Brian Billick, Former NFL Head Coach

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Plan features and taxes and fees may vary. All right. The NFL Draft is here, hour number three of our radio program. And what a nice surprise this is. The Super Bowl winning head coach, Brian Billick, kind enough to join us right now in studio on The Zach Gelb Show on the Infinity Sports Network on behalf of Signal Relief. Coach, appreciate the time as always. How you been? Doing great.

Thank you for having me. So this time of the year, what kind of memories does it bring back for you? And kind of take me behind the scenes what this is like for a coach on Draft Night. Wow.

They are such great memories. Because the draft, the great thing about the draft really is the beginning of your year. Obviously, you've had a lot of work leading up to it. But when you add talent to the organization, then the schedule will come out next two weeks or so. And now you're set.

Now you know exactly everything is in place and you go forward with it. And anytime you're adding talent, young talent to your team, it's exciting. Now it's taken on a whole new level when you're talking about the draft and the interest in draft.

I mean, it's amazing. There'll be close to 60 million people watch the draft over the three networks over the next three days. There could be upwards of 15 million people watching tonight in the first round.

Now, keep in mind that that 15 million will outdraw NBA and NHL playoff games, Major League. I mean, the interest in it. And so the fans, whether it's because of fantasy or whatever, you're adding that talent to it. Everybody knows about the players.

Everybody knows about everything. It's an exciting time. So I'm always a sucker for after the first round is over or after the entire draft is over the teams. Now they pump out their social media content and you see the owner, you see the coach, you see the GM have these emotional phone calls. Is there one phone call or two all these years later that still stick out to you with a player that you guys drafted? Well, you know, that began because, and I think it went back to the early days in Cleveland where they drafted a guy that had died. He had actually died and they didn't realize this is the old days. So people started, you know, before I draft, I'm going to talk to a guy.

I want to know he's okay, wasn't in a car accident or whatever. But that too is an emotional time because you, particularly whether it's the first round pick, which everybody sees and watches, they're in the green room or whatever, or later guys that have waited now, second round, third round, am I going to get the call? So when you make those calls to the sixth round guy or the late second round guy, the third round guy, the fourth round guy, that's when it really gets exciting because now they've waited, they weren't sure how high they were going to go, and they get that call and all of a sudden you've changed their world, their dream, their life's dream to play in the National Football League.

And it becomes real to them. Now, whether they make the team or not, that's a whole other thing. But that's an exciting call. Talking to Brian Billick right now. All right, let's get to the quarterbacks.

I have to do these commentaries that aired at all of our stations around the country. And the commentary I did today was, it feels like 90, 95% of the time with the draft, all we talk about are quarterbacks, quarterbacks, quarterbacks. When you look at Caleb Williams, he's going to be the number one overall pick. He has the task of changing the Bears franchise. The Bears finally getting right their franchise quarterback. What do you see with Caleb Williams? Just like Justin Fields, right?

I mean, he was going to be that guy. The view I have on the quarterbacks, there's absolutely no reason, this is a talented field, and there's absolutely no reason these guys shouldn't be good pros. The fact of the matter is half of them are going to fail.

That's just the history of it. And it's a 50-50 proposition. Now, it's above my pay grade to tell you which of these guys are going to be successful and which one aren't. They all have the basic abilities to be good.

The film supports it. A lot of it has to do with where they go, how they developed. But at the end of the day, do they have that ability that translates into the NFL?

And you don't know until you get them. I had one scout tell me the most difficult thing is of the 350-some-odd throws a player might make in a given year, only about 15-20% are NFL throws. Films, throws that you can look at and say, yes, these are throws he's going to make or have to make in the NFL. So by that number, you look at it and so you're deciding on whether to put your franchise, your future on the line by taking a guy in the first round on about 50 throws.

Is that enough to extrapolate? And sometimes, yeah, sometimes no. There's absolutely no reason these guys across the board shouldn't be good pros, but half of them are going to fail. So with what you just said about the film, which I think it's fascinating and right, you got to coach a team during the season. You have other people doing the scouting and trying to figure out who's the best and all that. I know that it always has come down to the coach loves the player or not, but you do have some input in that kind of process. When you sit down, when you used to talk to some of these quarterbacks, what do you look for when you just have these conversations and these meetings and meetings and meetings that just never end with these players?

That is the tough part too, because the physical part you can see, that's easy to quantify. Okay, yeah, he's got this kind of arm strength. He can run around, he can do this, has this kind of vision, but it's that temperament. And they're all very, you know, these typical quarterbacks are going to be strong personalities. You can see the good natural leadership in them, but you've got to kind of dig past that to see, is this guy that I really want to be a partner with?

And there's a lot of different ways that you can kind of scratch through it. They're all very prepared now too via their agents and particularly today. They're well schooled, they sit down, they're polished, they know how to answer certain questions that you're going to put to them. You try to kind of cut through that to see what's this, how competitive is this guy? How's he going to handle the pressure? How's he going to make the transition into the NFL? Is he a small school guy from a small environment, small town, that now is going to get thrown into New York or Chicago or San Francisco or Dallas? How's he going to handle that? That's a lot, and particularly with a limited amount of time, particularly as the coach.

I may only have, you know, a small window to visit with the guy. That's where you really got to count on your coaches, or I should say your scouts, to have done their homework, done the background on the guy, talked to family members, friends, other teammates, the equipment guy, just to find out what kind of guy is this? What's he really like?

What is his character? Because that's going to affect his ability to succeed as much as anything physically. Nowadays, as we're joining in the studio on the Zach Gelb show by Brian Billick, the running and the mobility part of the quarterback position is so important. Like before the season, everyone said Caleb Williams, Drake May, going to be one too. Now Drake May has athleticism, he has mobility, but then Jayden Daniels goes out there and he rushes for 1100 yards and tosses 40 touchdowns, and boom, it's expected Daniels is going to go two tonight and May is going to go three. How much of an importance now do you put on it for guys running the football out of the quarterback position?

Well, that's two different questions. Running the ball versus athleticism. In today's game, you have to have a certain athleticism. The ability to work within the pocket, the ability to extend plays, not necessarily maybe running the ball, but getting outside the pocket, growing off a platform, being able to perform outside of that pristine pocket, that ability to just sit. Like Mahomes, he runs pretty much sideline to sideline. He's not usually running down the field. And he's a perfect example because he's a guy that can also hurt you running the ball down the field.

But we do have a lot of quarterbacks that that element, that ability to run the ball, it's important because it's an adjunct. The question is, but can he beat you from the pocket? Now, maybe he's a good enough runner.

Lamar Jackson's a perfect example, but you got to buy into that. You got to say, okay, we're comfortable with him running the ball 150, 160, 170 times. That's a non-traditional view because can he last? Can he stay healthy enough? So the running quarterback, that's a nice adjunct, but the athleticism within the pocket is more important.

And these guys have that. Joe Burrow is an excellent athletic quarterback. Now, he's not going to run 70, 80 times and put a bunch of yards on it, but he can move around the pocket. Aaron Rodgers is one of the most athletic and gifted, moving within the pocket and extending the play because that's what you're really doing. You're breaking down a defense and extending the play by buying time, by moving around the pocket. So that athleticism is an absolute premium.

The old, stable, straight-legged, stiff quarterback, those days are gone, clearly. There has to be a certain amount of athleticism, but does that make Jayden Daniels a better quarterback, a more productive quarterback, because he adds those running yards than the guys that do it that are athletic, but do it more within the pocket? That's a good question. Then the other question is, okay, but can he stay healthy? That's the next question. The only concern I have with Daniels.

Exactly right, and legitimately so. He's not a big guy. You look at him, he's frail. But he knows, like Lamar Jackson, he knows how to avoid the hit.

It's not a problem until it's a problem. Because Lamar doesn't take, as much as he runs the ball, he doesn't take that many hits. But missed the last six games. Yeah, no, he's had injuries. And that's not fair to put an indictment on him because any quarterback can get hurt. Joe Burrow was hurt for a lot of part of the season. But you are tempting Providence if you're going to buy into that kind of guy, and how long can he do that and stay healthy?

That's really the big question. And then the key thing where a lot of teams will make a mistake is they'll buy into that athleticism, but then try to limit him. But we don't want him carrying the ball 10, 12 times a game. That's why you have to give Baltimore great credit for when they took Lamar Jackson and they bought in. They said, no, we're committed.

If we're going to let him be him, and he's going to carry the ball 160, 170 times, you've got to buy into the second part of the equation. The two storylines that I'm most fascinated to see tonight, who Minnesota ends up getting at quarterback? No Kirk Cousins.

They're sitting there at 11. They also made a trade before the draft, so they have 23 as well, so you have ammunition to move up. I kind of feel like the Patriots are going to keep the pick at three and take a quarterback. So that four and five range before the Giants pick at six, because I think if one of the four top quarterbacks are there, you will see the Giants take a quarterback.

I'm fascinated to see what Minnesota does tonight. Yeah, and you do that, you have to rely on your evaluation, your analysis. What that tells me is they're comfortable with four or five of these guys. You either move all the way up and spend all the resources for that, because you see that, and some teams will do that.

You see there's a real difference between the second and third guy. But when you move into the position that Minnesota has, that tells me, yeah, you may see them move up to get a particular guy, but that tells me they're very comfortable with four or five of these guys, all of them, and that they're going to be as comfortable with a Michael Pennix as they would be with a J.J. McCarthy, because they think one of these guys is going to find his way back to that position. Yeah, Brian Billick here with us.

Other players, like Marvin Harrison Jr., I think he's can't miss. You have the family lineage there. Is that something? Like, we talked about that, we're like, oh, Dad was a great player. Now, he's a great player in college.

How important is the family lineage at all? To a degree, good bloodlines are always good, you know, and the fact that he's been around it. He's been around the game his whole life. That's a comfort zone for me, that growing up around his dad, obviously went to a high-profile program at Ohio State, so he's comfortable in that role. He's seen it, he's lived it, and that's very important, because a lot of times you can get young gifted athletes that come in, and that role can overwhelm them, and they step under the big stage, and all of a sudden it is a lock in the NFL or in a big city. So yeah, that's certainly a comfort zone that he has that kind of background, and what's interesting again in this draft is because of the quarterback situation, some awfully good players, whether it be a Harrison, whether it's the tackle, Alt, are going to get pushed back to some teams that realistically could not anticipate they were going to be available where they're picking, so that means some pretty good athletes are going to get pushed back into a good position. Oh, it's funny you said that, because I was telling you earlier how I did this commentary how it's all quarterback, quarterback, quarterback. The three players I actually feel most confident in aren't even quarterbacks.

It's Marvin Harrison Jr., it's Joe Alt, the offensive lineman at Notre Dame, and then it's Roma Dunze, the wide receiver out of Washington. So it's a little bit interesting how much coverage we spend on the quarterbacks then compared to maybe how you feel about who's going to be the best players in the next level. When it comes to leaks, and I now know everyone has a platform now, like are teams, like you hear this idea that teams leak out information maybe to have a player fall that they want to get. Is that stuff accurate? Do we just kind of make too much of that?

Oh, absolutely. This is a giant game of liar's poker. You can believe nothing of what you hear from anybody in the NFL right now, because they're pushing and prodding and there's a lot of different things that, you know, misinformation.

Everybody's on the phone right now talking to one another, and with all the relationships you have, trying to be as discreet as you can to try to glean any idea about the direction they might go, at the same time not giving out any information that you have. So right now, there's a lot, and then you throw in the agents, that then also are going to leak out a lot of information or perspectives, and now because of social media, and there's just so many, I mean how many people have mock drafts? And 99.9% of them are people that don't know a quarterback from a quarter pounder, okay?

But they base it on, I read this, I hear that, none of them have done the film work, none of them have based it, and that's fine too, that you take an accumulation of, well I've heard this, I've read this. Guy runs a quick 40, boom, first round pick. Like they say, you hear it all the time in the last couple of months, well this guy has zoomed up the draft board, no he hasn't, he's always been there, you're just now finding out about it. The draft gurus and the guys that put these mock drafts together are just now becoming aware of guys that the clubs have known all along how good they were, where they were going to rank, that board has been set for a long time. Now there are some people out there that do an outstanding job, D.J., Daniel Jeremiah, the NFL network, Daniel Workforce of Baltimore, he is outstanding. Mike Mayock used to be outstanding, because they do the work, you know, Charles Davis is one of the smartest guys I've ever been around, he sees the college game, he's been around. So there are a lot of guys out there that do put in the work and have a great perspective. The majority of people, and that's fine too, it's fair enough, it's fantasy football, they're just trading on, well I read this, I read that, I saw this, I saw that written, and put out, well this is how I see it.

Well, that's fair, that's great, it's exciting, it's not necessarily the most legitimate perspective, but it's fun to follow. Where are you at with J.J. McCarthy, because the confusing part with that is last year and the last few years they've had such great offensive line, they had such great running backs, they didn't need to throw the ball 30, 35 times a game. Any time you take a quarterback from a program that is that dominant, it's a little bit of a concern, because he is surrounded by great talent.

Now, you don't nix him for that necessarily. And J.J. McCarthy did what they told him to do, and it won a national champion, has his whole career, in terms of, what is he, 27-1 or something like that, two high school championships, and so that's a pretty good pedigree. I'm going to scare you, for those that like J.J. McCarthy, I'm going to scare you to hear, again it's the 50-50. I think I see some Joe Bauer in him. I also see a Zach Jones. It could be either one, you know, is he that system quarterback with some great people around him. Now, certainly, Bowers came out of a tremendous talent at LSU. But where, I don't know, he has all the physical tools, seems to have the right demeanor, he's got the pedigree, there's no reason, absolutely no reason why he shouldn't come in and be a great pro.

He said the same thing about Zach Jones. Wrap it up with Brian Billick, tell me what you're doing about his signal relief today. This is, people need to check this out, you need to go to SignalRelief.com, this is the next step in pain mediation, it really is. It's a phenomenal product, it's reusable, you put it where you need it, it's not an icy patch or a tins patch, it's no goo, no ointment, it works with the electrical signals in your body, hence the signal relief. I mean, pain is nothing more than an electrical signal to your brain. We say put it between the brain and the pain. It mitigates that signal, allows you to get and rehab through, motion is medicine. The more you do, the better you feel. You can work through that intermittent pain that we always have.

I love golf. I play 18 holes of golf, my lower back, okay, I put it on my lower back or actually just above it. Now it allows me to do those other things, to rehab, to push past that pain, because that's where the real rehab comes from, pushing past the pain, working the joint, working the muscle, go to SignalRelief.com. Check it out, check out the science behind it, it's brilliant, it makes sense. It's the next wave of technology that you can use in putting you back in the game. Like I said, it's reusable up to a year, so it's very affordable. You put it where you need it, it's 100% money back guarantee. Go to SignalRelief.com, put in promo code coach, you get 20% off.

People with whatever intermittent pain or serious pain need to check this out, Signal Relief. The next thing I want to ask you, so you have the Bengals who have a Super Bowl window, you have the 49ers obviously a Super Bowl window, Brandon Iuch wants a new contract, there's been trade talk, T. Higgins on the franchise tag, he's demanded a trade. As a coach, I know there's your GMs, you got agents, everyone else involved, how do you kind of weather the storm when a player's in a contract dispute and starts to want out? Because you know you want to keep them to try to go win that championship. But that's the name of the game, the NFL, Denny Green, God rest his soul, my mentor always said, there's a time for pay and there's a time for play.

Well now's the time for pay, and that's what you're focused on. If you've got a top caliber quarterback, you've got a window. And there's going to be transition in players.

The great ones will absorb and raise the level of the other players around them. You can't pay everybody. The pie is only so big, and so at the end of the day, that's the price you're going to pay, particularly if you have a good quarterback that extends that window, which means you've got a pretty good window right now to work through. You're going to go through a number of iterations on your team, and that's just the way it is, you've got to rely on your system that got you that good player, well we can get another good player, because at the end of the day, you can't pay everybody.

So you wouldn't be heartbroken if, let's say, Higgins or IU get traded tonight. You hate to see talent walk out the building. You hate to see good players, good guys, walk out the building, but that's the nature of the league.

The business, yeah. And like Dan Rooney used to say, Mr. Rooney years ago, said, I don't mind overpaying for a good player, I just don't want to overpay for a bad player. And the hardest thing, and it's the hardest thing because you've worked and you've been through the batteries of fire with these players, and you can't pay for past performance. It's the toughest part. You can only pay for performance going forward, and that's where, because you want to.

You want them to be a part of the team, but you've got to keep that in mind. You've got to pay for what is on the horizon, not what happened before. You think Belichick is coach's last game? That's hard to imagine. That's all this guy's ever done. Still going to be some team that recognizes that that experience suits them, it's not for everybody, because regardless of what they say, at the end of the day, it's going to be Bill Belichick's show. So it's going to be a unique owner and a general manager that brings that on, knowing that at the end of the day, we answer to him. And whether they're willing to do that or not, he certainly has the pedigree. He's a lifer.

It's all he's ever done. Everyone says, a lot of people are saying the Cowboys, but you know Jerry Jones runs the show there. That will be an interesting marriage. Now, Jerry Jones will make that deal if he thinks he can win and that they'll work it out. But those two personalities, that would be worth the price of admission.

That will be, we'll have to wait and see the rest of the story on that one. He's Coach Bill. Coach, thanks so much.

Once again, check it out. Signal Relief. We'll take a time out. I know coach loves these mock drafts.

I'm going to give you my final mock draft when we return in five minutes. T-Mobile has invested billions to light up America's largest 5G network from big cities to small towns, including right here in yours. And great coverage is just the beginning. Right now, families and small businesses can save up to 20% versus AT&T and Verizon when they switch.

Visit your local T-Mobile store today. Plan savings with three lines of T-Mobile essentials versus comparable available plans. Plan features and taxes and fees may vary. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too with the name your price tool from Progressive.

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Price and coverage match limited by state law. All right, football fans, the NFL draft is almost here and the free Odyssey app brings you the latest coverage from the biggest sports radio stations across the country. Which players will help your team the most? Who will make a draft day trade?

Will they be ready for week one? The local conversations about the team you love. All streaming free right here on the Odyssey app, A-U-D-A-C-U-I. Download it today.