Speaker 1: Two seconds, two seconds ahead of When I was in Detroit,
Speaker 1: guys used to have like a bunch of tweets anticipating
Speaker 1: something I would say, and then as soon as they said,
Speaker 1: they would go through as fast as they could and
Speaker 1: try to and try to tap it in so that
Speaker 1: they were first. They would like put their hands up
Speaker 1: in like victory. He was like, man, all right, I
Speaker 1: know probably the least your thoughts right now, But talk
Speaker 1: about defense. I want to ask about the well you
Speaker 1: have guys like Helodi and Michael coming in on the
Speaker 1: D line. Obviously they're talented guys. How's the whole process
Speaker 1: gone to them? Kind of just building up that chemistry
Speaker 1: with the other guys and working together. Yeah, chemistry, that's
Speaker 1: an important word with our D line because you know,
Speaker 1: everybody is a part of that. Um, it's it's the
Speaker 1: production of a group that means the most. Those guys
Speaker 1: are all unselfish players. Um, they'll all be used in
Speaker 1: in their own sort of special way. But the whole
Speaker 1: key to what we do up front is keeping troops
Speaker 1: fresh and rotating guys through. Um. Helodi did a little
Speaker 1: bit in Detroit. Um, you know Michael, I don't know
Speaker 1: he's ever really done that in his career. But those
Speaker 1: guys have bought in well, and I think, um, I
Speaker 1: think we'll get well that's that should be a strength
Speaker 1: of our team. And we need to have good production,
Speaker 1: not just from those guys, but from all our guys.
Speaker 1: It's also you know, getting those guys back. It's also
Speaker 1: nice getting a guy like Brandon Graham Brack back too,
Speaker 1: got him back on the practice field. Linacker. Plan is
Speaker 1: going to be Um. I mean that's that's certainly not
Speaker 1: as a top secret as as other things. But um,
Speaker 1: but here's the when we'll miss Nigel for this game. UM,
Speaker 1: he's not going to be replaced by one person. I'll
Speaker 1: just say that, Well, we'll try to compartmental compartmentalize some guys.
Speaker 1: Our numbers are down just a little bit. We got
Speaker 1: a new guy coming in. Um, so we'll have guys
Speaker 1: covering up a lot of different roles up there. And
Speaker 1: and UM, whole goal was not to have any drop
Speaker 1: off in production. We have confidence and those guys there
Speaker 1: were there were games last year that we had to
Speaker 1: do that also. Um, you know, Jordan missed most of
Speaker 1: the well just about all of the Washington game on
Speaker 1: Sunday night, Monday night, whatever night game that was, UM Carolina.
Speaker 1: We lost some guys, and guys stepped in and and
Speaker 1: got wins for us, and we expect the same in
Speaker 1: this game. Basic against the Tuckers, I think more than
Speaker 1: anybody else after Hicks went down last season. What is
Speaker 1: it that they do to keep you guys? Well, they're
Speaker 1: one of a few teams that actually employs a fullback. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, so they do run some two back sets UM.
Speaker 1: So you know you'll see you'll see probably probably six
Speaker 1: different personnel groups UM with us matching what they do offensively.
Speaker 1: They use two tight end packages, they use two backpackages.
Speaker 1: They have two backs where it's two halfbacks, not a fullback.
Speaker 1: They have four wide packages, UM, you know, the traditional
Speaker 1: three wide UM, extra offensive linemen, UM, substitutions. Personnel matching
Speaker 1: was a big part of the game we played the
Speaker 1: last two years against them. I would expect the same
Speaker 1: thing to to be in this game. Last year struggle
Speaker 1: little bit. Visit the new system, the new coordinator, UM,
Speaker 1: but he's back and they've added a couple more weapons.
Speaker 1: Do you expect much difference in terms of scheme or
Speaker 1: do you think that like just one off season under
Speaker 1: the belt will make them better. Well, I think that
Speaker 1: there is something too UM an off season and a
Speaker 1: full season UM, even though the system was the same
Speaker 1: with with a change in dynamic, and they had a
Speaker 1: little bit change in dynamic. I mean they swapped one
Speaker 1: one number eighteen for another of a change on their
Speaker 1: offensive line, a change at the second tight end position.
Speaker 1: But the point is like that you made is the
Speaker 1: returning group is pretty much the same. UM. I do
Speaker 1: think that every team is going to UM is going
Speaker 1: to make adjust it's in the off season additions, things
Speaker 1: like that, you know, particularly things that maybe they don't
Speaker 1: want to show in the preseason. So we have to
Speaker 1: be prepared for you know, we've we've made some adjustments
Speaker 1: in the off season. I'm sure they have. It's not
Speaker 1: just going to be you know, we did. We didn't
Speaker 1: wake up, you know, yesterday morning and dust off the
Speaker 1: exact same game plan for the playoff game. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure they haven't done I'm sure they've they haven't done
Speaker 1: that either. I don't know the best way to put it,
Speaker 1: but you were very prepared for that last playoff game.
Speaker 1: For example, I think it was Rodney and Malcolm both
Speaker 1: knew what play was coming on that last play of
Speaker 1: the game. How much more difficult is it for game
Speaker 1: planning purposes when you have a full year of tape
Speaker 1: as opposed to seeing them week one? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I think lots made it. What they did is they've
Speaker 1: recognized a formation and how offenses sort of employee that formation.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like we got
Speaker 1: a telegram that said that they were running that play.
Speaker 1: And I mean, but but they made they made an educated, um,
Speaker 1: an educated guest so to speak, based on the information
Speaker 1: that they were that they were given. Um, what was
Speaker 1: the second part to that? So, how much more difficult
Speaker 1: is it to, you know, have a full year of
Speaker 1: game team as opposed to preparing for a team we want? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I do think it is. It's it's a
Speaker 1: little different. I mean, as the season goes on, your
Speaker 1: personality is there. And even though we play preseason games, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of things that we worked
Speaker 1: on back in April and May through OTA's and minicamp
Speaker 1: that you know we haven't we haven't put on tape
Speaker 1: in a preseason game. Um. I'm sure they're the same way.
Speaker 1: So it does add a little bit of a different
Speaker 1: dynamic adjustments will be important in the game. Jim, how
Speaker 1: kind of mentioned that Stephen Means was the fifty fourth guy.
Speaker 1: You've often talked about his energy and work ethic and
Speaker 1: how it pushed everybody else. How difficult is it to
Speaker 1: replace something like that that a lot of people all
Speaker 1: think about. Yeah, I mean, we're fortunate that we're so
Speaker 1: deep at that position that, um you know that, you
Speaker 1: know that we had a hard time finding a spot
Speaker 1: for him, and you guys have alluded to it. Um,
Speaker 1: you know since really since training camp, maybe even back
Speaker 1: in mini camp talking about our depth at that position.
Speaker 1: Everybody thinks the world of Stephen. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: know what you guys feel, but in our locker room,
Speaker 1: in our building, he is as respected as any player
Speaker 1: that I've I've been around. And um, he'll have great success.
Speaker 1: He'll land on his feet and um and uh success.
Speaker 1: I just hope it's not against us. Is a difficult
Speaker 1: position to learn if you've never played it before. How
Speaker 1: have you been pretty happy with Sydney's development and learning
Speaker 1: playing inside? Um? Yeah, over the course of over the
Speaker 1: course of going back to the off season program, I
Speaker 1: think all our guys that have played in that position
Speaker 1: have all adjusted well to what they've been asked to do. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, I think that we the way we play
Speaker 1: some of our techniques. UM. It's similar to corner which
Speaker 1: has helped UM, which has helped a lot of our
Speaker 1: guys out. It's not it's not always like a little
Speaker 1: miniature linebacker, which is part of the job, but it's
Speaker 1: not one hundred percent part of the job, which is
Speaker 1: a completely different learning curve from your one of your two.
Speaker 1: We saw your team has a big jump. What do
Speaker 1: you expect a year three but improves would like to
Speaker 1: see and the biggest thing is just continue to win games. UM.
Speaker 1: That's all we judge ourselves on UM. If UM, if
Speaker 1: we win games, we're happy. If we don't, we're we're
Speaker 1: not UM. Our job is to UM keep score down.
Speaker 1: So points allout are always going to be part of
Speaker 1: that job that help us win games. And then the
Speaker 1: things that affects you know, points allout, third down stops, takeaways,
Speaker 1: red zone UM. You know those those all contribute to
Speaker 1: getting off the field and keeping the score down. And
Speaker 1: then the other part of it that we did last year,
Speaker 1: and again, you can't count on things carrying over, we
Speaker 1: had a big play component to us. We were able
Speaker 1: to score the football or put the offense in really
Speaker 1: good field positions so that they could score. That was
Speaker 1: a consistent theme. You know, those are all fundamental things
Speaker 1: that we do and or that we ask the defense
Speaker 1: to do. And if we're playing good defense, then we'll
Speaker 1: hit all those targets. Are you concerned? It all about
Speaker 1: how how your side would react to winning a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl heading into twenty and eighteen and then what have
Speaker 1: you seen? It's either kind of calm those fears or not. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that's always a consideration. I think
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that comes if you haven't experienced it before,
Speaker 1: and in my career it'd only been to the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl one other time, is how short the off season is.
Speaker 1: It comes up on you pretty quickly, and you got
Speaker 1: to get guys transit to a to a different mindset
Speaker 1: right away. I like our group that way. Our group,
Speaker 1: as m has stayed hungry, they stayed focused, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's a difficult thing to do with all the attention
Speaker 1: not just from you know, from fans around, but media
Speaker 1: attention and everything else. And you know, I'm sure you
Speaker 1: guys have seen the t shirts of embracing the target.
Speaker 1: You know, last year we were the underdogs. We were
Speaker 1: the people that people didn't think could make their way
Speaker 1: through with the injuries we had and other things. Um,
Speaker 1: this year, we're not going to We're gonna have to
Speaker 1: target on us. That that takes a little bit of
Speaker 1: different mindset. Also getting back to the year the Nickel spot,
Speaker 1: having Sydney play there, will that help him later on
Speaker 1: in his career if he does move back outside, having
Speaker 1: the extra skill set that it takes the play and set. Um,
Speaker 1: I think anytime that you have a better understanding of
Speaker 1: the defense as a whole, you know, I think that
Speaker 1: it's a good thing. Um. You know, but we'll have
Speaker 1: I mean a little bit like linebacker, Um, we'll have
Speaker 1: we'll have that job covered by multiple players. UM, it's
Speaker 1: not going to be just one person goes in and
Speaker 1: and and puts a slot hat on and he's out
Speaker 1: there all the time. UM. We expect contributions from a
Speaker 1: lot of different guys across the board UM to be
Speaker 1: able to cover that. But um, you know, you look
Speaker 1: at some players like Malcolm Jenkins, Corey Graham, Um, you
Speaker 1: know are both both are linebackers, Jordan Hicks, Nigel Bradham.
Speaker 1: They can all play multiple positions within the scheme. There's
Speaker 1: techniques involved to that, but I think the understanding of
Speaker 1: knowing not just their job, but how the entire defense works,
Speaker 1: that's what is beneficial from that. So I think that
Speaker 1: I think that if you know, anytime you're in the slot,
Speaker 1: you understand a little bit better to how to play
Speaker 1: corner and you say, contributions from a lot of different
Speaker 1: places with that Nickel is Sydney main guy, and then
Speaker 1: you'll rotate off matchups. Yeah, well a lot of different guys.
Speaker 1: I'm again, just like the linebackers, I don't want to
Speaker 1: I don't want to announce anybody that's you know, that's
Speaker 1: going out. I think that game plans and personnel things
Speaker 1: are things that are better left you know. On said,
Speaker 1: particularly at this time of the year, you know, it
Speaker 1: leads a little bit of uncertainty, but we do have
Speaker 1: multiple ways that we're going to cover it. Okrects