
Speaker 1: this is a kid who went to Alabama, came back
23:05
Speaker 1: to New Jersey, was not very highly recruited, was not
23:10
Speaker 1: really considered a cant miss player until his final year
23:12
Speaker 1: at Kentucky. This is a guy who had to work
23:15
Speaker 1: for it for a long long time, and look at
23:18
Speaker 1: it now. I can't imagine he wasn't blue shift in
23:20
Speaker 1: the tiny as eleven. But this is sort of a
23:24
Speaker 1: guy who has worked to be here more than his
23:26
Speaker 1: physical gifts have gotten to her. Yeah, you know, I
23:31
Speaker 1: thought that was super interesting and it's sister sister being
23:33
Speaker 1: a w NBA player. Um, the one thing I kind
23:36
Speaker 1: of wanna kind of go back and talk about is
23:40
Speaker 1: is you know what when we're talking about you know,
23:42
Speaker 1: the maturity and stuff and players knowing people's names and
23:45
Speaker 1: know how the building works. Like we're not saying all
23:49
Speaker 1: players are jerks. I think what we're saying. It's just
23:51
Speaker 1: surprising how early Josh Allen like got comfortable here. And
23:56
Speaker 1: usually rookies are still in their first year. By the
23:58
Speaker 1: end of the year, they're trying still on where the
24:00
Speaker 1: bathroom is, where their meeting room is, They're still trying
24:03
Speaker 1: to figure out, like, oh, on this day, I do this,
24:05
Speaker 1: On this day, I do that. We're Josh seemed like
24:08
Speaker 1: he had that underwrapped by before training camp was over.
24:12
Speaker 1: We've talked about it before days. But I if you
24:15
Speaker 1: read my stories on Jaguars dot com, and I'm sure
24:19
Speaker 1: there's somebody out there who does, I'll write about rookies,
24:23
Speaker 1: but I usually write about rookies once a year or
24:26
Speaker 1: so during their rookie year, and I'm talking to the
24:30
Speaker 1: rookie about him, because that's usually all rookies know. They
24:36
Speaker 1: don't know about the scheme they don't know. Very rarely
24:40
Speaker 1: do you see a rookie become a guy that's in
24:45
Speaker 1: all the beat writers stories that's talking about the direction
24:48
Speaker 1: of the team because they're not ready for that yet.
24:51
Speaker 1: They don't have anything to say about it. They don't
24:53
Speaker 1: have any perspective. Josh by mid season last year, was
24:57
Speaker 1: a guy that you could talk to about what do
24:59
Speaker 1: you need to do to defensively? What does this team
25:01
Speaker 1: need to do? Um, what's the key against the Ravens
25:05
Speaker 1: or whoever they were playing? The team doesn't matter. Well,
25:09
Speaker 1: that shows you that he's not vain about it. He's
25:13
Speaker 1: not arrogant, but he was comfortable in his own skin
25:18
Speaker 1: enough to begin speaking for the team. And the only
25:22
Speaker 1: the the only the young player I've ever been around
25:24
Speaker 1: who's done that, who wasn't a quarterback who has to
25:27
Speaker 1: was Bob Sanders in Indianapolis safety played for him, got hurt,
25:31
Speaker 1: his career was cut short, but by his by the
25:34
Speaker 1: end of his rookie year, Bob was talking for the
25:38
Speaker 1: team because the team knew it's okay for this guy
25:42
Speaker 1: to talk. He's special. Last year, the team knew it's
25:46
Speaker 1: okay for Josh to talk. He's special Bob Sanders a
25:49
Speaker 1: Defensive Player of the Year in two thousand and seven.
25:52
Speaker 1: If Josh is that type, which I think he is,
25:56
Speaker 1: then you're talking about Hall of Fame level player. And
26:00
Speaker 1: if Josh stays healthy, he plays ten twelve years. That's
26:03
Speaker 1: the kind of player he is. He he's a franchise, cornerstone,
26:07
Speaker 1: foundation piece. On the cover of Mad and Guy, he's
26:12
Speaker 1: Von Miller on defense. He's the kind of guy you
26:14
Speaker 1: can build a franchise around. And uh, yeah, maybe I'm
26:18
Speaker 1: being over over zealous because there hasn't been a whole
26:21
Speaker 1: lot to be zealous about around here for a while.
26:24
Speaker 1: But to me, that's why he's so exciting because you
26:27
Speaker 1: don't see very much. It's not the whole package with him,
26:29
Speaker 1: and yeah, that's that hasn't happened enough. But you get
26:35
Speaker 1: the feeling that this may be the jumping off point,
26:37
Speaker 1: that this may be what turns it around. Yeah, he's uh,
26:43
Speaker 1: he's definitely going in the season. I know nationally there
26:47
Speaker 1: may not be a lot to be excited about, but
26:49
Speaker 1: he's a guy that I'm excited to see. What's the
26:51
Speaker 1: next step for him? You know, where where does the
26:54
Speaker 1: production go from from his rookie year, and you know,
26:57
Speaker 1: and also now he's the guy, so you know, offenses
27:01
Speaker 1: will be scheming for him. I think, yeah, I was
27:04
Speaker 1: just exciting. He's just he's just a good guy, is
27:06
Speaker 1: a good guy to be around, and you know, definitely
27:08
Speaker 1: a guy is easy to root for. He may not
27:10
Speaker 1: match the numbers this year, frankly, because I don't know
27:14
Speaker 1: that there's gonna be the past rush. If this team
27:17
Speaker 1: trails a lot, which is perhaps possible, he may not
27:20
Speaker 1: be in passing situations enough to do that. But you're
27:23
Speaker 1: gonna see disruption. You're gonna see a big time player,
27:28
Speaker 1: as you said, certainly the start of the season. That's
27:30
Speaker 1: who teams are gonna double team because he is. He
27:34
Speaker 1: is absolutely the man, and every other team knows it.
27:38
Speaker 1: Speaking of being absolutely the man, that's gonna segway to that.
27:41
Speaker 1: I want to thank Dave Decandice. I want to thank
27:45
Speaker 1: Joe Fortunato for always making this production sound better than
27:48
Speaker 1: it is. And I want to thank Josh Allen because, frankly,
27:51
Speaker 1: he came in during the time of the week where
27:53
Speaker 1: was a little busy, gave a lot of time and
27:56
Speaker 1: listen to the questions and really tried to make that
27:59
Speaker 1: interview interesting, so it always helps when that's the case.
28:02
Speaker 1: I appreciate him. This one certainly didn't suck. We'll try
28:06
Speaker 1: to match it next week, and thank you for listening,
28:09
Speaker 1: ye