Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin’s relationship, Describing the 2025 Jets and Dolphins Playoff Chances

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his character. I think he’s a
high character guy, and that is
just scratching the surface of all we heard from Aaron Rodgers
yesterday. It was a nice, beefy
press conference, as you should. Folks have been waiting a long
time for this one. So your
thoughts guys, on the first press conference, Aaron Rodgers
in a Steelers jersey. It’s
happening. Hatch I love it I love it I think what he said was
what the outside noises doesn’t
understand. Right. The outside public. It’s like the OC is
going to call the game right.
But it’s up to him. When a third and four two minutes left in the
game, all of those situations
are going to come down to him saying, okay, we have a safety
down in the box. I like my one
on one matchup over here. I like this over here on the back side.
Those are the things he’s
talking about. And that’s what his experience is going to
bring. Authors going to call it
you know, first quarter second quarter. But when it gets down
to crunch time he’s going to
have the answers to the test for sure. No, I completely agree
with you. I mean, people need to
understand this about the position of quarterback. It is a
very cerebral position. It’s the
reason why guys are good and some guys are great. It’s the
distinguishing factor between
those things. Aaron Rodgers has been Aaron aka John Wick,
because he understands
everything that is presented in front of him. So to your point,
what he’s referring to in terms
of putting the team in the right position, that is the case. You
get two calls, you get three
calls. Sometimes you get up to the line of scrimmage, sometimes
what you see at the line of
scrimmage, I need to change it. I need to communicate with my
offensive line. I need to
communicate with my wide receivers, my tailback. I need
to make sure that everybody
understands exactly what’s being presented, put us in the best
position so that we can go
forward and have some success. The one thing that I like in
terms of takeaways from the
press conference was the fact that he said that I needed to
make sure that I was good. There
were some things that I was dealing with personally, so that
when I stepped foot here, I was
fully present. I respect that because of the fact that when I
know everybody, right, you’ve
been there. I assume that I’ve been there as well. When you
have things going on in your
head and I can’t be fully present, I can’t be the best for
you and I can’t be the best for
this organization. So regardless of how people may perceive Aaron
Rodgers, I have a high regard
for him for checking that box and making sure that things at
home are good, because when I
step on this field, I am all in. Yeah, yeah, I think that what
was going on the last two months
was a female in his life. Marriage. Right. He just said he
got married, right. So that’s a
big deal. It’s a life event. It’s a life event. So that April
and May, that’s what he was
doing. And I’m like, okay, so he went away to go do that. And
everybody’s like, no, you’re
supposed to be playing football. Like, no, I’m going to take care
of my life, you know? So I think
it was a great decision for him at this time. Unbelievably
exciting. I got the towel, guys.
I love this stuff. I think Rodgers introductory press
conferences are better than some
of the actual games that we have. I love it. Remember when
he comes to the Jets? He’s going
abroad, he’s doing this. There is no Broadway in Pittsburgh. He
is the Broadway. What we saw
yesterday was the closest we’re going to get to and to that
point. I want everyone to get
really comfortable because if you didn’t see it, I have a full
rundown of all of my favorites,
all of my superlatives. So everybody buckle up and get your
popcorn the most. Rodgers quote
was, quote, the decisions made from the soul are usually pretty
fulfilling. Only Aaron Rodgers
would say that the only quarterback in the league,
Netflix, already working on a
documentary called decisions from the soul. The most loaded
quote, he says there were talks
with other organizations. I think Rodgers was extremely
interested in playing for the
Rams. I think it was close to happening. It did not. The
closest thing to shade from
Aaron Rodgers quote. There are some iconic franchises in the
NFL. I played for one of them
for 18 years. This is another one. He skipped two years in
there when he played for the
Jets, who are not, although he did say later he was not going
to take any shots at his
previous organization. This was great to know your Yinzers. He
went up there and rattled off
every single person in his career who was from Pittsburgh
Mike McCarthy, Dom Capers, Frank
Cignetti, all the Yinzers he had that list ready. It endears him
to the room. It endears him to
the city. He did his prep for that most crafty answer, why he
wanted, why he waited to sign.
You mentioned this, mentioned dealing with things in his
personal life, and then said, I
didn’t want to shortchange the guys being signed, but
elsewhere, mentally very crafty.
Meaning I could have been here, but that wouldn’t have been fair
to the guys next his know the
room answer. He used the term blue collar three times. Blue
collar, town building, the
structure of this country, blue collar people. He could have
referenced Chico. He could have
referenced green Bay, but he kept hitting blue collar and it
was smart. The one answer I got
to call BS on when he says the thing that excites him most
about DK Metcalf is his
character. Look, I get DK Metcalf may have some great
character. Have you ever seen
him run? Have you ever seen him jump? That’s way more exciting
if you’re a quarterback, I get
the character is fine, but there’s no way that’s what
excites you the most. Best
Checkdown from Rodgers. He was asked if he can get the Steelers
a playoff win for the first time
in years. He said, quote, we’re day one of minicamp. He
literally says, I’m taking it
one day at a time. And that’s a guy who never says that most
random but relevant revelation
in the middle of the press conference. He hates his helmet.
His old helmet he’s been wearing
for 20 years is now obsolete. He’s not allowed to wear it, he
says, I absolutely hate this
helmet. Keep an eye on that. Wrapping up here. His shortest
answer. Aaron, do you have any
trepidation about missing OTAs? One word no. His least favorite
question we saw there was about
freedom to audible and, quote, take over the offense. He was
like, I don’t really understand
what that second term means. I’ve done this. I’ve done that
market. That was the one
question he hated and does not want to be asked again. And then
lastly, you can’t be Rodgers
without just throwing us one curveball or one up high and
tight. The full spit take moment
at 11 minutes into a 13 minute media session, he reveals, I’m
married. I’ve been married for a
couple of months. Everyone’s like, what? We’ve been following
you for nearly a quarter
century. We’ve seen you in public relationships and now
you’re just married with a
wedding ring on. There’s no follow up about who is she?
Where is she? What is she?
There’s nothing about that. It’s just all of a sudden, on top of
this, I’m also married, and I
wear a ring out on the practice field. There are people who
don’t want to see Rodgers
anymore who are sick of Rodgers. Don’t like Rodgers. I will never
get sick of this. I think he’s
the most fascinating athlete on the planet. Isn’t going to win a
playoff game. Who the hell
knows? But he’s one for one at media sessions. That’s Broadway
in Pittsburgh. Absolutely love
it. There we go. There you go, there you go. Yes. Production.
Following the Tonys, I was
basically Tony worthy. I’m married, I’m married, I am, I’m
married. I want to let you guys
know we call that theater 100%. That is theater. But it was to
your point, Kyle, a much more
reflective, a much more intentional Rodgers than we’ve
seen in the past. Marriage will
do a little something to somebody, won’t it? But I did
like that. The reporter who
asked him was like, oh, everybody’s chasing a ring. We
noticed there’s a little bit
more jewelry for you there. Aaron, what’s going on? He’s
like, oh yeah, Btdubs got
hitched. No big deal. But why was we need more details? Why
was nobody’s follow up question?
Like, who is she? It’s Brittany with an I. That’s the last
woman. That’s Britney Spears
with an O. And he was very clear that it was not Britney Spears.
It was. Which was why he said
Brittany with an I. But even Britney with an I. Who is this
person? When he was on Pat
McAfee, that’s who he said his his lady was in his life back in
November December. He’s like
her. Her Christmas gifts are delayed. It’s for Brittany and
they’re like Britney Spears. And
he said, please be so for real. It’s not Britney Spears, it’s
Britney with an I. Whoever you
are Brittany, you have sad Aaron can care less about other teams.
So I don’t know what you’re
talking about with other guys not holding out. But our guys
have come to compete and that’s
who they are. And listen, I don’t take that lightly either.
So I’m I’m appreciative, but I
know how they’re built too. So those guys come to work. All
right. So describe the 2025 Jets
in one word Isaiah. I’m a rock with hopeful. Why is your
penmanship so nice. Did you see
that? Wow. That took me about ten minutes. But I were hopeful.
I think they’re very hopeful
because of their leadership, not even because of their players.
No disrespect to the guys that
are on the field. No disrespect to the to the guys that are
going to be out there making
plays. But I believe that Aaron Glenn is one heck of a leader,
and not only is he a leader, but
the staff that he’s assembled, they do a great job, obviously,
of their coaching, but obviously
leading these men that are on the field. And I believe that
coming off a 512 season, I
believe that, you know, obviously a change at the head
coach position, a change at the
quarterback position, changing culture. These guys are hopeful
because they are going to be
able to go forth with this new leadership as well, as they have
one of the easier schedules in
the league. So I think that getting on the right path,
getting on the right foot
underneath this new lineage is going to be huge for them. I
think they’re hopeful to have a
solid season this year. Very good. Well, I’m going to go with
Ray. Ready. Hey AG go have
coachable AG. You see I got the corners too. I got the corners
right. So but AG is going to
have the guys ready. There’s not going to be one week where the
Jets kind of didn’t come to play
this week. You know they were kind of flat this week. Aaron
Glenn is going to have them boys
ready. I remember we got into the coaching stuff early
together. We interned together
at the Jets. And he was like, you know what, hatch? I’m going
up early. I’m going straight up
this ladder early. I’m going to go quickly. And I’m like, hey,
go do your thing. And as you
see, he’s a head coach of the New York Jets and he will have
this team ready starting week
one. Okay. My word for the 2025 Jets clean. It’s just going to
be clean. What do I mean by
that. The head coach is not going to be fired. The GM is not
going to be fired. You have a
quarterback who is not going to say squat, nor is he going to
bring in his favorite wide
receiver in the middle of the season. The Jets aren’t going to
trade for DJ Moore from the
bears to give him to Justin Fields. It’s not. It’s just
going to be football. I don’t
know if they’re going to win. I don’t know if they’re going to
lose. It’s just going to be a
good meat and potatoes football season with no BS, no studying.
Hey wait, did the quarterback
push away the coach on the sideline when he went to hug
him? None of that stuff. It is
just nice and clean. And I think that’s exactly what the Jets
fans need. I love that my word
was intriguing. You spelled that wrong. That’s no I didn’t. I
googled it on purpose. How very
dare you. That was my one fear. That’s so mean. That’s supposed
to be a guy with his eyebrow up.
You know I can’t do too many eyebrows. I got Botox, but I
think it is very intriguing. All
of it. I love Coach Glenn. I think he’s one of. He’s one of
those men that commands
attention without ever having to ask for it. It is just naturally
implied that, similar to what
you were saying about Aaron Rodgers, when he walks in the
room, everybody is going to show
up. We got a glimpse of that as we saw on Hard Knocks when he
was in Detroit. I’m very
intrigued to see how he forms this team with the stability
that they have now. I think the
Jets are very intriguing this that they have now. I think the
Jets are very intriguing this
year. All right. Second whiteboard Saints defensive end
and our dear friend of the show
Cam Jordan. Never boring. He showed up to camp with a new
look. He drew inspiration from a
character on a show that Colin I, I know very well. Check it
out. Oh, honestly, I thought I
was going to cut it off. And then I was like, you know, let’s
have some fun with it. So this
is my version of fun. I wanted to be a valerian. I was like,
Valerian. I was like House of
Dragons. I started watching that this last couple of weeks and I
was like, you know what? This
guy, this guy got something going on. Now, granted, I
thought I was going to do the
beard, too. I didn’t like the way. I didn’t like the way the
fumes was rising. I know what
I’m saying. So I kept I kept it exactly where I wanted to. I
think I want to go lighter, but
at the same time, no, I think this is me. We’ll see how long
it lasts. I’m not. I’m not here
for a touch up, though. Yeah, it’s giving valerian. It’s
giving somewhere in the lineage
before Daenerys. It’s giving prequel. I see what you’re
doing, cam. He’s trying to get a
cameo on this show, but if you go, you better call me. I’m
going with you to filming. But I
like it, I do. You don’t like it. It’s giving me King Richard,
right? It’s giving me Serena
Williams esque. I just I’m not loving it. I need maybe change
the color a little bit. I don’t
know, to pull that off, though. Only cam can pull that off 100%
because he says it with his
whole chest. He looks like a 290 pound Khaleesi. That’s cool.
Look, cam, you’re the best. It’s
so good. Okay, so let’s pick a guy from the league. Anybody,
anybody you want. And let’s give
him a hairstyle from a TV show, from a movie, from film. That’s.
So assign it to a player or to a
coach. Isaiah. Who you got? All right, so I’m gonna go ahead and
use my cover up right here. I’m
going to go with Trey Hendrickson. And we all know
that Trey Hendrickson right now
is in negotiation talks. He’s at a stalemate. They want to pay
him 15. He deserves 40. But who
what hairstyle would I put on Trey I’m very very intrigued.
Big worm. Big worm from Friday.
Big worm from Friday. Because play on my money is like playing
with my emotions. Smoky. That’s
what Trey Hendrickson is like right now. Put big worms
hairstyle on Trey Hendrickson.
That’s the vibe that he’s on right now. You see it right
there. Let’s freaking go. Trey
Hendrickson every black and brown moms Sunday hairdo. I’m so
mad at you for this. Oh, Auntie.
Auntie, Auntie. That’s my aunt. Yeah, that’s my auntie right
there. Good Lord Jesus. Well,
you know what? There’s not a there’s not a more perfect fit
than, of course, in Pittsburgh.
I pity the fool because Mike Tomlin with the Mr. T mohawk
would be an absolute classic.
It’s awesome. It’s everything that Mike T is. It’s the T in
Tomlin. It’s everything right.
So I think this is a perfect fit. That’s his brand I love
that man. That’s we’re seeing
Clubber Lang. But he played B.A. Baracus too. Yeah yeah. Bad
attitude like that’s that’s
Tomlin I’m going to take a dramatic tonal shift from your
two answers. I’m only going to
go with the most famous hairstyle in television history.
I’ll be there for you. Somebody
give me the Rachel. All right. And it’s just sitting right
there. Who could pull off the
Rachel? You know it. Bam! Let’s do. Absolutely, absolutely.
You’re already halfway there.
He’s there. Well played. You know what I’m saying? And in the
end, in a way, like, you know,
Trevor’s last couple years hasn’t been great. It’s like it
hasn’t been his day, his week or
even his year. But we’ll be there for you in the haircut. In
fact, maybe even Rachel should
go with the Trevor. Wherever Aniston is. She should do the
Trevor. And we could reverse
engineer this thing. But this is on a tee. This is simple. The
most infuriating part of all of
that is that he told. He told me directly. He does nothing
special. No conditioner, nothing
to his hair. It’s just wakes up like exactly. Oh, annoying. Just
juices and berries. Just juices.
And I wish not even juices. Embarrassed. Just like straight.
Like a bar of soap. You know
what? I’m done real quick. I did have Lamar Jackson with the low
cut Caesar with the deep waves.
If you don’t know it, Google it. It’s for the culture. Yes,
they’ll get it. Look up that
Destiny’s Child song. Not even Beyonce. Destiny’s child aging
myself. All right, here’s our
third one. Steven Spielberg is a Beyonce. Destiny’s child aging
myself. All right, here’s our
third one. Steven Spielberg is a Hollywood elite, of course.
Great film. Raiders of the Lost
Ark debuted this week. Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 1981. Oh
yeah. Good year. So what is his
most iconic? Oh, there’s so many. There’s so many. Yes,
that’s a tough one. There’s so
many. That’s a tough one. I’ll go ahead. I’ll kick this thing
off. I’m going to go with the
one thing that the one movie that has had six iterations of
the movie, the one movie that
has theme parks titled after it, the one movie that has vehicles
named after it, and the one
movie that there’s one animal scene that nobody’s ever going
to forget. I’m going to go with
Jurassic Park. You guys see it times six. They made six
Jurassic parks. He is an
absolute dude for this. Everybody still remembers the
doggone scene where the guy
opens up the Jeep and the one little guy remembers that,
right? Everybody has a fear of
that. There’s no chance of that happening. But we all fear it.
Except for that one little
lizard that there’s a real one that does it. But other than
that, y’all, that’s the answer
right there. Jurassic Park for the win. Jurassic Park love it.
Love the dinosaur. The yeah I
love all that. That’s what we do. But there is a classic movie
that’s better than that. And
they only made one because when there’s only one, that means it
has to be the best. It is food.
Ho e was going to be my pick. Okay? Change my life as a kid.
When he went home and he phoned
home, I bawled like a baby. I don’t know why it was a little
alien, but I was sitting there
crying like, no, please come back. Did you have the basket on
the bike? I didn’t, I didn’t
have a bike, the red hoodie, you know, I didn’t have a bag with
the red clothes, with the red
clothes. But I think that E.T. Again, that was just a life
changing movie for me. I didn’t
know that a movie could take that emotion out of me, if you
will. When I was about 5 or 6
years old. But yeah, I remember that. That’s the movie. That’s
the best movie. Tiny Drew
Barrymore I mean, I can’t yes, yeah, I can’t, but that part
where E.T gets all sick and
white and crusty, that’s very disturbing. I hate that part.
It’s gross. They find him in a
ditch somewhere. Yeah, yeah. All right, well here’s the thing
Isaiah. Those are two great
selections. Isaiah. You said Jurassic Park which is a
fantastic choice. And you said
everyone was afraid of the dinosaurs. But you don’t have to
be because they don’t really
exist. What if they really did exist. And they’re right off the
dock where you’re swimming with
your friends? It’s jaws. It’s really his first major movie. It
was the highest grossing movie
of all time. It revolutionized cinema in the United States of
America. To this day, people are
afraid to go in the water because of this movie with
Richard Dreyfuss from the 70s,
some of the I think Jurassic Park and E.T. Like, changed the
world and changed movies. Jaws
changed the ocean, and it’s been here for thousands and thousands
and thousands and thousands of
years. We’re still our great grandchildren are going to be
afraid of the ocean because of a
Steven Spielberg movie. I’m a little bit afraid of white
crusty E.T. I’m afraid of the
T-Rex, but I don’t even want to go close to the ocean. Because
if a movie made before I was
born, the you mentioned. All right, John Williams, Jurassic
Park, BA da da da da da da da da
da da da. This was just dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun
dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Two
and a half. Yeah. It’s the best. Oh my God, that girl swimming in
the first scene. She’s here and
she’s here. You don’t need to respect the ocean more is what
is what? I respect the ocean
because of jaws, correct? It’s more. It’s not even the ocean. I
respect water, water. I haven’t
taken a bath since I watched John. Shut up. I only shower
because of jaws, so I feel you,
Kyle. That’s insane. Hey, hatch. You ever in a pool and you’re
just kind of swimming, and
you’re like, I think there might be a shark in this pool. Like a
big one. I swear there’s going
to be a shark. Not even not even getting in a pool because of the
movie. If there’s sharks in a
pool, somebody’s out to get you. Okay, check the insurance
policy. So it’s. It’s a wrap.
Mine quickly was minority report. We live in a simulation.
Go back and watch it. So good.
Agatha’s character. Yes. Period. too.
Oh what a catch. It’s a
touchdown to Jalen Tolbert. Rush quick throw. It’s Tolbert it’s a
touchdown. Wow what a catch.
What a catch. By. She comes to say hi. Hi. All he does is make
plays. Please welcome to good
morning football. Cowboys wide receiver Jalen Tolbert. Yes sir.
Let’s go Jalen Cowboys. Come on
in man JT. It’s good to see you on here today man. Normally I
see you in the building out
there in D-town Boogie. But let’s go ahead and get into this
interview man. You are the man
out there in Dallas. Obviously you have CeeDee lamb, you have
Jake Ferguson. But somehow you
wound up with 49 receptions and led the team in touchdowns with
seven touchdowns. How do you
feel? How do you plan on following that up this year?
Honestly man, just continuing to
build on the consistency that I started. I think that’s one of
the big things is just coming in
each and every day and not harping on what happened last
year, but focusing on the future
and the present time of, you know, what I can do to be better
this upcoming season. And so
just challenging myself every day to get better at something
wide receiver wise, you know, on
and off the field. Well, listen, the present and the future
involves a new teammate in
George Pickens. Jalen, how did you find out the news that he
was going to become a cowboy?
And what has he been like early on to work with? Yeah I talked
to talked to him the night
before actually came out. And so honestly he’s been great to work
with. He’s picking up the
playbook. Great. He’s out here making plays. We’re having fun.
You know he catches a pass. We
all dance. You know we fight. We run after each other. Just
compete. It’s fun to have
another piece to the puzzle. Another piece to our weapon.
Weapon system. So I think having
him will definitely open up a lot for not only myself, but for
the other guys in the room as
well, CD included. And so like I said, it’s been fun having him
around and I actually had a
ongoing relationship with him before because we played against
each other in high school. He’s
from Alabama as well, and so I’ve known him for a while, so
it’s fun to meet back up with
him. You know, after we went through the whole rookie year,
you know, NFL combine to draft
to rookie premiere all together. And so now we’re on the same
team. We literally were talking
about it yesterday. Nice nice stand in the wide receiver room.
So again I was a number three I
played with Randy Moss Cris Carter. It was hard for me to
get the ball obviously. Right
you have of course KD you have Pickens in there again I’ll give
you the secret on how to get the
work right if you can know both of their positions. So when they
go out you take that position.
Like that’s how you kind of continue to stay in the game
plan, you know. So give me some
other things that you’re going to pretty much plan on trying to
do as far as get the ball this
year for the Cowboys, honestly play my role the best that I
can, the best of my ability. And
like you said, being versatile, being able to play not only
those two wide receiver spots,
but playing the wide and ten personnel and, you know, playing
the slot, whatever it is, play
all four of them and doing my job. You know, I think it speaks
dividends to people that do
their job. I think, you know, you will be rewarded, whether
that’s blocking, blocking on a
bubble screen for KD or running off and clearing out for GP to
catch, you know, Overroute or
whatever it may be. And so I know that, like I say, my at
bats, my opportunities will come
and I just have to be ready for when they do come. And to that
same question, you know, just
continuing to build that chemistry with Dak, you know, I
think we’ve built a great
relationship over the past three, three and a half years.
And so just continuing to build
that, continuing to harp on the things that, you know, he wants
us to work on together and being
where he wants me to be at the right time. And I think
everything else will play out
how I want it to. You know, JT, last year when I saw you at
training camp in Oxnard, you
told me that a big secret of that chemistry between you and
Dak was all the crawfish. I
still don’t know where you’re getting all these crawfish in
Dallas, am I mistaken, Isaiah?
Apparently there shouldn’t be that. Apparently there’s spots
out there. But yesterday your
coach was asked what success looks like for Dak Prescott. And
take a listen to what he said.
Of the many statistics out there now, is there one that you look
at that will indicate to you
during the season that Dak is being successful right now. He’s
doing what you want him to do in
your system. Yeah wins. Pretty straightforward I would agree.
What can we expect from Dak in
your point of view in 2025. First and foremost they just
gave me chills because that does
speak dividends to Dak. And like coach said I mean he wins and
everything. He wins being the
first person in the building the last one to leave. He wins in
the locker room. He wins in the
meeting room, on the field, off the field. So that’s a guy that,
you know, sets the standard for
all of the other guys in the locker room each and every day.
And to have him as a leader, big
brother mentor is surreal. And so like I said, we just keep
following his lead and keep, you
know, holding up the standard that he set for us. Yeah, yeah.
Go ahead. So I was pretty much
talking about again that whole wide receiver room. Right? I
think that for the most part,
like knowing every position is so important, like because you
just said it like when you can
go to y the ten personnel, 11 personnel go inside, outside.
Like that thing is so important.
From an offensive coordinator’s perspective. If the coordinator
trusts you and the quarterback
trust you, you’ll always be on the field, right? You’re talking
about blocking and doing all
those little things again for you young receivers listening to
JT. Right. Again, he’s in a
great wide receivers room. But this is how you stay in the NFL
for a long period of time. And
then when it’s your time right, you get paid when you become a
free agent because you have the
numbers to back that up as well. Well, JT definitely has the
numbers. He led the team with
touchdowns with seven of them things. So keep doing what
you’re doing there. But I want
to hop to the other side of the ball okay. There’s a dude on the
other side of the ball that
considers himself to be a lion, and we call him aka Micah
Parsons. How important is he to
your team, the locker room, and how much are you and the rest of
the team kind of cheering him on
for the big boy contract? That’s to come. Yeah, man. He’s a
centerpiece not only on that
side of the ball but of the whole team. And we love him
around here. Obviously he’s a
great player, great teammate to have a hard worker competitor
and I think he’s not even at his
prime yet. I think he’s still peaking. And that’s the great
part about having a player like
Micah is that, you know, he continues to get better each and
every day. And so, you know, we
all have his back. We all, you know, every time we see him, you
know, he comes in the locker
room with a smile. No. You know, negativity around the situation.
It’s more so just, you know,
happy to see him. Happy to be around. He actually got mad at
me the other day for not
answering the phone when he did the prank. Good night prank. So
I had to deal with that
yesterday in the locker room. Got to pick it up when 11 calls,
you know what I mean? I guess he
lets that be known. When I call, you answer, right? Listen Jalen
there’s I’m going to just shoot
you straight. The Cowboys are one of these teams that has
something kind of following them
around. And you see it like the Steelers haven’t been able to
win a playoff game in a long
time. The Jets haven’t been able to get to one in a long time.
The Cowboys haven’t been to a
title game since before you were born. Why do you think the 2025
team might be the special one to
break that cycle? Honestly, because of the energy that we
have, the culture that that
coach is building, it starts from the locker room and goes
out. It’s not the other way. You
know, X’s and O’s will come, but you have to know your brother.
You have to know the guy playing
beside you there. Why understand why they do it and who they do
it for. And honestly, you can
you can push people out of, you know, dark holes, you know, bad
moments. You know, even through
the good moments, you can continue to challenge them to be
better in that aspect. And I
think you can do that when you truly know the guy next to you
and understand why they’re doing
it. And so that’s been a big emphasis this offseason is just,
you know, know your brothers,
know your why, know yourself, know your strengths and
weaknesses. And I think it
starts there. And then obviously as you go out on the field, you
know sometimes you may not be,
you know, the fastest or whatever, but you’re going to
you’re going to look like it and
you’re going to play beside your brother, like, and then, you
know, if you, you down, you
know, a half a piece, your brother carry the other half a
piece for you. And so he’s been
big on that. And we’re loving the energy, the culture that is
being created around here. And
we’re having fun with it each and every day. You know, one of
the things as I’m, as I’m
looking through the video there of minicamp and when you guys
are working out, one of the
nuances that folks may not get to see is who gets the ox cord.
I’m wondering if you get it. Is
it all country music because you’re a big fan, right? Who’s
your who’s the best country
artist right now? We actually have a piece of paper you can
write down songs on, and we have
a guy we call him DJ Daniels. So he he plays the ones and twos
for us while we’re at practice.
And like I said, the guys love the energy, love the music. They
were able to listen to it
practice. It brings just a little extra touch to it. And
you know, we’re even all chasing
after the ball, you know, running full speed after, you
know, whoever catches the ball
or running back busts through the hole. We’re all chasing, you
know, finishing in the end zone
with him. And, you know, those are two things that are
completely different from
practice before. And so like I said, we’re all having fun out
there. And it’s actually fun,
you know, compete with who gets to the end zone first without
the ball. You know like we’re
racing each other getting there and then have to run all the way
back and you know, do another
play. So like I said we’re having fun with it. We’re
creating a different field,
different culture around here. And it’s exciting. I love that
I’ve had Shaboozey and Cowboy
Carter on repeat as of late. Jalen, thank you so much for
coming through. We appreciate
you I appreciate you guys. All right. We’ll be back with more.
Go get em. That’s a good dude
right there. We’re operate like that. Oh, okay. He
started with his chest, too.
Yeah, okay. Surrounded by reporters, but started with his
chest. So how do you think he’s
handling these contract talks? And it’s so interesting hatch
because every guy handles it
differently. Yes. But here’s the difference. He’s young. That’s
the only issue I’m having with
it. There’s just a protocol in the NFL right. It’s the shield.
They’re going to protect the
shield. The owners are always right. The coaches are always
right. As a player, you have to
just come in and you have to fall in line. The only thing we
care about if you’re a veteran
in the locker room, is you come in to put forth 100% effort,
energy, passion, right? Show us
why you should be here when you start talking about money or,
you know, stuff off the field
early in your career, right? That concerns us as a teammate.
Because why are you really here?
So that’s the only thing I’m seeing right now. Again, he’s
young. There’s been a ton of
contract negotiations with older players right when it comes to a
rookie. Right. You kind of start
looking at them sideways a little bit. When you’re a
veteran in that locker room.
Yeah, I’m still I’m a little bit speechless right now. All I’m
going to say to Shemar right now
is you just got here, bruh. Just just just quiet. Wow. It’s one
thing to come in and allow your
agent to do the work on your behalf. It’s another thing that
when you’re present, right, just
be there. Just do your thing. Right. But to be there and to
have responses like that that
says, I’m one, I’m 100% right. It’s a no brainer. Go ahead. You
know, cut the check. And by the
way, by the guy who’s been here doing this work, Trey
Hendrickson Yeah, it’s a no
brainer for him too, bro. You don’t have any you don’t have
any any any any skins on the
wall like zero. College is college. You did an amazing job.
And you position yourself to
have the opportunity to play in the National Football League.
But that is just that. It’s an
opportunity, right? It’s not a it’s not a birthright. So take
the opportunity. Allow your
agent to do his agent duties right. Negotiate. And your job
when you make that decision is
to be quiet and then ball out when you are speaking before you
have done anything on the on the
field in the NFL, to your point to your point over the hatch.
It’s not well received by
anybody. Right. So now your teammates are going to look at
you sideways. And the last thing
you want as a rookie, regardless of where you are drafted, is
putting your teammates in a
position to where they’re looking at you sideways. And
they can’t just trust the fact
that you come in and show your talents. Yeah, this is not fun
to talk about. You’re preaching
there, Isaiah. And I totally get it and I respect it. This one
has felt off from the beginning.
It’s he gets drafted and everybody’s starting pointing
out he’s this crazy low sack
total. Kind of a weird moment with Jamie Erdahl on stage where
he was kind of angry and now
this. It’s just it’s there’s not been a lot of fun and
positivity. And this is a 21
year old guy who just realized his dream for a very good team
that needs pass rushing help
like no other team in the league. Maybe I hate this, but
we’re going to see more of this.
Guys like these guys as they continue to come out of the NFL
out of college, rather as
multi-millionaires. We’re going to see a lot of this stuff.
We’re going to see guys talking
about money, talking about agents talking about ownership,
not signing their original
contract. It’s this is the this is the future. This is the
presence I hope he could sign.
We’ve seen this going back decades and decades. When the
rookie who gets drafted is
missing stuff, it immediately is a bitter taste in the mouth of
fans. There’s ill will that goes
around. It can be cleared up really fast if you show up and
play well. It’s just not the way
you want to start a career. And I hate to say this because it’s
just pessimistic, this, this.
We’re going to see a lot more of this over the next several
years. Yeah, unfortunately, I
think it has a lot to do with the college absolutely nil
portion of this. Right. So
again, when guys have a lot of money in their pocket, they
think that $500,000, that
million dollars, whatever, as a 21 year old is a lot of money,
which it is. Right. But it’s not
that NFL fourth year free agent money. And that’s what you
really want to get to. So when
you’re talking about like, yeah, do your thing until you get that
60, 70, 80, $100 million
contract, then you can go ahead and start, you know, leveraging
up and giving us your real
opinion. But until then, you know, you’re going to be really
upset and disappointed when you
play 2 or 3 years in the NFL. And then you’re out of there and
you didn’t get that big bag
later on. There’s a difference between thinking things and
allowing it to come out of your
mouth. We’re not sitting here saying to not allow these
intrusive thoughts to cross your
mind. Right. Like a little scroll. Like a little ticker on
the bottom of the screen. That’s
okay. It’s going to cross your mind. But the moment you open
your mouth, now you’re
responsible for it, and you’re going to have to live by it.
You’re going to stand on it ten
toes down. And now you have placed a target on your back and
a responsibility that you may or
may not be able to match. The issue is in order to continue to
get those brand deals that nil
money, you have to come into the league and you got to ball out.
You got to stay relevant. So to
your point, earn it. This is an earn it type of league at every
turn. And I think that he will
see his hey rookie moment sooner than he might expect. All right.
As for the other team in Ohio,
Cleveland rewarded star edge rusher Myles Garrett with a four
year, $160 million contract
extension. Talk about earn it. That was earlier this offseason.
So he’s feeling good about that.
And you already know he was joining officially that
Pittsburgh crew. I mean I look
forward to having my best season for sure. And I think it’s
trending that way. Feeling
really good. What do you think about Scott Rodgers coming into
the AFC North? I think it’s a
good opportunity to put him in the graveyard. Okay, let’s
clarify here before everybody
goes crazy. A few years back, Myles posted on Halloween a
picture of tombstones of all the
QBs he sacked over his illustrious career. So that’s
what he means by graveyard. But
what do you think of his comments? I love it, I love it.
Again, this is good trash talk.
Just, you know, again, I guess bullet bullet board material,
bulletin board material. Right.
For the game the week of. But again he’s going to get him
anyway. You know he can say it
or not. Say it. This is Myles Garrett right. Top three pass
rushers in the game right now by
far. Again he’s going to have success versus that team week in
and week out. He’s going to have
success 17 weeks in a row. So I don’t have a problem with him
saying it at all. I love it I
love it. Yeah we know that Cleveland is known for being the
dog pound, that Myles Garrett is
one dog that I don’t want catching my pants. So no, this
is all fun and games man. These
are two veteran guys that are going to talk smack back and
forth. They both probably have a
high regard for each other. I know Myles Garrett has a high
regard for Aaron Rodgers. Your
job and your the thing that you dream about as a defensive end
is sacking quarterbacks. So if
you have an opportunity to go out there and sack arguably one
of the best quarterbacks to ever
play the game, of course you’re going to talk a little smack,
especially when you have the
Years and Stripes underneath your belt to back it up. Yeah,
it’s crazy that Myles Garrett
does this. I mean, it’s a really crazy thing. And he kind of gets
a pass from the media and from
the league that he can just because he’s that because
normally you can’t have a pass
rusher say well I’m going to get him I’m going to get everyone
will be like, ooh, that’s that’s
that’s shots fired. Not only is he saying I’m going to get him
Myles Garrett in this era of the
NFL has a running skit where the quarterbacks are dead in his
yard and they’re buried like
that’s an incredible thing. That’s something from the 70s
that someone would have done.
Myles Garrett is doing it in 2025. And it’s just like, well
hey look at him. He’s probably
right. And why not? It’s fun. It’s Halloween. It’s such a
throwback that it otherwise
would be looked at in such bad taste. But then he says it. We
all kind of laugh. Incidentally,
he has not sacked Aaron Rodgers. He sacked 31 quarterbacks in the
league. He’s only played Rodgers
once and it was almost four years ago. Did not sack him in
that game. So if you’re the guy
who has like your own cemetery in your yard, of all the great
quarterbacks of your era, it’s
kind of a big missing piece. But we’ll see on Halloween if he’s
got it there. And in the
meantime, it’s just if anyone thinks the old school of
football, it’s not like it used
to be. Watch Myles Garrett and listen to what he says, because
for some reason he just gets to
have a pass. He’s grandfathered in. Go for it. Yeah yeah this is
it. I mean it’s the Brett Favre
Strahan relationship off the field. But on the field you know
they’re going to go at it.
They’re two veterans. They know each other. It’s going to be
fun. It’s entertaining for the
week. And again I just think that what Myles Garrett is doing
is he’s headed to the Hall of
Fame. A-rod’s headed to the Hall of Fame. Get a jersey swap after
the game. You two. Right. It’ll
be great. But again, it just makes for good TV. Also, he’s no
dummy. He knew the timing of
this. He was like, we’re going to do it on Halloween
specifically, so no one can say
a thing about me. And I got the stats to back it up. Now we got
to start that tally, see what Over two thirds of the league is
in minicamp right now, so it
feels like a good time to do a little buy in or keep trying.
We’re going to start with
squads. We’ve been it’s a very quad dominant show today. Saquon
Barkley is at Eagles minicamp
looking to build off a storybook season. The Madden cover model
said he feels like he’s just
entering his prime, and he’s got a lot of motivation to keep
going. The thing that drives me
is the same thing that has been driven me since I was a little
kid, and I’ve said it since I
got into the league, and I don’t mean it in an arrogant way. I
want to be the best running back
to ever play, or at least one of the best running backs to ever
play. I don’t think there’s
actually a way you can prove who’s the best, but that’s
always been my motivation, and I
feel like God’s blessed me with a unique ability and put me
through a lot of adversity, and
that’s still going to be my mindset. So the love of the
game, wanting to win and wanting
to compete and wanting to be great is always going to push
me. No matter if we win four
Super Bowls. I honestly cannot refute anything that he said. I
mean, he’s already in that
conversation. I would think so. When Barkley does call it a
career, are you buying Isaiah or
saying keep trying, that he will continue to be in that
conversation for best running
back in NFL history? Well, I’m going to concur with what you
just said. I can’t dispute or
refute anything that he just said. I think that he has been
blessed with unique abilities.
So I am going to buy the fact that he will be in that
conversation. Barring any
injuries. I think that he is on pace, on track. I think he’s at
over just over 7000 yards right
now. You start thinking about some of the best to ever do it.
Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton,
Frank Gore, these guys, you know, Barry Sanders, Adrian
Peterson, these guys are all,
you know pretty much 15,000 yards and up. I think he’ll be
there at some point in time
because he is one of the most gifted talents that we’ve ever
seen at that position. Ooh, I
just I love Saquon. Yeah. Right. But when you’re talking about
best ever you’re talking about
guys who play years, guys who are healthy for years. The
numbers are great right? 2501
year is great. Will he ever do that again. The odds are no
right. So if you take that 2500
out and he’s less than 5000 for six years, that he’s not
trending to be a Hall of Fame
running back, right? I can’t put him in the conversation with a
Barry Sanders and a Walter
Payton and a marshall Faulk. That’s different because that
talks about longevity. You know,
it’s like, yes, it was great for the year. Like we say one year
total. Who do you put in there.
Right. He in there. And it’ll be the Eric Dickerson’s of the
world and all that. But when
you’re talking about a career, I can’t put him in that today. If
he does this, it’s not apples to
apples to what the league was in Barry Sanders time, which is
even helps more for the older
guys, the bears and the Walter’s, because right now he’s
getting more opportunities in
there, bigger opportunities right there, more national
televised games. He’s a bigger
star. It’s bigger. There’s more games, right? There’s more
games. So they’re saying, well,
because of that, he’s in the in the conversation like, no, he
can’t be in the conversation
until you’re healthy and you play as this many games and you
put up these numbers versus
these defenses for a longer period of time. I just can’t get
that to him today after seven
years. Saquon is he’s saying this as a goal, which I love.
That’s fine. He should say that
because he he has the talent and ability to be the best ever.
There’s only a few people who
can ever say that he does have the talent for it. Of course,
there’s a lot of work to be
done. And you know, he he’s already had one major injury.
He’s missed some games here.
He’s missed some games here. He missed nearly an entire season.
I look at a comp outside of
football for Saquon and bring up the picture. This is how right
now I see Saquon. I see him as
Griffey. I see him as the guy you look at. You’re like oh my
God. He is talented. He’s like
the most beautiful, most talented athlete I’ve ever seen
in this sport. Now if you know
Griffey he had a lot of injury issues. And then he started
bouncing around teams. And he is
looked at as one of the most talented, one of the most fun to
watch players ever in baseball.
But I don’t think anyone’s calling Ken Griffey the Goat.
It’s a great goal. I love that
Saquon says this, but it’s like to say the greatest ever. I’m
going to touch on what you guys
are saying. There are so many players to run down and surpass.
My personal Rushmore of my
lifetime is Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, LaDainian Tomlinson and
Marshall Faulk. LaDainian is
another good comp for Saquon. LaDainian does not get Goat
conversation about him. His
career was absurd, unbelievably productive and versatile and
successful. But it’s always like
Barry Emmitt, Jim Brown, Walter Payton and that’s fine. I think
lights secure with that. I just
have to bring up one more element and don’t bring it up
yet. This is a personal thing
and you guys just got to see this. It’s one of my favorite
things. I’m hanging out at this
event for the network, like maybe four years ago. And I
played running back at a very
modest level growing up, and it’s my favorite position. And I
worship these guys. I see these
five guys having a group conversation and I do something
I never do, which is, guys, I’m
sorry, is there any way I can take a picture with you? Look at
this picture. Someone is going
to put this in my will. Come on. I’m so proud of this photograph.
You have light Hall of Famer
Tedy Hall of Famer Saquon I think future Hall of Famer. Then
there’s me 1995 Illinois State
all honorable mention. And then Barry Sanders Hall of Famer. So
one of those things does not
like the others. But I said it at the time and I’ll close with
this I this is like four years
ago I tweet this picture out and I say myself with three Hall of
Famers and one future Hall of
Famer, and I got destroyed by every NFL fan. Oh, Saquon, how
do you put him in the Hall of
Fame? No way, no way. He doesn’t have it. Here we are years
later. And if he just keeps
doing what he’s doing he’s running all the way to canton.
He will be one of the all time
greats. Greatest ever I don’t know, I’m not going to say I
doubt it. It’s just very, very
difficult. But I love that he wants to get there himself.
Kyle, I must say you looked the
part in that picture, though. I mean, you look like one of those
guys. Okay. Period. Right.
You’re big enough. Your shoulders are honorable mention.
Who? Okay. I love this picture.
Done. Nice belt. This is your matching, okay. Your
coordination. You got to have
your act together to be honorable mention. 1995
All-State in Illinois. Not
Texas, not Florida, not Pennsylvania. Illinois.
Honorable mention MQB.
Fantastic. All right, let’s head if you will, that he’s feeling
around the team. Take a listen.
You know I think there is a culture shift and I know it. I
mean I feel it just as much as
everyone that’s been here since I’ve I’ve gotten into the
league. We always hear about,
man. Yeah. Oh culture shift. You guys have a change of this. You
guys are doing this always
optimistic. But I really do feel in my heart that this is a
change of scenery for our guys
in the locker room. And then it also transitions to our coaches
as well because we get
opportunities to lead. And it’s not as much the coaches as it is
the players. I would say this
year, you know what it looks like. Cam, Jordan and Tua swap
Wiggs. Stop it, stop it right
now. What’s what’s the thing with the Deshaun Watson. No no
no no not Deshaun Watson Deshaun
Jackson ish back in the day. This is summer break season. If
you know you know he doesn’t
want to have to worry about his hair. But the culture shifts
conversation I’m going to hold
my thoughts until the end because y’all know I’m a fan.
But are you buying that they are
on track to win their first playoff game in 25 years? I know
the stats so well, Isaiah. I
want to say yes because I am a fan of the Dolphins and what
they have been putting together,
but I have to say that I am not buying this one. I’m going to
keep trying simply because there
hasn’t been enough body of work to show that they can protect
the quarterback and keep him
healthy. This team goes as the quarterback goes. If this
quarterback is healthy, these
guys are absolutely a menace and they’re hard to deal with, and
these guys can win games left
and right because they’re just so electric. If he’s not healthy
and somehow some way he has to
step up to the sideline, then this team goes downhill quickly.
Yeah, I’m isn’t that happening.
It’s there’s too many good teams in the AFC right now. Right. You
have your Chiefs. You have your
bills. You have the Ravens. You have the Chargers. Now you even
have the Steelers right. It’s
like you can’t just say hey the culture is great this year. It’s
June July. Everybody has the
same goals. Everybody has the same aspirations right now as a
team. Like we understand that.
So I’m sorry I have to disappoint you Dolphins fans,
but it just doesn’t seem like
it’s going to happen this year. There’s just not enough on the
roster right now to really make
a push for a Super Bowl. That’s our baseline match. Yeah. Yeah
well I like I like that Tua does
this whole kind of rant making fun of the term culture shift.
And he’s like, but we’re having
a culture shift. Like he was all over the map on that one. And I
get it. It’s what I don’t get is
exactly where it’s coming from. You have the same coach. You
have most of the same players,
same quarterback. Everything is going on. But I feel like the
shift and this is positive for
the Dolphins. The shift is that, you know there’s very little
heat on the Dolphins right now
and that’s that’s the shift because the last couple of years
the Dolphins they’re the next
big thing. They score 70 points in a game that’s gone. And I
think that’s good. Now
everyone’s saying the Patriots have next or the Jets are
serious. Now it’s so I actually
like the where the Dolphins are this year because they are very
talented and they are very good.
But no one’s talking about them. That guy the bloom is off the
rose. We get it. He’s quirky and
wears cool sunglasses. And I think nationally everyone’s like
a mike McDaniel. Yesterday’s
news Tyreke maybe he’s in the back half of his career now. Tua
can’t count on him. All the
things that were being triumphed about the Dolphins the last
couple of years are now being
passed on to some of their competitors, and I think that is
a good thing for the Dolphins.
Don’t be a frontrunner. That’s the team we tune in in this fall
and we’re like, wow, Dolphins
are five and two. They’re playing good ball and I think
that’s a good spot for them.
100% agree with you Kyle all the way there. Stay under the radar.
But I don’t want a culture shift
I don’t want new vibes, I want stability, I want identity, and
I want focus from Miami this
year. That’s where I stand. Sound good? All right. Still to
come. Sound good. Stop it. Still
to come. The Rams aren’t in playoff droughts tonight. 7:00
eastern. What else could you
want? What else could you want right now? Let’s go, let’s go.
Hey, Aaron. This is the moment
right now for the world championship right here. Aaron
Donald is going to make a play.
He’s hit. He flings it away on fourth down. Yeah, I knew it. I
knew it would make a play. Hey
hey hey hey. Great job. There you go. Aaron. Hey. Come here.
Hey, hey. Come here. Hey, I
knew. You’re a champ. Yes, sir. We will make that play. We’re
world champs. You make that
play, let’s go win. That. All right. Don’t get me wrong.
Winning the Super Bowl is pretty
impressive. But I think somehow Sean Mcvay’s greatest
accomplishment was getting Rams
camp to go to frigging Hawaii. Let’s get him in here. The best
coach in the NFL just asked me
Sean McVay is here. Let’s go baby. How are we doing God
you’re the man Kyle you big
Sean. Hey that is you guys always make me feel good. It’s
been too long. It’s good to see
you guys again. Agreed. Good. Good seeg you, coach. Great to
see you, coach. Bringing the
juice at 6:40 a.m. Pacific. But I got to know. How the hell did
you pull this off? Because,
coach, I’m thinking you got teams throughout the regular
season. Buffalo, Pittsburgh.
Chicago. They’re freezing their off. You’re sitting there in LA
all year just sitting pretty. LA
wasn’t warm enough. You got to go to Maui. Now tell us how this
happened. Yeah I’ll tell you
what. It’s actually a cool thing because the partnership between,
you know, our community and the
Maui community, especially going through some of the things that
they’ve gone through with the
fires, and it’s a chance to be able to have some brand reach.
But I think more than anything
to go there, use the platform for the right reasons. I know a
lot of people are excited about
being able to see our players have some of those interactions,
and it’ll give us a chance to be
able to connect. Let’s not kid ourselves. We’re not getting
anything football wise done, but
it’ll be it’ll be a cool trip to be able to connect and, you
know, so we’ll enjoy it and we
look forward to it next week. Coach, how did you break the
news to the team? And you have
to tell us what was their reaction whenever they heard
about it? You know, I think they
were excited about it. The cool thing about it is, is they’ll be
able to bring their families. So
anybody that’s in the immediate household, you know, we’re going
to get a chance to see a lot of
people and for some different reasons, we got to experience
that when we went to Arizona for
the playoffs. But this will be a much better reason where we’re
going for a chance to be able to
go spend some time together, be able to relax and kind of cap
off the off season the right
way. And it’s been a good it’s been a good offseason. This will
be fun next week coach. So I saw
some video of course of Davante Adams. You know coaching up Puka
on the side. How has he been in
like the meetings and the film room and stuff like that for the
team right now. He’s such a
stud. You know when you watch him from afar, just the way he’s
always moved and the way he’s
carried himself, there’s a ton of respect. You could see how
smart he was by the way he
played the game. But then you get to know the human being.
What a family man he is. His
willingness to share. You know, I really enjoyed watching him
just organically and
authentically get to know the teammates. And, you know, was
even talking about it yesterday
watching he and Matthew develop a rapport. You see him in Puka,
but he’s just elevated our
group. He’s got just a great energy every single day. And
man, this guy is so sharp, so
smart. And he is the leverage killer. I mean, he just finds
ways to work edges a make
plays. And he sure looks good. And I’m really I feel really
grateful to be able to work with
him. You know coach, we’ve been talking about family since
before we got on air when you
jumped on with us just a few minutes ago. But Matthew
Stafford’s wife, Kelly, she
recently said on her podcast that the 37 year old is
struggling to connect to some of
his younger teammates. As a fellow elder millennial, I can I
can see that there’s sometimes a
little bit of a disconnect, but I feel like you have no issues
with that just by your
personality. What kind of advice are you giving your QB to? Just
get in with the Gen with Gen Z?
Is it Alpha now? To God, they’re so young. I don’t know what it
is, but I think one of the
coolest things about Matthew is MJ. He just does such a great
job of connecting authentically.
I referenced it before, but I’ve heard it said about him, you
know, he’s got this way where
you know he’s the man, but he’s also able to relate and
authentically connect with all
the people that are in the room with him. And you can see the
reverence and respect his
teammates have for him. But man, he’s so relatable. These guys
love him. You know, I think the
one thing that really resonates with his teammates is he loves
this game. He enjoys it. You’re
not playing for 17 years if you don’t love this stuff. It’s hard
work, but it’s always worth it.
But man, he just elevates everybody. I’m so glad that we
got that stuff worked out with
him, and I feel like he and I are closer than ever, and I feel
like he’s influencing and
affecting his teammates better than ever by just being himself.
Are you talking about affecting
and talking about impact? Coach? There’s a lot of great coaches
in this league. You got the
Harbaugh, you got the Tomlin’s, you got the Andy Reid’s. And you
have yourself. The difference is
the other coaches did not find their way to getting their name
dropped on a new song by Lil
Wayne. You have to tell us more about that. And how do you make
how did that make you feel? Man,
I will tell you this. I was like, that is dope. I thought
that was, hey, so you you love
this. So I got a bunch of texts from our guys, you know, when
the album dropped last week. And
so I lean over and, you know, my wife is the best. She’s so
supportive, but she always keeps
me humble. I said, hey, Ben. I said, I think Wayne made a
reference to us in his new
album. She’s like, he’s talking about another McVay. He ain’t
talking about you. But you
notice he said, us. You see us. Yes, yes I like it. Hey so we
then that is cool. Yeah yeah
it’s the collective family and it’s always about you guy On
the topic of family coach, I was
looking at these quotes from Davante Adams and they speak to
you so much. Davante comes in
and says everybody here in the facility is in a good mood.
There’s no dark cloud. It’s just
about ball. There’s no BS going on. What’s it like to hear this
guy say this new in town. Well
that that means everything because what you want to do is
and it’s the off season
different things like that. But I love this guy. And you know,
we work as hard as we possibly
can, Kyle, to create an atmosphere and environment where
guys feel that way. And it is
about the collective. I mean, you become the company you keep
when you have players like
Davante and all these other great teammates or guys we’ve
mentioned or great coaching
staff, it’s like, you know, our goal as coaches is make sure
when these guys leave the
building, they’re excited about coming back the next day. And
how can we, you know, push the
standard, have high standards for the expectations but also an
enjoyment with a sense of
urgency. And if we’re able to kind of find that balance, you
know, that’s what we’re hunting
up every day. It means everything to hear him say that,
Kyle, it was really cool and
it’s very flattering everything you’re doing there. You guys are
so fun to watch because of a lot
of that. I think it really translates through the TV to
that point. I absolutely love
this Jared verse, dude, like we were early on Jared verse. We
love what he brings the way he
will walk into Philadelphia and not give a Bleep what anybody
says. The way he will challenge
Aaron Donald to some sort of workout competition. What is the
state of the nation with verse
right now? Coach I love this guy too. He but he’s but that’s who
he is consistently and he brings
it. He’s not afraid to talk. He’s got an edge and an energy
to him that I think is
absolutely necessary. But he’s also got the appropriate
humility. You know, I, I enjoyed
getting to FaceTime last week from Aaron Donald at his house.
He’s, you know, he’s got his
shirt off. You could see he was just finishing a workout. He
pans to the corner and verses in
the corner, just shaking his head like, what the hell was I
thinking coming over and
challenging him? But but he accepted the challenge. He said,
I’m done challenging legends
though, so. But I love the guy, man. I’m right there with you,
Kyle. This dude is he’s a
special human and he’s going to be a special player for a long
time. If he continues to work
the way he does. Nice coach. So last season you guys started off
one and four right. End up
winning the NFC West right. This year. What’s one thing you’re
focused on. So you guys don’t
have a have to dig yourself out of a one for a hole. Yeah I
think for us you know you just
want to stack good days. You know I think it’s been a good
offseason. There’s only so much
you can get done just based on some of the parameters at which
we can practice. But when we get
a chance to get through the acclimation period, you put the
pads on. You keep coming
together as a team, you start to establish the identity and style
of play, and then you really
pray that you stay healthy. You know, last year we were really
banged up going into the season.
We got decimated in that first game against Detroit. No
excuses. But I think it’s just
stacking good days. You hope that you do everything in your
power to stay healthy. And then
whenever we do have the storms that are inevitable, let’s
handle them the right way
because that will be a separator for us. But we do want to be
able to start fast. But
ultimately, I want to see our guys just be be able to respond
to the inevitable adversity.
That’s that’s going to be, you know, coming into our, you know,
it’s going to be there in some
form or fashion and how we handle it. It’s usually the
separator. And the adversity
that this team has had to face, especially over the last year.
Coach, you mentioned it earlier.
I was there for that game that got moved to a Monday night to
Arizona, and I love that. The
cycle has sort of come full circle now. And you guys going
to Hawaii and really, really
just commiserating with another community that has been through
the same thing. So let’s get
back to Hawaii for a second, because I want to give you three
things that are synonymous, if
you will, with the 50th state and coach, if you’ll indulge me
and just rank them 3 to 1, okay.
This will be easy. Surfing Mai tais and luaus. Where do those
rank for you? Yeah, I mean, I
can appreciate the surfing that’s last fore. I probably
go mai tais one to be able to
find my personality and an appetite. And we’ll go out to.
Yeah. Fantastic ranking. Love
that. I think I last saw you on a beach, Sean. I think it was on
TMZ somewhere. Once you got
really famous. That changes everything, man. When you go on
vacation, they start photography
and the beach, right? Oh, you know what? We stay away from
those places. They don’t want
that. All right, listen, Sean, I know you got to go. One more
thing. We’re just going to pull
from the headlines. Aaron Rodgers is a Steeler. It’s
crazy. It’s reality. It’s
happening right now. There was a lot of talk in the offseason
that Rodgers might be interested
in becoming a Ram. If there was interest in availability,
availability there, what went
down in the offseason, what was true and not true about Rodgers
and the Rams? Yeah, I think that
our first priority, which was consistently communicated, was,
hey, let’s let’s work something
out with Matthew. And we were very fortunate that it worked
out that way. If that wasn’t
able to occur, then that was definitely conversations and a
possibility for us. I have a ton
of respect for the body of work, and I’ve gotten to know Aaron
and really enjoy the
conversations and just the approach, the way thate thinks
about the game and in life. And
so that was a possibility. But our our first priority was
always to be able to get Matthew
back. And what I do feel really fortunate about Kyle is I think
that we’re closer than ever. And
I think sometimes when you’re able to have real conversations,
I think you can appreciate the
love that’s been built up, but also the ability to be honest
with one another. And I’m really
glad that worked out. And shoot, I wish I know that there’s a lot
of people in Pittsburgh that are
really excited that that’s finally come to fruition. And,
you know, I, I’m a big fan of
his. Well, coach, maybe you’ll see him in the Super Bowl. In
the meantime, you will see the
Rams in Hawaii doing incredible work and relations. If you ever
lived in California, Hawaii
almost feels like a neighbor. And I know the Rams organization
feels that way. Coach, we love
you. We’re playing the music. Aloha means goodbye. Thank you
so much for coming on, man.
Mahalo. Hey great to see you guys. Appreciate you having me
on. All right coach. All right
coach, see you. You’re the best.