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O-Zone Podcast: Trent Baalke · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Ozone podcast presented by by Star Credit
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  Speaker 1: with Jaguars senior writer John Osan. All Right, welcome to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: this week's Ozone podcast presented by by Star and I
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  Speaker 1: won't do a long introduction because people want to hear
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  Speaker 1: from Jaguars General manager Trent Balky and Trent welcome. First
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  Speaker 1: of all, I appreciate you doing this. Thanks for having
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  Speaker 1: um the first question right out of the box, we
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  Speaker 1: said at the beginning of the off season January, as
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  Speaker 1: important and off season as there was for this franchise.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me so far your assessment of what you've done
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  Speaker 1: and how you feel about this going into the draft. Well,
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  Speaker 1: nothing's changed. It's still still extremely important for this franchise.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, we we've done. We've done a lot
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  Speaker 1: within the partnership that coach and I have have entered into,
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  Speaker 1: and it's it's been a great process up to this point,
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  Speaker 1: will continue to be. UH. There's been a great collaboration. UH,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of excitement around what we're doing and getting
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  Speaker 1: to know each other as a staff has been critical.
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  Speaker 1: Both the personnel side and the coaching side have worked
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  Speaker 1: extremely hard to get ready for next week and we
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  Speaker 1: feel we're about there right now. I was the incredibly
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  Speaker 1: detailed process that you've spent years building. But the communication
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  Speaker 1: between coaching and personnel in this how key is that? Uh?
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  Speaker 1: What has that process been like building that? Uh? I
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  Speaker 1: guess the communication structure between the two, it's critical. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you have to be on the same page.
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  Speaker 1: You have to know culturally what you're looking for. You
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  Speaker 1: have to know schematically what you're looking for. Not every
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  Speaker 1: player in this draft is a cultural fit for every team. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: Not every player in this draft is a schematic fit
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  Speaker 1: for for every team. And that's why everybody's boards look
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  Speaker 1: so so much different undraft. Uh. You know. So what
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  Speaker 1: you're trying to do is build your board for you
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  Speaker 1: and you specifically forget where the noise of where a
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  Speaker 1: guy is going to go in the draft, because where
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  Speaker 1: they go doesn't doesn't really make a difference. When you
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  Speaker 1: figure that fifty or roughly fifty of the first round
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  Speaker 1: picks don't play to that first round status, that should
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  Speaker 1: give you an indication how difficult this is to get
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  Speaker 1: it right. So I think, as long as you're looking
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  Speaker 1: at guys culturally and uh schematically physically, do they fit
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  Speaker 1: what you're looking for? That's your best chance to build
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  Speaker 1: a board specific to you and your best chance to
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  Speaker 1: execute it properly on on on draft Day, I've asked
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  Speaker 1: it seems like a million draft grewies, you know, the
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  Speaker 1: grewries trying they're out there. Um well, I'm no Google.
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you that I've got I've got plenty of
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  Speaker 1: missages to show for it. But I've always asked them,
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  Speaker 1: is this a good year for the Jaguars to have
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  Speaker 1: five at the top sixty five? And I guess there's
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  Speaker 1: never a bad year, But when you look at that,
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  Speaker 1: at the players that you expect to be there in
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  Speaker 1: that top seven or so, good year for you guys
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  Speaker 1: to have that? Yeah, we feel we feel it's there's
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's like every other draft. There's there's positions
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  Speaker 1: that are top heavy. Uh there's positions that are bottom heavy.
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  Speaker 1: There's positions that have guys that all the way throughout
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  Speaker 1: the draft that you feel good about where where they
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  Speaker 1: are for the value. Uh So, I don't think it's
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  Speaker 1: any different than any other drafts that we've been a
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  Speaker 1: part of. But yet the positional value has has changed
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  Speaker 1: a little bit in some respects. You know, you look
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  Speaker 1: at the tight end position, for instance. You know there
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  Speaker 1: aren't as many tight ends as there used to be, uh,
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  Speaker 1: at least in this given year. So when you look
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  Speaker 1: at each position, UH, we feel good about where we've
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  Speaker 1: got players valued. We feel good that within the first
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  Speaker 1: sixty five we can come out of this thing with
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  Speaker 1: five starters. And that's what you hope to do. If
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  Speaker 1: you get a chance to take a swing at the
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  Speaker 1: top sixty five players in the draft, and you got
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  Speaker 1: to get to have five of those guys, you should
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  Speaker 1: hope you can come away with with with five starters.
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  Speaker 1: It's usually an obligatory question. Would a GM be willing
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  Speaker 1: to trade that first round pick. I'm gonna assume you're
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  Speaker 1: not trading number one overall, but never say never, Never
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  Speaker 1: say never, But overall your reputation is is that you
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  Speaker 1: don't mind moving around in the draft. What's your philosophy
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  Speaker 1: on that and what prompts you to try to move?
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  Speaker 1: How do you approach that? You gotta let the board speak.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you you work for three sixty four days
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  Speaker 1: out of the year to get through that Day one
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  Speaker 1: or whatever number that is. And you've got a plan,
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  Speaker 1: and you know you've got the players valued and when
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  Speaker 1: the board starts to fall, you can't predict how it's
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  Speaker 1: gonna fall, So your your plan has to be very fluid.
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  Speaker 1: And when the opportunity arises, when you're sitting there with
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  Speaker 1: the pick and you still have three or four players
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  Speaker 1: that you have twenty five value on, maybe you do
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  Speaker 1: move back. But that's an organizational decision. That's something Coach
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  Speaker 1: and I'll work hard on during that day because you
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  Speaker 1: can't plan for it. You can, you can, Uh, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I guess you can plan for it, but the reality
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  Speaker 1: is draft day isn't predicted. You can plan all you want, right,
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  Speaker 1: it has to be fluid. Um, what's your draft room like?
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  Speaker 1: Meaning there's this perception that it's chaos, people arguing, But
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  Speaker 1: when you get into that draft is in a calm
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  Speaker 1: situation where steps coming off the board and you might
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  Speaker 1: be talking to one or two people. Uh ideally, what
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  Speaker 1: does that look like? Yeah, we met today on it
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  Speaker 1: with the people that are gonna be here, the majority
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  Speaker 1: of the people that will be in the draft room. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: it's the opposite of that. There there is no chaos. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: Chaos means you weren't prepared and uh, you know, over
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  Speaker 1: the years in the in the rooms i've been in.
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  Speaker 1: The best job we did was when it was it
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  Speaker 1: was calmist. You know, you you work all year for
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  Speaker 1: this opportunity, so if you're not prepared that that can
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  Speaker 1: lead to chaos. We plan to be fully prepared. When
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  Speaker 1: do you set your board and leave it alone? Do
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  Speaker 1: you have a goal day three or four days out?
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  Speaker 1: Is that? Uh? You? Usually the board is right now,
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  Speaker 1: it's set. By the end of this week, it'll be
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  Speaker 1: set and you leave that one percent for any late
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  Speaker 1: information you may get. We've all been there, even on draft.
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  Speaker 1: They were all of a sudden something happened, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it picked five and you're looking at each other, going,
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  Speaker 1: we gotta make an adjust to take something special. Once
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  Speaker 1: the end of this week, it takes something different to
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  Speaker 1: get that board move. You're not moving a guy just
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  Speaker 1: because you're nervous. That the nerves are over. We're now
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  Speaker 1: it's we're to the point now where we've watched all
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  Speaker 1: the film. You know, we're still adjusting a little bit
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  Speaker 1: at the bottom the board, and we're gonna have some
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  Speaker 1: major discussions over the next three days relative to the
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  Speaker 1: upper tier in the middle tier of the board. But
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  Speaker 1: for the most part, it's set the process of doing
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  Speaker 1: it the first time with a new group, which a
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  Speaker 1: lot of these guys were knew, A lot of them
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  Speaker 1: are people that you've known before. How did that play
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  Speaker 1: out in terms of working with some of the new
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  Speaker 1: people you were doing. I mean, are you pleased with
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  Speaker 1: the process nine or ten days out? Yeah, it's been excellent. Again,
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  Speaker 1: the the the amount of collaboration, communication, Uh, the amount
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  Speaker 1: of work that that the staff has put in both
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  Speaker 1: personnel and and coaching has been has been miraculous. It
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  Speaker 1: really has. It's been as good as I've been around
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  Speaker 1: the detail that we've gone into relative to these zoom
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  Speaker 1: calls and meeting and getting to know these players on
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  Speaker 1: the board, I feel as prepared as as I've ever been,
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  Speaker 1: and I think we we as an organization, UH feel
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  Speaker 1: that way. Do you feel different as a decision maker
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  Speaker 1: than you did three or four years ago with your
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  Speaker 1: last year? Does that change at all? Or having a
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  Speaker 1: fair question? Yeah, no, I think it is a fair question.
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  Speaker 1: I think, you know, reflecting back, you know, I really
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  Speaker 1: feel like the three years a way of help me
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  Speaker 1: in a lot of ways how I look at things
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  Speaker 1: and and uh, the relationship I had with coaches excellent
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  Speaker 1: and the way we work together has been been excellent.
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  Speaker 1: And and again, I mean it comes down to comfort.
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  Speaker 1: The more comfortable you are and the role you're in,
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  Speaker 1: the better your chance of executing. And I think we're
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  Speaker 1: at a point where I think we're all very comfortable
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  Speaker 1: in what we're doing. We've gotten to know each other
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  Speaker 1: very well. Uh from a from a staff perspective, Uh,
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  Speaker 1: and now we just you get to a point where
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  Speaker 1: you trust one another. How is uh or Meyer obviously
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  Speaker 1: has never been through this, So the question is hand
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  Speaker 1: preparing for the draft. I assume tireless worker in that regard,
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  Speaker 1: But how has that gone in terms of his input
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  Speaker 1: on these players? Assume he knows a lot of them
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  Speaker 1: by name, And yeah, it's it's a huge advantage to
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  Speaker 1: have a coach that that came from the college Shedding
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: and we have a number of them because they've they've
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  Speaker 1: recruited a lot of these guys and they've gotten to
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  Speaker 1: know them at a much deeper level than sometimes a
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  Speaker 1: scouting staff can because they've they've known them since they
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  Speaker 1: were fifteen, sixteen years old and sometimes even earlier than that.
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  Speaker 1: So that's that's been excellent coaches work ethic is is uncertain, unmatched.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, he's gonna and he demands that from everybody.
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  Speaker 1: So again, I think our preparation for this drafts has
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  Speaker 1: been as detailed as I can remember being a part of.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to continue to dig. We're still making zoom
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  Speaker 1: calls and will make zoom calls all the way through
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  Speaker 1: next week to get to know, especially these guys at
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  Speaker 1: the lower end, that we maybe haven't spent enough time
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  Speaker 1: on two final questions. And I feel like I always
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  Speaker 1: have to ask a general manager going into a draft
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  Speaker 1: who haven't talked to a lot before need value. Everybody
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  Speaker 1: wants to talk about that draft for need. You draft
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  Speaker 1: for value or best available. I know you're a value guy,
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  Speaker 1: but how does that equation play out for you? What's
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  Speaker 1: your thought on that? Well? I think value. You know
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  Speaker 1: you want to get the best football players you can,
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  Speaker 1: and you you never go wrong by making a position
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  Speaker 1: of strength even stronger. Uh. And sometimes in an effort
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  Speaker 1: to to sign somebody at a position of weakness or need,
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  Speaker 1: you reach and you never know right and and there's
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  Speaker 1: a lot of mistakes that happen. So you you're gonna
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  Speaker 1: stick the best available player? Uh? Any chance you get
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  Speaker 1: now when best available and need come together. That's the
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  Speaker 1: ideal situation, when best available player in a slightly less Uh.
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  Speaker 1: You know I should say when a need orright and
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  Speaker 1: there's a there's a guy that's maybe valued slightly higher,
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  Speaker 1: that's the that's the art, right, You're you're trying to
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  Speaker 1: always take the best available player and match it with need.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: If possible, to be remiss, if we didn't ask you
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  Speaker 1: one question about the presumed number one overall pick. But
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  Speaker 1: Trevor Lawrence, your thoughts on him. I know you've studied
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  Speaker 1: him deep and and not Jaguars fans are are fascinated
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: by him, but it's give me your assessment. Uh. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we say all the stars aligned, you know, when the
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  Speaker 1: physical and the mental and the character and all the
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  Speaker 1: things you look at and a player match up. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we say the stars aligned, you know, and I think
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  Speaker 1: with Trevor, and there's a number of players like that
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  Speaker 1: in Astray, there's a lot of players like that where
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  Speaker 1: the it aligns. You know, you feel really good about
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  Speaker 1: the physical, you feel really good about the mental, and
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  Speaker 1: you feel very strongly about the character and the culture fit.
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  Speaker 1: You know, when that happens, you feel good and if
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  Speaker 1: we can come out of draft Day with ten of
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  Speaker 1: those guys where that all fits at their level of player,
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  Speaker 1: their level of performance, I think we'll feel pretty good
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  Speaker 1: about this draft to three or four years from now.
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  Speaker 1: Ran Pocky, I appreciate you taking time to do this
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  Speaker 1: during with obviously lazy, your busiest time of the year.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining the Other Zone podcast and we
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: look forward to talking to you down the road and
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and good luck on Draft night obviously, thanks thanks for
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: having me