Matthew Stafford joins The Inner Circle

For the first time ever, The Inner Circle Podcast welcomes a guest — and it’s a big one. Super Bowl champion and MVP frontrunner Matthew Stafford. Stafford gets into the reality of having Sean McVay in his ear, especially during TV timeouts when the clock isn’t running and the coaching points won’t stop. He explains the subtle “cut it” signal he flashes when it’s time to roll, and why he ditched kneeling in the huddle after an MRI showed a season-long bone bruise on his kneecap. He tells the day-two Rams practice story that forced guardian caps on teammates after Aaron Donald dumped a lineman in his lap and Stafford banged his surgically repaired thumb. He laughs about the viral touchdown sprint that looked faster than any designed run, then admits the strength staff sets a yearly over–under on his longest rush and he still takes the under.

He rewinds to API pre-draft training, stepping on the scale at 232, cutting to 225 by draft time, bulking to 230–235 when the rules allowed quarterbacks to be planted, and why year 17 now lives around 212. He details Mondays with “the body guy,” the choice to completely downshift Tuesdays, and how the newer protection rules helped extend careers. He opens the Starbucks playbook — venti blonde roast with almond milk, one cup ideally, a couple more on install days — and shrugs through kid cameos at home.

There’s real football nerdery. Matt breaks down why long, technical play calls paint the picture in his head better than wristbands, how cadence and tempo from a play caller change everything, and why he hates hearing staff debates bleeding into the headset. Stafford cosigns. They swap war stories about co-ed hoops in Atlanta with their wives and the night Matt took a bloody nose after someone fouled Sarah. The two-minute drill wraps it, what Stafford means to Detroit and Los Angeles, why the Rams are in a sweet spot, and a quick salute to AD’s jersey retirement weekend at Pitt.

https://www.youtube.com/@TheInnerCirclePod

https://open.spotify.com/show/2HYa5USGooRmeXxKKGyT0l?si=4a20e67b0b864b8b

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inner-circle/id1837695806

Transcript

Zach Klein (00:01)
how we doing everybody? Thanks so much for joining us here on the Inner Circle podcast. What a show we have for you today. As for the first time ever, we have a guest and we only get the best. He is one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the National Football League. His name is Matthew Stafford and he joins the Inner Circle today. Stafford discussing what the conversations are like when Sean McVeigh gets into his headset. The over under on his longest rushing play of the season.

What it's like throwing to Calvin Johnson basically with your eyes closed and he discusses playing hoops with Matt Ryan in Atlanta with their wives. Plus Mr Ryan has a fascinating breakdown of play calls and why he really prefers the long technical calls in his headset as opposed to just looking down on the play sheet on his wrist. Plus Aaron Donald AD recalling the story when former Falcons running back Devante Freeman basically bows up to him in the middle of a game throws a punch. He'll break down that.

and then Todd discussing the impact of front office stability, but changes at the head coaching position when it comes to clients on his roster. All of that and so much more, but first, the first of many guests here on the Inner Circle pod, future hall of Famer, possible MVP of the 2025 NFL football season, and a former teammate of AD, Mr. Matthew Stafford.

Clap it up for Matthew Stafford.

Matthew (01:16)
I do.

Matt Ryan (01:18)
Yes.

Matthew (01:18)
Thank you guys for having me. I'm honored to be the first guest. I did not know that, but I'm happy to be here hanging out with you guys.

Matt Ryan (01:24)
We're very selective with who we bring on. All right. You have to be the front runner for the MVP. You have to be throw 20 touchdowns, zero interceptions in the last six games. Our standards are high. ⁓ first of all, we want to thank you for, coming on and appreciate you dressing up, ⁓ putting on your Sunday finest for us. We've got an LA Dodgers hat on that has sweat marks all over the place. A nice little hoodie right there. Got the air pods in. Yeah. Thank you for doing that. I see you sipping.

AD (01:27)
Only grace,

Matthew (01:36)
Ha

Yeah.

AD (01:42)
you

Matthew (01:47)
Yes. Yes.

Matt Ryan (01:53)
Before we get started on kind of grilling you on the football questions, you're sipping on a coffee. How do you take, what is your order from Starbucks? All right, because I see it's a Starbucks cup. They got the holiday cups out there. What's your order? How do we take it? And how many cups of coffee are we having today?

Matthew (02:00)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ooh, that's a good question. Okay, if I go Starbucks, I'm usually just the biggest, the venti blonde roast with just a little bit of almond milk. Kind of plain when it goes to that. Cups of coffee a day. I try to be one, but Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, there's a couple more in there for sure. We come a clock, you come around on a three o'clock. Oh, well, sorry. My girls wanted to say hi to you guys real quick.

Matt Ryan (02:23)
No chance.

AD (02:23)
A little pick me up.

Matt Ryan (02:30)
come on.

What's up? Are we heading off to school?

T$ (02:31)
Come on on. There they are.

Matthew (02:36)
No school today, Veterans Day. All right.

AD (02:37)
Go school today.

Matt Ryan (02:38)
Veterans Day, Veterans Day, no

school. So what's the plan? What's the plan with the girls?

Matthew (02:42)
⁓ They got a birthday party today, they're going to a friend's birthday. Y'all go. Sorry, that was bad timing. Go. Go. No, Go. That was Chandler and Hunter. No.

Matt Ryan (02:47)
Nice.

We got the twins.

Hunter!

Matthew (02:54)
Go on. All right. All right, let me re-rack that. Sorry. I'll just act like you just asked me a question about my coffee. OK, so if I go Starbucks, I'm going Venti, blonde roast, because it has the most caffeine, and ⁓ just a little bit of almond milk in it. One cup, I try to be, but Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I'm racking in a couple, because those are long days. A lot of information coming at me fast, and I need the caffeine to get through it.

Zach Klein (02:54)
Hunter Uncle Matt says what's up.

Matt Ryan (03:20)
I like it. Going around the horn here, I am probably at three, three cups, for sure, for sure 20 ounces to start the day. then, and then usually after I'm pushing some weights around ⁓ another 20 ounces. And then sometimes, yeah, sometimes another one just to get through. Coaching flag football, AD, you know about coaching youth sports. You got to have a lot of energy, man.

Matthew (03:25)
Mm.

AD (03:27)
Sheesh.

Matthew (03:30)
Ha

Look at this.

AD (03:45)
It

Matt Ryan (03:47)
You gotta have lots of it.

AD (03:47)
got to, definitely with them young kids, man. It's a lot. It's a lot. It can be frustrating. I don't understand how coaches can do it. I can't, I couldn't be able to do it, man. It's just too much, too crazy for me.

T$ (03:58)
80 dude.

Matthew (03:58)
AD, are you

a coffee guy? I don't remember you being a big coffee drinker.

AD (04:02)
I

Matt Ryan (04:02)
Gotta be a pre-workout guy.

AD (04:02)
retired. No, I retired and I'm a coffee guy now. I retired and started drinking coffee. All these damn Zoom meetings I got and shit, now I gotta keep myself up, man, you know? Never was a coffee guy.

Matthew (04:07)
There you go.

Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Ryan (04:13)
A.D., take

us through, you know, you're getting ready to work out, because I think this will be something we can ask Matthew about too. What is in your shaker? What are you putting in your shaker prior to working out? What are you taking before you get ready to go?

AD (04:18)
Hahaha

I got my ready protein. I'm even drinking.

Matt Ryan (04:29)
There you

go. Shameless plug. Shameless plug.

T$ (04:30)
You knew the plug. The plug was comment.

Zach Klein (04:31)
Okay.

AD (04:32)
A

protein water or I got my protein powders. Or the sports drink, you know, so it's options. Nothing too crazy. And I just go in there and I just go in there I raw dog it, man. Get in and work, get in and out. Might go up top, do some cardio or hit the gym, you know? Raw dog all day, baby, all day.

Matthew (04:32)
Love that.

Matt Ryan (04:37)
Yes.

Matthew (04:37)
Hahaha

T$ (04:42)
I don't know if we should be talking about Rod Dogg, but.

Zach Klein (04:47)
Matthew,

did you see Matthew AD's video of him just 160 in each arm, like no problem at all? was there any workout from back in the day where you just like, he's just different. This guy's just built it.

Matthew (05:00)
Yeah, every workout I used to see, I'd be like, I'm over here working on some bands and this guy's just mutilating fucking weights in our weight room. But no, there's one good story. I think I've told it somewhere else before, but AD, there was this kid that was a make-a-wish kid and he had beaten cancer at this point and he was like a healthy high school kid at this point and was awesome. He got to come in and his dream was he wanted to hang out with AD and work out with AD for the day. And so this kid comes in.

AD (05:02)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (05:02)
Yeah

AD (05:15)
Uhhhh ⁓

you

Matthew (05:28)
And AD just is like, hey man, if you're gonna do it, you're keeping up with me. Like, I ain't fucking like letting you down. And he destroys this kid. He's puking in the trash can in the hallway from bicep curls. That's how many bicep curls they did. This kid threw up from bicep curls. And I'm like, I'm over in the corner just watching it happen. I'm like, this is just torture for this kid. He's trying to be like, yeah, this is great. I'm with AD. This is so much fun.

AD (05:32)
You

Matt Ryan (05:35)
You

AD (05:36)
you

you

T$ (05:43)
Ha ha ha ha.

Matt Ryan (05:43)
You

Matthew (05:56)
Inside he's just bubbling man. It was a was a tough day for the kid

Matt Ryan (05:59)
Classic lesson,

Zach Klein (05:59)
an SNL skit.

Matt Ryan (06:00)
classic lesson. Be careful what you wish for.

T$ (06:01)
That's awesome.

AD (06:01)
Sometimes you gotta push him sometimes.

You gotta push him sometimes, man. It's a little work. A little work can never hurt nobody, man. It's all right, man. He got better. He got better that day. He got better that day. That's all we gonna say.

Matthew (06:07)
Golly. He did, he

did.

T$ (06:12)
we actually met in the gym. You guys will be shocked to know that, that Matt and Stafford and I met in a gym back in Arizona. was the first time we actually ever met. Matt, by chance, do you remember the story at all? So I'll remind you. you got called.

Matthew (06:27)
If I'm in a gym

Zach Klein (06:27)
You're coming

Matthew (06:28)
in

Zach Klein (06:28)
out of the steam room and he's working out.

Matthew (06:28)
Arizona, was that when I was coming out of college at API?

T$ (06:31)
Yes, yes, yes, yes. API

AD (06:33)
X at y-

T$ (06:34)
exactly. So so I come in the gym. Well, you'll remember this quickly because so when I recruit in the southeast at the time, everyone automatically assumed that I was signing whoever was from the southeast. Right. ⁓ an SEC guy. ⁓ you're signing Todd France or whatever it was. And so ⁓ at Georgia had a bunch of guys. can't remember what years they all were. Maybe before you was like Thomas Davis and other guys and Kendrell Bell and whatever. ⁓

Matthew (06:35)
It's a long time away.

AD (06:37)
Yeah

T$ (06:59)
And I walked into the API and you're in, and you and I, and you're like, Oh, you're Todd France. You don't remember, but you got called in at Georgia. Uh, because apparently some remember something with me, like they, they accused you or they thought like you. Yeah. That's what, that's what, what. Yeah. That was.

Matt Ryan (07:12)
You guys were cheating. I get it. Sounds about right.

Matthew (07:14)
Yeah.

AD (07:14)
You gave him some money Todd, just tell the truth man. You gave him little bit of money

in his pocket man, don't lie. Don't lie.

Matthew (07:18)
I wish, fuck AD, I could have used it.

T$ (07:21)
No, listen, if I did, I'd be like, dude, you got to pay me back. You've definitely made enough to give me some back. But no, we didn't do that. But that was the first time we actually met. He's like, you're tough. I was like, yeah, I had never met him before. He had never met me. But yet the accusations were out there that like I don't know if I I paid him or whatever it was, or you weren't allowed to talk to juniors at the time. And I was talking to him supposedly. And I think you got called in at the time at Georgia to ask about me.

Matthew (07:23)
Ha!

Yeah,

times have changed, man. mean, what it's like nowadays with the kids being able to talk to either marketing guys or whatever it is, it's just so different. I remember back in the day, there was another instance too, where I think it was, it might've been all part of the same thing, but I was buddies with like Jay Cutler at some point. had done a lead 11 with him and he went to play the Falcons and he got me tickets to the game. And I sat in the seat where he got me tickets, like family section, nosebleeds. And I got, I got busted, not busted, like

Georgia calls me in, they're like compliance, this, that, and that. I had to pay for these tickets. I had like no cash, I'm like, shit, alright, fine, I'll figure out a way to scrounge up some money to pay for these tickets. And now these kids are making millions of bucks in college. It's different times, but ⁓ yeah, I mean, it was a...

AD (08:14)
gonna to do it.

That shit crazy. Way different time.

Matt Ryan (08:24)
That's great. I

hope it was in 2008. You were probably still at school. I was playing. So just so we can say that you paid to come watch me play.

Matthew (08:31)
Yeah,

AD (08:32)
Hahaha!

Matthew (08:33)
I think it was still Mike before you, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would never pay to watch you play.

Matt Ryan (08:37)
Okay, it was before my time. before my time. Got it.

That's right. That's right. Just just so we're clear. Just so we're clear here. All right. Let's start. Let's start back in 2000. Whatever you're at API, you're training, you're getting ready for the draft. I want to know, we're stepping on the scale back then. What are we weighing back there getting ready for the draft?

Zach Klein (08:41)
Yeah.

AD (08:41)
Yeah

Matthew (08:44)
Just so we're clear.

Yes.

So I was probably, I think I remember I came into API and I was like 232. And by the time the draft happened, I was down to, I was 225. I was in great shape at that point, but yeah, I mean, ⁓ yeah, early draft was probably 232, something like that. And then I stayed at like, I stayed at 25 my first two years and I got hurt twice. And so they were like, we need you bigger and stronger, which just meant bigger, not really stronger. Yeah. Right. So then I was.

Matt Ryan (09:04)
Yeah.

Nice.

Terrible advice. Yeah, terrible advice. Terrible.

AD (09:23)
Yeah

Zach Klein (09:24)
Yeah.

Matthew (09:26)
know, 230, 235 for a couple years. And remember, I was with like Drew Stanton, Sean Hill, these guys were units. And so was like, that's the way the game was. And also the rules back then, they could just pick you up and dump you on your back. So you had to be a little bigger. But I've been tapering down ever since then.

Matt Ryan (09:32)
Big boys, big, yes. Just the going right in there.

Yeah.

I was gonna

say so it leads me to it leads me to where we're at now, right? Year 17. How different is it year 17? What's your way and how you take care of your body? What is like Monday like after a game Tuesday like after a game for you at this stage of your career? And how different is that from like you said, when you were training with Sean Hill and Drew Stanton?

Matthew (10:04)
Yeah, it's way different. I'm probably 2'12 now. That's kind of where I hover at, right around there, 2'10 to 2'15, but usually around 2'12. On Mondays, I have a body guy that comes to the house. We go an hour, hour and a half every single day. And so I work with him on Mondays. I go in and I run and lift with the guys. I come back, get some work done. Tuesdays, back in the day, I would go in, lift, run, do all this. And now I just try to like...

Matt Ryan (10:25)
Yeah.

Matthew (10:28)
completely relaxed, get my body turned over for Wednesday, watch a bunch of tape, get caught up on all that kind of stuff. ⁓ it's definitely, it's different and I feel better on Wednesdays when I get to practice when I don't run a marathon on Tuesdays and lift weights. So that's nice. ⁓ Yeah, right? And ⁓ I do feel like it's helping me, you know, play longer.

Matt Ryan (10:42)
funny how that works.

AD (10:44)
Yeah.

Matthew (10:48)
I mean, the rules help me play longer now. You can't get dumped like you used to where you're breaking AC joints and collarbones and all that kind of stuff all the time. So it's...

AD (10:55)
I missed them days,

man. Missed them days.

Matthew (10:56)
Yeah, I bet you do, jerk.

Matt Ryan (10:56)
Yeah, I bet,

T$ (10:57)
Hahaha!

Matt Ryan (10:58)
I bet.

Matthew (10:59)
God.

AD (10:59)
You

Matthew (11:00)
But no, it feels nice. It's nice to, you know, kind of be a little bit protected in there and be able to play for a while.

AD (11:06)
So I was watching this clip on social, man. Tee me up, Z And we know how great, you know, Sean McVay is, how great of a coach he is, but sometimes we know he can be a little long-winded, right? I watch, how often is he doing this shit to you?

Zach Klein (11:09)
I gotcha.

T$ (11:34)
You

AD (11:43)
Hahaha

Yeah.

You

How often is y'all doing that to you, man? You gotta tell them, hey, Sean, I got it, man. I've been doing this a long time, man. I got it, man. How often you gotta tell them to chill out?

Matthew (11:57)
Dude, I'm turning it.

TV

timeouts, man. TV timeouts are tough because he's got open mic and we are not up against the clock and he is just going. And ⁓ the best part about it is he's given all these coaching points that are like day one coaching points for all our guys. Hey, if this guy's doing this, you make sure you snatch him. If he's here, you're coming down all this and I'm just having to relay. And all the guys can hear it because it's quieter in a TV timeout.

AD (12:05)
Yeah.

⁓ man.

Matt Ryan (12:11)
Take your finger off it. Take

your finger off it.

AD (12:15)
my gosh.

Matthew (12:28)
They can just hear the noise coming in. They're all laughing at me. And I'm like, he's still going. He's still going. And I can't talk back, but he loves it.

AD (12:32)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (12:33)
Hey, so what's your signal?

What's your signal for Sean to like cut it? Cause like, feel like every quarterback, if your backs to the line of scrimmage, I'm just going to show up. Mine was always like, that was like the universal shut the fuck up. Shut it. ⁓ sorry.

AD (12:39)
Shut your mouth.

Zach Klein (12:41)
Hahaha

Matthew (12:45)
Yes, yes. Yeah, it's like, oh God, I didn't know you were here.

AD (12:51)
Yeah

Matthew (12:52)
Ty Ty, go on, go on. Sorry about that. That's my youngest, it's Tyler. Are you kidding me? Yes, go on. I know, it's okay. Go please. Sorry about that guys.

T$ (12:54)
She's so cute.

Zach Klein (12:54)
Aww, who's that? No, you're-

Matt Ryan (12:56)
Sorry I dropped the F-bomb, but I know she's heard it. I know she's heard it.

Zach Klein (13:02)
Aww, we can say hi?

AD (13:03)
⁓

T$ (13:03)
she wants to say hi.

AD (13:04)
no, I said I'll say hi, she ain't come say hi. You broke, ⁓

Zach Klein (13:05)
Nah!

Matt Ryan (13:05)
No, you're good. She can come on anytime.

Matthew (13:07)
She needs a little discipline in her life, all right? She needs

Zach Klein (13:07)
We reach all demos on this show.

Matthew (13:09)
a little discipline. She needs to hear, no, get out of here, kid. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, right? But yeah, my go-to.

T$ (13:12)
We've got our scheduled for next week, it's good. Okay, go ahead.

Matt Ryan (13:12)
There you go, good.

AD (13:15)
You

Matt Ryan (13:16)
So yeah, going back to it, I was gonna

say, what is your go-to? What's your go-to? Sean, leave me alone, I got this.

Matthew (13:23)
It's usually this one. I've developed this, all you guys make fun of me, I get in this super long leg, one leg out the huddle stance now. I used to get on a knee and I like after, I think it was 2015 or 2016, I'm like, golly, you guys, my knee's killing me after the season, my right knee. And they go and take an MRI and they're like, your entire kneecap is like a bone bruise. And I'm like, I don't even know what happened. They're like, you just knee on it every day, every practice, every game.

AD (13:30)
I'll be serious.

Matt Ryan (13:31)
Yeah,

get down in there.

AD (13:45)
Mmm.

Matthew (13:51)
And I'm like, all right, so I'm going to stop doing this. So I get in this super long lunge now that everybody makes fun of me for. But I usually give him that. And every once in a while, it turns over to something else to please be quiet. no, he is the man. I love it. And now he just messes with me. After that clip came out, he's like, this is the part I love, where he's like, you know you can't talk back. And I'm just going to keep talking to you right now. I'm like, But it's a lot of fun.

AD (14:02)
Yeah.

Cute dog.

Zach Klein (14:15)
If he had a mic to communicate with AD, what do think you'd be telling him? Anything?

Matthew (14:18)
no, coach, you just let that guy go hunt. You just let that guy go hunt. was, AD ruined so many practices that we were a part of. mean, this guy was first, one of my first days at the Rams. AD, I don't know you remember this, but I had just gotten there. I had had thumb surgery in the off season because I tore my UCL in Detroit and we're running quick game. I'm throwing a hitch to the field and this guy on the second day of training camp and no pads.

AD (14:19)
Hahaha!

Matthew (14:46)
puts Bobby Evans in my lap and I smash my thumb on Bobby's helmet. And I mean crickets. mean, it was like, and I was scared shitless and I was like, no. And ⁓ the next day everybody's wearing the guardian caps because AD is just making fun of people in my life. Yeah, you ruined it for everybody, bro. You didn't have to put Bobby Evans in a blender, bro. Come on.

AD (14:50)
My fucking heart drop.

a drop, no. ⁓

Matt Ryan (14:55)
No doubt.

AD (15:01)
Yeah, exactly. I was mad as hell about the growing cats. I was like, ⁓

Matt Ryan (15:01)
That's right.

Seven on seven only seven on seven only

AD (15:07)
I leave, man, but it's cool. Sometimes you gotta protect their guys, man. I gotta do what I gotta do to make sure that guy's still

playing how he's playing, man. It's all good.

Matthew (15:15)
I

hear ya. ⁓

Matt Ryan (15:16)
All right,

Zach, make Matthew watch one more clip here.

Zach Klein (15:20)
throw through this. Matt, there's been a... ⁓

Matthew (15:21)
Ugh.

T$ (15:22)
love how he shakes his head, just knows something's coming.

Matthew (15:24)
I just,

it's not gonna be good. I know this.

Zach Klein (15:27)
No,

Matt Ryan (15:27)
No, it's good.

Zach Klein (15:28)
it's great. It's just, this went viral because you throw a touchdown pass and everybody says that you were running faster after you made this touchdown than you would on any offensive running play. Your reaction.

AD (15:28)
It's all good, man.

Matthew (15:30)
Ugh.

AD (15:36)
You

Matthew (15:38)
Yes,

totally agree with you. ⁓ I feel like the ball, like when I run with the ball, it's gotta be like the weight of like a bowling ball or so. I slow way down. There's too many things going on in my head. I'm like, get this ball out of my hands. I always joke with Sean that that's like, you know, we get out on the edge on a keeper and the only thing I can think about is like somebody else take this ball from me. I don't want it anymore. But yeah, I was rolling pretty good. The juices were flowing on that one. The last thing I thought we were gonna do on that play was score a.

AD (15:41)
extra juice baby.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Matt Ryan (15:59)
No doubt.

Matthew (16:06)
85 yard touchdown, so I was losing my mind a little bit.

Matt Ryan (16:10)
you had the point in your career yet? Which I had this in Indy I had this like 30 some yard run against ⁓ Vegas and I'm out there running and I'm like, man, I was rolling. I was rolling. And then went back and watched film the next day and saw it and was like, my God, that's embarrassing. That was embarrassing. You're still moving. Has that happened at all to you yet?

AD (16:28)
I was walking fast. ⁓

T$ (16:29)
Hahaha

Matthew (16:29)
Yeah

Oh yeah, feel like I'm moving good. Ragon, know, Rags is always in there in the QB room. He's like, hey man, you look like you're moving good. And we like turned the tape on. I'm like, oh God, I don't know, man. It just looks like it hurts. But no, I mean, I haven't gotten out on a 30 yard run. Congratulations to you for getting out for 30. Holy shit. How'd you do that? Was it two man or what?

Matt Ryan (16:50)
It was huge. Yeah, it was. That's right. That's right. Came in year 15.

AD (16:51)
Yeah.

was too mad.

Matt Ryan (16:56)
Man to man coverage, man to man coverage. We had this like crossing concept where it was like four guys going to the left and I climb up in the pocket and I pump fake and then I look and I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna run take off and I got like five yards into it. I got the first down and I'm looking around and I'm like, somebody's gotta be here. I got 10 yards into it. I'm like, where is everybody? I got like 25 yards into it and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna take this to the house.

Matthew (16:57)
Yeah!

Yeah.

Yeah.

AD (17:12)
You

Matthew (17:19)
Yeah

Matt Ryan (17:19)
Then I got past 30 and somebody slicked my ankles and took me down. But ⁓ yeah, it was wild, scary experience. It was incredible.

AD (17:23)
Yeah.

Matthew (17:25)
That's incredible. That's incredible.

The guys in the strength room always just, they set like a little over and under on the longest rush of the season for me. I think it just goes down by a yard every year. When I first got there, it was like 12, I think we were at like eight and a half and I'm still taking the under. mean, I'm probably getting down before that. So I got no juice left, man. I'm trying, but shoot.

AD (17:37)
You

Matt Ryan (17:42)
Yeah

AD (17:47)
You

got a lot of juice, You don't need a rumble. You got an arm like that, big dawg. You just keep playing how you playing. Please don't get hit. Keep playing how you playing, man. And this is from a Rams fan now. I'm a Rams fan. I watch your debut Sunday. So, you know, I like that beat. Y'all put on a Niners, baby. 42 points, baby. Keep that shit up, Yeah.

Matthew (17:50)
Hahaha.

I hear ya. I hear ya. I hear ya.

It was a good one, man. They're always a tough

out, especially at their place. So it was good for us to kind of go play a complete game. Defense played good, got some turnovers, got out early and were able to run it and throw it. was a good day.

AD (18:10)
Yes.

Matt Ryan (18:15)
right, Matthew, I got a little question for you right here. ⁓ Better teammate, okay, Aaron Donald with the Rams, probably a great teammate, or myself in the Waiouka Baptist Church Basketball League, who's a better teammate?

Matthew (18:15)
Yep.

mean, both enforcers, both enforcers. I'm going to take AD. ⁓ Guy made a few more plays than you did on the hardwood. But ⁓ Matt was an enforcer when we had him on the team, man. He got a little bloody nose at some point, I think it was. He was chasing down people and ⁓ getting aggressive out there. Our wives were playing on the team as well. So somebody might, Coed League, yeah.

Matt Ryan (18:31)
You

AD (18:37)
You

Matt Ryan (18:37)
A handful more plays, yeah, I bet.

AD (18:45)
Ooh, okay.

Matt Ryan (18:52)
Coed league, coed league, shout out to this league.

AD (18:54)
Aww, I give

Matthew (18:56)
so.

AD (18:56)
alright.

Zach Klein (18:56)
Timeout, timeout, timeout,

timeout. I'm calling it, how does that work? You got two alpha males, competitive as hell, and the wives. What level of competition? How does Matt Ryan get a bloody nose in a co-ed rec basketball league in Atlanta?

Matthew (19:01)
Yeah.

Yeah, well, we say coed, I think we had the only two girls in the league. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the competition was pretty good. ⁓ Kelly played high school basketball, was a good player. Sarah obviously played college basketball, a good player. So they wanted to come out and hang out, sure. And if we got up big or whatever, they would kind of jump in and play. But they were good and would piss the other teams off when they were making buckets. But I think, I don't remember the context in which Matt's fight.

Matt Ryan (19:11)
We were the only team that was coed.

Zach Klein (19:12)
⁓ okay.

AD (19:13)
⁓ okay.

Matthew (19:36)
I guess fight's a strong word. The incident happened, but like, but it was like, he was throwing bows, you know, like wrestling over a ball.

Matt Ryan (19:38)
It was, yeah, incident, incident.

I

AD (19:44)
No.

Matt Ryan (19:45)
think somebody like got, might have hit Sarah, not hit Sarah, but like bumped Sarah or something, like fouled her or whatever, because she could play. Both Kelly and Sarah could play, but got fouled a little hard. And I was like, man, hey, hey, that's my wife. Like, what are we doing here? All right, like I'm a nice guy, but that's...

Zach Klein (19:47)
some shit and got into.

Matthew (19:49)
Fowler hard or something? Yeah.

Zach Klein (19:53)
Yeah.

Matthew (19:57)
Yeah.

AD (20:00)
Yeah, I'm to whoop your ass. Yeah, there you go.

Matthew (20:00)
Yes!

Zach Klein (20:00)
you

Yeah, throw no shade at the wives, man. No shade

at the wives. They can play. I just didn't know how that would turn into, because they got some serious game for sure.

Matthew (20:07)
yeah.

Matt Ryan (20:08)
Yeah!

T$ (20:10)
So Matt went out

Matt Ryan (20:10)
So I gotta

Matthew (20:11)
Yeah.

T$ (20:11)
to be the protect wait.

Matt Ryan (20:11)
tell you a funny story about how I got onto this basketball team. Matthew shot me a text. He was like, hey, we're like short. We only have like four people. And the gym was like right below the condo I lived in. And so it was off season, whatever. I had went and played golf. was sitting having drinks after golf. I had had like five beers.

He texts me, he's like, yo, we need you. Can you come just play basketball with us for an hour? I few beers, man. Okay, I'll do it. So I show up to this first game, speaking of that kid puking, working out with AD, I'd had like five or six beers and I'm out there running down the court. I didn't realize this was like a competitive basketball league.

Matthew (20:44)
guess.

AD (20:45)
That's

⁓ I reckon that.

Matt Ryan (21:00)
And I'm like, my God, dude, I'm dying here. I had had six beers playing basketball or whatever, but that's how I got suckered into playing in this league. We did.

Matthew (21:02)
Yeah.

We roped them in. We roped them in

Zach Klein (21:09)
Nice.

Matthew (21:09)
and

then we won the league two years in a row. So it was good. We were also like the jerks. We were the jerks of this league. This is guys coming from all walks of life coming in who are buddies playing basketball. And Matt and I at the time had like Nike contracts. So we're like outfitting everybody in our, everybody in our team had matching foam posits. Like we looked fucking sweet and just, oh, we were swagged up AD just and.

Matt Ryan (21:12)
That's right.

AD (21:29)
just swagged up out there. I like it.

Matthew (21:33)
We're kicking ass and people hated us man, they hated us but well.

Matt Ryan (21:38)
I was talking about drinking beers. ⁓ I'm curious, you get a big win after a game. Okay, maybe you don't have anything to drink. Maybe you do. But I'm saying big win, you throw for four touchdowns like you seemingly do every week. When we get home and no interceptions, by the way, but we get home. Do we prefer nice, nice tequila on the rocks, something like that, or just cold beers?

Matthew (22:01)
⁓ Back in the day it was cold beers. would be more, we're streamlining it now. We'd have to go tequila on the rocks or maybe a glass of red wine. Those are kind of the go-tos. But to be honest with you, I'm so dang old man. I'm doing everything I can to try to not swell up and feel like shit the next day. So I've been limiting that as much as I can.

AD (22:03)
tequila.

Matt Ryan (22:14)
Yeah, it's hard.

AD (22:17)
There you go.

Matt Ryan (22:19)
There was nothing better, nothing better than being like 25

years old, getting onto the back of a bus after a road game. Four or five beers hit so good. So good. So good.

Matthew (22:26)
Yes, no doubt. Agreed.

AD (22:28)
Yeah

T$ (22:29)
And Matt,

Zach Klein (22:29)
I got one football question before we bounce. And there's no wrong answer on this. Final play of the game, you need a touchdown. Who you throwing to? Calvin Johnson, Puka Nakua, Cooper Kupp

Matthew (22:39)
Devante Adams. I mean, we got to put them all in there, coach. ⁓ shit. Hey, I mean, I can't answer that. just... Go ahead.

Matt Ryan (22:44)
He can't answer, he can't answer, he's still playing. I'm gonna answer. I close my eyes and throw that thing to Calvin.

Throw it up, throw it up, see what happens.

Matthew (22:53)
It's not a

bad option. Never was a bad option. We, yeah, there you go. There you go. We, I'll tell you, Calvin was so unique in the way you game plan and played football because I remember going into games, like ⁓ no disrespect, but we played the Cowboys at home. I forget what year it was. He had 300 and something yards. It might've been 2012. And they were playing a bunch of post defense and like, and our coaches were like, Hey, we're going to run this

T$ (22:55)
Pooka's got a contract coming up. Throw it to Pooka.

Zach Klein (22:58)
Haha

AD (22:58)
Yeah

⁓

Matthew (23:21)
you know, sale concept post corner.

if you get post defense, just throw it, throw it up, but just treat it like the post player is not there. And I'm like, you sure? Yeah. I'm like, all right, sure enough in the game, Heath is in the post. I throw this thing up. Calvin goes up, rises above both of them, pulls it back. And I'm like, this is the craziest thing I've ever been a part of. But you know, like some of these like decisions that you make looking back on it, you're like, what was I doing? But we were straight up coaching it like that. I mean, it was like, Hey, just

AD (23:37)
Mmm.

Matt Ryan (23:48)
Yeah.

Matthew (23:49)
Treat it like he's not even there because he's going to go either make you right or it's going to be incomplete. I mean, it was unbelievable.

AD (23:51)
and go get it.

Matt Ryan (23:54)
Staff last one for me. Give us give us somebody you've thrown to under rate it flies under the radar, but somebody you played with that like not many people might know about but you just love playing with them awesome to throw to.

Matthew (24:06)
Yeah, I think a guy that had a really solid career, two guys kind of come to mind to be honest with you, a really solid career that, you know, people don't think about too often. had Marvin Jones, who I think came from Cincinnati, was in Detroit and had the, the, he came right after Calvin. So everybody was like, these expectations were, you know, and he had the great mindset of, I'm never going to be that guy, but I'm just going to go try to be the best version of myself. And Marv was unbelievable. His ability to go compete for the ball.

when it was in the air. had unorthodox kind of running style when he would get an open, but he was a stud. And then I Golden Tate too, right? I Golden Tate had a great career in Seattle. And then obviously I had some great years with him too. And a totally different kind of receiver where he's like a stronger, sawed off kind of guy, but could play big. Yeah. And was a tough guy to bring down. I've been lucky in my career, man. You go through the list of guys that I've been able to throw to, and it's been a whole lot of fun.

AD (24:50)
Tough guy, yeah.

Yeah.

Matthew (25:00)
⁓ Hopefully those guys feel like I've helped them have some success, but at the same time, those guys were unbelievable players on their own right. So it's been cool. I've been blessed and lucky and I still am to be throwing to the guys I am right now.

Matt Ryan (25:04)
Come on, please.

All right. Yeah, I was gonna say we'll let you go. Thanks for being your your normal self on here. We appreciate you coming on. Thanks for dressing up.

Zach Klein (25:12)
it up Matthew Stafford.

Matthew (25:19)
Of course, you got it guys.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry for the kid interruptions, but they wanted to say hi to their

Zach Klein (25:23)
That was great.

AD (25:24)
No.

Matt Ryan (25:24)
Girls

welcome

Matthew (25:25)
you guys.

Zach Klein (25:25)
success,

AD (25:25)
Appreciate you

big dawg.

Zach Klein (25:26)
Matthew. Yeah, man. Stay healthy. Enjoy the ride. I know you cherish every single moment in the league and we really appreciate your time here on the Inner Circle.

T$ (25:27)
Yeah, good luck, Matt.

Matthew (25:33)
you got it. AD, I'm gonna hit you up again. Don't you think that's the last time? You can let them know about that too. Keep lifting them 160s, you hear me? Alright, y'all be good. See you,

T$ (25:43)
Appreciate you, Matt, thanks.

Matt Ryan (25:43)
See you, dude.

AD (25:43)
up.

Zach Klein (25:45)
great, man. AD, I know you have a special bond with him. ⁓ To be playing at this level, Matt, I know you respect what he's doing. The level of skill that it takes to dominate. It's just hard to fathom what he's doing at this level at this age of his career. Just mad respect for what he's doing, right?

AD (26:00)
Assistant football, man, he's playing good ball. Take care of yourself. He's a student of the game. That's one thing that I used to love about him, right? Cause I would go to the, I thought I used go to the facility early. I break down for him. And I used to always walk in definitely the Superbowl year. I'll see him and Cooper Cup always that I could never beat them to the office. They was always there locked in and it kind of motivated me, pushed me like, all right, let me get there a little earlier now. So I always committed to them man. Cause he's a special talent. Obviously his arm talent is like no other. I seen that.

The first day we had camp. And I remember I got him rushing boom boom. I get back there. I don't even know how he got the damn ball off. He did some shit like this. In the window this big between two defenders, Cooper cut right there. I'm like, how the hell? I'm like, oh yeah, we got something here. You know, he's a special talent, man. Consistent football. We always talk about being consistent. He been doing it year in and year out. They're being what is it? Year 16 for him? Year 17, what is it? And still playing at this type of level, man. And MVP chance like.

Matt Ryan (26:49)
17.

AD (26:53)
That's just a testament of, you know, his hard work and what he's doing and the guys around him, man. He's a hell of a leader.

Matt Ryan (26:58)
100%. He's a great leader because he's authentic. And I think everybody can see that just from a short little interview, spending time with him. He's one of the guys. And I think that's one of the things as a quarterback you have to do is you have to navigate this space of being a face of the franchise and having conversations with the front office and with coaches and all of those things. But you've got to be able to bring it to the locker room too. And the most important relationships you can have is with

with the players and Matthew's just a genuinely good person ⁓ and just fun to be around. But he's a competitor ⁓ and he's got incredible self-belief ⁓ and a lot of God-given talent to go with it. And it's been fun to watch. mean, he's, in my opinion, right now he's a front runner for the MVP in the league. And there's still a long way to go. ⁓ But I think to AD's point, his consistency.

AD (27:31)
He is.

I agree.

Matt Ryan (27:54)
There's no reason to think he won't continue to play at this level because he's done it throughout his entire career. the Rams are in, AD, your Rams are in a good spot, man. They are looking good right now.

AD (28:06)
Yeah, they are playing some good ball,

Zach Klein (28:09)
Who's got a better jumper, you or him?

Matt Ryan (28:10)
He can shoot, Staff can shoot. ⁓ We've got similar games as you might expect. No, both of us is D you up a little bit. I mean, there's competitiveness in there, but both of us shooters first, maybe not the greatest ball handlers, but shooters first. If you give us some space, we'll make it pay.

Zach Klein (28:17)
All offense, no defense.

AD (28:26)
Hahaha

Zach Klein (28:30)
As for the NFL, we've had our second head coach fire with Brian Dabol and Ryan Clark tweeted this out from ESPN. It's time to have the Jackson Dart conversation. He's taken way too many hits. This

man isn't supposed to be Alan or Jackson. He's not Daniels or Newton. He's a stud, but don't put him at risk so often. He can't save your job if he isn't on the field.

Matt, what's your philosophy on taking hits? Is there a fine line between being tough and being reckless?

Matt Ryan (28:53)
Yeah, I mean, you've got to be out there. You've got to be available to play. When you're a franchise quarterback, think, you know, we've talked about this with Matthew Stafford. One of the things that's so impressive is the consistency. Now he's had time, has had times in his career where you're out and you miss time. But, you know, we need you out there week in and week out. And we can't, as a player, you know, you can't put yourself in harm's way if you can avoid it. And I think that's the biggest thing.

as a quarterback, there are situations where you can avoid it. And that starts with running with the football in the open field. I love the way he plays. I love the competitiveness. I love the physicality, the toughness, all of those things. ⁓ But there's a time and a place. And the time and a place is on critical third or fourth downs in the fourth quarter. It's not in the first, second, or third quarter in the regular season. I think that is something you have to learn as a young player.

AD (29:23)
you

Yeah.

Matt Ryan (29:47)
And I think he will. ⁓ He's fun to watch. I think from a fan's perspective, we all sit there and watch him. He is fun to watch and love the way he plays. But he's got to be out there week in and week out. And I think I've said it, whether it was here or on our show on CBS, there's just too many visits to the Blue Tent. And too many of those are self-inflicted. And so I think that's something he'll learn, he'll grow into.

But this has to be a good lesson for him early on in his career where we can't be visiting that blue tent every week. We've got to find ways to stay on the field and stay healthy.

AD (30:24)
He's been taking the beating for sure. I was watching that game last week, I'm like, God, just fly down. I love the toughness, but lowering your shoulder. You're too important of a piece to be taking a punishment like that every single week. But last week alone, he took a lot of big hits. And I'm like, you gotta eliminate that a little bit, man. He can get away with it now, he's a little young, but long-term, that's not gonna work. It's too physical for the league.

Matt Ryan (30:41)
Yeah.

AD, I pose

this question to you. What do you want from your quarterback? You don't need him to prove how tough he is, right? As a defender, you need him to go out there and perform and be out there and be available, correct?

AD (30:58)
⁓

100%, you want the toughness, toughness ain't lowering your shoulder trying to run somebody over every time you got the ball. I want you to make smart decisions. I want you to be tough, take a hit, be able to get back up. But I don't want you to take that type of punishment. would never allow that. If I was Matthew Stafford out there getting hit like that, I'm going to the saddle. I'm like, hey bro, listen, I love how tough you are. Come on, man, we need you, bro. I seen hits like that to him and I told him like this.

We got kids, right? Don't be taking that type of punishment to the point where definitely with a potato, getting hit in the head like this part, don't play around with that. You cannot, man. So you love the toughness, all that good stuff, but you don't want them to take that punishment. It's too important to do that. If you think in long term, it ain't going to work like that.

T$ (31:39)
Zach, I was just moving on another topic. Joe Banner, I don't know if you guys know who he is. He's a former general manager for the Eagles long time before Howie Roseman and then the Cleveland Browns as well. And he tweeted out, he says, it's annoying that people keep claiming the Giants are very talented. Burns is the only D lineman playing well.

Zach Klein (31:57)
Who's that? that Todd?

T$ (31:57)
What's that?

AD (31:58)
That's your ringtone?

Zach Klein (32:00)
Who's calling Todd? You breaking news?

T$ (32:02)
What is, where is that? I don't know what's happening.

AD (32:02)
Is that a ring tome tome? 2002,

Matt Ryan (32:05)
is

the music playing on your phone, dog. We got we got his workout playlist. We've got Todd's workout playlist. I love it.

AD (32:07)
2002.

T$ (32:09)
That's my ki- Hold on. That's my kids

in the phone,

AD (32:14)
that Backstreet Boys?

T$ (32:15)
listen. So he tweeted out annoying that people keep claiming the Giants are very talented. Burns is the only deal I've been playing well. O-line sucks. Titan isn't doing much. Sadly shows the value of media relationships. And so Z like you've been around for a while in different front offices with the Falcons and in other cities as well. How much truth is there to that?

Does the media favor ⁓ shape a team's reputation? Have you ever done favors or been asked to do favors for teams? Like how does that work from a media perspective with front offices?

Zach Klein (32:42)
No favors.

Yeah, no favors, Todd. But I do believe he's right on that if you have a really strong relationship with those in the front office or those athletes, let's go back to the front office. If you have a strong relationship, you're less critical all the time. And I think it buys whoever is in that front office one more year. I thought we saw it with the Falcons. I had a really good relationship with Thomas Dimitrov. He was getting absolutely crushed, you know, right before the Falcons went to the Super Bowl and everybody wanted him fired.

and I wrote an op-ed piece for the TV station. Just everybody was killing him for X, Y, and Z. And I was bringing up points, if you're going to kill him for this, you got to bring up the fact that he found a Grady Jarrett in the fifth round. If you're going to kill him for this, you got to bring up the fact that they found a Devonte Freeman in the fourth round. Just kind of balancing out the narrative that was going on. And I don't know if it works. There's people in the building that said it did, and it saved him for the moment. And then they go to the Super Bowl, he gets a contract extension, et cetera. So did it have some value at the time?

Maybe, but the relationship and bringing it public and pointing out some things definitely helped, I think. So I think it would buy an individual, Todd, an extra year, but no way are media members doing favors to make shit up. That just not happens.

T$ (33:49)
Got it.

Zach Klein (33:50)
As for you though, when you got the situation in New York, ⁓ the general manager stays, but they have an interim head coach. So how does that affect what you're dealing with in terms of future contracts, clients on the team, when you have at the meantime, stability in the front office, but the coaching staff could look different the following year?

T$ (34:07)
I mean, it definitely has an impact. ⁓ First of all, like who has the 53-man roster control, right? Is it the new head coach? Is it the general manager? You could have an owner who's a little hesitant to invest in a player until that head coach is settled in and they understand exactly what they're doing moving forward. ⁓ You have to assume that the GM would want the new head coach's buy-in before they go pay a player and give him time to evaluate that guy and know how he fits in with their scheme moving forward. And for the most part,

the new head coach and GM, if you think about it, not always, but a lot of time they're kind of tied together. maybe a GM might get two coaches or whatever it might be. And at that point, they're both gonna be gone if it doesn't work out. So I think they want buy-in there. And then as it relates to guys that are actually on the team, of course it matters because...

You can have a guy who fits a perfect scheme of a three, four, let's say, but this new head coach comes in and he's bringing in a four, three. And you'd like to think that when teams are building their rosters, they're building it based on the talent that fits the scheme of the coach. Well, when you bring in a new coach, it doesn't always work that way. So there's a process of filtering out and filtering in new guys to fit the new system. So that definitely matters. a ⁓ head coach, he's inheriting the roster. So his...

love, so to speak, for that player or him having a quote unquote putting a stamp on it for that player isn't the same as if that head coach and that GM together drafted that guy where every benefit of the doubt is going to be given to that guy. More leeway, more runway is going to be given for that guy to succeed. So there's all these moving parts and different things that are involved with it. you know, having a head coach, a new head coach or a GM ⁓ or replacing one or the other, like it affects everything. Guys on the current roster, guys being acquired contracts, everything for sure.

Matt Ryan (35:53)
I'm kind of curious too, you know, going back to Joe Banner's comments, like I'm in the national media ⁓ and I'm curious, like who's been all over the giants of thinking that they've been great? Because I haven't seen that.

AD (36:06)
think

they just been juicing up the dark kid a lot when he first got in there. They've been loving up on him. But that's it. That's all though. That's all I've been hearing.

Matt Ryan (36:10)
There you go, okay. That's

it. The stuff I have seen has not been that their offensive line has been great, that their defensive line hasn't underperformed, ⁓ given some of the players that they've had. The storyline and the narrative, at least from my perspective, has been Jackson Dart has infused a level of energy into this team. Kam Scataboo, when he was healthy, infused a level of energy into this team, and they've been fun to watch.

but they've blown leads at the end of games. I think those are all fair narratives about the Giants. But I feel like I'm pretty dialed in too, particularly because we work in New York and seeing a lot of the stuff that is up there. I haven't seen people praising the offensive line or the defensive line production. In fact, I've seen the opposite from former players with the Giants criticizing.

players with that D line so you know in a little bit of a way it seems like to me Joe Banner you know and and I was a fan of Joe's because I was I was an Eagles fan growing up and and he was he was bringing in those people but it sounds to me like there's still a little divisional rivalry kind of that stuff never leaves right I'm gonna take a I'm gonna take a shot at the Giants here where I can

T$ (37:19)
yeah, that's right.

Zach Klein (37:25)
Yeah.

AD (37:26)
Or maybe, yeah.

T$ (37:31)
when there is coaching changes and stuff like that, whether it's in season or after the season, and they bring a new guy in, is it annoying to you guys? New playbook, new terminology, new everything. And it could be the same type of thing, but there's definitely a learning curve and an adjustment with a new coach, I would assume.

AD (37:50)
Well, in the mid season, never, when I had stuff happen like that with alone, with Coach Fish, right, getting fired, it was never like, coaches, still you got your same coaches. The head coach changed for me on my end, but from a playbook standpoint, it was the same stuff, right? And typically when you got, well, the following season we had Sean McVeigh, so it was one of them things where it was a plus. It one of them things we talked about before, where you don't know what to expect, you don't know what's gonna come, you hear the good shit, he say all the good stuff you wanna hear.

T$ (38:06)
The following season? The following season?

AD (38:18)
but you got to play the game and see how the season go and for you to build that confidence with that coaching staff, right? And obviously, you know, they're going to coach, as new coaches come in, they understand the players they got already, right? They're going to try and put your guys in the best position to have success. That's scheming wise, whatever. If I'm a four or three defensive lineman, they're not going to go a true three man front, right? And go, okay, Aaron, you're 270 pounds at the time. You got a two gap, right? That's not the way you play. They're going to play to your strengths. Okay, we're going to play.

this new age three man front, it's really like a four man front. You got your four eye, you got your nose tackle, you still got your three tech, which I am. You got your way on your Sam on the outsides, right? And it's still the same thing. You just got guys standing up now and I'm still able to play the same way, be aggressive. ⁓ The way he was able to put me in situations where I was able to be successful, still be a penetrator, get up field. But at the same time, you got to play technique football. You got to be able to, you know, half on that four eye. You got to be able to hold that double team when I three tech sometimes.

A smart coach typically, he gonna play to his players strengths. That's the main thing, you don't wanna put your guys in situations where they can't be successful. Because if they're not successful in the field, typically your team ain't gonna be successful, right? Coaches coach, players play. So you put your guys in the best positions that have success. And typically when you got a good coach, they do that. If you got a coach that trying to change the scheme or do something different, then typically they're gonna get rid of them guys and bring the guys they need in to help them get to where they wanna get to, so.

Matt Ryan (39:40)
I think it's situational dependent. If you have a player, like AD is talking about his lived experience after Jeff Fisher moves on and Sean McVeigh comes in, when you have Aaron Donald in your building, you'd be a fool to hire somebody that wants to run a 3-4. You have to hire around who is there and how they're there. But AD's situation is different.

T$ (39:54)
Sure. Right.

Matt Ryan (40:03)
not every player is of his standard and his caliber. And so I think there is that tough mix for a lot of players of, know what, I might be the odd man out here because who we brought in, they did not value me in the same level that they value Aaron Donald and I'm not a fit for this type of scheme. And Todd, that'd be something, you I know players are calling you about immediately as new coaches come in, like I gotta get out of here or.

the writings on the wall, I'm probably going to be out of here because this doesn't fit what I do.

AD (40:31)
Yeah, nice.

T$ (40:33)
Yeah, 100%. There's a huge learning curve with that and players know what the coach is gonna be doing. And sometimes they know it right in the moment and sometimes a whole new coach comes in and it's shocking. Sometimes the feedback you get from players with the coaching staff, whether it's a guy who's never played the position or how they're teaching it, even at the highest of levels at the NFL, there are questions and frustrations from the players in terms of how they're learning and what they're being taught and agreeing or disagreeing with the coach's style or what they want out of the player.

AD (40:33)
I seen that too.

T$ (41:02)
It happens, unfortunately, daily.

AD (41:05)
Yeah, I seen all of it too. I seen it. I seen it all, been a part of it all to the point where you've been playing with guys for four years and then new coach come, they clean house. It's like, damn, now you got to build that new repetition, new core with a new group of guys, chemistry. So that all play a part of it, man. So that's just the life of the NFL football though.

Zach Klein (41:17)
Chemistry, yeah.

T$ (41:21)
Matt,

Zach Klein (41:23)
So it leads me into what's going on, Matt and AD in Washington and then in Detroit where you had Dan Campbell, the head coach. He's now calling the offensive plays and in Washington, you got Dan Quinn calling the defensive plays mid season. They made the switch. They're taking over for their respective offensive defensive coordinators. So while the terminology is the same, Matt, you now have a new voice, a new cadence, a new rhythm, a new flow in your headset. How, what's the adjustment period for that? And AD, if you see this,

your defensive coordinator now demoted and somebody else calling the plays. What does that do for the locker room and the defense side of the ball? I'll start with you on the cadence and the flow when the head coach becomes a coordinator.

Matt Ryan (42:01)
in my entire life, high school, college, NFL, I'd never had a change in play caller during a season, not once. And so, I mean, I'd be lying if I told you I knew what it was like. don't, ⁓ you know, I just, I've had transitions at the end of seasons, different play callers come in, but I've always had an off season or a pre-season or, you know, an opportunity to iron out some of those kinks prior to the season starting. Never had a change.

AD (42:18)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (42:28)
like that ⁓ on the offensive side of the ball. My gut is, think it's, know, the words aren't changing, right? The language part of it is not changing. It's maybe just a little bit different voice, but I think the thing you have to, at least from the quarterback's perspective, you've to get used to that voice in your ear and how it comes in. You know, we could have one play call that's like, you know, gun, trips right, three jet, jaws, X drift, can, 35, Wanda. And a certain play caller,

call it slow like that gun trips right three jet jaws x drift can 35 Wanda another play caller will come in and be like all right here we go we're gonna go 11 personnel gun trips right three jet jaws x drift 35 wanna kill all right on one ready boom and and so yeah exactly it just how it comes in is different and there's a flow and a feeling to how things come in there's a timing to the play calling right like some people

AD (43:09)
Say that shit again. Yeah.

Yeah.

Matt Ryan (43:22)
You know, a play might finish and before the balls even spot it, you might have somebody in your ear saying, okay, hey, we're going to stay in 11 personnel. We're going to go double right 19 one to can 18 zap. Or you could have somebody that's in there and clicks on like Matthew Stafford was talking about in our interview and stays on there and you hear the full conversation with the rest of the staff. What do you think about this one? I kind of like it. I don't like that. I like this. Oh, all right. We'll go with, you know, double right three jet.

Z Chevy ex-captain. And then you hear all of that and you're like, man, he doesn't sound sold on that play call right there. Like, I don't really know. I don't know if I like that one. So yeah, it's just, those are all the things that would be different for a player.

T$ (43:56)
Hahaha

Zach Klein (43:56)
so confident to play. Hey, before we get

AD (43:57)
Yeah.

never thought about that though, like the rhythm of it, the voice, that's crazy. That's crazy. I never thought about that. Yeah,

Zach Klein (44:07)
Matt, real quick. When you were in indiana didn't you have a few play callers there, my man? You said you didn't have any, like mid-seat. Block it out. All right.

Matt Ryan (44:10)
Yeah, listen, I completely forgot about that. think

AD, one of the most important things you can have as a quarterback is selective amnesia. You just completely forget about things. ⁓ Yeah, I was thinking about college. I was thinking about my time in Atlanta. I forgot about Indy. And you know what? It was hard. It was hard, Zach. That's all I'll say about that.

Zach Klein (44:22)
Ha

There you go.

AD (44:35)
that's crazy.

Zach Klein (44:36)
Before we get

ADs take on the defense, I want to follow up quickly on the play calling map. why wouldn't you have the, quarterbacks have the play sheet on their, on their wrist. Instead of saying trips right, you know, 35 one or whatever it is. Why can't play two play three, because it would, do you think it gives you more time to communicate, et cetera.

Matt Ryan (44:51)
You can, and there is, that's a valid argument of, hey, we've got our call sheet right out like this and I'm gonna go, okay, play 39, flip it. Everything's based on left hash. When you do one of those call sheets and you have a wristband, every play one through 150 is based on a left hash call. And so, it is faster to communicate it to say, all right, go flip 15.

and that means it's a right hash call, it's play 15, I'm gonna flip the directions, the numbers, whatever. And a lot of people are wired that way. I didn't like that. ⁓ I did it my last year in Indy, where it came in, in my whole career, 14 years prior to it, it would come in like I was saying, you'd get the play call. And I didn't like it because part of how my brain operated, like,

AD (45:44)
I got you.

Matt Ryan (45:45)
the picture was painted for me from hearing it. And I just knew the game plan so I could fire it back and knew how things were situated. When you hear play 37, you're reading it to them and you're not, there isn't that visualization. It was just different for how my brain was wired. I was just reading, you know, I write 19 week, can 18 force, ready, break, okay.

Then as I was walking to the line of scrimmage, I was then visualizing it. And so for me, yeah, it was just a different process and it just hit me differently. And a lot of people come up, grow up that way. I just didn't grow up that way. And it is the old dog new tricks. I didn't realize how much my brain was conditioned to hear it one way, to visualize it one way, to break the huddle one way. The other thing I struggled with off the wristband was

AD (46:14)
That's what I was going to Okay, it slowed your process down. Yeah.

Matt Ryan (46:40)
not being able to give a subtle reminder to somebody because I was reading it for the first time to them. And, you know, on certain plays with a route, there might be something like Matthew Stafford was talking about with Sean McVeigh in his ear where, you know what, I just want to give a reminder to my F right here that if they blitz too off that side, you're hot because I know it, because I heard it. And before I would even call the play, I would say, you know, Russell Gage.

⁓ Heads up they bring two off that side. You're hot here. Okay, we're go gun double right to jet f-choice stucco on one ready boom But I like to be able to give reminders to guys Prior to it and it's difficult to do with a wristband

AD (47:17)
Yeah, that's

crazy. I was just all into that. I was all into that. Real rap. That's crazy. You just mind towards it. It is.

Zach Klein (47:19)
That's fascinating. That's a really cool breakdown.

That's good stuff, Matt. Way to break that

down. was really cool. Because to me, everybody talks about the delay in the play calls and getting things in, and they're told so long. the next thing you know, you got eight seconds on the play clock and everybody's rushing. Play two. Play 17. But the way your brain works, it's a f-

AD (47:37)
just mess up the flow, mess up his whole flow.

Yeah, that's crazy. I never thought about it like that. Cause I was never a damn quarterback neither, so. ⁓

Matt Ryan (47:41)
Yeah.

Hahaha

Zach Klein (47:46)
But you did ball and defense and now going back to what know, Dan Quinn and the Washington commanders are doing with the DC then demoted Dan taking over 80. How do think the defense would react? Is there still that same trust in the quote unquote former defensive coordinator? How would you react if in the middle of a season your head coach is now calling defensive plays?

Matt Ryan (47:47)
No.

AD (48:05)
Well, I feel like typically changes happen for a reason, Something's not getting done on the defensive side of the ball where, you know, somebody needs to step in and help a little bit. So as long as we got out there and they show me we're going to have success more than what we had prior to, you know, I'm fine with it, right? That's just the nature of the game. You got to be able to adapt to just definitely with different things that happen through a season, long season, lot of ups and downs. So I don't think it's no big deal. As long as the play calling, you know, terminology is going to be the same. Maybe he's going to put his own little sauce on it. Maybe.

add a couple of little different bliss games and certain things like that that can help the defense be a lot better. But as long as the success is better than what it was prior to, it's no problem at all. It's simple. In my eyes, that's how I see it. It wasn't nothing. I wouldn't panic or be like, ⁓ damn, I want my coach. No, if he got, the whole reason for it, know, whatever the situation was with him demoting the guy and him stepping into that role, it's for a reason, right? He's not getting the job done. It's a...

Production business, what have you done for me lately, right? So same thing as a player that's in the NFL. If you're playing the game and your production's not there, typically what's gonna happen, they gonna bench your ass or get rid of you. you know, you gotta be productive. It's about the productive. It's a production business, man. So you gotta find ways and I go for everybody, you know, not just the players, go for the coaches too, so.

Zach Klein (49:20)
He's not to be calling a play for Daron Payne, Dan Quinn, because he's suspended from Washington for one game for throwing a punch. AD, can you relate to this at all? Were you frustrated after maybe the Seahawks game or Devonta Freeman throwing a punch at you?

AD (49:26)
Yeah.

Nah,

I'm pretty sure. That was funny. Nah, I'm pretty sure they frustrated how the season's going, but I don't know what was sad, what was going on for him to even react like that. Cause that was just, that like a blackout moment, right? We all have them, but to bar your fist off and throw like a full blown punch, it must've been something going on between them two or whatever it was. I understand the frustration, but as you get older, you understand that.

Matt Ryan (49:36)
Yeah

AD (49:56)
you're more important to your team on the field than off the field. You got a better chance of having all you guys out there if you wanna, know, trying to win some games. I know they season's going down the drain, but your best player's gotta be on the field, gotta be able to perform, gotta be able to help you. ⁓ we all make silly mistakes, right? I don't know what happened. I don't know the situation. I don't know what was said, cause I did a lot of silly stuff in my days when I played, ⁓ you know, emotions flare sometimes. You gotta kinda control that, you know, but.

I've been through a lot of little fights and little scrambles, whatever you want to call it, a lot of them. I've been, guys do punches at me, but I typically just pick them up and just say, chill out, man, you're too small. Hey, how was that? Did y'all tease him after that, man? Did y'all talk about that at all in the locker room? Yeah, Freeman. What was he saying?

T$ (50:39)
out.

Matt Ryan (50:44)
Free? my gosh, man. I loved, loved Devontae.

I loved Devontae and he was, we were frustrated. We were struggling at that time too. ⁓ But it was like, it was like when we did kind of laugh about it and we told him it looked like, you know, the six year old brother trying to fight that 14 year old brother where they just pick up, just stop, dude, just stop. You gotta give him credit though. He wasn't gonna back down.

AD (51:07)
I'm like, out of nowhere, he just...

He wasn't, but I'm like, he tried me. I got the ball, I I did like a screenplay and he like tried to hit me I'm laughing. I'm he's playing and he's like trying to, I'm like, man, get out of here. I pushed his ass back and he like, I'm like, what's going on here, man? I ain't never had a problem with this guy. Why you trying to, like, come on, man. But it's all good.

Matt Ryan (51:12)
He wasn't going to back down.

It's one of the things I loved

about Devante. He would not back down from anybody. Would not back down.

AD (51:30)
And he started the damn fight. I'm like, god, Lee, ⁓ come

man. What we doing, BIG dog? It's all good, man. It's all

Zach Klein (51:38)
In what way do suspensions affect contracts, if at all?

T$ (51:43)
Yeah, no, they do, or they can, I should say. There's a paragraph in your contracts called default language. And in the default language, there's always language that says if a player is suspended for whether it be conduct detrimental or whether it be for the substance abuse or for performance enhancing, whatever it might be, in this case, it would be conduct detrimental. You could void your remaining guarantees in your contract. Now, there are different caveats to all that, whether it's...

all the future guarantees or whether that's that year only. ⁓ But I believe in Daron Payne's, actually has a carve out for ⁓ anything more than two games. So suspended for one game, it doesn't affect his at all, other than, you know, he's going to miss a paycheck for the week. But, and when I say guys guarantees get voided, it doesn't mean they don't get it. It just means in a case where it did get voided, it just means the guarantee comes off of that money. though, so if the guy were to be released at some point later,

then that money that he quote unquote had guaranteed he would not receive. But in this case, it's not that. So yeah, it does impact it. So yeah, you got to control your emotions and all that stuff because everything is tied to everything. And you these teams, if there's a way for them to put little loopholes in to be able to claw back money, mean, believe me that they're going to try to do that for sure.

Zach Klein (52:57)
All right, 80s. We're wrapping up here. We got the two minute drill coming up. We're going to talk about your big weekend ahead. But first, Aaron Donald's player or players of the week are.

AD (53:05)
So we're gonna start Thursday night football with that Denver defense. I think they played great football. Zach Allen was out there making plays, but Benito, he's coming off that edge, man. He got one and a half, sacks, five tackles, but the pressure and the quarterback ways he was able to Geno, I think they put a beating on him. He made him frustrated all game, wasn't able to settle his feet, had them all over the place. So kudos to that defense with the Broncos, man. But my number one guy, we're gonna go Monday night football last night.

I think that Eagles defense, I think it was great defense on both sides of the ball, but that Eagles defense looked good. I think they got after of Love When you talking about making a quarterback uncomfortable, not letting them settle his fleet, not letting them get into a rhythm. I think they did an amazing job with doing that, man. And my defensive player this week will be ⁓ Jalen Phillips. His debut with the Eagles, seven pressures, six tackles, two quarterback hits, one formal recovery, and obviously the game went a fourth down stop.

in his debut, man, was a, you know, was letting Eagles know, y'all made the right decision, we're bringing me here. He's with a winning team and he showed what he's all about, man. So my player of week this week is Jalen Phillips, man. And he did it, hey, clap it up. And he did it Monday night, man, prime time game, man. But that was a hell of a game. I know a lot of people was like, the game's so boring. I'm like, as a defensive player, I loved it. You seen some good defensive plays out there. think Green Bay played some good defense. I think they gave up that one play with that 41 yard pass to...

Shit, Barkley, Saquon, I forgot his name for a second. Saquon, and then ⁓ that deep ball they got, but I think they played good on both sides of the ball, but know, the Eagles played lights out to me.

Zach Klein (54:42)
Congrats to Jalen stepping up in a big way right away man. Alright Matt we got a two minute drill this week.

Matt Ryan (54:48)
right, we're start with Todd, all right, Todd.

T$ (54:50)
gosh, halfway,

here it goes.

Matt Ryan (54:52)
We've been working out a little bit. Todd showed up to the workouts. I give him credit. Number one, clap it up, clap it up for Todd.

Zach Klein (54:57)
Clap it up. ⁓

T$ (54:59)
I'm the first one there, but go ahead.

Matt Ryan (55:01)
Just because you're early doesn't mean you work the hardest, but that's okay. Todd, how's the body feeling? All right, you've been two workouts in, we're working out with our guy Ryan Alexander. He's kind of setting up the workouts. How's the body feeling? What do we think of the workout so far?

T$ (55:06)
You guys.

Great. I think the first one was a little bit of a teaser. was like, oh, I can easily do this I think the second time I came back was like a times 10 harder But it was great. I love it. And I'm actually not too sore I'm pretty good because it's not like I haven't been working out, but it's just different stuff. So it's good

Matt Ryan (55:28)
Okay, self-suck right there. I've been working out, don't worry about me. I got it, all right, okay.

AD (55:31)
Yeah

T$ (55:32)
Yeah, don't worry about me. I mean, I

don't have the groin flexibility that you do on that one exercise. I was like, holy cow.

Matt Ryan (55:36)
That's right.

AD (55:37)
Hahaha

Matt Ryan (55:37)
Let everybody

know Todd. Let everybody know. AD, AD, you're a Pitt and D this weekend. Coach had some comments about that game. We're not going to touch that. Give me a prediction. What's Pitt do this weekend?

T$ (55:40)
just what

AD (55:49)
Oh, I don't know, man. Hopefully, a win. we can't. I I don't like to predict. We're going to see. We got to the game play out and see, man. Let the game play out and see. No predictions.

Matt Ryan (55:55)
No predictions.

Zach Klein (55:56)
sound

too confident, man, but I respect the be neutral.

Matt Ryan (55:58)
Sounds like the coach sounds

like the coach himself. ⁓ Okay. I love it. I love it. Zach, we're switching over to you big game in the SEC this week. Georgia taken on Texas number one storyline you're looking for.

AD (56:02)
Confidence a bit, man.

Zach Klein (56:11)
to see if Arch Manning can shine under the bright primetime lights to see if Georgia's defense get offs to a quick start and if Gunnar Stockton can continue to play just this even keel solid football turnovers are not in his repertoire. So I'm looking forward to the Gunnar versus Arch primetime Georgia top 10 matchup.

Matt Ryan (56:28)
All right, rapid fire here down the line, Todd first. How will Matthew Stafford be remembered? A dog, a lion, or a ram in your mind?

T$ (56:36)
A RAM. Super Bowl.

Zach Klein (56:37)
Ram.

Matt Ryan (56:37)
AD.

AD (56:38)
All the above shit, I don't know man. Cause he got, he's a dog, ram, lion. Let's say ram and lion. I gotta say dog. He's a dog, man. He's a dog. He's a dog.

Matt Ryan (56:46)
Okay, yeah, go dogs. All right,

Zach Klein (56:48)
All right.

Matt Ryan (56:48)
⁓ forever he'll be a good glue guy on the Waiouka Church, Baptist Road, whatever that league was. He was a hell of a teammate. Shout out to Matthew for joining us. Two minutes and 20 seconds.

Zach Klein (56:57)
Shout out.

AD (56:57)
Yes, sir.

Zach Klein (56:59)
That

AD (56:59)
Here you go.

Zach Klein (56:59)
was beautiful. Good stuff. Shout out. And speaking of shout outs, man, let's give it up to AD. Let's clap it up for him. Congratulations. Going to Pitt. Much love, man. Half time in Notre Dame, the Jersey retirement. What do think that moment will be like for you your family?

T$ (56:59)
That's awesome.

That was great.

AD (57:06)
Appreciate it fellas, appreciate it fellas.

Probably emotional for me. Probably emotional for the family as well, man. Obviously, you kind of reflect on your journey, right? Trying to find a college to go to. Who wanted me, right? Everybody was saying, it ain't the biggest guy. You get that one opportunity to go out there and you had a career you did in college. And obviously, you fast forward that to the NFL and being retired now and still reaping the benefits, what I did from playing the game. It's a blessing, man.

I don't know, my eyes might tear up a little bit. We're going to see, man. I'm an emotional person, but I'm an in-the-moment type of guy, man. I'm just going to take it all in and it. And hopefully it'll be a big one for the pit, my pit Panthers against a good Notre Dame team.

T$ (57:52)
It's unbelievable. Unbelievable, A.D. Yeah, it's incredible.

Matt Ryan (57:52)
Well deserved, well deserved, A.D. Hey, what's the deal?

Zach Klein (57:52)
Congratulations. Yeah, well deserved.

AD (57:53)
I appreciate it. Appreciate it, fellas. Appreciate it.

Matt Ryan (57:57)
Are we giving a little speech? Do you get a little speech to the fans at halftime?

AD (58:01)
I don't know, man. I'm still waiting for my interteriors. I know college game day's coming now, so I think I got something Friday with them and then Saturday before the game. So I don't know. I'd probably do a little speech to the team before they go out there and play, man. Get them all riled up, juiced up, and ready to knock somebody's head off. So that's about it.

Zach Klein (58:17)
You

need to record that on your iPhone and bring that into the podcast next week. I'd love to hear your speech pregame. That'd be great. Yeah, for sure.

AD (58:21)
I wear my meta glasses. I wear my meta glasses.

T$ (58:25)
AD, AD,

was on social media, they had a clip from Pitt football and then some of the highlights were like all this Georgia Tech game and I laughing at it because I remember we spoke before that when you were in college and was recruiting you, it's not gonna be a good game. They played this weird offense. They're just gonna chip me and da da da da, you know, cut me and I'm just not gonna have stats. And meanwhile, like probably one of your best statistical games in your college career. It was unbelievable.

AD (58:34)
I think it'll be a game. ⁓

Yeah, that's one of them. We played Navy, I think two weeks before that, and it's similar kind of, they just cut you, right? So I'm like, I watched the film, I'm like, on. All they doing is jumping at my, how about I just move my ass out the way, move around them and just get in the backfield? And that's all they did. I'm like, half the time they wasn't even blocking me, they just jumping at my legs. I'm just stepping to the side in the backfield. So, hey, I appreciate it, man. My stat line was good that day. ⁓

Zach Klein (59:03)
Ha ha ha!

T$ (59:07)
Studying film, studying film, AD. Congrats

Zach Klein (59:07)
Yes, it was.

T$ (59:09)
though, man. I'm so proud of you, man. So happy for you. Yeah.

Zach Klein (59:09)
Yeah, man. Clap it up, AD. Congratulations. Hey, man. We love you, bud. Safe travels. Enjoy the moment and just take it all in. Soak it up. Well deserved. Epic episode here on the Inner Circle from Matthew Stafford, Matt Ryan, Todd France, Aaron Donald. I'm Zach Klein. Thanks for joining us. Make sure you subscribe, like, tell a friend, and we'll see you next week on the Inner Circle Podcast.

Matt Ryan (59:10)
Congrats.

AD (59:11)
I appreciate it fellas, appreciate it, appreciate it.

Appreciate it.

Yes, yes.