#commanders RB Austin Ekeler on Value of Preseason | Grant & Danny

we are joined by Austin Eckler running back with the commanders who is lucky enough at this point in his career to not have to worry about staring at his phone all day long but Austin I am curious as a veteran with pelts on the wall you know what today is like for you and just your perspective on so many of your teammates who have been working their butts off who are having their dreams U set to the side here potentially on on speed bumps but it's a tough day around the league yeah it's it's a it's a day for multiple reasons um and I remember and what was it not eight years ago eight years ago around this time I had uh I actually got a call but it was from our player director telling me that I need to go find an apartment and um that was a really special moment I immediately called my mom right after I remember she was crying I was crying uh because you know some of the work that we've been putting in had finally come to fruition and we're looking forward to finally getting on um getting on the NFL team uh but obviously there's the flip side of that as well where a lot of guys have putting in you know that work as well and it doesn't it doesn't come yet their time isn't now and it doesn't mean their time's never going to come but it just might not be in that certain team or that certain moment so it's a time where look there's there's a lot of great stuff happening but also um a lot of movement obviously in the other direction as well Austin can you go into what maybe you you said to a teammate or two because I think that's very Sage advice right it's easy to think about the here and now and get bad news and be very focused on that but that big picture thing is probably really hard after the work you've just now kind of put in did you talk to any of the young guys who who who might be facing this today and and maybe share some of that yeah you know actually yesterday or two days ago before our game um we're just telling these young guys just you know make sure that whatever you do after this game you feel like there's nothing else you could have done you feel like you've exhausted every ounce of energy that you could absolutely exhaust and no matter what if you do that guess what you'll be able to live live with yourself and know that you put everything on the line and it wasn't something that you didn't do that caused you to fail it was you did everything and I told him like look I'm proud of you guys for the work you've been putting in and there's I didn't tell them this but in my mind there's no telling how it's going to turn out you know um so I just try to keep it as positive as I can and pushing those guys to to make sure that they understand that this is an important moment and then also that leave it all out there on the line Austin Eckler on Granton Danny here on the fan in year one in DC join the commit ERS in part because you'd worked with Anthony Lynn in the past so you kind of knew what to expect I'd imagine in the meeting room and on the practice field from this staff but what are your early returns and thoughts on this group after now navigating a training camp in your first preseason with them yeah I definitely knew what to expect from Anthony Lynn and he has um been living up to that as well funny story actually my rookie year he was my head coach and he's a big running back guy like that's where a lot of his knowledge is he came sprinting across the field because my track on a trap play was off by about a half yard and so that is how detailed this man is when it comes to the running back position so uh for me as a competitor I couldn't wait to get in that room because I love to be coached I want to I want to make sure my details are on point I want to be held accountable so that has been you know our room's Dynamic but then also getting to know Dan Quinn and I've been saying this but if I were ever to be a head coach I would want to be like Dan Quinn uh like he he understands that coach coing processes coaching Brotherhood coaching you know how to hold the standard what the standard is is the way that you get the results that you want if you coach results hey we gotta go win a Super Bowl we gotta win games there's no substance to that that doesn't mean anything but if we're talking about how we should interact with each other how we should practice together what what what's an example of hey this was a bad rep by you pull it up this is a good rep by you pull it up those are the things that create processes and a Brotherhood within our culture that allows us to play and keep ourselves held to a standard where we can play at a high level and then you know the results will hopefully come from what we want so I really appreciate Dan Quin and what he's about Austin Eckler with us here on Grant and Danny and Austin you mentioned you've been around for a minute played for a few different head coaches now how did this kind of Camp pre-season sort of compare and contrast uh to ones you've gone through previously wow I mean this sounds this gonna sound like it's a big Dan Quinn hype session but um this man really understands the power of keeping the the body healthy and making sure that recovery is integrated into the not just what we have going on but integrated into the schedule we have mandatory hour recovery sessions within the schedule um I know in the past it's really been like hey get your recovery during lunch and stuff like that and you have like a longer lunch but we bring in specific people you have people doing massages dry needling every day during training camp and so that was something that was really new to me and uh kind of showed me where Dan's mind is at when it comes to taking care of his team and understanding that a healthy team is a very effective and dangerous team on on game day so it has been an amazing Camp um and I have been so blessed to be out here and uh looking forward to getting into regular season Austin Eckler one of the veterans with the commanders one of their leaders who's been setting the tone this summer out in Ashburn of course led the NFL and touchdowns over a couple of year Span in 21 and 22 with the Chargers and we're thrilled to have them now in the nation's capital here on Grant and Danny with us on the fan today uh specific to the Jaden Daniels hype going into training camp and really not knowing what to expect you've been around some young QBs you you kind of went through this with Justin Herbert like do you go about that now differently having lived that experience once where you go up you introduce yourself and and you know try to answer as many questions as possible or do you let a young kid come to you and what has that been like and kind of feeling Daniels out in that way yeah I think as the veteran and being around a lot of younger guys you realize that coming into the NFL is actually really intimidating for a lot of people for different reasons uh one of them being like hey you've been watching these guys or playing with them on Madden or seeing you know looking up to some of these guys and now you're in the same room with them so as an older person in the locker room not saying they all looked up to me but just that's kind of the sense like man these guys been in the in the league for a long time they've earned their respect so you kind of feel like okay like I still have to get my stripes and I have to earn respect out there and so as an older player I definitely have been the one that you know I'm GNA approach you I'm GNA introduce myself to you I'm gonna ask you questions I'm gonna come up to you after practice uh because that's that's the position I'm in and I know it was the opposite when I had Philip Rivers uh when he was a veteran he would do that same stuff um for us and he would come up to us or want to get routes after practice to get on the same page and uh now it's kind of the roles flip now that I'm you know going into year eight Jaden's coming into year one and he'll get there as well he's got a great mentor and Marcus Mariota that room that's really been doing a good job I'm super proud of him too how he's been you know showing the the ways of what a veteran quarterback does you know during the off season you know in season you know leading the just the offense the Cadence all this stuff so uh Jaden's in good hands and I'm looking forward to seeing him Excel as well Austin Eckler on Grant and Danny a on the fan how do you feel about now the structure it seems like we're eventually going to 18 games and then two preseason games but right now you got the three exhibition games most teams team choose two to to let guys like you play in and then sit you for the third which you guys did games one and two on the field as a group of starters and how does the joint practice fit into this now do you feel like you get more out of those like could you get ready for a season as a running back not taking on a whole lot of contact or being tackled without playing in the preseason are you at a position where you kind of need that at this point well first off I just want to say we the PA have not agreed to anything so this 18 game rumor stuff is a bunch of BS let's just get that out of the way you know I think this is a tactic in my opinion by uh the NFL side trying to push this Narrative of that's where we're going so that players start thinking about it but um no we look we're we're smarter than that like we know exactly what's going on and we're definitely aware of what's going on with them you know potentially leaking 18 games right potentially right um so here's the thing for us hang on before before you move on the other part of the question I actually want to follow up on that so do you not think it's it's headed in that direction I mean obviously there's going to be a there's going to you guys are going to have to agree but you wouldn't bet on that at this point it just seems obvious that they're gonna keep what they want no yeah I mean Tru the the ownership these guys want 20 games they want 30 games they want they want as many games as they can get if they get 50 out of us they get 50 out of us and so what do we have to do we got to make sure that we put ourselves in a position where we can protect ourselves as players right and we can actually make sure that if we are going to give up um some of our time and work more then there's got to be the proper compensation and the proper things that we feel is worth that extra gain and so on and so forth so that's where I am yes obviously they want more but is it going to be worth it to us to give them more I think that's well said and then specific to the the kind of the juxtaposition now of joint practice first preseason game the The Narrative has become and I think coaches have pushed this even a little bit too I don't know what your perspective is like the joint practices are as helpful Andor maybe better than the preseason the way it was explained to me by a lot of coaches over the years is they can kind of dictate situations practice more things that they want to get looks at guys because you can't really do that in a game you may not get a goal line or a short yardage or something like that how do you feel as a player in that regard uh look for the last four years I haven't actually played in a preseason game um and that includes the years that I led the league and you know touchdowns and had 1,600 allpurpose yards those those years so we did have joint practices during those those times so that definitely gave us that was like our game reps like hey it still wasn't live but it's as close to live as you're going to get um you're going against someone in some other color just not going to the ground um or cutting or anything like that so there's definitely a lot of value in those joint practices which is why we do them and there's not a ton of reps to go around when you have a 90 man roster to get a good evaluation on people so you want to make sure you're maximizing the opportunities that you have so I don't mind the preseason games I think they're actually super beneficial for multiple reasons get the stadiums ready get coaches ready especially new coaches no new coaches coming in so they know their process and all of that so there's value in all of it and uh just depends on how we want to balance it you know obviously we used to have four now I'm thinking about four is like dang if we had a whole another week of preon that would be wild um so I could definitely see it going down to two at some point um but not in exchange for another game I don't know that's that's a whole different conversation Austin Eckler with us here on g& D all right Austin give me a second all right while you mentioned this while you were out just in La minding your business putting up 1600 total yards and and 20 touchdowns pretty much I have long been a huge fan of yours and what I've done is I've begged for an Austin Eckler type running back here in town and we got the best version of that and turns out it's talk Austin Eckler years past what would happen is a guy with your skill set that's so good out of the backfield great in pass Pro that can do all these things it's okay it's third and long let's Trot that guy out there I have been screaming at nobody because I'm just a pudgy idiot but screaming at nobody I need my super effective playmaker not just to be third down uh uh reserved are we getting early down Austin Eckler and who do I have to talk to I mean well I mean if you look at my past you know my past history I've always I mean these past four years anyway I've been on the field pretty much the entire time unless I take a drive off so that that was the dynamic in the past obviously it's a new dynamic now coming in uh with you know Brian Robinson in the room as well and um he's a different type of back than I am with different types of bodies but he's shown he can carry the load all three Downs so have I and so for me it's and what's really great is I'm with Cliff kingsburry um who in my opinion is putting us in perfect position so that we can actually maximize our talent and so I'm gonna be on the field all over the place and um I don't think you'll have to worry about me being on on the field when it's you know a crunch time third down things like that because Cliff's been doing a good job making sure that hey we're putting our Playmakers on the field so they can make plays and put them in positions where they're best that so you know the plays will come my friend the plays will absolutely come thank you it makes me feel better we're getting lots of tweets Austin and also comments from our YouTube chat with people with questions for you just want to bang through a couple of these real quick on Grant and Danny a lot of people are asking you about fantasy you're kind of the player synonymous with being okay with the idea that fantasy football exists and it doesn't seem to bother you I don't want to say it's a part of the industry that you enjoy but I'm seeing a lot of people here asking you questions about fantasy how did that come about I mean did you just always play Fantasy Football and like most players where you kind of drop it when you start playing you continue to no so my love of fantasy came from what it does for the sport um actually most of my fans I would say have come because of fantasy really and the power of having you on someone's team um that they don't even know they might not even know that I was on the Chargers but they're like oh we love this Austin neckar guy who is he like they know my name because I was on their fantasy team and now they're watching the Chargers are watching me because I'm on their fantasy football team so the fact that it's bringing new communities into the ecosystem of players um that are on different teams is what I love about it I love how it brings people together I'm a community Builder that's what I do in my foundation and my businesses I build communities and uh that's one of the main reasons I love fantasy and so it's it's introduced me to a lot of new people you know I I do play I have you know um a charity League that I'm a part of as well so I'm definitely in there and I'm definitely rooting for guys on other teams you know unless we're playing them um and so it's a good time good time that's cool so I have two mini fantasy questions then the first would be when you're in a league do you have like is there a rule that you get yourself like what if someone drafts you and then secondly give us a sleeper commanders player on offense who we should be considering in fantasy that might not be obvious o interesting um well I can't give too much away on The Insider stuff because it's we haven't got to week one yet so I want to get to week one before I start leaking stuff and get myself in trouble okay so we not gonna be doing that but um as far as me getting myself I always am trying to get myself and it's actually easy right now because you know people think I'm just you know in the trash can apparently from last year but ADP over 100 Austin I think it's great value yeah so look I'm getting so there you go if you need a sleeper you know people thought oh you know Austin played on one and a half ankles last year and he wasn't very good he only got you know like eight touchdowns in a thousand yards he's washed up you know it's like y'all need to chill out man like I was going through some our team was you know going through some stuff had some injuries lingering around and now I'm back and healthy so um I'm getting myself all over the place yeah but I'm always trying to get myself we want to ask you about experience um an app that you've got it's a fan engagement platform you mentioned you were working on when we had Jan several months ago and I think you made a lot of progress on it now 85 active NFL players are going to participate tell us about it yeah we have uh 94 uh professional football players on there right now and actually just brought on our first school but what's really cool we just launched a new uh interaction called fan mail which allows you to send in an item to get signed by that player that's offering it and so right now you can only get it from any of the Washington players um and so that's the biggest announcement that we've had lately so if you want to get your Austin ecka jersey signed or a card signed by me or Jonathan Allen or Marcus Mariota Luke mcaffrey all these other guys that are on there you can go and check it out and it's it's actually called experience but spelled e k s p r i n c so X like my last name experience so really excited about it and loving loving what we've been doing so far and the engagements have been great with the fans in the area it's really a methodology for us to open ourselves up and give you more of a fan experience than just being in the stands last one for me Austin uh as you guys get ready to you know to as this roster gets finalized you can start playing games here next weekend what's the biggest key for you guys to get off to a fast start fast start do you think but also a fat start a fat start you want to go to a fat start who want you guys to be lethargic and and not skinny yeah go to eat fast food oh I love it I love it you know for us man we have a lot of U moving parts and new players on this team and players that have had ton of success in the past as well and when you bring a lot of people together it comes down to how well you jailed which comes down to one thing the details like how detailed can we be in the fundamentals and getting lined up and operating because if we do that we're going to be a pretty good offense G be hard to stop us uh but if if we're a little you know lack of days of Co in the communication it's not where it needs to be you know it's going to be tough for us um so that's the NFL but especially when you have new teams new coach his rookie quarterback it's especially um important and so what do you think I'm going to be you know preaching the next couple weeks is detail detail detail detail until I'm blew in the face because that's what it's got to be and that's what's GNA help us win Games Austin you you got married this offseason obviously right in time to get back to work I don't know if you've even had time you and and Melanie uh to kind of experience what there is to offer in DC yet or find restaurants you like has it been all work and and things will slow down a little bit in season in terms of some nights off or have you even seen the new community so my wife would tell me that and tell you guys that I am a workaholic and I am always trying to build like I am a builder at heart I'm an entrepreneur and uh football happens to be you know the thing you guys know me for but as you see even with experience I'm out building apps I'm building foundations we're building you know communities online and so that's what I do for my my fun free time but um yeah every once in a while make sure we get out to the date night and we'll check out VC so we've been out out around the town a little bit meeting some new people I'm a big networker so there's fun in the things that we like to do but it also sometimes looks looks like work to other people so that's what we do I like love it you're always making moves Austin we appreciate it we'll be pulling for you to get off to the quick start this year and you heard it from Austin Eckler don't sleep grab him in those fantasy drafts thanks man good luck to you buddy appreciate it guys thanks all right you got it there's Austin Eckler on Grant and Danny here on the fan uh he's always got something going on just one of those little bit too perfect you know I mean you just can't believe it's like in my spare time I start companies right in my spare time I start foundations like and me too as I sit down to play video games incred like watch a show just better than me