Kap & J. Hood
8/20 7 AM: Albert Breer
(upbeat music) - Hello. - Football on ESPN 1000. - Hello, Bird. - Albert Breer. - Hey, Bird Senior NFL writer for SI.com joins Cap and J-hood. - Bird set. - What? - You're it, Bird. - On ESPN 1000. - What do you mean I'm it? - We see that's the game. I just tagged you and you're it until you tag somebody else. - Albert Breer. - No, no, I'm not playing a game. I'm reading, and I'm not it. - Okay. - On Chicago's Home for Sports. - What bird is it? - Talking Bears with you here on the Cap and J-hood Morning Show on ESPN 1000 and streaming on the ESPN Chicago app? As we go to the Hotline. - That beat the car X tire and on Ohio. - Rattle, rattle, thunder, batter, boom, boom, boom. (upbeat music) - Albert Breer from SI.com. A Monday morning quarterback is with us on Cap and J-hood. He just wrote a great piece. Caleb Williams is already showing his high potential. Go to SI.com and check it out as he joins us here on Cap and J-hood. Good morning, Albert, how are you? - I'm good, how are you guys doing? - We are great. - Very awesome. - What did you glean from your conversation with Caleb Williams? That stood out to you. - I mean, how ready he is to be a franchise quarterback. You know, I just, it feels like in every single way, he's so comfortable when where he is and how he got here. And, you know, I think, you know, like for a lot of, you guys coming out of college, it can be overwhelming, not the football part, but everything that comes along with being in that position, you know, and so there's expectations, there's, you know, like there's scrutiny, there's all of it, and you guys know that. You know, different guys deal with it different ways. This is a guy, it sort of reminds me a little bit of, you know, Trevor Lawrence, I would say, like where Trevor Lawrence had been under the spotlight and had been the number one guy for so long that like nothing really faced him, right? Like coming in and when he, and he really wound up meeting it his first couple of years in a week, right? Like dealing with everything that happened in the urban Meyer year and then seeing the first coaching staff that he played for getting fired. Like, I don't know that very many quarterbacks would have survived, whichever Lawrence survived and come out the other side the same player the way that he did. You know, and I think a lot of that was because he was so comfortable in his own skin and he was so comfortable under the spotlight because he'd been under the spotlight for such a long time. And I think there's something similar about Kale, they're different people, but I think the same dynamic exists where it's just a guy who has, you know, kind of, you know, been preparing to be a franchise quarterback for a long, long time, you know, and now that he is, you know, a franchise quarterback for an NFL team, he's ready, you know? And, you know, he's not overwhelmed by what's right in front of him. And, you know, I think that's even kind of, you know, like that even, you know, like, you know, comes out and like how he answered the question. I wanted to ask him when I went into my conversation with him, which was like, why is it that it seems like, like there are all these narratives out, you know, about you and you don't have any problem. You know, you don't fight against them. And, you know, his, I don't know, his whole, the way he handled it, I think is, you know, he just, he's so comfortable in who he is. And it's a result, again, think of the path they supposed to get here. - So you mentioned in talking with him and you referenced Trevor Lawrence. And I went back again yesterday. There's a book called Quarterback Dads that my friend Teddy Greenstein wrote. And I have the book. I go back and there's an entire chapter on this kid who's on a all-star team. And he doesn't get named the starter 'cause the coach decides he's gonna start his own son. And the dad says to the son, okay, tell me what you want out of your life. He said, I wanna be the number one pick in the NFL draft. I wanna be a franchise quarterback. He said, okay, from this very moment, if that's what you want, that's how you're gonna live your life. We don't eat a lot of junk food. We work out before school and we are going to train from this moment on so that nothing will phase you. That kid was a young teenager named Caleb Williams. So much like Trevor Lawrence, nothing even in this insane town of Chicago should phase him a town, by the way, that since 2010 has had 20 different starting quarterbacks. Is that fair? - Yeah, and I think it is. And it's interesting 'cause I did ask about the involvement of his dad. And I think I told you guys his story, but if not, I'll tell it again, where they went in and the Bears asked about his dad when they met with Cliff Kingsbury. And this was the quote unquote offensive coordinator interview. I think Cliff was well aware of what a big part of the purpose of that interview was, which was for the Bears to get information on Caleb Williams from him. And Cliff told the Bears, we only saw Caleb's dad once in the practice facility. And Cliff said, I love Caleb's dad, but Caleb's dad was not involved in football whatsoever. And Cliff's, I mean, obviously being a college coach for as long as he was, then the Cardinals, he had seen overbearing quarterback dads and he didn't view Carl that way. Like he viewed Carl as a guy who was really going to be involved in helping his son with the business part of it, but then was going to stay out of the way with the football part. And I think it's sort of similar to, in this way, and I know I'm giving you guys a lot of analogies here, the bosses. Like I've, you know, I've gotten to know John Bosa pretty well and obviously he did something right to have two sons drafted higher than he was and he was the first round pick, right? And you know what John Bosa told me was he was like, I never coached my kid. And he said, I didn't want to coach my kids. He said, what I wanted to do was when I figured out that that was their dream, I wanted to give them the resources in every way possible to go and pursue that because I had the means to do it. So I wanted to give them the best nutritionist. I wanted to give them the best trainer. I wanted them to go to the best high school. I wanted them to have the best of everything if they wanted to pursue it. So they have the best chance of achieving the dream. And, you know, in certain ways I think that's sort of what Carl Williams has tried to do for Caleb is getting him around the best people. And like they had some different outside the box ideas they have, that's definitely true. And he has some ideas when it comes to business football. But that happened with the Boses too. You know, I mean, Joey Bosa in a time when no rookies were holding out a camp when it came to, you know, the slotted contract, Joey Bosa held out until the end of August in 2016 and still wound up winning the rookie of the year, you know? So I don't think like the things we're seeing with Caleb are necessarily unprecedented. I do think that there are a little misunderstood. And I do think there's precedent of people like Keck Caleb, I brought up the Lawrence started bringing up the Boses. There's a path there that I think he's walking that we've seen people success. Successful people go down in the past. - Albert Brier from SI.com a Monday morning quarterback with us on cap and Jhood on ESPN 1000. Check out SI.com for the Caleb Williams story about his rookie potential. You talked to Shane Waldron, the offensive coordinator as well, the Geno Smith Whisperer. What is it that Waldron did with Geno that could relate to Caleb? - He built an offense for him, you know? And, you know, like obviously they were doing things a little differently when Russell was there and Shane was there for, I think it was a year, I didn't know what this stuff began, but I think it was a year with Russell as the starter. And then, you know, they had to kind of, have Geno ready to go that first year. And then, you know, after that, it was like, okay, like how do we build an offense that, you know, works for, that works the way that the worst for Geno Smith and based on his background and where he's coming from. And so, I think that's what, you know, good offensive coaches do is they set their scheme to the talent. And, you know, I know that there's a lot of that that he's done for Caleb already. So, you know, where Geno had played and had success playing in a spread in college. And then, you know, you look at some of the systems that he played in as a pro and kind of some of the things that he did well out of the gun and where, you know, he's able to kind of see the field in front of them. He was able to kind of like leverage Geno's best strengths and, you know, get a level of performance out of Geno that you hadn't seen yet in the NFL. And I think, you know, those sorts of principles definitely apply with Caleb. And I think that's one of the reasons why it's so important that they got out in front of his development and installing with him in March and April. And, you know, having a baseline, you know, when it came to the cadence and formations and motions and all that different stuff when he showed up, it allowed them to build off of that foundation. And so, if you had the foundation in place where he knows the terminology and he knows what you're doing and he's learning how to call a play in the huddle, well, then you can start to shape the offense who he is as a player. And, you know, so I think like the way that the barriers have creatively been able to use the time over this calendar year, ramping Caleb up even before he was getting before he was drafted, getting him ready to go. And then like allowing and then taking the time that that saved and using it to make an offense that worked, to create an offense that works for Caleb specifically and do some of the things that Shane did for Geno in Seattle, I think sets him up to have a really nice rookie year. - We're talking to Albert Breer from SI.com. Great stuff on Caleb Williams. I wanna talk to you about Matthew Judon and we'll do that right after this quick timeout. It's Cap and Jay Hood on ESPN 1000. - Welcome back to Cap and Jay Hood. You're officially locked in. ♪ I don't ever win the sky ♪ - On Chicago's home for sports, ESPN Chicago. - Albert Breer from SI.com and Money Morning Quarterback is with us on Cap and Jay Hood and Cap, you had a question for Albert. - So Albert, you're reporting which you were all over this Matthew Judon story. It came down, it looks like, to the Bears and the Falcons and the Bears, so he'll give you the third round pick. And then the report that you filed said Judon had his choice and he picked Atlanta. Why? - Yeah, I don't know exactly why he is from the South. So that could be a factor. I don't know if the Patriots necessarily know why he picked the Falcons. You know, I just think given those two choices, you know, I do know he's been focused on, you know, trying to get another contract and, you know, I don't know if there was some assurance from the Falcons or maybe he felt like given where he is right now and the fact that Montez Swett is in Chicago. He'd be, he'd have a better shot to be the guy and set up another payday if he were in Atlanta. Atlanta obviously has a bigger need of the position. I know the Bears do have a need of the position, but the Falcons really don't have edge hushers right now. So it could have been one of a variety of things. All I know definitively is that he was given a choice and given the choice he took the opportunity to go to the Falcons. - Albert, we heard the soundbite from Toa Tungal by Aloa, the quarterback for Miami on the Dan Libertard Show at Stu Gats. And he really called out Brian Flores for Flores's time with Miami. I'm wondering from your standpoint, what does that do for Brian Flores as far as him getting another head coaching job when Toa, you know, with a brand new bag contract wise says it's so candid about his time with Flores. - Well, I think it makes whatever Flores says about this publicly kind of critical, you know, like in how he handles it because there's gonna be a lot of highs on him. And I think what was a really good coach, you know, and I think he proved it last year again in Minnesota. I do think like he's learned and grown from, you know, from his experiences there. In Miami, he made mistakes. There's no question about it. You know, I would say things were very sideways there. And there are a lot of things that can be said. And obviously Toa said some of them. And Toa has every right to say that 'cause he's played a lot better under Meg me feeling what he did under Brian Flores. I think it's probably best for Brian Flores to fall on the sword here and say, I made a lot of mistakes I've learned from the mistakes. This is an opportunity for him to show and put on display that, you know, he's learned and grown from his time in Miami. And so, you know, I think he's speaking, I think he's scheduled to speak today, isn't that right guys? - I believe so. - I believe he is, yes. - I think that's right, right. Like, so I think it's just one of those things where these press conferences usually don't mean much, right? You know, we all have attended a million of them and there's a million of them every day in the NFL. Very few of them matter, this one matters, you know, 'cause this is Brian and Flores, again, being questioned for what happened in Miami. And this is his first opportunity to be, like one of the forward-facing characters in this story. And, you know, when you own an NFL team, like that's a big part of what you're doing with your head coach, that guy becomes the face of your team. And so, you know, this is an opportunity, as I see it anyway, for Brian Flores to kind of manage his own professional crisis right in front of the public. And show that he'd be able to do that for somebody else that's given the chance, that's given a second chance to be a head coach in the NFL. - The Green Bay Packers got pounded the other day, Albert. And I know Jordan Love didn't play, but Matt Lefur came out and said, "Guys, I'm more than a little concerned "because we were terrible the day or two before "in joint practices. "I would have thought after we got humbled like that "with our first team offensive defense, "we would come out and play with more edge and we did not." He said, "We are not where we need to be." Is there real concern in Green Bay? - I don't think so, I mean, I don't know. I feel like when I was there a few weeks ago, there was real optimism on where they are. And, you know, I think sometimes coaches can use these situations as devices to try and get the team going and try to heighten a sense of urgency during camp. I think everybody knows like what it's like, you know, like in the second and third and fourth weekend camp, sessions veteran players might not be playing in the games, you know? It's kind of like, let's get to the season here already. And so I think it's a way to give this team a little bit of a spark. It doesn't count a group, guys. Like Jordan, by all accounts, has had a really nice training camp. He's got a young group of receivers he's coming up with. I think the defense is gonna be better under Jeff Haffley. They've got a lot going for them there. And I, my interpretation of this from Matt LaFloor is, this is sort of a warning shot to the team. Like in saying like, hey, I know we're in a good spot, but it's not automatic, you know? We can't just push a button and win, you know, 11, 12 games. - It's good to know that you're gonna be wearing your fireproof boots as you cover Giants camp. Daniel Jones is terrible, okay? What's going on with the Giants are terrible. Okay, so you'll have your one-on-one with Mike Franciso, which is gonna be great. We look forward to reading that, Albert. So that's gonna be great. - Yeah, yeah, I mean, I, you know what? You know what's funny about like the, what's funny about this is like, I feel like all that's, all these like, and you guys know what I'm talking about, all the social media accounts that like make like sweeping judgments off of like single training camp plays. - Yeah, yeah. - I feel like that's like happened more with Giants camp than any other camp in the league. So I'm gonna be interested to dig into the truth. Like it's like, I like, you know, more like neighbors make a nice catch down field. The Giants have their wide receiver won. No one can be able to call the wide receiver won, by the way. - Right. - But the Giants have their wide receiver won. And like, you know, then Daniel Jones throws a pick, sees it over and eats rather first. It's just, yeah. But I know all they're trying to do is get us bad, right? - That's right. - I think they succeeded. - Hey, Albert, as we let you go, one word answer. Fields or Wilson, who starts day one? - Wilson, but I'd say by week five, it's Fields. I think it's not, this is a big week there, guys, which is a big week. Like this is the first time in a while that Wilson's gonna be able to go out there and practice without restriction. And he's been highly inconsistent to this point in camp. Fields is practice better. If Russell can't turn a corner, I think a real discussion has had. I think, and I don't think the door's closed at all until it's been week one, so. - As always, Albert, we appreciate it. Thanks so much for coming on the show. - Okay, thanks, guys.