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Press Pass | James Gladstone Recaps Day 1 of 2026 NFL Draft · Press Pass

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  Speaker 1: I'll kiss and called earlier age what paths could exist?
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  Speaker 1: I think so not beame colition obviously, it sort of
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  Speaker 1: transpired in real time that would have been worth even flagging.
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  Speaker 2: Last seventy eight picks. Looks like teams are really looking
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  Speaker 2: to move down. Is that what you expected?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it felt like there could be a little bit
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  Speaker 1: more action towards the front half of the first and
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  Speaker 1: what we ultimately ended up seeing. Really anticipated a heavy
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  Speaker 1: OL run there in the teens and throughout the early
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  Speaker 1: portion of the twenties, and then would have anticipated that
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  Speaker 1: there was going to be quite a bit of movement
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  Speaker 1: there towards the back half of the first, but nothing
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  Speaker 1: that was going to be a substantial jump back as
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  Speaker 1: much as it was those small incremental moves into the
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  Speaker 1: early portion of the second.
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  Speaker 2: I feel like the board now specks up, you know,
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  Speaker 2: now that you've seen the first thirty two that are
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  Speaker 2: off the board.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it reflects what we were projecting, and
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  Speaker 1: at this stage we're able to take the night circle
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  Speaker 1: back tomorrow and continue our thoughts around what comes here
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  Speaker 1: once we get up onto the clock of fifty six.
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  Speaker 1: When you don't have a pick in the first round,
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  Speaker 1: you spending that or are you just making phone calls
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  Speaker 1: looking around or are you just kind of watching them
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  Speaker 1: monitoring your board. Yeah, I think you're analyzing a few
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  Speaker 1: different things, but at the same time enjoying how things unfold. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know that. Uh there's a ton
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  Speaker 1: of action that you can point to, in particular with tonight. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: Like I said before, Uh, a few different calls that
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  Speaker 1: unfolded throughout the course of the day, but really just
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  Speaker 1: setting any sort of conversations that could come if the
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  Speaker 1: opportunity made sense for both parties, and uh tonight that
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  Speaker 1: wasn't the case.
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  Speaker 2: Is a busy day of phone calls tomorrow?
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, yoh, is it a busy day of phone
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  Speaker 1: calls tomorrow or or that?
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  Speaker 2: Or race sort of down?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think most of those things are primed, uh
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  Speaker 1: ahead of time, and you can do a lot of
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  Speaker 1: it while teams around the clock or just ahead of
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  Speaker 1: that time. Is there anything that surprised you in this
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  Speaker 1: first round since ago.
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  Speaker 2: A high or anything like that.
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  Speaker 1: I think everybody was worthy of, uh the sauce that
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  Speaker 1: they ended up going in and congrats to all of
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  Speaker 1: those guys, and uh, you know, looking forward to what
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  Speaker 1: tomorrow brings.
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  Speaker 2: You said a couple weeks ago that the pensive end
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  Speaker 2: was probably the strongest group. Is there still a lot
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  Speaker 2: of value there after the first run?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I surely think so. I think really all the
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  Speaker 1: position groups that we felt like had the strength showed
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  Speaker 1: itself in the first round. And there's still some spots
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  Speaker 1: where we feel like the depth is healthy and others
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  Speaker 1: where it has been depleted, right, And I think that's
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  Speaker 1: not unlike any other draft, But certainly look forward to
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  Speaker 1: navigating those waters.
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  Speaker 2: And you guys have seemed to embrace being bold and
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  Speaker 2: the entertainment business part of it.
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  Speaker 1: Is there a level of almost disappointment when you kind
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  Speaker 1: of can't make something happen, And I guess what's the
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  Speaker 1: balance between that and the discipline of not pushing it? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I know we'll be strategically bold. Is the important asterisk
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  Speaker 1: to that, And as it relates to how we've operated
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  Speaker 1: over the course of this offseason, there's been a ton
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  Speaker 1: of intent and a ton of discipline tied to it.
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  Speaker 1: And I think the idea of a volume play is
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  Speaker 1: an important thing for us to acknowledge. Knowing that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: while you back to my time in Los Angeles. There
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  Speaker 1: were quite a few drafts we were picking with as
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  Speaker 1: many as eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen picks, and that gives
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  Speaker 1: you a lot more chances to hit, a lot more
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  Speaker 1: chances to miss. But we'll take the chances at this stage,
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  Speaker 1: knowing that we feel good about our process, we feel
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  Speaker 1: good about the collective efforts that have brought forth the
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  Speaker 1: guys that we feel really good about entering into our environment,
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  Speaker 1: and knowing that they're rooted in the stuff that's only
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  Speaker 1: going to point to them thriving in it.
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  Speaker 2: Do you not have a scout or a highway or
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  Speaker 2: approach the later brown guys in the draft any differently
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  Speaker 2: now that in nil or knowing some of these guys
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  Speaker 2: are going to be taking to take because that's interesting.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know that it's rooted in financial thoughts as
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  Speaker 1: much as it is. You talk about age quite a bit,
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  Speaker 1: and whether or not tread on the tires is something
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  Speaker 1: of note, So I think things like that tend to
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  Speaker 1: be a bit more of those topics that surface to
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  Speaker 1: the top. I think most of the times the guys have
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more financial awareness, and that can be
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  Speaker 1: a really helpful tool. You know, the fact that they're
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  Speaker 1: not just being dumped a good chunk of cash for
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  Speaker 1: the first time when they enter the NFL. They now
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  Speaker 1: have some version of experience navigating that and so that
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  Speaker 1: can be a really helpful piece for sure. Que last weeks,
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  Speaker 1: what do you like about who has that room and
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  Speaker 1: have that kind of buy out? Yeah, I think the
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  Speaker 1: idea that he can offer a skill set that only
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  Speaker 1: enhances our capacity to pressure the QB jumps out in
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  Speaker 1: a real way in the same breath. I know he
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  Speaker 1: offers a lot of flexibility and versatility that we can
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  Speaker 1: move him inside and out depending on if it's based
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  Speaker 1: and sub and you know, excited about the idea of
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  Speaker 1: getting some fresh legs and really knowing that from his
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  Speaker 1: vantage point, he's in a spot where he's looking forward to,
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  Speaker 1: you know, restarting, rebuilding, and you know, when he first
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  Speaker 1: stopped by over the weekend, it was kind of cool.
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  Speaker 1: We were poking our heads out at the new stadium
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  Speaker 1: and the build is like, you know what, this is
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  Speaker 1: actually a good reflection where I'm at my career and
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  Speaker 1: look forward to building the same way that stadium is
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  Speaker 1: across the across the parking lot. So it was a
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  Speaker 1: cool little moment for him to kind of share his
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  Speaker 1: perspective there and at the same time knowing that that's
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  Speaker 1: a lot of the reason why we prioritized him and
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  Speaker 1: why we wanted to bring him.
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  Speaker 2: James a couple of chams during their pre draft sessions
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  Speaker 2: that the twenty twenty seven draft is strong, and how
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  Speaker 2: much but priority is it this weekend? Maybe add a
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  Speaker 2: couple of.
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  Speaker 1: Those picks, you know what. I think that that is
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  Speaker 1: a fair assessment based off of the early showings. At
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  Speaker 1: the same time, over the course of the next year,
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  Speaker 1: there's going to be a lot of holes that get
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  Speaker 1: poked into those folks that you know, I think aren't
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  Speaker 1: yet to show themselves because it's all surface level, so
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  Speaker 1: only time will tell whether or not that is in
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  Speaker 1: fact true. At the same time, we're going to entertain
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  Speaker 1: the right value and the right thing for the organization
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  Speaker 1: when we have the chance to explore all options, we're
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  Speaker 1: certainly going to do so.
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  Speaker 2: I'll think of a step. Do you feel like you
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  Speaker 2: guys can take tomorrow? Having four selections on a roster
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  Speaker 2: that's already very good.
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  Speaker 1: And very balanced, I think there's a good chance to
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  Speaker 1: really level up. I think one of the big things
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  Speaker 1: that I look back to last year is the depth
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  Speaker 1: of the roster as a whole being a really critical
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  Speaker 1: piece so that when we did experience windows in which
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  Speaker 1: there were heavier injuries or attrition, that there wasn't some
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  Speaker 1: version of a critical fallof at any one position. And
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  Speaker 1: I think that that helped our cause. And certainly I
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  Speaker 1: think that with what we have lying in front of us,
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  Speaker 1: not only tomorrow, but on day three of the draft
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  Speaker 1: and even following the seventh round an undrafted college free agency,
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  Speaker 1: those are sort of the fringe edges that you can
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  Speaker 1: win in a lot of ways and make differences in
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  Speaker 1: what is going to be a long season. So I
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  Speaker 1: think that that's something that we're certainly excited about. Focusing
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  Speaker 1: on James Monday, you guys picked up the fifty year
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  Speaker 1: option on Anton.
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  Speaker 2: Was that pretty easy decision?
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  Speaker 1: And what do you see him at this stage of
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  Speaker 1: his career as hopefully a sending player. I would assume, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that was a pretty straightforward decision. He is really bought
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  Speaker 1: into everything that we're trying to do and has shown
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  Speaker 1: steady improvement over the course of our time together, and
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  Speaker 1: really look forward to him building off of the momentum.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, really across that entire offensive line, those
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  Speaker 1: guys were really finding a cohesive means of operating. And
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  Speaker 1: I say that even when there were a lot of
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  Speaker 1: moving parts throughout the course of the season. That's not
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  Speaker 1: easy to do. And so knowing that we got nine
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  Speaker 1: of those guys back, I think that was a really
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  Speaker 1: important piece for us to continue to show that this
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  Speaker 1: is something we care about keeping tied together and ensuring that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, whatever momentum we were able to capture over
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  Speaker 1: the course of the last season, the connective tissue that
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  Speaker 1: we were able to build there, because it's such a
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  Speaker 1: key piece to that performance as a whole across all
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  Speaker 1: five whoever's on the field, Uh, we just want to
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  Speaker 1: maintain that and uh, this was certainly a sign to
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  Speaker 1: point exactly as to why James, thank you.