Bijan’s Breakout, Cowboys’ Breakdown: Dak Deserves Better

It was one of those weeks in the NFL where everything flipped. Bijan Robinson officially arrived with a national breakout performance that had the whole crew buzzing. Matt Ryan called it Bijan’s coming-out party. Aaron Donald broke down exactly how he’d try to stop him — from film study to reading his hips — and Zach Klein said what every Falcons fan is thinking: this team runs through Bijan now.

Meanwhile, in Dallas, Dak Prescott played one of his best games of the year and still walked off the field with another loss. Matt’s fired up about it, saying Dak deserves way better from a defense that’s suddenly lost its bite. Aaron questioned who’s leading that locker room right now and whether anyone’s holding players accountable when things start sliding.

The guys also dove into leadership across the league after Matt called out Tua Tagovailoa’s postgame comments. He didn’t hold back, saying Tua’s “talking too much” and losing his locker room one quote at a time. Todd France jumped in with the agent’s view, explaining how players handle the chaos when coaches get fired midseason and why protecting your own tape becomes everything.

Aaron handed out his Defensive Players of the Week and told a few stories from the trenches, while Matt gave listeners a real insider moment — breaking down exactly how a play is called in the huddle. He walked through the terminology, the timing, the chaos, and what it’s like to process 15 words in five seconds before snapping the ball.

The guys wrapped with what they’re watching for next week: the Falcons’ next big test, more quarterback drama across the league, and a few sideline stories from youth football that hit a little too close to home.

It’s real football talk with honesty, humor, and insight you won’t get anywhere else.

Transcript

Zach Klein (00:02)
That's the music. That's the show. Welcome into the inner circles. Zach Klein, Todd France, Matt Ryan, Aaron Donald. Crazy week in the National Football League. Crazy week where I was at at Auburn, Georgia was nuts. Fumble gates, timeout gates. Matt was at the Falcon game. AD, you'll fill us in on an update. Hopefully you had a better performance from the kids youth football game. and Todd's in a car, but hey, we'd love to have T. France. How's everybody's weekend? We good?

Matt Ryan (00:27)
Looks like Todd's was the best. It looks like they were loaded up, loaded up, little family vacation, little road trip action that he's got going on right there. ⁓

Todd  France (00:35)
Fall break, fall

break, fall break. AD, tell us about your game. Are you proud or is this something we should skip?

AD (00:42)
We lost another game, man. So that's two back-to-back games we lost, man. But they played hard. They played hard. They kind of, couldn't do nothing on offense, but the defense played pretty good. So it's all right. We still.

Matt Ryan (00:44)
No!

Sounds like a true defender

right there. Sounds like a DC. We played hard, man. We couldn't do nothing on offense. Defense played well, though.

AD (00:58)
We're off it, you know, but

one more regular season game and then we got playoffs. So man, we'll be locked in and ready when it's time.

Matt Ryan (01:04)
It's like March Madness, dude. Get those losses out of the way before the tournament starts. You're good to go. Good to go. How about the Falcons last night though, boys?

AD (01:07)
Exactly, exactly, exactly, exactly.

Zach Klein (01:11)
Listen, man, I've been calling for this for a while that I think B. BIJAN Robinson will be the number one running back in the national football league. You got guys like McCaffrey, Derrick Henry, Saquon on the back nine of their NFL careers, right? I think, Matt, I think it was the coming out party for B. BIJAN on the national stage. What, you know, 238 total yards, a career best, bucks 70 on the ground. You were there. What was it like, man, to see this guy, this youngster just kind of take over and kind of assert himself as one of the best of the best in the league?

Matt Ryan (01:34)
Yeah.

I hate to go back to this, but I thought it was you that was asking for a quarterback competition a couple of weeks ago. We need a competition in practice. Sorry, Zach. We won't, we won't relitigate that one. My bad, my bad. Penix played pretty good. We're talking Bijan. Yeah. Bijan was awesome. Awesome last night. And you know what? He's one of those guys that when you watch him in person, it's even more impressive, right? Like on TV, some of the stuff that he does, it's, it's just so incredible.

Zach Klein (01:48)
I got there's a mute I got it. We're talking Bijan. Yes.

AD (01:48)
Yeah, he said that shit. He said it. ⁓

Matt Ryan (02:06)
I think we all remember Saquon's like back flip over last year, 360, where he went over that. And you think of like, who are other guys that could possibly do something like that in the league, right? Who has the athleticism to be able to do something like that? And Bijan, in my opinion, is one of the guys who comes to mind immediately. But last night, it's like the physicality that he runs with, right? His ability to lower the shoulder, his patience as a runner for a young player.

AD (02:16)
For sure, yeah.

Matt Ryan (02:33)
of being able to set blocks up, the vision, the ability to change pace, right? To cruise and then burst and accelerate. His contact balance, the one, the touchdown on the sideline, the 81 yard touchdown. I mean, he made that look so easy where guys are swiping at his feet and he keeps his balance and keeps going. that's.

Zach Klein (02:50)
He was motivated

by this show because we called him out. Remember the fine issue? He was going to have the fine because he didn't have that one earlier in the year. No fines.

Matt Ryan (02:56)
Yeah, he got tackled at the one. He was getting in the end

AD (02:56)
⁓ finished it.

Matt Ryan (02:59)
zone. I'll tell you, he got fined last night. It was Drake London. Drake London got fined at the end of the half, getting tackled and pushed out there at the one. ⁓ my gosh. That was such a hard position to be in for a player, right? Where you're going like a down, down, timeout situation so they can kick the field goal. But he has this opportunity where it flashes right in front of him. And if you're going to go rogue, if you're going to go on your own, you have to score. You have to score in that situation.

Zach Klein (03:03)
Yes he did.

AD (03:04)
Yeah.

Zach Klein (03:20)
You best get in.

AD (03:22)
Yes, you got to. got to.

Matt Ryan (03:24)
know, Toe just got dragged out of bounds, but what a night. Bijan, I'm with you, Zach. He's unbelievable. One of the best players in the league. Totally fun to watch. Incredible win for the Falcons. So that was awesome to see.

Todd  France (03:35)
Matt, got a question for you. As a quarterback, obviously, young quarterback, having a running back like that alleviate a ton of pressure?

Matt Ryan (03:43)
Huge. Like I think back to my own experience, we had Michael Turner early on in my career and it was a guy that you could legitimately turn around, hand the football off to and trust. mean, he had Michael Turner early in my career, had multiple performances that were over 200 yards, right? So it looked a lot like what the Falcons did last night against the Bills. And I do think it takes so much pressure, Todd, off of like Michael Pennex and the ability to create explosive plays in the run game, but also

AD (03:44)
Hell yeah.

Matt Ryan (04:09)
Where Bijan is different is like they use him. My only concern with the Falcons is kind of like San Francisco. It's like, you got to keep this guy healthy. Bijan has to be healthy. He's kind of like CMC in San Francisco because he does so much and they use him so many different ways. I think that that's the number one responsibility of the staff right now is being able to balance how do we use this guy just the right amount? Not too much that we're, you know,

Zach Klein (04:18)
Yeah, he'd take a beating.

AD (04:18)
Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Ryan (04:35)
running his tires thin, we're keeping the tread just right, but we're also winning games along the way. And they've done a good job with that early on. to your point, he's huge for Michael Pennex.

AD (04:39)
Someone you need them, yeah.

Zach Klein (04:46)
AD, how would you stop them?

AD (04:47)
I run through his damn face. No. Now you gotta find a way to bottle him up. Cause he's a guy that you think you can get a clean hit on him, he can make you miss, right? He got great vision, great cut ability. He's explosive. He look like he run hard strong. So he's one of them rounded players that when you game plan it for him, you prepare him for him, you you telling guys, hey, come with it, be ready, bottle him up. You know, don't think he's going to go down with one guy. Everybody got to swat him to the ball, man. Cause he's a playmaker. And right now.

I think he's the keys to that offense. I think the offense is running through him. In a run game, obviously in a pass game, he can do a lot, man. So like Matt said, as long as they keep him healthy and they keep playing how they plan, that was a big win for them, big confidence on a prime time stage. So they got to keep it up, man. It looked good, looked real good.

Matt Ryan (05:30)
AD, does a back like him make it more difficult? Because I think of different backs in the league and some guys, it's like if you can stop them before they get into their stride, right? And get them down before they hit their stride. That's one thing. Forever people have said that about Derek Henry. The only way to shut Derek Henry down is to get him before he hits that fifth step. And then you might have a chance. If he gets that fifth step and he gets downhill, it's over.

AD (05:50)
in a bit. Yeah.

Matt Ryan (05:58)
Bijan to me is different from that respect of like, there's multiple runs that happen throughout the course of the game where his feet stop, right? His feet stop in the backfield and he's got the ability to jump cup or bounce into a different hole.

AD (06:08)
And that's what's

different. Cause that's the one you think you about to get a clean hit on him and his vision and his ability to cut in and out so quick. You'll make you look stupid and you think you got him and you missing him, right? And then even in the past game, he's a mismatch with a linebacker or anybody else. it's like, it's different ways that you, even if you bought him up in the run game, he could still attack you in the run, in the past game and dominate you if you ain't teed up on him the right way. So he's just a problem. He's a problem. He is. I'm happy I ain't got to deal with his ass.

Matt Ryan (06:13)
Yeah.

Yeah.

hahahahah

Zach Klein (06:40)
after the game, my colleague here in Atlanta, Allison Mastrangelo had a chance to visit with PENIX and ask him what that win on that stage did for this franchise. Take a listen.

What do you think? One of the ones really legit, did they prove to you guys, beaten Buffalo? That was the first time all year long that the Bills did not go north of 300 yards in a game. The Falcons once again held an opponent under 300 yards every single game to start the season, guys.

Matt Ryan (07:27)
You wanna take it AD? You wanna start? I don't wanna be the homer here.

AD (07:29)
I'm just,

no, I think it's a confidence booster. said that, think, you know, once you play in them big games, definitely a prime time game and you win those games like that against a good team, right? These are teams you might see in the playoffs and down the road, right? Eventually, when you find ways to beat good teams, definitely the way they built enough, man, I'm a confidence booster and they just got to continue to do that, right? They know that they can do it now, playing against a good team, a top tier team.

You go out there and you show what you can do, man. And now they know they can do it. They gotta be consistent with it, but they got the ability to do it.

Matt Ryan (08:01)
Yeah, I think the key to what you just said, A.D., is you got to continue to do it, right? Like, I think this win is a lot for the Atlanta Falcons is a lot like the New England Patriots win against Buffalo in that Sunday night game, or I think it was a Sunday night game the week before, right? Where New England goes on the road, they get up for this game, it's a prime time game, they get up for it, they know they're playing this great opponent and they deliver and they get the job done.

AD (08:06)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Ryan (08:25)
To me what tells you a lot about these teams and if they're going to be them, right? If we're one of them, is how you respond to those kinds of wins, right? Is where you put all of this energy and effort and you've got this atmosphere that was incredible in the stadium last night. Like that's an easy one to get up for. Okay, so how do we turn around the next week? And I think they've got San Francisco this week. So how do we turn around and go against the 49ers and deliver that same kind of performance? The consistency.

Zach Klein (08:44)
On the road, yeah.

Matt Ryan (08:50)
to me is gonna say a lot about who the Falcons are because we've seen them play really well, but we've also seen them play really poorly like against Carolina. So I think how they respond this week is gonna say a lot about who the Atlanta Falcons are, but it starts with belief, right? It starts with a game like this and now it's all about how you respond. 100%. The defense last night, yeah, Zach, you're saying it. And they were in Josh's grill the entire night, right? Like just, they...

Zach Klein (09:06)
and their defense shot out Jeff Ulbrick what Ulbrick's been able to do. Force acts, couple picks, force fumble.

AD (09:06)
Mm-hmm.

100 %

Matt Ryan (09:18)
You know it, AD, the best way to stop a good quarterback is not coverage. You gotta put him on his back.

AD (09:19)
Yeah, you got to affect them. Yes, you got to get to them.

They made him uncomfortable. He made some throws that he wish he had back. He was under pressure. Rather than running around, they kept him bottled up. They did a great job, man. So hats off to them guys, man. They did a great

play this week than last week. I I wanted to see that. Man, it was great defensive play this week in the NFL, man. But that's what I like to see.

Matt Ryan (09:37)
There we go

Zach Klein (09:43)
Yeah. I can't wait to find

out your defensive players of the week later on in the show. We got Matt's two minute drill hit that subscribe button to leave a comment. And talking about guys stepping up Jake Moody for field goals in nasty conditions. The Bears get a huge road win. Is that AD? If your kicker gets four field goals and you met him 20 minutes before, he part of the crew? Is he part of the team now? Like you show him some love.

Matt Ryan (09:54)
Yeah.

AD (09:59)
Well,

he reported a crew once he signed up, but once he started scoring points and helping us win games, hell yeah. You know, that's an extra boost to the piece. Like offense, defense, now you got a special piece on special teams that can get it done too, man. That's a confidence booster, That's what you need, man. need everybody to do their part, do their job to be a successful team and to win games in this league, man. And when you got a guy that can...

you know, hit them field goals when you need to in crunch time to help you win games, man. Cause sometimes you gotta find ways to win ugly. It ain't always gonna be pretty. It ain't always be perfect, but the main goal at the of the day is to win games, man. And as long as you got guys doing their job and clutching games like that, man, you can win a lot of football games.

Matt Ryan (10:30)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think he gets extra credit to Zach, right? You mentioned the four field goals, but in the weather, the weather looked nasty, right? And we could talk about that as we get going, but the weather looked nasty. So you get extra credit for making four in bad weather and then you get extra credit for knocking one through at the end of the game when you need it. That seals the deal. So he had a good game with four, but he had a really good game because of the weather and the game winner at the end.

AD (10:55)
at the end of the game. Yes.

Zach Klein (11:02)
mentioned the weather. I noticed the key moment late in that game was Jaden Daniels fumbling the snap, fumbling the rock bears take over the kick the field goal. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you started your career, you did not wear a glove. Is that right?

Matt Ryan (11:08)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Zach Klein (11:15)
and then you wore one late in your career, was that due a bad weather situation where you're like, ⁓ I got a better grip here? When it was bad weather, did you use a glove? What's your thought process on that? And then another thing I wanna ask, how often would you guys practice with wet football, slippery footballs?

Matt Ryan (11:32)
Yeah. All right. Twofold, at least on my end. I started wearing a glove on my left hand. We were playing New Orleans, I think in 2016 down in New Orleans and something happened to my thumb. My thumb got all screwed up and it was super swollen or whatever. And so I put this glove on because I couldn't grip with my left thumb. Like I couldn't, I couldn't get a handle on the ball with my left thumb. So I started wearing it because I had hurt my left thumb. then as it got better, like that season, I was just, it was

AD I was playing good man so I couldn't take it off you know what I mean it was like this is superstitious whatever you want to call it but we were winning I was playing good I was like there's no way this glove is coming off but to answer your question Zach I actually took the glove off later in my career when we played in bad weather because I felt like yeah and I think a lot of guys will do this right I think the gloves almost get slippery or more slippery

AD (11:59)
Just became, yeah, yeah, that, I feel you. Yup, yup.

Zach Klein (12:01)
Yeah.

AD (12:09)
there.

Zach Klein (12:16)
Really?

AD (12:21)
Slippery, do,

it do.

Matt Ryan (12:22)
⁓

The wetter it gets right so you take it off and the balls wet the gloves are wet It just it just becomes hard to handle so I just I don't think that had anything to do with it the ball The ball looks soaked right? mean you could see it was a good snap It just went out and then kind of slipped right out the left left part of his hand But to answer your question about how much do we practice it like we would? The weeks we knew we were gonna play in weather right these coaches

AD (12:34)
Yeah, he lost it. Yeah.

Matt Ryan (12:45)
for the most part, dot all their I's, cross all their T's, they're ready, right? And so we would do stuff, whether it was in team periods or at the end of practice where you'd have somebody out there with a water bottle just spraying the ball down, right? Before it gets snapped and just soaked. And then you'd run the play like right after that. So you practice quite a bit. that was just, I mean, it happens, right? Like sometimes you need the ball to bounce your way. The Bears needed it last night at the end of the game to be able to create that turnover.

AD (12:54)
What ha- yeah.

Matt Ryan (13:12)
That's just part of the rub of it, man. That's part of the rub of sports.

Zach Klein (13:16)
So you're going to New Orleans to play the Saints indoors. You're not practicing during the week with the obviously the slippery, but it's a waste of time, you get ready to go to Chicago, for example, the weather could be nasty. You're going to do it in that week. All right. Gotcha there.

Matt Ryan (13:19)
No. Yeah.

Correct, correct. We would practice

it during the week depending on the conditions we were playing in.

Zach Klein (13:30)
there's one guy who might join Todd or Aaron Arnaumat on a road trip. It's Brian Callahan, fired from the Tennessee Titans. Four 19 overall guys, one in five start, Mike McCoy named their interim head coach.

Matt Ryan (13:36)
it's got some free time.

AD (13:37)
I'm

Zach Klein (13:44)
AD and Matt, what does this do to the locker room?

Matt Ryan (13:46)
I mean, I'll start. I've been through it twice where head coaches have been fired mid season. had two very, very different situations. One in Atlanta where Dan Quinn was let go and Raheem Morris stepped in. So it's very similar to what Tennessee is going through, right? Where you have a head coach removed and you've got somebody from on the staff come in and pick up where they left off. And I think in that situation,

You know, you have the best chance for at least continuity and success. There's typically this one week bump. I don't know if you guys have seen it too, but there's like a one week bump when you fire a coach, it seems like every team plays really well, you know, the following week and then it goes back and they kind of revert back to what they were before. But you know, they're, they're in a tough spot. you know, it's, it's obviously been bad and, and we laughed about it a couple of weeks ago with the cam ward clip and

Todd  France (14:09)
Thank

AD (14:20)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (14:32)
you know, saying they were asked, but they have not been very good throughout the season. I think it's tough on the locker room, right? Because it's not like you got three games left, right? They've got, they've got 10 or 11 games left to go, right? That's the majority of your season. So, you know, I think in that locker room, I think if you're a veteran player AD, right, you're going around to the other guys and being like, listen, I understand the coach is gone. There's going to be new people in this building next year, but like, what you put on tape matters, you know?

AD (14:41)
It's a long season. Yeah, a of football left. Yup.

100 %?

Matt Ryan (14:59)
There's still

a ton, whether it's going to be here somewhere else, wherever. If you want to last in this league, this shit matters now.

Todd  France (15:03)
Ahem.

AD (15:04)
Cause definitely once you, when you losing and definitely when your head coach is fired, that shit's going to trickle down to the players. They going to start cleaning the house. So you get the, you put the right stuff on film, man. You're working for a job for guys that ain't established and you know, the big money guys or guys that's the first pick of the draft. you gotta, sometimes you make changes. It's going to affect some player that was close to them or, you know, it's changed, right? But sometimes changes was best for what you need to do. Definitely when you losing, you know.

That's what happened. That's a part of the league. You gotta find ways to win games and be successful. And that's how you get paid and have success. But if you ain't doing that, guys lose jobs. That's a part of it.

Todd  France (15:31)
And.

I mean, look on the the agent side, when you got a coach that gets fired and then you're you're dealing with the players, of course, you're communicating with your guys. It can unravel fast and you're going to have a wide variety of emotions with guys. You know, whether it is a guy who's coming up for a contract or not. At the end of the day, you hit it on the head like they absolutely are playing for something because they're playing for a new contract. They're playing to a new regimes coming in. They're reevaluating everything.

So yeah, you're playing for not only you know, you're the pride of yourself and your team but for the other 31 teams that are looking at you and then you know talking to a player like again if you're talking to an older guy who doesn't want to go through a quote-unquote rebuild there's that conversation with him because he doesn't want to necessarily stick around for all those years and then you got to have the Conversation when it comes to that stuff is the grass isn't always greener, right? So you don't know how that's gonna go. And so you really got to be strategic

AD (16:23)
Yup.

Been through it.

Todd  France (16:33)
Yeah, you gotta be real strategic with the players and go through different scenarios to figure out what you want to do and what you want to accomplish and how you want to get there. But there's definitely those conversations going on on my side when a guy gets fired because it definitely obviously impacts the player, you know, immensely.

Matt Ryan (16:48)
And I think from the player's perspective too, like if you're having those conversations with your agent or I'm talking to you, Todd, I think both of you come to the agreement that whatever it is that you want is only gonna happen if you play well, right? Like the only way you're gonna be able to dictate, yes, the only way you're gonna be able to dictate even on a bad team is for you individually to play well. And I mean, that might come across as like selfish that you're not caring about winning or whatever,

AD (17:00)
Yes.

Todd  France (17:01)
a lot more options.

AD (17:04)
Yes.

Matt Ryan (17:12)
in a lot of ways the reality of the situation when you're on a team that has had a head coach fired and and you're in the spot where playoffs are wildly unlikely, right? And so it's about you know, professional pride and individual pride. And then if you do those things right then the options like Todd said, you know are there in front of you as the season comes to an end.

Todd  France (17:31)
It's funny you say it. I

Zach Klein (17:32)
You always talk about control what you can control.

AD (17:32)
You got a fat-

Todd  France (17:35)
having a, there was a coach that actually I was close to. didn't represent him, but just friends with him. And he, he was a position coach for the Falcons actually, I don't know, 15, 20 years ago. And he had gotten fired along with some other people on the staff and I had him come work with me to learn this side. Cause I thought maybe he can add value if I had a coach on this side of it and work with the kids going through the combine process and.

looking at it from a coach's perspective and all that stuff. And he was in my office and listening and you know, a couple of days into it, he just sat down and he was just like, I can't be on this side. I was like, what's wrong? He's, he's just like my whole life as a coach, all I care about is the team, team, team. And all I hear you talk about is me, me, me, as it relates to your players and it's so individualized. And I was like, yeah, I go, this is a different animal. go, I don't care. Even when you were coaching, if I was your guy and you were the old line coach, let's just say.

AD (18:20)
Yes.

Todd  France (18:26)
I don't care if you all lost 40 to 35. If your team put up 40, I mean, 35 points as an offensive line coach, you did a great job. Obviously your guy was blocking. So at the end of the day, it dictates how does it affect the guy's contract? How does it affect his payday? The winning is almost gravy from my perspective, other than my players wanting to be happier, because then I go to the building every day. When you win, the environment's better, the culture's better, that type of stuff. But really, it's about your individual performance.

AD (18:36)
Yeah.

Yes.

Todd  France (18:54)
I mean, everyone on the Super Bowl team wins, but doesn't necessarily get a new contract. So it's how they perform, no doubt about it.

Zach Klein (19:03)
more difficult for the players in the locker room, the shit show in Tennessee or the one that's going on in Miami, because you have a quarterback. I want to listen to Tua Tug of Iola talk about after the game when they lost again, listen to this. And I want to get your thought met as a quarterback. Cause we've, we've talked about him in the past. Like he talks too much. Great for what I do. Great for content. Great for the media, but not good for the locker room. Here's two after the game.

Matt Ryan (19:09)
Mmm.

AD (19:21)
Yes.

Zach Klein (19:59)
starts with him not telling the world that you had a team meeting guys are not showing up to the team meeting a or showing up late B ⁓ it got out. How does that affect the locker room? How does it affect the leadership? So many questions I have about QB one in Miami, Matt, you're the quarterback. Talk to me.

Matt Ryan (20:15)
Well, I think when, in his comments, listening to his comments, when you're saying it starts with leadership, that's you.

Zach Klein (20:17)
Lots to unpack.

AD (20:28)
That's what I'm saying, motherfucker.

Matt Ryan (20:29)
Right?

so, ⁓ you know, I think, listen, there's, I think AD can speak to this too. There's different kinds of players only meetings, right? There's meetings where you have these like full team player meetings because things are bad and you're in there and it's like this reset button that we have to hit. They usually don't work, right? Like I think everybody has talked about it.

come in, we got to change everything, like, you we got to get back to and you're like, okay, and we've all been a part of them. Listen, I've been a part of those two. So that's like one thing. The other thing and this is the thing I think he's talking about AD is like, you have position group meetings where it's just as players, right. And so maybe it's the D line gets together Thursday afternoon after practice or Wednesday after practice or Saturday mornings to go through, you know, whatever tape this is like, in my experience.

AD (21:02)
Yup, me too.

Matt Ryan (21:24)
A lot of times on Thursday afternoons, tight ends, wide receivers, quarterbacks would meet, right? And we'd go through third down a red zone and I have guys on the board drawing stuff up and we'd go through any questions that they might have. And a lot of the times it was just a ⁓ reference point for me of what do the guys know, what do they don't know? This isn't like an accusatory thing of you should be studying your shit more, you should be on this more. It was more like, okay, however we've...

AD (21:42)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Ryan (21:50)
you know, taught this throughout the week, this is not hitting home. So this is on my list of reminders for you during the game, like, hey, remind Harry Douglas on, you know, third and six to 10. If we call this play, he's the hot, right? We had, you know, struggled to remember that this week. So I think they're very relaxed type meetings, right? And it usually is at least from my perspective, they've always been, hey, as soon as everybody showered up, done, stretched out or whatever, when everybody gets in there, we'll go.

So it wasn't like it starts at 4.30. It was when everybody's in here, we'll go, because we're all equals, we're all teammates, right? I'm not the coach setting the time for this thing. Inevitably though, everybody shows up, right? And if somebody did miss, to me, that's nipped in the bud the first time, right? This sounds like it's been an ongoing issue for over and over and over and over and over for multiple years. To me,

AD (22:35)
I want the one thing, yes.

Matt Ryan (22:42)
This is what happens when you don't address things at the beginning and get in front of small little issues. They compound and they build and they get to a point where it becomes out of control and it feels completely out of control there. I thought it was a weird statement from him and I like to, I think he's a nice guy and I think he has played well at times in this league. I just, I don't understand that from a leadership standpoint.

AD (23:07)
He said too much. All you have to do is say we got to hold guys more accountable. That's all. Just end it like that. You don't got to go into details and we set this meeting up, we missed this. It don't seem like the locker room where it need to be. It's a tight-knitted group and you can't win games like that. You cannot. Every team I had success with and I was on and we had a good team and we won games, everybody in the locker room was like this. When you got them conflicts with players and guys don't like being around each other,

We sucked ass when we played. And I've been on teams like that where just the camaraderie, the guys wasn't all as one and it showed on the football field. But every team I was with, guys held each other accountable. Everybody cared for each other, had love for each other. And we had success, but it just don't seem like it's that in that locker room right now. Definitely when you, after a game, I know you emotional, however the thing, definitely how they lost that game. They should have won it, but again, they didn't. ⁓ But it goes into that, but yeah.

I just don't think a close-knitted group and it's starting to show more and more each week.

Matt Ryan (24:08)
And I think, AD, I think the thing that's lacking too is to open dialogue from both sides, right? Like I always respect it. Say we're having a players meeting or something, right? And I'm like, AD, we're meeting at this time, whatever, after practice, we're gonna go through the blitz package or something like that. Yo, I got treatment. I gotta get this done. I've got this, this and this. All right, no problem. Hit me tomorrow morning, right? There's like a flexibility or a follow through or whatever that comes up from both sides of like,

AD (24:29)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (24:36)
hey, I'm a professional, you're a professional. We both got things to do. We're gonna meet on that. It feels like just there's no communication. There's no communication.

Zach Klein (24:43)
No, the disconnect, yeah. Todd, I...

AD (24:44)
It's leadership. It's

Zach Klein (24:46)
Yeah.

AD (24:46)
no leadership. It's no leadership. it's just, it's just, it's all over the place.

Zach Klein (24:50)
Todd, I want to get

your thoughts on, you know, the image of the quarterback, but I want to follow up one thing with the guys here because from the outside it's like, Hey, they call the team meeting. So, so how does that work, Matt? If, if shit was going down and you want to get it together, AD, as the leaders of the group, you mentioned Matt, like the positions you'd handle your business then, but if it is a team meeting where we all need to get on the same page and air something out, is it, Hey, it's after practice, we're meeting, no coaches. ⁓ how does that work and who leads it? And if our guys bowing up, it's just that.

AD (25:17)
It's just that.

Matt Ryan (25:18)
That's it.

That's it. Hey, that's not good enough. Everybody, we're meeting in the team meeting room 20 minutes from now, right? You're gonna be in there. Coaches are out.

AD (25:20)
That's usually the leaders of the team.

Tell coach, I'm have a team meeting, just the players.

Yeah, yup. And that's it, it's that simple. ⁓ No extra.

Todd  France (25:30)
Is the point

Matt Ryan (25:30)
It's like,

Todd  France (25:30)
of it? Is the point.

Matt Ryan (25:30)
this is my thing is we're really simple people. Players are simple.

Todd  France (25:34)
no coaches just so it's completely unfiltered and you're not worried about saying something in front of a coach? Or you can bash a coach if you need to.

AD (25:41)
that is just the

players. Coaches coach players play, right? It's the guys you're going to battle with, you on the field with. This ain't got nothing to do with the coaches. This is the leadership's calling this meeting. This is the leaders want to get everybody together. Whatever the problem is, we talk about it, get everything together, get everybody on the same page, but it ain't got nothing to do with the coaches. This has got everything to do with leadership, trying to get everything back on track as a team, the guys that's going to war with on the fucking football field. That's what it come down to.

Todd  France (26:05)
AD and Matt, did you guys, when you

Matt Ryan (26:06)
Absolutely.

Todd  France (26:07)
guys played, I know there's a lot of teams that have like a, every team is different, right? They have captains, whatever, but sometimes teams have these leadership committees where there is a committee, a group of people that are on this leadership team. Did you guys have that when you played on yours? And what do you think of that concept?

Matt Ryan (26:24)
We had them ⁓ pretty much my entire career. ⁓ Every coach that I played for had some kind of, they were different in size, right? Some were a little bigger than others, but they ranged from anywhere from four to five guys to 10 or 11, 12. But we had them really in every group, every team that I was a part of. It was different in how often we met. Sometimes we met weekly, sometimes we met once a month, sometimes we met as needed.

AD (26:49)
when you need it to meet you.

Yes, exactly.

Matt Ryan (26:51)
You know,

you know, and it was, it was usually in our case, AD probably similar for you is just the head coach and those 10 or 12 guys. And in a lot of ways, those were just, hey, here's where I see where we're at. This isn't like, you know, we got, we got more run plays or like, this is like big picture stuff. I see where we're at. I just, and in my case, I think coaches a lot of time we're asking for feedback too. Like what's

AD (26:58)
⁓ 100%. Yup, that's exactly what it was.

Matt Ryan (27:17)
What is the vibe in the locker room? Where are guys at? Like, how are we feeling? How about you, AD?

AD (27:19)
Yeah.

That's exactly what it was. Anytime we had it, it was like the captains and the veteran guys that was the leaders of the team, head coach. And it's just that, asking questions. How's the locker room? What can I do? What you feel like we need to do better as a team? It's just stuff like that, that you just talking to your leadership, trying to get a feel for the team, a feel for the vibe so y'all can continue to get to a certain level. So that's exactly what it was.

Zach Klein (27:44)
Hey, Todd, based

on your experience when it comes to GMs in ownership, when the coach and the quarterback appear to be out of sync, what do think those conversations are like?

Todd  France (27:53)
First of all, the comments that we're talking about, I would love to know, you have to know, how was the quarterback viewed before he made those comments? What kind of respect did he have across the board with his team before any of that happened, number one. Number two, there's a difference in some basic quarterback doing it as opposed to Tom Brady doing it, right? Tom Brady had the utmost respect. So if he comes out on the podium and says something, maybe he has a little more runway and more leeway to do that.

with that in terms of being on the same page with your coach and that all that, you know, I would think a GM is everyone's going to have their own style, but I think it's anything for any type of leadership. You're going to bring people together and work it out and air it out because it's too early in the season. You got a player who's under contract for many more years. So you've got to kind of figure that all out, make sure everyone's on the same page because it's not going to get any better. And I think everyone needs to be telling them what they're thinking and, and, and then that, and just go from there. So.

I think any GM, but you know, again, I also will tell you that the situation also depends on the GM and the stability of the GM. And if you're dealing with an organization where everybody's on the hot seat, that's just a tough situation because you got everyone looking out for themselves as opposed to looking out for the bigger picture. And there's a lot of finger pointing and that's where things just start to quickly unravel.

AD (28:58)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (29:05)
I'll just finish with this Zach and we could put a bow on this topic, but like I have seen coaches use the media to get to their players in effective manners. Like I have seen that, right? Where they put the message out there that we need to play hard, we need to do this. And the team responds. I have not seen players call out other players in the media and then seen success from that, right? Like I think those things player to player,

Todd  France (29:19)
Get it ready.

Yeah.

Zach Klein (29:29)
Great point.

Matt Ryan (29:31)
are done better face to face and behind closed doors. think there's, you know, when you go player to player and you're attacking in the media, like you've lost that level of the locker room is our sacred spot. And it's different when it comes from a head coach to a player than it is when a player does that publicly.

Zach Klein (29:50)
here we go. We got one individual calling on his teammates for missing practice and you have another individual basically blasting a rival GM. need to get Mike Tomlin on the show guys. He keeps it real. He says what's on his mind and he slams the Browns for trading Joe Flacco to the Bengals. So I want you to help me understand this. The Bengals make this surprising trade by acquiring

quarterback Joe Flacco for a sixth round pick in exchange for a fifth round. Why do the Bengals want a new starting quarterback who's 40? And then why do the Browns help out a rival by giving them their former starting quarterback? Help me understand this. But first we're gonna hear from Tomlin just slamming the Browns.

AD (30:38)
to the division.

Zach Klein (30:47)
He's right. I don't get it. AD, put on your GM hat here. What are you doing?

AD (30:48)
It don't,

I don't know. I don't even know what to say to that. It don't make sense, right? I understand I know the Bangles needed somebody to keep them afloat while Joe Burrows down, but you don't help a divisional team, you know, have success with you. I don't know. I don't even, I'm speechless. I don't know what you got to that, Matt, or what your thoughts on that, but it don't make sense to me.

Matt Ryan (31:11)
I think Mike Tomlin, I agree with Mike T. I agree with Mike T. I mean, I guess it comes down to compensation, right, Todd? In that kind of situation, if you're Andrew Barry, do you feel like the help that you're giving, the compensation is worth it? But what was the compensation?

AD (31:13)
He said it. Yeah.

It don't seem exactly,

it didn't make sense from a business standpoint, neither.

Zach Klein (31:29)
Cleveland Browns get Flacco for a sixth round pick in exchange for a fifth rounder. So Todd, help me make sense of this. Yes, basically.

Matt Ryan (31:29)
No.

So we switched rounds.

Todd  France (31:38)
Yeah, I'm not going to sit here and second guess the GM and what their vision is and what their strategy is. Obviously, know, Andrew Berry is a very bright guy and and I'm assuming they have a plan. I do know that, you know, if I'm the agent for Flacco or in that type of a situation, I'm actually happy that we're moving on because it's a tough situation. If you've got a team that's not winning or is going to potentially struggle and be inconsistent all year as an older quarterback.

Why do I want to be there every week when they're saying, about Dylan Gabriel? What about Shadour Sanders? Let's put these guys in. I'd rather move to a team where they're desperate because their veteran quarterback is out. They felt like they had a team to win. had all the pieces around the quarterback. All they need is a quarterback, not necessarily to win games, but definitely not to lose games. I'd much rather go there. I think it's a great call and a great situation for him. And again, I can't speak to why they did or didn't do it, but.

Maybe in Cleveland's eyes, they don't think they're gonna be necessarily a contender. So they're trying to acquire any pieces that they can get in terms of compensation to have more picks and continue to build the team. I don't know other than that.

AD (32:45)
So they given up, so they just given up. The season's over, they given up.

Matt Ryan (32:45)
mean, yeah, to me, feels like...

Todd  France (32:49)
I'm not going

to say they're, you can't say they're giving up because they, they still, they still, okay. Maybe they're giving up. All right. No, but I think they want, I think, I think what they're trying to do is also see what do they have in their young quarterbacks? You know, if we're not going to win all the time. And so again, that's possibly why now in the vision and all that type of stuff, maybe that's less important. Well, maybe it's, maybe it's less than, well, well, play, play doubles advocate.

AD (32:51)
They won it, they won it fair. They helping out a division opponent.

Matt Ryan (32:56)
You

Forget that.

AD (33:07)
Yeah, that's the thing that's confusing.

Matt Ryan (33:07)
That's the part I don't get.

I'm okay with playing Dylan Gabriel or eventually seeing what you have in Chador or whatever that is.

AD (33:12)
Yeah.

Todd  France (33:16)
play devil's advocate. If they're

out of it, they don't really care if it's indivision or not. It's not like they're gonna, it's like they're giving it to someone who's gonna come back and bite them in the butt. They're not winning.

Matt Ryan (33:23)
I don't know though,

man. Like if you're in that division long enough, AD, you don't want to give anybody to the Niners if you're out of it. Or like, I don't want to give anybody to the Saints because we're out of it. That's not happening. It's not happening.

AD (33:31)
I don't want help don't help them at all. Do not help them at all. That's That's the thing. That's what you don't understand.

It's like that's a real it's a rival you play these teams twice a year It's a little hate on the field. It's a little hate towards that team. You don't help that damn team out like They don't have they don't

Matt Ryan (33:43)
For sure. It works both ways.

Zach Klein (33:43)
just imagine if they do go on a run, if they do have

something special, if they package something else and make a run.

Matt Ryan (33:49)
I mean,

my only thing is like maybe Andrew Berry looks at the Cincinnati Bengals and he's like, they're not going anywhere either, right? Neither of us are going anyway. Can we establish a little bit of an edge in terms of where we draft for the next draft? Because Joe Flacco is not coming back here next year either.

Todd  France (33:50)
I mean...

There's,

I

can assure you there's a method to his madness and I don't know what it is and none of us do and it's easy to second guess. The other thing is, like as an agent, when a player is getting traded, sometimes the team will tell you in advance, we're doing this and sometimes they don't. really depends on the relationship with the agent. If a GM has a relationship with you and or you as an agent have the foresight to kind of recognize this could be something that comes down, you need to be talking to the GM and letting them know in advance, Hey,

AD (34:23)
Exactly, you know.

Todd  France (34:34)
If you're shipping my guy or you're talking and you're shopping and you got to let me know and let's work together. The reason teams don't want to do that is because they're afraid if that doesn't happen and you told their player, your player that they're trying to trade them, players are players. It's a pride thing, right? And all of a sudden they worry about the, that can backfire on them if that doesn't happen.

But a smart agent can, can, and a good agent will be proactive that proactive with that, with the teams and make sure that you're in the know on

Zach Klein (35:01)
Earlier in the season guys on the Inner Circle podcast, we talked about revenge games and if it played in any impact into former opponents on the field or former teammates rather. But how about Rico Dowdle? This is what he said leading up to his current game, his current team with the Carolina Panthers playing his former team of Dallas

AD (35:12)
Hmm.

He did, but... He had 200 on his ass, huh? Yeah, he told him. I got some for y'all. Y'all wanna get rid of me? Okay. I'm gonna let you see. When I see you, we gonna talk.

Matt Ryan (35:33)
Hahaha!

tried to let you know.

Zach Klein (35:39)
183 yards,

30 carries, 56 receiving yards. I mean, he talks from smack and he backed it up. Dallas did not. They let him go, hit free agency, AD and Matt. And then he signs a one year, two and a half million dollar deal. Give it up to the Carolina

AD (35:51)
I think the defense was all right, played decent, but still, I feel like with the Cowboys, that could score a million points, but if they don't outscore somebody right now, they don't got a chance of winning, right? The defense can't stop the run game, not consistent in the pass rush. So, you know, they got some things they need to clean up. I think, I don't want to say something about leadership on the defense, but who's the guy that's going to bring everybody together to make sure, that's what I'm saying, man.

Zach Klein (36:11)
They got nobody. They got no one.

Matt Ryan (36:12)
He's in Green Bay. He's in

Green Bay.

AD (36:14)
You know what mean? it shows though. It really do shows, man. And so they just need to get some things buttoned up because man, if that can't outscore somebody right now, the Cowboys ain't got a chance to win no games.

Zach Klein (36:25)
Do

you think Dak feels that he needs to play perfect?

Matt Ryan (36:25)
Yeah, what would you send out? What'd you send out,

Yeah, hell yeah, he

scored on eight of their last nine possessions.

Zach Klein (36:29)
After the

Correct. Dallas drives after the 9-0-8 mark in the first quarter when field goal, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, field goal, punt, and they lose.

Matt Ryan (36:39)
usually that that's that usually works, you know, and, you know, does he feel like you have to be perfect? Yeah, you know, that that's not an excuse. That's that doesn't. That doesn't change the way you compete or let you take your foot off the gas. That's the reality of the situation for the Cowboys. Like, forget about how we're feeling. That is what he has to be for them to win, right? He they've got a score. They needed to score on nine out of the last nine possessions, not eight.

Zach Klein (36:43)
Right.

AD (36:43)
Yes.

Yeah, you got it, Yes.

Matt Ryan (37:07)
right? And maybe one of those eight, instead of a field goal has to be a touchdown. So now, you're not only talking about having to score every time you touch it, you're talking about, you know, scoring every time you touch it isn't good enough. It's got to be touchdowns. It's got to be touchdowns almost every time you touch it. And that becomes increasingly difficult. But I mean, Dax doing it, Dax playing good. He's playing really well. And they're just falling a little bit short. But shout out to Rico, man. That that that was a big performance this week. That's two weeks in a row, though, that he's come out and he's bald.

AD (37:18)
Yes.

He's playing really good. He's playing really well.

Consistent,

consistency, consistent. I like it.

Matt Ryan (37:35)
Yeah.

Zach Klein (37:37)
AD, if you're on that Dallas defense

are you saying anything to the offense? Like, hey man, my bad, we're going to get there. Don't worry, keep doing your thing. I mean, we're a team, but I feel for you.

AD (37:47)
See, I'm not a rah rah guy. not a, I'm a speak when I got to speak. I'm a lead by example guy. So if my defense ain't doing what we need to do, maybe that's something on my role. I got to do more to be more successful to try and help my team to make plays. That's on the field, on a practice field, the fan room, the weight room, whatever it is, I lead by example. So, you know, once you tend to do things the right way, obviously what you translate, the body work you put on usually translate to what you do on the field. And you typically, guys around you usually gravitate to that.

And I don't think Dallas defense got that right now. And they just lacking it. They lacking leadership. They looked at all over the place, man. And it's hard to win games like that right now. It's like you typically on a defense, you want to say, ain't letting them get no damn touchdowns at all. No field goals or nothing. This team, just, you happy if you can stop them and just give up a field goal with that defense right now. You know what saying? That's it. Hold them at three.

Matt Ryan (38:33)
Yeah, hold them to three. Hold them to three.

I was gonna say to I think words matter if it's like an outlier, right? If you're having a bad game as a defense, but you're a good defense, right? Words matter to the opposite side of the ball where you come over and you're like, hey man, I know it's, but we're gonna get a stop right here, right?

When you're getting just gashed like every time, 100%, just go do it, right? And I think the same is when you're struggling, like I've been on offenses where we're struggling, we're struggling, we're struggling, and that's week after week after week, your words fall on deaf ears when you just keep coming out, you just gotta do it. You gotta get one, right? And that's all that matters.

AD (38:51)
Yeah, I actually speak louder than words.

Are we going? Yeah.

Zach Klein (39:11)
Because it's one of the first things that we will

say when we go into the locker room after the game, if it's a 10-3 final and you're going up to the defense, hey man, you gave up 10 points, you know, how frustrating is it out there that the offense couldn't convert the red zone, whatever. And, you know, they usually say the politically correct thing, but it's got to be tough if it's time and time again, if you're giving up few points. But to your point, Matt, when you're giving up 30, 27, 33, like, you prove it to me. I don't even have you coming over to my side, just show it to me, right?

Matt Ryan (39:36)
Just show me. Just show

AD (39:37)
Like,

Matt Ryan (39:38)
me. Just get a stop.

AD (39:38)
hearing you talking, saying, I'ma do this and do that, that's, okay, that sound good. Why don't you show me that? Go in the field and you do that and then we can talk right now. But words ain't shit. Actions speak louder than words. That's why I say lead by example

Matt Ryan (39:47)
Correct.

Zach Klein (39:51)
You got Baker in the bucks five and one his old team the Browns one and five. You got Daniel Jones and the Colts five and one his old team the Giants two and four. You got Sam Darnold in the Seahawks four and two and he has old team the Jets and six. Todd I'll start with you. Do you think teams in general are giving up on quarterbacks too early?

AD (40:06)
6 EW EW

Todd  France (40:09)
⁓

Matt Ryan (40:09)
You

AD (40:10)
and 6

Todd  France (40:12)
I'm never going to second guess a coach and the GM and all that stuff, I will tell you, situations matter, 1000%. Would I rather have a guy get drafted a little bit lower to a better situation as opposed to a little bit higher and not have the pieces around him all day, for sure. Because if you get with the right situation, whether that be a stable front office, whether that be a good coach, whether that be the pieces around you, if you're a quarterback, O-line receivers, whatever it may be.

AD (40:20)
Yep, correct.

Todd  France (40:38)
Those things are going to have a heck of a lot more impact and a lot more direct impact on your success. I'd rather have that all day long. I'll never forget back in the day. I'll give you an example. remember like Duann

ends up going to, you know, fifth round supposed to go a little bit higher ends up going fifth round, but

to the Baltimore Ravens defense with Ray Lewis and playing next to Ed Reed and all that stuff. And he three and four years later, he got paid in free agency and a monster deal. And yeah, it wasn't where he wanted to go. But situation stepped in as a day one starter next to all those guys. mean, Sarah Goose up front and all that stuff. I it was ridiculous. And yeah, he got paid for it. So I much rather do that than end up going earlier into a situation where you're not contributing or you don't have the pieces around.

Matt Ryan (41:22)
Yeah, and to keep going on the situation, I mean, two of those three teams that you mentioned, right? Baker with the Bucks now ballin', the Browns struggling. Sam Darnold ballin' with the Seahawks, the Jets struggling. What do the Browns and the Jets have in common? Every quarterback they draft doesn't pan out, right? And so it's partly these organizations too, like to the point of, we getting rid of quarterbacks too quickly? Well,

AD (41:41)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (41:49)
You know, each case is different. Each situation is different. The one constant, at least in this conversation with these teams, is that the Browns have continued to screw that up for the last 25, 30 years. The Jets have done the exact same thing, right? Like it's not for a lack of trying. Yes.

AD (41:59)
Yeah.

Todd  France (42:02)
Hey, Matt, don't think

AD (42:02)
Yep.

Todd  France (42:05)
there is a huge sensitivity when you pick a top quarterback? When you're picking the number one pick, there's a lot of big sensitivity. And you can go back and look at the last four number one quarterback picks all fired their coach within the first year. And that quarterback surely had impact. I'm sorry, those coaches had an impact on who they were drafting. mean, Trevor Lawrence and Urban Meyer, I can't remember all the coaches, but Caleb Williams, Cam Ward now, Bryce Young.

All of those, I think, are the last four quarterbacks and all their coaches got fired in the first year. I think Alicia is short.

Matt Ryan (42:35)
Yeah, but in defense of that, in defense of that, if you look at it right now, I would say Caleb Williams looks pretty good. Year two, the quarterback looks pretty good with a new head coach. I would say the same for Bryce Young right now at three and three. Has Bryce been perfect? No, but they did fire the coach and then moved on and stabilized it with the quarterback. They haven't done either of those things with the Browns or the Jets in this century, right? And so,

AD (42:42)
Yeah, he's playing good ball. Yeah.

Yes, he's playing better though.

Matt Ryan (43:04)
I think there's something too, right? Like I work for CBS now, I go to New York. We have a lot of guys that are behind the scenes at CBS that are massive, massive Jets fans, right? And the running joke is that when you come to the Jets, you lose all your football superpowers and they magically reappear when you go somewhere else or whatever. And so, yeah, I mean, it's just interesting to me that it's those two organizations.

AD (43:23)
Yeah, that's true. 0 and 6.

Matt Ryan (43:30)
that those guys didn't work out. And, you're right, Todd, you know, the, the, the, is staggering to see, you know, last four quarterbacks taken with that number overall, number one overall pick coach being fired and, and, moved on. but they hung onto the quarterbacks in those places, right? Like Trevor Lawrence, it's taken three different head coaches up until this point, but it looks like they're getting it right. And it looks like they're headed in the right direction. I think of, I think Caleb Williams is a great example though.

of and Todd, you could probably speak to this better because you deal with GMs all the time. like, you know, knowing that we might have the piece, this guy, the player might be the piece, but this is not the coach, no matter how we felt about it, how we came to the decision, this is not the right way to build this around him. And being able to make that difficult decision and then move on. If you do feel like there's somebody waiting in the wings that you can get, that's going to be that guy.

AD (44:09)
Yeah.

Todd  France (44:21)
I mean, it just shows like the situation matters, right? It's not just the individual play. It's the coach, it's the front office, it's the scheme, it's the talent, all of that. And so yes, as an agent, you want your player going to a good organization that has all those types of pieces, no matter whether it's a quarterback or any player, you want that stability and you want a good program because that's where you have your best chance for your guy to

Matt Ryan (44:25)
Yes.

AD (44:27)
Yes.

Zach Klein (44:42)
I do have a listener question. Matt, this came from Adam, and he said he loved your breakdown of the play when you called it in the huddle. So if you can just give us a simple play, and then I'll follow up with his question. So please give us a play.

Matt Ryan (44:55)
Okay, I can't remember what I said last week. They all run together, but it doesn't matter. All right, let's go. West right zoom Z right 19 want to can 18 zap.

Zach Klein (44:59)
It could be anything. Doesn't matter, yeah.

OK, West right zoom is all I picked up. His question was in the huddle. If you can break down what West zoom right whatever was who's listening to

Matt Ryan (45:13)
Yep.

Okay, yeah, so West Right Zoom is the formation, right? And so West is talking to the, typically teams have an X, a Y, a Z, whether it's an F or however they tag the F is different in systems, but they have an X, a Y, an F, a Z and an H. And the personnel grouping come in, the personnel would tell you what type of player the F is, okay? So in this case,

AD (45:26)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Ryan (45:42)
we'd be in 12 personnel. 12 personnel tells us there's two wide receivers out on the field, two tight ends and one running back. So the one stands for how many running backs are in the game. The two stands for how many tight ends are in the game. So that's 12. One running back, two tight ends, two wide receivers. So when we're in west right, the west tells the Y and the F that they're lined up on the right side and they're attached to the tackle.

AD (45:48)
Mm-hmm.

Italians.

Matt Ryan (46:05)
So it'd be the Y right next to the right tackle the F just outside off the ball outside of the wide zoom talks to the wide receivers that tells them instead of X being on the left Z being on the right or to the strength or weakness call we're going to come over and we're going to go Z over Z over to slot Z. ⁓ zoom. So West right zoom tells the tight ends and the wide receivers where to line up. It puts them in this set.

Z right is the motion. So west right zoom Z right. We start with the Z over on the left side. He's going to motion to the right. That part of the play call talks to the wide receivers in the tight ends. 19 Wanda. So it's west right zoom Z right 19 Wanda. 19 Wanda is basically saying that we're running zone scheme to the left. Nine being the odd number outside. So the holes go one, three, five, seven, nine on the left side, two, four, six, eight.

AD (46:53)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Ryan (46:58)
on the right side, right? And so, or 02468 on the right side. so 19, meaning it's one back, one back, one, 19, one back to the left, to the outside, 19 Wanda. Wanda means zone scheme in that scheme. Can 18 zap, which is can the one back run going to the eight hole to the right side and zap is the combination block for the tight ends.

So each little part, right? The first part, WestRide Zoom talks to wide receivers, 19 Wanda, CAN 18 ZAP talks to everybody,

Primarily, it's talking to 19 Wanda, can't 18 Zapp is talking to the offensive line, the blockers, right? And so each part is broken down. And that's just a simple run play in the past game. gets more complicated and a little bit more complicated, but it's really bits and pieces. only person, yeah, the only person that really needs to know all of it is the quarterback. So there's little bits and pieces that are applied to every position.

Todd  France (47:43)
That was simple.

Zach Klein (47:52)
That's fascinating. It always goes in the same cadence. So the first part lets the tight ends and the running backs and the line nose. So you always know kind of what part of the sequence you have to tune into.

Matt Ryan (47:59)
So usually

in the run game, goes formation, run play. In the pass game, it goes formation, protection, run play. like in the pass, say we were running a pass play from that formation, west right zoom, Z right. 18 sifter, pass 18 sifter, Z drift, X field post. So that would be like west right zoom, Z right. Pass 18 sifter, Z drift, X field post.

Just Z Drift and X Field Pose talks to a wide receiver on what the route combination is. Past 18 sifter would be what the protection is for that play. Play action, hard outside sell to the right, tells everybody what their responsibility is. So in the run game, it's formation, run play. In the past game, it's formation, protection, and then route concepts.

Todd  France (48:46)
are you doing on the snap ⁓ when you're actually out of the huddle and AD, what are you picking up on all that stuff when he's changing things and what are you saying on the snap when you're behind the center?

AD (48:47)
I'm

Matt Ryan (48:56)
So typically you'd come out and you'd set wherever, everything is in numbers, right? We used to have coaches that would say, if you can count, you can play, right? And so it sounds really complicated, but it all becomes numbers off of wherever your point is. And so you've seen probably clips of guys pointing out the mic, right? Hey, mic's 54, mic's 54. And all that means is, hey, all of our counts, right?

are starting whether it's in the run game or the pass game pass protection, all of our counts for who we're accounting for start off of that guy. So if we're running to the left 19 Wanda, and I point right at Zack and I say Zack's the mic,

how we're double teaming to those guys starts with Zack, right? So he would be one and then we're going to count to 234 whatever it is right that that just

It starts the identification portion of how we're counting out where we're going to, right? And it puts everybody on the right track to be successful. I mean, that's all you're doing, right? You get up there, hey, 54 is a mic, Blue Eddie, Blue Eddie said, hut, boom, go.

AD (49:58)
Simplify.

Zach Klein (49:58)
N A D U

C ball get ball. That's what it is and your call.

AD (50:01)
Hell yeah, but you line obviously through the week you prepare, know different formations and what they line up in. Your 21s, your 22s, your 12s, your 11s, your 10s. And you kind of got a feel for what they typically run out on formations to kind of get you ahead on that. you know, the D coordinator call what he call, just give me my shit. If it's a slam, if I got to do movement or whatever, however my alignment's got to be for me to be the most successful or whatever it is in first, second down and then third down. All right, you pin your ears back.

Matt Ryan (50:26)
We kid

though, we kid with AD, it's so simple, but these guys are so smart on that side too. You start calling out stances of guards alignment, where their eyes are, right? And so like, you can hear them talking. Like I've heard AD be like, hey, he's pulling, he's pulling. And you would know he's pulling off of the way he's standing in his stance, right?

AD (50:33)
Well, you pick all that up on film. That's the whole...

Yeah, yeah.

But

that's all through your study through the week, right? You're trying to find tendencies from your offensive lineman, from different personnel that's in. So give yourself an upper hand so you can play a lot faster, right? You see things and you just get a feel for it. Like you want to pick up an offensive lineman's weaknesses and his set in a run game, pass game. The way, he's in a pass game, is he an over setter, is he a deep setter, is he a short setter? So is he two-hand puncher, is he a low hand guy, is he a rapper?

And you note that down and you practice with your moves, you're be working through the week. Okay, he's a low hand guy. I know I got my chop club. He a two hand puncher. I'm gonna on my swipe. He don't have an anchor, so I'm gonna work more power rushes off him, right? He don't got good feet, so I can do more stutter moves and shit like that. Or he don't good, or he might be solid, but he's not great at picking up games. So you run different games on him. So it all depends on your study through the week to get yourself an upper hand when it come game time, right? Because the more you know, faster you can play.

Matt Ryan (51:29)
There was nothing.

Todd  France (51:32)
This makes a lot of sense why Zach and I were just more into flag football.

Matt Ryan (51:37)
I was going to say there was nothing worse though than as a quarterback when you line up and you hear somebody like AD on the other side be like, Hey, he's pulling right here. And you're like, shit, we are. He's right. He's right.

AD (51:44)
I love playing

against them big ass girls that gotta be on their heels. And he's like, aw, I'm gonna shoot the shit out this guy, and go back.

Matt Ryan (51:51)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We used

Zach Klein (51:54)
Do you?

Matt Ryan (51:54)
to, yeah, we used to go against Luke Keakley all the time in Carolina. And he was like one of the best in the league at being able to identify what you were running. And so many times I'd be up there, can, can, can, can. And he'd be like, weak inside zone right here. And you're like, ⁓ my God, he's right. He's right. All right, we gotta run it. Yeah, yeah. yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're trying, trying as much as you can.

AD (51:59)
Yeah.

Yeah

Zach Klein (52:09)
Did you ever practice your cadence? Like, you know, ha ha ha. You have like, because that could throw. mean,

AD (52:15)
He said, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Zach Klein (52:16)
Right, because that could you that I mean, if you're to get the 80 off his game, if he knows or Keeley, they know what's coming and you can maybe try to get a false start or something that they're jumping based on cadence. All right, we're going to wrap up here. got a few minutes left here on the inner circle pod. We got 80s players of the week. We got a two minute drill and then we're going to bounce. But I want to have you guys listen to this. I thought this was great. We had.

Matt Ryan (52:23)
That's it. That's right. You got to keep them off balance as much as you can.

Zach Klein (52:37)
Tess Johnson for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He is a seventh round pick out of Oregon. He had his first career touchdown, which is a 45 yard bomb from Baker Mayfield. And here's Tess after the game. Take a listen.

Shout out to Taz, man, a good funny moment post game locker room saying he MVP chance and he thought it was him.

Matt Ryan (52:56)
It's so good. It's so good. That tells you where every athlete's mindset is at, right? You make one good play. Yeah, that's right. I am the MVP, man. But that was a hell of a catch.

AD (53:03)
And shout out to

Zach Klein (53:03)
First career touchdown,

Todd  France (53:05)
service.

Zach Klein (53:05)
first one, boom.

AD (53:07)
Baker Mayfield, man. He's playing some top tier ball right now. A lot of confidence, man. Making a lot of plays, man. So, I'm happy to talk to him, man. Keep it up, Keep it up. Just don't keep it up when you play the Rams. Play horrible when you play for the Rams. Play like shit. So, it was a lot of good defense play this week, man. A lot of good defense overall. I think the Rams defense played good. Lamon.

Matt Ryan (53:09)
Ballin'.

Zach Klein (53:15)
Amen to that. AD, hit us up man, who you got for your... That's gonna be a fun...

AD (53:27)
17 tackles, he got the single game franchise record for the Rams. B-Wyat, Byron Young, he got eight tackles, two sacks. That's seven and a half sacks on the season. He's number two in leading the NFL in sacks behind. Verse had another sack for his fumble. I think that defense played good. I think the Rams offense was moving a little slow, but the defense kept getting the ball, giving them their opportunities, and they found a way to win the game on the road. We talked about sometimes you gotta find a way to win them ugly games, definitely on the road, man. It's hard to win on the road, so.

Hats off to that defense, the Rams for doing that, man. The Steelers defense played some good ball, man. Nick Herbick, he had two sacks, he was rushing his ass off. And my dog, Jalen Ramsey, six tackles, two sacks. I know he was banged up this week, had some injuries, found a way to get himself healthy and go out there and dominate, man. He's playing some good football. That defense is playing some good football. The Steelers look good, man. And Denver, Denver's defense for a second week. They dominated last week and showed out again this week. Pat Sertan and them guys, they gave...

Matt Ryan (54:04)
Two sacks.

AD (54:22)
They got nine sacks as a defense. They was flying around and what, like six sacks came in the second half. About five of those came in the fourth quarter, right? Jonathan Cooper had two of them sacks. had a day, man. So I think that defense is playing real good football, playing consistent, good football, week in and week out. So keep it up. But this week for me, my number one guy is Devin White with the Raiders, LB, man. Nine tackles, one sack, one fourth fumble interception.

You know, been doing it for a long time, still playing at a higher level, man. So Devon White, man, clap it up for him. What a day, big dog, keep it up. OG, keep it up, keep it up. But it was a lot of good defense to play this week, man. A lot to choose and pick from, man. So had to just, you know, choose and pick a few, man. But a lot better defense play this week and ain't a fail, man. So keep it up.

Zach Klein (54:54)
D-Dub, let's go.

Good stuff. Devon White, AD's player of the week, representing for the

More questions for AD and I. Let's get it, AD.

Matt Ryan (55:11)
All right, let's hit it. Let me get the clock started.

AD (55:14)
Haha

Matt Ryan (55:15)
Stopwatch is going. All right, here we go. Ready? It's on. All right, AD, I'll start with you. Baseball fan. Dodgers taking on the Brewers in the playoffs, NLCS right now. Are you a Dodgers fan in baseball or are you a Pirates fan growing up in Pittsburgh? Both.

Zach Klein (55:18)
Let's do it!

AD (55:29)
I'm both. I'm both.

I watched some Pirate's game, but I'm a Dodgers fan. I'm a Mookie guy. Mookie's my dog, so I'm cheering for the Dodgers right now and they gonna get it done, man.

Matt Ryan (55:38)
Okay, two teams in the NL. That's interesting. I don't know many fans that are fans of two teams in the NL, but I'll take it. It's all right. All right, Zach, you're up. Top SEC road venue. You were on the road this week at Auburn. You've been around the league. We kicked, we got to take Georgia out of this, right? Take Athens out of it. What is the top road venue in the SEC that you've been to?

AD (55:42)
Hahaha

Zach Klein (55:58)
Auburn was impressive. 90,000 strong. You see the eagle fly around the stadium at night with the lights off, land at midfield to get him going. That was impressive. But to be fair, that's one right there, Matt. They're all crazy. I have not been to LSU at night. So next year when Georgia plays in Baton Rouge, I hope to get there. It's a long way saying right now it's Auburn or A which has been crazy, but I'm waiting to go to Baton Rouge.

AD (56:01)
Mmm.

Matt Ryan (56:14)
Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. To be determined to be determined. But right now, Auburn's the leader in the clubhouse. All right, AD. Penn State was in the news this week. James Franklin getting fired. I am curious. We're talking about fandom here and teams that you don't like. As a Pittsburgh alum, do we dislike Penn State more than we dislike West Virginia?

Zach Klein (56:22)
to be determined. Yes.

AD (56:39)
Ooh, nah, see for me, West Virginians, that's a true hate. I don't like Penn State, but I hate West Virginia.

Matt Ryan (56:42)
That's true, hey.

All right, so it's West Virginia's number one. I got it. All right, Zach, we just talked about road venues in the SEC. Outside of Mercedes-Benz and Atlanta, what is your favorite NFL venue that you've been to on the road?

AD (56:47)
Yes, for sure. Hands down.

Zach Klein (56:59)
We talked about Green Bay when it's snowing, whole time Chicago where I'm from. The Saints are crazy because it's a fun place to visit. If I had to go one, I'd probably go Lambeau. Yeah, just tradition. You were there. You were on the field. Is that for you? Was that up there? What do you guys think? Yeah. Okay.

Matt Ryan (57:09)
Lambo. Lambo's a good one.

Yeah, thanks, man. I love Lambeau. I love Lambeau. We're over now. It's 208.

We hit it. But I'm going to say just to follow up on that, my favorite venue to play at in the NFL was Lambeau. It's just you feel it feels different. You know, it feels more like college when you go play there. How about you, AD? I only won there once, but I was a rookie when we won there. Yeah, we did. Yeah.

AD (57:28)
I hate Lambo, I never won in Lambo. So every time I win, I got bad experiences there, man. I don't like Lambo. But at least you won. Shit, I ain't never won in Lambo. So I

don't know, what was my favorite? I don't know, I think the loudest stadium I've been in was NFC Championship in New Orleans. Inside that dump, I'm talking about, was so loud. It felt like my head was doing this on the, I'm like, why the hell are they yelling so damn loud, man? But that was a loud stadium.

Matt Ryan (57:44)
Yeah, New Orleans loud, man. Yes.

Zach Klein (57:53)
That was crazy. I'll tell you,

the loudest thing I've heard in the NFL was the final game ever at the Georgia Dome, NFC Championship game. Matt was on fire and that place was rocking. So good stuff right there. What are we looking forward to gentlemen for the week?

Matt Ryan (58:04)
I'm looking forward. We have flag football. got our first. We were talking about AD as a coach earlier. You know, they're dropping to we're on a win streak here. All right, we were 0 and 4. We're now 1 and 4. We play Thursday night. We're trying to get to 2 and 4. We're heading in the right direction. We're trending. I'm looking forward to getting win number two on Thursday night.

Zach Klein (58:12)
Let's go.

AD (58:14)
Bye!

We trying to get back on track with my team, We got to get back on track. We just lost two straight. So getting back on track and getting ready for the playoffs, man. That's what we got to do this week. So,

Todd  France (58:29)
Thank

Zach Klein (58:33)
I'm looking forward to see if the Falcons can ⁓ duplicate what they did against Buffalo as they are on Sunday night football against 49ers. I want to see if they can represent on the road, West Coast trip. Todd, we're looking forward to this weekend besides you guys being healthy.

Todd  France (58:45)
being in my office and doing this podcast next week.

Zach Klein (58:47)
There you had it. Todd said

he's looking he's looking forward to getting on the private jet and getting some Wi-Fi and taking this show on the road. Todd, thank you very much. Good stuff, T-Friends.

AD (58:49)
You

Zach Klein (58:56)
AD, Matt, good luck to you guys. Let's see if we can have a back to back AD, Matt Ryan, youth football. Get some video. Can you guys, I'd like to show, I guess we gotta show these guys some love. mean, we, Hot Mike segment. Yeah, we'll get some video. I want some video of the youth. I want you see you guys in the headsets, on the sidelines, calling some plays and AD, me a favor. Win or lose, AD, win or lose. You'll shake their hands after the game.

Matt Ryan (59:03)
Let's go.

AD (59:03)
There we go,

there we go.

Matt Ryan (59:08)
My old Falcons, we'll get some video for you, Zach. Don't worry. Don't worry.

AD (59:11)
Yeah.

I'm also a loser, man, no. No.

Zach Klein (59:25)
Aaron Donald, Matt Ryan, Todd France. Much love, guys. Enjoy the week. We'll see you next time in the Inner Circle.