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Speaker 1: Before we get started with our conversation with General manager

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Speaker 1: Tom Tolesco, a big thank you to our sponsor, Microsoft Surface.

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Speaker 1: Microsoft Surface a huge part of game day in preparation

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Speaker 1: for the LA Chargers. As the official laptop and sideline

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Speaker 1: technology provider for your Los Angeles Chargers, Microsoft Surface provides

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Speaker 1: players and coaches with the tools to succeed both on

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Speaker 1: and off the field. Microsoft Surface Pro seven, You're endlessly

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Speaker 1: out on their site Surface dot com. What's up, guys,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to a very special edition of The Final Drive,

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Speaker 1: presented by Microsoft Surface. Alongside Haley Elwood, I'm Chris Hayry,

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Speaker 1: and we are joined by the General manager of the

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Speaker 1: LA Chargers, Tom Tolesco. Tom, always appreciate you taking some time.

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Speaker 1: How are you doing, I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine.

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Speaker 1: You know I want to start with this. You alluded

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Speaker 1: to this in your press conference. We all talk about

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Speaker 1: what a great guy coach Lynn is and we've known

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Speaker 1: that for the last four years. But he's also an

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Speaker 1: excellent coach. And I'll tell you this, I think the

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Speaker 1: guys in this locker room and the guys coming back

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one are better pros and better players

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Speaker 1: for having Anthony Lynn as our head coach. Yes, you know,

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Speaker 1: he's built a very good foundation here. It starts with

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Speaker 1: the locker room. It starts with the players. It starts

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Speaker 1: with how he made them accountable, and that will carry

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Speaker 1: over to next year, especially with our younger players that

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Speaker 1: we that we drafted here and we've developed, and you

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Speaker 1: know our locker room, as you can, you can tell

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Speaker 1: from the last part of the year, the last quarter

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Speaker 1: of the season, those guys believe and they played hard.

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Speaker 1: You know, we lose forty five to nothing to New England,

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Speaker 1: to a team that wasn't going to the playoffs. At

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Speaker 1: that point, we're out of the playoff race and for

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Speaker 1: our team and our coach is to finish strong, to

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Speaker 1: win the last four in a row. That speaks of

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Speaker 1: the character in the locker room and that that will

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Speaker 1: carry over. Um. But our players know, we all know

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Speaker 1: that in this business, change isn't is an inevitable excuse me, um, So, yes,

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Speaker 1: I mean there are some players downstairs that that, uh,

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Speaker 1: you're going to go through a transition period, um, but

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Speaker 1: that's the nature of the game. But I do like

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Speaker 1: the foundation that's been built, um with the character of

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Speaker 1: the football team. You mentioned change being inevitable obviously things

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Speaker 1: happening in this business. But how did you go about

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Speaker 1: evaluating the decision that had to be made. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: it's not there's never just one thing, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: it kind of just evolves over time. As I stayed

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Speaker 1: it before, we just you know, it's it's pretty simple.

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Speaker 1: We justn't win enough games the last two years. And

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of reasons for that, um, some out

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Speaker 1: of our control, but most of it in our control

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Speaker 1: as far as wins and losses. UM, that's really what

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Speaker 1: it comes down to. I mean, sometimes it's just time

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Speaker 1: to to you know, chart a new path, um with

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Speaker 1: the football team we have, and that's what we're gonna

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Speaker 1: do tom again seven to nine. But you look at

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Speaker 1: the bright spots. It starts with a rookie quarterback who

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Speaker 1: it seemed like broke a record every single week he

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Speaker 1: stepped onto the football field. What surprised you most about

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Speaker 1: what you saw from justin this year taking to account,

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Speaker 1: there was no true offseason program, the way he was

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Speaker 1: kind of thrust into action a week two, and what

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Speaker 1: he did with his opportunity. Yeah, I guess it'd be

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Speaker 1: two things. One's tangible, one's intangible. But the intangible aspect

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Speaker 1: of the great poise that he showed for I mean

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Speaker 1: any young player at any position, but certainly it's the

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Speaker 1: quarterback position. The poisi showed in the games, the poisi

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Speaker 1: showed in practice. It is a big jump from college

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Speaker 1: to professional football. It's a big jump for our rookie quarterback, especially,

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Speaker 1: like you said, no offseason program, no preseason games, just

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Speaker 1: incredible poise and toughness he showed in the position. And

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Speaker 1: then the one tangible factor which I'm very proud of

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Speaker 1: him for, he didn't turn the ball over. Um. And

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Speaker 1: turnover differentials the number one one of the one or

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Speaker 1: one of the things we look at as far as

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Speaker 1: wins and losses in this league, and turnover differentials high

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Speaker 1: on that list. Um, And he showed in college he

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Speaker 1: protects the football, protects the football in the pocket, he

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Speaker 1: protects the throwing the ball down field. Only he only

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Speaker 1: had ten interceptions this year. Um, that's hard to do.

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Speaker 1: Peyton Manning had think twenty eight interceptions is rookie year, um,

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Speaker 1: So he showed he can protect the football. That's a

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Speaker 1: very big key for a young player, and then he'll

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Speaker 1: just continue to get better. I mean, we our offense,

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Speaker 1: we did not fare very well in the red zone. UM.

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Speaker 1: I'm not completely surprised. It's a difficult area in the

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Speaker 1: football field for a young quarterback. Things are more restricted,

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Speaker 1: the windows are much smaller. UM. So that's why our

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Speaker 1: points scored were down this year. Number one, because of

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Speaker 1: some missfield goals, but also because of some some red

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Speaker 1: zone um conversions we didn't make as far as scoring touchdowns.

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Speaker 1: That will that will that will continue to improve. That

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Speaker 1: will come along as as he gets older and the

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Speaker 1: rest of the offense kind of gets with it. So

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Speaker 1: but there's a lot of things there to build with.

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Speaker 1: One thing that stands out to me about Justin Herbert

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Speaker 1: and I go back to this conversation that I had

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Speaker 1: with Molly McGrath from ESPN. She covered him in college

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Speaker 1: and she just talked about his preparation and how he's

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Speaker 1: academically gifted. But she said one thing to note about

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Speaker 1: him is he will translate those skills from the textbook

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Speaker 1: to the playbook. What can you say about his just

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Speaker 1: preparation when the original goal was for him to just

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Speaker 1: sit and really learn. This year, it sounds like Molly

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Speaker 1: was in our scouting meetings. That's the way our scouts,

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Speaker 1: Kevin Kelly and the whole group, that's what they talked about. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: obviously academically intellectually, he is very, very sharp, and that

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Speaker 1: carries over to football as well, and preparation for NFL quarterback,

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Speaker 1: you know, starting on Monday all the way through Saturday,

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Speaker 1: it's a grind. He's very smart, he's attention to detail,

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Speaker 1: he's a perfectionist, and he had you know, pretty good

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Speaker 1: offensive coaching staff working with them on a daily basis.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, it's hard to succeed in this league if

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Speaker 1: you can't learn and prepare. It's certainly at that position.

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Speaker 1: So I think that's why he's he has such a

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Speaker 1: high ceiling because he's physically talented, but he puts in

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Speaker 1: all the work and he's very bright. Tom, we were

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Speaker 1: just talking about training camp and I remember in July

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Speaker 1: Derwin James just flying around the field. The energy that

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Speaker 1: he brings to the defense. When you lose a guy

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Speaker 1: like Da and I know you mentioned in your press

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Speaker 1: conference about injuries. There weren't as many injuries as other

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Speaker 1: teams this year, But when you have one two arguably

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Speaker 1: one of your best players, a guy who brings that

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Speaker 1: energy in the locker room where it's really palpable and

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Speaker 1: you can feel it. You know, even as fans watching

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Speaker 1: the game, you never make excuses because this happens in

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Speaker 1: the NFL year in and year out. But what does

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Speaker 1: a healthy Dorwin James mean to the LA Chargers? Well,

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Speaker 1: I know one thing. If there's anything fans missed from

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Speaker 1: not being able to go to training camp this year

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Speaker 1: is being able to watch Derwin James practice every day,

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Speaker 1: because it is incredible to watch. I've been in this

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Speaker 1: league for twenty five years. There aren't very many people

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Speaker 1: who practice like he does, not only his snap after snap,

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Speaker 1: the intensity he plays with. He plays with an edge

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Speaker 1: and physical and aggressive, but with a smile on his

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Speaker 1: face most of the time, which is hard to do

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Speaker 1: both of those, and then watching him, you know, go

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Speaker 1: cover Keenan Allen and cover Hunter Henry and then blitz

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Speaker 1: off the edge and beat an offensive tackle stuff the run.

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Speaker 1: I mean, he was doing so many things in practice

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Speaker 1: it was just fun to watch him work. I told

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Speaker 1: him that the other day. It was just fun to

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Speaker 1: watch him practice, and we didn't even get him to

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Speaker 1: the games this year. So you put that together, the

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Speaker 1: fact that he's one of our alpha leaders, It just

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Speaker 1: there's no doubt about it. Everybody gravitates towards him. He's

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Speaker 1: just a natural leader and a great player. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you lose a player like that, it does affect you.

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Speaker 1: We're at the first team has ever happened to But

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Speaker 1: I'm thrilled to see how he's rehabbing his injury right now,

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Speaker 1: and he should be good to go for the regular season,

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Speaker 1: and I can't wait to get him back out there.

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Speaker 1: With the coaching changes that are coming, obviously, how does

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Speaker 1: that affect player evaluations in position battles as this team

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Speaker 1: gets ready to build its twenty twenty one roster. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: this will be a big offseason, a long offseason, because

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Speaker 1: as the head coach comes in, he needs evaluate everyone

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Speaker 1: in our roster and know them as well as he can,

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Speaker 1: because you know, he has a huge amount of input

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Speaker 1: on what we do moving into twenty twenty one, along

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Speaker 1: with the position coaches. So there's gonna be a lot

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Speaker 1: of work to be done there. Any new coach that

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Speaker 1: comes in, he has to learn the roster. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: this this roster will could continue to develop and change.

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Speaker 1: And really, even without a coaching staff change this year,

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Speaker 1: with the salary cap going down, there is a good

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Speaker 1: chance there's gonna be a lot of change throughout the league,

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Speaker 1: not just here. It's going to be a unpredictable offseason.

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Speaker 1: Be pretty much fun to watch how it all plays out.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, certainly once we get the staff in here,

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Speaker 1: they get a look at their position groups, the head

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Speaker 1: coach looks at everybody, and then we'll kind of start

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Speaker 1: shaping it from there. Tom one of the bright thoughts

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Speaker 1: on offense. Obviously we know about Keenan Allen and Hunter

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Speaker 1: Henry and Mike Williams, and we were surprised by the

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Speaker 1: way Justin kind of came in and ran with it.

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Speaker 1: But Jalen Guyton Tyran Johnson, Donald Parham, these undrafted free agents.

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Speaker 1: The fact that Justin was in training camp with these

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Speaker 1: guys and he talked about it this year being on

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Speaker 1: the second and third team and and thrown to these guys,

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Speaker 1: and then he gets thrust into action all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: of those guys as well. Just your thoughts on how

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Speaker 1: guys like Guyton and Johnson we're able to kind of

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Speaker 1: hit the ground running in the offense. Yeah, it's it's

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Speaker 1: really it's three factors that we have a pro scouting

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Speaker 1: staff that really does a great job trying to identify

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Speaker 1: players that can fit here. Tyron Johnson and Jalen Guyton

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Speaker 1: both had some really electric speed to them, and that's

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Speaker 1: something we wanted to add to the offense. Our pro

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Speaker 1: scout saw Donald parm in the XFL. Not very many

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Speaker 1: six eight players in this league. Six eight tight ends.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of rare. It's usually hard to change directions

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Speaker 1: and run fast when you're that tall. It's just the

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Speaker 1: way God made people. And he's actually pretty fast for

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Speaker 1: six eight. So, and you're right, those are three players

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Speaker 1: that really worked with justin a lot during training camp,

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Speaker 1: and we had a coaching staff that really were invested

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Speaker 1: in those guys, really worked with those guys, and also

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Speaker 1: a head coach I was willing to play young players

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Speaker 1: even though they didn't have a lot of experience. So

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Speaker 1: you put that together, and then those three guys they

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Speaker 1: worked at it. It really did every day trying to

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Speaker 1: work on their craft, throw after practice, throw during different

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Speaker 1: drills with the quarterbacks, and you know, all three of

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Speaker 1: those guys made big contributions this year. I was gonna say, look,

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Speaker 1: this team as a knack for finding guys like that,

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Speaker 1: no mistake, this is the history of the Chargers. But

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Speaker 1: what else can you say about the scouting staff, both

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Speaker 1: pro and college to find guys like that, not only

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Speaker 1: for those in twenty twenty, but also as they move

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Speaker 1: forward as well. I mean, it's the lifeblood of how

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Speaker 1: we put the team together. In a salary cap era,

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Speaker 1: you can't have all high price veterans across your fifty

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Speaker 1: three man roster. You have to be able to find

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Speaker 1: some players. So Kevin Kelly and the college scouting staff,

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Speaker 1: I mean, obviously they put a lot of work in

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Speaker 1: your first round pick, in second round pick, but they

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Speaker 1: put the cme amount of work into the six and

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Speaker 1: seventh round picks and the college for regents, and they

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Speaker 1: take a lot of pride in that. And our pro

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Speaker 1: scouting staff led by Lewis Clark, they're trying to find players.

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Speaker 1: Pro scotuting is a little different, a little more immediate.

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Speaker 1: When you find a player, you can sign them immediately

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Speaker 1: and bring them in. You know, Jailing Gunny we brought

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Speaker 1: on the practice squad, Donald parm we signed him in

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Speaker 1: the off season. But define guys that have a couple

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Speaker 1: of traits you think you can work with and develop,

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Speaker 1: that may be able to contribute, and hopefully they can develop.

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Speaker 1: If they already made players, they probably wouldn't be available.

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Speaker 1: So but that that is that's the lifeblood. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we have to balance it out. We need to have

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Speaker 1: young players step up and take some or make some

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Speaker 1: contributions for us. And I'm proud of those guys. I'm

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Speaker 1: want to ask you about Kenneth Murray, the other first

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Speaker 1: round pick. Listen a lot put on his plate, excuse me,

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Speaker 1: and to have you know, over ninety percent of the

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Speaker 1: snaps on defense and to get those valuable reps. And

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Speaker 1: then you take into account Drew Trank will coming back

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one. How do you envision that linebacking

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Speaker 1: corps look in this upcoming season, Because again, Drew was

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Speaker 1: another guy in training accompt that was all over the

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Speaker 1: field that we were all excited to see this year. Yes,

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Speaker 1: we had really high expectations for Drew this year. We

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Speaker 1: still have high expectations I think he's gonna be a

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Speaker 1: really good starting linebacker in this league. Has all the

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Speaker 1: traits you look for as a great leader. Um. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm really excited about getting him back on defense. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: I can't say enough about the work that Kenny Murray

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Speaker 1: did this year. Talking about over eleven hundred snaps as

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Speaker 1: a rookie starts all sixteen games at linebacker. That's hard.

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Speaker 1: It's a physical, grinding game physically and mentally. You'd bet

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Speaker 1: a lie up every week for us over a hundred tackles.

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Speaker 1: He's still such a young player, and much like Justin Herbert,

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Speaker 1: his preparation skills are really top notch. And that's another

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Speaker 1: thing that our scouts really identified with him. It's not

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Speaker 1: just physical talent, it's film watching his preparation. He's also

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Speaker 1: as a perfectionist. He wants to be the best. He

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Speaker 1: just has a great perspective I think on his career

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Speaker 1: in the game, and he's going to be a leader

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Speaker 1: for us as we move forward. But yeah, to have

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Speaker 1: our first pick and second pick come into play that

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Speaker 1: much for us and contribute that much, it was a

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Speaker 1: big help this year. I'm getting back to the coaching search.

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Speaker 1: This is obviously the third one you've been part of

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Speaker 1: with the Chargers organization. What are some characteristics that you're

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Speaker 1: looking for in the guy to lead this team and

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Speaker 1: is there anything different that you're looking for in comparison

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Speaker 1: to other searches. Well, you hit it on the head

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Speaker 1: when he said lead, because that's the number one criteria

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Speaker 1: for the head coach. It's you have to lead the

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Speaker 1: whole football team. So whether it's an offensive background, defensive background,

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Speaker 1: special teams background, it doesn't matter. Now that coach, you know,

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Speaker 1: they need to have a plan of what they're going

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Speaker 1: to do on the opposite side of the ball of

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Speaker 1: what your expertise is. But the number one thing is

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Speaker 1: you have to be able to lead young men and adults.

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Speaker 1: You know that our veterans, you know, it's a wide

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Speaker 1: demographic between you know, twenty twenty one year olds and

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Speaker 1: thirty four to thirty five year olds. Get to be

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Speaker 1: able to connect with everybody and to be like communicate

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Speaker 1: with them, teach and motivate, so that that's where you

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Speaker 1: start and then you work your way from there. But

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Speaker 1: there's no one specific model that if you hire a

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Speaker 1: coach with these traits you will win a Super Bowl.

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Speaker 1: They come in all shapes and sizes, so you know,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna talk to a pretty wide list of candidates,

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Speaker 1: and I kind of take it from there. Tom Our

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Speaker 1: characteristics for a head coach waited differently depending on how

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Speaker 1: twenty seventeen roster markedly different from twenty twenty. Starting at

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Speaker 1: the quarterback, get a guy like Philip Rivers versus a

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Speaker 1: guy in his second year at the position. Do you

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Speaker 1: look at how the roster is currently constructed in take

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Speaker 1: some of those characteristics into account, maybe a little heavier

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Speaker 1: than others. I mean, that's a great point, you know,

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Speaker 1: as far as where we are in with this football

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Speaker 1: team now as compared to four years ago, I'd have

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Speaker 1: to look up and see, you know, kind of where

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Speaker 1: we were age wise then as compared to now. But

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Speaker 1: obviously the big thing is at that point we had

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Speaker 1: a veteran quarterback and now we have a younger quarterback.

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Speaker 1: But honestly, I don't think it's going to be weighed

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Speaker 1: any wild any extra I don't think we'll lean any

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Speaker 1: which way. I think the biggest thing is we're hiring

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Speaker 1: a head coach of the football team. We're not hiring

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Speaker 1: a head quarterback coach. To run the offense or head

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Speaker 1: offensive coordinator. It's gonna be the head, the head coach

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Speaker 1: that runs the whole team offense, defense, special teams. That's

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Speaker 1: their job, and we'll kind of see where it goes.

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Speaker 1: Obviously it's twenty twenty one, but still unprecedented times. We're

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Speaker 1: still doing this on zoom even though twenty twenty is

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Speaker 1: now in the books. But what do these next few

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Speaker 1: weeks look like for you in terms of this coaching

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Speaker 1: search and how to COVID protocols affect that. Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: the COVID protocols are really affecting it, but not necessarily

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Speaker 1: in a negative way. I mean, yes, it would be

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Speaker 1: better to go face to face with people. The negative

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Speaker 1: is it's just it's just hard to be efficient that

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Speaker 1: way to get all over the country and the time

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Speaker 1: it takes, so you really can't talk to as many people.

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Speaker 1: So in this zoom age, to be able to talk

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Speaker 1: to eight, ten, twelve different coaches and start to narrow

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Speaker 1: it down from there, I think it really helps us,

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Speaker 1: helps us have a bigger pool and it's much more

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Speaker 1: time efficient this way. And then as we get in

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Speaker 1: the second part of the of the search, will probably

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Speaker 1: get a little more face to face with different candidates,

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Speaker 1: depending on if they're maybe a team that's playing in

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Speaker 1: the playoffs or is not playing in the playoffs. But

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Speaker 1: we help the coaching search. Once we hired the head coach,

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Speaker 1: then that coach has to put a staff together. That

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Speaker 1: takes some time and it wants the staff together. They'll

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Speaker 1: have to evaluate their position groups and the football team.

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Speaker 1: Because we can't make any decisions for next year until

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Speaker 1: I know how our coaches feel about what they have

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Speaker 1: and then see where they think the needs are and

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Speaker 1: we talk about it, and then we'll find out eventually

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Speaker 1: what the salary cap member will be and then we're

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Speaker 1: often running after that. So, um, it's going to be

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Speaker 1: an offseason that's gonna be very busy. Um. But from

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Speaker 1: building a team standpoint, you know, there's some excitement there too.

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Speaker 1: The final thing for me, you could probably have a

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Speaker 1: laundry list of this answer, but what was the hardest

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Speaker 1: part of this twenty twenty season for you personally? I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's it's a short answer, but obviously you know, the

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Speaker 1: losses are hard. I mean, that's you know, as far

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Speaker 1: as the COVID protocols, every every team had the same

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Speaker 1: same issues, So that that's that's that is what it is.

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Speaker 1: But UM, you know you put as much work as

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Speaker 1: you do into this. Um you know, you work with

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Speaker 1: the staff on a day to day basis. You see

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Speaker 1: the players really sell out. UM, we don't. When you

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Speaker 1: don't get the results that you want, it's hard, and

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Speaker 1: as a general manager, you feel responsible for not making

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Speaker 1: sure everybody's in the exact position to have their best success. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know that's that's hard. Um. We're all in this

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Speaker 1: to win. We're not just in this just to participate

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Speaker 1: in playing this league. And we're in this to win.

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Speaker 1: That's what we're paid for, is to win games, get

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Speaker 1: in the playoffs and win a championships. So, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: to not to have those goals and not achieve them,

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Speaker 1: that's you know, that's the hardest part about the job. Now,

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Speaker 1: once the season's over, it does turn back to hey,

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Speaker 1: look let's keep building this thing. We can do this.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of positives here. We know there's some

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Speaker 1: holes we got to fix some pill um, but there's

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Speaker 1: a good baser, there's a foundation that's been built. There's

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Speaker 1: some good football players that are here, and we're gonna

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Speaker 1: get back after it. And then lastly, Tom, you talk

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Speaker 1: about that foundation, you talk about the excitement of building

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Speaker 1: this team, but what else really excites you about twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty one That we get a chance to start from scratch. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's that's what excites me is we get a chance

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Speaker 1: to start from scratch and everybody will be be you know,

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Speaker 1: zero and zero and we start off so Um, like

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Speaker 1: I mentioned before, you know we've got we have nine

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Speaker 1: draft picks in this draft, we'll have a healthy cap situation. Um,

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Speaker 1: we have some players on both sides of the ball

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Speaker 1: to build around. Um. This it will be, and that

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Speaker 1: hopefully we next year in the stadium we actually have

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Speaker 1: you know, fans in the stands. People get a chance

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Speaker 1: to come by and see so far and see what

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Speaker 1: an awesome place it is, and have fans at training camp.

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Speaker 1: Um get back to normal. Um. That's that's just something

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Speaker 1: that you know from a fan experience, you just you

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Speaker 1: just missed, you missed that that that touch of seeing

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Speaker 1: you know, being a training camp up against the fence,

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Speaker 1: you know, ten feet from from Derwin James Washington practice

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Speaker 1: that you know, having kids out there for that and

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Speaker 1: having people come to home games and you know, the

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Speaker 1: whole thing. That's that's you know, football is an entertainment business.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to entertainment. He can't really get face to

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Speaker 1: face with anybody, so I'm hopefully we're back to normal

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Speaker 1: by then. Um, we want to play an exciting brand

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Speaker 1: of football. I think we have a quarterback that can

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Speaker 1: deliver that. I think we have some defensive players that

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Speaker 1: can deliver that. Um, and want to entertain and win that.

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Speaker 1: That's that's the goal. Well, Tom, thank you enough for

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Speaker 1: your time. Usually we'd be doing this in person. We

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Speaker 1: were talking before the pod. We haven't even done this

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Speaker 1: on zoom. It's just been such a strange year. But uh,

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Speaker 1: we're pumped for twenty twenty one. It's one of those

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Speaker 1: things where the last game was on Sunday. But I

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Speaker 1: think everybody can't wait to see what happens this upcoming season.

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Speaker 1: So I'm excited for the future and really appreciate your

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Speaker 1: time anytime. Thanks for having me on. Thanks Tomm.