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Go to hardhidewhiskies.com. That's hardhidewhiskies.com. All right, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Saints Happy Out Podcast. As always, we are brought to you by hardhide, ponchatoula, strawberry whiskey, and Chilton County peach whiskey. All right. Well, the Saints, Thomas, they kick the Jaguars' ass in practice. I was supposed to have Juge here with me, but he got tied up with work stuff. So I'm going to do it solo because I'm so jacked about Saints practice. Listen, they started out first play for the Jaguars. Trevor Lawrence got intercepted. Justin Blackman.
Shuck hit his first four passes. They scored three red zone touchdowns. Chase Young said, after practice, I had six sacks. Self-reporting six sacks. It was incredible. They had some bad news. We'll get to that in a little bit. But I want to play people. Shuck, he was excited after this Jags practice. I thought it was a great day. I think every single period, I feel like we kind of had the edge a little bit. The run game was working really well. I feel like we had some good chunks in the past game. And there were some good, some bad. They're a really good team, too. And I think that was our goal, was let's just go out there and focus on us. And I feel like we did that. I feel like we got a lot better. And it was fun going against someone else for once. Here's the thing.
that I think why this practice was so important for the Saints. One, they kind of get their ass kicked by the Saints defense every day. Like the Saints defense has been winning like almost every day consistently. And the fear was maybe the Saints offense is bad, right? And it's like, oh, the offense is bad and the defense is just beating them and it's going to be bad. They went to the Jaguars and the defense continued to kick ass. Chase Young had a bunch of sacks. Granderson had a sack. Shepard, they had picks. They were looking good. Kool-Aid making plays. They dominated at the end of one of the red zone periods. And as soon as the Saints didn't have to go against the Saints defense,
They look amazing, and that's a positive thing. And listen, you, of course, are the Saints. We have this incredible practice, and jacked. We're hyped. A little bit of bad news. Jordan Tyson got hurt. He got pushed over at the end of a play, and they said it was a lower leg or a hamstring. Kellen Moore wasn't that specific.
And listen, you never know, right? The Saints, it could be anywhere from he misses like a day of practice, two days of practice too. He's dead. Like we don't, you know, you never know what the Saints, but the way it sounded on the Saints radio team, Todd Graffini and Gus Kattengill were doing the play-by-play practice. The way it sounded was, it was like after the play, Jordan Tyson got pushed over really hard and he landed kind of awkwardly and he was slow to get up. So that to me tells me that it's like, it's probably not like.
They're saying leg injury. It's probably not as bad a hamstring injury as we fear. Like I would have been like if I told you, yeah, he was running around and he pulled up lame and we had like eight videos of him doing that would be, of course, concerned. OK, but this I'm not really concerned. And I just want to be excited. You know, we were starting to panic a little about the Saints a little bit because the red zone offense was kind of struggling and having false starts and all kinds of penalties. And it was worrisome. But Tyler Shuck started 11 of 14 and the Saints just absolutely.
burned Jacksonville to the ground in the opening period. Olave caught a touchdown over Travis Hunter. Bryce Lance caught a touchdown over Travis Hunter. And listen, the Jaguars were a playoff team last year. They were a 12-win team, I want to say. And, you know, that's excellent work for the Saints. Because listen, if I came on here, Thomas, and I was like, the Saints got wrecked by the Jaguars, it'd be panic stations. So...
If I'm going to panic if they have a bad practice in a joint practice session, I'm also going to be ridiculously optimistic when they play great. And by the way, Thomas, I want to tell the people we're going to do a Discord chat for the patrons. So if you listen to the free version of this, become a patron. And you can do that by using discount code OG70 for 75% off your first month. Click the link if you listen to the free version. You get access to our Discord. We're going to have the Discord tonight. I guarantee you that thing is going to be popping. We're going to have like 10, 15, 20 people in there. It's going to be chaos. People are going to be pumped.
Become a patron. You get access to that. So here's another thing that was really good. Three separate times, Todd Graffinini and Gus Kattengill and other people doing color. Three separate times, I counted. They mentioned, yeah, David Edwards just popped the dude and blocked it. Like, and that to me, great sign because David Edwards is kind of the number one free agency. We need the interior to be better. It was Travis H. And he had some burst. And from the sound of it, to me, just listening to it.
It sounded to me like the Saints really had an edge. Like they were really happy not to be hitting each other. And they kind of took this like a regular preseason game. Because in actuality, this was the preseason game. Because the starters ain't playing a day on Saturday. You're going to get Rattler. You're going to get all this. So that's a good sign. And the interesting thing with Shuck is, and I think we forgot this, you know, because.
You remember at the combine when they have the video, you've seen it a billion times of Tyler Shuck. He's throwing the weird passes. He's trying with the weird arm angle and it looks hilarious. And everybody made fun of him when the Saints drafted him. And then he got good and it's kind of gone away. But I think that at the combine is really instructive of Tyler Shuck seems to me to look at practice of, I don't want to be perfect in practice. I don't need to be perfect in practice. I'm going to try shit. We're going to like, you know, I'm going to try to throw it deep. I'm going to try to fit it in here because it's practice. And if something bad happens.
It doesn't matter, right? I mean, like, you know, everybody's out at practice charting the plays and shit, but we don't know. Like, let's be real. We don't understand when we're just watching a random Saints practice. We don't really know what's going on. We can know in the joint practices because they're like, hey, they're running gold. They're running red zone. They're running this. We know it. So I just think Tyler Shock is one of those guys. It's not that he doesn't practice well. It's just that.
certain guys view practice differently. Some guys look at practice like, I got to be perfect in practice because that means if I'm perfect in practice, I'll be perfect in the game. And other people are like, I'm going to try shit in practice and then we'll see how it goes. But in the game, we'll tighten it up and we'll be better. And I think Chuck is the latter. Another positive thing, kicker, the Irish kicker, he's perfect from what I saw in practice. So the kicking battle, not that it's over, not that the concerns are behind us, not that it's in the rear view, but we can breathe. And listen, that's one thing you watch for.
in the game. Like these kickers, today was huge. These games are huge too. So we'll see there. The other interesting thing from practice was Zach Wilson. 10 days ago, you know, beginning of practice, he was looking awful. I heard from some sources that he was looking really terrible. It wasn't coming around. But the last two, three practices, he's really come around. He looked good today. Bub memes caught a touchdown. Our Bub meme dreams will never die. Although he's got an uphill battle to make this roster. I mean, these receivers for the Saints.
All three of the drafted guys, they're making the team, right? So Bob Memes, Trey Palmer, they're probably getting cut. And I think they're going to slide. If Kevin Austin can be on a roster, Bob Memes can be on a roster somewhere. But that's a good, like Dave said in the UDFA Sundrap, it's a good thing that the UDFAs don't have a clear path to the roster. It's a good thing that you're going to cut a former fifth-round pick. It's a good thing you're going to cut a guy you claimed last year with one of your main post-training camp claims, Trey Palmer. It's a good thing if those guys can't make your roster. And listen,
The offense, we can still, I think you can still be, if you want, you know, not everybody's like me and has toxic positivity, Thomas, right? And I get that. Like, not everybody wants to be as recklessly optimistic as me. And I get that about the offense. But we're starting to see with this defense. It's been really good when it's just the Saints. And it was really good today. And I'm just here to tell you, last year, it was kind of the whole year. It was Chris Olave. Once Shuck got in the game, it was the Chris Olave get paid tour.
I'm just telling you, Chase Young looks like a man that has found himself, has matured a little bit, he's gotten healthy, and he is on the pay me my $40 million a year. And let me tell you, if he gets... say 12 to 14 sacks. That's a season where he's gone eight, nine sacks. Last year he had double digits. You go back to back double digits. He'll be going into the last year of his deal next year. And he's only making like 17 million a year, 18 million a year. He's going to get paid. And again, Saints don't really have anybody to pay. So if they want to pay, if they want to pay Chase Young and he makes it where they have to pay him, that's a good thing. And also Chase Young is kind of, he's kind of, you know, it's surprising a little bit. He's kind of the leader. I mean, I know Cam was hurt today. He's got the hamstring issue, so he wasn't there, but Chase Young, Granderson.
Broughton flashed again against Jacksonville. He's been coming on. This defense, I think, is going to be not, it's not going to be elite because I just, listen, I don't think, to be an elite defense in 2026, you got to have, you got to have an incredible player at each level of your defense, right? And the Saints have Chase Young, who I think is really good. They have Caden Ellis, who's interesting. He's a good blitzing linebacker. In the secondary, we like Kool-Aid. We like Quincy Riley. We like Sanker.
Blackman and Reed, but they don't have other elite dudes. So I don't think this defense, it's not going to burst onto the scene and be like the Texans or the Vikings or these teams that we think of as having elite defenses. But let me tell you, if they build on what they did last year and you have a defense that is still top 12 by advanced metrics and you have, say, the 11th best defense and this offense takes a giant leap from the bottom five to conservative, let's say 14th, and you have the 11th best defense and the 14th best offense, you're winning the ghetto that is the NFC South, people. I'm just telling you. You are. So, Thomas, you're probably not... How much pain medication does they give you in Poland? Do you have to save it for the nighttime to try to sleep, or can you just be pill-popping all day long? Pill-popping all day long, man. That's what I like to hear. See, Thomas is high on Polish pain meds. I'm high on Saints practice report. And I tell, like...
I want to be excited. I'm looking for a reason to get excited. And people were kind of talking. Listen, the Jaguars are viewed as a contender. Maybe not serious contender because the AFC is loaded. But last year, they got a new defensive coordinator. Their defense was very good, very interesting. And Liam Cohen is viewed after two years as an elite offensive coordinator. And for the Saints to do what they did today in practice, I think it's a good sign. And also, to me...
It's very exciting that Tyler Shuck and this offense just sort of shook off the cobwebs and were like, it's game time today. It's game time. Now we're going to ramp it up and we're going to deliver. when it matters the most. Because today mattered more than anything previously, right? So it's a good sign. I'm excited, Thomas. I'm excited about it. The Saints beat the Jaguars' ass in practice today. We got everything we wanted except about the Jordan Tyson injury, which the Saints will, of course, let us know eventually. Hopefully we don't get the doom.
Ian Rappaport tweet or whatever, and I have to panic tweet Andrew. Hopefully we don't get that. Hopefully what we get is nothing. We get the Nick Underhill, nothing serious. Jordan Tyson, Saints expect him back later this week. He will be good to go when they do their next joint practice, which I think is, I think they go, I think it's Dallas next week, right? You know, it's the Rams. So they get the joint practice against the Rams and the Cowboys. And listen, the Rams will be weird because
I don't know if they're going to play Matthew Stafford in these joint practices, right? So they could be playing the... Who's that? They drafted that rookie quarterback. So we don't know. We don't know what we'll see. But you get the Cowboys. Cowboys offense is elite, dog. And the Rams offense is elite. So you're going to get a really good measuring stick for the Saints. And to me, the main red flag, and I'll end with this, the main red flag to me in preseason.
Back before teams stopped playing everybody in the preseason, the main red flag was if you played in the preseason games and it was your starters versus their starters and they jammed the ball down your throat running the ball, that was a bad sign because most of the time teams run simple stuff in the preseason. If they can just mash you and push you around on the ground running simple stuff, that's a bad sign. I remember one preseason year, I think the Saints gave up like 50 to Kansas City. It was like the end of the more years. It was like, oh shit, we just got ground up in a preseason game. This is bad.
So for the Saints to win against the Jaguars, you can go against the Rams. People are saying that's the best NFL roster of the last 25 years against the Rams. So if they go to LA and just hold up against the Rams, don't get embarrassed. You hold up against the Rams. You hold up against the Cowboys and you don't get clearly beaten.
optimism will be at unsafe levels. I will be like Thomas six Polish pain pills in if the Saints look good against the Rams next week. You guarantee it. So anyway, guys, thanks for joining us. Sorry it was only me doing the solo podcast. But, you know, I got Thomas with me. We do the best we can, Thomas. And, you know, we do the best we can. And I want to remind people. We waited for 20 fucking minutes, right? We still love you. I want to remind people. Go to Patreon.com.
slash next happy hour. Use discount code OG70 for 75% off your first month's subscription, and you get access to all our content, commercial-free, and our Discord. You should do it. It'll be the best money you spend all football season long. So, I don't have anybody to thank except Thomas on Painkillers recording it for us. Thank you, Thomas, and thank you guys for listening. See you on the Discord for pages only tonight. Until then, the bar is closed. Talk to you, Andre and George.