Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. There's a testament to what kind of
Speaker 1: player and person he is. We couldn't be more excited.
Speaker 1: We're all celebrating last night when we heard the news
Speaker 1: and really excited to see what happens in Houston. He
Speaker 1: is truly a member of this team on and off
Speaker 1: the field. I also want to gratulate t O huge
Speaker 1: part of the two thousand and fourth season and our
Speaker 1: effort to win a World championship, which both of them
Speaker 1: the best of luck as we go forward here. I
Speaker 1: also wanted to start by thanking our fans the support
Speaker 1: they showed throughout this season, the energy they brought. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the results weren't satisfactory for all of us, but wanted
Speaker 1: to start by saying thank you to all of them.
Speaker 1: As we look back at where we stood last year.
Speaker 1: We were sitting here without a second round pick, with
Speaker 1: no quarterback under contract, with a lot of free agents.
Speaker 1: Not only last season, but this offseason, we felt like
Speaker 1: we had to do things to address that for the
Speaker 1: future of this franchise. It started with the quarterback position.
Speaker 1: Being able to move up from thirteen to two and
Speaker 1: get Carson Wentz was something we were really excited about.
Speaker 1: We understood with the amount of resources we put into
Speaker 1: that trade that is gonna be hard to do a
Speaker 1: lot else. But we also felt there was value in
Speaker 1: free agency and the draft at the old line position.
Speaker 1: By getting some offensive lineman and Brandon Brooks and Whiz
Speaker 1: in free agency and then coming back in the draft
Speaker 1: with a third and fifth round pick and getting offensive linemen.
Speaker 1: We felt really good that we were able to address
Speaker 1: those two spots. When we look at our team going forward,
Speaker 1: we had a twenty four year old quarterback. We had
Speaker 1: a twenty five year old highest paid player. We got
Speaker 1: to make sure we surround that talent with people who
Speaker 1: can be here and build with them off the field.
Speaker 1: We made a huge edition bringing Joe Douglas here. With
Speaker 1: his insight, with his leadership, his ability to lead the
Speaker 1: draft room, his ability to put the free agent board together.
Speaker 1: We think he's gonna be a huge addition for the staff.
Speaker 1: He's already added valuable input into what he's looking for
Speaker 1: in players, what he thinks he can bring to this team,
Speaker 1: and we can't wait to see what he has in
Speaker 1: store for us. In March. Questions as far as as
Speaker 1: as the twenty sixteen season, what's your evaluation of it
Speaker 1: and of Doug and Carson specifically well. Starting with Carson,
Speaker 1: Carson missed the final three preseason games, missed a month
Speaker 1: of training camp, He was notified he was the starting
Speaker 1: quarterback eight days before the start of the season. His
Speaker 1: competitive fire, his intangible skill set, his physical skill set.
Speaker 1: We couldn't be more excited about the things that he
Speaker 1: brings to the table. And see what he's gonna do
Speaker 1: with a full off season, an opportunity to grow here
Speaker 1: in year two. As for Doug, you talk about facing adversity.
Speaker 1: Head coach comes in and our right tackles suspended for
Speaker 1: ten games, our starting quarterbacks traded eight days before the
Speaker 1: start of the regular season, and the way the players
Speaker 1: responded certainly towards the end of the season, you could
Speaker 1: see how the players felt about him and again just
Speaker 1: looking forward to him getting better and continuing to grow.
Speaker 1: Like all of us in our jobs, you know, it's
Speaker 1: never satisfactory when we're sitting here having a press conference
Speaker 1: in January, but the reality is that when we made
Speaker 1: this decision to trade up for the quarterback, we're gonna
Speaker 1: build around him. When we resigned Fletch, we knew we
Speaker 1: had a twenty five year old that we're going to
Speaker 1: build around and we're gonna stick to our plan. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be disciplined with our process, and we're gonna do
Speaker 1: the right things for this football team. How we having
Speaker 1: seen the effect Lane Johnson's ten games suspension had on
Speaker 1: the team, what would your philosophy be, and potentially, you know,
Speaker 1: trading or signing for another player who has had been
Speaker 1: spended previously for you know, once or twice. Well, you
Speaker 1: got to look at each situation individually. With Lane. We
Speaker 1: know Lane really well. Very disappointing to not have him
Speaker 1: for those ten games. He's a difference maker when he's
Speaker 1: on the field and we need him going forward. You
Speaker 1: mentioned Joe Douglas. How much has have things changed with
Speaker 1: him being in the building. How has he made an
Speaker 1: impact so far? The process changed with him being here. Well,
Speaker 1: he's made a huge addition to the building. You know.
Speaker 1: The first thing he did was bring in Andy Widel
Speaker 1: to have someone who spoke the same language. He's got
Speaker 1: tremendous presence Joe and Andy. He's got a way of
Speaker 1: looking and evaluating players that is different than what we've
Speaker 1: done in the past, and quite frankly, we needed that.
Speaker 1: He is full rained to set the draft board. He's
Speaker 1: involved in every discussion we have about building this team,
Speaker 1: and I think we'll start seeing the dividends. We saw
Speaker 1: some of them with our waiver cuts, and I think
Speaker 1: we'll continue to see dividends as we go through the
Speaker 1: off season draft board. Does that mean we'll have the
Speaker 1: safe or wherever you guys pick or will that still
Speaker 1: be a discussion when you come up. No, it's a
Speaker 1: collaborative effort when we talk about who we're picking, and
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, the responsibilities mine. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: this is kind of an unusual year you have coming
Speaker 1: up in that you don't have the normal cat flexibility.
Speaker 1: You know how important does that make having a higher
Speaker 1: batting average? I guess you know, with everything you do
Speaker 1: in the off season, no questions. A unique situation for
Speaker 1: us as an organization. Part of the Sam trade was
Speaker 1: to get some flexibility back. But we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: make some hard decisions and do the right things for
Speaker 1: our team, not only for this year but going forward.
Speaker 1: What are the positions that need to improve in twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen for the team to become successful. Well, when we
Speaker 1: started this last offseason and started to put our plan
Speaker 1: into place. We're not even close to implementing all of it.
Speaker 1: We got a lot of work to do. We're going
Speaker 1: to stick to our plan, certainly, don't want to give
Speaker 1: the answers to the test anyone watching this or listening
Speaker 1: to us. How you gave out a number of in
Speaker 1: house extensions. How do you look back upon those, specifically
Speaker 1: the one to Viny Curry. Yeah, when we sat down
Speaker 1: again last year and looked at the foreseeable future and
Speaker 1: the opportunities for guys on a roster to be free agents,
Speaker 1: we felt like it was like a layer cake. We
Speaker 1: needed to add to the talent base, not start subtracting
Speaker 1: to it. Certainly, sitting here now, we could be looking
Speaker 1: at Fletch, Malcolm Jenkins, Darren Sproles, zach Ertz, among Benny
Speaker 1: Logan and Whizz to name a few, to be free
Speaker 1: agents right now. In terms of Vinnie, Vinnie continue to
Speaker 1: get better in this scheme. He's moved around a lot,
Speaker 1: He's been in a lot of different schemes. We think
Speaker 1: he's going to continue to get better. We're really excited
Speaker 1: that he's on this football team. If I could just
Speaker 1: follow up to on the contract extension you gave Lane
Speaker 1: Johnson kind of projects him to eventually be too left tackle.
Speaker 1: You face a difficult situation with Jason Peters about whether
Speaker 1: to bring him back. One do you want to bring
Speaker 1: Jason Peters back? And two do you want to bring
Speaker 1: him back as a left tackle at that number considering
Speaker 1: that Lean's salary starts to increase the first part with
Speaker 1: Jason Peters. We started this press conference talking about Brian Dawkins.
Speaker 1: I've no doubt that at some point we'll be saying
Speaker 1: the same things about Jason Peters. He has really ingrained
Speaker 1: himself as a leader of this football team. Anyone who
Speaker 1: watched us play saw the impact he has on the game.
Speaker 1: We certainly want to have him back. All you mentioned
Speaker 1: that Joe Douglas has a way of evaluating players that's
Speaker 1: a little different than the way you've done it in
Speaker 1: the past. Can you kind of get a little bit
Speaker 1: more specific about what you meant by that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think when we look at the success the Ravens had,
Speaker 1: and certainly they've won two World championships since the start
Speaker 1: of the century, what they're looking for in the traits
Speaker 1: they're looking for in particular, positions fits the way that
Speaker 1: this city is built too, and we want to find
Speaker 1: whatever ways there are to improve this team and to
Speaker 1: improve the quality of players on this team. And I'm
Speaker 1: really confident that we have the right people in our
Speaker 1: Scotty Steff to do that. HELLI if you look at
Speaker 1: Eric Rowe, he started seven games on a team that
Speaker 1: went fourteen and two. Why couldn't he play here? When
Speaker 1: we sat down and discussed the offer, we really started
Speaker 1: thinking about as we sat at that time, the like
Speaker 1: that we to sign him to an extension. We want
Speaker 1: to build this team with some continuity. We felt at
Speaker 1: that time that we weren't going to sign him to
Speaker 1: an extension, and to be able to get that value
Speaker 1: for him and possibly add someone who would be here
Speaker 1: for a longer period of time made sense for where
Speaker 1: we were. He wouldn't be eligible for an extension for
Speaker 1: two more seasons. You made that determination after one year.
Speaker 1: We did make that determination based on the defense that
Speaker 1: we have, the scheme that we have, and after talking
Speaker 1: about our corner position with the coaches, we were concerned
Speaker 1: about getting the same value if it was the same
Speaker 1: situation going forward. And obviously you can only do with
Speaker 1: the information you have at the time. How we two
Speaker 1: players on your defensive line, Connor Barwin who's coming has
Speaker 1: a pretty large number, and also Benny Logan who's who's unrestricted.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts on those two and whether they're going to
Speaker 1: be back. Yeah, both tremendous players and tremendous people. You know,
Speaker 1: really fortunate to have both those guys on our team.
Speaker 1: You'd like to have everyone back, and I think that's
Speaker 1: our situation here. Certainly want to build along the lines
Speaker 1: in the D line. Hey, Howe, I know you can't
Speaker 1: speak generally specifically about contracts, but generally, do you anticipate
Speaker 1: approaching veteran guys about taking pay cuts. Yeah, as we
Speaker 1: look towards putting a plan in place, we got to
Speaker 1: look at everyone on the team and figure out what
Speaker 1: the value is. Again, don't want to talk about anyone
Speaker 1: specifically out of respect for those guys about contract situation,
Speaker 1: but we got to do whatever's in the best interests
Speaker 1: of the team going forward. When when you look at
Speaker 1: the wide receiver position, obviously there wasn't a whole lot
Speaker 1: of production from the outside guys, especially going forward. I mean,
Speaker 1: do you feel like it's necessary to address that position?
Speaker 1: Both in free agency and in the draft. All it
Speaker 1: seems like a long time ago. We're leading the National
Speaker 1: Football League in twenty plus plays and I don't have
Speaker 1: a delirian time machine to go back in time and
Speaker 1: get some of those guys back. We have a young group,
Speaker 1: we have a young room. They need to continue to grow,
Speaker 1: and it's one of the things, among others, that we
Speaker 1: need to look at, Holly. A lot of people have
Speaker 1: speculated about your cap situation heading into the offseason. How
Speaker 1: would you equate it to previous years and are you
Speaker 1: going to have to make a lot of moves to
Speaker 1: get to the point where you can be active in
Speaker 1: free agency. It's unusual, certainly since I've been here, to
Speaker 1: have a more challenging situation. But part of our job
Speaker 1: in the front office is to look at this over
Speaker 1: a long period of time. So as we sit here today,
Speaker 1: it isn't like the first time that we're kind of
Speaker 1: looking at that situation and we'll do whatever's best for
Speaker 1: the football team. Howe less spring Jeffrey Laurie sent a
Speaker 1: bunch of us kind of scrambling the Google to look
Speaker 1: up this term arf. Now that we all kind of
Speaker 1: have an idea of what that is. Can you show
Speaker 1: some light on how that's kind of helped the team
Speaker 1: or what how you exactly implemented that The RFD data
Speaker 1: ARFU Yeah, I think that what that does is it
Speaker 1: allows you to figure out your player's speed and compare
Speaker 1: it to previous speeds to see where they are in
Speaker 1: terms of practice load. Not sure I'm the expert in
Speaker 1: that area, but we do have people who handle that
Speaker 1: for us and kind of dumb it down for people
Speaker 1: like me. How you've talked about over here, You've talked
Speaker 1: about this plan that you guys have with Carson and
Speaker 1: Fletcher and building around those guys time frame on when
Speaker 1: you believe this team will be a perennial playoff team
Speaker 1: and really in play for a super Bowl and things
Speaker 1: like that. With this plan, you know, we got a
Speaker 1: lot of work to do here in this offseason. So
Speaker 1: as we sit here right now, it's hard to figure
Speaker 1: out exactly what we're going to be because we don't
Speaker 1: know what the off season is going to hold for us.
Speaker 1: We could have a great plan, but it's also subject
Speaker 1: to other things. We're either picking fourteenth or fifteenth, who's
Speaker 1: going to be there at that pick house? Free agency
Speaker 1: is going to go with our own players and players
Speaker 1: going forward. But when we look at September and Carson
Speaker 1: was the Rookie of the Month and Fletcher was a
Speaker 1: defensive player of the month, that's the kind of impact
Speaker 1: we need, certainly from those two guys. And one last thing,
Speaker 1: And as you're making these decisions, you've been here a
Speaker 1: long time. It's been a long time since this team
Speaker 1: has won a playoff game. How do you balance with
Speaker 1: being Haitian and doing the right thing for the long
Speaker 1: term and this plan versus you know, we need to
Speaker 1: start winning playoff games here. Yeah. I think you go
Speaker 1: back and you look at two thousand and eight when
Speaker 1: we were in a championship game, and then two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine and ten and ten and six. Isn't good
Speaker 1: enough to get home field advantage to compete for a championship.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a huge edge to have that buy
Speaker 1: and so we got to build the team with that
Speaker 1: in mind. I think some of the things that we've
Speaker 1: done over the past few years have been to get
Speaker 1: to ten and six, and that's not good enough. Howe,
Speaker 1: how would you evaluate the play of Jason Kelsey and
Speaker 1: Brandon Brooks this year well, I start with Jason Kelsey
Speaker 1: and you look at how his peers looked at him.
Speaker 1: He was a second alternate to the Pro Bowl. He's
Speaker 1: been a consistent player since he's been in Philadelphia, exceptional athleticism,
Speaker 1: played really well towards the end of the year, and
Speaker 1: a guy that's been a true eagle. In terms of
Speaker 1: Brandon Brooks, he had an incident here towards the end
Speaker 1: of the season. I know he's spoken to all of
Speaker 1: you about that, but you talk about his physical ability
Speaker 1: and the kind of player that he is when he's
Speaker 1: on the field, we feel like he's a building block
Speaker 1: as well. How do you evaluate Thug Peterson as a
Speaker 1: rookie head coach? The job he did, Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: we talked about that when we started with Zach, about
Speaker 1: just the adversity that he faced, the energy he brings
Speaker 1: every day to that football team, and just hearing our
Speaker 1: players talk about how much they love playing for him
Speaker 1: at something really promising. We're really excited to see what
Speaker 1: we have in store going forward. He does a great
Speaker 1: job with our rookie quarterback and the rest of our team,
Speaker 1: and tremendous tribute to him and his character for what
Speaker 1: he went through this year and how the team played
Speaker 1: for him, how we follow up on what you just
Speaker 1: said about kind of building to be ten and six
Speaker 1: how does that manifest itself and how when you look back,
Speaker 1: what kind of mistakes were part of that, And how
Speaker 1: do you build to be a championship team as opposed
Speaker 1: to a ten and sixteen. Yeah, when you look at
Speaker 1: a ten of six teams, you can put band aids
Speaker 1: on some things. And I mean, I think you look
Speaker 1: at the cornerback position, and what we've done at the
Speaker 1: cornerback position is put band aids on things. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because I don't notice a lot of the articles
Speaker 1: that are around the building that are hung up, But
Speaker 1: last week I noticed an article that was from two
Speaker 1: thousand and three and talked about how the eagles was
Speaker 1: future was bright because they have a twenty six year
Speaker 1: old quarterback to start, we have twenty four year old quarterback.
Speaker 1: We have to do the right things so that when
Speaker 1: you look around the league, those guys are all taken off,
Speaker 1: the team is ready to take off with them. And
Speaker 1: there's a big difference between competing to make the playoffs
Speaker 1: and being a wildcard team and getting a buy in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. How what's your take on the recent trend
Speaker 1: of college players skipping ball games? Does that knock them
Speaker 1: necessarily knock them down a notch? You got to look
Speaker 1: at each case, situation by situation, and you know, certainly
Speaker 1: respect the player's decision, and when you get a chance
Speaker 1: to sit down with them, you'll ask them their perspective,
Speaker 1: because obviously we can't do that this time. How we
Speaker 1: both here and elsewhere we've seen the dynamic of the
Speaker 1: coach GM relationship. What's Doug's role in player personnel and
Speaker 1: how has that dynamic been going? Yeah? Great, I mean
Speaker 1: unbelievable guy, unbelievable energy. He asked a lot of questions
Speaker 1: about things that we're doing. We asked for his input.
Speaker 1: We funneled down the information for him and his staff,
Speaker 1: But we need to know what they need. We need
Speaker 1: to know what it looks like for them at each position.
Speaker 1: They do a great job giving us that insight, starting
Speaker 1: with Doug and then funneling down to the rest of
Speaker 1: his staff. As a follow up to that, was management
Speaker 1: involved in all at all in playing time distribution for
Speaker 1: players this year? No, that's a total coach's decision. We
Speaker 1: just to get a little bit more further clarity on
Speaker 1: the roles that you're going to have versus Joe Douglass.
Speaker 1: So when are you active? When are you you know,
Speaker 1: when are you going to be hands on? And exactly
Speaker 1: what responsibilities fall to Joe and Joe alone. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: runs the player personnel department. Um, he runs a player
Speaker 1: of personnel department, and UM, he reports to me and
Speaker 1: so we meet every day, UM, a lot of times
Speaker 1: a day, and he's able to funnel down the information
Speaker 1: and the thought process that he has with his scouting
Speaker 1: staff and our job and really my job is to
Speaker 1: help make good decisions, you know. UM, I think that's
Speaker 1: something that I could help with with some of the
Speaker 1: experiences if I have good and bad and really excited
Speaker 1: for him to put his own spin on it. And
Speaker 1: I think that's already started. Oh you mentioned jumping in
Speaker 1: your Delirian and gone back in time if you could.
Speaker 1: It's really excited about that. Would you yeah? Would you
Speaker 1: have from a from a movie? Right? Uh? Would you
Speaker 1: have no, no, no, that someone actually used that line
Speaker 1: in a movie exactly one about the jump? Anyway? Um?
Speaker 1: Would you have released DeShawn Jackson? Um? And then if
Speaker 1: you were in charge personnel? Would you have treated Lashawn McCoy?
Speaker 1: These are two guys that had a thousand yards seasons
Speaker 1: this year. I cannot talk about any players under contract
Speaker 1: for another team. Okay, yeah, well, but aren't they still technic?
Speaker 1: Isn't a Shawan now officially a free agent? Nobody's a
Speaker 1: free agent until February after the combat? Right? Okay, So
Speaker 1: what kind of receivers then are you kind of would
Speaker 1: you would you want per se in free agency if
Speaker 1: you were going back? My second favorite answer is that
Speaker 1: I don't want to give any answers to the test.
Speaker 1: How what's it been like for you this pist year,
Speaker 1: being back in this position after short of being up
Speaker 1: in the side and just the ups and downs that's
Speaker 1: been back in it. Oh, it was a great perspective
Speaker 1: um really to be fair. Being on the side gave
Speaker 1: me incredible perspective so much, how much I valued the relationships,
Speaker 1: how much I cared about this team. We have a
Speaker 1: lot of really good people here. I think one of
Speaker 1: the reasons we're to keep our priorities aligne and decide
Speaker 1: that we had to have a quarterback that when we
Speaker 1: looked on the field, thought that he could stabilize the
Speaker 1: position for ten years is because you get it out
Speaker 1: of that day to day mode of how we're going
Speaker 1: to make the playoffs and get into how we're going
Speaker 1: to build this team for sustained discuss how we when
Speaker 1: you look at your rookie class and you know, taking
Speaker 1: Carson out of the picture, kind of you got contributions
Speaker 1: from pretty much everyone else. Wendel, Isaac big v Jalen Mills.
Speaker 1: How I know some of that obviously was out of necessity,
Speaker 1: but like, what were you kind of impressions of the
Speaker 1: way those guys played in the experience they got and
Speaker 1: how much you can rely on them going forward. Well,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. Tom Donahoe, who's a huge part of what
Speaker 1: we do and was a huge help last offseason to
Speaker 1: this organization, met with the rookies about a month ago.
Speaker 1: He asked to meet with them, and he's been around
Speaker 1: this league a long time, and he just talked about
Speaker 1: his observations of how hard they work, their determination, their grit,
Speaker 1: their work ethic. We didn't have a second round pick,
Speaker 1: we didn't have a fourth round pick, but we really
Speaker 1: do feel like those guys and Carson to start, are
Speaker 1: going to be part of a core group going forward.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the importance of building a team that has
Speaker 1: the ability to get that buy instead of being a
Speaker 1: tenant six team. After the game on Sunday, Doug said
Speaker 1: that he thought this team was close. What do you
Speaker 1: think this team is close too? And how do you
Speaker 1: kind of view what he said and then view where
Speaker 1: the team is right now? Yeah, I think when you
Speaker 1: look at how hard the team is playing for him
Speaker 1: and how many close games were in love that perspective
Speaker 1: from our coaching staff and our players. We have a
Speaker 1: little different role here in the front office. You know,
Speaker 1: there's always going to be things that we look at
Speaker 1: and try to get better. But again, you know, we're
Speaker 1: trying to compete with the best teams in the National
Speaker 1: Football League. We're certainly not there right now as we stand,
Speaker 1: but feel a lot better than where we stood last
Speaker 1: year at this time this offseason, you brought in Yotis
Speaker 1: and Ron Brooks and Nigel and Tullock, all former guys
Speaker 1: who played for Jim Schwartz. How much of those acquisitions
Speaker 1: were Jim wanting those players to bring in and how
Speaker 1: much was it your own evaluation of what those players
Speaker 1: brought to the table. Well, I think first, when you
Speaker 1: change coaching staffs and you have guys who've played in
Speaker 1: a scheme and the coaches are describing to what they're
Speaker 1: looking for, it's easy to go back and watch the
Speaker 1: tape and see guys in those schemes to kind of
Speaker 1: get through the moment and for certain positions, that's what
Speaker 1: we were trying to do last year. But again, you know,
Speaker 1: our job is to improve in all areas, and we
Speaker 1: weren't perfect on free agency as a whole. Our bounding
Speaker 1: average is never going to be one hundred percent. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: we got to learn from that and do a better
Speaker 1: job as we go forward. I'm gonna try again with
Speaker 1: Jeff's question in a different way. How challenging has it
Speaker 1: been to undo some of the things that happened during
Speaker 1: your predecessors administration? Is GM You know, I think you're
Speaker 1: just dealing with the reality of the situation. And I
Speaker 1: could say, sitting up here last year, it was challenging.
Speaker 1: It was a challenging situation, and it starts with the
Speaker 1: quarterback position. We didn't have a starting quarterback under contract.
Speaker 1: He was a free agent. We were picking thirteenth with No.
Speaker 1: Two and we sat down and we said if we
Speaker 1: can come out of this offseason and sit here next
Speaker 1: season at this time and feel like we had a
Speaker 1: permanent answer at that position, we're going in the right direction.
Speaker 1: And so I know it's tough to boil it down
Speaker 1: to that, but that was how important we thought it
Speaker 1: was in that situation to get it. And part of
Speaker 1: that was the analysis that there was a graying of
Speaker 1: the quarterback position in the National Football League. We had
Speaker 1: done a preliminary analysis of what was coming out going forward,
Speaker 1: and we just felt like it was a unique moment
Speaker 1: to be able to move up hot way. When you
Speaker 1: look at building around Carson Wentz, obviously a lot of
Speaker 1: knee on both sides of the football. How much of
Speaker 1: a variable as time, both for your own perspective, for
Speaker 1: job security, your own perspective in terms of building the
Speaker 1: team to be able to build a contending team quickly
Speaker 1: enough and good enough to compete around Carson Wentz and
Speaker 1: maximize them. Yeah, I want to be clear. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is not about me. This is about doing the
Speaker 1: right things for the Philadelphia Eagles, and we have to
Speaker 1: be disciplined. We have to stick to our plan, we
Speaker 1: have to stick to our process, and that has to
Speaker 1: show up in the draft. I mean, I'm sure that
Speaker 1: everyone can sit here and write about positions of need.
Speaker 1: Understand that, but we're going to do what's right when
Speaker 1: you have some young core players. Ali, given that you're
Speaker 1: you're looking at this big picture, but and you made
Speaker 1: the band aid comment, but you also have some immediate
Speaker 1: needs wide receiver, cornerback, running back. I wasn't nodding towards
Speaker 1: the position of journey and I just I get to
Speaker 1: But so you know, how do you how do you
Speaker 1: approach free agency knowing that you are taking this big
Speaker 1: picture approach? Also do have some immediate holes to fill? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Ideally in free agency you're signing twenty six twenty seven
Speaker 1: year old guys who can be part of the core. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: teams are doing a good job blocking those guys up
Speaker 1: as well, So we have to try to balance that
Speaker 1: and bringing guys here that fit what we're trying to
Speaker 1: do and understand that there's no way to do everything
Speaker 1: in one offseason and just look at each situation individually. Hollie,
Speaker 1: there's been how you talked earlier about is this a
Speaker 1: record for consecutive questions? Dark boy, Thanks for clarifying your nods. Also,
Speaker 1: the degree of difficulty in going for thirteen and three
Speaker 1: or whatever as opposed to ten and six is obviously
Speaker 1: much greater, and the risk is much greater, and the
Speaker 1: I guess potential for success is maybe a little bit less.
Speaker 1: How do you accept the risk? I mean, in your
Speaker 1: position where you sit, is risk something you say, Hey,
Speaker 1: this is part of the job. It might work, We're
Speaker 1: gonna do everything to make sure we hope it works,
Speaker 1: but it might not work. And are you different in
Speaker 1: terms of your perspective one risk than you were before
Speaker 1: you had your year off or whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call it. You did you come back saying hey, I'm
Speaker 1: more apt to let's just go, no question. I think
Speaker 1: that when you look at it, it's there are certain
Speaker 1: things that it's almost impossible to win a championship without.
Speaker 1: And I think that when I look back at some
Speaker 1: of the mistakes I made, they were about just trying
Speaker 1: to get into the playoffs and believing that once you
Speaker 1: get into the playoffs, maybe you have a chance every
Speaker 1: year because it's a shorter field and you can just
Speaker 1: get high. But really, when you look at the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl champions over the last decade, for really since the
Speaker 1: super Bowl is in effect, they all have the franchise
Speaker 1: quarterback and your easiest way to be a perennial contender
Speaker 1: is with that. And to have a guy like Carson
Speaker 1: makes it feel like you're doing the right thing when
Speaker 1: you don't do a lot of band aids. And you
Speaker 1: know Tim talked about band aids. Are there opportunities at
Speaker 1: some point to do one year stop guy, hold stop gap,
Speaker 1: hold the forts, sure and ants And you're saying that
Speaker 1: there won't be any of those, but we got to
Speaker 1: manage our risk. Oh yeah, you understand. You say it's
Speaker 1: not about you, but there was a reason why you're
Speaker 1: standing up there. How would you evaluate the season you had, Well,
Speaker 1: it starts with the quarterback position. And I was very
Speaker 1: vocal internally about the need to have a long term
Speaker 1: answer at that position and felt like it was the
Speaker 1: most important thing we could possibly do. I sit up
Speaker 1: here really excited about the future of this franchise, but
Speaker 1: knowing that there's a lot of work that needs to
Speaker 1: be done. We didn't have the same amount of resources
Speaker 1: that we're used to. You know, we didn't have a
Speaker 1: second round pick. We had a lot of guys becoming
Speaker 1: free agents over a two year period of time. I'm
Speaker 1: excited about the work our scouting staft did in the
Speaker 1: draft without a second and fourth round pick, but um, again,
Speaker 1: we got a lot of work to do. How does
Speaker 1: Joe Douglas Douglas if you can give some some specifics
Speaker 1: on how he looks at players a little differently than you,
Speaker 1: You know, I think it's easy for us to talk
Speaker 1: about the players, um, when we were going to five
Speaker 1: championship games and when they were in the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: and just talk about, um, why we felt really good
Speaker 1: about the players that were on our roster at that
Speaker 1: time and what they were looking for when they won
Speaker 1: a world championship. There's no there's no tangible there is,
Speaker 1: But how are the uh? The Bradford trade allowed you
Speaker 1: to oh sorry, It allowed you to recoup some of
Speaker 1: the picks that you lost in the trade up for Carson.
Speaker 1: It also allowed you to play him as a rookie,
Speaker 1: which he wouldn't have done if Sam had stayed. How
Speaker 1: beneficial has that been to his development? And how has
Speaker 1: it speeded up the whole process of this club getting
Speaker 1: good again? Well, the first part about that trade was
Speaker 1: the best trades are win win scenarios and Sam. With
Speaker 1: the season he had and reading the reports about how
Speaker 1: happy they are with Sam, the Vikings got exactly what
Speaker 1: they were looking for, Sam Bradford. And for us all
Speaker 1: the reasons that you outlined looking at it now, we're
Speaker 1: huge for this organization going forward. For him to get
Speaker 1: the experience to be able to go into Seattle as
Speaker 1: a rookie, you know, to play on the road against
Speaker 1: the NFC's teams, to play sixteen games, that's invaluable, and
Speaker 1: for him to not have to do that, you know,
Speaker 1: next year or the year after. Looking back, really that
Speaker 1: set us up hopefully for success going forward. How in
Speaker 1: the past you have really emphasized resigning your own picks,
Speaker 1: and everybody understands that's a vital part of being a
Speaker 1: successful organization. But can you also over value those guys
Speaker 1: and is it a danger giving them top of position
Speaker 1: contracts and they maybe aren't top of position players when
Speaker 1: you know a year or two down the road. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think there is that danger, and I think that's
Speaker 1: another one of the values that you have by bringing
Speaker 1: people outside this organization to look at your roster and
Speaker 1: to be able to give you different perspective because we're
Speaker 1: human and there's no doubt that, just like your kids,
Speaker 1: you want to see your own players succeed. And so
Speaker 1: I think we have that balance now to make sure
Speaker 1: that we have a good way of making these decisions
Speaker 1: and seeing it through a different lens, because guys like
Speaker 1: Jason Peters, Darren Spoil, some of your better players are
Speaker 1: older players because of your cap situation. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is an obvious thing, But how imperative is it that
Speaker 1: you guys really draft well over this next period? No question,
Speaker 1: And again it's one of the things where you look
Speaker 1: back and where our draft board was in Januar worry,
Speaker 1: and when we made some decisions we compromised on guys
Speaker 1: as opposed to just sticking to the board and doing
Speaker 1: the right thing, not based on a need this year,
Speaker 1: but based on who's the best player to be part
Speaker 1: of a core going forward. And I said to you're
Speaker 1: very confident that that will not happen again. Thank you.