Engagement Advice, Eagles Banner Night, Chiefs in Brazil & NFL Season Preview with Alex Smith | EP 152

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In 2014, when you were rookie with Travis, when he first arrived at the Chiefs, let's start there.

Okay.

Did you expect that we'd end up where we are right now?

What were your expectations for a young Travis Kelsey?

Did I expect him to be what, like a Hall of Fame career?

Yeah, yeah, that's the question.

Crazy question, hell, hell no.

Hell no.

What threw you off?

Welcome back

to Mo Heights 92%ers.

Hey, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, a Wondry Show brought to you by Reese's Oreo Cups.

And

those things are tasty.

Yeah, baby.

Two of my favorites combined into one.

We're your hosts.

I'm Travis Kelsey.

This is my big brother, Jason Kelsey, out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, University of Cincinnati grads.

I'll tell you what, Bearcats, man, didn't end the way that we wanted to, but I'll tell you what, we fought.

We fought.

It's only that's all I wanted to see some fucking heart.

And that's what I fucking saw.

And we got a hell of a team, man.

Yeah.

Let's go, baby.

Take over the Big 12.

Subscribe on YouTube, Wonder Plus, wherever you get your podcast, and follow the show on social media at New Heights Show with 1s.

Jason,

I think this is where you tell everybody what we have coming up next.

92%.

Football is back.

Yay!

We're going to talk about all the biggest news from last week, including the preview.

The Chiefs heading down into Brazil.

We're also going to get into the fallout from the Parsons trade and dive into the rest of the NFL season with three-time Pro Bowler and Chiefs legend, Alex Smith.

Smitty.

But before we get to all of that, we're going to get into a little bit of that

new news.

New news.

Travis, we got to talk about it.

I don't think we have to, but go ahead.

Okay.

Well, in case you missed the Instagram post heard around the world, Travis and Taylor are engaged.

Yay!

Well, and thank you guys for the congratulations that you sent out last week.

You saw it?

Yes, I did.

It was very nice of you, Jason.

Thank you.

It was very nice of you.

Although you had already congratulated me.

You had to do it on behalf of New Heights.

It felt like it would have been weird if we didn't do it.

We wanted to send that message.

What?

No, thank you guys.

And I appreciate everybody that reached out and sent something and all the posts and all the excitement that's been going on.

It's been really fun telling everybody who I'm going to be spending the rest of my life with.

So

how has the last week been?

Exciting.

It's been awesome.

Yeah.

Isn't it, there's something different about calling somebody your fiancé.

Yeah.

There's a comedian that has a whole bit about it, but I think they nailed it of talking about like my girl.

Oh, it's was John Mulaney, I think, is talking about girlfriend versus all of a sudden you're like, this is my fiancé

or my wife.

There's something more, way, way more official to it.

Yeah.

And it's just 100%.

I felt that at the game, actually.

It was my first time introducing Taylor as my fiancé to a few of my teammates.

There we go.

So, yeah, it was pretty cool.

Don't you get giddy saying it?

I did.

Yeah, I still get giddy.

I love it.

It's exciting times.

Still fresh.

Do we have any advice to other 92%ers that might be popping the question?

Man,

you got to know your gal.

You got to know your gal or your significant other.

You got to know them.

You can't.

And

you can't let how somebody else does it make you feel like you need to do it that way.

You can't read about it in a cosmopolitan magazine and expect that they're going to know your person.

You got to know your person.

Yeah.

You maybe might be able to get some ideas from how other people did it.

Fuck Fuck that.

Fuck those other people.

I hear you.

They might

get the creative juices going.

There you go.

That's okay.

I got you.

I would just say

know your partner,

know who you're doing it for, and do it for the right reasons, baby.

Everything else would be beautiful.

I cannot wait to hear more of the planning and everything that will take place.

Travis, you are going to

go crazy.

About to embark on

the wedding planning phase of

a relationship.

Step.

Yep.

I've heard about that.

And get ready.

It is a lot of fun.

Have you ever heard Mike Leach talk about planning wedding?

No, but that is a

wild.

Go ahead.

I'm not going to, I can't even do it justice.

You're going to have to watch that clip yourself.

But Mike Leach is pretty, he's a funny man.

Funny man.

Yeah.

No, it's a very exciting time trying to figure out where, dates, all of these things.

There is a very important question that Jake and Brandon

required me to ask on this show, which is, are they invited to the bachelor party?

Bachelor party, man.

How do you even know there's a bachelor party coming?

You know, I don't.

I'm just asking this question on behalf of Jake and Brandon.

I haven't thought about it one second.

Yeah.

So this is a good way to defer.

Yeah.

Well done.

So,

but I invite you guys everywhere.

Are they invited to the wedding at least?

Well, you know, we're going to see.

We're going to see how

we're going to see how it all shakes out because I don't want to put them at a table that they wouldn't mesh with.

Well, let's.

Let's segue here.

Let's segue here.

Let's segue here.

92% is for those of you that are unaware.

Travis was not the only member of New Heights that has recently been engaged.

Intern Brandon has gone in, Jay.

Let's go.

So, Intern Brandon, I now flip the question on you.

Are Travis and I invited to your bachelor party?

Of course.

Yes.

of course you are.

Of course,

I don't know what you're doing.

Were we invited to the wedding?

This is news to me.

Of course, we did.

I think we just strong-armed our way into this.

You're in.

No,

no shame.

I am perfectly fine, strong-armed my way into this.

A few of my friends texted me, like, hey, man, so congrats.

We're so happy for you.

Are we going to get to hang out with Jason and Travis?

And he's like, oh, cool.

That's like your second question is.

Are Jason and Travis like going to fucking hang out with us?

And I'm like, no, not now.

But no, you better find it.

We'll figure out what we're doing.

Brandon.

Intern Brandon got engaged in an ocean.

I did.

It's truly fantastic.

Can we put that photo up?

My little head bobbing in the water like this, and the ring is floating.

And there it is.

It's a great photo.

Travis did it on land, which is much safer.

I got in the middle of the ocean.

Land, mammal.

I got warned.

I got warned.

Brandon went aquatic.

I went aquatic.

I once thought I would do it on water, but

you did it.

He didn't do it on water.

He did it.

In water.

Holding the ring while kicking your little feet, trying to fight the current.

Terrible idea.

Don't recommend it.

That's my advice.

Listen, that's the most athletic thing I've ever done in my life.

Brandon, I'm sure you have had a lot of people reach out.

And so

Travis had, but yeah.

Travis has had so many that I've had people reach out.

And that's been one of the more fun things is hearing from coaches and former friends of ours.

Like, hey, can you tell Travis congratulations?

Nice, man.

Sure, absolutely.

We'll do.

It's been so much fun hearing from everybody, seeing the internet go crazy.

Cleveland, Cleveland Twitter page, the city city of Cleveland at city of Cleveland put up their local man and his new fiancé stun in engagement pictures.

I thought that was

absolutely

local man is a great way to go.

That's so good.

We also got a great tweet from Awful Announcing.

NFL podcast host announces engagement to recent guests.

Very accurate.

Accurate.

Speaking of announcements.

Speaking of announcements, congratulations again, Trav.

Very happy for you, Ante.

And can't wait to see what the future holds for both of you.

Now we can transition to announcing another thing, which is the New Heights Tailgate in KC.

Ooh.

That's right.

September 14th, starting at 11 a.m.

The New Heights Tailgate, sponsored by Audible, is coming to KC live in the Power and Light District.

KC PL, baby.

Ultimate New Heights fan experience with food, of course, barbecue.

Tons of contests and New Heights merch giveaways, a photo booth to take your game day photos, DJ to keep the vibe going, cornhole.

Who doesn't like

putting a sack in some cornholes?

Cornhole game to compete with your friends, a giant TV to watch Ennovo games live, and plenty of places to hang out for you and your friends.

And it's completely free.

Free for all fans because we appreciate you guys so much.

And we want to have a kick-ass time.

And typically, that more the merrier.

So you don't need to sign up.

You just show up.

Capacity will be limited to first come, first serve basis.

Let's go, baby.

Walnut Street between 13th and 14th, just outside of KC Live in the Power Light District of Kansas City next week for the Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles game.

It's going to be a barn burner.

Oh, yeah.

Little Super Bowl rematch.

Come on, baby.

Yeah.

Come on, baby.

We won't get too far ahead.

We won't get too far ahead.

Just want to let you guys know that's what we got coming up.

And make sure you show up and show out, baby.

Casey always shows up.

KCPL is always a good ass time, man.

I've never had a bad time there, and sure enough, New Heights is bringing it.

That wraps up new news.

Let's get to Out of the House, Travis.

Out of the house is brought to you by Gillette, the best a man can get.

I see you stroking the beard.

You're

feeling them grays coming back in?

It's coming.

Thank God.

Yeah, I see him.

My wisdom is coming back by the

you lost it for a second.

Out of the house, the Kelseys hit up Arrowhead for the Cincinnati and Nebraska games.

Shout out to Nebraska, but shout out to UC, man.

No doubt.

Nebraska played a hell of a game.

Went down to the wire since he showed all the heart in the world, baby, and showed that we got some ball players, man.

We got some ball players and we can make some plays with the game on the line.

And yeah, we got one play that we can learn from.

And it's early on in the season.

Can't let that game or that play define us.

We got a lot to be proud of about that game and a lot to learn from as well.

It felt like a first first game.

It felt like a lot of just, you know, not like catastrophic mistakes, just kind of like sloppiness, you know, drop ball here, fall start here.

Like we had 35 yards passing, I think, up into the fourth quarter.

But it didn't feel like Sorsby was playing that bad.

Like

he threw some really good fade balls.

And I don't know.

It just was one of those.

And hats off to Nebraska.

Nebraska played a great game.

They controlled the ball.

I think they had like 35 minutes or something like that, close to 40 minutes of time of possession.

You know, we just didn't stay on the field as an offense.

We kind of got behind the sticks.

We'd run the ball really well, then all of a sudden getting like a third and long.

And, you know, we had the turnover before half, and then obviously the turnover at the end of the game when we were going down a tie or win it.

But

I'm with you.

I came away like Cincinnati has

something to him this year.

Sorsby, I like him.

I know it didn't, it wasn't his probably, he'd take back that last throw and maybe some other ones, but I liked him as a player in the game.

I think they got some, the running game looked great.

Walker, number three,

he was, come on, he was giving this little, putting that foot in the ground, making some guys miss.

Sorsby doing it with his legs.

He wants to show that he's a gamer.

He's like, listen, I'm going to find a way.

I'm excited about Cincinnati the rest of the way.

I think they'll clean up a lot of these mistakes they had in this game.

I also think Nebraska is probably a good team this year.

So

I think Cincey is going to do well in the Big 12.

I'm looking forward to watching him the rest of the way.

You know it, baby.

You know it.

And I got to give this shout out.

My guy, Terry Braden, man, he's defensive line coach over there in Nebraska.

He had been in Kansas City just about my whole career, man.

One of my favorite guys of all time.

That's awesome.

In the building, man.

And he's one hell of a coach.

And sure enough, man, he's got them Kern Huskers rocking and rolling on the D-line.

Them Corn Huskers had Arrowhead rocking and rolling.

It was.

Nebraska showed up.

UC was there.

UC was there.

We had,

but when Nebraska is right down the street, man.

UC was there.

What are you talking about?

It was Phil, like it was like 90% Nebraska.

But you felt that because both teams wear red.

No, I felt that because it was 90% Nebraska.

Like, I mean, UC travels well, but let's be honest.

That thing was, there was, I mean, they could have been shucking.

They could have, yeah, there was a lot of corn going on.

All right, you got me.

We also have

a little thing that they have written in.

Jason brought jorts for Jason with this.

Yeah, he did.

Yeah, except I didn't.

These are Travis's jorts.

I stole them from his closet.

But everyone liked them.

They did.

On Jason.

That's all that matters right there.

But that was, I did go on bus-in afterwards with Will and Taylor.

Oh, yeah.

We love those dudes.

Pissed I didn't get a beer with them at the game.

Trav had already been on, and

I had never been on there.

I also told a story of us drinking non-alcoholic beers,

which I don't think we should.

I mean, listen, if you're in a non-alcoholic beer, it's just so weird when you think you've been doing something for the last hour and a half, two hours, and then all of a sudden you realize that it hasn't been happening.

You just feel deceived.

How could I be so naive to not even check

what that was?

But

yeah, I think

it was a crazy realization because I was the first one that caught it.

And I'm sitting there, I had poured a real beer and I had poured the non-alcoholic beer.

And I found the taste difference.

Yeah.

And I was like,

this one's like a little sweeter.

That's crazy.

That's actually a really like delightful taste.

And I looked at the can.

I'm like, oh, let me see what kind of what zero because all I read at first was zero something.

Yeah.

Like it had zero in bold letters.

I just saw a beer and I just assumed it was beer.

But

I saw zero and I'm like,

zero.

What kind of this is like zero calorie, zero sugar?

And I'm like, in my head, I'm like, that's gonna be the first zero calorie beer I've ever heard of.

I just,

I saw a bunch of people commenting like, how did you not know like you weren't buzzing?

I was drinking before I got in the sweet.

Like, it wasn't like I showed up sober.

I did.

I showed up sober.

And I was sober going into the second half.

And I was just like, what the fuck is.

I was drinking all morning at the goal.

Let me drink two and get to where I need to be right now.

Knowing how that first half just ended.

Either way, absolutely hilarious.

I told Tay, we started dying laughing.

And then she made sure to tell you.

And I'm back there.

I had just gotten another one out of the fridge.

Like,

delicious.

Gosh, what?

What?

Zero alcohol.

It was an electric experience.

Arrowhead, fantastic job creating that environment.

Nebraska, fantastic job.

Good luck the rest of the way.

And I got to give a shout out to UC one more time because they knew that they were going into Nebraska territory with that home game.

They did.

They knew that that stadium was going to be mostly Nebraska.

So they took a home game, went to their territory, put up a fight, baby.

I love them for it.

I thought it was

a ballsy move.

They got paid like $2 million for it.

Oh, that's it?

All right.

Did you watch any other college football this weekend?

I watched a whole lot of college football.

And one of the most touching moments of this past weekend was seeing lee corso no doubt yeah hanging up man just give it one time one time for lee man

i can't tell you how much of me is like

i fucking love that guy never met him once but i love that guy how he drove the love for college football for football in general yeah man i can't thank him enough for his efforts for wanting to make it fun for making it seem so effortless to enjoy this game uh and

man,

what a remarkable career.

And went out on his terms, man.

It was awesome.

I'm with you.

I mean, an icon, an icon of our childhood, an icon of college football and the entire landscape.

We're going to miss you, Lee.

Congratulations on an incredible career.

Went out swinging.

I mean, come on, baby.

Calls the Florida State upset over Alabama.

Come on, baby.

I know he did it.

I knew he did it with zero expectation that was going to happen, but I mean, come on now.

What a beast.

What a freaking beast.

All right.

Once again, that was Out of the House brought to you by Gillette.

The best a man can get it.

Real quick, before we get to the Alex Smith interview and some of the other things going on across the league, we're going to start with bold topics.

That's right.

Bold topics is brought to you by YouTube because we've got some absolutely fantastically massive news.

This Friday's Chiefs Chargers game is making history.

It's being offered completely free around the world for everyone.

That's fucking crazy.

For the first time ever, there are no subscriptions, no paywalls, and no requirements.

YouTube is bringing the NFL directly to you so you can watch on the big screen without any hassles, no matter where you are.

So here's our suggestion.

Cancel your Friday plans, gather your friends and family, and celebrate NFL kickoff weekend the right way.

And let's watch some.

I mean, what else are you going to be doing Friday night?

You might as well watch the freaking Chiefs Chiefs and Chargers.

Go ahead.

I mean, the high school football is back in action, but you could just watch, you can watch it on your phone, YouTube.

That's a good point.

You go to the high school game and then just stream the game live.

Stream the game live.

You were doing them both.

This is my YouTube.

Dude, fuck you.

All right.

Chiefs, Chargers in Brazil.

Trav, how is this week different?

Eagles traveled to Brazil last year.

I remember a little bit of the talk, but what are you guys getting ready for?

This is the most unique

I think it's been in terms of traveling to a game.

It's not like you're going to the other side of the world in terms of like time zones and stuff.

We're only going two time zones away, but we're traveling half a day.

So it's an interesting, you typically would go to London and time it up to where you get in London or you get overseas in Europe and you have a whole day in front of you.

So you can sleep on the plane.

You can, or at least try and get some sleep on the plane to take up the time of the flight.

It's a whole thing right now of trying to get there and get acclimated without losing the sleep schedule, keeping you in tune with, you know, just the times you're waking up and the times you'll be at your peak and athleticism, you know, throughout the day.

So it's a bit of juggling that.

I know the stadium's two hours away from the hotel.

That'll be a unique experience driving to the game for two hours,

the old college football way that we used to drive to

Miami, even though that wasn't that far away.

But we were a Delta hand, and

we got to play it.

And it is what it is.

I think

it'll be rewarding if we go down there and find a way to win, knowing that this is such a unique schedule and unique experience.

But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to go down to Brazil, man.

Dude, it's going to be electric.

It is going to be so much fun, man.

And the international games are always a fucking blast getting to see new fans and how they react to big plays and just how they show up to the game,

how they act during the game, whether I'm going to hear chants and stuff.

I'm excited for all of this.

And it's going to be, I already know that the Brazil fans are going to go fucking nuts and it's going to be a blast, man.

Yep.

And I think what you're kind of alluding to is like, there's no time zone changes, so you can't like save time.

overnight and whatnot.

Like you guys are going to lose a whole day Wednesday and just travel because it's a 12-hour flight and you're not gaining or losing.

There's no way to manipulate it.

Yeah.

So you're just going to get up in the morning, fly down to Brazil, and get nothing in that day other than maybe some film on the plane or film when you land, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So got to be smart with your time, a little bit more strategic with your

dude.

Get your Russell Wilson on.

Get your start doing high knees in the aisle.

You know, make sure you're moving around.

I don't, I don't know if I'll be doing that, but I

I got my Nintendo Switch 2.

Nice.

And I'm going to be Mario Golfing.

They got Mario Golf?

Oh, yeah.

Gosh.

Get hip, guys.

I can't, dude.

I'll be on it all day.

I just know it.

I got to stay out of it.

I got to stay out of it.

All right, let's move on.

It went to have on an international division game.

Is it weird to have an international division game?

I mean, this would be my second one.

We played the Chargers in Mexico City.

That's right.

We only had one game international.

It was London.

I wish we would have been able to play more when I was there.

I'd like the international games personally.

It's a blast.

This would be my fifth country I've played in.

Fifth country.

It'll be your

second continent, right?

Europe and South America.

Well, third continent, I guess, North America, Europe, South America.

You're just missing Africa, Asia,

Australia, and Antarctica.

Yep.

So, NFL, we got to keep expanding.

Yeah, we got to keep going.

We got to keep going, boys.

Australia is coming.

That one is not far off.

No, the Aussies definitely

love some football.

They love some competition, baby.

This counts as a home game for the Chargers.

Sucks.

Do you expect to do you expect more Chiefs or Chargers fans?

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

I don't want to say I was caught off guard, but there were more Chargers fans, I felt like, in Mexico City than there were at the game in Los Angeles.

So I'm not sure if because they're closer to the border.

Yeah, their original team, San Diego, was so close to the border that they had a bunch of like fans built up from that.

But

I don't know how far down south, like into South America, their fan base goes, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have scheduled this if there wasn't a lot of fans for both teams.

We'll find out.

Other Chiefs have been weighing in on the topic in the trip to Brazil.

Mackenzie Nelson, everything Xavier Worthy knows about Brazil, he says, comes from the fast and furious movie.

One way to do your research, Xavier.

One way.

Nice, I have to watch that on the plane.

Pat let us know he had to explain to Travis how a globe works.

First of all, uncalled for, Pat.

I think more than anything, it was just explaining to some guys how far the trip was.

Some guys didn't understand how far the travel was, Travis, even though he just was down there like last year.

So I was just explaining to him how the globe works.

Very uncalled for.

Had no idea that Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo were that close.

I knew Brazil was down there.

I didn't realize it was that far down there.

Argentina and Brazil are heated rivals, just so you know.

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

Just hadn't put those two together.

Yeah.

Well,

actual football preview, the Chargers are in year two of the Jim Harbaugh experience in Los Angeles.

Yeah, what are the staples of a Jim Harbaugh coach team?

I mean, friggin', they're gonna

tough as nails.

They got heart.

They're gonna play all four quarters in every single phase.

You know, you're gonna get a well-disciplined football team.

It's like your NFL.

It's like your football's football team.

It's gonna be a lot of 12, 21 personnel.

They're gonna establish a run game, line up play actions off of it.

They're always physical teams on offense and defense.

It's an old school mentality that Jim Harbaugh's teams bring to the game, and it's refreshing in a lot of regards.

And I can't wait to see what year two looks like for the Chargers.

I really can't.

I mean, I hope they lose this first game, obviously, but I'm optimistic about how they do from here on out.

I like that the NFL is doing this with week one opening games with divisional matchups.

You got the Eagles versus Cowboys.

We're going to get to that one in a second to start the season off.

You guys and the Chargers, I'm going and doing the Monday night countdown with Bears, Vikings.

There's just a lot of good games in this week one.

I can't wait to watch the games this weekend.

It's going to be so much fun.

We got some key matchups potentially.

We got Josh Simmons, hell of a rookie debut.

He's got Khalil Mack, one of the best pass rushers over the last decade in the NFL.

It's definitely a hell of a welcome to the NFL movement for the Young Buck.

Chargers have added Najee Harris and Makai Bechton.

Although, I don't know if Makai has practiced yet.

I think he's been.

Yeah, I think both of them have kind of been up in question, but maybe Najee has got the thumbs up as of late.

But either way, if they don't play this game,

they'll definitely contribute to that team.

Both great players.

And actually, it looks like that Harris will split reps with rookie Omarion Hampton.

So, yeah, getting him

kind of slowly back incorporated into

the offense, I guess.

Chargers left tackle Rashawn Slater, unfortunately, is out for the season, man.

The worst kind of news you ever want to come across.

Such a great player, man.

And, I mean, as much as

that team is going to run the ball this year,

having a healthy old line is a huge component, especially early, man.

You just hate to see that for such a great, great player, man.

Absolutely.

He's been, I mean, even from his rookie year, it's been one of the better tackles in the league.

He's a blast to watch.

And

hopefully, the big guy can come back even stronger.

We got.

They aren't the only ones missing a star player, though.

Rashi Rice will officially start his suspension this week.

He will be out for the first six games.

And, you know, I think everybody in KC is looking forward to seeing him back out on the field.

Opens up a lot, but, you know, listen, this is what you're going to have to deal with, right, Trav?

Yeah, and I think the biggest thing is that, you know,

I don't want to say we saw it coming, but we've had to prepare for this, you know, knowing that there's going to be some...

amount of games that he's going to end up missing and Rashi knows that and you know he's going to attack these weeks and make sure that he's ready for when he's allowed back in the building and and you know what I think I think it's going to create you know that much more love and that much more fight out of him I think he's got a lot to prove still in this league and

I think I saw a certain type of work ethic and attention to detail that

you know he's taking it up a notch when he when he's out there in practice so I can't wait to get that guy back in the building but we're going to have to hold it down without him down in Brazil man yeah Trevor have you guys brought up any keys to the game what do you you think?

Of course we have.

There's a fucking, there's a bunch of them.

Let me guess.

Let me guess.

Let me guess.

Let me guess.

I'm not telling you guys any of our keys.

Don't turn the ball over.

That's a huge one.

I love the keys.

I always love going in the keys of the game.

All right, take care of the football.

I mean,

stats are stats, dude.

Over the last four years,

the amount of fumbles in the first week.

It's just the first week.

It's insane.

The amount of fumbles fumbles and the amount of missed tackles.

It's through the fucking roof.

It's always easy.

It's always the same.

Hey, take care of the football.

Where you are.

Take care of the football.

Create turnovers on defense.

Take care of the football and offense.

Stop the run.

Eliminate penalties and mistakes.

Eliminate penalties.

Eliminate penalties.

We got to be going forwards, guys.

We can't be going backwards.

Eliminate those.

Stop killing ourselves.

We need to be playing the other team, not ourselves.

That's right.

That's right.

If we beat the Kansas City Chiefs, we'll beat them.

No, we can't beat ourselves.

Oh, yeah, I'm sorry.

If we don't beat ourselves, yeah,

there we go.

All right, let's keep this thing moving.

We'll see you guys down in Brazil, baby.

Sao Paulo, baby.

Get ready to get this thing going.

Do you have any, do you know any words in?

No.

No, but if

I come, I'll make sure I learn some down there.

Bring some back with you.

I'll bring some good ones back.

The only two I remember are Oblogadu and Cerveja.

Nice.

Let's talk a little Eagles Cowboys, baby.

Come on now.

First game of the season for both these teams.

And man, what a matchup to get this thing going.

A lot going on in the Cowboys world and the defending champs.

I mean, could you think of a better way for the Philadelphia Eagles to start the NFL season coming off of the Super Bowl than playing the Dallas Cowboys to start the NFL season and dropping a banner?

Like, I mean, in front of the boys.

Dude, the NFL is so good at these scheduling things.

The environment this Thursday, I cannot wait.

I cannot wait to experience this.

It is going to be

so kind of good by fucking electric.

It's going to be insane.

It is going to be absolutely bedlam.

It's going to be nuts.

I am kind of pissed that I never got to go to you playing against the Cowboys.

Fuck me.

Like, I only got to experience that.

We got plenty of Cowboys Eagles games to go to, Travis.

We got plenty to go to.

I don't need to be playing.

I wanted to be in the stands as an an Eagles fan with Cowboys fans around and feel that.

You know what I mean?

It's a great time when you're in Philly.

It's not as much fun when you're in Dallas, but it's a great time when you're in Philly.

You don't know that.

No, I do.

We lost a lot of games in Dallas, unfortunately.

Oh, okay.

Anyways, no,

this is going to be...

I'm looking forward to so many things.

There's a lot of guys that I think.

Dude, they've been putting in so much work, and they've been doing it now for all the training camp, and they're trying to stay focused at the task at hand to repeat and have another great season.

And

I think the mentality has just been so good across the board from the coaches to the players.

They're returning so many pieces offensively.

I mean, really, the only new pieces are their right guard, Tyler Steen, who's been there.

He's just, now he's going to be starting.

And that's it.

I mean, the offensive coordinator is the other new one on offense.

The other one I'm really looking forward to is defense.

I think Moro Jomo, keep that name name in the back of your head.

This is a guy that, and I know Brandon, intern Brandon, shout out to intern Brandon.

He knows who I'm talking about because he went to UT and Brandon knows everybody from fucking Texas.

But, dude, this guy, you know when you can't tell when there's a guy balling out on scout team, if it's just like he's given great effort, so is he catching guys when they're tired, a little bit fatigued on like a Wednesday and Thursday?

So you're like, all right, he's got some juice, but I'm going to wait to see how this goes.

Then he just keeps getting better.

And he has this great disposition to him that he, from the moment he's got there, he's been inquisitive and asked questions and is always trying to get better.

And

it brings me back to we had Kobe Bryant talk to the team in 2017.

And one of the guys asked him, Do you have any advice to young players trying to make it in the NFL?

And this is my favorite thing, Kobe said all speech.

Other guys referenced some of the other stuff, but I really love this.

He said, be curious, right?

Ask questions.

Try and learn as much as you can.

And Stout always says it in a different way.

Knowledge is our greatest resource.

He's always been asking questions to some extent, like annoyingly.

Like guys like, Goddamn, Morrow just keeps on talking to me and asking me questions.

He has had a relentless effort when he's on the field.

He's had a relentless effort off the field.

He wants to be great at football.

I think he's going to have a really good year for Philadelphia.

I'm putting it out there.

He's playing alongside Jalen Carter, who's going to get a lot of attention because he's one of the best defensive tackles, if not the best in the NFL.

And I think it's going to be, I'm looking forward to seeing him play.

And I'm looking forward to seeing,

yeah, I'm just looking forward to being back at the Link and watching the Eagles line it up again.

A lot of guys going into their second year, especially on defense or

second or third year.

Let's, and we're seeing are they going to be able to keep up?

Are they going to be able to do it again?

Vic Fangio.

Yeah, I don't know, man.

I'm just really excited to watch this first game.

I mean, it's going to be fucking absolutely insane

of an atmosphere.

Hopefully the game resembles that, knowing everything that the Cowboys have going on with the first-year coach and,

yeah, getting their star defensive player traded a week before the season starts.

They got a lot of noise.

But the banner, I want to talk a little bit about the

banner games, man.

I've been a part of them where somebody else was raising a banner, and I've been a part of them when I've been raising a banner.

You've been a part of them definitely when you've raised a banner.

Have you ever been the team going into

the stadium?

No.

Well, I was in a banner game for, not for winning a Super Bowl, but we played in New England, in New England, when they retired Tom Brady's jersey.

Ooh.

Which was arguably bigger than a banner game.

Big time.

It was a big time environment.

They almost won the game, too.

They won.

That's what I'm saying, man.

It can go both ways.

But at the same time, Coach Siriani said that the Eagles will not be on the field for the banner drop.

You beat me to it, too.

They've been,

I think they're handling it the right way.

And I think 100%.

You can't.

You should be out there.

You got a game.

That's last year.

Yeah.

It's last year.

They've all turned the page, and you have to focus on this year.

But the banner isn't for them.

It's for the motherfucking fans.

And they're going to be going absolutely crazy.

And that's why I'm excited about it because I'm not playing anymore.

I could be excited about a fucking banner and watching the Cowboys.

Like, I don't have to worry about being in the moment in this season.

But they're handling it the right way.

I think Cam Juergen said something similarly this week about, you know, not giving a damn about a banner.

They're all focused on this season and moving on from last year.

Give a damn about the next banner.

You know what I'm saying?

That's right.

Dude, I went.

This reminds me talking about banner games.

I went to

one of the most legendary days in Cleveland sports history.

I got to literally be the biggest kid in the entire world.

What's that?

I went to the Cleveland Cavaliers

banner game

after they won

the NBA championship.

Yeah.

And that same day go to a Cleveland World Series game.

Holy cow.

It's a hell of a day.

And I took dad, and it was fucking electric.

And

as a little kid standing in Gunderina

on knowing that I'm about to go and take my dad to the World Series after this, dude, it was insane.

That's all I have for you.

I just wanted to make sure you knew that I did that.

Well, I'm happy that you did it and didn't invite me, you fucking asshole.

That sounds good.

Well, yeah, that was another thing.

It was during the season, so you were probably playing football, and I was on my bye week.

Interesting.

All right.

So, what are your keys to the game?

Take care of of the football.

Don't eliminate mistakes.

No penalties.

We can't beat, we can't beat ourselves.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But seriously, hold on to the football.

All right.

Here we go, boys.

That wraps up bold topics.

Brought to you by YouTube.

Hey.

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Coverage starts 7 p.m.

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Before we keep going, we want to say a big thank you to our partner, DraftKings.

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It's been a long summer without football, but we're back and we're ready to play some bets with our partners, DraftKings Sportsbook.

All right, single-game parlay.

We're going to look at the kickoff game for the season.

Cowboys at Eagles.

Jake, with the first two picks of our single-game parlay, what do you have?

All right, so I wanted to pick one from each team.

I know Jerry Jones has said that the Cowboys are very committed to stopping the run.

I'm not sure that I believe him.

So I'm going to be taking Saquon Barkley over 100 rushing yards.

They're going to commit.

Whether they'll be able to do it is a different story.

I think losing a star defensive lineman, even though they got Kenny Clark back, doesn't necessarily bode well for being able to stop the run.

Second pick is a little inspired by Beer Bull.

I saw Cooper DeVine flying out there on the obstacle course.

I know that Eagles secondary is going to be going crazy.

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0.5 interceptions.

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We're making that.

There you have it, folks.

We had to make our picks based on beer bowl observations.

That's insider information.

That's insider information.

I don't know if we're even allowed to legally do this.

That man wanted that.

He wanted it.

Well done, Jake.

All right, for the final two picks of the single game parlay, I'm going to go with Jalen Hurts anytime touchdown.

I think Jalen's going to find the end zone one way or the other.

I'm also going to go with Jalen Carter over one sack.

I love Jalen.

I love betting on sacks.

Jalen Carter's going up against the rookie Tyler Booker from Alabama.

That's one of the matchups.

I forgot to mention this up top.

I'm looking forward to watching that one this game because,

yeah, I don't know, man.

That is our single game parlay for this game, which comes out to plus 1,000 odds.

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How'd I do?

Well, did you cross it?

You did great.

Well, is that your first ad?

Maybe his first ad?

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Sure.

As many as you want, Jake.

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Let's do it.

Jason, do the honors, please.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome three-time Pro Bowler from Helix High School.

He was the first pick in the 2005 NFL draft, the 2020 NFL comeback player of the year, the quarterback who threw Travis his first ever NFL touchdown.

Please welcome Mr.

Alex Smith, baby.

Smithy.

Thank you, Jason.

Thank you.

Let's go.

A little wide shallow cross down in Miami.

You kidding me?

I've actually never been introduced with that accolade before as the first person to throw you a touchdown.

And it actually is not a bad accolade, man.

I'll take it.

I'll take it.

I've been called worse.

For sure.

All right.

Well, let's get into it.

In 2014, when you were rookie with Travis, when he first arrived with the Chiefs, let's start there.

Yeah.

Did you expect that we'd end up where we are right now?

What were your expectations for a young Travis Kelsey?

Did I expect him to be, what, like a Hall of Fame career?

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's the question.

Fuck me.

That's a crazy question.

Hell no.

Hell no.

What threw you off?

Well, I mean, obviously, there's not many guys you come in and you have that expectation.

You think that right away.

Well, especially as a third-round pick, right?

Yeah.

And so,

I mean, there's no third-round picks that come in.

You're like, this guy's going to be the greatest pass, you know, the greatest tight end ever.

No.

And

there were some question marks about Trav and his professionalism

coming in that were understood.

in the building.

Yeah.

Dude, but no, I mean, like, this is the crazy thing when you think about, I'm sure everybody looks at Trabb's career and is like, oh, look, it was just like so great and destined.

I mean, he didn't even play his rookie year.

No, you know, like, dude, I remember you out there trying to run through like routes that summer.

That was the worst.

Hobbling around, bro.

I remember you like hobbling around in that knee, just like trying to get through it.

And I felt so bad.

I'm like, this is a young guy, and he's like dealing with knee issues already.

No, there were like huge question marks, Jason.

You know,

I think there was a ton of positivity in the building.

Like from from the moment we drafted him, though, like, Andy, Doris at the time, John Dorsey, the GM, like, there was a ton.

Like, they were like, we got a guy.

Like, that was the belief.

Like, listen, we got a guy in the third round.

We're super, you know, we feel like he can be a player.

But he didn't play for a whole year.

You know, like, it was,

that's crazy to think back about, right?

I mean, and then

you're going to be honest with you.

Yeah,

huge knee surgery and microfracture at that point in my career.

I I was lucky I was young enough to wear it.

It paid off.

And yeah, there was still, and in terms of the professionalism, it kind of worked out in my favor because I got to see everything

from like, I just got to sit back and watch guys like you, guys like Fasano,

then guys like Jeremy Macklin come in and like be pros and

show me how it's done at the professional level.

And it's,

I ended up catching on

not the second year or the third year, but eventually it played for me.

I kind of say it in jest, right?

Like half joking, obviously, about the professionalism.

But I also think the cool thing is that I think in the same time that, you know, when you got drafted, I'll never forget, it was like, hey,

again, they think you're a hell of a player.

This is going to be great.

They also immediately understood, like.

Like, who is fresh out of college?

This guy's got some, you know, he's got to learn a little bit.

It's going to be a process.

He's going to grow.

He's going to mature.

Yeah.

And I mean, like, but that, doesn't happen everywhere, you know.

I think that was the cool thing about, especially about Andy, right?

Like, Andy doesn't, you know, like there's no judgment, right?

Like, he remembers what it's like to be a 21-year-old kid, you know, and like, hey, like,

if you're late to some meetings, it wasn't the end of the world, you know.

And Trav happened, you know, Trav got called to the principal's office a time or two, those first few years.

Just a tap on the shoulder.

Hey, Andy wants to see you.

Oh, I wonder why.

I tell people this all the time.

I feel like Andy just has this aura about him that there's like this presence that is downright like you're afraid of him in certain instances.

Like he has like that kind of like feeling, but at the same time, you always feel like he like loves you and just wants the best for you.

Like he has, he toes that line of being a disciplinarian and like a player's coach better than anybody I've been around.

Like he's not going to accept anything.

from you that isn't your best, but at the same time, he's like forgiving to like a fault.

Like it's, I don't even know how he's mastered both of those avenues, but it's, it's hard to explain.

But that's kind of the vibe I always got from him.

No, I do, I think you hit it on the head.

Like, he's, I mean, that's what coaching is, right?

Like, tough love, right?

You got to be both, you know, you got to have like high standards

and hold people to him.

But at the same time, I think the best thing about Andy is, again, like the no judgment, right?

Like, if you, if you mess up, if you err, whether it be on the field or like in your personal life or something professionally, like he, it's not.

the end of the world, right?

Like, right, you know, and so he will welcome you back in.

And I think, you know, and and i think you appreciate that as a player for sure hell yeah do we have a favorite story from travis rookie year i mean i know we just said a couple but like favorite story even if it's not rookie year let's say second year what's a favorite story from a young travis kelsey god let's try to think like i you know for me i can't get out of my head

I know maybe some tight ends had like broken out into dance occasionally, but like the first touchdown pass,

the first touchdown pass, no, like I remember all of a sudden, I mean, he breaks into choreographed dance in the fucking end zone.

It was planned.

It was pre-planned.

There's no way you just do that.

No,

I remember distinctly being caught off guard.

Right.

Like, I just didn't see it coming.

I knew he was talented, but not like that.

Like, no.

And then every week it was like a new one.

Right.

I mean,

man.

From there on out.

I think one of the things that ready to go.

Yeah.

I don't know if, Trav, if you ever remember this play.

I actually broke this down on Sunday Countdown at USPN, but we were playing, it had to be your second or third year and we were playing the denver broncos and we called like early in the uh early in the game you started out wide and we motioned you down and we ran strike which jason's just like a fake a little fake in and then come back out right like on the third and three

and nice and we converted it right he killed the guy the db it was man the guy came running down with him in the motion pivot thing where you can go down so he kind of takes down he comes out yeah well we like save it and we come back to it in the second half like in the fourth quarter in like the biggest moment of the game.

And I think we thought like we were going to get him again.

And the DB was like pretty veteran.

And we had the same look.

It's man.

And this guy just sits hard on

the outside.

Right.

Like he's not taking the cheese.

Well, Trav just kind of like feels it.

So he just keeps fucking running.

Just runs all the way across the field.

Right.

Like, this is the NFL.

You're supposed to go in and come back out.

And he just kind of like saw the guy outside.

He's like, oh, and just kept running across the field.

And I threw him the ball for some reason.

And it turned into like a 30-yard game.

And I think everybody on the field, like including Big Red, it was like, what just happened?

Right.

And it was kind of the early dawn of Trav doing some of these things.

Right.

Trav, full disclosure, did you know it was strike or were you running the wrong route?

What was going on?

So I knew exactly what it was.

But

the thing is, is I get the first down and I like get pumped up i do a first down and then i start to slowly look at coach read on the sideline

i'm like is he gonna fucking come here this is the beginning of the moment i'll never do that again

this is the beginning of the moment where he started to get some leeway into doing these things is that what i'm hearing yes yeah yeah the early dawn of the the trav improvisation which by the way there's like in every little route there's little things you can do i mean this is a full like you're supposed to you're supposed to break right and you broke you're supposed to be in the flat over here and you're all the way on the other side of the field yeah yeah big difference just doing i i knew alex wanted me to do that because you think about the game as like a quarterback did you like that he did it alex oh heavy outside leverage don't love strike against heavy outside leverage just keep going who am i hurting going across field

nobody and it works nobody over there that's what you got to do you can't be selfish enough to ruin somebody else from getting a catch okay which i've done that and i've had to really bad alex we've talked about it.

I think we talked about it when I was with you guys before the Super Bowl.

But what do you think of Travis's ability to audible?

You just talked about the first time he ever did it.

From a quarterback's perspective, how do you feel about somebody doing something that is not pre-planned?

Yeah, it's funny because I was young, as a young QB, you're like, no, I need to know you're going to run the line on the paper, right?

Like, I need to trust that you're going to be in the right place at the right time.

And it's so funny.

Like,

as you move on and you play longer,

I want a guy that can separate.

The number one attribute I want in somebody that's running routes is separation.

I want somebody open.

Be able to separate.

And Trav.

And the crazy thing about a tight end is you got to know, and I actually think it's the second hardest position to play as a young guy on offense behind QB, just because

you're in all the shifts and motions, right?

You got in all these formations.

You're involved in the run-game blocking.

You're involved, obviously, in pass protection sometimes.

And then you got to run routes.

But, I mean, you're running routes against linebackers you're running routes against safeties you're running routes against corners and like to his point you do have to realize what your advantage is versus all these different guys thank you dude but i i you know there are all these like listen half the time you're running like a stick route right like for everybody out there like the stick route's like the most basic tight end route it's this little five yard out if you run the line on the paper in the nfl you will never be open right like you just won't and it got pretty quick and i think the cool thing i don't know about you trev like we're in the same division obviously with antonio gates who also kind of played with some of this

100%.

Yeah, you could tell

Tivers be on the same page.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But you know, the routes you would watch it on film, you're like, that's definitely not what that looks like in the playbook, right?

Like, he put a little sauce on it, he put a little wiggle on it, he ran it at like one yard, not five yards, you know.

And so I think pretty quick, you got to the point with Trav that was like, it's working, right?

And I'll, dude, and I will never forget, I don't know if I told you this.

This was later.

This is probably like your fourth year.

We were struggling on offense.

Maybe it was when we started one and five, to be honest.

Do you remember when we started one and five?

And we were, I mean, we were not playing good on offense.

And I'll never forget Naggy called me in Monday after the game.

We had just lost, I think, the fifth game.

Everything's looking bleak.

And we watched every pass play on offense.

And I'll never forget, like, kind of like looking for some tendencies, like, what can we do better?

What are we missing?

And the number one takeaway from the meeting was

Travis doesn't always run like the route like it's supposed to to be, but he's always open.

Right.

And like the number one takeaway from this offensive meeting was like, hey, when in doubt, we should probably just find this guy.

Right.

Because you'd be like running a corner route and you're like, it's not supposed to be open versus this look, but he would like, right.

He would run like a seven-yard out route instead.

And it was like, well, he was open.

Right.

Like everything kind of had a twist.

He could just like, he wasn't just going to run and get covered.

You know, it was like, it was, right.

It was nice.

And no, and so did to that point, like, once you trusted that and you developed that relationship, it was like, no, Travis is going to get open for me.

Travis is going to work.

And

again, there's a maturity and there's a lot of guts in some of that, as a route runner to

do some of that.

Well, we were talking.

We're kind of throwing a little bit of

not shade, but kind of poking fun at Travis a little bit for being a little bit immature and kind of being a happy-go-lucky free spirit.

And I think that that directly plays into like, you got to be a free spirit to just all of a sudden whip this out in the middle of a game.

Like, and anybody that's analytical, reading the playbook and showing up on time to meetings is not doing this.

They're not taking a strike route and going all the way across the field.

No way.

You're totally right.

You know what it is, though, is that the strike route actually comes off of another route.

It's like the complimentary route to flanker drive.

So it's like, in my mind, it's like that's the...

Yeah, those two go hand in hand with each other.

It has evolved since then to understand what else is around you and like to understand like, I don't know, what the quarterback's seeing versus certain coverages where the coverages are weak

and and where the holes are in the defense and things like that but it 100% was the luckiest instinctual decision I made that really paid off because it like Alex said it started to like kind of unravel into

oh in practice I'll just try it in practice and if it doesn't work in practice then I won't put that on the quarterback in the game you know I'll try my hardest not to like I don't know catch him off guard and it's just it it just turned into like, oh, well, just be definitive.

Look at Professor Trav here dropping knowledge.

Dude, the other thing, I don't know if you remember this to that same point, like, if you were running a shallow cross, right?

Like, for everybody out there, again, you're just running across the field as fast as you can.

Right.

But like, if there was a corner running on you, you constantly would, like,

you would do what you did in that tape.

You would like dead leg him and try to like, oh, yeah, no, I'm fucking with him until

again.

None of that was on like the route.

Like, none of that was installed.

And again, it was like your way of like, listen, I got to win some way, right?

Like, I got to separate and get open.

open.

Yeah.

100%, man.

Well, seven-step timing.

Getting to understand the quarterback's progression and footwork.

It's like just like, it's like a

timer going off in your head.

You know what I mean?

And don't let it get to that third, that third second.

Like, if he, if, if I can feel that the quarterback's at the top of his job and gets two hitches, I'm botching the route anyways because what we called isn't working and he needs to get that fucking ball out.

So I'm doing something else anyways.

oh shit

thank you to our partner youtube hey nfl fans history is about to go down in sao paulo brazil and you've got a front row seat to watch yours truly and the chiefs uh right from your phone tablet or tv the kansas city chiefs are taking on the los angeles charges

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Let's rewind.

We're all in Alex Smith, Kansas City era, Travis Kelsey.

Let's talk about Alex Smith, San Francisco era.

Was there anybody else that operated like this in San Fran?

What was your time in San Fran like?

It took me a long time, Jason.

Like, I battled, you know, being the number one pick and signing.

Like, this was before the rookie weight scale.

So I signed a massive contract, right?

Like,

you know, and being a first-time professional and the number one pick and going to the San Francisco 49ers, right?

I mean, it was like,

I mean, I felt like I had to be like Joe Montana, Steve Young.

I'm also the number one pick, so I got to be Peyton Manning and John Elway.

And I got to be all those things right now, right?

Like right now.

And it just, it was like, I carried around so much weight as a young professional.

Like, I felt like I had to be perfect.

And also,

this is real.

Like, it was real imposter syndrome, right?

Like, it was like,

how long, how long, Jason, until they find out that they made a mistake?

You know, like,

especially playing right away.

And this was the crazy thing, Trev.

Like, I didn't, I mean, I played week three, my rookie year, and like, I never, there weren't a ton of, it wasn't until like a few years later, like, I actually got to be around some veteran quarterbacks and actually see what it was like to be a NFL QB, you know, like preparing Monday through Saturday, what it takes, you know.

Um, just had no idea.

So it was, it was rough.

It was rough.

Sure.

Dude, a lot of late nights by myself, just watching film and having no idea what I was doing.

Trying to figure it out.

Yeah.

No clue.

That's tough.

So, man.

You go to Andy Reid.

Yeah.

Why was it so much more successful?

Like the Chiefs before you got there, we were just talking about this.

I mean, they had a great defense, but they had not been successful really at all.

So what is it about Andy Reid and going there that all of a sudden you enjoyed probably, I think, safe to say the best

years of your career.

Yeah.

And then also as a team at Florest.

Like, what is it about the system, the coach, all of it?

Yeah, I mean, I think a couple of things.

One, the fact that it's not a system.

Like, again, like, think about all the QBs that Andy Reid's had over the years, you know, from Donovan.

And they were all playing well before that.

Obviously, Michael, you know, me, Pat, like, and there's a bunch of guys in between, too, that he had for little stints and guys that all have different strengths.

You know, very different strengths.

And I think that's the beauty.

Like, Andy doesn't run some like cookie cutter playbook, right?

Like, we're not running the stuff that you guys were running in Philly, right?

Like, we're not running the stuff that they were running in Green Bay before that.

Patrick's not running the stuff that I was running, right?

Like, that just, he's going to tailor it to your strengths.

He's going to put you in a position to succeed.

And then I think there's like a, again, like I just talked obviously about, you know, for me, my mentality at that point, again, it was like, it was, it was heavy when I was young.

And then you get to Kansas City and there's like a lightness to Andy, right?

Like, I mean, he, again, like,

I didn't feel like if I messed up, it was the end of the world, right?

Like, and he constantly was like, Let your personality show be you, right?

Like, he constantly in the QB room, his favorite saying would be, like, hey, when in doubt, go deep, right?

Like, I mean, he, you know, and I'm sure some of that he felt in me.

But again, that's kind of the beauty of his coaching, right?

Like, it's not the same for everybody, right?

Like, he morphs it and changes and adapts to who he's got in front of him and what they need.

Let's uh, let's talk about a little Jim Harbaugh.

Oh, Jim Harbaugh, man.

I'm going down to São Paulo to

Sao Paulo to see him for

the second time as a a Charger.

Obviously, we saw him a little bit

when he was in San Fran still before he went to Michigan.

But I remember meeting Jim in San Fran when I was getting drafted, and the guy is just wired different, man.

He is, he eats, breathes, and sleeps football all day, every day.

And, you know, that's what you want out of your head coach.

But how are some of his coaching methods different than Coach Reed's?

Yeah, I mean, again,

dude, both these guys, I mean, Jim definitely changed, had a huge impact on my career, huge impact.

Like, before he arrived here in San Fran, honestly, like, I'm probably walking around with a bus label, you know, at this point.

And

he has me back,

signs me back.

You know, he's coming from Stanford, but I mean, this is a guy that played 15 years at quarterback in the NFL.

I mean, he definitely understands.

Crazy part is he played for the Chargers, and I grew up in San Diego, so I remember watching him play

as a kid.

But you're dead on.

Jim's different.

Like, different.

Like, he's like a real-life Ted Lasso, a little bit, right?

Like, he's like off the wall saying,

right?

Like, he'll quote you, Shakespeare.

You know, like, he just has so much gratitude for football.

To your point, like, this guy loves football.

Like, and, like, I'm not just saying that.

Like, I remember at times he told me his life aspirations were to play football as long as he could,

then coach football as long as he could, and then die.

Right?

Like, that, like, life gold.

He's got to figure it out, baby.

That's a very simple man right there.

Let's not overcomplicate this.

Like, I'll never forget my first game again.

I love it.

You know, like, here I am getting ready to play.

I think you're being a bit dramatic, coach.

Have you seen what he does before the game to the quarterbacks?

He's got the gloves and he's playing cash.

So, he's playing cash.

Like, right before kickoff, dude, he comes over, and

I'll never forget the first game we're playing.

and he comes over and he's got this like look in his eyes and again he's like he's so like happy for you that you're gonna get a chance to play football and he starts smacking you around in the helmet and he like starts jacking you up in the chest and like i remember i could like just feel

i could feel how much it was funny for me at this time because i i think i in some ways had taken it for granted but like it wasn't going to last forever and i remember like seeing that in his eyes like how much he would give to play one more time right oh yeah and it wasn't in like a glory days type of thing, but like, again, like, it was real.

I was like, oh man, this, you know, like, it was infectious that, like, when the head guy just loves ball that much.

And then for me,

he just like, again, he took so much pressure off of playing quarterback, right?

Like, prior to that, I'd always felt like I had to stretch or do something special or like make a play.

And with Jim, I was like, no, man, just run the offense.

If, if the, if it says to throw the flat, like if the read is to throw the flat, just throw the flat, right?

Like, I never felt like it was the first time in my career that I felt like I could just kind of be me, right?

Like, I didn't, again, I didn't have to like do anything remarkable.

Well,

who are you taking?

Chiefs, Chargers, Brazil, week one.

Chargers have made immediate impact with Jim.

I mean, immediate.

This is going to be a big one.

Dude, I'll tell you what, like, he'll always have a tough football team, right?

They're always going to be

coaches.

You already know.

Physical.

And it's funny, these two coaches, two of my favorite, like, things about them are actually pieces of attire that they wear.

So I don't know if you guys have seen this.

One of my, again, it was one of my favorite things when Jim came

to Sam Fran because he gifted every guy on the team these blue-collar shirts.

And so you would get your own blue-collar shirt, and it had your name on it.

And he told this whole story of like, what is a blue-collar shirt?

And right, somebody in our life, someone in our family paved the way for us and worked one of these jobs, right?

And kind of, again, going back to this like gratitude of playing.

Yeah.

And then the night before every game, Big Red's wearing Aloha shirt, right and it kind of just like sets the tone it's kind of you know night before the game he's got the aloha shirt on it kind of just like calms everything down a little bit so we got the we got the blue collar shirts versus the aloha shirts uh you know going at it in south paulo i love that blue collar shirt i don't know dude i would get so fired up for a blue collar shirt with my name on it and that whole i i can envision him giving this speech i'm getting goosebumps thinking about this right now dude you should be wearing blue collar shirts and not suits suits to away games.

We're working men.

I'm not a businessman.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Dude, I hated wearing suits to games.

I felt so like, you know, again, it was like almost, it like personified the weight of like the professionalism, right?

Again, like, again, like I, when I was struggling with it, and I, dude, I could just put on my blue collar shirt and a hat, go to work, man.

That's all I needed.

Go.

Bring the lunch pail.

Well, you actually want a prediction for this game?

No, you're good.

Yeah.

I don't even know why I said it.

That's fine.

We're not going to put you on the spot.

I'm just excited to watch it.

Well, we talk about coaches and your time in KC.

Let's talk about the introduction of Pat Mahomes.

He credits you very often with welcoming him to the NFL and kind of being that mentor.

What was that relationship like

for you right away?

I mean, I'll never forget when I first talked to him.

It's the frequency, dude.

It just

is different.

I mean, like, we were a good football team.

I mean, we had won a bunch of divisions.

I was gone to Pro Bowls.

Like, we'd gone, you know, obviously won a playoff game, I think, the year before.

So your part of you is wondering, I mean, yeah, who are we taking in the first round, right?

Like, to go help us.

And you're never expecting, obviously, to trade up, right?

Like, oh, here we're trading next year's first round, too,

to go up and get a quarterback.

I mean, you're definitely like, it's not, it's not what anybody wants to hear, right?

Like, I mean, that's not.

For sure.

But I think the crazy part is, again, going back to my experience of having been like the number one pick, an early pick, like you just have such, you have no control, right?

Like

you're thrust into this process and you're like a completely, you're a cog in the machines that isn't

right.

Like you go where they tell you to go, pick number, whatever.

You know, even now you sign the contract that's slotted for that, you know, deal.

I mean, obviously there was some empathy.

you know, still for me as being an early pick.

Like, obviously, Pat didn't pick this.

I didn't pick this, right?

Like the powers that be.

Again,

I'd spent so many years alone my first few years in the league, right?

Like again, watching film on my own and just like had no idea what I was doing and remember how much that sucked, right?

Like it sucked.

And so to fast forward to when we drafted him,

also within that too, right?

Like I, I had spent early part of my year kind of distracted myself, right?

Like I mentioned like the imposter syndrome and like the self-doubt and like, was I good enough?

And dude, I would, I would be ready.

I'd be going out there to play and my mind would be like,

oh, what are they going to?

What if I throw a pick?

What are they going to write about me in the paper tomorrow?

Like, God, what if they start booing me?

Right.

Like, I had distracted myself with like my own internal dialogue and like that.

And like, I was determined when I got to Kansas City, like, I will never be this.

I'm not going to be distracted anymore.

Right.

And so

even once we drafted Pat 2, there was almost like this great challenge.

Like, am I, again, everybody pitting us against each other?

Am I going to look over my shoulder?

and be distracted, right?

Like Andy still had told me, like, listen, I got the keys to the car that year.

I don't know.

So there were all these conflicting things, right?

And going on emotionally.

And I think the other thing that just comes down with Pat, and I try to tell people this: like

you give respect, you get respect, right?

And like from day one, Pat came in, and like there was never,

there was never like a prima donna ego.

There was never like a, you know, he's the man.

He came in humble, ready to work,

just like a, like a good kid.

And it was pretty quick.

it was like no big deal honestly yeah no no big deal that's i do that's what i give i give pat so much credit for that that year of just being a great teammate like he totally he didn't get he didn't yeah he came in with like you said that that ability to just like you know what i'm just gonna make sure everybody's like having a good time today yeah totally we're gonna find a way to get better at football but he was i think i think

seeing you

as the as the leader of that football team, as the leader of that offense, how the offense had started to really change into this air raid, this down-the-field offense with Tyreek and

all the weapons that we had with D-Rob, with Chris Conley.

It was starting to play more downfield.

And

it was fun to kind of see you take that offense to the next level and then kind of just hand it off to Pat after that year was over with, man.

Let's be very clear.

Like, first off, I get way too much credit in the patent development story.

Like, way too much.

We need more credit.

We need more credit here.

You know, could Pat have played that year?

Like, clearly.

But again, to the point,

to the point, like, I don't know, the beauty of like what Andy set up and like the QB structure, and this is kind of the beauty of the QB room, and it's not like this everywhere.

Right, like you do everything together, everything together.

You eat together, you lift together, you rehab together, you watch film together, you obviously practice together.

And like come season, I mean, I, you know, I'm spending more time with the QBs than I am with my family, right?

You know, given weeks.

And so it was a cool way.

Like Pat, like I was in year 13 at that point, right?

Like I had, I had become, I had three kids.

Like I, I had the week down to the minute of what I needed to get done on a given day to prepare to play well on Sunday.

And so.

The cool thing is like Pat for a year got an up close look, right?

Like how I did it.

And again, when he finally got his opportunity, obviously, to roll, I mean, he could take what he liked, right?

He could build off it.

He could, you know, it obviously not all for him, but um,

and that when he did start playing, right, and this is the beauty of like taking a quarterback early,

they did everything in their power that, like, when Pat stepped foot on the field for the first time, like, he was going to be successful, right?

There was no like rolling the dice, let's hope this goes well, right?

Cross our fingers kind of thing.

And uh, I mean, obviously, it's rare, it's rare in the NFL.

There's only a couple organizations that have done it like this.

And, you know, dude, it drives me crazy.

And I

watch it, watching high draft value, and then I see like a defensive head coach being selected.

I'm like, are we not trying to put this guy in the best position to be successful?

Like, I get a veteran quarterback that's been around.

Like, yeah, let's get a defensive guy.

Let's get this guy a defense.

But like a young player, like, we just put so much stock and value into this position.

Why are we not allocating everything we can to make this guy successful?

It blows my mind when I see that across.

No doubt.

Yep.

Just fucking rolling the dice.

I do want to touch on this because you brought up for the second time now, imposter syndrome, self-doubt.

And one of the things, one of the most important things I think a person could give to another person is belief, right?

And mainly like a belief in yourself.

And like, you, every, all of us remember those individuals that were around.

You mentioned Jim Harbaugh and how he made you feel gratitude towards the game.

And like, I think I remember the coaches, Jeff Stoutland, Howard Mudd, like Paul Longo, all these guys guys where when I had self-doubt in my career, these guys were there to reaffirm me and like make sure that I knew how good I could be and how good I had the potential to become.

So I had to mention that because I always get fired up hearing about like every player goes through that.

Any player that says they don't go through it is full of crap.

And it's because you're surrounded with great people, great teammates, great coaches that you end up coming out of that.

I'm going to transition to this.

There's a lot of rookie quarterbacks from last year that are coming up on their second year this season.

Who does Alex Smith have belief is going to take that next step forward?

Who's going to be the best of the bunch to kind of have breakout seasons?

Yeah, dude, I think this rookie, the

rookie class from last year, to be clear, the second year group, the second year group going in this year, I think it's going to go down as one of the greatest QB classes of all time.

Oh, wow.

Maybe the best of all time.

I think it has a chance.

I mean, we just saw literally Jaden Daniels.

It is the greatest rookie season, I think, in all of American sports.

It was electric.

It was very electric.

I mean, unbelievable.

Bo Nicks, I mean, you saw it a lot, Trader.

Bo Nicks is a baller, man.

A baller, right?

He's the sixth guy taken.

I mean, think about that.

It's crazy.

There's a few guys on that note that I'm really excited about.

I'm excited for Caleb.

Again, another number one pick.

Like getting Ben Johnson.

I love the Ben Johnson hire.

Like, I think

you're going to get a CSI to Caleb this year.

I think he's going to flourish in it.

I think they needed, you know, again, the next several years, he'll get to play in this system that is so good.

And I think he's really going to take out.

They got a bunch of weapons.

That division's a monster.

That division is a monster, though.

It is.

That's the problem.

By the way, so is yours, Trav.

Yeah.

No,

I'm very aware, very aware.

You get a bunch of legendary coaches and throw them in a division.

You're going to get

some competition in there, man.

I don't know if I told you this.

Do you know it's the winningest division in NFL history when it comes comes to head coaches' records?

Dude, the AFC West.

I've never heard that.

That's his crazy stat.

History.

That is crazy.

Anyway, there we go, boys.

Buckle up.

Dude, but I think Caleb's going to have a great year.

Dude, I mean, the guy we haven't seen is J.J.

McCarthy, right?

I mean, playing for Kevin O'Connell, who I was lucky enough to, you know, another San Diego guy I go way back to high school with, I played for him.

He's one of the best QB minds, I think, in the game.

And then think about who's throwing to, right?

You got, you know, you got Jeddah.

You got Jordan Jefferson, T.J.

Hawkinson.

I mean, they got a lot lot of weapons there um i think he's gonna have a big year and then drake may i like drake may a lot like i think i i'm basically naming all of them so yeah i get that but dre i think i think new england i love vrabel getting hired josh mcdaniels coming back as the oc i think he's also unbelievable offensive mind like

i really do i love all these guys i haven't even mentioned penix who might have the best supporting cast from weapons you know standpoint

i think

i i did i i love it i think they're all i think all these guys are going to to take steps this year.

Awesome.

All right.

Well, what about...

Is that just the worst answer ever?

I just named all of them.

No, I mean, first of all, it just got me fired up for football.

I'm going to the Chicago Bears game for Monday night.

I can't wait to watch Kalen Williams and freaking J.J.

McCarthy go ahead each other.

I mean, that's going to be a blast.

So, all right, what do we got?

What about the rookies this year?

I mean,

it's funny.

It's Slim Pickens.

And this always happens, right?

Like after a big year, the next year course.

I mean, you got

all eyes are going to be on Cam, right?

Number one pick.

I think he, you know, by all accounts, was the consensus guy there, right?

Like that, that was the most ready.

The thing I like about him so much is like the,

he's a gamer, man.

Like the craftiness, like he's so,

he's like the opposite of what I look like as a rookie.

Like I was so stiff and,

you know, like this guy's played a lot of football, right?

He's played at three colleges.

He's played in multiple systems.

He knows what he does well.

You know, he's got a great skill set, does a little bit of everything.

I think he's going to play good.

And then I don't, you know, we'll see if any of these other young guys even play.

Jackson Dart may not play.

So I like, again, Cam.

Cam's the guy we're all going to be watching, in my opinion.

All right.

Fair enough.

We had some crazy news break last week in the NFL.

Micah Parsons finally got traded.

Yeah.

There was a lot of debate on whether they were going to get a contract done, and then it just became war between him and the owner.

Yeah, Jerry Jones.

And Michael Parsons is officially a Packer.

What was the first first reaction when you saw the news?

Couldn't believe it.

I just could not believe they actually traded him.

You know, I felt like it was like deja vu, right?

Like they, they had, he had a contract dispute with Dak, and it got done the last minute.

He had the contract dispute with CD.

It got done the last minute.

And it kind of just seemed like, well, here we go.

They're definitely not letting Micah Parsons out of the building, right?

And I could not believe it when it happened.

I still can't believe it, man.

And now that I've had like a little time to digest this thing,

I don't think it's insane to if you wanted to like move him, right?

Like, he listened, this is a generational past rusher.

He's 26 years old.

Like, the next five years for him are going to be ridiculous.

Probably the best five years of his career, like coming up.

And if you wanted to move him and you were going to get a Herschel Walker type trade, like if you were going to get just somebody offering

so much that you couldn't turn it down because you wanted to press reset, I could understand it, but to just to get

what is going to be two late first-round picks, and I have nothing against Kenny Clark, but like Kenny's a good player.

To put this in perspective, the Niners traded three first-round picks for Trey Lance.

Three for a guy that had never played a snap in the NFL.

And you're telling me that,

again, they're talking about him like Reggie White.

Like, he's had 12 sacks.

He's the only guy since Reggie White to have 12 sacks to start a career this many years, right?

Like, again, he's a monster.

Even when he doesn't, even doesn't, even when he, and you guys know this, right?

Like, even if he doesn't get the sacks, the pain he is to game plan for, like, when you come in on, you know, Wednesday morning, the giant circle that's around Micah Parson is like, we cannot let this guy cost us.

We're going to win the game.

We are going to do the run game's going to revolve around where he is.

The pass game is going to revolve around where he is.

We're going to chip him in double time, double team.

Hey, Trav, you're always going to be lining up where he is to try to give an extra gap for the tackle.

You bend over backwards for this guy just to try to take him away.

It's crazy.

I think it is a horrible trade.

Very clear how I feel about that.

There is a chance that it can work out if one of these first or both of these first round picks go and are successful.

But statistically, the chances of that happening are so low that you're going to find somebody that affects the game like this.

That's what I think.

Recently, there's been things coming out like he's not great against the run.

And I'm not normally a guy that like cares that much about like sacks.

I think that number sometimes gets blown overblown somewhat.

This guy affects the game on a level that maybe only two or three other guys in the NFL do across the league on defense.

Like he is that big of a difference maker.

Your entire game plan.

We played the Cowboys without him.

It is so different.

So different.

And I love Kenny Clark.

Kenny Clark is a great player.

And I kind of feel bad that he's a part of this and being compared to Micah Parsons because as a D-tackle, he's really good, but it's just, he's not affecting the game the way that Micah Parsons is.

And

the way they're trying to sell this, I think, is funny because they have to at this point.

But the real reason this isn't happening is flat-out egos.

And it sucks that that is the reason why this whole thing is happening this week.

You're spot on.

The only way this ever, you know, 10 years from now, this looks good is if they draft two Hall of Famers with these two picks.

The odds of that happening when you're going to be picking probably like pick 24 or higher,

it's not, you know, again, not looking good for them.

I couldn't agree with you more.

This is all about, this is all about hurt feelings and egos.

And on this note, this whole idea of Jerry negotiating directly with this guy, he's 25 years old.

He's 25 years old.

He's never negotiated a contract in his life.

He has professional representation that everybody knows he has to have hired to do this for him.

And you're the, how old are you, Jerry?

And you own the most valuable sports franchise in the world.

You're the GM, and you're going to go, like, the power dynamic of this, that you're going to go negotiate directly with this guy.

It makes me, like, I feel dirty.

Like, you know, it makes me feel, it makes me feel icky that, like, come on, man.

That's, like, that's so wrong.

Yeah.

I can't disagree with anything you're saying right now.

I mean, it's we, it happened.

I feel like it's never happened in Philadelphia.

Apparently, this has been known to happen in other places.

What do you mean?

I'm talking about like a GM and negotiation.

I mean, you'll.

Oh, all right.

I was going to say, I thought you were going to say somebody traded away like your star player because it definitely happened.

No, that's happened everywhere, buddy.

That's not.

This one feels different, though.

It's not like a monetary thing.

Kansas City traded away their star player in 2018, just to be clear.

Yeah, they did.

Yeah, they did, Ricky.

Yeah, they did.

It just

showed everybody he could throw it downfield.

Touchdowns.com, man.

Fire me up.

All right.

We'll move on.

Let's move on.

No, no, no.

You're good because it segues in nice with what Travis was saying.

Has there ever been a trade like this before?

We have some name.

We've definitely got some in front of us, which are

cheating.

Sure, in history.

I mean, what?

I mean, the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth, right?

I mean, like, it's, there's been, there's been trades, big trades.

I mean, Dallas obviously knows it well here recently.

Luca, you know, on the move.

Luca.

I'm trying to think it's critical.

I mean, obviously, Khalil Mack's probably the closest thing, you know, to like a

difference-making,

you know, edge rusher getting traded for a bunch of picks.

Um,

I still, I, I don't know.

I mean, this guy, Micah is different, man.

Yeah.

He's so talented.

There's a name on here, but it's not a trade, which I would assimilate this to.

And this is like how bad it can look if this doesn't work out for Dallas, which is the Saquon going to Philadelphia last year.

And that was a free agent.

Like they let him go and he got signed.

So not at all applicable.

But like if Micah goes out and balls out this year in Green Bay, which it probably will happen, and Green Bay gets substantially better, I just, the optics of it are just going to be so, so, so bad.

Well, that's if, that's if they don't go out and they, they don't perform.

You know, they, if, if about Dallas?

Yeah, if Dallas goes out and plays.

I think Dallas.

Yeah.

They got some good receivers, and Dak is a good quarterback.

And I just think defensively, and I like Matt Iberflus.

He's a great decoordinator.

That was the guy on the defense that was creating all of the issues.

To be clear, if you're going to do this again, I don't mind the idea of a full reset, but you do this in the offseason, and you don't do this in the quiet, right?

Like this is like,

you.

You announce this to the world that this guy's available.

You create a bidding war, right?

Like, there's 30 teams that would have i think given up a similar bounty as this i think there's plenty more that would have gone overboard right like i just think this did it was so rushed it seemed so quiet and last minute like it kind of it is just like they didn't maximize what they could have got for this i mean in my opinion it honestly feels a little bit like jerry was like what's the coldest most miserable place i can send micah parson to this

green bay's willing to give us this he's like perfect but you send them to now like some people think they're like, I mean, huge expectations in Green Bay now, right?

And like, they may, and some people already, like, they may be Super Bowl favorites in the NFC, right?

Like, some people already, you know, are they now one of the two, three best teams in the NFC with this?

To that point, move for him.

You're like, trade him to New Orleans.

Maybe you get a top five pick.

Maybe you get a top five pick.

You trade him to Green Bay.

You might be getting pick 32.

You might be watching them all playoffs long.

Yeah.

Sorry, New Orleans fans.

I didn't mean to.

I didn't mean to throw shade.

All right, here we go.

So you were just talking about the Cowboys maybe just pressing the reset button.

New coach.

A lot of first-year coaches.

There's always that turnover in the NFL.

But Dallas is one of them with Schottenheimer.

We got Ben Johnson with the Bears that we already talked about.

Vraves as well back over there.

Obviously, not first-time head coach, but first time, first year

over there in New England.

Aaron Glenn over with the Jets.

Liam Cohen, Kellen Moore with the Saints.

Who are you taking for the most successful year one coach?

There's seven of these guys, right?

Seven, I think.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dude,

this is tough.

I think, again, like, I want to be clear, I love the Ben Johnson hire, but I don't, I mean, that division, again, is, is stacked.

So

I think it's great.

I don't know how many wins it's going to directly, you know.

go to this next year.

The Mike Vrabel, you know, so much of this is your division and what your division looks like.

The Mike Mike Vrabel higher in New England.

I know, you know, obviously Buffalo is awesome, but the rest of that division is kind of wide open, in my opinion.

And I think that,

you know, again, Drake May's a guy.

Like, they're going to, by the end of the year, I think they're going to be promising.

The sneaky one, I kind of think, as I wonder about his first-time head coach, is Liam Cohen.

Yeah.

Right.

Like, I think Jacksonville, from a roster standpoint, is closer.

like to winning a lot of games.

And again, this AFC South, like you got Houston, it's a little wide open after that.

I could see, you know, I like Trevor Lawrence.

I think he's super talented.

They got two great edge rushers down there, young edge rushers.

They got Brian Thomas Jr.

is a baller outside.

Like I could see them getting good fast.

And they're doing something right now that I think between

what Canalis then did over in Carolina.

Baker goes down there.

He has a rejuvenation of a career combined with other great talented players, and he's a great talent.

Then all of a sudden, Bryce Young is playing well in Carolina.

I like some of the schematic things they're doing.

They like flood different zones or utilizing like fly motions into the flat to stress flat defenders.

They're doing some really cool things.

I'm excited to watch William Cohen in Jacksonville as well.

And I'll say this too, with Ben Johnson with the Bears, the other one is I think Dennis Allen's a really good defensive coordinator.

He always gave me fits down in New Orleans.

He can scheme things so well, especially he can stop the run in a shell by moving the D-linemen and having the linebackers play a certain way That it was always kind of like an issue, and I respected the heck out of it.

Totally agree.

I know Dennis Allen hasn't had a ton of success as a head coach, but as a D coordinator, to your point, and it's unorthodox.

Like, how he gets to things is unorthodox.

And for me, as a quarterback, I hated going against that.

Like, I love textbook defenses, right?

And like, it was a hundred percent.

It was always a pain in the ass to go against these weird ones.

So, yep.

And then, obviously, I got to give my man Chip Kelly some love.

Back in the NFL, offensive coordinator for the Raiders.

I cannot wait to see Chip Kelly back in the NFL.

Yeah, we forgot.

Yeah, we forgot to mention Pete Carroll with the Raiders.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's one of those seven.

How about that?

How old is he?

I mean, it's crazy.

He's in his seven.

You want to talk about a positive mindset?

Have you ever been around Pete?

I just like, I mean, he's one of the guys.

Like,

one of his core fundamentals is like joy.

Just like breathing joy.

I mean, it's amazing.

Just still chewing on gum.

Still chewing on.

Do you have a sleeper pick?

Who's your sleeper team to compete for a Super Bowl title?

Wait, sleeper for the Super Bowl?

Yeah.

Well, I guess just sleeper team to overachieve.

Let's say that.

All right, maybe I'll give you a little bit of both.

I think

when I think about who's poised to have a big turnaround,

I think the New York Giants could definitely have a big turnaround.

I mean, what they want to do is

have three games.

Dexter Lawrence.

Maybe

the best player nobody knows about.

I mean, he's unbelievable.

And they've got, how many edge rushers do they have at this point?

I mean, they've got the Abdul Carter kid.

They've got.

Obviously, they still have Brian Burns.

I mean, Brian Burns, yeah, from Carolina.

They got a bunch of guys.

I think they got a chance for a big turnaround.

To me, again, it's some of these where I go to these divisions and it's like the NFC South, right?

Like, I think the Bucks, I think the Tambay Bucks are so good.

That's my sleeper team.

I think they can make a real run.

I think it's one of those stacked rosters when you really look at it.

Dude, before Mike Evans got hurt

and Godwin got hurt, they were competing with anybody.

They were right up there with the top of the NFC.

And then they kind of took a nosedive a little bit during that little downturn.

Yeah, but then they found that run game, that two-headed running back rule that they had.

They found that more once the wide round was.

That was running back.

Bucky.

Bucky.

Ball player, man.

Man.

Explosive.

You get them with a one-on-one matchup, man.

They barely lost to the commanders in the playoffs.

They beat the Eagles last year

in the regular season.

It was early.

The Eagles got a lot better throughout the season.

The other division I think that some team's going to come out of is the NFC West, right?

Like the Rams.

I love the Rams.

I love Stafford.

Like Jared Verse.

Come on.

Jared Verse is a problem.

Dude.

A problem.

Man, child.

They came up to Philadelphia.

There's a lot of noise about Jared Verse and really the whole D-line.

And they run games really well and they do all these things.

And I'm like, man, they're playing Philly's O-line.

This isn't going to be like, they're not going to even affect the game.

They got after us in the snow, which everybody knows, like, snow is usually to the offensive line's advantage.

Like, and I'm like, dude, these guys, I got a lot of respect for these.

These guys are run.

They are coming.

And Jared Verse was talking on some trash before the game, backed it up during his play.

And whenever that happens, I'm like, dude, respect.

You start yapping off, coming into Philly, and then come and play your ass off.

Like, all right, I'm taking notice.

There were a couple clips where him and Milotta going at it.

And those are two big, those are two big cats.

And For sure.

He won a few of them.

And I was like, I mean, super impressive.

But then I think, again, in the same, like

the Cardinals got a chance to be good.

If the Niners stay healthy, I think they got a chance.

So they're not really under the radar.

They're not a sleeper.

Yeah, but I do think the Niners are a little bit less talked about this year because of the way the season went last year.

And you forget that they have one of the best coaches in the NFL, George Kittle,

McCat.

They have all these pieces in place.

The defense took a downturn last year, but they've been one of the best defenses of the NFL over They got Robert Sala back.

I think a big get for them.

Come on, Matthew.

Let's get some Bengay on that back.

I want to see the Rams doing something this year.

Let's go.

I think he will.

I think he will.

I think he's going to be all right.

No, he's definitely.

He's a Bengay.

He's a gamer.

He's not Icy Hot.

He's not Icy Hot.

He's not Icy Hot.

He's not a great guy.

Let's get to some no-dumb questions.

Meaning, we asked 92% as our fan base here to send their preseason questions.

So let's check out this preseason edition of No Dumb Questions because there's no such thing as dumb questions, Alex.

Just dumbass people.

That's it, man.

Two of us.

We got a list here.

Which rookie will shock everyone?

We kind of already did that a little bit.

NFL Soft.

Well, I don't know what, who knows what that means.

Yeah, let's do that one.

Let's do that one.

I like that one.

NFL Soft.

Alex was a part of the years where you can really take someone's head off.

Hey, Jason.

Piece of news.

NFL got rid of smelling salt.

This week's gone soft, man.

What happened to the winged team?

What happened to these Patrick Willis personalities?

Jack Lambert.

All the big hard haters.

LT, you can't forget LLT.

Now we got all these Prima Donna.

Don't want to be a team player.

And we got freaking...

Rivalities don't mean anything anymore because everyone wants a jersey swap and everything.

What happened to Smash Mouse football?

Smash Mouse football.

You know, just run through a motherfucker's face.

Now we just spread it out.

Spread it out.

It's all

about you now, Jason.

I just can't stand it.

NFL doesn't mean anything.

Dude, I don't know, man.

I just want to get that off my chest.

Thank you, Jason.

Thank you, Jason.

Why was that only?

Why was that only?

Excuse me.

He was addressing me.

Let me answer the man.

I cannot tell you how much I love that that rant started from the NFL banning smelling salts.

We went from smelling salts to just a non-stop rant of how the game has changed over the last two decades.

Did he drop Patrick Willis's name in there?

He did.

Okay, let's go.

Oh, yeah.

Just in the midst of these old-timers.

Just like Lawrence Taylor.

Patrick Willis only retired like six years ago.

Yeah, no, but

he was a part of

it.

I'll tell you, I think he is spot on on one of these things.

And

it does not sit right with me sometimes: is the post-game public jersey swap?

Yeah,

I think if you're going to do the jersey swap, it was so often like if you saw a guy after the game, you could talk to him, and then you would go to the locker room and you would send it over, right?

You would sign it, and the equipment guys would take it over.

I do think sometimes in big game, it is weird to like see these guys like taking pictures with their jerseys post-game on the field.

Like one of you just got your ass kicked.

And like, I don't know.

There's part of that, like, I think the optics, the optics of it, it should be more old school.

Like, the clubhouse, just send it over.

No one needs to know.

Yeah.

I don't know.

You don't have to go to the gram or anything.

Even just for the optics.

I was with him on smelling salts.

I was with them.

I was definitely with him on smelling salts.

As soon as he said that, I was in on it.

But I don't get the story behind that, by the way.

I mean, it's like universally loved.

I don't know anybody that like doesn't like smelling, you know?

Like, was there somebody that like put in a complaint?

Well, I think the only reason they banned them is because there's probably an argument.

I mean, the reason they were on the sideline initially was for guys that got their bell rung to do a little smelling on them and go back out in the field.

Before every tap game.

Well, I would do them

before every

first series of the game and the first series of every half.

I would do one just to kind of get the system going again.

Dude,

when you play on the West Coast and you play the one o'clock kickoff on the East Coast, it is early.

Man, it is my first eight years of my career.

You go there, bro, You're waking up at like 5 a.m.

your time.

You're eating pregame meals so early.

So, like, the smelling salts pregame, I mean, you like had to have them.

Right.

Get yourself going.

Yeah.

And now you've got to shit on the sideline where it's like a fucking drug deal.

Guys are pulling them out of their pockets and shit.

What are we fucking doing?

What are we doing?

The teams stopped providing them and they acted like there was like a shortage on smelling salts.

And it's like, I don't think there's a shortage on smelling salts.

I'm pretty sure you guys just.

They put a terror for the smelling sauce in.

The NFL has been trying to move away from anything associated with concussions for a long time now.

The real veteran move.

Did you guys ever stuff 80 of them in a water bottle?

Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure.

And like shake it in a bottle and you shake it up, and then you could like the only way to do it?

Little squeeze.

You could feel it just like burning yourself.

Yeah.

Just, ooh!

You turn into Macho Man Randy Savage for a second.

No, it was,

man, I don't know, man.

I think we all agree on a certain extent that the game is changing, and sometimes you're not always happy with how it's changing, and you miss the barbaricness of it.

Like, I miss the wedge unit locking arms and running down like a human wall, but I also acknowledge that we probably shouldn't do that anymore.

Like, it was just absolutely terrible for those individuals.

And, I mean, I miss the hits going over the middle.

I'll be honest.

Like, I think about these, I loved watching somebody get completely obliterated going across the middle as a fan.

But I think we can all acknowledge that it's probably best that we've moved on from this as part of the

as somebody whose leg was broken on

national TV.

It's still fairly physical game.

Yeah.

A guy named J.J.

Watt, just pretty big dude.

All right.

Let's do another one.

Let's do another one.

NFL running back plus average fan, O-line game, one yard.

I mean, we've done that one a thousand times.

Oh, wait.

No, that's a different one.

That's a different one.

Let's do that one then.

Well, I kind of.

Yeah, go ahead.

Hey, boys,

it's Gravy from Wisconsin just calling in.

We talk a lot about doing

an average person getting a one-yard in the NFL.

I want to know how many of the NFL running backs could get one yard with the average people playing their offensive line from center, guard, tackle.

Do you think

the majority of the NFL running backs could get a yard with average people playing their offensive line?

Is this assuming that there's NFL defensive lines?

Yeah, I think yes.

Yes.

If that's the case, there is precisely a 0% chance this is going to get a yard.

It doesn't matter who you give the ball to.

I mean, you can run the tush push.

You're not getting a yard.

And there's nothing you're going to run that's going to get a yard with average guys playing no line.

Unless you maybe,

if you run like some gadget play or like a toss crack with like actually legitimate players blocking on the perimeter.

But outside of, I just not a chance in hell that's getting a yard.

I agree with you.

There's not a single running back.

I mean King Henry.

Nobody's getting a yard.

They're going to get hit five yards deep.

Correct.

Like they're not even

by the offensive lineman who's going to get dwarf thrown into them.

Well, then,

answer this question then.

What is the most exciting position to make an average person play?

What would I want to watch?

Yes.

I'd like to watch an average person play D-line, a defensive tackle.

Watch it.

Put an average guy at Nose Guard, and let's see how that goes.

If each team had to play with one average guy, where would you put him?

Yeah.

Where are you throwing him?

What's the most for the most exciting?

Like when you turn on that film the next day, you're like, I gotta say, if you put him, if you put like middle linebacker, if you put average Joe, Mike linebacker, like

watching that, I mean,

just completely lost getting you back.

Put the GoPro on him and let, you know, it'd be good TV.

Oh my gosh, it would be funny.

I'm just picturing a guy just lost.

Holy shit, that is so good.

Just getting launched.

In the middle of the field.

Have your head on a swivel.

Just getting crack blocked.

Boom.

Let's do one more.

One more.

All right.

Let's do it.

Let's do this Twitter question from Aaron Clinton.

Who taught you how to watch film and how long did it take to recognize coverage live and game?

Alex, you want to take that first?

Oh, sure.

Well, I mean, I've obviously talked about, like, I watched a lot of film by myself.

By yourself,

a lot early on.

The crazy thing is back in the day, and you probably saw this too, you used to get these like textbook coverages.

I mean, like, yeah teams either played like cover two and it looked like this is how every team plays cover two and they played cover three and then they played man and they were all these very identifiable like they fit in a bucket kind of thing

and then it was probably like halfway through my career that that all went out the window and everything were these kind of like hybrid coverages and you couldn't even really tell you're like is that cover three or

quarters with like is that rotation i don't know like what you know all these kind of combination coverages weird fronts and it can change on the fly like a motion to like a three by one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, and so it was way harder to identify, like, what the hell is going on pre-snap from a quarterback's perspective

in that regard.

I mean, you still can to a certain extent, but not as easy.

Who taught you guys how to watch film?

I was going to say, yeah, what about you, Jay?

I feel like I talked to Jeff Saturday early in my career because Howard Mudd.

coached him and he thought it'd be good after my first year to go meet with Jeff in the offseason.

And I definitely learned a lot of things about how to study defensive lineman technique, their feet foot back in particular, like a head-up guy.

You know, you think he can go either way, but a lot of times his stance dictates what his foot is going to step with first.

And if you really watch and tape how guys get in their stances, what techniques they're in, what the coverage is behind it, a lot of times that can dictate where these guys all end up and everything.

And I think that talked to him a lot about, you know, you watch first and second down Wednesday, which you do as a team, anyways, right?

Like, my thing was, I always wanted to maximize my time, and I didn't like going back and watching stuff that I was just going to watch with stout, anyways.

So, like, first, second down tape, I knew I was going into a stout in the meeting room.

I always knew that we were going to struggle getting to like two-minute scenarios.

What are the games that they like to run, and like, what are the down and distances that they like to do?

That stuff.

Um,

are there any tells that the D-linemen give away on third and long as to like what games they're running, or like if they're doing a three-man game or a two-man game.

Coverages, all I cared about with coverage was what the box look was going to be like or if

they were tipping away pressures from like a safety standpoint, right?

So like if the linebackers were stacked, there was a good chance it was either going to stay some type of shell quarters, too high look, or the nickel was going to pressure.

If the backers were bowed or bossed, somebody's coming into that space.

So

I don't.

I love that we're like watching film and it's like all these coverages and you're like trying to break him down from a quarterback's perspective.

You're like Jason Abiyu and you're like, well, if his right foot was a little further back, I knew he was going left.

The game is so simple at the line, you know, like the OD line.

You're like, well,

his knuckles

were white.

So I knew he was really, you know, he was really going to come off the ball.

I asked this.

We have like, we would have like an alert call from like the tight, the tackle, right?

And the tackle would be like, all right.

And there'd be nothing telling me that the nickel was pressuring.

And JP was the best at this.

He would just be like, hey,

and give me the alert that they're going to blitz over there.

And I'm like, dude, there's no way they're blitzing.

And sure enough, it'd be a blitz.

And I'm like, JP, how the hell do you know he's blitzing?

No, the end was tighter.

That was it.

The end was a snugger alignment.

And that was all he was operating on.

I'm like, dude, keep letting me know that information because I'm not going to see that.

For me, it was

like an eye-opening experience.

And don't get me wrong, I've kind of like, over the course of my career, understood

defenses just from being in the QB room and then hearing a guy like Doug Peterson talk about it,

hearing guys like Matt Nagy.

And then when you're out there running these plays, you hear like the conversations I had with you and with Pat.

And then you start to identify why we're calling these things and like how I can run my routes differently and how I can kind of manipulate guys, keep guys like froze so I can open up windows and things like that.

But early on in my career, I was like, I think this is like my second or third year in the league.

And I like had just started to like, I think I'm a starter and I'm, I'm having success.

And I'm like, kind of like feeling like, yeah, I got the hang of this now.

You know what I mean?

I'm rolling and everything.

Then I walk into the training room on like a Tuesday after a game.

And my, my guy, Mike DeVito, big Mike DeVito, D-lineman, he's sitting there, like, just like getting his ankle worked on.

And one of the, uh, one of the guys from the defensive side come in with a spreadsheet and he hands him a spreadsheet.

And it's like every, everything the team that we're playing that week does out of every formation.

And he had it like categorized.

And I'm over here like playing at such a basic level compared to like getting a spreadsheet every Tuesday that I would looked at that and I was like, I got a fucking long way to go.

Like, I'm not even thinking about their percentages of like the coverages that they're running.

I'm just like trusting Coach Reed that when he dials up shallow cross, it's man.

You know what I mean?

Like,

you know, like, I'm just looking at the pictures on the install of like the concept we're running.

And it was, and it's shout out to Mike DeVito, man.

He was always like one of the most prepared and like ready to go guys.

And his like, how he, how he attacked every single week, I like, I just grabbed that one like

day in the training room.

I just grabbed it.

I'm like, man, that's what make that guy like accountable.

Like, he understands this to like the point of like, yeah, it's like a scheme that he understands.

And, and I was just like, man, I didn't take it to the point of getting an Excel Excel sheet, but every single time I looked at the install, now I look at all the percentages and all the numbers and everything they got for you.

Oh, good dude.

To be clear, Mike, Mike DeVito is a defensive tackle.

Dude, by the way, 100%.

What are the chances Mike was?

I'm almost positive.

He's from New Jersey.

I think he's from New Jersey.

I mean, has to be.

I think he's

fairly positive he's from New Jersey.

All righty.

That wraps up our smoothie discussion with Alex Smith.

Round of applause, Alex Smith, everybody.

Alex, you're the man.

Appreciate it, fellas.

Thanks for having me on.

Thank you for coming on.

This is awesome.

Thank you.

Always, always fun to catch up with you, brother.

I appreciate it.

Let's look down in Brazil, bro.

Go get it.

Heck yeah.

Let's go.

And that wraps up another episode of New Heights.

That's right.

Next week, we will be bringing back Stamp of the Week.

So hit us up on social with your nominees.

Make sure to subscribe to the New Heights channel on YouTube and follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast.

you can listen to new episodes of new heights early and ad-free right now by joining wondry plus in the wonderry app or on apple podcasts once again new heights is a wondry show brought to you by reese's oreo cups thank you guys for always tuning in 92 percenters and thank you to our production for making us look way better than what we are we'll see you guys next week after the first week of the nfl baby