Speaker 1: Nobody's drinking them and it makes it sometimes, it makes
Speaker 1: it look worse. It's like they don't want to take
Speaker 1: a drink out of them. It's just meant to do.
Speaker 1: We're gonna help you with Jim. Before the draft, Jock
Speaker 1: talked about you kind of lobbying people with bodies at
Speaker 1: the linebacker position. Are you comfortable right now you get
Speaker 1: ready to ramp up with you know, we're happy with
Speaker 1: the guys we have. Um. I think that's probably a
Speaker 1: better question for Howie and his staff because they're always
Speaker 1: looking to improve the team. And I think that's the
Speaker 1: commitment we make to the locker room. That's commitment we
Speaker 1: wait make to the city. That's the commitment we make
Speaker 1: to the organization that we're always going to try to
Speaker 1: look to improve. But um, I think we added a
Speaker 1: couple of good players in the off season and we've
Speaker 1: been happy with the progress. There's always gonna be time
Speaker 1: as you need more depth, There's always gonna be time
Speaker 1: things that come up along the way. So um, you know,
Speaker 1: as we're out here coaching, those guys are always keeping
Speaker 1: their eyes on, you know, different opportunities to add to
Speaker 1: the team. And I think that's the same for you know,
Speaker 1: thirty one other teams in the NFL, also the ociate
Speaker 1: of the media games. And combine all the information that
Speaker 1: you've taught this weep of guys over the time frame,
Speaker 1: compare to other places you did. How have these guys
Speaker 1: grasped the information you give me. You know, every team
Speaker 1: is a little bit different, and your your pace is
Speaker 1: a little bit different because your offense is a little
Speaker 1: bit different, you know. So, um, you know, I think
Speaker 1: I think they've made good progress. I wouldn't compare them
Speaker 1: to any other team. I wouldn't compare them to you know,
Speaker 1: any other player. Everybody's going to do it at their
Speaker 1: own place. I think the one thing we've kept in
Speaker 1: mind is, um, you know, the home the home openers
Speaker 1: a long way away, and and our eye is toward
Speaker 1: improving every day and you know, correcting little things, not
Speaker 1: getting too far ahead of ourselves. So I think the
Speaker 1: same could be said. We could get a little too
Speaker 1: far ahead of ourselves if we try to compare them
Speaker 1: to other guys. But I've been pleased with the effort
Speaker 1: to the guys have shown. I've im pleased with their
Speaker 1: ability to communicate and the ability to pick it up. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not rocket science. Now, we're not trying to.
Speaker 1: We're not trying to you know, reinvent anything. You know,
Speaker 1: we won't. We won't put guys in a good position, UM,
Speaker 1: communicate well, play what fits them. All those things are
Speaker 1: important to us, not you know, trying to you know,
Speaker 1: set a record for being difficult. So many different defensive
Speaker 1: over the years. Can you tell a disappointment a wise
Speaker 1: but a talent level you have? Have you done that
Speaker 1: before we place it's right or wrong? Disappointing? You know,
Speaker 1: I think that you can, Um, you can make mistakes
Speaker 1: if you do that because it let's be honest, we
Speaker 1: haven't had pads on yet, you know, and the football
Speaker 1: is meant to be played with pads. And you know,
Speaker 1: you can have a guy in the right position and
Speaker 1: it look good out here, but if you can't make
Speaker 1: that tackle and scheme didn't mean anything. So you know
Speaker 1: it it's a cliche, but it does come down to
Speaker 1: blocking and tackling and you know, those kind of things.
Speaker 1: And that's stuff that you know, we'll be determined over
Speaker 1: the next six weeks. That's the stuff that you know,
Speaker 1: training camps about. UM. You know, I think that from
Speaker 1: a from an adjustment period. Sometimes it's a little bit
Speaker 1: easier for the guys that fields a little bit smaller here. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a little there's a little less movement. You know,
Speaker 1: those guys can run toward the line of scrimmage more
Speaker 1: than one guy can be in motion. It feels longer,
Speaker 1: it feels wider. You know, I wouldn't want to call
Speaker 1: it arena football, but they come down here and it's
Speaker 1: almost like, you know, it's almost like going to arena football. Um.
Speaker 1: Aaron's a smart player. He's multidimensional. He's played outside, he's
Speaker 1: played nickel. Um just because our numbers are always playing
Speaker 1: a little safety, but that's just because he knows what
Speaker 1: to do. Um. He's shown he's shown a good confident attitude.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't you can't cover many guys if
Speaker 1: you're worried about getting beat. And he's had that confidence
Speaker 1: to go up and challenge guys. And I think that
Speaker 1: experience shows the fact that he has played in a
Speaker 1: professional league. And he's a little bit different than most
Speaker 1: of the other guys that are out here now because
Speaker 1: they're both they're just off of college. He does have
Speaker 1: a little more confidence from his professional experience. You know,
Speaker 1: obviously to be one of the you know, he made
Speaker 1: good progress through the off season. Um, you know, we
Speaker 1: took it slow with him again, sort of falling into
Speaker 1: our same mantras. You know, our game we don't open
Speaker 1: until September, so we didn't need to rush him. He's
Speaker 1: a veteran player. He was excellent in the meetings, um,
Speaker 1: and he was a good mentor for the younger guys.
Speaker 1: They're always picking his brain. He's smart player, had a
Speaker 1: really good year last year. So um, you know, we
Speaker 1: don't want to we don't want to get ahead of
Speaker 1: ourselves with him or take him out of his comfort level.
Speaker 1: But he took a little bit of individual at the
Speaker 1: end of our mini camp and OTAs and actually took
Speaker 1: a couple of team snaps in there, a couple of
Speaker 1: seven or seven I can't remember which one it was.
Speaker 1: So he was able to get a little confidence feeling like, hey,
Speaker 1: I can I can get up to speed. This is
Speaker 1: important for him now, you know, it's it's a good
Speaker 1: opportunity for him to come back before um, you know,
Speaker 1: the full club gets here, just to sort of test
Speaker 1: it out and see how he's feeling. You know, you
Speaker 1: don't want to judge too much and he might need
Speaker 1: a day here or there. Um, it helps that he's
Speaker 1: a veteran player. It helps that he's experienced, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think that he's able to make a lot of
Speaker 1: reps that he's not out there, you know, mental reps,
Speaker 1: so to speak. Um, he can learn and learn by
Speaker 1: carryson through the other guys. He's done that. Why you
Speaker 1: seem to do a little more than most? Why have
Speaker 1: you gravitated towards towards that the ball? Really a lot
Speaker 1: of times it just fits the personnel that we have. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that we've done with a little
Speaker 1: different flavor each stop along the way. You know, it
Speaker 1: looked a little bit different with Javon Curse and Kevin
Speaker 1: Carter when I was in Tennessee, and I looked a
Speaker 1: little bit different with Kyle Van Debosch and Antoine Odam
Speaker 1: when we got to Detroit. It looked a little different
Speaker 1: with Cliff Avril. Um, you know, it looked a little
Speaker 1: different with Ziggy Onza Um Buffalo, it looked a little
Speaker 1: bit different with Mario Williams and a guy like Jerry Hughes.
Speaker 1: All those guys have different skill sets and um, you know,
Speaker 1: it's all about trying to put them in a position
Speaker 1: that you know they can execute the scheme, but within
Speaker 1: the scheme they can technique wise execute. I think it's
Speaker 1: some things that probably fly below the radar from just
Speaker 1: an alignment standpoint. But there's there's a lot of differences
Speaker 1: between what we're doing right now, what we did in Buffalo,
Speaker 1: what we did in Tennessee, or or to Detroit who
Speaker 1: hadn't played before. UM and then you three four. Yea
Speaker 1: kinda did a lot of this when he was a
Speaker 1: Houston early in his career. UM. And Connor's a smart player,
Speaker 1: He's multidimensional. I think it fits the guys really well here.
Speaker 1: And UM, you know, I think if you ask them, UM,
Speaker 1: you know they'd rather attack than read. Um. It puts
Speaker 1: us in a little better position to rush the passer,
Speaker 1: puts a little bit a little bit better position to
Speaker 1: set hard edges. UM. It's been our philosophy. And I
Speaker 1: think if you ask offensive coordinators they would tell you
Speaker 1: the same thing. Um, if you can get there with four,
Speaker 1: you have a big advantage on defense. If you have
Speaker 1: to blitz to get pressure, UM, you can be at
Speaker 1: a disadvantage. The offense could take advantage of you. You know,
Speaker 1: when you can rush with four, it allows you to
Speaker 1: blitz on your own terms rather than jeez, we got
Speaker 1: to get pressure. We have to blitz, um, you know.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of different reasons that we do.
Speaker 1: One of what the biggest is that, you know, we
Speaker 1: try to match the talent that we have to the
Speaker 1: techniques that we're asking guys to play. And even here, um,
Speaker 1: you know, some of the stuff that um, you know,
Speaker 1: Brandon is doing is a little different than what what
Speaker 1: Vinnie's doing, you know, and I think that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's up to the coaches and Chris has done
Speaker 1: a really good job. They're trying to tailor package for
Speaker 1: each guy to the corners how open obviously time, how
Speaker 1: open you know, and even even where it appears as
Speaker 1: though we're set. We're always looking for good players, and
Speaker 1: we're always looking for guys that can, um, you know,
Speaker 1: that can execute the scheme, Guys that can make a
Speaker 1: play within the scheme, Guys that can be trustworthy. Um.
Speaker 1: So we try not to go in with any any
Speaker 1: prejudice toward anybody, whether it's an undrafted free agent or
Speaker 1: a ten year event. Um, it's going to be fun
Speaker 1: to watch the corners compete. We have some guys that
Speaker 1: can cover. We have some guys that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: have a great opportunity here and um, you know, if
Speaker 1: if they'll get up and they'll challenge receivers. Like I
Speaker 1: said before, you know, if you can cover, you can't
Speaker 1: cover many people. If if you don't want to challenge guys,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, there's God's honest truth. I could
Speaker 1: I could play the deep ball I get, I get
Speaker 1: my ass fifty yards deep and you couldn't get one
Speaker 1: over top of me. But I couldn't cover anything else,
Speaker 1: you know, So there's a there's a fine line in there.
Speaker 1: And um, the fine line is you have to you know,
Speaker 1: you obviously have to play the deep ball in this league.
Speaker 1: But if that's the only thing you're worried about, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna cover anything. And I said, and you what's that, Well,
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I wasn't. I wasn't. Yeah. Um, but you know,
Speaker 1: just with the blend of veteran players, you know, a
Speaker 1: guy like Nolan Carroll who we talked about, Leotis McKelvin,
Speaker 1: some young guys that have some opportunities. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: Jalen has done a nice job for a rookie so far,
Speaker 1: and from Brooks is is going to have an opportunity. Um,
Speaker 1: you guys coming off injury, you know, like like Ship
Speaker 1: who's been out here. I think it's going to be
Speaker 1: exciting to watch those guys. And you know, if they show,
Speaker 1: if they show the ability to cover, and they show
Speaker 1: that you know that that they will challenge guys, then
Speaker 1: we'll find use for all of them. Kind of make
Speaker 1: picture to describe your philosophy and defensive approach because obviously
Speaker 1: this is a new staff to a lot of the
Speaker 1: folks here fans here in Philadelphia, Can you just describe
Speaker 1: what you want to accomplish defensive Um, yeah, it probably
Speaker 1: takes a lot of time. Um, in a nutshell, we
Speaker 1: want to allow less points than our offense scores. I mean, hey,
Speaker 1: well you know ranking stats. The only thing that matters
Speaker 1: in this league is wins and losses. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'll take a forty two or forty one game. I
Speaker 1: might not sleep well afterwards, but I'll take it. I'd
Speaker 1: rather have that than a you know, than a seven
Speaker 1: to three game that you that you lose. So we
Speaker 1: keep our eye on that. We want to be an
Speaker 1: attack defense. We want to put pressure on the quarterback um.
Speaker 1: You know, we want to like anything, it's it's very
Speaker 1: difficult to defend the entire field. So what we're want
Speaker 1: to try to do is defend um, you know, defend
Speaker 1: the things that are easiest for the offense to capitalize
Speaker 1: on and try to make them do what is most difficult.
Speaker 1: And also we've got to we got to be multidimensional
Speaker 1: enough that we can change from week to week. There
Speaker 1: might be some weeks we play a lot of eight
Speaker 1: man front we have a good running team. There might
Speaker 1: be some weeks we play very little eight man front. Um.
Speaker 1: We have to have smart enough and multidimensional players enough
Speaker 1: that you know that we can that we can you
Speaker 1: know more from week to week. Lack of better lack
Speaker 1: of a better tournament defense, do the linebackers standard to
Speaker 1: fast more second level blocking from a place of blind
Speaker 1: in your scheam or is it really not much different
Speaker 1: than depress the two gaps. That's a lot different than
Speaker 1: two gap because when when you're playing two gap, I
Speaker 1: don't want to get too technical with you guys, but
Speaker 1: when you're playing two gap, you're generally building a wall
Speaker 1: along the front guys are sort of falling back and
Speaker 1: linebackers are generally shuffling laterally more because your defensive linemen
Speaker 1: are going laterally. When you play an attack front up front,
Speaker 1: your linebackers have to come downhill. They have to plug
Speaker 1: those holes. We're probably more you know, we attack in levels,
Speaker 1: and I want to bore you guys, but you know,
Speaker 1: back when I was playing high school football, to coach
Speaker 1: would always say, everybody's stay in your lane. Everybody's stay
Speaker 1: in your lane. Nobody covers a kick that way in
Speaker 1: the NFL anymore or college football, because one guy's out
Speaker 1: of this lane, it's gone for a touchdown. You attack
Speaker 1: in levels, you have guys that are disrupt There's guys
Speaker 1: that attack, you know, the blocks, and other guys that
Speaker 1: play leverage off of them. If we're going to play
Speaker 1: attack up front, we are because we're gonna put those
Speaker 1: guys in position to be able to rush their passer
Speaker 1: and play their run on the way to the quarterback.
Speaker 1: The linebackers have to be tied and the safeties have
Speaker 1: to be tied in. There's techniques within that that you know,
Speaker 1: they need to be able to play off the guys
Speaker 1: in front, and they need to. When they see a hole,
Speaker 1: they have to step up and fill because, like you said,
Speaker 1: if you don't, if you're lateral, you can create some
Speaker 1: gaps in there. So if our linebackers are playing well,
Speaker 1: if our safeties are filling well, you're going to see
Speaker 1: those guys attacking downhill rather than waiting and catching blocks.
Speaker 1: There's something you look for and one time defenders. Are
Speaker 1: they just like the third or fourth quarterback. No, it's
Speaker 1: it's a little different skill set in there. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a lot different covering on the outside part of
Speaker 1: the field than it is the inside. You know, you
Speaker 1: got to have some miniature linebacker in you. Um, you
Speaker 1: got to enjoy the briar patch a little bit. You
Speaker 1: gotta have the courage to throw your body up in
Speaker 1: there against two hundred and forty pound running backs and
Speaker 1: you might have to take on a you know, pulling
Speaker 1: guard from time to time, or you know, a tight end.
Speaker 1: So there's a little and a lot of times you're
Speaker 1: covering in a shorter area. It's very rare that you're getting,
Speaker 1: you know, um, the same routes you're you're not getting
Speaker 1: the same routes from the slot as you are from outside.
Speaker 1: So there's a different skill set. Some guys can play both,
Speaker 1: some guys can't. Um, you know, so it's our job
Speaker 1: to determine over the next six weeks, you know, where
Speaker 1: all the guys fit in that himlech Cox obviously final
Speaker 1: player pro bowler right now smack in the middle of
Speaker 1: his career and his prime. Do you think there's one
Speaker 1: more level he can take it to where he has
Speaker 1: the chance to be a defensive Player of the year
Speaker 1: kind of got you know, I think that his eyes
Speaker 1: should be on, you know, improving every day and you know,
Speaker 1: I mean those things are for the end of the year. Um,
Speaker 1: he fits our scheme. Um, I think we'll have some
Speaker 1: things for him that will fit him well. Um, he's
Speaker 1: a tough matchup. Um he's he's tough matchup versus guards.
Speaker 1: He's tough matchup versus some tackles. You know. And I
Speaker 1: like some of the stuff that you know that they
Speaker 1: did with him here last year, moved him around him
Speaker 1: a little bit. Um. You know, they're all going to
Speaker 1: know what number he wears, so sometimes it's hard to
Speaker 1: find him. But you know, it's our job to create
Speaker 1: some matchups for him. M's he's very skilled there. He's
Speaker 1: a good run player, he's got great hands and you
Speaker 1: know I've said this before. He was drafted for a
Speaker 1: scheme similar to this, so it'll be good to get
Speaker 1: him back to that and really see, um what he
Speaker 1: can do. We expect great things from him. H