Will Shields discusses Mahomes QB comparisons, previews Chiefs vs. Eagles | FIRST THINGS FIRST


Will Shields discusses Mahomes QB comparisons, previews Chiefs vs. Eagles | FIRST THINGS FIRST

[Applause] Welcome back to First Things First, live from the Power and Light District in beautiful Kansas City. Crowd is on fire. It’s about 95 degrees, which I didn’t know it got this hot in Kansas City in September, but it’s been wonderful. And joining us now, 12-time Pro Bowler, Walter Payton, man of the year award winner and NFL Hall of Famer, Will Shields. Will, thank you for joining us. No problem. Thanks for having me. one of the greatest Chiefs of my or anyone’s lifetime. Someone who I grew up watching play in the 90s and then, you know, well, longer than that, 14 years, never missed a game. More on that in a bit. Uh, I want to know what your emotions were watching the Super Bowl last year because of how the Eagles were able to disrupt the Chiefs where they didn’t have to send pressure and your position, the offensive line just couldn’t seemingly hold up for any time to let anything get going. Well, it was a mirror image of what you saw when they played Tampa Bay. You got to think about it that way that the line was decimated, the guys weren’t healthy, and you’re moving guys from place to place. Makes it hard. Um, you know, you hope you have that glimmer of chance just because you have Mahome Magic in the room. But he couldn’t do it all by himself and it it made it tough. You know, if your line is not healthy, it makes life very tough on you. So, it was tough to watch, but it was one of those things that you see as it progresses. If you don’t help those guys when they’re there and they need help, it makes it tough. To follow up there, the Chiefs, I know, felt incredibly for lucky that a player as talented at as Josh Simmons was available at pick 32. He was a guy who was incredibly highly rated uh prospect got suffered an injury that scared off some teams, which is why he was available. He’s luckily been healthy since he got to Kansas City. what as an as a Hall of Fame offensive lineman, what do you see in Josh Simmons and what type of what do you think his potential is as Mahomes blindside protector? Well, I’ll just say this. He’s making a great start for himself. You know, he showed up to camp in shape. He was ready to play and ready to be plugged in and give them an opportunity to sort of solidify that left side, which is very important. And that’s one thing that he’s got going for him. He’s out there performing, playing his tail off, and that’s what makes a big difference. And I think he’s going to get better. And that’s the one thing about it. He’s going to get better, which is even something that’s really unique for them to find that talent that they needed for that left side. I’m going to go to the Eagles. It’s why I said you never missed the game during your playing career, so you’re obviously tough. Would you have liked doing the tush push when you played? Yeah, of course. I mean, to me, it’s not a big deal. I mean, the thing of it is though, make the rules even. If they can push, why can’t the defense push? So to me, that’s just that even it out a little bit there because it’s part of the process. I understand they worry about injuries and things of that nature, but give those guys a chance to sort of fight it fire with fire. I so I’mma piggyback on what Brew was talking about about you never missing a game because a lot of guys have their own workouts in the off season, but not many of us go 14 years, 231 consecutive games, never missing with as physically grueling as this game is. I now I got to say this too. I know you got a birthday coming up, Virgo spirit. Excellent spirit. You’re very disciplined. What was your routine in the off seasonason to prepare you for such long seasons? I was a guy that tried to never get out of shape. So, I’d take two weeks off and then I’d start working out again. I’d start, you know, in the pool, on the bike, doing different things to work out to get back in shape. And so, then also when we started our offseason workout, I do the workout in the morning, but then I do a different one in the afternoon. Have a team around you doing, you know, the the massage therapy and all of that. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You got to get ahead of it, man. Day. Even back in those days. So, you would do the workout that all of us as a team would do. Yes. And then later on, you would go do another one. Yes. Most definitely. Okay. That That makes sense why. That That’s the reason right there. Yeah, man. Footwork is key, man. You got to understand your your balance, your footwork, your hand work. So, that second workout was all about changing up the work. So, I actually used to work with soccer coaches to work on footwork, which was pretty cool. It was fun. Wow. Uh Jaylen Carter for the Eagles. Didn’t have a sack in the Super Bowl, but you got to pay attention to him. Obviously ejected and turns out suspended for game one. Suspended, but he’ll play. He was suspended, but he will play. Sort of a narrative out there. Oh, he’s going to want to he’ll be extra fired up for this game. What do you think the uh excuse me, what do you think the Chiefs line does to stop and slow down Jaylen Carter? Well, you got to realize anytime you play football for a living, you’re always fired up. You always want to play your best. You never want to put something bad. I don’t think it’s going to be more emphasis on, oh, it’s going just because I missed a game that I’m going to put more into it. But I think you have to account for him. He’s a guy that’s very big and strong and wreck and wrecks things in the middle. So, you got to be accounted for him. So, those are things you do where you add backs into the B gap as well as help with the little down blocks here and those kind of things that would help out as you make a difference and I think those are things that you’ll probably have to do as you move forward. So, you know, you had such a long career, you blocked for a lot of legendary players. Uh, but near the tail end of your career, you’re it’s you and Willie Roof, two Hall of Fame guys on the left side of the line. And it felt to me as a fan like there were some years or certainly some games where if you guys had told the opponent, we are running left side on this play on this snap count, it wouldn’t have mattered. It feels to me like at times that the Eagles have unlocked that level with their offensive line where everyone I’m not even talking tush push but everyone knows we’re running Seaquan behind Milada or behind Lane Johnson and they can’t stop it. What type of mental impact can you see on a defense when they know you’re running at them, they’re prepared, they have the right front, and you’re still getting six yards on it. Well, the cool thing about it is when we had Willie, Willie was on the left side, I was on the right side. So, we used to go left side, right side. So, we used to battle each other of who’s going to be the best and who’s going to do the best. I think the Eagles have sort of embodied that with their line. They’ve set a precedent with having, you know, the guys that came before them, the Kelsey’s and them as this is their level of line of what they’re going to do. But also, they’re committed to the run. They’ve got a running back back there that’s unique and special, and that’s also easier to commit when you have a guy back there that knows he’s going to he’s going to make you look pretty good regardless of what you do. We were talking about it earlier. So, in the Super Bowl, the Chiefs said, “We’re not getting beat by Saquon Barkley.” They took away the run. Jaylen Herz in the past and game hurts them. Do you think they change it up in this game and try to play more balanced or take away the pass or do you just every time you’re playing Saquon Barkley, you got to be like, look, first priority is stop the run and we’ll take our chances with Jaylen Herz. Well, and that’s that given give and go g that gamble. Am I going to gamble to get the arm and the leg of Jaylen or I’m going to get Saquon in the back field? Uh for me, you know, hey, they’re saying, hey, can we take Saquon out of the game and basically say you’re going to have to pass and make those things happen. It also depends on the strength of the defense at the moment. If you got great DBs, then yeah, that’s what you’re going to do. Take the runaway, let our DBs play manto man, and see what they can do. If not, you go vice versa and say, “Look, we’ll give him his yards underneath. We’re going to help the secondary by giving us some more push things back there so that you can make things happen.” But with what we saw last week though, I mean, the the Chargers pass the game had its way. Do you think they need to kind of look at changing the strategy that the Chiefs defense? Well, I think, you know, the the coach is good. He’s he does what he does. He loves to get you in third and long and everything else. And I think that’s what they’re going to do. Try to get you in that third long so that he can make the things happen with blitzes and different ways of stunning. But I think as you go, you can’t let guys run even all the way through the through the secondary just like last week. So, and they’ve do got some talented guys back there. So, I got a question that I can kind of speak to myself. When we retire as players, we we get to watch the game from a different lens and then we watch players and we have this this feeling or this not a feeling but a thought of watching the game and looking for players that resemble who we were as a player. Do you see anybody in today’s game playing offensive line that resembles who you were as a player? Well, I think it’s really hard to sort of say that because every era is different. It’s more of a pass run. It’s more pass first than run first. Plus, there’s this thing called an RPO that everybody runs. So, it’s hard to find that guy that’s really that smashmouth guy that’s going to go downhill that wants to run and get in space when he could pull the ball and throw it every other snap. So, it’s really hard to get that one guy or two guys. Um, but you know, I do get a chance to work with my Chiefs guys every once in a while and try to train them to sort of help them get to that smashmouth piece. Yeah. Trey Smith’s got some of your game in him. Yeah. Right. I mean, Trey Smith’s out there in in a clean, ethical way trying to hurt people. Like, we spend a little time together. Okay. I would imagine. Yeah. I mean the So I Joe Montana, four Super Bowl wins, 16 career playoff wins, the last of which came alongside you with the Kansas City Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes in seven years just passed Joe Montana for career playoff wins with 17, which seems impossible. Uh but it happened. Is there when what from the moment you first saw Patrick as a chief to now, could you have ever seen anything like this coming? And is there like when you’re watching him, what are you seeing? Well, I think the one thing that’s really, really special about what he does when he is on the field, he is in control of everything. He understands it and he’s a young man that loves the game. Um, when I go in and I speak to the team, you can see his love for the game by what he’s doing. Um, the guy that’s writing down extra plays, the guy that’s trying to figure out what’s next. He’s already three steps ahead. So, when he steps on the field and you watch him in practice, it’s the same difference. When he walks on the field, everybody knows whatever he says goes. And that is that guy that you really want to have. But you want the whole team to sort of buy into that, but also study just as well so you can see it even before he sees it so you’re all on the same page. And I think that’s what’s really cool about this team is they got to build that up and get that back going because you got a lot of young guys that’s trying to fill that in and figure that out as they keep changing the game. I just have one curveball we didn’t tell you about, but I’m it just occurred to me. Yeah. Do do you remember Cowboys head coach now Brian Shottenheimimer as a kid or him being Cuz Marty, his late great father, you know, coached you for years and years. Do you have any cool Brian Shottenheimimer as a kid anecdotes for us? Well, as a kid, he came in and out. We had a couple days that he would come in as a young man, which was which was good. But I actually had a chance to go through two training camps with Brian or with Shotti when he was actually at the Jets. I was a a assistant coach for the training camp. So I got a chance to go and watch how he actually prepares for it, changes things up and do those things. So it’s really cool to watch as he’s grown into this guy that’s, you know, going to run a good team and going to see these guys do very well as they move forward. Well, before we let you go, do you have a prediction for Sunday’s game? My prediction is always to win. I don’t care what we do and how we do it. That’s our job. One to one or two to one. Your Chiefs, Will’s Chiefs, Greg. Greg right now. Two to one. Will, thank you very much. Appreciate you joining us. Thanks for watching. Subscribe here to get more from the show and to check out clips from other shows on FS1.

Former Kansas City Chief and Hall of Famer Will Shields joins Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, Kevin Wildes, and Greg Jennings to discuss QBs he can compare to Patrick Mahomes, and preview the matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.

#FirstThingsFirst #NFL #Chiefs

Download the FOX Sports App: https://tinyurl.com/y4uouolb

► First Things First’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstThingsFirst

About First Things First:
Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes team up on First Things First. The trio offers their take on a bevy of sports stories alongside special guests from across the sports world.

Will Shields discusses Mahomes QB comparisons, previews Chiefs vs. Eagles | FIRST THINGS FIRST
www.youtube.com/@FirstThingsFirst