Speaker 1: Um, well, I think at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: for first and foremost, there's a lot of the a
Speaker 1: lot of our a lot of the agents of all
Speaker 1: our players are freegans are actually here at the combine,
Speaker 1: and we've scheduled meetings more or less with all of them. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that's as taught alluded to. We we have
Speaker 1: an idea internally what we're gonna probably potentially do. Um,
Speaker 1: but at this point in time, you know, we don't
Speaker 1: really want to show our cards, show our hand and
Speaker 1: be perfectly honest before we were to do something of
Speaker 1: that lines, Like we obviously know we have the ability
Speaker 1: to franchise tag him, put the franchise tag on him. Um,
Speaker 1: but I think in the first and foremost we would
Speaker 1: like to communicate that with the player of the agent
Speaker 1: if that is something we decided to do, so well,
Speaker 1: I would say simply, you know, mo is a very
Speaker 1: good player, and um obviously we would like to have
Speaker 1: him with the organization going forward. Um. But like I said,
Speaker 1: all options are on the table, but I don't want
Speaker 1: to I don't really want to speculate on that stuff.
Speaker 1: But I mean, at the end of day, we like
Speaker 1: Moa very much, so we do realize the franchise, TA
Speaker 1: gets an option like every team has with their players
Speaker 1: to potentially hold on to them and um, you know,
Speaker 1: try to keep them long term. Well, I think you know,
Speaker 1: every team more or less has to go through this
Speaker 1: process when they try to figure out, like how to
Speaker 1: use the tag in terms of protecting you know, the
Speaker 1: players they really want to hold on too. We do
Speaker 1: have some good players who are gonna be free agents
Speaker 1: this year. Damon's one of them. But I would say simply,
Speaker 1: I would say again not to really speculate anything. I'd
Speaker 1: say realistically, UM, you know they're they're both options. Um.
Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day, we probably
Speaker 1: have to decide one of the two. But I don't
Speaker 1: really want to tip our hand which one we would
Speaker 1: do that with no no, I understand, And I think
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, what we're trying to do, Um,
Speaker 1: what every team does in this period of time is
Speaker 1: you try to make decisions. So it's like putting a
Speaker 1: puzzle together. So you're trying to make decisions are gonna
Speaker 1: be the best for the for the team long term? Um.
Speaker 1: But I think first and foremost, I think we're gonna
Speaker 1: do everything with our ability to try to keep as
Speaker 1: many good players on the team as we can. I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people are speculated can we keep
Speaker 1: all of them? Um? I don't think it's out of
Speaker 1: the outside. It's not outside the realm of possibilities. But um,
Speaker 1: you know, it would be a very big investment in
Speaker 1: that area. But I think it's you know, right now,
Speaker 1: we're still kind of moment paused for a second to like,
Speaker 1: everybody here from the other teams, we're all trying to
Speaker 1: guess what everybody else's game plan is. So so that
Speaker 1: being said, UM no, I know, I know, and the
Speaker 1: fans want to know. I appreciate that. Um, but but
Speaker 1: for the most part, it's a little you know, you're
Speaker 1: trying to sort of figure out what everyboy else is
Speaker 1: gonna do, and you're trying to obviously not just you know,
Speaker 1: disclose what you're gonna do. I would say simply this,
Speaker 1: we we like both mo uh and Damon and like
Speaker 1: we're gonna try to figure out a way to ideally
Speaker 1: keep both of them. Last m hm, yeah, I would say, um,
Speaker 1: and I said this last year. I mean, ideally you
Speaker 1: want to fill your needs in free agency, um, and
Speaker 1: you don't really want to let need factor into your
Speaker 1: draft decisions, because teams do that. UM. The problems are
Speaker 1: being it's sort of a simple logic. If you factor
Speaker 1: something in that has no bearing on whether that player
Speaker 1: is going to be successful or not your need at
Speaker 1: a position, you run the risk of skewing your process
Speaker 1: or your grades, and then um, you know, maybe passing
Speaker 1: on another player that turns out to be a much
Speaker 1: better player. UM. So what we we'd ideally like to do,
Speaker 1: UM is going to the draft ideally with every need
Speaker 1: filled and and then just draft the best player available.
Speaker 1: I think we tried to do that a little bit
Speaker 1: last year. This year's free agencies gonna be a lot
Speaker 1: like almost like a normal NFL team's free agency. I
Speaker 1: think right now we're kind of, you know, potentially in
Speaker 1: the middle range of terms of cap space. UM, we
Speaker 1: may make some moves that create a little bit more
Speaker 1: of a cap space. We're looking at potential options of
Speaker 1: doing that. But the UM but I think going into
Speaker 1: this year's free agency, I think what we're gonna try
Speaker 1: to do is, you know, again, as I said this before,
Speaker 1: you're trying to figure out which way you can best
Speaker 1: maximize the impact of the money you have, So I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily I think, I don't think I would say
Speaker 1: we're gonna feel some needs and free agency and then
Speaker 1: try to feel the other needs in the draft. You know.
Speaker 1: The other thing I think teams tend to do, they
Speaker 1: forget about it's you know, it's a long time until
Speaker 1: September one and when the season starts, so we have
Speaker 1: a lot of time to potentially solve those problems going forward.
Speaker 1: So well, I don't really want to speculate where we
Speaker 1: are in terms of our negotiations and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think I think at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, we like Ryan. Um, I think we have
Speaker 1: a good situation for Ryan. We just have to come
Speaker 1: to an agreement on you know, obviously a cost. What
Speaker 1: we've we've a perfect what both sides think is fair.
Speaker 1: But um, you know that's still yet to be determined
Speaker 1: here in the near future as we go forward before
Speaker 1: free agency. I always feel that when you go through
Speaker 1: and having only been a gym for one year, but
Speaker 1: watching this process, um, you know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: times you get to the combine. You know, you're obviously
Speaker 1: looking to college players, you're talking to your own agents,
Speaker 1: your own agents or your own free agents. Um. And
Speaker 1: then there's a little window usually before the draft, when
Speaker 1: before that, I'm sorry, before the free agency starts, that
Speaker 1: a lot of deals get done, and I would imagine
Speaker 1: we're probably in that same you know, in that same
Speaker 1: boat when uh, you know, free agency hits obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: some players get right do as your free agency, you
Speaker 1: actually want to test the market and see where it's at.
Speaker 1: And then of course if you're close and you know
Speaker 1: the market's kind of what you expected to be, sometimes
Speaker 1: deals get gotten kind of quickly. So we'll do a
Speaker 1: lot of groundwork ideally to maybe sign some of these
Speaker 1: guys are for free agency, but we'll see how this
Speaker 1: thing plays out as we get closer to it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily talk and this kind of goes back
Speaker 1: to Todd mentioned a second ago. I don't really want
Speaker 1: to talk about like what we're planning on doing, because
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, that sort of ties
Speaker 1: in with it. You know, we're trying to keep a
Speaker 1: lot of that stuff internal. So, um, So I would
Speaker 1: differ on but I would say simply, every team looks
Speaker 1: at players on their contract, players on their team. Uh,
Speaker 1: if it looks at ways to potentially they're create money
Speaker 1: if they need to do that and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and that's that's something that everybody does. Um and you
Speaker 1: know we have you know, we've gone through potentially. My
Speaker 1: feeling of this free agency is gonna be more of
Speaker 1: it's gonna be kind of a fluids you free agency
Speaker 1: where we'll see how the how our free agents play
Speaker 1: out in terms of who we can sign and can't sign,
Speaker 1: and then at the end of the day, it's gonna
Speaker 1: have a lot of contingency plans to see what we
Speaker 1: can do, you know, if things don't work out and
Speaker 1: the market goes above kind of where we feel comfortable
Speaker 1: with certain players. Market last year, why do you think
Speaker 1: that's Yeah, you know, I think the trade market um,
Speaker 1: and generally I think a lot of teams, it depends
Speaker 1: a little bit. It depends really on the contract and
Speaker 1: the players. UM. I think the big thing with trades
Speaker 1: in this league is you have to really make sure
Speaker 1: you know what you're what you're trading for. I thought
Speaker 1: one of the things that are staffed very well last
Speaker 1: year as we really researched not just we evaluate the
Speaker 1: players in terms of ability, but we really spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time trying to figure out what they were
Speaker 1: like as people, um, to kind of figure out where
Speaker 1: they would bring to the mix there. So I think
Speaker 1: with the reason I think a lot of teams don't trade,
Speaker 1: they're historically don't trade, is that I think everybody's you know,
Speaker 1: if they think that there's a reason the team is
Speaker 1: trying to get rid of that player, then they may
Speaker 1: not want to bring that player on. I think we
Speaker 1: sort of did our due diligence, feel very good about
Speaker 1: the potential trades we made, and feel very fortunate they
Speaker 1: happen at the time. Well, I think I think Damon
Speaker 1: is a great example of, you know, the college draft process,
Speaker 1: not that in you know, obviously he wasn't drafted, but
Speaker 1: if you find a player of that caliber as a
Speaker 1: college free agent, that's kind of, in my mind, every
Speaker 1: time you find a player that's sort of as a
Speaker 1: college cree agtion, that really accelerates your ability to potentially
Speaker 1: turn your team around. But I think, you know, Damon
Speaker 1: to me is a is a is an exceptionally good
Speaker 1: player versus a run and he's I think also surprisingly
Speaker 1: affect at times as a pass rusher. So, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I think to me, Damon is a very good, uh,
Speaker 1: you know player in his role. You know, I think
Speaker 1: it's funny. I was in Houston at the time, and
Speaker 1: I remember, you know, we normally do as we go
Speaker 1: back and sort of self scout and we look at
Speaker 1: the players that kind of made it like a year
Speaker 1: or two, three years down the road, not just the
Speaker 1: draft picks. He's kind of evaluate that aspect and you
Speaker 1: do it from a self scouting standpoint. Um. But I
Speaker 1: think with Damon maybe it was a situation he was
Speaker 1: sort of off the radar a little bit and at
Speaker 1: a small level school. Um and um. I remember his
Speaker 1: Pro day, his his numbers. You know, he's a very
Speaker 1: big guy. I don't think his numbers were you know,
Speaker 1: exceptional with the pro day in terms of his testing
Speaker 1: and timing numbers. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's not a perfect science the college draft process. And
Speaker 1: I think he's a much better player than you know,
Speaker 1: the rest of the league probably knew at that point
Speaker 1: in time. And I think the Jet staff you know
Speaker 1: at that time too, did a excellent job and sort
Speaker 1: of identifying a college free agent that came in and
Speaker 1: played very well. Tyler Loud, Yeah, you know, I think
Speaker 1: every team probably has a different approach. I think my
Speaker 1: personal approach or my personal philosophy has always been when
Speaker 1: you take a player at a smaller school, it's a
Speaker 1: little more difficult because even within the divisions, there's obviously
Speaker 1: different level of competition from division to division, but within
Speaker 1: the divisions, there's different level of competition within the conferences.
Speaker 1: That's why the college draft is generally is fairly tricky
Speaker 1: or difficult or you know, there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: teams that are historically always take the best player at
Speaker 1: every pick and from an opportunity cost standpoint. But um but,
Speaker 1: I think really when you focus on the smaller school
Speaker 1: kids and you know, if if they are invited to
Speaker 1: an invent like this, this is where you really get
Speaker 1: the chance to see a measure up ability wise. The
Speaker 1: most difficult thing I think when you evaluate players at
Speaker 1: a smaller school tends to be, you know, trying to
Speaker 1: assess their their skill level, they're athletically because you're kind
Speaker 1: of watching them on tape and a lot of the
Speaker 1: inputs we are a lot of the evaluation process very subjective.
Speaker 1: So um so I think what you what you tend
Speaker 1: to do is go back to see when you get
Speaker 1: a chance to actually work them out here at the
Speaker 1: combine or to pro day, you really focus on their
Speaker 1: athletic ability. And then the other part of it you
Speaker 1: have to factor in is like the facilities they have
Speaker 1: in terms of their development at their schools. I got
Speaker 1: a vision one. A school, for example, in Alabama may
Speaker 1: have much better resources in terms of dietitians and meal
Speaker 1: plans and um, you know, weight room and all those
Speaker 1: in all those aspects of all those develop the player.
Speaker 1: Whereas you go to a smaller school, they may not
Speaker 1: just just not have the resources financially to do stuff
Speaker 1: like that. So that's I tend to believe the smaller
Speaker 1: school guys. Sometimes you you you'll find guys and a
Speaker 1: lot of times you find some late round draft picks
Speaker 1: where or even college free agents in this in the
Speaker 1: case of you know, damon um that really make great
Speaker 1: jumps and as you kind of get them into your
Speaker 1: and sometimes the jumps that they make from yours one, two,
Speaker 1: and three are are much more dramatic than some of
Speaker 1: the Maybe a guy at a bigger school who's sort
Speaker 1: of reached more of his potential at that point in time. Uh,
Speaker 1: between now and a year ago. Um. I think my
Speaker 1: thing has always been everybody who becomes a general manager
Speaker 1: has a philosophy, you know, and they have a philosophy
Speaker 1: how they want to run their departments and how they
Speaker 1: want to structure and staff things. UM, I tend to
Speaker 1: you know me personally, I you know, I'm not really
Speaker 1: a guy who's like so, I have my philosophy based
Speaker 1: on where I've done so far, and I have a system,
Speaker 1: but I'm constantly sort of looking at and trying to evaluate.
Speaker 1: I come to these environments sometimes and when you see
Speaker 1: a lot of your friends and you can have a
Speaker 1: chance to be kind of visiting and socially, I'm constantly
Speaker 1: picking my friends brands about what they do, trying to
Speaker 1: find nuances that maybe an interesting idea going forward. I
Speaker 1: think in particular now, um, you know, obviously there's been
Speaker 1: some things in Cleveland with some you know, people outside
Speaker 1: of football have coming to Cleveland outside of you know,
Speaker 1: the traditional NFL route. Um, so it's interesting to you know,
Speaker 1: to kind of look at it from that standpoint to
Speaker 1: see what they may do. And UM, you know, we're
Speaker 1: very competitive business, so we're constantly of valuing each other
Speaker 1: and trying to find an edge to be competitive. Um well,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to drink less coffee. Um. Other than that,
Speaker 1: I know, UM, I think the one thing I think it's, um,
Speaker 1: I know, this year and this year's free agency. I
Speaker 1: think it's, you know, from my own standpoint, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: last year, we it was a little different because we
Speaker 1: you know, we really vetted free agency fairly thoroughly. We've
Speaker 1: done the same thing this year, but this year it's
Speaker 1: more of you know, you're it's in a different it's
Speaker 1: a different playing field almost because we were in a
Speaker 1: different cap situation. So I think, really what I think
Speaker 1: this year in particular, it's it's gonna be very fluid
Speaker 1: because it's even if we you know, maybe don't get
Speaker 1: certain players you want to get back from our current
Speaker 1: free asent group. Um, it's just trying to make sure
Speaker 1: you make the right decisions. That. The one thing I
Speaker 1: also kind of thought going through this process is, you know,
Speaker 1: it's an interesting job in the sense that you're constantly
Speaker 1: making decisions, but you really have to predict the future
Speaker 1: and that's a very difficult thing to do sometimes. Yeah
Speaker 1: what yeah, Um, well, I think I think it's philosophically, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I know everybody wants to kind of said,
Speaker 1: you know, standards and go hey, you guys, what are
Speaker 1: you What are you guys gonna do this year? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, our goal going into this thing is to
Speaker 1: try to figure out the best way we can utilize
Speaker 1: the money we have. Um, do you have the most
Speaker 1: impact in terms of, you know, making ourselves a better team?
Speaker 1: I mean it's a longer process trying to turn a
Speaker 1: team around. Um, we had a lot of success last year,
Speaker 1: but to me, it's this is still very much a
Speaker 1: work in progress. And then, as Todd alluded to, there,
Speaker 1: you know we're you know that we have some good players. Um,
Speaker 1: but we're but it's such a competitive industry that you're
Speaker 1: constantly have to kind uh you know, figure out where
Speaker 1: you're weak at and then you know, to in a
Speaker 1: perfect world, try to figure out some way to improve
Speaker 1: upon that. Well. I think you know we do. We
Speaker 1: do some Every team I would imagine does some degree
Speaker 1: of analytics, some of us intrinsic and what we do, um,
Speaker 1: because we're constantly looking at players trying to project into
Speaker 1: the future. And then what you end up doing a
Speaker 1: lot of times is you look for common train you know,
Speaker 1: you almost have your model of what you have, your
Speaker 1: predictability of how you think that player is gonna succeed.
Speaker 1: So you're constantly looking at past experience and that's how
Speaker 1: you have to base it on really. Um and especially
Speaker 1: with people you're dealing with such a variable that, um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not just the physical aptitude and how
Speaker 1: they physically especially when the college, are they physically developed. Um,
Speaker 1: it's also the intangible aspect of the character and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. And and was made mentioned before about the
Speaker 1: trades we made last year. Obviously Brandon Marshall was a
Speaker 1: player we vetted very thoroughly, and um, you know, when
Speaker 1: we had a chance to bring in Brandon, we we
Speaker 1: probably analyze Brandon as much from a um you know,
Speaker 1: what he would bring to the organization from an intangible standpoint,
Speaker 1: and feel very good about it. And um, you know,
Speaker 1: so to me, it's you're you're constantly looking at things
Speaker 1: and trying to figure that out. But we do, we do,
Speaker 1: we do analytics in our process, and and to me,
Speaker 1: it's you know, going forward, as we get more you
Speaker 1: know again more information to kind of work with, that's
Speaker 1: something we'll definitely do more with. Well, I think when
Speaker 1: I always tell the scouts is we start this process
Speaker 1: literally last spring, and you go through the the you know,
Speaker 1: the colleges and the fall, you go through the All
Speaker 1: Star games, you go through um, you know, the Combine,
Speaker 1: the pro days, and eventually back to our April meetings.
Speaker 1: What I stressed to the scouts all the time is
Speaker 1: that your evaluation is never really finished till you walk
Speaker 1: into that draft meeting in April, because that's the most
Speaker 1: important meeting of the whole process we do it. We
Speaker 1: have a lot of meetings along the way. We kind
Speaker 1: of put the board up and you know, start trying
Speaker 1: to figure out who you know, stacking them one from
Speaker 1: one to three fifty. Basically, Um, what I always stressed
Speaker 1: to the scouts is that, hey, every time you have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to be around a player, get exposure to
Speaker 1: a player, utilize that to hopefully increase the probability you're
Speaker 1: actually accurate in terms of what you're predicting that player
Speaker 1: to be. So that's my thing to them is you
Speaker 1: know that the process doesn't really end. Some of our
Speaker 1: scouts actually work here at the Combine and some of
Speaker 1: the drills and around the players and working with the groups.
Speaker 1: Um the ones that aren't doing that obviously. They're here
Speaker 1: to literally watch every drill and every every event to
Speaker 1: kind of you know, judge the player and make sure
Speaker 1: they've got them accurately, you know, evaluated,