Speaker 1: I'll start Toyota Presents Off the Bench with Jacob Hester
and Matt Flynn say.
Speaker 2: Hester and Hester.
Speaker 1: From carrying each other to and Natty to carrying each other.
On the air, there's control live from the Mercedes Benz
Baton Rouge Studio. It's off the bench.
Speaker 3: What's up? Everybody?
Speaker 4: Hour three off the Bench on this good Friday, Friday
morning before l s U takes on the cancer players.
Right now, we've talked a little baseball, We've talked a
little football. I don't know, we've talked about a lot
of crazy stuff today, but we're can bring it back,
bring it back to a little NFL football. Right now,
I'm gonna shoot it over to Taylor for Taylor's Tat's
let's say the're right, Tait's NFL story.
Speaker 5: Fortunately they got it.
Speaker 1: It's time for Tait's NFL Story of the Day, day,
your daily dose of NFL news from Taylor.
Speaker 6: Sharp decided we're gonna keep it positive. You're on this Friday.
I can mention Shador Sanders going over one hundred and
two miles an hour faster than he processes his reads.
Don't want to go there, though, we could go Adrian
Peterson getting into a bar fight and getting arrested. We're
not going to do that. Because yesterday a little bit
of an under the radar move, which, if healthy, could
be the move of the offseason. The Multiple Ravens have
signed jay R Alexander. This is a one year, six
million dollars deal for a guy who is twenty eight
years old that the last full season he played, he
was an All Now he's only played in thirty four
of the possible sixty eight games the last two seasons,
so he's been there fifty percent of the time. But
if Jay, you're Alexander could stay healthy, Like that's a guy,
I mean, top five corner in the NFL, went fully healthy.
Speaker 5: He's on a one year, six million dollar deal.
Speaker 4: I actually had this in my nose to bring up today, Yeah,
because it is such a good signing. So apparently him
and him and Lamar Jackson are pretty close. So Lamar
Jackson was like had a press press conference beforehand, somebody
asked him about him. He kind of like played a
little mom little koy. But he takes a six million
dollar deal, takes a pay cut, and takes a does
a one year deal, And I love it because he
could have gone and made really good money, probably signed
a two to three year contract somewhere else.
Speaker 3: But what he's doing, he wants to win. He's chasing
a ring, and.
Speaker 4: Those are the kind of stories that Lea's fans should
kind of celebrate. A guy not trying to make the
most money can immediately and chase and chase the championship
team chase a ring.
Speaker 6: So you got Marlin Hall for you. On the other side,
Kyle Hamilton's another safety. He drafted Malachi's Starks out of Georgia.
That's a damn good secondary all under the age of thirty.
And you get Jy're Alexander on basically the veteran minimum.
Speaker 7: Andy got Nate Wiggins. It was pretty good last.
Speaker 3: Year, all right, I see if they can kind of
get over that hump, we'll see.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 8: These are from Mama Flynn.
Speaker 4: Right there, Holy Molly, Mama Flynn pretty sure correctly, Yes
you did just text me.
Speaker 3: But she had a little delivery can.
Speaker 8: All the way from Tyler Tex Ruth Flynn. I appreciate it,
shout out, miss Ruth.
Speaker 3: I'm Flynn Flynn. Look at that. We're gonna share this
with a crowd.
Speaker 9: Ah, the crowd goes crazy.
Speaker 8: Look at these, I know if we doesn't have push
ups for two boxes?
Speaker 7: Oh wow wow, ohamn, big cookies.
Speaker 3: I mean, why is so big? These even cookies? That's
that's what they look like like many cakes.
Speaker 7: That's a huge cookie. And then run with some big Today.
Speaker 9: Today is like the day that you're like, doesn't matter.
Calories don't count your vers. They do not count.
Speaker 3: When you're forty, though they count a little.
Speaker 4: True.
Speaker 7: No, no, no, we deny science.
Speaker 9: Remember that's true, well, we said, but we also said
not all science.
Speaker 8: We questioned it as well.
Speaker 3: The math is pretty accurate. Math numbers numbers.
Speaker 8: People lie, words, lie stories, lie. Numbers don't thanks. See.
Speaker 7: I used to believe that until the Derek Carr fans
would be like, dude, look at his numbers. Man, he's
he's he's not the problem man, Derek Carr, he's a
top twelve.
Speaker 8: Cor yards per attempt, so a big one in here.
Speaker 6: But the numbers kind of do tell the story with Car, right,
because everybody talked about the empty numbers like his numbers
themselves are bad, except that when lost number like, the
numbers kind of actually do tell the story with Car.
Speaker 3: Mhm, guess what you got a new card. We don't
get a new card.
Speaker 5: We don't talk about it anymore.
Speaker 7: He's I know, it feels like a piece of he's
missing piece of Mond.
Speaker 4: Did y'all see that ESPN dropped a all quarter century team?
Speaker 8: Were talking College of Pro Pro.
Speaker 4: NFL All quarter century years last twenty five years. I
have not seen this, so I wanted to bring it up.
Let's see, I mean quarterbacks, got to say, do you
get do.
Speaker 3: You have the guy that? Yeah?
Speaker 5: I can look at it. It's on Twitter, right, Yeah,
I got it X.
Speaker 3: And I was. I was going through it.
Speaker 4: It's a pretty good list, obviously, you got a lot
of people to choose from, so that they kind of
tried to dabble into, you know, early two thousands men
like kind of throw in some current players as well.
I felt pretty good about it. Let's see here, I
got to pulled up. You mean, do you wanna kind
of roll through some of it? Yeah, well, let's we'll
start with the coaches first and then roll to the
quarterback because I didn't really have any issues with any
of them except for maybe one or two positions.
Speaker 9: All right, So coaching staff, Bill Belichick, head coach Kyle
Shanahan OC Wade Phillips defensive coordinator.
Speaker 4: Any I mean Belichick's yes, chalk answers. No one's gonna
argue with that, Shannon, I mean offensive coordinator. You can
just like you can probably pick ten ten different from
the same coaching tree.
Speaker 3: Yeah, from the same coaching tree.
Speaker 8: Sean McVay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, everybody loves the Wade Phillips too.
Speaker 9: Everybody does love Wade Phillips. Is he still coaching in
the UFL.
Speaker 3: Or the UFL XFO whatever it was.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I feel like he is.
Speaker 9: All right, so let's go through this real quick and
maybe you know, we can come back to it as well.
Speaker 8: Quarterbacks, you got three.
Speaker 9: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Patrick mahonmes.
Speaker 5: Hard to argue with that.
Speaker 4: Hard argue with that, I mean, yeah, if you argued
with it, you're just gonna based on the pure love
of somebody. But who would you tell so practice squad
Tom and Patrick, Yeah are above Peyton for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't like it to your teammates with them?
Speaker 8: Oh no, I mean I get no, that's that's a
good argument.
Speaker 3: Just from the rings from ring standpoint.
Speaker 9: Practice squad Quarterbacks, practice squad, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees
were the two Drew Brees.
Speaker 8: I have no argument with that.
Speaker 3: I would throw man, would you throw Big Ben in there?
Speaker 6: Big Ben gets Yeah, completely good that that's a good
one to Super Bowls.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 4: I would throw Big Ben as as practice squad alternate.
Then the position that you know, love, I want to
know how you feel about this. Obviously you could have
been in the running for this one.
Speaker 9: This is this is I thought you meant running back
way off?
Speaker 8: Yeah, you shack no argument here? Uh maybe if I
if I actually.
Speaker 3: How do you judge?
Speaker 5: How do you do pure fullback?
Speaker 8: He's got Lorenzo Lorenzo Neils. That was Miami Low Daddy.
Speaker 4: So Kyle, he's got nine Pro Bowls, So that's like,
if you're going to base it off that, that's probably.
Speaker 9: He's a better overall player for sure. But low Daddy
was like the ultimate lead blocker.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so Lorenzo, I.
Speaker 3: Couldn't tell you a thing about him, So I'm gonna
go on your judgment there.
Speaker 9: The running backs though, Priest Holmes, Christian McCaffrey, Derrick Henry,
this is a this is a practice squad Ledani and Thomlinson.
I don't think I'm practicing squad and Adrian Peterson he
might not have quick hands anymore, but Christian McCaffrey and.
Speaker 4: Priest homes So Adrian Peterson seven times, seven Pro Bowls
for All Pros, Rookie of the Year, No. Seven Offensive
Player of the Year, and NFL in the NFL MVP
twenty twelve, and then that year he had two thousand
ninety seven yards, which was eight off the NFL record.
Speaker 7: Off the torn ACL, off.
Speaker 3: The torn ACL.
Speaker 4: Danian Tomlinson five Pro Bowls, six All Pro, one time
NFL MVP. When when you got a running back that
wends the NFL MVP, that's a dude.
Speaker 3: It probably should better than practice squad.
Speaker 4: One hundred and forty five rushing touchdowns for LT Yeah,
what about running past it would and then another person
out throwing.
Speaker 3: This is Frank Gore.
Speaker 4: He doesn't have like the like the individual awards longevity six.
Let's see fourteen of his sixteen seasons he played sixteen
plus games in him as a running back, sixteen thousand
career rushing yards. I think that's third all time, but
behind Emmitt Smith and Walter.
Speaker 3: Payton, right, they're pretty good, pretty decent. Then it's Frank Gore.
Speaker 4: I'll probably throw him in there over Christian McCaffrey. You
can't argue with Dary like they're trying to throw somebody
like Current in right.
Speaker 9: So Derek Henry, Yeah yeah, yeah, but no LT and
a D which is what Adrian Peterson's name was for
all day, are gonna be on my team.
Speaker 8: They're not gonna be.
Speaker 3: On the practice quad. Yeah that's bad.
Speaker 4: Uh Ap did get work though slow, like just he
got glasses. He caught it, got two pieces. It didn't
really phase him, but he caught it.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 9: Receivers Randy Moss, Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, Terrell Owens, Marvin Harrison,
and Justin Jefferson practice squad Antonio Brown like Andre Johnson.
Speaker 7: So Larry Fitzgerald doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker 6: Well so not only that, I love Julio Jones. There's
no reason he should be over t O and Calvin Johnson.
Speaker 4: This is not like this is a pretty good list
except for ye know, Julio does have more career yards
than Calvin Johnson.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Calvin retired early, cal I retired at thirty.
Speaker 4: But you're picking one wide receiver from twenty two thousand.
Speaker 8: Five, like if my life depended on getting.
Speaker 3: If your life depended on just one.
Speaker 8: Receiver, who you picking like to get open to.
Speaker 3: Make it to make a play. No, I don't know
if it's gonna get open, it's going to make him play.
Speaker 7: Oh seven, Randy Moss.
Speaker 6: Okay, I really want to go, Larry. It's like, I'm
not I'm not. I'm not saying it open because a
lot of these people catch the ball when they're not open.
Like if you got if you have to put one
receiver one game, one one for your life.
Speaker 7: Are you doing oh seven?
Speaker 3: Randy Moss, I don't know.
Speaker 5: I don't know if it's that easy.
Speaker 8: Cooper Cup had a triple crown.
Speaker 6: I have only I've always been a big Larry Fitzgerald guy.
Speaker 7: I guess I'll go.
Speaker 3: Randy. Don't know.
Speaker 8: Man, Jets, y'all might think he's too early on this list.
Speaker 7: He's on the way. He's on the way.
Speaker 4: You guys are crazy. It is one Megatron.
Speaker 7: Respect the Megatron.
Speaker 5: For for sure.
Speaker 8: Like that he's play in the division.
Speaker 3: So you saw him way more than a whole lot.
I saw him catch.
Speaker 4: I think he got three bills against US one one game.
Speaker 9: The checkdown for the Lions at that time was Stafford
would tap his helmet and Megatron would go to the
end zone and Stafford would just throw it up.
Speaker 8: They did to that. They did that to us twice, Like.
Speaker 9: Stafford back rolling out, tap his head and then who
and then Megatron took it off of Wettle's helmet twice.
What was in perfect position was a baller. Yeah, I
means like all decades.
Speaker 4: October twenty seventh, twenty thirteen, Calvin Johnson three and twenty
nine yards receiving against the cow.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's ridiculous.
Speaker 9: Yeah, remember I just let me just all right, hold on,
I just saw this list, and let's get to the
tight end position. And I don't have time in this
segment to say what I want to say. Man, oh
my god. Like the people that don't respect Antonio Gates.
Speaker 3: Is he is the only practice quad.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's wild.
Speaker 9: Let's go to Let's go to our guy Ross Jackson.
We'll join us talk a little New Orleans Saints. Speaking
of tight end position, that's a kind of an important
one for the Saints. We'll break it all down with
Ross when we come back here.
Speaker 8: It is otb off the bench. I mean, teams used.
Speaker 9: To guard gates like it was phunt, Like they put
two guys on him, like he was a gunner.
Speaker 8: What are we doing here? Go Central Plumbing dot org.
Central Plumbing dot Org.
Speaker 9: Is the website not only in Central in the greater
Baton Rouge area. We are talking to you two t
five ninety two five eighty five fifty two. If you
have something that pops up this weekend, even though LSU
is in the College World Series, you don't have to
worry aboutica. Central Plumbing is going to come handle it.
Game day, weekday, holiday does not matter. Two to five
nine two five eighty five fifty two.
Speaker 4: You want to take this all quarter century a dement,
flush it down the toilet at Clogs. You got to
call somebody to fix it. Twenty four to seven. Emergency service,
Central Plumbing dot Org two two five nine two five
eight five five two.
Speaker 5: No, come.
Speaker 1: Locked in on LSU football twenty four to seven. You're
listening to off the Bench.
Speaker 9: All right, welcome back again, O TV one oh four
five ESPN Baton Rouge. It is now time that we're
gonna talk a little New Orleans Saints with our guy
Ross Jackson.
Speaker 8: You know him, you love him, Host of lockdown.
Speaker 9: Saints of course does big things here for us losing
sports dot Net Ross, what's going on?
Speaker 8: Man? How you doing? Are really glad to be there?
Ex Man?
Speaker 9: You know, it's a time of the year where you
get excited about certain players, but then you start to
question certain players. It's like mini camp season, right, It's
like you fall in love with these guys that aren't
even going to be there in September, and then like
you hate on these guys and it's like the guys
that the Saints are counting on the most. Like it's
one of my favorite times of the year to talk INFL,
just because there's so much unknown already. Like, no matter
what team you're talking about or else, with this Saints team,
they might have the most unknown of any team in
the NFL.
Speaker 10: Yeah, dude, they are one of the big mysteries of
the league right now. And that's for certain. I mean
everything down to you obviously, like who the starting quarterback
is going to be is the course of history. But
first year head coach, first year defensive coordinator in New Orleans,
at least you have a lot of turnover. You have
offensive system changing, defensive system changing. There's so many big
question marks around this team, not all of which bad,
right It's not question marks like, oh, are they going
to be able to do this? They can do that,
though there are those things. It's a lot of question
marks that also just center around what does this team
look like, what is their new identity, and who are
they as they move ahead? So makes them a big
mystery this year in terms of, you know, trying to
predict or project where it thinks you're.
Speaker 3: Going to go for.
Speaker 4: Give me sure reaction you run up quarterbacks. So that's
what I'm always going to lean to first and foremost
because it's the it's the you know, hardest position to
play in all of sports, it's the most important position
to play. And there's a bona fide QB competition right now.
And we know both quarterbacks have had their moments where
they've looked good, and we we hear that that's been
really efficient at practice. So I'm always kind of curious
as to which one of these guys has, like, is
has anybody stepped in front as somebody that has looked
like he's taken charge of the offense, taking charge of
the line of scrimmage, looks more in control right now.
Speaker 3: I mean, you would usually.
Speaker 4: Side with the guy that's been there the longest that
that happens, but you know, Spencer's only been there a year,
so it's not like he's like a season vet or anything.
Is there one guy that stands out that's looked like
he's kind of taken over from like just a verbal standpoint,
from a present standpoint.
Speaker 10: Yeah, Like I would say, both of these guys have
done things really well in those categories, but the one
of the two that probably stands out the most there
is Spencer Rattler. He's had a year of NFL experience,
like you mentioned, which you're right, isn't a lot, but
it is a big difference between having a year and
not having a year, like that gap I think is
bigger than you know, people outside of the game realize,
and so I think that that is something that has
set Spencer Ratler up pretty well to kind of show
out in OTAs and in Mini camp. I have him
with fifty nine passing attempts over there, both quarterbacks of
fifty nine passing attempts over the course of what we
were able to see as media, with him completing forty five.
So you see an efficiency there. You see an efficiency
in terms of his ability also to just kind of
have a more sped up clock, like these guys have
not done any eleven on elevens. We should keep that
in mind. It's all seven on sevens or nine on seven,
so literally every throwing, every passing lane is wide open,
all these other things from from a trench's standpoint, But
what we haven't seen Spencer Ratler do with a lack
of pass rush is get comfortable and hold on to
the ball and wait for receivers to make DB's cover
two or three routes. He's operated in a take the
take the snap, drop back hitch throw like he just
has his rhythm. Everything's on time, which is really important
for a Kellen Moore offense, which is very much about timing.
It's a lot of pre snap designation which kind of
tells everybody what needs to be done protection wise, and
then in the passing game, it's a timing game. And
that's going to be a little bit that's probably going
to look a little bit more familiar to what Saints
two Saints fans in terms of what they used to
watch versus what they've seen in the recent past that
I think so far Spencer Ratler has just kind of
gotten the timing of the offense pretty well, moves a
little bit more efficiently, gets out in and out of
the huddle with a little with a little bit more
of a sense of urgency, gets through his reads, is
using the entire field kind of doing all these things,
and he's operating on a clock that he does need
to operate on because he has all the time in
the world, but he's not, you know, buying into that.
And so I would say that those are the reasons
why I would say that Spencer Ratler maybe stands out
a little bit more in that category, but it is,
you know, both of these guys have shown proficiencies in
that area for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think it's kind of known in the NFL world
that the biggest jump for a quarterback, you know, any
position really, but specifically at quarterback, the jump from year
one to two is the most important. Like it's it's
the biggest gap that they cover from year one to two.
And so if you don't make that jump from one
to two, you're never gonna have like it's hard to
like make the jump on your three, year, four, five, six, seven,
whatever whatever. It's going to be so the fact that
like Shuck is competing with that and like keeping up
with it and making it, keeping up with a guy
that is doing that. Like, as Saints fans, you should
hope that Spencer Spencer does take that jump that everybody
talks about. And so the completion percentage're talking about is great,
it's a great stat but just like you said, there's
no eleven on eleven, so it's a glorified like playing
catch out there. So it's going to be so widely
important once they get the pads on, taking the snaps,
guys hitting around them, all that stuff. But let's talk
about the completion percentage. How are they spread, Like the receivers,
who's kind of stepping up as a two to three receiver?
How are the tight ends looking? Who are they feeding
the ball to during these practices?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, look, you're seeing a lot of Krysalova,
You're seeing a lot of reshoots, you heat, There's no
doubt about that, and that's exactly what you should expect, right, Like,
those are the top two guys when it comes to
the passing game, all those pieces, and so those guys
have been a core focus. But we've also seen this
ball move around a lot. You know, tight ends like
Michael Jacobson as well as Juwan Johnson and Jack Stall
all getting involved. You know, running backs that have completions
written down to guys like Alvin Kamara, but have also
had completions written down to like Cam Akers. Right, So
some stuff you know happening out of the backfield. There
Clydewards layer as well, And so we're seeing sort of
all three of the core positions wide receiver, tight end,
and running back. When it comes to pass catching, we're
seeing really all three of those areas getting opportunit. And
one of the reasons why I were receiving that is because,
like if you look earlier on during OTAs, we saw
a lot of downfields, you know, they were pushing the
ball downfield and know these other things. But then when
they got into mini camps, Kellen Moore kind of split
the script on them and had them working on situations,
so third and short, first and ten second and long
all these other kinds of things. And so you were
asked in that case as a quarterback to go out
there and do what makes sense. So it wasn't always
push it down the field or hit the intermediate area
or try to make the big play, try to stand
out in front of the fans that were in attendance,
which could have really driven these guys to want to
show out maybe a little bit more to you know,
hype the energy up whatever. And instead it was third
and three and you know, you have a checkdown available
behind a lot of scrimmage that can get three yards
after the catch to get to a first down. You
take that. It's second and five. You have an opportunity
to complete a slant for you know, three to five
yards and live for a third down. You take that.
And so we saw them also kind of work them
through decision making with situational context. And I think that's
another place where you kind of saw these guys stand
out quite a bit, is that they didn't buy into
the idea of pushing the ball down the field and
trying to generate that excitement. They instead bought into the
idea of making the thirds that win football games. And
I think that was a really smart move by Kellen
Moore to kind of throttle them down to that point,
even in those seven on sevens or nine on sevens,
just kind of makes them think about an extra thing
and kind of see how they operated in that context.
Speaker 9: All right, so any young quarterback orross is going to
want to be able to turn around and hand it
off to a strong running game, strong running back behind
a strong offensive line. I want to go to running
back because that's going to take a lot of pressure
off whoever the starting quarterback is.
Speaker 8: We know Ak is going to be the lead back.
But you've made some moves.
Speaker 9: You've drafted running backs, You've signed veteran running backs in
Clyde Edwards, d Lair, you signed Cam.
Speaker 8: Akers the other day. What does that position look like
for you?
Speaker 9: Certainly behind Ak, because they're going to need more than
just one guys we've seen over the last couple of years,
and they brought in a lot of different guys with
a lot of different experience.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 10: I mean there's eight different running backs I think in
the room right now if I'm counting correctly. And they
brought them in from the draft, undrafted, free agency, from
free agency guys that they retained as well, And so
they have a really eclectic group here. You know, kind
of smaller guys that are willing, that can run really well.
They have the one cut guys like Kendre Miller, and
Devin Neil. They have the veteran guys like Clyde Ridge
Laire and Cam Akers and Bayless Jones Junior who has
some versatility to his game. Like, they have a big,
kind of very eclectic group of these running backs. So
I'm really interested to see where things go. The logic says, Okay,
you have Alvin Kamara who has this incredible ability still
going into year nine in space and doing all the
things that he does, you know, outside of the tackles
and in the receiving game and all this stuff. So
then the logic feels like, okay, so who's going to
be kind of the between the tackles bruiser. If that's
the way that the go, then I think that's where
guys like Handmakers, Ken dre Miller. I would even throw
Claude Rizilier in there. That's kind of where those guys
come in. Devin Neil as well. And then you're looking
for a kind of a complimentary third piece. So it's
going to be a pretty major competition here. And keep
in mind too, the same kind of second tier rusher
that they've really leaned on for a long time, and
for many many years, it's been Taysom Hill not even
a running back right, but he might not be available
at the beginning of the season. We'll see where things
are for him from a health standpoint. But if they
have to be without him, and they are really going
to have to make sure that they're getting production in
the run game from another player not named Alvin Kamara,
they won't. They might not have Taysom Hill to fall
back on. And so whoever these running backs are that
end up making the roster, I think a guy like
Devin Neil feels like a clear, you know, possibility, as
he was drafted by this organization. Ken dre Miller has
been around for a couple of years, and so you know,
those are the names that probably stand out. But really,
any of these guys have a wide open path to
making the roster based on what it is that he
can do, and whoever gets those opportunities don't need to
make the most of them because the Saints are not
going to have Taysom Hill to fall back on, likely
early on in the season, in order to be able
to compliment that run game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Ross, Let's look to the other side of the
ball here on defense and new defensive coordinator Brandon Staley
comes in taking over installing new defenses, new defensive schemes.
So the Saints in the past, have you kind of
always run like the Dennis Allen type of defense where
it's a little it's a little tricky, it's a little
off pace for quarterbacks. They used to do a lot
of two inverts and two fire zones, like some different situations.
Speaker 3: But what have you seen.
Speaker 4: I know it's hard when we don't have pads on
we're not doing eleven on eleven. But what do you
expect to see from the defense schematically? Is a lot
of one high two highs. Have they been shown anything?
Is what percentage pressure situations as a high high pressure guy.
Have they shown any of that?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 10: I think I would expect just looking back at Brandon
Staley's track record, probably some middle of field closed type
of defenses, so cover one, cover three, things like that
that kind of populate the middle of the field and
then force you know, quarterbacks to look to the perimeter.
But it's interesting because the NFL has really gone to
kind of too high split safety looks as a means
of trying to take away the big explosive plays and
kind of force the run game. So we're watching offenses
get bigger, more two tight ends, that's more two running
back sets, because that's a that's a way to counter
the Okay, you're going to take away the big play
over the top, but now you're light in the box,
let me go ahead and attack that. And so I
think you're going to see a little bit of everything
when it comes to Brandon Saley's defense. But I think
that you'll notice as a big change from what Brent,
what Dennis Allen used to do. It's kind of a
transition from sort of the pressman back to the quarterback
eyes on the route runner type of scheme to a
more zone match pattern matching eyes in the backfield kind
of coverage. And that's going to open up. And I've
talked to a lot of the defensive players that'll be
impacted by that, and they a lot of them feel
that it's going to open them up to go out
there and make more plays like the Saints had I
think it was eleven interceptions over the course of the
first nine or so games, and then they had only
three interceptions for the rest of the way throughout the
rest of the season. And so this is the secondary
that's hungry to go out there and make plays. And
a lot of those members believe that what Brandon Staley's
defense will do with allowing them to keep their eyes
in the backfield should allow them to be able to
kind of do that. Read the quarterback's eyes. Go out there,
be attacking, be aggressive, and go try to make plays
on the football. I think the other changes that you're
going to see are the ones that you know, we've
been talked about quite a bit with stand up pass
rushers and things like that, taking advantage of athleticism and speed.
But I do think that those eyes in the backfield
could help the Saints with another big thing that they've
troubled with over the course of the past few years,
and that's the mobile quarterback. It's a big difference when
you have your back turned and that quarterback starts to
run versus when the entire team or you know, a
majority of the team has their eyes on the quarterback
on them already of STAPs where they can maybe react
and try to go and make some place in that
area too. So I think that's a couple of places
where you'll see some differences.
Speaker 9: Last one, Rawson, we always do appreciate the time catching
up with Ross Jackson here on OTB. We've talked a
lot about so many different players, so many drafted guys
over the last couple of years, that we expect big
things on this team.
Speaker 8: But I do.
Speaker 9: Feel like a guy that still is not a part
of the conversation at least like on the airways sometimes
is kol a McKinstry and you traded you know for him,
Like there's the guy you moved up in the draft
for just a year ago. What is his role? How
impactful is he going to be? Because like with the
assets you use and anytime you seck somebody in the
second round, like that's got to be like a day
one starter. His rookie year was okay, But what should
we expect to see from kool Aid?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I think you can expect good play from kool
Aid and continued improvement from where he was last year.
If you look at his season towards the end of
last year, it just got better and better and better.
Those last three games up against the I'm not going
to try to do that the last three games of
the year. You know, he was targeted over ten times
and allowed you know, fewer than I think it was
around five catches and things like that, and so you know,
you kind of saw his game kind of step into
the next next phase there, and he's looked out standing
in Mini camp as well as NNTA has been one
of the standout performers coming out of the off season programs,
and so I think he's going to be a guy
that's going to be tasked with oftentimes being sort of
the quote unquote cornerback one, which doesn't always mean that
he's going to be lined up across the best receiver
because they're going to move receivers in and out of
the slot things like that, so that'll kind of change
a little bit of what those coverage asignments are. But
I assume that he will be the number one guy
for this team at corner. He's been really disruptive at
the catch point. He's super sound fundamentally, which makes him
a coaches dream as well because he's not having to
rely on just raw talent. The raw talent adds to
what he does well from a foundational standpoint, and then
he can build upon that. So I think he'll continue
to get better, especially as there's more time for him
as well as when there's a pass rush introduced that
should help him out quite a bit too. And so
I think we've seen some good things for him, but
I think good thing like more are on the way.
When it comes to cool they begin trim really interested
and excited to see his twenty twenty five season.
Speaker 9: All right, he's our guy, Ross Jackson, Louisiana Sports dot Net,
always putting out great articles on the New Orleans Saints
and keeping you.
Speaker 8: Up to date.
Speaker 7: Ross.
Speaker 9: We appreciate the time as always, sir, look forward to
our next conversation.
Speaker 10: Absolutely, guys, thanks so much. Appreciate you all, take care
of stay safe, and I'll talk to you all right again.
Speaker 8: Ross Jackson.
Speaker 9: Nobody nobody's locked in no pun intended because he hosted
Locked On Saints podcast, but always locked in, always ready
to go.
Speaker 8: So appreciate his time.
Speaker 4: I like it, Savenus of the defensive schemes too. Yeah,
it's gonna be fun to get into.
Speaker 9: Yeah, he is like he is somebody that him and
Nick Underhill both like great assets for us to be
able to have here on OTV because they can actually
talk about some of the things that.
Speaker 8: We can out that we want to talk about all times.
We'll start talking about them. We're like, hold up, wait
a minute, do they know what that is?
Speaker 9: Those two guys certainly are gonna be able to have
those conversations. All right, we'll take a break to close
out today's show. I think we're going to call Alandra
and get her on the line, get an update on
UH on the road trip, see how things are going,
seeing if if they went the right direction, all those
type of things.
Speaker 8: So we've got that coming up for you as well.
More OTB when we jump back here on one of four
five ESPN betters.
Speaker 1: Off the bench.
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Speaker 1: From the locker room to the airwaves. Gets off the
bench with Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 8: Welcome back again. Oh t me h.
Speaker 9: I got a little you know he did when I
saw the tight ends on this quarter century NFL team.
There's a couple of positions like linea linebacker, linebackers, tough.
Speaker 8: No list is perfect. You're right about that.
Speaker 9: Tony Gonzalez, Travis Kelce, and Rob Grinkowski. The tight ends.
Antonio Gates obviously a teammate of mind. So I'm gonna,
you know, be biasing the answer. But three time First
Team All Pro, most touchdowns ever by a tight end,
almost twelve thousand career receiving yards, almost a thousand career catches,
played sixteen NFL seasons for one team.
Speaker 8: That's that's pretty telling as well.
Speaker 4: I think you could probably agree with Gronk and Tony Gonzalez, right,
Gronk for sure.
Speaker 8: For sure, Gronk for sure. I think Gronk might be
the best ever end.
Speaker 9: I still have Gates a little bit ahead of Tony
Gonzalez when you put up their stats next to each other.
I just think it's a very close argument. I could
listen to either one. I think there's more things. There's
more routes that Gates could run. Tony certainly had a
couple of his repertoire that he ran at an elite level,
where I think Gates could he could do some receiver things.
Speaker 4: When you on that list, like the guys you're talking
about Dates, Gronk, toninganz aalz Out even though Jason Whitten
that we talked about that they can they could translate
to any offense. Travis Kelcey's great in his own right,
but it's also kind of probably a product of that offense.
I don't know, but this is just our opinions up here.
He's probably probably he's not the best blocker in the world.
Speaker 6: That's what saying, Like you have to define the tight
end position like Kelsey is essentially just a big receiver.
He's not a great blocker, Like if you want to
go tight end, like George kittles on much better all
around tight end.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, we're we're looking at this list, we're
breaking it down. I'm choosing George Kittle over Travis Kelcey. Yes,
every day, all day. Dude's a freak.
Speaker 8: George Kittle is the most complete in the NFL. He's
a mawler on the line.
Speaker 4: He is.
Speaker 8: He's not like a willing blocker like he's dude at it.
Speaker 3: Ye. Yeah, he's fun to watch. He's electric.
Speaker 4: He can he can beat you on a corner route
or a go route or a crossing route, whatever it is.
But it will also drive you in the dirt and
talk about it to let you know about it with
a smile on his face, which is pretty psychopathist in.
Speaker 8: A good way.
Speaker 4: But a lot of people in the chat talking out,
they're bringing up Jimmy Graham. Okay, Jimmy Graham in his
own right for sure, great for the Saints of Saints legend.
Speaker 8: Yeah, he's a top ten guy.
Speaker 4: Been fortunate enough to hang with Jimmy quite a bit
the last couple of years through our relationship. We weren't
so we didn't cross paths and we weren't teammates when
I was with the Saints for a little bit. He
came back after thatwks like never.
Speaker 3: No ever, no, So yeah, we high five on the
way way in.
Speaker 4: But I've got to know him the last couple of
years just from what we take a guys trip every
year with some some former players, and uh, it kind
of brought it up.
Speaker 3: He is about to embark.
Speaker 4: On like an incredible event, a credible journey, like if
y'all't know, like Jimmy Backstore. He is one of the
most like impressive humans, like Renaissance Man. He's a pilot,
he flies planes, jets, helicopters, he navigates weather, he's a cyclist.
He does all this crazy stuff. So he's a part
of what's called the the Arctic Challenge, where basically they're
gonna get on a canoe a team of four, unaccompanied
by any like safety vessels or anything like that, and
they're gonna just row across the Arctic Ocean what I
don't know if you've ever heard of that ocean.
Speaker 7: So they're just gonna run dangerous.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's all for a good calls like bringing
awareness of charity and like you know, challenging people to
push themselves, pushing their body.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's a team.
Speaker 4: So it's Jimmy gram so X NFL player, Navy Seals
and rowers.
Speaker 3: From like Team USA. So they've been training for like
a year.
Speaker 4: I think they've done a lot of rowing and stuff
on on like poncha train. Yeah, so they're doing they're
doing all sorts of stuff. So you know, Jimmy Hops
is playing, you know, flies over and he's just a
it's an impressive dude, renaissance man, and like go look
it up, like go see like this, you could see
it online. The canoe that they're I call it a canoe,
that's not what it is, but it's a it's a
rowing boat machine.
Speaker 8: Yeah. We didn't go to the Ivy League. We don't
know the term.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I think it's like there, it's like two
hours on, two hours off, two hours of rowing and
then you get two hours ago, like take a little rest,
take a nap.
Speaker 3: Get it. They got like a little cabin. I don't
know how Jimmy's gonna fit in this thame.
Speaker 4: He's a big human. But yeah, dude, it's really cool.
Go look it up. You see, like their sponsors, the
charity that it's supporting, and it's just a really cool
You'll be able to like track their journey throughout the
entire thing, and Jimmy's like the Jimmy's in charge of
navigating them or because because of him being a pilot,
he knows.
Speaker 5: How to track weather, the pressures, the fronts and everything
like that.
Speaker 4: So they're gonna have to like he's gonna be doing
like the weather making sure they're not like going into
a huge Arctic storm.
Speaker 8: Right yeah, yeah, pretty well, Jimmy's not a meat head.
Speaker 3: Oh no, definitely not.
Speaker 9: Look and I'm not saying that, you know, meatheads can't
do things like that, but that feels like a step
above a meathead.
Speaker 8: Uh you know.
Speaker 9: Bobby Carpenter is a professor of finance at the Ohio
State University. But that feels like the ceiling for a meathead.
But when you're like leading into the ocean like this,
it feels like yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and like the you know, the safety of the
vessel and.
Speaker 4: The crew kind of kind of depends on you know,
there's some weather up ahead, right, Well, yeah, so I
think it's a thousand kilometers, are going six hundred miles
something like that? What six hundred miles?
Speaker 3: A believe? Yeah, it's artic Cohan, guys.
Speaker 7: Six man, this is this is this is unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Let's see.
Speaker 4: The Arctic Challenge is a six hundred mile record setting
expedition across the Arctic Ocean led by diverse American crew,
rowing NonStop through freezing seas to test human limits, inspire
the next generation, and support youth driven causes.
Speaker 3: How about that?
Speaker 7: All right, I man, shout out, Jimmy, Jimmy Grant, get
it done.
Speaker 3: Let's go.
Speaker 7: I'll be watching from the warmth of my house.
Speaker 9: So it's gonna be so yeah, Oh all right. We're
gonna step away for the final time this week. We
will check in with Alandra Rivers. They're on the road
right now, road tripping to Omaha. Gonna call Landra, get
kind of a behind the scenes how it's been so far.
Not sure how far they made it. We'll see if
they're heading to the right direction, making good time there
to Omaha. Will have that to close out today's Oh
mop the bench are you going to get Gordon dot
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Eight eight eight eight eight eight eight.
Speaker 1: From players to legends, Hester and Flynn breakdown LSU football
like only champions can do you Sleepy.
Speaker 8: Underrated MJ here Jordan's.
Speaker 7: I'm cooking man. You know I'm cooking, but you're cooking
cooking in the kitchen.
Speaker 9: Yes, just because you turned forty. These dad jokes are
getting at and that's two.
Speaker 8: All right, too many? All right, let's go now to
parts unknown.
Speaker 9: Producer of our show, Elandra Blank Space Villa Reale Rivers Sue,
you own the road to Omaha?
Speaker 8: How are we doing? How's the road trip so far?
Are we heading in the right direction?
Speaker 2: I think we're headed in the right direction. It says north,
so that feels right. I'm not quite sure where we're at.
I think we just crossed over into Missouri.
Speaker 8: All right, to show mistake, show me seven, I'll show
you eight.
Speaker 2: Don't know what that means, and I'm going.
Speaker 8: You remember how you felt?
Speaker 9: You remember how you felt about Blue October? That's how
I feel right now?
Speaker 2: Wait?
Speaker 8: What did you?
Speaker 4: Wait?
Speaker 2: Okay, hold on, Rivers, do you know who Blue October is?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 4: Wait's what I think? Hey?
Speaker 10: Wait?
Speaker 2: Hate me today?
Speaker 10: Okay?
Speaker 2: Anyways, alsome, I guess I'm the only one in this
world who knows who me and Matt Miscona know who
Blue October is?
Speaker 9: All right, Well, how's it been like? How How is
the trip? That was a Nelly song by the way
that I was quoting there. How's the trip been so far?
Where did we stop? What time did we get back
up and start to drive again?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it was like nine hours of just being
locked in and driving. Yesterday we stopped maybe once or twice,
and then we stopped in Bentonville, Arkansas. Don't know if
you've heard.
Speaker 8: Of it, but it's.
Speaker 2: So Bentonville. And then we stopped there last night and
we just got back on the road like at nine.
So we're gonna stop in. I keep seeing Saint Louis,
but it's Kansas City.
Speaker 9: Well there's two Kansas City's. I mean the Kansas side
the Missouri side. That does get confusing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's Kansas Okay. Also, Matt, happy birthday, thank you.
But there's a place called Joe's Barbecue that we're going
to stop at, and Anthony Bourdain talked about it, so
I can see what that's about. Yeah, but about six
hours from Omaha right now, we're very excited.
Speaker 4: So once you let's say you'll drive, you'll cross the
city limits in Omaha. What's the plan? What are you
What's what's on the agenda today? Once you get there,
what you're going to do.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna do some bar hopping, for sure, go
check out all the that are popular in Omaha. We
just talked to Hunt. He went to a place called
Old Market last night, so we'll probably check that out. Obviously,
go to Roccos and add to the Deello shot competition,
and then we're gonna go to Blats as well, and
then take that Ryan Legee the memorial that he talked about.
Speaker 9: We're gonna go to that awesome.
Speaker 2: Apparently the guy gives you a beer to sip on
while you're shopping around, so it sounds like my place absolutely.
Speaker 9: So one thing we always know about, like Omaha wants
LSU makes it to the Championship Series is thousands of
new LSU fans not new to LSU but new to
omahall make their way up there, kind of like y'all
are doing right now.
Speaker 8: How many have we seen on the road?
Speaker 9: Have we seen anybody with like LSU flags or anything
on the.
Speaker 8: Way up there?
Speaker 2: So I surprisingly have not seen like any LSU fans
or any sort of Louisiana even license plates. We did
stop at a gas station and I had an LSU
shirt on and this guy was like, I like that shirt,
So that counts for anything.
Speaker 8: Absolutely hitting with the go Tigers.
Speaker 2: I did. I was like, go Tigers.
Speaker 8: There you go, well done, my best toe boys.
Speaker 9: Well, that's the only way that you can do that
is rivers pulling for LSU or Coastal Carolina.
Speaker 2: So she's been very neutral, but her nails are yellow. Okay,
so I feel like that's the is you cool?
Speaker 8: You're well, they're not.
Speaker 1: Tell here's the deal.
Speaker 2: I have brought some purple and some gold to dabble
with while I'm on this trip.
Speaker 4: You know that can't go full L s U.
Speaker 8: All right, Well, fair enough, fair enough something.
Speaker 2: Something I'm every day gonna get progressively more an L
s U fan as far as what I'm wearing.
Speaker 3: All right, sounds like she's going L s U.
Speaker 9: And two it sounds like she is going L s
U to sweep Coastal Carolina. Well, y'all be safe. We
got about ten seconds left. Y'all be safe, Cheer on
the Tigers safely, and uh have a lot of yellow shots.
Speaker 10: All right?
Speaker 8: Bye, all right, see y'all later, and we'll see you
later next.
Speaker 9: Go into f and Tigers off the bench and go
hall Star Toyota van herstuck in there.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 8: You can say that, right, F F I n G.
Speaker 3: The thing.
Speaker 8: It's OK.
Speaker 3: Absolutely it's not.
Speaker 8: You know you can do it. No, you can do it.
I know the rules, dude.
Speaker 3: Again.
Speaker 9: We know everybody's tuned in. The stuc's up there. We
know it got it, everybody's tuned in, O t B.
But All Star toy Venrouge dot com. Go buy a
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Speaker 4: Let's do this all start toy to baton Rouge dot
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