Jeff Stoutland on Leaving Philly, Evaluating Lineman & A Legendary Eagles Roundtable | Bonus EP

23:00And so you don't do that, hold your ass, man. Well, I'll tell you what, Stout, if you're ever going to miss getting yelled at by Philly fans or hearing them down there at the link, I'm sure you can just go right back to the link, baby, and hear that loud and proud. They're still there. Yeah, they're still there. They'll never leave. They don't matter what day it is. They're going to be there. And you're an absolute legend in the city. So I'm sure every time you go back to the link, man, they'll be cheering loud and proud for you, too.

23:31Jason Kelce:Well, Coach, I'm so incredibly grateful for what you've done for me and my career, my teammates' career, the career you had in Philadelphia, and you've had your entire coaching journey. Can't wait to see what you do next. Can't wait. And also can't wait to fix my golf swing over at your house, get some red light therapy in, saw to work. Yeah, Jason, you're a little pale right now. I need you glowing. I need you glowing, Jason. Oh, that's right. I am pale. Gosh, dang, look at that skin. You know, I should have said this to start the whole thing, but, you know, when you do something like this, there's no plan.

24:05This is just like, hey, man, let's roll. This is how Travis likes it, right? Come on now. Come on now. Yeah, you love it like that. Buckle up. But there's something that we talked about the fans, but really from the organization, from the top all the way down to the bottom, And I mean, for Mr. Lorry and Howie, Nick, Doug, Chip, all the guys that, you know, hired me and to the people. I'm talking like you realize this every morning at six, between six and seven o 'clock. I would get a cup of coffee and Miss Keisha in the cafeteria and I would have a little conversation. Shout out to Miss Keisha.

24:48Miss Keisha. Every single morning. And maybe Charles would be there, too, if we're lucky. and T-Roy might try to nose in on the thing too. But every single morning, I think that might be what I miss the most. I mean, so I have so many close people in that building that aren't even involved in the football. Like, they are involved in the football because they're taking care of us, but the athletic training department, the video department, you know, I'm going to miss a lot of those people. Yeah, a lot. I love it, Coach. I'm sure they're going to miss you too, big guy.

25:22Jason Kelce:You will be missed, no doubt. You were one of one in that building. The energy and passion that you brought, you can hear it here when you're talking, how much you love talking ball, how much the details matter. We'll have to get your back doing some tape or something like that if you'd be open to it. We're going to do some tape breakdowns. I'd love a little just-style tape breakdown. Let's go. Dive deep, man. It's got to be my tape so I can get coached up by the big guy one time. You always said you wanted to coach receivers. You always said you wanted to coach receivers. You're not going to believe this.

25:52There's a playbook over there. It's a wide receivers playbook from Syracuse when they told me I was going to go coach receiver. No way. Coach, I appreciate you. Yeah. I love you guys. Happy for you, man. And your mom, your mom and your dad, your mom's unbelievable. How does she build? How does she create these two people like this that have so much success at this level and unbelievable, unbelievable story. We're lucky men. What are you doing right now? I'm like, how do these two guys do it? Like, how are they pulling this off? Like, these guys, these guys.

26:27Jason Kelce:We have no idea, to be honest with you. No matter what they do. We get great guests like you to come and tell unbelievable stories like this. That's how we're doing it. That's right. You're the best, Daddy. Thank you so much. Appreciate you, Coach. You know it. Thank you, guys. Appreciate you. Thank you to our sponsor, Planet Fitness. We all know how hard it is to stay on top of your fitness when you've got a million things going on. No question. But here's the thing. Planet Fitness makes it easy. They've got all the equipment you actually want, plate-loaded strength machines, functional training equipment, treadmills, free weights, all of it.

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27:18Jason Kelce:Whether you're bouncing between cities for work or just balancing a busy schedule, Planet Fitness has you covered. Get strong at Planet Fitness. Join the club today in person, online, or the free Planet Fitness app. Hours, amenities, and offers vary by club. Check out planetfitness.com or stop by your local club for more information. Must be 18 years old to enroll or 13 to 17 with a parent or guardian. All righty, we're here for the second half of the Jeff Stoutland episode, and we want to do something a little bit different. Obviously, Coach Stout was in Philadelphia for a long time, so I thought it'd be cool to incorporate some of the guys that were here during his entire tenure and just sit back, tell stories of the legendary coach, Philadelphia Eagles offensive line coach, Jeff Stoutland.

28:00Jason Kelce:So we obviously have Coach Stout back, 13 years with the Philadelphia Eagles. Great number, by the way. You and I both did the same number of years with the Eagles. I didn't know that. Yeah, it's a good number. Then we got my man Brent Selick. Only did 11 seasons. Yeah, not as good as you guys. Ended on a Super Bowl though high, legendary tight end. And then we got Jordan Malata, still currently playing Philadelphia Eagle. I think your biggest success story, right? I mean, you've had a lot of them, but to take a guy that never played the game before and teach him how to play football. Yeah, there's a lot of stories, and they're all fun.

28:34The challenge that you have as the coach is to, what do I got to do to help this player be the best?

28:40Jason Kelce:Yes, and that's kind of what we did with Jordan. I do want to start off with just some word associations. So I'm going to say a word, adjective, and you tell me what player embodies this the most. Oh, boy. Okay. You've seen a lot of players come through. Who's the toughest player you've ever coached? This is like asking me. Come on. It's not saying nobody else isn't tough, but who's the guy that, like, stands out to your mind? First player that stands out to you when you say you're toughest? There's a lot. Lane and Dickerson. Yeah. I think that's a great answer. That's a tough guy, man. That guy, nobody knows what he goes through each week to get on the field.

29:13But I see the tears in his eyes at times. That's a tough dude. No doubt. All right. Smartest. You.

29:24Jason Kelce:Don't say it. Yeah. There's no question. Everybody knows that. We can move on. Meanest. What? Time out. You mean we wanted to film? There might be one or two other guys that are at the same level. There's the same level. I don't want to. Isaac Samalo, to me, Isaac is actually the smartest player I ever played with. Between him and Wiz, those two guys were very intelligent. High level. He had great vision. He could see everything. He played six positions in one game, the Baltimore game, including tight end. It's insane. He played every position along the line in that game as well as the tight end.

30:00I'm glad you rewound that.

30:02Jason Kelce:All right. Meanest. Doesn't have to be a guy with the Eagles either. Like if you got somebody from college. Yeah. Meanest. I coached a long time now. The game used to be meaner too. In the 80s, there was... No, there was... My feelings would be hurt. Jason Peters, I saw some things happen on the field a couple times. Like when you get to the... There's a certain point where if he snaps, you don't want to go there. There was some things... That's a bad man. I'll never forget the first one-on-one I ever saw him do. This is before you got there. This was my rookie year. Trent Coles at the end was a great player.

30:42Jason Kelce:And Trent beat him on an inside move. And he was pissed. Mazzy said, run it back. Oh, hell no, run it back. They line up again. I don't know why Trent tried to go inside again. JP took his palm and hit him so hard in the face mask that he landed on his head. Like did a backflip, basically. And I remember seeing that. I'm like, dude, I don't know if I can play in the NFL. If these are the guys that are playing, I don't know if I got what it takes. I mean, that guy, the size, the quickness, and the explosive power all wrapped up in one. You don't come across that within 100 years. You're not going to see someone like that.

31:21And great teammate. Yes. Great person. Great person. Most improved player you ever coached? I don't know how you could say that's ridiculous.

31:29Jason Kelce:I still remember the first day you walked in. And like, I mean, you didn't know anything about football. I was drafted with Danny Watkins, who also was a guy that played football late, was very green with the game, didn't know what certain techniques were called, things that I was kind of crazy going to the NFL that a guy didn't know this stuff. But you, I mean, you didn't know past it. You didn't know what the quarterback was. You didn't know anything was called. Truly, like, knew nothing about the game. And now you're an all-pro. Wow. I mean, that's insane. It helps that you're 365 and run a 4-7 in our freaking nature, for sure.

32:014-7's generous. You don't think you run a 4-7? I don't know. Pauli is sub five. Sub five? Definitely not a 4 '7".

32:08Jason Kelce:No. If your toes weren't webbed, you'd run a 4 '7". I think I would. I'd have that extra support, the little cushion, just that little boost. It's got to be him, right? I know this. Here's what I know. I think he's being modest. Yeah, I think he's being modest. I think he's in a 4 '7", 4 '8". He would come out on the field early, and he has this routine that he would do, but then he would just take off and open up and run. And I'll never forget the workout that we did at IMG. I couldn't believe how the size of the player and the quickness and all the square drills, the shuffle, the karaoke. We were doing all kinds of stuff.

32:49And I was like, oh, my goodness. I've never seen anything like this in my life. The size of the player, the quickness, the foot quickness, that's the wow factor. Now you got to assess the mental part of it. How long is it going to take? Yeah. And is it worth it?

33:04Jason Kelce:Yeah. And I was adamant about it. It's worth it. And it took a very long time. They almost ran out of time. What was that like for you, that whole process? I couldn't believe they drafted me. Yeah. And the whole time I was here, I was just trying to figure it all out. I didn't know what I was going to be or what I was going to surmount to. I was just kind of at first going through the motions. And it was like Stout said, these conversations when he would come and say, you're not trying hard enough. I got offended. Yeah. I'd be like, well, I'm trying my ass off. And then, you know, he'd make an example of what effort really looks like.

33:38And it was you. Oh, okay. It was the way you came off the field, gasping for air after long, long plays. And everything I tried to do was just, again, trying to prove myself to this guy, especially that 2020 year. Yeah. I got a win that I was close to getting sent home. And so pulled my socks up. Oh, it's Nate. Was Nate? Herbie. Really?

34:01Jason Kelce:Who was Herbie? You know, the lawyer locker room that man was. Oh, yeah. Herbie. He heard some whisperings and relayed it back to me. And I was like, I've got to pull my pants up. Hold on, hold on, hold on. We had dinner last night. I know wives. We had a nice time. And he actually reenacted the whole story. So I want you to tell us right now and use the voice and everything. You're fucking crazy. Do it. Tell it. You told me this last night. I didn't know anything about this. Right. He said, hey, bro. He said, listen. It's a great Herbie impersonation. He's going to kill me. We love Herbie. Go ahead.

34:37His tongue's too big for his mouth. He said, man, he said, Jody, you got to get in your bag, bro. He's like, they're going to ship you home. So you want to go home?

34:44Jason Kelce:Yeah. They're going to ship your ass home. So you got to pull your socks up and get in your bag. This is a very good Nate Herbie impression. And then I got in my bag. I got him in my bag he's like he's like they're gonna send you home man it's like come on he was my sleeper I was just who's the I guess the last one is leader

35:07who? you? I don't know he's not answering yeah you are the leader you we'll skip it no why you can't take I don't like doing this

35:16Jason Kelce:alright who's cage match who's the one who set the question up that's who that's who like I just got a bunch of bugs Every player that was ever in that room, they would answer the question the same way. Yeah. Who's winning a cage match? I'm not going to lie to you. I'm going to say Kevin Stout. But, I mean, Selleck was a great leader. But he wasn't in the room. Yeah. But you did a lot of things in front of the team, in the offensive unit, and yeah. I think one of the coolest things you did in 2017 was the start of the tradition. You and Stout really started it, which was talking in front of the team the day before the game.

35:52Jason Kelce:yeah the night before like i still remember because we for some reason we felt like in 2017 in camp i remember us all looking at each other and being like yeah we got a really good squad here yeah like le garrett like all the pieces we added alshon like the defense with fletch and like we did it felt like all the pieces was this is the best amount of talent we had had collectively and i remember i don't know which one of you guys thought of at first or how that helped but You came up and talked the day before the first game of the year. Yeah. And basically, I don't want to, you basically said, guys, I went to the NFC championship game my first year in the league.

36:35Jason Kelce:Second year, yeah. Second year in the league. We lost the game, and I figured out, you know what, we'll be back next year. And it's been nine seasons, and I still haven't been back. Don't waste this opportunity. We got a really good squad. And I think that really started the trajectory that year of like demanding excellence and guys feeling like we had a swagger and confidence. Where did you come up with that? Or where did you? Well, it actually happened really in the off season because after my 10th season, Howie calls me into the office and he's like, hey, we got to talk. And so I meet him in the office and he's like, hey, man, I know you're owed this, but, you know, we want to cut it.

37:15And so I literally, I had an agent, but I negotiated my deal with Howie face to face.

37:20Jason Kelce:Oh, wow. Bold strategy. He's a good negotiator. He's a good negotiator. But after that moment, I realized, you know, I've been around this game for a long time. They start taking your money away, and then the next thing is you're out the door. Right, yeah. And so that offseason, I kind of, my mindset switched, like, this is it. This is all I've got is this year. And I know that the Saturday nights before the game, Stout used to always talk. And he used to always say something. I used to love hearing him talk. But at that moment that I had with Howie, I was like, you know, I got to be more vocal.

38:01I'm going to do things that, you know, help uplift my teammates a little bit more. And I thought it was a great thing for me to just show the guys, this is what happened to me. This is where I'm at today. and this year is really all we got. Right. And what I thought was really cool about it though is that Stout kept it going. Right. For sure. You know, the fact that he - It wasn't a one and done. Yeah. And the fact that I didn't even know Isaac knew how to speak. And then Isaac gets up there.

38:34Jason Kelce:Shout out to Isaac. Yeah. And Isaac pulls, you know, he basically puts his heart on the table and like, this is who I am. It brought me closer to him. I had no relationship with him. I agree. And to be able to hear my teammate, you, Kelsey, you got up there and got emotional. Like to me, those those really changed. I feel like our relationships became stronger because we started learning things about each other that we never knew. I thought it was awesome that you did it. And it was you could hear a pin drop. Oh, you look around the room. Very. A lot of emotional. There was a lot of emotional guys that would get up and speak.

39:11Darren Sproles did a great, unbelievable job. I mean, there was a lot of guys who would take that very serious and they would get up there and speak from their heart. And I think everybody really looked forward to it.

39:25Jason Kelce:All right, let's talk. So you were a college coach for the majority of your career. You come from winning two national championships at Alabama with Nick Saban, Chip Kelly, completely different offense. What were your first impressions coming to Philadelphia in trying to run a brand-new offense like that? Well, I've run about every run play and play action and protection that you have been doing it. I was in college for 30 years. Yeah. We did a lot at Alabama. Okay. A lot. And that was really a pro organization, to be honest with you. Yeah. And then we come in here and we're in the Temple offense with Chip Kelly.

40:05I was so excited to learn something new. That was basically, I mean, we dabbled a little bit with a little fastball play here and there. Right. Nothing like that.

40:14Jason Kelce:Yeah. Snap the ball within 25 seconds. Let's go. I still remember that first Washington game. It was like they could not stop us. I remember you coming. It was insane. We all thought we were going to win the Super Bowl. Did we not? They couldn't stop it. Your enthusiasm and your excitement coming off. You couldn't breathe. We were coming off the field. You're like, Stouty, they're begging us to slow down. throwing up on the field. We got them right where we won them. I think we ran 50 plays. In the first half. That's nuts. It was the first kind of its kind in the NFL. Washington had no idea what to do.

40:53Jason Kelce:That was the first. We didn't have tape out there. Teams did catch on eventually, but to start, it was absolutely outrageous. Brent, you had been in the league for how many years at that point? Six? Six years. Yeah. Yeah. Juan Castillo had been an offensive line coach. Yeah. What were your first impressions with Stout? Stout, I would say initially he was so passionate when he's installing the run game. You know, he's pounding the table. He's loud. I love that about him. Yeah. The other thing that you could tell right away is he cared. And I would say the third thing is you could question things with Stout and he would listen.

41:34Right. Sometimes he would tell you, no, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. Yeah, no. But he would listen. So, you know, those three things, he's a passionate guy. He really cares about his players. I think that's probably the most important thing. And I think that's why Stout and I connect so well is because I just see he does everything for his players. Right. And he wants them to have everything that they could possibly have to succeed in that game. And if he feels he's not giving that, he feels like he's failing.

42:02Jason Kelce:Yes. Well said. I don't think I can say it any better. All you want in a coach is somebody that genuinely wants you to be the best version of yourself. Exactly. And Stout did that for a very long time. If a player feels like a coach has any like ulterior motive or like there's like a selfish intrinsic desire out of it, you just don't enjoy it as much or you like it. Fuck this dude. Yeah. All right. All these great players. One of the things you were phenomenal at is gauging players before they became great. Jordan Malata, Lane Johnson, drafting players of Philadelphia. When you go to a combine or you're looking at a player, what is the number one most important thing?

42:40Jason Kelce:I already know the answer. What's the most important thing that you're looking for to determine whether he's going to be a good offensive lineman? With all these questions, there's more than one. But you've got to have the size. No, no, listen to me. So I start. I have a flow chart. You've got critical factors. Yeah, and I follow them. First of all, where are you with the size? Are you average? Are you preferred? are you ideal? Okay. Where do you fall? Okay. Ideal. Yeah. Okay. So now the most important critical factor would be foot and body quickness. Yeah. I thought for sure you were going to say ankle flexion.

43:12Jason Kelce:Why is ankle flexion so important? So this is the best way to say it. If you, if I'm the wide receiver and you're the defensive back and you're in a stance and I'm running off the ball and you're in a back pedal, you're trying to cover me, you're backpedaling. And then I break to the out cut. And the quarterback shows the shoulders and he's going to throw the ball. As you're backpedaling, if you're able to plant and break, I guarantee you, you have lower body flexibility. If you went plant, plant break, you probably have average lower body. Now this is accurate. This holds up across the board.

43:55This isn't just for offensive linemen. This was for all positions. And so lower body flexibility is relative to explosive power, change of direction. But you're going to find some guys that can flat out run fast that don't have great lower body flexibility.

44:16Jason Kelce:Interesting. So it's more change of direction and agility. Explosive power. Got it. Okay. Once I decide that that's a very important factor, then I'm all in. Yeah. I'm all in. But I have to see it in my brain. I have to feel it. I don't just do like these low hands things. Nobody does. I have to know for a fact that that works. Yeah. Then I'm all in. Then you're in. And the saying I think you use the most, though, throughout your whole career was hungry dogs run faster. Yeah. Where did that come from? So when I was a young, when I was kind of afford was the YMCA. So I would go to the YMCA with a couple of my teammates.

44:58We didn't have good facilities at my high school. So we would go to the YMCA and we would lift. And there was a guy in there who was huge, strong. I mean, real strong. His name was Dino Mangiero, played for the Kansas City Chiefs. He actually is the player that broke Dan Pastorini's leg way back in the day. He's actually the player that won the strongest man in the NFL arm wrestle. Dino played nose tackle for Rutgers, for Curtis High School, Rutgers. These guys, all they did was work out at the YMCA. I mean, they worked out. So Dino was like, come on. Well, Dennis Riley, come on, you're coming with me.

45:34And we would go run through Clove Lakes Park, through the trees, over the tree. And we would be like, I'd be dying. These guys would be jumping over trees. Like, you remember how you said to me, I didn't know what toughness was until my strength coach at Cincinnati taught me. That was my moment. And that was my moment. And these guys would keep saying to me, hungry dogs run fast. You don't stop. You keep pushing. You keep going. And what you're going to do is you're going to build so much confidence in yourself. You're going to feel like nobody can beat you. And I embraced that. I embraced it right through college.

46:07And I just was like, that was me. That was the epitome of I'm going to work harder than you, not only as a player, but even as a coach, is I took it further and I wanted to instill that in all the players. And we did that in our individual drills. And it basically became who I am or who I was, how I went about coaching, how I went about explaining things to the players. And so that came from Dino.

46:34Jason Kelce:All right. 2017 season, we go on, win the Super Bowl, first time in Eagles history. At what point in that season did you realize that the team was special? Is there a moment or is there a play or is there? I just, look, you're asking me a question and I'm going to answer the question. You might not like the answer. I don't care. Frank Reich was the offensive coordinator and he would be like, Stout, you got juice today. He would kind of needle me a little bit about the run installation meeting, which you talked about. I would get up in front of the offense and I would do the run game installation.

47:13And really before I would put any play in, I would present to everybody and I would say, you know, this is the mission statement on this play. We're going to displace the interior two tackles. And if we don't do that, this play is not going to work. Or we're running a mid-zone play and Jordan, if you don't displace at the end, we can't run this play. And so everybody knew going in where that important, very, very important block was. And then I would say, we're going to come in here, Nelson Aguiar, on Monday or Tuesday, and we're going to see if you block the safety on Wham, because if you do, you deserve all the credit.

47:54For all those Whams that we ran at the Chicago and the Seattle, you're the one that deserves the credit. Not Kelsey again at the second level, but you do it because you block the force player and the force player is the most important block. And I would do that through all the run concepts and everybody knew exactly what was what, but I'm going to tell you what, when I, when I would do that, I would occasionally, as I'm into my doing my thing, I would see a Smitty. I would see Alshon Jeffrey. I'd see Nelson Aguiar. I'd see those, I'd see Mack. Mack Hollis. And those guys would be like this. I didn't expect that.

48:29Yeah. I didn't think that the receiver would be looking at me like that. I expect the offensive lineman or the tight end to be like, all right, I understand. I use the phrase. You guys know it. You've heard it. It's execution fuels emotion.

48:44Jason Kelce:Yeah. And I don't know how to say it any better than that. Kevin Kelly and I worked way back in 1984 together. we would talk about, he would talk about this with me. There's no better way to describe the excitement, the jubilation of a great play or a great series when your execution fuels emotion. If you're not executing, you're not having fun. You're not feeling it. You're not bumping into each other. You're not hogging each other. You're not. So that phrase became something I would use quite often because it says it all. What about you? Was there a point in that year that? I think every year you feel like we have a really good team.

49:24Jason Kelce:Yes. I think after, I believe it was the second. You don't go to a season being like, hey, we're not going to win the Super Bowl. We're going to suck this year. The real moment for me was when we were in L.A. and Carson got hurt. And Nick comes in the game. Yeah. And the feeling on the sideline with some of the guys that I was around, it was just like, damn, not us again. You know, Carson at that moment was MVP. Would have been. And then Nick comes in and Nick starts slinging it. And I'll just never forget the feeling in the locker room after that game. And Malcolm gave his speech. And it was just like next man up mentality.

50:01Jason Kelce:I agree. It was a crazy moment in that season. Throughout the entire season, it was that way. But that was the biggest moment. And how Nick responded to all that, I thought was unbelievable. Nick handled it unbelievably. It ended up working out to our favor, I think, a little bit. because Nick came in and was different than Carson. Yeah. And he liked different plays, and we switched it up at the perfect time in the season. But you were the nail on the head, too, Stout with saying that it was a great blend of, like, personalities and people. And, like, Carson was great. But, like, LeGarrette Blount was, like, an unreal teammate and personality to have in there.

50:38Jason Kelce:Jay Ajayi added him halfway through the season. It was fantastic. Young Isaac and, like, some of the players we had in the depths that were ready to play. Corey Clement. Corey Clement. Those three running backs? It was awesome. We had fun. We had a lot of fun. And that was after Darren Sproles got hurt. Yeah. Darren Sproles and JP got hurt. We lost probably two of our – we lost our three best players. Probably, right? Our best offensive lineman was Jason Peden before he got hurt. Our best running back was probably Sproles, and we lost our starting quarterback. Still went on. But I do think that what you just said about Nick, because once Carson got hurt, I felt the same.

51:15I felt like everybody was like, well, there it goes. We were having such a great season.

51:20Jason Kelce:I didn't have time to feel that way until after the game because I was still trying to block Aaron Tomlin. Yeah. After the game, I felt that way. But after the game was finished, I think that thought process was kind of removed. I thought it was like, okay, we're back. Do you remember shaking me like this? After the Super Bowl? It wasn't after the Super Bowl. It was in the fourth quarter. You were shaking me, and I was like, I had my pad in my hand, and you were going, Nick's playing out of his mind. We're going to win. I was like, okay, bro, we've got to keep going. It was right close to when we kicked a field goal.

51:59Elliott kicked a field goal. That field goal was huge.

52:02Jason Kelce:Yeah, the big players were obviously really special, but fourth down conversions with Ertz. There were so many. All right, let's fast forward to the year that we weren't there. Yeah. What was special about that year? When did you know that season that that team? Well, that was the football one. Go ahead. I mean, to me, it didn't feel like there was like a moment. Sure. It just was like each game was its own every week. If there was a game I could pick, it would probably be that L.A. Rams game at SoFi. Keep picking on the Rams. Yeah. It is what it is, man. It is what it is, man. That was really a fucking game.

52:35Jason Kelce:The one in SoFi. That was the one game where I thought like Sunday night we played lights out and it was just complete domination up front in the run game. It felt like a very complete game for us. Defense was playing lights out and I think that was probably the moment for me at least where like, hey man, we have something special. Very late in the season, but how we were playing or how I was playing that season was just kind of taking each game week to week. I mean, everyone wants to talk about bye week. After the bye week, week five, Browns come out, home game. That's when we started our little win streak.

53:13How was that the game? And, you know, we just won. So, you know, that was the ignition, I guess, the igniter for the way we kind of went on. But I don't know, so what about you? Well, when Howie was able to get Saquon to come here, I felt like watching him, these guys, we talked about some of these other players here earlier, but those guys don't come around very often. And watching some of the things that he was able to do, and I just felt like with the offensive line that we had combined with him and really the whole running back group, that we would have some great things that would happen.

53:57And all he needed was if we could block them up front and create the voids needed, any given play at any given time could go to distance.

54:09Jason Kelce:Yeah. He had that breakaway speed. He had the ability to see stuff, whether it be frontside or backside. And there were so many plays during the course of the season that were big, you know, that were chunk runs. even on third down. We were running the ball against these exotic defensive fronts and putting the fear of God in people. Like, you want to play this front? Go ahead. And so, yeah, I just think that was a huge part of that. And we were so, the players were so confident, much like the quarterback sneak play. The confidence level that you guys had running that play two years ago was like, there's no way this is stopped.

54:52Organized mass. And by the way, all these combination blocks that you talked about and these techniques that are individual, that is organized mass, but it's two. You're right. It's all organized mass. It's all mentality of organized mass. The teaching is all the same. And so you just, and the confidence level, you know, of the players, I felt that way with the run game with him, with Saquon. And the players did such a great job of executing all these combination blocks, getting to the second level, finishing. And we wrote it. We stayed with it all year. Right. Just one of those things, I guess, the momentum at the right time.

55:27We peaked at the right time, and we just read that momentum.

55:30Jason Kelce:You have the talent while everything else is coming together. I think something has to be said about when you have a running back that is that good, I just feel like the O-line, the tight ends, everybody just blocks that much harder. Like when we had LeGarrette in 2017. Yeah. You know, really all our running backs in 2017. But like those guys that just bring it, you don't want your guy to make the tackle. Yeah, when they're going balls to the wall, all out, running hard, it makes you block harder. And it's the same thing as Stout, execution fuels emotion. So like the more success you're having with something, the more you're excited to do it.

56:08Yeah, Saigon was basically at our bench the whole year, just talking about plays. Just whatever happened on that drive, he was like, let's fix it up. What happened? He talked to me. And he cleared up his vision, and then we go, man. And then, boom. He would do a flyby and he would say, that one guy, you get that one guy, I'm gone. I'm gone. The next time we get that one guy, so then you'd see him finishing on the backside. I could pull out some clips. I know exactly what plays, what games. On the backside, he's just straining and straining, whereas when he was young, he didn't know how to do that.

56:40He didn't even know how to have a clue how to strain, how to finish. But that pops the run for the touchdown, Kansas City game. I mean, I can go to the L.A. game. I can go through the list of him on the backside where he's straining and finishing, and Saquon would do a flyby and say, just get that one guy.

56:56Jason Kelce:You got an endless amount of sayings. You got hungry dogs run faster, no man is an eye, he must draw his strength from others, executes him for fuels emotion. There's some funnier ones out there. You said, I don't know that guy from Adam's house cat before. I still don't know what that means or where it came from. I thought it was an American saying, so I said it to Nicky, and Nicky goes, that's not a thing. I was like, what do you mean? I was like, what do you mean it's not a thing? Like, stoutism all the time. I was like, that must be a stoutism because I've never heard of that. So who is Adam's house cat?

57:25Coach Saban would say that.

57:28Jason Kelce:He doesn't know. Adam's house cat was somebody's cat. What about pounding salt up a fat lady's ass? That's just a visionary of... Yeah. Visionary aid. Tough running play. What do you call a wide open gaping hole? What's that called? Oh, my God. That's Al Barber. That's Al Barber? You were blaming Al for that? I'll defer that to Al because he owns cows. There you go. Listen, we're kind of being funny here, though. Yeah. But one of the things I think made you an outstanding coach was it wasn't just a lecture at the top of the meeting room. There was you would say these things or pick your voice up in a way to institute.

58:14you used to call it a hook, which was if you wanted a player to remember something,

58:19Jason Kelce:you would say, this is the hook. You would say these phrases or these little things technique-wise to get the player to remember it so that when they're out on the field, they would snap and they would know exactly what we talked about in the meeting. True. And also, if you remember, and I don't know why, I think sometimes I would even go drift off into a life lesson. Yeah. And I would raise my voice and I'd be like, look, you're not doing this forever. This situation is going to come later on in life. Do the right thing. Save yourself a lot of grief or whatever, or whatever, whatever that situation was.

59:05We spent so much time together, all of us. And you get to know each other so well. You get to know your girlfriends. You get to know your wives, my wife, not to Allison. You just get the feeling of caring about someone so much that if you could do something, just a little bit to maybe help a guy later on. And I would do that occasionally in our meetings. You just said, don't make the mistake because you're not.

59:33Jason Kelce:Immediately, I thought of, what's the one? 80 % of the time, the easy way is the wrong way. Yeah. You want to take the easy route, and it's great in the moment, but usually it ends up backfiring on you in the long run. Yeah. What would be one thing that you would want people to know about Stout and, like, how he is as a coach? It's not like a misunderstood thing, but what do you think makes Stout a great coach? For me, how much of a father figure he was. Yeah, it wasn't just about the coaching. It was everything he just said. It was, like, caring about you as a person. For, like, 10 minutes, and it's just like that.

1:00:05Yeah, yeah. Just like that. Yeah. Yeah.

1:00:12I mean everyone thinks that you know everyone thinks they know like what kind of father figure

1:00:16Jason Kelce:he is but yeah for me moving here was just turned 21 yeah a big family guy left my family back home left my parents yeah and yeah this crazy guy I believe in this kid who never played football before and just trying to make a make a name for himself and i can't get over how he was always consistent he's always there but he always believed in me and he was always the last one to believe in me and it wasn't like the lessons on the field of you know that's that's his job that's his job as a coach but the lessons he taught me as a man but always showing up as a father figure for me when You know, my family's so far away and he knows, probably doesn't know, but like, I'll call you Papa, you know that.

1:01:12You know I'll call you Papa. He's always called me Papa. I'll call you Papa, man, because I just needed, for me, I feel like I was a young man coming here. I didn't really know who I was. I was really still a young adult. I didn't know what I stood for, what I was going to stand for, what I believed in. And he just, for me, he kind of set me in my ways of hard work beats everything. But I thought I knew, and he said it earlier, I thought I knew what hard work looked like. But I didn't know anything. I was young, I was very naive. Stout has told me so much about the one thing. But it's you too, Kel.

1:01:54Everything I try to do is emulate how you led. And then I just carry that on to the next group as best I could, the way I practiced, the way I finished every snap, the way I played in games. But it just started from Coach Stout and started with you, and I just pick and choose what I needed to do to become the player that I became and what I've become. And I just, I'm very lucky to be in this situation where, you know, I've had a great coach, a great locker room and people that bring me along. You never needed to do that.

1:02:30Jason Kelce:It's one of the reasons I think the Eagles have been so successful is even throughout change, they've kept pieces in part. So like I learned from Brent and Todd and those guys learned from Dawkins. And like there's been a transition period with the Eagles where players have learned from players. You were the offensive line coach for the Philadelphia Eagles through four different head coaches. How many times has that happened in the NFL? Never. Not that I know of. I don't know. What Jordy just said is beautiful, and I'll piggyback on that. I feel the same way, but I also feel like the hungry dogs run faster is what you've been as a coach.

1:03:10Jason Kelce:There's been a hunger and a desire to get like an ingenuine caring for your players that has allowed all of these guys to maximize their ability. And I don't think it's any surprise that a guy that's never played football, that has all the physical attributes, has turned into one of the best tackles in the league. Guys have come from other places, castaways, Mekhi Becton, nobody wants them anymore. Comes here, wins the Super Bowl, has a career year. You get the best out of him. You get the best out of me. You get the best. I mean it's it's endless and the technique absolutely the the the plays the guys next to you but the overwhelming thing is you could not go into that fucking room without being ready each and every day you weren't going to accept it so everybody had to acknowledge that so for that we all as former players thank you from the bottom of our hearts you gave us everything you had and as players, that's all you want.

1:04:03Jason Kelce:I don't know what's next for you. I mean, I know you're taking the year off, whether you coach again or whatever you do. I just consider it a great blessing. I think all of us that were Philadelphia Eagles that were with you do. So thanks, coach. Thank you. I love you guys. I really appreciate doing this. This has brought up some really, really good memories. I can't tell you guys enough how, when I think of my time coaching you, Jason, and you and doing our mate blocks and doing our stuff that we did as a group, the joy that brings me and the happiness that that brings me because you guys believed in me, you trusted me.

1:04:44All I was able to do, I think there's a very important little point here with all the stuff we've talked about, but if you find one thing about a player like I would say to you, Jason, would you imagine what you could be like if you just used your hands right? If you just had a little bit narrower base in your stance and you didn't overextend and fall step, don't get crazy on me. Just listen to me. If you could just apply this and try this, this is going to go like this. Get the backside arm on that cutoff block. I still never got that. Don't use the two hands. Well, that's because I used the freaking loop outside of you.

1:05:21Yeah. And so or I would say I would show Jordan, if you just kick us twice, and this is from Jason Peters, right from him, right from his Bible. He'd say kick us kick as fast as you can twice and get to that spot. You just get to that spot. All good things are going to happen. And he'd say and I would listen to him. I say, that's all I do. I don't care about anything. I'll just tell Kelsey to tell me who I don't want to be bogged down. I want to get to that spot. Nobody did it better than him. And then Lane would watch and then he would do it. And so to watch all this stuff go on and happen was so much.

1:05:56It was like a magic. It was like an artist painting a painting. It was like so beautiful and so much fun. And so for that, I thank you guys from the bottom of my heart.

1:06:09Jason Kelce:You're the best, though. I forgot to ask you. Who are you going to miss most in the building? Because we're talking about as players. But I think you were maybe even more loved by the staff in the way you treated them. 100 percent t-roy's asked me already four times about how you're doing i think t-roy might be the most upset of everybody yeah i gave t-roy a lot of my t-shirts and my my shorts t-roy uh is a hard-working guy and he's been around a long time like myself and and everybody the support staff in that building uh the cafeteria people because i get up i'm an early bird so i would always see Miss Keisha and I would see Charles down there and early guys and Roman and those guys would all be there early and we'd have a little coffee together and then you know you got Pat Dolan and his crew up there and all those guys that have helped over the years and then Steve Owen in the training room with like I can't tell you for so many years that you're giving I would also say here's another one that you forgot was give of yourself to your teammates.

1:07:18How much are you willing to give of yourself to your teammates? Well, that building is loaded with people who are, who give of themselves to the players, the coaches, just try to help and make their job a little bit easier. You know what? Not everybody's like that. So that was a special place for me and all those people. Very special to me. Thanks, Tony. Yeah. Thank you guys.

1:07:41Jason Kelce:And that wraps up another bonus episode of new heights. Thank you to Jeff Stoutland, my man Brent Selig, Jordan Malata, Travis. Well done. We'll have some more bonus content for you all in May. So stay tuned to what that might be. Once again, New Heights, a wonder show brought to you by Planet Fitness. I'm about to go hit the gym right now. Follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show. We're going to have a bunch of fun clips after that one. And thanks to our production and crew. We appreciate you so very much, so deeply. And to the 92 %ers. Hope you enjoyed it. We'll see you next week.

1:08:18Outro Music