0:05

We're here live in LA with

0:07

Off the Edge with Cam Jordan. I got, I

0:09

got so much to say today. I think that I'm

0:11

just blessed to be here with another guy from

0:14

draft class twenty eleven. I'm bringing in

0:16

my guy who's a quarterback for me two

0:18

seasons ago. Andy Dalton

0:21

started off in twenty eleven, drafted to Cincinnati.

0:23

Had had a phenomenal career with the

0:26

Bengals. Bengals you say, Bengals are Bingles

0:28

Bangles Bengals, and then you know, comes

0:30

comes comes down to New Orleans two years

0:32

ago. Was one of the great one of my greatest

0:34

teammates. Finally getting to go on a double date

0:36

with me and my wife and then he kicks us to the curb

0:38

for the Carolina Panthers.

0:42

I appreciate you tuning.

0:43

In, tapping in, Bro, that's how we're gonna go

0:45

into this thing, and let's do it.

0:47

You know, yeah, you know, you and your wife,

0:50

me and my wife. We sit down at whatever Greek

0:52

restaurant it was in New Orleans. After the season, I was like,

0:54

huh, we have dinner dinner buddies now.

0:57

Talking about our big plans of how we're gonna do life. Together,

0:59

and next thing, you know, I'm no longer

1:01

there.

1:02

We're gone, like all my friends have been years.

1:05

It just means we're old. You've been doing things the right

1:07

way, you know.

1:09

You know for all the things that we've talked about. You know, somewhere

1:11

somewhere during that season we bought we brought

1:13

back red red rocket, red rifle. I think

1:15

I messed that up seventy five times during the season.

1:18

I was like, for whatever it was you were, you were

1:20

slinging, wheeling and dealing uh

1:23

the rock, and and it came back up for

1:25

for a solid two or three weeks like

1:27

we were. We were in team meetings, we had the Cincinnati

1:30

Bengals play where you became red rifle

1:32

and red rocket, red.

1:34

Rifle, red rifle, red rifle.

1:35

Yeah, double R.

1:36

Well, then there's obviously a great when you were

1:38

miked up one time, you were giving me a lot of love on the

1:41

sideline, a lot of red rifle

1:43

comments.

1:44

Uh, double r double R.

1:47

I love it.

1:48

Oh man. Did you have any any favorite

1:50

travels this off season?

1:52

Trying to think we uh, you know, being

1:54

in in Carolina and being in Charlotte,

1:57

We've we've done a couple of little weekend trips

1:59

down to like Charleston are out

2:01

to the mountains

2:03

and highlands and cashiers and stuff

2:05

like that. But then we didn't Yeah,

2:07

then exactly, I knew nothing about that whole

2:10

part of the country. Next thing, you know, we're living there and we're going

2:12

to the mountains, we're going to the beach and uh jaj

2:15

and I just did just get back from the

2:17

Bahamas, so that was okay, that was a pretty good little trip.

2:19

We go get get a little get a little little vacation

2:21

in love love that part.

2:23

Well, we're part of the Bahamash. We were

2:25

in Nasau.

2:25

Okay, did you did

2:27

you do the little was that? Is that the one where they had

2:29

the pigs the swimming.

2:31

We did not do that.

2:32

Okay, there's one of the zombers, but there's

2:34

apparently one in a Nassau.

2:36

Sure, what about you, you're the one

2:38

that's all over the place.

2:39

No, man, Look, I just uh I

2:41

had to get surgery. So that's didn't bring my travel

2:43

plans. But I did just come back from Liberia,

2:46

you know, hit Ghana early on. Love

2:49

Ghana so much I doubled back for second Africa

2:51

trip. I think the next one.

2:53

Uh me and me and Nikki are going to like

2:55

try and dip into Japan.

2:57

Yeah, I think I saw something. She something

2:59

happened where they alls. Maybe

3:02

mother in law couldn't couldn't come

3:04

watch the kids, and so she had to stay back.

3:06

And you know, I was like, man, I gotta go to Ghana by

3:08

myself. Crazy. Over

3:11

a thirteen years headed into fourteen

3:13

years, it's been. I mean again, it's been. It's been

3:15

a blessing. But is there a way you prepare

3:18

or how does that change over the years where

3:20

you know, when you started off at year

3:22

one versus going into year fourteen, is

3:24

that preparation changed for you at all?

3:26

It definitely has, And I think you know, especially

3:28

when you get into the season, you obviously

3:30

have seen so much football, you

3:32

know how certain teams are going to play

3:34

you, so you can spend time on little

3:36

details rather than the big picture of it

3:39

all.

3:40

And so.

3:41

As you know, you get into your

3:44

thirteen fourteen whatever it is, and you're

3:46

not having to think as much. You're just able to react

3:48

and play and know what's coming.

3:51

And so.

3:52

The preparation from an end season standpoint, and

3:54

then offseason, you know, everybody's

3:57

got the got their different way of doing things.

4:00

But I feel like I've got a good routine of everything

4:02

that I do.

4:02

Having us here, let's just talk about it. I talked

4:04

with Roman and Peanut Tillman earlier

4:07

and they, you know, they challenged me on our draft class,

4:10

and.

4:10

You know, I was like, what did they challenge you with?

4:12

I don't know. Our draft class is the greatest ever.

4:14

I just I was like, it's the best, We're the best.

4:17

Just look at the first round.

4:18

Which which is crazy because we can bring up second,

4:21

third, fourth, But it seems like every

4:23

draft class is is sort of heavily

4:26

regarded by their first class. Right, They're

4:28

just like, all right, the first class. You look at the first round

4:31

and you're gonna be like, all right, that's your draft class, which is crazy

4:33

because there was guys like you. There was guys like justin

4:36

Houston, there's Richard Sherman. But

4:38

just look at the first round. I don't

4:40

know, out of what thirty two pigs there

4:42

had been, I'm looking at what fifteen

4:45

Pro bowlers? It's crazy hard

4:47

to miss.

4:47

It's crazy hard to miss.

4:49

The significant progress on how

4:51

to draft the draft class?

4:53

Yeah, what and Pro bowlers?

4:54

And there there's gonna be arguably a

4:57

lot of Hall of famers in that right too.

4:59

That's what I'm just so.

5:01

I mean again, I guess if you say best

5:04

draft class ever, it's that's subjective. Everybody's

5:06

got an opinion, but everybody, I mean, there's

5:09

there's I think the numbers

5:11

aren't gonna lie.

5:12

On this one. That's what I'm saying. You should just trust

5:14

trust the numbers. That happened. You know, there

5:17

was Cam Newton number one. Uh,

5:19

then we go Von Miller, Marcel Darius.

5:22

Then it gets even better, aj Aj

5:25

You guys came together. That's a hell of a draft class.

5:27

You drafted Andy Dalton and AJ Green and

5:29

put them together. So that's a great connection.

5:32

Uh. Then from there you know Patrick Peterson,

5:34

Julio Jones, Alden Smith, and

5:36

then you know the quarterbacks of the first round. After

5:39

that it was J Jake

5:41

Locker, Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder and

5:43

Okay, fine, uh but then you have Tyrone

5:45

Smith, J. J. Watt, Nick

5:48

Fairley. Nick Fairley was a dog for something, you

5:50

know, Robert Quinn.

5:53

There's a lot of hundred guys in this j Yeah,

5:56

J. J.

5:57

Watt, Robert Quinn, myself, Ryan

5:59

Kerrigan stopped at like what nine nineties, ninety

6:02

four and a half. I'm like, come on, just get two hundred. Finish

6:04

it. But you know there was there's

6:07

a tackle Nate Solder, what a couple of championships

6:09

with ye with the Patriots. You

6:12

know we had I know you weren't there.

6:14

We had Prince of Mukamira.

6:16

Yeah, come to the come to the Saint.

6:17

I was not there, but I've been around Prince

6:20

Prince the great guy.

6:21

Great guy. But just talk about that first draft

6:23

like there was, there was excellence, and then we're

6:25

still in the top twenty. Then there was you know, me

6:27

at twenty four, mark Ingram twenty eight, Mohammad

6:30

Wilgerson that you know, was that twenty

6:32

thirty and then Cam Hayward Pro Bowlers.

6:35

Yeah, this provo is all over. That all

6:37

over that drafts all.

6:38

Over And then you talk about again, second, third, fourth

6:40

round guys like you again justin Houston,

6:43

Richard Sherman. There was guys that were just making

6:45

names for themselves from our draft class. I'm I'm

6:47

just going to continue and stay we're the best draft

6:49

cleft to ever.

6:50

In the amount of times that we talked about this when

6:52

we were teammates a couple of years ago twenty

6:55

eleven best draft class, Boom dam.

6:58

I'm just gonna keep saying it. I'm hope that everybody

7:00

hears me. So I'm just gonna do like

7:02

if you if there was a hypothetical

7:05

draft, do over right, give

7:07

me your accomplishments and your performances. Do

7:10

you slide into that first round? Where do you think you'd be selected?

7:12

I mean I would think that

7:14

I would be the second quarterback taken. I think

7:17

Cam still goes number one overall. I

7:19

mean just I mean, look what he was

7:21

able to do and in his time and when

7:23

he was at the height of his career, I mean, he

7:25

was one of the most one of the more exciting players

7:27

in the league for sure, And so I

7:30

would assume that I would probably

7:32

be the second quarterback taken.

7:33

But you take Blaina, Blaine Gabbert or

7:35

no Jake Locker at Tennessee.

7:39

So but I'm not mad

7:41

about what happened.

7:42

Absolutely not.

7:42

If I could go in the second round instead of the first round

7:45

and have aj Green go in the first round and that be my

7:47

guy all day, I'm

7:49

taking where I went.

7:51

Yeahere do you go like a seven thousand yard

7:53

seasons in a row eight thousand something crazy

7:55

something ridiculous crazy. You're

7:58

out there just red rifling that thing, just wheeling

8:00

and dealing. What

8:03

do you think is the most significant

8:05

change that's happened in this you

8:07

know, games evolution from when

8:09

you started, when we used to mall quarterbacks

8:12

and I have to worry about, you know, the rules

8:16

implied to where we are at now now

8:18

we're all wearing Jimmy's at

8:20

practice.

8:21

Well, I

8:23

think the style of play has also changed

8:25

because it was a very

8:28

much run first league when we first came in the

8:30

league. And now

8:33

obviously it's all about the past game, all about

8:35

the quarterback, all about trying

8:37

to score.

8:38

Points and all that kind of stuff.

8:39

And even that has changed because now you can throw over the middle

8:41

and not get reprimanded.

8:42

It's used to be able.

8:43

To your rookieyear you threw over the middle, you

8:45

had people coming down heel.

8:48

It's I mean, the

8:50

player safety stuff. It

8:53

makes it hard on somebody that's

8:55

playing defense. You know where

8:57

you can hit the quarterback, where you can hit a receiver.

9:00

Is it in the head, is it in the shoulder?

9:02

Is it it's it's tough to be defender

9:04

these days, it's it's hard to play. But I

9:06

mean, I I understand the argument if we

9:09

want to protect guys, but

9:11

at the end of the day, how do you Your

9:14

natural instincts are going to take over.

9:16

And no doubt if I'm if I'm coming downhill,

9:18

do you think I'm really thinking, No, you're not my

9:20

head. Let's go across the bow it.

9:23

I have to make sure that's going to come into this whole hip drop

9:25

hip drop tackle things.

9:27

I don't even know what I now. Yeah, until

9:29

they made it a thing, and now it's.

9:32

Like, I don't know.

9:33

Are you're in the middle of making a tackle

9:35

you're going to think I can't do that and let go.

9:37

Don't let me swilve all my hips. In fact, let me

9:39

let him go so he can gain more yards.

9:41

Yeah, okay, I'm all for fifteen

9:43

yards. Let's keep it. Let's keep it going.

9:45

First down sucks for you can also

9:49

move me on down the field. That

9:51

hurts

10:11

bro.

10:12

Now that you're over at Carolina and you've you've gone

10:14

through a few teams, uh one, do you

10:16

have a favorite franchise. I'm gonna say this. I'm just gonna say,

10:19

Okay, I'm not gonna let you answer that. And then two,

10:21

you know when you when you went to Charlotte,

10:23

you know, before they drafted Bryce Young, I was like, all right,

10:26

he went from starter in New Orleans two starter

10:28

Charlotte and then they drafted Bryce Young, and you

10:30

know the reins were given. How is your relationship

10:32

between you and him? You know, you were excellent

10:34

for us and then became

10:36

our starter and took over. Does

10:40

that is that sort of you know, I guess it. You

10:42

can't mirror Charlotte or what is what is the expectations?

10:44

Then?

10:44

Well, you know when I left New Orleans, I

10:47

obviously got to start for it's

10:49

fourteen games or something like that.

10:50

Yeah, and uh, I felt like I played pretty

10:53

well.

10:53

And for me going into that that free

10:55

agency that year, you know, there wasn't uh,

10:58

there wasn't a ton of opportunity for me to go and to

11:00

be the day one starter. I got to Carolina and knowing they

11:02

had the first overall pick, you know what's going to

11:04

happen there, regardless of how good I

11:06

was playing in the off season and the OTAs

11:08

and all that kind of stuff, And in training camp it's

11:11

the number one overall pick.

11:12

He's going to play, and so.

11:15

I knew that going in, so it made it easier,

11:18

like mentally going into it and saying, Okay,

11:20

regardless of what you do, you still prove yourself.

11:22

From day one, I walked in and said, like, you

11:24

know, I'm going to show you what I can do. And

11:28

you know, I felt good about what I

11:30

was able to do this past year and just

11:33

being on the team and to help Bryce and to

11:35

help him grow. Obviously, it was a year

11:37

of he had to handle a lot of adversity.

11:40

There was a lot of things that were kind of stacked against him

11:42

that he had to try to overcome and had

11:44

to handle. And he's never had a season

11:47

like that in his life, from

11:49

high school to college, being in

11:51

a Heisman Trophy winner and what he was able to do with

11:53

Alabama to and then get into the league and have

11:56

to handle that. But I

11:58

think what we've been able to do this offseason and

12:00

to try to bring in the right pieces and everything,

12:02

I think we're trying to help set him up to have

12:04

a more successful season than obviously we had

12:07

last year.

12:08

I'm not saying that's gonna be easy to do.

12:10

But when we play Saints, it's

12:13

two wins on the schedule for us.

12:16

Yes, okay, was there a moment

12:18

or throw or

12:20

a game from last season that you can point to say

12:22

that like Bryce is going to be okay and

12:24

figure it out.

12:26

There was a game we played

12:28

against the Packers. We did not end up winning

12:30

the game, but you

12:33

could tell he kind of took over in

12:36

the game and was like

12:39

everything was flowing. He was he was

12:41

playing on time, playing in rhythm, making

12:43

big players, getting out of the pocket, finding

12:46

guys down the field, and it was a game like, okay,

12:48

this is what this is like, shows

12:51

what he can be if we kind of get everything

12:53

around him built built the way it needs

12:55

to. And so that was

12:57

a game and even though like I wanted everything

13:00

just to win that game, to felt like, okay, hey, you've

13:02

got to feel that moment of you were feel

13:04

like you're taking over the game and you found

13:07

a way to win. We obviously didn't win, but

13:10

it was a game that felt like, Okay, this is definitely

13:12

something you can build.

13:12

On, okay, right, and building

13:15

block, especially for a young quarterback, is key. Confidence

13:17

is key. Not that you know it's.

13:20

Year one, it's your year one, you

13:22

know, but.

13:22

As a number one overall pick, you know how bright that spotlight

13:25

was.

13:25

Yeah, No, for sure, and I think

13:27

especially with the success of some of the other quarterbacks

13:29

in that in that draft class too. Yeah

13:33

CJ. I mean, he had an unbelievable year. But

13:35

the best thing for you, as you know, is experience

13:38

to be out there. If you're not. If you're not out

13:40

there, you're not getting that experience and you're not.

13:42

That trial through fire is real because then then you

13:44

really figure out that mental spot too, like you

13:46

figure out if you're a dog and that that's

13:48

like able to weather the storm or do you

13:50

sort of like tuck the tail, like I can't do this right?

13:53

Like you could shine bright whenever you're having immediate

13:55

success, but are you still shining as brightly

13:58

like when you're not for sure in

14:00

being in that role? Does does that change

14:02

how you approach how you take care of your body at all,

14:05

mentally and or physically, well.

14:08

Physically, This is the best I've ever felt because

14:11

you're not taking any hit. You know, I got one.

14:13

I got one game this year and uh,

14:15

you know, I felt the little sore and felt like I was

14:17

part of it. Then after that my body

14:19

was feeling great and the best I felt going

14:21

into an off season. But I

14:24

think it allows you time to focus on

14:26

some other things too, you know, your body being

14:28

one of them. You know, making sure I probably

14:31

spent more time in the weight room and training room and

14:33

stuff, just because you, I mean, the

14:35

toll You're not having to to do all the extra

14:37

stuff that you know the starter has to do.

14:39

And so yeah, I

14:41

feel like I'm in I'm in a great place.

14:43

Right now, okay, mentally

14:45

meaning that I'm not ready to go whenever that that

14:48

I figured.

14:48

You say, you all walked in into the off season feeling

14:50

the best you've ever felt. That probably bodes

14:53

well just in case your number is called.

14:55

It is to you what my hill is now is

14:58

tennis.

14:59

Ye.

15:00

Yes, I wasn't expecting.

15:01

I mean I sort of I should have should have expected.

15:03

You should have you knew that that was going on.

15:05

JJ was getting your no no out

15:08

there.

15:08

Get my wife Nikki out there and starting to play.

15:10

Now She's like, babe, what are we going to play? Yeah,

15:13

we're not. I was like, my body hurts. Actually,

15:16

I'm looking forward to pick a ball that's gonna be mine.

15:18

Well, the good the good thing is tennis

15:20

translates so well to playing quarterback with

15:23

all the different movements that you do. And so

15:26

I've been all in and uh, that's

15:28

been my office game changer.

15:31

How much longer do you want to play?

15:33

How much longer do you want to play? Again?

15:36

The conversations that we had in the conversation

15:38

sitting in the locker room waiting for this, Yeah,

15:41

you know, I want to go as long as it keeps

15:43

making sense for me and my family and my body feels

15:45

great. I feel like, you know, I

15:48

can keep going. I think it'd be fun to

15:50

to touch forty years old.

15:52

Wow, yeah, so

15:54

you're you're my hero.

15:55

We'll see thirty six right now,

15:58

be thirty seven in October, so only

16:00

a couple more years. But we'll see if, as

16:03

you know, we get to this thing and we evaluate

16:06

after each season and see if we want

16:08

to keep going. But I'm

16:10

still loving it. I still enjoy the game, still still

16:12

love all the stuff that goes into it.

16:14

And so and that's why we're

16:16

here at there, we are at the broadcast

16:19

workshop. What are you looking forward to this week?

16:21

I think there's so many different avenues

16:23

and different you know, realms of the media,

16:26

and we as players see

16:28

it from one side.

16:29

Now you obviously different. You've got your.

16:30

Whole cool graphic up here with

16:33

off the Yeah yeah, this.

16:36

Off the Edge podcast and

16:38

and all the different things. But you get to see the

16:40

different side of the media and and kind

16:43

of get to experience all the different

16:45

things rather be from calling a game to doing podcasts,

16:47

to being in studio and all the all the different

16:50

things. So I'm just here to learn from

16:52

the people that are going to be presenting

16:54

to us, kind of get some

16:56

of their knowledge and and hopefully, you

16:58

know, see what if this is something that

17:01

I want to pursue moving

17:03

forward, And you know, I think it's it's

17:05

definitely a great opportunity that

17:07

the NFL puts this thing

17:09

on that we get a chance to come learn from

17:11

the everybody here and involved.

17:14

See if you want to pursue. So you see yourself in the space,

17:16

like how active do you see? Are you going to like

17:19

Pat McAfee, like build out your own studio

17:21

in Charlotte and just make the media come to you,

17:23

or are you going to you know, do like you know these these

17:25

quarterbacks do and have the deal done years

17:28

in advance and then just.

17:29

Go hey, we'll see I'm here.

17:31

So that's step one, right, right.

17:33

Step. Step one is showing up. Ye can't

17:36

can't, can't get a blessing if without ever

17:38

stepping into the church. You know, So I understand,

17:41

gotta gotta step in and see what makes the most sense.

17:44

I look forward to that just because, like people

17:47

don't know how fun you are. You know what I'm saying, Like I feel

17:49

like they know any Dalton

17:51

the quarterback.

17:51

I always have our lit I was talking out

17:54

here and with

17:56

one of these guys, I'm saying, I feel like

17:58

I've been very vanilla in my interviews,

18:01

you.

18:01

Know how a lot of people do.

18:02

It's like you ask the question and

18:05

I'm going to answer, and I'm not going to answer your question,

18:07

but I'm just going to say what I want to say and

18:10

kind of move on from there. And so this

18:12

is a good opportunity to kind of get to show a little bit of personality.

18:15

Let the red hair flair.

18:19

The hair is flowing, all

18:21

right.

18:21

Final question. Whenever they

18:24

talk about quarterbacks, right, they talk

18:26

about they may never talk about like the throw

18:28

percentage. They never talk about like, hey, these are the

18:30

wife shoes day through in his career, they

18:32

talk about winning. At this point, should

18:34

winning be a part of a quarterback stat.

18:37

I mean, I think it should because at the end of the day, it's

18:39

all about winning. The business

18:41

is, you know, that's what it's all about.

18:44

Now.

18:45

Winning can look a lot different based

18:48

off of what team you're on, who you have

18:50

around you, and all that kind of stuff. Losses

18:53

can look a lot different based off who

18:56

you know, what team you're on, who you have around

18:59

you, all that nobody cares about.

19:00

Like how you didn't have any receivers or throw to,

19:03

you know, like for

19:05

whatever it is, quarterbacks get judged quickly

19:07

and like, oh they won two games

19:09

last year, three games last year, ten games

19:12

last year. They get judge asap

19:14

just off of you know, whatever whatever was given.

19:16

To I mean, I think the

19:18

people that really know, we're going to go and look and see,

19:21

Okay, well why right, you know, like

19:23

the average fan doesn't care about your average fan

19:26

is going on online

19:28

and looking at stats.

19:29

Looking looking up the fantasy

19:31

points that they.

19:32

See the fantasy points and all that kind of stuff.

19:34

And but I

19:37

think that's what makes guys

19:40

special. People are just gonna talk

19:42

about Tom because of what he was able

19:44

to do win seven Super Bowls, playing

19:46

ten, Like for

19:49

a while there it was our whole career he

19:51

was playing in the super Bowl, like every year

19:53

he was in super Bowl, super Bowl, super Bowl and

19:57

shooting what Patrick's been able to do at the start

19:59

of his career.

20:00

I mean it's like, what.

20:01

Has been four out of seven super Bowls the

20:04

seven years you've been here, four of them?

20:05

Like, yeah, it's one, so don't

20:09

we all?

20:10

But you know, I think that's what

20:12

makes the good ones great now

20:14

you can you know, again,

20:17

based off your team, there's been some quarterbacks that have

20:19

made it to the super Bowl

20:21

and haven't maybe not

20:23

the one. Some have won super Bowls that they

20:26

weren't the ones that.

20:27

Was definitely worth the driving driving force. You'd say

20:29

the team one.

20:30

The team ones. Yeah, but uh,

20:33

at the end of the day, that's what you're measured by. So that's all

20:35

it matters.

20:36

I appreciate That's all the questions I have for you. I appreciate

20:39

you for tapping in at the show man. I know you're

20:41

here badcasts, but even saying yes to getting

20:43

you on the pod, I'm super excited for you

20:45

this week. I hope you do join media

20:47

whatever capacity that you see fit. Thank

20:50

you to the listeners. Thank you guys for

20:52

listening. To the pod tapping wherever you get

20:54

your your podcast, the Apple Podcasts,

20:57

iHeartRadio app wherever

20:59

you get it, make sure to follow, hit the likes,

21:01

leave us a five star review. I appreciate

21:04

y'all. This is Cam Jordan on my podcast

21:06

Off the Edge with my guy Andy Dalton.

21:08

God have a blessed one, Peace,