9-8-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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For important information, visit principle.com disclosures. My Tomlin and his Tomlinisms are notorious. They are infamous.

They are the stuff that legends are made of. I've spoken to multiple former Steelers who say that he is that way behind closed doors. Now there may be some more salty words that are mixed in, but Tomlin uses the same language, the same phrases, the same vocabulary in front of the media as he does when he is in the locker room. If you've watched our latest YouTube video, it's the fifth episode of our Stairway to Seven series. It's an ode to football. Welcome back football. We give you seven teams that we believe will make the playoffs in 2023 that were not there last winter.

One of them is the Steelers, though I will not tell you who picks them or what step they are on our Stairway to Seven. We're going to keep a lid on that. But I told my family, oh my gosh, Bob is now part of the first family group chat. What?

It's official. But it's not the entire family. Really funny. It's mom, mom's husband, me and Bob because there's a lot of wedding planning going on. And my mom and her husband are involved in a bunch of that, including the caterer.

They went with us for the taste testing last Friday. And also they're paying for specific things with the wedding, not the whole thing. Bob and I are paying for most of it, but they are paying for a few different vendors. And so for that reason, we have now a family group chat that's at least half the family. So not the whole family. It's a start. It is. He's been integrated.

He's at least been included in one of the family group chats. Anyway, I said in the family group chat that we had a brand new video and my mother likes to call me a spaz on these videos because I'm constantly waving my arms and my hands around. And so I tell her that, well, she tells me I'm a spaz. I mean, I guess, however you could say it lovingly, mom does, but yeah, she, I've told you, my mom is fairly blunt.

That's where I got it from. She doesn't mince words. And if she thinks I'm a spaz, she says so and doesn't consider the fact that it might be hurtful. Nah, it's fine. It's mom.

And I know I'm a spaz. Anyway, so I tell her that there's a brand new video up and she writes back to me and says, why are you talking about peeing down your leg? Because she doesn't know that Mike Tomlin referred to a rookie last year and used the phrase he didn't urinate down his leg. He didn't urinate down his leg, man.

That's a great place to begin. Right. I mean, it was actually a compliment given by Mike Tomlin and my mom didn't realize that it was a Mike Tomlinism. She probably doesn't know who Mike Tomlin is. And instead she writes me this in response to the video, urinating down a leg? Question mark?

Ew. She watched the whole video and that's what she got. She did.

That's what she took away from the video. Of course, that's fairly classic for my mom. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Thanks so much for hanging out with us. We're glad to have you. For those of you who are awake on your Friday morning, September 8th, it's a freaky, fantastic, full on football Friday. It's a full tilt football Friday, if you will. And for those of you who are not yet on your Friday, well, you'll be here soon enough. It is our first football Friday, which means we have our first After Hours Game of the Week poll.

It's happening every week during the NFL season. Of course, it's officially back. So check it out on our show Twitter After Hours, CBS, or you can find it on my Twitter, ALawRadio. In addition to that, it's up on our Facebook page and many of you are already weighing in. And see, the fun with Facebook is that you don't have to select one of our options.

You can go off the beaten path. And same thing on Twitter, I suppose you can reply. But on Facebook, people write diatribes and monologues about the game of the week and why. And of course, Lions Chiefs doesn't qualify, though Detroit is 1-0 after holding the Chiefs to just two field goals in the second half and after holding Kansas City to 0-for, 0-for, 0-for 7 on third down in the second half. That's really impressive as well. Certainly there are some drops that hurt the Chiefs and you'll hear about that a lot on Friday. We'll get back to that game a little bit later this hour as we launch into some QB news. But Detroit's first season opening win since 2017, do you believe in Jared Goff now or nah? 359 consecutive passes without getting hit.

That is incredible. We're talking about historic in the NFL. I think it's the third longest stretch for a quarterback without getting hit. He hasn't been hit in 359 consecutive snaps.

That's insane. Tom Brady would take that. Meanwhile, Patrick Mahomes was pressured a lot. Give the Lions the credit in the trenches. Sure, Mahomes is capable of scrambling and extending plays and stepping up and back and around and making defenders look like fools when he throws side arm around their lunging bodies.

But it doesn't mean he's not pressured. Aiden Hutchinson was in his grill a bunch. One game in the books and we need you to help us choose the after-hours game of the week. So again find it on Twitter or Facebook if you haven't seen our latest YouTube video. It's also linked on both of our social media sites and there's still time for you to join us on Survivor Island.

We set up a brand new member of the archipelago because we ran out of space on island number two and I don't know what to tell you. I'm sorry if you can't figure it out. All you have to do is use the link. Read what it says. It tells you exactly how to set up an account if you've never set up an account before. It's not that challenging and I'm not making fun or criticizing but just read what it says. All you have to do is use an email and set up a password. If you're not already part of Survivor Island, meaning you haven't played in the past, you just got to create an account for cbssports.com. I swear, if my mom can do it, so can you. It's easy peasy.

So I hope that you'll try the link. Again, it's pinned to the top of both Twitter and Facebook. We've got a lot of goodies right now on our social media.

We're going to talk Alabama, Texas a little bit later on but even as we launch into football season, there are a few relatively bizarre, at the very least odd storylines that we're tracking. One of them was the protest at the US Open semi-final with Coco Gauff in which there was nearly an hour delay while they unglued a man's feet from the concrete in the upper deck. That's so gross.

Also, how does that say end the use of fossil fuels? I don't know. I don't see how anyone didn't see this man like gluing himself while he was doing it and be like, hey, what does this guy do? And should we make sure he's okay? Well, you know how it is in a crowded stadium. People are paying attention to their own stuff and they just don't want the person next to them to touch them. If I was sitting next to the guy who was gluing his feet to the concrete, I feel like I'd get up and maybe call a security guard.

Okay. Well, you are a concerned citizen. That's just weird.

A good Samaritan. Yeah, but I think most people though would just see him kind of rubbing his feet. I don't know. Maybe not really paying close attention. Also, these days you never know what weird people are going to do. I mean, they might start yelling at you. They might whip out a weapon. I would like to think that if there was a person in danger that I would get involved, that I would step in and say something. And these days though, how often do you hear these stories on the news where people are getting attacked?

This happens in New York all the time. People are getting attacked or getting into fights or a person's getting beat up. And what are bystanders doing? They're taking videos on their phones.

They're not helping. Again, it's a little bit scary to insert yourself into a situation these days, especially when it's violence because you think you might then be in the line of fire and that is likely the case. But I don't know how I could stand there and watch someone get beat up and not do something or say something or call the police or something.

I'd feel like my last instinct would be to take out my phone and start filming. Yeah. Oh, no way.

Yeah, it just feels wrong. Anyway, at the US Open, there were four protesters. One of them glued himself to the concrete. So they were trying to get his feet off of the concrete while his hands are cuffed behind his back, which was sort of funny.

Another really bizarre situation. Have you guys been following what's happened with Chandler Jones and the Vegas Raiders? I don't know that this has anything to do with Josh McDaniels.

Okay, I'm not telling you it does. But I do know that Josh has made some questionable personnel decisions in the past. Remember, he traded away Darren Waller. And the story is from Darren Waller's, well, now wife, that it's because Josh was ticked that he didn't get invited to the wedding.

I mean, he does have a huge ego. And in the past, he has gotten rid of people that he feels like cross him. But this story with Chandler Jones, and he's going on a verbal assault against the team. He keeps posting on social media about the Raiders. And he says that they actually sent a member of a crisis response team to his home. And then he went ahead and he deleted the post on Instagram. But yeah, he showed a picture of a member of the crisis response team's badge and wrote, the Raiders sent her to my place and said, you need to come with us. You're in danger. And then he includes some emojis. He goes on to say they had me outside of my drawers, LOL, naked. Now I understand why players turn to social media.

At first I frowned upon it, but it's our only outlet. If I didn't do this, it would have been kept under wraps. Anybody interview them and ask why I'm not on with the team? Because I don't know. And, and he's kind of threatened the team to get, so this goes back a little bit where this, so this is mid August where he says that he and Josh McDaniels were going back and forth in text messages and that he promised he wouldn't share anything else about Josh McDaniels and their text exchange if the Raiders let him play in the season opener. And like I said, he was then sharing text messages between him and Josh and included, accusing the head coach of treating him poorly, treating him badly. All that McDaniels will say is that it's a personal situation, a private matter, but he has been on assault against the Raiders. And I don't know if it's about money. I don't know if it's about them sending him home. I don't know if this is a mental health issue.

There's a lot of questions about it, but of course Josh McDaniels keeps getting asked about Chandler Jones while he is at the microphone. Right now we're going day to day. So, he's not going to be here today, so we'll kind of take it one day at a time. That's kind of a personal situation and as a, we've never really gone into those kinds of things. So I'm going to steer away from that.

It's a private matter and if there's something to report on it, then we'll do that. Yeah, so this is not the first time that he has gone all in on the Raiders on social media. He has a contract, but appears to be upset with the franchise. He has put Josh McDaniels on blast as well as his defensive coordinator and the GM Dave Ziegler. But then he flips back and says, I can't wait to play.

Feeling great in practice. So it's, yeah, there are these messages that are in all caps and then there's these messages that are full of enthusiasm for being out there for the season. And right now his agent's not commenting either, only the report is that he's not been allowed into the team facility.

But I would say if I got on social media and ripped my boss and his boss and blasted the team and used some foul language, there's probably a chance that I would get suspended and not allowed in the studio as well. So I don't know what's happening there. Again, there's a lot of speculation about what's going on, that it might be a mental health issue or that the team has told him to go home until he gets his stuff together.

But we really don't have a lot of information. Now it's not the same thing, but I would say that initially there were a lot of people jumping to conclusion over Jimmy Graham. You remember he was arrested, oh gosh, was this going back three weeks ago, maybe two, three weeks ago? And we actually had a Saints team reporter on the show with us that very night because the Saints were playing, oh gosh, this was right in the middle of when there was that crazy tropical storm that was going through LA, right, in Southern California. And so the Saints were there playing, I think it was the Chargers, and Jimmy Graham was taken into custody in Newport Beach. So this is in California because the officer suspected him of being under the influence of drugs.

And because he was acting strangely and the officer said that he was obstructing that officer. But then what we heard is that it potentially was a seizure of some sort and that it was a health issue, not a behavioral issue or drugs. And again, if you were with us a few weeks ago, we actually had an interview with a Saints team reporter who himself suffers from seizures. He's epileptic, so he suffers from seizures and has to deal with them a lot and was really concerned for Jimmy Graham because this could be a serious health issue that was manifesting itself. So yeah, the Saints later released a statement saying that Graham had a medical issue and so he was disoriented, that he wasn't attempting to defy the officer, he wasn't under the influence of drugs. So all that to say, I'm not sure what's going on with Chandler Jones, but I hope the team is getting him help, whether it's a medical issue, a mental health issue, maybe it's something else. I hope that the team is working with him, a team doctor, a psychologist, maybe it's just someone from the front office who is willing to work with him and kind of help him figure out whatever it is that he's dealing with.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Was it Chandler Jones? It was, right? Going back to when he played with the Patriots who had taken some synthetic marijuana, remember? And he showed up, I think he was only half clothed and showed up at a police station.

Yeah, I think a couple years ago with the Patriots, like 2016 or something like that, yeah, he went to the police station and with his shirt off and just kind of made a beeline and didn't really say anything, I remember. He just was praying and they said he might have had some sort of medical issue and he really didn't give any reason why that had happened. And if I remember correctly, it was because he had a reaction, an adverse reaction to this synthetic marijuana.

I do remember that it was synthetic marijuana because I remember thinking, I don't even know what that is. But yeah, there was that issue. So again, I don't know whether or not this is related. It's clear that he and the team are at odds because he said, I don't want to play for Josh McDaniels. And he's saying that the team sent a crisis rep to his home, believing that something is wrong with him. Whether it's his choice to be away doesn't seem like, at least he's saying it's not, or whether the team sent him home, it's a bit of a mess.

So that's Chandler Jones. And I do hope that they get him the help that he needs. I'm not sure the crisis rep is the right way to handle it, but I do hope they get him the help that he needs because clearly with Jimmy Graham, it was medical. This wasn't about him taking drugs and the team stood behind him and supported him.

And now for the first time, he's speaking out about that incident, about the team. Feeling great, just looking forward and excited to put it behind me. I'll be fine in the long run. Just want to thank the organization and everybody that was with me through those couple of days and my teammates and my close family. Just appreciate everybody and all the concern. I'm really grateful that the team stood behind him. We would all like to think that our employer, our immediate bosses, would support us and would take our word for it as opposed to believing the worst about us, right? Same thing with family and friends. You would hope that they would take your word for it if you say, I wasn't using drugs.

I don't know what happened, but I was disoriented and it was not drugs. Of course, the population at large, maybe social media jumps to conclusions, but in the case of Jimmy Graham, he needed help. And I hope that he's gotten it since. And I hope this is not an ongoing issue for him, but he says he feels great and is grateful to the team for having his back. That's awesome.

Now, how, how even more loyal he will be to this team and how much more it matters to him to play for the Saints. On Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page, join the third member of our Survivor Island archipelago. So funny that we needed a third island. I love it.

I absolutely love it. You all are in like Flynn. And don't forget to make your pick. Don't forget to save your pick. I'm sticking with the commanders.

I am. I'm sticking with the commanders. Jay's sticking with the Ravens. Jay's going with the Ravens. Neither one of those teams is featured in the After Hours Game of the Week poll. So you got to check it out.

It's on both of our social media sites. So when you go join Survivor Island, vote for the After Hours Game of the Week. Also check out our video as an ode to football. Welcome back football. Straight ahead.

Wow. A couple of big games in the spotlight this weekend in college football including Texas, Alabama. I just said to Bob who is a massive Longhorns fan that I wish we could watch the game together this weekend and his response was, I'm not sure you're ready for that. You might change your mind about marrying me. Now see here I am thinking that I'm the crazy one about sports right and that football season he might not like who I become and what my schedule becomes but he says that I'm not ready to see him and watch a Texas Longhorns game with him. So Saturdays and Sundays are going to be interesting. What am I in for?

Really? I might change my mind. Wait do I get to keep the ring or does that get returned? Oh no that's yours. It's my gift.

I get to keep it regardless. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast.

What's up boss? You believe that? You, you, hold on, hold on, hold on. Oh no.

Do you believe that? Huh? Oh no, no, no. I ran through that bull junkie. I ran through that. I sipped it through all that.

Oh no, come on. Do you believe? You don't believe? You just answered it. You don't believe? Next question.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Oh it is a dangerous time to be a reporter covering the Colorado Buffaloes these days because Deion Sanders will call you out. He reads and he wants to know if you believe and coming up this weekend in college football it's Colorado making its debut at home in the Deion Sanders era against the rivalry that is Nebraska and think about it these two teams have been largely would you say irrelevant inconsequential the these two schools for quite a long stretch here but going back to their days in the Big 12 I remember this rivalry and so can they reignite it now because it's Deion Sanders for Colorado and you know Buff's fans are going to be nuts so are going to be nuts so especially after they had the big upset in week number one or will it be Nebraska under Matt Rule who goes storming into Boulder and squashes that there at least is a healthier respect but yeah two very high profile coaches Matt Rule getting fired by Carolina last year and landing back in college after what he did to resurrect the Baylor program do you admire their coach tremendously I mean what he did at Baylor I know things didn't go the way they desired them to go in Carolina but just that opportunity and doing what he did is something that some expire I don't expect to go to the NFL but some expire to to go to but I like him he's done a phenomenal job with that team and trying to get them in the right direction they play hard they play tough they're physical they dot i's and cross t's and trust me they're not going to lay down in any means they're going to come in here and be prepared for a dog fight they know the athleticism that that we feature and what we come to the table with he's wanted everything he's done in football he's one as a player he's one as a coach so I think everyone everyone maybe thinks like outside not me everyone else thinks like well this is this is all a show and that he's he's the most serious person about football like his poster was on people's walls for a reason as a player because he's one of the hardest practicing hardest playing people that's ever played the game right so why would we think that his team wouldn't be the same you know cj cj whites on our staff was a strength coach for him he told us like early on like let me tell you how they're going to practice let me tell you what they're going to do so the utmost respect I am still all about that video that leaked or that was put out suspiciously released after there was a fight that broke out in practice and Dion was incensed at two players who were backing up and not taking part in the fight if one of our guys is in a fight you get in there and you scrap you go after them you go after your teammate and those two guys who are getting screamed at in front of the entire team were sufficiently chastised they actually were saying yes oh we're never again going to leave our teammate in a fight no we're going to go in after him if one of us fights all of us fights that's what Dion's message was to those two who dared stay out of the fracas I mean he is okay and I say this completely complimentary he is different and he's a little bit crazy what's up boss you believe now but my motto is find people in life who are your kind of crazy baby Dion Sanders is he your kind of crazy buffalos fans is he your kind of crazy well if you got crazy or you thought crazy against TCU maybe you bought in he's got a message for the huskers rivalries are rivalries um there's some more severe than others I think everywhere you go coach from high school on up or from youth league on up you're going to have rivalries and just learning the dynamics of the different rivalries are I like it it's delightful so I've learned the the severity the serious nature of this rivalry and I'm embracing it 100 percent this is personal that's the message of the week this is personal oh he's so dialed down though this is personal that's the message of the week and actually these two teams couldn't be coming in from opposite ends of the spectrum more opposite ends of the spectrum because Colorado upsets TCU and serves notice that this is the real thing as Dion was asking that reporter do you believe now you believe that we need to keep that as a drop j that could be part of our NFL coverage all year do you believe now in fact we could use that for the lions after their season opening win against the chiefs you you hold on hold on oh no do you believe now do you believe that so they and actually did you I don't know if you heard this Jay or you saw this the TCU I think it was the quarterback who was saying that they were the laughing stock of college football after that loss yeah so he was really embarrassed so the buffaloes take out TCU a ranked TCU team but Matt rules Nebraska team opens up against Minnesota and loses loses are you ready for this 13 to 10 oh that'll rattle some cages 13 to 10 lost to Minnesota all right so do we see the offense with Matt rule in week number two and can they do it in hostile territory against some buffaloes fans that will be hype and I mean hype it's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS sports radio you thinking about hype well then you can't look farther than Nick Saban Alabama hosting one of his former assistants of course Steve Sarkeesian who is now the head coach at Texas and what coach Saban is mostly concerned about is that UT defense funny he doesn't mention Arch Manning or the fact that Arch Manning hasn't started yet nope what he's talking about is facing the the defense for sure because of the way that they expect the toughness right they expect that to be a team that is going to challenge them but then because Steve Sarkeesian was his offensive coordinator he knows that there'll be some tricks it's kind of fun too when I was in Texas last weekend I was talking to members of Bob's family and they were all asking me my thoughts right on the game last week's game but then also this this particular matchup against Alabama and the idea is is they want to get the run game going right in the absence of Bijan Robinson who's now with the Atlanta Falcons can they find a run game and they put up a lot of points but they only had one rushing touchdown so that was what was kind of notable for a bunch of Longhorns fans last week so yeah is there extra motivation against Alabama that's the question for Sarc we're focused on what we need to do uh the moment you start focusing on what the outcome could be what the result could be the game hits you in the mouth and you lose so we got to focus on what we need to do they got a really really good scheme in terms of you know the way they try to run the ball they try to try to formation you know the motions that they use the formations that they use and you know their offensive line does a good job of getting a hat on a hat they're big they can play physical they're athletic they're pretty good pass blockers so they're just a good all-around group and they have plenty of experience so um you know i i think this is one of the best better offensive teams personnel wise and scheme wise uh and the way they're coached to play and execute of anyone that you know we'll see this year Sarc has said that Nick Saban saved his career because he gave him a second chance you may know Sarc's story he had some major struggles with alcohol he got fired at USC and just like Nick Saban did with Bill O'Brien he hires Sarc to be his offensive coordinator gives him a second chance Sarc ends up winning the award for top assistant coach in college football this goes back to 2020 and now he has an even greater opportunity as the head coach at Texas and i'm sure you know the stat if you follow along Nick Saban is 28 and 2 against former assistants take that with a grain of salt of course on twitter after hours cbs what is the nfl game of the week and then also on our facebook page you can still join us on survivor island there's a brand new link to him and you can also check him out on twitter and there's a brand new link to a brand new island because the last two were full coming up a little taste of qb news as we get set for week one sunday nfl baby it's after hours with amy lawrence you are listening to the after hours podcast all right back to throw and it is is it is the song the andre hopkins call it steps back throws the faith touch down l.a burrow back to throw looking firing deeper chase in the end zone he's got it touch down joe burrow and the bangles the holmes fires for the end zone taught touchdown can sound city off the echo again no herbert keeps an end zone touchdown charges herbert with his second of the day here's the snap josh gonna keep it himself and run it again inside the five into the end zone touchdown buffalo josh allen nine yard touchdown run the bills respond and then some it's time for qb news on after hours yeah yeah we're hopping in and the first quarterback to be on a winning team this season is jared golf the detroit lions stunned the chiefs and arrowhead last night we will talk about it coming up top of the hour but for jared golf 22 of 35 253 yards and a touchdown he still has not gotten hit in a game in forever a lot of work's been put in this off season and you want to start off winning the first one and we did today we didn't play our best ball today certainly on offense i thought the defense kept us in the game for the most part but when we had to be great we were and um found a way there was one drive that was interrupted by a turnover so a fumble not by jared golf but for the most part they were relatively efficient five of 15 on third down they did go for a fake punt and convert a fourth down yeah and and they got the win and they had a fourth quarter drive that gave them the one point lead over the chiefs the defense made it stand up and golf says hey it's a new lions era we're to the point now where we're built for environments like this to go on the road to anywhere um and go pull out a win and even if it's ugly uh it's it's a win and uh we're happy about it elsewhere in the nfc north well the vikings are looking up at the lions in the standings and kirk cousins even though the buccaneers may not be the team that won a super bowl a couple years ago he's not taking that defense lightly i just see a really good defense i mean when he watched the tape i mean we played him in 2020 and had a lot of respect for him then they were the number one run defense at the time we played them and uh just have fast players uh they got a great rush it's a great scheme with coach bowls um you know they were a playoff team division champs last year for a reason and um they just got a lot of great players in their defense and so we expect them to really test us and um you know we've got to be at our absolute best it'll be the debut of baker mayfield as the bucks quarterback as tampa bay heads to us bank stadium in minneapolis justin jefferson may not have a new contract yet neither does kirk cousins but he wants to stick with his qb i would love for for kirk to continue to be my quarterback uh as of before as you know me coming into the league uh but again i don't control that uh you know that's up to to the the team and and up to kirk uh but of course i would love to have kirk and continue my journey with kirk a little bit later on we'll hear justin jefferson talking about his possible contract extension plus joe burrows it's after hours with amy lawrence here on cbs sports radio someone asked justin fields whether or not he's now the quarterback in the nfc north with the departure of aaron rogers i'm not really motivated by that kind of stuff i don't even look at that stuff to be honest and i just try to be you know the best version of myself try to get better each and every day so um whatever that may look like um that's what it is so the bears are hosting the packers it's one of the nfl's best rivalries in the north and i'm not sure why you'd ask justin fields that what is jordan loves some chopped liver well he gets his first opportunity as the starting quarterback of the green bay packers in this rivalry i'm excited for it um you know i mean it's always exciting to you know open the season get the first game on um rolling but uh for nfc opponent you know rival rivalry game it'll be very exciting um playing there in their stadium so i'm sure it'll be a packed house everybody'd be excited for week one and uh ready to put on a show so jordan is a first-year starter but he's not a rookie obviously that would be one bryce young number one overall pick when did he know that he was ready to step into this space with the panthers i don't ever think there was really a moment um i think it's just you know you you have you know confidence from from within and then it builds with the coaching staff my teammates and you know the people around me um and you know i kind of you know i lean on all of them for that so um i'm excited to be able to go into sunday with the group that i that i have yeah looking forward to that one so the carolina panthers on the road at atlanta where desmond ritter is now the starter for the falcons in week number one a lot less you know anxiety um you know for me it's just about being prepared um and which i feel like you know we're continuing to do obviously it's early in the week um but you know by the time sunday comes that you know not only myself but you know all other 10 guys on the field with me um will be just as prepared and you know it'll be fun the dallas cowboys are one of the options for the after hours game of the week their sunday night football on the road at metlife stadium against the giants and you know dak Prescott's got a lot of changes around him mike mccarthy's calling plays some different receivers too and one thing that always stays the same are the critics of dak what i do here at times um it's behind me if i've ever given credit to people's opinion i wouldn't be this far wouldn't have made it this far i'm in my life in this league um everybody has an opinion uh my former teammate chris jones just said that i read what he said about the opinions and i feel the same for me it's about focusing on what i can do this team the guys and the men that we have and um i can't control everybody's narrative what they try to make something out to be um but as i started this off with um any loss is motivating especially when we finished i finished the season as we did last year um yeah it's about turning the page and writing a new sentence and depends on our hands and we're ready to do that so dak Prescott and the cowboys made the playoffs in the nfc beast as did the eagles and the giants daniel jones got paid but you know what he's not looking past week number one because he's a mini eli and you just don't do that when you're eli all these divisional games are big uh for sure so yeah it means a lot it's a big opportunity for us and and we'll be ready to go so yeah it's a big game because it's the first game it's a big game it's because it's divisional game and it's uh it's the next game so ready i'm so excited for what we're going to see in the nfc beast could the commanders crash that party hey in the west the niners are the team to beat and guess what brock purty he's ready to go but is he surprised that he's a team captain i wasn't really thinking about it um you know i've just been trying to get better every day come to practice trying to push the guys around me um and be ready for week one and uh that's really just where my mindset has been so when we came in for a meeting we had voted about stuff i was like shoot you know i sort of forgot about voting for captains and all that kind of stuff and then once we came back a couple days later and saw my name on the board i was like wow like what an honor that's kind of cool brock purty and kenny pickett being the only Steelers offensive captain christian mccaffrey loves what he's seen from the young qb who's ready to start out the season as the number one guy it's funny when people ask me about the quarterback position i you know i'm not a quarterback and uh i don't know what they're reading all i know is um when he when he's got the ball he looks confident as ever he knows exactly where to go with it um and then he plays beyond the x's and o's but he did all that last year too so i'm just excited to see how he um you know comes back this year and once again just happy he's on our team there's a lot a lot of buzz around brock purty because of what we saw from him last year but also because if the niners can manage to go through the season with one qb or even two not that i want anything to happen to brock purty last year they used four quarterbacks and still rattled off what was it 12 wins in a row and made it to the nfc championship the defense has nick boza back on the field fred warner running up and down the hallway screaming because he's happy i mean this team is stacked so they can go through with just brock purty as the qb oh there's a lot of potential there of course they got to go through pittsburgh first that 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