Empire.

Level up with the new AAA Commander's MVP membership.

Get all the benefits of AAA plus exclusive experiences, discounts, and tickets.

Already a AAA member?

Upgrade for free or join today at triple A.com

slash commanders.

Hello and welcome to my podcast. Do me a favor, subscribe to the John Conno,

wherever you get your podcast. If you're watching on YouTube, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. You can find us there as part of Empire Media,

AMPIRE. Always much appreciated when you tune. And don't forget, you can read my work on ESPN.com.

I have a story up now about Debo Samuel and his impact on the commanders, especially with

Terry McCorn and Noah Brown out. And both of those two will be out again Monday. I'll get to that in a minute. I'll get to explain about Debo Samuel as well. I will be doing my five thoughts. That'll start. I'll get to that in a few minutes. I'm going to be talking about Jaden Daniels and Caleb Williams, the offensive line, the defensive of lime, Bill Kroski, Merritton, some work he's doing. And then, of course, a look at the Bears on

Bull. Jaden Daniels and Caleb Williams, the offensive line, the defensive line, Bill Kroski-Merton, some work he's doing, and then, of course, a look at the bears on both sides of the ball. So stay tuned for that. And I also have, there's an inner, a quick interview with Javine Kinlaw. It's, it is not PG. and then a little interview with Andrew Wiley because I want to show you just kind of like

how you basically how alignment has to approach it

when you get benched, you get back in, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So stay tuned for that. So let's get to the injuries real quick. Terry McLaren, out. Noah Brown, out. Debo Samuel, questionable with a bruised heel. Same injury that he's dealing with last week. This is not a long-term issue.

At least that's what the commander say. So we'll see. And then Sam Cosmy is doubtful for

Monday. I didn't think he was going to. That was one I felt pretty good about thinking that he

wasn't going to play based on just conversations, et cetera, that it would be difficult.

And even just talking to him earlier this week, the need to build up to a certain amount of ability to play certain amount of snaps. And know some people wonder, like, well, what difference does that make? If he just gets tired, take him out. Well, at what point do you take him out? Does he tell you? Do you see it? And, you know, what happens in that interim?

If he, let's say he gets, gets just gassed and winded by 35 snaps, then what happens? Does, does he wait 10 more snaps? And then somebody gets hurt? Does he get hurt because of that? No, you need them to be built back up. You don't want to push that in there. And I think one reason why you don't have to do that is because of Andrew Wiley. But I also think that this staff has been very, has been very clear and deliberate with how they've returned players to action. And for a guy that had, he just got into pads, whose first day in pads was the other day. Like you don't, that's not a recipe to come back early, even if you think,

oh, just build up his stamina playing. It's not how it works. You've got to build it up, then get out there, because it's a lot that they have to go through. And he knows that because then once you start getting tired, your technique goes, you've got, you know, your footwork goes, your hands go, all sorts of things. So it's not as simple as,

oh, you've been perfect. Now you're tired. Get out. It's not that. So a lot of things can happen when you like that. So you want to make sure you're building it up to a proper level. So whether it's Dallas or the falling league, you know, he'll be back. He should be back soon. For McLaren and Brown, I'll be honest with Noah Brown, I get the frustration, folks.

This is four weeks now that he's missed.

...