Can't wait to see what the future holds in the 317 On that note, we welcome in Darius, who just established the Maniac Foundation in props to you on doing that.

Darius paying it forward, we'll get into that and just a bit.

But we need to have some fun, Darius, because Max is a huge fan of Carson Wentz, in case you haven't noticed, really gives them a lot of props on the show, sometimes mixes it up with Dan Orlovsky about this subject.

Tell me why you are so excited to have him as your quarterback.

I'm for one, you know, just playing against him in 2000 and 18 and seeing, you know, seeing how well he played there and hearing all the great things from, you know, Coach Frank and seeing what type of guy he is, you see, he's a he's a he's a God loving guy and you know, he's from what I'm here, you know, you put the team's person, that's what you need in the quarterback.

And just to see where he throws the ball around.

You know, that's something that you would love to see.

He moves out of the pocket, escapes the pocket a lot, so definitely looking to see what he brings to this offense.

Derek Appreciate you being on the show.

One of the things that I'm fond of saying about Carson Wentz, even though I think he had a horrible year last year, is that this guy a few years ago was an M V P candidate.

And when I talked to Max Kellerman and we talk about bust, I said Bus, the people that never had it.

You understand, not somebody who had it and then for some reason, lost it.

So as an NFL player, if you see a quarterback take a dive like he did this particular this last season where clearly he's not what he once was, but he's still young at age 28.

What's the kind of thinking that you guys have about one of your contemporaries that's just falling off for season, particularly at the quarterback position?

What's the belief system involved in that kind of thinking?

Um, you know everybody you know, we play this game to, you know, to be the best each and every year, and you know, sometimes in life you know you're gonna stumble.

You know, sometimes you know, you're you're gonna fall on your back, but you never get judged from you falling on your back.

You get judged on, What do you do when you get back on your feet?

And you know, just seeing the thing that you know what he's capable of doing.

And now he's coming to a new team, new weapons, a great offensive line of great running cord and the great receivers.

And I'm just looking forward to knowing that what he did before his season last year and hopefully we can have that quarterback come out and hopefully lead us to the right direction.

Darius, I thought in 2017, Carson Wentz was the best player in the league when he went down with injury.

My criticism started in the second half of 2019, where I saw him falling off.

I saw a poor quarterback play, but the press lauded him as being great.

I thought, No, it's getting worse and worse and worse.

And not only that, he's believing the press clippings right.

You are a great young player.

You're not good.

You are a great young player.

I haven't noticed you reading your press clippings and and believing that and slacking off in the slightest How do you, as a young player, maintain that high level of play without taking things for granted?

Because that's the kind of thing Carson Wentz is going to have to do in order to get back to the way he looked.

He's gonna have to rebuild Palm for me, man, my mom said, is everybody who talk trash about you.

You want to prove them wrong.

So I mean, I look, I look at every negative comment and said about me.

I like it on Twitter.

You know, I talk about it and I use that motivation because, you know, ever since I was in high school, you know, everybody doubted me.

So my goal is to prove that, you know, I belong in this league and I never take anything for granted because my brother played it and I saw you Tories 80 year, and I know how quickly you know this thing could end, so you never get complacent.

You just want to continue to be the best and continue to work each day.

That's and that's the mindset through it all, there's, uh, you know, Listen, your urine, All Pro, you're in this league.

You obviously have friends, contemporaries in this league And I find it very, very difficult to believe that once you heard about Carson Wentz coming to your team that you haven't spoken to some people, even including maybe some of his former teammates.

What are the kind of things you have heard about Carson Wentz that has you at this point where you're feeling good and you're feeling comfortable about him being your quarterback moving forward?

Can you share that with us?

Yeah.

I mean, everybody I talked to only say great things about him, you know, It was more so.

He's a great leader.

He's a great teammate.

He's a great father and a husband.

And, you know, that's what that's what you need.

Leading the team, you know, you want somebody who's eager to come in, you know, eager, want to work, want to be great.

And, like you said, he's coming back with Coach Frank and Coach Frank, one of the greatest offensive mind sense.

I think, you know, in his league, and so with him coming here and everybody's saying great things.

Um, and I feel like, you know, the codes have a great team, you know, in all three phases.

And we just got to somehow put this thing together with him leading the charge.

I think we should be all right.

Well, I agree with that assessment of your team.

Your team was just lacking a quarterback with high end potential in the playoffs.

Probably that wasn't Philip Rivers at that stage in his career, which is why he's no longer playing right now.

And you hope that Carson Wentz can get you over the top.

Is that the key?

Does the quarterback play need to show up in the playoffs?

Or there are other deficiencies on the team which looks extremely well balanced, both sides of the ball that you guys need to get better at in the playoffs?

Um, for me, man, I I honestly thought Philip play play Well, um, and you know, if you look at the Super Bowl, what?

Win that ballgame?

It was defensive play, and I felt like, you know, this year we got to be more consistent on defense.

We can't just play one great, have a football.

We gotta play 44 Great quarter.

So I mean, if you want to be, if you want to win games in the playoffs or you want to win the Super Bowl, you got to have a great defense, and that's what we got to do with the coach.

We gotta be more consistent on defense, and that's I put all the weight on my Children.

I think that's what we got to do to win the Super Bowl.

Darius, let me ask you this.

We just saw we talked about at the top of the show.

JJ Watt left the Texans and he's going to Arizona.

We know DeAndre Hopkins did.

We've heard that DeShaun Watson obviously wants out as well.

How do players around the league feel about potentially playing for the Houston Texans?

Like, What's that conversation like, right now, I'm I I honestly couldn't tell you.

You know, um, you know, I play, you know, I'm all in with the Indianapolis Colts.

That's you know, all I talked about and I'm not too sure exactly what's going on in Houston.

But for any enough for the coach, you know, we're well, I mean, I enjoy it, you know, UH, J J.

Watt is gone, so that's one of the edge rushers that we don't have to worry about.

And if the shot Watson leave, you know that's that's a great quarterback we're facing twice a year.

So if you leave, you know that helps us out a whole lot.

So I don't know exactly what they got going on.

We just got to continue what we can do as the Annapolis coach.

Let's get 1% better each day.

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