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Andrew Whitworth on Trevor's evolution and challenges facing Jets defense | Countdown to Kickoff · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

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  Speaker 1: Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video. The Jacksonville Jaguars
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  Speaker 1: visit the New York Jets, and Prime Video analysts Andrew
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  Speaker 1: Whitworth with us now, long time tackle in the NFL,
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  Speaker 1: sixteen years with Cincinnati and the l A. Rams. It's
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  Speaker 1: great to see you and talk to you. And the
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  Speaker 1: Jags are in primetime and it matters. Finally, Andrew, what's up, man?
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  Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. I don't know when we circled this one
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  Speaker 1: on the schedule, if we thought, hey, Jacksonville Jets is
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  Speaker 1: gonna be a big time game that could have big
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  Speaker 1: implications on the playoffs scenarios. I don't know if this
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  Speaker 1: is the one we circled and said that, but you
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  Speaker 1: know what, we're here and it is, and you know
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  Speaker 1: what they both these teams have young quarterbacks that they
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  Speaker 1: drafted high, invested a lot of money in, and Uh
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  Speaker 1: in New York saw it. It's about the Jets, Uh,
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  Speaker 1: their defense and the ability that they've had this year
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  Speaker 1: and seeing Zach Wilson rose up and you know what,
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  Speaker 1: those Jaguars, it's Trevor Lawrence man the emergence of who
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  Speaker 1: he is and what they drafted him to be. A
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  Speaker 1: little more on this game coming up. But at the
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  Speaker 1: sixteen years in the NFL, do you miss it? Do
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  Speaker 1: you miss playing? I mean, you're you're in a different role,
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  Speaker 1: you're around. It's still but it's a little different first
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  Speaker 1: year out, I'm sure I will honestly say I do
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  Speaker 1: not miss playing. I you know, I missed the locker room.
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  Speaker 1: I missed those moments when you know, you come in
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  Speaker 1: on a Monday after a big win and everybody's beat
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  Speaker 1: up and tired, and you just hanging out with each
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  Speaker 1: other having a good talk, a good laugh about maybe
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  Speaker 1: something that happened in the game or the day before,
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  Speaker 1: or even after a loss. I mean to you know,
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  Speaker 1: to be together and say, hey, you know what, let's
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  Speaker 1: go find a way to win this next week. All
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  Speaker 1: those those moments that brought that camaraderie and that tightness
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  Speaker 1: together of a group. I'll miss those. But man, I'm
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  Speaker 1: having so much fun covering the game. It's been been
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  Speaker 1: so invigorating for me to look at the game in
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  Speaker 1: a much bigger picture than just my job every week.
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  Speaker 1: And I couldn't be more excited to turn on the
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  Speaker 1: tape and watch games and and just follow the players coaches,
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  Speaker 1: you know, GM systems, all those things that I just
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  Speaker 1: believe in or UH want to know more about. What
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  Speaker 1: did you think you would become an analyst? It was
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  Speaker 1: this a new thing or did you have this in
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  Speaker 1: the back of your head the last few years? You know,
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  Speaker 1: not really. I It's one of those things over my
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  Speaker 1: career when I did interviews or I had opportunities to
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  Speaker 1: go speak places I always had whoever the reporter was
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  Speaker 1: or the news channel whatever, they always say to me,
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  Speaker 1: Hey when they got done, like you gotta do TV,
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  Speaker 1: Like you would be great like that. You just you're
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  Speaker 1: somebody that I love watching when you're on the screen.
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  Speaker 1: And and I never even thought about I would do this.
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  Speaker 1: And and then when my career ended, Uh, it was like,
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  Speaker 1: all right, I'm retiring, but this game has literally changed
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  Speaker 1: my life. UM so passionate about it and what's right
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  Speaker 1: and what's wrong and what what I believe is winning
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  Speaker 1: football and those kind of things that I still want
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  Speaker 1: to be around it. So does that involve me trying
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  Speaker 1: to find a job in front office or coach or
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  Speaker 1: what way could I be around the game. And so
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  Speaker 1: I tried to explore all those options, and when one
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  Speaker 1: became hey, would you want to do this? Like would
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  Speaker 1: you want to talk about the game of football? And
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if I thought my mind what it is?
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  Speaker 1: I thought maybe in my mind from Afar it was
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  Speaker 1: just very surface level, just talking about stuff that you
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  Speaker 1: you know, read in a piece of paper. But to
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  Speaker 1: realize now like it's about watching tape and studying guys
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  Speaker 1: and watching the emergence of different teams offensively or defensively. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: just the investment in it. I've loved it. It's been
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  Speaker 1: so much fun and I'm really, honestly, I couldn't be
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  Speaker 1: more excited to be exactly where I am. Andrew Whitworth
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  Speaker 1: with us from Amazon Prime Video. He'll have analysts work pregame,
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  Speaker 1: post game around the game for the Jaguars and the Jets.
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  Speaker 1: So let's get to the game now. The Jaguars were
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  Speaker 1: two and six this season, and they had just lost
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  Speaker 1: a game in London where Trevor Lawrence through a couple
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  Speaker 1: of key interceptions, certainly the one at the one yard
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  Speaker 1: line going in on first and goal. Since then, it's
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  Speaker 1: a totally different team, a totally different feeling quarterback. And
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  Speaker 1: when you have the quarterback playing at this level, the
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  Speaker 1: belief around him can build, and it feels like the
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  Speaker 1: Jaguars have that. Maybe it takes one moment like that
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  Speaker 1: in London to really turn things around. You do you
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  Speaker 1: believe that was the moment? And then what have you
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  Speaker 1: seen out of over the last month that I have? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I really do. I mean when you look at it,
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  Speaker 1: I mean you think about football. I don't care what
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  Speaker 1: position you're playing when you come in and have to
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  Speaker 1: play early as a young player, as I did. I
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  Speaker 1: was a rookie. I started twelve games at left tackle. Um.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's one of those things. At some point
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  Speaker 1: you have this moment where your play is going. You
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  Speaker 1: know you're probably playing well as a rookie, especially higher
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  Speaker 1: draft picks that have a lot of talent, like you're
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  Speaker 1: playing okay, and you're trying to find a way to like, hey,
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  Speaker 1: I want to know I fit in with the rest
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  Speaker 1: of this league and the rest of the old lineman
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  Speaker 1: in my room and that kind of thing. But at
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  Speaker 1: some point you have a moment where you go, oh, man,
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  Speaker 1: I gotta put my feet in the ground and this
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  Speaker 1: has got to change and I've got to do this better.
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  Speaker 1: And I think with Trevor Lawrence. You always saw the capabilities, like, hey, man,
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  Speaker 1: there's moments last year we'd see a throw where you're like, wow,
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  Speaker 1: that that's why he was a top five talent. That's
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  Speaker 1: why he was the number one pick. You saw that
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  Speaker 1: throw like that's unbelievable. But you didn't see him do
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  Speaker 1: all the little things at quarterback where you're like, man,
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  Speaker 1: he's playing the position the best and and and the
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  Speaker 1: way that you would expect him to play it. And
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  Speaker 1: then now you've really seem like, man, here we are.
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  Speaker 1: Ten weeks ago, people probably thought, man, I don't see
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  Speaker 1: as much as I want to see different from last
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  Speaker 1: year to where he goes to this Denver game, he
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  Speaker 1: has this moment and I'll never forget his quotes about
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  Speaker 1: how I never want my team to feel like this again.
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  Speaker 1: I never want to feel like this again, that that
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  Speaker 1: I'm the one putting my team in a position where
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  Speaker 1: they're not winning. And he felt that way after that game,
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  Speaker 1: and I feel like that was his moment where he
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  Speaker 1: put his foot in the ground and he said, you
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  Speaker 1: know what, I'm about to find ways that I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and just accept it. I'm the
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  Speaker 1: quarterback our team is gonna win and lose based off
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  Speaker 1: I play this position. That is the NFL. Every team's
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  Speaker 1: QB faces that. I'm gonna accept it. I'm gonna put
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  Speaker 1: my feet in the ground and I'm gonna make a
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  Speaker 1: difference and I'm gonna be the difference of why we
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  Speaker 1: win and lose games. And whow has he been on fire?
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  Speaker 1: It's been exceptional. See the confidence you know that he
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  Speaker 1: has and how special that is in the NFL. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: confidence and momentum is a real thing, and he's got
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  Speaker 1: it right now. And they are not a team that
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  Speaker 1: anybody wants to see. Andrew a couple of more thoughts
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  Speaker 1: with you here. Kim Robinson is out most likely for
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  Speaker 1: the rest of the season with a knee injury. But
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  Speaker 1: it's a big opportunity for Walker a little to step
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  Speaker 1: in there. And he's a second round pick. He's gotta
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  Speaker 1: go a prove it now and and give Trevor the
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  Speaker 1: time to go do his work starting Thursday night. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's gonna be a challenge. I mean, look at his
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  Speaker 1: Jets defense is really good. Uh. They like to create
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  Speaker 1: some pressure on you know, on the quarterback and get
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  Speaker 1: after people. And you're gonna have situations the way they
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  Speaker 1: for the way they do things, they're gonna put the
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  Speaker 1: quarterback back there with some four man rushes to where,
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  Speaker 1: you know what, he's gonna have to look around a
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  Speaker 1: little bit and and buy some time to find people
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  Speaker 1: who are open and read what they're doing with their
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  Speaker 1: different zones. They'll play, you know, they'll play some man,
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  Speaker 1: they'll play some cover for stuff like that. So he's
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  Speaker 1: gonna need time. So it's gonna be a challenge. And
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  Speaker 1: they've got some good guys up front, so this could
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  Speaker 1: be a big factor. I mean, we saw different teams
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  Speaker 1: throughout this season. When you lose some of your critical alignment,
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  Speaker 1: that means a lot to keep in the quarterback clean
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  Speaker 1: or your running game, Uh, it matters. So this is
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  Speaker 1: gonna be a big test because it's one thing to
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  Speaker 1: be a guy who goes and fills in in a game.
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  Speaker 1: That happens plenty and guysking get through it. But when
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  Speaker 1: you're kind of the guy and they know all week, hey,
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna circle this is the guy playing, let's evaluate
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  Speaker 1: his tape and how you beat him, that's a whole
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  Speaker 1: different challenge. When you're the starter and there you're the
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  Speaker 1: guy they're circling and saying, let's evaluate this guy and
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  Speaker 1: how do we go beat him? So this would be
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  Speaker 1: a great game for him, have a chance to be
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  Speaker 1: challenged short week though, which plays in his favor as
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  Speaker 1: a young player. And hopefully he can go out there
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  Speaker 1: and stand the test because that they're gonna need it.
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  Speaker 1: And you know what, there's nothing better for a quarterbacks
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  Speaker 1: on fire than time to throw the football. And if
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  Speaker 1: you want to rattle him and get him rattled, it's
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  Speaker 1: gonna be happy to get to him. So you know
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  Speaker 1: that the Jets are gonna have a lot of emphasis
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  Speaker 1: of how many times can we try and hit Trevor
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  Speaker 1: Lawrence in this game. Andrew Whitworth with his final thought,
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  Speaker 1: Doug Peterson's leadership for this team steady day to day.
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  Speaker 1: He never changes. I don't know how much you've been
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  Speaker 1: around Doug. I think that's a big piece of what
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  Speaker 1: this team has done this year. His steady, constant, day
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  Speaker 1: to day, nothing changes. We lost the fourth squarter lead,
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  Speaker 1: Let's get back to it. We've won a game, Let's
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  Speaker 1: get back to it. He's done it at the highest
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  Speaker 1: level and this team's buying in. You can't underestimate what
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  Speaker 1: Doug certainly is done here. Oh there's no doubt. Look,
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  Speaker 1: Doug spent some time in the three one eight North Louisiana.
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  Speaker 1: I know Doug well. Uh, you know what he's Uh,
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  Speaker 1: he's a good dude man, and his his personality and
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  Speaker 1: how he is. I mean, man, does anybody deserve more
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  Speaker 1: credit than him for really how he settled in with
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  Speaker 1: Trevor Lawrence and the job he's done, you know, with
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  Speaker 1: the confidence across that building. You hear the different interviews
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  Speaker 1: of guys and what they say about him, and they'd
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  Speaker 1: run through walls for him and do anything else. So
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  Speaker 1: that part right there is special. And man, he's done
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  Speaker 1: an amazing job with this team. And right now what
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  Speaker 1: he's done is not just coming and been the coach
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  Speaker 1: and got the quarterback to play better, but he's you
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  Speaker 1: can feel that they've got a team that's starting to
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  Speaker 1: believe in themselves and they're starting to believe that big
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  Speaker 1: plays are possible, big moments are possible. And I don't
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  Speaker 1: think that's the kind of team you want to play
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  Speaker 1: late in the year because late in the year, young rosters,
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  Speaker 1: talented rosters that also have confidence and momentum, those are
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  Speaker 1: the toughest to beat, and that's why they have been
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  Speaker 1: on this role and that they're bringing the challenge and
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  Speaker 1: we're able to pull off a win last week. It
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  Speaker 1: gets a really good football team. I'm telling you that
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  Speaker 1: this team could make some noise unless somebody can find
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  Speaker 1: a way to end that confidence and momentum and Doug
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  Speaker 1: Peterson's a bigger part is that as anybody Andrews, thanks
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  Speaker 1: for the time, enjoy the game. Merry Christmas to you
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  Speaker 1: and the family, appreciate it. Hi, thank you, same to you.
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  Speaker 1: Man