Conor Orr and Albert Breer reveal the shocking amount of time Albert has spent in Marriott hotels before giving some hot takes from their time in various training camps, including, the Giants winning the NFC East, why people need to stop making a big deal about training camp interceptions, why the Bears will be good this year, the Lions big Super Bowl odds, and why the Jets defense will be the best in the league
Headl and welcome to the MMQB NFL podcast. I'm don Ror. Albert Breer is in some other i unidentified Marriott parts unknown in the United States, and.
I'm very disciplined about staying in Marriotte properties. I uh, in fact, I may be more disciplined about only staying in Marriott properties than I am about anything else in my life. And I have three kids.
Once I hit the because if you go to your Marriotte Bondenvoy account and it shows you how many nights that you've actually slept in a Marriott and once and once you hit the three hundred and sixty five, something really changes where you realize that you've spent a calendar year your lifetime.
What's that you can look up your lifetime nights? Yes, yeah, oh my god word, all right, let me let me while You're to go ahead and talk and I'm gonna see if I can find my number.
Yeah. Once you hit three sixty five, you're like, uh, you know, it's like this weird biodome sort of feeling where you just go into a Marriotte and then sometimes you're like bleary eyed and you're just like, do I live here? Now? Are these people, my family, and you know, it's like it's we you know, Oh my god. They cook for you, you know, like there's breakfast, if you go to the residence in and they like make your bed. It's this very Albert. This has been happening for like years, years and years of our lives. Your hands are over your eyes. How many nights, Albert have you slept in a Marriotte hotel?
Oh my god, this is the most depression thing I've ever seen.
Two seventy two, two and seventy two, Okay, and then I'm gonna sixty five. Yeah, hold on, I'm gonna get the old for seventeen years two thousand, one hundred sixty two divided seventy seventy two oh and seventy two divided by two one seven two divided by I remember probably five point nine five years of your life in a Marriotte. How much of that was the NFL lockout in twenty eleven.
Dude, I've spent more time in a Marriotte in time. My daughter is spent alive.
That is, so she.
Turns she turns five next week, Happy birthday, Jenny. But yeah, that's uh, that is really really depressing. So I'm going to get to six years at like how many so six times? Pretty soon I am eighteen nights away, so like probably by the end of it's from six years.
Probably on the Super Bowl. What's going to happen is you ever see the movie Up in the Air with George Glooney? Yeah, okay, so yeah, at some point during the Super Bowl, we're going to be in a Marriotte Property hotel and someone's just gonna knock on your door and it's gonna be this old guy with like a big handlebar button mustache. It's gonna be the ghost of JW. Marriott, and he's gonna come in and he's gonna hand you a cake and he's gonna say, I've been taking care of you for six years, Albert.
You know what this year's The sad thing is that doesn't even that's probably just since I was like since I signed up for it, right, like so I don't know what I spent, but it probably wasn't that much before I signed up for it, because I wasn't like traveling around for work or whatever. But that's like, really, I mean, I've been covering the NFL for twenty years, so it's all within the last twenty years.
Goodness gracious, it was.
My twentieth season, so nineteen years, nineteen years. It was nineteen years ago that I started covering the NFL.
That's amazing.
We it's really sad. Oh my god, Like now that makes that makes it worse. Right, that's like almost a third of my life over the last nineteen years it's been spent Marriott properties. It makes you think about, my god.
It makes you think about like nature and nurture. And I remember reading this like story awful about this kid who was like raised entirely in the dark. This was like ten years ago. It was like this girl's parents like never let her outside, and obviously that that had some issues, you know, and she she had to adjust to real life. We are we we're allowed outside, but we just spend a lot of time in like and it's so weird, right because it's like the same four different Marriott properties, and they're all set up exactly the same, and they look exactly the same, and you walk in and you know what it's going to look like, right, And we just spend all of our time in there, and we don't even use the pool like we did, you know.
Yeah, I know the difference between like I know, like like the back of my hand, the difference between a full service Marriotte, a west End, a residence in a fair Field, a courtyard, a JA you Marriott, Like I know what the difference is, Like I can tell you the way the room's set up, like all that.
If you if you blindfolded me and just put me into the lobby and you told me which one it was, I could get to my room without without removing a blindfold. I know that. I feel pretty good about that.
Shouldn't they give me something?
So what I said, JW. Marriott is coming to your room.
I mean, I mean, mister Marriott, I you know, I'm coming up on my my six year.
Six years in your hotels. So sad, it's amazing.
There goes my life. That's six years out of again, Like that's like a third of the last nineteen years.
That's wild, so much fun almost almost we have a good time in the hotels that we jump on the beds, we ruffle up the sheets, we eat all the candy from the mini bar.
Like Kevin McAllister, I remember when you were remember when you're a kid and you thought hotels were so fun. I still like seeing in a hotel, like, you know, good hotel. I still like seeing a good hotel, but like when you were a kid and you were like especially like when your friends were around, like if your friends were there to oh yeah you score around in the hallways or whatever.
Yes, yeah, yeah. Hotels are still great, better when I get to take my kids because they they reinvigorate the joy of it. But if I stayed in a surprisingly nice hotel, like the other the other week, I got hit with a random stay at a w which was really nice, and I was like, oh yeah, like and you're just like walking around like feeling kind of cool for a minute.
Yeah. I always like it's always funny too, like when I travel with family members, like one year, I one year I was in Detroit for the Thanksgiving game. When I was an NFL network I used to ask on to the to the thanksg became in Detroit because my dad's side of the family is all from there. So we would have Thanksgiving in Detroit and I would go cover the game in the morning, like my family would come to the game, you know, and then we would all have Thanksgiving dinner at my uncle's house after and So have you ever stayed in like the downtown Mary out there the Renaissance Yeah, yeah, the Renaissance Center. So it's a massive. People don't know. This is this massive Marriott that like overlooks windsor Canada, right, and so they must have had like little occupancy and Thanksgiving that year. So when I stayed there the night before Thanksgiving, the night of Thanksgiving, I had this suite that was legitimately like the entire floor, so I had they upgraded me and they had I had a conference room in my hotel room. And my family came, like my mom, my dad, my brother, they came up and they're like, what the hell did your what the hell did your your work? Like get you Like, this has nothing to do with work. This is my discipline to Marriott that got me here. But yeah, I had a that that Thanksgiving eve. I had a conference room in my hotel room. So it does have So it does have some benefits. All this discipline and all.
These nights stayed amazing.
If they want to throw me all something else for my six year anniversary, I don't even know if we should call it that. Is it an anniversary kind of uh, because it's.
Not like six years of captivity. Yeah, it's like a white collar prison.
It's really I'm in a Weston right now, so really nice sheets in the west that.
Yeah, all right, we're talking about football guys. Uh, but this was good. It's always fun to chop it up with Albert. So we are doing our overreactions. I have seen a couple of teams. Albert has seen over a dozen teams at this point during training camp. And this is what we do right watching training camp practice you and it's like it's a filtration. It's like a what do you call it? A snowball effect, right where we get to talk to the coaches and the players and they're inordinately excited about what's happening and they all think they're gonna win the super Bowl, and then that hits us and then we have to filter that out the belief in what they is actually true and what's not true. But it's hard not to get excited.
You know, everything. The everyone's undefeated thing is very real, like you know, it really is like there's that like renewal. Put it this way. I've been to camps before where that doesn't exist, and that's usually not a good.
Sign, right, like if you're at camp and everyone's like, oh boy, you know that the coach is probably gonna get fired, and you know that that team's probably in competition for the number one pick. But so we're gonna do We're gonna talk about our overreactions, stuff that we believe now because it's very exciting. And I will note this is perilous, right. I was talking to actually someone at Giants camp about this the other day, where because I was thinking about doing this show last year, I remember doing a story on the Chargers and talking to everybody for that story about how they had set up this new Kellen Moore offense and what it was going to look like and the theory behind it, and the subtext to it all was Austin Eckler is gonna run for like three thousand yards, like he's going to break he might break the NFL rushing record. He's gonna score like twenty five touchdowns. And I remember getting into like a verbal dispute with my fantasy football partner in my high roller league because we had the number one pick and I was like, we're taking Austin Eckler and he's like over my dead body, and I was like, you don't understand. I was like, this is what I do for a living, and the volume got high, and then he he he was. He went on a business trip, and so before he went on the business trip, he locked in Christian McCaffrey as the number one pick, so we could not take Austin Eckler and thank god.
It's great. Put like a child lock on it, like so you couldn't change it.
Yeah, it was just like it's like, hey, dude, just so you know, I don't believe you, and you know it's fine, but.
Worked out for you.
It's McCaffrey worked out. We finished in the second place, got a nice little uh, we're not paying to play this year, let's put it that way. But so it can work both ways, right, we can be in on a team that nobody else is in on, but we can also fall way in love with the team that maybe nobody else understands. And maybe that's where I'll start. I was a Giants camp, Albert, and I see a path to this team winning at least nine games and finishing in second place in the nfcas.
I actually agree with.
You, Yay, we are all in.
So this is like, this is a principle of mine. Right, I would say, there are a few principles I have in all my years covering the league. One of the principles I have, and this was actually really cemented, I would say in twenty and seventeen with the Eagles, right, is if you are good on the lines of scrimmage, then you will be in every game. And I remember the Eagles were coming off that year in sixteen where Carson Wentz had played really well, and then you started to look at the rest of their roster and okay, like they got alshon, Jeffrey here, and they've got but then you looked at the lines of scrimmage and it was like, holy crap, they're loaded, you know. And that's when like Jason Kelcey and Lane Johnson and Jason Peters and Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham, all those guys were in their prime, right, Like, so all those guys were at the height of their powers. And I remember saying, like, like people always asking you get asked this a lot, I'm sure too, like who's your surprise team, who's gonna like who's going to be like the one that's really going to break through? And that year it was the Eagles. For me, it really cemented that like principle that I had that if you're really good on the lines of scrimmage, then you are going to be in every game. And I look at thee I look at the Giants, and they already had like some really nice building blocks and Andrew Thomas, like Evan Neil's got talent. It hasn't manifested yet, but he's got talent. And they got Dexter Lawrence and Caveon Thibodeaux. Again, Thibodeau, you're kind of betting on the comm And then they go and they add Brian Burns, who I think was a steal what like how they got him where they got what they got him for versus what the Rams were willing to pay a year and a half earlier. I thought they stole Brian Burns. You know, you add you know, a couple of nice pieces of the offensive line and run you in Illumini, and I just it's a team that's going to be in every game, you know what I mean? Look, I just think it's going to be a team that's gonna be in every game. I think with that foundation, Brian Dable makes it work on offense, and I think the defense has a chance to be really good with Shane Bowen as their first year defensive coordinator, so you know, all the way around. I think being in that division helps. But I don't know why they can't do what they did two years ago, right, you know, And that doesn't mean they're gonna win the same amount of games. But I don't know why they can't be the team they were two years ago. Yes, like not having Saquon Hurts, but I think they can make up for it. I think to some degree, like the dynamic element you had Barkley can be replaced by neighbors. Yeah. I really like where the Giants are, especially again with where that division is.
You add Carmen Brisillo, who did a great job as the offensive line coach with threeiders. I think that there's a lot of excitement about what he's bringing. Here's the moment that got me, the sub moment and then the moment. I was talking to Brian Dable before practice and he said, watch practice, right, guess what we're not doing this year? Seven on seven. We're not doing seven on seven. We're done with seven on seven. And for the uninitiated, seven on seven is you know, quarterback skill position players, tight linemen, no lineman right, and then defense defensive backs, linebackers right, and so a lot of times, you know, and I actually I kind of ran this by a bunch of other coaches that weren't giants, guys right, and I was like, well, what's what's the purpose of this? And they said, this is really unique. It's interesting what he's doing because seven on seven can breed bad habits, right, can get a quarterback just comfortable. And maybe you do it because you're trying to get your defensive line and your offensive line work somewhere else, and you're trying to kill two birds at one stone, and it's a great way to do that. But what happens is it can breed, you know, whether it's like a false sense of comfort or you know, just a non realistic scenario where you know, I don't know, you're not feeling the pressure, you're not feeling the pocket.
Right.
So every period is eleven on eleven. It's live team all the time. And so Daniel Jones I was standing about probably like fifteen yards away from twenty yards away from him, and he drops back and he immediately sees that he's got Neighbors one on one with Cordell flot and he lets this ball go and I feel like I felt like a little kid when I saw it, Like I'm standing over it probably like the height of its at like the highest it's gonna be, and it's coming down and the velocity on this thing is making the ball like shake like it's such a tight spiral and it's going so fast and perfect like right in like leading Malik Neighbors into the end zone, and I was like, holy smokes. Like Daniel Jones looks good. He looks tough. I know he's had some bad days, right, And he did throw a pick not too long after that, but this practice was ninety degrees outside. After the practice, he's doing like sprints on the side of the field like this is a man possessed. I don't know. Let's I mean, you know, all right?
Can I can I have like, can I go off on two side tangents? Based on what you said?
Yes?
There? Okay, okay? Number one? The eleven on eleven thing I think is really interesting because I've been to thirteen camps now today will be fourteen. There is so much more contact, There are so many more two and a half hour practices, and I think the trend is swinging back around on sports science. And I was talking to one coach who said their injury rate two years ago was really high and they'd had a light camp. They went harder last year. They lost more guys in camp, and then their injury rate went way down during the season. So I think that and look like I think a big part of this is like the whole. I think a big part of this is the whole, the whole, cal the whole, the whole, like copycat thing because if you look at the four teams that were standing at the end, all of those coaches subscribe to this that you have to cause your team that you should have two and a half hour practices in training camp at San Francisco Kyle Shanahan, Detroit with Dan Campbell, Kansas City with Andy Reid, and Baltimore with John Harbaugh. But I it was noticeable Connor, like you go to different teams, it's like, holy crap, Like they're like where I feel like maybe like two or three years ago, you'd go out and there'd be a bunch of ninety minute practices. Yeah, like there's a lot less of that now, you know, and I thought that was interesting. The other thing, and this is a little bit of a ramp for me. Stop overreacting to interceptions in practice. Stop overreacting to what you see on Twitter. Seriously enough because and I got a story that's going up this morning. Everybody can read it at the site, at the site on brock Party. And I talked to Kyle Shanahan brock Party about his progress, and he did not look great in OTA's right. He was actually working with you know, his quarterbacks coach who I know, you know, Will Hewlett, on reconfiguring his footwork and he felt like last year his timing with his eyes and his feet didn't match up. And so Kyle told me there were points in OTAs where he didn't look good. But Kyle had to remind the other coaches like, hey, he is kind of working through this and there's going to be a benefit long term for it. Right then, the practice I was at, he threw four picks. Well, there was one of the picks where the rush came down on him and he flipped his hips and then another rusher came in and he kind of started backpedaling and just launched it on a corner out, probably a forty or fifty yard throw in the air, and the ball went through a receiver's hands and into the stomach of a safety. And all right, first of all, it should have been a catch, right, not to throw the receiver under the bus, but it should have been a catch, all right. No context on that, of course. And then the other part of it is like, and I talked to Brock about this after the practice. He testing what he can get away with. And that's the way a lot of quarterbacks operate in training camp right right now. If you're competing for a job, it's different. But if you're a secure and you know you're gonna be the quarterback, that's how a lot of quarterbacks use training camp. Is all right, Like, we're gonna run this play, and I'm going to figure out here what I can get away with based on what I see, based on how fast the defense is moving. I'm gonna test what my receiver can do. Right, So I want to see if I can trust this guy in this spot late in the game. Is he gonna go get the ball? Is he gonna beat the dB one on one? And you know, when you do those things in practice, you're gonna have interceptions, You're gonna have things that aren't gonna look right. But in the end, like what is practice for if you're not doing that right? You know what I mean? Right?
No?
I just like I feel like there are some really good beat porters out there that people should listen to and trust, who see it every day and who talk to people and who understand. And then there's like a bunch of overreaction from people who go to one practice or people who aren't really doing the job, who like where it's like you're not giving any context to it, right. So I would just say, like and again, like that's I think that's always existed in training camp. I just feel like it's gotten so much worse now with all the video that gets up there on Twitter and all the rest of it. You know. Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan wants his quarterbacks to throw interceptions in camp.
He tells them that, think about how many ridiculous storylines that we've like, you know, like someone a like a picture gets taken at a weird angle and it's like, oh, this guy's fat this year, you know, and then ends up like rushing for like three thousand yards, Like we you know.
I've gotten some I've gotten in some pictures during training camp where I look terrible and like feel like I need to go lose some weight. So yeah, I think we all feel the effect of that, right.
Yeah, I mean tell me about it. You know, I'm ten up this training camp. I gotta go. We gotta get ourselves down to you to fight and wait before the season starts or also we're in big trouble, all right, give me give me an overreaction of yours, Albert.
The Bears look really good, Okay, you know what I understand. I think the last time they were in the playoffs was twenty eighteen, and I believe that's their only playoff appearance since twenty ten. So I think, if I remember right, that's one playoff appearance in the last thirteen seasons, which isn't good. So you know, maybe this is a tough horse to hit your wagon too. But just seeing what it looks like a camp, knowing how good their defense played at the end of last year, what they've got on the back seven right like, and and then offensively like, what that looks like now with these big receivers in the open field, we're going to be able to generate yards after catch for Caleb Williams in his first year as a starter. Keenan Allen's two hundred and thirty pounds, DJ moore Is two hundred and twenty pounds, Romadunze's two hundred and fifteen pounds. I mean, like, you look at what that is, right, and I just think they've really set up Caleb Williams for success.
Now.
They do need a couple of things to come along. The line needs to keep coming along, which they've invested a lot the last couple of years in trying to get the offensive line right. They do need some more pass rush. So does that mean they bring you Onik and Gockway back? Maybe Austin Booker, their fifth round pick out of Kansas, has flashed in camp. So can he be an answer opposite Montese? What? There are questions there, no doubt, But I just think looking at them, it's I feel like the one thing that can hold them back is the division. You know, like the division's really tough, but that looked like a really team to me. So I you know, and they've really set up Caleb for success too. I've said this a couple of different places, but I think like what Matty ebra Flus and Shane Waldron and all those guys did was pretty smart in using the one hour zooms before the draft to put in cadence and put in formations and put in terminology, you know, and then use the thirty visit to ingratiate him to his teammates so when he got there in May, he could hit the ground running. And then they gave him a detailed plan for the forty days between between OTA's and training camp. So I just feel like they've really put him in a position to succeed. And I talked to eber Flus about it the other day, and you know, I thought one thing that was really interesting about it is like I think they feel like they've got a team where it's their third year. Like it's not fair to the veterans to make them sit around and wait, right, So it was in a way it was serving the veterans to start ramping Caleb up in March and to make the decision early that they were going to take him number one overall, and then to install him as starter early. Right. Yeah, in a lot of ways, it's it's serving guys like DJ Moore and Keenan Allen and Montes Sweat and Tremaine Edmonds and you know, Tevin Jenkins, all the guys that they built around there. So I think that they're a really interesting team.
I liked too. I was watching the Hall of Fame game, and side note here while I was watching the Hall of Fame game to see the new dynamic kickoff, and side note, that's not how it's going to look and regular games people.
So I think, Kelly, I like how they like have dubbed it the dynamic kickoff. To it is that, like, are they complimenting themselves that they calling it dynamic because they feel good about what they've done.
Here I wrote this, it's fairly stunning to me that, like I mean, the movie Concussion came out ten years ago. It's not that long ago that the NFL was just like, oh, what do you mean head injuries? And we have literally change the kickoff now to it, like you know what I mean, Like things don't change in our society that quickly, Like Concussion was actually Concussion came out less than ten years ago. It was nine years ago. The movie.
That's crazy, it was only nine years ago.
Nine years ago. So now and now we have a new kickoff, and I'm not saying that one be at the other, but you know, of course they're related.
I know. Even that though, isn't as fast as they flipped on gambling.
Well, yes, but gambling, gambling makes you money.
That's true.
Yeah, this is a very American issue, correct, right, It's like gambling.
Gambling was really really evil until it wasn't.
Yeah, I mean, you know, but my only side note on the Dynamite kickoff. So I was talking to some Special Teams coaches about this, and they're like, you know, probably the coaches before the game. We're like, hey, let's just let let's just kick it live so we can see our guys block. And but I don't think it's gonna look like that. I actually don't think the receiving team is going to Like the receiving teams kept retreating back towards the ball carrier. I don't think they're gonna do that. But anyway, I think they're gonna attack. I think they're gonna go up, you know.
I mean, like a couple a bunch of like Special Teams coaches. You know, when I asked around last month on it, like basically said it's going to set up like a running play, which I think you could see that, you know what I mean? I think that was apparent. It also like the kickoffs that I saw from from that night, didn't it look like it looked like to me like it was really like, oh, big play could be coming and then one guy sheds a block and takes their turn down right. Yes. Yeah, in that way, it almost felt like a like a fourth and one on the fifty, you know what I mean, Like where like if the guy gets past that little area, he could be gone. Yeah. Yeah, It's like, I don't know, do you kind of take away from it, like maybe we won't see a lot of forty yard returns, but we could see eighty yard returns, you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. I think it. It reminded me like they I think it was. Troy Aikman said on the broadcast. He's like, oh, it's just blocked up like a running play. To me, it was like when when you have like kind of like a bad quarterback and you're trying to get the ball out quickly and you get a receiver behind like two or three other receivers, so you have not your best blockers blocking in a spatial you know, like a challenging spatial area, and then you have a playmaker trying to get through those blocks. And sometimes it works right, sometimes you get a sixty seventy eighty year return. But we need hard knocks. Legend Mike west Off back for this. This is he's the guy who could break this all wide open.
Actually he saw the other day at Denver. Still he's he He's right in the in the thick of the new kickoff.
Yeah, I bet he is, all right.
Any thoughts on the Bears are now?
What's that?
Any thoughts on the Bears? You agree? Disagree?
I am, I'm with you. I mean I've been in this camp for a while now, and I think that you know, this is a Ryan Poles deserves all the flowers. I mean, you know, they've done everything to this point. And I was thinking about this during the Hall of Fame game where a lot of people were complaining about Tyson Badgent being the backup quarterback, and I was like, you have to realize that. I think Tyson Badge went two and two as a starter last year.
He wasn't bad. He wasn't bad.
He was two and two as a starter as an undrafted rookie free agent out of Shepherd Shepherd University. If I'm right, I mean that's not that's not irresponsible in the way that it was irresponsible I think to not have like a backup for Zach Wilson. And there were some other dynamics there where why Zach Wilson didn't have like a better presence behind him with the Jets, right, I think there were some financial considerations there.
But.
There's good like you know, and they're doing things that they have a lot of good mid to late round or undrafted players and they just they know what they're looking for.
You know.
And Okay, so who cares? And Badge's plucky, you know. And to me, it symbolizes this roster of like, Okay, we might be scared because it's like, oh, there's no star power here, no star power here. There's probably gonna be three or four guys that we are kind of floored by, right that hit the ground running this season, And you know, I think nine wins for the Bears is completely reasonable, and saying that for a rookie quarterbacks first season is pretty wild.
Right, right, And I and I will say, like I got to spend a little a few minutes with Caleb on Saturday, and he just seems so prepared for this, you know what, he just seems And I think maybe what's most impressive about him I'm gonna write about this is like how the kids had so many things said about him, and a lot of young young athletes would lash out against that or push back or carry some like chip on his shoulder, and he lets it all roll off his back, you know. Now he keeps it. He does, he does. Hear it, like he did tell me he hears it, but like he's able to kind of work through all of that in a way that I think is not normal for a twenty two year old. So it's just a really impressive kid to be around a little bit and like very very prepared to be a franchise quarterback what you'd expect because he was a starter at two pretty major programs in college.
Yeah, I've I think the Caleb thing is probably the Caleb thing is probably emblematic of our pre draft process becoming a little too crazy, right yep, and us being so thirsted for news that will latch onto I mean, just think about the utter ridiculousness of some of the Caleb Williams stuff now in hindsight, and we don't know how he's going to handle stuff. But when you when live bullets start flying, but when you really take a step back and you look at what we and not me? I mean I I kind of wrote something pretty scathing against it, but this idea of like what people were concerned about, and it's like what are we doing? You know, like you know, uh, and and Caleb, I think is one of those guys who was perfectly made as a pinata for the pre draft process. And so it's good. It's good, you know.
I always I always think the important thing and I think the smart teams really all teams do this, Like the important thing is like what are the what are the people who are around him think of him? You know, yeah, what do his teammates think of him? What do his coaches think of him? What did and beyondious that, like you know, like when you're digging into like how a guy was thought of in his college program, like what do the trainers think of him? What are the weight room like assistants think of him? You know, like that's the stuff that you know, I think is really important. Like that was that was actually an interesting thing about Cam Newton, you know back in the day, was you know, like Cam had this reputation for being a you know, superstar and all that different stuff. Yet like the guys who went into Auburn said, like, you know, you could find somebody's picking up towels, you know, three hours after the game that has some story about how Cam did something really cool for him, you know, yeah, And you know, like I know, like like those are the sorts of things that a lot of these teams look for. And I think like the stuff that you're doing with people who can't help you, you know what I mean, who people who can't do anything for you, Like, that's a lot of times how you figure out who somebody is. And I think Caleb very emphatically checks those boxes.
My other overreaction, yep, I'm trying to think, do you want a Lions overreaction or do you want a Jets overreaction?
Give me both? Why we get both? We got time right a few minutes here.
The Lions overreaction is just holy smokes, Like, I mean, like, how does this team? How was this team not winning the Super Bowl? Like I I was out there and Dan Campbell's talking about having to tamp down like a practice that would have been walked through by any other team, you know, if we're comparing it to other teams practices that starting quarterbacks in other cities didn't even show up to. And these guys are killing each other, like killing each other, Like amon ro Saint Brown catches a touchdown and he's whipping the football at the ground and he's did you guys see that it's a touchdown?
You know, and like this is it's like competitive. Yeah, I've never seen anything like. I got a great anecdote from the other day when I was there and I said this to Dan after practice. I thought, what was so impressive is how they know how to practice. Yeah, And I don't know if you got this when you were there, but there were a couple of hits. Like I was there on a heavy scrimmage day right like they were. They scrimmaged almost the entire practice, eleven on eleven full pads, all of that, And there were a couple of collisions where you know, like when you're a training camp and there is this sort of collision where it's not even how hard someone gets hit, it's just kind of how it happens where like everybody freeze and it's like, oh God, this guy's gonna pop up and there's gonna be a fight, right. There were like three or four of those where the guy popped up, nothing happened, and I thought it was like the most interesting thing, And I said that to Dan. I'm like, it looks like you guys know how to practice. Like it looks like everybody out there as respect for each other, has knows what their roles are like, and it's competitive as hell. But like the fact that, like there were a couple of just situations that I think, especially this deep into camp, you like when you see it happen, like your radar is up, like there is about to be a fight, right, and then the team just moved on to the next play. It just kind of gave me this feeling that there's like this championship DNA there, you know what I mean, Like that the team knows how to practice, It knows what it's out there for, the guys know each other, and it's just a very for as intensity as it is and as much as people poked fun at the up downs and all of that different stuff, you know, over the last few years. It's an incredibly professional team, you know what I mean it is.
I mean, so Dan does this thing where called the chaos drill, and I don't know if he saw it when you were out there, but he blows the whistle and then it's like, okay, we're down six where at the thirty five yard line, there's twenty seconds left, all communications cut off, can't talk to the offensive coordinator, I'm not giving you a play, figure it out, and the coaches all back off. Nobody does anything, you know, and it's all on them, you know, and you know, he'll just blow the whistle in the middle of practice and it's totally random, right and you just blow it up and everybody backs away and you guys have to figure it out, and just like they can do it, Like how many places can you drop? Okay? Probably, like realistically, probably like thirteen or fourteen of the NFL teams could have some degree of it. Like Kansas City, you're probably fine, you know, Buffalo Josh Allen's just gonna run over three people, you know and score.
I am now Cincinnati could probably Cincinnati.
Could do it, you know, but to have it look the way that it looked like you couldn't tell that there was a cow was pretty amazing.
They're they are, They're very complete now too, Like they've gotten a lot better at corner, Like that's one spotline. Yeah, I mean, like they just you know, Terry and Arnold and n s reikscral have have great camps and so this is a team that was like looking to get better at corner trade for Carlton Davis. Now they have three guys they think can really play there, right, and so much of their roster is ascending, you know. They you know, between Brian Branch and Sam Laporta and Panay Sewell and a mon Ross Saint Brown, like, there are so many guys they are Jamison Williams now has had a nice camp, Like there are so many guys that still haven't tapped I haven't fully tapped their potential, you know, Yeah, I mean, how many guys like Jared Goff, we know what we know what he is, and Jared Gof's proven himself to be a really good NFL quarterback. But outside of like him and maybe Taylor Decker and you know, Frank Ragg Now, there aren't like there aren't a lot of key pieces on that team where like you're saying, like, could this guy still level up? You know, there's a lot of guys that like that, like that are in key spots for the team.
Yeah.
Yeah.
My Jets overreaction, well, I mean nothing qualifies as an overact, you know.
I am like, I don't know why I had that reaction. It's just kind of smart, No, but it is.
It's true. It's like everything with the Jets is its own overreaction, you know what I mean. And I think that collectively, I've been told this and told this, and told this and told this, and I think like, until you really try to marinate yourself in it and to see it as it is, I don't think anybody there cares what Aaron Rodgers does. I don't think anybody there cares what he says. And this hit me the other day because I was watching warm ups and he's upping back and just every throw is hitting a receiver perfectly in stride, like he's not even thinking about it. He's sleep walking through it. And I remember going to those camps during Zach Wilson's rookie year and thinking he can't hit someone in stride, like every receiver is stopping to catch the ball, or turning around to catch the ball right as I move my face away from the microphone to do that, Like you guys need to see that. But to the point where I was like, they're gonna put up with pretty much anything because they have to. But I think that if he's healthy, it's gonna be worth it. And it's funny because I think that the two pieces to this overreaction are one. I think this defense could end up being the best defense in the NFL. I don't know how bold of a claim that is, but I very much think that they could be the number one defense in the NFL. What they've done with that defensive line. I think guys who are gonna flash Will Donald, who's their first round pick two years ago, looks amazing, looks a lot stronger, you know. You combine that with the fact that when they are coming after Aaron in practice, he instantly has a solution, whereas like, don't remember, you have this selective amnesia back from the Zach Wilson days where that was a sack, it was a throwaway. It was a just you know, you spike the ball in the dirt and you blow the whistle and you try it again. Aaron's scoring touchdowns, you know, And you know, I'm not as cliche as to say this is iron sharpening iron, but like nothing bothers him on the field, and I really do think it's probably somewhat more harmonious than we imagine it to be. Like he's not walking around handing out like anti vaccination pamphlets to everybody. This is a fairly normal training camp, you know what I mean.
Yeah, And I think like the other thing that.
Don't make me look stupid for saying this, Jets, by the way.
Look in all in all the hysteria over Egypt, right and missing those three.
Days, which was dumb in an unforcedare right, Like I'm not moving on right right right.
But but but like one thing that I think got lost a little bit is that he was there for the other eight weeks of the off season program, which is a hell of a lot more than he was doing in Green Bay at the end. And he was winning MVPs without that in Green Bay. And so like the fact that he was engaged for that much of the off season and last year too, it gives him a foundation that really he wasn't giving himself with his teammates in Green Bay, you know, and he again he was winning MVPs, you know, you know, you know, so like I look at that part of it, and you know, I even look at some of the tension in camp. But this goes again to the whole like you know, Twitter overreaction to stuff. But like if Garrett Wilson Aaron Rodgers aren't going to get a little hot with each other to try to work something out fast in training camp, where are they going to do it right? You know, Like that's good. I don't know where we got to this point where confrontation is always bad. Confrontation all right? Like maybe this is like an old school way of looking at it. Confrontation is the easiest way to solve conflict, Yes, Like it is the fastest, easiest way to solve conflict. If you are worried about what the cameras are catching and you're you know, tiptoeing around each other, well then the problems never getting get solved. Right. If there is a problem on the field and you see it and you get after your teammate on it, and he gets after you back, like twenty minutes later, you're going to be fine and the problem is going to be solved. And I remember having this conversation with people thirteen years ago when Bill O'Brien and Tom Brady yelled at each other on the side sideline in Washington, and how much attention that got. Right.
Feels like everything worked out.
They were in the super Bowl that year, but like, you know, so I just I don't know what we got to this place where it's like it's almost like we're in like the cafeteria of a middle school, like, ooh, do you see what he said? Sometimes these are the best ways to I'd say, I'd say more often than not, these are this is the best way to solve problems is to confront it as it's happening and find a solution as it's happening. And if you're doing that in the moment, a lot of times it's going to look like that, Yeah, you know, these guys aren't accountants, you know what I mean, Like they're football players. They're out there in an intense environment in the middle of the dog days of camp, and so I even look at like little things like that is encouraging because I know how much Aaron thinks of Garrett Wilson, and we all know what his potential is. So if he's working through things like that with guys like Wilson and guys like Brice Hall, guys like Mike Williams, who's new there, you know, that's gonna put them in a better place in the.
Fall too, Andy, you know whatever. He he was pissed at Joe Tipman for flying snaps over his head and then he came out and you know, came out and talked to reporters, and I get the sense that and I don't know this to be necessarily true, but there's not really like an Aaron Rodgers day. It's kind of like when Aaron wants to you know, when Aaron wants to kind of come out and say something, he'll say something. And for him to come out and say that, hey, Joe Tipman could be an all pro, like didn't have to do that. But he comes out and he and he patches it up. And so I do think that there's probably something to that, you know, And and I think that this team is gonna be fine. I think they're gonna be really good. I picked them to when the the AFCs again, So I really hope it happens, you know, I.
Think last year, I picked Buffalo to when the AFC's but the Chests to get to the AFC title game.
I think that I picked the page is when the a FC East last year, Let's be real. So I'm still bruised from that one.
Yeah, yeah, I remember. I actually remember a radio appearance. So I was. I think I was driving my kid to school and or to camp or something and uh Old Connor or popped on Boston Radio and had to explain himself.
I said, believe everybody, and then they got rid of the greatest head coach in NFL history.
Yeah. But but I think that the Jets should be the favorite in the a f C East, right, they should be Buffalo's reset their roster a bunch, right, like a bunch of guys who were key pieces of their Stephan Diggs, Micah High, Jordan Boyer, Tardavius White, Like, there's been a lot of attrition there and then Miami on they've basically gutted their defense. You know, Christian Wilkins has gone, Jerome Baker's gone, Savian Howard's gone. So I mean, I I don't know why the Jets wouldn't be the favorite in the a FC East, Do.
You have any other overreactions, Albert, do you want to talk?
No? Okay, So I'm gonna take I'm gonna take a private conversation public high school buddy of mine. Shout out to my buddy Logan, who I've known since I was like seven or eight years old, asked me for ask me for some juice. So I told him to take the over on the Arizona Cardinals. Oh yeah, so there's a wild card for you. You know what, I always struggle with these, like who's the surprise team, because I just feel like the NFL, we're so saturated with NFL coverage that it's so hard to find a team that hasn't been talked about in that context. But I think that this might be one. Now I'm not saying they're gonna win the Super Bowl, but I mean, I think it's twenty four draft picks over the last two years, and I believe you have to look this up, but I believe they led the league and snaps played by rookies last year, which of course can be a little misleading because if you're a bad team, then rookies have a better chance to play, and that certainly was the case last year. But you know, they already lost one of the second year guys in b j o Jali, who I know they're expecting big things from. But Paris Johnson looks like he is going to be a left tackle for them for the next ten years. Mike Michael Wilson at receiver has drawn comparisons internally and a lot of those guys were with the Vikings to Adam Thielen. You know, they've got, you know, some some some young dbs in that class. Garrett Williams is one, and then this year's rookie class Marvin's Marvin. We don't need to be able to go over that, but like beyond just Marvin Harrison, Darius Robinson looks like he's going to be a Day one contributor. Max Melton. I they really feel like they've got something there like that could wind up be he could wind up as a second rounder being a number one corner for them. I just think like looking at where that team is and looking how they were competitive last year, and looking where Kyler Murray is and was, and how it's almost like in the way that he's left his career a little bit in the last year and a half, almost like he took all that stuff that was said about him after the study clause in his contract. Personally, I feel like there's like, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they don't win eleven games and they aren't a difficult division and that factors into everything, But could they get to like seven or eight wins? I could see that.
So I have I predicted in my hundred Bowl Predictions column earlier this year that they will have one of the longest winning streaks in the NFL this year. And here's why I agree with you. I think it's a roster that's coming around for sure. But also look at the I don't know, like week eight to week sixteen, you have the Dolphins, I think they could beat you know, I think head to head there fairly even to me at this point, like I don't see the Dolphins as like that much better than them at this moment in time. You have the Week nine with the rookie quarterback, You have the Jets Week ten, then you have your bye week. Then you have Seattle Minnesota, Seattle, Okay, you have New England, you have the Carolina Panthers. They're gonna be able to rack up some serious wins at the end of this season, you know, and you know the beginning of the schedule is tough, but they beat the Cowboys last year, you know, when they were ripping the heads off of people. This team is not scared of anybody. I think they're built really well. I think they have some of the best you know, players at certain positions in the league. So why not, you know what I mean?
I mean, I just like, look at what they've done. One thing I really like about what many Austin fort And and Jonathan Gannon have done there too, is like they're getting really good at premium positions now, right Like I mentioned Michael Wilson. Obviously, they have Marvin Harrison at receiver, They've got Paris Johnson. They signed Jonas Williams at tackle. You know, they're bringing it. I think Max Melton again, like they feel like he can be a number one corner in the league. These are important premium positions that they're filling with rookies, you know, and like the idea that they could get really good, really fast at those spots and the financial flexibility that gives you over the next couple of years. Even though you've got a quarterback on a massive contract. I you know, I just think they're in a they're they're in a really good spot to be one of those teams that maybe they start two and four or two and five and then they wind up you know, who knows eight and nine. And not to say that that's like earth shattering or anything, but I mean, in the NFC, could you sneak into the playoffs? Maybe I'm getting too far ahead of myself on that, but I think they're gonna be a good team.
The I mean, Trey McBride I think might be you know, behind like Sam Laporta maybe like the best yeah, young tight end in the NFL. You know, there's there's really good players here right.
Like I think Trey Benson can be a good back for them, you know. Like it's just I just I just like a lot of things about what they've done for the over the last year and a half and putting the team together. And I think Gannon's got a really good staff too, Like I think Drew Petsing and Nick Rolais are really really good young coordinators. Like I just I hesitate to compare it to like where the Eagles were, but the makeup of Gannon's staff is sort of like the makeup of like Sirianni's staff was early on, you know, with that first group that he had, and he could see where the vibe in the buildings, sort of similar to.
We did it, Albert. I don't think that's too bad. I don't think we overreacted too much.
No, no, no, everybody's everyone's undefeated.
Everyone's undefeated, well except for who was winning the Hall of Fame game when the lightning struck.
I don't know. I'd have to look that up. Doesn't count because the I mean, the.
Game didn't act John Harbaugh, it all counts, sure, No.
No, no, I know that, but like the game doesn't like count because the game wasn't finished.
We call it like the Hall of Fame game, like it's this big deal, and then like a little rain comes and we're like, yeah, grit.
You know it's better than when the logo melted into the field.
Yes, where are you next, Albert? And when are you coming home? Everyone wants to.
Know when Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Kansas City, Minnesota home home on Thursday night. I guess technically when I landed, it'll be Friday morning. And thank you for prompting me to reevaluate some things in my life too with that marriage. Hopefully, hopefully some executives from Marriott or listeners and maybe they can they can throw me a bone or two for all my loyalty.
Were Albert, six years, six years of your life in here, you bait. You went from birth to kindergarten in a Marriotte.
I have spent. I have spent more days in Marriott properties over the last nineteen years then my daughter has spent a live and again she turns five next week.
Amazing. That's why you guys come here is too, is to learn about the stories inside the stories and how many nights Albert spent at a Marriotte. Thank you, Albert, I do have over a million points.
Just put that in there.
Protect yourself from hackers out there.
All right, if they want to, if they want to double my number for all my loyals, I'd be happy to I happy, be happy to accept that gift.
All right. Albert's out there thrown around Marriott points like well, who knows someone at a gentleman's club with a lot of singles. And we're gonna be here throughout the remainder of training camp. We're gonna ease this ship back in to the port and before you know, we're gonna have regular football. So look out for Matt and Gilberto later this week, and thank you guys as always for sticking with the MMQB podcast. Stas at the R