Speaker 1: Good morning. Um, before we get started with questions, UH,
Speaker 1: thoughts and prayers go out to the Heckerd family. UM.
Speaker 1: I knew Tom obviously when he was here, uh as
Speaker 1: GM of the Eagles for the nine years that he
Speaker 1: spent here, and obviously had a chance to know his
Speaker 1: father as well. But UM, thoughts and prayers go out
Speaker 1: to his family at this time falls out of practice list. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's had a little upper body issue that we're just
Speaker 1: uh just monitoring day to day, just giving him some rest. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna monitor it again today and tomorrow we're gonna
Speaker 1: see where he's at the game we play. The Steelers kickoff.
Speaker 1: I believes it's seven o'clock. Um, we're gonna try to
Speaker 1: get everybody in this football game. You know, it's one
Speaker 1: of those games where we try to play everybody. Um,
Speaker 1: we're still evaluating. So it's it's great to get everybody
Speaker 1: in this game. And and uh, you know, our starters, um,
Speaker 1: offensively and defensively, the ones that are healthy and gonna play,
Speaker 1: you know, are gonna are gonna get some good work.
Speaker 1: I want to I want to make sure that they get, um,
Speaker 1: you know, a little bit of work in this game.
Speaker 1: And Uh, and then want to see all the young
Speaker 1: guys you know, perform and uh, they'll get some great
Speaker 1: opportunities related to the elbow injury from legend. Not at
Speaker 1: all kind of team or the first two weeks of
Speaker 1: camp here. Um is this team better than the one
Speaker 1: last year? It's hard to say. Um, we haven't played
Speaker 1: any games yet. Um. What I'm seeing out on the
Speaker 1: practice field though, the effort, the hard work. What I
Speaker 1: love about this team is is they can you know,
Speaker 1: we can have a scuffle, we can have a little
Speaker 1: little little you know, some words back and forth, but
Speaker 1: they come together at the end and they embrace it
Speaker 1: and and move on. And that's that's what I like
Speaker 1: to see from this team. And two weeks in, it's
Speaker 1: been hot these last couple of days and they've really
Speaker 1: embraced it. And um again, until we start playing games,
Speaker 1: it's hard to say Steelers and success. Well. Number one, no,
Speaker 1: no major injuries obviously coming out of the game healthy.
Speaker 1: Number two. Execution all three phases. Uh. Sometimes when you
Speaker 1: play a lot of guys, you know, um, things are
Speaker 1: going to happen in football games like this, but just
Speaker 1: overall execution, Um, you know, we gotta love the young
Speaker 1: guys are that are that are fighting for roster spots
Speaker 1: and and giving us depth and a lot of positions,
Speaker 1: and it'll be great for them, uh uh to to
Speaker 1: go out and perform well. And those are things that
Speaker 1: that we want to see. I don't know your contract extension,
Speaker 1: what it means to make then know the team investing you.
Speaker 1: I really wish nobody would have brought it up, but um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm definitely honored, um, you know, to be
Speaker 1: to be recognized that way. Um, listen, I feel truly
Speaker 1: bought in my heart. This is this is everything's a
Speaker 1: year to year. You know, I'm gonna coach my tail
Speaker 1: off this season and and I'm just thankful to mister
Speaker 1: Lurry and the Eagle organization for believing to me and
Speaker 1: trusting to me and and uh you know, giving me
Speaker 1: the extension and um you know, um just just excited
Speaker 1: to to go to work every single day that you
Speaker 1: and how you both have contracts that are concurrent. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think I think it's important. I think
Speaker 1: what you're seeing around the league is is GM head
Speaker 1: coach kind of in that same have the same amount
Speaker 1: of years left, you know, and and uh it really
Speaker 1: helps in sort of solidifying your your plan, not only
Speaker 1: not only current plan, but the future plan. And um,
Speaker 1: when you have the same amount of time remaining, Um,
Speaker 1: you can you you know, collaborate that way and prepare
Speaker 1: that way. Joe Douglas, you talked to him a lot too.
Speaker 1: Would you like to see him stay part of that
Speaker 1: whole thing? Yeah, Joe, Yeah, Joe. I mean, Joe has
Speaker 1: been a big part of of everything we've done these
Speaker 1: last few years, and you know, he's a big he's
Speaker 1: a big part of the process. So um yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: the more people we can keep, love to have everybody
Speaker 1: and and uh, I know, I know, with another hopefully
Speaker 1: another good season, and that'll happen. You know, I would
Speaker 1: expect it to be very similar, um, you know to
Speaker 1: this past weekend, uh, Sunday night. I mean it's exciting,
Speaker 1: it was electric, had a great show of fans out there,
Speaker 1: and I think it's gonna be that same, but you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully more people obviously uh for our first game and
Speaker 1: come out and support the team and and just kind
Speaker 1: of sort of pick up where we left off with
Speaker 1: the NFC Championship game, you know last fall on game Day?
Speaker 1: Is this a test for good change from Frank and
Speaker 1: John and as opposed to Mind as the offensive coordinator. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's that's a great question because you know, obviously
Speaker 1: used to those two guys for the last two seasons
Speaker 1: and and uh, you know, for them to take bigger roles,
Speaker 1: you know, a press obviously with the quarterbacks and and
Speaker 1: and how he's worked with them, and his involvement now
Speaker 1: on game day and um, you know Mike on the
Speaker 1: sideline still and and and being more of you know,
Speaker 1: a voice in my ear that Frank was and and
Speaker 1: uh sometimes the voice of reason, and uh, it'll be
Speaker 1: it'll be great working environment. And these are all reasons
Speaker 1: for these games obviously now with with a couple of
Speaker 1: new coaches and positions to work these things out. Get
Speaker 1: a sense of that, you get getting with the patience
Speaker 1: that you show some of young guys last year, like
Speaker 1: Shelton and starting to play off. Yeah, I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I do see that. You know, Um, these guys are
Speaker 1: working extremely hard. Uh you know, obviously Shelton's coming back
Speaker 1: and Pump's been working hard this uh this this training
Speaker 1: camp and you're just seeing the growth and these guys.
Speaker 1: You know, of course Shelton played a little bit last
Speaker 1: fall as a as a special teamer, and I just
Speaker 1: think that confidence is showing in both those players, and UM,
Speaker 1: you know, it's what it's about when you when you
Speaker 1: when you draft young players, investing time, it's gonna take
Speaker 1: a couple of years, you know, two, three, maybe four
Speaker 1: years to to really fully see their their talent and
Speaker 1: their um how they grow with the with the offense,
Speaker 1: and and um excited for these games and really uh
Speaker 1: looking for some big things out of both those players.
Speaker 1: Contact same as that he's not gonna play this week,
Speaker 1: you know what assumed means, right, UM, you know he
Speaker 1: obviously hasn't taken eleven on eleven. We're still made, you know,
Speaker 1: still watching his progress and monitoring that, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: if he's not in practice, then you know you can
Speaker 1: you can figure it out about anything different in your
Speaker 1: guys playing for him next week. UM, probably not, Probably
Speaker 1: keep keep going the way we're going. He's progressing extremely well.
Speaker 1: He's getting stronger every single day the seven on seven
Speaker 1: reps and he's getting um o our valuable reps. It's
Speaker 1: all part of the process. Very highly about the collaborative,
Speaker 1: about the collaborative nature between you, Howie and other decision
Speaker 1: makers in the organization. How would you assess your relationship
Speaker 1: with how we rose over the past couple of years.
Speaker 1: We've gotten extremely close, um, more so than a business
Speaker 1: relationship obviously. UM. You know, if you know a friend
Speaker 1: of mine, um, you know, and in this business, we
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time together coaches, players, and and
Speaker 1: and personnel staff. And so for he and I to
Speaker 1: be attached like we are, UM, we got to figure
Speaker 1: out how to get along. And and it's been a real, real,
Speaker 1: real treat for me obviously to get to know he
Speaker 1: and his family and Mindy and the kids. And I'm
Speaker 1: excited to work with him now the next next few years.
Speaker 1: And and uh, I know he's excited as well. And listen,
Speaker 1: as long as we continue to collaborate, um, you know,
Speaker 1: stay in our lanes and and and keep doing our jobs,
Speaker 1: you know, I think good things are gonna happen. In
Speaker 1: the preseason last year, you took a little different approach.
Speaker 1: The starters didn't play as many reps as that did
Speaker 1: the year before, and you sat some veteran players. Is
Speaker 1: that the plan this year as well? When did I
Speaker 1: do that? Just in the third game of snaps, probably
Speaker 1: the third game because we scrimmaged against Miami up here
Speaker 1: last year, so that took a little bit of the
Speaker 1: reps away from the starters. You know, if I can, honestly,
Speaker 1: if I can get a game full of snaps sixty
Speaker 1: five seventy plays within you know, three games or so,
Speaker 1: that's good work. You know, that's good, solid work with
Speaker 1: the starters. And and um, still got to maintain, you know,
Speaker 1: an edge obviously. Um it's it's harder though. It's harder
Speaker 1: in a preseason game because they know they're only gonna
Speaker 1: play X amount of plays and then it coming out
Speaker 1: so not a full game yet. But we gotta try
Speaker 1: to maintain that edge going into the Atlantic games. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the big emphasis last year was about week one. We're
Speaker 1: out the preseason. You kept mentioning week one, and you
Speaker 1: did the same thing to them, Are you are you
Speaker 1: doing that this year? Thinks you have to. I think
Speaker 1: you have to maintain It's part of the edge, you know.
Speaker 1: And and the thing is our week one roles pretty fast.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're playing a game on Thursday, preseason and
Speaker 1: home game opening day seven days later, so um, I
Speaker 1: gotta keep talking to him as if we're preparing this
Speaker 1: week for that game, and that's that's all part of
Speaker 1: their mindset. Obviously, Nate sun felt a preseason last year
Speaker 1: and Joe Callahan's pretty new and everything like for those
Speaker 1: guys on Thursday night, especially like how valuable will be
Speaker 1: considering I mean, I'm you know, those guys will probably
Speaker 1: get most have found all those snaps on Thursday. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's extremely valuable. You know, we saw Nate in
Speaker 1: the Dallas game at the end of the year and
Speaker 1: I thought he played well there and those are things
Speaker 1: that you hope he can carry over into the preseason
Speaker 1: this year. And you know, I've been in that role
Speaker 1: before as a backup where this is really you know,
Speaker 1: our regular season. This is where we get to play
Speaker 1: and shine and um and perform. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I encourage both those guys to embrace the opportunity for
Speaker 1: however long they're in there, um and and it really
Speaker 1: uh will go to show exactly where they are with
Speaker 1: this team. Uh, what they know is with the offense
Speaker 1: and just the whole the growth process of of just
Speaker 1: just learning everything that we're about. You didn't hit this
Speaker 1: week to do? Is that a a change in your schedule,
Speaker 1: did you he's awful little bit. Well, I was gonna
Speaker 1: go pads today, but you know, the weather has been
Speaker 1: in the nineties and it's been hot, and these guys
Speaker 1: have been extremely working, extremely hard, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we're a little over forty eight hours obviously, you know
Speaker 1: the game time. So I just wanted to pull back
Speaker 1: a little bit. These last couple of days. We had
Speaker 1: a hard, hard workout in the stadium and then uh,
Speaker 1: just just good work these last couple of days and
Speaker 1: just getting them as fresh as I can. It's pretty
Speaker 1: alive and accurate, despite the fact that off the field,
Speaker 1: what haven't you been telling him what he's been doing
Speaker 1: with him to keep his mind and body fresh. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a little bit of a challenge, um. And
Speaker 1: I say that because you know, he's only he's engaged
Speaker 1: for about seven, eight, nine, ten plays and then he
Speaker 1: doesn't hit the eleven on eleven work, you know, So
Speaker 1: for us, it's about attacking each period that he's in,
Speaker 1: whether it's the individual work or these seven on sevens,
Speaker 1: and and um, you know, just detailing the work. He
Speaker 1: has to approach it like like his game week. And
Speaker 1: and I just keep talking to him that way. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Press Taylor keeps talking to him that way,
Speaker 1: Mike grow keeps talking to him that way. We're we're
Speaker 1: not gonna let anything slide, you know, from his decision
Speaker 1: making to accuracy of throws, um, feeling the pocket, even
Speaker 1: though it's seven on seven, timing rhythm, all of that
Speaker 1: part of the game. So we just keep talking to
Speaker 1: him and putting him in those situations. Him sliding his
Speaker 1: decision making, um none, none, um he uh, he's really
Speaker 1: he's a guy that that that really challenges himself. He's
Speaker 1: hard on himself. UM. You know, seven h seven obviously
Speaker 1: is not full team REP so it's a little more
Speaker 1: controlled and and yet at the same time, I want
Speaker 1: to make sure he's one hundred percent accurate, um, one
Speaker 1: hundred percent with his decision making, and that's what he
Speaker 1: showed so far. Used the word hesitant. Listen, I've slept
Speaker 1: since then. Thanks guys,