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Cooper Kupp: "We're Continuing To Grow" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: It's good. Good. How are you great?
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: I just spend your times with family. Moving back to
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: La spent some time down there in the sun before
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: the darkness comes up here.
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: So, so you played with Bobby Wagner in l A
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: and seeing him, What was it like when he came
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: in in l A.
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  Speaker 2: What did you learn about him? I learned he's a
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: tremendous leader. That and some I think the I learned that,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: you know, tremendous leaders don't have to be ones that
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: are always up in front talking. And I thought you
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: did a great job of just finding the balance of
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: modeling what's supposed to look like with his process and
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  Speaker 2: he's obviously been playing at a high level for a
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  Speaker 2: long time now, but modeling his process and then also
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  Speaker 2: being able to find the times to share a word
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  Speaker 2: when it's on his heart that something needs to be
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  Speaker 2: said and not shying away from that.
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  Speaker 1: But he was, uh, yeah, he was.
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  Speaker 2: I mean you could tell he was a special, special,
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  Speaker 2: full of player, special human being.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: You've also played against him.
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  Speaker 3: What's what's kind of the homeworks of a Bobby Wagner
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  Speaker 3: defense and team when you're.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Going against him Bobby Wagner defense, Well, I mean, for
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  Speaker 2: like him specifically. I think he just a great job
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  Speaker 2: of communicating within the you know, within the box of
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  Speaker 2: what he's seeing, kind of allow guys to play fast,
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  Speaker 2: and he's obviously his anticipation ability to be in the
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  Speaker 2: right spots, he's he's one of the best at it.
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  Speaker 2: And uh, I think that's You've just seen that over
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  Speaker 2: and over again throughout his careers, just finding ways to
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  Speaker 2: just be there before. It's like somehow he finds the
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  Speaker 2: wagers be at the point of attack over and over
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  Speaker 2: and over again. So something you continue to do. And
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  Speaker 2: you see him communicating with the guys, whether with the
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  Speaker 2: D line or or his linebackers and safeties when they're
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  Speaker 2: in the fits and things like that. So yeah, he's
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  Speaker 2: a he's uh, he gets he has those guys on point.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: Offense, obviously, he was able to do a lot of
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  Speaker 4: good things first seven games coming out of the buy.
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  Speaker 4: I guess, what do you want to see next from
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  Speaker 4: this offense?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's just a continued continued growth.
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  Speaker 2: The most interesting thing you can do in this league,
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  Speaker 2: especially in the middle of the season, is think that
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  Speaker 2: you've you've got figured out there's you've got to continue
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  Speaker 2: to grow, continue to improve and the goal is to
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  Speaker 2: be a better team at the end of the season
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  Speaker 2: than you were going into it. And we've got you know,
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  Speaker 2: that's a that's a day by day, daily choice to
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  Speaker 2: you know, make that improvement, to show up here with
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  Speaker 2: intentions to be able to get better as football players,
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  Speaker 2: as units in your in our individual rooms, but also
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  Speaker 2: just as a team. So I think that's, uh, that's
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  Speaker 2: the goal for us.
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: How do you assess your your season today and kind
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  Speaker 4: of the role you've had so far.
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  Speaker 2: I don't really do that, I think, you know, I
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: think the you've I'm not in the business of looking
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  Speaker 2: back all the time to reflect on the season and
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: the season's over, but I think the whole thing and
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: I was just moving for like, man, how how do
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  Speaker 2: I continue to do what I'm asked to do? You know,
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  Speaker 2: whatever it is, whatever I'm asked to do, how do
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  Speaker 2: I continue to do that at a high level? And uh,
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  Speaker 2: you know, be a positive piece of of winning games here?
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  Speaker 2: You know, how can I be an asset for this team?
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  Speaker 2: And you're just going to continue to do that.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: You played for.
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  Speaker 3: Teams that didn't have a clear identity of what they
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  Speaker 3: wanted to be and then what they.
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  Speaker 1: Were and then obviously teams that do.
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  Speaker 3: And what's the difference between the two.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I.
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  Speaker 2: Think there's I mean, I think every team wants to like,
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  Speaker 2: that's what every team talks about training camp.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Man, We're going to establish what we're about, what's our.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Identity, And it's I think it's really hard because you're
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  Speaker 2: not you're not playing the games, you know, like you're
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  Speaker 2: you need you need to play in the games, and
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  Speaker 2: you have this idea of what you're going to be,
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  Speaker 2: but there's also gotta be a willingness to adapt and
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  Speaker 2: move within that. You know, what are the things that
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  Speaker 2: are working. We are things that we do at a
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  Speaker 2: high level and staying within the realm of you know,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: your scheme and what you've practiced, and you don't want
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  Speaker 2: to you know, completely rewrite the uh the playbook in
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  Speaker 2: the middle of the season. But the ability to adapt
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  Speaker 2: and find ways to win. And I think those are
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  Speaker 2: the best teams are the ones whose identity is we
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  Speaker 2: find a way to win the game, you know. And
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  Speaker 2: and so yeah, I think that I think we've done
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  Speaker 2: a good job though, and continue to grow and change
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  Speaker 2: and morph and you know, just like like water, just
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  Speaker 2: find those cracks, keep moving, keep moving forward.
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  Speaker 5: Kind of not necessarily comparing this team to any of those,
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  Speaker 5: but as someone who's been on a team that's made
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: deep playoff runs, are there some habits or some stylistic
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  Speaker 5: things that you see you guys doing now that you
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  Speaker 5: know translate to making deep runs in the postseason.
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  Speaker 2: No, I think it's you know, I think I touched
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  Speaker 2: on that a little bit. It's just it's the it's
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  Speaker 2: the willingness to come in and commune to work. You know,
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  Speaker 2: no one hears saying, oh, you're you know whatever, you're
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  Speaker 2: five and two. You're like, we're set, you know, like,
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  Speaker 2: no one's made the playoffs with five wins. So there's
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  Speaker 2: just you know, as mind says, like we've continue to grow,
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  Speaker 2: there's so much that you can fix those, you know,
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: those five games that we've won, and there's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of plays like man and it's like man, shoot, we're
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  Speaker 2: around the edge of that game flipping. But we were
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  Speaker 2: able to make a play here or there that made
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  Speaker 2: the difference in the two games you lose. You do
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: the same thing, right, there's a game, a play here
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  Speaker 2: there that makes the difference between us being you could
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  Speaker 2: you can pull up probably fifteen plays over the year,
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  Speaker 2: and you could say this team is a seven to
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  Speaker 2: oh team or it's an one seven team, and that's
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  Speaker 2: across the board in the NFL. That's just how that's
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  Speaker 2: those are the margins that we play on. And so
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  Speaker 2: the mindset has to be like you have to come
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  Speaker 2: into work. You have to as soon as you let
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  Speaker 2: off the gas, it's over. You know, you got to
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  Speaker 2: keep that foot down, continue to improve, continue to come
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  Speaker 2: in here and work. And that's why I'm seeing with
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  Speaker 2: the guys that are coming, you know, each and every
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  Speaker 2: day here coming off of bye week as well, it's
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  Speaker 2: like it's easy to to slow play it back in right,
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  Speaker 2: but no, it's like you're went show up and work.
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  Speaker 1: We practice Monday.
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  Speaker 2: I thought we did a good job just the intensity
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  Speaker 2: off there and you carry that into.
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  Speaker 1: The day and into the weekend.
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  Speaker 4: Those players talk about you as you know, your call
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: is the first one in the parking lot in the morning.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: How and.
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  Speaker 4: When did you kind of acquire that kind.
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  Speaker 1: Of work ethic?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I think there's a for me. Growing up,
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  Speaker 2: I wasn't the biggest dude. My whole thing is being
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  Speaker 2: able to be mentally ahead of people being able to prepare,
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  Speaker 2: give myself an advantage man anywhere, first day of training camp,
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  Speaker 2: every time around my notebook, find a slight edge, whatever
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  Speaker 2: that is, just find the edge. And you know, I
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  Speaker 2: think that's one of the ways that I find mine
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  Speaker 2: is being able to anticipate things, being able to play
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  Speaker 2: with a quieted mind where I can see what's happening,
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  Speaker 2: hopefully be able to anticipate what's happening before it happens,
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  Speaker 2: and then have a counter with it when that picture
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  Speaker 2: does change. And part of that is being able to
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  Speaker 2: get here. You know, you get twenty four hours. Everyone
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  Speaker 2: gets the same twenty four hours. And the way that
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  Speaker 2: I divvy mine up is to be able to get
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  Speaker 2: in here and get star geting preparation done early. So
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: that's that a.
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  Speaker 3: Nineteen hundred yard season. Jackson's on a similar track. It's
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  Speaker 3: only seven games right now. But what is the biggest
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  Speaker 3: challenge to sustaining that kind of a week week basis
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  Speaker 3: throughout the entire season.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's a there's a level of you know,
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  Speaker 2: engagement that's needed. There's I mean, it can it is
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  Speaker 2: a you know, it can be a war of attrition.
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  Speaker 2: I think sometimes in games when you're like, hey, there's
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  Speaker 2: the team that you're going against has been watching your
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  Speaker 2: film and knows your stuff.
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  Speaker 1: They're gonna have a plan to stop Jacks. They're gonna
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  Speaker 1: have a plan to make things difficult for him.
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  Speaker 2: And the hardest thing is like, hey, you might have
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  Speaker 2: some plays like there's gonna be some tough like some
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  Speaker 2: dry spells in the game where they they're saying like, hey,
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  Speaker 2: look we got we're not letting Jacks get the ball,
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  Speaker 2: and you have to be willing to push through that mentally,
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  Speaker 2: but also allow yourself to say, I'm gonna find ways
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  Speaker 2: to win even when they're saying that there's no way
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to and he's not a good job. This
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  Speaker 2: isn't something that's new is it's something that he's been
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  Speaker 2: been doing this year, and you know, being able to
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  Speaker 2: stay in those places where late in the game there's
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  Speaker 2: gonna be opportunities to come your way and the last
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  Speaker 2: thing you want to be doing is floating around mentally
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  Speaker 2: when that opportunity comes. I'm trying to stay engaged in
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  Speaker 2: that in that place, and he's done a good job
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  Speaker 2: of that.
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  Speaker 3: The quarterback metiings, you talk about doing those in your career.
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  Speaker 3: What's something being around Sam that extra time that you
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  Speaker 3: really learned about him or been impressed with him in
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  Speaker 3: that setting.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's his process. I think it's even
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  Speaker 2: being in there when you're watching film and we're talking
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  Speaker 2: through things is his I mean, he's in there watching film,
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  Speaker 2: but he's also as a quarterback, he's going through, you know,
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  Speaker 2: with the scripts, he's going through the call sheets and
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  Speaker 2: you know, being able to make sure he understands the plays,
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: the intent, being able to make sure his communication is clear,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: and just he wants to he wants to go into
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  Speaker 2: a game with a mastery of what the game plan is.
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  Speaker 2: And he's done a great job. I mean, I think
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  Speaker 2: the harrist and well harsest things. That's you know, for
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  Speaker 2: a quarterback. One of the like some guys fail just
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: because they can't get their guys clarity, you know, in
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  Speaker 2: terms of when they're leaving the huddle that there's a
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  Speaker 2: confidence you step in the huddle there say, understanding of
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: what we're trying to get done. There's an ability to
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: communicate things clearly that allows guys to just go out
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  Speaker 2: there and play. And he does a really good job
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: of allowing guys to play as fast as possible, and
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: it's not an easy thing, but he does. He works
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  Speaker 2: very hard at it, and I think that's a that's
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  Speaker 2: a huge edge for us.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: We're speaking of clarity.
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  Speaker 4: What can you say about Mike McDonald's clarity and how
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: we see from top going all the.
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  Speaker 3: Way down to this organization.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he's he's the head man.
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  Speaker 2: He gets up here and we're team meetings every day,
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  Speaker 2: and he's up there, you know, with a with a
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: purposeful message. I think then that kind of goes back
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: to what I kind of said about Bobby, you know,
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  Speaker 2: is you know Bobby doesn't Bobby like great leaders don't
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  Speaker 2: have to speak. If there's nothing to say, they're not
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  Speaker 2: gonna speak. But he comes up here and when he's
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: in front of you guys, he has a message. He
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: has a purpose for why he's in front of the team,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: and I think he does a great job in terms
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: of just making sure that we're all on the same page,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: that there is clarity moving forward, and that messaging is
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: is consistent not just in the team meeting, but also
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: how he's handling things outside of here and how we're
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: going to operate right as a team at practice in
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: our meetings and that that standard set by by him
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: every single day.
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: What about the connection to the players, because that's part
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: of that.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it did, And I think there's a I mean
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: I've I have maybe I have rarely been up in
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: the coaches offices and seen his door close.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: I think that's Uh, this the thing, Like the guys
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: want to go up and ask questions. They want to
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: be around their coaches and be able to, you know,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: figure things out. And you know, Mike store is open.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: He wants to be around guys. He's out there in
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the hallways and you know, the access isn't turned off.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: So I think that goes a long way in terms
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: of being able to connect with guys when there is
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: so much on his play as a head coach, you
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: the defensive stuff, but also as a head coach in
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: general where you've got your handle a lot of logistical
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: stuff as well. So he's never gonna turn down conversation.
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: Back to what Aaron was asking you about about having
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: like a super productive season as a receiver, do you
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: ever have to like fight your own expectations or outside expectations,
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: Like I've gone for one hundred yards and five straight weeks,
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: Like is there an added pressure to produce?
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, I don't know. I mean I.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: You're talking about like with jacks, like when yeah, I
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: think for anyone, anyone coming here. I mean, I don't
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: know what how other people feel pressure, But like you,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: I don't think you there's no point in having Why
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: would you let someone else's expectations add any pressure to yourself?
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: You know, like you're the one that has done the preparation.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: You're the one that's gonna be out there on the
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: field doing the work. Like you, you are the one
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: that should have the expectations, and you know, any pressure
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: that comes outside of that, it's wasted, you know. So
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: so i'd say no, short answers, no, Like you just
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: gotta be able to have expectations for yourself of what
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: you're gonna go do. And the expectation is to be
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: every single play to execute what's asked to you, and
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: then when you come back to the huddle, you're gonna
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: go do the same thing again, you know. And so
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: if you're letting outside stuff, you know, cloud you in
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: any way, I think you're a wasting energy.
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: If I remember correctly, you came within one hundred yards
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: or so of Calvin Johnson's record, do you remember thinking
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: about that at any point during the season.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: And striving for that.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: No, I mean you have to do press conversations and
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: get asked about it, But it wasn't ever something that
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: I had no idea where I was at in that
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: game or anything, you know, Like I said said, like
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: after the season you look back on it and see
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: where things were at and what it was. But you know,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: in the moments like it just you're just so invested
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: in the moment. You're investing in like what is important
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: right now, which is excuting my job and so not
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: something that really your interests your mind.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: You guys, you know, had an opportunity to kind of
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: close out the Jaguars a few times and then the
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: Texans a few times and didn't seem to always actually
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: finish the job there. So have you noticed anything about
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: why or what you guys could do better in those situations?
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it comes down to executions things that
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: it does. I mean, we can't.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: You just gotta be able to make the plays when
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: they're there for you and don't do the stupid things
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: that make you go backwards or turn the ball over
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: and and we've done that in both those times where
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: it's like, man, we've got an opportunity to to end
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: it right here. And if it's it's there's there's there's
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: no I think there's the thing that you get in
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: that those moments. There's no push, there's not like you
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: don't don't feel any extra added pressure you talked about,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: like it's just like go ext to your job, like
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: forget about anything Else's let's let's let's just worry about
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: this play right now, doing your job the best you
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: possibly can. And if we can just string those together,
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: like man, you're you're gonna win a lot of games,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: so you know, it's it's not like it's not rocket
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: science rocket science in those places, just doing what we
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: know we can't do anything else, that awesome makes sense