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Uchenna Nwosu "I Love A Lot Of Things About This Defense" · Seahawks Press Pass

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  Speaker 1: How you guys doing beautiful beautiful day right. Yeah, I
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  Speaker 1: didn't feel to finally get this done and then it
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  Speaker 1: felt good.
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  Speaker 2: Uh felt really good, you know, for my family, myself,
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  Speaker 2: for the team, just felt good.
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  Speaker 1: How quickly did it take? Get getting your last year
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  Speaker 1: was like get fit for years? This is something you
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  Speaker 1: wanted to be So how long did it? What?
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  Speaker 2: How long did it take what you got here last
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  Speaker 2: year to real like this? Since day one, since I
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  Speaker 2: walked in the building, the energy, the culture, the way
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  Speaker 2: the coaches, the way the coaches like support you, the
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  Speaker 2: way they just you know, uplift you. Just how everybody
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  Speaker 2: has positive energy, so friendly here, from the nutrition staff
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  Speaker 2: to the uh to the kitchen upstairs to the equipment.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody just feels such at home. I noticed that from
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  Speaker 1: day one.
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  Speaker 2: Cana every year and you've been in the league and
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  Speaker 2: seem like you've gradually been climbing the ladder better production
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  Speaker 2: every year.
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  Speaker 1: Look at your film, down the new contract and hand.
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  Speaker 1: What are the goals for you this season? What's that
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  Speaker 1: next step for you? Uh?
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  Speaker 2: You know, continue to help my team be the best
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  Speaker 2: it can, you know, take over the division NFC West.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we got a lot of good teams in
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  Speaker 2: this divisions, So trying to keep that accomplis that's the
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  Speaker 2: number one goal right now, stay healthy and make that
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  Speaker 2: Super Bowl run.
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  Speaker 1: Make well.
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  Speaker 2: I liked the question before that, what did you in
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  Speaker 2: the preseason get ready for this season?
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  Speaker 1: So what did you in the preseason? How was your
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  Speaker 1: pre I mean your off season? It was good.
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  Speaker 2: Trained down in South Orange County. Got a good trainer
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  Speaker 2: down there. Uh, prepared me for last season the season
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  Speaker 2: I had, so you know, I saw results there. So
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  Speaker 2: I keep staying there, keep getting better and just keep improving.
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  Speaker 1: What was the What was the process on the contract negotiations?
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  Speaker 2: That's something they talk to you about the end of
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  Speaker 2: the wild season or was it something that was brought
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  Speaker 2: up more over the summer. Yeah, it was definitely something
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  Speaker 2: during at the end of the season. You know, you
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  Speaker 2: know agency, you know, reached out to them. Hey, you guys,
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  Speaker 2: you know Trend's coming off of a pretty good year.
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  Speaker 2: You know, what do you guys want to do? They said,
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  Speaker 2: they loved me here. I mean we were able to
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  Speaker 2: figure something out and get something done that benefited both sides.
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  Speaker 1: So happy to finally got that done.
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  Speaker 2: Was it important to get done before the season until
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  Speaker 2: you know, to kind of worry about.
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  Speaker 1: It instance games. You know, that's something on a lot
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  Speaker 1: of guys think.
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  Speaker 2: I know there's a timeline going into it, you know,
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  Speaker 2: before this can continue to see things are still going
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  Speaker 2: on even into training camp. I know that can take
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  Speaker 2: all the way up to the first game. You know,
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  Speaker 2: so it was a long process and you know, thankfully
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  Speaker 2: I was able to get it done before you know,
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  Speaker 2: we start out here, so I can just focus all
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  Speaker 2: on ball.
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  Speaker 1: You know, what do you like about this defense? I
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  Speaker 1: love a lot of things about this defense.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we got a lot of young guys, a
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  Speaker 2: lot of good young guys coming back. You know, we
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  Speaker 2: boasted up the interior defensive line to help us a lot,
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  Speaker 2: help us out this year, making more of an emphasis
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  Speaker 2: on the run game, and everybody's buying into.
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  Speaker 1: The culture and the scheme.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you got hurt coming into another year, getting everybody,
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  Speaker 2: getting everybody going, just the energy, just the excitement, and
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  Speaker 2: just the talent that we got on this defense. What
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  Speaker 2: about the scheme defense here for you just you know,
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  Speaker 2: just it fits me because I'm able to do what
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  Speaker 2: I naturally do, which is fly around and make plays.
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  Speaker 2: You know, It's like basically not having any handcuffs on.
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  Speaker 2: You know, just go out there, whatever you see, you know,
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  Speaker 2: just go out there and just be the best you can.
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  Speaker 2: You know, Pete, he does a lot and give me
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  Speaker 2: a lot of like I guess you can say, freedom
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  Speaker 2: to be out there and just be the player he
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  Speaker 2: knows I can be, which is a playmaker. And I
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  Speaker 2: like that about this defensive line and I hope to
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  Speaker 2: continue with this year.
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  Speaker 1: That they said that's the player will keep.
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  Speaker 2: Not freelancing, of course, you know, playing within the scheme,
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  Speaker 2: but you know, taking my shots when I can here
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  Speaker 2: and there, if I notice certain things, certain formations, looks,
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  Speaker 2: you know, being able to shoot my shot. Do you
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  Speaker 2: think that contributed to you at the year you had
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  Speaker 2: last year? Absolutely, you say you mentioned both during the
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  Speaker 2: defensive line, there's gonna be a lot of new guys
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  Speaker 2: in that group.
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  Speaker 1: Does that take some time for you to learn those
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  Speaker 1: guys kind of how you play off each other and
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  Speaker 1: all that.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, you know, that's what we have the spring here for,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and uh mini camp and all that stuff
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  Speaker 2: is the jail with those guys. Talk with those guys,
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  Speaker 2: see how they play, see what they like, and then
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  Speaker 2: we can all fix our games off of off of that. Specifically,
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  Speaker 2: he's having a player like Draymond Jones had five and
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  Speaker 2: a half sacks, which for the last three years.
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  Speaker 1: How does that impact you on the edge, having a
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  Speaker 1: guy like that that tracts a kind.
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  Speaker 2: Of attention inside, Like you said, it takes attention off me,
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  Speaker 2: you know, less, a lot of less chips and double
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  Speaker 2: team hopefully a lot of less chips, but a lot
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  Speaker 2: less you know, slides and double teams and help from
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  Speaker 2: the guard, you know, because I gott to focus on
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  Speaker 2: such a talented player like him, and you know, he
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  Speaker 2: does whatever he wants inside and you'll free me up
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  Speaker 2: coming off of him or you know, just beating around
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  Speaker 2: the edge or doing a lot of things.
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  Speaker 1: So I appreciate Drean. Happy to have him here.
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  Speaker 2: When coaches have confidence, and is that a natural progression
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  Speaker 2: for you to become a leader or your leader already coming.
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  Speaker 1: In for this team.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, when coaches, you know, build you up and have
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  Speaker 2: confidence in you, and you know your teammates trust you.
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  Speaker 2: Most importantly, you know, your teammates got to look up
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  Speaker 2: to you the number one thing. So just having the
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  Speaker 2: confidence and having being happy to be here for another
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  Speaker 2: year and you know, guys actually seeing what I do
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  Speaker 2: and you know they're trusting what I do.
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  Speaker 1: It raises my confidence up to lead more a challenging
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  Speaker 1: opportunity for you. It's definitely opportunity. You mentioned the run
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  Speaker 1: games with the emphasis there. What's changing, what seems like
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  Speaker 1: it might be different this year?
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  Speaker 2: You got, I guess, just the emphasis and everybody buying in.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we added some new key peaks, some new
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  Speaker 2: pieces in the offseason, as you guys noticed with you know,
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  Speaker 2: Jay Reed coming back, and we got Draymond free agency.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we got Bobby coming back, you got you
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  Speaker 2: got guys in multiple years in the system. So you
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  Speaker 2: know that all ties into the run game. And like
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  Speaker 2: I said, we're making the point from day one is
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  Speaker 2: that's the emphasis on the whole defense is not letting
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  Speaker 2: anybody run the ball.
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  Speaker 1: Who's there act your family when the deal was finally.
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  Speaker 2: Gam a man, my parents were so happy. You know,
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  Speaker 2: they were telling me all their coworkers were getting the
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  Speaker 2: news before them, so they were just huh huh what
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  Speaker 2: they didn't really know, you know, so you know, foreign parents,
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  Speaker 2: so they were excited.
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  Speaker 1: You know, they were happy, so happy. I'm curious as
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  Speaker 1: a defender.
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  Speaker 2: You've seen what's going on the market with running backs
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  Speaker 2: around the league.
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  Speaker 1: You played against guys like Saquan of the elite backs.
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  Speaker 2: What's your viewpoint from being a defensive player having to
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  Speaker 2: go against those guys with what's going on to their
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  Speaker 2: in terms of market value for the Yeah, it's very sad,
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  Speaker 2: you know for us, like that's our emphasis. It's stopping
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  Speaker 2: the running backs. You know, when you have facing up
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  Speaker 2: a guy like Josh Jacobs or Austin Eckler or or
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  Speaker 2: uh or Josh Jacobs or Austin Eckler or any of
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  Speaker 2: these an An, these top running backs, that's your emphasis
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  Speaker 2: is to stop the run, and they put so much
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  Speaker 2: pressure on you by how dynamic they can be catching
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  Speaker 2: the ball out the backfield or how shifty they can
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  Speaker 2: be through the lanes and reading holds. So to see
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  Speaker 2: them not get the credit they deserve or the markets
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  Speaker 2: just they're not being respected. You know, it's very sad
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  Speaker 2: to see considering how much how important they are to
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  Speaker 2: offenses and how much emphasis defense is put on them.
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  Speaker 1: Do you feel like you get the credit you deservers
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  Speaker 1: or players?
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  Speaker 2: I I feel like it starts slowly starting to climb
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  Speaker 2: up you know, that's what you gotta do.
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  Speaker 1: You gotta produce.
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  Speaker 2: You know, when you produce, you know, good things will happen.
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  Speaker 2: People start to notice you more. So all I know
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  Speaker 2: is I gotta keep grinding on that field and the
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  Speaker 2: recognition will come stiff, like the top ten mane when
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  Speaker 2: you comes out of the Players or Madden or whatever
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  Speaker 2: you play. I mean, I look at it, but I
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  Speaker 2: don't play madd anymore. You know it's not realistic, but
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, it's way is what it is.
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  Speaker 2: You know, throughout the season, they improve your rankings as
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  Speaker 2: the better you play, so I know my ranking will
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  Speaker 2: hopefully go up.
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  Speaker 1: The players stop one hunder or like any of that stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Nactually nah, just winning the NFC, uh West, making some
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  Speaker 2: Pro Bowls and All Pro man So what's what I'm
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  Speaker 2: on aut right now? Trying to get you mentioned that
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  Speaker 2: emphasis on stop the run.
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  Speaker 1: Aside from the Personela, what else do you think of that?
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  Speaker 2: And sort of the key of being better at doctors
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  Speaker 2: just the mindset really, you know, stopping a run you
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  Speaker 2: really gotta It's it's not like, you know, everybody wants
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  Speaker 2: to be here and everybody wants to rush the passer.
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  Speaker 2: But you know and get picks and all that stuff.
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  Speaker 2: But the only way you can do that if you
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  Speaker 2: you stop the opponent team from running running the ball.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, if you want to have some fun,
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  Speaker 2: you gotta stop the run. That's really the emphasis is
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  Speaker 2: just especially considering what happened last year to us. You know,
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  Speaker 2: we had some ups and but we had a really
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  Speaker 2: lot of oh, so really got to hone it on
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  Speaker 2: that this year.
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  Speaker 1: That's the point of the episodes.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, for you DT type, for the team wave.
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  Speaker 1: You guys have a front of.
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  Speaker 2: The competition for since it's always a friendly competition, not
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  Speaker 2: even with DT, the whole across the whole d line man.
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  Speaker 2: We're just trying to make each other better. And that's
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  Speaker 2: what it's about. If he eats, I eat. You know,
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  Speaker 2: we we all feed off each other. So I wanna
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  Speaker 2: see DT do good. I want to see the interior
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  Speaker 2: guys do good, you know, cause it makes me better.
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  Speaker 2: It's that forces me to compete, you know, step up
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  Speaker 2: my game.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, do with you now instead of maybe you
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  Speaker 1: have another big year, maybe trying to catch the great
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  Speaker 1: see the frame. I mean, because you know, I wanna
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  Speaker 1: be here.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I don't want to have to live out
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  Speaker 2: the possibility of going somewhere else. You know, the culture here,
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  Speaker 2: the young team here, the pet you know, just the connections,
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  Speaker 2: my sc people I see all the time, Like it
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  Speaker 2: feels like a home here. It's not too far from
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  Speaker 2: l A. You know, two and a half hour flight,
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  Speaker 2: so on the West coast. You know, I just wanna
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  Speaker 2: be here. The weather's nice. Uh, just the team is
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  Speaker 2: just every It just makes me want to make sense.
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  Speaker 2: Wanna be here, you know. So why would why would
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  Speaker 2: I want a chance going somewhere else when I'm right
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  Speaker 2: at home right here.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you guys that m