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Devin Lloyd on trusting the process | O-Zone Podcast · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the ozone Podcast, presented by by Star Credit
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: with Jaguars senior writer John Osan. We're joined this week.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: I think fans are gonna enjoy this because he's obviously
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the guy who enjoys being in Jacksonville, enjoys the NFL,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and enjoys football. So um, a great interview, so I'm
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: looking forward to this. Jaguars rookie inside linebacker Devin Lloyd. Devin,
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  Speaker 1: first of all, thanks for being here, of course, and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: tell me about Week one, first time playing the NFL.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I know you've talked about it already, but what was
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  Speaker 1: that experience, like, how did you feel like you handled
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: it and not just what was your takeaway? Yeah, obviously
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the first things first you want to come out with
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  Speaker 1: the wind, but um, you know, it definitely was obviously
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: a blessing being out there. Some good, some bad, and
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  Speaker 1: some ugly um as expected with the first game. A
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: lot of things I took from it though that I'm
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: gonna end up fixing and you know I learned from um.
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  Speaker 1: But really just just you know, happy to get out
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  Speaker 1: there and um, you know, try to help my team,
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  Speaker 1: you know, win and obviously we didn't get the victory.
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  Speaker 1: But you know it's something that we're all looking forward
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: to a new opportunity this week. And it was I
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: talked to you in Atlanta when you were coming back
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  Speaker 1: with a couple other writers, and I was struck when
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  Speaker 1: you were talking about coming back from the hamstring injury. Um,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: just what a task that was. I mean, that was
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  Speaker 1: a tough time and a and a tough go to
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  Speaker 1: get back. Uh how much of an accomplishment was it
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  Speaker 1: to get back by a week one? Fee? That was
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  Speaker 1: a difficult rut. Yeah, it was a lot more difficult
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  Speaker 1: than I expected when it first happened. And it was
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  Speaker 1: really just a matter of just, um, you know, stay
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: in the course, trusting the process and ultimately, um, you
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: know that's what I did, and you know everything ended
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  Speaker 1: up working out. Um, you know how how I hoped
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: for it to work out. So you know, I was
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: glad to be out there and I felt good, I
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: felt healthy, So um, you know, just really glad that
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: it did end up working out. I should know this.
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  Speaker 1: But had you had significant injuries at Utah or not?
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  Speaker 1: Really right, No, I'd never missed a practice or again,
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  Speaker 1: I think I missed one practice in my career and
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  Speaker 1: never missed a game, never been out for um, anything,
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  Speaker 1: especially like that. So when you're told before training camp
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  Speaker 1: even starts, hey, this is gonna be a while, I'm
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: sure there's a part of you that thanks now, you know,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: when you haven't dealt with it's your whole career, And
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, why right now? But I
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: guess it's just something you deal with. Yeah, I definitely thought, um,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you know, why is this happening right now? Like, um,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: it really just trying to focus on, um, what I
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: can do right now to not worry about, well, why
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: is this happening to me? More so, just focus on
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: getting back, you know, as quick as possible. So, but
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: that did come into mind my mind. It's like, first,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: you know, training camp with my NFL career and I
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: can't be there and I actually missed the whole training camp, which, um,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: initially I'm thinking it'll be okay, I'll come back in
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  Speaker 1: a week, it'll be fine. You probably talked to Hammys
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  Speaker 1: and it won't be a big deal. Yeah, And then
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: it just was still there, kept lingering, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: it just ended up being the whole training camp. So
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  Speaker 1: one of one of the one of those things you
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: look back on, You're like, man, like that really happened.
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  Speaker 1: But um, you know, I'm glad that. Um, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I had the right mindset and was able to, you know,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: fight my way through it. You're known among teammates and
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: from talking to your coach at Utah for your work
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: ethic and in your coach at Utah talked about a
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: professional approach even in college. Where does that come from?
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  Speaker 1: What do you attribute that to? Uh? I guess when
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: did it start? When did you sort of start taking
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: football seriously like you do? I would just say maturity.
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  Speaker 1: Throughout my college career when I first came in, I've
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  Speaker 1: always worked hard. Um, you know, I can say that
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  Speaker 1: all the way back to when I first you know,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: started playing sports, and that obviously progressed throughout my years playing.
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  Speaker 1: But I would say whenever I first got to college
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: and I really saw some some of the older guys
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: and how they worked, that elevated my level of work
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  Speaker 1: even more. And then I would say right before my
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: um junior year, the first year that I was starting
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  Speaker 1: in college is when I took it up to a
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  Speaker 1: whole another level and just kept progressing more and more
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  Speaker 1: and more. And so as I look back. I say, Um,
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  Speaker 1: my second year starting is really when I started to
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  Speaker 1: handle myself like a pro outside of um, you know,
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  Speaker 1: outside the ball, like in terms of taking care of
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  Speaker 1: my body. UM, a consistent film, like just doing everything right.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, um, my senior year pretty much. UM,
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  Speaker 1: I wouldn't say perfective, but I felt really comfortable. You
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  Speaker 1: know the stories about how you worked, so it was perfected,
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  Speaker 1: but you took it to a high level. Who taught
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  Speaker 1: you the most about working My dad? My dad definitely, um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, kind of paved the way from me as
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  Speaker 1: far as you know, telling me how to handle my business, um,
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  Speaker 1: how to really he just he told me, you know,
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  Speaker 1: so many things, but um, you know one thing that
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  Speaker 1: stood out is, um, you know, basically he said, nothing's
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  Speaker 1: gonna be given, you gotta take it, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: you have to be a student of the game in
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  Speaker 1: order to do that, you know, student of the game
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  Speaker 1: and something he always harped on me, you know, just
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  Speaker 1: understanding the ins and outs of the sports you're playing.
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  Speaker 1: He was a basketball player, but um, he still always
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  Speaker 1: taught me to be a student of the game. So
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  Speaker 1: that's something he always said, When did you realize I'm
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  Speaker 1: gonna assume that you didn't know in high school you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna play in the NFL. A little bit of a
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  Speaker 1: late bloomer to this level, I guess, Um, how did
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  Speaker 1: that help you? Sort of having to work to get
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  Speaker 1: here some guys we're sorted here naturally and sort of
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  Speaker 1: new from the start. Did that help you? And when
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  Speaker 1: did you sort of know you were gonna be able
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  Speaker 1: to play in the league. Well, um, I would say
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  Speaker 1: the people that I was around always uplifted me. So
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: when I first started playing football, you know, I had
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: always people, I had good people in my quarter and
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  Speaker 1: they always told me you're gonna play D one football,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: You're gonna go to the NFL. And so I believe
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  Speaker 1: that from the time I was a freshman in high
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  Speaker 1: school and I knew I was a little bit behind
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  Speaker 1: the curve as far as other guys, you know, four star,
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  Speaker 1: five star as they have everything kind of set up
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  Speaker 1: for them. And you know, I'm the guy who, like
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: you said, late bloomer, I kind of had to take
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: a different route. Um, But I always had faith. I
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: always believe in myself, and I never really understood how
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: hard it was going to be or how much work
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: it had to be. But I'm glad because I never
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: really focused on that. I just focused on what I
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: had to do to get to where I wanted to be.
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  Speaker 1: And some guys talk about when they have to work
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  Speaker 1: for it a little more, it helps them once they're
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  Speaker 1: here because they know how to do it. So UM
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  Speaker 1: a big leader at Utah. Um, how do you translate
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and become a leader in the NFL? Do you have
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: to wait for it to come to you or how
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  Speaker 1: do you approach that? I believe so, But I also
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: believe it's different levels of leadership. UM. So at Utah,
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  Speaker 1: I was the old guy, was the vet um so
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  Speaker 1: to say there, especially my last two years and so
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: UM that type of leadership you know where I was,
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  Speaker 1: UM showing the young guys what to do, showing them
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  Speaker 1: the ropes, UM, letting them know my experiences. Um. That
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  Speaker 1: was the type of leader I was um the last
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: two years. UM and now even earlier on in my
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  Speaker 1: career in early on here it's more so now leading
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  Speaker 1: by example, doing the right things. UM. And even um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, leadership within my group because I'm the young
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  Speaker 1: guy now, so I'm really looking after all the older
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  Speaker 1: guys to see UM, you know how they're handling stuff. UM,
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  Speaker 1: but I try to lead as far as doing the
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  Speaker 1: right things. And you know, whenever you know, other guys
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  Speaker 1: on the team seemingly be like I respect how he's moving,
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  Speaker 1: I respect what he's doing. UM, eventually building my way
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  Speaker 1: into um, you know, having a larger voice. I don't
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: dwell on this, but obviously everybody knows that. Utah, you
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  Speaker 1: guys went through a tough season. Yeah, your senior year,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: two deaths in the team of people you were close to. Um,
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  Speaker 1: how did that? I know you're obviously a serious guy,
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  Speaker 1: but you took a real leadership and bringing that team together.
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  Speaker 1: How did that change you? How did it shape you
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  Speaker 1: moving forward? Um? You know I would say, uh, it
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  Speaker 1: affected me personally and I felt, um, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: felt like I really had to be there even more
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  Speaker 1: for you know, everyone around me. And that was earlier on, um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, when it first started happening. Um, but I
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  Speaker 1: would say that kind of brought everyone closer together. UM,
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  Speaker 1: you know, as a team. Um, you know, everybody really
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: just started to mess even more so because you know,
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  Speaker 1: we already were pretty fond of each other. We had
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: pretty much the whole team from came back to the
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: you know, following year, but that even more so was like, okay,
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  Speaker 1: now we all have to like really just make sure
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  Speaker 1: you know, we have no regrets. We do everything we can,
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  Speaker 1: and we just started, um you know, doing more things
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  Speaker 1: together really and as an older yeah, you gotta process
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  Speaker 1: a lot and then try to help younger guys, which
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: makes it trickier and I guess more to deal with.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, um, you know, as far as being
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  Speaker 1: there for the young guys, um, especially because you know,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Ty was a freshman and then um a little was
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: you're younger than me, but um, some of the younger guys, um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I mean this is their first time in
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  Speaker 1: college and this happens, and so it's um, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you you definitely just gotta, you know, make sure that
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  Speaker 1: you know their brothers are there for that. On a
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: lighter note, obviously, uh, you get to the Jaguars a
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  Speaker 1: three and fourteen team last year, but yet the culture
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  Speaker 1: seems to have changed, maybe even before you got here,
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  Speaker 1: and as you're here, Uh, what's your view on the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Jaguars culture and how do you feel about this thing
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  Speaker 1: moving forward? What's the vibe you're getting the vibe? Um,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: guys just want to win. Guys are hungry, they want
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: to win, and we're buying into, you know everything that
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: coach p is saying. Um, really were relatively young group. Um,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: so you know it's just more so we're just hungry,
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  Speaker 1: and we're just hungry and we're doing things the right way.
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  Speaker 1: I'll say that. Very Football went on one question. I
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: know you are a a versatile player who can do
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a lot defensively. You're out with the hamstring injury. Anything
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: yet in the defense that you're not comfortable with or
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: are you there in terms of, hey, I know this scheme,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: whatever they asked me to do, I can do. Yeah. No,
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  Speaker 1: I definitely feel comfortable in the defense. Um, scheme wise,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: technique wise, and being out for so long, there's little
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: things that just pop up that you hadn't seen before
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: that you learn. Um. But outside of that, I mean,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: you know, anything that you know they asked me to
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  Speaker 1: do right now, I could go out and do it
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  Speaker 1: and do it at a very confident level and the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: hammy's gone. You're Devin Lloyd now right Well, I mean
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I asked devn Lloyd five quick questions to close this advace.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: All right, we called the ozone five. It's really fun
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: stuff and it's quick answers. Your last binge watch if
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: you ever have time to watch TV. Um, i'd say
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: the Washington offense right now, it's the Colts off Okay,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: all right? Good answer for next year? Running in here.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I'll ask you that and you can answer it honestly.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: U your last song on the way in this morning,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: last song? Oh, I want to say it was Saturday
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Saturday Night love by I Forgot, I forgot, um Serell
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: and toughest opponent? Did you had the game plan for
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: that toughest opponent? I had the game plan for Oh?
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: In college? Okay? Um, it was probably Oregon twenty nineteen
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: with Justin Herbert and then they had some they had
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: a good old line and uh, you know some good
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: college I got. Um. Sport other than football that you
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: would have played? Basketball? You're good. Yeah, my dad's a hooper.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: That was a first of what I've played. So do
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: and you've already answered this a little bit. But person
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  Speaker 1: in your life who's most responsible for you being in
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the NFL, most responsible for me being in the NFL? UM,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: I would say it's probably just a combination of my
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: mom and my Dad. They kind of shaped who I am. UM.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: You know, you know, they taught me all the things
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: that I needed. Um you know about you know, for one, um,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: you know work ethic, but then also you know, compassion,
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  Speaker 1: you know, just a lot of things that you need
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: to um be successful in life, not just football, Devin Lloyd,
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  Speaker 1: I know Jaguars fans are excited to watch you grow
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: as a player and watch you form Over the years.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I think they've gotten to know you a little bit
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: more today. I can't thank you not for joining the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: others on podcast. Thank you, thank