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Speaker 1: Nick, congratulations on the award. I appreciate Thank you, Nick.

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Speaker 1: What does it mean to be voted on by your teammates?

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Speaker 1: How special does that make this award? How more meaningful

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Speaker 1: does it mean? I'm no is that it's definitely uh,

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Speaker 1: it's definitely meaningful, you know, even if it wasn't vote

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Speaker 1: on a teammates, but even more so that my teammates

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Speaker 1: voted on it. And you know, they saw me every

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Speaker 1: day last year putting in the hard work to get

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Speaker 1: to back to where I was, and you know, all

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Speaker 1: the struggles and all the things I had overcome, and

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Speaker 1: you know, it was it felt pretty good to get

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Speaker 1: you know, my name called, especially with that the two

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Speaker 1: other guys that were, you know, in the group with me,

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Speaker 1: with the Sterling and Daniel. So I think that's a

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Speaker 1: that's a good group to get picked out of. And

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Speaker 1: you know it's an honor. You had seven surgeries overall,

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Speaker 1: numerous times you dealt with infections. How did you get

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Speaker 1: through this? How did you endure um? To be honestly,

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Speaker 1: I just took a step by step, day by day.

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Speaker 1: I'd never tried to look too far ahead, and you know,

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Speaker 1: didn't look in the past. You know, what happened happened,

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Speaker 1: And you know, I can't control anything that, you know,

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Speaker 1: I can't control that part of it. So all I

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Speaker 1: could control is my added to it. And you know

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Speaker 1: what I did every day and I just I just

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Speaker 1: you know, I just try to put one in front

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Speaker 1: of the other and just keep going. So that's all

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Speaker 1: I tried to tell myself. Art Stapleton's good. Um, you

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Speaker 1: know you're you're a guy obviously who's who's learned to

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Speaker 1: not take anything for granted, and you have a tremendous

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Speaker 1: appreciation for where you guys are at overall as a

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Speaker 1: team right now. Uh, you know, going into this next month.

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Speaker 1: For years, since you've been here, it's always been about

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Speaker 1: next year, next year, next year. I'm curious what what

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Speaker 1: was your sense today when you step inside the building

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Speaker 1: that now it's about next month and what lies ahead

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Speaker 1: for this team and what's out there for you guys

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Speaker 1: to go get. Yeah, you know, we just got to

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Speaker 1: be played consistent football and play you know, everybody has

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Speaker 1: to be on the same page. And you know, we

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Speaker 1: gotta you know, we first off, we gotta stop by

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Speaker 1: going one to know against Washington and when you know,

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Speaker 1: winning this game this week, and you know, that's where

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Speaker 1: our focus is for the week, and you know, we

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Speaker 1: just gotta you know, we're gonna play good football. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's definitely nice to play me eating for football in December.

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Speaker 1: It's a first time that's happened in my career. So

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Speaker 1: it's it's definitely nice. It makes it a makes it

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Speaker 1: mean something to you. Just to follow up on that,

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Speaker 1: h this Washington Front defensively is somebody that you know,

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Speaker 1: they're a group that you've dug into in years past,

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Speaker 1: and you know, you guys have had some success against them. Um,

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Speaker 1: what do they look like now? They're doing anything differently?

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Speaker 1: And how can you continue that success even though you're

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Speaker 1: a different group right now going forward? Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: a defense line and I think it's it's always been

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Speaker 1: the same since I've been here. I feel like, you know,

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Speaker 1: they have a four first rounders, you know, starting there,

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Speaker 1: and their defensive tackles there too, you know, paying and

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Speaker 1: alan they're they're they're good, you know, good defensive tackles.

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Speaker 1: I'd probably say the two best players on their defense.

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Speaker 1: You know, that whole front is their defensive line is

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Speaker 1: you know where they make plays on the you know,

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Speaker 1: on the field. So, um, you know, I feel like

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Speaker 1: they do the same thing. You know, they're gonna, you know,

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Speaker 1: want to get after the past. You know, they're gonna

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Speaker 1: want to get after the passer and rush and you know,

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Speaker 1: pin their ears back and that's what they want to do.

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Speaker 1: Pad trainer, Hey, Nick, how are you good? Patty? How

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Speaker 1: are you the congratulations on your reward. I wanted to

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Speaker 1: ask you about the offensive line chemistry. I know you

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Speaker 1: guys have had guys come in and out, um due

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Speaker 1: to injuries and whatnot. Now that you know you're in

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Speaker 1: there and whatnot, what have you been able to do

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Speaker 1: as far as building up the verbal and non verbal communication.

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Speaker 1: That nonverbal communication being you know, probably the hardest to

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Speaker 1: kind of build up, if you will. Yeah, definitely. Um.

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Speaker 1: I feel like we're our group. We fit in really

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Speaker 1: well together. I feel like we all play really well

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Speaker 1: with like off each other, and you know, everybody knows

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Speaker 1: what they gotta do and everybody knows their job, and

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Speaker 1: then that makes it ten times easier for their offensive

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Speaker 1: center to you know, to get it. It doesn't matter

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Speaker 1: who's in there. If everybody knows what to do and

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Speaker 1: knows what their job is, it's uh, you know, and

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Speaker 1: make sure that make and make sure everybody's on the

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Speaker 1: same page, which is nice. So we have a thin,

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Speaker 1: we have a I know we have we had a Rickie,

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Speaker 1: but I feel like he played. He carries himself as

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Speaker 1: a veteran and right tackle and you know, he does

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Speaker 1: his job and knows how to do his job. So

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Speaker 1: that definitely helped. Have you been able to like kind

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Speaker 1: of take the vocal lead with this group or are

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Speaker 1: you just kind of still feeling your way back since

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Speaker 1: you're still you know, a couple of games in now. No. Um,

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Speaker 1: I feel like definitely definitely try to take the vocal

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Speaker 1: lead when it's my turn. Like when I'm the center,

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Speaker 1: I feel like until Daniels in the huddle, it's my

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Speaker 1: huddle and I'm gonna take over as you know that guy.

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Speaker 1: And once Daniel steps and it is. But if that

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Speaker 1: gots any center, it's in there. Every every center kind

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Speaker 1: of has to you know, be the leader of the

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Speaker 1: group and set the tone and you know, he's gotta

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Speaker 1: make sure everybody's going, you know, in the right direction

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Speaker 1: and just go play hard. So thank you, thank you

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Speaker 1: park Over and their congratulations. How how much better did

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Speaker 1: you feel? In that second game, I was the first game,

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Speaker 1: wasn't the start where you put you played quite a bit,

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Speaker 1: but how much better did you feel in this game.

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Speaker 1: I'm having the time to prepare and do the things

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Speaker 1: you need to do to get ready for the game.