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Speaker 1: Back here at the combine. We're on Pseudo Radio Row.

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Speaker 1: We're over here by the CBS Sports Network site. And

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Speaker 1: joining us now is Rick Spielman, the former executive and

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Speaker 1: general manager of the Minnesota Vikings. Now you see them

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Speaker 1: on CBS Sports. Rick, thanks so much for the time.

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Speaker 1: How are you, No, Thanks for having me on. So

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Speaker 1: it's been a different experience for me being on this

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Speaker 1: side of the combine right first time. As a lot

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Speaker 1: of people describe the dark side, but I look at

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Speaker 1: it as a bright side. I'm having a great time

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Speaker 1: and really enjoying during the side of the business. I mean,

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Speaker 1: what are you appreciating about the job that you're in

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Speaker 1: now that maybe you didn't before as you were the

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Speaker 1: GM on the other side of the fire. I always

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Speaker 1: love the job as a GM, yeah, but on this side,

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Speaker 1: it gives you a different perspective. So as we're interviewing kids,

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Speaker 1: given your perspective on things that are going on, I

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Speaker 1: can hopefully translate when I'm hearing gms are saying on

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Speaker 1: the podium what that actually means, because I've probably said

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Speaker 1: the same thing a couple of times and interviewing the

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Speaker 1: players and then I always kind to put the spin that. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I'm interviewing you like you're in a formal interview at night.

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Speaker 1: So I'm want to ask you some tough questions. I

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Speaker 1: want to do it on a camera, you know, and

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Speaker 1: then go ahead and proceed with some of the questions.

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Speaker 1: So there is a playbook to this, to to be

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Speaker 1: able to talk and say a lot without really saying

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Speaker 1: anything substantial. Yeah, no, now I want them to say

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Speaker 1: something substantial before I can understand. Now I'm on this side,

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Speaker 1: the light side. So when you hear Chris Ballard say

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Speaker 1: maybe I don't necessarily need to go from four to

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Speaker 1: one to get a difference maker, that's that seems to

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Speaker 1: be the narrative. That's that's what everybody thinks the Colts

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Speaker 1: have to do. But he's saying, maybe I can be

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Speaker 1: patient and still get the guy that I like. What

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Speaker 1: what do you take from those remarks? I think Chris,

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Speaker 1: who I have the upmost for sure for and I

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Speaker 1: think is one of the top evaluators in the NFL

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Speaker 1: and serve some time on because some committees with him,

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Speaker 1: and so I have nothing but the respect for the

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Speaker 1: job he has done for the indiptless Colts. But as

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Speaker 1: I'm sitting there and listening to it. I think everybody's

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Speaker 1: in that same process right now on we haven't even

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Speaker 1: seen all these guys throw yet, we're just getting the

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Speaker 1: medicals on them. So they may love three or four

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Speaker 1: all four of these quarterbacks who knows yet. They probably

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Speaker 1: have a pecking order pre combine. But once they get

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Speaker 1: all the information, once they go out and bring the

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Speaker 1: kids into their facility, once they go out to the

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Speaker 1: pro days and do everything, then there'll be a more

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Speaker 1: specific guy that they may target. The most interesting thing

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Speaker 1: for me to watch this draft is that you've got

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Speaker 1: a division rival right two picks ahead of you, and

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Speaker 1: if you're honed in on a guy, are you going

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Speaker 1: to stay patient because Arizona doesn't need a quarterback and

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Speaker 1: hopefully that guy falls to you. Or maybe you love

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Speaker 1: two guys, so let Houston take who they want and

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Speaker 1: we love the guy equally, or you also better be

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Speaker 1: concerned about You got Carolina down there and they're they're

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Speaker 1: in a very similar situation to the Colts, is that

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Speaker 1: they have to find a franchise guy, a young quarterback

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Speaker 1: that's going to lead them into the future. Everybody's trying

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Speaker 1: to create a market. It's I don't pay attention to

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Speaker 1: any of it right now because most of that decision

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Speaker 1: making process will be done right before the draft. Right

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Speaker 1: how do you keep all that together? I mean, have

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Speaker 1: you ever been in a situation where you're just, I

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Speaker 1: don't know what the right word is, preoccupied or paranoid

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Speaker 1: with the threat of someone moving up in front of

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Speaker 1: I mean that that's always a threat. So how do

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Speaker 1: you keep everything clear and make sure you're doing a

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Speaker 1: draft away? It's the draft is a little bit of

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Speaker 1: a risk reward, you know. I've sat there and I

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Speaker 1: remember my first draft was Adrian Peterson. We were talking

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Speaker 1: about do we go up and get him or do

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Speaker 1: we sit? And we ended up sitting there and we

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Speaker 1: were fortunately they fell to us. We thought he might

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Speaker 1: have went to Arizona and then the Redskins didn't need

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Speaker 1: a quarterback, so we knew if maybe he got to

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Speaker 1: the Commanders the Redskins at the time, that if we

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Speaker 1: got past there, then we would get our guy. We

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Speaker 1: were worried about the Arizona Cardinals and they end up

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Speaker 1: taking a tackle, So that was nerve racking to sit

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Speaker 1: there for ten minutes to hear hopefully, here Adrians Peterson's

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Speaker 1: they not mentioned till you're on the clock. Now with that,

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Speaker 1: I mean, who I know that the way the draft

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Speaker 1: board is. Everybody who says you know the draft falls

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Speaker 1: how it does and you've got your list. Take us

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Speaker 1: back to that pick. I mean Adrian Peterson doesn't go

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Speaker 1: if let's see he goes to Arizona. What happens then?

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Speaker 1: Is it? I mean complete scramble mode? Or do you

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Speaker 1: guys you have a plan in place? So I always

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Speaker 1: started with the worst possible scenario that can happen, and

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Speaker 1: what do we do? Okay, all these players are gone,

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Speaker 1: every one of these guys that we covet are gone,

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Speaker 1: and we can't trade out? Are you? We have to

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Speaker 1: make a pick. So let's go through our process. So

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Speaker 1: when it comes on thro day and you're on the clock,

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Speaker 1: we'll know exactly what. We're not going to have any

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Speaker 1: discussions on draft day. That's what you got all this time.

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Speaker 1: So when we're on draft day, everybody's quiet. I may

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Speaker 1: ask a question or two, but we already know the

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Speaker 1: game plan going in and you may have to adjust,

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Speaker 1: and then you just go I want to talk about

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Speaker 1: the time. It is, the timing of all of this

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Speaker 1: the combine is right now, you're early in March and

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Speaker 1: the drafts coming up just the end of next month.

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Speaker 1: So in the grand scheme of things, very short amount

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Speaker 1: of time for the Colts. You just hired a new

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Speaker 1: head coach, you got a new staff in there, So

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Speaker 1: essentially you've got a month and a half to make

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Speaker 1: a decision where you're sitting it for if you take

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Speaker 1: the quarterback that could impact this franchise for ten years.

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Speaker 1: What are those month? What's that month and a half? Like,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure it's little sleep, but it's I mean,

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Speaker 1: there's so much you have to get right in that

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Speaker 1: time frame. Yeah, but there when you have a new

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Speaker 1: head coach come in, you're working. He's trying to put

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Speaker 1: a staff together and trying to finalize his staff. You're

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Speaker 1: trying to get them caught up on the personnel that

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Speaker 1: you have on your football team, what guys fit and

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Speaker 1: don't fit in the schematic approach we're going to take

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Speaker 1: with us. We got free agency coming up here in

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Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. We got to get prepared for that.

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Speaker 1: Who are we going to sign? Who are we going

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Speaker 1: to extend of our own players? Who are going to

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Speaker 1: let go. And if we do let him go, how

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Speaker 1: are we going to replace him? Or we're going to

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Speaker 1: place him in the free agent market? Or is the

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Speaker 1: draft deep enough in that position and enough depth that

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Speaker 1: let's just wait, We'll finish and do it and fill

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Speaker 1: that need in the draft. But it doesn't in there.

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Speaker 1: He saw what Howard Roseman did a phenomenal job last year,

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Speaker 1: made the aj Brown trade on draft Day, which was

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Speaker 1: unique and I've never seen that before on a player

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Speaker 1: of that caliber get traded on draft day because of

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Speaker 1: all the other things that have to go into does

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Speaker 1: he pass up physical You're giving away a first round pick.

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Speaker 1: Can you get a contract extension done with him? And

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Speaker 1: then Howie continue to build that roster. He went and

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Speaker 1: made the trade for Gardner Johnson, you know, and then

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Speaker 1: he made a trade for Quinn although he didn't have

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Speaker 1: a big impact from the Bears. So it never you think, Okay,

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Speaker 1: after the draft, this team is set. It doesn't. It continues.

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Speaker 1: It's a twenty four to seven process, twelve months a year,

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Speaker 1: and you're always trying to improve and getting your roster better. Rick.

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Speaker 1: I love talking to you because you've literally sat in

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Speaker 1: these chairs and made these decisions is there a quarterback

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Speaker 1: in this draft class that you're really intrigued by that

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Speaker 1: that might be worthy of that bold of a move.

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Speaker 1: If Colts, it's you know, and I'm going to be

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Speaker 1: I would say my favorite quarterback in this draft class.

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Speaker 1: And I know every of them have some holes. As

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Speaker 1: Bryce Young and I've on the opportunity to see him

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Speaker 1: play live twice. I underside stand the size concern, but

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Speaker 1: watching him and I was on the sideline and watching

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Speaker 1: him and his savvy, his just knack for playing a

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Speaker 1: position is unique. Now, if he was six two to ten,

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Speaker 1: he would be a slam dunk franchise generational type quarterback,

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Speaker 1: if you want to put that in quotes. But he's

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Speaker 1: not because he's and we just had him on a

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Speaker 1: set again and he says, I'm not going to get

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Speaker 1: any bigger, but I know I can play ball. And

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Speaker 1: when you see some of the throws he makes that

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Speaker 1: you shouldn't be able to do that, especially at your size.

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Speaker 1: And the one throw that really stuck out to me,

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Speaker 1: I was down at the Sugar Bowl and the throw

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Speaker 1: he threw for a touchdown in a corner of the

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Speaker 1: end zone for a guy that maybe under six foot,

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Speaker 1: I don't know how he sees down there, but he's

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Speaker 1: such an anticipatory thrower and he just has such a

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Speaker 1: natural feel for the position that I think he's the one,

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Speaker 1: besides the size, as the most Poli's quarterback coming out

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Speaker 1: in this draft, and one of the guy has been

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Speaker 1: very highly talked about, Anthony Richardson. He's got all the

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Speaker 1: upside of the world. But talk about the way the

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Speaker 1: NFL is, it's not a patiently You know that very well.

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Speaker 1: It's one of those things with me for sixteen years

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Speaker 1: and finally got out. Everybody eventually gets fired. That's exactly right.

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Speaker 1: But with it being such a you need to perform.

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Speaker 1: Now when you look at a guy with all this upside,

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Speaker 1: but he definitely needs to you know, there's a handful

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Speaker 1: of the things he needs to grow on. How do

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Speaker 1: you weigh that balance if you are going to select

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Speaker 1: a guy that high. He has probably the most physical

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Speaker 1: unique traits out of anyone in this draft class, with

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Speaker 1: his size, with his athleticism, with his arm talent. But

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Speaker 1: that's what you're trying to get the answers to the

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Speaker 1: test or the burning Bush question, what's the answer? By

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Speaker 1: going through all these interviews by doing all these intelligence tests,

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Speaker 1: all these psychological tests, all the analytics thing that come

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Speaker 1: into play. And the one question I've always asked, and

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Speaker 1: you know, asked some of the head coaches that I've interviewed,

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Speaker 1: is that his biggest issue right now to me is

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Speaker 1: a little bit the decision making, but the accuracy. He

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Speaker 1: can make some throw that just like your jaw drops

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Speaker 1: because it was such a fantastic throw, then it'll be

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Speaker 1: one like when you're watching a major league just a

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Speaker 1: bit outside. So yeah, all time favorite sports. Yeah. Taking

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Speaker 1: it a step further, what other draft needs? Do do

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Speaker 1: you peg for the Colts? Let's just say they do

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Speaker 1: go quarterback? Yeah? What else can they do in this

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Speaker 1: draft to help? Well, I think what they have to

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Speaker 1: do first is because you have a whole new scout

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Speaker 1: or coaching staff coming in. So what you thought your

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Speaker 1: draft needs were and your roster needs were before you

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Speaker 1: hire dat head coach, maybe something different because of the

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Speaker 1: scheme they're going to run. And all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: that's the hardest thing sitting in at general manager's chair. Well,

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Speaker 1: we're going to run this on defense, so I need

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Speaker 1: guys that look like this. These are all the physical

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Speaker 1: traits these are the things we're looking for. Well, this guy,

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Speaker 1: this guy, and this guy, and your roster don't fit.

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Speaker 1: We can try to piece it together, but we're not

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Speaker 1: going to be able to put it all together in

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Speaker 1: one year. We're gonna have to continue to build. But

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Speaker 1: I think the Colts have a very talented roster. I

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Speaker 1: think Chris has done a tremendous job putting that roster together.

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Speaker 1: As just can they get the quarterback resolved? Because once

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Speaker 1: you get that resolved, every thing else kind of falls

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Speaker 1: in place. The final thing for me being inside those rooms,

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Speaker 1: kind of trying to eliminate that outside noise, the combine

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Speaker 1: and from here on out, it's just nothing but talk.

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Speaker 1: It's all you hear. It's talk to right when you

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Speaker 1: are sitting inside there. How much of that do you hear?

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Speaker 1: Do you actually listen to? I want to know that narrative, Like,

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Speaker 1: because we see guys are moving up draft boards. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure that's happening, but it's not nearly happening though, because

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Speaker 1: that's already happened. Yeah, and no one's going to tell

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Speaker 1: you what their draft board looks like, right, So the

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Speaker 1: thing that you have to be concerned about is that

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Speaker 1: there will be a lot of smoke coming out, but

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Speaker 1: this smoke is not always fired, and there are some

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Speaker 1: things that will come out. And maybe I don't say

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Speaker 1: teams do this, but a general manager or something may

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Speaker 1: leak out of that building about hey, this player has

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Speaker 1: something wrong with him, and then all of a sudden

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Speaker 1: it gets to some media and then it's another media

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Speaker 1: storm and things like that. So I don't put into

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Speaker 1: this time of year everything that's being said or this

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Speaker 1: or that or even up. But I know you're going

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Speaker 1: to rely on the people in that building. You're gonnaly

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Speaker 1: on your scouts, You're going to rely on your director,

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Speaker 1: you're going to rely on your coaches, and we're going

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Speaker 1: to do what's best for our football team. And regardless

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Speaker 1: of everything that's being said, I know we put all

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Speaker 1: our resources into making sure we have the correct evaluation

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Speaker 1: not only on the field, character everything else that we're

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Speaker 1: going to trust that we are good at our job

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Speaker 1: and what we do. We're going to develop our board

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Speaker 1: and regardless of the outside noise, we're going to stick

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Speaker 1: to our plan, have plan B and C in case

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Speaker 1: A isn't in place, and then let's go. When you

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Speaker 1: had the guys in for fifteen minute interviews. As as

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Speaker 1: an executive or a general manager, what did you try

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Speaker 1: to cram into that short amount of time? And we're

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Speaker 1: trying to trick guys and dupe guys how they handled

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Speaker 1: I wasn't into a diversity. I think what we tried

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Speaker 1: to do was for that fifteen minutes, that was just

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Speaker 1: the first part of it. Yeah, because you're going to

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Speaker 1: revisit them, whether you bring them in on a visit

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Speaker 1: before the draft, you go down and have a private

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Speaker 1: dinner with them after their pro day. You're going to

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Speaker 1: make sure you spend a lot of time to get

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Speaker 1: all the and you can't get that in fifteen minutes.

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Speaker 1: But what we really try to focus on in that

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Speaker 1: fifteen minutes is what area do we need to address?

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Speaker 1: So if it was something learned, okay, I would tell

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Speaker 1: the coach this players coming in. Coaches would prepare film

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Speaker 1: that would we would show the kid, and we'd want

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Speaker 1: to know can he learn or not learn our system?

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Speaker 1: So there was a whole system in place for that.

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Speaker 1: Another kid, maybe, well he has this off field concern

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Speaker 1: or this character, so we'll get back to the football

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Speaker 1: and everything like that. For first fifteen minutes, let's just

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Speaker 1: focus on this part of the interview and then you

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Speaker 1: just build off of that. But you almost had to

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Speaker 1: come up with an individualized interview process for each aspect

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Speaker 1: that was coming in. So you're not just sitting there

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Speaker 1: and wasting time for fifteen minutes. You really want to

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Speaker 1: kind of hone in on what do we need to

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Speaker 1: get out of this interview for the first fifteen minutes

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Speaker 1: with this play, it's fascinating stuff. That's former NFL executive

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Speaker 1: and general manager of the Minnesota Vikings Rick Spielman. Now

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Speaker 1: he's on the dark side on CBS side, got a

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Speaker 1: lot brighter side. And we talked to your your colleague here,

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Speaker 1: Ryan Wilson, talk of the podcast too. Yeah, we're doing

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Speaker 1: a podcast. CBS started a podcast with us called With

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Speaker 1: the First PEC. So we're talking a lot of draft

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Speaker 1: now as everybody is. We try to do it a

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Speaker 1: little different where you know, we'll do it from a

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Speaker 1: little bit from my view, not from all the talking

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Speaker 1: head analysts, although I'm a talking thing that actually makes sense,

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Speaker 1: experience go back. So we have a lot of fun.

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Speaker 1: Ryan Wilson, I've never been around analysts that watches as

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Speaker 1: much tape and tries to take his job as seriously

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Speaker 1: as he does. He's great. We have fun and I

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Speaker 1: love I don't have to do mock drafts. He has

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Speaker 1: to do mock drafts. And I get a chance. You

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Speaker 1: got to make fun of the Yeah, I get to

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Speaker 1: go and pick him apart. Now, what makes you think

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Speaker 1: they would do that? Yeah? Yeah, but I have experience

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Speaker 1: to you, yeah, he has experience now, but never in

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Speaker 1: that seat. So but I respect everything that he does

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Speaker 1: in the work he puts into it. And to me

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Speaker 1: doing this stuff, I love to have fun, love to

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Speaker 1: you know, get around with each other. You can see

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Speaker 1: it and see, uhh, we have a lot of fun

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Speaker 1: on that podcast. Yeah, no doubt about it. Rick, thanks

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Speaker 1: so much for the time. It's great to talk to

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Speaker 1: you again and enjoy your stay here and Nindi okay,

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Speaker 1: thank you for having me on