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Sam Darnold: "It's Very Exciting To Be A Part Of This Team" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Man, it's great to see you guys on a Tuesday. Yeah,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: another great challenge for us this week. Man, just a
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: lot of respect for coach Gannon and the way that
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: you know, he's got his entire team going right now.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: You know that defense is rolling. They always always presented,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: you know, issues for an offense. Just all the different
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  Speaker 1: looks that they can give, and you know what they
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  Speaker 1: do in the back end disguising coverages and uh, you know,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the the guys that they have rushing the passer. You know,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the the linebackers that they have. I mean, they're they're
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  Speaker 1: a really solid group. You know, they're tough to prepare for,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: but we're excited for the challenge on a short week. Defense.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: When you were a rookie, you prepared for an eleven
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: year veteran Kalays Campbell. Can you imagine you're still seeing him.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: This years later? Yeah, man, Uh, kalais is you know, uh,
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  Speaker 1: just the way that he's you know, first of all,
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  Speaker 1: the way that he's been able to take care of
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  Speaker 1: his body throughout the years. You know, I have a
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  Speaker 1: lot of respect for him and doing that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: just what what he's able to do on a football field. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: is is pretty incredible, and especially in what year is
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: at eighteen now for him something like that, he's you know,
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  Speaker 1: he's he's continuing to play at such a high level.
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  Speaker 1: So a lot of respect for him and.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: Has back was saying this morning that he actually looked
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: forward to these Thursday games because it forced, you know,
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  Speaker 3: teams maybe simplify what they're going to do on defense
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: in the game planning.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Curious your thoughts as a quarterback, Yeah yeah, I mean, shoot,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's going to slow them down.
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  Speaker 1: You know, like I said before, you know, coach coach
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  Speaker 1: Gannon and just all those guys on that staff, you
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  Speaker 1: know a ton of respect for them and what they
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  Speaker 1: can do. And again for you know, that defense to
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  Speaker 1: be able to you know, do what they do and
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and you know, be able to play various defenses, pressuring
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  Speaker 1: pressuring the quarterback the way that they do and and
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  Speaker 1: mixing it up the way that they do. Again, it's
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  Speaker 1: it's it's impressive stuff. And you know, we're just going
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: to prepare and do the best that we can to
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  Speaker 1: put ourselves in a good position on Thursday night.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: How do you see this offense grow? Basically from week
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  Speaker 3: one to week three. I mean a lot of the numbers.
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  Speaker 1: Look a lot better than the last couple of weeks
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  Speaker 1: that they did that first week. Yeah, I think it's
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  Speaker 1: just continuing to know each other and to learn each
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  Speaker 1: other in the system and you know, watch the tape,
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  Speaker 1: you know, be able to you know, okay, learn from Sunday.
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  Speaker 1: What do we do you know on Monday, to get
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  Speaker 1: better from it and continuing that process with each other.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's the biggest thing in communicating. The more
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  Speaker 1: that we communicate with each other, the more that we
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  Speaker 1: talk to the coaches about what we're seeing on the
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  Speaker 1: field and you know, how we can just clean things
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  Speaker 1: up as a group. You know, it's only going to
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  Speaker 1: continue to help us in the future. And we're going
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: to continue to do that.
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  Speaker 2: The run game numbers aren't where you guys want them
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  Speaker 2: yet just in terms of the success, but how important
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  Speaker 2: is for everything you want to do offensively just the
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  Speaker 2: commitment you've shown and getting those carries.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's you know, it's huge to be able to
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  Speaker 1: run the football on the system. You know, we want
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: to continue to be better and we will be you know,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to continue to you know, and that's on
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  Speaker 1: me as well being able to make the right checks
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  Speaker 1: and get us in the right play. But we're going
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: to continue to get better and learn and learn from
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: you know, what we've been doing in the run game.
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  Speaker 3: A lot of times offenses try to get the run
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  Speaker 3: game going so it forces the defense to bring an
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  Speaker 3: extra defender down and make the passing game better. You
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  Speaker 3: guys haven't had the strongest run defense, but because you're
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: doing twelve and twenty one, you're getting a lot of
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  Speaker 3: stacked boxes and the passing game is going well. So
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  Speaker 3: do you need an effective run game to have an
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  Speaker 3: effective pass game or how do you see those two
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  Speaker 3: things kind of playing off each other.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's again, I think that's a great point. You know.
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  Speaker 1: You you know, sometimes the run game isn't gonna flourish
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  Speaker 1: because you know, you are stacking the box, and when
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  Speaker 1: they do play shell coverage and they want to give
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  Speaker 1: us a lighter box, maybe you know, some of those
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  Speaker 1: runs are going to be able to pop. So again,
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  Speaker 1: it's just such a balancing act with you know, football
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  Speaker 1: in general. Right, It's like, if you want to try
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  Speaker 1: to load the box and stop the run, you know
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  Speaker 1: that that might be an opportunity to throw the ball.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: So you know, that's a great point. And uh yeah,
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  Speaker 1: what he.
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  Speaker 4: Knows is able how he handles himself.
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  Speaker 1: Gray, he's great man. He uh he shows a lot
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  Speaker 1: of poise. I will say out on the field during
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  Speaker 1: during game day, just the way that he communicates, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's uh, you know, I remember in the Pittsburgh game,
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  Speaker 1: you know, in that loud stadium on third down, you know,
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  Speaker 1: me being able to go up to the line and
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  Speaker 1: make a certain call and him coming up to me like, hey,
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  Speaker 1: you know I got the call, but some of the
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: guys didn't. You know, Let's let's try to, you know,
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  Speaker 1: somehow be able to clear that up and and make
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  Speaker 1: it a little bit better. Like those are the those
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  Speaker 1: are the kind of conversations that help a team grow
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  Speaker 1: and become more efficient as a whole. So he's he's
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  Speaker 1: been doing a great job of communicating, especially as a rookie.
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  Speaker 1: You don't see that much out of rookies, and he is, uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I'm not gonna say he's wise beyond his years,
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  Speaker 1: but Gray is is definitely a smart football player, and
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  Speaker 1: he's just going to continue to get better.
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  Speaker 3: Did you ever find out what he said to Brian
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  Speaker 3: Brozy to get him to U get the head butt.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Usually don't get the rookies drawing those penalties.
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  Speaker 1: No, I you know, I've heard I didn't hear what
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  Speaker 1: he said there. I've heard him say a couple of
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  Speaker 1: things to some guys, and you know, I admire the
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  Speaker 1: trash talk. I think Gray is uh you know, uh,
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  Speaker 1: he's smart with it. You know, he's not going to
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  Speaker 1: say anything that crosses the line, but he is a
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: he's a good trash talk I will say.
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  Speaker 3: The ability you have throwing to your left, you if
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  Speaker 3: you kind of always had that or how much do
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  Speaker 3: you kind of work on improving that.
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  Speaker 1: I just work on it, you know, I think I
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  Speaker 1: think I said it after the game, but I just,
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  Speaker 1: you know, work on it a ton during the off
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  Speaker 1: season OTA's training camp, and you know, even during the season,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I try to get as much as many
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  Speaker 1: reps full speed to the left as you can because
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  Speaker 1: sometimes in practice, you know, uh, you want to jog
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  Speaker 1: or maybe not run full speed, and I think getting
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  Speaker 1: those full speed reps to be able to you know,
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  Speaker 1: throw on the run, whether it's throw into someone in
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  Speaker 1: front of you or maybe even behind you. So just
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  Speaker 1: getting all the reps all the different reps that can
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  Speaker 1: come up in a game is the biggest thing for me.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: Before you signed here, I imagine you had heard things
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  Speaker 4: about Seattle, Mike McDonald, maybe ask some people before you
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  Speaker 4: signed how much of that stuff that you were curious
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  Speaker 4: about or that you heard has proven accurate during your
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  Speaker 4: time here.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think one of the bigger things
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  Speaker 1: that I've realized is the locker room. You know, I've
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  Speaker 1: a lot of guys you know, around the league who
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  Speaker 1: have been in Seattle talk about the locker room being
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  Speaker 1: you know, very energetic and having really good dudes. And
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  Speaker 1: you know that's a credit again to coach coach McDonald
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  Speaker 1: and and obviously, uh, you know, John for for getting
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  Speaker 1: the right guys in the locker room. But it's, uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the energy that everybody brings on a daily
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  Speaker 1: basis is infectious and you know that's only going to
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  Speaker 1: continue to to grow as we continue to learn each
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  Speaker 1: other and grow as a team. So it's, uh, it's
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  Speaker 1: very exciting to be a part of this team. And uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, kind of those things that people are saying
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  Speaker 1: that people have said about Seattle or you know, I'm
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  Speaker 1: seeing why people.
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  Speaker 4: Say that were some of the guys whose energy is and.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: I gotta you know, Kobe, Kobe Bryant's got some good energy,
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  Speaker 1: Kenneth Walker, you know, just just the name of just
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the name of a couple sam is.
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  Speaker 4: Even when the run game hasn't really been working the
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  Speaker 4: way you have wanted to, have, you seen the commitment
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  Speaker 4: to it open up things like.
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  Speaker 1: Shots and whatnot. Yeah, I think you know, it comes
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  Speaker 1: back to to the point made you know about kind
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  Speaker 1: of you know, certain getting certain boxes versus different looks.
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  Speaker 1: You know, if you're if you're stacking the box and
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  Speaker 1: you know we got a run called like we're gonna
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  Speaker 1: be able to target it and and do things that
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  Speaker 1: we want to do in the run game, but again
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  Speaker 1: that that presents opportunities to be able to throw the football.
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  Speaker 1: So you know, it's ah, yeah, I think I think
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  Speaker 1: that's just kind of the point is understanding you know,
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  Speaker 1: what what we need to do to target the run
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  Speaker 1: game and and you know, single high defenses, and then
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  Speaker 1: when teams want to put a want to put a
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  Speaker 1: shell on top of it, like we're gonna have opportunity
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  Speaker 1: to be able to throw the football even in those looks.
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  Speaker 1: But we when we do get those looks and we
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  Speaker 1: have a run called I think being able to take
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  Speaker 1: advantage of those is going to be crucial for us.
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  Speaker 3: What do you think a wide receiver needs to be
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  Speaker 3: capable of or demonstrate to be considered a number.
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  Speaker 1: One I don't know. I feel like, you know, that's
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  Speaker 1: kind of on the media, uh, to kind of put
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  Speaker 1: labels on guys and understanding what who's a number one receiver?
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  Speaker 1: But you know, in my opinion, I think we have
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  Speaker 1: you know, three, four, you know five. I think most
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  Speaker 1: of our guys you know, can be really good receivers
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  Speaker 1: in this league. They are really good receivers in this league.
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  Speaker 1: And so I'm just going to continue to do my
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  Speaker 1: job to get the ball in their hands and let them,
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  Speaker 1: you know, be able to gain yards after the catch.
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  Speaker 2: Not everyone's gonna get a ton of targets every week
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: just to let the games go. But what's what are
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  Speaker 2: some things Cooper Cup does, even to a day where
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  Speaker 2: he doesn't.
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  Speaker 1: Have big numbers that really help you guess Yeah, I
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: think you know the thing about Coop is he's just
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  Speaker 1: going to have a great attitude all the time. And
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  Speaker 1: I think, you know, it is a little thing that
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of people don't notice, but it goes a
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  Speaker 1: long way, you know, just you know, no matter what
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  Speaker 1: kind of day he has, you know, catching the football,
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  Speaker 1: he's always going to have a great attitude and and
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  Speaker 1: you know on run plays he's going to do his
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  Speaker 1: job every single time. Guys can count on that. And
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  Speaker 1: and just the like I said, just the attitude that
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  Speaker 1: he brings and the energy that he brings to an
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  Speaker 1: entire offense is you know, invaluable.
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  Speaker 4: You'll talk about it.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: You know, sometimes needed to get to a better play
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  Speaker 1: at the line.
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  Speaker 2: Stramers.
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  Speaker 1: Do you typically have is there like.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Typically one alternative baked into clenchon play call or do
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  Speaker 3: you have the option to automoti.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Multic It's uh, it varies. It varies based on certain
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  Speaker 1: calls and certain looks that we get. But we like
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: to keep the defense on their toes. Appreciate it, guys,