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Press Pass | Taylor: "Whoever can contribute to winning is who's going to get the opportunities." · Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: For us how at the first preseason game be just
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: let the starters kind of get the cob webs out
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and get used to the floaties.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think. I think the expectation for them is
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: to have clear communication in the huddle, substitutions in and out,
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: being really crisp with the line of scrimmage. You want
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: to see just clean operation that everybody understands the excitement.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: It's not some exotic game plan with a lot going on.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: It's core stuff that these guys know really well. So
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: we anticipate, uh them being clean with their operation execution,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: and that that's really what you want to see. You
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: want to have a good feel for just their confidence,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: get them kind of back into being in a huddle.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Something's on the line more so than practice, you know.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: So that's that's really what you're looking for from the ones.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Early on.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: He talked about really a lot.
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  Speaker 2: Do you feel like you now had a feel for
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: everything you brains and if so, does that expand what.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: You can do?
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  Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, you know, we spend a lot of time
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  Speaker 2: kind of investigating into what he done, what his skill set. Well,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: we thought his skill was now as you get him
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: on the grass with us and you know, ask him
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  Speaker 2: to do certain things and see it. Yeah, I think
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: your your opinion or your knowledge of his skill set
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: grows a little more. So it's always about trying to
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: tailor everything we do to what fits him well within
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: the scheme that matches Trevor, you know, kind of building
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: that whole plan. So I definitely think our knowledge of
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: his skill set has grown from the time we got
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  Speaker 2: him to you know, what we think we can do
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  Speaker 2: with him early on. And I think that's that's an
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  Speaker 2: ever going process and that's kind of what happened with
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: our guys last year of you know, through the middle
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: of the year we really honed in on who does
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  Speaker 2: what really well? What does Trevor ce really well? And
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: how do we build this thing together us.
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  Speaker 3: Were there exciting moments when you figured out, wow, he can.
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  Speaker 2: Do but he can do want with Calvin mean yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think just seeing it in person and
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  Speaker 2: feeling the power that he comes off the ball with
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  Speaker 2: and how much it scares people, you know, dbs from
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  Speaker 2: us standing there and rats on air twenty yards away
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  Speaker 2: from and running right at you. I can get where
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  Speaker 2: that would be a terrifying feeling if you're a desive
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  Speaker 2: back and you got to cover the deep third. So
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  Speaker 2: I think just getting to see that feel that from him,
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  Speaker 2: and then you know, the ideas are kind of flowing
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  Speaker 2: through your mind at that point of what you could
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  Speaker 2: do with this guy.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: It seems like Jacob Harris makes one pretty good catch
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: each practice. Elijah Cooks went up and made a good
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: win yesterday. You guys already have had Kendrick Bryor and
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Tim Jones kind of in the program. So is the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I would say called the bottom map, but is the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: second half of the water receiver room. It's still going
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  Speaker 1: to be really difficult, some really difficult decisions coming up
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  Speaker 1: for you guys.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: It certainly seems like it. And then you're you're hoping
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  Speaker 2: that there becomes some separation through these games when you know,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: again they don't get to see the script going on
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: in the practice field and know it, and you know,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: playing against guys that have seen him run this route
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  Speaker 2: twenty five times, you know, you get an opportunity to
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  Speaker 2: see who's really going to make plays when the bullets
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  Speaker 2: are live, if you will. So it's a it's an
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  Speaker 2: exciting group. Guys have done a great job through this
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  Speaker 2: training camp through spring and you know, now that the
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: lights are on, you get to get a chance to
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  Speaker 2: see who can carry that over to a game and
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  Speaker 2: make plays the.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Special teams plays. For example, when they were practicing the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: other day on punts inside the ten and Kender Canton
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  Speaker 1: both made I think they both had a stop on
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  Speaker 1: the one down it on one I think is that
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  Speaker 1: going to be something in their favor as far as
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  Speaker 1: that veteran presence on the special teams for them?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely?
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  Speaker 2: I mean that's again if if our roster stays healthy
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  Speaker 2: like we're hoping they do. You know, the top half
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  Speaker 2: of the roster, the receiver room at least is pretty
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  Speaker 2: set in stone, so you want to see kind of
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  Speaker 2: who can contribute on game day, who gets the jersey
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  Speaker 2: on Sundays And then a lot of times that comes
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  Speaker 2: down to you know, if our fifth receivers playing seven
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  Speaker 2: snaps on offense, well Heath could use them for twenty
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  Speaker 2: five snaps on special teams. Then that's the more valuable
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  Speaker 2: position in that role. So the guy that makes plays
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  Speaker 2: on special team is gonna have a huge impact on
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  Speaker 2: whether that person gets a jersey on Sundays or not.
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  Speaker 3: Gart who's made a lot of plays out on the
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: practice feels so far through campound important. Is it for
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  Speaker 3: him to carry that over into the preseason?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you just want to see that their anxiety doesn't
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  Speaker 2: rise just because again there's something. There's a scoreboard now
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  Speaker 2: and we're playing against a new opponent. So it's never
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  Speaker 2: going to replicate the regular season or the playoffs obviously,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: you know everything gets amped up as it goes. But
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  Speaker 2: from what we've seen from Garrett, you just want to
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  Speaker 2: see that carry over. And last year I thought he
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  Speaker 2: had a good preseason and that kind of race and
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  Speaker 2: eyebrows for us of just all right, this guy can
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  Speaker 2: continue to do it. Had a good year on the
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  Speaker 2: practice squad for us, making plays. So our expectation of
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  Speaker 2: him is that he can perform at this level. Now
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  Speaker 2: you want to go see it against the new defense,
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  Speaker 2: like I said, and just see it continue to carry
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  Speaker 2: over and continue to grow as he moves close to
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  Speaker 2: the season.
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  Speaker 3: Players talked about Trevor two about he needs to start
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  Speaker 3: past the offense needs to start fast. So if that
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  Speaker 3: first group doesn't.
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  Speaker 2: Go down and score right away, is that a concern
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  Speaker 2: or is it more about the like you said, the
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  Speaker 2: PRIs been getting at home, not having all those other insteads.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you certainly.
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  Speaker 2: Again, it's core stuff, so we expect them to know
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  Speaker 2: it well and inside out, and you're really evaluating the operation.
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  Speaker 2: You want the operation to be smooth. Now, we anticipate
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  Speaker 2: if the operation smooth with the guys we have, that
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  Speaker 2: we're able to move the football, whether that results in
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  Speaker 2: a touchdown or not. You know, obviously you're hoping it does,
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  Speaker 2: and that's the biggest part of it. But I would
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  Speaker 2: say the operation is the number one thing you're evaluating.
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  Speaker 2: You want them to have success, and we'll continue to
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  Speaker 2: kind of push them through that as we go and
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  Speaker 2: see where the game takes us. At least early on
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  Speaker 2: for those guys you've seen in any indications in practice
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  Speaker 2: that that is happening, that you get a good feel
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  Speaker 2: that they will be able to start faster and games
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  Speaker 2: travel in particular too. You know, we try to create that.
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  Speaker 2: We try to create that, but there's certain times where
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  Speaker 2: you know, there's certain days, depending on what the day
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: is in training camp that we start and it's third
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  Speaker 2: down day and we had I mean, there was a
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  Speaker 2: couple of days we started training camp early they had
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  Speaker 2: fifty four third downs throughout the day that was it.
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  Speaker 2: So it's hard as an offense to all, right, first snap,
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  Speaker 2: it's third and eight, let's go to get a day
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  Speaker 2: started like that. But then I think coach has done
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  Speaker 2: goo job of a building days where it was first
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: and second down to start a day and let's get
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  Speaker 2: the offense roll in early, and you know, we'll kind
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  Speaker 2: of bring up the huddle and talk about, hey, this
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  Speaker 2: is the start of a game, this is play one.
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  Speaker 2: Let's get going. And we've started fast from that element.
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  Speaker 2: So it's it's tougher to create than that game day environment,
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  Speaker 2: especially in a training camp environment where you're controlling every
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  Speaker 2: period and situation. But we've we've done a pretty good
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  Speaker 2: job of understanding this was an area we needed to
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  Speaker 2: focus on trying to create that best we can in
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  Speaker 2: a practice environment.
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  Speaker 1: How much did you identify the off season the need
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  Speaker 1: to improve in short yard situations and how much of
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  Speaker 1: a target was tanked during the draft process versus now
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  Speaker 1: how much you might actually be used in those opportunities.
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  Speaker 2: Now that that's something too in the preseason you want
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  Speaker 2: to evaluate and you can't. You don't know how many
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: of the situation situations are going to come up, how
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  Speaker 2: many third and ones are we going to get? Or
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  Speaker 2: fourth and one or you know, first and goal at
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  Speaker 2: the one are we going to get? In a preseason
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  Speaker 2: in setting, And that was a big part of the
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  Speaker 2: live practice we had the other day was trying to
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  Speaker 2: create these these manufactured situations where we can see the
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  Speaker 2: guys that we want to see in these situations how
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  Speaker 2: they perform. So that's a big part of it. That
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  Speaker 2: was a big part of our off season study and
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  Speaker 2: focus and developing of this offense was you know, we
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  Speaker 2: were somewhere eighteen to twenty fifth or something in the
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  Speaker 2: league in short yardage production, which is not good enough.
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  Speaker 2: And our guys understand that. Part of that, we go
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  Speaker 2: through his coaching staff, what's our philosophy, what are we
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  Speaker 2: scheming right here, what are we calling right here? Why
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  Speaker 2: are we doing it? Is it the best case scenario?
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  Speaker 2: And then looking at our personnel, how do we what
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  Speaker 2: do we run best as an offense, how do we manipulate?
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  Speaker 2: And then do we have the personnel for it? And
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  Speaker 2: that's kind of a big part of it. So targeting
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  Speaker 2: a back that brought a physical element to in addition
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  Speaker 2: to Travis and Hasty and the guys we have was
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  Speaker 2: certainly a thought process, and Tank has kind of shown
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  Speaker 2: that so far yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't want to go so far as to say
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be, you know, in a sixty forty
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  Speaker 1: seventy thirty that Tank has to earn it.
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  Speaker 2: What would you say, I mean, obviously, I'm sure situational,
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  Speaker 2: but for what he has shown so far, what has
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  Speaker 2: he earned just in general or short yarded situations in general?
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  Speaker 3: Just in general?
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  Speaker 2: I mean the biggest Yeah, we've always just kind of
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  Speaker 2: been the guy that's making players will get carries, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and that's going to start with Travis first and foremost,
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  Speaker 2: and then you'll just see a number of guys continue
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  Speaker 2: to get opportunities behind that. But it's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: times the flow of the game, the health of the
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  Speaker 2: player you ride the hot hand. That's something we've definitely
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  Speaker 2: not been opposed to at any point in time. So
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  Speaker 2: whoever can contribute to winning is who's going to get
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  Speaker 2: the opportunities is kind of the biggest way to say that.
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  Speaker 2: Whether that's fifty to fifty, sixty seventy thirty, I think
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  Speaker 2: that's really a case by case, game by game basis.
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  Speaker 3: When you look at building out the offensive line, group
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  Speaker 3: on the roster, those back end guys, like the versatility
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  Speaker 3: to play a bunch of spots is so important. How
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  Speaker 3: do you balance getting them game reps at maybe their
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  Speaker 3: primary position and some of the other spots that they're
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  Speaker 3: also trying to show their versatility at. That's certainly a
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  Speaker 3: big thing.
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  Speaker 2: You know, a guy that's been a career tackle that
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  Speaker 2: can moonline as a guard or whatever. You want to
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  Speaker 2: give them the best opportunity to make the team, and
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  Speaker 2: his best opportunity whatever that looks like, is it at tackle. Well,
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  Speaker 2: we don't want to pigeonhole that player as we get
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  Speaker 2: into it either like he's only a tackle and if
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: he doesn't make the roster at tackle, that can't make it.
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  Speaker 2: So we kind of explained to them early on. Coach
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  Speaker 2: rostro does a great job of you know, your availability
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  Speaker 2: for this team is going to hinge on you being
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  Speaker 2: able to play multiple positions. So it's to your benefit
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  Speaker 2: that you learn how to play left guard, right guard
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  Speaker 2: just as well as you do tackle. Just where you
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: are in competition with the roster spots. Now, ideally you
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: make the roster, you're they're starting right tackle for the
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: next fifteen years for the Jackson. That's kind of how
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  Speaker 2: it goes. But you got to earn those opportunities, and
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: sometimes you earn those opportunities playing out of position if
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  Speaker 2: you will uh to continue to get traction, I guess,
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  Speaker 2: so like late.
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  Speaker 3: In the game, how do you decide if you want
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: to kind of shuffle some guys around and get the
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: look at them in those spots as that makes sense.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's certainly something we spend time as an offense staff.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: We sit there and say, all right, we want to
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: see you know, Cole van Land and play guard. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: how are we going to create these opportunities? What do
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: we want to see when he does play guard? Do
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: we want to run some pin and pole schemes? Do
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: we want to you know, leaving one on one in
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: pass protection? To get an evaluation because this is really
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: the first time you playing somebody else and there's something
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: on the line. You get a real chance to evaluate
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: how they play when the lights are on, and so
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: that that's a big part of it. We try to
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: create those situations or in our mind pregame, we try
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: to create how we envision this thing going. And then
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: within the flow of the game, there's times where you know,
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: maybe you only have six available linemen, and so and
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: so has to play left tackle, so and so has
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: to play right guard, whatever that is. Just to kind
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: of get you through the game, I guess.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: And other assistant coaches, those guys that are fighting for
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: those spots. Do you guys have favorites like the guy
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: that you know you're really rooting for. You don't want
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: to admit it to anybody, but you got that guy
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: in your mind.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: I would bet you every everybody probably does in some way,
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: shape or form, but nobody would admit that. Ultimately, I
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: can promise you the entire staff, all we want to
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: do is win. We want the best guys that give
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: us the best chance to win. So you try to
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: put any of that aside. If you have a certain
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: affinity for a certain player or whatever that is, does
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  Speaker 2: he give us the best opportunity to win on Sunday?
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Because that that's our obligation, is the staff to this
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: organization is to do everything we can to put the
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: best possible winning combination of players out on the field.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: And however that works out, it's how it works out.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: But we do our best to eliminate the personal side
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: of this thing. Just to make the best business decision.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: But there's probably one and most. Do you have a
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: favorite child?
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: I don't like either one of my kids.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: No, you probably do, I would bet. My wife and
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: I have this conversation all the time. We try. I
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: won't admit it, but yes, I have one. And that's it.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: You don't ask, you don't put a name on it.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: But in each day for me, myself, my kids, my
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: opinion changes every day depending on who wakes up and
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: how they wake up. So yes,