Eric DeCosta - Baltimore Ravens GM

This week on the Inner Circle Podcast, Aaron Donald, Zach Klein and Todd France  sit down with Baltimore Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta, one of the longest tenured executives in the NFL and a two time Super Bowl champion who has helped shape a modern powerhouse through the draft, development, and relentless standards.

Eric opens with a story that perfectly sums up how long he and Todd have been in the grind together, dating back to the Blue Gray game days when a young Todd was roaming the sidelines trying to get someone to listen. From there, DeCosta takes us inside his rise in Baltimore, from being the third choice for a scouting job in 1996 to earning Ozzie Newsome’s trust, stacking responsibilities, and eventually becoming the GM. Along the way, he shares what it was like learning in a building that included future football leaders like Marvin Lewis, Kirk Ferentz, Jim Schwartz, and Eric Mangini.

DeCosta also walks through a head coach search that felt like a “speed draft” for the most important hire in the organization, including marathon Zoom interviews, the pressure of juggling draft prep at the same time, and what he prioritized most when evaluating coaching candidates. He explains why leadership, teaching, and player development still separate the best from the rest, even in an era where every assistant coach seems to have an agent and a negotiation.

Then the conversation shifts to DeCosta’s specialty: the draft and the hardest position to get right, quarterback. He breaks down what he looks for when projecting NFL passers, why “planet players” matter, and how unique traits show up across positions, including the “computer breakers” who transcend measurements. He also shares what the combine actually does for his process, why workouts can fool you, and how the interview rooms help reveal who can really learn football under pressure.

Aaron brings it home with a masterclass on self scouting, film study, and leadership, including how he watched games immediately, what angles mattered most for his preparation, and why the standard only holds if the best players live it every day. Plus, you will hear plenty of laughs, a few classic Inner Circle jabs, and even a wild idea about Aaron Donald taking Team USA bobsled into the next decade.

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 (00:00)
Hey, how we doing my friends? Thanks for hanging out with us this week on the Inner Circle podcast where we are joined by one of the longest tenured front office executives in the National Football League. He is a two time Super Bowl champion. He is a former executive of the year. He was an intern for the Baltimore Ravens in the mid 1990s where he was in charge of getting an oil change for his head coach.

Since then, he's done all right. He has drafted players like the Rookie of the Year in Joe Flacco, the MVP in Lamar Jackson, and so much more. Why has he become so successful in evaluating quarterbacks when it is without question the hardest position in sports to evaluate? We'll discuss that with Eric DeCosta and what he looks for in what he calls planet players. That and more on this week's edition of the Inner Circle Podcast. Enjoy.

remember the first time you ever met Todd France?

TF (00:52)
Ha

Eric (00:52)
I do, I think it was down at the blue, maybe blue-gray game? He had a receiver from Marshall by the name of Darius Watts, was that his name?

TF (00:56)
Gosh, that-

My Marshall receiver, yeah, Darius Watts.

Eric (01:03)
Yeah, Darius Watts and he was he looked homeless and was wandering the sidelines trying to find somebody to talk to him and he stumbled into me as a young aspiring scout with the Ravens and he was pushing Darius Watts tell me how great he was gonna be. How'd that one work out for you Todd?

TF (01:18)
He went in the second round. That's all that matters. so it didn't go past that. No, it's true. First of all, the blue gray game. I don't even remember that one, but I was, you were allowed to back in the day when agents and everyone could be on the field. So watching practice. So was walking around and I didn't know anybody early on. And I say this guy, was like, he kind of looks like me. He kind of dresses like me. He's young. I'm like, I'm going to go talk to this dude. I don't know if he's an agent. I literally didn't know who he was.

Zach Klein (01:21)
Ha ha ha ha.

TF (01:43)
By the way, Eric wanted nothing to do with talking to me, just like he doesn't want to talk to anyone to this very day. But somehow, for whatever reason, we struck up a conversation and it continued to see him at different events and the relationship built from there. Yeah.

Zach Klein (01:56)
That's fantastic. You've had a long career, my man. We appreciate your time here on the Inner Circle. I want to take you back though to 2013. You're an assistant GM. Did you ever scout an undersized defensive tackle out of pit as you prepared for the 2014 draft when you guys are on the clock at 17 overall?

Eric (02:13)
We did, we did. We saw a tenacious competitor, explosive, twitchy. Yeah, we did. Unfortunately, back then we were very much in the size and speed. Our defensive tackles had to really look a certain way and we wanted these big hello-de-nada type guys, 6'5", 340. know, Brandon Williams was the guy that came to mind that was playing for us back then. We had a hello-de-nada.

AD (02:29)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (02:37)
But every once in while there are these guys that we call them computer breakers that just don't really fit a system. They can transcend any system or any scheme. Ray Lewis was that way coming out. Ray Lewis was only 230 pounds coming out back in 1996. fortunately we drafted him and he changed the face of our franchise as certain guys can do.

Zach Klein (02:56)
AD. What would have been, AD? You went a few picks earlier, man, but I'm sure you look pretty good in that purple, though, no?

AD (03:02)
No, man, everything happened for a reason. I knew there was more of them big guys, them two gap guys. So, you know, I grew up a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, so I watched a lot of the Ravens and how they played. the scheme was different then. But, you know, obviously your success, right? You started with the Ravens since 1996. Am I correct?

Eric (03:07)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, my first job was picking up Ray Lewis at the airport.

AD (03:21)
So tell me about your journey to get to being an assistant, scouting guy, to being a GM. How was that process for you, that growth, that grind?

Eric (03:31)
Yeah, so I was blessed because when I got hired by the Ravens, they had just moved to Baltimore from Cleveland and a lot of people got left behind. The Modell family left a lot of employees behind and our scouting staff was very small. Actually, ironically, I interviewed for the job in 1996 and they offered the job to a guy named Les Snead, who I think you're familiar with. Let's turn the job down to go to Jacksonville to work with a guy named Ron Hill.

AD (03:50)
Yes, yes.

Eric (03:56)
⁓ the second guy that was offered the job was a guy named Paul D Podesta, who later on became famous for being the Jonah Hill character in Moneyball. And then who went, went, went to the Browns and worked for the Browns for a while. He turned the job down to go work for the Indians. So I was the third place guy. that year started, we had a great staff, lot of guys that ended up being head coaches in the NFL, on that staff. Marvin Lewis was there, Kirk Ferentz, Jim Schwartz.

AD (04:21)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (04:23)
Eric Mangini, a lot of guys. I was blessed to start out just at the bottom and the next year became the Midwest scout. And so I had from Pittsburgh all the way to Lincoln, Nebraska, down to Nashville, Tennessee, 17 states. And really cut my teeth doing that for about seven years, became the college director in 2003. That was a great experience.

along the way. I was blessed because Ozzie Newsome gave me the opportunity to grow in the organization. He just kept challenging me with different responsibilities and different roles, different things that allowed me to really grow as a person and grow as an evaluator and as a leader. then 2009 became Director of Player Personnel, 2011 Assistant General Manager, and then 2019 GM. I should say that in 2007,

AD (05:01)
Mm.

Eric (05:15)
Steve Bisciotti the owner, asked me to be his GM someday when Ozzy retired and I accepted. So I knew I was going to be the GM in Baltimore for 12 years. didn't think it was going to take 12 years for me to get that job. And I wouldn't recommend that to anybody to wait 12 years for a GM job. I had a lot of opportunities along the way, decided to stay in Baltimore and I'm glad I did.

Zach Klein (05:26)
you

You knew from the jump, right, that you wanted to be a general manager. It

AD (05:35)
Yes.

Zach Klein (05:38)
what did you think when you wanted to be a GM, what it looked like when you six or seven years old? What in your vision, you're like, I want to be a GM, but when you're a six or seven year old kid, what does that look like to you when you find this passion for this potential career?

Eric (05:51)
Well, I wanted to play, you know, first of all, but, know, well, was, I was, I was a, I was a linebacker and a running back in high school. I was five, nine, about 180 pounds in the eighth grade. And I graduated five, nine, 185 pounds as a senior.

AD (05:54)
What position? I'm sorry to cut you off. What position you wanted to play?

TF (05:56)
Ha!

AD (05:59)
Okay.

Zach Klein (06:07)
Hahaha.

TF (06:07)
Hahaha

AD (06:08)
grew fast and just stopped, huh?

Eric (06:10)
Yeah,

so like, you know, when I was in Pop Warner, I was dominant and then I just stopped growing. But I think for me though, like, so I grew up a Cowboys fan, even though I grew up in Massachusetts, I was a Cowboys fan like a lot of kids. And I just loved the way the Cowboys scouted. This was back in the Gil Brandt, Tech Schramm, Tom Landry era where they were doing things just different. So was the Steelers and the Cowboys.

And they just had an unbelievable way of finding players at all different levels. HBCU schools, big schools, small schools, all over the country. And I was just enamored with the idea of building a team. I never really wanted to be a coach per se, but the idea of adding all these players from all different parts of the country, different backgrounds, different spiritualities and faith and ethnic and everything else, building this team is cocktail of players, so to speak.

And then having a chance to win it all always some appeal to me and everything that goes into that the scouting process, evaluating talent, getting to know these players, everything. you know, the Cowboys were really one of the first teams to use analytics even back then in the, the, in the 1970s, along with traditional scouting. And I just, I knew a lot about the Cowboys or scouting staff, guys like Ron Marsanak, John Wooten was on that.

on that staff, a lot of those guys. And I just wanted to be a scout and I wanted to eventually be a general manager. And so, you know, I think people thought I was crazy when I would tell them that, but I was focused on it and I made it happen. you know, I knew when my plan days were over, the first thing I was going to do, a lot of my friends would be coming doctors and lawyers and working on Wall Street and all these different things.

I started coaching because I knew that coaching would be a way for me to get my foot in the door scouting wise, to get that experience. And so I started coaching, what year was that? I guess it was 1993. I coached, started coaching and did that for three years. Did an internship with the then Washington Redskins in scouting. Charlie Caschel was the GM, North Turner was the head coach.

Spent a summer with those guys, which was really, really important for me. And then had the chance to interview for the job in Baltimore in 1996. Got offered a job in May, came down in June of 1996 and never went back.

AD (08:24)
Hey.

Zach Klein (08:24)
you were doing everything, right?

I mean, as an intern back in the day, Ted Marchibroda the head coach, gives you $100 to go get an oil change. hey, I'm the journalist of the crew, ED. I got to do my homework, right?

Eric (08:30)
Yeah.

You have read up on me. Yeah. yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

AD (08:34)
Hahaha ⁓

TF (08:39)
Eric,

we wanted to do it kind of like you do for the rookies during the draft process where you know everything about them. So we already know the answers to these questions, just like you know the answers to the questions you ask these young guys. So be careful and make sure you tell the truth. Go ahead.

Eric (08:49)
Yeah

Zach Klein (08:51)
That's

AD (08:52)
We know

Zach Klein (08:52)
right.

AD (08:52)
the good and the bad.

TF (08:54)
Yes.

Eric (08:54)
Yeah, well you know, know, so Coach Marchibroda Broda used to give me a hundred dollars and say go get my oil, just get an oil change and you can keep the change. So I went all over Owings Mills trying to find the cheapest oil change and there was a place called Specialized down the street that did $9.99 oil change. So I would make 90 bucks every time I took his car to get an oil change. It was a great, it was, that was a great deal for me. That was one my first good deals I ever made was doing that with Coach Marchibroda Broda.

Zach Klein (08:54)
Hahaha

AD (09:14)
Ayyyy

Zach Klein (09:20)
That's exactly right.

AD (09:20)
Hahaha ⁓

Zach Klein (09:21)
Yeah, see, Todd interns or in interns of go get our I give you 100 bucks that meal was 75 I need 25 back. That's a difference between you and Todd.

AD (09:29)
You

TF (09:29)
No,

the difference is I say you go get my old change and it's gonna cost you $100 to go do it. Now give me $100, I'll let you drive my car, go. Everyone's different, it's okay.

Zach Klein (09:35)
That's it.

AD (09:36)
Yeah.

So this

Eric (09:39)
But yeah, you actually

do everything with coach Marcher Broda. I, I, you know, ⁓ I used to take his wife Ronnie to the dentist in DC. I used to, I took him to a funeral in Buffalo one time. his, one of his college teammates went to a school called St. Bonnie's and, he didn't want to go by himself. So he asked me to drive him. And so we went up on a Friday. ⁓ we drove up, took our time, took about, I don't know, six hours, stayed at a little, ⁓

comfort in, shared a room, which was bizarre to share a room with your head coach. But we did. We went to the funeral. I sat in the car during the funeral. And then we did a dinner with his teammates afterwards, and then we drove back. So I, you know.

It was different back then. One year we were going to the East West, and this was when the East West game was out in Palo Alto. Coach Marchibroda Broder didn't want to go to practice that day. He wanted to go out to Pebble Beach. And he wanted to walk Pebble Beach. And so we drove over to Pebble Beach, and we just went for a walk. We walked the course. And he always wanted me to walk three feet in front of him.

because he had a hard time remembering people's names. And he was always afraid he was gonna get recognized and he wouldn't know the person's name. So anytime someone came walking over to us, I was like a bodyguard. I'd say, hey, I'm Eric DeCoste, nice to meet you. And then the guy would say his name and then Coach Marcher-Buddy would say, hey, John, good to see you again, John. One of those kind of deals.

Zach Klein (10:54)
Hahaha!

AD (10:55)
You

So did

TF (10:58)
He picked his brand

and learned a lot of stuff. So that's pretty cool.

Eric (11:01)
Yeah.

AD (11:01)
So this off season was a lot different, right? Obviously having the same head coach for 18 years and then a change. How was that process of founding a new coach for that organization?

Eric (11:11)
Well, it was tough. know, first of all, you know, if you're doing your job as a GM, you're going to build a strong relationship with your head coach. Our offices are right across from each other. We're actually, we live in the same area with neighbors and John and I got to be very, very close. And, you know, it was tough. You know, it was tough. And this is one of those situations where honestly, as a GM, your number one responsibility is to the organization, to your owner.

AD (11:18)
You

Eric (11:35)
And regardless of my personal feelings.

I was given this task of finding the next head coach for the Baltimore Ravens. And it was emotional for me in many different ways. But also we had to get started right away. We started a couple of days later than some other teams. And so it was intense. We reached out to about 20 different candidates, set up as many interviews as we could via Zoom initially. We had the chance to meet with a couple of guys in person here in Baltimore. But most of the work

in the early stages was over Zoom. We conducted, I think, 17 Zoom interviews over a span of maybe a week. Each interview was about three to four hours. Myself and Ozzie Newsome and Sashi Brown, our president. We tried to make it as objective as possible. We asked standard questions. We tried to ask all the candidates similar type questions to answer some specific things.

We were really focused on leadership qualities, X's and O's, expertise, and then player relations and player development. Those would be the things that we were most focused on in the initial stages. We also had a group of people helping us get as much background information as we could.

AD (12:27)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (12:41)
on the prospects, which I call them prospects, but on the coaches. We try to really make it like the draft. So my specialty is actually running the draft. And the way that I approached it was we were gonna have a speed draft. We were gonna conduct a draft for a head coach in three weeks.

and very similar to what we do in nine months getting ready for the NFL draft. So I felt like this was kind of in my wheelhouse of things we could do. Had some great candidates. We had probably five finalists, five finalists that we thought were the best five guys for us. In the end, given the rules, we were able to interview three of the five finalists and had to make a decision.

and we decided to hire Jesse Minter.

It was great. I knew Jesse a little bit from the time that he spent with us back in 2017, 18 and 19. Didn't know him super well. He was on the coaching side as a young coach. Didn't have a lot of involvement with Jesse back then, but was always impressed. Interviewing him and getting to know him and hearing his vision for the team and his plan and watching his defense out in LA perform, it became apparent that Jesse was a great candidate to be the head coach for the Baltimore Ravens and we were happy to get it done.

AD (13:47)
Yes.

TF (13:47)
Was it an exhausting process? I

mean, he hadn't been through it really.

Eric (13:51)
It

Not like this, I I was on a committee when we hired Coach Harbaugh, but that was different back then. We didn't have the Zoom technology. Everything was in person. We only conducted six interviews when we hired Harbs. This was exhausting. You know, I was staying late, getting up early, just wired, ready to get to work.

coming in and getting started early, trying to get some, you know, cause the thing is I've got a draft in three months and we have to get ready for that too. So I was going to miss a lot of time in the office getting ready for the draft and is being part of the search. And so, you know, I was trying to just burn the candle at both ends, trying to get as much work done as we could. And then we had the senior ball. you know, we had, and it's not only the search, it's then hiring all the assistant coaches. And you know, nowadays,

AD (14:16)
Yeah, exactly.

So grand,

yeah.

Eric (14:36)
These

coaches all have agents. All of these assistant coaches have agents. These quality control guys have agents. Everybody has an agent. It's no wonder you're in this business, because, you know, all these guys have agents. It's unbelievable. It used to be that, you know, I wouldn't talk to agents when it came to assistant coaches, but nowadays everybody has an agent. And so you're spending all your time talking to these guys, trying to get all these deals done and getting all the paperwork signed, all these background checks and all these different things.

Zach Klein (14:45)
Ha ha ha ha ha.

AD (14:45)
Ha ha.

Eric (15:04)
And it just, it was a grind.

Zach Klein (15:05)
You say you run the draft, Eric, and the quarterback position without question is the hardest in my mind to evaluate in all sports, but you've done, your record is pretty good. Joe Flacco, rookie of the year back in what, 08, and then obviously the MVP in Lamar. But why do you think evaluating that position is so difficult and challenging?

Eric (15:25)
Well, I would say one thing, Zach, we've drafted two other guys that made Pro Bowls as well. We drafted Derrick Anderson in 2007. He went on to be a Pro Bowl quarterback with the Cleveland Browns for one year. And we drafted Tyrod Taylor, who has been a really awesome player in the NFL. So I'm really proud of that.

Zach Klein (15:42)
So I think

you need an agent to just go to back and evaluate quarterbacks and nothing else. And that's your position. You're, mean.

AD (15:46)
Yeah.

Eric (15:48)
That would be

a hell of a gig. Can you imagine if you just, you were a quarterback specialist and teams could bring you in as a consultant? Yeah. Well, they come in all different shapes and sizes, right? So Lamar is very different from Joe Flacco and Joe Flacco was very different from Tyrod Taylor. And, know, Tyrod Taylor was very different from, from Derek Anderson. In the end, I think these guys have to be,

AD (15:50)
Yeah

Zach Klein (15:53)
You got the secret sauce, my guy? What is it? You figured it out.

AD (15:59)
Yes.

Eric (16:13)
quick decision makers. They've got to have something about them that's different. know, mean, Joe Flacco just, I mean, he can still throw the ball as well as anybody. Derrick Anderson was six foot six and he had a cannon for an arm too. Tyrod was different. know, Tyrod was a play action guy, very athletic, very, very, very, very smart.

And then obviously Lamar is a unicorn. Lamar as a passer is fantastic. As a runner, he's fantastic. His spatial awareness is special, is unique. Lamar's competitiveness sets him apart too. I think it's just, when you look at these guys, what stands out and do they have special qualities?

AD (16:42)
tell me about it. Shit. Chasing him around is a headache. Chasing his ass around was a headache, but...

Eric (16:56)
You don't want a guy that looks like everybody else. You want somebody that really stands out. One thing we've noticed is these guys, call them planet players, and this is a phrase that George Young used to use. And he would say there's only so few guys like this on the planet. Guys that are unique. What made Helodi Nata such a great player was he was very athletic, but he was 6'5", 350 pounds. What makes a guy like Aaron Donald special is not only is he incredibly explosive, but the dude runs a 4.7

AD (17:16)
Yes.

Eric (17:23)
740 yard dash or 4 640 and just just wreaks havoc with his with his ability but also his competitiveness Jamal Lewis for instance Jamal Lewis was 6 foot 245 pounds. He ran a 4 3 These guys these kind of players Lamar Jackson these kind of players can just do things differently Kyle Hamilton. He's almost 6 foot 4 200 whatever pounds

incredible ability, you know, to read and diagnose things quickly, can put his body in unusual sit in unusual positions, chases things down great instincts and ball skills. He's a jackknife. He can play in many different positions. He can play corner. He can play nickel. He can play backer. You know, he can play safety.

So those kind of players are special. And I think with quarterbacks especially, when you think about the best guys, there's one thing that they can do. They can hang their hats on, whatever that might be. They've got to have something unusual about them. And then I think when the game goes fast, they slow down and things slow down for them. And they can be the best player on the field in that moment.

AD (18:27)
So I always felt like you need to have a quarterback, obviously, start in the trenches. You need an offensive line to protect that quarterback. And you need a bunch of guys to be able to get after a quarterback. So it started in the trenches. Then you got to have a piece to the puzzle, like a quarterback can get it done. feel like that's the... And all the success I had on the teams I was with, we always had a quarterback that can get it done, offensive line that can protect the guy. And then you got to be able to get guys to be able to get after the quarterback and affect the quarterback with the rushers.

With that being said, how you feel about the group that's coming back that you got and the pieces that obviously y'all gonna bring in, how you feel about this upcoming season?

Eric (19:02)
Well, I think this was a disappointing season for us this past year, probably below our standard, below the line for us. ⁓ think we have lot of good players. We did, we did. I think we have a lot of good players coming back and I believe in these guys. And I think we've got to do a better job of getting after the quarterback for sure. I think we have some young guys who can do that. think losing ⁓ Namdi, Matabeke.

AD (19:09)
Hit with that injury bug this year too though.

Eric (19:27)
was a big blow for us this year. Terrible that we lost them early in the season like we did.

But I think we've got some other guys on defense. We're excited about Travis Jones. We've got some young outside linebackers that we feel strongly about. Of course, we've got Roquon. And then our secondary has a lot of good players, Kyle Hamilton, Nate Wiggins. Of course, Marlon Humphrey is a great player for us too. I think there's a strong nucleus coming back. I'm really, really excited to see Jesse Minter's influence on our defense. That's his specialty as a defensive coach. I think that'll make a big, impact. And then offensively, I think

think all the pieces are there. We've got some skilled guys. We've got a tight end like Mark Andrews, running backs, Derrick Henry, Zay Flowers. We're really, really good about Zay. Rashad Bateman. A lot of good players on the offensive line.

We've got two good tackles and Roger Rosengarten and Ronnie Stanley. We got some work to do on Tyler Linderbom's contract. He's a free agent. We strongly hope to have him back. He's a great player for us and a great leader. And then we've got to just, I think, augment the guard position, which is something that we can do. We've got some good young guys that we really believe in this year. They're gonna make a big, big jump this year for us. Emory Jones is a guy we drafted last year. In the third round, we feel really strongly about

as being a guy that's gonna come in and win a spot for us at the guard spot. But I love our team. I think our special teams is really strong. We've got two good kickers, a good kicker and a good punter. I think our coaching staff, what I've seen from our coaches, our new coaching staff is very, very exciting. I think sometimes change can be good. With change comes innovation and new ways of doing things, new ways of practicing, you know, a new scheme and all these different things.

AD (20:58)
Yeah.

Correct, yep, yep.

Eric (21:05)
That's going to give us an advantage, I think, this year. When you do the same thing every year, and you're playing the Bengals twice here, the Steelers twice, and the Browns, these guys know us like the back of their hands. I think sometimes a change is a positive thing.

AD (21:11)
Mm-hmm.

TF (21:18)
like people think the off season is the off season. It's really crazy, right? After you got done now filling the coaching need, you now have, you had Senior Bowl, East-West, don't know what you went to or didn't go to. You got the Combine coming up next week. You got Pro Days that follow after that. In between Combine and Pro Days, you have free agency. So all of these different moving parts, by the way, you have a thing called the draft at the end of April.

How do you balance all of that? And then also, like, what do you get out of pro days and or the combine and that you don't buy just going to a practice or just watching film and kind of tell us all about that stuff.

Eric (21:54)
Yeah, so I try to be as organized as possible every day. You know, I have a list of things I want to get to. For me, a big part of that is getting in early so that I can watch tape because once nine o'clock rolls around in the morning, I'm getting picked at all day long by

I don't have the time.

Zach Klein (22:08)
What's early? What time

you get in? What's early?

Eric (22:11)
⁓

Well, on the weekends, I have an unusual way on the weekends. So I go to bed early on Friday night and I try to get into the office at 3 a.m. And I like to work on Saturday mornings. There's nobody here. So I can work from about 3.30, 4 o'clock in the morning till about 10 a.m. And then go home and my kids are just waking up.

AD (22:18)
Mmm.

Eric (22:28)
And so for me, I can steal like six hours of tape watching on Saturday mornings. And if I'm up for it, I'll do the same thing on Sunday morning. So I can steal like 12 hours over the course of a weekend when I'm not being bothered, when it's just me here in the office just watching tape.

A lot of getting ready for the draft is literally just watching the players and ranking players. And the only way to do it is just by watching the players. You can't cheat the system. You gotta go through it. You gotta grind on these guys. um, so that's a big part of what I do. And then you've got to enable your staff. And I have a great scouting staff. A lot of us have been together for 15 or 20 years. I've got to trust those guys that they're going to be the best at what they do. I don't get as involved with free agency, so I'm not going to spend as much time. We don't spend a lot of money in free agency.

AD (22:53)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (23:12)
as Todd knows, that's why he's always hated the Baltimore Ravens because of it. We've never been a free agency team.

Zach Klein (23:14)
Ha ha ha ha! ⁓

AD (23:15)
Yeah.

TF (23:17)
He's not lying, he's not lying.

Eric (23:20)
We're a draft and develop team. So a lot of our resources are going to be acquiring as many draft picks as possible and then using those on players, trying to hit on as many picks as we can, trying to hit on 60 % of our draft picks every single year and trying to retain as many of those guys as we can for a second contract. That's kind of been the way that we've always operated. I forget your second question, Todd. What was it? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

TF (23:42)
Is the combine, is it helpful for you guys? mean, how does that differ? You know, in pro days, what do

you get out of those things?

Eric (23:49)
I mean for me, I don't really get a lot out of the Pro Days personally. I like the workouts at the Combine, I'll watch the tape. It's hard to watch. Anyone who tells you that they can watch the workouts at Indy and evaluate those guys is full of you know what. ⁓ But yeah, I'm gonna watch the tape. I'm gonna watch the tape. But you for me, the value of the Combine

AD (24:04)
There you go, that's what I wanted to hear. Cause it's what you do on the film. You put that on film though. You get to, you know, see the guys in the, yeah.

Eric (24:14)
is exposure to the players in the interview sessions.

You know, it's speed dating almost, but you get a chance to talk to these guys for 15 minutes. And it's really predicated on the idea that can this guy learn? So we try to install a couple plays and then, you know, we'll go through some different scenarios with these guys. And at the end, we're going to dial back to those plays and we're going to see if that guy can teach it back to us. We're not asking the player about his family and, you know, off the field stuff because we have all that information. We really just want to see.

if this guy can talk football with us. We may show him some plays from a couple games, see if he can tell us to play and tell us what he's supposed to be doing. And then maybe what the guys behind him are doing. Maybe the guys in front of him are supposed to be doing. That's a really big deal for us. When we look at players, when we sell a scout our best picks and worst picks, we find that most guys usually fail for three reasons. Injuries, off field character, and they don't learn the game very well. So those are big for us.

durability, finding good citizens, guys that have good team, guys, football character, and then guys that can learn football quickly enough. You don't have to be rocking scientists. We're not looking for 4.0 GPAs, but you've got to be able to learn the scheme and react quickly in the heat of the moment.

Zach Klein (25:30)
to cost or appreciate your time. Thank you for joining us here in the Inner Circle podcast. You did great. You're ready to do it for real now I can hit the record button.

Eric (25:37)
Hahaha

AD (25:37)
Hahaha

TF (25:39)
Now there's so much.

Zach Klein (25:39)
I know you like getting

pranks, man. I know you like getting pranks, so take it easy on my media guys. I heard you like bringing up the alarms and shit on their car doors while they're doing their standups, man. You gotta stop that. I gotta take care of my guys.

AD (25:41)
Yeah

TF (25:42)
he's a

Yeah, Eric?

Eric (25:51)
Next time I'll

tell you guys some of my favorite pranks. I got some good ones.

Zach Klein (25:54)
All right.

TF (25:54)
That was actually one of our questions. just didn't, we want to be respectful of your time and keep you for not past the time window we have. But there is so much to talk to you about, like, you know, the draft and the draft process and just all of these different things that go into your job. You know, I've enjoyed our relationship. I think you do obviously an amazing job. Your organization is great. And we really appreciate you coming on and spending a little bit time with us.

AD (26:16)
I appreciate it. We appreciate it a lot, And good luck this season. We'll be watching, man. I'll be watching.

Eric (26:21)
Take care guys, thank you.

AD (26:22)
Yes, yep.

TF (26:22)
Eric, I'll see

you next week.

Zach Klein (26:22)
Thanks, bro.

See you in Indy, See ya.

TF (26:25)
He's unbelievable with what he does and how he balances what he's got going on between the draft and All-Star Games and free agency. And we didn't even talk about, he's got to extend his own guys or he's got to be willing to move on from his own guys. All these decisions have to be made and there's so much planning that goes into it. And it's a lot. And they have to also decide that they get what, 60 interviews, formal interviews at the combine? Which 60 guys are they going to be interviewing?

AD (26:39)
Yeah.

TF (26:52)
and why, you know, and what are their needs and what are they trying to fill in the draft? And he says they're not big free agency spenders. That doesn't mean they don't spend at all. They just might not be, you know, big spenders. That doesn't mean they don't go get a mid-level guy in terms of money or other starters to go plug certain holes and just trying to figure out that balance and having that plan of attack, especially with a whole new coaching staff and everyone being on the same page. It's a lot, a lot that's on his plate.

Zach Klein (27:18)
said he doesn't really spend ⁓ money in the free agency. But one of his biggest free agent signings was your guy, Derek Henry, that goes there. So smart money was big money at the time and it fit a need, right? That was big money for that position at that time. So I think he's just selective of what he's saying. He's just not gonna throw money at the wall and hope the shit stinks. Like he's locked in, he know what the needs is. And there's value there, Todd, it seems like he's gonna go after it.

TF (27:25)
Well...

No, for sure. They have a plan and they're a very well-run team and that's why they're in the hunt every year and have a chance to go deep and they're competitive. So, you know, he's a grinder. mean, look, people always think of my job, Aaron's job, your job, Eric's job, as they only see the sizzle and the glamour piece of it, right? But you just heard the guy talk about that he goes in at 3 a.m. ⁓ to get six hours in so he can then, you know, start his day with his family at 10.

AD (27:44)
Yeah.

You don't see behind the scenes, you know. 3 a.m. to work, you know.

TF (28:06)
Like that's the type of stuff it takes to get there. And then it's not just putting the work in, you gotta be right. You gotta make the right decisions with the right players. And he's right, injuries, and durability, character concerns, ability to learn. Those three characteristics are huge when it comes to trying to figure out, did you get the right player? And is that gonna be a guy who gets a second contract? And they gotta hit on the guys. I think he said 60 % is his goal. If they don't, then they're gonna end up having to be big spenders in free agency because...

You can't build through the draft if you're not picking the right players. And when you're picking a human being, a lot can go wrong. And there's a lot of variables, right? Certain systems they're in and how they take certain coaching and all of sudden they get a big contract. How do they react? mean, so many different moving parts and that's why the coaching part matters too. Do they get the best out of the player? I mean, you look at a guy like Sam Darnall, right? He didn't have success in New York, but then his journey brings him all these other places and then he goes to Minnesota, has success. And obviously we know what happened this year.

the situation and the surroundings also come into play and that's building the right culture and the right leadership too.

Zach Klein (29:05)
just wait till his kids are older and they're in college and they sleep till noon. The dude will be getting 10 hours extra work in on a Saturday and another 12 on Sunday. Like man, I got all the time in the

AD (29:09)
You

Well, if

they in college, I hope they get their own damn house back in though, they in college.

Zach Klein (29:17)
Yeah, they're always coming back AD. They want

their laundry. They want a free meal. They're always coming back man. I'm just preparing both you guys for that.

TF (29:24)
Aaron, it's different.

AD (29:24)
You

TF (29:25)
you have boys, yeah, they have their own place. If you've got your girls, they can stay with you forever, right? So, yeah, trust me, that's where I stand.

AD (29:30)
There you go.

Zach Klein (29:30)
Forever, Yeah.

He's a good man. mean, it's cool that you guys remember each other, obviously, from back in the day, you guys both kind of coming up, grinding, working hard, long hours. And to see a guy like that who's got a great personality, Todd, to reach the level of success he has. But we've talked about it so many times on the show, man. What have you done for me lately in this league and to be with this organization for what? you know, 30 years, 96? Damn, man. I mean...

AD (29:53)
since 96, we're in 2026, yeah, 2026, now that's crazy.

TF (29:56)
It's very, very rare.

And he did have, when he was that assistant GM, sort of the GM in waiting, because that's what the owner told him, he had opportunities to go become GM at other places. He just continued to turn them down because he felt like this is the place he wanted to be. Ozzy just kept staying on and staying on and staying on, and Eric had to stay patient and stay patient. And then, you know, that's what he did. I don't love, I love Eric's evaluations. I just never love asking him about certain players because

AD (30:10)
Yeah.

TF (30:24)
I could be in the eighth inning on a recruit if I just am tempted to ask him what he thinks of the guy, I'll never like his grades. He never gives me good grades on anybody. ⁓ So I never like asking. would tell you that for sure. That's something I don't like to talk to him about. Cause it's very depressing. You put up all your time then. And then he tells you he stinks. my God.

Zach Klein (30:31)
Yeah

We were gonna talk, I bet.

I wanted to talk to about the self-scouting process and when they go through the draft and maybe two, three, five, seven years later and look back at a class that they didn't hit on and his eyes at 40 % that didn't work, what did they learn from those guys? When you look at some of the kids that you've recruited, Todd, over the years and have worked with, do you guys self-scout as an agency? Do you do that personally when you're looking at traits and something like that? And is it kind of like what Eric was talking about?

⁓ You know, do you pick up the game quickly or do you have that? What do you call it? Planet players. I like that line. Are they planet players? It seems like those are the type of guys you and your agency are going after are the planet players.

TF (31:17)
I mean, Aaron Donald's case in point, but yes, you know what? The self-scouting for us, at least specifically for me, isn't as much about the player. It's because I'm relying on information from the Eric Dacostas of the world and from other GMs and other directors of college scouting. We're trying to rely on what they're telling us who are the best players. And then obviously piecing it with whatever information we might have.

But really, and we obviously have a criteria in terms of what we look for because we have an upfront investment that we have to do in terms of paying for their training costs and all that stuff. So it's got to make sense. But my self-evaluation is more about maybe why I lost out on a recruit. What could I have done differently? What could I have done better? You know, should I have talked to the family more? Should I have made it more about this versus that? You know, whatever, should I have gone to a game? I don't know. The thing with recruiting is there's no recipe.

What works for one guy is the exact reason it doesn't work for another guy. I can have Aaron Donald and because I have Aaron Donald, I get his roommate the next year. I could have the same situation. I have Aaron Donald and because I have Aaron Donald, I don't get his roommate because he wanted to go somewhere else. It's like you just don't know and all you can do is be the best you can be and provide the best information and hope the players make the right decisions. Unfortunately, in recruiting, it's probably the least favorite part of this job. It's not how it works. A lot of players make decisions.

AD (32:08)
yeah exactly

TF (32:35)
in my opinion, for a lot of the wrong reasons. They're very short-sighted and looking for instant money that people might hand out or discounting fees and all the things that you're like tripping over thousands, I'm sorry, you're tripping over millions to chase thousands. And it's just like, but you got to express that and people have to understand that. And a lot of times they don't. know, agent businesses made itself pretty bad because everyone's trying to like, I'm 99 cents. No, I'm 98 cents. I'll give you $10. I'll give you $20. You know, instead of really,

AD (32:41)
It's a long-term goal.

TF (33:03)
having the players focus on what truly matters, these contracts are very, very sophisticated. These teams, as you just heard Eric, right, are very, very sophisticated with their draft process and why they take a guy. I mean, if I can affect a player's draft position by one spot, not because I can change his film, but because I prepared him better, let's say for those interviews that he was talking about, that he was looking for that kind of player and what they can do.

in terms of can they tell him what he does on film or can they also tell what the guys in front of him do, the guys next to him, the guys behind him, all those little things. And those make a difference, especially when you're looking at players that are so talented and just have a little bit of difference between one guy versus the next. And that little bit of difference can be a pick or not. And if you go pick 10 in the first round as opposed to pick 20, it's millions of dollars difference. And you got to remember, if you're a defensive tackle like Aaron Donald, you have a chance to go pick 10.

AD (33:37)
Mm-hmm.

TF (33:56)
and you don't, it doesn't mean, oh, well, you will pick 11. The next D-tackle might not even be taken to pick 25. So you could lose 20 million. I mean, if there's, that's just in that round. mean, it could be second round losing a million, half a million, whatever it is, there's real big money at stake here if you don't have the right plan and the right situation and you don't have the right agent or agency behind you, pouring effort, time, strategy, investing in you as opposed to just buying you.

There are big differences. It's hard to express it to a player, but that's where my self-evaluation comes in. I'm never happy, never satisfied. It still eats at me that I didn't get Calvin Johnson back, whatever it was, 20 years ago. Probably my biggest one that still eats at me, but I was young in the business. so you're always self-scouting and the day you stop is the day that everyone passes you.

Zach Klein (34:41)
So let me ask you this.

I don't like gambling in Vegas because the pain of losing $100 is so much more to me than the gift or the love or the joy of winning $100. That's why I don't do it anymore. So for you, with the success that you've had, are you able to enjoy the first rounders and celebrate that? Are you still thinking about the guys that you didn't get that didn't go in the first round?

TF (35:05)
Well, first of all, you're never satisfied. So no, I don't enjoy any of it. ⁓ But I do enjoy whether a guy's a first round pick or he's a fifth round pick because you build a relationship with that player and you build a relationship with that player's family. You understand what they've been through, you know, somewhat and what it's taken to get to this point. And you understand all the obstacles that they've dealt with in the time window during this draft process that you've had to work with them on. And so look,

AD (35:24)
Yeah.

TF (35:31)
everyone's first round, first round, first round. That doesn't dictate necessarily like your success in the league. It's almost like an SAT, right? It's like, you gotta have it to get in the drought. You gotta get it to get in school. Once you're in school, yeah, once you're in school, yeah, once you're in school, no one cares what your SAT was. You gotta go and perform. And it's the same thing in the league. I mean, sure, there's some benefits, first round money, and you're gonna get more chances to be successful because they're gonna stay on you. They're not gonna give up as quickly and all that type of stuff.

Zach Klein (35:41)
I think Tom Brady proved that okay. Get drafted. Just get drafted. Get drafted.

AD (35:45)
Yeah,

that's it.

incorrect

Politics to it,

TF (35:57)
I'm just as happy for a later round pick because their story is different and sometimes my involvement with them is different. so there's satisfaction all across the board. People make fun of me in my office because I always have a tear no matter what guy gets drafted and no matter where they do. And it's been 20, 25 years of doing this. It's just really just the emotion that I personally put my heart into everything I do for all these guys to know that you had a small little bit of impact.

on the end result is really, really like satisfying.

Zach Klein (36:25)
That's cool.

totally rewarding. Yeah, for sure.

for sure, right? You become family with these guys and experience that with them. ⁓ Dream come true that You know, as a friend, I've always looking out for you in the green room on draft night. You the players are celebrating. I'm looking where Todd has got the Kleenex out yet as he cried like that. That's always been fun. A.D., Todd was talking about self scouting and going through his process for you. You know, self scouting is the film, right? Film don't lie. Were you the type of guy that were watching

AD (36:32)
Yep exactly.

TF (36:32)
for sure.

Zach Klein (36:53)
immediately after a series on the iPads? Was it the next day, the next night? Was it a good game? You're looking at stuff right away or a few days later? How did you self evaluate your process when it became to playing with the Rams?

AD (37:05)
After every game I had to watch the film. I couldn't go to sleep if I didn't tossing and turning. If it's a way game, I'm watching the film on the bus. I'm watching on the plane again. It don't matter if it was a good game or a bad game. And even if it was a good game for me, okay, you watch those plays, but it's the couple with them one or two, three plays that you'd be like, man, I could have made that play. It could have been a whole different game. Even though you had three sacks, four sacks, it's like, it's the plays, the one or two plays that you missed or you didn't play good on.

that's gonna just eat you up and you just studying. You keep trying to find a way to, what should I did different? What do I gotta do different? So I was always a big film guy in the league, but I had to watch the film after every single game. Don't matter if it was home, don't matter if I got home at one o'clock and I watched it already three times on the bus and on a plane. I watched it again at my office. Yeah, I can't go to sleep. I'm tossing and turning, thinking about the game, thinking about the plays and like my wife contested this like.

Zach Klein (37:51)
You're watching.

AD (37:59)
Edges eat me up. I'm living in the office, you know, and then go to the facility order early in the morning, watch it again. And then I'll sit down with my D-line coach and we'll break the film down together one-on-one and it'd be like, all right, this would, and then just pick his brain and see what I should have did, what I can do better. And then obviously, you know, then you watch it as a group, you know, as a defensive line. So I already watched it six times before I, you know, watched it with my team before we even get together. So, you know, I always got to watch the plays. That was a bad play.

Zach Klein (37:59)
Hahaha.

AD (38:27)
You know, it's some players you're being teased in a meeting with. You be like, damn, all right, damn. Get past that play. Like, skip it. I can't wait to the play. It's the bad plays you don't want to see, but you just got to relive it and trying to find a way to be better, man. So it's a lot of work that go with it, man. And film for me was a big game changer in my career, as far as like understanding how to study film, how to study myself, how to study my opponent. And once I learned that...

Zach Klein (38:34)
Hahaha.

For sure.

AD (38:52)
for my coach, my D-line coach in college, Coach Notes, my junior year, it kinda like changed the way I played the game, right? The game became slower to me. It's a comfortability of being out there and you seeing a stance or you seeing a formation, understand what's gonna happen before it even happened. It's like you see the future before it even happened. All you gotta do is get in your stance and play what you practice, what you studied and just attack and play the game.

And once I was able to break that down, I felt like everything just became slower for me and I was able to play it so much faster, so much more free, man. And that's the test to the film study.

Zach Klein (39:24)
the coaches and the players, for those of you that don't know, that are listening to the show or watching online, you know, they have different angles, right? The players and coaches have the all 22, which is the entire field of players 11 on offense 11 on defense. When you were looking at film ad, was there a certain angle that helped you the most? Was it just down the line? Was it above? Was the all 22? Was it just focus on the line of scrimmage? What helped you in the evaluation process?

AD (39:45)
I watched

the end zone copy. So, with the cameras here, the back shooting down. obviously I would start with studying my offensive line, who I'm going against. I want to watch them as a group. I want to see are they a physical group? they play good together? Do they look like they all over the place? Do they work at a stint? Or do they like to communicate good together? And then I start breaking down each guy individual. And then I go back to...

Okay, now I break down the running backs, the tight end, different formation, personnel. So I always watch from the end zone copy for me. Like a cornering guy, they watch from the side view. You know, they want to see the whole field. I don't need to see what the right receivers is doing. If they ain't coming into my world, they ain't got nothing to do with me. You know, so I'm watching from the end zone and back copy. But again, you watch from the end zone copy. You see if a Larry Fitzgerald motion and you know typically when he was motioning there, watch from the outside because he going to crack block you.

Zach Klein (40:23)
But maybe you could chip them one time. Maybe you could just chip them.

AD (40:36)
I remember one time I went to the edge, I seen what he did to Robert Quinn one time and I said, I told Riller, I said, if you ever hit me like that, we gonna be out here fighting. And I remember I was at the end one time and he motioned and I looked at him I said, hey Larry, if you chip me, I promise you we gonna be out here fighting. I know I love you, cause that's my pick guy, but we gonna be out here fighting, you chip me like that. So, you know, there's certain things you watch on film, understand what's gonna happen before it happens. You just gotta, you know, open your eyes and watch and pay attention. So, I always watch from the end zone copy though.

Zach Klein (41:00)
And

needless to say, he didn't chip you.

AD (41:03)
Nah, he didn't. I would've chipped his I would've chipped his ass if he did. He slowed me down a little bit.

Zach Klein (41:05)
Yeah.

TF (41:07)
AD does it shock you?

AD does it shock you? Because I know you know, not all guys do watch film like that. Not the view. I'm just talking about in general. A lot of guys don't spend a lot of time on film, which blows me away. To me, it's like cheat code. Why would you not try to get that little extra advantage and watch it constantly? Because it can help you.

AD (41:16)
Indiana.

It is.

So I just think, and that's my thing too, I think a lot of people get to a certain point, we talked about it, where they make it to the league and they just satisfied with being there, right? And maybe I gotta have a good season and he think it's going to just naturally happen like that again. But you gotta understand when you do certain things, you get to this point, right? Okay, bang, you have a good season. this is easy, I can do this every year. No, now you gotta anticipate that these offensive coordinator, these offensive teams, they know who you are now.

Now they gonna prepare to find ways to slow you down. you always felt like you gotta study film. You gotta study yourself. matter if you play good, you play great. You gotta find ways to get yourself better. There's always just something else that you can do, something else you can learn. Like no matter how much success that I had, I always wanted to be coached. Don't care if I had fucking 20 sacks, 15 sacks. Let me know what I'm doing wrong. Don't just say, cause it's you, you gonna step over my bad plays. Nah, hold me accountable.

because you wanna be pushed, you wanna get better, but not everybody got that mindset, right? It's like, I always said, I was able to be consistent for the 10 years I play every single year, be at this point, but I was always working like, if you would've thought I was a damn free agent the way I work, right? Always in the weight room, first one in the weight room, always doing the extra work, always early in the facilities, always the first one in the meeting room, always the first one on the practice field, like always leaving late. you would've thought that I was, so would I say that to say,

with the way I worked and having other guys that was around me that's, know, seeing a success that looked up to me, they just naturally gravitated to that, right? And started to, now they there doing extra work with me. Now they, they stand a little late. Now they want to watch film. Now they want to do all the extra stuff that I'm doing, right? It wasn't nothing that I told them, come on, man, you got to do this. Hey, I'm working. If you guys want to come, come on, man. Like, just come on. If I'm watching film, you want to watch film? Come on, man, just come, right? And they guys just naturally started to do that. And that's why.

One thing Sean said, it's always good to have leaders that just lead by example, which is great, but just being yourself, because guys will naturally just gravitate to that, right? And I think as leaders, when you're trying to build the organization and be a Super Bowl team, obviously you need great leadership, you need great coaches, great players, but you need your top tier guys to hold the standard up here so everybody else got to step up and follow that trend, right? And I think when you got guys like that on a team, a lot of success comes from that, right?

TF (43:42)
That's awesome. Yep, I agree. That's why you ended up where you ended up.

AD (43:45)
And leaving it and be able to control when I want to be done and control, I ain't have to get pushed out. was like, I got to live and do the things I want to do and play the game as long as I wanted to play the game and be like, I accomplished everything I wanted for field. Football is just no longer for me. And it's like, why you still, I saw how he wanted to lead the game to be missed. And people saying, like the Barry Sanders, why did you retire so early? I'm like.

Shit, 10 years to me, I ain't seen it. It went by fast, but that shit was a lot of work, man. It was a lot of stuff that went into it that the world, we talked about, that the world don't get to see. They just see the outcome on them Sundays, the Mondays, them Thursdays, but they don't see the off season grind, right? All year like this. They don't see the film study. They don't see as you get older, the damn toll, holding the double team, triple team, take on your body, how much recovery stuff you gotta do, right? And you come home after practice and it's like, okay, I want to be able to relax with the family, but.

You still gotta watch more film, then you still gotta take care of your body all day. So the commitment was a lot. Was it worth it? Yes, it was. So, cause I was able to, you know, do some special things and change not just my life, but my family's life forever. So, but that just came with a lot of work, man. And obviously having a great team, a great agent like Todd France that, you know, handled the business side of things for me. And all my job was just go out there and play ball, right? That's all I had to do.

TF (45:05)
No

one was pushing you out. They're still trying to push you back in years later. So that we know.

Zach Klein (45:08)
Yeah, that's for heard from Matt

AD (45:09)
Hahaha!

Zach Klein (45:10)
lately, as Ryan hit you up, Todd, get AD with the Falcons. They could use some help. I won't get into that. AD, I've been... So hear me out, AD. I've been thinking about you a lot lately because I've been watching the Olympics in Italy. And I'm like, AD's in fantastic shape. He's like 6 % body fat. He's probably weighing... How much do weigh? Like 230 these days? Less?

AD (45:13)
Hahaha

Yeah.

Hell no,

230. I'm like 250 something. ain't no 230.

Zach Klein (45:34)
Nah, all

right, we'll get you down to 230. We'll get you maybe 235 max. You still got the guns. I'm thinking the next Olympics representing the Stars and Stripes on the bobsled, Aaron Donald.

AD (45:47)
You

TF (45:47)
Herschel Walker, right? Didn't Herschel Walker do it?

AD (45:50)
Really?

Zach Klein (45:50)
Herschel did it, Aaron Donald's next. What do think, AD? Can we count on you for the 2030 games to represent the Stars and Stripes in the American bobsled?

AD (45:59)
I would love to, man, but I don't know. Nah, I don't know. That might not be for me. That might not be for me.

Zach Klein (46:05)
think the power, the explosiveness and all you gotta do is push and then you get in the back of that rocket ship and you just chill out.

TF (46:11)
All you

do is push. mean, can you simplify it and dumb it down and make it work? No.

AD (46:12)
which then it ain't that

Zach Klein (46:15)
The pusher.

I'm not talking one man bobsled, I'm talking four man where he's the anchor. He's pushing things down the ice and then he trusts his captain, he trusts his quarterback to lead this thing down the ice, guaranteed goal for the US.

AD (46:16)
easy. It's an art to it. have to...

I don't know, what

I gotta do? I just gotta push, get us started and I'm just in there, and for the ride, I don't gotta turn. You know what I'm I'm just the power behind it, the turbo, and then I'm just in there. I don't gotta turn with the sled or nothing. Okay, if it's that simple, probably. If it's as simple as Zach say, then possibly, but I think it's a little bit more to it than that. It gotta be.

Zach Klein (46:33)
Along for the ride.

TF (46:34)
In for the ride!

Zach Klein (46:40)
That's it. You're the Turbo Boost.

TF (46:42)
No, you do. ⁓ God.

Don't

take your bobsledding directions from Zach, please. Or me, for that matter. We don't know.

Zach Klein (46:53)
This is how Todd Todd's gonna start not

AD (46:54)
Hahaha

Zach Klein (46:56)
even represent American athletes in the Olympics now all because of AD in the 2030 game bobsled. I love it

AD (46:59)
Hahaha!

Zach Klein (47:04)
See you guys next week for Todd France, Aaron Donald the entire Inner Circle crew. I'm Zach Klein. Thanks for hanging out with us folks. We'll see you next week on the Inner Circle pod.