Speaker 1:
From the library of the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, you're inside the ICE House, our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange on markets, leadership and vision and global business, the dream drivers that have made the NYSE an indispensable institution of global growth for over 225 years.
Speaker 1:
Each week we feature stories of those who hatch plans, create jobs and harness the engine of capitalism, right here, right now, at the NYSE and at ICE's exchanges and clearing houses around the world.
Speaker 1:
And now welcome, inside the ICE House, here's your host, Josh King of Intercontinental Exchange.
Josh King:
We've focused on a big American business with a global following, the National Football League, a few times before on this show. Early on we talked with the New York Times Mark Leibovich about his book, Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times. And later on, here inside the library, we spoke with Jerry Jones, owner and General Manager of the Dallas Cowboys, about the moves he'd make to win another Vince Lombardi trophy. Spoiler alert: Mr. Jones is still on that elusive quest, though his natural gas drilling company, Comstock Resources, NYSE: CRK, is trading at a 52 week high as a result of the global surge in demand. And we'll see about whether trading Amari Cooper and freeing up of $20 million in salary cap will get Mr. Jones any closer to his elusive goal.
Josh King:
In the wide receiver department, the Los Angeles Raiders are also staffing up. They just got out superstar, Davante Adams from the Packers for their first and second round picks in the upcoming NFL draft coming up on April 28th, and that's going to give quarterback, Derek Carr, a familiar target who played with Adams back in their Fresno State days.
Josh King:
And speaking of quarterbacks, the Indianapolis Colts have given themselves a makeover grabbing Matt Ryan from the Atlanta Falcons for a third round pick, a gambit that the 37 year old Ryan still has enough gas in the tank to bring a Super Bowl to Indi just like Matthew Stafford did with the Rams.
Josh King:
So if you're Derek Carr or Matt Ryan, you are a family man, a businessman and a competitive athlete with an insatiable appetite to win, the priorities sometimes scrambled depending on the particular month of the calendar. It happens to be March, so that means it's off season a little before a rigorous training and arm rehabilitation regimen kicks off in advance of training camp for the Raiders and now the Colts.
Josh King:
If you're Derek and Matt, you're also thinking about the business of football, the young pass catchers on your practice squad, shagging your passes and making a few grand a game, and that, maybe with your leadership and guidance and a little extra love and attention from the veteran QB, one of them might become the next Davante Adams. You're also making connections, meeting people in the business world because they too will become part of it someday, the NFL we're, often reminded, is said to stand for "Not For Long."
Josh King:
So let's take you to Las Vegas, Nevada, as Derek Carr and Matt Ryan are making the connection with ICE, speaking live on stage at the ICE Mortgage Technology Experience 2022 Executive Summit held here at the Wynn Hotel on The Strip. It was great, after a two year interruption due to COVID, to be gathered again with a few thousand leaders of the mortgage space, the industry's biggest annual event that we're so proud to host.
Josh King:
At the executive summit session, ICE's President, Ben Jackson, sat down with Derek and Matt for the intimate, honest conversation with two of the league's premier quarterbacks that you rarely hear on ESPN where sports meets family, where mastery meets mentorship, where legacy meets leadership. The audience at ICE's Executive Summit came away impressed, as I'm sure you will be, when you hear Ben's conversation with Derek Carr and Matt Ryan all coming up right after this.
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Josh King:
Welcome back. Now, let's take you out to Las Vegas, Nevada and Ben Jackson's conversation with Las Vegas Raiders quarterback, Derek Carr. And although it wouldn't be revealed until after the ICE Experience Executive Summit ended, Matt Ryan, the new quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts after 14 years leading the Falcons in ICE's hometown of Atlanta.
Josh King:
Here's ICE President, Ben Jackson.
Ben Jackson:
I thought I'd just start with just humanizing the conversation a little bit, having the audience get to know you guys a little bit more. And first thing I was curious with, we're about a month out of the season, and would love for you guys to share, what are you doing connecting with the family and stuff with the extra time that you have? I mean, you have four kids? You have two?
Matt Ryan:
Yeah. It's always tough when you finish a season and you know you're not in the last game, you're not playing in the Super Bowl or you're not in the playoffs, that beginning stretch, for me, is it's always you're just, I don't want to say depressed, but you're just in a funk. You'd rather be playing, you're watching the games with everybody on Saturdays and Sundays. It's just a little ... You're off. And then the Super Bowl ends and that's when I always feel the off season begins and you start making plans for what your training's going to look like, what are some of the things you'd like to work on?
Matt Ryan:
But, to be honest with you, a lot of it is ... Getting at home, for me, I've got twin boys that are four and getting back involved in their life, because you're so busy during the season, you're gone, both physically and mentally at times. You're so invested in what you're doing. And so it used to look a lot different before I had kids. There was a lot more travel, there was a lot more different things we were going to do, but it's just a good chance to be home, reset, and then once that Super Bowl ends, it's all about this season and how we're going to be the best team we can be.
Derek Carr:
I would say the same thing. Yeah. Traveling with four little ones is not easy as you know. For me, a couple of years ago we made the playoffs and it was my first time to get to go and we clenched three weeks prior. And so I'm feeling good all the last way. I'm, "We're still in the playoffs." And I snapped my ankle.
Derek Carr:
So this past year was the first time I actually got to play, and we go and we end up losing to the eventual AFC champions. And so every single weekend I'm sitting there watching the Bengals play and I'm, "Oh, you got to be kidding me right now. If we did this, we could have beat them on this." You know how you go? You absolutely replay everything. I'm sure,-
Matt Ryan:
Right.
Derek Carr:
... as Matt knows. And so watching every game is hard. It really is. And I've got a lot better as I've got older at celebrating other people's success. I always felt, "How could I be blessed with something if I can't even celebrate that for somebody else?" And so I've been happy to watch the other guy's success and I root for other people and all that, but that doesn't change the drive in me. You know, when Matt won the MVP a couple years ago, I'm still, "Oh, man, I've got to get that." Matt goes to the Super Bowl and I'm, "Oh man, I haven't got to do that yet."
Derek Carr:
And so there's still dreams and aspirations that you have that are boiling every year. And I think that's what keeps us going is all those things. But then getting back into the family mode of ... My boys are, "Dad, the Bengals are playing the Titans." I'm, "Yeah. Let's watch it." "Dad, he picked you off, didn't he?" I'm, "Yeah, he picked me off."
Derek Carr:
But being a dad is so much more fun obviously than playing football. It's just so much more fulfilling in different ways. But watching those games with them, going out in the backyard and they're picking teams, "Dad, can I be the Bengals?" And I'm, "Okay, you can be the Bengals," and things like that. So-
Matt Ryan:
He's a better dad than I am.
Derek Carr:
You just tell them, "No."
Matt Ryan:
No. But if other team comes up. Our guys are, boom.
Derek Carr:
Oh, yeah. If the Chiefs come up-
Matt Ryan:
Yeah, there you go.
Derek Carr:
You can't beat the Chiefs.
Derek Carr:
In division.
Derek Carr:
No, in Division. No, you can't beat Patrick Mahomes. No. But, yeah, no, I think, just getting back into that because they're so used to us not being home all day. And then when I wake up and I'm sitting there and I'm taking them to school, it's different and they're excited about it. So I think, for me, just getting back into the dad mode a hundred percent, making sure they know they have my attention, making sure they feel loved and important, is always crucial for me.
Ben Jackson:
Draft's coming up in a few weeks here already. Training camp's going to be around the corner, 17 games season coming up, as well. What are you doing right now to get ready physically and mentally?
Matt Ryan:
I think it's changed a lot for me. I think at 23 or 24, your first or second year in the league, your body just heals faster at that time, you can throw more. So I would get into it much earlier, younger in my career. And I think now as I've got older, the intensity's the same, but the actual things I'm doing are different and it's a lot more based on recovery, mobility, flexibility, trying to keep things moving as good as they can move. And I've got into a good spot there.
Matt Ryan:
But I, typically, start throwing, I think I was telling you last night, I typically start throwing at the end of March and get into it light. And so I've worked with a couple of coaches in California for a long time and I'm heading out to see them next Sunday, Monday, Tuesday to get things started.
Matt Ryan:
And then from there we start our off season program the middle of April. It's not too intense. It's four days a week, half a day. You start getting back with your team. You start looking at what we're going to do offensively. You watch the cut ups of the plays that we ran last year. What do we like? What are we going to continue to do? You watch some of other teams. We'll be watching Derek and what did they do so well last year that maybe we can steal a thing or two? And that goes from April until June.
Matt Ryan:
And then we get about four or five weeks between June and the end of July when we start training camp. And that's, typically, another time to disconnect. I think one of the things I've learned as I've got older is that you have to find ways to get away from it too because competitive stamina is really, really important. It's a long season and you've got to be able to have that same level of competitiveness and fire week in and week out from September until the end of February. And the only way I find to do it is to find times during the off season to disconnect, to get away and do some different things.
Matt Ryan:
But that's a brief 30,000 foot view of the off season for me.
Derek Carr:
I am like a meathead when it comes to working out, and as I get older, I'm, "I can't do some of the things that I used to do." And so you learn about recovery and how nutrition plays a part in that. And there's certain things that I love to eat. And I'm, "You can't eat this thing anymore because it's inflaming this." And it's, "Oh, my goodness, all these scientists." But then you feel your body actually feels better, and these things show you ... As you get older, you learn more. And same as Matt, in practice, I like to take every rep.
Derek Carr:
So being a backup quarterback for the Raiders is not fun. You don't practice. I, literally, have to see everything. It's just how I'm wired. I want to see every blitz, I want to see every front, I want to see every coverage, I want to see every look. So my coaches are, "You get an off day today. You're 30 now." And they're, "So I can get the other guys some reps." So that's just how I go about my business.
Derek Carr:
And so during my throwing time, I don't start until mid- to late March either because I throw so many passes and there's only so many left in this arm and, as you know, how many years can I prolong this? I take care of my body and I'm not as big as Matt. So I lift heavy and I have to be ready for the guys hitting me and things like that. And so that is an emphasis for me.
Derek Carr:
Literally, last night I flew home from Disney World and I got unpacked and all that and I went downstairs and got my workout in. It's just this constant, never-ending self-improvement. It never ends.
Derek Carr:
Matt, is this 14?
Matt Ryan:
Coming up on 15.
Derek Carr:
Coming up on-
Matt Ryan:
Coming up ... Finish 14, yeah. Coming up on 15.
Derek Carr:
And I'm sure that you're the same way as me. This will be nine for me. I'm still looking at ways how can I be better?
Matt Ryan:
There's no question. It never stops. You know that part of it never stops.
Matt Ryan:
But it's interesting you talk about timing of throwing and those things. I met Dan Fouts, who's a legendary quarterback. He was for the Chargers and he's a beauty. He's a really interesting guy to talk to. This may have been my third or fourth year or something like that. And I met him a week after the Super Bowl and he was, "How you doing, man?" I'm, "Good. I just started throwing the other day." And he goes, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You started throwing the other day?" He said, "The important time to be throwing strikes is in February, not before. Not after the Super Bowl but before." So he's, "You need to curve that thing down, man. I didn't throw until two days before training camp." And I was, "Oh, Dan, I think times have changed a little bit." But he was funny to listen to, but really good advice in his way.
Ben Jackson:
So Matt, Boston College. Derek, Fresno State. Close-knit communities, I'm sure. Tell us a little bit about the transition to the NFL. Some of the things you went through and didn't necessarily expect.
Matt Ryan:
Yeah. There's just so many things outside of football that come along with playing quarterback in the NFL and I think the football part of it, it sounds maybe crazy, but the football part of it is probably the easiest part of it. And I'm not saying it's easy. It isn't. But of all the other things that you have to adapt to, whether that's your personal financing ... I was a 23 year old that didn't have a dime in my pocket and then a couple of weeks later, my life is significantly changed. And how do you get that set up? Who do you find to help you with those things?
Matt Ryan:
I came into a really unique situation in Atlanta where they were going through a really difficult time. Michael Vick had been the quarterback and was really an icon in the city and then had his issues. And in 2007 there were four and 12 ... Started, I think, five different quarterbacks that year. And I had to come in, draft a third and then was expected to stabilize the organization. And I think one of the best parts of being naive and 23 is that you just think you can absolutely do it. You're just dumb enough that you believe you can absolutely do it.
Matt Ryan:
So that part of it, being the face of the organization, handling the questions in a press conference, being asked to lead guys that are 35/36 with four kids and I'm 23 and I'm dating a girl, that's, basically, the extent of my life, trying to be a guy that could lead those men. Those were the things that were difficult, but somehow I had really good support around me that helped me get through it.
Derek Carr:
I think, for me, coming from Fresno, coming from that situation, it's Mountain West football. It's not like I'm in the SCC or the ACC. And there's so much of the football aspect to adjust to, the speed of things and all this kind of stuff. And, for me, like Matt said, the football part was almost the easiest part. Not, again, saying that it's easy, because it's definitely not easy. But that part was where you feel the most at home, "This is what I was born to do. This is what I was called to do."
Derek Carr:
And so, for me, the football aspect was fun and all that. But then I walk into a locker room where I'm a second round pick, thank goodness, because Khalil Mack was the first round pick so all the pressure's on him now. If you don't get a sack, they're not going to be mad at me. And I walk into there and they tell me, "You won't start right away," and all this. And then I start practicing and they're, "Oh, man, this guy might actually be our starter." And it was a week before our first game, they're, "Hey, you're the starter." And so my mindset went from, "I'm just trying to get better. I'm just trying to be a good teammate and a good leader in the locker room," to "No, they're all looking at me now."
Derek Carr:
And I had a week to get ready for Rex Ryan and the New York Jets-
Matt Ryan:
Perfect.
Derek Carr:
... and he laughs because he knows what that means. And, literally, you're only allowed 11 guys on defense. And when you play Rex, you think they have 14.
Matt Ryan:
No, no. No, no.
Derek Carr:
How did he blitz that and cover that? But I remember that. But I'm looking at Charles Woodson and he's looking at me to be the leader of the locker room. Charles Woodson, a walking Hall of Famer. He's just adding to his career, adding stats and all these things.
Derek Carr:
And then I look at Justin Tuck, his Super Bowl champion, and he's looking at me to give the speech before the game and they're looking at me. And, to me, it was a real wake up call that, "This game is not going to wait for me to be ready. You need to prepare yourself." And I had obviously good advice leading up to that point.
Derek Carr:
But you need to prepare yourself to be ready for when that moment calls you, whether you're the third pick or whether you're not even drafted. But when your moment comes, you have to be ready to step into that role and lead a group of men that have more accolades than you, have more money than you, have bigger personalities than you, all of those things. And they have to be able to look at you every ... And it's not just that one time. They have to look at you every single day and say, "That's our leader."
Derek Carr:
And, for me, the biggest compliment I could ever get when I'm done playing, is that all the teammates I played with would be, "That was our guy." And so, for me, just being ready for those moments, I think that's the most challenging part, especially as I get older. And as you can imagine, the kids that come in are wired a little bit different than when I first got into the NFL.
Matt Ryan:
For sure.
Derek Carr:
And the way I talked to James Jones back in the day is a little bit different than I talk to some of these rookies. But you learn to adapt, and I think it's a challenge, but it's also fun for me to-
Matt Ryan:
Sure.
Derek Carr:
... learn how to, "Okay, this is going to be a different task." I'm not talking to Charles Woodson, "Hey, Charles, I need you to do ...", he's going to do it already. I'm talking to these 22/23 year old guys that ... I've got four kids. I'm trying to feed my family based on you doing your job and how do I get the most out of that kid? And I think that's been the most challenging, but most fun part for me.
Ben Jackson:
And that's where I was going to go next. If you flip it around, you guys are both in your 30s and now you're leading kids that are coming out of college. For the first time, as Matt, you described, have some money in their pocket, probably bought their first cool new car, all that type of stuff.
Ben Jackson:
What are the leadership traits? And from all the learnings that you guys had coming and making the transition yourself, how do you apply that to helping the younger players really get up to speed and understand what the NFL's all about?
Matt Ryan:
I think you're constantly evolving. To me, leadership is about serving the people that you're working with, and in the NFL, it stands for "Not For Long. You don't have your job for long. And so the amount of turnover in the locker room is incredible. And that's not year to year, it's week to week.
Matt Ryan:
And so I have principles and beliefs and a structure that I believe in, but how you get that across might be very different between a guy who's 23 or a guy who's 35, a guy who plays offensive line, a guy who plays wide receiver, a guy who you're never on the field with, that's on the defensive side of the ball that you might need to tell that he needs to give better effort or be more disciplined with some of the decisions he's making.
Matt Ryan:
I think you're constantly trying to figure out what people need from you and how you can get to know your guys as best you can to figure out a way to get the best out of them. I think the only way to do that, though, is you've got to invest in them. It takes time. You have to make an investment in your teammates, getting to know them personally so that when it's time to either call them out or be the dad, the tough love that you have to show them, they know it comes from a good place. And so I've always made a really good effort to try and get to know the guys as best I can, know what gets them going and then try and figure out what they need from me in order to be at their best.
Matt Ryan:
But it's so much different than when I was first coming into the league. I think the world is just very different than it was in 2008. So you've had to adjust your style. I think it's been good. And I view it much like Derek says, as a new challenge. I think there's nothing more rewarding than seeing young players who come in on practice squad and work their butts off for a year and a half. And then, like Derek said, at some point your opportunity comes and you've invested this much time, particularly a wide receiver, and you've invested all of this time with him. And then he gets his one chance and he's really got one week because somebody's got a hamstring or an ankle or something like that.
Matt Ryan:
And you see them go out there and the lights are not too bright and they're prepared and they're ready to go. And they have three catches for 40 yards, which seems like nothing, but that is the entire world to them. And it just might mean that their check is no longer a practice squad check, but an active roster check, which is four X, what they were making. That can change in three hours on a Sunday afternoon, but it's changed because they put in that year and a half of work and you found out how to get the best out of them.
Matt Ryan:
And that part to me is so cool that I didn't even think of when I was 20. It was a very selfish thing when you're 23 trying to figure out how you can do it. But as you get older, you realize it's all about the other guys around you and you're supporting cast and you invest heavily in that.
Derek Carr:
Oh, that's good. I think, when I was younger, I'm just trying to survive.
Matt Ryan:
Correct.
Derek Carr:
You're just trying to make it, you're trying to be a good teammate, you're trying to do all the things right and you're not really looking at anybody else. And I think what you said is so perfect because to hear you doing it over in Atlanta and I'm doing it ... Was California, now it's Vegas, but it's got to be relational.
Derek Carr:
What makes this receiver tick is completely different than what makes this guy tick. And if I talk to this guy in a certain way, he's going to go in the tank, but I can talk to this guy that way. And the ultimate goal is to get the most out of each one of your players. And so, as a leader, I have to be relational. I'm constantly texting, "Hey, let's go play golf. Hey, you like video games? All right, well, let's play Fortnite." I'm 30 playing Fortnite just to make a relationship. Honestly, to make jokes so that when it comes to that moment, they know that what I'm saying to them is out of love. Whether it's to encourage them or it to discipline and to correct and say, "Look, buddy, this is how we do things and you're not doing it."
Derek Carr:
And so when I say that to them, they don't go in the tank. Whereas when a coach just randomly tells them, they go in the tank. Taking all of that and understanding that where they're coming from, you have to go there a little bit. You have to understand, "I expect this," but you've got to go there with them to get them to where you need him to be.
Derek Carr:
And so, like Matt said, it's a fun challenge, it really is, to see that guy ... I had a guy named Seth Roberts who his very first throwing session, he was an undrafted rookie, my rookie year. We throw, he dropped every pass. He tried to run a dagger and fell. He just couldn't do it. But he worked his tail off and I was, "Come here, dude." After practice, I'd throw with him. I was the starting quarterback throwing to this practice squad guy because you know it when you see it. You see something in him and you're, "This guy's going to play for us."
Derek Carr:
This guy ended up the next year earning the starting slot position. He ended up catching eight game winning touchdowns from me. And when you see those moments, I just run over there and I just hug him. And I was, "I told you." And all the work that they put in, those are the fulfilling moments when you can take these young guys and you saw the relationship grow from nothing into something and they make a career out of it. That's when it's really cool.
Ben Jackson:
A lot of us in the room here, as managers of big companies, are struggling with something around COVID, return to office and how do you really maintain the culture of an organization? And one thing I'd be curious from you guys, because the NFL was out there first. I mean, you guys went out and played in front of empty stadiums, you had to deal with COVID issues happening on the field where you'd have a good number of your starters out of the game, you'd have to change and adapt real time, curious on what leadership skills and lessons you learned from that and how important it was actually to be together to actually build and develop these young players and to have the team operate as a single unit?
Matt Ryan:
I mean, like everybody else, it was extremely difficult. There was so much unknown. The pandemic started, we were in our off season, and at the beginning it was, "Okay, we might miss a week or two of the off season program," which starts for us in April, because, I guess, this was maybe March. You're, "Maybe this is a couple of weeks, two/three weeks we're going to shut down. That sounds about right." And then, boom, it just wiped out that off season.
Matt Ryan:
And then there was touch and go of whether we were going to start training camp. And at the same time you're trying to work out and stay ready, but you can't really be around other people at this time too. So it was a strange time to try and get ready professionally. So that part was really strange.
Matt Ryan:
I think, flexibility, patience, those were the things you had to hone in on during that time, because we tested every morning from July 15th, whatever it was when that started, until whenever your season ended. And I mean that's Christmas morning at 5:00 a.m. when you're on your off day, you're in there testing. And then you're driving home and being Santa Claus real quick to get everything ready to go for the kids.
Matt Ryan:
But every morning at about 5:30 or 5:45 you didn't know who was going to be in the building that day. You didn't know if it was not going to be you in the building that day. You just didn't know who it was going to be. And it was the same for Sunday mornings.
Matt Ryan:
I think the thing it hammered home in a way was that everybody had to be prepared. Everybody on that roster had to be exceptionally prepared every week. There was no, "The third QB is not going to be playing this week because he didn't practice all week." You had no idea Saturday, Sunday mornings. You didn't know who was going to be available.
Matt Ryan:
And so I think it was a really cool tool to be able to use as a leader to say, "Hey, all of this ambiguity, we've got to heighten everybody's awareness and preparation during the week because there's lots of variables that could come up between now and Sunday that we don't know who's going to be out there." So I think in that one way I used it as a tool to try and get guys that, typically, might be spaced out or whatever, to really lock in.
Matt Ryan:
But it was a strange time playing in those stadiums with nobody in it. I mean, our first game of the year was against Seattle and it was in Atlanta and there was not a person in the stadium and we went out for the coin toss and they flipped it and then they said, "Go," and it was as quiet as this ballroom right here. You're, "This feels ... I haven't played in an environment like this since fourth grade." And you could hear guys yelling. The coaches, usually you can't hear any that stuff, and it's amazing to hear what they actually say to you during games, "Oh, you really are. You're a jerk. I didn't realize you were this big of a jerk."
Matt Ryan:
So that part was all funny. But I think that trying to find the positives in it being very flexible, being very patient, I think it was the only thing I could do at that time.
Derek Carr:
It's funny, as he said, it was completely silent. We played a team. I won't say who because they gave their calls away. So I remember breaking the huddle and the middle linebacker was panicking because they didn't get the call, and he just goes, "Quarters." So I checked to a double post and hit this big 60 yard bomb on him. There's no crowd so I could hear what he's saying. I know the coverage. So I checked to a play to throw a touchdown. It was like, "This is the best thing ever." I was, "Beautiful."
Derek Carr:
We should keep fans out of the stadiums all the time. This is really good, but it was this ... At a home game, I would throw ... As you know, half the balls you throw, you don't really see them, you're getting hit or the offensive line, at least from my case, I'm not six, five, they're in the way. And you throw a ball and you can, basically, know if you're at home if everyone's cheering, it went well. If everyone's booing you, it did not go so well. And you would throw a touchdown and you wouldn't even know it.
Matt Ryan:
Yeah. It was strange.
Derek Carr:
It's super strange. And so what I started doing is I'd look to our sideline. I'd be laying on my back and they'd all celebrate and I'd be, "Okay, thank goodness." And you'd get up and you'd go down there. But I think that part of it, I think, to say the least, it was weird for everybody, whether you're in the business world, whether you're in the football world, it was just strange.
Derek Carr:
Now that we're slowly coming out of it and things are starting to open up and things like that, I think patience is key. Some people don't think the same way that you do and having an understanding for that is hard, especially in a leadership role, "Why don't you see it this way?" That can be challenging and you have to make those decisions just like we do for our teams, you have to make those decisions "Window. Okay, It's time to nudge you a little bit," or give that guy a little bit more patience, and you'll have to discern that.
Derek Carr:
But, for me, it was a great, like he said, opportunity to challenge people to be, "You're the sixth receiver. You're not on the active roster, but you have to be ready to play this week." I remember we were getting ready to play Tampa Bay and our whole offensive line was contact tracing and they didn't practice all week. We didn't get our offensive line active for the game until Sunday morning. So I'm going in thinking, "I've got a whole practice squad offense line against Ndamukong Suh and he knows that D-line a lot better than I do."
Matt Ryan:
Oh no.
Derek Carr:
And you're, "Oh, my goodness." And it gave guys an opportunity. Really what it did for our team is guys felt, "We're all in this together."
Derek Carr:
Sometimes when you're on the practice squad or you're not the star, you may feel on the outside a little bit. And it really enhanced the whole team aspect. We're big in Vegas about, "There's no star of this team. The star of this team is the team." And if our team is elevated, we'll all elevate. And so seeing our leaders do that in their own position groups and things like that and bring guys long that had no ... We had situations where guys were on practice squad and then the day of, "Hey, you have to play. Our right tackler's out. You've got to go start." And they go in there and what a great moment it is for them to play well. And you wrap your arm around them and tell them how great of a job they did all week and those things.
Derek Carr:
So it was challenging but, at the same time, it was very rewarding when things like that would happen.
Ben Jackson:
So in the middle of the game ... I'm just curious how much you can share here. You're in the middle of a game, receiver comes in, you get over the headset, option of two plays.
Derek Carr:
Okay.
Ben Jackson:
You think they're both awful and going to end up in a terrible result. What do you do? What flexibility you have? Do you call time out? Do you have your own audible and just decide to, "Screw it. I'm not going to listen to it?" Or do you run one of the two and then say, "I told you so," afterwards.
Derek Carr:
Better when you're an old guy to make decisions.
Matt Ryan:
Yeah, I was going to say, "Blame the headset." That's the number one thing. We got a headset that comes in right behind him, "I don't know, man. It didn't come. I didn't get the call. It wasn't clear."
Derek Carr:
Absolutely.
Matt Ryan:
It's hard to do, though, to be honest with you. It's difficult because in football we have a play clock. And so there's the actual game clock, which is 15 minutes for the quarter, but there's a 40 second play clock in between plays. And so that thing starts running as soon as the previous play finishes up. And you're not only getting a play call into your helmet. You're getting personnel grouping.
Matt Ryan:
So the first thing that comes into the helmet right after that play's done is they'll be, "All right, Matt, we're an 11 personnel here." And 11 personnel means we've got one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers. Now, it'd be nice if they just stayed at 11 personnel, but it's, "Hey, we're an 11 who?" That was our big thing when Julio was with us. It would change his spot.
Matt Ryan:
Well, then it changes because Julio just went off the field with anything like that. Meanwhile, that 40 second clock is just running down, running down, running down. Then our play calls are ... I mean, John's probably the worst of all time, but your play calls are long.
Derek Carr:
Yeah, paragraphs.
Matt Ryan:
He'd come in and it'd be ... "All right, here we go. Gun trips right, three jet, Y attack, can, rub," whatever that may be. Something like that. And that's not too bad of one.
Matt Ryan:
So all of that stuff is coming in while you've got maybe a player asking you something, you're watching the clock go down from 40. Then it's 25, then it's 20. And at 15 seconds, the play call cuts off. So they might be halfway through a play and the system just cuts. And it's your responsibility as the quarterback to have known during the week, "We game planned this and I know, in this situation, down in distance personnel grouping, you only gave me half the play. I need to know what the rest of that play is and finish it." And then get up to the line, make sure everybody's set, send the motion and snap the ball before that goes.
Matt Ryan:
So very rarely do you have the opportunity to be, "You know what? I don't love that call on 32." You're, "Shit, I got to get this out of my mouth and make sure they're set."
Matt Ryan:
And I got caught on Monday night football one time.
Derek Carr:
That's hilarious.
Matt Ryan:
It was that exact situation. Just a complete dumpster fire in the huddle. And personnel grouping gets screwed up, play call gets halfway through, and I'm running up to the line of scrimmage and we got a motion on and Julio's taken four minutes to get into his stance. And I've got to motion Mohamed Sanu down right below him. It's a Monday night game so they've got extra microphones, and I get caught clear as day yelling, "Get effing set." I mean, it's hilarious. It's as clear as day.
Matt Ryan:
And so the funny part of the story is I finish up the game and after every game I call my dad first and then my mom hops on right after. We won the game so it was all good, whatever. And I get on and my dad's, "Hey, good job. Are you feeling okay?" whatever. The first thing my mom says is, "I taught you better than that."
Derek Carr:
That's good.
Matt Ryan:
She said, "I taught you better than that to be talking to people like that."
Derek Carr:
That is hilarious.
Matt Ryan:
And I was, "All right, mom. Yeah, yeah. You've obviously never been in a locker room. Never been in that locker room." But to answer your question, there's just a lot of things that are going on and very rarely are you in a space where you have enough time to be able to do some of that. Most of the play calls we get have multiple options anyhow, and so that's more of what you would be doing at the line of scrimmage.
Derek Carr:
Yeah. I would say that you would hope that you went through the game plan already to where that doesn't happen.
Derek Carr:
Now, when you play for Jon Gruden, he may pull something from three weeks ago because he just sees it and feels it and you've got to remember that. And the guys don't know that. They don't remember that, but you would hope that you've communicated enough beforehand. But with Gruden you'd be blown away, I mean, just by some of the stuff. It was these, "Dice right, Z left tap. Give me 77Z, 82 choice. Or give me 77. You pick a play." I'm, "What? You pick a play? You just gave me four of them." You know what I mean? And he's, "Oh, don't forget if they blitz," and then he cuts out. I was, "Well, what do you want me to do if they blitz now?"
Derek Carr:
And so you have different personalities, so to speak. So you, hopefully, get in front of it and communicate it. But I think at the point that we are in our career, if it ever came to it, I think that we could get us to a safe play that coaches feel good about. And so that's why I think we've been around that they trust us enough to do the right thing in that moment.
Matt Ryan:
We joke in our quarterback room all the time that if something cuts out and you call a dumb play, you're out of the room.
Derek Carr:
Yeah. You've got to pass it. You've got to throw it back.
Derek Carr:
Indeed.
Matt Ryan:
So anytime something cuts out, we'll have a bread and butter pass play. A concept or something you feel great about, go right into a formation, call one of your favorite plays and just let it rip.
Derek Carr:
Yeah. You can't hand the ball off.
Matt Ryan:
Nah, no way.
Derek Carr:
You got to get the passing yards.
Matt Ryan:
No way.
Derek Carr:
You've got to get the stats.
Ben Jackson:
With the draft coming up, as I mentioned earlier, Falcons have the eighth pick. You guys have the 22nd on the Raiders. How involved are you guys in the room around selecting and thinking about the different players, the types of positions that you think you should be targeting? Give us some insight into what it's like for the quarterback in that situation?
Matt Ryan:
Well, I think every organization is different. Every coaching staff I've been a part of is different and this is the second GM I've played for so that part is different.
Matt Ryan:
When it comes to the draft, I don't think players are as heavily involved as you may think. I think that you have a scouting department in front office that spends all year looking at these players. And we might watch our Alma Mater play for three hours on a Saturday. That's about the extent of what we're doing.
Matt Ryan:
Where I have found later in my career, I get asked for my opinion more as in free agency where it's more of an apples to apples comparison. Guys I may have played against, guys that you watch during the year as you're preparing for other opponents, you're seeing other players around the league.
Matt Ryan:
More of what I'm asked for in our organization is my input when it comes to free agency and what my thoughts are on guys that we have, but guys across the league that might come available.
Derek Carr:
Yeah. Same. It's different with every coach. God bless you for only having two GMs. I think I've had about nine with the Raiders.
Derek Carr:
But I think everybody's different the way they want to run the business. But no matter who it is, it's usually mostly free agency, they want your opinion. With Gruden, he would, when we were picking receivers, he ... I was watching cut ups on these receivers and he's, "Tell me what you think?" And I was breaking them down and all this stuff so I had that experience. Whereas before, I had an experience where it's, "We're picking a receiver." I was, "Well, which one?" They're, "Well, we're not going to tell you yet. We'll see." I'm, "All right, sweet." So you get both of those.
Derek Carr:
But when it comes to free agency, and probably more so every year no matter who the GM or the coaches are, they want your opinion on that because you're the one playing against them. You're the one that ... You know him, you probably know somebody that knows that guy. What's he really like? The question is usually how is this guy a free agent?
Matt Ryan:
Correct.
Derek Carr:
Why is he a free agent? Can you find out is it his personality? Is it his learning? Is it his whatever? Are his legs just gone? What is it? And so players can usually find out that information a little bit better. No GM is going to say, "Oh yeah, yeah, our guy, he can't run." They want you to take him. So all of those things come up, but usually in free agency, they come and they're asking a lot of questions. So it's a busy time for us the next couple days.
Ben Jackson:
Yeah. You guys both had unique experience with Hard Knocks. What was it like having a reality TV show, being filmed and going on around training camp?
Matt Ryan:
Go ahead. You were more recent.
Derek Carr:
Yeah, with Gru[den]. That was fun. There was a lot of editing going on. He's a TV guy. He came from ESPN so he loved the cameras, he loved giving his speeches, he loved doing that. But what I tell people all the time is the way he was talking, that's how he is all the time. You go to dinner with him, he's motivating you. He's telling my wife about our left tackle, "He needs to set." I'm, "Heather has no clue what that means."
Derek Carr:
But it was fun. And I'll say this too, everyone's always "Oh, I don't like Hard Knocks." And, to me, I don't want people hearing my communication. I don't want them to hear my snap count. I don't want them to hear my audibles, my hand signals. And so I just communicated with him. I was, "There's certain things that I'm not going to want you to show. There's certain things ..." Because I watch it. If I'm playing a team, I'll watch their Hard Knocks to just find any hand signal and, basically, figure out the coverage based on their ... I'm always writing stuff down. I'm weird like that.
Derek Carr:
But so there were times where they'd put the camera on me and I'd just be, "No." And they'd give me thumbs up and go the other way. So they were good for me. Hopefully, they were for you. But, yeah.
Matt Ryan:
Yeah. To be honest with you, I didn't know what to expect going into it. And the crew is awesome from NFL Films. I mean, these are the guys that we see. We don't see the production part of it, but the actual crew was really cool.
Matt Ryan:
It was interesting. So in our quarterback room they put the equivalent of a security camera in there. And so I'll never forget sitting in this room and our desk faced this way and the screen's here and the security camera's up in the top left corner. And so the guys watching it are sitting in New Jersey. And so I don't know what their setup looked like, but we were told they were in New Jersey. And you would be sitting there watching film or something like that and you're with your other quarterbacks or you're with your coach and who knows what you've just said?
Matt Ryan:
But multiple times during that I would be, "Oh, God, did you guys hear that?" And up and down was, "Yes," and side to side was, "No." And so you would get the "Yes," and you'd be, "Ah, you can't use that. I'm sorry. You really can't use that part of it." But that's one we did a long time ago, but that's one of the things I remember was the up, up, down, down or whatever. And that was the way you communicated with them.
Matt Ryan:
But it was a cool experience. You still see the guys from NFL Films all the time on game day. Before the game they're shooting, so you get to know them quite a bit because they're there so much. But I enjoyed the experience.
Derek Carr:
Yeah. The up and down and side, that still works. It still ... I was doing it. I was, "Don't put that. Don't put that there. Give me the nod. You're good."
Ben Jackson:
Well thank you guys.
Derek Carr:
Thank you.
Ben Jackson:
This was awesome. A great experience to this.
Derek Carr:
Thank you.
Matt Ryan:
Thank you.
Ben Jackson:
It's amazing how much of the leadership experience you guys have is applicable to what everybody in this room does every single day. So we appreciate it.
Derek Carr:
No, thank you.
Matt Ryan:
Thank you.
Josh King:
That's our conversation for this week. Our guests, you heard them, were superstar NFL quarterbacks, Matt Ryan and Derek Carr interviewed live on stage at the ICE Experience 2022 Executive Summit in Las Vegas, interviewed by ICE President, Ben Jackson.
Josh King:
If you like what you heard, please rate us on iTunes so other folks know where to find us. If you've got a comment or question you'd like one of our experts to tackle on a future show or someone you think we should have on the show, email us at ICE House at theice.com or tweet at us at #icehousepodcast.
Josh King:
Our show is produced by Stephan Capriles and Pete Asch with production assistance from Ken Abel and Ian Wolf.
Josh King:
I'm Josh King, your host, signing off from the library of the New York Stock Exchange. Thanks for listening. Talk to you next week.
Speaker 1:
The information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE, nor it's affiliates, make any representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information and do not sponsor, approve or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or a recommendation of any security or trading practice.
Speaker 1:
Some portions of the preceding conversation may have been omitted for the purpose of length or clarity.
