Hey, it's Gary and in a little bit I'll be joined by a special guests and we'll get to the football. But before I start today's show, I want to take a minute and just a minute to recognize that there are more important things going on in the world than say, how the Brown has improvement an offensive tackle will lift Baker Mayfield's game. On this specific show, we're not going to cover the killing of George Floyd or the ensuing protests going on across the US, though you will find coverage of it elsewhere on Sports Illustrated and s I dot com. But I would encourage anyone who you know, quite frank you have the time to take a few minutes to listen to this show, to also take a few minutes out of your day or out of your week to please inform yourself about what we all now recognize as a desperate need for reform of our criminal justice system and the state of policing and policing policies, whether it's merely a drastic overhaul of the current system or a full on police abolition. I'd specifically recommend the Marshall Project. There are a nonprofit group that researches criminal justice system reform. Uh, it's the only thing they do. They've done it for a few years now, and they do it exceptionally. Well, it's a really wonderful resource. And uh, just one other thing, regardless of where you choose to go for your information, if you are reading an article or watching a show or listening to some goober politician tell you to uh to fear Antifa, and Antifa is behind all these problems. Stop move on. You're in the wrong place. You're getting bad information. You might as well be watching, you know, syndicated Walker Texas Ranger to shape your worldview. And I think we all know when it comes to Walker Texas Ranger, there is no way anyone has roundhouse kicked that many people through that many plate glass windows. It's it's just unfeasible. So I challenge you be informed and be open minded, because if there's one thing that's now abundantly clear, it's that where we need to get to doesn't look anything like where we are right now. And for anyone going out to exercise their right to peacefully protest, please be safe. Now onto the football things. So hey, it's Gary again, and now I want to introduce our special guest it is Andy Annoys a boy and your your beards looking great. I don't know about the hair though, when it was the last hair that you had. Uh trimm the side. Yeah, I did get the haircut. He left it longer than usual. I'm fine with that. Um trying something new and he knew what he was doing. Um. I did not style it today, which I normally don't, but I feel like I have to with this one. But yeah, my hair's horror and I combed it right before we started because I knew you'd see me. I styled my hair. I put on my my tucks and tied my bow tie myself, and that's what I do every show. Your hair is tamer than usual. You know. We've started like four shows in the last half year talking about our hair. It's like our form of talking about the weather. And we live in different towns, so we're not talking about the weather. We see each other's hair and that's what we talk about. That's how we start our phone calls though, check in on each other's hair. What's the texture today? Uh? So we uh listen. We have a couple of good questions that were left over from last week and a couple of you a couple of you just missed the deadline. I mean you should feel tremendous shame in that you didn't send your questions until Monday for the show that came out Monday morning. And that's just I mean, come on, that's embarrassing, guys. But we're gonna do you a favor and answer some of your questions. Anyway. We have four real good ones here, and I think these are ones that we probably will go a little bit deeper on than some of our typical mailback stuff. But uh, this first one is coming from Chris uh and this is this about Baker Mayfield. A couple of uh sort of a two part of question here. How much better off is Baker Mayfield with one his new offensive tackles and to Kevin Stefanski's offense? Are we looking at an m v P type breakout? I wanna I wanna break it up just a bit for a second here, Andy, and and just just ask you. We know being the smallest quarterback is very important to have that interior protection for Baker Mayfield. On top of that, uh, we do know that obviously their offensive tackle play was a trocious last year, was a huge problem and Uh, but let's just let's let's just pretend that Jack Conklin and and Jedrick Will's the first round pick. They are going to be quality uh left tackle and right tackle there, and they're gonna be solid at those business positions this year. Had that been the case last year, if they had like solid offensive tackle play, what's your sense how much better would Mayfield have been? Well, that's obviously a chicken or egg kind of question, because Mayfield was not Mayfield was not good a lot of the time last year, and there were times that he made his offensive line look worse than at once by playing in efficiently, not necessarily moving as well within the pocket as he's capable of moving. He didn't see the field of the same rhythm and clarity last year as he did as a rookie. Then we can decide to discuss is that because was it was he uncomfortable because he knew his offensive tackles weren't great. Remember those guys, It's not just when Greg Robinson doesn't block somebody the quarterback gets hit. It's also that the quarterback goes into the next snap knowing that Greg's probably not gonna get this guy blocked and now your quarterback is playing different perhaps, so it's it's an either or there's a shared responsibility there. Blockers must protect qbs, but qbs must help their blockers. And I didn't think either of those sites did that last season. I I am optimistic for Mayfield hitting the reset button and being fined there because he was solid in that sense as a rookie he I didn't have. I didn't feel like I was watching a guy with pocket issues when you put on the film and then Stefanski scheme is so much about passing downs or excuse me, passing the ball on running downs, that there's gonna be a lot less stress put on the offensive lineman just by the nature the offense. And I think that's gonna help Mayfield a lot as well. Again because remember the quarterbacks aware of how life is for his offensive line. So if that old line is not feeling stressed, there's a good chance Mayfield's gonna feel a lot less stress as well. I was gonna say with the Stefanski offense, I mean, you know, obviously what he ran in Minnesota was very run heavy, Uh that that was very much what Mike Zimmer wanted UH to do there. So I mean, are we gonna see sort of just Mayfield working off play action a lot? Would you anticipate that? Would you anticipate something a little more expansive than what we saw from Stefanski uh in in Minnesota? Well, I know, I think with Stefanski is going to do a lot of the run stuff that he did already. I know Mike Zimmer wanted to play that way, but Stefanski found out that that fashion of football works for them. And if you look at their offseason moves, you know they signed Annie Janovitch fullback from Denver and signing Austin Hooper a tight end. They drafted Harrison Bryant in the fourth round it tighten, and then they brought back David and Joe Coup, which I think surprised some people. Um So they plan on playing with two backs or two tight ends on the field quite a bit, because they're telling you that by who they're investing. And they did not go out and find wide receiver depth, even though it's not a great looking receiving corps once you get outside of Mayfield or Jarvis Landry and and and Odell Beckham. So I think they're gonna play out a base personnel Gary, and I think that's gonna help Mayfield quite a bit this season. All right, good to hear. You know. One other one other thing though about Mayfield that yeah, yeah, it's a big thing throwing the ball. He was He was not as effective physically throwing the ball last year. That's probably part of what we're talking about with everything else. He's not as comfortable as his feet probably aren't getting set the same way. But Stefanski's whole attitude about quarterback and accuracy. I've had this conversation Stefanski, I believe was the assistant QB coach in Minnesota when I first met him back in twenty twelve. It's a long time ago. We went to lunch with Bill Musgrave. And Bill Musgrave, by the way, offensive coordinator of the Vikings, had the entire macaroni grilled menu, memorized every item on the menu. He's that big a maccary as it's like his call sheet. He held it, held the menu out and there was a change to the appetizers, like the third one from the top was changed, and he noticed that and asked the waitress about it, and how's the new appetizer going. So Anyway, during that lunch, I heard Stefanski say, for the first time of many times since when a quarterback's missing and it's off target, the tendency for a lot of coaches is to say, oh, you know, your foot's off. Your foot has to be pointed at what you're throwing at, or your elbow needs to be talked or all these little minutia that goes into throwing the ball. And Stefanski's attitude is, sometimes a quarterback just misses throw throw the ball better. If you have a question about what he can teach you, that's I'll teach the mechanics. But he's not going to real that into the guy. He doesn't want robotic throwers. And I'll be really interested to see how that goes for Mayfield, because none of what we're talking about matters if Mayfield doesn't throw the ball better. And Mayfield is completely capable of it, because he we saw him throw the ball really well as a rookie. He was a good thrower in college. And I imagine sa Fancy's attitude will be, Hey, Baker, that you know you threw the ball extremely well your first year. Let's just go play. If you have some issues we can figure it out. But you know, just just throw the ball. You'll be fine. Okay, I'm I'm frantically looking for a macaroni grilled menu here just to see how impressed I should be. Uh, it's not that big a menu. It really this one. It's a chain restaurant. Yeah, they you know, they do few things, and they do it well, I think, is what I would say if I remember. There were items on both sides of I mean, now I'm looking at macaron and grill menu. There were items on both sides like the may to you, it's like rich items, like twenty items over here, twenty over there. It was a two it was a full two page menu. Really okay, well what I'm letting, Okay, you don't maybe you're looking at like a special carry out only manure I'm looking at I'm looking at main menu. I mean I don't know. Yeah, I see it. Create your own pasta, I mean there's yeah, that's how they do it. It's you know, it's it's like an offensive runs a lot of plays out of the same look. Uh, you know, when you have to create your own pasta, it looks like you don't. That's just a lot of dressing. Yeah, all those combinations. Uh, I don't know if they don't come in as advertisers now, I I don't know what would close the deal. Uh, let's go to next question. This is Ryan from Arkansas. How important our linebackers and Mike Nolan's scheme? Uh, new Cowboys coordinator? Defensive coordinator? Might Nolan? How important on the linebackers in his scheme? And how well do Jalen Smith and Layton Vandersh fit well? All Right, Layton Vanderesh and Jalen Smith or that kind of talent, and they should fit well in every scheme. And that doesn't mean that they don't do some things better than other things. But those are two first class star players when they're at their best. We haven't seen Mike Noland run his own system in quite a while. Last time we saw him he was in Atlanta. He was defensive coordinator. I'd argue, Gary, tell me if you disagree, I'd argue, that was a different era, even though it wasn't too long ago. I think it's a little bit of a different era for football. That's fair. Things have changed fast the last five years. Yeah, I mean it's not radically different, but Nolan was in New Orleans the last three seasons and the Saints and the coach the linebackers for the Saints. The Saints linebackers got markedly better there, especially to Mario Davis. And what made them so much better, especially to Mario Davis, was the system really put the linebackers in position to play fast. It was one thing to read and then react to it. They didn't do a lot of match zone stuff with multiple reads. If they did go match zone, they usually had manned principles for the linebackers right out of it. It was there wasn't a lot to process for those linebackers, and it really took advantage of their strength, which was their playing speed. That would be very similar for Jalen Smith and Layton Vanders. They have outstanding playing speed. None of us to say these guys can't process a lot of information. To Marrow Davis, that's not to say that either, But they became. Davis became a better player when they said just either blitz them or go pick up a guy in man demand. You got one thing to handle on each play, now go no, go be an animal about it. And I think they're gonna do the same thing with Vander esh and Jalen Smith, just because of the the amount of sheer physical talent that those two linebackers possess. I want to pose this question, which you probably won't like that, I'll pose it anyway. Uh, if Mike Nolan was your defensive coordinator and you were like running a spansion team and you kind of like, you know, it's like, where do you want to put your resources? Because I feel like the Cowboys have an unusual amount of resources and investment in their in their linebackers here. Obviously they have talented other spots too, but um, where would you build first for a Mike Nolan defense? Yeah, and you're right, they do have a lot of resources that linebacker and they were running that Chris Richard Rod Marinelli spot drop zone defense. Marinelli's the Tampa to Chris Rashard's obviously the Seahawks style defense, and both of those schemes, especially that Seattle style scheme, put the big emphasis on linebackers. Look at Bobby Wagner and kJ Wright and what those guys have meant to Seattle or San Francisco. This year they went out and signed Kwon Alexander in the off season. They drafted uh Reuben Foster a few years ago didn't work out, but Fred Warners worked out really well, another relatively high pick, third round pick. So it's linebackers are important in that scheme. And now Dallas is doing a different scheme, but they've got those great linebackers still. To answer your question, Gary, I would put him at cornerback because Mike Nolan, I believe, in its heart of hearts, wants to come after you. And that was the big in Atlanta. Even though it was a different era, there was an overarching philosophy that Nolan had. It's one that we talked about a lot on this show, which is he believed he could scheme pressure as long as he had guys who could cover one on one and give me a guy that can handle the receivers. I don't have to give extra bodies over to help and coverage. Now we got options for how to use those bodies as blitzers. That's Mike Nolan's view of football at thirty thousand feet and with the way the NFL is now, Gary is so many r p o s or not so many, but it's a it's a mainstream factor and there's so many quick strike throws. The best way to defend both of those quick throws and r p o s is to play man to man coverage and get right up on the guy and take away the passing game right off the snap. So I have no reason to believe Nolan wouldn't be as committed to man Bridge now as he was in Atlanta. Uh next question, this is Nick from London. We're gonna stay with the cornerback theme here. Uh. Andy, You've been quite vocal about the value Logan Ryan can still bring to a team. Mike Rabel recently hinted it that the Titans haven't signed him because they are seeing more and more vertical routes being run from the slot, and so they want a slot corner who can cover those. Well, is this a trend you've also noticed, and what will it mean for defensive schemes and changes in defensive personnel decisions going forward. That's a really interesting question. I would I'd love to hear how Rabel said that, if he was asked a question or what brought that up, because what's interesting about that? And I've had long conversations with Rabel about defending the slot route, so I mean it's he has a lot of views on it. But what's interesting that they do so much zone coverage to defend the slot and rotating defensive backs in and out of the slot back to afety different spots, and Logan Ryan was part of that or blitzing him off the slot. With all due respect to to coach Rabel, I don't I don't think their system asks guys to cover one on one from the slot vertically nearly as much as other systems might. Now that doesn't mean he still don't need guys who can do it, and Rabel I know when he was in Houston he did play a lot of quarters coverage, and quarters coverage with each defender taken one fourth of the field. Usually you wind up playing Manda man on the slot as part of that equation. And maybe he plans on doing more quarters coverage now that he's back to likely being the one who calls the defense with uh as Uh Demps is gone, Demps is the coordinator. Last year, Danps played a lot of cover two, So I don't know, it'll be interesting to see, but you know, that's that's substance that Rabel gay that that wasn't just a stock answer. If they're looking for a guy who can cover the slot. That's that's real substance that he's providing. I do see they have they have Jonathan Joseph on their roster. Now I was not aware, at least I'd forgotten that, Um Joseph came from Houston, So Rabel notes familiarity there. Maybe they're gonna be doing more the Houston Texans coverages this year. Yeah, well, I was gonna say John and Joseph doesn't run any better than Logan Ryan. I'm sure John runs any better than either of us at this point. Yeah, that's true. And and Joseph has played really well despite you know, he lost his speed about five years ago, and he's still been a highly effective corner. UM Christian Fulton, their second round pick. I know, he was pretty up and down at L s U and man coverage, wasn't he Gary? Yeah, it was always a little bit tricky to read, just because you know, everyone was going at him because they didn't want to throw at the freshman uh Stingley at L s U. So he got picked on a lot. Uh you can you definitely say up and down though, Okay, just trying to figure out who they envisioned being their SLocker. It's not gonna be Joseph. He doesn't have the change of direction to play the slot. Um, and would you do Dory Jackson? I've always thought Jackson looks like he could do it. I think Malcolm Butler looks the part a little at Jackson would probably be a better fit there. Um Fulton, I think the change of direction was a little problematic in some people's eyes at L L s U as well. They really don't have a pure slot guy on the roster, which would also lead you to believe that maybe they're doing more Manda Man coverage. It's not. It's hard to say, but um, I'll be eager to see because their corners can play in a lot of different spots. I do think Logan Ryan was a great player for them in the context of their scheme last year, and there was talking about Logan Ryan going to the Jets. That would be a perfect fit because the Jets are the most similar stylistically of any team in the NFL to Tennessee. It's the systems built on disguise cover two concepts, and that's where Ryan really really brings a lot of value. They could they could also use the help. Not only is he a fit, they need some bodies there in that secondary. Yep, they do they because there I mean, it's Brian Pool right now, who I think is purely a slot guy, and Pierre de Seer. And so if they did sign Logan Brian Uh, Ryan would play either the slot or outside. I'd be interesting to see between he and Brian Pool who played where. But the reason they're not great at that position at the defensive back is because they play so much cover too, so they don't feel like they need to invest heavily in cornerbacks because cornerbacks always have help help defenders around them in their scheme. Uh, let's get at least one more question here. This is Lance from Maryland. Uh. With the Ravens offensive attack designed specifically around unique players, especially Lamar Jackson, how could the Ravens offense still run? How would the Ravens offense still want run if it were to be without any of those key players like Lamar Jackson, mark Ingram, the tight ends, the offensive line, and etcetera. So let's let's take Lamar out of the equation to start with here. Uh, when you look at this Ravens offense and he is there anyone like it? Can can they? Can they be without Mark Andrews or or can they you know what, We're gonna see him try and replace Marshall Gyanda this year. I mean it is you know, a hole in the offensive line, you know, going to threaten to completely disrupt this offense or you know, is it? Is it one of these other weapons? Well that's a good question. Um there their offense to me, obviously, Littlemark Jackson is the starting place of the offense and the defining piece of that offense, and to me, the next defining pieces all of the pre snap motioning that they do to set up their running game and even their passing game, but especially their running game, and that you obviously you can do that with anybody. Now. Doing it with better players is superior to doing it with average players or worst players, of course, but it gets into the old discussion of how much of it's the scheme and how much of it is our guys. And Greg Roman their their run game designer, he it's a lot. He's a big schemer, and he'll think he would tell you we do a lot with scheme. Uh. Having Lamar helps so much because you have to defend him in the running game differently than you would in the other quarterback. I don't think there's any guy in this scheme that's that's not replaceable other than Lamar Jackson. Interesting, it's and I don't mean that to like, Look, if they took Ronnie Stanley out of the lineup, who I thought was a borderline all pro left hack. He was right there for all Pro and I I thought he was sensational last year. If they took him out and just put in any old guy, Andre Smith, their veteran backup, are they going to be worse. Of course they're going to be worse, but they're not gonna necessarily play differently. I don't know if there's anybody on the offense that would that they've that they've built around and their skill set other than Lamar Jackson, because how could you not. And that's the reason they like mark Ingram By the way Ingram is and J K. Dobbins, I imagine, is this way there the second round pick. Now they're rookie out of high state. You handle the ball and he runs exactly where the plays designed for the ball to be run. He he runs the plays as their design. That's what they want there in Baltimore because they're confident in their ability to design those plays. I would say I was shocked when I was going through some snap count information from last year. I was shocked that, Uh, Mark Andrews played like a fewer than half the snaps. I know he's backed up a little bit, especially late in the year, but uh he was, you know he, I mean what he was. Let me get the exact number up here, four d sixty seven snaps over fifteen games, which is I mean, that's less than half. Yeah, it is. And I and I would argue, I think you could argue. I've had this discussion with people from the Ravens and people who have played against the Ravens, and I know Mark Andrews went to the Pro Bowl, and I understand why. And he's a really valuable receiver, and I think he's an okay enough blockers certainly. I think you could argue in their offense, Nick Boyle as their most valuable tight end, and Nick Boyle's the guy that plays the most of those three was it was three. Hayden Hurst obviously won't play many snaps for them this year, but last year they were putting three guys out there and boils the one that played. I'm guessing what was he? Gary? Sixty five percent? Sixty five pretty good? Seven three snaps out of eleven five on the season. You're gonna have to give me the percent as well. I don't expose me like that. No, no, I'll punch it in. But you were, I'm saying like you were, that was a pretty good guess. You are right around there are you're punching it in still a computers then what you're seeing doesn't have it next to it already. No, no, no, because I just I use our stats in account because it just it makes me happy. Um just under okay, I sixties? Wow. Yeah. So he's their fullback slash, he's your h back. He's he's the most movable piece at the tight end position. And that's a big deal in their scheme again because of the way they they playing. Um, you know, ESPN dot com, I think it was not to not to ever promote anyone other than Sports Illustrated, But ESPN dot Com had a really interesting article last season about the number of snaps that Baltimore's had where the guy in motion is basically equal with the ball at the time of the snap. In other words, he's not left of the ball, he's not to the right of the ball. He's basically where the ball is. And that's a huge part of how they play there because when you do that, you don't know where to set the strength of the formation. If one guy is equal with the balls, he part of the weak side or the strong side is if he moves, does he move which side's weak side and strong side. That's how defense is set. They set their defense and their rules to the formation into certain guys. So that's why Baltimore moves their guys all the time. They're really advanced with that, and I would imagine, especially given how San Francisco has has so much success with this as well, and and the Rams in past years, they that's what they do the jet sweeps for is because it sets all these strength strength of formation issues, It sets gap control issues just by the rules of the defense. I would bet in five the seven or eight years of snaps will have this kind of motion, not not two minutes snaps because those you've gotta go fast, but just regular snaps. I think teams are going to start doing this more and more because that's where scheming takes place now is before the snap. That's pretty uh, that's pretty devious stuff. Yeah, it is devious stuff. And that's that's the kind of stuff that Greg Romans really proud of and and it's the kind of stuff that's worked really well for them. So picture all of that and then add in that. The guy that gets the ball at the time where you don't know if the balls to the strength of the week side, you know, the guy's hand the ball the whole time is Lamar Jackson, the league's MVP who last year there were a lot of cases where the defense did handle Baltimore's run game just fine, and Lamar Jackson just he was better than the guy trying to tackle him. He outran people and almost gary he was so dynamic at at out running people, like getting the edge that there were times that looked like the defense had gotten gashed and was not cap sound when really they were. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, my goodness, there were some outside of that, you know, getting the edge if you just lean a little bit into the wrong spot against this this offense here, he's just so fast he can't recover um. And and he's fast, he gets he gets fast, really fast. His acceleration is effortless and almost deceptive. Um so he We've said this before, but he's in his own class of mobility. It's it's you, he's it's Lamar Jackson, then everyone else for mobility. And so when you're talking about handling quarterback mobility, how do you defend these read options? You're really talking about the everyone else because there's not a good set answer for Lamar Jack's right now, there's nobody close to him as a QB mobility wise. I say, God forbid he get hurt at any point in here. But would they just run the same offense with with Robert Griffin? The third is that what your your guests would be if if they had to go with the backup? Yeah, they they would. And and that's we've had this discussion actually had about Robert Griffin years ago when when he was struggling to find a job in the NFL. You and I debated, do you want your backup quarterback to be the same as your starter in terms of style or do you want them to be different? And I've always been a believer I want my guy to be the same. Because of what you just said, I want to run the offense. So everyone else has practiced the offense. We've learned it all season. I want to run the offense the way we designed when the backups in, but I know you've always felt like you want a different backup quarterback. I like the chaos. I think this is by the way, I think this is our first show together that we had this conversation. Did But um, I wouldn't have been I would not have been comfortable enough with you on our first show to have an intimate conversation about to the degree of backup quarterbacking. I sprung it on you. It was a live podcast. You weren't prepared. But uh no, Yeah, I like the chaos of it. I like the fact that, um, and again, you just reach a certain drop off with the sort of stylistic backups, Like you know, I think it was sort of the the Matt Castle line a couple of years ago, where you just say, Okay, you know you can do the you can run the same offense, but it's just being run so poorly that it's it's not worth doing it. So why not just have a guy who's going to create and you know, gonna give you some bad but also gonna at least give you a chance to do some good. So do you think it matters how many games you're playing? Because if I, if I know the backups in for one too, maybe three games, I might be able to go with what you're saying there, let's just get through it. But if you got a backup that has to play for four to six weeks or you know, heaven forbid you have to finish the season with your backup, does that change you're thinking it any point? Then? Um, if it was like four to six weeks, the chaos at some point becomes on your end of things, Yes, well, the chaos and then also the fact that you know there there can be a certain amount of preparation for the chaos that you have unveiled with your different stylistic quarterback. So yeah, I think it maybe gets a little bit stale the longer it runs out. But again, I think the issue is when you, uh, you know, if you're saying we want a guy who's the same stylistically, it's like, well, okay, how how low are you going as far as the quality goes? And when does it reach a point where uh, it's just not worth it? Even though you're running the same offense. It's just not uh the guy running it is just not capable of running in NFL caliber ofphins. I mean that the Jets last year. I mean, you know, God bless me, folk, but uh, you know, Luke Falk, I'm sure could run a lot of the same concepts. It was just he was, you know, not good enough at it to score points. Yeah, that's I know. I agree with you. And I got to spend some time with the Jets and was in their quarterback group, and I can tell you Luke Falk knows that offense top to bottom. He's a he's a very smart football player. It's just it's the NFL, and it's it's hard what happens with because Luke Falk can play, so to speak, but with guys like that where they're just not as physically gifted, you need players around them to play really well. You can't have you can't have defensive ends getting in the backfield. You can't have corners beating your wide receivers. The quarterback needs to really be helped by the guys around him. And and you like you'd like the scheme to do to do that a little bit as well. Um, the part We have to also remember with Lamar Jackson, so back to the the idea, if Robert Griffin were in for Lamar, they're running the same offense, They're not going to be as good at it, of course, and Griffin can run, but he's he's not close to Lamar as a mobile QB, and there's a big drop off in the past part. Lamar Jackson is a very good passing quarterback as well. And his numbers, we're not big numbers guys on this show, Gary, but I mean, shoot, thirty six touchdowns, six interceptions, and I know I went't. I've been studying interceptions very closely this offseason. Lamar Jackson between weeks six and sixteen through one ball the entire time that could have been intercepted. So not only is he not throwing, he's not thrown dropped interceptions. You the guy has thirty five touchdowns and had an eleven game stretch where there wasn't a chance to even intercept the single one of his throws. So if you're just playing drop back football now, I don't think that's I don't know if you could do that with Jackson every single snap, drop back, drop back, drop back. But within the context of their offense. Their drop back passing game is very good and he might be at his point soon where you could drop back with him snap after snap. He's really going in the right direction on that side of things. And that was a that was a very numbers e moment for this. Oh yeah, it was. It's spot. It's because I have an interception, Jim. I wanted to tee it up. Nice. Nice, that was. That was the perfect finale to this episode. Uh Andy, once again, we thank you for joining us, and we will say this is just goodbye for now. All right, Thanks Gary. The mm QB Monday Morning NFL podcast is me Gary Gramling's special thanks again to Andy Benoit for joining me for this one. We are produced by Shelby Royston Sis. Executive producer or podcast is Scott Brody. Ben Eagle is director of editorial Projects and product Mark Rabick, He's emeritus editor of the MMQB and Annoyed is the founder of the MMPUT NFL podcast. Keyb up with our entire line for podcasts five days a week by subscribing to the MMQB NFL podcast for free on Apple Podcasts. Now, why are there? Please do us the favor and leave a rating m review. It really does help other people find the show, which is also available on Spotify Radio dot com, Stitcher, SI dot com. When wherever else you listen to, podcasts will need to be end

Hey, it's Gary and in a little bit I'll be joined by a special guests and we'll get to the football. But before I start today's show, I want to take a minute and just a minute to recognize that there are more important things going on in the world than say, how the Brown has improvement an offensive tackle will lift Baker Mayfield's game. On this specific show, we're not going to cover the killing of George Floyd or the ensuing protests going on across the US, though you will find coverage of it elsewhere on Sports Illustrated and s I dot com. But I would encourage anyone who you know, quite frank you have the time to take a few minutes to listen to this show, to also take a few minutes out of your day or out of your week to please inform yourself about what we all now recognize as a desperate need for reform of our criminal justice system and the state of policing and policing policies, whether it's merely a drastic overhaul of the current system or a full on police abolition. I'd specifically recommend the Marshall Project. There are a nonprofit group that researches criminal justice system reform. Uh, it's the only thing they do. They've done it for a few years now, and they do it exceptionally. Well, it's a really wonderful resource. And uh, just one other thing, regardless of where you choose to go for your information, if you are reading an article or watching a show or listening to some goober politician tell you to uh to fear Antifa, and Antifa is behind all these problems. Stop move on. You're in the wrong place. You're getting bad information. You might as well be watching, you know, syndicated Walker Texas Ranger to shape your worldview. And I think we all know when it comes to Walker Texas Ranger, there is no way anyone has roundhouse kicked that many people through that many plate glass windows. It's it's just unfeasible. So I challenge you be informed and be open minded, because if there's one thing that's now abundantly clear, it's that where we need to get to doesn't look anything like where we are right now. And for anyone going out to exercise their right to peacefully protest, please be safe. Now onto the football things. So hey, it's Gary again, and now I want to introduce our special guest it is Andy Annoys a boy and your your beards looking great. I don't know about the hair though, when it was the last hair that you had. Uh trimm the side. Yeah, I did get the haircut. He left it longer than usual. I'm fine with that. Um trying something new and he knew what he was doing. Um. I did not style it today, which I normally don't, but I feel like I have to with this one. But yeah, my hair's horror and I combed it right before we started because I knew you'd see me. I styled my hair. I put on my my tucks and tied my bow tie myself, and that's what I do every show. Your hair is tamer than usual. You know. We've started like four shows in the last half year talking about our hair. It's like our form of talking about the weather. And we live in different towns, so we're not talking about the weather. We see each other's hair and that's what we talk about. That's how we start our phone calls though, check in on each other's hair. What's the texture today? Uh? So we uh listen. We have a couple of good questions that were left over from last week and a couple of you a couple of you just missed the deadline. I mean you should feel tremendous shame in that you didn't send your questions until Monday for the show that came out Monday morning. And that's just I mean, come on, that's embarrassing, guys. But we're gonna do you a favor and answer some of your questions. Anyway. We have four real good ones here, and I think these are ones that we probably will go a little bit deeper on than some of our typical mailback stuff. But uh, this first one is coming from Chris uh and this is this about Baker Mayfield. A couple of uh sort of a two part of question here. How much better off is Baker Mayfield with one his new offensive tackles and to Kevin Stefanski's offense? Are we looking at an m v P type breakout? I wanna I wanna break it up just a bit for a second here, Andy, and and just just ask you. We know being the smallest quarterback is very important to have that interior protection for Baker Mayfield. On top of that, uh, we do know that obviously their offensive tackle play was a trocious last year, was a huge problem and Uh, but let's just let's let's just pretend that Jack Conklin and and Jedrick Will's the first round pick. They are going to be quality uh left tackle and right tackle there, and they're gonna be solid at those business positions this year. Had that been the case last year, if they had like solid offensive tackle play, what's your sense how much better would Mayfield have been? Well, that's obviously a chicken or egg kind of question, because Mayfield was not Mayfield was not good a lot of the time last year, and there were times that he made his offensive line look worse than at once by playing in efficiently, not necessarily moving as well within the pocket as he's capable of moving. He didn't see the field of the same rhythm and clarity last year as he did as a rookie. Then we can decide to discuss is that because was it was he uncomfortable because he knew his offensive tackles weren't great. Remember those guys, It's not just when Greg Robinson doesn't block somebody the quarterback gets hit. It's also that the quarterback goes into the next snap knowing that Greg's probably not gonna get this guy blocked and now your quarterback is playing different perhaps, so it's it's an either or there's a shared responsibility there. Blockers must protect qbs, but qbs must help their blockers. And I didn't think either of those sites did that last season. I I am optimistic for Mayfield hitting the reset button and being fined there because he was solid in that sense as a rookie he I didn't have. I didn't feel like I was watching a guy with pocket issues when you put on the film and then Stefanski scheme is so much about passing downs or excuse me, passing the ball on running downs, that there's gonna be a lot less stress put on the offensive lineman just by the nature the offense. And I think that's gonna help Mayfield a lot as well. Again because remember the quarterbacks aware of how life is for his offensive line. So if that old line is not feeling stressed, there's a good chance Mayfield's gonna feel a lot less stress as well. I was gonna say with the Stefanski offense, I mean, you know, obviously what he ran in Minnesota was very run heavy, Uh that that was very much what Mike Zimmer wanted UH to do there. So I mean, are we gonna see sort of just Mayfield working off play action a lot? Would you anticipate that? Would you anticipate something a little more expansive than what we saw from Stefanski uh in in Minnesota? Well, I know, I think with Stefanski is going to do a lot of the run stuff that he did already. I know Mike Zimmer wanted to play that way, but Stefanski found out that that fashion of football works for them. And if you look at their offseason moves, you know they signed Annie Janovitch fullback from Denver and signing Austin Hooper a tight end. They drafted Harrison Bryant in the fourth round it tighten, and then they brought back David and Joe Coup, which I think surprised some people. Um So they plan on playing with two backs or two tight ends on the field quite a bit, because they're telling you that by who they're investing. And they did not go out and find wide receiver depth, even though it's not a great looking receiving corps once you get outside of Mayfield or Jarvis Landry and and and Odell Beckham. So I think they're gonna play out a base personnel Gary, and I think that's gonna help Mayfield quite a bit this season. All right, good to hear. You know. One other one other thing though about Mayfield that yeah, yeah, it's a big thing throwing the ball. He was He was not as effective physically throwing the ball last year. That's probably part of what we're talking about with everything else. He's not as comfortable as his feet probably aren't getting set the same way. But Stefanski's whole attitude about quarterback and accuracy. I've had this conversation Stefanski, I believe was the assistant QB coach in Minnesota when I first met him back in twenty twelve. It's a long time ago. We went to lunch with Bill Musgrave. And Bill Musgrave, by the way, offensive coordinator of the Vikings, had the entire macaroni grilled menu, memorized every item on the menu. He's that big a maccary as it's like his call sheet. He held it, held the menu out and there was a change to the appetizers, like the third one from the top was changed, and he noticed that and asked the waitress about it, and how's the new appetizer going. So Anyway, during that lunch, I heard Stefanski say, for the first time of many times since when a quarterback's missing and it's off target, the tendency for a lot of coaches is to say, oh, you know, your foot's off. Your foot has to be pointed at what you're throwing at, or your elbow needs to be talked or all these little minutia that goes into throwing the ball. And Stefanski's attitude is, sometimes a quarterback just misses throw throw the ball better. If you have a question about what he can teach you, that's I'll teach the mechanics. But he's not going to real that into the guy. He doesn't want robotic throwers. And I'll be really interested to see how that goes for Mayfield, because none of what we're talking about matters if Mayfield doesn't throw the ball better. And Mayfield is completely capable of it, because he we saw him throw the ball really well as a rookie. He was a good thrower in college. And I imagine sa Fancy's attitude will be, Hey, Baker, that you know you threw the ball extremely well your first year. Let's just go play. If you have some issues we can figure it out. But you know, just just throw the ball. You'll be fine. Okay, I'm I'm frantically looking for a macaroni grilled menu here just to see how impressed I should be. Uh, it's not that big a menu. It really this one. It's a chain restaurant. Yeah, they you know, they do few things, and they do it well, I think, is what I would say if I remember. There were items on both sides of I mean, now I'm looking at macaron and grill menu. There were items on both sides like the may to you, it's like rich items, like twenty items over here, twenty over there. It was a two it was a full two page menu. Really okay, well what I'm letting, Okay, you don't maybe you're looking at like a special carry out only manure I'm looking at I'm looking at main menu. I mean I don't know. Yeah, I see it. Create your own pasta, I mean there's yeah, that's how they do it. It's you know, it's it's like an offensive runs a lot of plays out of the same look. Uh, you know, when you have to create your own pasta, it looks like you don't. That's just a lot of dressing. Yeah, all those combinations. Uh, I don't know if they don't come in as advertisers now, I I don't know what would close the deal. Uh, let's go to next question. This is Ryan from Arkansas. How important our linebackers and Mike Nolan's scheme? Uh, new Cowboys coordinator? Defensive coordinator? Might Nolan? How important on the linebackers in his scheme? And how well do Jalen Smith and Layton Vandersh fit well? All Right, Layton Vanderesh and Jalen Smith or that kind of talent, and they should fit well in every scheme. And that doesn't mean that they don't do some things better than other things. But those are two first class star players when they're at their best. We haven't seen Mike Noland run his own system in quite a while. Last time we saw him he was in Atlanta. He was defensive coordinator. I'd argue, Gary, tell me if you disagree, I'd argue, that was a different era, even though it wasn't too long ago. I think it's a little bit of a different era for football. That's fair. Things have changed fast the last five years. Yeah, I mean it's not radically different, but Nolan was in New Orleans the last three seasons and the Saints and the coach the linebackers for the Saints. The Saints linebackers got markedly better there, especially to Mario Davis. And what made them so much better, especially to Mario Davis, was the system really put the linebackers in position to play fast. It was one thing to read and then react to it. They didn't do a lot of match zone stuff with multiple reads. If they did go match zone, they usually had manned principles for the linebackers right out of it. It was there wasn't a lot to process for those linebackers, and it really took advantage of their strength, which was their playing speed. That would be very similar for Jalen Smith and Layton Vanders. They have outstanding playing speed. None of us to say these guys can't process a lot of information. To Marrow Davis, that's not to say that either, But they became. Davis became a better player when they said just either blitz them or go pick up a guy in man demand. You got one thing to handle on each play, now go no, go be an animal about it. And I think they're gonna do the same thing with Vander esh and Jalen Smith, just because of the the amount of sheer physical talent that those two linebackers possess. I want to pose this question, which you probably won't like that, I'll pose it anyway. Uh, if Mike Nolan was your defensive coordinator and you were like running a spansion team and you kind of like, you know, it's like, where do you want to put your resources? Because I feel like the Cowboys have an unusual amount of resources and investment in their in their linebackers here. Obviously they have talented other spots too, but um, where would you build first for a Mike Nolan defense? Yeah, and you're right, they do have a lot of resources that linebacker and they were running that Chris Richard Rod Marinelli spot drop zone defense. Marinelli's the Tampa to Chris Rashard's obviously the Seahawks style defense, and both of those schemes, especially that Seattle style scheme, put the big emphasis on linebackers. Look at Bobby Wagner and kJ Wright and what those guys have meant to Seattle or San Francisco. This year they went out and signed Kwon Alexander in the off season. They drafted uh Reuben Foster a few years ago didn't work out, but Fred Warners worked out really well, another relatively high pick, third round pick. So it's linebackers are important in that scheme. And now Dallas is doing a different scheme, but they've got those great linebackers still. To answer your question, Gary, I would put him at cornerback because Mike Nolan, I believe, in its heart of hearts, wants to come after you. And that was the big in Atlanta. Even though it was a different era, there was an overarching philosophy that Nolan had. It's one that we talked about a lot on this show, which is he believed he could scheme pressure as long as he had guys who could cover one on one and give me a guy that can handle the receivers. I don't have to give extra bodies over to help and coverage. Now we got options for how to use those bodies as blitzers. That's Mike Nolan's view of football at thirty thousand feet and with the way the NFL is now, Gary is so many r p o s or not so many, but it's a it's a mainstream factor and there's so many quick strike throws. The best way to defend both of those quick throws and r p o s is to play man to man coverage and get right up on the guy and take away the passing game right off the snap. So I have no reason to believe Nolan wouldn't be as committed to man Bridge now as he was in Atlanta. Uh next question, this is Nick from London. We're gonna stay with the cornerback theme here. Uh. Andy, You've been quite vocal about the value Logan Ryan can still bring to a team. Mike Rabel recently hinted it that the Titans haven't signed him because they are seeing more and more vertical routes being run from the slot, and so they want a slot corner who can cover those. Well, is this a trend you've also noticed, and what will it mean for defensive schemes and changes in defensive personnel decisions going forward. That's a really interesting question. I would I'd love to hear how Rabel said that, if he was asked a question or what brought that up, because what's interesting about that? And I've had long conversations with Rabel about defending the slot route, so I mean it's he has a lot of views on it. But what's interesting that they do so much zone coverage to defend the slot and rotating defensive backs in and out of the slot back to afety different spots, and Logan Ryan was part of that or blitzing him off the slot. With all due respect to to coach Rabel, I don't I don't think their system asks guys to cover one on one from the slot vertically nearly as much as other systems might. Now that doesn't mean he still don't need guys who can do it, and Rabel I know when he was in Houston he did play a lot of quarters coverage, and quarters coverage with each defender taken one fourth of the field. Usually you wind up playing Manda man on the slot as part of that equation. And maybe he plans on doing more quarters coverage now that he's back to likely being the one who calls the defense with uh as Uh Demps is gone, Demps is the coordinator. Last year, Danps played a lot of cover two, So I don't know, it'll be interesting to see, but you know, that's that's substance that Rabel gay that that wasn't just a stock answer. If they're looking for a guy who can cover the slot. That's that's real substance that he's providing. I do see they have they have Jonathan Joseph on their roster. Now I was not aware, at least I'd forgotten that, Um Joseph came from Houston, So Rabel notes familiarity there. Maybe they're gonna be doing more the Houston Texans coverages this year. Yeah, well, I was gonna say John and Joseph doesn't run any better than Logan Ryan. I'm sure John runs any better than either of us at this point. Yeah, that's true. And and Joseph has played really well despite you know, he lost his speed about five years ago, and he's still been a highly effective corner. UM Christian Fulton, their second round pick. I know, he was pretty up and down at L s U and man coverage, wasn't he Gary? Yeah, it was always a little bit tricky to read, just because you know, everyone was going at him because they didn't want to throw at the freshman uh Stingley at L s U. So he got picked on a lot. Uh you can you definitely say up and down though, Okay, just trying to figure out who they envisioned being their SLocker. It's not gonna be Joseph. He doesn't have the change of direction to play the slot. Um, and would you do Dory Jackson? I've always thought Jackson looks like he could do it. I think Malcolm Butler looks the part a little at Jackson would probably be a better fit there. Um Fulton, I think the change of direction was a little problematic in some people's eyes at L L s U as well. They really don't have a pure slot guy on the roster, which would also lead you to believe that maybe they're doing more Manda Man coverage. It's not. It's hard to say, but um, I'll be eager to see because their corners can play in a lot of different spots. I do think Logan Ryan was a great player for them in the context of their scheme last year, and there was talking about Logan Ryan going to the Jets. That would be a perfect fit because the Jets are the most similar stylistically of any team in the NFL to Tennessee. It's the systems built on disguise cover two concepts, and that's where Ryan really really brings a lot of value. They could they could also use the help. Not only is he a fit, they need some bodies there in that secondary. Yep, they do they because there I mean, it's Brian Pool right now, who I think is purely a slot guy, and Pierre de Seer. And so if they did sign Logan Brian Uh, Ryan would play either the slot or outside. I'd be interesting to see between he and Brian Pool who played where. But the reason they're not great at that position at the defensive back is because they play so much cover too, so they don't feel like they need to invest heavily in cornerbacks because cornerbacks always have help help defenders around them in their scheme. Uh, let's get at least one more question here. This is Lance from Maryland. Uh. With the Ravens offensive attack designed specifically around unique players, especially Lamar Jackson, how could the Ravens offense still run? How would the Ravens offense still want run if it were to be without any of those key players like Lamar Jackson, mark Ingram, the tight ends, the offensive line, and etcetera. So let's let's take Lamar out of the equation to start with here. Uh, when you look at this Ravens offense and he is there anyone like it? Can can they? Can they be without Mark Andrews or or can they you know what, We're gonna see him try and replace Marshall Gyanda this year. I mean it is you know, a hole in the offensive line, you know, going to threaten to completely disrupt this offense or you know, is it? Is it one of these other weapons? Well that's a good question. Um there their offense to me, obviously, Littlemark Jackson is the starting place of the offense and the defining piece of that offense, and to me, the next defining pieces all of the pre snap motioning that they do to set up their running game and even their passing game, but especially their running game, and that you obviously you can do that with anybody. Now. Doing it with better players is superior to doing it with average players or worst players, of course, but it gets into the old discussion of how much of it's the scheme and how much of it is our guys. And Greg Roman their their run game designer, he it's a lot. He's a big schemer, and he'll think he would tell you we do a lot with scheme. Uh. Having Lamar helps so much because you have to defend him in the running game differently than you would in the other quarterback. I don't think there's any guy in this scheme that's that's not replaceable other than Lamar Jackson. Interesting, it's and I don't mean that to like, Look, if they took Ronnie Stanley out of the lineup, who I thought was a borderline all pro left hack. He was right there for all Pro and I I thought he was sensational last year. If they took him out and just put in any old guy, Andre Smith, their veteran backup, are they going to be worse. Of course they're going to be worse, but they're not gonna necessarily play differently. I don't know if there's anybody on the offense that would that they've that they've built around and their skill set other than Lamar Jackson, because how could you not. And that's the reason they like mark Ingram By the way Ingram is and J K. Dobbins, I imagine, is this way there the second round pick. Now they're rookie out of high state. You handle the ball and he runs exactly where the plays designed for the ball to be run. He he runs the plays as their design. That's what they want there in Baltimore because they're confident in their ability to design those plays. I would say I was shocked when I was going through some snap count information from last year. I was shocked that, Uh, Mark Andrews played like a fewer than half the snaps. I know he's backed up a little bit, especially late in the year, but uh he was, you know he, I mean what he was. Let me get the exact number up here, four d sixty seven snaps over fifteen games, which is I mean, that's less than half. Yeah, it is. And I and I would argue, I think you could argue. I've had this discussion with people from the Ravens and people who have played against the Ravens, and I know Mark Andrews went to the Pro Bowl, and I understand why. And he's a really valuable receiver, and I think he's an okay enough blockers certainly. I think you could argue in their offense, Nick Boyle as their most valuable tight end, and Nick Boyle's the guy that plays the most of those three was it was three. Hayden Hurst obviously won't play many snaps for them this year, but last year they were putting three guys out there and boils the one that played. I'm guessing what was he? Gary? Sixty five percent? Sixty five pretty good? Seven three snaps out of eleven five on the season. You're gonna have to give me the percent as well. I don't expose me like that. No, no, I'll punch it in. But you were, I'm saying like you were, that was a pretty good guess. You are right around there are you're punching it in still a computers then what you're seeing doesn't have it next to it already. No, no, no, because I just I use our stats in account because it just it makes me happy. Um just under okay, I sixties? Wow. Yeah. So he's their fullback slash, he's your h back. He's he's the most movable piece at the tight end position. And that's a big deal in their scheme again because of the way they they playing. Um, you know, ESPN dot com, I think it was not to not to ever promote anyone other than Sports Illustrated, But ESPN dot Com had a really interesting article last season about the number of snaps that Baltimore's had where the guy in motion is basically equal with the ball at the time of the snap. In other words, he's not left of the ball, he's not to the right of the ball. He's basically where the ball is. And that's a huge part of how they play there because when you do that, you don't know where to set the strength of the formation. If one guy is equal with the balls, he part of the weak side or the strong side is if he moves, does he move which side's weak side and strong side. That's how defense is set. They set their defense and their rules to the formation into certain guys. So that's why Baltimore moves their guys all the time. They're really advanced with that, and I would imagine, especially given how San Francisco has has so much success with this as well, and and the Rams in past years, they that's what they do the jet sweeps for is because it sets all these strength strength of formation issues, It sets gap control issues just by the rules of the defense. I would bet in five the seven or eight years of snaps will have this kind of motion, not not two minutes snaps because those you've gotta go fast, but just regular snaps. I think teams are going to start doing this more and more because that's where scheming takes place now is before the snap. That's pretty uh, that's pretty devious stuff. Yeah, it is devious stuff. And that's that's the kind of stuff that Greg Romans really proud of and and it's the kind of stuff that's worked really well for them. So picture all of that and then add in that. The guy that gets the ball at the time where you don't know if the balls to the strength of the week side, you know, the guy's hand the ball the whole time is Lamar Jackson, the league's MVP who last year there were a lot of cases where the defense did handle Baltimore's run game just fine, and Lamar Jackson just he was better than the guy trying to tackle him. He outran people and almost gary he was so dynamic at at out running people, like getting the edge that there were times that looked like the defense had gotten gashed and was not cap sound when really they were. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, my goodness, there were some outside of that, you know, getting the edge if you just lean a little bit into the wrong spot against this this offense here, he's just so fast he can't recover um. And and he's fast, he gets he gets fast, really fast. His acceleration is effortless and almost deceptive. Um so he We've said this before, but he's in his own class of mobility. It's it's you, he's it's Lamar Jackson, then everyone else for mobility. And so when you're talking about handling quarterback mobility, how do you defend these read options? You're really talking about the everyone else because there's not a good set answer for Lamar Jack's right now, there's nobody close to him as a QB mobility wise. I say, God forbid he get hurt at any point in here. But would they just run the same offense with with Robert Griffin? The third is that what your your guests would be if if they had to go with the backup? Yeah, they they would. And and that's we've had this discussion actually had about Robert Griffin years ago when when he was struggling to find a job in the NFL. You and I debated, do you want your backup quarterback to be the same as your starter in terms of style or do you want them to be different? And I've always been a believer I want my guy to be the same. Because of what you just said, I want to run the offense. So everyone else has practiced the offense. We've learned it all season. I want to run the offense the way we designed when the backups in, but I know you've always felt like you want a different backup quarterback. I like the chaos. I think this is by the way, I think this is our first show together that we had this conversation. Did But um, I wouldn't have been I would not have been comfortable enough with you on our first show to have an intimate conversation about to the degree of backup quarterbacking. I sprung it on you. It was a live podcast. You weren't prepared. But uh no, Yeah, I like the chaos of it. I like the fact that, um, and again, you just reach a certain drop off with the sort of stylistic backups, Like you know, I think it was sort of the the Matt Castle line a couple of years ago, where you just say, Okay, you know you can do the you can run the same offense, but it's just being run so poorly that it's it's not worth doing it. So why not just have a guy who's going to create and you know, gonna give you some bad but also gonna at least give you a chance to do some good. So do you think it matters how many games you're playing? Because if I, if I know the backups in for one too, maybe three games, I might be able to go with what you're saying there, let's just get through it. But if you got a backup that has to play for four to six weeks or you know, heaven forbid you have to finish the season with your backup, does that change you're thinking it any point? Then? Um, if it was like four to six weeks, the chaos at some point becomes on your end of things, Yes, well, the chaos and then also the fact that you know there there can be a certain amount of preparation for the chaos that you have unveiled with your different stylistic quarterback. So yeah, I think it maybe gets a little bit stale the longer it runs out. But again, I think the issue is when you, uh, you know, if you're saying we want a guy who's the same stylistically, it's like, well, okay, how how low are you going as far as the quality goes? And when does it reach a point where uh, it's just not worth it? Even though you're running the same offense. It's just not uh the guy running it is just not capable of running in NFL caliber ofphins. I mean that the Jets last year. I mean, you know, God bless me, folk, but uh, you know, Luke Falk, I'm sure could run a lot of the same concepts. It was just he was, you know, not good enough at it to score points. Yeah, that's I know. I agree with you. And I got to spend some time with the Jets and was in their quarterback group, and I can tell you Luke Falk knows that offense top to bottom. He's a he's a very smart football player. It's just it's the NFL, and it's it's hard what happens with because Luke Falk can play, so to speak, but with guys like that where they're just not as physically gifted, you need players around them to play really well. You can't have you can't have defensive ends getting in the backfield. You can't have corners beating your wide receivers. The quarterback needs to really be helped by the guys around him. And and you like you'd like the scheme to do to do that a little bit as well. Um, the part We have to also remember with Lamar Jackson, so back to the the idea, if Robert Griffin were in for Lamar, they're running the same offense, They're not going to be as good at it, of course, and Griffin can run, but he's he's not close to Lamar as a mobile QB, and there's a big drop off in the past part. Lamar Jackson is a very good passing quarterback as well. And his numbers, we're not big numbers guys on this show, Gary, but I mean, shoot, thirty six touchdowns, six interceptions, and I know I went't. I've been studying interceptions very closely this offseason. Lamar Jackson between weeks six and sixteen through one ball the entire time that could have been intercepted. So not only is he not throwing, he's not thrown dropped interceptions. You the guy has thirty five touchdowns and had an eleven game stretch where there wasn't a chance to even intercept the single one of his throws. So if you're just playing drop back football now, I don't think that's I don't know if you could do that with Jackson every single snap, drop back, drop back, drop back. But within the context of their offense. Their drop back passing game is very good and he might be at his point soon where you could drop back with him snap after snap. He's really going in the right direction on that side of things. And that was a that was a very numbers e moment for this. Oh yeah, it was. It's spot. It's because I have an interception, Jim. I wanted to tee it up. Nice. Nice, that was. That was the perfect finale to this episode. Uh Andy, once again, we thank you for joining us, and we will say this is just goodbye for now. All right, Thanks Gary. The mm QB Monday Morning NFL podcast is me Gary Gramling's special thanks again to Andy Benoit for joining me for this one. We are produced by Shelby Royston Sis. Executive producer or podcast is Scott Brody. Ben Eagle is director of editorial Projects and product Mark Rabick, He's emeritus editor of the MMQB and Annoyed is the founder of the MMPUT NFL podcast. Keyb up with our entire line for podcasts five days a week by subscribing to the MMQB NFL podcast for free on Apple Podcasts. Now, why are there? Please do us the favor and leave a rating m review. It really does help other people find the show, which is also available on Spotify Radio dot com, Stitcher, SI dot com. When wherever else you listen to, podcasts will need to be end