Speaker 1: What do you know about your group? What have you
Speaker 1: learned about your group that you didn't know when this
Speaker 1: all started several weeks. I think their capacity to work
Speaker 1: is the biggest thing. Like our staff has been impressed
Speaker 1: with in terms of the amount that we've gotten in
Speaker 1: since April twentieth with this group. You know there it's
Speaker 1: an extremely thirsty group in terms of they always wants
Speaker 1: something more, they want something new. You'll see them today.
Speaker 1: A lot of people kind of mail in this last day.
Speaker 1: These guys are fired up on getting out there one
Speaker 1: more time. We got a lot of situational work we've
Speaker 1: got to get done today. But I think that's the
Speaker 1: biggest thing. Just really their capacity to work was really
Speaker 1: impressive with them individual or positional things that have been
Speaker 1: resolved or it's not resolved now. I mean just because
Speaker 1: of the nature of what we do. There are no paths,
Speaker 1: there are no quarterbacks can't be touched. You know, you're
Speaker 1: really not allowed to play press man and get up
Speaker 1: and get physical with them. You can kind of mirror
Speaker 1: them and chadow them. So there's a lot of cooperation
Speaker 1: that has to go on in the offseason program. So
Speaker 1: to come to any real conclusions, at this point in time.
Speaker 1: Is it really wouldn't be fair to anybody to say, Hey,
Speaker 1: this guy's done an unbelieable job. I mean, you really
Speaker 1: were still gotta put pads on. We're still gonna be physical,
Speaker 1: we still gotta you know, see what that's all about.
Speaker 1: So if you acknowledge that, you've acknowledge that you're negotiations
Speaker 1: with the contract, IF's something we're to get done before camp,
Speaker 1: wouldn't that essentially eliminate a true quarter beck competition. Your
Speaker 1: best players are always going to play, So I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that's always been the way it has to be,
Speaker 1: and that's the way it will be. Some deal that
Speaker 1: give me one more time. My theory is the best
Speaker 1: players always play, and it's not fair to the rest
Speaker 1: of the guys on the team if the best players
Speaker 1: aren't playing. It's not fair to the city, it's not
Speaker 1: fair to the staff, it's not fair to anybody if
Speaker 1: the best players aren't playing. And the best players are
Speaker 1: always going to play, then between now and in the
Speaker 1: second of all, what's your message. It's the same message
Speaker 1: we always have with them. I mean that it's a
Speaker 1: great group. We trust them. They've got their individual workouts
Speaker 1: that they'll be accountable for when they come back, and
Speaker 1: just you know, enjoy your time off. You deserve your
Speaker 1: time off. They've worked extremely Hearts and Table twentieth and
Speaker 1: looking forward to getting you guys back here. On the
Speaker 1: first didn't categorize how mort Destance has has looked throughout
Speaker 1: the whole camps, especially compared to what are you able
Speaker 1: to do on the fly last year. He's just so
Speaker 1: much more comfortable in terms of what we're doing. When
Speaker 1: you know, last year he was coming off an injury,
Speaker 1: coming out from miss in a year, probably still wasn't
Speaker 1: one hundred percent when we were with him last year
Speaker 1: at this point in time, learning a new offense on
Speaker 1: the fly, as you said, So it's just a there's
Speaker 1: a whole different comfort level when you see Mark out there. Now,
Speaker 1: how is that in actually his performance in the campus
Speaker 1: it's obviously he's just sharper just because of his knowledge.
Speaker 1: He knows where number two, number three, number four are,
Speaker 1: the understands protections better. It's not the first time, you know,
Speaker 1: it's the game of football is a huge game of repetition,
Speaker 1: and you can't manufacture those repetitions unless you're out on
Speaker 1: the field. Actually doing them. So you know, he's got
Speaker 1: that whole year in the bank, so to speak. So
Speaker 1: what's the next step for sam Red for his prepares
Speaker 1: for treating the game. Plom just continue to work on
Speaker 1: his rehabilitation. As I said before, there's medical rehab, performance rehab,
Speaker 1: and then prepared to play. He's in the performance rehab aspect.
Speaker 1: Now he's got six weeks before we get back here
Speaker 1: in August, and then uh, then it's prepared to play
Speaker 1: in and get out there and wing the ball around.
Speaker 1: Now everybody's running around today. I don't say we don't
Speaker 1: have any contact with him. He's gonna work on his
Speaker 1: with our trainers and strength coaches. I think he can
Speaker 1: work on his real rotation. But from a football standpoint,
Speaker 1: there's no contact. What second he's had, I think he's
Speaker 1: been great progress. And the biggest thing with Josh is
Speaker 1: just consistency, and I think it is for most guys,
Speaker 1: you know, when you come in as a first year player.
Speaker 1: He was obviously set back a little bit because of
Speaker 1: his injury, uh and then missing the first portion of
Speaker 1: the season, but then just flashed at times, you know,
Speaker 1: as a kickoff return for a touchdown was that which
Speaker 1: was a heck of a return, you know, just a
Speaker 1: more consistent basis in terms of his performance out there.
Speaker 1: And I think he's really been a lot more consistent,
Speaker 1: and that's what we've been trying to work on him
Speaker 1: with him a lot about Miles Austin and his ability
Speaker 1: to venture the younger receivers, But what about as a receiver?
Speaker 1: What have you seen from them out here? He been
Speaker 1: really impressed with him. He's an outstanding route runner, does
Speaker 1: a great job of getting separation at the top of
Speaker 1: his routes, understands leverage, understands coverage. You know. I think
Speaker 1: that wealth of experience that he has, he's a big target.
Speaker 1: He's got really really good range, catches the ball, extremely
Speaker 1: well intelligent, you know, kind of knows the subtleties of
Speaker 1: the of exact route running, you know, kind of exactly
Speaker 1: where to maybe place his elbow to get separation in
Speaker 1: terms of pushing off a hip and things like that.
Speaker 1: But and he's imparted that on the younger guys, which
Speaker 1: I think has really helped us, you know that to
Speaker 1: have that true veteran route runner in there, and I
Speaker 1: think he's been really good at doing that. GJ. Canty
Speaker 1: making the rugs issue. He's actually done a really nice job.
Speaker 1: The one thing with GJ that you didn't know because
Speaker 1: he's coming from quarterback. You know, he's obviously a running, slash,
Speaker 1: snowing quarterback coming out of college, so you knew that
Speaker 1: kind of athleticism. But I think the one thing if
Speaker 1: you ask any of the coaches or even the players,
Speaker 1: is how well he actually catches the ball, which he
Speaker 1: would never know if a quarter I can do in
Speaker 1: that transition because it's you know, they're not making any attempts.
Speaker 1: But he's got real natural hands. He's a he's a
Speaker 1: hands catcher. He plucks the ball. He's always catching the
Speaker 1: ball away from his body. He made an outstanding catch
Speaker 1: I think to finish training yesterday, you know, down the
Speaker 1: sideline on a back shoulder throw that he opened up
Speaker 1: and caught. So um for him, it's just getting familiar
Speaker 1: with everything. I think he's always seen it through the
Speaker 1: eyes of a quarterback, but now he's seen it through
Speaker 1: the eyes of receivers. So he could tell you what
Speaker 1: everybody was running on a route, But now how do
Speaker 1: you run the route? And what are the little subtleties
Speaker 1: as I talked about with Miles of getting that route
Speaker 1: run so you can create separation to give yourself an
Speaker 1: opportunity to catch it. But um, I think he's done
Speaker 1: a really nice shot. But it'll be really interesting to
Speaker 1: see what happens with him in August. Because the other thing,
Speaker 1: we've used him a couple of days here at running back.
Speaker 1: He's got some versatility. He's got, you know, playing a
Speaker 1: couple of different spots and special teams. So you know,
Speaker 1: we'll see how that versatility fits in terms of we're
Speaker 1: getting towards the fifty three. So when you signed late
Speaker 1: last year, he came late later, you thought of enough
Speaker 1: of him to sign him off the Lion's practice squad.
Speaker 1: What kind of progresses he made? What have you seen
Speaker 1: from him? Can he compete? To start? He can compete. Um,
Speaker 1: he's big, he's physical. You know, he looks like a safety. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, we were impressed with him in terms of
Speaker 1: watching him on tape at Detroit, so that we felt
Speaker 1: when we had the opportunity, let's see if we can
Speaker 1: go get him and bring him in here and develop.
Speaker 1: And I know Corey and Billy are really excited about
Speaker 1: him on the defensive side. But a smart kid, you know,
Speaker 1: it's William and Mary grad so real intelligent football player
Speaker 1: to go along with that physical skill set and now
Speaker 1: it's um, it's just applying it kind of like I
Speaker 1: said earlier with Josh on a more consistent basis, but
Speaker 1: he's got a legitimate child. So podcast this morning that
Speaker 1: we would see a different positions this uncoming season. Does
Speaker 1: that mean in different positions? Yeah? Is that similar to
Speaker 1: any where you're going to kind of move around to
Speaker 1: get a more player? No, I mean it's the same
Speaker 1: thing we did with Trent and that we do with
Speaker 1: our outside linebackers because they're playing outside linebacker and based defense.
Speaker 1: But then when we go to Nickel, we're not in
Speaker 1: a three four spacing or in a four down spacing.
Speaker 1: So moving Connor and Brandon around as part of what
Speaker 1: we've we've kind of always done. He'll be in a
Speaker 1: similar role that Connor for us, you know, in two
Speaker 1: really kind of interchangeable parts in terms of looking at
Speaker 1: how we're playing our outside linebackers right now, training camp,
Speaker 1: you have some time here, who would you say your
Speaker 1: biggest strength and your biggest weakness is going in a
Speaker 1: camp and comes six weeks, our biggest strength is that
Speaker 1: we have six weeks before training camp, and our biggest
Speaker 1: weakness is that we have six weeks before training camp,
Speaker 1: so I mean offseason program. We don't put a lot
Speaker 1: of stock in terms of making real solid evaluations in
Speaker 1: terms of where they are. It's about them working, getting better,
Speaker 1: getting smarter, understanding schemes and all those other things. But
Speaker 1: really trying to figure out your strengths and weaknesses come
Speaker 1: when we actually put the pads on, because to make
Speaker 1: those assessments now is it's really not fair. You know,
Speaker 1: I mean our our d lines taking two steps and
Speaker 1: pulling off. You know, you really can't see pass rush
Speaker 1: moves because we're not allowed to do that in this
Speaker 1: this phase of the game. So we're not We don't
Speaker 1: look at it from that standpoint where we come out
Speaker 1: of this and sit down as a coaching staff this afternoon, Hey,
Speaker 1: what are our strengths? What our weaknesses? It's just, you know,
Speaker 1: how did each group improve based upon the rules that
Speaker 1: the CBA gives us in terms of getting these guys
Speaker 1: better from April twentieth until today. So spoken to John
Speaker 1: Harball yet about how the inner squad Morton and Libby
Speaker 1: are calling just a case anybody to preserve with this one.
Speaker 1: We need Morten libbya as an emergency phone call, Okay,
Speaker 1: I just didn't know if it was. I mean, if
Speaker 1: it's an emergency, we could take it. So if it was,
Speaker 1: you could ask. Have I spoken to John? Yeah, We've
Speaker 1: gone back and forth, traded emails, talked to him with
Speaker 1: three or four times on the phone, just kind of
Speaker 1: putting the final pieces together in terms of what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do when last year, what sub stood out with
Speaker 1: the way Byron Maxwell played against you guys specifically, one
Speaker 1: was a versatility. He started at outside corner, but then
Speaker 1: when they went to Nickeolie came inside. So you watched
Speaker 1: him cover Mac and Coope and then move inside and
Speaker 1: cover Jordan. You know, I think that was the biggest thing.
Speaker 1: And then you know, really when you see him in person,
Speaker 1: not evaluating one film, it's just how big and tall
Speaker 1: and long he is and what a disruptive force he was,
Speaker 1: especially when he was playing those guys in press Man.
Speaker 1: So it had a really good game against us UM.
Speaker 1: I think if you asked Jordan, I think Jordan said
Speaker 1: he thought it was the best cover guy that he
Speaker 1: faced last year as a rookie. So uh you know,
Speaker 1: that's that stood out to us. I thought he was
Speaker 1: the best uh Nickel defender that defended us in the
Speaker 1: sixteen games that we played. Everybody gets a little bit
Speaker 1: of a breakcare just because I mean we've been at
Speaker 1: it since last August basically straight through really not a
Speaker 1: lot of downtime from that. So everybody kind of reacharger battery,
Speaker 1: spent some time in their families, and then we'll get
Speaker 1: ready to go to talk about Zach Ertz's offseason everything
Speaker 1: he's doing it yet on the field more, have you
Speaker 1: seen anything from Brent as far as being more driven
Speaker 1: knowing that Zach is kind of pushing here. I think
Speaker 1: I've seen that that drive from Brent since we got here.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not sure there is a harder worker
Speaker 1: in this organization than Brent. That's a testament to Brent
Speaker 1: in terms of what he does. And I think the
Speaker 1: two of them compliment each other. I think they both
Speaker 1: bring out the best in each other. I think u
Speaker 1: because Brent worked so hard, I think Zach has learned
Speaker 1: a lot from Brent. Brent has always been a great
Speaker 1: mentor and really tried to help him. And I think
Speaker 1: obviously Zack's ability has pushed Brent, so I think the
Speaker 1: two of them really compliment each other really well. You know,
Speaker 1: James Franklin was just in town and I asked him
Speaker 1: a story about Jordan Matthews, you know, because of coaching
Speaker 1: honesty Vannonville, and he said, the biggest adjustment Jordan told
Speaker 1: him he had to make was when he was a rookie,
Speaker 1: he would catch a ball and run it eighty yards
Speaker 1: and obviously you're not You're looking for fast, fast, fast.
Speaker 1: You had a conversation with him, He said, what was
Speaker 1: that conversation like? And what football? The play ends on
Speaker 1: a whistle, so when the whistle blows, stopped running, so
Speaker 1: that was a conversation. Thanks,