Speaker 1: Awesome opportunity. UH, We've got a chance to sit down
Speaker 1: with UM, you know, representative of Congress and and really
Speaker 1: just UM. You know, the goal was one to express,
Speaker 1: you know, our concerns for our own communities and this
Speaker 1: country when it comes to UM race relations, relationship between
Speaker 1: the community and police, as well as UM criminal justice reform.
Speaker 1: And what and we wanted to do was learn, you know,
Speaker 1: what is it that they're doing on Capitol Hill already
Speaker 1: to UM to make some changes for that or better that,
Speaker 1: And what are some things that might be in development
Speaker 1: UM that are coming UM down the road that they're
Speaker 1: working on. And also how does this new administration with
Speaker 1: with Trump affect all of the things that have been
Speaker 1: in place and that are you know, we're trying to do.
Speaker 1: And then we also want to know two things, how
Speaker 1: could we support what they're doing in their efforts to
Speaker 1: to better those relationships and get advice on what we
Speaker 1: can do UM as individuals in our own communities to
Speaker 1: really make an impact UM from a legislative standpoint UM.
Speaker 1: And obviously with all the politics that go on with that.
Speaker 1: And so it was an opportunity for us to be heard,
Speaker 1: but also an opportunity for us to listen to what's
Speaker 1: going on, to learn some things, learn how the process works, um,
Speaker 1: and we thought that the message was well received. We
Speaker 1: got to talk to people on all sides of the
Speaker 1: table with the Democratic Republican m the CBC, and and
Speaker 1: and got a chance to hear from some reps from
Speaker 1: the Obama administration. So it was a good day. It
Speaker 1: was a full day, obviously a lot of information, but
Speaker 1: I thought we we left feeling feeling pretty optimistic and
Speaker 1: feeling um well informed. What makes Seattle, in your mind,
Speaker 1: such a difficult place to play? I mean, the volume
Speaker 1: is obviously one of the toughest things for offensive functioning,
Speaker 1: is just it's allowed as hell. And then their defense
Speaker 1: is obviously at the top of the league, and it
Speaker 1: seems like every year. So when you're at home, your
Speaker 1: defense play as well. Is that's what feeds the crowd.
Speaker 1: The crowd feeds the defense, and it just gets worse
Speaker 1: as the game goes on. So you have a really
Speaker 1: good defense, you usually have a really good home crowd,
Speaker 1: and I don't think I've won there in my career,
Speaker 1: so I'm looking forward to changing that. This week. Is
Speaker 1: definitely a tough place to play, but it's also I
Speaker 1: can imagine one of a good place to win as well,
Speaker 1: just as high as they are most categories higher. And
Speaker 1: so as a defense, do you think the Eagles defense
Speaker 1: should be kind of mentioned alongside Seattle? Need whatever people
Speaker 1: are about the best defenses in the leagues always Seattle. Well,
Speaker 1: I think if you look at their defense on what
Speaker 1: they've done over the last um, you know, a few
Speaker 1: seasons there, they've been at the top of the league
Speaker 1: for a while now, UM, and what they do is
Speaker 1: it's pretty special. They have, you know, UM, a ton
Speaker 1: of Pro Bowl guys. Um, they've been doing it for it.
Speaker 1: Like I said, a long time, we're a new group,
Speaker 1: and this is our first year together, new coordinator, new names,
Speaker 1: new faces, UM. But we're trying to earn our our place,
Speaker 1: UM in this league. We think we're up right up
Speaker 1: there with the best defenses in this league. UM. But
Speaker 1: that's this year. And so depending on the context. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, if if you want to talk about the
Speaker 1: body of work, I wouldn't compare us to um, the
Speaker 1: Seattle defense. I got a lot of respect for for
Speaker 1: the guys on that team and that defense. UM, But
Speaker 1: if you want to talk about this year, there's no
Speaker 1: defense in this league that I wouldn't compare us to UM.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, it's as a competitor. I
Speaker 1: don't know many people that that wouldn't have that attitude.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. I've never won there, but uh,
Speaker 1: I think you got to compete, man, You can't. You
Speaker 1: can't make mistakes UM because they're they're a patient team.
Speaker 1: They don't try to. If you look at them offensively,
Speaker 1: they're middle of the pack in almost every category except
Speaker 1: for one, and that's turnovers UM, which means that they're patient.
Speaker 1: They take care of the football UM. Defensively, they know
Speaker 1: they'll make a play and keep them in a game UM.
Speaker 1: And then all they need to do on offenses take
Speaker 1: advantage of opportunities that show up. And so sometimes you
Speaker 1: might see the offense look super slow, they don't come
Speaker 1: up with anything. Then the next game you see Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson throwing for three fifty and three touchdowns. Uh. They do,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever they need to do to win UM.
Speaker 1: But if the game gets tight, there completely comfortable with
Speaker 1: a zero to three type of game UM. And so
Speaker 1: when you go there, you have to be ready for
Speaker 1: those type of games that it's gonna be grinding them out.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be um basically coming down to who makes
Speaker 1: um the first mistake or the last mistake. UM. And
Speaker 1: it's always on their side because they have the crowd,
Speaker 1: they have the momentum. So it's a tough place to go.
Speaker 1: You gotta be patient, you gotta um come with the
Speaker 1: mentality for it to be a four quarter fight that
Speaker 1: you know might be three yards in the cloud or dust. Um,
Speaker 1: but you gotta comfortable in that kind of situation. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's a great athlete. You know, he's he's BIG's fast.
Speaker 1: It catches the ball well, um. You know, anywhere is
Speaker 1: catch radius is probably his number one weapon. Wherever you
Speaker 1: put it around him, he can he can go get it.
Speaker 1: Obviously with a basketball background, he knows how to use
Speaker 1: his size and his body. Well the box you out
Speaker 1: or go up and get the ball. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: he knows how to find the open spaces in the
Speaker 1: defense too. I think that's probably one of his best
Speaker 1: attributes as well. Is he might not run, you know,
Speaker 1: a precise route, or he might not create separation with
Speaker 1: the route, but if you're in the zone or if
Speaker 1: you're in the man he's gonna find just some open
Speaker 1: space and all the quarterback has to do is put
Speaker 1: the ball around him. Um. And you know, when he's healthy,
Speaker 1: he's you know, at the top of this league. And
Speaker 1: when it comes to tight ends depending on health, it's
Speaker 1: it's the oldest and pretty roos. How do you guys survive? Uh,
Speaker 1: whoever that is gonna have to show up and you
Speaker 1: know I have to play. Just no, there's no way
Speaker 1: around it. We don't want to um change our entire
Speaker 1: defense too to babysitting anybody. UM, So we're gonna as
Speaker 1: much as we can um lean on them to compete
Speaker 1: and step up to the plate. Um. You know, hopefully
Speaker 1: we can have everybody healthy, but if not, you know,
Speaker 1: I think we're fully prepared to to go into this
Speaker 1: game with any of the young guys that we got. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, hopefully we can do a good job of
Speaker 1: preparing them this week so that you know, if they
Speaker 1: do have to play, they're completely ready, completely prepared, and
Speaker 1: we not only we, but they feel confident going out
Speaker 1: there and um performing. Frustrating or baffling is the home
Speaker 1: road disparity for you guys, It's not really not that frustrating.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at every every game, there's
Speaker 1: no game we've been in this year where we felt
Speaker 1: like we couldn't have won. Um, they're all tight. So
Speaker 1: you know, if we were getting blown out on the road,
Speaker 1: I've been and I've been on teams where we can
Speaker 1: win all our home home games and for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: on the road, we just get destroyed. You know, that's
Speaker 1: that's frustrating. Um, But you got to understand that the
Speaker 1: marginal ror in this league is very very slim, and
Speaker 1: so especially on the road. So one or two players
Speaker 1: here there that we need to figure out how to
Speaker 1: come up with, or one or two players that that
Speaker 1: we kind of inflict damage on our own selves and
Speaker 1: and we need to figure out how to eliminate those
Speaker 1: mistakes so that we can come out of a close
Speaker 1: row game would win and and so I think we're
Speaker 1: right there. Um, Obviously we figured that out at home,
Speaker 1: and it's what better way to kind of correct those
Speaker 1: mistakes by you know, going in one of the toughest
Speaker 1: places in this league and get to win. Statistically, guys
Speaker 1: are ranked sixth defensive way and Seattle's Life Dessert or
Speaker 1: what do you read that. I don't know we're not
Speaker 1: playing the Seattle defense this year. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: if you if you're asking me about any defense in
Speaker 1: this in this league, I feel like we can compare UM.
Speaker 1: You know, I got a lot of respect for what
Speaker 1: they do UM and what they've done over over a
Speaker 1: period of time period, you know, a few seasons, So
Speaker 1: everybody at work is obviously UM or a sample size
Speaker 1: is a lot bigger than done it for a lot longer,
Speaker 1: had a lot of success. They got a bunch of
Speaker 1: pro bowled players on every level of their defense. And
Speaker 1: we're a defense that's trying to earn the respect of
Speaker 1: the league, trying to make a name for ourselves this year.
Speaker 1: But that being said, if you, if you want to
Speaker 1: talk in the context of this season, there's not a
Speaker 1: defense that I wouldn't compare us to. Russell hasn't run
Speaker 1: that much this season because of some injuries he's had
Speaker 1: to his knee and an ankle, But in past years,
Speaker 1: how big a threat has his ability not just to
Speaker 1: scramble and extend plays but also pick up first downs
Speaker 1: his legs. How difficult is that for defense to deal with.
Speaker 1: I mean, so anytime you get a mobile quarterback, it
Speaker 1: changes the entire approach to the game plan. You always
Speaker 1: got to account for that eleventh man. You gotta account
Speaker 1: for his ability to scramble. Um. You got to account
Speaker 1: for his ability to extend plays, which put stress on
Speaker 1: your secondary And so your rush has to be disciplined.
Speaker 1: But it can't be you know, two reserved because you
Speaker 1: still got to get pressure. UM. You can't spy all
Speaker 1: the time because their receivers are good enough to get
Speaker 1: open against one on one coverage. So it presents it
Speaker 1: presents a lot of a lot of issues. And you know,
Speaker 1: that's what makes Russell Wilson special is that even if
Speaker 1: you cover everybody up, you know, he does a good
Speaker 1: job of, you know, stepping out of sacks, extending plays
Speaker 1: and and and that's where all of his big plays
Speaker 1: come is off of those um extended plays where he's
Speaker 1: just creating things UM. And his his ability to kind
Speaker 1: of add live UM is obviously one of his strong
Speaker 1: suits last year. Yeah, I mean, if you you know
Speaker 1: most teams, you know, if you try to make him
Speaker 1: beat you with his arms, he can do that. He's
Speaker 1: not you know, it's not like he can't throw the football. UM.
Speaker 1: He's able to read defenses he's able to get the
Speaker 1: ball in and out of his hands. UM. And he's
Speaker 1: got playmakers. You know, Doug Balling is probably um one
Speaker 1: of the more underrated receivers out there. UM. But he
Speaker 1: does nothing but perform and produce UM. And they got
Speaker 1: guys in the outside, UM lock it on the inside
Speaker 1: who you know, can break a game open at any
Speaker 1: point in time. So you know, he's got weapons that
Speaker 1: if if you want to turn it into a timing
Speaker 1: passing game, he can do that as well. UM. Now,
Speaker 1: I think the most his most devastating attribute is probably
Speaker 1: his legs. But he's very comfortable and just you know,
Speaker 1: taking a three step dropping getting rid of you know,
Speaker 1: with you and Ronnie, do you do you kind of
Speaker 1: look at their safeties. It's kind of a measuring stick
Speaker 1: at all, Like is that something you guys aspire to be? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think so if I think if I know,
Speaker 1: for me, if if you ask me, you know, who's
Speaker 1: the best fifty tantum uh in the league or who's
Speaker 1: been the best over the last few seasons, I would
Speaker 1: say Earl Thomas and camp Chancellor. And so with this
Speaker 1: being man and Rodney's first year, UM, you know we
Speaker 1: want to be in that conversation. And so when you
Speaker 1: have games like this, it's it's fun to be able
Speaker 1: to UM, you know, be on the same field and
Speaker 1: and kind of necessarily measure itself but UM, but but compete,
Speaker 1: and you know it's this is this, this has been
Speaker 1: our goal, you know, all years, to be the best
Speaker 1: tandem on the field whenever we go out there. And
Speaker 1: you know, this is a really good tantem that that
Speaker 1: we'll see this week that our offense will have to
Speaker 1: deal with UM. And obviously, you know, we're trying to
Speaker 1: make UM the same you know, or accomplish the same
Speaker 1: things that they've already done over the last few seasons
Speaker 1: that they've been together. And it's been impressive. And like
Speaker 1: I said, I think me and Rodney are trying to
Speaker 1: start something here in Seattle. UM was there. Describe what
Speaker 1: it's like to play there as an opponent and maybe
Speaker 1: you know, you have a rookie quarterback when you have
Speaker 1: a conversation, when you have a Carson UM. I'm probably
Speaker 1: gonna talk to Carson about it unless you ask me,
Speaker 1: but it's it's definitely a frustrating place to play, UM,
Speaker 1: especially if you're not you know, mentally ready to just
Speaker 1: persevere from start to finish, because that's really what it's
Speaker 1: going to be. Rarely do you go in there and
Speaker 1: just you know, have a great day. You know it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a tough UM environment. It's gonna be loud.
Speaker 1: You know they're gonna be dancing around, they talk trash,
Speaker 1: they have fun. If you make a mistake, it gets worse.
Speaker 1: And it's some one of those things where you've got
Speaker 1: to go in with the mindset that you know you
Speaker 1: you are going to hit UM some trouble. You got
Speaker 1: to persevere through it, and you gotta be ready to fight,
Speaker 1: regardless of what the game looks like, regardless of how
Speaker 1: successful unsuccessful you are, just keep swinging away. And I
Speaker 1: think the last Yes, last year I was with the
Speaker 1: same as we played them twice. UM. First was on
Speaker 1: a Monday night game and they flat out destroyed us
Speaker 1: and we had no chance from start to finish. And
Speaker 1: I remember the second time going up there, it was
Speaker 1: the playoff game, and we really went up there with
Speaker 1: no real intentions to UM worry about winning or losing.
Speaker 1: We're just gonna go fight and see what happens. And
Speaker 1: I think that game ended up being a little bit closer.
Speaker 1: We competed a lot better, but um, you know, they
Speaker 1: were the better team. But that's that's kind of the
Speaker 1: mentality that you have to have when you go up there,
Speaker 1: have confidence in yourself, knowing that you can you can compete.
Speaker 1: But you gotta know that there's gonna be sometimes in
Speaker 1: the game where their crowd is gonna be loud, their
Speaker 1: defense is gonna be flying around, They're gonna make some plays.
Speaker 1: You just gotta continue to block out the noise and
Speaker 1: and and stay focused on the tasking hand, keep chipping away,
Speaker 1: keep fighting. A quick non football question, Malcolm, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you sell the comments by Capa Nick and
Speaker 1: Mike Evans about why they didn't vote in the election.
Speaker 1: If you did, I was curious if you had any
Speaker 1: reaction to it. Um. I mean, I feel like everybody
Speaker 1: has there. I didn't see Mike's comments, read a little
Speaker 1: bit on on Kaepernicks, but I didn't see all of them.
Speaker 1: But you know, everybody has their right to vote or
Speaker 1: not vote. Um, But I think it's important to especially
Speaker 1: when you talk about sending a message to the generation
Speaker 1: behind us, our youth. It's important, especially when you want
Speaker 1: to change something to use your your voice and your
Speaker 1: right to have input in that change. And even if
Speaker 1: it's not for a presidential candidate. UM, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things that happened that you have to vote on
Speaker 1: for your state, your community, and things that directly affect
Speaker 1: the people that are in the community that you live in.
Speaker 1: And so I think it's important and you know, it's
Speaker 1: good to remind people as well that even if you
Speaker 1: don't like any of the candidates that are on the ballot,
Speaker 1: there's always that blank line that you can write something
Speaker 1: in UM. And so it's it's important to you know,
Speaker 1: I want to send a message to to the kids
Speaker 1: that you know, you have a voice, and this is
Speaker 1: how you can directly input, UM, what's going on around you. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, because people are fought for our rights to
Speaker 1: be able to vote, and that's that's you know, one
Speaker 1: of the main rights of being an American is that
Speaker 1: you have the ability to UM weigh in on on UH,
Speaker 1: whatever's going on in the country.