Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS 8/2/19: Latest takeaways from Colts training camp

Episode Date: August 3, 2019

On today's episode, it's time to run through the latest notes and observations from the last two practices for the Colts up at Grand Park. Who has stood out most? Malik Hooker, Denico Autry, Marlon Mack, Devin Funchess, Rock Ya-Sin, and EJ Speed have all impressed early and often. Autry has been the most consistent defender while Ya-Sin and Speed are now taking first team reps.Also, over 40 minutes of exclusive audio with interviews from all of the following: Matt Eberflus, Nick Siranni, Darius Leonard, Frank Reich, Malik Hooker, and Rock Ya-Sin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everybody, welcome back into Locked On Colts, partly Locked On Podcast Network. Today as always, I'm your host Evan Sider. I'm back here today to talk to you guys about the last few days of training camp. I'm going to just only spend about 5 or 6 minutes here because we have actually a lot of audio to go through, a lot of exclusive content for you guys featuring Frank Reich, Matt Eberflus, Nick Sirianni, also Darius Leonard, Malik Hooker, Rakia Sin, to name a few. So we're going to have about 30 to 40 minutes of audio, probably close to 40 minutes of audio for you guys after this. So I'm going to keep it short and sweet here.

But over the last few days, we've seen an awful lot from the Colts, and it's really impressed me from a few guys especially. The defense looks really good. I really like what I've seen out of them so far. Malik Hooker is one guy I actually want to talk about for a second because he looks very much like a hostage Malik Hooker the last few days, and it's really exciting because Hooker was a guy who was advertised as a ball hawk coming out of college. He obviously proved that in his rookie year,

did it again in his sophomore year, trying to get back from his ACL injury. But he finally looks back to Ohio State Hooker. And I say that because before his ACL tear, Hooker was an Ed Reed type of player. He was a ball hawk. He was a guy who could be a center fielder and really a guy who's already gained a lot of respect in the NFL. He was barely targeted last year, but you notice right away when you're up close next to Malik Hooker, he has gained at least 15, 10, 15 pounds of muscle or at least muscle mass in the last six months. That's very noticeable in person. Also, his speed looks to be even faster. Malik Hooker is easily a player I could see taking a jump this year. I think a lot of Colts fans and a lot of Colts analysts expect the same thing

since he was one of the top picks in the first draft pick actually in the Chris Ballard era. And a steal I think where they got him at. He could really take that Pro Bowl All-Pro leap this year. And that wouldn't surprise me. He really looks the part of a guy who could be a bona fide Pro Bowl safety very soon. Ball hawk type safety. Maybe leads the NFL in interceptions in my opinion because he's a guy who's not tested much,

but if he is getting tested a lot more, which is definitely going to happen this year when you see the quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Drew Brees, Phillip Rivers, just to name a few, and Ben Rosberger as well. It just seems like there's going to be an awful lot of competition just to see Malik Hooker get tested.

I mean, last year we didn't see it enough, and I'm really curious to see what happens if Malik Hooker gets tested more often. He's one we didn't see it enough, and I'm really curious to see what happens if Malik Hooker gets tested more often. He's one of the big winners so far over the last few days, but another one I wanted to hit on as well revolves around, actually, Marlon Mack. He's looked really good as well. He's been fully participating throughout training camp,

which is a great sign for a guy who's had injury issues in the past. He's looked really explosive too. He's broke off a few good runs. He's catching the ball really well too. That's an area that I really want to see more of this year. If Marlon Mack can be more of a receiving down back, that's going to change a lot for him. I know Naeem Hines is a big weapon. Paris Campbell is going to be a big weapon.

But if Marlon Mack can be more versatile as far as being a bell cow, also catching around 30 to 40, 50, 60, maybe 60 is too much there, but 30 to 40, 50 receptions, that's going to go an awful long way for Marlon Mack to have another breakout season this year. If you look at his numbers in his first few seasons, he's well on his way to a breakout season. When you see he had over 1,000 yards in his last 10 games, and a closer 1,200 to be exact there, nine touchdowns. He's a guy, Frank Reich has talked about this endlessly through training camp. So has Ryan Kelly, who we spoke to a couple times.

We've spoken to Anthony Costanzo as well early on in training camp. So as Ryan Kelly, we spoke to a couple of times, we've spoken to Anthony Costanzo as well, early on in training camp, run the damn ball isn't a movement for the Colts. They are really buying into that in their locker room. 2,000 yards in the regular season, over 16 games,

125 yards per game. That's their goal this year. And that's, I can't remember the last time that's happened for any Colts team. So if they can actually do that, accomplish being a top five running team this year, average over 125 yards per game with Marlon Mack, Naheem Hines, Jordan Wilkins,

and Spencer Ware is healthy, who, by the way, just won the PUP list today, so he might not be around throughout the preseason and maybe through the first month or six weeks of the season. Who knows yet if he's actually out for the season. There's some misinformation out there from Ian Rappaport. I don't know if it's confirmed or not. We'll have to see on that. But Spencer Ware is going to be a big piece to the puzzle if he's healthy.

They also worked out Mike Gillisley today, Akeem Hunt from Purdue. If you're a Purdue fan out there listening to this, Akeem Hunt worked out for them today. I think the running game is going to be very crucial. As you saw with Philadelphia, actually, when they won the Super Bowl with Frank Ricks, the offensive coordinator, they were a top- rushing team and a top five passing team. If the Colts can do that, then, I mean, this offense already looks really good on paper. So if you can add in the running game,

it's going to do an awful lot to really push this thing forward, to push them up another level to an elite offense, from a very good offense to an elite offense. And that's where the Colts seem to be, if they really want to make some noise this year, really take that leap to a 12-4 type of team. It's going to rely on running the ball a lot, and running the damn ball is something that Quentin Nelson started in the locker room, and it's really taken off.

A lot of people are buying into that. Andrew Luckett, who we spoke to last week, he's really buying into it as well. He's on board with running the ball a lot. It helps open the passing game. It helps the tight ends. It's really helpful to everyone out there. If Marlon Mack is a big piece to that puzzle, he's looked very good in training camp so far, so don't be shocked by him.

Another player on the mound really quickly, as well as Danico Autry, who continues to dominate through training camp. He made Quentin Nelson look silly a couple days ago in some reps. He looks the part of a guy who's taking a lead. He looks like an elite three-tech defensive tackle. Him and Justin Houston on the left side

of the defensive line is going to be so much fun to watch. That's like the bash brother. So to say, Houston's going to be able to have so much space. Autra is never gonna be double team because of Houston. I love the possibilities there. I really think that those two together could really wreak some havoc on the, on the left side of the offensive line.

And with Russell Okung, who looks doubtful to play for the season, open for the chargers, Taylor will want to suspended for the Colts game on the second week of the season. We sort of kill McGarry who the Colts game on the second week of the season. We heard Caleb McGarry, who the Falcons right tackle, is probably out for their game as well. It's setting up really nicely for the Colts defensive line

to make a really big impact the first month of the season. And it's going to rely an awful lot on Danico Autry and Justin Houston. And Autry is the one who I think has been the best defender in camp so far. Maybe Kenny Moore is going to run for his money there. But I think Danico Autry, we're adding up all seven days so far, it's crazy to say we're already almost halfway through camp, 16 practices, seven of 16 so far. I think Autry has been the best defender and that's a really good sign because if Autry, who was a Pro Bowl alternate last year, had nine sacks, eight in a division, if he can take another step forward, then he could

be a really dominant force on the inside there. Another defensive lineman, Grover Stewart, really impressed me on Thursday. He had a lot of good sequences, and he's actually a guy who looks slimmed down too. He looks like he's lost around 10 to 15 pounds. The speed and quickness for a guy his size looks impressive. He's a guy who's going to be a three-tech run-stuffer and really be a helpful guy on the defensive line almost immediately. He was very underrated last year. He could be in line for more of an improvement this year

and getting a lot more reps with Tyquan Lewis also moving inside. Those two guys are really going to be interesting to follow along with. But another key point here I wanted to end on before we head over to our audio, which, like I mentioned, is around 40 minutes or so. So you're going to have a lot of exclusive content here coming up in the next few minutes. One more guy that I want to hit on is just Devin Funchess. You see him over the last few days. He looks the part of a guy who's a number two receiver.

He has the size. He has the speed. He actually sat out on Thursday just for maintenance reasons. The Colts are really going all in on sports science right now. A lot of guys sat out over the last few days, around 15 to 17 guys per day. But Devin Funches, when he was out there, definitely looks like he's very much in play for a spot to really improve his role overall in Indianapolis. And he could be a guy for a big body receiver at 6'4", 220, who could really do well for himself very, very quickly in the cold system with Andrew Luck, who, by the way, threw 21 touchdowns last year

to guys 6'4 and above, bunches of the tallest receiver that Andrew Luck is ever going to play with. So he's definitely a guy who you should watch out for. And one more to close one out, Rak Yassin. He's a defensive rookie that I think has done really well so far. He's had three interceptions over camp so far that leads the team, and he's impressed everyone. Matt Iroflus gushed about him, which you'll hear. You also heard about Darius Leonard gush about him a little bit. Malik Hooker really likes what

he's seen out of him. He's a guy who I think, we talked a lot about Quincy Wilson versus Rocky Hacine for that second boundary corner spot. Kenny Moore is obviously going to be the nickel period this year's number one cornerback, but I think Rocky Hussain is pretty easily winning that spot right now. If he could take that spot, he looks an awful lot like a guy who could play the part. He actually was put in an island against T.Y. Hilton on Thursday's practice in two-minute

drill. He actually was step-by-step with T.Y. That should be something you guys watch for, too. Another quick note on a rookie, E.J. Speed. He's been starting at Sam, and that's very notable because I didn't have any expectations for EJ Speed coming into the season. I thought he'd be a practice squad guy, a special teams player, but Matt Eberflus told us earlier this week that he's really popping on tape. He's already used Sir Matthew Adams as a

Sam spot. He's taken all the first team reps over the past few days of practice. So EJ Speed, Rocky Hasina are two rookies to watch for. I think they're going to be the best immediate contributors on that defense. I think Speed might be a guy who makes a lot of noise for himself in preseason. So definitely something to watch for there. It was a pleasure also to talk to guys like Jake Arthur, Kevin Bowen, George Bremer over the past few days at camp that you will hear from him an awful lot over the next six months or so on the podcast. They're going to be our weekly contributors.

So I'm looking forward to that. But I'll let you guys listen into the audio here that features an awful lot of players and all the coaches, which spans around 40 minutes. So hope you guys enjoy. We tried to go live or thud or try to do those things. And, you know, we went live there. So it was good to get our pads on guys and actually tackle guys. And I think that's important because you don't get a lot of opportunities to do that. We got an opportunity today.

Like EJ Speed was getting some reps and Sam, what has he shown you in the first week as a progressive? Just what we saw in college. You know what we saw in college was athletic speed player that likes to hit and that's exactly what we're getting. Coming from a small school, scouting department did a great job of looking at the measurables and those things are certainly high with him and he's jumping off the tape right now in terms of just hitting, speed and those things. He still has a long way to go in terms of what to do and all those things and how to do it. Once he learns

those, he'll be better. What about the linebackers in general? How have you seen the competition play out so far? Yeah, I like their effort. You know, linebackers are really playing with effort. You know, we have a taxing individual, as they know, and they have to push through that. And that's getting them ready to play the games.

And they're continuing to do that. And we have to push a little harder, still focus on the fundamentals during the individual drills and then those will transfer onto the seven on seven and team drills so i like the way they're working right now there's a good body of people there in terms of just character and men and they're working really hard he had okariki leonard and speed together what do you like about that group? Well, we're mixing and matching right now, as you guys can see. So we wouldn't pay much attention to the mix and match right now.

We've got DBs flying all over the place, linebackers at different spots. We like, with that group that was in there, the same thing we like with all of them. The speed, athleticism, and the hitting, and the functional intelligence. So they're all doing well with that, and still have to improve. Have you been impressed with the ball skills for Artichon so far? Well, I would say that some of the interceptions he's got, three of them so far, have been really concentration. He's got really good concentration. The three that he's had have been tip balls, or second, not immediate interception, but a tip ball.

You know, so you have to really focus and, you know, pay attention and concentrate, and he's done a good job with that. And that's the way a lot of them are going to come. Sure. In the regular season, right? Yep, yep. When you play various coverages, there are certain coverages where you're going to get tips and overthrows,

and you've got to be ready for the football. Matt, in today's NFL, what percentage would you say you're in your base defense versus today? It's right around 15 snaps. That's a high number for a game. In base? Yeah, yep, yep. You're right around 10 to 15 snaps somewhere in there.

Total? Total. The whole game, yep. You're usually getting what, 60 to 70 plays in a game, 65 to 75 plays. What impression have you gotten from Houston just in terms of the way he's used his power? He's got a big guy over there, he's going against an AC, but yet you can see the results of that power. What do you see? Well, the first thing I see when you just mention his name is the buy-in.

He's buying in to the effort and the mentality in which our standards are set. So that's number one. And then the power, those are the things that he brings to the table. He can level rush and come back inside and use that extreme power and lean that he has. And he's done a nice job with that during the one-on-one periods as well as the team periods, so he brings a lot of power too. What kind of camp has Autry had so far?

I mean, he seems like we get a player or two every day where he kind of announces himself. Yeah, he's our three technique. And we obviously shift guys around a little bit, move them around, but just in terms of his energy and enthusiasm and the moxie he brings to the defense, we're excited to have him in there. You were touching earlier on the mixing and matching you're doing right now. Where's the balance of wanting to find some sort of 11, 12, 13 guys

that you can kind of build chemistry? Yeah, we'll start doing that here later on in camp. We'll start to hone in at the different groups to make sure their chemistry is there. Right now we're not so concerned with that. We're more concerned with matchups and this guy covering that guy. And that's all been well thought out. We wanna make sure that we see certain players against certain players in

coverage and blocking patterns and see if they can hold up. So you'll see a lot of times you'll see a guy that might be a two or a three on a one receiver or a two receiver, and that's all by design. So is that just you and the offensive coaches figuring out their- I just play, we play defense, they got the ball. I just adjust to what they're doing. I find out who's in there and then we just adjust. It seems like Grover Stewart has been very active.

Have you seen the same thing? Yeah, Grover's done, like a lot of guys, has done a nice job in terms of changing his body. He's leaner now, he's quicker. He's bought into the system. He was here with the prior staff and a bigger body, which we really like. Cuz he's a really good nose in terms of getting off and playing that A gap. So we're excited where he is and Grover's done an outstanding job for

us in terms of his effort, really, really good, really good stuff. What you guys ask for in the nose is different than what, I guess, the stereotypical nose is, right? By getting off and getting the A gap as opposed to kind of holding up blocks, that kind of thing. Yeah, we're not standing post. We wanna get vertical, we want an athletic player that can do different things and the passing game.

So we need an athletic player. In your scheme, what is the primary differentiation, I guess, like in layman's terms for a fan, between your three tech and your nose? Cuz I mean, there are some similarity in what you just described between that and the three tech. So what would be the differentiation? Well, I mean, ultimately you'd like to get two three tech picks. Right.

Okay? So you can move guys around and you have two guys that can really rush it. That doesn't always happen. So you take those guys and you say, well, who's stronger? Who's stout in the A gap that can play physical in the A gap? Cuz he's been, a lot of times, getting a double from the center and the guard. So, and then typically the three technique a lot of times has the single on the three technique, on the guard, so three technique there.

So I would say that you wanna get two three techniques, but the guy that plays, he's running a little bit better, a little bit more stout. He's gonna play the most. Where are you at in trying to find that third down package up front? Yeah, we're just in the beginning phases of it, you know, because we have guys, you know, taking playing days off right now and guys in or out, in or out. So we're not worried about that right now.

We're just worried about the singles, rushes, and win. Okay. Thanks, Coach. All right, rushes, and win. Okay? Thanks, Coach. All right, thank you, guys. Have a good day. What do you see from Jacoby so far, how he's progressing? Yeah, I think he's done a great job so far of handling the first-team reps. I just think he continues to excel of learning our offense.

The skill's there. Marcus Brady, our quarterback coach, has done a great job with his fundamentals and technique, and really he's done a great job of diving into the playbook. You can really, you know, everybody, year two of the system, right, everybody has this firm or grasp of it, and nothing's new to anybody. And you can really see that with Jacoby, the way the plays come out of his mouth, and the way his eyes read the play, and the speed that he gets the ball out with. So I see Jacoby doing exactly what we want all our players to do, and

that's get a little bit better each day. How much does it help that he's been taking first team reps since OTAs, because of Andrew? And I assume, you know, Jacoby could end up playing significantly in the preseason as far as with him getting comfortable because he's had that extended time. Oh, yeah. I think any time a guy gets a lot of reps, I mean, that's huge for us as a team.

Obviously, yeah, we want Andrew out there. But, you know, when a guy's getting significant reps and getting the timing down with the receivers and the snap count and the cadence and the calls down with the center and the offensive line, I mean, that's invaluable. And I think Jacoby's handled it well and really has, you know, what I think he's really done

is gain the trust of everybody in the offensive huddle. They have confidence in him that, you know, he's going to get the job done when he's in there. Where's his biggest leap been as far as not only from commanding the huddle, but from a production standpoint? I think really it's just his ability to process the play, see the defense, know where the ball's supposed to go, and throw it on time and rhythm. And I've seen that so many times from him where, you know,

instead of hitch, hitch, throw, he's hitting his back foot, hitch, and throw. And so that, you know, what that does is that makes our offense line better because they don't have to protect as long. And it makes our receivers better because they can get that initial separation and then not let the guy catch up. And obviously it makes our receivers better because they can get that initial separation and then not let the guy catch up and obviously it makes our third everything everything skyrockets when when the quarterback can get the ball on time and i've really seen him uh skyrocket there as far as his development the offense has been hot the cold i know it's early in canada what's your assessment of your unit so far yeah uh you know i, I think, yeah, I think that's pretty normal that, you know,

they win some, we win some. We're trying to compete every single play. We're really in the mode of, hey, let's win each play. And I feel like, you know, I feel like the guys have, right, I see, we had a session with the wide receivers and the tight ends and the quarterbacks yesterday, a film session. Everybody else had left. We were watching one-on-ones.

And I saw this great, great jump in fundamentals and technique. I saw receivers and tight ends running routes, doing some things that we talk about constantly, and it's becoming habits to them. And the habits are good fundamentals, and they're leading to successful plays. And I see that, I just see the emphasis that it starts with Frank, how he's preached fundamentals and technique, how it's trickled down to myself and coach Fluth and then to our position coaches and the players see it and

they believe it. And I really see our development as technique going and there's gonna be plays whatever trying and camp that might not work the defense calls a good play and they're and they have and they have the right play. But if we can continue to develop fundamentally, when that's gonna take a huge jump when the game start because it's gonna turn into one on one battles and we're winning fundamentally.

When you guys haven't played well, what are the reasons? Just the opposite. I think we've slipped in fundamentals. False starts. That's more mental, just being mentally disciplined when it's hot and tired. We know during the season, and we preach this to them, when we know in the season, something's something's not gonna go right. So you gotta play the next play. And that's that lack of, we've had a couple of times

where we've had that lack of focus, you know, and it's just playing through the pain, playing through the heat, playing through the ups and downs in camp, because that's the way a season's gonna be. So I believe it's been that. And then, but we can, those are great learning moments for us, right?

We can really learn when the technique's right and go from there. But we can really learn also, we can learn both ways. And I think that's what our guys have done is, you know, take the good, take the bad, but learn from each way and then raise our level of play. And get you fired up. Yeah, yeah. So sometimes we started off slow. We started off slow and just wanted to get them going.

You know, and it's not going to, me yelling at them is not going to be, if they can't take me yelling at them, I don't know how they're going to handle when their opponent's talking to them. So I know they can handle it. And I really, you know what, yesterday I commended them for this. I was on them pretty good yesterday and they responded. The next period was so much better. We want I felt like we won the next period and they really responded and

that's what it's gonna I told him yesterday and in meetings that that's what happens in the year. There's a bad drive there's a shoot there's another bad drive. There's another bad drive. What does it take? It takes one of them to get us out of it. And yesterday, what I felt like when I really was getting after him, it was the offensive line in that first period giving us the time, giving Jacoby the time to find Chester on this deep route that he ran a beautiful route on. And Jacoby put

a great ball in there. And that's what it takes. That's what it's going to take in the year. We're trying to take these experiences that we see now and use o remember in camp when you crazy on us, we got to re got to respond. They did right. When healthy andr and special of a weapon i to make plays, whether it

in the pocket or scrambl I think, I think the best quarterbacks can improvise. Because we can call up the perfect play, they can call up the perfect defense, we could run the perfect route. But one guy, it's a great team game, there's 11 guys. One guy could lose it, and then you gotta improvise. And the odds are sometimes that happens. So it's a huge weapon, it's a huge weapon.

And you know the defense fears that, and that dictates how they play defenses, and we can kind of predict that at times. Frank's talked a lot about the run game and you guys trying to hit some big goals and that. What was the biggest thing that you guys could do better or different other than just you guys have all the same guys back who were so good down the stretch last year?

Again, I think it's fundamentals and technique of each position. The offensive line, getting the right hat placement, getting our running back. And then obviously the development of Mo Alley-Cox is huge for that success cuz he's a stud and he can really move guys along with our offensive linemen, building the depth. Because we don't want it to happen, but naturally somebody's going to miss some time, and the next guy up has to play.

So building that depth, not only saying, hey, the ones won that period, but the twos won that period too. We need the twos to win that period because who's going to step up? And then, you know, just the backs. I've seen a great deal of – I have a great deal of confidence in our backs, and Marlon Mack has looked great, and Heme Hines has looked great, Jonathan Williams, and Jordan Wilkins. They've had a great camp so far.

I know we didn't have Jordan out there today, but they've had a great camp so far. And I think Coach Rathman and Coach Strauss – Coach Rathman with the running backs and Coach Strauss and Coach Mudd and Coach Clayton Adams with the offensive line, I just feel like our fundamentals have raised the level of our play. Does an extra year in the system help the running backs of seeing the plays develop? Absolutely. You know what I mean? And we know who we are.

You know, this time last year we were trying, you know, you see, you know who you, you know what plays you want to run, You have an idea of what your game is. But in my opinion, good coaching is adapting to the players that you have and knowing what fits them well. Well, even though it's year two, our inventory is shorter. It's smaller. So we can focus on those plays and get better at those plays because we know who we are.

And it's just reps. You keep getting a rep, another rep after rep after rep. Your play is going to rise as long as you're taking advantage of that. And you've seen that by your offense. Nick, I realize you don't make the roster decisions, but at wide receiver, just generally speaking, however many spots it is, four, five, six, whatever it is, what are the determining factors when you get to four, five, six?

In your experience, obviously special teams is in there, but are you looking for roles, archetypes, that kind of thing? What do you think it is? You know what? We always just want the best player, right? And that's a given, but special teams has a huge play in it. Those guys at four, five, and six have to contribute on special teams. They have to be in Coach Bubba and Coach Frankie's office

and knowing what to do and contributing on special teams. I think very important that Coach Petullo does a great job of getting them all ready to play each position because when you're a backup, you're a backup. That means you're the slot backup, you're the outside X backup, you're the outside Z backup. You've got to be ready. You've got to really know the system and really know everybody's position cuz you could be plugged in at any spot. And then thirdly, I think is the trust of the quarterback. So it takes skill, right?

We know it takes skill. You mean we, again, we want our best player out there, but the quarterback's gotta say, the quarterback's gotta say, hey, and as Zach Pascoe was a great example of this last year, hey, I really trust on the 14. Yeah, well, we really, and the coaches have to say, hey, and Zach Paschal was a great example of this last year. Hey, I really trust throwing it to 14. And coaches have to say, well, I really trust calling a play to him as well. And, you know, I think those three things really determine who makes those last three spots. Well, one other thing.

One last question. Punches for, you know, I think Frank talked about this recently. A guy his size, he's kind of gangly and all that. But, like, is he a more precise route runner than you might think maybe looking at him, or what do you think about his route? I think he is, I think he, I think he does, it's really hard for, usually when you got a big guy, it's a guy that you say, okay, hey, he's big and long, he doesn't need a lot of separation, we're just going to put it away from the defense, and he's going to go get it because of his length and it's going to be away from the defense. What's unique about Devin is he can create

separation and he has that both and he has that, hey, I can create this length away from the defense while I, you know, keep or I can get space away from the defense and then quarterback. Not only that, the defense is in my back because I got out of my break so quick. Now you can put it wherever you want because I'm so long. So that's a very unique thing that Devin has. There's not a lot of guys that have, you know. There's not a lot of – I don't want to compare or anything like that, but there's not a lot of guys that have that, and Devin has that.

And that's a great thing for a quarterback to see. Thanks. Darius, what's your impression been of Jacoby Brissett? He's doing a lot of work. Great leader, man. He don't care who he is. I seen it in the OTAs, getting on vets. Usually if a vet mess up, anybody just walk by, but Jacoby won't let

mistake walk by, so you see a leader on the field and off the field, the way he carries, he's just a great guy on the field and off the field. Darius, are you playing faster this year? Do you feel like that or am I just making something up? I don't know. I just feel good, man. I just run around each time and just try to make every single play. What is this camp a million different?

I mean, is it so different from last year for you in terms of comfort with everything? Yeah, so last year, I mean, last year I came in, I didn't know to play, but I was one step behind cuz I was second guessing myself. And now I know exactly what to do in each situation. I know how the offense is gonna try to hit me. Now I'm seeing all formations. I know what plays are coming out of formation so I can move a whole lot faster. Yeah.

What are you seeing on EJ's speed so far? He's very, very athletic, very fast. And he's not afraid to put his face mask on. So he's picking up the defense pretty good and looking forward to see how good he can be. Is that the kind of guy you can go, hey, I've got the skill set too. Yeah, I mean, he reminds me of myself. I mean, we're both lanky, we're both tall, lanky, very fast and very athletic.

So when he's out there, I like watching the way he uses his hands, the way he comes downhill. So I definitely see a little bit of me in him. This also is defense as a group effort, but what have you seen Justin Houston's presence and what he might bring to this? Oh, man, just watching Justin Houston, man. He's a monster. Just the way he uses his hands, the way he's always winning his block

or playing two gaps and just his knowledge of the game, to know what's coming, he can tell me exactly what's coming. And talking to him off the field, to pick up things and for him to teach me a few things on pass rush, he's just a smart guy and a great leader. Can one guy make that much of a difference? Yeah, because I mean, you know, it all starts up front. So if one guy get off the block,

I mean get off the ball faster than the offensive lineman, he's in the backfield. So that just disrupt the play and he can make the play right there. Darius, you want your defensive lineman in this system to create disruption, then you watch Danico in there. What unfolds, what do you see from your vantage point when he's in there? When I watch my D-line, man, first thing we look at is takeoffs. Who get off the ball first?

It's always a competition. We always talk about it and seeing Danico get off the ball and demolish guard, center, anything. And me coming downhill and not being touched is one of the best things for a linebacker. And after I don't get touched, I come back, hey, great job, Danico, great job. So with the defensive line playing, also that just gives the linebackers enough time to run around.

I feel like defense is only the first week or whatever they're in. Well, I'm a competitor. So I'm not gonna say that the offense is winning cuz I play defense. So I'm definitely gonna say the defense won. Can you feel the speed of this defense out here? Does it feel faster than a year ago? Well, we're all moving around fast cuz it's our second year in this defense. So a lot of people know the defense.

So everybody's just running around having fun and making plays. Especially the linebacker group. You mentioned EJ Speed earlier, Bobby Okereke. Is this a really fast athletic group? Yeah, I always talk trash about the linebackers being the fastest group anyway. So we always just, I mean, you see it in individuals. We always work on our hands.

We're always working off getting off blocks. So we take what we do in individuals, bring it to the team period, and we just run every play. The number one job for a linebacker is to hit the ball every single play. And we take pride in it. The coaches hold us accountable for it. So every time that ball snapped, one of the linebackers definitely got to touch the ground.

What is it about Flores and the way he coaches that you guys have embraced it? You guys had a pretty good year last season and may have a better season this year. Man, this scheme that we run, it shows that it works if you hustle. You watch Tampa Bay, you watch the Bears back in the day. And now when Flues tell us about our hustle, first few weeks of last year, it wasn't great. So then he throws on Tampa Bay with Derrick Brooks and all them seed guys flying around Super Bowl champions.

So then you go watch the Bears with Brian Erlach and the boys. Same exact defense, everybody's flying around, there's nobody standing around, it's always seven plus to the ball, win a championship. Then you see the Colts win with the same exact defense, everybody's running around. So this system you have to buy in, you gotta sacrifice a lot in practice, cuz the practice is the hardest thing. You come out here and practice, you gotta run, run, run just to make a play.

Then in the game, everything comes easy because you got bullets flying everywhere. We always talk about the cup. Long as we keep the cup, we eliminate big plays. And long as I D-line hustle, we eliminate the big runs. What's the cup? It's the, so in the cup, we have an A-pass guy, somebody outside. You have a force player, somebody come from the inside. And then you have somebody over the top to kind of force everything inside so

there's no in and no way out. Last one here. So my couple players said the one thing that they really like about him is that it doesn't matter if your name is Darius Leonard or you're the undrafted free agent, he is gonna treat everybody. Yes, it's just I mean, but like I said about Jacoby, I mean, nobody cares. Nobody care what your name is, if you're gonna do your job or not. Who's gonna be able to risk you making a play for somebody else?

See, when we play our part, I would risk my body to go down there to clear the hallway for the next linebacker. That's what it's all about. Who's gonna risk your body for your next guy, your next brother to come make a play and that's what this defense is and that's what we play for. And the way Flues talks to you guys, he talks to you the same way he talks to- Anybody else, don't matter if I'm Lofan, he gonna show it in the team period that, hey, there's Leonard Lofan, somebody Justin Houston Lofan,

hey, you need to be better than this. So we hold each other accountable, so nobody get complacent, nobody get big heads, just know that you gotta keep working day in and day out. Okay, Olivia, you got one, go ahead. Darius, it seems like you're a morning person now. I don't know if that directly correlates with you being a new dad, but how are you balancing the maniac status and father? Well, the maniac, that's a different person.

That's when I got the pre-workout in me, I'm coming out, I'm stepping between the lines and I'm just having complete fun. That's when everything on the outside is shut off. I don't know, I don't care about anything that's on the outside. Between the white lines, I'm just competing and just trying to be the best version of me. And then as soon as I get off of it, that's when the father figure come in. I'm just a loving guy.

I'm pretty calm. I just wanna be loving to my family. Okay, thank you. Practice, a little emphasis on two minute drill today. So that was good, good work for us today at the end of practice, especially in a little bit of red zone work. So I just felt like today was a good tempo and we got better today. After a week, what have you liked?

I like the competitiveness of it. I like where we're at mentally. There's some mistakes, it's training camp. But just feel like we're that much further into our schemes and systems, the belief, the conviction in what we're doing. Knowing how to work through the adjustments that we have to make in game adjustments, we try to do everything at game speed, so feel like we're ahead of the game.

Is that play from Reese kind of the potential you guys think is still on that? Yeah, it was nice. I mean, we're doing a two minute drill in a situation where we're ready to take a field goal if we have to, but you get a one on one matchup. Reese has a great route. That kind of big playmaker is what we need. Frank, what's your concern level with Jack Doyle? He's been out for a couple days with an injury.

Not major, it's not major concern. So Jack's a pro, just have a lot of confidence. We don't wanna rush it with him. Mentally, everyone, we all know, right, Jack is. So it's just a question of physically getting him right. So I said to him the other day, hey, let's use this as a positive. It just gives him more time, more time to get his strength back, more time to recover.

He'll be ready to go. Can you share what Andrew's done the past couple days? Yeah, I mean, he's done some good work. First of all, some good rehab. And he's inside with Tom House, working some stuff with Tom House. That's been really good. So we have a chance, he puts some of that on tape, so we have a chance to look at that.

That's been really positive. And then when we do the walkthroughs in the afternoon, we have this phrase that we talk about. Hey, we're live until the snap, we're live or it's game speed until the snap. So what we mean by that is, you know, we're in the huddle and you should think you're in the Super Bowl. You got to put, we're playing in the Super Bowl today. At 340, we got a Super Bowl game.

And that's, you know, Andrew's really good at putting himself in that moment. We want the body language, the tone of his voice in the huddle. It's amazing. You know, you can, there's science behind this too, but you can fool your nervous system into thinking that this is real, right? This is real. And so that's what we want Andrew and our whole team to do. This is live reps, man. Okay. It's not physically live, but in every other way, it's live. You can get so much done there. Andrew's doing a phenomenal job. He's a full participant in the walkthrough. We give him

every, give him every rep. You know, we give him every rep because he's not getting them out here. We make up for some of that. Normally, we would split that up and we just say, Andrew, you got all of it. That's an hour. He says he treats it like practice. It is practice right now. Yeah, it is his practice. We go for an hour. At a walkthrough speed, you don't really need any breaks. When we do walkthroughs, we actually run more plays than we do out of practice. So it's not as good at being out here in practice, but in some ways it's really good, and we get a lot out of it.

Is that just another sign that says, okay, we feel very, very confident that this is not going to be something that lingers? Yeah, I mean, I don't know physically. Yeah, I mean, of course we're hoping and optimistic that that's the case. We'll just continue to take that day by day. But it's another sign to us that we feel like there's more than one way to get prepared. How many snaps would that walk-through be? So we'll go in an hour, in 60 minutes.

I mean, we can get, we'll script. Let's see, how many did we have scripted yesterday? 30, 45, and then another. And we'll get over 60 snaps. We'll get over a play a minute. So it's almost like you're playing a game. In a game, you're getting about 60 to 70 snaps. Do you know you had a full practice hour?

I don't know. I haven't even talked about it. Coach, when you start seeing guys from small schools feeling comfortable out here making plays in their first half, do you take your coach hat off for a minute and just realize how far some of these guys are going? Yeah, no, and you do. The guys that are from smaller schools, we get a sense.

We really try to get a sense of that when you get to know them. You know, in the pre-draft process, Chris and his staff do a phenomenal job of this. You know, saying, you know, the phrase, the common phrase is, hey, nothing's too big for this guy. You know, so even though he's at a small school, you just have a feel like he's not going to have a problem stepping in under the big lights. But you need that to be confirmed because some guys it does take adjustment and other guys it doesn't. So you like seeing that step. When Andrew is healthy, his ability to scramble, make plays with speed,

movement in the pocket, how rare is that? How much has that helped you out? Knowing you have a guy off script who can do some things. It's huge. I mean, you know you have to be able to extend plays. You get off, you know, everything's timing, rhythm, but we know it's not a perfect world. Andrew does a phenomenal job of, you know, keeping his eyes down the field,

knowing where everybody's at. You know, we work hard at scramble drills and other stuff like that. But then the other component is that he's just physically really gifted. He's really big, and he's really strong for the position, and he's tough to bring down. And so he's athletic, and then he's accurate physically really gifted. He's really big, and he's really strong for the position, and he's tough to bring down. And so he's athletic, and then he's accurate on the run. You get him running and throwing, and he's as accurate as there is. Frank, I don't know if you were asked about this, but I was late.

Kershawn got kind of flipped over out there. I'm not going to ask you how he's doing. It's too early, I'm sure. But where's the bar at when you want your guys to be aggressive, but there was no intent there, clearly. But when the guy's in midair, what do you do? Should you bear hug him? Should you take that hit? What do you do there?

No, it's hard. We make a really big emphasis of it, that we have to learn how to practice at game speed without having those kind of collisions. That's gonna happen every now and then. It's never acceptable, It's never okay. You properly reprimand the guilty parties. You do understand it's going to happen, but we try to not use reverse psychology, but the way I'll talk to him about it is when we can learn to do that, it tells me how smart of a player you are. If you understand

spacing and understand leverage, and you can figure that all out in a split second, that just tells me, hey, the good players don't do that very often. But every now and then you're going to have something. Frank, what has impressed you most about the approach that Deion King took to rehab, and what have you seen so far in camp? The consistency. You know, just that's what it takes to rehab from something like that. Receivers and Deion came in last year, made a bunch of big splash plays. And I think the adversity that he's had to go through can hopefully teach him the consistency that he's had to display in his rehab to get back to here. You carry that out onto the field as a wide receiver.

That's the way you need to approach playing wide receiver. It's not just about making a big play. It's about showing up on every play, just like when you're rehabbing. You can't skip any steps, and so hopefully this will be a big positive for him. Frank, when you think about your relationship with Paul, how big of a deal is it when you have your Pro Bowl wide receiver, even grabs like that? I mean, you can see it out there. Every time TY made a couple big plays today, every time he makes a big play,

the whole team gets energized. I think even the defense obviously trying to stop him. We know he's one of our key leaders. He's such a humble guy, such a team first guy, that when TY makes big plays, it brings an energy level. And he just, he's unbelievable. I mean, he made two catches today. The one, I'm standing right behind the quarterback.

The ball's thrown, it's a deep over route. And I've seen a million of these. The ball comes out of his hand, and in my brain I'm saying, yeah, there's no way TY's getting that. I mean, literally, I'm saying there's no way. And next thing I know, I look up at who makes the play. So that's the value he brings. Last question here.

Frank, when you think about your relationship with Chris, what is it about the two of you that has led you guys to basically be very in sync from the get-go? I think very similar values, very similar values, very similar philosophies as far as the kind of football team that we want to build, the kind of players that it takes to build a championship program. And then, you know, just and then also very similar, like, desire to want to be the best. He was very competitive, want to keep pushing, never satisfied, just keep pushing to get better every day.

Thank you, guys. Deion, can every day. Okay, thank you guys. Deion came in. You okay? Yeah, I'm feeling great. Training camp's doing well for me, making a lot of plays. Feeling the best I've felt since I've been here. So right now I can't complain about anything, just going out there day by day, taking it play by play, doing my job.

What's it like having a training camp feeling like that? You've never had that before. For me, you don't have to think about that. For me, first is happiness, happy to be out here, happy to come out here and just be able to compete every day. You get a major injury, you're out for a long period of time. You start to be like, man, I wish I was out there with those guys. So for me to finally be out here full go every day and

it's just happiness for me. Goals this year? Are you a goals guy? I am. I mean, my goals is more team goals. I feel like teams winning then personal goals come along with it. Obviously, you see that last year we made that role, and there's defense player of the year.

That comes along with team goals. So I mean, AFC champions, playoffs, and hopefully Super Bowl champions. That's my main goal. I don't like focusing on what I want. I wanna win. That's my main thing. But you have an idea of how many interceptions you wanna grab? Mm-mm.

No? No, I'm patient. The plays come to me. I wanna do my job. They come to me, they do it, they don't. I still, I'm gonna be able to have an impact in the game some other way. Hey, Malik, when Kenny has kinda grown in that slot for you guys. In this scheme, when you guys play, what do you think is sort of the qualities you

want from that position? Cuz he fits it really well, it seems like. Why does he fit that position really well? Cuz Kenny's tough. Kenny, that position Kenny plays like extra linebacker. It's a lot of extra linebacker who can cover. So he's covering, he's a hell of a coverer. And then he's going in the box and he's making tackles that linebackers make.

Right. So you can't ask more from Kenny. He earned what he got this year. Yeah. Like I said, he's a big part of this defense. He made a lot of great plays for us last year. He's a big reason why we're so successful on defense. And the toughness goes along with it. Tackling is a big part of that, right?

Yeah. Because those guys are in space a lot and that kind of thing. You know about that, obviously, playing safety. Yeah. Just for him last set, Kenny's what, 5'10"? If that. Maybe 180 pounds on a good day. So for him to be put in that position, probably 90% of the game and

him to make them plays almost every time. Yeah. That says something about Kennedy's character and how he feels about this defense and this team and the guys he's playing. This defense, I'll say, I think this defense has been well ahead of this offense in camp so far. What is the next step for this defense? Do you feel like that?

Because last year was a very solid year. What's the next step? Last year was, like you said, was a solid year. We did our job a lot of the time. This year we want to do our job all the time. You know, go out there, run to the ball every time we're on the field. You get tired, you help somebody else. And we got a lot of guys that can fill in and be just like a starter.

To me, in the safety room, there's no starter. There's guys that go out there but we got the guys in the room can all go out there and start and get the job done like the starter. Can you guys get the number of turnovers up? That's something I know that Flucy has been talking about. Yeah, that's definitely something we're emphasizing this year. Having more, we're all putting a lot of opportunities throughout the game and be able to create turnovers. So just emphasizing causing more fumbles,

making the plays that come to you, and just capitalizing on any opportunity you get. In the league, it seems like Kari Wills is taking some reps next to you. What do you like about his game, and what have you learned about him? Kari, I mean, I've known Kari since college. I played against him, obviously, in Michigan State, Big Ten ball. So I know the type of player he was before he came in. We drafted him, I was excited.

I knew the type of player was getting the hard nose guy fits right in. To me, he's Clayton. He's Clayton 2.0, to me. He's younger Clayton comes in, he's coachable. He just does all the right things right. He compliments your skill set then pretty well given that he's playing 2.0. Yeah, I feel like, I mean, our whole safety room, I feel like we're all interchangeable.

Everybody can do what the other guy can do. Clayton, y'all probably think he can't play the post, but Clayton can play the post too, he just doesn't have to. He can't. So that's the thing, we're all comfortable being able to go out there and play with each other and being able to do what the guy that's in front of him can do as well. Is that how you can describe the secondary, just being versatile?

I mean, is that kind of a good way to sum this up? Yeah, I mean, just from top to bottom, like I said, there's not a guy, there's guys on our defense in the secondary that's playing multiple positions. Quincy Wilson, for instance, he's playing dime, nickel. We had him at safety a little bit last year, corner. So Quincy's interchangeable. Nate as well playing corner. Nickel, we needed them to play some diamond. Like I said, from top to bottom on our roster in secondary,

there's not a guy that I can't say can go out there and do what another guy can't do in the secondary. We're all interchangeable, all coachable, and all great athletes. So that's the special thing, being able to go out there and compete with these guys and knowing that if the game comes comes down to where we gotta make some type of change, that the guy's gonna get in there and they're gonna do the job at a high intensity. Selfishly, do you wish you were maybe targeted a little bit more? It seems like the responsibilities you have in the defense, obviously deep center

field and last year you weren't targeted that often. Out here you haven't been targeted that often. I mean, yeah, it'd be great to get more plays to go out there and be more productive for this team and this defense and this organization. But if I'm not getting targeted, that means I'm doing my job. The guys up front is doing their job. That's how I look at it.

I mean, I was giving a speech the other day on the sideline. I'm telling them, like, Coach, you know, you want to know what's better than me getting an exception? Me doing my job and knowing that the D line gets a stack fumble and we return the full touchdown. That's how I look at it. If I'm doing my job, then that means somebody else is gonna make a great play.

And that's all I care about is if somebody makes a play and we get the ball back to the offense and we score. You feel like with the kind of pass rush we've seen so far, the ball might come out a little quicker this year. And that gives you opportunities as well. Yeah, this year- Pretty mature throws, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, this year it's gonna be scary.

Obviously we added Justin Houston to our defense, who's a hell of a player. On top of the guys that we had last year, we had a lot of rushes last year. Just to add that type of caliber player to our defense, we're gonna be scared this year. We got a lot of guys that's filling in for those guys that's just as good. So that's even scarier to be able to rotate two sets of D linemen to come in and keep them all fresh. Yeah.

Man, it's gonna be a great year. What kinds of advice or guidance did you provide for Deion King when he was going through something similar to what you went through? I really, I mean, I was always just more so checking in with him, seeing where his head was at. But Deion's the type of guy that, you know, he's been through a lot of adversity throughout his life. And I talk to Deion all the time. He's been through a lot of adversity.

So, and I talk to him, he's smiling and stuff. Like, when I went through, I said, oh, it was horrible. But him, he's smiling. You know, he's taking it one day at a time. And obviously, y'all see how he came out here beginning of the training camp. He's catching passes like nothing happened. You would have never known he had the ACL injury. I knew how it was going to be for him, how he approached it when it first happened.

He was down maybe the first couple days. He got a surgery, came back and attacked it how he was supposed to. Now it's going to show this year. Deion Kane is going to be a household name in the NFL this year. A lot of people are going to be surprised. When you look at the quarterbacks on the show this year. Deion Kane is gonna be a household name in the NFL this year. A lot of people's gonna be surprised. When you look at the quarterbacks on the schedule this year, do you think you might get tested a little bit more? I don't know.

I mean, we're playing Falcons and the Saints. So I mean, there's a lot of teams that's throwing the ball a lot more this year. So I feel like a lot of guys are gonna get a lot of teams to make plays. And I think this is gonna be a great year for me. Sorry if I missed this, but you were talking about the lack of targets. Do you take that as a badge of honor that people aren't testing you and they're not looking your way because of your skill set? I guess you could say that.

I mean, it's more so I feel like I made the plays that came to me in the past as a rookie, or even last year, the two interceptions I had, I made the plays that came to me. That's the thing, just doing my job and knowing that the play comes to me, I'm gonna capitalize on my opportunity. How much pride have you taken in just being out here every day, spring, camp? I'm cherishing it. I was telling you, you don't know how much you can miss something until you're not doing it for a year long or you're not seeing the guys that you used to see

every day. So for me to be out there whole year and coming in and seeing these guys when they're leaving to travel or stuff like that, going to meet and see, it just makes you cherish the game a lot more. Cuz at any moment, this is a dangerous sport, your game can be cut short. So I just, like I said, I was telling them, it's the happiest I've been since I came in. Just being able to come out here and compete every day, make plays,

and look to my right and my left and see the guys like Clayton who went through a major injury as well. He's out there healthy, playing, and having fun. It's just special to me. Physically, you've never been, since you've been on this level, probably not since you reported rookie year. Not even, because you were doing that too, right? I mean, my ACL was the first actual injury of my whole life

that I went through and had to sit out that long. I came out, I played through the injury I had coming out of college. It was, like I said, the little hip and everything, but the surgery was my decision to do just so I wasn't nagging down the road. I did that, sat out them couple months, came back, and then the ACL. So that was the first major injury I had. But this time last year you were still getting back. I was still there, yeah.

I was still mentally trying to get back to knowing that my knee's not going to get hurt again and things like that. So, yeah, like I said, it's all going now. It doesn't cross your mind anymore? Mm-mm. Like I said, I got my burst back, my last little bit that I figured I needed last year, I got that back. I'm looking mentally sharp out there making the plays and being able to get to the plays that I want to, how I want to now.

So it's just going great for me. I'm blessed to just be out here competing every day. So with that in mind, you talk about how good you feel. Pierre's back, Kenny's back, Clayton's back. What is the limit for this secondary with everybody returning? The sky's the limit for us. Like I said, we got a lot of guys that's hungry. We started this defense with guys that was undrafted.

I think me and Clayton, I think Quincy was like the only ones that went first, what, three rounds or something like that. All the other guys was undrafted and guys that had to make their name. So this defense, the secondary is hungry. There's a lot of guys that's trying to make their name for their self and go out here and do whatever they can to help this team win. So the sky's the limit for us in the secondary. Malik, how much easier does Darius Leonard make your job?

Man, he makes my job a lot easier. I mean, obviously, he's up there making every tackle. You can't get a tackle. So see, I got zeroed and you know why. He got 18, you know what happened. And then just in coverage, he's so big and so long and athletic that, you know, if the quarterback puts the ball in the right position for him, he's catching 90% of the time where he's forcing overthrow.

As you see in the Giants game, it was the same exact situation. He's in coverage. He's so long. He put his arm up. He overthrew it. Game over. Threw it to me. So, it makes my job a lot easier having Darius up there. Thanks, guys, appreciate it.

Ken, seven practices, how do you feel? Good, good, just finally getting my feet wet, just trying to continue to get better every day. What is the feedback you've gotten from Phil and coaches? To continue to get better, continue to come out here and compete, understand the coverages, understand our defense and just play hard. Who's the toughest guy to match up against? We got a lot of tough receivers.

TY, I mean, he's a vet, he's fast, runs great routes, understands what we're trying to do on defense, understands how to get open. I mean, he's probably the hardest to guard. What about sitting here the opposite of a guy like Punches who has height, size, all that stuff. So you prefer to get physical or chase speedy guys? I mean, it's pros and cons for each one. I feel like you have to guard them a little bit different,

because punch is different in a season. Punch is great in his own regard, but he's just different in guarding them. About a week away until you get to play in a preseason game, is that something you're kind of looking forward to, to kind of experiencing what a game-like condition is like? Yes sir, definitely, definitely.

I mean, anytime we're going out competing against other guys other than our teammates is a great opportunity. When you talk to people back home, family back home, what is the one thing you tell them that, hey man, you'll never believe this about the NFL? What's the thing that really jumps out to you? The level of competition. And everybody says the speed of the game, speed of the game.

It's really that much faster, players are better and the ball placement by the quarterback is always on, it's on. If you're a beat, you're a beat. So you have to make sure you stay in great coverage and play with great technique if you wanna win a round. Has it been tough at all adjusting to, you can get away with a little bit more physically in college and the refs out here, they're going to flag you a little bit more. I feel like Coach JG has done a good job with coaching us to keep our hands down and not

grab up here where it's obvious there's PR or holding. We're trying to keep our hands down and play physical, because he played physical, but within the rules of the game. Have you felt that that's helped you? Because you haven't shied away from physicality. I knew that was your calling card in college and then here you've seen it early. Yes sir, definitely. I feel like I've been coached since I started playing football in high school, then at Presbyterian and at Temple.

Always play physical, to try to be dominant physically over your opponent, every snap, every play. And then Coach JG has done a good job of continuing to let me play physical, but play smarter, keep my hands down lower so I won't get those flags. Has it been jarring how much more challenging it is to match up with these guys? I feel like it has been, it's a different level. You know, from college to the NFL, guys are bigger, they're faster, they're stronger, they're just better.

So it has been a bit of a challenge, but I feel like every time I meet a challenge, I face it head on and just continue to get better. Nets will probably tell you that the game will eventually slow down for you. How long do you think it'll take for it to slow down? I'm not sure. I mean, I'm just trying to come out here and continue to get better every day. I feel like the better I am as a player, the more it will slow down. Is that what they tell you? Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. Of course, the wide receivers are probably the ones telling you, it'll slow down eventually. After I get by you a few times, it'll definitely slow down. Yeah. You having fun? Yes, it'll definitely slow down. You having fun? Yes, sir, definitely, every day. Just any time I'm coming out here to get better, that's a fun day to me.

And there's an instance on the fade route where the coach came over and barked at you, get your hands up on that next time you had your hands up. Yes, sir. It sounds like you're learning quick and you're coachable. Yeah, Coach JG's a great coach, man. He stays in my ear. He's always on me. You know, he has high expectations for me, but nobody's expectations is higher for me than they are for myself.

So I just continue to take the coaching. I understand, I trust him, and I just wanna learn from him as much as I can. That's one thing that they said about some of you guys' character, and I think it shows up in the coaching part. Cuz you're in the NFL, you're getting paid. You could have a little bit of an ego, but you seem awfully humbled and grounded. So when Coach barks at you, you listen. That's what definitely, I mean, that's what they're paid to do.

They're paid to coach us. They wouldn't be coaches if they did not know what they were doing. So I'm just trusting them and trying to continue to learn as much as I can. Days like tomorrow when you don't have a big formal practice, do you kind of look forward to those? Or do you wish like as a rookie, hey man, I just wanna keep on going, I just wanna keep on getting I imagine keep on going I think I kind of understand that you need your body to recover a little bit my head you

practice hard and compete hard every day you run to the ball you flying around run 20 miles an hour you might need that day off to recover a little bit ice