Speaker 1: That you just finished your your second season in the NFL.
Speaker 1: There there's a theory out there that tight ends take
Speaker 1: a little bit longer to become what they they are
Speaker 1: eventually going to be there, you know, reached their peak years.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you've you still got a lot
Speaker 1: to learn in this game? Yeah? Absolutely. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: happy with the success I had so far, but you know,
Speaker 1: obviously I have to continue to take steps forward. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of room for improvement. I'm not naive enough
Speaker 1: to think that there's not. You know, I just gotta
Speaker 1: come in every some day in the offseason and attack
Speaker 1: my my program and uh, you know, continued to put
Speaker 1: a good step forward. I mentioned just two yesterday. There's
Speaker 1: only two tight ends in NFL history who have sixty
Speaker 1: catches or more in their first two seasons, and you're
Speaker 1: one of them. That kind of availability, consistency, how do
Speaker 1: you continue to build on that? Yeah, I'm just you know,
Speaker 1: continue to go through my process. I think that I've
Speaker 1: had a good process my two years here, and I
Speaker 1: think that availability is huge here in the NFL. And
Speaker 1: you know, if you can't go on the parkic field
Speaker 1: every single week and you can't play in games and
Speaker 1: it was gonna be hard for you to be successful. So, um,
Speaker 1: just continue to be healthy and follow my program. You
Speaker 1: go from working with a veteran quarterback in your rookie
Speaker 1: year and Ben, to working with the rookie quarterback and
Speaker 1: Kenny Pickett for the most part this year. How did
Speaker 1: that transition go for you? Do you feel like you
Speaker 1: and Kenny could really build on what you guys did
Speaker 1: this year? Yeah, for sure, Um, I think you know,
Speaker 1: me and Kenny had a great relationships in our beginning
Speaker 1: stages of our careers here and obviously room for improvement
Speaker 1: because obviously is gonna be big for you know, Kenny
Speaker 1: and the whole offensive scope position groups I'm getting together
Speaker 1: and Kenny has to continue to find his little nuances
Speaker 1: in the offense to uh, you know, different signals and
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff like that like Ben had.
Speaker 1: I think that was the different The biggest difference was,
Speaker 1: you know, Ben's been around for eighteen years, so we've
Speaker 1: seen everything, so you know, he could check a play
Speaker 1: at the line and and and go from there, and
Speaker 1: obviously Kenny's little hesitant to do that now. But you know,
Speaker 1: Kenny's a hell of a quarterback. And you know, he's
Speaker 1: the future of this organization and I'm excited for him
Speaker 1: to be my quarterback and be our leader. You guys
Speaker 1: really went run heavy in the second half of the season,
Speaker 1: and that meant some games where you didn't get quite
Speaker 1: as many passes. But coming into the season, you talked
Speaker 1: about how you wanted to improve you're blocking. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like you did that in some instances? Yes, I
Speaker 1: feel like I did. Um. You know, I think that
Speaker 1: there are some games where obviously, you know, going up
Speaker 1: against you know, top tier talent in the NFL that
Speaker 1: you know, obviously I struggled with that most guys struggle with.
Speaker 1: But you know, there are some games that I feel
Speaker 1: like I took steps, and there's some games that I
Speaker 1: felt like I didn't take steps. And I mean that's
Speaker 1: all part of the growth. I'm not now even think
Speaker 1: that I grew as much as I wanted to in
Speaker 1: the blocking game. But you know that for me as
Speaker 1: an individual and as a player, that's always going to
Speaker 1: be an evolution my game. See you at practice constantly,
Speaker 1: Alfredo Roberts is in your ear. What's that relationship and
Speaker 1: like with him, Yeah, yeah, it's been great. You know,
Speaker 1: He's always in my ear about, you know, doing the
Speaker 1: extra things because he's played in the NFL and knows
Speaker 1: what takes to be successful. And it's awesome to have
Speaker 1: a coach that cares much about as your success as
Speaker 1: I care about my success. And uh, he's a great
Speaker 1: coach and a great friend. What do you got to
Speaker 1: concentrate on in this offseason? Truthfully? Everything? Um, just have
Speaker 1: the same you know model that I did last year
Speaker 1: and in my off season prepp and obviously just get
Speaker 1: healthy and uh, you know, focus on you know, my
Speaker 1: upper body strength. And I'm just understanding the game more
Speaker 1: as a player who's played two years, Understanding defenses throughout
Speaker 1: the player what they're trying to do, and probably just
Speaker 1: improving that is that maybe the toughest thing for young
Speaker 1: tight ends. I mean you have to read the defense
Speaker 1: kind of on the fly as opposed to being on
Speaker 1: the outside as a receiver where I'm okay, I'm running
Speaker 1: the post, but what you're doing is depends on where
Speaker 1: the linebackers are at, where the safeties are at, those
Speaker 1: kind of things. That's everything, and it goes beyond you know,
Speaker 1: the past game obviously goes with fronts and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff and front movement and labbacker movement and
Speaker 1: different variations of blitzes and stuff, and it's challenging, but
Speaker 1: I think, like you said, it's definitely the most challenge
Speaker 1: of parts being tight end is do you have to
Speaker 1: see the whole defense move and all that. And I
Speaker 1: think the more and more you see that, I mean,
Speaker 1: our defense is unbelievable doing it. So see and camper
Speaker 1: every single you're obviously helps