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Speaker 1: Kevin, do you guys feel like you were more aggressive

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Speaker 1: in free agency this year maybe than previous years? You know,

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Speaker 1: signing three veteran players is a little unusual for us,

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Speaker 1: but we had the cab flexibility to do that type

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Speaker 1: of stuff this year, so when it made sense, we

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Speaker 1: just added players. But we didn't go in with any

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Speaker 1: goal of signing one to three. We just always kind

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Speaker 1: of let it unfold and that's how it ended up

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Speaker 1: being this year. Mark Barron is somebody who was cut

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Speaker 1: by the Rams. Do you feel like he almost fell

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Speaker 1: into your lap similar to the Joe Haden situation? Fortunately, yeah,

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Speaker 1: because you go into the the offseason you're not projecting

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Speaker 1: that a player like Mark Barren would be available, and

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Speaker 1: when he was, we had the fortune of having enough

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Speaker 1: cap room to be able to make it work and

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Speaker 1: to add a significant player like Mark Barren. So we

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Speaker 1: were fortunate, but it wasn't something we knew was going

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Speaker 1: to happen as the off season unfolded. Kevin, what's the

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Speaker 1: team's philosophy in terms of using free agency and the

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Speaker 1: draft to compliment each other to help fill out your

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Speaker 1: you know, the draft who always has always been and

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Speaker 1: will always be the foundation of how we try to

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Speaker 1: build a team and when we can or want to

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Speaker 1: add a free agent, UM, we you know, we will

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Speaker 1: do it. It's worked for us the majority of the time.

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Speaker 1: We've added some significant players, UM that have helped us

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Speaker 1: win Super Bowl. Sometimes it doesn't work out, UM. And

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Speaker 1: you're always more comfortable with your own players because you've

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Speaker 1: been with them for two, three, four years and you

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Speaker 1: try to, like you try to keep those players in

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Speaker 1: the mix. But if you have to add someone from

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Speaker 1: the outside, you you want to be open to that

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Speaker 1: as well. You guys have all said that getting a

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Speaker 1: new deal done with Ben Roethlisberger is a priority this offseason.

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Speaker 1: Where do things stand. We're still in negotiations. This is

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Speaker 1: a significant deal from both sides. You know, it's most

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Speaker 1: likely Ben's last contract as a National Football League player,

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Speaker 1: so I think that's you know, concerning to him. And

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Speaker 1: of course we have to make sure that, you know,

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Speaker 1: we were able to compensate him fairly for what he's

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Speaker 1: done and what he can still do for us, and

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Speaker 1: we have to make sure it all fits within our

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Speaker 1: cap constraints. Marquise Pouncey told Teresa Varley that the new

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Speaker 1: deal kind of came out of the blue. He was happy,

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Speaker 1: but a little shocked. Why did that make sense for

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Speaker 1: the team? Marquise Pouncey, we think is the best center

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Speaker 1: in the game, and again we're fortunate to have him

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Speaker 1: in his prime. And he's also one of our you know,

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Speaker 1: under the cover kind of leaders because as as respected

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Speaker 1: as he is not only on the field but off

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Speaker 1: the field. So keeping a Marquise Pouncey for the here,

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Speaker 1: for the hopefully the rest of his career was really

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Speaker 1: a pretty easy move for us. Where is the team's

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Speaker 1: salary cap as it stands today, where we still have

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Speaker 1: some flexibility. Um, it changes from day to day and

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Speaker 1: deal to deal, and you know, we we know we

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Speaker 1: can still make some deals, not as much as we

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Speaker 1: were able to do prior to signing the other three vets.

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Speaker 1: Because we move forward, it'll go up, it'll go down.

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Speaker 1: We you know, we made a trade on draft Day

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Speaker 1: last year, so it can change daily. And as you

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Speaker 1: mentioned earlier about the Mark baron, these types of things

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Speaker 1: will happen, and we just want to have the flexibility

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Speaker 1: to be able to really do both. I know pro

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Speaker 1: days are still ongoing and you're probably heading to one.

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Speaker 1: How are they affected by what you see at the Combine.

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Speaker 1: In terms of what you have to do with those

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Speaker 1: pro days, the pro days are more um, you know,

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Speaker 1: more uh intense and one on one type of situations

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Speaker 1: because we usually try to get the player in the

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Speaker 1: social setting the night before his Pro day just to

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Speaker 1: learn more about the person and then we get to

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Speaker 1: do more intense kind of close up evaluations on the field.

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Speaker 1: But she also get to see him interact with his

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Speaker 1: teammates and try to see his his um, his spot

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Speaker 1: within his own unit, his own team, and that that

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Speaker 1: type of thing is very important. And sometimes we get

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Speaker 1: to meet parents at the pro days, so it's just

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Speaker 1: another exposure, um And every time we're with a player,

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Speaker 1: be it at a Senior Bowl to Combine or as

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Speaker 1: Pro Day or you know, one of the thirty visits

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Speaker 1: that we do at the end, you still learn something new.

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Speaker 1: After Pro days comes the pre draft visits. So looking forward,

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Speaker 1: how do you guys go about deciding what players you

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Speaker 1: bring to Pittsburgh to go through those Again, we spoke

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Speaker 1: to sixty players at the Combine. We probably interviewed close

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Speaker 1: to a hundred players at the Senior Bowl, so we

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Speaker 1: we have a lot of information, but we may need

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Speaker 1: more information on those guys. Plus we maybe try to

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Speaker 1: bring in guys that we didn't have in our sixty

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Speaker 1: So it's a combination of all that included as guys

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Speaker 1: that maybe weren't the combine that we have to get

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Speaker 1: a physical on. So over over the next month, we'll

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Speaker 1: be doing those thirty visits to try to get as

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Speaker 1: much information as we can