Austin Ekeler On What He's Seen From Jayden Daniels So Far I Zach Gelb Show

New Home Austin always great to have you on how you been my man I have been amazing I've been great been progressing thanks for having me back on yeah thanks so much for coming on always enjoy our conversations we'll talk about the app uh in just a bit so you spent a while proving yourself with the Chargers from 2017 to 2023 now it's a new home with the commanders a new era of football there just how has that change been going from one place to now a new home uh for the next chapter of your NFL career yeah it's been great um I think something that I've gotten accustomed to is when you have a new head coach really Everything Changes um and that's no different than what we're going through here but uh there was another major change involved in this transition this time obviously now I'm moving team colors and Across the Nation so that was uh something that was a little out of my comfort of of what I've gone through I've gone through now foure head coaches um but now I've kind of gotten settled love what Dan Quinn's been uh building over here as far as the culture I've been saying if I were to ever be a head coach I would want to be like Dan Quinn like he is he's about the right stuff um and so I love that we're part of something that we're building together have a lot of new guys in the locker room so it's been fun so far and Offense I know you have a familiar face there your former head coach Anthony Lynn is the Run game coordinator and in charge of your running back room but when we look at this offense Cliff kingsburry is the offensive coordinator what should we expect this offense to to kind of look look like this year with the commanders yeah um well we know we have Jaden Daniels uh starting and we know what he was able to do and college and we know he's Dynamic we know he can run we know he's athletic so I mean you know you're going to see some of that uh start to shine and we saw that even in the pre-season games and then also you know preseason you kind of kind of dampen everything down to kind of a base level uh but what I've really appreciated at a practice is uh Cliff kingsb I had a conversation with him like Hey something I I think we kind of got away from from was in in La was putting our guys in the best place to be themselves be the best version of themselves we're kind of square peg into a round hole type scenario like this is how I want to be used here is what I want to have and so that's where I can be the best and so we had that conversation obviously uh you know I can't give away everything but just know I feel like I'm going to be utilized in a space where I feel like I'm the most effective so get back to uh you know 2021 2022 Austin Eckler I'll be curious to see what that looks like cuz RBs I'm a big fan of Brian Robinson Jr and now we know it's not always just one running back in this league the teams that win it's a lot of running back by committee I think this is going to be a fun running back room to see how it plays on out it is no doubt going to be exciting like Brian is an absolute unit himself like he is a big man he is a beast he's all of that and uh it definitely shows on game day even just seeing him run you know in the preseason games I'm like yeah he's he's going to be a problem out there um and I bring my own problems with me when you're trying to you know game plan for me so having us both in the same place at the same time is uh it's going to be fun to watch I don't know maybe it's a trait that you just have Austin Eckler but when you WRs played with Keenan Allen I felt like everyone would say he's the most underrated wide receiver in football now you play with Terry McClaren and a lot of people say he's a very underrated wide receiver in the NFL I think he's a stud I've been praising him uh for years and you know he doesn't make it all about him he's all about the team but what have been the early Impressions so far of what your new teammates and Terry mclen yeah you said it you said it Terry is really levelheaded like really cares about you know the like you mentioned the team but also just making sure that hey guys are bought in right he's a great leader uh very well spoken uh will'll speak his mind as well and so it's been really cool getting to meet Terry and seeing the impact that he's had on this community in just the short time that I've been here um that the support for him in this community is definitely U not it doesn't go unnoticed like it's it's all over the place Terry Jersey these people like I'm just walking out the tunnel everyone Terry so you know maybe to the outside media World um you know he might be underrated but definitely in this uh ecosystem over here he is highly highly appreciated Austin Eckler here with us let me get to your quarterback and Jaden Daniels we Daniels know what he's capable of when you win a Heisman Trophy and have the season that he just did have at LSU you hear things though it's different than being able to see him day in and day out has he exceeded your expectations so far just during a limited time together you know I don't really it's tough to have expectations for rookie quarterbacks coming in because I think you see just a a mass variance across so many different rookies that come in um and have these expectations and some kind of you know are sitting behind somebody or they bring in someone else that maybe will start just in case um and so with with Jaden you know he was a Heisman winner so there was some expectation that he was going to be good there we got two Heisman winners in our quarterback room now so a lot of expectations there we got Marcus Iota obviously um as well uh but Marcus has been doing a really good job I think showing the ropes for what it means to be a veteran quarterback and what I mean by that is Marcus brought us all out to Oregon to do a throwing uh little series out during the offseason Jaden was there uh taking us to dinners things like that getting the guys together playing cards at lunch and stuff and so really setting a great example for Jaden that's that's kind of like the Brotherhood type stuff that I was talking about that Dan Quinn brings to the table but then on the field like again Marcus is showing him the ropes after practice every single practice we're linking up with the quarterbacks as the running back same with the receivers getting the timing down talking through routes and Jade's right there with them and making sure that hey we're on the same page right there so he is right now on the trajectory right now to be a stud in my opinion and I think uh it's going to be it's going to play out like that and I'm it's my job to help him help him come into the light like that yeah because you've been It Factor around long enough you could sense if a player has that it factor or not we saw with the Texans last year they were a dreadful organization they get CJ stra they get a new head coach they get Will Anderson stra changed that entire direction of that organization overnight you sense that it factor from from Jaden being around to early well it's it's not just Jaden though because it takes more it takes it definitely takes a organization takes a village and we brought in Parts um that can help us get to that so yes I do sense that because of the person that Jaden is but also because of hey bringing in guys like me like at zacker it's like our veteran uh Center as well Tyler over from Dallas so we're bringing in key factor key players that play a vital role in making sure the operation of the offense goes well having a good runner we have a couple of us now um you know having that that go-to receiver obviously you have Terry so we have pieces around us and now it's up for yeah that that last part which is the camaraderie how tuned in tune with the game plan with Cliff kingsberry how in tune is the quarterback with uh Jaden with all of what we're trying to get done how how are our details showing up so it's a village but that's exactly why you bring people like me cuz that's what I'm going to be preaching that's all I'm preaching I'm preaching details I'm preaching how how do we work this is the standard and it's great when you have a head coach who's also behind that I know Expectations you got to take it day by day I I I totally respect that Austin Eckler uh but we talk about how quickly things could change in this league do you feel like people are are sleeping on the commanders you you sense you've been around playoff teams before you sense that this could be a playoff team this year look you got you got to earn every every blade of grass in this league you know sensing sensing anything is is getting way ahead of yourself you know I remember you know even last year with the Chargers you know we had these expectations CU we had gone to the playoffs and everyone came back we barely lost anybody if not we had a better roster and look what we go out there and it's five games and everyone's like what the heck just happened so you know I have learned the hard way that this league can get ugly and so what I can focus on is what I can control and that's what I'm going to focus on is hey the details the team right here and we're fighting for every blade of grass what are the expectations of this team I don't really care as far as down the road I care for now and the expectation is that we're going to be on our details and give us the best opportunity to go win games here come what is it the eighth or sixth or whatever it is yeah I'm fascinated this offseason for you Motivation you talked about personally what it's like changing teams and going from one Coast to another across the country but you know how it is in the nature of your position you don't have the greatest seas in the world right there was more it was it wasn't just your fault individually right that was a a team problem with the Chargers you start to get closer and closer to 30 people start to doubt you like did you get you have a little extra motivation Brewing uh this offseason with maybe some of the things that have been said about you man I was actually thinking about this the other day and um you know I was I went to Western Colorado University first person ever to go to the NFL for my entire University and uh I was going to school for business and I was really trying to my best to pay for my education with football and I did that well enough to I got an to give me an opport to play in the NFL and I have immersed myself in that opportunity ever since and have continued to grow and prosper in this opportunity not only on the football field but as a man in general and in my life's fulfillment which is even more important and so for me this journey has been so fulfilling as I mentioned that like wherever my journey goes is I'm so proud of what what I've been able to do and how far I've come I'm no no chance done like I'm going to continue to go put my best effort out there but you you can say whatever you want about me oh he's washed he's this he's that to me like I'm so far ahead of where I was expecting myself to be in life that you can't take me off of this pedestal and I'm going to continue to try to you know spread those vibes around my community and the people that are supporting me Experience App love that answer before we let you run Austin Eckler tell me about the app that you got coming out experience yeah so we just talked about my Journey part of this journey has been the fan base and I think there's been uh kind of a a broken broken atmosphere when it comes to Fan engagement it's really really hard for athletes like myself to actually do fan engagement on an efficient level and so what I've done is made that easy for everyone just like if you want to get your Austin neckar jersey signed how would you do that well you can go now on experience and actually have it sent in through experience and it'll get to me I'll sign it and send it off there's a few other uh teams on there right now you can do that with any of the uh La teams or uh my team out here in Washington different engagements we just actually signed a college up as well so it's a fan engagement tool so our big our big signing or our big uh feature right now is getting things signed we call it fan mail so make sure you check out mine and some of my teammates fan mail on the experience app well if they sent you some fan mail and I said what can I expect at Austin Eckler and fantasy because I know you love fantasy football this year what am I expecting Austin what do we got cooking my you can do that too if you want to talk fantasy you can get you can get a fantasy engagement on there go check it out you'll get the firsthand experience and is the app out now the app is out so you can download this right now in Apple and Android and it's I should put this out there it's actually play off my last name it's spelled e k s p e r i n c so experience um then you can go in there we have we almost have every a player from every team we have about 95 guys on there right now if you want to interact with a lot of our um our guys so Jonathan Taylor Raheem oder myself uh we got some other bigname players on there um yeah but come come join our journey come get to know us um I've met some great fans over the year I've actually hired some as well so you never know what that interaction is going to take you uh but you do know this that it's going to be something that you'll remember so we bring you the real fan engagement on experience good deal always enjoy our conversations good luck with the app and good luck with the new home this year for the NFL thank you Austin I appreciate it thanks for having me on