Latest / Press Pass / Press Pass | Trent Baalke at Combine: "We've got a lot of work to do."

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Press Pass | Trent Baalke at Combine: "We've got a lot of work to do." · Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Top jumping and pushes the day and the guy takes anything.
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  Speaker 2: What was your.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Reaction to I don't think it really changes anything.
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  Speaker 2: Obviously, it affects everybody the same way, so it's not
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  Speaker 2: like it creates an advantage or a disadvantage for us.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: So there's no feeling one way or another on it.
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  Speaker 2: God working, you know, that's an ongoing discussion that we're
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  Speaker 2: having with his agent. In fact, later today I'm going
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: to have another meeting with him as well, So just ongoing.
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  Speaker 1: Apparently the ranks thinning come into play. I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to speculate on that.
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  Speaker 2: Let's just you know, we got a week, a little
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: over a week to work with here. We're going to
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: work diligently with his agent to try to come to
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  Speaker 2: a resolution on this thing.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: So that's that's where our focus is right now. Can
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  Speaker 1: potentially pull off getting prettily back without having to give
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  Speaker 1: up that second.
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  Speaker 2: Round, Well, we're not real concerned with that, whether it's
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: a second or third round. We're just going to work
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: with the player and see if we can come to
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  Speaker 2: an agreement when whether that's before that compensation changes or
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  Speaker 2: not that that remains to be seen.
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  Speaker 1: But we're more focused on the player.
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  Speaker 2: How would you know if you yeah, We're going to
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  Speaker 2: continue to have conversations with all of it. We've got
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  Speaker 2: a lot of work to do this offseason. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I had a meeting with Kelvin the other day in
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  Speaker 2: my office. I had a great talk with Kelvin. Know
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  Speaker 2: exactly where he's at, and then he knows where we're at.
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  Speaker 2: So we're just going to continue to work with all
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  Speaker 2: these players and try to come to some some form
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  Speaker 2: of compromise, some form of resolution as as the weeks
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  Speaker 2: go on.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Croffer reads, where nil your plans. They have a lot
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  Speaker 1: more high end rage than you're can.
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  Speaker 2: Help with me at when any way working the opportunity,
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  Speaker 2: tell people on here that I think there's so many
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  Speaker 2: things that go into the decisions you make on on
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  Speaker 2: on every individual player. It's hard to, you know, without
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  Speaker 2: going into detail on each player in each situation and
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  Speaker 2: what's available.
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  Speaker 1: Hard to lay that all out in your mind.
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  Speaker 2: But every player has the different specifics that go along
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  Speaker 2: with getting a deal done or not getting a deal done.
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  Speaker 2: Our focus is on getting deals done and that's where
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  Speaker 2: we're going to keep it.
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  Speaker 3: Do enough in the past rush this past season.
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  Speaker 1: Well that's you know, everyone has an opinion on that.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 2: I don't ever try to look back and say, what
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  Speaker 2: if there's there's things that we got to do better,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and it ultimately it falls on my.
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  Speaker 1: Shoulders, you know, to make the right decisions, make the
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  Speaker 1: right moves.
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  Speaker 2: With obviously a lot of talk and discussion with coach,
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  Speaker 2: and we're very much on the same page and work
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  Speaker 2: hard to be on the same page.
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  Speaker 1: So you know, we're going to continue to do that,
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  Speaker 1: do what we do.
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  Speaker 2: If there was something ambigue with the amount, if camre
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  Speaker 2: obviously moving back on the.
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  Speaker 1: Team at twenty twenty four, you guys have a reson
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  Speaker 1: to that, or is this contract going to happen on
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  Speaker 1: your compe negotiated on what's esential came up. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know where the ambiguity was.
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  Speaker 2: He's under contract and the expectation is that he will
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  Speaker 2: be back. You know, we've had a lot of discussions
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: over the last two weeks. We obviously got a lot
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  Speaker 2: of moves we got to do. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: players that have hit free agency. There's another bunch of
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  Speaker 2: young guys that we're working on potential extensions for. So
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  Speaker 2: we've got a lot of balls in the air right now,
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  Speaker 2: and we're just going to try to play them one
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  Speaker 2: by one. Certain guys had their structures on contracts, you know,
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  Speaker 2: we don't necessarily.
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  Speaker 1: Like the kind of premier you know, is that something.
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  Speaker 2: That you have to do again this year or Well,
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  Speaker 2: we're in good cap shape right now. I mean we're
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  Speaker 2: sitting pretty good. I think we're right in the middle
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  Speaker 2: to upper tier of the league in term of cap
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  Speaker 2: space available, and we've got moves that we can do
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  Speaker 2: to create more cap space.
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  Speaker 1: So we like the position we're in. We like the
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  Speaker 1: flexibility that we have.
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  Speaker 2: And again, we're not going to disclose any of our
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  Speaker 2: thoughts right here, but we feel good about where we're at.
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  Speaker 1: In this draft, boss. But on the interior of the
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  Speaker 1: offense now the headline world with the talent.
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  Speaker 2: I think, you know, broad brush, I think it's a
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  Speaker 2: good a good group. I think there's strength their strength
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  Speaker 2: of the interior, both on the defensive.
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  Speaker 1: Side and the offensive side.
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  Speaker 2: So I would look forward to be a very competitive
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  Speaker 2: group coming out of this year's draft.
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  Speaker 3: Various Tyson returning to form, getting healthy on the outside,
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  Speaker 3: rolling with those guys, and then who would be your third.
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  Speaker 2: It's a good question, who's going to be the third
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  Speaker 2: You know, we've got to add to that group. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I think Coach Nielson spoke on it. Coach Peterson's probably
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  Speaker 2: spoke on it. Now I'm speaking on it. It's a
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  Speaker 2: group that we need to do to address. We feel
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  Speaker 2: good about the group we have. We feel like we
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  Speaker 2: got some good young guys to work with. We got
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  Speaker 2: some guys, some veterans in there, but we're definitely going
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  Speaker 2: to look to add to that group. Set pumps in
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  Speaker 2: the first round. Taking a tight end early, you know.
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  Speaker 3: Not a good decision like top town because you're.
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  Speaker 1: In the valuable techolosion.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. When I was in San Francisco, we
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  Speaker 2: took Vernon Davis, I think with the sixth pick of
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  Speaker 2: the draft, and that worked out pretty well for us.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you know, when you got a chance to
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  Speaker 1: take a good player.
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  Speaker 2: We can argue about the value of the position all
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  Speaker 2: we want, but you take good players when they're when
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  Speaker 2: they're sitting in front of you.
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  Speaker 1: So if they end up being great players when you
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  Speaker 1: pick them at six, and you you know you hit
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  Speaker 1: the decision was the right decision. If they don't end
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  Speaker 1: up being good players, it wasn't a good decision. And
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  Speaker 1: that's just the world we live in. Plice. We could
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  Speaker 1: give to the front office in LA about working with
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  Speaker 1: Jim Harball, I'm not I worked for the Jacksonville Jaguars,
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  Speaker 1: not not LA, you know.
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  Speaker 2: I think I worked with Jim for a number of years,
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  Speaker 2: have great respect for him and wish him nothing but
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  Speaker 2: the best.
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  Speaker 3: Has the balls.
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  Speaker 1: I can't do up sutly. Point of the abilities you
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: looking out the line is different here, providers, what's your
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  Speaker 1: worn of cards is you really can use that out well?
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  Speaker 2: I think you want to make each room as competitive
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  Speaker 2: as you can make it, whether it's the D line room,
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  Speaker 2: the old line room, the receiver room.
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  Speaker 1: Competition is good. It's a good thing. It's a good
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  Speaker 1: thing to have on your team.
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  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And it's it's you. You want to strengthen it all
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  Speaker 1: the time. Each room. You want to continue to work at.
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  Speaker 2: Ways to strengthen and that's what that's what we do
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  Speaker 2: as team builders.
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  Speaker 1: Bringing this GM, Eric Costins, like you're talking about mine
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  Speaker 1: receiver debnth earlier and you said they're kind of like
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: race cars and watching Breva, but sometimes they thrash. How
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  Speaker 1: do you how do you evaluate wide receivers.
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  Speaker 2: As they age.
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  Speaker 1: I never heard that one. I'll have to use that one.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 2: So they're all different, right, you know, You've got guys
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  Speaker 2: that have aged well and you've got other guys that haven't.
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  Speaker 2: You know, every every athlete's a little bit differently. How
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  Speaker 2: well have they taken care of their body, what type
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  Speaker 2: of probe they've done. There's so many things that go
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  Speaker 2: into it to say they all age the same or
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  Speaker 2: it's not true. And I think we've got plenty of
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  Speaker 2: history behind that to suggest that that's the case.
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  Speaker 3: Positions trend. Interior offensive line in the first round sometimes
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  Speaker 3: can be considered a bugaboo. You did it when you
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  Speaker 3: were with San Francisco back in twenty ten. You can
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  Speaker 3: just speak to your confidence in twenty twenty four. Would
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  Speaker 3: you be confident selecting the interior offensive line in the
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  Speaker 3: first round.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we took Mike ayau Potty, I believe, with the
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  Speaker 2: seventeenth pick in the draft of one year, and it
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  Speaker 2: turned out pretty darn well. Again, it goes back to
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  Speaker 2: did the player turn out to be a good football player?
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  Speaker 2: Didn't he You're never going to get criticized for taking
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  Speaker 2: a good player if it doesn't work and the player
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  Speaker 2: doesn't end up reaching his level of competency or the
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  Speaker 2: expectation of the pick, then it's a bad pick. So
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  Speaker 2: it just comes down to whether you made the right
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  Speaker 2: decision or not, your.
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  Speaker 1: Drafts or not. It's going to be informality in order
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  Speaker 1: way to line.
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to suggest anything at this point. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: they're good football players and you certainly don't want to
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  Speaker 2: lose them.
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  Speaker 1: If you like that off leveling on, you're gonna scrab
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  Speaker 1: what your seeks out more the playoffs.
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  Speaker 2: I think the draft at the corner position, I think
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  Speaker 2: it's gonna be strong.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's a good group.
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  Speaker 2: I think there's gonna be good players at the top
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  Speaker 2: end of the market and good players all the way
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  Speaker 2: through in the developmental range. So again, I think it's
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  Speaker 2: gonna be a pretty good, good group of players in
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  Speaker 2: that specific position.
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  Speaker 1: Group I've got.
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  Speaker 2: Out there, you know, I think the thing we enjoy
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  Speaker 2: the most is getting in front of the players and
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  Speaker 2: just sitting down. You only get eighteen minutes roughly with them.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you're just trying to get as much information
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  Speaker 2: as you can. The general impression of them. Don't use
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  Speaker 2: that impression too heavily one one way or the other.
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  Speaker 2: Some guys come in they're nervous as cats, just like
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  Speaker 2: I am when I get up here, you know, but
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  Speaker 2: you know, you just you just try to get a
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  Speaker 2: feel for the player.
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  Speaker 1: That's all you're trying to do. You get a chance
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  Speaker 1: to watch them work out. More than not.
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  Speaker 2: Some of these guys aren't working out or they're not
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  Speaker 2: doing all the drills like they used to do.
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  Speaker 1: So it's a little bit different. And the most important
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  Speaker 1: thing for.
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  Speaker 2: Us is the medical and that's really what the Combine
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  Speaker 2: years ago has started to do, and that's what we're
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  Speaker 2: kind of back to. It's it's really a good place
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  Speaker 2: to get the medical assessments that you need to make
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  Speaker 2: decisions you need to make in the draft. As we
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: would assume that you guys think highway with him, but
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  Speaker 2: how do you throw him as well as situsig.
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  Speaker 1: Him or next year? We are we like Ezra. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna be meeting with his agent sometime this week.
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  Speaker 1: I believe it's.
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  Speaker 2: Thursday or Friday. We're meeting with Ron. You know, we'll
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  Speaker 2: sit down and talk. We traded for him for a reason.
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  Speaker 2: We think he's an awful good football player, and would
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  Speaker 2: we like them back. We were like all our players back, right,
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  Speaker 2: That's the way we roll. But unfortunately you can't get
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: them all back. So we're gonna work hard and talk
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: with Ron and his agent and talk with Ezra a
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  Speaker 2: little bit and see if we can come to an agreement.
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  Speaker 1: Physicality in the player or he is shaping.
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  Speaker 3: Uh?
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  Speaker 2: You know physicality guys that guys that are have physicality,
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  Speaker 2: they're kind of born with it. You can shape it
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  Speaker 2: a little bit, and you can mature it over time.
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  Speaker 2: The more confident they get, the more physical they play.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of things that go into that, but
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  Speaker 2: usually those those guys are just wired differently, right, Kim.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: A success Jim Harball had San Francisco, did you just
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: sense he would eventually come back to the NFL? You know,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I didn't hear the question of Sir Jim Harbaugh had
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: San Francisco. Did you get a set through a return
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: for the unfel eventually? Yeah?
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I figured Jim would always return. You know, he's a
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: good football coach. He's won everywhere he's been and he
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: deserves a chance to come back into the league.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: And I'm glad he got that. Opportunity website are Nilsen
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: scheme and what they give you in excited you know.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: I think Ryan's proven over time that especially with the front,
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  Speaker 2: he's done an excellent job with those guys developing him,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: you know, moving him around the varying positions along the
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: front to to work matchups and stuff like that. I
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: think you're gonna see a lot of a lot of
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: that as we move forward. But again, coaching is now
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: my I'm into the personnel side. I'll let the coaches
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: talk about the coaching. Mental trail is still on after
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: a great second year to continue that, I think he's
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  Speaker 2: just scratching the surface, you know, with the way he
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  Speaker 2: works and the way he competes. I think I think
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  Speaker 2: his ceiling is very, very high and what we thought
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  Speaker 2: it was when we drafted him, obviously with the first
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: pick in the draft. Right feel that as a draft
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: and approaches sometime how important is it to know the
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: talent under against Let me know about gathering and well,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of ways we try to get a
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: feel for what other teams are thinking. And if I
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: shared that with you, then you'd take that back to
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: San Francisco. But you I I think you just try
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: to get a gauge on what what the team needs
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: are for other teams kind of who they're sending guys
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: around to look at, and all the other things we
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: chart and kind of keep track of. But you know,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: the bottom line is worrying about you. You got to
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: make the best decision you can for you. It helps
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: if you have a little bit of feel for what
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: other teams are going to do, especially if they're right
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: in front of you in the draft.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: But it's impossible to know what every team's thinking. If
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: your radar up for what what's real and what's not.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: What's playing it out there.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: They're not well.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: The best way is not to read it right if
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: you you know, if you read it, you think it's fact,
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: and most of the time it's it's not fact. So
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: I try to tend not to read much. You know,
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: if I did, I'd be hanging from a bridge somewhere.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: But uh, you know, you just try to do the
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: best thing you can do for your for your team,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: and you focus on you.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: The best way to approach it.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: What's that up at his level? In press Taylor as
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: a play.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Rowler, again, I think press is is you know, he's
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: growing as a play caller, and I think there's a
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: natural maturation to that.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Again, I don't get into the coaching side of things.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: You know, I sat in with coach on the interviews
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: and stuff like that, But coach I have full confidence
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  Speaker 2: and coach to make the right decisions for this football team,
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  Speaker 2: and whatever decision he makes, I support severer.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Look like in Tyler work at Benders right as a
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: knack on.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: That muddy night football game you playing for ann want
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: to see the best positions by the time he is
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: the city with the Super.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Bowl and Golt like you're kind of far away from
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: the outside looking is how.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Do you do play well?
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: I think anytime you finish the way you finish it,
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  Speaker 2: there's disappointment, you know.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we were eight and three at one point.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: We finished nine and eight, so we won one more
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: game down the stretch, so it was a disappointment. I
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: don't think anybody you talked to in our organization would
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: argue differently. Extremely disappointed, but focused. You know, we have
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: we have a clear understanding of what we need to do.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: And from a from an organizational standpoint, it's never one thing.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: You know, you can't just point to one thing and
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: say that's why we we finished the way we finished.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: There's multiple things, tentacles that stretch into different areas of
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: the of the organization, and we all have to own it.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: You know, no one better to own than me.
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  Speaker 2: You know when I look at this thing, extremely disappointed
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: where we where we were, at where we finished, but
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: motivated to fix it.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: You have eighteen players that have the combine. How is that?
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: How is Michigan viewed through the lens of the NFL
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: as a talent resource? I can't here. Michigan has eighteen
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: players in the in the combine? How is that program?
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: And you through the lens of the NFL?
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: And this did an outstanding if one thing you can
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: say point to maturity wins right. That was a very
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: mature football team, a lot of fifth and sixth year
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: eyes contributing to a national championship team.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: That's no different than the league.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: If you look at who wins Super Bowls, it's mature
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: football teams. So I think Jim did an outstanding job
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: of building the continuity there where the players wanted to stay,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: they wanted to finish out their careers, and they wanted
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: to win a national championship. That's what they did, so
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: again hats off to Jim and the University of Michigan
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: for what they built there, and that's what I think.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: We're all trying to build a winner, and you do
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: that with mature players.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Thanks that