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Speaker 1: So, Dave Ziegler, there's been some changes to the organization.

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Speaker 1: Nick left and you have a new role. How's it

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Speaker 1: been going. It's been fun and it's been challenging, you know.

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Speaker 1: It's it's been a new level of having to be

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Speaker 1: ultra organized, prioritized tasks and be involved on a just

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Speaker 1: a greater scope with more people in the organization, which

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Speaker 1: has been fun. Luckily for me. The support here within

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Speaker 1: the Scouting department from people like Brian Smith and Steve Cargyle,

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Speaker 1: Elliott Wolf. I could keep naming people, but we have

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Speaker 1: so many good people here that offer support, that have

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Speaker 1: experience that it's made the transition pretty seamless. And it's exciting,

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Speaker 1: you know, a new challenge, more involvement and again being

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Speaker 1: able to lead more people and hopefully have a greater

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Speaker 1: impact is something that we all strive for in our careers,

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Speaker 1: and so it's an exciting opportunity and something I'm ready

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Speaker 1: to keep grinding away at. There's no combine this year.

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Speaker 1: How difficult is that for you and your staff? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it presents a new challenge because you don't have the

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Speaker 1: opportunity as much face to face time with the players,

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Speaker 1: and I think that's the biggest thing, you know, the

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Speaker 1: interviews and the personal contact and the face to face communication.

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Speaker 1: You know, taking that out though you do do zoom

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Speaker 1: calls and things like that, but just that face to

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Speaker 1: face communication makes it different because you're you're not able

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Speaker 1: to get the read on players maybe that you would

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Speaker 1: normally have, or the side conversations that you would have

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Speaker 1: with players just throughout the week and things like that

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Speaker 1: makes it different. No combine, But you mentioned there are

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Speaker 1: pro days. What can you do? Can you go to

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Speaker 1: those pro days? Yeah? Right now. The NFL has certain protocols,

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Speaker 1: and then the schools have certain protocols that may be

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Speaker 1: in line with the state, their counties and things of

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Speaker 1: that nature. So we can attend pro days. It's limited

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Speaker 1: to three people from each organization that can attend. The

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Speaker 1: contacts much different. You know, you usually would go to

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Speaker 1: a pro day and you may meet with a player

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Speaker 1: the night before, you may meet with coaches while you're

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Speaker 1: on campus, and again it goes back to a lot

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Speaker 1: of that face to face interaction and that's that you

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Speaker 1: can't do that that's limited. So you can go watch

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Speaker 1: the player work out, and you can watch them work out,

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Speaker 1: and then you leave the school call. So it does

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Speaker 1: give you the opportunity to see the players live, to

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Speaker 1: see their body composition, what they're you know, what their

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Speaker 1: physical stature is and things like that, and get to

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Speaker 1: see that live look that maybe you didn't get to

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Speaker 1: see in the fall. So there is that benefit. But

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Speaker 1: again it goes back to that contact piece. It's just

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Speaker 1: going to be a lot different. But you keep mentioning

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Speaker 1: those one off conversations that are lacking this year. How

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Speaker 1: do you get to know these players as people leading

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Speaker 1: up to the draft when you're doing it through zoom. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's definitely more challenging. And I think that it goes

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Speaker 1: back to the character that you were able to gather

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Speaker 1: through you know, your contacts and things like that through

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Speaker 1: the fall that you're probably going to rely on even

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Speaker 1: a little bit more this year than you have in

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Speaker 1: the past. And I think also, you know, you have

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Speaker 1: to use zoom because that's what we have, and so

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Speaker 1: you know, we have a certain amount of calls that

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Speaker 1: we're able to make to each kid, and we'll maximize

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Speaker 1: those calls and and we'll maximize our opportunities with the

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Speaker 1: players when we when we have the opportunity. And I

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Speaker 1: still think like you can still get a good feel

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Speaker 1: for people and the players over zoom calls. It might

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Speaker 1: not be to the you know, the level of detail

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Speaker 1: that you always feel when you're face to face. But again,

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Speaker 1: we'll maximize them and we'll I think we feel confident

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Speaker 1: that we'll have the information that we feel comfortable having

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Speaker 1: and we'll dig like we always dig, and we'll spend

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Speaker 1: the time to make sure that we do feel good

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Speaker 1: about the players that that we have interest in. You

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Speaker 1: can only call them a certain amount of times. Is

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Speaker 1: there a set amount of players that you're restricted to

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Speaker 1: having zoom meetings with? Yeah, so that the combine you

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Speaker 1: may have a fifteen minute interview here in an All

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Speaker 1: Star game, it maybe a fifteen minute interview here, And

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Speaker 1: what all that adds up to is probably that much

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Speaker 1: not that much different. It's but it's going to be

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Speaker 1: done on zoom. So um, so we could ask access

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Speaker 1: all of those players and we'll do that. And the

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Speaker 1: Senior Bowl was one of the rare occasions where you

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Speaker 1: could see these players in person down in Alabama. How

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Speaker 1: arefreshing was that to finally get a chance to size

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Speaker 1: these guys up? It was awesome? Yeah, it was refreshing.

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Speaker 1: It was nice to not only see the players and

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Speaker 1: see them in a competitive setting versus other good players,

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Speaker 1: and see them live and again see those physical attributes

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Speaker 1: on display live. That was great. A blockbuster trade in

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Speaker 1: the NFL, Detroit is dealing Matthew Stafford to the La

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Speaker 1: Rams in exchange for two future first round picks, a

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Speaker 1: third round pick, and Jared Goff, the Philadelphia Eagles agreeing

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Speaker 1: to trade Carson Wentz the number two overall pick. There's

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Speaker 1: been three quarterbacks that have been traded and moved already.

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Speaker 1: In those three were quarterbacks that some people would have

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Speaker 1: considered at one point a franchise quarterback for that organization.

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Speaker 1: Does the voltai of the quarterback position surprise you? Is

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Speaker 1: that something we're going to see more moving forward? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: It's it's unique. Can I just think it again? It

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Speaker 1: goes back to the high expectations that go along with

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Speaker 1: that position and what the money that's invested in that

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Speaker 1: position and the return that people want. There's just so

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Speaker 1: many different attributes that go into playing this position. The

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Speaker 1: cap has not officially been set yet, but as we

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Speaker 1: are filming this right now, the Patriots are have a

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Speaker 1: third most cap space out of anybody in the league.

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Speaker 1: What can Patriots fans get excited about as you look

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Speaker 1: to reshape this roster. Yeah, I think having cap space

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Speaker 1: gives you flexibility. And there aren't a whole lot of

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Speaker 1: teams at this point that maybe have a lot of

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Speaker 1: cap space, and so I think having that flexibility again,

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Speaker 1: it just opens up options for you, and I think

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Speaker 1: that at the same time, there's still a responsibility to

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Speaker 1: spend those dollars. Wisely, David's an interesting offseason. I had

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Speaker 1: fifteenth pick in plenty of calf space. I'm sure you

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Speaker 1: have your work cut out for you. And thanks for

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Speaker 1: the time. Best of Black, thank you. We're excited.