WEBVTT - Power Players: Eagles Assistant GM Adam Berry 0:00:04.370 --> 0:00:07.630 Welcome to NFL Daily's Power Players, where we talk to 0:00:07.690 --> 0:00:11.550 smart people inside the sport about how they do football. 0:00:12.070 --> 0:00:14.750 Peel back the curtain a little further for our listeners. 0:00:15.260 --> 0:00:19.540 I'm Jordan Rodrigue. Today, I am thrilled to welcome Adam Barry, 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.880 the assistant general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles. Adam has 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:27.320 a really unique background. He played football in college at Princeton. 0:00:27.500 --> 0:00:30.780 He was a receiver, went into finance after he graduated, 0:00:30.820 --> 0:00:34.280 and ultimately spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs as a 0:00:34.380 --> 0:00:37.150 managing director. We will talk to him about what that 0:00:37.229 --> 0:00:40.890 actually means because I personally did not know. Eagles general 0:00:40.930 --> 0:00:44.130 manager Howie Roseman has a knack for hiring smart people 0:00:44.229 --> 0:00:46.930 first and then getting all the football stuff figured out later. 0:00:46.970 --> 0:00:49.229 And so he heard Adam speak to a group and 0:00:49.270 --> 0:00:51.870 decided he wanted to hire him first. as the Eagles 0:00:51.970 --> 0:00:56.990 Director of Football Operations and Strategy in 2023. Now, Adam 0:00:57.050 --> 0:00:59.740 is the Assistant General Manager, and the Eagles are once 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:03.120 again retooling many of their football processes and trying to 0:01:03.140 --> 0:01:06.360 find competitive edges, as they always do. This is a 0:01:06.380 --> 0:01:09.260 front office that leads the league in many areas, including 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.600 thinking differently, and I am so excited to get into 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.800 that with Adam today. Let's get started. Adam, I am 0:01:15.860 --> 0:01:18.400 so grateful that you could join me today for this 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.339 episode of NFL Daily's Power Players. You have so much 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:23.810 in your background and in your current role that I 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:25.700 want to get into. But first and foremost, thank you 0:01:25.750 --> 0:01:26.870 so much for being here today. 0:01:26.890 --> 0:01:28.990 Thank you for having me, Jordan. 0:01:29.069 --> 0:01:33.050 It's exciting to participate in this and to talk shop 0:01:33.069 --> 0:01:36.020 a little bit. So I'm excited to be on and thanks. 0:01:35.900 --> 0:01:36.240 For having me. 0:01:36.540 --> 0:01:38.860 One thing we really love is process here. This is 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.050 what this show is all about. I know you're such 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.910 a process geek too. So this was one that I 0:01:43.930 --> 0:01:46.050 was really looking forward to for a long time. And 0:01:46.069 --> 0:01:48.070 I'm going to make you talk about yourself too, which 0:01:48.130 --> 0:01:50.690 I know you're not hugely a fan of, but let's 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.510 start with your, with your background. It's super unique. I 0:01:54.550 --> 0:01:57.050 don't even know how to do my taxes fully. So 0:01:57.270 --> 0:02:01.020 can you explain to me what your job was before 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:05.080 you started working for the Eagles and what that means 0:02:05.140 --> 0:02:06.800 in the landscape of the financial world? 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:08.780 Well, you're not. 0:02:08.700 --> 0:02:11.399 Alone because I think my wife always told me when 0:02:11.419 --> 0:02:14.739 I worked at Goldman Sachs that she could not explain 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:16.720 what I was doing either. And then by the time 0:02:16.750 --> 0:02:18.610 I was just about to leave, she had it gone 0:02:18.630 --> 0:02:20.470 down to a sentence and then no longer that was 0:02:20.490 --> 0:02:24.750 my job. But I worked at Goldman Sachs for 14 years. 0:02:25.350 --> 0:02:28.940 My last job was head of the US loan trading 0:02:28.970 --> 0:02:33.079 business within corporate credit. And What that means is for 0:02:33.580 --> 0:02:37.340 all the corporations out there that borrow money and need 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:38.480 to be loaned money. 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:39.040 That are U.S. 0:02:39.060 --> 0:02:44.860 Domiciled, my business was responsible for buying, selling, trading their debt. 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:48.510 And so as part of that business, you have the 0:02:48.710 --> 0:02:52.790 opportunity to buy loans that you think are undervalued or 0:02:52.850 --> 0:02:55.730 short loans that you think are overvalued on behalf of 0:02:55.770 --> 0:02:58.169 the firm. But there's also a customer facing side of 0:02:58.190 --> 0:03:00.690 the business as well, too. So You know, for many 0:03:00.710 --> 0:03:03.590 of your listeners, they have 401ks or pension plans with 0:03:03.620 --> 0:03:05.940 their employers. A lot of those people were helping them 0:03:05.980 --> 0:03:08.060 invest money as well, too, as well as hedge funds 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:11.180 and mutual funds as well, too. And so you're managing 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.359 a trading desk, a sales force and operations team. It 0:03:14.380 --> 0:03:16.869 was very different than what I was doing in terms 0:03:16.910 --> 0:03:18.990 of functionally versus what I'm doing with the Eagles right now. 0:03:19.270 --> 0:03:21.590 Yeah, but it's so interesting because I feel like because 0:03:21.650 --> 0:03:23.989 you played football and you were involved in football, football 0:03:24.010 --> 0:03:26.330 is in your life and your family and in all corners. 0:03:27.110 --> 0:03:30.370 I'm thinking there had to be some way that football 0:03:30.389 --> 0:03:33.570 was sort of leaking into your day to day, at 0:03:33.650 --> 0:03:37.440 the very least, the competitive aspect of it, because it 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:39.980 sounds very calm the way you're speaking about it right now. 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.360 But man, I've seen the movies, right? Like it is 0:03:43.420 --> 0:03:44.440 not a calm profession. 0:03:45.310 --> 0:03:47.790 No, the movies get at least some of it right. 0:03:47.810 --> 0:03:51.490 The trading floor is not exactly the most calm profession, 0:03:51.530 --> 0:03:52.280 as you put it. 0:03:52.670 --> 0:03:53.470 What many people don't. 0:03:53.350 --> 0:03:56.310 Know is that a lot of traders are former collegiate 0:03:56.350 --> 0:03:59.820 athletes across a whole range of different sports. And I 0:04:00.300 --> 0:04:03.320 think what I found in going into trading was a 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:07.140 lot of us have aspirations of being able to play 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.560 football professionally or play a sport professionally, but I certainly 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:12.670 wasn't good enough to do that. And so you look 0:04:12.690 --> 0:04:15.910 for something that kind of fuels your competitive drive and 0:04:15.930 --> 0:04:17.870 you know, what you grew up with doing as an 0:04:17.970 --> 0:04:20.880 athlete and trading comes really close to that because it's 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:21.900 a high pressure environment. 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:24.740 It's certainly not necessarily. 0:04:24.380 --> 0:04:26.500 Always the it's a little bit can be a rough 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:28.800 environment where people are going to tell you exactly what 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.960 they think or what you need to do. You have a, 0:04:32.110 --> 0:04:34.570 you know, a quote unquote scoreboard every day in terms 0:04:34.610 --> 0:04:36.930 of your profit and loss. And it's just really highly 0:04:36.970 --> 0:04:41.750 competitive because you're going against other institutions and banks that 0:04:42.230 --> 0:04:45.990 are competing for customer business, competing to, you know, getting edge, 0:04:46.029 --> 0:04:48.740 doing all these different things. And so it really does 0:04:48.810 --> 0:04:51.880 kind of quench your kind of competitive fire, like as 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.380 a former athlete that goes into it as well too. 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:56.300 So there are certainly similarities, as you point out, which 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:58.460 we can delve into more as we, as we continue. 0:04:58.500 --> 0:05:00.680 Yeah, for sure. And I'm curious, cause I've always wanted 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:06.219 to hear you tell this story is, is how we, your, your, 0:05:06.339 --> 0:05:10.130 your sort of world's crossover story. And you're just there 0:05:10.210 --> 0:05:13.039 and you're just in the moment. You're thinking, OK, I'm presenting. 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:15.860 I'm giving a talk at this. I think it was 0:05:15.900 --> 0:05:19.400 a seminar or a consultation. And and you have no 0:05:19.460 --> 0:05:23.020 idea in the moment that this NFL GM at the 0:05:23.060 --> 0:05:25.110 top of his game is listening to you and is like, 0:05:26.010 --> 0:05:27.450 I think I should hire that guy. Can you take 0:05:27.490 --> 0:05:29.410 me through how you guys met and kind of what 0:05:29.470 --> 0:05:30.450 that process was? 0:05:31.210 --> 0:05:31.970 Sure, sure. 0:05:31.990 --> 0:05:34.590 It certainly is a unique story. It's kind of, it's 0:05:34.610 --> 0:05:37.230 always a reminder. You don't know, you know, where your 0:05:37.270 --> 0:05:41.090 next opportunity will necessarily come from. But, you know, as 0:05:41.150 --> 0:05:44.810 part of being a business head in our business, we 0:05:44.860 --> 0:05:48.140 had a, what I call like a client conference where 0:05:48.180 --> 0:05:50.680 we brought in a lot of our corporate and institutional 0:05:50.700 --> 0:05:53.419 clients to a place on the West Coast where we 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:55.640 hosted them for multiple days and And as part of 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.640 that conference where we're giving content, we usually tried to 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:02.400 bring in a speaker who had a non-finance background to 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.730 talk about what they do and to make some comparisons 0:06:05.750 --> 0:06:07.190 to the business world to see if there's something that 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.690 we could learn. And so that year we invited Howie Roseman. 0:06:11.370 --> 0:06:14.710 And as somebody who was senior within the firm at 0:06:14.750 --> 0:06:17.410 that point, I got asked to be part of the 0:06:17.430 --> 0:06:20.240 keynote presentation and work on that with Howie and to 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.799 present with him. And so we got to work together 0:06:23.860 --> 0:06:26.580 over the course of a few days. We presented together. 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:28.940 It was received positively. 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:30.500 And it was. 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.950 Sometime after that, Howie reached out to me and said, hey, 0:06:33.990 --> 0:06:38.790 would you consider pivoting from business to sports. And, you know, 0:06:39.130 --> 0:06:42.510 Howie is very charismatic, right? So I'm thinking that, you know, 0:06:42.589 --> 0:06:44.250 he's just joking. And this is just a polite way 0:06:44.290 --> 0:06:46.690 of him, you know, saying, Hey, you know, I appreciate 0:06:46.730 --> 0:06:49.130 working with you. And, you know, making me feel good. 0:06:49.150 --> 0:06:50.800 I was like, Oh, that's really nice thing to say. 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.460 So I don't think it's actually like a serious job opportunity. 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:58.800 And so He eventually reaches out to, I guess he 0:06:58.820 --> 0:07:00.800 must have reached out to my brother just to be like, hey, 0:07:00.860 --> 0:07:02.980 you know, just so you know, I want to talk 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:05.580 to your brother about this. And it was like, hey, 0:07:05.740 --> 0:07:09.590 Howie said he came to you about a punch opportunity. 0:07:09.970 --> 0:07:12.850 And I was immediately embarrassed because I was like, I 0:07:12.890 --> 0:07:13.790 didn't know that he was. 0:07:13.730 --> 0:07:14.610 Being serious about it. 0:07:14.610 --> 0:07:16.170 This is someone who was, you know, as a Hall 0:07:16.190 --> 0:07:19.110 of Fame general manager, you know, off of this exposure, 0:07:19.170 --> 0:07:21.420 thinking that, you know, someone who'd been a career, you know, 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:23.780 been in finance for that long, right? that would be 0:07:23.820 --> 0:07:26.300 something that he would think to do. And when it 0:07:26.340 --> 0:07:28.900 came down to it and talking to Howie and he's 0:07:29.980 --> 0:07:33.560 talking about his vision for the role, for me, for 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.760 how I could help the organization, the things that, how 0:07:37.820 --> 0:07:41.430 unique it would be to work in football. He's an 0:07:41.670 --> 0:07:45.790 elite recruiter among other things. Where I came down on 0:07:45.850 --> 0:07:49.270 it was, here was a really rare opportunity to do 0:07:49.350 --> 0:07:54.590 something that was an incredible life experience, really special to 0:07:54.650 --> 0:07:56.850 learn from somebody who was literally at the top of 0:07:56.890 --> 0:08:00.210 his game for an organization that's very forward thinking. And that, 0:08:00.230 --> 0:08:02.750 you know, if I said no to something like this, 0:08:03.310 --> 0:08:06.210 these opportunities don't come around, but literally once in a lifetime. And, 0:08:06.490 --> 0:08:09.100 you know, the business world was, was, and is always 0:08:09.130 --> 0:08:11.420 going to be there, but the opportunity to work in 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:15.460 professional football for such a best in class organization is 0:08:15.740 --> 0:08:19.020 was not. And so, uh, you know, we, myself and 0:08:19.060 --> 0:08:20.700 my family, we decided that this is the move that 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:22.540 we wanted to do and, and haven't looked back and 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:23.240 it's been fantastic. 0:08:23.580 --> 0:08:26.370 So I love this story for many reasons. First of all, 0:08:26.410 --> 0:08:29.110 because to me, it's gets to the heart of something 0:08:29.150 --> 0:08:31.350 that we're going to talk about more later in the show, 0:08:31.410 --> 0:08:34.910 which is where don't the Eagles look when they're team building, right? 0:08:35.710 --> 0:08:42.290 But also, They, it's an organization that is so paralleled 0:08:42.330 --> 0:08:46.150 in some ways with being at the apex competitive environment 0:08:46.700 --> 0:08:49.720 internally and also across the league. And so you were 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.280 used to that. And obviously you had football in your 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.000 background and you had played at a high level in college. 0:08:55.559 --> 0:09:00.200 But at the same time, jumping into a strategy role, 0:09:00.260 --> 0:09:04.800 a director of operations role, a role where he's basically 0:09:04.860 --> 0:09:10.850 telling you, here's a blank sketchbook, create. What was that 0:09:10.929 --> 0:09:15.220 like for you? And digging into it for real and thinking, oh, 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.750 I'm really going to make, carve something out in this space. 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.480 You know, I would say the learning curve was steep, right? 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:27.000 Because you're learning, you know, just a new industry, right? 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:29.140 A new industry, you're learning at times new jargon, a 0:09:29.140 --> 0:09:34.240 new language. There's a lot that you're learning. But as 0:09:34.260 --> 0:09:37.950 you noted, there were certain things qualities and skills that 0:09:38.070 --> 0:09:40.760 I was able to bring from my previous experience that 0:09:41.100 --> 0:09:44.980 were much more translatable than I maybe anticipated that they 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:47.660 would be when originally I was going to make the transition. 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.860 But there are certainly times where you're being pushed out 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:53.770 of your comfort zone. But I think every experience for 0:09:53.830 --> 0:09:56.969 growth and every experience that, you know, people who have 0:09:57.740 --> 0:09:59.679 had a lot of success in this industry, as well 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.360 as other industries, they're willing to go outside of their 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:06.140 comfort zone. And what I really appreciate is that, you know, 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:09.630 Howie is somebody who also had a unique background, you know, 0:10:09.650 --> 0:10:11.770 before he became the general manager of the Eagles. And 0:10:11.830 --> 0:10:15.510 so he had a very clear view and vision of 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:18.160 what I needed to do in order to get to 0:10:18.220 --> 0:10:20.459 where I needed to be. And so, and part of 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:22.700 that is because he was able, he had lived that 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:27.240 previously in his experience. And so immediately he had me 0:10:27.540 --> 0:10:30.699 in all different facets of the football operation. He made 0:10:30.820 --> 0:10:34.020 sure that I was evaluated, writing the entire draft board, 0:10:34.059 --> 0:10:36.640 that I was going on college visits, that I was 0:10:36.700 --> 0:10:40.300 covering pro teams, that I was doing a lot of the, 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.780 a lot of work within free agency and that evaluation 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.750 process as well too. And when Howie couldn't be there 0:10:46.809 --> 0:10:49.429 to be the person who was talking to me at 0:10:49.530 --> 0:10:52.510 any given moment, he was very thoughtful about who I 0:10:52.550 --> 0:10:54.250 was working with within the organization. 0:10:54.510 --> 0:10:56.250 He's hired really well on our staff. 0:10:56.270 --> 0:10:58.520 We've had a lot of people who have gone through 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:01.400 Philly and then had the opportunity to do some really 0:11:01.460 --> 0:11:05.980 amazing things outside of Philly. And so if I'm not 0:11:06.020 --> 0:11:09.209 working on personnel stuff with Howie directly, you know, I 0:11:09.250 --> 0:11:11.230 get a chance to, in the cap and contract space, 0:11:11.250 --> 0:11:13.790 when I first started, work with Bryce Johnston, right? And 0:11:14.030 --> 0:11:16.450 think about how we think about our strategic planning and 0:11:16.470 --> 0:11:19.690 the cap and our resource usage. I get to work 0:11:19.750 --> 0:11:22.630 with Alec Hallaby and talk about, you know, the intersection 0:11:22.690 --> 0:11:26.050 about data and personnel and, you know, his wealth of 0:11:26.100 --> 0:11:28.740 experience in all these different silos. And even right now, 0:11:29.460 --> 0:11:31.679 I have an office that is right next to Joe Douglas, 0:11:31.780 --> 0:11:35.160 who I can, is just a wealth of wisdom and information. 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.020 And all of that was really intentional about Howie because, 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:39.740 you know, you know, he put a lot of time 0:11:39.780 --> 0:11:43.429 and effort into my development individually, but he also made 0:11:43.510 --> 0:11:45.470 sure that I got exposures to all these other people 0:11:45.530 --> 0:11:48.430 he had brought in and had trained and were performing 0:11:48.470 --> 0:11:49.870 at a high level so that I could learn from 0:11:49.890 --> 0:11:50.270 them too. 0:11:51.110 --> 0:11:54.079 Thank you for taking us through the various intro departments too, 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:57.120 because what I think people don't necessarily always know from 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.920 the outside looking in is how much information you're uploading 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.280 in a building like that at any given moment. And 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.100 you're the assistant GM now, right? And you're looking back 0:12:06.179 --> 0:12:11.100 maybe in this conversation on those days of you are 0:12:11.380 --> 0:12:15.920 participating in every element of a football calendar and internally 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.980 what that process looks like. When you look back at 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:23.540 those days and the vast quantities of, I just call 0:12:23.590 --> 0:12:26.989 it data, whether it's observational or actual data that you're 0:12:27.610 --> 0:12:31.330 just absorbing, What do you remember about that time? And 0:12:31.670 --> 0:12:33.350 did you just sort of say like, F it, I'm 0:12:33.390 --> 0:12:36.690 just going to throw myself into this like full speed 0:12:36.910 --> 0:12:37.809 and see what happens? 0:12:38.710 --> 0:12:42.430 Well, I think that was something that my trading experience 0:12:42.490 --> 0:12:46.480 prior had prepared me for. Because when you are, you know, 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:50.239 trading a book of whatever asset class, you're constantly just 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:54.310 being inundated with information by the second. and your decision-making 0:12:54.610 --> 0:12:55.689 is happening by the second. 0:12:55.710 --> 0:12:56.880 There could be news. 0:12:56.600 --> 0:13:00.060 That happens overnight for something that you would think is 0:13:00.140 --> 0:13:04.810 totally unrelated to a company whose debt you're trading, but 0:13:04.890 --> 0:13:08.190 could really influence the valuation, the pricing, the way some 0:13:08.230 --> 0:13:12.209 of your customers react. And so I was fortunately in 0:13:12.230 --> 0:13:14.770 an environment where you're getting a lot thrown at you 0:13:15.050 --> 0:13:15.780 all the time. 0:13:16.100 --> 0:13:17.960 And so pivoting to an environment. 0:13:17.580 --> 0:13:20.240 Where I knew that would happen and that I would 0:13:20.260 --> 0:13:22.960 have to get up to speed quickly in order to 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.280 produce in the way that the organization required me, uh 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:29.820 was something that i found incredibly helpful during the time 0:13:29.860 --> 0:13:32.819 but there are certainly like with anyone doing a new 0:13:32.860 --> 0:13:35.300 thing or a new career or stepping outside of their 0:13:35.330 --> 0:13:37.809 comfort zone there are moments where you're like oh man 0:13:37.850 --> 0:13:40.290 can i can i can i process all this but 0:13:40.670 --> 0:13:42.329 you you have to jump into it you know you 0:13:42.350 --> 0:13:45.930 have to immerse yourself you have to really work and 0:13:46.010 --> 0:13:48.130 spend the time to make sure that not only do 0:13:48.170 --> 0:13:52.530 you understand the different components tactically but you understand strategically 0:13:52.580 --> 0:13:54.700 how they all fit together as well too, right? That's 0:13:54.740 --> 0:13:57.479 what can be really valuable. And that was a challenge 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.459 that not only was exciting for me, I felt like 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:04.380 I was in an environment where it really encouraged. 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:05.370 Me to do that. 0:14:06.309 --> 0:14:09.950 One thing too that I love about being in buildings 0:14:09.990 --> 0:14:14.350 like that is that feeling where almost like you surface 0:14:14.410 --> 0:14:16.600 and there's a lot happening all the time, but every 0:14:16.660 --> 0:14:18.920 once in a while you surface and you look around 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:21.450 and you think, I am with some of the best 0:14:21.510 --> 0:14:24.650 people in the world right now and everyone cares just 0:14:24.710 --> 0:14:27.270 as much as I care. The emotional side of it 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.060 and really like living and dying, honestly, I know you 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:31.920 have to stay neutral, but like living and dying with 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.200 this team as well and the players and just how 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:38.950 much everyone gives to it. Was that ever an inspiration 0:14:39.010 --> 0:14:40.410 for you or how did that shape you as you 0:14:40.430 --> 0:14:41.530 continued in the role? 0:14:42.180 --> 0:14:43.900 Yeah, I actually think it's just really special. 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.520 I mean, I think every game day, um, free game, it's, 0:14:47.820 --> 0:14:50.540 I think about how fortunate and how blessed I am 0:14:50.660 --> 0:14:53.680 that that is part of my job, right? Like just the, 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.320 like the, the amount of love for the game that 0:14:56.340 --> 0:14:58.500 you feel in this building, you see it where, how 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:01.440 I feel like when you watch, you know, anyone senior, how, 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:03.740 you know, pregame, it's like, you just see, and you 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.780 just feel how much they care about the sport, how 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:08.300 much they care about their players, how much they care 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:10.180 about the coaches, how much they care about the organization. 0:15:10.750 --> 0:15:14.090 And that's ultimately what draws all of us to this 0:15:14.150 --> 0:15:16.480 industry is just your love for the game. Maybe it's 0:15:16.500 --> 0:15:19.160 an experience when you were young. Maybe it's something that 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:21.970 made you very curious about the sport. Everyone has their 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.430 different why, but I really don't believe you can do 0:15:25.490 --> 0:15:29.070 this job without understanding just how special it is that 0:15:29.210 --> 0:15:32.010 this gets to be my work. I felt like I 0:15:32.110 --> 0:15:35.230 had an appreciation of that after being in a totally 0:15:35.270 --> 0:15:38.660 different career that I get to do football for a living. 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:44.260 There's very little that I would complain about because it's 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:47.240 just a tremendous opportunity and You know, I feel like 0:15:47.260 --> 0:15:50.200 that's just a very special, special, you know, thing to 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:50.700 be able to do. 0:15:50.980 --> 0:15:53.020 I like talking to you about it, too, because your 0:15:53.100 --> 0:15:56.680 why shifts, you know, your overall why I'm sure stays 0:15:56.700 --> 0:16:00.420 the same in life. But like your workplace, why maybe 0:16:00.490 --> 0:16:04.230 shifts a little bit when you're experience when you're experiencing 0:16:04.270 --> 0:16:07.330 something like this outside of the environment that you spent, 0:16:07.390 --> 0:16:10.520 you know, a decade and a half. working in. Are 0:16:10.570 --> 0:16:14.490 you comfortable sharing about your why in football and sort 0:16:14.510 --> 0:16:17.210 of what you've discovered your purpose to be within the sport? 0:16:18.530 --> 0:16:21.880 You know, I would say for me, you know, my 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.479 journey or like maybe my love of football started when 0:16:25.500 --> 0:16:29.740 it's so tied up in my dad and my brother. 0:16:30.820 --> 0:16:33.090 And I remember just my dad grew up in Texas. 0:16:33.130 --> 0:16:35.560 So football is a religion there. And so it was 0:16:35.700 --> 0:16:38.450 always just a part of our family. I remember when 0:16:38.490 --> 0:16:41.130 we were like really little, we'd always watch the game 0:16:41.190 --> 0:16:43.650 on Sundays with him. And then, you know, Andrew, my bro, 0:16:43.670 --> 0:16:46.300 my twin brother and I would always ask him, Hey, 0:16:46.310 --> 0:16:47.840 can you come out and go out and play at halftime? 0:16:47.860 --> 0:16:49.720 And he always did that. He'd always, you know, one 0:16:49.740 --> 0:16:51.100 of us will be the receiver. One of us would 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.120 be the corner. He'd go out and throw. And like, 0:16:53.420 --> 0:16:55.960 those were some very early memories. And then, you know, 0:16:55.980 --> 0:16:58.440 you move forward and, You know, you're playing in high 0:16:58.500 --> 0:17:01.280 school and, you know, Andrew's my quarterback and I'm the receiver. 0:17:01.340 --> 0:17:03.230 And those are some really special moments. You're playing in 0:17:03.290 --> 0:17:06.149 college where, you know, Andrew and I are playing for 0:17:06.190 --> 0:17:08.890 different teams that play each other every year and family 0:17:08.930 --> 0:17:12.020 comes out to support you every time. And so football 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.820 for me is beyond just being the ultimate team game 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.379 and the bonds that you make with your fellow players 0:17:18.420 --> 0:17:23.500 and coaches. it was the canvas for so many special 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.370 moments with my brother and my dad and my family 0:17:26.450 --> 0:17:30.419 that it's just interwoven to like just the way that 0:17:30.700 --> 0:17:32.879 just to life, right? And so I think football in 0:17:32.900 --> 0:17:34.570 a lot of ways is an expression of life in 0:17:34.590 --> 0:17:36.790 terms of the adversity you have to overcome, you know, 0:17:36.830 --> 0:17:41.109 dealing with the teamwork, training and discipline, the time that 0:17:41.130 --> 0:17:42.010 things are going to be hard. 0:17:42.310 --> 0:17:43.669 It is a wonderful game. 0:17:44.109 --> 0:17:45.750 And, you know, I feel like I've been very much 0:17:45.770 --> 0:17:49.130 a beneficiary of that being a central part of, you know, 0:17:49.590 --> 0:17:50.470 certainly my journey here. 0:17:51.590 --> 0:17:54.419 Adam, before we move into the now, this is the 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:57.980 most important question I'm going to ask you this entire show. 0:17:58.750 --> 0:18:02.170 When you guys were in indie drills, one-on-ones, who won? 0:18:02.190 --> 0:18:07.700 I would say growing up, it was pretty evenly distributed. 0:18:07.900 --> 0:18:10.660 There definitely got to be some heated arguments at different 0:18:10.700 --> 0:18:13.000 times where it was like, was that a penalty or 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:14.220 was that not a penalty? 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:15.220 It was pretty even. 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:17.080 What I will say, and I got to give Andrew credit, 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:20.300 is he had a better college career than I did. 0:18:20.380 --> 0:18:24.270 So Andrew was a really good player in college. And 0:18:24.510 --> 0:18:27.210 I wasn't shabby, but I wasn't certainly not at the 0:18:27.250 --> 0:18:30.090 level of, some of the certainly some of the other 0:18:30.109 --> 0:18:31.369 guys who were kind of at the top of their 0:18:31.390 --> 0:18:34.150 game there. But it was still a wonderful experience for 0:18:34.170 --> 0:18:34.580 both of us. 0:18:34.740 --> 0:18:37.100 You know, I respect that you had the opportunity to 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:41.020 totally pad your childhood stats there because who was going 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:44.020 to know? And you didn't. So classy move there. I 0:18:44.290 --> 0:18:48.130 hope your brother takes notice of that and maybe has 0:18:48.150 --> 0:18:49.910 your back on that one a little bit later down 0:18:49.950 --> 0:18:54.910 the line. So, OK, I'm curious about like When you're 0:18:54.950 --> 0:18:57.410 in this building and the way that you guys talk 0:18:57.430 --> 0:18:58.910 to each other and the way that you think about 0:18:58.950 --> 0:19:02.760 things and your background, but also a lot of people 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.220 with different backgrounds in that building and everyone coming together collectively, 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.780 did you find that early on some of the questions 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:13.520 you would ask about process changed? ended up being helpful 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.090 because it was almost a different perspective coming in and asking, 0:19:17.310 --> 0:19:19.750 why do we do things this way? Or why would 0:19:19.790 --> 0:19:21.490 we think about this this way? What if we thought 0:19:21.530 --> 0:19:23.609 about it this way? Was there anything that stuck out 0:19:23.630 --> 0:19:27.380 to you early on about the productivity of those types 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:28.220 of conversations? 0:19:29.260 --> 0:19:31.220 Yeah, I think the thing that probably stuck out to 0:19:31.260 --> 0:19:35.510 me was just how welcome those conversations were. I think 0:19:35.550 --> 0:19:38.510 when you look at the way that Howie and the 0:19:38.570 --> 0:19:41.270 organization have hired, you actually have a lot of people 0:19:41.310 --> 0:19:44.250 who have come through this front office who have had 0:19:44.330 --> 0:19:48.290 varied backgrounds, whether it was Jake Rosenberg, who had a 0:19:48.369 --> 0:19:50.970 finance background, or Bryce, who I mentioned previously, who came 0:19:51.010 --> 0:19:53.139 from law or, you know, Alec, who grew up in 0:19:53.170 --> 0:19:56.460 a different silo. And so I think that there's always 0:19:56.580 --> 0:19:59.840 this continual process of questioning of how do we do 0:19:59.859 --> 0:20:02.500 things better or like what perspective are you looking for that? 0:20:02.540 --> 0:20:04.900 And that is something that's thought out from that starts 0:20:04.940 --> 0:20:07.600 at the top. And so I don't think that I 0:20:07.700 --> 0:20:12.540 ever really felt like a click of, oh, this is 0:20:12.580 --> 0:20:16.680 something that feels either out of place or is unusual 0:20:16.740 --> 0:20:20.389 because we're constantly trying to get better as a group, 0:20:20.450 --> 0:20:22.709 as an organization, in terms of the way that we're 0:20:22.730 --> 0:20:26.250 thinking about processes, the way that we're thinking about players, 0:20:26.270 --> 0:20:28.250 the way that we're thinking about a whole host of 0:20:28.310 --> 0:20:31.830 different things. Because if you stay stagnant, eventually people catch 0:20:31.890 --> 0:20:34.369 up to you. And so I think that having a 0:20:34.410 --> 0:20:37.800 different lens of thinking about things from maybe a, you know, 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:41.040 a risk pricing or a risk reward perspective was just 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:44.320 adding to what was ultimately just like a mosaic of 0:20:44.660 --> 0:20:47.709 different perspectives that goes across all football operations. And that 0:20:47.750 --> 0:20:51.710 contributed to the way that we may think about solving 0:20:51.750 --> 0:20:52.570 a particular problem. 0:20:53.150 --> 0:20:55.830 And then when you get to go into, okay, this 0:20:55.890 --> 0:20:58.719 is the time you now must spend on task evaluating, right? 0:20:59.300 --> 0:20:59.540 Right. 0:20:59.780 --> 0:21:02.870 You know, taking all of those conversations and turning them tangible, 0:21:03.030 --> 0:21:06.330 essentially going out on the pro circuit on the college circuit. 0:21:06.970 --> 0:21:09.419 What was scouting life like for you? What did you 0:21:09.460 --> 0:21:11.639 take from it? What did you see around you? And 0:21:12.619 --> 0:21:13.520 what did you learn from it? 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.700 Yeah, I think, you know, for me, it was, you know, 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:20.379 I was, it was the playing experience was helpful in 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.780 terms of just being able to transition into it. But 0:21:24.100 --> 0:21:26.600 I think the thing that really jumped out to me 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:28.000 was just how. 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:31.740 Ready everybody is just to talk football. Right. 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:33.700 And so, you know, there's this, I feel like there's 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.959 this culture here where, you know, if you're going into 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:40.410 anyone's office and they're watching film, whether it's someone's coming 0:21:40.430 --> 0:21:42.680 into mine or I'm going into someone else's, it's always 0:21:42.700 --> 0:21:44.399 the natural question is like, oh, who you're watching. And 0:21:44.420 --> 0:21:47.040 then the next thing you know, even if it's something 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:50.439 on completely different than personnel, like people just wanna be 0:21:50.460 --> 0:21:53.840 able to talk about players and talk about what they 0:21:53.940 --> 0:21:57.040 see and how they're thinking about them. And I found 0:21:57.060 --> 0:22:00.429 that that is something that was not only great for 0:22:00.470 --> 0:22:02.590 this building, but like when you're going out and you're 0:22:02.609 --> 0:22:06.230 doing things with other scouts, like people just really like 0:22:06.310 --> 0:22:08.909 talking about the game. And that is one of the 0:22:08.990 --> 0:22:13.169 best ways, I think, to kind of immerse yourself because 0:22:13.470 --> 0:22:16.560 you have this wealth of information of things that you've 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.179 watched or that you've researched or your views, but you 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:20.960 have all these other people who have different opinions and 0:22:20.980 --> 0:22:24.880 have different perspectives, have had different experiences with team building. 0:22:26.100 --> 0:22:28.400 And you can read their reports or talk to them 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:30.820 about that too, right? As a way of just continuing 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.669 to grow your perspective, to challenge your viewpoints. And so 0:22:34.690 --> 0:22:38.660 I think, Really, it was the openness to talk about 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:42.419 that and share that information was really important. I think 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:46.090 that was a really good, you know, just exposure in 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:48.990 terms of whenever you're out doing different scouting tasks. 0:22:49.460 --> 0:22:51.360 I always think what would be most fun for me, 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:54.060 if I got fortunate enough to be in a building, 0:22:54.380 --> 0:22:57.760 would be to read everyone's scouting reports and to do 0:22:57.800 --> 0:22:59.639 exactly what you're talking about, is just talking to them. 0:22:59.660 --> 0:23:02.110 Because I always feel like you can get to know 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:06.159 people on a very intrinsic level, too, by talking to 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:08.250 them about the thing that they love. And in this case, 0:23:08.390 --> 0:23:13.250 everybody has this incredible passion for the sport. Did that also, 0:23:13.350 --> 0:23:16.490 in a way... get you sort of fast-tracked in immersed 0:23:16.570 --> 0:23:18.930 into this building and the culture of this building was 0:23:19.470 --> 0:23:23.649 not just talking to people about this but really digging 0:23:23.710 --> 0:23:25.909 in the weeds on the reports and writing and obviously 0:23:25.930 --> 0:23:29.950 writing your own as well and really getting into that 0:23:29.990 --> 0:23:34.359 like talent identification and football language specific to what the 0:23:34.420 --> 0:23:35.440 Eagles building. 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:38.669 Is Yeah, no, I think that's definitely something that and 0:23:38.690 --> 0:23:41.170 it's interesting that you talk about language. And I think about, 0:23:41.190 --> 0:23:43.210 you know, the easiest way to learn a foreign language 0:23:43.250 --> 0:23:44.890 is just to be immersed in it. Right. And so 0:23:45.220 --> 0:23:47.619 I think people have it's the same thing with with 0:23:47.660 --> 0:23:51.080 football and evaluation is just, you know, immerse yourself in 0:23:51.140 --> 0:23:53.840 all the different ways and all the different. players and 0:23:53.859 --> 0:23:57.679 all the different player archetypes, college pro, you know, when 0:23:57.700 --> 0:24:00.140 you're out at practice talking to people about what they're seeing, 0:24:00.180 --> 0:24:01.400 like that's really important. 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:01.720 Right. 0:24:02.020 --> 0:24:04.940 And there's no there's you know, there's no necessarily a 0:24:05.060 --> 0:24:07.139 limit on the amount of time that you can spend 0:24:07.500 --> 0:24:08.040 doing that. 0:24:08.100 --> 0:24:08.280 Right. 0:24:08.300 --> 0:24:10.510 And I think it's important if you if you want to, 0:24:11.740 --> 0:24:14.790 you know, be really good at that and be someone 0:24:14.830 --> 0:24:17.709 who has a formed opinion is to make sure that 0:24:17.730 --> 0:24:20.290 you're putting yourselves in situations where it's forcing you to 0:24:20.330 --> 0:24:23.500 do that. And I think that certainly in this building 0:24:24.040 --> 0:24:28.120 with the caliber of people, when people recognize that people 0:24:28.140 --> 0:24:29.639 are trying to put in the work and the effort 0:24:29.680 --> 0:24:33.530 and they're trying to grow, there's so much willingness to 0:24:33.970 --> 0:24:36.430 help and to participate in that process. And I think 0:24:36.650 --> 0:24:39.449 also incumbent on me where there might be areas of 0:24:39.530 --> 0:24:43.560 football operations that I have exposure to and they may 0:24:43.580 --> 0:24:47.600 have questions on. It's incumbent on me to to also 0:24:47.640 --> 0:24:50.340 help with if there's questions about that, that I can 0:24:50.359 --> 0:24:52.760 help them in that ways. And so again, it's again, 0:24:53.100 --> 0:24:55.340 football is the ultimate team game and that's not just 0:24:55.440 --> 0:24:55.900 on the field. 0:24:55.940 --> 0:24:57.440 That's, you know, all the way in the building as 0:24:57.500 --> 0:24:57.770 well too. 0:24:58.320 --> 0:25:01.159 Yeah. I would feel like, um, you know, I'm a writer, um, 0:25:01.520 --> 0:25:04.340 you know, but I would like to write the scouting report, 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:07.120 but I would be thinking about what does this tell 0:25:07.200 --> 0:25:10.199 everybody else about me and how I'm seeing it in 0:25:10.220 --> 0:25:14.600 this moment and getting those, those processes, um, sort of 0:25:14.660 --> 0:25:18.010 to an expert level as you continued through the building 0:25:18.170 --> 0:25:22.590 and learning about what specifics are, I guess, like North 0:25:22.630 --> 0:25:25.810 Stars for the organization and what things they maybe have 0:25:25.850 --> 0:25:29.129 on a sliding scale. That to me is such a cool, 0:25:29.210 --> 0:25:34.659 almost like archaeological process of understanding this is how we 0:25:34.720 --> 0:25:39.119 speak here and we have... all of this knowledge and 0:25:39.180 --> 0:25:42.070 data basically over years and because it's a very how 0:25:42.090 --> 0:25:45.330 he's been there for so long and his staff and 0:25:45.369 --> 0:25:49.930 people in that building have really communicated how to build that. 0:25:50.030 --> 0:25:52.070 I guess I would call it like an alphabet of 0:25:52.130 --> 0:25:55.000 what exactly it is that makes an eagle an eagle. 0:25:55.619 --> 0:25:59.920 And for you, what's that deep dig like and continuing 0:25:59.960 --> 0:26:03.420 to like build these little pieces of information and make 0:26:03.460 --> 0:26:05.560 an entire, I guess, case for somebody? 0:26:06.730 --> 0:26:10.280 Yeah, I think that part of it is the organization 0:26:10.420 --> 0:26:13.670 is very clear on what its priorities are when we're 0:26:13.710 --> 0:26:18.680 going through any player acquisition process. And so, um, when 0:26:18.720 --> 0:26:22.740 you're an evaluator and when you're, um, you know, analyzing 0:26:22.780 --> 0:26:25.840 a certain situation, you know what to look for, right? 0:26:25.859 --> 0:26:29.300 And now the application may be different for a specific 0:26:29.340 --> 0:26:33.070 player in any given instance, but that's also why, you know, you, you, 0:26:33.550 --> 0:26:36.870 you have meetings and that's why you're talking to other 0:26:36.890 --> 0:26:39.330 people on the staff. That's why you're sharing the way 0:26:39.369 --> 0:26:42.300 that you have different viewpoints because sometimes it takes some 0:26:42.320 --> 0:26:46.149 time to tease that out. And so it's really helpful 0:26:46.230 --> 0:26:50.090 that there's a very clear vision from leadership on the 0:26:50.109 --> 0:26:51.710 things that we want to do, the things that we 0:26:51.730 --> 0:26:54.990 want to prioritize, how we think about evaluation as well 0:26:55.030 --> 0:26:59.060 as roster building. And so when that North Star is clear, 0:26:59.420 --> 0:27:03.399 it's not all that difficult to go into the practice 0:27:03.440 --> 0:27:06.080 of following it, but you just have to make sure 0:27:06.100 --> 0:27:07.260 that you're really diligent about it. 0:27:07.280 --> 0:27:09.060 And that's why we're a very process-oriented team. 0:27:09.470 --> 0:27:12.790 Yeah, I was just reading a book and Bill Parcells 0:27:12.850 --> 0:27:16.409 is saying, if you are committed to certain qualities or 0:27:16.470 --> 0:27:20.629 certain traits... Do not deviate and try to stick to 0:27:20.650 --> 0:27:23.490 the process as much as possible if it's proven to 0:27:23.530 --> 0:27:26.270 be valuable and work for you. And I can imagine 0:27:26.290 --> 0:27:27.889 that can be a little hard because things come up. 0:27:27.950 --> 0:27:32.580 And again, you guys are looking everywhere for different people 0:27:32.660 --> 0:27:36.080 and just different ways to bring new ideas. And it 0:27:36.119 --> 0:27:38.710 kind of gets me. You touched on this earlier in 0:27:38.750 --> 0:27:43.869 our conversation, Adam, but... building teams of highly competitive people 0:27:44.810 --> 0:27:50.649 and building teams within teams of highly competitive people. I 0:27:50.690 --> 0:27:52.650 know you have a lot of experience managing teams like 0:27:52.690 --> 0:27:55.390 that and constructing teams like that, again, from your previous 0:27:55.930 --> 0:27:59.260 work experience, but doing it in a building like this 0:27:59.400 --> 0:28:04.010 where every week matters so much and developing communication tools 0:28:04.130 --> 0:28:08.170 with coaches and with other executives and with players and 0:28:08.820 --> 0:28:11.800 not just building that roster the way that it functions 0:28:12.060 --> 0:28:16.380 at the highest level, but also internally. What has that 0:28:16.720 --> 0:28:19.160 part of the team building process been like? And how 0:28:19.180 --> 0:28:22.940 do you guys communicate with each other, especially when maybe 0:28:22.960 --> 0:28:24.400 the bullets are flying externally? 0:28:24.420 --> 0:28:27.909 Yeah, no, I think that's a good question. Probably one 0:28:27.950 --> 0:28:30.109 of the, you touched on it a little bit, one 0:28:30.130 --> 0:28:34.410 of the differences with teams football and probably just professional 0:28:34.430 --> 0:28:37.410 sport generally versus working in the private sector is just 0:28:37.710 --> 0:28:40.010 how public, you know, your job is. Like I could 0:28:40.070 --> 0:28:42.380 leave the trading floor and have a, had a down 0:28:42.420 --> 0:28:44.640 day and I'm not going to hear about it, you know, 0:28:44.700 --> 0:28:47.440 from anyone. Whereas, you know, if, if, you know, maybe 0:28:47.480 --> 0:28:50.270 there's a, there's something that the fan base is not 0:28:50.310 --> 0:28:52.490 happy about, right? Like, you know, you're going to hear 0:28:52.510 --> 0:28:54.150 opinion from your neighbor. You're going to hear opinion, you know, 0:28:54.170 --> 0:28:56.050 it's going to be on the news. Like, It's a 0:28:56.090 --> 0:29:00.260 different dynamic that permeates it. But what I would say is, 0:29:01.380 --> 0:29:05.820 I think anytime that you're dealing with high-functioning people, high-functioning teams, 0:29:06.140 --> 0:29:08.120 it comes down to relationships. 0:29:08.940 --> 0:29:12.170 Communication, and aligning incentives, right? 0:29:12.210 --> 0:29:14.410 And so we have a great model for that in 0:29:14.810 --> 0:29:16.750 the way that really Howie and Nick interact, right? So 0:29:16.770 --> 0:29:19.670 they're talking to each other multiple times a day, going 0:29:19.710 --> 0:29:21.810 into each other, in and out of each other's offenses. 0:29:22.310 --> 0:29:24.940 They're in lockstep about the way that. 0:29:24.840 --> 0:29:28.560 They're going to think about big decisions, little decisions, how 0:29:28.580 --> 0:29:31.340 they're communicating those decisions, those things. And so it ends 0:29:31.400 --> 0:29:35.060 up being a really good model for everybody on down 0:29:35.340 --> 0:29:36.650 in terms of how the way that we're supposed to 0:29:36.770 --> 0:29:41.070 operate with different departments and different you know, different divisions 0:29:41.670 --> 0:29:43.410 and I would say that in general like when we 0:29:43.450 --> 0:29:47.460 go to relationship right people are not necessarily going to 0:29:47.800 --> 0:29:50.820 follow you if they don't feel like they somewhat know 0:29:50.860 --> 0:29:53.660 you and that you see them as a person right 0:29:53.720 --> 0:29:56.760 and that's a really important component in any business The 0:29:56.780 --> 0:29:59.200 other thing is when you have people who are highly 0:29:59.240 --> 0:30:05.290 performing and competitive and self-starters, you want to make sure 0:30:05.390 --> 0:30:09.490 that you're communicating the why of what you're doing. So 0:30:09.530 --> 0:30:13.300 they may not necessarily like every decision, but generally people 0:30:13.340 --> 0:30:16.400 are rational. And when they understand either the context that 0:30:16.420 --> 0:30:18.580 you can share with them or the rationale for it, 0:30:18.600 --> 0:30:21.280 when you can share it with them. generally there's a 0:30:21.340 --> 0:30:25.410 better understanding of why maybe something is happening. And then 0:30:25.730 --> 0:30:28.130 also people want to be valued in the way that 0:30:28.170 --> 0:30:30.910 they feel like they're contributing to the team's success. And 0:30:30.970 --> 0:30:33.940 so when you build an environment and you build a 0:30:33.960 --> 0:30:37.180 culture where you know, when we win on Sundays, like 0:30:37.220 --> 0:30:40.750 the team success is our success, you know, people really 0:30:40.810 --> 0:30:43.710 do buy into what they need to do in order 0:30:43.810 --> 0:30:46.710 to make sure that we're putting the organization in the 0:30:46.750 --> 0:30:50.390 best spot possible. And again, that's really easy when you 0:30:50.410 --> 0:30:53.470 have a model for that of leadership in, you know, 0:30:53.690 --> 0:30:57.920 starting literally at the top across multiple different departments. That's 0:30:57.940 --> 0:31:01.740 something that I think is really special and important whenever 0:31:01.760 --> 0:31:04.300 you're trying to move the organization forward. 0:31:04.790 --> 0:31:06.620 More on that in a second. We're going to take 0:31:06.640 --> 0:31:08.300 a quick break and get back to it on the 0:31:08.320 --> 0:31:13.170 other side. When you think about roster building too, because 0:31:13.350 --> 0:31:15.610 what you're talking about here is, is obviously expansive on 0:31:15.670 --> 0:31:19.050 team building in general, in any, in any format, again, 0:31:19.110 --> 0:31:22.270 especially with high functioning and highly competitive people. When you're 0:31:22.290 --> 0:31:26.990 thinking about roster building, what types of things do still 0:31:27.090 --> 0:31:30.740 apply over no matter what type of, of quote unquote roster, 0:31:30.760 --> 0:31:33.860 whether it's an executive staff or a coaching staff or 0:31:33.880 --> 0:31:38.850 an actual roster of players, what has to translate universally 0:31:39.130 --> 0:31:42.510 between everybody in the building and has to be maybe 0:31:42.550 --> 0:31:45.730 a standard of culture that is set in, in, in, um, 0:31:46.290 --> 0:31:49.450 you know, identifying traits to put together for all of 0:31:49.490 --> 0:31:51.810 those people on any type of quote unquote team that 0:31:51.850 --> 0:31:53.130 you have within an organization. 0:31:53.930 --> 0:31:54.300 Yeah. 0:31:54.360 --> 0:31:57.630 I mean, I think, you know, at a very high level, right. You're, you're, um, 0:31:57.690 --> 0:32:00.480 whether you're building a roster of players or you're building, 0:32:00.580 --> 0:32:03.160 you know, if how he's building a staff, right. You're 0:32:03.200 --> 0:32:06.220 talking about, you know, you're talking about some degree hiring, right. 0:32:06.750 --> 0:32:10.030 And so like talent is something that's just is really important. 0:32:10.050 --> 0:32:10.150 Right. 0:32:10.170 --> 0:32:13.170 That's a foundational element of you're looking for people who 0:32:13.270 --> 0:32:16.990 have talent and you're looking for people who have specific skills, 0:32:17.050 --> 0:32:19.740 whether it's on the football field or whether it's in 0:32:19.760 --> 0:32:21.280 a coaching staff or on the front office. 0:32:21.360 --> 0:32:21.479 Right. 0:32:21.500 --> 0:32:24.280 You're looking for people with specific skills that are going 0:32:24.300 --> 0:32:27.380 to help give you an advantage versus your your competitors. 0:32:27.780 --> 0:32:30.340 But also with that is, you know, you're looking at 0:32:30.560 --> 0:32:33.040 the makeup of a player, a person, a staff members, 0:32:33.060 --> 0:32:35.320 you're looking up at their character, right? You're thinking about, 0:32:35.340 --> 0:32:37.980 you know, their personal character, you know, their work ethic, 0:32:38.020 --> 0:32:41.900 what type of teammate they are, all those different variables 0:32:41.940 --> 0:32:45.300 that affect not only the on-field success, but also the 0:32:45.340 --> 0:32:48.160 culture of the way that the building they operate, because 0:32:48.480 --> 0:32:50.709 those different things at some point in an NFL season, 0:32:51.070 --> 0:32:51.490 you're going to. 0:32:51.490 --> 0:32:52.670 Hit adversity, right? 0:32:52.690 --> 0:32:57.910 And, It's not always necessarily how someone's talent that is 0:32:57.950 --> 0:32:59.870 really important in that moment. Maybe it might be some 0:32:59.910 --> 0:33:03.580 of their character intangibles that really help you to get 0:33:03.660 --> 0:33:07.239 through a certain situation. And so it's really making sure 0:33:07.280 --> 0:33:10.160 that you're spending the time to think through those things, 0:33:10.220 --> 0:33:13.380 think through how those things fit together and how you 0:33:13.420 --> 0:33:16.940 can maximize both of those things within the organization based 0:33:16.980 --> 0:33:18.210 off of the resources that you have. 0:33:18.850 --> 0:33:23.010 Is there anywhere you look for additional inspiration, whether it's 0:33:23.050 --> 0:33:25.670 outside the building or inside the building, things that you 0:33:25.690 --> 0:33:29.370 can use tools to motivate the people around you, obviously 0:33:29.410 --> 0:33:31.710 very self-motivated as it stands. So it would have to 0:33:31.750 --> 0:33:35.050 be very specific, right? It would have to resonate. Any 0:33:35.070 --> 0:33:39.130 sort of messaging or cultural building that you do has 0:33:39.170 --> 0:33:41.580 to be well thought out. I'm curious where you look 0:33:41.600 --> 0:33:42.360 for things like that. 0:33:43.350 --> 0:33:46.650 I think for me, it's just you look at people 0:33:46.710 --> 0:33:49.430 who are leading in everywhere, right? It could be something 0:33:49.470 --> 0:33:53.260 that you're seeing that Nick will bring things in our 0:33:53.280 --> 0:33:55.560 team meeting that maybe another coach said from a different 0:33:55.580 --> 0:33:58.300 sport or an Olympic athlete. It can be people who 0:33:58.460 --> 0:34:00.840 are in government. It could be people who are running 0:34:00.880 --> 0:34:04.680 a nonprofit. But when you talk about leadership, there's a 0:34:04.720 --> 0:34:08.770 lot of different principles that are things that carry over 0:34:09.090 --> 0:34:11.970 no matter what type of organization that you're leading, right? 0:34:12.030 --> 0:34:14.660 And so I think for me, it's more about being 0:34:14.700 --> 0:34:17.560 attentive to not only the examples that I have in 0:34:17.580 --> 0:34:19.819 the building that I can see in terms of the 0:34:19.840 --> 0:34:23.970 way that they're leading, but also any other outside influence 0:34:23.989 --> 0:34:25.969 where it's like, is there something that I can learn 0:34:25.989 --> 0:34:27.410 from that and take from that. There's something that I 0:34:27.430 --> 0:34:31.230 can do from a self-improvement perspective where I can be 0:34:31.270 --> 0:34:36.439 more effective in growing my leadership skills and things like that. 0:34:37.340 --> 0:34:39.859 I think it's more about just being open-minded to all 0:34:39.880 --> 0:34:43.320 the different sources as opposed to going to a specific source, 0:34:44.000 --> 0:34:45.299 because I do think that there are a lot of 0:34:45.400 --> 0:34:48.790 qualities that are pretty broad in general that you can 0:34:48.870 --> 0:34:50.910 use across different functions. 0:34:50.630 --> 0:34:51.330 In different industries. 0:34:51.870 --> 0:34:54.819 Man, you teed me up for this, Adam. Thank you. 0:34:54.940 --> 0:34:57.439 Because when you're talking about all of this, the thing 0:34:57.460 --> 0:34:59.980 that comes into my mind is cast a wide net. 0:35:00.719 --> 0:35:03.300 And to me, I mean, that should be the Eagles 0:35:03.340 --> 0:35:06.680 motto at this point, just in my opinion, honestly. Like 0:35:07.100 --> 0:35:08.940 the Eagles, one of the things that I think is 0:35:09.020 --> 0:35:13.790 so unique about the organization, and I happily discuss this 0:35:13.950 --> 0:35:16.390 to anyone who will listen and not just walk away 0:35:16.430 --> 0:35:19.670 from me like I'm a crazy lady talking at them, is, man, 0:35:19.830 --> 0:35:24.750 you guys look everywhere. You look for edges in different 0:35:24.810 --> 0:35:29.570 places that are, I think maybe there would be a 0:35:29.910 --> 0:35:33.000 fear there for certain others, or I think maybe there 0:35:33.020 --> 0:35:35.140 would be too much uncertainty and there's not enough of 0:35:35.200 --> 0:35:38.259 a known, quote unquote, quantity on the other side or 0:35:38.680 --> 0:35:42.140 those types of things. What is that like inside the building? 0:35:42.239 --> 0:35:46.910 I think the good word for it is creative. Creative 0:35:47.010 --> 0:35:50.719 in pursuit of edges. Where do you find that in 0:35:50.760 --> 0:35:52.580 the building? Where do you think the Eagles do that? 0:35:53.640 --> 0:35:56.100 Yeah, I mean, I'd probably phrase it a little bit differently. 0:35:56.140 --> 0:35:58.259 I'd say that what is, I'd actually say that this is, 0:35:58.280 --> 0:36:01.379 you know, very unique about the Eagles is that there 0:36:01.440 --> 0:36:05.230 is no, what I would call fear-based decision-making in the 0:36:05.250 --> 0:36:07.330 way that, and I think that starts from, you know, 0:36:07.969 --> 0:36:12.140 Ownerships willingness to try things that are different and before 0:36:12.200 --> 0:36:16.120 thinking to, you know, everyone knows how he is is 0:36:16.219 --> 0:36:20.160 always willing to Look for an opportunity to improve the team. 0:36:20.200 --> 0:36:23.259 He's always looking for an opportunity to be better in 0:36:23.480 --> 0:36:26.540 every different space like he's being able to go and 0:36:26.600 --> 0:36:28.939 work for somebody who you know is going to swing 0:36:28.960 --> 0:36:32.680 the bat and is incredibly invigorating, because there's just so 0:36:32.700 --> 0:36:37.410 much open mindedness to ideas and to ways where, again, 0:36:37.510 --> 0:36:40.970 it's not thinking from a place of what could go wrong, 0:36:41.010 --> 0:36:43.350 it's more about, well, what could go right, right, and 0:36:43.830 --> 0:36:47.630 trying to be the best version of the organization that 0:36:47.670 --> 0:36:49.270 we can be. And it even goes into like the 0:36:49.310 --> 0:36:52.000 coaching staff in terms of how aggressively that Nick manages 0:36:52.040 --> 0:36:56.040 the game. And so I think that is something that, um, is, uh, 0:36:56.760 --> 0:37:00.129 incredibly unique about the organization that, um, you know, there's 0:37:00.150 --> 0:37:03.750 a willingness to, uh, to try and to be progressive 0:37:03.910 --> 0:37:07.150 and to, uh, you know, push the envelope, um, in, 0:37:07.270 --> 0:37:09.489 in every different phase. And that doesn't mean that your, 0:37:09.650 --> 0:37:12.339 your hit rate's going to be 100%. That doesn't mean 0:37:12.380 --> 0:37:15.420 that you're not going to at times, you know, make mistakes, 0:37:15.560 --> 0:37:19.279 but that's not something that ends up being an impediment 0:37:19.400 --> 0:37:23.340 to trying something new and trying to, you know, be exceptional. 0:37:23.360 --> 0:37:24.440 I mean, there was a, I don't even know where 0:37:24.460 --> 0:37:26.430 the saying came from, but it stuck with me in 0:37:27.510 --> 0:37:29.469 a few years ago where, you know, if you're trying 0:37:29.489 --> 0:37:32.790 to do what everybody else is doing, then you're probably 0:37:32.810 --> 0:37:35.350 going to have mediocre results, right? And so it's like, okay, 0:37:35.390 --> 0:37:38.150 how can we do something that's different? And I think 0:37:38.170 --> 0:37:40.280 that that is something that, you know, you certainly feel 0:37:40.420 --> 0:37:42.380 from leadership within this organization. 0:37:42.760 --> 0:37:46.060 It takes a commitment to, in my opinion, between the 0:37:46.180 --> 0:37:48.640 coaching staff and also the front office and the player 0:37:49.020 --> 0:37:52.799 as well. And identifying what about that player makes you 0:37:52.920 --> 0:37:55.969 know that they're going to commit to, in this case, 0:37:56.010 --> 0:37:58.940 maybe a development process. I think of like a Jordan Mailata, 0:37:59.000 --> 0:38:02.640 for example, where it feels like in hindsight, we all 0:38:02.660 --> 0:38:05.820 should have seen this coming, but nobody, not many people 0:38:05.900 --> 0:38:08.900 actually did, right? In terms of the quality of player 0:38:09.000 --> 0:38:12.000 that he turned into and a captain class type of 0:38:12.040 --> 0:38:16.839 guy on your roster. So with this, maybe not this 0:38:16.960 --> 0:38:20.950 specific example necessarily, but just in general, when you are 0:38:21.710 --> 0:38:24.410 identifying a player and then committing to that player, even 0:38:24.450 --> 0:38:27.170 if it's a little bit maybe outside the box, how 0:38:27.190 --> 0:38:30.750 do you build a sustainable profile? How do you say, okay, 0:38:30.790 --> 0:38:32.549 this is the short term, this is the medium, this 0:38:32.590 --> 0:38:36.600 is the long term, and communicate with coaches accordingly? 0:38:37.800 --> 0:38:41.140 Yeah, I think part of it is just the framework 0:38:41.180 --> 0:38:45.640 in which we think about talent identification and talent development 0:38:45.760 --> 0:38:49.450 in general. So that's something that I think is established 0:38:49.870 --> 0:38:54.550 organizationally just as a pillar and as a principle. And so, 0:38:55.510 --> 0:39:00.560 you know, there's an element of, okay, understanding how a 0:39:00.600 --> 0:39:02.600 player is going to, what you think a player is 0:39:02.620 --> 0:39:06.810 going to be. And the amount of time and resources 0:39:06.870 --> 0:39:08.819 it's going to take for a player to get there. 0:39:09.380 --> 0:39:11.660 And a lot of that requires. 0:39:13.340 --> 0:39:18.620 Not only communication, but just buy-in across multiple departments within 0:39:18.640 --> 0:39:22.730 an organization. And that's something that we've been very much 0:39:22.810 --> 0:39:25.550 committed to. And as you said, Jordan's a great example 0:39:25.550 --> 0:39:28.620 where you know, it took time for him to get to, 0:39:28.700 --> 0:39:30.900 you know, to where he is now, but it was 0:39:30.940 --> 0:39:31.960 certainly worth the investment. 0:39:32.000 --> 0:39:33.200 It was certainly worth the energy. 0:39:33.360 --> 0:39:37.700 And, you know, we had identified somebody who we felt 0:39:37.739 --> 0:39:40.530 like had not only the physical skills, but the character 0:39:40.670 --> 0:39:43.469 to become the best version of what we thought he 0:39:43.489 --> 0:39:43.830 could be. 0:39:44.710 --> 0:39:45.870 And he's done that. 0:39:46.739 --> 0:39:50.200 So, I think that just thinking about that lens and 0:39:50.239 --> 0:39:52.989 making sure that the communication is open about what the 0:39:53.050 --> 0:39:55.950 expectations are helps to make sure that, look, by the 0:39:55.969 --> 0:39:57.790 time you're getting to the point where you're bringing a 0:39:57.850 --> 0:40:01.210 player into the building, it's already been really well vetted 0:40:01.270 --> 0:40:03.270 about what are the things that he's going to need 0:40:03.550 --> 0:40:05.230 in order to become successful in order for us to 0:40:05.270 --> 0:40:05.820 maximize him. 0:40:06.480 --> 0:40:09.560 Does that take agility too? Because I would imagine the 0:40:09.800 --> 0:40:12.480 parameters or even like the sliding scale of who somebody 0:40:12.660 --> 0:40:16.180 is can change as that person changes, as their body 0:40:16.219 --> 0:40:19.430 composition changes, as their personality changes, as they experience life, 0:40:19.890 --> 0:40:22.209 you know, as they become more of an adult, et cetera, 0:40:22.250 --> 0:40:25.549 et cetera, et cetera. What's the combination that you guys, 0:40:25.989 --> 0:40:29.989 in which you discuss like agility, expectations, and just the 0:40:30.030 --> 0:40:31.710 ability to pivot when necessary? 0:40:32.510 --> 0:40:34.819 Yeah, you always have to be willing to adapt, right? 0:40:34.860 --> 0:40:39.200 Whether that's because the game's changing, because circumstances change, right? 0:40:39.219 --> 0:40:42.759 There's always going to be some level of uncertainty, right? 0:40:42.860 --> 0:40:47.710 Because you can't just plan the future. You can't dictate 0:40:47.770 --> 0:40:49.370 what the future is going to be or what it's 0:40:49.390 --> 0:40:49.930 going to hold. 0:40:50.630 --> 0:40:53.360 So that's just built into, you know.. 0:40:54.760 --> 0:40:55.989 It goes to something that we talked about a little 0:40:56.030 --> 0:41:00.230 bit earlier, where if you want to make sure that 0:41:00.250 --> 0:41:02.089 you're going to get into a position where you can 0:41:02.390 --> 0:41:05.129 succeed and where you can outperform, you have to know 0:41:05.170 --> 0:41:07.490 that the road is not necessarily going to be always 0:41:07.630 --> 0:41:10.410 as intended. That has to be built into how you 0:41:10.430 --> 0:41:12.589 think about not only your analysis, but how you're going 0:41:12.610 --> 0:41:16.200 to navigate any given year or multi-year stretch. And so 0:41:16.980 --> 0:41:20.820 I think that, to your point, the adaptation is an 0:41:20.860 --> 0:41:23.620 important part. You have a plan, but you're constantly reevaluating it. 0:41:24.030 --> 0:41:27.390 and you're constantly reevaluating, is this going to help get 0:41:27.410 --> 0:41:28.739 this player to where they need to be? Is this 0:41:28.760 --> 0:41:31.759 going to help get the roster where it needs to be? 0:41:32.460 --> 0:41:34.739 Is this continually the right approach? Or is there new 0:41:34.780 --> 0:41:38.600 information that we've received that maybe requires an adjustment or 0:41:38.620 --> 0:41:41.279 a tweak or a wholesale change? And so that's just 0:41:41.300 --> 0:41:44.220 something that we, you know, is just naturally built into 0:41:44.450 --> 0:41:44.839 what we do. 0:41:45.380 --> 0:41:47.610 For us on the outside, it's exciting when we can 0:41:47.640 --> 0:41:51.250 see it manifest in real time. And, you know, the 0:41:51.350 --> 0:41:53.710 years of football will ebb and flow and seasons will 0:41:53.750 --> 0:41:57.259 change and all of that. But it seems to be 0:41:57.300 --> 0:42:00.460 like a universal truth that the Eagles will change how 0:42:00.500 --> 0:42:03.590 they do things if they see upon reflection that it 0:42:03.640 --> 0:42:05.850 is worth changing. And so, you know, you guys come 0:42:05.890 --> 0:42:08.890 in and there's, you know, there's schematic changes, especially on 0:42:08.930 --> 0:42:11.950 the offensive side. There's all these different things that happen 0:42:11.969 --> 0:42:13.790 that I think for us on the outside, we see 0:42:13.830 --> 0:42:17.200 like the results of conversations like that. And what I 0:42:17.239 --> 0:42:19.719 love about this show and these interviews that we get 0:42:19.739 --> 0:42:22.020 to do is to learn a little bit more about 0:42:22.080 --> 0:42:24.520 the process behind it. And I have to ask you, 0:42:24.540 --> 0:42:28.580 because I've been dying to ask you this. just something 0:42:28.680 --> 0:42:30.400 unique that maybe I don't know about or that we 0:42:30.440 --> 0:42:33.420 don't know about that the Eagles do that you're excited 0:42:33.480 --> 0:42:36.660 about or that there's something internally that is, you think, 0:42:36.760 --> 0:42:41.050 very unique to the building that I, as a process dork, 0:42:41.110 --> 0:42:43.009 might like to uncover here? 0:42:43.030 --> 0:42:46.150 No, I think it probably goes back to what we 0:42:46.170 --> 0:42:48.569 talked about a little bit before, where it's just the 0:42:48.630 --> 0:42:50.730 fact that. 0:42:51.590 --> 0:42:54.149 There's no fear in the decision-making. 0:42:54.190 --> 0:42:56.770 There's no fear in the way that You know, we're 0:42:56.790 --> 0:43:00.230 going to explore different things like that is something that 0:43:00.750 --> 0:43:03.370 may seem like a little thing, but I really don't 0:43:03.390 --> 0:43:06.569 think that it is. I think that the ability and 0:43:06.610 --> 0:43:10.020 the willingness to, what do you want to call it, 0:43:10.030 --> 0:43:11.980 take risks, whether you want to talk it to, you know, 0:43:12.000 --> 0:43:15.080 to swing for the fences, whether it's, you know, having 0:43:15.120 --> 0:43:18.569 a championship standard. And that's something that I think is, 0:43:18.590 --> 0:43:22.210 you know, fundamental to the way that, you know, ownership 0:43:22.230 --> 0:43:24.029 Howie and Nick operate. And I think that that is 0:43:24.070 --> 0:43:28.690 something that permeates throughout the entire organization. And, you know, 0:43:28.710 --> 0:43:30.750 I think that's pretty special. And that's what's what makes 0:43:30.790 --> 0:43:33.110 it one of the many reasons that makes it, you know, 0:43:33.160 --> 0:43:34.100 it's a great place to work. 0:43:34.480 --> 0:43:36.839 Yeah, we have to come up with a slogan for 0:43:36.860 --> 0:43:40.000 the Roseman era. No, not me. Someone much more talented 0:43:40.340 --> 0:43:43.700 probably than me because I think about like, you know, 0:43:43.800 --> 0:43:47.609 you're letting it rip, honestly. And it's fun to watch 0:43:47.640 --> 0:43:49.989 just for the layperson sort of sitting on this side 0:43:50.010 --> 0:43:52.390 of the glass and in this chair because you guys 0:43:52.430 --> 0:43:55.610 are always up to something. And that's why I'm so glad, Adam, that... 0:43:56.050 --> 0:43:58.490 We had you on today. I'm so grateful to share 0:43:58.530 --> 0:44:00.649 a little bit more about your journey and your current 0:44:00.670 --> 0:44:03.330 role and what you do. Thank you so much for 0:44:03.370 --> 0:44:07.570 joining me today on this episode of NFL Daily's Power Players. 0:44:08.560 --> 0:44:11.100 Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure. And yeah, 0:44:11.260 --> 0:44:12.140 I really appreciate it. 0:44:12.300 --> 0:44:13.359 And we got to get you to come up with 0:44:13.390 --> 0:44:16.549 the slogan. Eric, hit the music. We are rolling Adam 0:44:16.630 --> 0:44:20.069 out in style here. Listeners, thank you so much for 0:44:20.150 --> 0:44:23.710 joining me today on another episode of NFL Daily's Power Players. 0:44:23.750 --> 0:44:26.390 Of course, with the great Adam Barry, assistant general manager 0:44:26.450 --> 0:44:29.469 for the Eagles. Stay tuned in your feeds. We're going 0:44:29.489 --> 0:44:31.109 to have a lot coming up for you this week, 0:44:31.170 --> 0:44:35.110 including Cuts Day, a live show Sunday with Greg Rosenthal. 0:44:35.469 --> 0:44:36.070 Thanks for listening.