[FULL SHOW] Will The Iceman Cool Down?

It's time to talk that talk, and we talk it like no one else. This is the stinking truth. Now, here's your host, Mark Schlerer. Hey, welcome to the Seek Truth Podcast live from Alaska. I am Mark Schler. He is Mike Evans back in Colorado. Mike, how are you, buddy? I am doing great. I love when you're out on remote in Alaska. Look at that picture. Like you just picture Alaska in your outside your window there. How cool. Is there a bear out there? Well, there's somewhere. There's a bear. We're going on a nature explore here with the grandkids a little bit. But yeah, we were we were all over the place yesterday, all through the woods. You could see where like animals had laid down. I think a family of moose had laid down. So all this grass is all completely matted down.

And we're hiking around. The grandkids are absolutely loving it, getting to see my dad. So they're a great grandfather. So really cool, really cool stuff. Good time to be here in Alaska. It's beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. All right. I got to tell you this story. This is so funny. So you've created a bit of a firestorm with Chicago Bears fans over your Caleb Williams is not a good quarterback comment. OK, safe to say. Yeah, that works. You know what? That lines up. Yeah, that lines up. So the other day, Sunday, I'm out minding my business, grilling late afternoon, got a little pork tenderloin going. And all of a sudden I hear, hey, Evans, I look up a neighbor's walking by.

Tell Schlereth that we Bears fans aren't happy with him. So this guy's a Bears fan. And then he references another Bears fan that lives up the street. He's like, I heard about Schlereth Caleb Williams comments. I got people from all over the country. Friends from all over the country are texting me and calling me and asking me what the hell's going on in Denver with Schlereth and Caleb Williams. So congratulations, Mark. You've managed to tick off another fan base. Yeah. Chicago Bear fans not happy with me right now. And, you know, it's really it's really interesting.

Because, you know, obviously, I get a lot of people going, well, he obviously hasn't watched the games. He's just looking at the stats. And I'm like, no, no, no. I'm watching the coach's film. I'm studying, you know, I'm studying the plays. And I'm studying not only the plays, the concepts, the timing, just everything. And what people don't understand is me saying he's not yet a good quarterback because he's not. When you start looking at just when you start looking at drops, like his footwork in shotgun is atrocious. I mean, absolutely atrocious, which.

In the West Coast offense, a lot of times what offensive coordinators will tell you, I've heard this my whole life, is you throw the ball with your feet. So when your feet are not set, when your feet are not in rhythm, when your feet are not orchestrating, you can't be accurate. So I go back to a comment, I think it might have been right after the season, with Ben Johnson talking about Caleb Williams, his quarterback, said we should be completing 70% of our passes. You know, now a lot of Chicago Bear fans will reach out to me and say, well, he threw a lot of balls away. Well, that may be true, but did he throw the ball away after he missed the first read?

Like that would be my question to you guys. Or was it after he missed the second read? Or did he have a blitz come at him and instead of, you know, standing in the face of the blitz and throwing the open receiver, he just bailed out of the backside of the pocket? Like all those things are true when you study the film. And so he is one of, if not the most dynamic athlete in football, or at the quarterback position, maybe I should say. Maybe Lamar Jackson's more dynamic than him. But when it comes to playmaking ability outside the pocket, when it comes to extending the play, when it comes to doing all those things, he's phenomenal. Let me ask you a question, Mike. Just answer this for me if you would.

How many world championships, how many Super Bowls did Lamar Jackson, how many has he won? You know the answer, none, yeah. Yeah, zero. And so ultimately, my point with Caleb Williams is not that he can't be great at some point. He's not great now. My point with Caleb Williams is he's got to do the quarterbacking things better. He's got to do the boring better. He's got to create those things.

on a more standard basis, like on a play-in, play-out basis. He's got to be able to do those things before he's going to be a good quarterback. He's a dynamic athlete. He's an unbelievable playmaker. He does all those things exceptionally well. But in my opinion, and this is based on not only years of playing, but years of watching this game, to win championships, and I think that's what it's all about. It's not just to create highlights on SportsCenter, but to create championship windows and moments, you've got to be able to do the boring well. And I keep going back, Mike, to the comment I had from Byron Lefwich.

when he was the offensive coordinator of Tampa Buccaneers in the first year of Tom Brady in Tampa, when they won the world championship, he said, Hey man, if the, if the number one read me offense is the flat and it's the most boring throw you have, but that's what you're supposed to do. Tom Brady does it a hundred out of a hundred times. Those are the things that have to, those are the things that have to be done for you to be a great quarterback in the national football league. But see, here's where I got to point. Here's where I need to push back on you. You're talking about Tom Brady when he was in year 20. When you say something like Caleb Williams is not a good quarterback, it seems like it's a little bit harsh to me because it's two years. Show me the second-year quarterback who is doing all those things that you're just talking about. It's hard to find. It's unusual. It feels like, to me, you're trying to grade Caleb Williams on a standard that applies to a five- or six-year veteran quarterback.

rather than a guy who's just in his second year. It feels like it's an unrealistic bar that you are putting on a second year quarterback in saying that he's not good. He's not supposed to be good. He's a second year quarterback. Yeah, there's there's obviously there's a ton of room for improvement. And that's one of those things that, you know, you're going to have to continue to do. The issue is this is the way he has played all the way back through college. And, you know, I mean, it's not like at USC. He had what was it? Lincoln Riley as a coordinator. So it's not like Lincoln Riley is saying, hey, man, just pull the ball, scramble around and make a play.

Like there's a system there that you have to operate in. And you're 100 percent right, Mike. You're 100 percent right. I mean, although, you know, Drake May was in his second year and he was runner up in the MVP vote. And so these are things that you would like to see a young quarterback execute.

on a on a better or more standard basis yes there's tons of room for improvement yes they're like he's a dynamic playmaker yes he's all of those things but he's still when it comes to the quarterbacking part of it he's still got a lot of room for growth and he wasn't like i said footwork wise um hanging on the front side of progressions when the front side is clearly not where you're supposed to throw the ball like you will look at a front side of a progression and you're trying to throw it say you're trying to throw it versus access of cover three or access of quarters. And all of a sudden it's an access throw and we're anticipating whatever we're anticipating. We're anticipating this to be open. And all of a sudden you get a different coverage. You get a man-to-man or you get a cover two, whatever. So you need to get off of that and get to the backside. It's built in on the backside. And you see him hang, hang, hang on that stuff and he doesn't get off of it. So all those things are part and parcel of growing as a quarterback. But at this particular point in time, I'm not saying he can't be great. He may become the best quarterback in the history of the National Football League. I don't know.

From a dynamic playmaking standpoint, I think the problem that I get into with fans is they think that playmaking and being dynamic is the standard of the NFL. They think that wins championships. They go, oh my gosh, but did you see the play he made against Green Bay? Did you see this, that, and the other? And I'm telling you, I'm looking at the five or six plays that win the game that he doesn't make.

that keep drives a lot, that doesn't put our offense in harm's way. Those are the things that I'm looking at that he's not very good at. And again, Mike, to your point, that's part of growing as a quarterback. I'm not saying that he can't be great at those things at some point, but just right now he's not. But just being a playmaker and being athletic does not make you a good quarterback. It just doesn't.

All right, so let me make sure then that you're going to be consistent here. You got a lot of Bronco fans that watch this podcast. So what you're telling me then, because I put Bo Nix's numbers up against Caleb Williams numbers in year two and a lot of similarities. And Bo's completion percentage came down from his first year to his second year. So the same criteria that you apply to Caleb Williams that leads you to say Caleb Williams is, quote, not a good quarterback. Are you going to say the same thing about Bo Nix, that Bo Nix is not a good quarterback?

Bo Nix was better than Caleb at doing the boring stuff. But he, as you know, and we do a radio show in Denver, I'm very critical about his footwork and his pocket presence at times. And so there are a lot of missed throws and missed opportunities in Bo Nix's game, just like in Caleb Williams' game. So from a quarterbacking standpoint, I think Bo Nix is ahead of Caleb Williams right now. And I think that's part and parcel because that's the way he played at Oregon at the same. So he's ahead.

But is he good right now from a footwork standpoint, from a climb in the pocket standpoint? His problem, Bo Nix's problem, is he becomes frenetic in the pocket, and he gets through progression so fast that he's oftentimes ahead of his receivers. So I would look at them differently. Caleb Williams, to me, is behind. His footwork is sloppy at times, especially in shotgun, but he's a little bit behind the play, where Bo Nix is a little bit ahead of the play. And so they both have issues that they have to clean up. And you've heard me talk about Bo Nix in the pocket on multiple occasions.

and how inaccurate Bo Nix has been occasionally, or how inaccurate he is at times, especially with deep ball, because he just gets sped up. And so they both have issues within the pocket. They're both a little bit different with their issues. But yeah, they both have to improve dramatically inside the pocket for me to consider them being really good at those things, at the in-the-pocket, at the quarterbacking skills. Playmaking skills, they're both, I think they're both, there's no question Bo Nix is really good from a playmaker standpoint. Now, he's not Caleb Williams because Caleb Williams is a freak show when it comes to that. But they both have tons of room for improvement from just a pure quarterback.

On the subject of people having issues, let's talk about Brandon Ayuk. Holy smokes. Like, I mean, you have been out in front of the curve when it comes to the Brandon Ayuk. wacko factor. Okay. Here's the latest. So he's talking about, um, Jane Daniels and, and Washington and how, Hey, listen, you know, not on my watch. Okay. Not on my team. You know, you're not going to be listening to your mother and running to your mother. You know, that's not going to happen on, on my team. And I'm like, wow, wow. He's, he's really, you know, that's not the way to, you know, get into good graces of everybody in the, in the locker room. And, and then it dawned on me, then it dawned on me. He's not even with Washington. Right. Still with San Francisco.

And yet he's making these comments about Washington and the commanders and Jaden Daniels and Jaden Daniels is, is, is responding. I mean, he's, he's burning a bridge. Hasn't even walked across the bridge yet. Yeah. Yeah. Like my dad, you say this all the time. If you spend time burning bridges, if you burn every bridge you cross, you better learn to walk on water.

And, um, that's some bitch don't walk on water. I guarantee you that like, like this guy hasn't played in forever. And so the one place that was really interested in, in signing you, like, how do you sign that guy now? How would you even put that guy? Like he makes Stefan dig, like even Stefan digs is looking at that going, boy, that dude is crazy. Like, I don't want anything to do with that dude. Like that dude is out of his tree. And so, you know, from just talking about being your own worst enemy and just overthinking, um,

It's overthinking your own value. Wayne Sevier, my special teams coach, when I first got into the league with the Washington Redskins, used to say, don't overestimate your own speed. Don't underestimate the speed of your opponent. And that's kind of just a life lesson. You want to talk about overestimating your own value to the league?

come on dude like seriously like what have you done and I've talked about this a bunch in San Francisco when you start looking at his year where he was exceptional you know where he put a big number come on dude you had you had Debo Samuel was was a target ahead of you George Kittle was a target ahead of you and and then you had you know Christian McCaffrey out of the back you had three other weapons that defenses were like man we can't let this guy beat us we can't let this guy beat us before you got to Brandon Ayuk so you know if you're if you're if you're figuring out who you're gonna double team like I was I was literally this is pathetic but I was literally watching film of the Rams offense versus the Seahawks in the NFC championship game on my flight from Denver to Alaska. And you need a hobby. Yeah. And so anyhow, I was watching. I was watching a bunch of their stuff, a bunch of the Rams three by one formations when they got into the red zone. And Seattle did a phenomenal job of choosing who they were going to double team.

And who they were going to leave on the outside and play the leverage on the outside. So the two outside receivers in one play, they got bumped inside leverage, pushed to the sideline. So in effect, they're using those corners in the sideline as a double team on the two outside guys. And then they bracketed all the inside receivers and got everybody double teamed. And they got into the red zone several times and ended up not winning that game because they knew, the CLC Hawks said, we're not letting this guy and we're not letting this guy and we're not letting this guy out of the backfield beat us. And we're going to man up these outside receivers and we're going to use the sideline to our advantage. And there was several throwaways in that scenario where the Rams did not score. And that's how the Seahawks ended up winning the NFC Championship. And so going back to the IUK story, what do you think was happening when teams were playing San Francisco?

The one dude that they were going to leave singled up is Ayuk. Because McCaffrey will kill you inside. Kidd will kill you inside. The Tebow Samuel will destroy you with all the things he did inside between the numbers. And so they're like, hey, man, we're going to take our chances here. And so somebody, like you always say, hey, man, somebody's got to compile numbers, right? And if that's the guy that's getting the majority of the one-on-ones with your third or fourth corner, or your second corner for that matter, of course you're going to compile some numbers.

So, again, I think he's overestimating his own value to the National Football League. And, boy, this has just been a case study on how to ruin your career. Yeah. Well, listen, we got a lot more to tackle here as we move along throughout the week. We got another big podcast coming up a little bit later on in the week. You got a nature walk to go on with the grandkids right now. So we'll let you do that. But we will look forward to visiting with you again from Alaska a little bit later on in the week. Yep. I'm going to try to look for a black bear to wrestle. Black bear. Come on. Anybody can wrestle a black bear. I want you to wrestle a brown bear.

Brown bear is a little bit out of my weight class right now. Yeah, that's right. A little bit out of my weight class, but a black bear I can take. There's no question. Okay. I mean, you guys just got to dodge and move on the claws. Yeah. Be careful with the claws. Yeah. Yeah. Anyhow. All right, man. For everybody involved in the Seek Truth Podcast, live from Alaska, we appreciate you guys so much. And we'll be back with you later on in the week. For Mike, I am Mark. Thank you so much.