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Are The New Orleans Saints Set At Edge Rusher For 2026? · AFR Saints

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  Speaker 1: After further review with a Matt Moscona presented by Don
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  Speaker 1: Juan cigar Bar. All right, we roll along here Friday
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  Speaker 1: edition of Afar presented by Don Juan cigar Bar Musso
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  Speaker 1: in for Muscona. The New Orleans Saints have wrapped up
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  Speaker 1: O t A's here in twenty twenty six. They will
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  Speaker 1: hit the field again next week, starting on Tuesday for
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  Speaker 1: mandatory mini camp. One thing that's interesting, I guess when
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  Speaker 1: you when you look at this, and I came across
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  Speaker 1: an article today over at Yahoo asking about the Saints
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  Speaker 1: a day at edge and pass rusher.
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  Speaker 2: And if it was enough.
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  Speaker 1: While all the focus has really been on what the
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  Speaker 1: Saints brought in offensively to help Tyler Shuck, while all
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  Speaker 1: the focus has been on Jonas Sankers moved to Star.
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  Speaker 1: That's been a big talking point here, the strength of
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  Speaker 1: your cornerback room, which I mean, look, the Saints said
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  Speaker 1: it themselves. They went into the draft hoping to land
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  Speaker 1: a quarterback. It just didn't fall that way for them.
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  Speaker 1: Edge rusher maybe has kind of flown under the radar,
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  Speaker 1: and pass rush kind of has flown under the radar.
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  Speaker 1: All of that works in tandem, right, Well, your cornerbacks
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  Speaker 1: are what they are. You don't feel like that's the
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  Speaker 1: strength of your defense. But a good pass rush, can
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  Speaker 1: I see help that disrupt the quarterback, make him release
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  Speaker 1: the ball earlier. All of those types of things helps
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  Speaker 1: your defense on the back end. And the question that
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  Speaker 1: this article over Yahoo posed is were they additions enough?
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  Speaker 1: Because when you look at this depth wise, you can
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  Speaker 1: argue that the Saints are pretty thin on the edge
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  Speaker 1: and pass rushing positions. I mean, if you just if
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  Speaker 1: you just look at edge with the Saints, you know
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  Speaker 1: you have Chase Young, Carl Granderson that that's gonna be
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  Speaker 1: the top of your edge room right there, Chris romp
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  Speaker 1: jury still out on Cam jard on Cam Jordan, you
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  Speaker 1: can see that all right, numbers are a little thin there.
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  Speaker 1: So what did you add? Well, you added Tyree Wilson
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  Speaker 1: and edge. You added Anthony Jennings out there linebacker. But
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  Speaker 1: when I look at this for the Saints, you're already
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  Speaker 1: starting at a good spot pass rush wise. You had
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  Speaker 1: forty five sacks a season ago in twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 1: you're returning twenty eight of those. Of the forty five sacks,
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  Speaker 1: twelve and a half came from positions other than edge rusher.
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  Speaker 2: You have a good foundation there.
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  Speaker 1: Now you add Anthroty Jennings, you add in Tyree Wilson,
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  Speaker 1: and the guy that you're not talking about that you
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  Speaker 1: added in is also Kaden Ellis.
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  Speaker 2: Let's start with Chase Young. So Chase Young a.
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  Speaker 1: Year ago had ten sacks, he only played in twelve games.
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  Speaker 1: Your pass rush really went as Chase Young went with
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  Speaker 1: his health a year ago. Remember he missed the first
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  Speaker 1: five games of the season, but once he got back,
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  Speaker 1: that's when the passers really took off, because you ended
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  Speaker 1: up with two double digit sack guys with Young and
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  Speaker 1: Cam Jordan and Carl Granderson played a great compliment to
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  Speaker 1: them and ended up with six of his own. But
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  Speaker 1: you're looking at Chase Young, twelve games, ten sacks, you
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  Speaker 1: get seventeen games out of him, that's going to take
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  Speaker 1: to the next level.
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  Speaker 2: You would expect.
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  Speaker 1: Fourteen, fifteen maybe sacks from Chase Young, provided he's healthy
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  Speaker 1: and gives you seventeen games.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's a fair expectation, maybe even more than that.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Carl Granderson's a good compliment, all right, That's
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  Speaker 1: a really good foundation. Then you add in again the
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  Speaker 1: twelve and a half sack from other positions outside of
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  Speaker 1: outside of defensive end. And by the way, you return
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  Speaker 1: ten and a half of those, the only ones you lose,
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  Speaker 1: or excuse me, you return ten. The only ones you
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  Speaker 1: lose are the two from Alonte Taylor and the half
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  Speaker 1: sack that Tomorrio Davis had.
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  Speaker 2: And then we get into your additions.
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  Speaker 1: Tyree Wilson, former seventh overall pick, brings twelve career sacks
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  Speaker 1: in three seasons.
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  Speaker 2: His season highest four and a half.
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  Speaker 1: That's not that's not what you would expect from a
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  Speaker 1: seventh round ascuse me, a seventh overall pick, but you
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  Speaker 1: know the ability is in there. Let's say he matches
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  Speaker 1: his career high and gives you four and a half.
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  Speaker 1: That's a really good number. That's going to help you.
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  Speaker 1: On the back end. You go to Anthony Jennings and
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  Speaker 1: his strength has been run defense. Like we talked about
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  Speaker 1: that from the moment he was signed, but after he
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  Speaker 1: signed and he met with the media, this was back
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  Speaker 1: in May, he talked about how he feels his ability
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  Speaker 1: to get to the quarterback impact the passer is an
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  Speaker 1: underrated part of his game.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, obviously I haven't went for ten plus
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  Speaker 3: sacks yet. But you know, I afect the quarterback in
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  Speaker 3: many ways, you know, batty balls, you know, just being
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  Speaker 3: around him. You know, it's it's always been this narrative
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  Speaker 3: where you know, I can't I couldn't get to the
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  Speaker 3: quarterback or all this and this and that, and you
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  Speaker 3: watch the game. I'm constantly affecting the quarterback, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I feel like and you know, I just you know,
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  Speaker 3: trying to do what I could, whatever I can, whatever
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  Speaker 3: situation I'm in to help the team win. And whether
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  Speaker 3: that's getting out to the quarterback, stopping the run and
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  Speaker 3: or whatever. You know, that's all I'm trying to do
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  Speaker 3: is win the game.
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  Speaker 2: He has a point there. I want to come back
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  Speaker 2: to it.
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  Speaker 1: But he heard him say, hedn't gone for ten double
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  Speaker 1: digit sacks in a season Anfrety Jennings brings in seven
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  Speaker 1: and a half sacks in his career, his season highest
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  Speaker 1: two and a half. But he mentioned impacting the game
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  Speaker 1: in the other ways, And you know what, He's got
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  Speaker 1: a point there. In the last two seasons hit the
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  Speaker 1: quarterback sixteen times, twenty five times for his career, double
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  Speaker 1: digit QB hurries, double digit QB knockdowns. He is getting
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  Speaker 1: to the passer. He talked about batting the ball down.
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  Speaker 1: You don't always have to make the sack for it
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  Speaker 1: to count.
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  Speaker 2: I like what he can bring.
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  Speaker 1: And then, as we said, Kayden Ellis is the guy
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  Speaker 1: that no one's really talking about really in this role.
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  Speaker 1: Kayden Ellis brings twenty and a half career sacks back
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  Speaker 1: to New Orleans. His season high of seven came at
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans. We talked about this with Ross Jackson a
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  Speaker 1: few weeks ago when I was filling in for Matt
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  Speaker 1: This is a real possibility that you see in third
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  Speaker 1: down packages. You can have Granerson Young on the field
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  Speaker 1: and then bring in Danny Stutzman putting Mike, have Pete
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  Speaker 1: Warren play outside, and bring Caden Ellis closer to the
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  Speaker 1: line of scrimmage and let him go impact the passer.
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  Speaker 1: There are ways that Brandon Staley can maneuver this. I
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  Speaker 1: look at this, I say, have the Saints done enough
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  Speaker 1: to address pass rusher? I say yes. And then the
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  Speaker 1: wild card is what happens with Cam Jordan. Because we
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  Speaker 1: already know that Cam Jordan at the age he is
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  Speaker 1: on a limited snap count that he played a year ago.
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  Speaker 2: In Brandon Staley's.
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  Speaker 1: Defense being moved back out on the edge can deliver.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not telling you if Cam Jordan ends up going
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  Speaker 1: back to the Saints for twenty twenty sixths that he's
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  Speaker 1: gonna have ten and a half sacks. Again, I think
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  Speaker 1: that's probably unlikely. But could Cam Jordan go out there
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  Speaker 1: have six seven eight sacks? I think that's certainly possible,
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  Speaker 1: and that adds another dimension, especially with the way you
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  Speaker 1: could potentially move Caden Ellis around.
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  Speaker 2: On this defense. In third down packages.
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  Speaker 1: You saw some great pass rush straits from Isaiah Stallbird
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  Speaker 1: a year ago. He's back Jonas Sanker filling the Alante
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  Speaker 1: Taylor role. How does he affect the passer in rush standpoint?
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  Speaker 1: From a rush standpoint, I think they've done enough there.
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  Speaker 1: I think the Saints are actually have actually set themselves up,
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  Speaker 1: given the positional versatility of a couple of guys that
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  Speaker 1: they did bring in who we've mentioned here, to have
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  Speaker 1: a really formidable pass rush in twenty twenty six and
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  Speaker 1: they're going to need it. You got better stopping the
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  Speaker 1: run with an addition of Anthony Jennings. You've got Godshaw
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  Speaker 1: back for another year. Just run stuffer. Now it looks
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  Speaker 1: like you've shorn up the pass rush and you need
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  Speaker 1: that given the condition that your secondary is in. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: they add one more piece to the secondary. But if
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  Speaker 1: we're trying to answer the question and have the Saints
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  Speaker 1: done enough with their pass rush, my answer is yes,
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  Speaker 1: and I think it could be a fun season watching
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  Speaker 1: the Black and Gold get to the quarterback with all
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  Speaker 1: the different things that they can do now on that side.
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  Speaker 2: Of the ball. Okay, we're gonna grab a break.
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