Speaker 1: Preseason and your first extended playing time. Yeah, how big
Speaker 1: you said this Monday night? Um u um. You know.
Speaker 1: I guess you could look at it as it's the
Speaker 1: last step, you know, getting out there and playing a
Speaker 1: full game. But you know, in my opinion, we've already
Speaker 1: hit the last step. You know, I think I'm ready
Speaker 1: to play. Um. You know, I don't think there's anything
Speaker 1: else that I need to do, and now it's time
Speaker 1: to just go out there and have fun and play
Speaker 1: ball for a couple of days. Yeah, I mean, who
Speaker 1: wouldn't be excited, you know, especially you know, I don't
Speaker 1: even know how long I mean a year and a half,
Speaker 1: year and seven months, I mean year in nine months
Speaker 1: since I've played a regularity. I don't even know how
Speaker 1: long it's been. But yeah, yeah, opening day is always exciting,
Speaker 1: you know, when you haven't played in that long. I
Speaker 1: think it's you know, I'm not much more excited to
Speaker 1: get out there and play in preparation at all. As
Speaker 1: far as we do, it's good. Uh not really, I
Speaker 1: mean I'm not really are you talking about on game day?
Speaker 1: On before like on game day? No, I mean I've
Speaker 1: always kind of had my own routine and you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of it's been the same. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I think just a little more you know, maintenance, a
Speaker 1: little more recovery, you know, making sure that, you know,
Speaker 1: my knee feels good throughout the week, just taking care
Speaker 1: of it, you know, a little more than when I
Speaker 1: was young. You probably when you heard it the second time,
Speaker 1: there're ever any questions to be back here, get on
Speaker 1: as a starter, um, you know, aside from you know,
Speaker 1: those first couple of days where I was just you know,
Speaker 1: kind of really down about everything. No, you know, I
Speaker 1: knew that when I made the decision to come back
Speaker 1: and play, that you know, I was going to get
Speaker 1: back to playing at a high level when I was
Speaker 1: going to be here again, career ending thing. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I think when it initially happens, you know, before you
Speaker 1: talk to doctors, before they tell you that you know
Speaker 1: there hasn't been any you know, permanent or significant damage.
Speaker 1: You know, I think that thought always crosses your head.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, after I talked to doc and
Speaker 1: knew that it was just going to be the same
Speaker 1: rehab process as it was the first time, I wasn't
Speaker 1: worried about it at all. Somebody I thought it had
Speaker 1: written this that you considered forty eight or whatever. That's, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm done. That was cool now, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I think that thought comes into your head, you know,
Speaker 1: like man, I don't want to do this again, like
Speaker 1: I'm tired of rehab and I just spent a year
Speaker 1: rehab and and here we go again. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think when I really had to get serious about
Speaker 1: making that it really wasn't a decision. I knew that,
Speaker 1: you know, once I could get back to rehabbing and
Speaker 1: could feel good that I was going to come back
Speaker 1: and play like a week. No, Like no, it's it's
Speaker 1: not like I debated for like six months and I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I don't know about this, like I
Speaker 1: don't feel good, like I don't like football anymore. Like
Speaker 1: it was more like a couple hour deal. Or it's
Speaker 1: like I'm just tired of rehabbing. But then you kind
Speaker 1: of suck it up and get over that and it's
Speaker 1: back to normal. Which is how do you feel back
Speaker 1: and back? What do you feel like? Um? You know,
Speaker 1: probably when I got back to training camp, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously I was limited through ota, still kind of working
Speaker 1: to get some strength back in my legs and feel good.
Speaker 1: But once I got back to training camp and you know,
Speaker 1: didn't feel anything in my knee and felt like I
Speaker 1: was my normal self out there. I felt like I
Speaker 1: was back ready to go. How important or how not?
Speaker 1: Wort is trust with your offensive line and then comfort
Speaker 1: knowing where guys are going to be and who's got who,
Speaker 1: and the syncing this focus downfield and play your game.
Speaker 1: Oh it's huge, you know, especially in this offense with
Speaker 1: you know, the way that we make Mike declarations and
Speaker 1: some of the protections are run. You know, I have
Speaker 1: to be very in sync with Kels upfront and know
Speaker 1: you know where the point is, who I'm hot off
Speaker 1: you know, even our tackle sometimes can change that, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of make sure that I'm really just in tune
Speaker 1: with those guys up front. I think it's big. I
Speaker 1: think no matter what system you're in, it's important to
Speaker 1: be comfortable and have confidence in those guys in front
Speaker 1: of you. Uh, And in this system, I think it's
Speaker 1: probably even more important than others. Saint Luisi was kind
Speaker 1: of a revolving door at times up in front of you.
Speaker 1: Is it is it not? Does it help you make
Speaker 1: the transition to this team? Having knowing who's in front
Speaker 1: of you, and they've been playing together through it for
Speaker 1: a while. Yeah, you know, I think, you know, whether
Speaker 1: it's football or business, anything, stability is a key to success, um,
Speaker 1: you know, and anything you do. And I think to
Speaker 1: have stability up front to have those five guys together,
Speaker 1: you know, they flighted quite a few games together. You know,
Speaker 1: this isn't gonna be the first time they've started together. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, it means a lot, and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: those guys feel more confident in their ability. Your emotions
Speaker 1: will be stepping on the field, you know when that
Speaker 1: they football. That like just the fact that you've come
Speaker 1: from the circle and this will be you know, the
Speaker 1: startup something new and exciting. Um, you know, I think
Speaker 1: to be honest, it'll probably be the same as it
Speaker 1: has every other season opener, except now I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I just enjoy things a little bit more, you know,
Speaker 1: take time to just enjoy the small things out there
Speaker 1: and just have fun because you never know when it's
Speaker 1: gonna be taken away from you. So you know, besides
Speaker 1: the normal excitement and jitters, you know, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: look to enjoy myself out there. The expectations out there
Speaker 1: and how the player that tries not to get caught
Speaker 1: up in that just play football. The expectations for this
Speaker 1: team were right now. Um yeah, I think I've told
Speaker 1: you guys from day one. Yeah, I really don't pay
Speaker 1: attention to anything that goes on outside this building. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not concerned with what the expectations are
Speaker 1: outside of this building. You know, we know what our
Speaker 1: expectations are of ourselves. Um, you know they're pretty high
Speaker 1: as well. You know, we expect to go out there
Speaker 1: and execute and play to the level that we know
Speaker 1: we can. And uh, I think that's all that matters.
Speaker 1: Kind Of curious to see how it goes Monday with
Speaker 1: these weapons and the old line and you back there
Speaker 1: are You've had little snippets a few drives in Green Bay,
Speaker 1: but you never had a full game game planning and
Speaker 1: really kind of you know, taking the consideration that other defense,
Speaker 1: and I mean it's the first time it all comes together. Yeah,
Speaker 1: kind of curious to see how it operates. Uh yeah.
Speaker 1: But to be honest, I think the beauty about the
Speaker 1: way we run things here is, you know, even though
Speaker 1: we didn't really game plan a ton in the preseason. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we'll game plan for this game, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna run our stuff. You know, you're not going to
Speaker 1: see anything crazy out of us. It's going to be
Speaker 1: what we do. Um. You know. So I think I'm
Speaker 1: comfortable in that fact. You know, we're not going to
Speaker 1: go into this game behind you know, and totally change
Speaker 1: the playbook, you know, and run a million different plays
Speaker 1: that you know we haven't run before. You is to
Speaker 1: rehab one ACL tare us too. How did you keep
Speaker 1: your sanity through the second month? Yeah, you just gotta
Speaker 1: take a day at a time, you know. I think
Speaker 1: if you come in every day with the attitude that
Speaker 1: you're going to get better that day and you're gonna
Speaker 1: make progress that day, then the progress that you make
Speaker 1: over three and six months it just kind of comes naturally.
Speaker 1: But if you come in every day expecting to just
Speaker 1: make leaps and bounds, and when you're like, I can't
Speaker 1: wait till I'm running again, but you're three months away
Speaker 1: from running, You're gonna drive yourself crazy. So I really
Speaker 1: just try to take it, you know, day by day.
Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, yeah, I think, you know, the first time,
Speaker 1: that's really kind of what I struggled with. You know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't really ready for the ups and downs of
Speaker 1: the rehap process. I expected everything to get better every
Speaker 1: day and for it to just come fast and natural,
Speaker 1: and you know that's not how it is. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think I was more prepared for that the second time.
Speaker 1: It was the last step. When you said before, do
Speaker 1: you think the last step was taking some of those
Speaker 1: shots that you took in the preseason? Who was the
Speaker 1: last step? You know, running ten pretend to be made
Speaker 1: with when you said you'd feel like you've already made
Speaker 1: the last step? Which was the more important last step?
Speaker 1: I think just getting out there and you know, playing
Speaker 1: ball again, taking a few hits. Um, you know, feeling
Speaker 1: the speed of the game out there and just getting
Speaker 1: back at it. What are the similar things you expect
Speaker 1: from the Land's defense. I mean, you know, if they
Speaker 1: run with Seattle's done, you know pretty well with the
Speaker 1: kind of concepts they have defensively, Um, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously you know we're expecting you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: single high you know, they're going to try to crowd
Speaker 1: the box, take away the run. Um, you know, they're
Speaker 1: not overly complicated and what they do if it's you
Speaker 1: know similar, which it is compared to what we've seen
Speaker 1: from you know, Seattle in the past where I've seen
Speaker 1: the past few years from Seattle. But they're really good
Speaker 1: at what they do. You know, when you don't play
Speaker 1: a lot of coverages, you get really good at what
Speaker 1: you do. Um, you know. So we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: be ready and just be disciplined, you know, and take
Speaker 1: what's there. Yep, thanks, yeah, yeah,