Aaron Rodgers Talks Return For Jets vs Chiefs, Walking Only 3 Weeks After Achilles Tear | Pat McAfee

Joining us now live, I believe, from the East Coast. Ladies and gentlemen, he's a four-time NFL MVP and also a man who might actually have Wolverine blood. Whoa! Just a few weeks after an Achilles tear, we saw him crotching around on a field on Sunday night, looking sweet with the glasses and spinning the rock. Ladies and gentlemen, Aaron Rodgers. Hey, Aaron! How are you, pal? I'm doing well. Good to see you guys. Hey, I don't know if you've seen photos of yourself from Sunday night. The stache with the glasses. You looked so cool. I don't know how you felt. You looked so cool. What was it like to get back out there at MetLife and around the boys? I assume it was something you enjoyed the hell out of, Aaron. Yeah, it was good to be back. I mean, that was a fun moment. To be carted off the field three weeks ago and to be able to walk back on the field, you know, with a little assistance from the crutches was pretty special. Just to be in the locker room with the guys and talk to them Saturday night. Just feel the energy and the excitement was everything I needed. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about you on those crutches. I think we're all very surprised that you were able to move as well as you were able to move. Now, AJ, literally just two days after your Achilles surgery he says, are you playing all come back today? And we were a little boozed up on Tarabana. I think you were potentially on some painkillers coming out of surgery. And you said like, hey, nobody's putting timetables on me. I don't want to do that. Feed it all to me. You're back much sooner, moving much sooner than I think anybody could have expected. Do you feel good? And after the movement on Sunday night, did we have any setbacks or is this exactly where we're supposed to be? Yeah, no setbacks from the other night. You know, the first goal was really to be able to, to be upright, to be out of a boot and to be able to do some semblance of walking by the time I got back. I had this game circled on my schedule, man. I couldn't fly until I got cleared again last week with no blood clots. And so this was, you know, coming to the, to the Sunday night game was always, you know, on the, on the agenda and that was the goal. So definitely met that one. Now the next goal is to be able to walk without crutches. You know, it's pretty obvious. I'm well ahead of my, of the normal protocols when it comes to rehab for this, this kind of thing. But that's, you know, that's, that's, that was always what my mindset was. And, and that was what Neil and I talked about in the locker room. Honestly, after it happened was, you know, the type of surgery that, that he'd been doing now for a little bit. And then, you know, whatever protocols were out there, just not, not adhering to those, being as smart as possible, not trying to stretch the Achilles, but stressing the Achilles in a way that allows me to, to start doing movement quicker and to, to speed up whatever timeline kind of has been the standard, standard for this type of injury. Go ahead, AJ. What was it like being in the stadium and watching the game from the suite? Did you want to grab a headset and try to call some plays? I would imagine coaches may be open to that. Yeah, I'm about calling plays. I mean, there's only one headset that can talk to the quarterback. So it's not like I'm going to get on there and take the plan and start firing in plays. But I felt like Nate did a great job of, of giving Zach a lot of, a lot of good opportunities, changing the launch point with some action stuff, changing the, the face with some good keeper stuff. I thought we ran the ball at times, fairly decent at the line, blocked really well up front. And other than the first quarter and maybe a couple of drives in the fourth, I felt like, you know, Zach played really well and we were efficient moving the ball. We spot him 17 and, and, you know, then came roaring back. The crowd was electric, disappointing. You know, we don't, I don't talk about moral victories, but definitely a lot to build from, from that game there tonight. And hopefully we can get this one this week and start getting on a roll, you know, into the bye week and then get healthy and see where we're at coming up. We heard that on Saturday, whenever you spoke to the team, you said something pretty similar to what you kind of said here with your overall thoughts of what you've been watching at home about, hey, we don't need to splinter or divide. We can let the outside people do that. The team doesn't need to be doing that. We heard that you echoed those sentiments on Saturday, the team. Did you talk to Zach Wilson directly and what was your kind of message? Well, Zach and I talk almost every day. I mean, we're very close and I love him and I care about him. And so I'm always checking in with him, seeing how he's doing. I think you've seen a lot of great leadership growth from him. I think our society at times wants to cancel people or label people and keep that label on them regardless of any self growth or experience that changes your perspective on life. And he's been labeled a certain way by people. So when people see this other side, they don't know what to think or how to react, but you know, Zach's a young kid. He's learning, he's growing, he's on his own, his path and his journey. And I'm very proud of the leadership that he showed. I'm proud of the way he played. You know, I don't need to pull him aside and tell him anything special. There wasn't like some pep talk that I gave him that made him play better. I felt like the plan was a good plan. He got into a rhythm there in the second quarter and made a bunch of really great throws. I thought the drive come out at halftime was fantastic. Started off the second half with a back shoulder seam route to conk and then hit a couple of other good throws on the drive. And he had his favorite play down the red zone to Allen for a touchdown and then ran QB draw and had a great scramble to get in the end zone and get his tie. And that thing, the whole place changed after that. I mean, it was pretty electric, but I will say this, you know, when it comes to, you know, some of the stuff I talked about, I think that was one of the more disappointing things about the entire weekend is that, you know, part of the process of being a team that's connected and being a team that sticks together is that there's some things that are meant for the locker room and conversations that should stay in the meeting room, should stay in the locker room, should stay in the hotel. And I'm not, you know, I obviously, I love the opportunity to speak to the team and I thought the message was important and it was off the cuff and I didn't have notes or anything and actually didn't even know Sala just wanted me to speak. That was the whole, the whole meeting was me up there, you know, kind of rambling for about 10 minutes. Hot 15? Hot 15? Hot 10? 10? All right. Yeah, but I think that's part of it. We need to learn as an organization some things need to be kept in house. Some things need to be, we got to tighten the ship up a little bit, you know, because that's what's going to happen. We're one and three, there's going to be people trying to get us to fracture, even after a game where, you know, I think there's some sentiment that there's some sort of moral victory out there that we hung with the, you know, with the champs and that, you know, our defense played well and, you know, Pat didn't have a crazy game and, you know, Mr. Fizer, we kind of shut him down a little bit and didn't have, you know, his like crazy impact game. Obviously, he had, you know, some yards and stuff, but I felt like for the most part, you know, we played really tough on defense, especially the last three quarters, and that was important for us. Offensively, you know, we got some ways to go, but I felt like we showed a lot of improvement, but we got to keep sticking together. And I felt like the guys after the game, you know, did a good job of taking accountability, especially Zach and that's the kind of stuff we need to see move forward. So you did talk to Mr. Fizer. You talked to Travis pre-game and obviously that was recorded. What were you talking about here? Were you talking about different VACs and what's potentially the one for you? Or were you talking about his season? Were you talking about his life? What was the conversation like? Because everybody on the internet was like, I wonder what these two boys were chatting about. How did it go? I think some things need to be left on the field, you know, just left, it's actually a better story probably left up to the imagination. I saw some different things about the speculation on what we're talking about, but I've known him for a long time and it was just a quick chat. I got to see him and got to see Marquez, who I love, and got to have a quick chat with Pat about how every time we're supposed to play each other, you know, one year he got hurt, one year I had COVID too, and then, you know, obviously this year, but yeah, you know. Whatever happened with that? Hey, you hit a middle of the night, had to take a leak, ran into something. Is that what happened or was it COVID? Yeah, there was something like that that happened. I don't quite remember, so long ago. Okay, smart, I like that. I like that we keep the bad memories out of there because we got a lot of great memories coming in there. Listen, I think what it basically was was I was just trying to do two things at the same time and I just got, I kind of lost my track, you know, train of thought, and it's tough when you're trying to do, you know, two things at the same time, so. Yeah, because COVID does get you a little foggy, remember? That is something that comes from the entire thing, so maybe what you were able to do before you weren't able to do then, COVID comes into existence and then we go on a whole nother ride, remember? We went on, your toe potentially became a whole nother side effect around the globe, that entire thing. Great story that was written. A lot of them, it wasn't just one of them. Okay, let's talk about a story in your, Mr., how good did that feel coming out, Mr. Pfizer? You've been planning on that? No, I mean, he's, you know, he's doing commercials for Pfizer, so I'm sure he's owning it. Two Band-Aids. He's doing a lot of others, too. He's got Lowe's, you could have called him Mr. Lowe's. Mr. State Farm, Maato. Junkie Su. Experian credits for. Experian, yeah, he's doing all these things, you know, so you only saw one of them. You've been busy, you've been busy trying to get to Achilles. There's more on the way. I haven't, I was watching the game. I couldn't hear the commercials, but. Yeah. You saw one. But I have seen, I have seen them on, I've seen them on a few of them. Him and Pat definitely have a lot of commercials. Champs, that type of thing happens. Congrats to them. We talked to you about watching at home and you said, like, that cemented the fact that you're nowhere near done. Like, watching at home, the way you're watching, the way you're feeling. They always talk about whenever guys retire and they're back in the stadium for the first time in the national anthem plays, where you, like, kind of feel it. Was there any moments where you were, like, you know, I don't want to say anxious or excited, but was there any emotional moments being back in there for a game after missing it for a few weeks, which isn't normal for you in the history of your career in the NFL? Yeah, a lot of it's just walking on the field. You know, the response from the fans was really special and they chanted my name a couple times and then, you know, I tried to, I wanted to go see, I had a lot of people in town, so I wanted to go see them at one point during the game. So I went over there to a different suite in the third quarter and that, you know, once I walked into the suite, the fans were kind of all over me and started chanting my name again. So that stuff feels great. I mean, the fan response has been fantastic and it sucks, you know, to not be able to be out there playing for them. But those moments are really special and just seeing the guys on the field and feeling the energy of the stadium. And there's, you know, obviously a lot of excitement, a lot of buzz and I'm excited about our guys though. I feel like we're, you know, in a better head space. We had a couple of rough weeks and although, you know, there's, again, there's no moral victories, you know, this league is all about wins and losses. But we got another opportunity this week and then in Philly at home and then a bye week to get healthy. And, you know, I like our frame of mind right now. I feel like there's better energy. You know, loss, there's never great energy the next, you know, Monday, Tuesday, but being in the facility the last couple of days and doing rehab, I feel like the energy was about as good as you can ask for after a loss. Go ahead, AJ. I'm curious how it feels. Like, how does your Achilles, your actual foot feel? If you can move it, can you flex it at all? Is it super painful or does it feel like just tight? Like, what is it? It's just tight. Yeah, it's not, not painful. You know, I went to the best surgeon in the country, so he did a fantastic surgery. He's assured me many times, you know, I'm not gonna rip that thing unless I do, you know, a number of, you know, calf stretches, but I do love a good calf stretch. So that's, it's been painful to not be able to do that mentally. Yeah, you got hams for calves. I mean, your calves are some of the most ridiculous I've seen in some time, all due respect to everybody else's calves. You got great calves. You haven't been able to stretch it. Wow, I could imagine that being a problem. Yeah, it's been tough. It's one of my favorite things, one of my favorite things, but the good thing is, you know, we went right to work after the surgery and I didn't really lose a ton of my calf, but it's not painful. It's just a little stiff for sure. It takes a little bit in the first part of rehab to kind of get that thing going, but I got a great people on the West Coast, phenomenal people out here at the facility. So a lot of rehabs in my future, and I look forward to the next goal, which, you know, hopefully I'll be able to accomplish in a couple of weeks. So NBC said during the broadcast that you confirmed to somebody at NBC, I forget who it was. I do apologize. I've said this three times. I should have got the person's name, that you are planning on coming back and playing this year. Now, I think that is your mentality. I think you've shared that literally since day one, that that is your mindset. Has there been a plan that has been laid out? Like, yeah, can certainly happen. And is that why you feel that way? Or what is the conversation about the projections, even though you don't want to hear timetables? Yeah, I'm not going to, again, put any timetables. I think for the, you know, peace of mind, I think you have to have some sort of long-term goal like that. Otherwise the rehab becomes, you know, much more laborious and monotonous. So I think that it's important to have those long-term goals. Basically, whatever protocol is out there, and there's kind of a blanket, you know, six to 12 months recovery time. I have some things working against me. I'm 39 years old. I'm the oldest player in the league. You know, a lot of people have a really hard time coming back from this. However, I haven't really paid any attention to any of that stuff. I just kind of have been making my own protocols and my own timetables. With, you know, obviously the blessing of Neil and, you know, Heather and everybody at my rehab place and Dave and everybody at the Jets, just been saying, listen, this is what I want to do. Let me know the risks. Let me know what I need to do from a muscle standpoint, which ones need to be firing the right way in order for these things to happen. And let's attack this rehab as hard as we can. And then see where we're at in a couple months. And, you know, obviously, you know, I'd like us to be alive and winning and for that even be in the conversation, but I don't think it hurts at all to put that into the manifestation zeitgeist. And, you know, with all the modalities that we're doing, I feel like we're gonna put ourselves in a position to make a decision at some point. Okay, so with everything that happens in the world now, there's an entire genre of humans on the internet. They're either doctors or former trainers or physical therapists who are experts. There's one sports medicine expert that basically said that you chose to use this particular ankle brace or boot to look cool. And in doing so, it was rather risky. Now, follow up, I appreciate him saying this and you're not a normal human, but like everything you're doing is calculated, obviously. You walking with crutches, using this particular ankle cast, this is all above bar. And do you realize that what you're doing is blowing the minds of people in medicine? Like the way you were moving, there was even people saying, this guy didn't even tear his Achilles. There's no way, like what you're doing is blowing minds. You need to know that. Yeah, I mean, I can address some of that. Number one, I had a deltoid issue, not just the torn Achilles. So I had a deltoid issue in my ankle. So the ankle brace actually helps me to walk a little bit better. I will address something else that I saw where somebody said, this is not 1950s, this is normal. And listen, there's nothing normal about how I'm attacking this rehab. There is common practices about six weeks in a boot. And I was in a shoe in like 13 days. Again, this is just my mindset. And I believe in the power of intention. I believe in prayer. I believe in the way that your mental status and power of will. I believe in making room for the miraculous to happen. And I'm not talking about a woo-woo type of spirituality. I'm talking about sometimes miracles are just doing things that people never thought was possible. And I think one of my mantras has been this entire time, really since I watched Muse and obviously I knew what Kobe went through and I knew that Kobe had surgery the next day and he came back fairly quick. Obviously he had some other injuries the year he came back, but my mantra has been just because something has never been done doesn't mean it's not possible. Just hasn't been done yet. So the impossible often is looked at as miraculous. So when I say leaving room for miracles is leaving room to do something that hasn't been done before. And there's again, a lot of odds stacked against me obviously with my age and this type of injury. But the way that I've attacked rehab and the holistic approach I've taken with diet and sleep and recovery and all these different things. And obviously I have the privilege of financial means and access to incredible PTs and medical minds. But I'm approaching this, this is my full-time job, rehab. So my entire focus is to do things that just haven't been done before. And I hope that in the process that there'll be inspiration for those other guys who are dealing with the same thing. I had to work in rehab with JK Dobbins right now. Awesome, awesome kid who's gone through a couple of rough injuries the last few years. Fantastic player and had the same surgery as me. And we're both, I think, inspiring each other to push this thing. His timetable might not be the same as mine. He obviously plays a different position. But again, I'm trying to inspire people to look at recovery in a different way. And hopefully through this process, I can get back when it's safe and right for me. And also inspire people to look at this injury as not kind of a death sentence for a career, which at one point it really was. But to look at it as just another injury that people can come back from and thrive and come back quicker than used to be expected or thought. Hell yeah. Hey, what'd you do? You just said some gospel right there, pal. There was some bars you just stacked up, back to back to back about everything you got going on. I love where your headspace is at. I think it's going to get studied, by the way, especially if you're able to pull off what we think you're all going to be able to pull off and are already pulling off. There's people that think you didn't tear your Achilles because of how you were moving on Sunday. That's good, by the way. That's a compliment. Ty has a question for you. Yeah, seriously. I mean, seeing you move that briskly, that was crap, blew my mind. I mean, I almost had a brain aneurysm. But with the game being on Sunday night and you traveling and everything, I don't know how much of the games you got to watch this weekend. But I'm curious your thoughts on Brock Purdy. It seems like anytime someone talks about him, it always comes with a caveat. It's like, yeah, well, he's only good, or he's only playing well because he's in Shanahan's system. He has all these weapons around him. Now that people have a book on him, he's going to turn into a pumpkin. The other shoe's going to drop. But I think he's won like 15 regular season games in a row. At what point do you think people are just going to be like, hey, Brock Purdy's actually pretty good? Or do you think it's always going to be the, well, this guy's good because he plays for Kyle Shanahan? Yeah, that's a good question. And I didn't see the game, but I saw the stats. And I'm a fan, for sure. I think he's done some great things. What was he, like 21 of 22 or something? 20 of 21, yeah. Yeah, dude. 20 of 21. He is, my thought, I mean, it's unbelievable. Decision-making seems to be good, and he throws it in the keyhole, and he's never, he's phenomenal to watch here early. Early is what everybody says. Yeah, early, yeah. I think people always have to have some sort of caveat. Kyle's such a great play caller, and he's got CMC and Debo and Kittle and all these guys. At some point, I think some of that's going to die down, and they're going to realize that Brock's a pretty damn good player. It's hard to play in this league. And I think you saw a couple guys. I mean, Justin had an amazing stretch there where I think he had one incompletion of his first, what, 23 or 24, and it was a Hail Mary incompletion, somebody said. And I can't believe they end up losing that game, but I was happy for him to go out and ball like that. Brock has done some great things. And at some point, people are going to be like, okay, well, maybe it's not just that Kyle's a great play caller and he's got these weapons, but you still got a guy who's got to pull the trigger every single time and make decisions. And I watched the game a couple weeks ago, and I thought he made like three or four really high-level throws, back shoulder throws and tight window throws and a couple of look-offs. So I got nothing but praise for Brock and respect for the way he's played. I think they're paying him like $940,000 too. Yeah, at most. That's the starting quarterback in the NFL for the Niners right now. That's quite a weapon for a GM and a team. I hope he gets paid, but the Niners are like, well, he isn't being paid. Let's go ahead and do our thing. Tone has a question for you, Aaron. Yeah, Aaron, it feels like one of the stories early on in the season, there's a lot of talk about poor offensive line play. Pittsburgh, both New York teams. Is there advice or is it always on the O-line? How much is on the O-line? How much is on the quarterback? And what advice would you give to quarterbacks who are dealing with quote-unquote poor O-line play? Well, I think the O-line gets probably way too much of the blame because protection is, there's a holistic approach to it. It's everybody's involved. What I mean by that is, and this is not in every offense, but there's protection adjustments. There's ability for quarterbacks. There should be. Maybe there's in every offense, but to adjust protection, to change the slide side. There's, you know, you can, you can re-mite guys. You can keep guys in. You can put shorts a certain side. You can chip different. Nailed it. Mr. Fizer got pissed. Oh yeah. I think that's what happened. Lost AJ in the middle of that conversation too. I don't know if anybody knows that. While Aaron was preaching his gospel, Aaron just, or AJ just drops off the screen completely. See ya, AJ. Now Aaron's dropping out of there. I hope you got, I hope you're happy with your joke, Aaron. Well, well, well. I hope you're happy with your Mr. Fizer joke. Real funny. I hope you feel good about it. They're coming after you, Aaron. They're coming after you. They're throttling him. He can't hear any of this, obviously. He's in his house without any service, hopefully. He's back in Jersey though. I think that's a big deal. Huge deal. Because remember, whenever he signed with the Jets, you know, there was a, I have some things going on, so I won't be able to be here. He was there the whole time. Then he goes back on Saturday, gets around the boys. Still there. You know, that type of stuff is good for the soul. Let's hope his service. But ladies and gentlemen, Aaron Rodgers. Talk about offensive line. You were talking about chipping, and then your face did that. So that was basically where we were at. There's things that take advantage of this, though, or make the offensive line better, I believe, is what you were rolling into. Did AJ, we lost AJ as well? Yeah, whenever you were talking last time, and then that time we lost you. I think it's because you're Mr. Fizer. He was probably one of the biggest violators of ripping on the O-line. Yeah. What I was basically saying was that it's, there's a lot of things that go into it, including protection adjustments, and chipping, and then throwing hot, getting the ball out. Throwing uncovered. So I think there's a lot of, if you go back and watch some of these tapes, there's a lot of things. I mean, we always talked about the phantom sack. And the phantom sack, or the Elvis sack, after Elvis Gerback, who occasionally would run out of bounds with the ball, throwing the ball away. You see a lot of this in college all the time. You know, guys run out of bounds, and just runs out of bounds like two or three yards behind the line of scrimmage, instead of just throwing the ball away, which I never understand. And it would kill me when I had him, because I would get counted, and I never wanted to have more than two or three in a season, where every now and then you're struggling to get back to the line of scrimmage, and you think you got like a yard, so it's not a sack, and it's a zero yard game, which counts as a sack. So there's definitely some of those sometimes. There's some sacks where quarterbacks just dropping back two deep. You get past 10 yards, it's tough on a tackle to set that edge and expect you to be able to step up on that sweet spot, which is seven, seven and a half yards. He's trying to run his guy nine and a half or 10 back. Sometimes that's on the quarterback as well. Sometimes guys get beat, and those are on the line, but I would say there's a lot more to it that doesn't get talked about, including protection adjustments, sliding, you know, like just naturally, if the three for two is going to the right, looks like they're coming on the other side, you got to flip that protection, send it to the other side, or throw vertical high, or get the ball out. So you have to know, in the West Coast offense, the way we were trained under Mike McCarthy was always, what's the stress point of protection? Where am I picked up? Who am I looking at pre this? Is it hot off of one guy, hot off of two guys? And then where's my quick throw answer? So you got to put it all together. And because when that thing starts building up, and we played Seattle in 2012 and had like eight or nine sacks in the first half, that was awful. A lot of that was due to the noise, it was so damn loud. Our guys getting beat out the ball before they moved out of their stance. But when that happens and they smell the blood in the water, the thing just starts piling up, like last night, I think the Giants had, what, 11 sacks they gave up? But if you go back and look at it, this is not a knock on Daniel, but I think there's times where there's an uncovered guy coming, we got to get the ball out, or we got to adjust the protection to make sure that, or we just got to throw hot. That's what I always talk about with Zach, is you got to understand the protection. If we're sliding to the right, and we got a back end winner, six man protection, it takes two, I know who I'm looking at. If those two come, I got to get the ball out, or flip the protection to where it only takes one that time. Hey, you never had this issue, I don't think. I mean, maybe, but it feels like some quarterbacks get like a real antsy, you know what I mean? They get real antsy in there because they're thinking they're about to die. How do you kind of flush that out? I remember asking Andrew Luck one time, because he was a guy who just got hit, and then he would just stand back up and be like, hey, nice hit, and get hit again, and another one. And I think there was one particular game where we had maybe four new guys on the punt team, okay? Like four new guys, like week 14, week 15, playing against a good team. I have zero faith in any of these dudes that have never played special teams before blocking for the punt. So I'm literally, I'm like, all right, I'm taking this. Literally, first one, I'm not just gonna put my leg up and get murdered. So I was like, Andrew, how do you just, you know, how do you just mentally get through knowing that you're gonna get hit? And he was like, oh, you can't even think about it. Like, can't even, I don't even, don't even, like, it was almost like he didn't even like that I brought it up to him. Like it was gonna happen. And then he just kind of moved about it. You've seemingly never had that issue. You've been able to move a lot. I think there's some record that only you and one other quarterback, whenever, have a rushing TD, throw for 300 yards and some other thing. You've been much more mobile than people have ever given you credit through your entire career. But how have you remained a person that hasn't gotten antsy whenever an offensive line has not performed well? Is that just mental thing, or what do you kind of fall back on? With the O-line, you gotta build that trust with them. But look, I got, I took some sacks, you know, early in my career, holding the football, trying to extend plays a lot. That was one thing that we always tried to be really wary of, when to extend it and when to dump it. But there wasn't, I would say, you know, one thing I've tried to pride myself on over the years is understanding protection so well that I wasn't having those sacks where I got a guy coming free and I don't know that I'm hot. Being able to deal the ball quickly, whether it's an uncovered, a vertical hop, or being able to adjust the protection to pick up, you know, an overload pressure. Those things I always really have tried to pride myself on. And then just trying to limit the sacks that are your fault. Obviously the, you know, not getting back past the line of scrimmage, run out of bounds, but, you know, before the line of scrimmage, which is the phantom sack, or, you know, just holding onto the ball too long. But it's a fine line between it, but- Yeah, the guys get dancing back there. I love the big guys and they probably get way too much blame for some of that stuff. I don't know how you didn't do it though, because some of these shots, some of these quarterbacks take, and you've obviously taken some of them. And people question the toughness of quarterbacks, obviously, your entire life, everything in your life is kind of, hey, we need this quarterback to be good. But then there'll come a time where you're standing just like this in some 285 pounders, like all straight to spine. And then it's like, how do you not think about that the next time? And then some guys can't handle it. Some guys can. I think we're seeing some antsy feet out of some places as well. And that obviously feeds into it. You've never done that and you're not a dumbass. So I respect it. And people need to talk about it. AJ has a question for you. You mentioned protections and all that. How comfortable did you feel when you came out of college, setting protections and did you have like deep knowledge of all that from college? And how do you think some of these kids coming out of college now, are they able to do any of that? I wasn't very good at it. I was not good in the, we used to have, and that really helped me. In college, we ran a lot of kind of seven man slide protections. Didn't have to make really a whole lot of protection adjustments or calls. I think with everything coming from the sidelines now, as you see with so many teams, there's very little on the quarterback to change a play, run to pass checks, pass to run checks. Most of it is just built in. You have a run play with a run solution, a bubble or a slip screen or something on one side or some read option stuff. There's very little in the protections. It looks like it's on a lot of these teams. So I think it's an adjustment period. Some of these offenses have built in protection schemes that aren't very heavy for the quarterback. I never liked that because I feel like the quarterback should have an innate understanding of protection because that's where the entire passing game starts, is up front understanding who you're looking at to limit your eye movement, to make it easy on you, looking at one guy or two guys, being able to understand fronts and put it together and somebody off the slot. Does under pressure, a big pressure alert for this team or not? Are they a strong safety pressure team and base? Are they an overload pressure team? Do they like to go opposite the points? You need dummy stuff in the plan. There's a lot of things that go into it, and I don't know how you can play quarterback in this league without an innate understanding of the protection unless, like it is in someone's offenses, they just tell you to turn your brain off. But for me, that never really worked playing quarterback. I like to be able to understand those things so I can make the proper adjustment and not live with throwing hot because these teams have gotten smart. And third and seven plus has become more of a pressure pack, especially seven kind of to 10 or maybe six to 10. And instead of throwing hot to a guy who's gonna catch it short of the sticks and have to break a couple of tackles, pick something up so you can take a shot down the field. But that starts with an innate understanding of the defense you're facing, the type of bits of packages that they have, and then how do I adjust the protection in order to give us a chance to throw the ball down the field? That was fucking hilarious. Everything you just did right there was absolutely hysterical. Well, because if the nickel's coming, then it is the three technique, and is it a shade and everything? And you've told us in the past that you believe that reading the defense starts with reading the D line and then kind of work your way out there. And you've talked about the modern offense is about turning your brain off and how you only got to read one person. Tom Brady has echoed those sentiments as well. Tom Brady has said like, this is, what are we even doing? Like, what are we, this is a part of the quarterback's job. Not only are you protecting yourself, but also you're putting your team in the best situation to have success. I hope that never changes. There will always be that, right? There will always be that it's, I don't think it's always gonna, right? I think so. And Tom was the guy who did it. Tom knew protection. Tom adjusted. Tom changed the mic. Tom was able to adjust for four week and overload pressures. And I'm sure he studied the same way. Starts with the front, starts with the alignment and then you work your way back. Well, I love it. Some football nerds just listen to you rattle off right there and they're like, oh yeah, we forgot that this hip is a football genius. Honestly, it's a beautiful thing. Connor has a question for you. Yeah, Aaron, a big conversation right now is kind of surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers and their offensive play, Colin. And you know, one of the great Pittsburgh Steelers ever, Big Ben Roethlisberger on his football podcast said that, you know, he would be open to Colin plays. And I know Tony and a lot of other guys, a lot of other yinzers around the world want Big Ben to be the OC for Pittsburgh. In your opinion, how easy is it for not only a former quarterback, but a former player to retire and then get right back into the game and being an OC? And do you think that is something that wouldn't be that hard of a transition for both Big Ben and for Kenny Pickett? I think very few guys could do it. I think that that's why you don't see a lot of great former players coaching. I don't, I think I have some ideas about that, but I think it's, it tests the patience for coaching people who aren't able to do or process things as quickly as you were able to when you were playing, I think would have some bearing on it. Now, when it comes to calling plays, I would probably echo the same sentiment that Ben said. I think that there's a few guys who could really do it. And Ben was, like me, probably some of the last quarterbacks in the league who could just call their own plays. You know, and whether that's in a two minute drive or a move the ball, I always loved watching him in those situations. They'd be behind by a couple of scores, maybe, or in the two minute drive, knowing he's calling it. Where everything now with most teams come from the sideline, I think you saw in this last week, times where the tempo on certain things in some of these two minute drives with quarterbacks who could actually call it, probably, was delayed or screwed up by having to get a call in from the sideline in some crunch time situations that maybe hurt those teams' opportunities to come through in those situations. But I think Ben could do it just because he understands the game and he could call it in a sleep, I think, at the line of scrimmage. But it's very rare that you see great players who come back and are able to be great coaches. I don't know if it's just the time commitment or dealing with people that don't see the game the same way. But listen, this is overreaction time. I mean, look at our league. Like last week, everybody was calling for Zach to be benched and everybody from Namath to you name it. And then this week, you know, he goes out and puts some good film on tape and now what are they saying about him? It's an overreaction league. You guys do it on Monday every single week, but it's overreaction for every team. So I think everybody just needs to take a couple deep breaths. And we're four games in the season. There's a lot of football left. Pittsburgh Steelers' offense has been terrible. 39 straight games of just bad stuff. I mean, just bad. If Ben Roethlisberger was to come call plays and they would have any offensive success at all, they'd put a statue, not that they won't put a statue up, but they would put a statue up by next week. All those old steel mills, they'd open them back up to get enough steel to get a big ass, big Ben right in the middle of that. That's what he's staring down right now. Just once you, hey Ben, if you see this, that's what you know. Yeah, he knows. He's already boozing and doing a podcast. Do the right thing. He's already watching every game. Why not booze and call plays? Simple as that. Darius has the last couple of questions for you here. Yeah, I've got a two-parter for you. One, something we've been overreacting to, not in the football world, but basketball. Dame coming to your books. What's the expectations there? Championship or bust? And then how good did it feel for you to get out there and spin it one time out there with your boys on a Sunday night? Yeah, first of all, with the Bucs, man, it's exciting. It is very exciting to get a player of the caliber of Damian Lillard. Been a fan of his for a long time. Just love his competitive nature, his willingness to take the big shots and the big moments. And, you know, Drew Holiday was such a great player for us. And we won a championship with him. And I think everybody in Milwaukee loved Drew and loved his competitive greatness and his ability and willingness on the defensive side to lock up the best player in the other team almost every night, as long as he was, you know, under 6'8", I would say. So big thanks to Drew. Fantastic guy, fantastic leader. And we wish him well. Now we'll see him. He's in Boston. Yeah, he'll be fine. Boston, still probably our biggest rival in the East. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We got the heat now. Yeah, no, tell him, Aaron, tell him, Aaron. Nah, Jimmy Butler's got the sick hair. I mean, he always was a little Karen Butler. Yeah, that was quite the look by Jimmy. Well, look, yeah, respect to Jimmy and the Heat. I mean, they beat the hell out of us last year. We weren't necessarily all the way healthy, but he had a fantastic, fantastic run. But yeah, excited about the Bucs. Obviously with any sports team, nobody says this. I mean, fans probably do, but every year it's championship or bust. You know, if you have the expectations of being a great, great team, you got an organization that, you know, values winning, and it's not some sort of rebuild year, and it's championship or bust. So excited for the guys. You guys got to stay healthy. You know, obviously last year we had, you know, Chris was out for a long time. Giannis got hurt in the playoffs. So we got to stay healthy, but I really like our squad. We were able to get Brooke back, and Bobby Portis coming off a nice run in the summer with the USA team. And really, really like our chances. Got a new head coach, who everybody's really excited about. So excited about that. What was the second part of your question? It was a football one. I was about to spin it one time. Let me get one, let me get one, let me get one. You moved the crotch all the way, and then no lace, and you didn't even look at it finish, I don't think. It feels like this one went very nice. Who'd you throw to? Who tossed you the ball? And how'd it feel coming out of the hand? And what was, whoa, yeah, didn't even watch. See, still got it. Is that what we said there? Wow. It was Khabi. I've warmed up to Khabi for a long time. So I just wanted to get one throw in, just to, you know, just to feel the ball again. So, you know, I was on the sideline trying to stay out of everybody's way and not have somebody come diving at me and BS some of the various people. But nothing like touching that ball one time and giving Khabi a little throw. But yeah, man, I miss it. I mean, that's been the hardest part of being away from, being away from the guys. And it was emotional Saturday night getting up in front of the guys, you know, when I got to speak to them, just because I miss them. I mean, I look around the room, you know, some people I started to build some really strong friendships with. So I'm thankful for that opportunity from Robert and thankful to have been back here to watch the game and excited about seeing where this thing goes and excited about being back here real soon, full-time and just building and pulling for our guys and helping them out during the weeks and then seeing where I'm at pretty soon. Yeah, it was a good throw though? Yeah, a spiral hit him in the hands. It was good. Okay, of course, still got it. Just quick rundown recap of everything today. Mr. Fizer currently trending 10 overall, or eight now. And also Mr. Johnson and Johnson trending right underneath, obviously, as the Jets player. So the internet's going to let their jokes fly. They're going to do their thing. We appreciate the hell out of you, man. We hope you feel better. Guys, I'll see you next week, probably from rehab. So look forward to it and keep doing what you guys are doing. I love the little break we had before I came on to be able just to see sweet Lou again was pretty awesome. So keep up the good work. Where are you guys going this week? State, Texas State Fair. It should be absurd. It should be. I'm pretty excited about it. It's big time Friday for us. Texas and who? Texas, Oklahoma. Red River. Ooh, the Red River, right? Yeah, it should be a blast. I appreciate it. Who does Ohio State have? Don't care. Maryland. Oh! Suck it, huh? Maryland's a good team. Two of his brother can play. Can I speak now though, this last week, big victory over Arizona State, 24-21. I got into it. God bears three and two. I got into it with the Conference of Champions. Everybody watched it. It's Conference of Champions over there. You know what I mean? Pac-12. Shut up. Shut up, Bill Wallen. Griffle dead. All right, shut up. Yep, shut up. One of the greatest guests this show's ever had. Dude, I don't know if he knew he was on our show. I don't think he had a clue, but he fucking killed it. He did. Just like you, pal. Keep feeling better. We appreciate you, Aaron. Yep, thank you for my life, as Bill would say. Thank you for your life. Ladies and gentlemen, Aaron Rodgers. Hey! Love the internet. Yeah, that's the best. Love the internet. Nope, nope. Boy, does he know how to serve that. Mr. Fizer, he pops that in. So good. When did he come up with it? When did it hit his head? When did it hit his brain? He's like, oh, oh, yep, here we go. All right, I'm saving that one for Tuesday. And then he couldn't wait to... Yeah. You know, we did well against Pat. He threw those two picks, and then obviously we limited Mr. Fizer, and then he just kept moving. The delivery was very solid. You know, it wasn't like Mr. Fizer. Reaction? Yeah. Okay, okay, good. He knew he had to just keep going. Keep going, just let us just digest it as he kept speaking like anyone could hear what he was saying after he said that. Go ahead. Shockingly, people either find that very funny or very not funny. What? No! Are you serious? You don't say. Oh, that doesn't sound like the internet. People seem to be very split on it. I don't know why. That's that part of the internet. How could you not laugh? I mean, that's funny. That's a good joke. All right, good joke. Especially coming from the epicenter of the vaccination situation, which is, hey, that's a good joke. With the owner. I mean, come on. With Johnson & Johnson being literally, he was in this, I mean, that's a good joke? Come on. How is that even a real situation? That's what's amazing. Well, we're right in the middle of fucking all of it somehow. He does have a great opportunity to do the funniest thing of all time. What's that? Do a Johnson & Johnson deal? Bingo. Mr. Johnson & Johnson and it's Aaron on crutches. Are you kidding me? And then he gets a shot and he doesn't have crutches anymore. Oh! No COVID, no crutches. I'm out of here. That's awesome. Can't question his team loyalty. No, you. Yeah, because he's burying the other one. Now, I will say, well, we've learned about the Johnson & Johnson one, both through Chappelle comedy skits and other things. We all took that one because it was the quickest. Don't have to do two weeks. You can get into whatever event you were trying to get into this weekend if you do this, which is the reason why. Bingo. That's the reason why I got that one because of work where I was at, but we just hope everybody lives their own life. Right. You're allowed to. Yeah. Make your own choice. Unless you're killing others. Remember that was the thing. For now. I was a murderer because I was allowing Aaron on the show. Okay. I was called a murderer in seven different languages. Yeah. Seemed rational. Yeah. I don't know how the stats line up, though. Are you platforming this guy? Yeah. Is that what they say? Yeah, I'm like, do you have a 500-page report on the other side? Who are you allowed to talk to then? Like, who makes the rules? Nobody. AJ, don't ask. Okay? We don't know. We got a clock thing we're figuring out. Yeah. Blackrock makes the rules. We got too much. Oh, geez. Tony. Don't just Google trigger words right now. If Blackrock made the rules, we'd be living in a much different world, Tony. What's your problem? All right, let's get out of here. True. Now's the time. It's true. I didn't say a word, bro. That was with the crutches. Yep. Just try to throw it like Aaron. Right. I'm not Aaron. Let me get one. I'm so excited. And that little walk away right before the camera ends. You can see him. That was the cop saying, yeah, you feel that? Yeah, still got it. Ain't nothing with the Achilles, pal. Don't you worry about it. Get too many of those tonight. Hey, can we go through the record AJ and I had this past weekend? When we were picking it. Oh! 2-1-1! Oh! On this particular side. You killed me. What? I had, to be fair, I had Seattle. You had the Giants early on. No, I had Seattle. You both had Seattle. We both picked Seattle first, but then we went. Congratulations. Thank you. About time you said that. I mean, you can either bitch about it or you can get better this week. Yeah. Keep crying. All right, we're going to get the hell out of here. Everything DB will be tomorrow. Okay. Sweet. We appreciate you all for watching on this glorious Aaron Rodgers Tuesday. Not a bad day. I mean, Mr. Fizer is going to be leaving. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited. I mean, it's already. I don't think, since COVID. I think Trav will laugh at it. I'm trying to wonder whether or not I should text him and just be like, hey, just real quick. When you open your phone, it's coming. I didn't tell him to say it. He's owning it. Hey, listen, he stirred the nest with whatever, with the COVID, Mr. Fizer, but the Swifties aren't going to be happy about that either. They are going to come at him too. Oh, you think? Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah, they. I mean. It's up to five. Johnson and Johnson's on its tail. Although, on National Boyfriend Day. Yeah, I think the Swifties are coming after him. And what's Baker Mayfield training for? What did Baker do? Baker did something. Baker's going to bake. He is going to bake. And he's doing that at the Bucs right now. Yeah. Look at the NFL. You're welcome. Buddy the Cake Boss. What's that, pal? Is that Buddy the Cake Boss? Remember his show? He cut his arm off in some nasty accident too. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about Baker. I'm talking about the NFL having number two overall trend, number five overall trend, number six overall trend, just here on a random Wednesday. That's what we do. It could be number four too, because National Boyfriend Day, there might be a bunch of Kelsey in there. You never know. Look at us. Look at the NFL doing its thing. I can't wait to scroll through that Mr. Fizer tab. Holy shit. I'm so excited. We've got some really good internet. Looks like Baker's going to bake. Has something to do with Taylor Swift. Oh. Oh, so it's not with Baker? Not Baker Mayfield? No. What? Did she bake something? Oh, there it is. She's making fall cookies. Scroll down. Boom. No one is going to stop you from making your favorite fall cookies. Why? Because Baker's going to bake, bake, bake, bake. Hell yeah. Oh. Shake, shake, shake, shake. Thank you, Taylor. Needle mover. She's actually the one trending. Oh, five out of the top six. But she's NFL now. So you can actually. You're right. Swifties in the NFL are coming over to take it. We appreciate you guys. Same tribe. And once again, I can't echo the sentiment enough. Swifties, we're appreciative of you coming to the NFL. Pump for it.