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Jags Media Roundtable: DiRocco, Long · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome into another Jaguars media round table. J P. Shadrick,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: joined by a couple of special guests. You've heard them,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: you know them, you love them. Mike Dorocco of ESPN
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: with us today. Him, Ike, what are you giggling about?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: What you said to Mark before we started? That was awesome.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Mark Long from the Associated Press you might have heard
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of him. He's loud, he has opinions him Mark, I
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: need to get reeled in. Let's not burry lead go,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: let's go. Doug Morone today after his press conference or
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: during the press conference talking about some criticism from within
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: the organization about how he may have handled players workouts
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: in the off season and not as much stress on
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the players this year. That was the first time I
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: think we've heard anything like that. Guys, what do you think, Mark, Well,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: we heard whispers about it for a while now, and
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: you you heard it. You know, it started as one
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: or two people, some mumblings, and it's grown and grown,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: and you know, losing brings out skeletons, and so all
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, now they're losing. Lost three in a row,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: a f C opponents, a f C South opponents, and
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: lopsided embarrassing fashion, and all of a sudden, this stuff
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: starts beyond bubbling. It's now, it's out there. And so
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I think this was the first public h confirmation that
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: we've had. You've heard it privately, we've heard it, you know,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: in the hallways, you've heard it, you know rumor. Now
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: we've got public confirmation that there are rumblings within the
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: building that Doug has heard of how he's handled his team.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: And you know, you can mince it, you can guess
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: whatever you wanna do. I think anybody with half a
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: brain would say, this is Tom Coughlin, who's We all
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: know how rigid he is and how how his stance
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: on how your treat players. I don't think Tom Coughlin
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: agreed with how Doug Moron eased up on these guys
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Going into the twenty nineteen season. It was very clear
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the players went to Doug. Doug can seated and said, okay,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: let's you know, given the injuries from last year, we're
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: gonna go easy this year in training camp. And now
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: you're you know, week thirteen. I the question was, I asked, Doug,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: do you have any regrets about it? Going back? And
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Mike followed up with you know, asking him specifically about
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: you know, basically who in the organization he wouldn't and
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: a too we knew, we all knew, But tudos to
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Mike for asking. You gotta try to ask and uh see,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: but you know, I think Doug's answer to the follow
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: up was, Hey, listen, I'm not gonna sugarcook this. I'm
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: not gonna hide, I'm not gonna run from it. I
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: said what I said, and I stand by what I said. Obviously,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: his higher ups, his boss did not agree with how
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Doug handled uh the the off season and the training camp.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So the question is does it come back and bite
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: him in the butt in two weeks, three weeks, five weeks, whatever. Well,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and the thing of it is is is Doug never
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: came out and said, yeah, it was Tom Coughlin, but
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: you would did he have to know? I was gonna
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: say if you would think if if if it was
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: a player issue. But look, clearly the players were not
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: happy with the tough approach they took in two thousand seventeen.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: At the time, remember we talked about that they were
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: complaining in that locker room at the end of training camp.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Um and they did love it. In the end and
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: then and they knew coming back in ten that it
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: was probably going to be the same thing. So I mean,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the players knew that that was what was going to
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: happened into well, but I don't know, yes, I don't
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: know necessarily that all those injuries were the result of
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: a tough training camp. I think some of it was.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: I think some of it was bad luck. And I
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: think you know, look Austin Cifari and Jenkins. A groin
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: injury that turns into sports hernia, is that because the
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: training camp was tough. I mean, you can't really say,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: but you clearly did get Mark Easley hurt in the
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: preseason game, you did get right, but but that but
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the preseason But but Mark Easley wasn't hurt as a
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: result of the tough training camp. He was hurt in
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: a preseason game, the third preseason and game because the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: guy hit him low and Brandon Linder did a lot
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: of people would say, Okay, but that's not because right, no,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: it really wasn't. And and and with with Brandon Linder,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the bigger issue was Brandon Lender was in the on
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: the field for a fourth down against the Vikings in
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: the first preseason game fire, remember correctly, and someone ran
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: up his back, um, and that bothered him. But I
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: mean the bottom line is, like you said, Mark, when
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: things go badly as they have now, all this stuff
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: kind of bubbles up to the services exactly. And Doug
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: was really, you know he and he's not shot away
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: from this before. He talked about all the research he
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: did in the off season because his thing was, we
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: got to get to the season healthy. We have to
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: get to the season healthy. If we get to the
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: season healthy, everything's gonna be. And he did all of
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: that and fALS goes down on the eleventh snap. So
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: it's like, damned if you do, damned if you don't
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: at that point. And and you know, if they had
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: won the last three games, nobody would care at this point,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: and they have it and it's a problem. And you know,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know if this is um the end of
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Doug Moron's tenure. I think if if the rest of
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the season doesn't go very well, obviously it probably will be.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: But we'll have to see how that plays out. But
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: clearly right now there's no um I like to pound on.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I can only imagine it's quite just like somebody in
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: the press box, the press, the press thing the pound
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: like someone on the press, what do you do? I'm
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: an Italian. I talked my hands. Eric, are we on video?
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: By the way? There? All right, there we go? All right,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: talk with my hands again? What do you got? I
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: don't know. And I'll just say that when the tackling
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: is an issue, and it's been an issue for four
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: of the last seven games, you can't tackle the wind
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: and you've given up tuner yards rushing, then all of
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: a sudden people start going, Okay, did did they do
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: enough in training camp to be a better tackling team?
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: And you know that's you know, I get it, I
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: get and I get where TC would be critical of
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Doug and this team because he believes in this old
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: school mentality where you grind him into the dirt in
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: training camp to make them better prepared for five and
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: week thirteen. But but hitting more, tackling more in training
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: camp isn't going to keep guys from taking bad angles
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: like trying attack. I mean, they tackled Alvin Kamar pretty well, Joe, well, okay,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: then you're talking about some awful off tackle. Dabel hasn't
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: been able to run against anybody. Joe Mixon hasn't been
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: able to run against anybody. You can't tackle Derrick Henry
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: around was banged up. And that's the bottom line. And
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: we saw that last year tackling around the shoulder. He
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: was playing Patty. It was not good. It was it
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: was tag backs, no tag backs. Bad angles. Has nothing
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with that. It's it's all fundamentals. These
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: guys should know how to tackle by now. That's not
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: an excuse. It's the effort, and their effort is lacking.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: But that has nothing to do with hitting nod Be either.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I think that's a whole separation. The first part of
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: this conversation though, I mean, like you're to your point, Mike.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: If they win the last three games, it's the best deodorant.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: And this never really comes out right, I mean stuff
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: right now, and they're probably in the hunt in the playoffs,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: in first place and ready to go. Doug Maron is
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: a Coach of the Year candidate. If they win the
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: last three games, there their first place in the division,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: and you're going, oh my god, Doug Maron kept his
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: team together. They lose Nick Foles in the first quarter
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: of the season open and Doug keeps his team together,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: they get to five hundred, they bring back Nick Foles,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, they're a juggernaut, a team
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: to watch. A sudden, he's uh, you know, likely out
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: of a job. Mark Long Associated Press, Mike Roco, ESPN.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Nick Foles play the last two weeks, there's a lot
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: of people calling for men show and all this. Um,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: what's your guys opinion on Folds and the way he's
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: approached things the two weeks coming back into this lineup. Uh,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: you know, look, you hate to say this, but those
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: were sort of blake boardle games. The last couple of weeks.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Game was close early, not playing particularly well, not playing
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: particularly badly. You know, I love the boat, um, but
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: then garbage yards at the end. To be honest with you, Um,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: you know, that's not That's not what they need out
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: of him. As unfair as the expectation on him was
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: coming back after ten weeks absence, he needed to be
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: lights out. He needed to be lights out to say
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: this season, and he wasn't. Um. I think we were
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: all on social media, we've all seen the vehement disagreement
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: among fans. They're about some of the things that Nick
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Foles has said after games about building the culture. I
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: asked Doug about that today and not really sure where
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: he was going there with that about you know, people
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: have different words for it and stuff. But the bottom
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: line is I don't think fans appreciate him talking about
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: building a culture twelve thirteen weeks in. But the bottom
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: line is he has to play better. That's they're not
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: going back to Minshew. Dougs already said that he has
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: to play better and he has to play better early,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and that's the bottom line with him. But in his head,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: it's week three, and let's not forget that. In his
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: head and where he's coming from. This is his third game,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: and so in his mind he is still building I
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: think still. And he's positive guy by nature, so let's
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: not I don't want to roast him. I thought it
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: was completely tone deaf two on his part, but I
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: don't want to roast him for for being a guy
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: who's kind of looking on the bright side of things.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: What I will say is how poor as poorly as
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: he's played. I cannot overlook the fact that I was
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: one of the people calling for that. I thought it
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: was a slam dunk that they could not stick with Minshew.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I didn't think minshe had played very well in three
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: of the previous four games, and I thought there were
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of holes in his game that had started
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: to show up. They were awful in the red zone.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I thought part of that was the guy couldn't see
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: over the offensive line and defensive lineman. And so really
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: not going to go back. I'm not gonna have revisionist
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: history on what on how strongly I felt I thought
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Minshew was done. He needed to go back to Folds,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: and you needed to see me. You invested a lot,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: you need and you believe in your investment. You need
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: to go see what this is moving forward and see
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: what you have for the rest of the years. So
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: I don't have any problem with them moving to Folds
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: and sticking with Folds. They need to see what they
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: get there, whether it's this regime or the next regime.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: And if anything, you know, you hope that maybe Folds
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: plays well down the stretch here and that maybe probably
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: buys you sometime, maybe buys you another year. In shot
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Khan's eyes, in terms of going, okay, you know, now
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Nick's got the rust off Nick's back, the offense looks good,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: you know, okay, we can go into and it's all
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: or nothing with Nick Foles. Well you better bubble wrap him.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Then you better off. You better get the better. You
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: better get the offensive line fix, because that's to me
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: number one issue. You want to run Leonard for Nett
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: thirty times to get him ninety yards, fine, because you
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: can prove that that that will happen. He can average
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: four yards to carry. We know that the problem with
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: this offensive line is it doesn't protect long enough and
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: too many dumb penalties and they're always on the offensive line.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I don't see too many receivers holding down field for
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: this team. I mean, yes, it happens. You're not seeing
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: the tight ends getting flag every three tight ends. By
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: the way they pull off the street, it's always the
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: same guys. And I don't care if it's a bad
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: call or not. It's always the same three or four
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: guys on the offensive line in opportune times. So fix
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: the offensive line, you'll fix the offense. What does this
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: offense want to be in the grand scheme of things?
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: I think is still a question mark. Because you got
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Nick Foles, you got John d Filippo. You know they
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: want to throw it around the yard a little bit.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: They got charted, they got Westbrook, they got some weapons outside.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: But you have a power running back, but you don't
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: have it in full X on the roster and the
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: tight ends that you had on the roster early in
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the season. We're not true blocking threats right now. They
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: were past receiving options. Um, so are you gonna be
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: a running type of offense with Leonard? Are you gonna
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: throw it around out of the shotgun? Leonard is not
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: great out of the shotgun? What are you gonna be?
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: It depends on who's calling the shot They need seth
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: DeValve back. If if if, if the if the current
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: regime comes back, then I think what the regime wants
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: would be what we saw in two thousand seventeen with
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: better quarterback play. Correct if the current regime. But again
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: to his point, I watched two games this this this week.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: I watched a lot of football. But to the games
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: that stand out, UH, San Francisco forty Niners running with
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: a true fullback and they can run on anybody in
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: the league. And the Baltimore Ravens running with a true fullback.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Even with a spread option quarterback, they're running with a
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: true fullback back there, and those guys are just hammering
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: teams with that fullback and I don't I don't know.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I started. I'm starting to think it's a mistake. I'm
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: not saying Tommy bo hand In, but upgrade your TI,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: upgrade your fullback situation here, especially when you're bringing a fullback,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: especially now that you're on tight ends number six, seven,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: and eight. Uh, go get somebody, anybody. But it's not.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: I I do think they need to tweak the offense,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: but I think what they want to be is a
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: team that can do it anyway given the opponent, opponent's
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: weaknesses and whatnot. And I think that's if you can
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: do that, though, But I think they've got enough. They've
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: got enough. If you've got a good quarterback, and you've
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: got a good running back, and you've got a good
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: offensive line, and you've got enough talented receiver tight end,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: I think you can do that. And I do think
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: this team has that. Obviously, not all the pieces are
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: healthy and together, but well, the one of the common
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: denomina is about the teams you mentioned too, is you've
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: got some really really good quarterback play going on behind
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: that too, and that changes everything and that's something that
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: they haven't had right now. But they also got to
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: the best offensive lines in the league, so they've got
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the time to make the decisions in the pocket or
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: you know, but if you have to choose between those too.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: And look, we can all sit here and we can
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: debate what are the top the order of the top
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: three needs for this team next year. But even with
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: two first round picks, nine picks total and free agency,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: you can't address all of them this year. You can,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: but you've got to put some awards correct. You've got
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: to pick and if you're gonna make one a priority
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: over the other, I would probably say, if you're not
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: going to do anything at a quarterback, which I don't
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: we I think we're all in agreement. They're not hamstrong, yea,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: then then you're gonna have to address the offensive line.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: That's got to be the number one priority. And then
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: the defensive line. Asked me the number one or the
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: number of the number two priorities? Yeah, and then linebacker
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: after that. But offensively, you better deal with that offensive
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: line first. What are the Thanksgiving plans for you two guys?
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: We have way too many people coming over. Yeah, well,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: you know, every year I used to invite you when
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: your family was out of town. You're like raw to
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: play golf with someone I hardly know, so I don't
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: invite anymore. It's just you know, it's awful. It is.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I travel a lot so over here,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: you know, I got This is a busy week for me.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: I got the basketball game Friday night, I got a
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: football game Saturday night, and then I got a football
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: game Sunday morning. Sunday, Yeah, late, late night, late night
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Friday night. So I get Thursday, and I'm here Tuesday Wednesday,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: so I get Thursdays like my really my only down
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: day this week, so I will I'll just be spending
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: it with a fam. I'm sure everybody listening who sees
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: us playing or covering sports for a living is very
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: upset at Mark's law. Late schedule. There, great, you get
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: to go cover nationally ranks basketball team Florida Florida State,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: and then the NFL. What a terrible week. You have
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: my wife's as chef. So I'll be okay on Thanksgiving.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Top than food, quickly, I'm going dress. I well, I'm out.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I love him and I love Turkey, but I'll take
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Ham over turkey all day and twice on Thanksgiving. I'm
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I'm turkey all the way. Thanks, but white or dark
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: white meat, I'm a dark pep. I'll take yeah, as
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: long as I have to cook it. Actually, I'm a
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: real big fan of the the bourbon and diet coke.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Thanksgiving alright, boys, have a great week. Thank you, long
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: associated Press, Mike to Rocco, ESPN, and always going to
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: see you guys at thanks Have a good Thanksgiving, everybody,