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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Seahawks Insiders Camp. Chamfer comes up

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Speaker 1: and just lad getting you ready for Seahawks football. Every Sunday.

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Speaker 1: Russell has time, fires down and got his bag one

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Speaker 1: he isn't touchdown shah Shut powered by Seahawks dot Com.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Seahawks Insider podcast as we wrap up

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Speaker 1: the Seahawks two thousand and sixteen season. I'm Jen Mueller,

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Speaker 1: sideline reporter for your Seattle Seahawks, joined by John Boyle

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Speaker 1: from Seahawks dot Com. And John, I think we can

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Speaker 1: both smile a little bit more. It's it's been a

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Speaker 1: couple of days. Yeah, it's you know, you kind of

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Speaker 1: get to that point where you can get the sting

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Speaker 1: of the loss past ye look at the big picture

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Speaker 1: a little more well, And I think that that's a

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Speaker 1: good goal to do as we kind of wrap up

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Speaker 1: the season, is to look at big picture where the

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Speaker 1: team ended, where the team is at, and where they

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Speaker 1: can potentially go, because I know that that's a conversation

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Speaker 1: that a lot of fans are having right now, and

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Speaker 1: there's a little bit of consternation about, oh man, have

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Speaker 1: they missed their window of opportunity? But in general, when

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Speaker 1: you listen to Pete talk, they're right in the middle

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Speaker 1: of this. You know, I would not expect Pete to

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Speaker 1: be anything other than optimistic. He has gout it in

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Speaker 1: full dose, in full force. Yeah, and I think for

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Speaker 1: a really good reason. Look, it's it would have been

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Speaker 1: great if they could have gone the super Bowl this

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Speaker 1: year or last year. But it's really hard to be

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Speaker 1: that final one or two team standing. And they've still

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Speaker 1: done a lot of good things the last couple of years.

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Speaker 1: And if you want to look at kind of the

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Speaker 1: big picture, if you want to take the most simple,

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Speaker 1: easy view, here's two things they have. That every good

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Speaker 1: NFL team needs a quarterback and a head coach, and

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Speaker 1: that neither of those guys are going anywhere. Russell Wilson's

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Speaker 1: really just to the point he should be get as prime.

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Speaker 1: But then if we want to look at the roster

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Speaker 1: much more detailed, they're in great shape all over the board.

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Speaker 1: Most of their key guys are locked up for a while.

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Speaker 1: This defense, they're a veteran defense, but they're not an

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Speaker 1: old defense. I mean, all these guys, who are you know,

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Speaker 1: the most important star guys on there there? You know, yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're not twenty four anymore. But they're not in their

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Speaker 1: thirties either. They're twenty seven, twenty eight years old. I mean,

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Speaker 1: Doug Baldon talked about this. Is you get older and

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Speaker 1: you've been in the league, it does sting a little

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Speaker 1: more knowing we got this far and didn't finish it,

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Speaker 1: but there's no reason to think they shouldn't be back

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Speaker 1: in a similar position. Before we get talking about kind

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Speaker 1: of what the future holds for the team, here's the

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Speaker 1: question that I keep getting asked most often, and and

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Speaker 1: that is this, what's the one reason why the Seahawks

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Speaker 1: couldn't advance and couldn't quite pull it off this year?

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Speaker 1: Boy to say there's one as hard I think. I mean,

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Speaker 1: the one word that we keep hearing is inconsistency. But

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of reasons for that. So it's hard

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Speaker 1: to just say they're inconsistent because of X and Y.

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Speaker 1: But I mean, the easiest thing to look at, and

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Speaker 1: it sounds like an excuse, but when you look at

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Speaker 1: the guys, it's valid that they had a lot of injuries.

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Speaker 1: Two very important players. You've played a good chunk of

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Speaker 1: the season with a quarterback who wasn't right, You missed

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Speaker 1: both your Pro Bowl Safeties missed time, Michael Bennett. This

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Speaker 1: team is so relying on us running game when it's right,

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Speaker 1: and they didn't have Thomas Rawls for a good chunk

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Speaker 1: of this season. He didn't. You know, again, every team

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Speaker 1: goes to injuries, but some teams get hit harder than others,

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Speaker 1: and generally the ones that tend to have the most

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Speaker 1: success have fewer, so they had to deal a thought,

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Speaker 1: But do you think that that shows that the Seahawks

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Speaker 1: actually do have a lot of good depth, because I

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Speaker 1: would look at that and say, man, there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of teams that could not have overcome that. They wouldn't

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Speaker 1: even gotten to that ten win mark, they wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: won the division, and they wouldn't have even been in

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Speaker 1: the playoffs. So I think, you know, if I'm looking

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Speaker 1: for the silver lining, as I often try to, what

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Speaker 1: you saw was the Seahawks depth get tested and for

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Speaker 1: the most part withstand it up until the end where

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Speaker 1: you just have to be firing on all on all cylinders,

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Speaker 1: and you couldn't. Yeah, I mean, when we go to

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Speaker 1: the wide end, they advanced. Part of that is just

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Speaker 1: they ran into a really good team in Atlanta. Of course,

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Speaker 1: Saltons played really well, but I think a lot of

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Speaker 1: teams in similar situations injured. I mean, we talk about

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Speaker 1: all the time when teams their quarterback season's done. Sex

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Speaker 1: didn't lose their quarterback, but they played with a very

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Speaker 1: limited version of them, and then they lost arguably the

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Speaker 1: most important player on their defense. So yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think some teams with a little different makeup and

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Speaker 1: maybe a different coach and different things could have had

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Speaker 1: this season instead of being an okay, they weren't quite

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Speaker 1: their best and they still into the playoffs. That could

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Speaker 1: have been a seven and nine, six and ten year

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Speaker 1: and you're out of the playoffs. We look at that

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Speaker 1: word inconsistency, and I know that you and I have

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Speaker 1: talked about that a lot on a weekly basis, and

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Speaker 1: it's something that's come up from the players and the coaches.

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Speaker 1: Here's the other thing I think people are going to

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Speaker 1: look at when they look at the struggles and the challenges,

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Speaker 1: and that would be the offensive line for the Seahawks.

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Speaker 1: And how did Pete kind of frame that part of

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Speaker 1: the conversation, because I know he said, look, they're an

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Speaker 1: easy target and that's not the whole story. No, I mean,

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Speaker 1: they would have liked that group to be more consistent

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Speaker 1: and play better this year. But I think, I mean,

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Speaker 1: Pete's and optimists, He's going to always see the bright

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Speaker 1: side of it. But there's I mean, there's so much

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Speaker 1: room for improvement in that group because you've got a

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Speaker 1: rookie left tackle who barely played, you have a rookie guard,

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Speaker 1: you have the other guard played only one game last

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Speaker 1: year before this, So it's I mean, we don't know

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Speaker 1: what's gonna be the same five guys. They could sign somebody,

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Speaker 1: They're gonna almost surely draft at least one or two linemen.

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Speaker 1: You know, Risodiambo will factor into to the competition, so

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Speaker 1: it won't necessarily be the same group. But even if

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Speaker 1: it is, just with the natural growth guys go through,

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Speaker 1: especially into their second season, that it should be a

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Speaker 1: lot better. So we know that the inconsistency factor and

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Speaker 1: the injuries led to where they are now. So I

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Speaker 1: guess the next logical question is what's next, And let's

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Speaker 1: take that immediately. What's next? Would Pete and John do? Now?

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Speaker 1: What do the players do? What happens when the offseason

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Speaker 1: gets going? Yeah, I mean for the players, it's usually

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Speaker 1: kind of just recover and relax first. How much can

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Speaker 1: depend on how old they are, how much they play.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if you're a rookie who barely played this year,

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Speaker 1: you're probably gonna get right back to working out and

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Speaker 1: getting ready. If you're twenty eight year old who's beat

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Speaker 1: up and play it every down, then you might take

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Speaker 1: a few weeks off and well deserved. And so you know,

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Speaker 1: every guy varies, but most of them say they'll take

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Speaker 1: a few weeks and then they'll get back at it,

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Speaker 1: get working out all that. Coaches, you know, they they

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Speaker 1: relax a little, but it's the offseason short for those guys,

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Speaker 1: because well, there's coaches, talent evaluators they've got there's Senior

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Speaker 1: Bowl coming up, there's the Combine, they got it ready

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Speaker 1: for the draft. You know, there's coaches being looked at

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Speaker 1: for other jobs. So maybe you're having to replace the

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Speaker 1: coach house. I Pete Carroll touched on you at everybody

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Speaker 1: gets kind of catch your breath, maybe get a little son,

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Speaker 1: relax a little, but they're back at work pretty quick.

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Speaker 1: I laugh at the fact that you said, if you're

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Speaker 1: the twenty eight year old, your body needs a little

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Speaker 1: more time to recover. I can't wait till those guys,

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Speaker 1: you know, get there. I realized, yes, I know, it's

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Speaker 1: just it is. It is older. Yes, you're on the NFL.

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Speaker 1: Don't recover. You just wait until you're getting up at

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Speaker 1: you know, the age of thirty seven or thirty eight.

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Speaker 1: You can't figure out why in the world you're sore

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Speaker 1: in the morning. It's it's like what in the world. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: I digress. So you're talking about kind of what the

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Speaker 1: coaches and the players are doing. How about the talent

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Speaker 1: evaluation because we know that the combine is coming up

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Speaker 1: right in February. Yeah, they pushed it back a week

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Speaker 1: they did, which is all designed to give them a

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Speaker 1: little bit more time to evaluate talent, get their pieces

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Speaker 1: in order, because I know for the fans, you don't

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Speaker 1: realize how short this part of the season really is

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Speaker 1: and how much time a playoff team loses in that

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Speaker 1: talent evaluation. I was talking to one of our stats

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Speaker 1: guys on the way out of the building after they

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Speaker 1: had just cleaned out the players lockers, and I said, well,

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Speaker 1: when does your off season start, you know, when do

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Speaker 1: you get into that part? He goes, Actually, I started

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Speaker 1: about three weeks ago, you know, I had to get

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Speaker 1: stuff in order so that we can come to the

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Speaker 1: office tomorrow and start working on it. Yeah. I mean

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Speaker 1: for those guys, anybody involved in talent acquisition, draft, all

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Speaker 1: that stuff, it's I mean, in a lot of ways,

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Speaker 1: this is when they're busy. Season gets going because you

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Speaker 1: need to be on it. Whether it's I mean, first

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Speaker 1: of all, they're looking at their own roster, saying, Okay,

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Speaker 1: the season's over. What do we need? What? You know,

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Speaker 1: where can we get better? You know, house free agency

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Speaker 1: can affect our current roster. Who could be going all

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Speaker 1: that stuff, And then you're looking at the outside stuff

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Speaker 1: other teams free agency, you're looking at draft, all that stuff.

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Speaker 1: So this you know, as a fan, you say football's over,

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Speaker 1: you can stop thinking about it, maybe until the draft weekend.

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Speaker 1: But these guys are all over it well and they've

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Speaker 1: done such a good job in acquiring the right talent.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's evident by the career years at

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Speaker 1: some of these guys had. When you take a look

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Speaker 1: at the talent on this team, and I know it's

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Speaker 1: one of the things you said that means the Seahawks

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Speaker 1: are right in the middle of all of this. Who

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Speaker 1: do you look at is having just the best year.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you the three questions kind of the

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Speaker 1: best year, the biggest surprise, and the biggest kind of

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Speaker 1: promise for the future. So those are the three categories

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Speaker 1: I working with right now. So biggest year, best year.

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Speaker 1: I gotta go with Bobby Wanger. I mean, he's a

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Speaker 1: first team All Pro. He's been a great player's whole career,

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Speaker 1: but just seems to keep getting better. And I mean, again,

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Speaker 1: there's great players both sides of the ball who had

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Speaker 1: great years. But I think just weekend week out. We

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Speaker 1: talked about this after I think it was the last

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Speaker 1: regular season game where it was almost the most remarkable

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Speaker 1: thing is how unremarkable these twelve tackle two SAT games

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Speaker 1: felt because he just kept doing it weekend and week

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Speaker 1: out and the consistency was so good. Yeah, I would,

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Speaker 1: I would absolutely put Bobby in there. And I'm also

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Speaker 1: going to throw you know, maybe Deshaun Shed into part

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Speaker 1: of the conversation of just taking on such a large role, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and doing it so seamlessly. It seemed like, you know, no,

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Speaker 1: he had a great season on really unfortunate the way

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Speaker 1: it ended for him with a serious injury. But the

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Speaker 1: thing about being that that other cornerback in Seatt's defense,

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Speaker 1: the non Richard Sherman cornerback. You're gonna get picked on.

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Speaker 1: Teams are going to come at you a lot, and

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Speaker 1: he time after time. I mean, look, he got beat occasionally.

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Speaker 1: That's going to happen to any cornerback. But he was

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Speaker 1: really good this year. And this is a guy that

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Speaker 1: you know, we've talked about before, but such a cool

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Speaker 1: story to work his way up from you know, one

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Speaker 1: double a school, undrafted practice squad for almost two seasons,

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Speaker 1: special teamer and now special team captain this year and

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Speaker 1: he barely played special teams because he was too important

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Speaker 1: to the defense. Yeah, such a cool story. And yeah

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Speaker 1: he had a great season. He talked about that all

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Speaker 1: bit yesterday that yeah, he was a guy that just

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Speaker 1: really kind of stepped up his game. Yeah. Okay, so

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Speaker 1: biggest surprise and let's go pleasant surprise there we good? Um,

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Speaker 1: I gotta go Justin Britt. I mean, this is a

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Speaker 1: guy that didn't play poorly, but didn't necessarily stand out

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Speaker 1: his first two years, and you know, got moved to

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Speaker 1: positions from his rookie year from guard or tackle to guard,

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Speaker 1: struggled at times with that adjustment, and then you find

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Speaker 1: out going to this year they're going to look at

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Speaker 1: him at another position, and you're thinking, well, this guy

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Speaker 1: didn't work at one position and then another one is

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Speaker 1: a third position in three years really the best thing

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Speaker 1: for him, And he was their best aligneman all year.

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Speaker 1: I mean he played phenomenal. It wasn't just that he

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Speaker 1: survived that transition. It's by far the best he's played.

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Speaker 1: And he seems you've really found a home. He kind

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Speaker 1: of joked outside he has to go into an offseason

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Speaker 1: knowing he gets to stay at a position, not to

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Speaker 1: learn a new one. Yeah, he's double Yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: he just had a great season. And to do that

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Speaker 1: from you know, having to change positions to one that

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Speaker 1: maybe isn't the physically hardest of the offensive line but

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Speaker 1: mentally requires the most. To learn it that quick and

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Speaker 1: do that well was really cool and really encouraging for

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Speaker 1: them going forward to settle on that. Well, if you

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Speaker 1: pick him as your biggest surprise, I'm going to pick

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Speaker 1: George Fant as my big surprise on that one, because

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Speaker 1: we can't just keep copying each other. I mean we

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Speaker 1: could and that yeah, yeah, I would say George Fant

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Speaker 1: you know, nobody expected him to move into that role.

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Speaker 1: And I remember, I think sitting with you during training

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Speaker 1: camp and having Dave Wyman and somebody say, hey, you know,

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Speaker 1: I was talking to Tom Kabler. I was talking to

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Speaker 1: these guys, and they really like this George Fant kid,

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Speaker 1: So so don't forget about him, don't sleep on him.

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Speaker 1: And we're kind of like, yeah, I guess I don't.

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Speaker 1: I don't know that that's going to be a factor

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Speaker 1: this year. And gosh, darnett did he come in and

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Speaker 1: play well and adapt on the fly for somebody who

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Speaker 1: hadn't really played much football before. So I thought that

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Speaker 1: was a cool. Still, no, it's really cool. I mean,

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Speaker 1: and when when exactly what you're saying, we heard, you know,

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Speaker 1: they really like this guy. My thought is, Okay, he's

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Speaker 1: practice squad. Yeah, he's a project. Okay, he makes a roster,

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Speaker 1: but he's just going to be an active every week

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Speaker 1: and just develop him and for him to come in

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Speaker 1: and eventually take over starting job. Look, he wasn't perfect.

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Speaker 1: He struggled at times, which is inevitable. This guy didn't

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Speaker 1: play football really regularly since like eighth grade. So this

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Speaker 1: is when we talked about the old line earlier and

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Speaker 1: the potential for growth. This is a big reason why

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Speaker 1: they're excited. Is how much better should this guy get

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Speaker 1: just with what he went through this year and then

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Speaker 1: he's going to have a full offseason to learn and

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Speaker 1: get physically ready for it. I mean, yeah, it's it's

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Speaker 1: a cool story and one that if he keeps that

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Speaker 1: starting job and becomes a good player for them, would

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Speaker 1: be quite the fine. Well, he could either go into

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Speaker 1: that most surprising, biggest surprise, or he could go into

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Speaker 1: our last category of just kind of where you see

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Speaker 1: the most promise, the player that flashed where you just

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Speaker 1: want to see more. But I'm not going to put

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Speaker 1: words into your mouth. Who is that for you? Well,

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Speaker 1: that is a good one, but so we can keep

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Speaker 1: talking about different guys, you know, as good as he

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Speaker 1: was this year, I'd say Frank Clark just I mean,

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Speaker 1: if you look at from year one to year two,

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Speaker 1: to go from you know, didn't get as much playing time,

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Speaker 1: I can get like three sacks in the regular season

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Speaker 1: to a ten guy. I mean, that's a great season

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Speaker 1: right there. Double sacks, and you could argue he could

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Speaker 1: have been in that you know, most improved from year

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Speaker 1: one to year two category. But when I just look

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Speaker 1: at down the road, I mean I remember Michael Bennett

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Speaker 1: when Clark was a rookie, saying, this guy's more, you know, physically,

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Speaker 1: more gifted, could be better than me. And Michael Bennett

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Speaker 1: is such a good player. I don't want to put

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Speaker 1: that on Frank Clark yet, but when you look at

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Speaker 1: just the physical tools and defensive linemen tend to develop

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Speaker 1: a little later. We've seen this team sometimes struggle to that.

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Speaker 1: That's why we see so many veterans, these free agents

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Speaker 1: come in while it's a taba Uban Tony McDaniel and play.

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Speaker 1: It's hard physically, it's demanding the mental side of just

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Speaker 1: learning all the tricks of the trade. So to be

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Speaker 1: as good as he was in year two, I could

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Speaker 1: see some really great things for him going yeah, and

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Speaker 1: some maturity that came through just growth in all areas.

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Speaker 1: I like that one. But I'm gonna stay on the

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Speaker 1: offensive side of the ball, and I'm gonna go CJ process. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: He flashed just and I wish we could have seen

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Speaker 1: him in more games, and I think that's probably where

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Speaker 1: I'd like to see him. The biggest kind of biggest

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Speaker 1: step forward is staying healthy. And I know that some

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Speaker 1: people say, well, you can't help that, and I would agree,

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Speaker 1: you can't help having a shoulder injury like he did. Right,

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Speaker 1: you land wrong, you get tackled. But I think some

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Speaker 1: of the other things that comes with being a professional

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Speaker 1: and knowing how to take care of your body and

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Speaker 1: knowing when to push it and when to not. And

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Speaker 1: we've had a number of players, particularly wide receivers, will

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Speaker 1: say things like this. You know, Paul Richardson's a good example. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's not that he wasn't trying to again, just right.

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Speaker 1: You learn from other people, and I hope that that's

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Speaker 1: one of the things that CJ can kind of work on,

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Speaker 1: because man is he Oh the times we saw him

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Speaker 1: when he was right, it was very impressive. It was interesting.

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Speaker 1: Pete touch on that yesterday. It was he was pretty

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Speaker 1: frank about it that someone asked about his durability and

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Speaker 1: he said, you know, I can't say that's not a

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Speaker 1: concern because it was not just one thing. It was

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Speaker 1: the hamstring and amp and the risk there just a

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Speaker 1: lot of different things. So it's you know, the good

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Speaker 1: news is he was healthy throughout his college career. So

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Speaker 1: this isn't a long pattern of issues, but as you said,

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Speaker 1: there there's some some a lot of injuries in football

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Speaker 1: inevitable a guy falls on your leg and you break

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Speaker 1: your leg or sprain your ankle. That that's hard to avoid.

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Speaker 1: But there is learning how to train right and you know,

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Speaker 1: get everything right, and hopefully we see a healthier version

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Speaker 1: of him next year, because the potential was very tantalizing. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and we know that we're going to see him back

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Speaker 1: this year. And the last thing that I want to

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Speaker 1: touch on is you know, who might we not see back?

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Speaker 1: That was a really poor way of asking the question. Right.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned that for the most part, this team is

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Speaker 1: in good shape when it comes to free agents. The

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Speaker 1: core pieces on defense are locked up. But there's a

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Speaker 1: couple of names out there where, you know, we just

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Speaker 1: don't know what the status is, you know. And I

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Speaker 1: think that the two that come to mind for me

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Speaker 1: would be Stephen Haushka and Luke Wilson. Yeah, and Mike

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Speaker 1: Morgan who this year. Yeah, I mean every team's gonna

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Speaker 1: lose guys and free agency, we don't know for sure

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Speaker 1: what will happen with any of those guys, but yeah,

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Speaker 1: those are kind of the most prominent guys who are

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Speaker 1: in the most prominent roles, and you know, I'm sure

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Speaker 1: that you know, more often than not, it's not an

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Speaker 1: issue of not wanting guys back, it's just whether you

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Speaker 1: can make it all pencil out financially. So you know,

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Speaker 1: Luke Wilson talked the other day when they're clean out

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Speaker 1: their lockers about that on Sunday that you know, he'd

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Speaker 1: loved to be back. He kind of got all emotional

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Speaker 1: about just how much he loves it here. And I

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Speaker 1: think that's a free agency's hard for any player. But

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Speaker 1: the first time, I think it's tough because it's all

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Speaker 1: they you know, all he knows in the NFL has

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Speaker 1: been here, and to suddenly face you know, maybe I leave,

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Speaker 1: that's that's tough. It's maybe a little easier if you're

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Speaker 1: a veteran in your fourth contract and you know the

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Speaker 1: business side of it a little better, but it's that's

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Speaker 1: always tough. Um. But again, I think the more important

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Speaker 1: thing is the way they've They've done a really good

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Speaker 1: job over the years of identifying their core guys and

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Speaker 1: getting these deals done. Before it gets to this point,

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Speaker 1: we haven't seen many of their very top you know,

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Speaker 1: Pro Bowl caliber guys ever get to free agency, and

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Speaker 1: that's a big deal for the front office, which also

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Speaker 1: means that for all the twelves who have purchased their jerseys,

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Speaker 1: they should For the most part, I think they're still

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Speaker 1: going to be good for next year. I think so.

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Speaker 1: It's Yeah, whenever my friends are relatives ask what jersey

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Speaker 1: to get, I tell him to look at the contracts.

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Speaker 1: Make sure find somebody who's young and under contract for

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Speaker 1: a tract for a while. That's really good advice. You know,

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Speaker 1: that might not be the most popular advice, but that's

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Speaker 1: really good advice. And I tell you what, We thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for joining us throughout the season. We

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Speaker 1: have had a blast talking with each other, talking with you,

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Speaker 1: and I don't know that we're going to be able

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Speaker 1: to wait until the starting next year, we'll talk about

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Speaker 1: the combine or the draft. Yeah, I think offseason workouts

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Speaker 1: will kick up. We can talk about Mini camp Ota

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Speaker 1: is all that NFL is now a year or really,

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Speaker 1: and so I'm pretty sure that we can find something

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Speaker 1: to talk about between now and then. To make sure

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Speaker 1: that those of you who have listened to the Seahawks

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Speaker 1: inside our podcast all year long get your fill of

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Speaker 1: Seahawks even in the off season. Thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for joining us. For John Boyle, I'm Jen Mueller. We'll

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Speaker 1: talk to you against it. H