00:00beat the Patriots 13 to 10 Sam Darnold out six snaps into the game with a hip injury but Drake
00:05Drew Locke was able to get the job done for the Seahawks last night um text message and then we'll
00:12get to D'Amico talking about CJ we better start seeing videos of Drake May walking into the
00:17facility in his baggy t-shirts with commentary on his look and crucifying his gate yes his gate
00:24his gate yes yep CJ Stroud worked uh well we're going to talk about CJ Stroud's gate yeah
00:30he got after it this offseason he did he walks the same way he's ever walked but supposedly he's
00:36running differently than he had before yeah yep yep we'll talk about that in a second here this
00:40was D'Amico Ryan sitting down with Jonathan Alexander if you haven't seen Jonathan's piece
00:45on CJ that ran yesterday in the Chronicle um and you're a Texan fan I would say go out of
00:50your way
00:50to find it it's really informative it's very well done um and uh and it's a good read but Jonathan
00:57in addition to that got a sit down with D'Amico Ryans and D'Amico said CJ has been locked
01:02in all
01:03offseason long what have you seen from him CJ's been locked in and that's what you want to see from
01:08the quarterback position I see a guy who's focused he's locked in not that he wasn't locked in before
01:14but I also think you know I give him some grace you know from him being a rookie having a
01:19rookie
01:20success like everybody's pulling at you everybody wants attention and you're the hot name rightfully
01:27so like you probably get lost a little bit in those things and and I think you know now he
01:33was just he's
01:34just more dialed in to the preparation more like I guess you mentioned earlier more comfortable with
01:40the offense so there's some it's a quicker transition it was a quicker training camp with
01:46the install like things just were sped up because it's the second time around so I think that allows
01:52him to be you know more locked in him actually being here you know he had an injury last offseason
01:57where he couldn't participate and so now he's been healthy all offseason he's taking great care of his
02:03body he looks good in shape like so I can only imagine what's what's next for him right it's a
02:11great
02:11season man because he's put in the work and typically when you when I've seen guys have
02:15really good off seasons that translates to having a really good season and so CJ is due for a really
02:21good one um okay so the that's consistent with what D'Amico has said a few times he said he's
02:28dialed in
02:28and then he'll say it's not that he wasn't dialed in before but now he's really dialed in right okay
02:34he
02:35wasn't as dialed in before it wasn't and he wasn't dialed in enough and I think that it's a you
02:39know
02:39he did D'Amico mentions that after his rookie year all that adulation and everything it's hard and
02:43uh maybe you're not as dialed in I I think there's two things that people would speculate about that
02:48I think I think that D'Amico is basically verified is one that yeah I think the I think he
02:56got lost in
02:56the adulation a little bit after his first year and I don't know if it I don't know if really
03:00until he
03:01hit rock bottom against the Patriots that he really understood that he needed to figure out
03:05a different level to get to in terms of his preparation the other is that I just so many
03:10people were trying so hard to act like it was no big deal that CJ was out of OTAs last
03:15year and for
03:16the life of me I didn't understand how you could have that attitude in a brand new offense when
03:21especially he was going to have more on his plate that him missing be missing OTAs wasn't a big deal
03:28uh or that his shoulder being sore because apparently he was lifting too heavy in the
03:33weight room or something wasn't a big deal those two things this year don't seem to be an issue and
03:38I think that I think that hitting rock bottom against the Patriots might ultimately end up being
03:43the best thing that ever happened to him because he really had to he had to figure out okay I
03:48got
03:48to do something different here because this this ain't working out I'm not going to be the am I
03:52going to be the guy that needs that gets a second offensive coordinator fired and they just keep
03:57trying to see see if if somebody come in can come in and be the the quarterback whisperer to this
04:03problem quarterback it's almost non-negotiable like it has to be the best thing to happen him or he's
04:09not going to be the quarterback for this team long term yeah it's it's just that's just the bottom line
04:13he has to bounce back from this and the things I liked in in Jonathan's article um and again I
04:19would
04:19encourage you to go to go find it on the chronicle Jonathan Alexander is the the the change in routine
04:25two things I liked one the I thought the way Jonathan laid it out in the article the the
04:33quickness with which CJ started to address things in the offseason he took the week went home to
04:38Rancho Cucamonga took a week or two unwound with family and friends and then boom got right after
04:45it and changed up his routine and there's an anecdote in there about Jaden Daniels reaching out to CJ and
04:50texting him and saying hey I work out at this MMVP place in the offseason where actually Will
04:56Anderson happens to work out there too among many other elite athletes and and Jaden Daniels suggested
05:03it to CJ and CJ went and worked out there for three months and he worked on I think this
05:08is what you
05:08were referring to earlier Seth and we were joking about his gait um worked on eliminating inefficient
05:13movement in his running using his spine better in whatever sports actions he's performing um he
05:21hired a personal chef I think we knew about that already because he does look a little more slender
05:25and just in better condition overall um I love the anecdote in this article about CJ going to Nick
05:31Caley and asking to make some of the film sessions player-led yeah and CJ himself going out and putting
05:39the
05:39playlists together so to speak like CJ going out and finding the plays whether it's in practice or
05:44from games or whatever it may be and then a lot of those plays were plays where CJ was screwing
05:49up
05:49and he's up there explaining what he could have done better as he's explaining to teammates what they
05:54could have done better also yeah and uh you know as soon as I saw that I thought back to
05:58Eli Manning that
05:59was one of the big leaps forward for Eli Manning in terms of being a leader was when the Giants
06:04the
06:04Giants actually brought in this company called Afterburner which is a lot of former uh pilot like
06:10military pilots and special ops uh special ops dudes that kind of train leadership and mission
06:17planning and all that stuff and a big part of it is having players lead the meetings players doing the
06:22debrief they do like a military debrief but it's player-led and and it for a guy like Eli Manning
06:29who
06:30you know wasn't the most he wasn't like Peyton when it came to being a leader it was really a
06:35huge
06:35step forward for him and really taking ownership of everything and and I think yeah likewise for CJ
06:40it sounds like maybe he took kind of a step forward in that regard and and that you know pointing
06:45out
06:46your own mistakes is just massive yeah just absolutely massive not that he ever I'm I'm I don't guess that
06:52CJ was a guy and a guy that denied that he was making mistakes or anything no I don't either
06:55yeah but
06:56you know whenever you're calling out other people you got to be sure that you're also holding
06:59yourself accountable well so that that part was uh really cool to see I was cool to see it was
07:04cool
07:04to read about and I think like to look they they named captains earlier this week they named four
07:08captains earlier this week three of them were on the defensive side of the ball Aziz Alshair Will
07:13Anderson and Jalen Petrie and the other one was CJ Stroud and I think on most teams the quarterback is
07:18one of the captains but I don't think on every team the quarterback deserves to be a captain and I'm
07:23not saying CJ doesn't deserve to in fact I'm saying the exact opposite right now which is like I
07:28liked reading these anecdotes behind the scenes about the offseason because these are things
07:34captains do yeah CJ's captaincy isn't something where guys are just saying the right things and
07:40the team's making him a captain because he's a quarterback he's actually demonstrating the
07:44leadership necessary for the team to do well and for him to improve most importantly from last year
07:50yeah that uh when you go to vote for captains and uh you're sitting there and yeah and you're you're
07:55writing the ballot down it there's a part of you it's like it's kind of like voting for a candidate
07:59of your own party but the you you really don't like them but you got to vote for it that's
08:05what
08:05the quarterback vote feels like yeah like I'm not we can't not have the quarterback of the captain
08:09that's exactly right man yeah that's exactly right that's why I liked reading that stuff going okay
08:14it sounds like according to these stories that our quarterback is a worthy captain he's not a captain
08:19because of the position that he plays right right and I think taking accountability for the stuff that
08:24goes wrong look you can blame the offensive coordinator you can blame your offensive line you
08:28can do all this other stuff and not that not that CJ ever did that publicly but sometimes there's
08:32the what I and you remember last year I would get frustrated because of the pre-snap stuff yeah
08:38and I put pre-snap penalties on the quarterback and the offensive coordinator like that's ultimately
08:45where the buck stops is you guys have to have institutional control over that type of stuff
08:50and somebody asked me well do you blame CJ for Laramie Tunsell's false starts previously no
08:57now I would that that's yeah that's the kind of thing where a young court look a young rookie or
09:03second year quarterback is not going to grab Laramie Tunsell and shake him and tell him why are you so
09:07dumb why are you so dumb that current CJ Stroud yeah it can't be there's certain things that are
09:13unacceptable so when it comes to the way the offense operates I think just as last year I would blame
09:18Kaley and Stroud this year if it if the pre-snap operation looks as clean as it has during training
09:24camp I give all that credit to CJ Stroud and Nick Kaley because that's that's what they're that's
09:29first and foremost what they need to do is be sure you're running a clean operation before you can
09:34expect to make any plays all right yeah um go go find the article Jonathan Alexander did a good
09:39Jonathan if you're listening good job on that interview with uh with CJ Stroud and the interview
09:43with D'Amico as well the sit down really really good
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