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Cooper Kupp: "All Three Phases Showed Growth" · Seahawks Press Pass

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  Speaker 1: You've been on teams that have traded players away and
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: added players obviously in the season. What effect does that
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: have on a locker room, especially if it's like adding
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  Speaker 1: a big talent?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's.
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  Speaker 3: Great.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it can definitely energize things. Also, I think
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  Speaker 2: there's maybe something that you don't expect, but it makes
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  Speaker 2: you have to overcommunicate. you're trying to bring someone along
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  Speaker 2: and so it creates this you know this urgency to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that everyone knows what they're doing because there's
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  Speaker 2: someone that's um going to be learning our stuff uh
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  Speaker 2: on a shortened timeline and so um that's an added
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  Speaker 2: bonus to it is just it forces you to communicate
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  Speaker 2: um at a higher level and um i mean you
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  Speaker 2: get someone like quinn i mean he's uh i've been
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  Speaker 2: watching him um you know just brawl in the interior
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  Speaker 2: line for years now um So it's really cool being
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  Speaker 2: able to, you know, team up with him and see
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  Speaker 2: him live and in person on the good side.
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  Speaker 1: What have you already.
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  Speaker 3: Learned from him in the conversations or watching him up
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  Speaker 3: close at walkthrough and meeting?
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  Speaker 2: From him or about him?
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  Speaker 3: About the way he sees the game.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think there's some conversations he's having. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: obviously he's played a lot of football. And so there's
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  Speaker 2: an understanding in terms of what we're trying to get done,
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  Speaker 2: which is great to have when you have someone who's
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  Speaker 2: trying to learn this exactly what we do, like I said,
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  Speaker 2: on short notice, but having a familiarity with just the
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  Speaker 2: combinations of the blocks, how we're trying to do things.
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  Speaker 2: He's seen a lot of football, and so he has
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  Speaker 2: that innate understanding on what the end goal of a
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  Speaker 2: play is, and that obviously goes a long way.
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  Speaker 3: Mike talked about the two hats that he wears and
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  Speaker 3: how he's got a responsibility to the guys in the
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  Speaker 3: locker room, for example, telling A.B. that he's not going
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  Speaker 3: to start at right guard. How have you seen Mike
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  Speaker 3: approach those through, not around, personnel conversations?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, by going through and not around them,
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  Speaker 2: you know, just being direct, being honest. And, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the fact of the matter is, however it ends up
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  Speaker 2: shaking out for Monday, however it ends up shaking out,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to have the best six men coming off
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  Speaker 2: the bench. And so, you know, it is a champagne problem.
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  Speaker 2: It's a great problem to have, and it's tough. And
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  Speaker 2: everyone wants to be out there on the field and playing.
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  Speaker 2: But the belief in all those guys to step in
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  Speaker 2: and play. I mean, you got guys that stepped in
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  Speaker 2: last week and played and did an unbelievable job. And so,
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  Speaker 2: you know, whatever it's going to be, whoever it is
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  Speaker 2: that's going to be up, you know, it's that 12
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  Speaker 2: is one mindset when you break the huddle. You believe
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  Speaker 2: in the guy next to you. And, yeah, but Mike's
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  Speaker 2: done an unbelievable job. I mean, what you're looking for
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  Speaker 2: is honesty. I just want anyone who just wants to
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  Speaker 2: be told the truth. And you can handle it. what
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  Speaker 2: the truth is. It's harder to handle someone that's skirting
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  Speaker 2: around it.
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  Speaker 4: How much of what you guys talked about in the
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  Speaker 4: mini-buy week showed up in this game.
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  Speaker 5: On the field?
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  Speaker 2: I think there was a ton of stuff. I think
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  Speaker 2: all three phases showed growth coming out of that little mini-buy.
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  Speaker 2: There's this place where you create growth. There's all this
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  Speaker 2: direction change that happens wherever the details of the Adjustments
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  Speaker 2: that are made but there's also this expectation now.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's that's the energy and now you have to
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  Speaker 2: fill that space right with the energy to maintain that
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  Speaker 2: that Intention and so, you know, there's a there's no
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  Speaker 2: resting on anyone's laurels. I mean, this is about moving
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  Speaker 2: forward continuously and You know chasing edges as it continues
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  Speaker 2: the journey continues and you know guys are taking that
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  Speaker 2: mindset What.
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  Speaker 4: Does it do after a few weeks where maybe what
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  Speaker 4: you guys were planning didn't show up in the game
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  Speaker 4: to then have a game where what you wanted to
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  Speaker 4: see actually does?
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  Speaker 2: We talk about it all the time. I know Mike
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  Speaker 2: has said it. It's about us. It's about how we play.
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  Speaker 2: It's about how we operate. We always wanted that to
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  Speaker 2: show up. It's like, how does the Seahawks football show
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  Speaker 2: up on game day? To have that, to have Like
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  Speaker 2: I said last week, there's been glimpses of that throughout
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  Speaker 2: this year, but to consistently show it, to be able
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  Speaker 2: to show it complementary to each other. We don't have offense, defense,
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  Speaker 2: and special teams all making plays off of each other
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  Speaker 2: and stringing together plays, and that's what we've been looking for,
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  Speaker 2: and we were able to do that last week, and
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  Speaker 2: that's the expectation is to continue to grow off of that.
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  Speaker 2: It's a great foundation that's been built, but it's also
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of growth that has to continue to
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  Speaker 2: be built upon that.
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  Speaker 1: I know you haven't had to do it, but what
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  Speaker 1: do you think is the biggest challenge of switching teams
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  Speaker 1: right in the middle of a season?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think there's so much that goes into it.
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  Speaker 2: You know, everyone looks at, you know, well, you have
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  Speaker 2: to learn the stuff, you know. But you also have
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  Speaker 2: to learn, you know, where to park your car. You've
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  Speaker 2: got to learn where to sit in the meeting room.
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  Speaker 2: You've got to learn. There's all these things. You've got
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  Speaker 2: to learn how to, like, moving, you're moving, you know,
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  Speaker 2: significant others, family out here. Where are you going to
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  Speaker 2: live at? You're trying to. There's just life that is
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  Speaker 2: happening still amongst all this stuff. And so the great
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  Speaker 2: thing is the people here do an unbelievable job trying
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  Speaker 2: to partner with you, trying to take as much off
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  Speaker 2: your plate as possible. I know guys have embraced Quinton.
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  Speaker 2: And anyone that comes in here is just, man, how
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  Speaker 2: can we help you get acquainted with how we operate
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  Speaker 2: and how we do things? And so that goes a
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  Speaker 2: long way. But it's a big challenge.
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  Speaker 5: Mike said, I think, a couple weeks ago that one
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  Speaker 5: way to maybe get the offense going was to double
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  Speaker 5: down on what you guys do best. Did you feel
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  Speaker 5: like there was kind of a narrowing of the focus
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  Speaker 5: going into the last game?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I do. I do think there was a narrowing
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  Speaker 2: of focus, a doubling down on let's take what we
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  Speaker 2: do well and let's make that stuff come to life.
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  Speaker 2: And the things that we don't do well that we
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  Speaker 2: know we want to be a part of who we are,
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  Speaker 2: let's dive into that and figure out ways to make
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  Speaker 2: that better. And that's an all hands on deck thing, right?
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  Speaker 2: That's not just, you know, players saying, okay, we just
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  Speaker 2: need to play better. It's also coaches putting us in
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  Speaker 2: great positions. And I think they've done an unbelievable job
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  Speaker 2: of that as we've just kind of grown together and
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  Speaker 2: be like, hey, as an offense, we all sit in
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  Speaker 2: this room together. How do we collectively put each other
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  Speaker 2: in the best positions? And, you know, I think one
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  Speaker 2: of the great things that happened was just the dialogue
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  Speaker 2: between up and down the chain to be able to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that everyone's on the same page, all working
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  Speaker 2: towards the same thing, putting ourselves in positions to be
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  Speaker 2: efficient offensively. Was that a narrowing down of the game plan?
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  Speaker 2: I think there's all kinds of things. I mean, I
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  Speaker 2: think it's, you know, there's allowing guys to play fast,
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  Speaker 2: I think it's a big deal. And, you know, I
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  Speaker 2: think that guys did that. And like I said, there's
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  Speaker 2: everyone in this room has a hand in that. It's
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  Speaker 2: like how much time are you spending as a player
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  Speaker 2: in your playbook? How much are you, you know, grasping
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  Speaker 2: and mastering the playbook by the time the game comes around,
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  Speaker 2: so you can just play fast. As coaches, are there
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  Speaker 2: things that you can narrow down? Are there things that
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  Speaker 2: we can cut out? Can we trim the fat on
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  Speaker 2: some stuff to allow guys to focus on things that
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  Speaker 2: are really going to be called? And that's why I
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  Speaker 2: think we collectively found a way to be able to
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  Speaker 2: shape that into a positive step forward, but certainly not
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  Speaker 2: where we're, certainly not the end goal.
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  Speaker 4: You talked about playing fast, and Sam threw the ball
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  Speaker 4: faster than he has pretty much ever. But it wasn't
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  Speaker 4: just dink and dunk and dropping the ball off to
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  Speaker 4: check downs. How do you play that quickly and still
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  Speaker 4: threaten down the field?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean, I think there's a lot that
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  Speaker 2: goes into it. You've got to have a decisive quarterback
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  Speaker 2: that's seeing the field well, understanding when he's going to
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  Speaker 2: have the time to take those shots down the field,
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  Speaker 2: also trusting his progressions and knowing that as receivers we've
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  Speaker 2: got to distribute the field well also. And that comes
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  Speaker 2: back down to that idea of mastering what we're trying
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  Speaker 2: to get done, you know? There's spaces in the front
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  Speaker 2: end of plays you might not have time to be
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  Speaker 2: creative in your route. You might need to just get
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  Speaker 2: to your spot. And if you're not there, then there's
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  Speaker 2: an opportunity for Sam to move on, for you to
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  Speaker 2: pull coverage, and for other guys on the back end
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  Speaker 2: to be creative and have time to be able to
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  Speaker 2: find the open space. And we all work in conjunction
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  Speaker 2: with that. And so it's not just Sam playing fast,
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  Speaker 2: which I thought he did an unbelievable job. That's also
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  Speaker 2: all of us, you know, really owning what we're trying
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  Speaker 2: to get done.
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  Speaker 5: What you were just talking about, like being in position
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  Speaker 5: to play fast, is that like a difficult balance, do
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  Speaker 5: you think, for coaches to strike where they probably want
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  Speaker 5: to have a lot in to give you guys solutions
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  Speaker 5: and things to get to? But, like, is that a
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  Speaker 5: tough balance to strike?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, I'm sure it is. I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I've never been an offensive coordinator, but I would imagine
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  Speaker 2: you'd want as many, you know, as many weapons in
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  Speaker 2: your tool belt as you possibly can and as many
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  Speaker 2: things to call upon that you can. But, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you have to keep your pants up, too. So I
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  Speaker 2: think it's too heavy. could be in trouble. So, sorry,
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  Speaker 2: that was probably inappropriate. But, yeah, I do think there's
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  Speaker 2: a level to that, right, of being able to find, like,
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  Speaker 2: the balance of, you know, plays that you really like
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  Speaker 2: and being able to get to those and making sure
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  Speaker 2: you get to them and they're executed at a really
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  Speaker 2: high level without having so much stuff that you, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you don't, you know, can slow you down. And I'm speculating.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. I've never been an offensive coordinator. But
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  Speaker 2: I imagine there is a balance there. Did you just
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  Speaker 2: come up with that? That just popped in there.
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  Speaker 4: That was good.
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  Speaker 1: Good analogy there.