Arthur Smith on Steelers QB Controversy & David Njoku Unfiltered

Intro / Rundown I throw hands I got kicked out of like three soccer games in college because of [Music] that you know what I'm not you've been talking to me for 10 minutes now like you know I'm nice but if you rub me the wrong I I I got I'm quick it's yeah and flips fast welcome into scoop City I'm the Athletics Diana Rini and I'm Chase Daniel played in the NFL for 14 years and the new host of the facility on FS1 congratulations you guys are launching next week this is a big deal Chase how you feeling about it yeah it's awesome you know I'm I'm really excited about the opportunity to do live TV every single day so it's the closest thing to playing as far as an adrenaline rush you can get to and it's it's fun yeah I mean I'm in the dressing room right now i' give you a tour but I got this whole set up I I'll send a picture and make sure I send it to you but uh it's cool like I walked in today and there was like a picture of me on the dress room I'm like World Time Square pictures of the halls of fox uh yeah and and so we're doing like um rehearsals right now so we got a full dress rehearsal today so we're knocking this out before and there might be some times where you see me actually onset doing this show because it'll be a lot better quality production quality for you guys so we're working on that too yeah why not well they are lucky to have you but just remember I'm your I'm your work BFF don't don't tra don't trade me in yet you know I know those guys are cool that show but we're the coolest here uh doubt all right here's the thing so every single starting quarterback has been named roster cuts are done we claims complete holding in holding out what are we doing getting fined and here's what they are actually doing they are frustrating people who are drafting for Fantasy I was part of a draft recently and nobody knows what to do with these guys because they don't know if they're going to be out there well we're going to break it all down and give you some updates on where this whole thing stands and teams are preparing for week one we are at that point now where we are less than a week away uh from some game action so finally we have some answers to things too in Pittsburgh specifically Russell Wilson named the starting quarterback and just in time Chase we got an exclusive interview with the play caller in Pittsburgh cuz that's always the guy that's always getting the most heat right it's the offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh so Arthur Smith joined the show just minutes after Russell Wilson was named starter so it's all B news coming together perfectly so he actually dives into the competition all summer they know in Pittsburgh chase that it was the story of the summer in terms of old attention you know 100% so yeah I mean I can imagine yeah we'll get into it later but I have some I have some big thoughts good on that quarterback competition all right so we've got Arthur Smith but we we figured we're kind of closing out on this training camp tour we've had so many great guests at the start of scoop City here so we figured we'd finish our training camp tour with our most memorable guest it's brown tight end David nooku okay I feel like I have I'm warning the viewers and the listeners right now I'm warning you this thing is weird but it's I think it's hilarious though depends on how you hear it I'm excited for you guys listen to this I'm excited for you guys to hear it I want to get your thoughts too so make sure you guys check us out on YouTube and put some comments in there or just tweet Chase and I I appreciate nku's confidence and comfort in his own skin you don't always get that when you talk to players so yeah he he's very eclectic to put it lightly look at you using those big TV network words right great word my wife taught me that let's be real speaking of great words let's get to it here's what I'm hearing around the league [Applause] [Music] all right Diana quarterback competitions are done they're set and they're ready New England Patriots / Drake Maye to roll specifically the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers big announcements what are you hearing on that all right let's start with New England because the plan has always been jacobe brette they named him the starter jacobe brette will start the season as the starting quarterback that is why they brought him in this has always been part of the plan going back to when they drafted Drake May they've been very consistent throughout the summer that they want jacobe to start the season the problem is Drake May went out and played really well in a lot of these practices and in a lot of the preseason games so then you're faced with this conflict and geran Mayo admitted it that Drake May outplayed jacobe brassette at one point so how do you move forward when the building knows perhaps the best quarterback is the rookie but maybe the smart play longterm is to play the veteran especially looking at the type of defenses that they're going to have to face at the start of this year right they got the Bengals they got the Seahawks they got the Jets they got the ners so internally the conversations went let's put out the veteran that's been there that's played on multiple teams who can manage the game and handle this offense especially with a leaky offensive line right now and protect Drake May what do you make of the decision I mean I I have a lot of thoughts particularly with with jacobe Bret he was paid $8 million this year top in backup money in the league really behind Sam daral but Sam darnold is going to be the starter Sam Darnell was signed to a $10 million deal um as far as jacobe brette goes you sort of know what you're going to get and it's not great it's not bad it's in between and I got to imagine Diana and you could probably tell me more than this it this this comes down to a decision that is offensive line based so it's very I I hate to use the word poor but there's issues and there's skill deficiencies there um that if you throw out a rookie quarterback and Drake May and he gets pummeled and continually beat up time and time again it can play into his confidence so I can imagine this is something um of a mindset that the front office was was pushing specifically Gerard Mayo you can tell he's a culture changer that they're doing things completely different than when Bill bich was there it was time for a change a welcome change I just got to think and maybe you know how long is the leash on jacobe brassette because eventually Drake May is gonna play and if they start 0 and5 is a season a wash and you just play Drake May to play him or what's your what's your thoughts on that what are you hearing in terms of how long of leash jacobe Brett has so we're talking about timing right and how much time are each of these quarterbacks going to get if you want to talk about timing the the area that you need to focus on is the timing of the offensive line if they are able to improve their protection and have some consistent play out there I think that's when the New England Patriots would be more comfortable making that switch a lot of this decision has to do with the fact that the protection hasn't been great they don't want the rookie to get hurt they don't want to put him in a position where he's going to just get absolutely crushed as we mentioned with these defenses that are that are stout that are some of the best in the league but I don't think it's as clearcut around the league in terms of what the Patriots are doing I've had people in the division mentioned to me that they think they should roll out with the rookie and that's not to have advantage to beat them that that that that's not it's an advantage to beat them it's it's just philosophy right because I do think a lot of organizations look at the Green Bay Packers they say love sat Roger sat uh the difference there is though they sat because they had good players in front of them amazing players in front of them amazing Hall of Famers yeah jacobe brette love him not a Hall of Famer right he's not better than Drake May some would argue right so it is not that the identical situation there so there are some thoughts that yeah play your guy play your top draft pick and let him figure this out that makes sense so for me it comes down to to film study because I studied all six first- round quarterbacks Drake may obviously number three off the board B Nicks was the sixth quarterback taken in the draft he's starting day one he's in a better situation I believe with Shawn Payton at that offense but you go back to Drake May and when you study the film the word that that really jumps out to me is raw and he needs some time to develop so you know I think if I was a media member today in New England I'm asking Gerard Mayo what's your plan for development in practice for Drake May that's a big issue cuz really these guys I hate to say you cannot develop in practice you have to play actual football games and he did he played football games well in the preseason he put together good tape but what's the practice plan look like is he going to get reps um with the ones in in uh regular season which usually is not the case the starter should get every single rep so you're running scout team you're not even running your offense I want to make sure our viewers and our listeners understand that Drake May is going to be running um Cincinnati's off he's goingon to be playing Joe burrow the first season first week of the season on Scout team so he's not running those plays is he going to have a quarterback coach stay after uh in practice and and handle that all questions that are yet to know but I like the decision to start Jobe Bret let's move on to the Pittsburgh Steelers Pittsburgh Steelers / Russell Wilson / Justin Fields where where Russell Wilson became the starter Diana you on the ground all day yesterday was it ever a true competition I really don't think it is I know you don't think it is but I'm just going to share with you what they told me this was a competition from day one and the problem that we saw was Justin Fields played well and he took advantage of when Russell Wilson was injured with that calf injury but he didn't do enough to win the job they evaluated these quarterbacks every single day and made it fair from what I was told in terms of go get it whoever wants this job go grab it and nobody did so in the end it winds up going to Russell Wilson who is the veteran who's been through this before who's been in the league long enough to manage and handle what he's being asked to while Justin Fields is continuing to work on his confidence right because that's something that I think people assume uh every quarterback is just confident because they're playing in the NFL not when you were in Chicago and it ended the way it did when you were basically dumped moved out on and uh you know replaced with with now Caleb Williams who who's already uh shown us that that he could potentially be incredible so so you think Justin Field's confidence level played a factor in this like he's not playing as well or as confident as he should be I think it's a project I think it's it's a work in progress and and they like what they're seeing from Justin that that was my other big takeaway um from being around the Steelers is this isn't a clear celebration yeah Russell's our guy he won it it's this was close Russell Wilson makes the most sense to us in terms of starting this season off right they face the Atlanta Falcons to open up and then they face the Denver Broncos I know it's the it's Shawn Payton I'm just glad that Russell Wilson is starting so I can get the Shawn Payton Russell Wilson Revenge game uh and you got to imagine Diana and this is a bigger convers ation like what does this do for Russ's Legacy if he cannot um perform well and he gets benched halfway through the season like that's another thing right he played 10 seasons in Seattle nine Pro bowls a Super Bowl an NFC Championship game I don't think it tarnishes his leg Legacy but you got to imagine like he lives right down the road for me his kids go to the same school as my kids do and so we see each other when he was in summer quite a bit and in Sierra's like in the drop off line like it's crazy like we we we have conversations we've gone to the same Christian Conference together we know each other and um obviously never talked about this but you got imagine like hey how many more chances is this Russell Wilson guy going to get because next year he's turning 37 in the season next year not much more left I like I like I don't think there's much left and I think Pittsburgh knows that I think that came into play here look it's the right decision in terms of starting him because you can't really start Justin and go to Russ and then go back to Justin that's like ship is sailed it's a smart move by Tomas you can start Russ and then you can go to Justin who by the way is going to be the most popular guy in town as soon as the Steelers struggle because as a backup quarterback that's usually the case in what happens you can then go back to Russ and then hopefully Russ is a savior so it's just an interesting Dynamic uh for the Steelers yeah and you you look back too at the preseason games and you did such a great job of breaking down Justin um it became a little bit of an addiction of mine because I knew how invested you became you really it it was nothing against Russell but I think you saw that Justin had something um you know and you talk about that confidence level and you look at some of the fumbles in preseason and you wonder if that's if that's connected right you wonder if that's maybe part of this as they're going to continue to build him um and really to to sort of bring this Patriots and Steelers conversation together I I I do think it's really interesting that you bring up the importance of practice but how it truly doesn't translate to the game Act cuz now we're going to see two backup quarterbacks uh potentially playing this season right these are going to be two cities where oh yeah they're going to follow it all year long we're going to be talking about New England and Pittsburgh a lot here on scoop City because the second things go um you know off the rails here you know we're going to be discussing can Justin Fields do it but here's the thing with Justin Fields one more note before we move on here Justin Fields is not going to be sitting on the bench uh with a clipboard in his hand Justin Fields is going to be part of this offense and Arthur they got packages oh yes I got Arthur to talk to me about it so we uh yes I'm divulge all of that coming up in that interview with Arthur in just about five minutes let's move on to Taylor haniki you broke the story the news it was a buzzing on LA Chargers / Taylor Heinicke Twitter last night X whatever you want to call it Taylor hinek got traded from the Atlanta Falcons to the Los Angeles Chargers this calls into a little bit of an issue Herbert's Health what are you hearing in terms of Taylor hinei going to La is he the backup will he start if uh jus Herbert continues to be hurt yeah this had everything to do with fixing the backup quarterback situation we saw it on display you saw it on Stick yeah a rough watch thank you I I I wanted you to quickly paint that picture I love him I love him I was in the room with him for two and a half years still think he's got really good potential um but yeah just look it's a new scheme it's it's everywhere they they rolled him out there he played a lot probably just didn't live up to what they wanted in a backup quarterback correct and and and hinei has done a really good job stepping into different offenses and learning quickly he's a really quick learner it's why Atlanta liked him it's why Washington liked him um and and the Chargers are hoping for that same result and yeah of course there's concerns about Justin Herbert's foot we've talked about this on the show about this type of injury and how long it can last and how it can nag him all season long so making sure the backup quarterback is set and and can quickly jump in here in case it's needed a break last situation uh it it actually makes a lot of sense I just got to imagine he's going to have some some time to get up to speed and it better be really quickly because that that um Jim Harbaugh offense right there with Greg Roman it's not easy to learn it's wordy he's going to have his work cut out for him it'll be interesting in my opinion I don't know maybe you know will he dress week one as the backup even though he just got there yeah they haven't made that decision yet they haven't at least revealed that to any of us um but you have to figure let's see how this next week goes I'm sure they want to see what he can do before they make that call so um yeah the ne that's why the next week will be a lot of stuff is going to shape up over the next four or five days yeah that makes sense let's move on to the Cleveland Browns which we seem to talk a lot about in this show Cleveland Browns they were unable to trade a quarterback they cut and released Snoop Huntley which I think is a great dude they kept four on the deadline why weren't they able to trade jamus that was the word around town what happened with that yeah let's be clear here they were shopping jamus Winston they were shopping Tyler Huntley they were shopping everybody but DeShaun Watson and DTR cuz he had such a great Camp right that appears to be how they're going to set this up DeShawn will be the starter and DTR will be the backup and jamus will be third um but with that in with that in mind though um you know for a landscape right now with teams looking for backup quarterbacks it just appeared like the Browns couldn't get in they couldn't get a deal done so which is why we you know it on Thursday it came out that Tyler Huntley was released because they don't want to carry four quarterbacks on the roster they don't need that um they spent a lot of time you got to imagine teams you got toag sorry but you got to imagine teams know okay you're trying to trade one of your four quarterbacks we're not bluffing we're not giving up a draft pick when someone's going to be on the market yeah exactly so uh and teams didn't know that I had conversations with teams that the Browns spoke with and they weren't doing business with them because they knew they were going to W up cutting Snoop so we'll see what Snoop lands uh Raven's pro bowler so you know he he has ability he was a pro bowl I saw I saw on on Twitter a Ravens or a pro bowl Jersey that had Huntley on the back and I totally forgot that he made a pro bowl Let's uh continue with the Browns okay Joe flacko former Super Bowl MVP why in the world with all this situation about DTR and jamus and Snoop they had a really good quarterback in Joe Flaco why did they not sign him back we are going to ask that question and come back to that conversation a lot this year that's my instinct because we saw how Joe Flaco was able to lead that team he was able to run St Kevin stf's offense with Comfort he seemed that he had he loved being in Cleveland uh I I had a great conversation with his agent Joe Linda during the Senior Bowl and Joe is explaining how much his client Joe loved being there he wanted to be in Cleveland and he couldn't force them to sign him um the Browns organization made a decision they wanted to go in a different direction which wound up was he viewed as a threat to deshun Watson I don't know if that's the exact reason but I think we are both smart people that can observe this situation and say hm Joe flacko just say it what we know though Joe FL there were jerseys of Joe Flaco in Cleveland right like like people loved him there so I think there's a lot of confidence in what DeShaun Watson can do but they are obviously doing everything they possibly can to give him a Runway makes sense with very little hitches with little blocks in the road mentally and and then also physically on the field with how they're building the roster which is why we saw them trying to get involved in the Brandon uh trade um they they're doing things to build around Desa to give him the absolute best chance to have success so would Joe flacko be a problem for that psychologically for a player that is trying to build back up after just a really tough four years I'd say that doesn't make a lot cor correct you know I'm going to say it yes have you ever been in a quarterback room where the backup had more flare more confidence more swag more just more juice and don't say you well well every quarterback room I've been in I've been in the backup so you're asking me personally if I've had more flare juice stuff so that's impossible Chase Daniel said he had more swag than Drew bre no look look I look no no way I mean I definitely have more swag VW let's just put that out there it doesn't mean I'm a better player there's no chance I'm a better player I definitely he's got that Dad uh outfit going um all right quick before we move on uh I want to I just want to check in on the NFC South specifically the New Orleans Saints they have Derek Carr back for another year starter started off the year really poor I'm going to use poor last year ended the last four games really really well playing some of the best ball of his career but they drafted New Orleans Saints / Spencer Rattler Spencer Rattler what's the vibe down there in NOA all right so I'm so glad you use the word Vibe because that I love checking with teams this time of just like what's the vibe give me the vibe you know and and the text I received was from someone in the building was like The Vibes are really really high capital letters right and so of course the followup question is wait is he going to beat out car or do we have a quarterback cont and it was like no but we they wait they said no there's no quarterback conver controversy right now no there is not but Chase we got to keep keep an eye on this one I don't oh I think this is going to be a situation like the ones that we've talked about earlier in the show where you have the veteran quarterback as the starter like we see in New England uh we see in in Pittsburgh and then once things go a little weird could they be calling for the backup the New Orleans Saints have a really good quarterback situation right now in terms of if Derek Carr doesn't pan out they have a lot of confid confidence in in in what their backup and Rattler can do yeah let's just remember that Caleb Williams placed Spencer Rattler at Oklahoma and then Rattler went on to transfer to South Carolina for 22 and 23 season he was the fifth round pick 150th overall all right let's move it going we can't do a show without checking in on the stories of the summer and it's star players that are still not on the field due to whatever you want to call them contract issues holding out what about Trent SF 49ers / Trent Williams Williams let's stay on the team th this one feels better this one has always felt good uh about getting him back in the building and just so you realize he's already recruited over 4 million in fines for missing it um obviously at 36 years old he's got uh three-year deal 77.3 remaining on his current contract but he wants to be the highest PID left tackle and we're not going to argue on this show that he has a point no he deserves it and they know it too right so no one's no one's going we shouldn't pay Trent but that in mind I did speak to a general manager not in San Francisco about hey what would you do with this Trent situ sitation um he's like every both sides got to give on this one and I know that probably sounds obvious but his point was while Trent is who he is and and we we know how remarkable of a player he is he is he's older right you're paying for what you can do not what not what you've done so they may need to figure out a way uh to to to meet in the middle on this but San Francisco is very motivated to get this done and the weird one in my opinion because it's been really quiet like Justin Jefferson Jamar Chase what are you hearing on that the what's Cincinnati Bengals / Ja'Marr Chase interesting about this one is the Jamar Chase situation resembled Justin Jefferson in terms of how quiet it was both sides keeping it in house um it appeared to be going along a timeline um that made a lot of sense and we saw Jamar Chase with two years left on his deal here just like Justin Jefferson had last year two years left on his deal wants to be the highest paid wide receiver he wants to at least tie Jamar Chase maybe a dollar more right so he's been showing up practice dollar more it's like $1 more IM negotiating that um so he's been at practice every day doing some stuff to the side and then as we talked about in the last show then he shows up and practices with the team um during the week and then Zack Taylor says what he says about expecting to see Jamar Chase week one which I feel so bad for Coach because you have to look at it from his perspective if you decided to practice then your holding's over right you've already shown that you want to be here and Jamar Chase from from just observing this looks at it and goes yeah not so fast I don't want you to stop being so motivated to get this deal done because both sides are communicating jar Chase's agent is in conversations about a a serious contract with the Cincinnati Bengals they just can't get it done right now so Jamar Chase wants to make sure they are staying motivated to get this done uh and we'll see if he chooses to go the route of Justin Jefferson which was go play and then get your payday or perhaps maybe sit out or do we see this play out the way we saw Ezekiel Elliott who happens to have the same agent as Jamar Chase remember Ezekiel Elliott same situation two years left on his deal gets gets paid right before the season starts all right Diana before we move on um what is one huge roster move that you Roster Cuts found the most interesting during your time cover in the cuts the past couple days yeah there was no big Blockbuster name of a cut but a trade um you know the Rams traded an established starter Ernest Jones to the Tennessee Titans and when you listened to Shawn McVey talk about why they made that trade he said it was a football decision okay so as someone that has covered sea McVey for many many years I will translate what that means he got he got beat out that's what that means he got beat out and they realized they don't they they they don't need right now where Tennessee they they felt like they have a need there we'll see if he wins that job there um but he's got a knee injury he didn't practice all spring um he's a little banged up exactly so so the Rams did uh probably what they thought was the best football decision to quote Sean MC back how does Rams defense look now though like you lose Aaron Donald you you lose a guy that played at a high level in in uh erns Jones like what what does it look like so you go no Aaron Donald right let's not undersell that there's no Aaron Donald like that's that's just gantic um by the way by the way quick story Aaron Donald uh with my co-host Shady mccy Shady McCoy has a podcast filmed here in in LA with uh deshun Jackson It's called 2510 25 the number for Deshawn or uh for shady 10 the number for deshun Jackson okay they had on their first episode of season two they had Aaron Donald on and he showed me from behind the scenes footage Aaron Donald beat Shady McCoy and a 30 yard dash roasted him so bad that shady mccy uh like has a hamstring issue right now so the dude is still in amazing shape and can't play amazing this is lesea McCoy who is going to be inducted into the Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame um that's awesome but look going back going back to the Rams defense um you know from conversations I had with people there on the ground they always point to the fact that yeah it's you don't replace Aaron Donald you don't but that defense has a lot of confidence they're really young um and there's some there who feel like their their defense is more talented this year than last not being disrespectful to Aaron Donald they they would love for him to be back but that's saying something and you know you think about these Superstar players that left their teams and I immediately think all right Aaron Donald's out from the Rams um Jason Kelce no longer with the Philadelphia Eagles right that that that really intrigues me how they replace him but teams game plan for ad you know they don't really do that for Kelsey but now teams you know they don't know who to game plan for which is going to help the Rams I think that's where they had the advantage this year everyone up exactly makes sense um all right that was awesome we we hit everything I think we have to because you know The Season's starting but um let's let's start again so when you think of these players that were're so when you think of these guys like Jason Kelce like Aaron Donald you think consistency and there's no more consistent team in the NFL than the Steelers but does this season feel a little different we thought we'd ask Arthur Smith about Russell Wilson being named qb1 his looming week one matchup with the Falcons and how Justin field still factors in Arthur Smith joins the show Arthur Smith EXCLUSIVE Interview [Music] next all right welcome back to scoop City where we are in the city of Pittsburgh where this Steelers team has had tons of success especially Under head coach Mike tomman he's had 14 winning seasons yet really the coach that always gets a lot of heat is the offensive coordinator enter Arthur Smith now the new guy uh in town and Arthur I know you're fully aware that the offense has struggled over the over the last few seasons when you were offered the job did that come into play at all were you thinking well there's a lot of work to be done I think in any job you take I mean things as you know change so much year to year um and that's what we sign up for uh but when the opportunity when Mike reached out uh it's a place I've always revered from afar a lot of mentors either played or coached here and uh you know Mike's a guy that's done it I think it's him and Andy Reid the longest tenured and Mike's been in the one one place for so long and um it it's just could have been a more perfect setup to come in here and and we know we got to work cut out for that be whether you returning everybody it's it it always changes year to year yeah so after a really competitive uh quarterback competition all summer long it's it really seemed to be the story of the summer because everyone was trying to read the tea leaves and obviously taking Mike tomlin's words of poll position is everyone was just trying to figure out who is the best quarterback and finally we know that uh Russell Wilson has been named the starter what have you seen from Russell this camp that makes you believe he won the job well both those guys had done an excellent job and and it was an unusual situation coming in I mean very rarely do you have guys that are in the spot you know normally it's a you've drafted a young guy you've got a veteran that may have signed I mean we've all seen that but the modern NFL this is very unusual not many comps um and then obviously Russ started camp and you know he was a little behind because of the calf strain but uh both those guys done a terrific job you know Russ has got a lot of snaps under his belt and and won a lot of games in this league and you know he's got a lot of experience and understanding of you know especially what it takes to win uh consistently so you know I I really hats off to both of them they both really competed going back back to when when Russ had that calf injury what was he like in the meetings what was he like to be around when he wasn't actually able to participate what stood out to you about him well really both of them are very uh you know they're obsessed with football I mean as you have to be to play quarterback there's a lot of talented players um you know for a guy that's played he's been in a lot of offenses lately very open-minded um and as he was trying to rehab I mean he still you know with all those guys you try to build relationships listen to him from their experience here's what we're doing here um and there's a lot of shared accountability but the both of them are easy to communicate uh like I said I got to know Russ a little bit over the years now working with them um it's been fun working yeah and you've mentioned both quarterbacks um a lot in your answers here because it it seems that they've impressed you individually each of them um but for Justin specifically what did you really like from his game this year compared to just stuff that you saw when you're studying him on film whether it was Chicago Ohio State wherever yeah I mean we did a lot of work uh the last couple years in a in a previous job and and you know in those situations you try as hard as you can to get to know the person the film evaluation is easy it's it's the mental aspect the personality the fit um and I think like a lot of young quarterbacks depending on the situation you come in there experiences you either grow from or you get B and uh Justin came in with a lot of humility he's made a lot of big plays and he's been eager to to work in improve and then Russ the same same thing a guy going into 13th year um you know he been to a couple Super Bowls won a Super Bowl both of them are very open-minded um and that's what I appreciate really about the whole room all know you don't want to give me your playbook God knows you'll never do that but are we going to see situations where Russell will be on the field and maybe we'll see Justin out there too there's certainly a possibility you know it's a there's a fine line I mean they're both Dynamic players and you know you want to use every resource available and It's Tricky you know sometimes you may have a great play whether it's Wildcat gimmick type thing it's work for us in Tennessee some other times if it can stop the flow of a drive and you know it's hard sometimes to ask people to come in cold Off the Bench but sort of the opportunity presents itself I mean everything's on the table Yeah so I just got back from Denver where I spent some time with the Broncos and we were just talking about the difference between this their offense now compared to last year and some of the things that they were bringing up was were just some of the quarterback decision- making from Russell right some the sacks he was taking uh the turnovers things that that he they weren't getting the best out of him and and there's a lot of people to blame for that um some of those issues that that may come out in him this year how do you work on that with him to make sure that he's not taking that many sacks as we saw last season well it's same thing in coaching you know if there sometimes you feel like you've got a great play called and you know it doesn't work for you may get beat inside or somebody makes a play and there's other times where you know you wish you hadn't called something but if you're not open to learn from it if you get to defensive about the reality right so it didn't work what was a reason why it didn't you know is there something you could have done better schematically maybe put a different person in that position there if you don't have that humility you'll never improve and you'll make the same mistakes over uh but certainly from both those quarterbacks and you know when you go back and you you evaluate you talk through things situational stuff if if they're open-minded you you got a chance to improve and no matter where you are in your career whether you're going into year 20 or year four uh and I've seen that from both of them so and especially Russ you know to to your point whatever happened in Denver happened um but he's coming here with an open mind and and gotten to work and and it's been fun to work with him so far we we're crushing on all these quarterback questions but how do you feel about your offensive line we saw some good we saw some bad but how do you feel about now the season just a few days away you know some of with the preseason I mean you talk about things getting taken out of context you try to get perspective you know you know a lot of the league doesn't play guys anymore um and you got to do what's you think's best for for your your team and and your unit and uh you know we a lot of moving parts inside uh you don't want to show too much you're trying to evaluate so some things you you're trying to you know there's no real consequences in the preseason so a lot of things you're trying to do situationally sometimes you're trying to do apples apples comparison even with the play calls um yeah it's comical to me I mean I said this a week ago whenever I talked last uh you know you think about the two teams that went over in this league they were I think undefeated in the preseason and you get teams that don't play anybody they go over and they're wi 13 14 games so a lot of it is just personal evaluation personnel and and that's really what the preseason is for and then you know some of the operation stuff so you don't have Sloppy football early in the year uh so you try to get that perspective but you know with it's modern society everything's so reactionary uh but I think the lines done a terrific job we've had a very hard Camp against a good defense I'm excited about a lot of the young guys we drafted too all right you have Atlanta as if the season needed any more drama uh you're going back to to face the team that that you want coach and a team that you really built outside of quarterback K cousins so now here you see so many of the weapons that you were able to be part of it and get on that roster and they dropped in that missing piece that that you you just really didn't have um what is that like for you to go to to to be facing the former well first you know same thing you talking about the quarterback experiences you know you can get bitter you look for you know you should be grateful you know nothing's guaranteed in this league grateful of my time in Atlanta love the those players and the you know staff and a lot of them are still there that we brought in there um but it's going to be about the players I mean yeah they added Kirk and they drafted Michael pennick but you got new schemes um different philosophy they're so you know you looking at the roster now there's a lot of familiar faces but there's some turnover key positions too yeah um so yeah once that's kicked off and our job is to win that game uh it's not going to be a reunion or anything I mean it's it's a league there's a story line almost every week it's what makes the league great um but I'm excited I'm excited with this group and what we've been building here all right this podcast was called scoop City uh so we got to get the scoop so what is the scoop on the mustache this year have we made a decision are we committed to it you you I feel like you just you flop around on this thing what have we decided for this season I don't know yet oh God have give us an answer please well I think it fits uh this is the Pittsburgh way this year right just just give no answers to anything I mean I kind of did it as a as a you know tribute to when Ryan Nielson and I went on that USO tour to those army guys uh it kind of made me laugh a little bit uh you know the attention it got and uh we kind of went with it um then I get to Pittsburgh and kept getting asked about it I kind of grown to like it you know you like getting as about or you just like the mustache no I don't like that attention I'm not uh you know I'll shout out Taylor Lewan I'm not I'm not looking for clicks like him and Will Compton but um no I think it fits Western PA so we'll see how it goes I think the bottom line is does the misses like it that that's all that matters at the end of the day I think she the more attention good or bad she just you know kind of takes the powerway of it so all right AR David Njoku EXCLUSIVE Interview thank you so much for joining us good luck this season appreciate it see soon back here on scoop City lots of questions about what this Cleveland Browns offense is going to look like tight end David njoku joins scoop City to talk about what it's been like being around DeShaun Watson what this offense is expected to be this season and we got a a little weird we went a little off topic on some things that he wanted to talk about including his hatred of cottage cheese here's David all right we are here with Cleveland Brown's tight end David nooku David this is the first time I think I've ever interviewed you and you're wearing a shirt why today I've been getting a lot of crazy DMS lately so I wanted to just kind of uh keep it a bit censored today yeah the DMS um can be really aggressive uh I did with them as well most people want to talk about my feet though so I'm sure that's not what they want to talk about with you usually it's they want to hang out no why is it your feet uh I don't know there so there's a really big foot demographic out there that I've learned about over the last few years where there are just there's a world of people captained by Rex Ryan perhaps um who just enjoy feet uh now here's the thing you're not just any regular football player not just any regular human being back in Nigeria you're actually is it technically royalty how would you describe what you are what is your true title uh my title is is Chief so I mean yes I guess you can say so it's more so just you know a bigger responsibility of making sure my my people back there are are doing okay you know and um that that responsibility I kind of placed on myself and before even becoming a chief just because I wanted to give back to my people give them fresh water uh food you know resources so yeah I just just happen to work out what a amazing title to have and a responsibility that that comes with that when you have been around the people what are how do they behave around you is it is is there a way they have to show respect to the chief you know during my chief teny um all the females would bow and initially it was kind of hard to like uh seriously like you know pay back respect you know cuz you see like people bowing as kind of like a like a not normal gesture especially here in America you know so it took it took me some time to really allow myself to really like you know um just uh reciprocate the the respect in on a serious manner yeah and this is all because of your family and and who they are back in Nigeria you're one of nine um do you stay in touch with every single sibling of yours I try to but it's a lot you know and then I have cousins I have uncles aunts it's grandmas you know what I mean so it's it's not easy to keep in touch with everybody do you feel like you could rattle off all your siblings names in 10 seconds yeah go and Chelsea Lisa Faith gladness happiness David evidence Charles and you're the seventh correct I'm the seventh what do you think the advantage of being seventh in such a long line of siblings I mean lucky number seven initially uh but I don't see it it really as as an advantage you know I'm I'm here to do whatever I can to help my family and vice versa so it's not really a competition in that aspect more so just on like a like a complete a competing you know uh platform like you know say like playing a sport together or whatever yeah so as as if you need needed any more things to make you different right because you certainly stand out on this team not only just by your sheer presence and your ability but you already you you also went through a really strange peculiar accident uh before that game against the Seahawks last year most people know the story now that you were hanging out around a bonfire um pick it up from there what what then happened that you dealt with Burns yeah um so normally I do like a little you know meditation routine by bonfire in my backyard long story short ran out of my normal lighter fluid used a different one and it blew up in my face now mind you my eyes were wide open when the whole thing happened so I should be blind right now but luckily God is great um it was kind of um not exhilarating but it was a rush you know uh that that figh ORF flight moment came up uh and yeah and you wound up playing you you you powered through and you obviously came back in the season and and you showed up with a mask and you you leaned into the situation deciding to wear that mask did you come up with that yeah everyone thought I i' I personally got it made you know from a different country or whatever but I just thrw that sh from Party City you were just ready for H yeah I mean but with that being said every time I took the mask off parts of my skin on my face would come off with it so very limited times I could put on and take it off yeah uh we just ripped through like a million different story lines about who you are but I I I need to talk to you just about this Cleveland Browns team right now on offense just the type of offense this team is trying to get to what what are the Cleveland Browns going to look like especially with Kevin stefansky having you know full control over what's going on yeah I mean honestly speaking we just work hard every day to really uh I identify ourselves you know what I'm saying come up with our true identity you know we have a bunch of talents that we can do when it comes to running the ball throwing the ball running you know routes you everyone has their own talent and then we collectively have a great talent but we just we're we're still figuring it out our identity as a whole where do you think DeShaun fits in terms of his professional career right now where is he at are have you seen any difference in him good bad have you seen change in Deshawn this season I mean you know honestly I think I see deshan as a very elite quarterback you feel me I feel like people don't uh know just how good he is until we show exactly how good he is and he's he will do just that and I can't wait for that to happen because a lot of people are overlooking him and I I see him every day working hard and I see the uh a late status that he can be and it's just very exciting yeah uh former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Rael has been working with you one-on-one you know what is what is Mike like I think people have their thought of what he's like but now that you've gotten to know him a little bit what's something about him that maybe we'd be surprised to learn about Mike Rael man that's my guy man he's a real character and and people say I'm a character too so our characters kind of you know blend together and it creates a monster you know it's crazy but uh he's a a very very dope guy very down to earth man um and yeah I I just love working with him every day I know you're learning football details from him and learning how to get better at the position from through his perspective from a defensive player even though he did play the position in New England um in terms of what you're learning from him outside of football is there anything because I know he's a really really good trash talker I think I'm a pretty good trash talker myself you keep up with him I mean we go back and forth so if he doesn't stop yeah he doesn't stop he does not stop unless you hit him you know below the belt otherwise he doesn't stop what would be an example of a below the belt thing that you could say uh me personally I can neither confirm nor deny that I do that it's just more so if you do do that then things get a bit more physical than uh verbal all right tight end position in general um people have asked you this before about what makes a great tight end do you think you have all the traits of a great tight end is there something that you wish you just had a little bit more of I don't really rank myself you know as whatever I let the people do that you know what I mean the people the fans I let them rate whoever they want to rate and I just focus on what I got to do just to be better every day so um there were some reports out there that Amari Cooper perhaps was part of a trade package if the Cleveland Browns were going to go uh get Brandon iuk from the San Francisco 49ers it doesn't appear that that's going to happen by any chance you as a player when you hear about that do you feel the need to talk to your your friend your teammate about when their name is possibly involved in a trade how how do you handle that personally I actually didn't even hear about that so this is the first time I'm hearing scoop City yeah that's the podcast got the Jews um no but if I were to hear about it I'm I would definitely reach out to him just see where his heads at I'm sure that you know I mean this is a business but end of the day we build these relationships you know there these are our brothers and I'm sure I'm Brothers to them as well so um just being there for whoever needs needs that needs that person to be there for them during those moments all right well I mentioned this is called scoop City can you give me any scoop right now on the Cleveland Browns it could be gigantic that I'm going to go tweet it right now or it could be something small that maybe we don't know that we want to know about the Cleveland Browns a scoop I'd say one of the Scoops is I hate cottage cheese oh so do I it hate it why do people like it so much I don't know tastes bad they eat it for breakfast they put fruit on it they put eggs on it have you Zone I don't get it that's good Scoop thanks so much for joining the show um one more thing before I let you go what's the scoop on your car what do you drive I have a few which one wow yeah for real what's your favorite one I'd say probably my apocalypse right now I just got it it's a it's a 6x6 like a fully souped up Jeep Bulletproof pretty cool what color lime green lime green why did you pick lime green I mean uh it kind of represents Nigeria for me so thought it was cool brighter than ever just like you my friend just like the future just like your future thank so much for joining Wedding Advice the show thank you guys well that was definitely one of the most bizarre but most entertaining uh interviews we have done here on scoop City but shout out to David njoku for taking some time and just really letting loose it th I love people who are so comfortable in their own skin um before we go here um our scoop City newsletter um our writer uh Jacob Robinson who does a great job uh putting that newsletter together for us every day is getting married uh this weekend Chase and you know I was texting with him all excited congratulating him and I was thinking man I wish I could give him a piece of advice um of how to make sure you enjoy your wedding day because I know I look back and I made a lot of mistakes I had a really small wedding because of Co but I wish I did a couple things better and I definitely did some things right so I figured just what's the one thing when you look back at your wedding day with Hillary that that you want to share with with Jacob and maybe perhaps people getting married that you want to remember on your wedding day yeah that's a good good call um not this and this isn't marriage advice no just say we'll do that another show for sure yeah we'll do well going have to a whole show for that I need a lot of it um Hillary and I just um um celebrated 10 years so big big big Mark for us that right the a decade together and we actually had a conversation I don't a couple months ago like hey remember our wedding day like you just really are pulled in so many directions that you don't really get to enjoy it it sounds weird we had a big wedding like 280 people I think we invited 300 we got 280 we're not expecting that big of a wedding but we just going around talking to people and we didn't really like of course we enjoyed it at the time but it flew by like I would just say be present in the moment and another thing too I have two actually sorry um do not book a honeymoon flight the next day at 6:00 a.m. we we we went to bed at 1: and we got up at 3:30 to go to the airport we got no sleep we went to St Lucia we had a stop in Atlanta that's a bad idea don't don't do that like go on go on the next day if you're if your if your wedding's on a Saturday take Sunday off relax spend some time with family and go Monday yeah that's that that is really good counsel um I would say something that we did right um I'm sure this doesn't shock you but I had my phone with me uh in the limo on the way to the chapel and then to the chapel what am I 1960s you know what I mean to the church to the CH but that's exactly what I was doing oh my God every day I I wonder if I'm secretly a senior citizen um I kept my phone with me but I did a lot of I took a lot of video of being in the limo with my grandmother and my parents behind the scenes the Rini wedding there ex and we had a photographer there but um we have these great video clips on my phone from even right after we got married in the limo just just me and Kev and they're the best videos we have cuz we're so happy and excited um and and we watch them sometimes when we're feeling really really sad here in this house no I'm just kidding um awesome yeah so I definitely suggest people you would think don't bring your phone yeah obviously you're not texting with people but bring your phone for the video reasons I like it congratulations to our Jacob Robinson on his big wedding day thanks again to Arthur Smith David nooku and make sure you check out our Patrick Mahomes magic article uh the chief sign signature razzled Dazzle plays our Jason jenss and Rustin DOD put this together it is one of our biggest stories that are coming out so make sure you check that out at the athletic that'll do it for us here on scoop City we will see you next time bye guys tag me next time thanks for tuning in to scoop City if you want to hear more make sure you like And subscribe we drop our new episodes every Tuesday and Friday [Music]