Latest / Jags A.M. / Jags A.M. Podcast Ep. 142 | Lawrence in Coen's Offense, Insights from Gladstone's Time in LA

Transcript

Jags A.M. Podcast Ep. 142 | Lawrence in Coen's Offense, Insights from Gladstone's Time in LA · Jags A.M.

0:26
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to jaggs. Am.
0:28
Speaker 2: I'm Brian Sexton, and today I am the lead singer
0:31
Speaker 2: of the band and the driver of the Winnebego. Ky
0:33
Speaker 2: Stevens is out, so I'm filling in in her role,
0:36
Speaker 2: but he're not. We've got a great show for you
0:39
Speaker 2: and we'll start as we always do, with big things.
0:42
Speaker 2: In January when new head coach Liam Cohen signed on,
0:46
Speaker 2: he's spoke in broad platitudes about his mission about what
0:49
Speaker 2: he was working towards. But since then last week, specifically
0:54
Speaker 2: when he met with the players, he now has dialed
0:57
Speaker 2: it in and he shared it with the media last
0:59
Speaker 2: week and year three big topics with you on which
1:02
Speaker 2: Liam Cohen was much more specific, and the first is culture.
1:07
Speaker 2: It's a big word. We've talked about it a lot,
1:09
Speaker 2: and the coach was very specific.
1:11
Speaker 3: Team meeting about rules and regulations, introductions. We had a
1:15
Speaker 3: team meeting as well about our style of play first
1:18
Speaker 3: and foremost, really before we dive into the culture, we're
1:22
Speaker 3: going to dive into the way that we're going to
1:24
Speaker 3: play out on the grass. We also had a culture
1:26
Speaker 3: meeting with the entire building which was really cool, where
1:30
Speaker 3: it was all departments everybody was involved, and it was
1:33
Speaker 3: just a cool way of getting together, establishing the communication
1:38
Speaker 3: lines and how we want to do things and operate.
1:41
Speaker 3: So it is very important at this moment in time
1:44
Speaker 3: for us.
1:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, and John, you and I were in that meeting,
1:47
Speaker 2: and he talked about rules in the way that the
1:49
Speaker 2: team would approach it. He said he had to protect
1:51
Speaker 2: the team be on time. But in those two rules,
1:54
Speaker 2: he set up the expectation level for his team about
1:57
Speaker 2: their professionalism in the way they would go about their business.
2:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm curious, Brian, if you're the leader of the band,
2:03
Speaker 4: am I the roadie who doesn't wash enough before you
2:05
Speaker 4: gets some of the us I knew something.
2:07
Speaker 2: That would be one person that would get it.
2:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, there'd be something like that for me. Look for
2:14
Speaker 4: you and I, Brian, and the fans. This is really
2:17
Speaker 4: not our time of year, right, but is the coach's
2:22
Speaker 4: time of year and the player's time of year, especially
2:24
Speaker 4: when there's a regime change. And I say all that
2:27
Speaker 4: to get to the fact that fans when they hear
2:30
Speaker 4: words like culture and when they hear buzzwords and all
2:33
Speaker 4: these things that start with alphabet letters and then they
2:36
Speaker 4: spell out so players can remember them. Fans roll their eyes,
2:40
Speaker 4: as I've heard this before, but for these guys, for
2:44
Speaker 4: trying to establish their tone, trying to establish what's going on,
2:48
Speaker 4: these weeks are really important and I liked everything I
2:51
Speaker 4: heard last week from William Cohen. I would be sort
2:55
Speaker 4: of disingenuous if I tried to tell fans what's different
2:58
Speaker 4: about it. To me, what's different this time of year
3:03
Speaker 4: has to come through in not necessarily what said, but
3:07
Speaker 4: what the players feel from these coaches, especially Liam Cohene
3:11
Speaker 4: and the leadership group. I think they're learning that they're
3:14
Speaker 4: going to like.
3:15
Speaker 2: What they hear from those guys. To me, that's the
3:16
Speaker 2: big picture, and we will hear from a couple of
3:18
Speaker 2: the players. Trevor Lawrence and Foyer Lucan spoke with media
3:21
Speaker 2: last week. We'll have that coming up later in the show.
3:23
Speaker 2: Another big word was workload. Let's be honest, John, We
3:26
Speaker 2: talk about the offseason programing OTAs while they're happening, but
3:31
Speaker 2: when we get to the preseason or training camp, we
3:34
Speaker 2: forget all about it because the workload isn't that heavy.
3:37
Speaker 2: It's about getting some things done. Liam go and focused
3:41
Speaker 2: a little bit on what he would ask of his
3:43
Speaker 2: players over these next couple of weeks.
3:46
Speaker 3: We're going to throw as much at these guys mentally
3:49
Speaker 3: in this offseason, as much as we can handle, and
3:53
Speaker 3: probably more, much more actually, because it's not a physical
3:57
Speaker 3: time of the year, it's a time of the year
4:00
Speaker 3: we can stress the mentally. Ultimately, throw that as much
4:05
Speaker 3: Adam as we can from Minnesota, from Tampa, from LA
4:09
Speaker 3: from Green Bay, whatever it is, and see what we
4:12
Speaker 3: can handle. We're not going to know who we're truly
4:14
Speaker 3: going to be for a while, but it's more so
4:17
Speaker 3: testing to see how much they can handle and if
4:19
Speaker 3: maybe some of those concept schemes fundamentals fit our players.
4:23
Speaker 3: That's a great question, because that's something that we're constantly
4:27
Speaker 3: working through right now.
4:28
Speaker 1: Is the staff Shohn.
4:29
Speaker 2: With a new coach, new coaching staff, there's obviously a
4:32
Speaker 2: lot of learning that will go on, but it's not
4:34
Speaker 2: just the players, it's the coaches learning about these players
4:37
Speaker 2: based on what coach Cohen just said, how much they
4:39
Speaker 2: can handle them, what they can throw at them.
4:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, I tn Brian, as you know, to make fun
4:44
Speaker 4: of OTAs a little bit or in the off season
4:46
Speaker 4: program because it's not padded work. Bear in mind, I'm
4:51
Speaker 4: very well aware that I'm not the one out there
4:53
Speaker 4: doing the work.
4:54
Speaker 1: It's hard.
4:55
Speaker 4: They use this time to get in shape. But I
4:57
Speaker 4: do think anybody who's watched Brian knows that you and
5:01
Speaker 4: I OTAs we get it.
5:05
Speaker 1: But they're not that.
5:06
Speaker 4: Big of a deal to us because it's not padded work.
5:10
Speaker 4: But for players, I don't want to dismiss the importance
5:15
Speaker 4: of these, especially in a new regime, and it's for
5:18
Speaker 4: these act reasons. You say, these guys have to figure
5:21
Speaker 4: out what these players can do, what their workload is,
5:24
Speaker 4: they have to get ready for it. I'm always one
5:27
Speaker 4: once a coach has been here three or four years,
5:30
Speaker 4: there are certain players I don't necessarily think have to
5:33
Speaker 4: have OTAs right now with a new regime, they're critically.
5:37
Speaker 2: Important and our final big thing, John. I was at
5:40
Speaker 2: the Bisselli Foundation events this weekend, lots of Draguars supporters
5:43
Speaker 2: and fans. They wanted to talk about free agency, in particular,
5:46
Speaker 2: they want to talk about the draft, which.
5:48
Speaker 1: Is coming up in nine days.
5:49
Speaker 2: But I always brought it back to this and it's
5:51
Speaker 2: our third big thing, and it is Trevor the quarterback
5:55
Speaker 2: is central to Liam Cohen and his staff getting this
5:58
Speaker 2: job done. Putting this team on the right track to
6:01
Speaker 2: win long term. And Liam lash we talked a little
6:04
Speaker 2: bit about his efforts so far with the Jaguars franchise quarterback.
6:09
Speaker 3: We are trying to create black and white lines when
6:12
Speaker 3: it comes to footwork in ways so that understanding that
6:16
Speaker 3: the game is played in the gray. There's so much
6:19
Speaker 3: that occurs on a play. If you can have core
6:23
Speaker 3: fundamentals in footwork that you believe in and that you
6:26
Speaker 3: trust in those times of crisis, you have something to
6:29
Speaker 3: actually fall back on and play with a quieted mind.
6:33
Speaker 3: And so this is a great opportunity now that he
6:36
Speaker 3: is a little limited from a throwing standpoint, that we
6:39
Speaker 3: can dive into the footwork. He can dive into it
6:42
Speaker 3: on his own time and really work at this thing.
6:45
Speaker 3: So he's committed to it. It's something that we feel
6:49
Speaker 3: strongly about that can help him continue to get better
6:52
Speaker 3: and ultimately on Sundays, we hope that shows up.
6:56
Speaker 4: John.
6:56
Speaker 2: I know the storyline coming out of that media news
6:58
Speaker 2: conference last week was the footwork, and obviously people want
7:01
Speaker 2: to focus on the fundamentals. To me, it was the
7:03
Speaker 2: quieted mind. It's finding a way to help Trevor relax
7:07
Speaker 2: and be his best.
7:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, And as you said at the top, all the
7:12
Speaker 4: moves they've made, even the draft, it's all going to
7:15
Speaker 4: circle back to how much they can get this running
7:18
Speaker 4: game going and how much more they can get out
7:20
Speaker 4: of Trevor.
7:21
Speaker 1: If he ascends, if he gets.
7:23
Speaker 4: Back to where he was playing in late in twenty two,
7:26
Speaker 4: then there can be dramatic improvement for this team. There was,
7:30
Speaker 4: as you might expect in the ozone, a lot of
7:32
Speaker 4: oh my goodness, what's wrong with this footwork?
7:34
Speaker 1: Why hadn't this been fixed?
7:36
Speaker 4: To me, that is more about getting his footwork timed
7:39
Speaker 4: with this offense. So I don't think it's that unusual.
7:43
Speaker 4: And the reason that you want to do that from
7:45
Speaker 4: what Liam Cohen and Trevor both said, You're trying to
7:51
Speaker 4: get the footwork right so you can get that quieted mind,
7:54
Speaker 4: so you can know what you're doing with your feet
7:57
Speaker 4: and let your feet and the footwork and the time
8:00
Speaker 4: of these things guides you in your decision making.
8:03
Speaker 1: As I think Liam said, once.
8:05
Speaker 4: It's crazy out there, there's a lot of stuff being
8:08
Speaker 4: thrown at quarterbacks on every play. The more they can
8:11
Speaker 4: have muscle memory, meaning footwork guiding them to their decisions
8:15
Speaker 4: and their reeds. Then the easier it is when chaos starts.
8:19
Speaker 4: So I think you're right. I think that's really the
8:21
Speaker 4: takeaway from it. Although people obviously focused on.
8:24
Speaker 1: The footwork element.
8:25
Speaker 2: And I loved the fact that we talked about black
8:28
Speaker 2: and white and rules and strategies and how everything works,
8:32
Speaker 2: but that the game isn't black and white, it's played
8:35
Speaker 2: in the gray. That was a takeaway and I thought
8:37
Speaker 2: it was very insightful as to how this coach is
8:39
Speaker 2: working with his staff to get things righted here in Jacksonville.
8:43
Speaker 1: That does it for big things.
8:44
Speaker 2: When we come back, we'll hear from Trevor Lloyance and
8:47
Speaker 2: Foyer Lucon at the end of the first week of
8:49
Speaker 2: the off season program. Will hear from them next on
8:53
Speaker 2: jags Am. Welcome back to jags Am. Brian and John
9:01
Speaker 2: with you here on a Tuesday. We appreciate you joining
9:03
Speaker 2: us nine days out from the NFL Draft, and we'll
9:06
Speaker 2: have plenty of conversation about that coming up. But John,
9:09
Speaker 2: let's go back to what we were talking about. Last
9:11
Speaker 2: week was the first week for the players and the coaches,
9:13
Speaker 2: not just to be in the building and you know
9:15
Speaker 2: it's not padded stuff, but to get to know each
9:18
Speaker 2: other because everything had been so limited since the coach
9:21
Speaker 2: was hired and brought his staff on board.
9:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, part of my stick. You know, I got some shit.
9:25
Speaker 1: I do know, man is OTAs. What do they matter?
9:28
Speaker 4: Coaches overplay them. And that's more joking than it is anything, because.
9:32
Speaker 1: I just like to joke that I don't like being
9:33
Speaker 1: out there in the sun.
9:35
Speaker 4: There is a after a while once players have been
9:39
Speaker 4: in a scheme. I do think there is a little
9:41
Speaker 4: bit of a diminishing returns for some players when they're
9:44
Speaker 4: here in their third year under a guy. But for
9:47
Speaker 4: trying to establish a culture, when else are you going
9:50
Speaker 4: to do it? Because there's not time anymore. Training camp
9:53
Speaker 4: is so short without that much padded work, and you know,
9:57
Speaker 4: you can say what you want about, well, it's not pads.
10:01
Speaker 4: I happen to walk by with them doing some on
10:03
Speaker 4: the field work at one point and heard what they're doing.
10:07
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do it.
10:09
Speaker 4: So yeah, they are working and this is critical time
10:13
Speaker 4: and it is you know what we're seeing here too.
10:16
Speaker 4: It's a new strength and conditioning staff and the strength
10:18
Speaker 4: and conditioning staff. If you think about these guys' work day,
10:22
Speaker 4: their schedule, they're with these guys more than they are
10:25
Speaker 4: their position coaches. So the strength and conditioning staff gets
10:28
Speaker 4: a pretty quick idea of who's dedicated, who's there all
10:33
Speaker 4: the time. So I'm sure, I'm sure Liam Cohen is
10:36
Speaker 4: having conversations with the strength guys.
10:39
Speaker 1: Hey, hey, what are these guys about? What makes them tick?
10:42
Speaker 1: But it's interesting.
10:42
Speaker 2: One more thing on the culture, and I'm big on
10:44
Speaker 2: it because I didn't sense any of it last year,
10:46
Speaker 2: and I know there are people that argue with me
10:48
Speaker 2: that there was some, but obviously at four and thirteen
10:50
Speaker 2: there wasn't much. It's not just the culture to the players.
10:54
Speaker 2: But you know, Liam has got a new staff together
10:57
Speaker 2: and they're having to figure it out from their own
10:59
Speaker 2: perspects of how they're going to do it. They can
11:01
Speaker 2: talk about it theoretically in the time that the players
11:04
Speaker 2: aren't here, but when the players return, well, now you're
11:06
Speaker 2: implementing that culture. You're implementing all of the things the
11:10
Speaker 2: way that the coach wants to accomplish the mission on
11:12
Speaker 2: a daily basis with these players. So it's important time
11:15
Speaker 2: for both the coaches and the players.
11:16
Speaker 4: Well, sometimes other situations in life apply to football.
11:22
Speaker 1: How do you build culture?
11:23
Speaker 4: If you're the defensive staff, how do you build culture
11:25
Speaker 4: with Traylon Walker and Josh heinz Allen if they're not there,
11:30
Speaker 4: meaning it's in meetings, as you pass guys in the hallway,
11:36
Speaker 4: it's having a joke with them as you go by
11:39
Speaker 4: them after they've lifted all of those things. There's no
11:46
Speaker 4: way to build that kind of stuff without human interaction,
11:50
Speaker 4: and furthermore, without the coaches showing these players what they're
11:54
Speaker 4: all about. You've been around this long enough to know.
11:59
Speaker 4: I don't know that it's fir first impressions me and everything,
12:02
Speaker 4: but players belief in the coaches. That was one of
12:06
Speaker 4: Liam's points last week is belief in this thing. It's
12:09
Speaker 4: a very nebulous, hard thing to grasp. But unless players
12:15
Speaker 4: believe coaches can't do anything, the belief starts to get built. Now,
12:20
Speaker 4: where the players look at these guys is on the
12:22
Speaker 4: podium and when they're in rooms with them and say,
12:26
Speaker 4: can I be around this guy? Can I believe in
12:29
Speaker 4: what this guy is selling? That's part of what makes
12:32
Speaker 4: this time so critical.
12:33
Speaker 2: Right, let's hear from a couple of the players on
12:35
Speaker 2: what they think so far. We'll start with the quarterback
12:38
Speaker 2: Trevor Lawrence, who talked a bit about the footwork issue
12:41
Speaker 2: that we just heard from the coach.
12:43
Speaker 5: More than any system I've ever learned, it's structured and
12:46
Speaker 5: based on that, and it's so everything's tied exactly to
12:50
Speaker 5: all right, this route is on this timing, so then
12:51
Speaker 5: your next progression is off of this footwork, off this timing,
12:55
Speaker 5: so it all ties in perfect. You don't have multiple
12:57
Speaker 5: routes declaring at the same time, which is art as
13:00
Speaker 5: a quarterback because then you're sitting back there and you
13:02
Speaker 5: got to make a decision before really the guys open
13:06
Speaker 5: or covered, you know. So I think they've done a
13:08
Speaker 5: really good job with the system of really thinking through
13:10
Speaker 5: how does it tie into quarterbacks feet And that's what
13:12
Speaker 5: we've been talking about. And it takes some work and
13:15
Speaker 5: you know, flipping my stands, just some little things like
13:17
Speaker 5: that that are small that many people wouldn't notice, but
13:20
Speaker 5: it is. I have so many banked reps of the
13:21
Speaker 5: other way. I got to just get all these on
13:24
Speaker 5: my own and work them. So once camp comes around,
13:26
Speaker 5: I'm ready to go.
13:27
Speaker 2: John Trevor, for not having much time at this point
13:30
Speaker 2: in the system, had obviously paid attention to what they
13:32
Speaker 2: did in Tampa with Baker Mayfield and understood the basic
13:36
Speaker 2: concepts of what footwork and timing would do for them
13:39
Speaker 2: in this offense. Yeah, I've covered a lot of availabilities.
13:43
Speaker 2: As you know, it's mainly what we do during the week.
13:47
Speaker 4: I've covered Trevor for a while, so after a while
13:48
Speaker 4: you start figuring out, Okay, most of availabilities. They're just
13:51
Speaker 4: saying things that could apply to any situation because they're
13:54
Speaker 4: trying to get through the pressor But in this case,
13:57
Speaker 4: I thought he said some interesting things about this offense.
14:00
Speaker 4: He did emphasize at one point it's not easy to learn,
14:05
Speaker 4: and that speaks to what he's going to be going
14:08
Speaker 4: through and what his teammates are going to be going through.
14:10
Speaker 4: And that's fine. It's his third offense in five NFL seasons.
14:14
Speaker 4: But he also said at one point that he really
14:16
Speaker 4: likes what they're doing. He believes in the concepts. So
14:20
Speaker 4: if you think about it, when were you best in school?
14:22
Speaker 4: I was never good in school, But when your best
14:24
Speaker 4: is when you know what you're studying for, you can
14:27
Speaker 4: come out on the other end and you know it's
14:29
Speaker 4: going to benefit you. It certainly sounds like he believes
14:32
Speaker 4: in this. He believes in the concepts, and I think.
14:35
Speaker 1: We go back to the footwork stuff.
14:37
Speaker 4: The footwork stuff, once you learn it, it's designed to
14:41
Speaker 4: make it easy. It's designed to be able to perform
14:43
Speaker 4: in the gray area because they're making black and white rules.
14:48
Speaker 4: So you can certainly see Trevor who has to be
14:51
Speaker 4: going through some on the inside this offseason. At some point,
14:55
Speaker 4: I've got to get it going. I've got to be
14:57
Speaker 4: what I believe I can be. I would think looking
15:01
Speaker 4: at this and seeing the success that Mayfield has, he's saying,
15:04
Speaker 4: I can latch onto this.
15:05
Speaker 2: This can be my rope out to where I want
15:09
Speaker 2: to be. Let's stay with the Mayfield theme for just
15:11
Speaker 2: a moment. Coming off of his best year, the one
15:13
Speaker 2: year under Liam Cohen in Tampa, forty one touchdowns, the
15:16
Speaker 2: running game was strong, and Trevor was asked about his
15:19
Speaker 2: relationship his knowledge of Mayfield.
15:23
Speaker 5: I haven't yet, you know, I know Baker. I wouldn't say, well,
15:27
Speaker 5: but we're buddies and every time I see him, you know,
15:29
Speaker 5: we try to catch up talk. I really got a
15:31
Speaker 5: lot of respect for him. I haven't got a chance
15:33
Speaker 5: to yet, but I need to. I've heard through other
15:37
Speaker 5: people that I've talked to, Baker had different things throughout
15:39
Speaker 5: the offseason that he's just says great things about him
15:42
Speaker 5: and how much he helped him, and said I'm gonna
15:43
Speaker 5: love playing for him. So I've kind of heard that
15:46
Speaker 5: through I guess mutual friends and stuff.
15:49
Speaker 2: All right, let's turn it to the defensive side, and
15:51
Speaker 2: here from Foyer Aluit cunning who talked a little bit
15:53
Speaker 2: about last season and why things went south and what
15:58
Speaker 2: it means now with a new coaching staff in Jackson, and.
16:01
Speaker 6: We didn't win last year, so I think whatever changes
16:04
Speaker 6: that are coming are accepted because obviously we didn't play
16:06
Speaker 6: up to the stand that we needed. So whatever was
16:08
Speaker 6: going on, you know, if it's if it's we can't
16:12
Speaker 6: really promise more wins, but obviously we needed maybe a
16:16
Speaker 6: new way to attack the season, a new way to
16:18
Speaker 6: attack the off seasons and stuff. So I think everybody's
16:20
Speaker 6: very accepting of everything new that's in store for us.
16:24
Speaker 6: You know that that equates to more wins.
16:26
Speaker 2: The linebacker wants to win more and he is open
16:28
Speaker 2: to whatever it takes to get there.
16:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I thought that was clearly the most interesting
16:32
Speaker 4: thing he had to say. Look, The reality is they
16:36
Speaker 4: put these guys in the podium because they have to
16:38
Speaker 4: last week, and they're at the time they're two or
16:42
Speaker 4: three days into getting to know these guys. So for Foyer,
16:46
Speaker 4: if for anybody really to stand up there and.
16:48
Speaker 1: Say, hey, I love these guys, I'm all in. They're
16:51
Speaker 1: still learning them.
16:53
Speaker 4: So I thought Foyer's comments were very insightful and very professional.
16:56
Speaker 1: Hey, we were four and thirteen last year. We didn't
16:59
Speaker 1: win enough. There's gonna be chain, So these are the
17:02
Speaker 1: guys that come in.
17:04
Speaker 4: We're gonna give this a chance. We like what we're hearing.
17:08
Speaker 4: He's a very intelligent guy who tries to say what's
17:12
Speaker 4: really on his mind during these things, and I think
17:15
Speaker 4: he was very honest, of very anxious to see what
17:20
Speaker 4: Anthony Campanili and the staff is saying, likes it and
17:24
Speaker 4: is ready.
17:24
Speaker 1: To embrace it.
17:26
Speaker 4: I think he'll be a lot better on it in
17:29
Speaker 4: training camp when everybody understands what everybody's all about. They're
17:33
Speaker 4: still on their first week of school and still trying
17:36
Speaker 4: to get to know their teachers. I liked what I
17:40
Speaker 4: heard last week, and I think it's gonna be fascinating
17:42
Speaker 4: to watch all.
17:42
Speaker 2: Right, when we come back on drags AM more perspective,
17:46
Speaker 2: this time on the Jaguars from the Los Angeles Rams view,
17:50
Speaker 2: or at least someone.
17:51
Speaker 1: Who covers them.
17:52
Speaker 2: Kyle Stevens sat down with Jordan rod Riek, who covers
17:55
Speaker 2: the Rams for The Athletic, and we'll bring you that
17:58
Speaker 2: conversation after this am. Move the freight. Move the freight.
18:09
Speaker 2: Magellan voted the coolest workspace in Jacksonville, invites you to
18:13
Speaker 2: check them out and see if you can help them
18:15
Speaker 2: move the freight at magellan dot com. All right, Brian
18:20
Speaker 2: to John with you back here on Jags a M
18:25
Speaker 2: and Kay Stevens, who is out last week, found time
18:28
Speaker 2: to connect with someone who covers the Rams on a
18:30
Speaker 2: daily basis for The Athletic. Jordan Rodrigo has an excellent
18:33
Speaker 2: podcast called The play Callers. You should check that out.
18:36
Speaker 2: Check out Kay's conversation first.
18:38
Speaker 7: All right, I'm here now with the Athletics senior writer
18:40
Speaker 7: covering the LA Rams, Jordan rodrig Thank you so much
18:43
Speaker 7: for joining us. I know you're very well versed with
18:45
Speaker 7: James Gladstone and kind of how the Rams do things,
18:47
Speaker 7: so I really wanted to pick your brain on this.
18:49
Speaker 8: A little bit. Thank you so much for having me.
18:51
Speaker 8: How is La Rams East good?
18:53
Speaker 7: It's going really well. We love the vibe in the building.
18:56
Speaker 7: It's very I mean obviously beach towns and whatnot, but yes,
18:59
Speaker 7: we're loving this.
19:00
Speaker 1: It's very lighthearted.
19:01
Speaker 7: The change was immediate. Obviously you've been around James a lot,
19:04
Speaker 7: so you know the deal, but just the whole regime
19:06
Speaker 7: change has been really great here, so it's kind of exciting.
19:08
Speaker 7: And now that we're getting into the draft time, which
19:10
Speaker 7: is obviously the front office's favorite time of year, we're
19:13
Speaker 7: kind of learning a little bit more about him. But
19:16
Speaker 7: what we heard from the interview process was when James
19:18
Speaker 7: Gladstone came in, just his interview as a whole, his
19:21
Speaker 7: vision was really what sold them because we had been
19:23
Speaker 7: hearing some other names maybe as favorites going in, but
19:26
Speaker 7: James really came in out of not out of nowhere,
19:28
Speaker 7: but just kind of really won them over with what
19:30
Speaker 7: he had to say. So with your time working with him,
19:33
Speaker 7: were you surprised by that at all or were you
19:34
Speaker 7: kind of Yeah, of course, anyone that would talk to
19:37
Speaker 7: him would probably see it that way.
19:39
Speaker 9: You know, when I saw his name included on the list,
19:42
Speaker 9: first of all, I was like.
19:43
Speaker 8: Oh, how did Less Snead let that happen?
19:45
Speaker 9: Because he has been so behind the scenes for so
19:48
Speaker 9: many years in LA. But to know James and to
19:52
Speaker 9: have worked with them as closely as I did last
19:54
Speaker 9: year where I was interred with their draft and scouting department,
19:58
Speaker 9: is to not.
19:59
Speaker 8: Be surprised by this at all.
20:01
Speaker 9: The way that he not only has a vision and
20:03
Speaker 9: a very meticulous and granular plan for every operation and
20:07
Speaker 9: every part of the talent identification, scouting and draft process,
20:11
Speaker 9: the talent acquisition process, part of the pro personnel department
20:14
Speaker 9: as well, and the way more so, the way he
20:17
Speaker 9: can explain it. It was just to me, I called
20:21
Speaker 9: Less and I was like, all right, good luck keeping
20:23
Speaker 9: this guy now, you know, And it just it was
20:26
Speaker 9: no surprise, I think to anyone who's ever worked with him,
20:30
Speaker 9: that he quickly dominated this interview and became the guy
20:35
Speaker 9: because he just can explain a vision and then goes
20:37
Speaker 9: and creates that vision, as he did in Los Angeles
20:40
Speaker 9: when they overhauled their draft department two and twenty twenty three.
20:43
Speaker 7: Absolutely, we've seen that already, even just with free agency,
20:46
Speaker 7: you know, making cap space, letting go of some veterans,
20:49
Speaker 7: some faces that we were familiar with around here, but
20:52
Speaker 7: going to the draft, it's exciting for us to kind
20:54
Speaker 7: of see where this might end up. Obviously, outside looking in,
20:57
Speaker 7: we've seen what the RAMS have done the last couple
20:59
Speaker 7: of years.
21:00
Speaker 8: Was James's role in all of that?
21:01
Speaker 7: Because the way you guys have been drafting last couple
21:04
Speaker 7: of years, the RAMS have been really successful.
21:06
Speaker 9: Yeah, well, James was sort of moved into this role
21:09
Speaker 9: to help basically overhaul the entire operation of not just
21:15
Speaker 9: the scouting processes and keeping what worked, but also modernizing
21:19
Speaker 9: and making things a little bit more progressive in other ways,
21:22
Speaker 9: changing some of the strategy with which they approached the draft,
21:26
Speaker 9: blending certain analytics programming that they were creating, some of
21:29
Speaker 9: which they created from scratch.
21:30
Speaker 8: So Jake Temmy joining the organization, I.
21:32
Speaker 9: Think is also quietly a huge and significant move for
21:35
Speaker 9: the Jaguars some of the ways that they attacked the
21:39
Speaker 9: draft and strategized treating it as if it's a game
21:42
Speaker 9: that they're play calling in less so sort of a
21:47
Speaker 9: luck of the draw type of thing. And I think
21:49
Speaker 9: that this is going to be really interesting because you're
21:51
Speaker 9: going to start to see at least some of those
21:52
Speaker 9: probably not all until next off season, but at least
21:55
Speaker 9: some of those practices and processes take place immediately with
22:00
Speaker 9: strategy that they use. I know he's going to be
22:02
Speaker 9: using a call sheet like Lesneed does, like as a
22:05
Speaker 9: play callerwood that you see on the sidelines, like Liam
22:08
Speaker 9: cohenwell when he calls games. You know he's going to
22:11
Speaker 9: use a lot of these different methods that the RAMS
22:14
Speaker 9: also had in place. But knowing James, he's also going
22:17
Speaker 9: to put his own twist and spin on things. And
22:19
Speaker 9: also knowing James, he's a listener, so he's not going
22:22
Speaker 9: to just come in and want to do things only
22:25
Speaker 9: his way, only the RAMS way. He's going to listen
22:28
Speaker 9: to what actually works and what has been working and
22:30
Speaker 9: clicking with the scouting department and Talent ID process that's
22:34
Speaker 9: already in place, and also making sure that those people
22:37
Speaker 9: feel comfortable with this transition and that they feel heard
22:40
Speaker 9: that those methods are also being deployed as well as
22:43
Speaker 9: sort of this hybrid older regime newer regime draft that's
22:47
Speaker 9: about to happen.
22:48
Speaker 7: Sure, because we talk a lot about the upper leadership
22:50
Speaker 7: obviously with Tony Bisselli coming in as EVP and then
22:52
Speaker 7: Liam Cohen as the new coach, but the scouting department
22:54
Speaker 7: is still the past scouting department other than a couple
22:57
Speaker 7: of pieces that have been added. So a lot of
22:59
Speaker 7: collaboration to see there as to what they're exactly going
23:01
Speaker 7: to do. But they do have ten picks as of
23:03
Speaker 7: this point. For those aren't four Six of them are
23:07
Speaker 7: in the first couple of rounds of the draft. So
23:09
Speaker 7: to kind of hear those numbers, I mean with the Rams,
23:12
Speaker 7: obviously it's not necessarily going to be the exact same
23:13
Speaker 7: way that he's.
23:14
Speaker 2: Done it before.
23:14
Speaker 7: But would anything surprise you with how he functions or
23:17
Speaker 7: is it kind of just be prepared for anything with him?
23:20
Speaker 8: No, Yeah, you've nailed it.
23:22
Speaker 9: Because one thing I've learned over the last several years,
23:25
Speaker 9: particularly covering this Los Angeles Rams team and just how
23:29
Speaker 9: differently they do things relative to other teams across the league, is.
23:33
Speaker 8: You go in expecting literally anything.
23:35
Speaker 9: I'd say, trading up obviously in this case, you know,
23:38
Speaker 9: would they pick so high in the first round anyway,
23:39
Speaker 9: But like trading up has always been the least likely scenario.
23:43
Speaker 8: With this team.
23:44
Speaker 9: But I recall, you know, I did an interview with
23:46
Speaker 9: James and Greg Rosenthal for NFL daily at the combine
23:49
Speaker 9: and James slipped in this little oh, we have ten
23:51
Speaker 9: picks for now.
23:52
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's a total.
23:53
Speaker 9: That totally got my trigger going and te okay, yeah,
23:57
Speaker 9: all right. With the Rams had fourteen picks when they
23:59
Speaker 9: were totally building their roster in twenty twenty three and
24:02
Speaker 9: replacing some of those patch and go older, cheaper veterans
24:06
Speaker 9: on those contracts as they went. Bringing in the large
24:10
Speaker 9: free agency class sent a signal to me that they're
24:13
Speaker 9: going to try to over time.
24:16
Speaker 8: Take those spots and fill them with.
24:18
Speaker 9: Draft picks that they're going to draft and develop, but
24:21
Speaker 9: also need those veterans to help the young kids grow right,
24:24
Speaker 9: and also need those veterans to help maintain the viability
24:28
Speaker 9: of the roster while those players are developing. So I
24:30
Speaker 9: would not be surprised to see James go get as
24:32
Speaker 9: many picks as he possibly can. And the Rams found
24:35
Speaker 9: five starters in that first class and then five in
24:38
Speaker 9: the ten draft pick class the next season, so I
24:40
Speaker 9: would not be surprised.
24:41
Speaker 8: To see him go volume on this.
24:43
Speaker 7: We've heard a lot about obviously draft and develop, but
24:46
Speaker 7: you know, giving them a chance as rookies to be
24:48
Speaker 7: contributors right off the bat right, So picking at five
24:51
Speaker 7: at least for us what we've been discussing, there's a
24:53
Speaker 7: lot of positions they could go with. I always say
24:55
Speaker 7: anything besides quarterback, I wouldn't be surprised whatsoever. So what
24:58
Speaker 7: are some things that you know James really values in
25:00
Speaker 7: terms of when looking at draft picks. Not necessarily always
25:03
Speaker 7: need of the team, but what's something he values in
25:04
Speaker 7: the players that he evaluates.
25:07
Speaker 9: Yeah, I will be interested to see how this develops
25:10
Speaker 9: the in your building and in their building, because I
25:12
Speaker 9: certainly got a first hand look of how this developed
25:14
Speaker 9: in Los Angeles under James, where they the Rams have
25:18
Speaker 9: found a way to and I don't want to say quantified,
25:21
Speaker 9: because I think that's reductive of what it actually is,
25:23
Speaker 9: but to articulate like how a person, a human being
25:28
Speaker 9: will fit not just within their building, but also within
25:32
Speaker 9: Sean mcvay's offense.
25:33
Speaker 8: And I know Liam is incredibly drawn to that and
25:36
Speaker 8: also has firsthand experience with that. And that takes an
25:39
Speaker 8: extremely high level of communication between the coaching.
25:42
Speaker 9: Staff and the front office, which I know is a
25:45
Speaker 9: priority for the three people in leadership in Tony, James
25:48
Speaker 9: and Liam, and I think that that's what is going
25:52
Speaker 9: to really inform like the type of person that they
25:56
Speaker 9: decide to bring in. The Rams started throwing out some
25:59
Speaker 9: of the I guess stereotypical like traits based analyses. You know,
26:04
Speaker 9: they don't really care about arm length if the player
26:06
Speaker 9: could play. Braiden Fisk is an example of that. They
26:08
Speaker 9: don't really care about the age of the player if
26:10
Speaker 9: the player can come in and contribute. Injury history is
26:13
Speaker 9: always going to be a flag for any team, but
26:15
Speaker 9: they're willing to overlook certain things if they know that
26:17
Speaker 9: they can get that player with you know, in their building,
26:19
Speaker 9: with Reddy Scott and in the training staff.
26:21
Speaker 8: You know, those types of things.
26:23
Speaker 9: Are way in part and parcel with a huge emphasis
26:27
Speaker 9: on these surveys that they do, these you know, personality
26:32
Speaker 9: assessments that they do that they kind of blend together
26:35
Speaker 9: in a bespoke evaluation that they've created over time and
26:39
Speaker 9: that informed the quote unquote make him a RAM process
26:43
Speaker 9: that found them guys like Pukanakua, Kobe Turner, who's an
26:46
Speaker 9: undersized defensive tackle, you know, Braiden Fisk who has short arms.
26:50
Speaker 8: You know, these guys.
26:51
Speaker 9: Who run slow forties but play amazing. You know, it's
26:53
Speaker 9: just it's it's those types of things that I'm particularly
26:57
Speaker 9: interested in watching the process on Fold and Jacksonville because
27:00
Speaker 9: I know that James has a plan for that alongside Jake,
27:03
Speaker 9: Tammy and Liam and Tony, and I think that this
27:05
Speaker 9: is going to be where they really identify now no
27:07
Speaker 9: longer Rams, but Jaguars.
27:10
Speaker 7: What it is to be a Jaguar. Absolutely, we're very
27:11
Speaker 7: excited to kind of see what evolves in the next
27:13
Speaker 7: couple of weeks. Jordan's thanks so much for joining us today.
27:16
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me some very thought provoking insight
27:20
Speaker 2: there from Jordan again her podcast which kind of it
27:24
Speaker 2: looks at the Shanahan Tree, of which McVey is a
27:27
Speaker 2: part of, of which Liam Cohen is obviously a part of,
27:31
Speaker 2: and I would check it out. You can get it
27:32
Speaker 2: wherever you find your podcasts. It's a five part series
27:35
Speaker 2: and it's very deep and very insightful as well. Thanks
27:38
Speaker 2: to Kai and Jordan for joining us on jags Am.
27:41
Speaker 2: When we come back, John and I will wrap it
27:43
Speaker 2: all up. Jack's Am is brought to you by Fresh
27:48
Speaker 2: from Florida. It's always in season. Welcome back, Brian and
27:53
Speaker 2: John here to wrap things up on jags Am. Kai
27:57
Speaker 2: will be back next week and next week's show, by
27:59
Speaker 2: the way, we'll be on Wednesday and I will be
28:02
Speaker 2: in Green Bay, so to be kin in John here.
28:06
Speaker 2: The La Rams conversation is just fascinating because when you
28:08
Speaker 2: hear from someone like Jordan Roudrieg, you understand they really
28:12
Speaker 2: do think differently, asymmetrical, if you will, towards the old
28:17
Speaker 2: way of thinking in the NFL.
28:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's gonna be interesting to watch them put
28:20
Speaker 4: this together. I kind of laughed at the owners meetings
28:24
Speaker 4: when Liam was asked once again about James Gladstone, and
28:29
Speaker 4: they both at various points during the meeting kind of
28:31
Speaker 4: laughed and said.
28:32
Speaker 1: It wasn't like we were homies at their ams.
28:34
Speaker 4: I mean, they weren't sitting in a dorm room at
28:36
Speaker 4: training camp sort of plotting this act together.
28:40
Speaker 1: But they think similarly.
28:43
Speaker 4: And I think you're seeing in Gladstone as you talk
28:45
Speaker 4: to them that they do have an ability to see
28:51
Speaker 4: the league in a different way. And I think the
28:56
Speaker 4: ability to adapt to situations as they come is probably
29:00
Speaker 4: the common element. I think it was Liam refer to
29:02
Speaker 4: the Rams as sort of the north Star, which to
29:06
Speaker 4: me means it's not as if they're gonna say, we're
29:08
Speaker 4: gonna do everything like the Rams did right, but bringing
29:12
Speaker 4: that ability to adapt and to see the league for
29:16
Speaker 4: how it is right now. I think that's been the
29:18
Speaker 4: trademark of the Rams because they have built in different
29:21
Speaker 4: ways since McVeigh has been there and been able to
29:24
Speaker 4: adapt and sort of stay over their feet, if you.
29:27
Speaker 1: Will, which I think is gonna be the interesting thing
29:29
Speaker 1: to watch here.
29:29
Speaker 2: How patient will we have to be to see the
29:32
Speaker 2: influence of the Rams? And the reason I asked because
29:34
Speaker 2: I thought it was one of the best questions that
29:36
Speaker 2: Liam was asked and answered, was how do you balance
29:39
Speaker 2: wanting to build something entirely different than they've had in Jacksonville,
29:42
Speaker 2: but at the same time winning in twenty twenty five.
29:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, I never quite know how to answer that question.
29:48
Speaker 4: You know what fans asked, how should how patience would be?
29:51
Speaker 4: How what should our expectations be? I know from talking
29:55
Speaker 4: to people, this team feels like it can go win.
29:58
Speaker 4: Now what win means, you know, seventeen and oh no,
30:01
Speaker 4: but they can compete. I think they are trying to
30:06
Speaker 4: take the approach we want to be better in twenty
30:11
Speaker 4: twenty six than we are in twenty twenty five. They're
30:16
Speaker 4: trying not to tie themselves into we have to win X,
30:19
Speaker 4: because it's impossible to know that.
30:21
Speaker 1: They feel like they should be able to win now.
30:25
Speaker 4: And sort of maintain winning here and then build the draft.
30:30
Speaker 1: So that you can get up to an elite level.
30:32
Speaker 4: And it's the best way to describe it. What's today's
30:35
Speaker 4: spectations be? I hope for the best. I wish I
30:38
Speaker 4: had a better answer.
30:39
Speaker 2: One final thought, mock drafts. Was asked a lot about
30:42
Speaker 2: them at the Poselli Foundation in the last couple of days,
30:44
Speaker 2: and I try to remind people that mock drafts try
30:46
Speaker 2: to match need in value, right. They try to find
30:48
Speaker 2: where the player fits and if a team has a need.
30:51
Speaker 2: But what they don't understand, and this goes back to
30:54
Speaker 2: the asymmetrical way of thinking, is what a team the
30:57
Speaker 2: drag Wars in particular think about a particular player. So
31:01
Speaker 2: I know everyone's focused on Mason Graham. I mean almost
31:04
Speaker 2: every mock draft, and you do a mock draft tracker.
31:06
Speaker 1: It's probably sixty seventy five percent.
31:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, at least, but I watched people.
31:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, not to get wrapped up in that seventy five
31:16
Speaker 4: percent of mock dra actually say, say Mason Graham I
31:19
Speaker 4: don't get the feeling that they are that locked in
31:23
Speaker 4: on any particular player to make that right true, that
31:28
Speaker 4: makes sense. It might be Mason Graham, but I don't
31:31
Speaker 4: necessarily think that there are. They haven't cut out pictures
31:35
Speaker 4: of Mason Graham and put them on their dorm room walls.
31:37
Speaker 1: But people look at it.
31:38
Speaker 2: People look at the mock drafts and the mock drafts
31:41
Speaker 2: to be fair, that's all they can to. And so
31:44
Speaker 2: people were leading with the question, what do you think
31:46
Speaker 2: of Mason Graham? How does he fit in this skin?
31:48
Speaker 2: And but I wouldn't, as you just said, I wouldn't
31:51
Speaker 2: get too too dialed in on that one because these
31:54
Speaker 2: guys think differently.
31:55
Speaker 4: It's hard to it's hard to enunciate it. But people
31:59
Speaker 4: before for the draft like to talk about positions, and
32:03
Speaker 4: I get questions all the time. Should they take a
32:05
Speaker 4: defensive tackle at number five? Should they take a wide receiver?
32:10
Speaker 4: The way they think? You can't just say a position.
32:14
Speaker 4: It's got to be what do you think of this guy?
32:16
Speaker 4: Because it's not the position you're bringing into the building
32:19
Speaker 4: next week or.
32:19
Speaker 1: In two weeks. It's the guy.
32:22
Speaker 4: And if the guy like you know, at five, if
32:25
Speaker 4: you get a great defensive tackle. He's got great ability,
32:27
Speaker 4: and all they wants to do is sit in his
32:28
Speaker 4: dorm and play call of duty. Then you haven't got
32:30
Speaker 4: the right guy. You've got the right position, and in
32:33
Speaker 4: two years you're looking for.
32:34
Speaker 1: A job, you got to take a good player.
32:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's about greatness at that position. I think they're
32:39
Speaker 4: going to lean toward player that they think can be.
32:43
Speaker 1: A Hall of Famer someday. That's what you're looking.
32:45
Speaker 2: For, and at any position right your roster needs that.
32:50
Speaker 2: And that'll do it for this edition of Jags a
32:52
Speaker 2: M Don't Forget Huddle Up podcast tomorrow John and Bucky Brooks,
32:56
Speaker 2: and then on Thursday, I'm sitting in for JP Shafferck
32:58
Speaker 2: who's out this week Jags Happy Hour, and of course
33:02
Speaker 2: next week World to Wall coverage of all things Jaguars
33:05
Speaker 2: and Green Bay and Draft. Thank you again to our
33:08
Speaker 2: entire production crew for putting this fine show on and
33:10
Speaker 2: we'll see you next week here on Jags al