Grant and Danny
Austin Ekeler Joins G&D To Discuss The Commanders Win
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue, and guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law. Nothing is more important than getting a good night's sleep, and when you don't get the rest you need, your whole day is thrown off. That's why it's so important to choose the right mattress. Sleeping on a purple mattress is truly a unique experience, because purple mattresses are made with a gel flex grid. The gel flex grid is an innovative material that moves with your body to relieve pressure in areas like knees and hips, and support in others like your back. It feels soft where you want it and supports where you need it. Purple mattresses instantly adapt when you move. You don't sink in and get stuck like with memory foam, and thanks to over 1,400 air chambers in the gel flex grid, you will sleep cooler on a purple mattress. Purple has a wide variety of mattresses from the original purple mattress to the Restore Hybrid Collection that combines gel flex grid with coils, and the Rejuvenate Lux Collection, the height of luxury, with over 112,000 to five star reviews to prove it. Visit purple.com to find the perfect purple for you and enter code podcast10 to get 10% off. Now at T-Mobile, get four 5G phones on us and four lines for $25 a line per month when you switch with eligible trade-ins, all on America's largest 5G network. Minimum of four lines for $25 per line per month without a paid discount using Devider Bank account, $5 more per line without auto pay, plus taxes and fees and $10 device connection charge. Phones will be at 24 monthly bill credits for well qualified customers. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on a required finance agreement to bill credits and if you pay off devices early, ctmobile.com. We are fired up to go to the hotline right now. Welcome on to the show. Austin Echler, commanders tailback and the team's leading receiver through two games. Austin, welcome back on GND. How you been, man? I've been doing well doing well. Thanks for having me back on. You got it. As always, every single Tuesday, all season long, Austin will be with us right here at five o'clock on the fan. So there's so much to get into, but I guess we could start right at the beginning of the game with a 98 yard house call, a house call, new kickoff rule, Echler's back there as a surprise on the week one, first return and it took you all of two weeks to break one for a touchdown and then it came back via penalty. So let's just start with what you saw as you approached that pile of bodies in the new kickoff. I know what what an epic way to start out the season, huh? At the home opener. I just like there's no way that this is starting it out like this, but I guess here we go. So I mean, the boys blocked it up. I really didn't have to do anything too crazy. That's that's the beauty of having great blocking. But unfortunately, someone blocked a little too good. And obviously got the holding call and brought it back, but still a good way to bring some energy to the home opener. So it couldn't have been any more epic. When did you realize and how did you find out eventually there was a flag down at someone yell at you? Because you guys were celebrating in the end zone for a minute first. Yeah. I mean, so it's still, we still celebrate it because we don't know what the flag is, right? So we're going to go out there and do our thing as far as like, yeah, you know, get everyone pumped up because it's not often you see, you know, one to the house. And so especially with me back there, I haven't returned kickoff since my rookie year. So, yeah, I was definitely disappointed to realize there was a holding call. But hey, we still got the most energy that we could. You're such a nice guy. I would wonder if like, if I'm you, I might do something post game because obviously you guys got the wind and it's water under the bridge, but you could just go stand next to Nick Buller's locker, just kind of stare at him, just like just for the extended few seconds and just this is not just kidding man. Good game. You know what I mean? Like you ever do stuff like that? Those kind of hijinks to break the tension. He immediately came to me and apologized. And so I was appreciative. I didn't even know who got the holding call, but I was appreciative of that. He he owned up to his mistakes and let me know what happened again. So we're we're straight. We're straight over. So there's no like bottle of wine or anything like kangaroo court style after a play like that comes back. Oh no, I think you know what we're teammates. We get it stuff happens, you know, we'll pat each other on the back and we'll get on to the next one. We'll have more opportunities to do that. How do you like the new kickoff so far? It's kind of weird to ask after you break one. I'm sure you like it a lot more now, but I mean seriously though, it looks funny, but what do you think? It's it's different. That's for sure. I think it definitely takes out the big collisions of the initial kind of stopping of a body on kickoff return for those guys. So I think for as far as the concepts and why they put it in, I think that works. I mean, it's still a violent place, still football and people run in full speed at each other. So you never take that out of it. So it just yeah, it just looks funny. But I think it's just one of those things, right? We've got to kind of get used to it. Then you'll be like, Oh yeah, that's how we do it. So I think it's here to stay and I yeah, I think it's good. Austin, how comfortable are you at this point in this offense in terms of having it be, you know, kind of second nature, you just know it intuitively at this stage? How long does it take you? Well, what's really unique about the NFL is there's a base kind of that we have as an offense, but then you start to game plan for every single opponent, right? You have like a new offense, somewhat being installed on every single week. So you'll still have some of your base plays, but then it's like, Hey, here's some key plays based off of what we see with matchups with different coverages, different philosophies from defense coordinators that we'll try to counter. So it's always the evolving playbook. But for the most part, we know how to communicate with each other. We got to get ourselves straightened out with some of these ball starts, which is, which is easy to fix. Just communication air there with the cadence and everything and being loud. So I feel comfortable, but not necessarily like it's something that I know by nature, because it's always evolving. That makes sense. Austin, you've done a really nice job and had some big collisions in the backfield in past pro. And I know that's been a big part of your game because you can't be a past sketching back on the field in those situations. If you're not trusted to pick up blitzers and pick up DBs coming off the edge, take me back to when really that became a priority. I can't imagine you were doing a lot of that in college. Maybe you could correct me, but like, how did you get good at that? And for a lot of running backs, it's what separates you being in the league or not when you're down the depth chart. Like, what goes in? There's a lot that goes into it. It's not complicated. It's actually simple, but not easy. All of those things. It can get complicated, I should say, but it's more so okay. You have to understand who the decordinator is and what their philosophy is. What are they trying to do? How are they going to potentially be setting up? And then everything has to do with what is our philosophy on offense? Are we sorting? Are we on a man call? Like, what type of protection scheme do we have? Is it play action? Because all of these different plays drop back, three-step, five-step, all these different plays have different types of protection rules. Knowing what the play is, knowing what the defense is, doing some studying, marrying those together, walking through it a bunch of times during the week, that gets you to step one. Okay, now you know who to block. Second is actually going and actually doing the blocking. If you know who to block, you can react even quicker. In the quicker you can react, the less time they have to get to full steam and run you over. And so that's kind of my philosophy is know who's blitzing right at the snap based off of my pre-snap reads and based off of demeanor and stuff like that. And then get myself in a position where I don't have to take on a full charging guy that's 40 pounds heavier than me. Then it comes down to your technique. What's your technique? Me, I'm built with leverage, you know, I'm 5'8", so I'm already probably lower than you are. So now it comes down to using proper technique, hands inside, setting a good base, and delivering a blow. So I mean, there you go. That's how you pass blocking the NFL. All right, I'm ready to go do it. I'll just go do that real quick. Also 5'8". We have very different bodies. We have very different frames on our 5'8". I would point out, as you know, from a finally meeting in person in the locker room here the other day. Austin Echlers with us on Grant and Danny, how much film do you watch in a week before a game? Oh, it's very particular. As far as not like I'm watching games and games and games but more so watching kind of like different linebackers, watching different kind of cut-ups of what we're expecting to see. I don't want to get bogged down, watching too much film and over thinking, just seeing really the structure of their defense. And now at this point being in nine years, you showed me the structure that I'm pretty much got with their defense is going to look like. And now it's just kind of studying some of their what we call game records to kind of see how I can affect them, whether it's chipping guys on the way out, if it's a defensive lineman or edge rusher, or making sure I know if it's a linebacker, how they blitz, how they cover, like, what is their strength that makes them a game record. So at this point, it's really just particularly kind of looking at guys that can really affect the game in a big way. Austin Echler with us here on Grant and Danny. So Austin, I was thinking back to our conversation last week during the game. I think it was a reception. It could have been a run, but it was on the left sideline. And I think you went to hurdle somebody and he didn't go down maybe the way you thought he would. And you bounced off him and we're on your feet and kind of we're looking around like, well, what's wrong with you, dude? Why are you down? And I'm still up. Now, I couldn't help but think of that combo where you're saying, yeah, I kind of bounce off people. It's sort of what I do. That seemed like pretty good evidence of that. Yeah, man, that's kind of kind of been the story of Austin. Myself is like, Hey, I can run. I'm strong lower body. Good body control, as you could see there. Yeah. So I catch the ball down the sideline. I'm running full speed at a corner and I'm like, okay, DB, probably going to go low. And so I start to gather to jump. Well, was I wrong? Yeah. He also jumps, but into me, luckily, I was in a position where I could really break myself. And then there was a linebacker there that ended up being in the picture too. That kind of got some aftermath of it. And they both fell down. And I mean, when you go airborne and it doesn't work, usually it's carnage. You're on the ground. Fortunately for your boy this time, I boom, I stick to landing. And I'm just like in my head, like, what the heck? How did I just land that? Yeah. You know, I should have done some like some like, you know, UFC like celebration move, because you know, everyone was on the ground around me that would have been cool or some like sumo stamp stomp or something kind of missed opportunity. But next time, you know, next time I get a running airborne, you know, collateral damage around me, I'll make sure to hit a celebration. So you mentioned that like, like a corner out there, I was going to ask you when, when do you go? I mean, it's all split second. You guys are going so damn fast. But when is it hurdle time? When is it shoulder time? When is it show them a little wiggle? Like, like, how do you decide in that kind of split second? It's just repetition and kind of how your philosophy of your brain works. Because some guys aren't like, Oh, I'm going to wiggle like I had an inside zone where it was me lying back on one on one. And in my head, it's like, Oh, you know, it's just right. And it's like, get around. And it's just like kind of like a reaction. Like, Oh, get around. Like, and it's like, Oh, Jeff step. Like, I've already been through this scenario going through bags, hundreds, thousands of times, you know, hurdle or say, Oh, hey, they're going low. That one was kind of preempted. And so, yeah, usually don't do that doesn't end up too well. Usually it should be a reaction. If they go low, you go high. And so it's all reactionary based off of their leverage, how fast they're going, your fast, you're going, your positioning is anyone around you. And you kind of adapt to that kind of scenario with what tools you have in your toolbox. So you got to know what tools you have. You got to continue to play within the confinement of your capacity. Luckily for me, it's really kind of just being that kind of scat. Like, I'm, you know, I'm really agile and not necessarily a bruiser. So if I was a bruiser, I'd run a moke. That's not necessarily my game plan. Speaking of bruisers, Austin, Brian Robinson, ripped off a 40 yard and two 30 plusers this week on his way to a career high, one 33 you and him both having field days, you throw Jaden into the mix, you guys ran for 215. Right now the running game is one of the best in football already. And it just seems like an identity is being established. What did you make of how successful you guys dominated the Giants on the ground? Yeah, Brian Robinson is definitely a punisher. Like he is that big back who's going to look for content or contact and run you over. Like that's his philosophy. That's kind of his build. And then he's going to continue to rise. It's not going to be easy to take this man down. Like he is strong, lower body 62, 225, you know, just a big running back. And I think it's awesome. I think it's awesome that we have him kind of that punisher type. And then we have myself who's really a pass catcher, make it miss type as well. And so it's a good, it's a good kind of two headed monster that we have in the back field. And you know, you got to give credit to the old line for, you know, the run game getting it started to because they've been doing a good job of making sure we have some gaps as well. And so as we continue to put this thing together, we've had a good running plan and it marries up with the past game as always. And so it's just a good complimentary football when we're able to put the ground game together a little inside football here. How often on a RPO, like you guys are RPOed him to death early in the game with those screens. Do you know generally if it's going to be pulled and thrown or given to you? And I'm just curious like for you, I saw four ineligible man penalties for the line for the Eagles on Monday night football. Last night on those RPOs that Hertz pooled, I get how hard it is for them. But as a back, like what's that play like? Yeah, I mean, for you, your philosophy is we run in the ball, like you have to like you can't be thinking, Oh, he's going to pull it because the fact that if you're thinking of that and then now what you're not thinking of, well, where you need to run the ball and how you need to get there. And so you as I'm running back, just kind of or blocked in on your keys and your read so that when you does hand the ball, because you're anticipating that that you can get through where you need to get through. So you're not trying to read the same defender that he is basically to know. Heck no. Heck no. It's so for us, we're getting it blind. We don't know. We don't know. We don't know who he's reading and where they're at. But as far as, you know, if he's going to pull it out, we don't know that. Got you. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Nothing is more important than getting a good night's sleep. And when you don't get the rest you need, your whole day is thrown off. That's why it's so important to choose the right mattress. Sleeping on a purple mattress is truly a unique experience because purple mattresses are made with a gel flex grid. The gel flex grid is an innovative material that moves with your body to relieve pressure in areas like knees and hips and support in others like your back. It feels soft where you want it and supports where you need it. Purple mattresses instantly adapt when you move. You don't sink in and get stuck like with memory foam. And thanks to over 1400 air chambers in the gel flex grid you will sleep cooler on a purple mattress. Purple has a wide variety of mattresses from the original purple mattress to the restore hybrid collection that combines gel flex grid with coils and the rejuvenate lux collection, the height of luxury. With over 112,000 to five star reviews to prove it. Visit purple.com to find the perfect purple for you and enter Code Podcast 10 to get 10% off. After investing billions to light up our network, T-Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus right now you can switch, keep your phone, and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus for eyes and AT&T at T-Mobile.com/KeepAndSwitch. Up to four lines via virtual prepaid guard, a left 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit service ported 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months. Austin Echler with the Sierra on G&D. So Austin, curious. I mean, obviously you guys are competitors. You want to win the football game? That's done. That's obvious. That's a given. Just wondering how you're viewing this. So me as just a pudgy zilch of a fan, I will take 37 minutes of time and possession 400 plus yards. We already mentioned the rushing stats. No punts. You guys on the red zone six different times versus you guys weren't able to punch it in. Couple different things happen each time. How do you view that offensive performance for you guys? Obviously the wins most important thing, but you know, is that a, hey, it's encouraging? Look at all the good or is it? Damn. We left some in the Lebonne. How do you view that as a competitor? There's some good and some bad. There's good that we didn't have to punt. We were able to move the ball and get into scoring position. That's good. Bad because offensively we'd never scored. And so it's not necessarily like a medium. Like there's good and bad. You call it how it is and you take it how it is and you learn from it. And for us, yes, we showed the signs of being able to consistently move the ball, which is great. We want to build off of that. But what definitely needs to happen is we got to get rid of these red zone penalties that are killing us and the red zone backing us up. And we got to find a way to get our butts in the end zone because you're not going to win many games. You can only make field goals and can't get the end zone in the league. Every once in a while, you might sneak your win like we did on a field day of field goals, but you don't want to live in that world. Yeah, no doubt. I think there were five false starts in the red zone where some of those like out of the huddle late or trying to change a player or they all just flinches. Like, what was their theme there? It's all the above all of the above. It was loud. It flinches it's changing plays. So the great thing for us is the stuff that we can fix, right? It's not not a matter of, you know, someone's not talented enough or anything like that. Like these are easy penalties that we can easily fix, which by doing some, you know, just get on the same page, kind of a take a take an extra period to talk through this in a meeting and things like that and a walk through to say, this is how we're doing a red zone. Everyone lock into this cadence and things like that, you know, I wonder if someone that's again, it's been around and seeing some things in this league. I wonder if this is just sort of this off the top of my head here, Austin. Like, I've seen it occasionally happen. I'm just sort of curious if this is something that you would feel comfortable doing or if it would make sense. Like, if you see something before the quarterback does, right, where you go, Hey, what we've got called in your brain, like, what we've got called is not going to work because of this. Would you be able to go? Hey, Jaden, dude, like, do you see that? Like, look over there. Don't do that. Let's run something else. Or is it just sort of, you got to hope he sees it. Like, how would that work? Yeah, not. I wouldn't do that during the play. You know, that's not that if he, if he did miss the call, you talk about on the sideline, but just we have to know as players, especially the right back, I'm right next to him, he is command and seeing all of this. And so he's putting us on the same page. And I'm not in every single one of his quarterback meetings. So it might be something that I think because I heard something else, but he might be seeing something else totally different. And so there's no chance I'm ever going to be like, hey, Jaden, check it to this, you know, because that's just kind of stepping out of what is on my plate as far as far as responsibilities. And I was, if there's things that I see, you know, was like, hey, they're dropping me in the flat, you know, things like that, like, or hey, hey, coach, they're bringing down the free safety. I would more so talk to one of our coaches and then get that relayed so that Jaden would know if we need to check out of that and stuff like that. Yeah. Austin, there are a few things prettier in football. Again, baseball, the most beautiful thing you could see is like a perfectly executed hit and run, right? In football, the perfectly timed and designed screen. Oh, I get steamed up. There were two awesome designs from Cliff. One was a center screen. It looked like designed to you, maybe, unlike that little Texas route where you come back. Oh, yeah. And you got two dudes on the hashes, just walled off. And you kind of like a surfer through a wave haul ass between both of them. That was awesome. And then the throwback screen that was clearly designed for you as well. Either a thought on both of those is fine, but was one of those better executed, did you think? Did you have a favorite, like, design to that week? Yeah, funny thing is the throwback wasn't even a screen. I was just checked down. I just happened to be wide open over there. I just got away. Oh, wow. I was hoping to chip the end. So a checkdown can turn into big plays too, but that the screen across the middle, yeah, that was that was the thing of beauty, for sure. And it's so hard. Here's the thing. And all NFL teams go through it. It's so hard to simulate those types of plays and practice because you don't know if you're going to get a true rush from the guys, from on defense or if they're going to sniff it out right away. You're kind of just like, all right, let's just go in here and try to make this thing work. And even, you know, some of our online were talking about like, yeah, we had no idea how that was going to play out, but it played out perfectly for us. And like you said, it was a thing of beauty getting right down the hashes and picking up a first down and like third, like 15. Oh, so obviously no spoilers here. It's like, yeah, like a super secret embargo of like a movie trailer or something that's coming out. But the more you and Brian Robinson are on the field together, I think the harder it's going to be for defenses. Like, does it feel like there's more in store in that regard? Just kind of keeping them on their heels and guessing? Look, I think Brian and I have done a good job of when we have the ball in our hands, make it something happen. And there's only one ball. So whether we're both on the field or not, or for Tim or me, I think it just comes down to, hey, if we can get the ball in our hands, we got to continue to do what we've been doing and building off of what our team has been able to build off of with us in a dynamic way, right? Or continue to find different ways to get the ball out wide, whether it's in the screen game, whether it's running off tackle tosses, I think the things happen as we're on the same page and making plays. And you know, our team is doing the same around us. So no telling. I have no idea it comes down to whether it's our matchup, who we playing, do we match up? Well, you know, what's going on with potentially injuries and things like that. So it's a whole, it's a whole ecosystem, you know, algorithm that these coaches are trying to, you know, find the best way to try to attack. Ducky sauce on Twitter, one of our listeners said, please ask Austin about his winning the angry run award. So NFL networks, good morning football. I didn't see that. Did you win the award for the flying knee today? Apparently I won an award for, yeah, for jumping in the air and, you know, trucking a guy in the air and then let's stick in the landing. There you go. What do they give? They give like a little sword or something. Yeah, like a mallet or something. I don't know. They get all hyped up for for some boy. It's a cool little segment. I didn't actually know about it until today. But I saw the video that they made and seems like they got good energy over there. So I'm thankful for any recognition. Yeah, it's another trophy for the case, dude. What, what are you? There it is. Obviously like touchdowns are the best. Well, what's something like kind of hidden small, could be pass pro or something else where like in the film room, you and maybe the other running backs are going nuts, like something that we wouldn't notice at home. Ooh, that we wouldn't notice at home because I want to say, well, touchdowns is obviously a nice one, but I can notice those. You can also notice like, like making people miss like winning one on one. That's another one that we're big on. As far as like big in the in the room, because it depends on who you are too. Pass pro is another big one, right? Just great solid pass pro. Like that's something that like the chip where you get a guy off balance and just drill them. Not even that. It's just like when you just like, you know, stone a guy in the hole and it's just like, that sounded a little weird. But you need to just like sturdy in there and you're just, you know, boom, you got your job done and put it in the pocket. Like that's something that we get, we get excited about and just, I mean, good fundamentals and runs too. It doesn't have to be like a gash like, hey, you found the soft spot and then you fell forward for another two, three yards drag at somebody. Like that's something that's like nice. Like that's good football right there because not every run is going to be a huge run. But hey, what can you make when it's a little cloudy? So those are a couple just a couple of moments left with our guy Austin Echler once a week joins us here on Grant and Danny kind enough to do so all season long on the fan. We will continue to incorporate more and more questions from listeners as we go to. I know something that you want to do a lot of two things. One, what'd you do with the off day today? How'd you spend your Tuesday away from the park? Yeah. So my office pretty much consists of all the same, same things for me. And it's really building all of the ecosystems that I have outside of football. So right now my app experience is kind of my baby that I'm nurturing and building and putting out to the market the fan engagement platform that helps colleges and professional athletes connect with fans. So that's what I've been doing today. I've had a ton of calls with teams getting things together. We're really learning from a lot of our processes now. And so that's pretty much it. I went in and got to work out as well. Got some treatment about to go down to George Town actually with my wife now and have dinner with with one of her friends. So a good active productive off day. Well done. You ever need food wrecks where you're guys, we can't help you with Pass Pro. We will help you. No work out tips here. But food, we got you. We got nothing but good advice on that front for you. And then the other thing I wanted to know was before we let you go, Monday night football, man. Next time we see we'll be under the bright lights. Joe Buck Troy, eight been the whole country watching in Cincinnati coming from the AFC, a place you've been too many a time, I'm sure. But is there any added juice national TV prime time Monday night? What's your thoughts? I mean, there's definitely some added juice because it's a prime time game. Absolutely. But the thing is, we're already matched out on juice when we go play our game. So that's just another thing to add on top of it, I guess. But in the most part, we're ready to go with every game. So prime time will take it normal kickoff. You know, 11 o'clock one o'clock. It doesn't matter. We're ready to go. Awesome. As always, my friend. We'll talk to you next week, man. Heck yeah. Looking forward to it, boys. Have a good one. Thank you got it. Austin Echler. Absolute stud. I wish that 98 yard major tuddy would have held up for him. The hold was away from the play. It was like that's a touchdown, dude. Just stand next to the guy. This episode is brought to you by progressive insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust progressive, progressive, casually insurance company and affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law. It's better over here. AT&T customers switching to T-Mobile has never been easier. We'll pay off your adjusting phone and give you a new one free, all on America's largest 5G network. Visit T-Mobile.com/carrierfreedom to switch today. Pay off up to $650 via virtual prepaid mastercard in 15 days, free phone up to $830 via 24 monthly bill credits plus tax qualifying, port and trade and service on go 5G next to credit required. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits to credit stop and balance and report finance agreements do. Now with the MLB app, you can get baseball your way. 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