Speaker 1: Howdy George.
Speaker 2: Is the is the constant drum beat of disrespect for Brock.
Speaker 2: Do you think a good thing maybe for him just
Speaker 2: to he seems like he's a guy who admits that
Speaker 2: he plays with a chip on his shoulder, you will
Speaker 2: have a positive effect.
Speaker 3: I don't think it'll have a negative effect. I don't
Speaker 3: think broccerly listens to too much. Like I don't think
Speaker 3: he uses any type of social media very much. And
Speaker 3: you know, I think he's kind of like me. You
Speaker 3: don't really read anything unless your mom sends you it, So,
Speaker 3: you know, I think Brox is going to be dialed
Speaker 3: the way that he has been all season the last
Speaker 3: two years for us, and you know, people can say
Speaker 3: whatever they want to say, and he's just gonna go
Speaker 3: out there and be Brock. Or it's like the four
Speaker 3: teams left all will like pretty heavily on the tight end.
Speaker 1: That they do. Is that what do you think or
Speaker 1: is something about the position or what do you think
Speaker 1: of it?
Speaker 3: I feel like if you look back at you know,
Speaker 3: most of the last Super Bowl winners, every team has
Speaker 3: like a very very talented tight end that they use,
Speaker 3: you know, whether that's run game or in the past game.
Speaker 3: You know, Titans just they give you an ability to
Speaker 3: mismatch different you know, you get on linebackers, you go
Speaker 3: in safeties, you want to use two guys to cover them,
Speaker 3: it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It opens up other people.
Speaker 3: So you have someone that can dominate the middle of
Speaker 3: the field, makes a lot easier on your quarterback.
Speaker 1: Obviously know him pretty well. What I mean.
Speaker 3: Sam's fantastic. His film speaks for itself. He's second team
Speaker 3: All Pro Pro Bowl in his first year as a rookie.
Speaker 3: That's really hard to do, you know, not very many
Speaker 3: people do that. He's planned at a high level. He's
Speaker 3: in an offense where you know, the quarterback trusts him,
Speaker 3: they throw him out there on third down. He's running
Speaker 3: wide receiver routes, he's inside dominating the middle. He's doing
Speaker 3: everything that you wanted to do as a rookie and
Speaker 3: more so. Yeah, I'm very proud of Sam, and uh,
Speaker 3: you know, I hope he doesn't have a great game
Speaker 3: in s So.
Speaker 4: You're a pretty big supporter of his throughout the pre
Speaker 4: draft process over the summer.
Speaker 2: Yes, is there just anything that's even surprised to you?
Speaker 2: Maybe about the success he's had given the difficulty of
Speaker 2: adjusting to that position.
Speaker 3: No, not really. I mean, like I worked out with
Speaker 3: him a little bit this offseason. Uh, picked his brain
Speaker 3: a little bit. He's super smart and just like watching
Speaker 3: him work out, I could tell, you know, like he
Speaker 3: was ready for it. He's got to stick forward, lean
Speaker 3: to him. He knows how to run in and out
Speaker 3: of cuts, catches everything with his hands. Like I knew
Speaker 3: he was a player just watching him. You know, you
Speaker 3: could see it in college, but just working around it,
Speaker 3: like when he's working out with all these other NFL guys. Sorry,
Speaker 3: you could tell like he didn't stand out in a
Speaker 3: way like, oh, this is a college kid. Like he
Speaker 3: looked like he was a guy who understand what he
Speaker 3: was doing. So he has an understanding of the game.
Speaker 3: He has understanding what the Lions want from him, and
Speaker 3: you know when you put him out there with you know,
Speaker 3: coach Campbell and like their mindset, I think he fits
Speaker 3: the mold perfectly and he kind of adds to that
Speaker 3: mold himself. So I mean he's everything that you want
Speaker 3: in the tight end that can do everything.
Speaker 1: You know, this is your fourth NFC championship for five years.
Speaker 2: Is there a different.
Speaker 3: Vibe to it or confidence or hunger compared to those
Speaker 3: past months. No, I've been pretty hungry at all of them.
Speaker 3: You know, I won one lost too. It's not really
Speaker 3: fun to lose those games. So no, I've been pretty
Speaker 3: hungry for him. I think the whole team is, the
Speaker 3: whole vibe is you know, we have a confidence that
Speaker 3: we've built throughout the season. You know, it's not a
Speaker 3: fake confidence, it's a you know, we've played football at
Speaker 3: high level this long. Let's just keep going out there
Speaker 3: and play football at a high level. Play a team
Speaker 3: game this weekend, and you know, a huge fan of
Speaker 3: our game plan this week. I think coach Shanahan's definitely uh,
Speaker 3: he's working and I think that's great for us.
Speaker 1: So now, I don't know.
Speaker 3: If the vibe is different, it's a it's just a
Speaker 3: vibe that we understand. H I don't know what, not
Speaker 3: the pressure of the game, but just you know where
Speaker 3: we are, like the situation where the NFCA Championship game,
Speaker 3: and you know, all we're going to do is go
Speaker 3: out there and play our best football and see where
Speaker 3: it takes us.
Speaker 4: How difficult it is to make this climb four times
Speaker 4: in five years to get to this.
Speaker 3: Point, yeah, I mean it's really hard. I mean, like
Speaker 3: everything has to kind of go your way. You look
Speaker 3: at twenty nineteen and you know that season, you can't
Speaker 3: really even compare it to this year, and you know,
Speaker 3: we go to the super Bowl, lose, and then twenty
Speaker 3: twenty are like, hey, we got all these players back,
Speaker 3: We're out there and win, and then ball doesn't bounce
Speaker 3: our way and we you know, have a bunch of injuries,
Speaker 3: you know, and things you can't control. So in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty one, probably week six, no one really thought we're
Speaker 3: gonna go anywhere and ended up somehow back in there again.
Speaker 3: And every year is just so unique. That's what makes
Speaker 3: it so difficult. You might have similar players and guys
Speaker 3: who know how to win football games, but when you
Speaker 3: look at you know, as a role players and stuff
Speaker 3: like that, it's changing. You know, you can't keep everybody,
Speaker 3: you can't pay everybody. You have to fill gaps, you
Speaker 3: have to bring new guys in, you have to try
Speaker 3: to keep your culture. There's just so many things that
Speaker 3: go into it. We lose our run game coordinator, lose
Speaker 3: our office coordinator, lose defensive coordinator. Like there's just so
Speaker 3: many interchanging parts and so to continue and sustain winning
Speaker 3: you know, you know, as many regular season games as
Speaker 3: we do and you know, make it into the playoffs.
Speaker 3: It's very difficult. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: you got to continue to win all the other ones.
Speaker 3: And you know, we haven't done that yet.
Speaker 4: Understanding the pressure of the situation, but what does what
Speaker 4: does it do when you maybe haven't got over the
Speaker 4: home yet in terms of hey, how many more opportunities
Speaker 4: are we going to get to be in this spot?
Speaker 3: I turned on to think of it like that. It's just, hey,
Speaker 3: here's the opportunity. It's right in front of us. This
Speaker 3: is what you know since the end of last season.
Speaker 3: This is where Hey, what are we gonna do to
Speaker 3: try to get back there? And you know, try to
Speaker 3: win that game. And all the effort you've put in
Speaker 3: throughout off season, OTAs, summer training camp, every single day,
Speaker 3: every decision that you make kind of leads to this moment.
Speaker 1: And hey, we're here.
Speaker 3: We made all the right decisions and we've done the
Speaker 3: right things, and so what are we gonna do as
Speaker 3: a team to win this football game? And I have
Speaker 3: a lot of belief in our team that we're gonna
Speaker 3: go out there and do all the right things the.
Speaker 1: Division in front.
Speaker 4: I guess how impressed have you've been with the way
Speaker 4: Kyle is city You've lost a lot of guys.
Speaker 3: Impressed if you've been with the way Kyle has brought
Speaker 3: new people in and and sort of kept thinking seamless.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's pretty incredible, and I mean it just
Speaker 3: it really speaks for itself with him and John have
Speaker 3: done just filling in gaps, bringing in new guys, giving
Speaker 3: people chances. And I think what Kyle just does such
Speaker 3: a great job of is you know, he looks at
Speaker 3: what he has available to him, no matter what it is,
Speaker 3: no matter what the injuries are, and the way he
Speaker 3: can build game plans around people to put people in
Speaker 3: positions to succeed, it's pretty incredible. And just to be
Speaker 3: a part of this offense, to see how it's grown,
Speaker 3: to see like how his play calling has kind of changed,
Speaker 3: or how it's evolved, whatever you want to say it is.
Speaker 3: It's just really fun to be a part of that
Speaker 3: and for him to be able to constantly fill gaps,
Speaker 3: bring the people in, but at the same time keep
Speaker 3: the culture the way it is, keep the mindset the
Speaker 3: way that it is be as physical, be as fast
Speaker 3: as possibly can, and go out there and play at
Speaker 3: your best ball. He does a pretty damn good job
Speaker 3: for that, and I'm actually pretty disappoint he hasn't been
Speaker 3: Coached of the Year yet.
Speaker 4: With regards to your dad's pre game letters, does anything
Speaker 4: surprise you anymore?
Speaker 1: And do you expected to him? Like do you know
Speaker 1: what's coming? Or is it something different? Every time?
Speaker 3: Usually, like the the bigger the game, the more aggressive
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 1: So I'm always a huge fan of that.
Speaker 3: You know, there's times where he's kind of like, uh,
Speaker 3: what is it the turtle from Kung Fu Panda?
Speaker 1: You know, very wise, very like sage like.
Speaker 3: And then there's times where it feels like it's you're
Speaker 3: getting a speech to go into a bunker, you know,
Speaker 3: with your boys, and you know there's bombs coming down
Speaker 3: around you. Like the mindset's very very different, you know,
Speaker 3: game the game, And I really appreciate that from him
Speaker 3: because he either adds to my mindset or he gives
Speaker 3: me another thing to think about in a good way.
Speaker 1: And it's part of the switch that his flipped.
Speaker 2: George Kirby, Joseph and CG. Gardner Johnson, these guys you know,
Speaker 2: they play, they're super physical and they're taking big hits.
Speaker 2: Do you guys feel the need to match their physicality
Speaker 2: in this game or is it not about that?
Speaker 1: Hmm?
Speaker 3: I think what the forty nine ers put on tape
Speaker 3: week in and week out is that we're one of
Speaker 3: the most physical teams in the NFL. I've been up
Speaker 3: here countless times I've said that, So I don't They're
Speaker 3: a very physical team. They go out there and they hit,
Speaker 3: they do all the things that they're supposed to do,
Speaker 3: and I feel like we do the same thing. So
Speaker 3: I don't think we need to match it as as
Speaker 3: well as we just need to play our game.
Speaker 1: Kind of energy did Depot give you today? Being on
Speaker 1: the practice field, Deeple was always great. He just excited
Speaker 1: for him to be out there.
Speaker 3: He's just such a you know, huge part of our
Speaker 3: offense and everything that we do, and just his energy
Speaker 3: itself is infectious and he gets guys going, gets some
Speaker 3: confident him. NBA together is its own, you know, it's
Speaker 3: its own thing entirely. So very excited have Dbo out
Speaker 3: there and looks great.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Hi, Nick. Not mine