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Last week our podcast special featured Indianapolis Star beat writer and blogger Phillip B. Wilson. This week, we interviewed yet another great writer whose middle initial is 'B' along with another astute scribe who knows a thing or two about covering the NFL.
Part One of our Stampede Blue podcast special features SmartFootball.com's Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) Chris also recently published a best-selling book titled The Essential Smart Football (highly recommended) and he will be a featured writer at ESPN's Grantland.com in the coming months. Chris is about as good as it gets when it comes down to breaking down offensive and defensive trends in the NFL, and few guys are as sharp deconstructing the Xs and Os.
Some highlights of our interview with Chris:
- We discuss how hybrid 3-4/4-3 defenses are an evolutionary change within the NFL.
- Chris argues that the NFL has become a spread offense league now.
- We breakdown how potentially flexibility the Colts new hybrid defensive scheme can be.
- Chris defines the popular NFL coaching term "War Daddy."
- Chris breaks down what Andrew Luck will likely struggle with in 2012.
Part Two of our podcast (in the second streaming player below) features Evan Silva (@evansilva), senior NFL editor at Rotoworld.com and a contributing writer at ProFootballTalk.com. Evan is a must follow on Twitter, and his player breakdowns on Rotoworld are essential for any serious fantasy football player. He's also one of my favorite people to talk to about story-lines in the NFL because Evan always seem to have that extra nugget of info.
Highlights from our interview with Evan:
- Right off the bat, Evan and I talk about Ben Ijalana. Evan talks about Ijalana's five surgeries in roughly 15 months! He had double hernia surgery prior to the 2011 NFL Draft. He's also had hip surgery and well as the knee surgery.
- Evan says that there was lots of buzz about Ijalana prior to the 2011 draft. The NY Giants were very interested in Ijalana that year.
- We talk about Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III, and how RG3's slight build could make him a little more injury prone. According to Evan, one of the reasons the Colts took Luck over RG3 was because Irsay thought Luck would be more of a pocket passer.
- We talk about Luck's arm strength and how he might have a Matt Ryan-type arm.
- Evan offers his thoughts on the Colts roster. He thinks Colts will be tough, physical defense, and he loves Bruce Arians. Thinks that was a great hire in Indianapolis.
Thanks again to Chris and Evan for their time this week. Click the audio players below to listen to the whole thing:
Download- Chris B. Brown Podcast