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Head Coach Mike Macdonald On The Upcoming Matchup vs. Buccaneers · Seahawks Press Pass

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  Speaker 1: Good to see everybody excited for this week, big, big
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  Speaker 1: weekend for Seattle sports. So excited for that. Guys are
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  Speaker 1: in good spirits. It's important for us to be sharp today,
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  Speaker 1: coming back off a little bit of break here. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we practice on Monday briefly, so really important that we
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  Speaker 1: have a great day to day. Just had a great
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  Speaker 1: walkthrough and we're excited for this opportunity. We had a
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  Speaker 1: lot of respect for this football team that we're playing.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like they share a lot of our same
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  Speaker 1: principles as a program and as an organization. So at
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  Speaker 1: a lot of respect for coach Bowls and the guys
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  Speaker 1: in their team. I wish Troy would have gone to
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  Speaker 1: Michigan initially, we recruited him back in twenty one. He
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  Speaker 1: went to Georgia, So but he's back at Michigan now
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  Speaker 1: to my understanding. But yeah, so we're excited. It should
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  Speaker 1: be a great game. You admire about Todd Bowles coach defense. Well,
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  Speaker 1: like I said, I think I think we share a
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  Speaker 1: lot of the same principles. They play really hard, they
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  Speaker 1: play physical, he calls it aggressively. Uh, they got great personnel,
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  Speaker 1: they play complimentary ball, they attack the football so a
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  Speaker 1: lot of great stuff that they're doing on defense. You
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  Speaker 1: look at what.
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  Speaker 2: They do in the run game in particular on defense,
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  Speaker 2: or would be a temptation to just not even test
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  Speaker 2: based on the yards given up?
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  Speaker 1: How do you balance that for the game plan or
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  Speaker 1: just looking at that. Yeah, it's tough to it's tough
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  Speaker 1: to like look at stats and then let that dictate,
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  Speaker 1: like you're not gonna do what you do so you
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  Speaker 1: know how teams are structured, Who's who's gonna play? Things
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  Speaker 1: like that, that goes into our game plan. But yeah,
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna We're still gonna. We're still gonna run our
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  Speaker 1: offense the Thursday game, the short turnaround, But what's the
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  Speaker 1: recharge five? Now that you've had this break, you buy,
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  Speaker 1: I feel like it's good. I feel like the guys
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  Speaker 1: are in good spirits. It's obviously an extra couple of
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  Speaker 1: days for people to get their bodies and uh in
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  Speaker 1: better better shape, but uh, it feels like a long
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  Speaker 1: time ago. Now you know, you're in game week, it's
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  Speaker 1: a Wednesday. That's the feeling that I'm getting from the guys.
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  Speaker 1: So it's kind of standard operating procedure at this point.
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  Speaker 3: Make someone like Eman Warry more likely to play.
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  Speaker 1: This is benefiting him particular, maybe maybe with Nick.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, did you recruit Dodd Bowle's son?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we had him up for a visit. It was good.
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  Speaker 1: Not the best recruiter in the world, so that's probably
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  Speaker 1: why I didn't Sho didn't go. But we had a
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  Speaker 1: good visit. We had a good we had a good
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  Speaker 1: vision for Troy. But it's all good. Not bitter at
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  Speaker 1: all to his dad about it. Yeah yeah, yeah, Uh.
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  Speaker 1: Coach Bowles came up and had a great conversation. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that was cool. What was your pitch? Wasn't good enough?
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  Speaker 1: We were gonna like play him on the edge is
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  Speaker 1: like a hybrid off, like on the ball backer to
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  Speaker 1: off the ball, play some five down with him, let
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  Speaker 1: him blitz off the ball. It's gonna be pretty sweet.
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  Speaker 3: Any update on the Marcus Lawrence Any chance he's gonna
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  Speaker 3: be available this week?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So with the law we're gonna basically play it
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  Speaker 1: day by day. Don't really have any I can't give
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  Speaker 1: you like what's gonna happen right now, but we'll see
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  Speaker 1: as a week kind of unfold.
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  Speaker 3: Might on s Donald just how has his patience led
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  Speaker 3: to his ball distribution? He got seven guys that have
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  Speaker 3: caught over ten plus.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think it's his decisiveness on how he's playing.
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  Speaker 1: He's just he's, he's he's staying true to his reads
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  Speaker 1: and he's he's he's rocking it when when it's there,
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  Speaker 1: and when it's not, he's progressing and then checking it
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  Speaker 1: down or using his legs. And uh, that's what we're
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  Speaker 1: asking him to do, and I think he's doing it
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  Speaker 1: obviously at a really high level right now.
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  Speaker 3: It's early, but they're kind of astablishing themselves in an
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  Speaker 3: elite tandem.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, what have you.
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  Speaker 3: Thought about stat connection and how quickly he came together
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  Speaker 3: and their ability to come through.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think I think it's I think it
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  Speaker 1: stands true for our entire offense. I know Jsen has
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  Speaker 1: a lot of targets and and rightfully so the way
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  Speaker 1: he's playing, But I think I think Sam's done a
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  Speaker 1: great job building chemistry with all the all the skill
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  Speaker 1: positions on our offensive line and everybody in that room.
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  Speaker 1: So that's where the ball is going right now. But
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  Speaker 1: it's been like someone asked earlier, it's being distributed across
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  Speaker 1: the rest of the position groups too, So that's really important, Deren.
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  Speaker 3: Kendrick earned the right to compete for the Nickels spot,
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  Speaker 3: and Smithspoon's staying outside.
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  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, yeah, he's Yeah. Short answer, what's.
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  Speaker 3: The challenge Baker Mayfield? What's sort of the challenge in
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  Speaker 3: defending him?
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  Speaker 1: Well, he's one of those guys that like biour metrics
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  Speaker 1: on the extended play, you know, how how he plays
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  Speaker 1: extended plays, he's probably he's probably the best in the
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  Speaker 1: league right now, and so that's something you have to
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  Speaker 1: deal with. But he also plays on time, He's extremely accurate,
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  Speaker 1: he's got great, great arm talent, and then when he
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  Speaker 1: extends plays, obviously he's he's a great competitor, and he's
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  Speaker 1: he's got a play making, you know, element to his
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  Speaker 1: game later on in plays. So it's a it's a
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  Speaker 1: it's a tough guy to defend.
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  Speaker 2: He and Sam are both guys whose careers kind of
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  Speaker 2: had some ups and downs before finding a lot of successes.
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  Speaker 2: That position, in particular is their value and kind of
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  Speaker 2: looking at guys and giving them second chances and things
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  Speaker 2: like that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I feel like our organization is the
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  Speaker 1: post child for for that sort of thing. But wise
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  Speaker 1: Man once said players are allowed to get better and
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  Speaker 1: that's something we believe in here and you got to
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  Speaker 1: get Look, I had a lot of respect for for
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  Speaker 1: for Baker. He's I think he's playing a really high level.
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  Speaker 1: I think obviously is his team respects the heck out
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  Speaker 1: of him. He's tough, he's he competes, he's won. We've
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  Speaker 1: had a lot of great battles with him when he
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  Speaker 1: was in Cleveland. And uh, and I think Sam's right
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  Speaker 1: in a heck of a story for himself too right now.
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  Speaker 1: So I think it's great what's going on in the
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  Speaker 1: league with some of the quarterbacks making, you know, putting
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  Speaker 1: their bringing their careers to a different levels as it grows.
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  Speaker 1: So I think that's pretty.
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  Speaker 3: Coolampa's a heavy eleven personnel team. That does when teams
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  Speaker 3: are going eleven, does that limit your ability to deploy
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  Speaker 3: Nick or Big Nickel?
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  Speaker 1: No? No, I mean sorry for the short answers today,
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  Speaker 1: but yeah, no, I guess it's Ni can play against eleven.
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  Speaker 3: Christo Hayes and Jonathan Hankins. Would they be able to
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  Speaker 3: come off their list this week or retardy practice all
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  Speaker 3: or where.
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  Speaker 1: Are they at? Both aren't coming back this week?
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  Speaker 2: And his ability to extend places does that play into
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  Speaker 2: his effectiveness in the final two and four minutes of
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  Speaker 2: the game.
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  Speaker 3: He's got one of the highest quarterback ratings in those
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  Speaker 3: situations the last.
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  Speaker 1: Couple of years. Yeah, it's it's a great point. I
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  Speaker 1: think that plays a major factor into it being able
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  Speaker 1: to extend plays. You know, the fourth down against Houston
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  Speaker 1: comes alive. You know, that was a heck of a play.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's also just the spirit of their team,
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  Speaker 1: the competitiveness that has probably another big factor in their
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  Speaker 1: success late in games.
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  Speaker 3: Why do you think you guys have been so prolific
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  Speaker 3: I guess to put it that way in terms of
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  Speaker 3: intercepting on posing quarterbacks so far seven.
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  Speaker 1: Interceptions to the team. Let's keep it going. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we got several plays, several games to play. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I think I think takeaways are a function of like
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  Speaker 1: how well you're playing on defense, how like how like
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  Speaker 1: the speed and the like aggressiveness, physicality. The ball seems
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  Speaker 1: to come a life when you play with that type
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  Speaker 1: of energy. And our guys are doing that right now,
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  Speaker 1: which is great, and we got to keep doing it.
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  Speaker 1: And it comes with a complimentary football understanding when you
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  Speaker 1: can take your ops attacking the ball when it's in
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  Speaker 1: the air and there's a lot of things that go
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  Speaker 1: into it, and our guys are determined to attack the
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  Speaker 1: rock right now, which is something we need to keep going.
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  Speaker 2: This might be what you would call one of these
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  Speaker 2: layup questions. But with with Leo, what he does, how
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  Speaker 2: much does he just affect the entire front? What what
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  Speaker 2: opportunities that everybody gets?
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  Speaker 1: Well, if he affects it greatly, I think I think
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  Speaker 1: he'd be the one to tell you that. Like I
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  Speaker 1: think where where our front generates their impact, I think
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  Speaker 1: is the synergy of how they work the other. So
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  Speaker 1: I think a lot of guys uh deserve recognition for that.
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  Speaker 1: And how like there's a lot of unselfish football going
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  Speaker 1: on where uh the guys are determined to work together
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  Speaker 1: and they're determined for the effectiveness of the group rather
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  Speaker 1: than just individual like accolades. And I've answered this before,
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  Speaker 1: but like you know, to not worry about who gets
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  Speaker 1: the one on one, who gets to go, who gets
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  Speaker 1: the two way go, who's the guy that's gonna drop,
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  Speaker 1: who's It's like there's no drag with that group, and
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  Speaker 1: it's really it's really cool.
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  Speaker 3: How do you keep that philosophy I mean maybe maybe
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  Speaker 3: not every guy is going to buy into that or whatever,
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  Speaker 3: depending on where they might be the career.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just how we roll. Here's just the understanding.
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  Speaker 1: We have people, we bring in people on our team,
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  Speaker 1: how we coach them. Uh, it's kind of our way
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  Speaker 1: of life.
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  Speaker 3: If de Marcus Lawrence isn't able to play, would there
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  Speaker 3: be an opportunity who would be maybe next man up
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  Speaker 3: and getting an opportunity there?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think you look at the rest of the
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  Speaker 1: edge group that's that hasn't either as dressed or hasn't dressed,
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  Speaker 1: But guys that are that are on the currently on
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  Speaker 1: the roster, those guys are practicing their tails off. So
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  Speaker 1: it's the same deal. It's like, hey, look if if
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  Speaker 1: he can't go and we elevate a guy or you know,
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  Speaker 1: another guy gets more snaps like man, great, let's go.
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  Speaker 1: Let's go see what you can do in a more
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  Speaker 1: in a kind of a larger opportunity.
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  Speaker 3: Just to be clear on Lawrence, that doesn't sound like
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  Speaker 3: it's an ir like.
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  Speaker 1: Ira is in play, right, No, right, it's day to
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  Speaker 1: day right now with the.
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  Speaker 3: Law Tampa plays a bunch of Cover zero and they're
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  Speaker 3: pretty good at it. What makes a team defense really
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  Speaker 3: good at playing covers zero.
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  Speaker 1: Well, there's several things. One when you call it, you know,
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  Speaker 1: and how the offense recognizes zero, what their answers go
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  Speaker 1: into it. You know, that includes like you know, run
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  Speaker 1: like pattern combination so they be able to like you're
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  Speaker 1: one on one back there. And a lot of times
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  Speaker 1: it's not just spread out their content sets where you've
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  Speaker 1: got to figure out who's got who so disciplined eyes,
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  Speaker 1: being able to tackle in the open field. Timing of
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  Speaker 1: the pressure, details of the pressure are are really important.
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  Speaker 1: And they that you know, when then when they blitz there,
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  Speaker 1: they do it the right way, you know, they they
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  Speaker 1: time it up well, they take good angles, they keep
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  Speaker 1: quarterbacks in the pocket. Uh, they do a good job.
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  Speaker 1: Here there goes all right, Okay, thank you,