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Sam Darnold: "There Are A Ton Of Guys That Can Step Up" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, obviously another another big week for us. Caroline
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: is a great football team, great defense, uh, you know,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: really good scheme, really good players that make it all work.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: And you know.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: We're excited about this challenge as always, you know, headed
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: on the road to the East Coast again and you
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: know we're looking forward to it.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: I'm sure you have bigger.
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: Goals in mind, even being a pro bowler, But what
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: does it mean to.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Get that recognition in that honor?
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I've I think I've told a few
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: guys this, but it's a team award, you know, just
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  Speaker 2: to to to have that honor, and you know it
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  Speaker 2: really reflects the hard work that everyone's put in, you know,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: starting when we got here in April, So total team award.
• 0:45
  Speaker 5: Every game is a big game. That one last one
• 0:48
  Speaker 5: seemed a little more special. How did you spend the
• 0:51
  Speaker 5: last couple of days kind of savoring that game?
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it was a really good win.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Again, like I said at the end within the press conference,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: I think there's a lot to clean up, you know,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: offensively at least. So we looked at that yesterday and
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: and kind of figured out the details some stuff.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: How we can get better that way. But yeah, obviously
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: it's a great win and a great team win. Uh.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: You know, when offense wasn't necessarily playing well, the defense
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: stepped up and vice versas so, and then special teams
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: stepped up in a huge way. But as we know,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: there's a lot that we can all get better, get
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: better from in that win, and.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: You know, we'll we'll leave it at that for decompress from.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, obviously getting ready for a short week is
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: always it's tough, you know, on a lot of guys,
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  Speaker 2: especially you know, obviously mentally but also physically so so
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: to be able to get that you know, uh, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: you know, a few days off is always nice.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: Players and coaches always talk about kind of the process
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: each week and not letting the past games affect Is
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: it is it easier harder to kind of move past
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: a really emotional win or loss or kind of the
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  Speaker 4: same process of matter.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's the same process for us. We're
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: always gonna you know, getting a wins great. Obviously, you
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: you hate losing, but at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 2: you just move on to the next week.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: That's that's how it always is in this league because
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  Speaker 2: if you if you savor in that loss for too long,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we'll come back to bite you.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: And the opposite way is true when you lose.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if you get too down on a loss
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  Speaker 2: and you carry it in the next week, it can
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  Speaker 2: always affect.
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: You something past mistakes isn't easy for really anybody, but
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: you seem to be really capable of that. I'm curious
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  Speaker 5: something you always had or did someone or some experience
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  Speaker 5: help develop that for you.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's it's something I've learned through experience.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: You know, I've always you always come out on the
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  Speaker 2: other side of football games, no matter what happens. And
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  Speaker 2: you know, obviously you don't want to make mistakes, but
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  Speaker 2: you know it's a part of the game.
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  Speaker 1: Mistakes happen, and so when they do, you just you
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: move on. You understand that.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: You know, there's you know, things, things in life in
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  Speaker 2: general aren't always going to go your way. And so
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: when you get when you get an opportunity to just
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: all right, learn from the experience. Thing that sucks that
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: that happened, What coverage did they run? How did they
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: get me on that? And look at it more. You know,
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  Speaker 2: as a lesson of how can I get better? And
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  Speaker 2: I think just looking at it from that perspective and
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  Speaker 2: being able to move on makes it a little bit easier.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: You've talked a lot about what you're time in San Francisco, Mato,
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: you and all that, but what about your your Carolina, Like,
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: what is the time you were there?
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  Speaker 5: What what did you get out of that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the couple of years in Carolina were huge for me,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: you know, just first of all, I think just being
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: around really good players, being around really good guys in
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  Speaker 2: the locker room that was Those were moments that I
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: you know, remember forever. Some of those guys were, you know,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: still some of my best friends of this day. And
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: then yeah, just learning learning football. You know, I think
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: that first year learned a lot about myself, just again
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  Speaker 2: going through adversity and learning that way. And then you know,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: that second year, battled through an injury, you know, throughout
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: the first really first half of the season, and then
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: you know, came out on the other side and was
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: able to play some pretty good football towards the end
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  Speaker 2: of that season, and you know that, I feel like
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  Speaker 2: that kind of gave me momentum going into that next
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  Speaker 2: year and you know, so it's uh, you know, learned
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  Speaker 2: a lot of good football, you know, in that last
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  Speaker 2: year in Carolina especially, you have excelled.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: In late game situations, game winning drives in the fourth
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: quarter and overtime.
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: Was there a quarterback that you studied for that or
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: characteristics of certain quarterbacks that you looked at.
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  Speaker 2: I think the you know, the one that always comes
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  Speaker 2: to mind is Tom you know Tom Brady the way
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  Speaker 2: that you know, I just always admired him growing up
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  Speaker 2: watching him play, and you know, I was able to
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  Speaker 2: actually watch him play quite a bit even you know,
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  Speaker 2: still as I was in the league, you know, watching
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  Speaker 2: him kind of you know, do his thing in a
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  Speaker 2: two minute drill, Like I never felt like his his
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  Speaker 2: body language never changed whether he was in the first
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  Speaker 2: quarter of a game or the last two minutes. So
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  Speaker 2: that was something I always admired. And and uh yeah.
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  Speaker 3: The sequence at the very end of that game where
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: you get the touchdown and then you line up for
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: the two point try, they call time out, You call
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: time out? What was that? What was that a few minutes?
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  Speaker 2: Like, Yeah, I mean it's just kind of it's just
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  Speaker 2: how we you know, it's it's how you know things
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  Speaker 2: go in those situations when when you have a play
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: that's all or nothing, you both teams want to try
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: to figure out what the other teams in use all
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: their timeouts because you can look back on a moment
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  Speaker 2: like that and you know, think to yourself, especially as
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: a coach, I feel like like, dang, I should have
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  Speaker 2: maybe used that time out to see what they were in.
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  Speaker 2: So we understand as players that sometimes those situations are
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: going to take a little bit longer to get to
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: and the build up can.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Be a little bit, uh, a little bit bigger.
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  Speaker 3: Expecting them to la to call it time out.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: You know, it's not something I'm expecting, you know, it's
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: just when it happens, kind of regroup, understand kind of
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: what we're thinking as an offense. I'm not going to
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: disclose that information, but you know, it's it's definitely something
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: that you know, see what they're in and maybe rethink things.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: When you've repped that play in practice, how many times
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  Speaker 3: have you made it to Eric the tight end on
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: the backside leak is that you have you ever thrown
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: that one in practice or is.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: It just yeah, we have you know, not necessarily on
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  Speaker 2: that play, but you know, I think just going up
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: against Mike's defense all the time and training camp in
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  Speaker 2: Ota is you have to tend to get to those
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: third and fourth progressions pretty quickly.
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: What kind of guy is Eric like kind of in
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: the locker room.
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  Speaker 1: And like that. Yeah, he's a great guy. You know.
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  Speaker 2: It's someone who's he's been around the block a little bit,
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  Speaker 2: been on a few teams and just understands what this
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  Speaker 2: whole thing is all about. So it's a great guy
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  Speaker 2: to have in that locker room for you know, guys
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  Speaker 2: to look up to and just kind of not not
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  Speaker 2: as you know, necessarily a vocal leader.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: Sobby is a you know, he can be a vocal
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  Speaker 2: leader for us, but more so just kind of seeing
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  Speaker 2: you know, how he moves throughout his day and how
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  Speaker 2: he does things.
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  Speaker 1: It's always, you know, a vet presence. That's good to have.
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  Speaker 1: What does that say about the team?
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  Speaker 2: That the guy that maybe a lot of people don't
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  Speaker 2: really know who he is, but makes hi play like that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's our team. You know.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: There's a ton of guys that can step up no
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  Speaker 2: matter what the situation calls for. No matter what the
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  Speaker 2: situation is, you know, whether it's a two point play
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  Speaker 2: to win the game, or you know it's a play
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  Speaker 2: a lot you know in the Colts game where he
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: just same kind of route ends up coming open and
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: he's gonna go get nine yards for us.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: So touch base on this little bit clears his question.
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  Speaker 3: You talk about the art of.
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: Feeling the pocket and then go through your progressions. I
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: know you said Mike McDonald's defensives, but your growth and
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: how that's helped you.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's always something that I'm looking to get better at.
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  Speaker 2: And again, it's something that's really hard to simulate, you know,
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  Speaker 2: throughout an off season, because there's nothing like playing eleven
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: on eleven football.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you can simulate it.
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  Speaker 2: A little bit with certain drills that you work in
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  Speaker 2: the off season, but that's why the off season is.
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  Speaker 1: So important when you get here for OTAs and.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Training campus quarterbacks, because it's just you want to be
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  Speaker 2: able to feel that rush and get as much work
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  Speaker 2: as you can playing eleven on eleven football because there's
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  Speaker 2: nothing that simulates that.
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  Speaker 3: For a second, when you got.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: Traded, there was sort of characterized as being a fresh
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  Speaker 4: start opportunity for you. Is that a fair way to
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: describe it? Did you feel like after New York and
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: kind of you needed something like that.
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  Speaker 2: I think it was just for me the way I
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: looked at it was just another opportunity to go play
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: good football. And I didn't really think about it as
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: you know, a fresh start or anything like that. It
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: was just going to another team. And you know, to
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: be honest, it's there's too much going on in my
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: life at that time when I got traded to Carolina
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  Speaker 2: to really worry about, you know, what it was in
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  Speaker 2: my life or what time was going on. So it
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: was more so just getting there, learning the offense, meeting
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  Speaker 2: the guys, and you know, that was really it that
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  Speaker 2: was on my mind.
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  Speaker 1: And so for me, it was just another experience that
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  Speaker 1: has kind of paved the way for who I am
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and kind of what I've become.
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: Used to be that motion would help you identify man
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: versus zone free snap and then you get three corners
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: pressed up and that also usually as that being zone
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: coverage on that for pick, what's a quarterback supposed to
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: do nowadays to to kind of identify this?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's it's tough. Defenses are making it
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: really hard. But that's like as a quarterback, like I
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: love that part of the game. You know, it's to
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: be able to recognize his own coverage, which you know,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: I feel like I did a I thought I did
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  Speaker 2: a good job of recognizing it. I just thought the
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Nichol was going to stay inside on that play and
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  Speaker 2: carry that slant. So you know, he made a really
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  Speaker 2: good play on it. And you know that's just something
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  Speaker 2: that again, like I like I mentioned, I kind of
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: pride myself and in seeing that that look or those looks.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, again, like I said, he made a
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: really good play on it.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: Josh Jones first start a couple of years defense, obviously,
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: what'd you think about the job?
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Josh was amazing. He was amazing all day, just
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: you know, doing doing his job. I don't think it's
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: any any more than that. You know, he's been doing it,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: you know, in practice when we've needed it, even throughout
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: the season. You know, guys go down and he's able
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: to step in even if it's for a player too,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: and even in our goal line package. You know, throughout
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: the season, like he just does his job every single play,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: and you know we're just gonna continue to to look
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: to him to step up whenever whenever we need.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Him to even all the different ways he can get
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: open at all different levels, not nicely. Just to have Jacks,
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: who was also a Pro Bowl along with you.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Jax is awesome.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: You know, I can't can't you know, say it enough.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: He's been a really good player all year. I've known
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: how good he is, so it's uh, it's fun to
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: be able to work with him.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: Christmas week schedule is in your NFL career, as it
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: usual for a coach to take him mid week off
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: before sending in.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, some some coaches, you know, do it different. I've
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: been places where we don't. I've been places like it
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: is here. Uh So it just kind of depends on
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: the coach.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: And and you know, kind of.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: What what the group really needs, you know, and what
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: we feel like is right. I mean with the the
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Thursday night game, it really makes sense, uh to come
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: in here, move around a little bit on a short
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: you know, get going on.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: A Tuesday with you know, we've had a few days off.
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  Speaker 1: So there was a lot obviously.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: That coach Mike and his staff and you know some
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: of the guys really thought about and put together this schedule,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: and I think it's great.
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: Do you guys appreciate just that some people like that.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's huge, you know, whenever you have a
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: coach that's willing to listen to players and and you know,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: just do what's best for the team at the end
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: of the day.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Like we can all respect that.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: I can't remember if we asked you this after the game,
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: but the design of the second two point try, the
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: one that kind of wild play, is that past supposed
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: to go backwards?
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Uh yeah, it was asked, and I don't think I
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: answered it, and I think I'm gonna keep it the same.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, yeah it was. It went backwards, and I'll
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: leave it at that. Yeah, thanks guys,