Speaker 1: UM, he's in the building. But you know there's a
Speaker 1: lot of administration stuff that needs to go from physical
Speaker 1: to signing, the actual signing of the contract to get
Speaker 1: into uniform and helmet fit and all that different stuff. So, UM,
Speaker 1: you know that's the plan. But UM you know, hopefully
Speaker 1: that'll happen. If if not, it's not a setback. What
Speaker 1: UM we'll see. UM you know we're a merit based defense. UM,
Speaker 1: we don't go in with a whole lot of preconceived notions. UM.
Speaker 1: He's not here to replace anybody. He's here to add
Speaker 1: to our group, you know, And and I think that
Speaker 1: as coaches, our job is to find out what guys
Speaker 1: do the best and what guys bring to the part.
Speaker 1: Everybody's got something different they bring to the party, and
Speaker 1: UM you know we embrace that and try to find
Speaker 1: a role for all of those guys. But what role
Speaker 1: he's going to play, UM, you know is is yet
Speaker 1: to be determined. UM. You know he's he's a very
Speaker 1: experienced player. He's he's played at a hype, UM, at
Speaker 1: a high level of production, plays with a lot of spirit. UM,
Speaker 1: he's heavy in the run game. He's got natural leverage.
Speaker 1: That's UM, that's a a kind way of saying he's
Speaker 1: he's short, but he's he's really powerful. He understands blocking schemes, um,
Speaker 1: you know, and he has a good understanding pass games.
Speaker 1: He's got a little bit of experience in the defense.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means a whole lot. He's
Speaker 1: a good player, stands on its own. He's done it
Speaker 1: in different schames. What you see in the preseason games,
Speaker 1: defense was obviously played pretty well the first two games.
Speaker 1: And do you have you ever been fooled by something
Speaker 1: you saw preseason when you got through the Riders. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know that you say fooled by it, but
Speaker 1: you can get, um, you can get a a skewed
Speaker 1: version or skewed vision of it. I mean, for a
Speaker 1: long time I was in Tennessee and our biggest division
Speaker 1: rival was the Cult. And every year the Colts would
Speaker 1: go oh and four in the preseason. And if you
Speaker 1: if you said, hold, they're going to be down this year, Um,
Speaker 1: you were on the wrong boat. You know. They were
Speaker 1: a veteran team. They were getting through. Um. Peyton didn't
Speaker 1: play a whole lot. Um. Every year they were super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Every year they were Super Bowl contender UM. And another
Speaker 1: part of before I got to Detroit UM the year
Speaker 1: that they won, oh in sixteen, they were four and
Speaker 1: oh in the preseason. So take it for what it is.
Speaker 1: I think that we got parking lot, we we got
Speaker 1: like traffic jam going on around here. Good gracious UM.
Speaker 1: So so you can read a little bit. Here's here's
Speaker 1: what I think. It's it's important to UM see how
Speaker 1: well we're executing a scheme, to see individual UM. Honestly,
Speaker 1: effort is an individual production within the scheme. Can you
Speaker 1: make the plays that should come to you. One of
Speaker 1: the things I liked about the game on Thursday is
Speaker 1: that we played everything that's I don't even know what
Speaker 1: day it is, but that long drive, that sixteen play
Speaker 1: drive that's very very difficult for a defense. And they
Speaker 1: were going, you know, three yards, four yards, five yards,
Speaker 1: and they kept you know, sort of moving the chains,
Speaker 1: and that's a difficult situation. Usually in those sixteen plays,
Speaker 1: somebody breaks down, somebody misses a tackle, somebody blows an assignment,
Speaker 1: somebody gets frustrated and tries to make a play they
Speaker 1: shouldn't make, and then you end up with a touchdown.
Speaker 1: When I was proud of The defense in that case
Speaker 1: was they didn't Nobody panicked. They just kept playing. Everybody
Speaker 1: did their assignment. We ended up with the turnover that
Speaker 1: came off of it. I think you're looking for those
Speaker 1: things in the preseason. I want to ask about what
Speaker 1: he's shown you, especially in the two games. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: Jalen has a skill set of corner slash safety, played
Speaker 1: both at Florida, you know, and we've moved him to
Speaker 1: safety to try to take advantage of that. His challenge
Speaker 1: had always been tackling and run game. You know. Last year,
Speaker 1: if you watched a little bit of him, that's that's
Speaker 1: where he broke down a little bit. And early in
Speaker 1: camp this year that's where he broke down. I think
Speaker 1: he's he's worked very hard and the coaches have worked
Speaker 1: very hard with him to address that, and you're seeing
Speaker 1: the results of that. He's playing more aggressively in the
Speaker 1: run game. And there's times that safeties can play aggressively
Speaker 1: and there's times where they can. You know, when you're
Speaker 1: the last line of defense, you got to get that
Speaker 1: guy on the ground whoever you can. But there's sometimes
Speaker 1: where there's leverage and there's hold to fill, you need
Speaker 1: to be a missile, you need to go fill it.
Speaker 1: And he's done a good job of that. So I
Speaker 1: think he's on the right track. We just need to
Speaker 1: keep seeing improvement from him. He's kind. I'm very proud
Speaker 1: of him. He's done a really good job. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's easy to work on your strengths. He's really shown
Speaker 1: that he's willing to work on his weaknesses and it's
Speaker 1: shown on the field. Have you ever rotated it a linebacker?
Speaker 1: We're having more than three specializing a field. Yeah. Did
Speaker 1: you feel comfortable with run down? Yeah? I think I
Speaker 1: go back yet to be seen. Um, but I think
Speaker 1: that falls into my terrible analogy. If everybody brings something
Speaker 1: to the party, you know, I mean, you know, if
Speaker 1: everybody if everybody about the same thing, it would be
Speaker 1: a crappy party, you know, Or it might be a
Speaker 1: really good party. Maybe you look at it that maybe
Speaker 1: it's a really good one. But um, if everybody brings
Speaker 1: the same thing, you know, I mean, you got you
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta accentuate these guys strengths. Um. We talk
Speaker 1: about that a lot as a defensive line with rolling
Speaker 1: guys throw. We do it as a secondary there's Nickels,
Speaker 1: there's dimes, there's things like that. There's no reason that
Speaker 1: you can't do that as um as linebackers. What do
Speaker 1: you see from calday because the Steelers, UM see the
Speaker 1: same stuff that we saw from him last year. He's
Speaker 1: a veteran player, he's from before he got hurt last
Speaker 1: year he was playing. There's there's the there's little defender, motorcycles. UM. Awesome, awesome, UM, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Nolan Um. Right off the bat, we weren't in we
Speaker 1: were in a run stop in defense. They were in
Speaker 1: a run set quarterback check to a pass. No one
Speaker 1: just went up. I thought that was really the tone
Speaker 1: setter for the for the day because they tried to
Speaker 1: take a shot right away. He's in great position, knocks
Speaker 1: the ball away. They're not even breaking a sweat that
Speaker 1: set up his interception later on. Too. Very reliable, he's
Speaker 1: a pro. Been very pleased with him, and he's done
Speaker 1: a really good job of managing his body as he's
Speaker 1: come off of that injury. Marcus Smith and Stephen Means
Speaker 1: it seemed like they were pretty active obviously in the
Speaker 1: game against the Steelers. What have you kind of seen
Speaker 1: from them so far? Same stuff we've seen from those
Speaker 1: guys in training camp just about every day. I mean,
Speaker 1: you guys started. You guys were probably on Stephen Means
Speaker 1: before anybody else because you saw the same things we saw.
Speaker 1: And Marcus was doing very well. He just had to
Speaker 1: set back with the concussion and this time, but he
Speaker 1: sort of picked up right where he left off. The
Speaker 1: thing I'm most proud about with Marcus is that he's
Speaker 1: done a good job in the run game. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's not just it's a little bit like you know,
Speaker 1: talking about Jalen watkins Um. You know, he's a very
Speaker 1: skilled athlete and he's fast, he's smooth. I think he
Speaker 1: was a quarterback when he first went to Louisville. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that stuff shows where he was really made good
Speaker 1: improvement is set in the edge of our defense, attack
Speaker 1: and tackles. He did that against a physical group from Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: That was a great sign. How didn't do the economy
Speaker 1: between playing to win right now? As you mentioned, as
Speaker 1: an Earth based defense versus growing in developing in the
Speaker 1: talent into the defense of the boar um, you always
Speaker 1: want to develop. I think that's I think you can
Speaker 1: do both. I mean, why why does one have to
Speaker 1: be mutual. Why do they have to be mutually exclusive? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, there's ways to develop talent and still have
Speaker 1: an approach that you're going to win. I think we
Speaker 1: owe it to the locker room, we owe it to defend.
Speaker 1: We're gonna try our very best to win every single game. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, and there's never been a word of any
Speaker 1: difference in this building. We're gonna try everything weekend to
Speaker 1: win every game that we play. So, you know, developing
Speaker 1: players in that I don't I don't know that you
Speaker 1: can't do both. How often had been Mike Martin miss
Speaker 1: by being out and is he's still considered one of
Speaker 1: the top back up at interior lineman. Um, he was
Speaker 1: doing very well before he missed that time. He fits
Speaker 1: the defense. He was making life hard on the offensive lineman,
Speaker 1: which is what you want from those guys. He did
Speaker 1: have a sit back as far as miss time. Hopefully
Speaker 1: we can get him back on the field and like
Speaker 1: a guy like Marcus or even um, you know Jalen
Speaker 1: Mills or No One Caroline, those guys that's miss time.
Speaker 1: He can step right back in and pick up where
Speaker 1: he left off because he was playing at a high level.
Speaker 1: Before he missed. The times been very logal and the
Speaker 1: challenges generally just a six to five four four receiver. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll just try to stay on the defensive side. You
Speaker 1: can be asked those questions city offensive guys, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean those big basketball wide receivers. To do you
Speaker 1: have a sense of his fitness and for an older
Speaker 1: guy who hasn't been in a camp, how do you
Speaker 1: approach him in practice that um I did have a
Speaker 1: conversation with him and said he had been training twice
Speaker 1: a day. He knows, he's he's a veteran play he's
Speaker 1: been through. I think this is eleven years for him,
Speaker 1: might be twelve, you know, other than the ACL I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think, and maybe since he left, but I
Speaker 1: know when I was with him in Detroit, we tried
Speaker 1: to give him a that day off in training camp
Speaker 1: and told the trainers, hey, you know, Toby will be
Speaker 1: down today. And he came in my office mad as
Speaker 1: a hornet, and I was ready to practice, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, hey, look, you know, let's you know, he's
Speaker 1: starting to get up a little bit. Let's let's let's
Speaker 1: be smart with this. And he's like, you're ruining my streak,
Speaker 1: like we're talking about her. Coach, I've never missed a practice,
Speaker 1: never missed a game. But he had never missed a practice.
Speaker 1: And I think he said going back to high school,
Speaker 1: going back to NC State high school, eight years at
Speaker 1: the NFL, he had never missed a practice in the NFL.
Speaker 1: So guys like that, there's you know, they know how
Speaker 1: to get themselves ready. He knows he's not coming in
Speaker 1: here with his eyes shut, not knowing what he's getting.
Speaker 1: And I mean he's done it before, he'll be able
Speaker 1: to he'll be able to do that. I'd be very
Speaker 1: surprised if it was a different case that day. Oh no,
Speaker 1: he went out to practice. We cut his reps a
Speaker 1: little bit, but he still went out. I respect that.
Speaker 1: I respect guys thatt one. I mean I had the
Speaker 1: same thing with Calvin Johnson, the same thing with Kyle
Speaker 1: van deibosch Um. You know those guys that you know
Speaker 1: we have we have some guys here that that don't
Speaker 1: like that. You know, they want to be out there
Speaker 1: with their teammates. That's even if they're not taking their
Speaker 1: full regiment of reps. They feel like their presence on
Speaker 1: the field helps and it does. Um, yeah, we we
Speaker 1: we cut his reps a little bit. We compromise a
Speaker 1: little bit. I'm not a big compromiser, but I respect
Speaker 1: guys that have played a long time. I have tremendous
Speaker 1: respect for guys to get ten years in the NFL. UM,
Speaker 1: because you can't make ten years on talent alone. You
Speaker 1: can't make ten yards years by being a try hard guy. Um,
Speaker 1: you got to have a great combination of things and um,
Speaker 1: you know. And also in ten years, just face it,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be working with different coaching staffs in ten years.
Speaker 1: You got to have the ability to work in a
Speaker 1: lot of different schemes, whether you're an offensive player or
Speaker 1: a defensive player. Um, you know. I'll bow down to
Speaker 1: guys to play ten years in this league because that's
Speaker 1: tough business, the most important in your mind, in your mind,
Speaker 1: you put extra stocking it and it's important that you
Speaker 1: guys go against a lot for an extended pred especially
Speaker 1: after not facing Ben. We play whoever they put out there,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter if it's a regular season or preseason.
Speaker 1: We can't control that. So I don't know if I
Speaker 1: want to read too much into that. Every game is
Speaker 1: important there's competition for jobs, there's competition for roster spot.
Speaker 1: There's some guys that are trying to make a good
Speaker 1: impression to hopefully make the practice squad. So that's important
Speaker 1: enough for our guys without putting anything to do with
Speaker 1: the Colts. Oh, he wants to play the squad. There's
Speaker 1: something he's discussed. Is that a role you see him
Speaker 1: fitting on this deal? Well? He does, he does. Both
Speaker 1: him and Rodney have to do it in our base
Speaker 1: defense and having those guys give you the ability to
Speaker 1: not have to go to nickel personnel when teams run
Speaker 1: three wide receivers and you know that's the profile safeties
Speaker 1: has changed over the years. You know that big indo
Speaker 1: box safety that was an extra linebacker. You know that's
Speaker 1: that's that's a tough guy to hide because the offense
Speaker 1: can personnel you and things like that. But it's it's
Speaker 1: a security bank. I for the coordinator, for the coach
Speaker 1: to know that if they do give you a third
Speaker 1: wide receiver, they give you a set that you know
Speaker 1: you've got to have a matchup it, blitz whatever it
Speaker 1: is that you have guys that can do that. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're in nickel and you want to run a blitz,
Speaker 1: one of your safety is going to cover a wide receiver.
Speaker 1: So he does he does do that in our scheme
Speaker 1: and it's very valuable. Um it might be on first
Speaker 1: and ten, it might be coming it might not be
Speaker 1: what you think of playing the slot, but it might
Speaker 1: be coming out of our base package. It doesn't make
Speaker 1: any less important. He's a very valuable guy. And I'd
Speaker 1: say Rodney in that same in that same vein. Both
Speaker 1: of those guys have corner in their back ground and
Speaker 1: that was part of the profile of us bringing them here. Hey,
Speaker 1: thanks guys. H