Latest / Press Pass / Press Pass | Trent Baalke on 2024 Offseason, Areas of Improvement

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Press Pass | Trent Baalke on 2024 Offseason, Areas of Improvement · Press Pass

0:00
Speaker 1: Uh.
0:02
Speaker 2: Last year you told us that your relationship with Doug
0:06
Speaker 2: has always been this collaborative effort between.
0:09
Speaker 1: You on various uh things.
0:11
Speaker 2: Can you wo, would you say that you guys are
0:14
Speaker 2: still as on the same page now as you were
0:18
Speaker 2: a year ago, specifically with the the higher of defensive
0:23
Speaker 2: coordinator Ryan Nielsen in mind.
0:25
Speaker 3: Yeah. See, And I think that's a good question. I
0:27
Speaker 3: think it's probably even more so. You know, uh, you know,
0:32
Speaker 3: when you go through tough times, you find out a
0:33
Speaker 3: lot about a lot of people, you know, and the
0:36
Speaker 3: season didn't end the way we wanted it to. Uh.
0:39
Speaker 3: We we had some strong conversations throughout the year kind
0:43
Speaker 3: of where things were at and what we were, you know,
0:45
Speaker 3: where things were trending. Uh So, great communication, great collaboration
0:51
Speaker 3: and really respect uh him and and everything that he does.
0:56
Speaker 3: Uh So. I don't think there's any a lot of
1:00
Speaker 3: what's written. A lot of the narratives that are out
1:02
Speaker 3: there are just false, plain and simple false narratives.
1:06
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, So I gotta ask you this. By the
1:08
Speaker 2: very nature of a head coach's job is that he
1:12
Speaker 2: hires his staff absolutely so when it specifically when it
1:17
Speaker 2: comes to the Ryan Nielsen hier are you. Are you
1:20
Speaker 2: stating unequivocally that that was Doug's hire and not you
1:27
Speaker 2: on either overriding or veto him in any way.
1:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I've answered that. Gee. I think Coach
1:35
Speaker 3: owns the staff just like they do in most places
1:38
Speaker 3: and no different here, and I respect the decisions that
1:41
Speaker 3: he makes. I mean, we collaborate, we work together. I
1:44
Speaker 3: said in on all the interviews. We shared our thoughts,
1:47
Speaker 3: but at the end of the day, coach owns it
1:50
Speaker 3: and I respect those decisions.
1:52
Speaker 2: Any regrets at all about essentially bringing back the ban
1:57
Speaker 2: from last year, I mean with the exception of you know,
2:00
Speaker 2: you brought in Calvin Ridley switched out at right tackle
2:03
Speaker 2: with Jawn Taylor for Anton Harrison, but you essentially brought
2:07
Speaker 2: back the band and it didn't work out. Any regrets
2:11
Speaker 2: in that respect, not bringing in another pass rusher or whatever.
2:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't live with regrets. I don't. That's not
2:17
Speaker 3: how I operate. You know, are there decisions you look
2:20
Speaker 3: back on and say, what if we would have done this?
2:22
Speaker 3: What if we would have done that? Shuld of Wood
2:24
Speaker 3: isn't could has all got beat? You know, you do
2:27
Speaker 3: the best you can. We felt we had a pretty
2:29
Speaker 3: competitive football team coming back. We still feel we had
2:32
Speaker 3: a pretty competitive football team coming back. The season didn't
2:36
Speaker 3: go our way. You know, there were four teams left
2:39
Speaker 3: a week ago. We beat two of those teams. We
2:43
Speaker 3: lost a one score game to another one, and another
2:46
Speaker 3: one we were down by three points with four minutes
2:48
Speaker 3: left in the third quarter. So we felt we had
2:50
Speaker 3: a competitive football team. We didn't win the number of
2:53
Speaker 3: games we wanted to win, and that's on all of us,
2:56
Speaker 3: me included. Looked no further than here, but you know,
3:00
Speaker 3: there's some things that we have to do. We've recognized it,
3:03
Speaker 3: and we're making those changes as we go.
3:05
Speaker 4: Trent, what does the offense have to do better play calling,
3:08
Speaker 4: personnel in your opinion to be at a higher level
3:11
Speaker 4: next year.
3:11
Speaker 3: I'm not a coach, you know, those are questions for coach.
3:16
Speaker 3: You know, I think if I look at it from
3:18
Speaker 3: a big picture, you'll create an identity. You know, who
3:21
Speaker 3: are we offensively, defensively, special teams? You know, I felt
3:26
Speaker 3: we did that toward the end of last year. I'm
3:28
Speaker 3: not so sure we got to that point this year,
3:32
Speaker 3: but that's number one. You got to have an identity.
3:34
Speaker 3: Who are you? Trent?
3:36
Speaker 5: Can you just assess your drafts at this point through
3:39
Speaker 5: three years, maybe even four if I give you twenty twenty,
3:43
Speaker 5: if I lump that on you, But do you have
3:46
Speaker 5: have you drafted enough blue guys, blue chip guys?
3:50
Speaker 3: You know you're talking like a scout.
3:51
Speaker 5: Now, have you drafted enough blue guys to to where
3:55
Speaker 5: you want? I mean, I know you always want more,
3:56
Speaker 5: but have you drafted enough when you look back at it,
3:58
Speaker 5: or there have been too many miss is especially in
4:01
Speaker 5: those middle and late rounds.
4:04
Speaker 3: We again, we feel we've got some pretty good football players.
4:08
Speaker 3: Sometimes you got to execute the vision that you had
4:10
Speaker 3: for these players. You know, Coach and I have talked
4:15
Speaker 3: a lot, a lot about this year's class in particular,
4:19
Speaker 3: you know, the onboarding process of them, getting them up
4:22
Speaker 3: to speed, trusting them. We're in a state of development,
4:26
Speaker 3: You're in a developmental league. Now. You don't have time
4:30
Speaker 3: to say that we can shell them for a year,
4:34
Speaker 3: we can shell them for two years. You got to
4:36
Speaker 3: get them up to speed quick and when you go
4:40
Speaker 3: in and you have as much collaboration as we do,
4:42
Speaker 3: because trust me, we have a lot of collaboration on
4:45
Speaker 3: these decisions. It's not one person making these decisions. So
4:49
Speaker 3: when you look at bringing in a player and the
4:51
Speaker 3: vision you have for him, at the end of the day,
4:53
Speaker 3: you got to ask yourself, did we execute that vision
4:56
Speaker 3: or didn't we? And I think if you ask coach,
5:00
Speaker 3: certainly you're asking me right now. We've got to do
5:02
Speaker 3: a better job of that vision in executing it. But
5:06
Speaker 3: we feel really good about the young players we got.
5:09
Speaker 3: Have they all reached their potential and not yet. There's
5:14
Speaker 3: still a lot of growth to be had, but we
5:15
Speaker 3: trust we've got a pretty good nucleus of young players
5:18
Speaker 3: on this football team.
5:19
Speaker 6: During the offseason, you restructured a lot of big contracts
5:23
Speaker 6: and had plenty of money under the cow.
5:26
Speaker 1: Why didn't you address the pass rush?
5:28
Speaker 6: There were plenty of veterans out there they could have
5:31
Speaker 6: helped this football team.
5:32
Speaker 3: Well, I think when you say plenty, I'd like to
5:34
Speaker 3: know the names.
5:35
Speaker 7: You know.
5:37
Speaker 3: Well, again, we brought Clowney in. He chose to go
5:40
Speaker 3: into another direction. I'm not saying that we got in
5:45
Speaker 3: discussions with him. I'm not going to talk about what
5:47
Speaker 3: we did or didn't do. But we got into discussions
5:50
Speaker 3: with him and had him on campus. He was here
5:52
Speaker 3: for a visit. You know again, we felt we had
5:57
Speaker 3: Duane coming back off injury. We knew he was coming back.
6:01
Speaker 3: We drafted a young man that we've had a vision for.
6:05
Speaker 3: You know, we had Chase on in the last year
6:07
Speaker 3: his deal. So more so looking at back, looking at
6:12
Speaker 3: during the season, what could we have done to upgrade
6:15
Speaker 3: the roster? Are there moves we could have made? Once again,
6:17
Speaker 3: I don't live in the past. I don't live and regret.
6:21
Speaker 3: But you know, we've got to continue to look at
6:23
Speaker 3: those things. And you're never done trying to make your
6:26
Speaker 3: team better, more competitive.
6:29
Speaker 8: Right, there was a couple of weeks that you may retire.
6:33
Speaker 8: Did you contemplate that at all?
6:36
Speaker 3: I contemplate that on a daily basis. But no, I no,
6:40
Speaker 3: I'm not. I'm gonna be sixty years old. I'm far
6:43
Speaker 3: from retirement.
6:45
Speaker 7: There's another report I think from Albert three or that
6:47
Speaker 7: the front office and you were taking a hard look
6:50
Speaker 7: at Chres Taylor as the offensive coordinator and potential change there,
6:53
Speaker 7: and I just wondered if you could address that as well.
6:56
Speaker 3: Again, coach and I and ownership. You know, we we
7:00
Speaker 3: talked throughout the year, We've talked through about everything, and
7:05
Speaker 3: those discussions, you know, will remain private, you know. But
7:09
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, like I said, coach
7:11
Speaker 3: owns the coaching staff and he's held responsible for that
7:15
Speaker 3: coaching staff. And I can tell you this, I have
7:17
Speaker 3: support every decision that he makes. You know, we have discussions.
7:22
Speaker 3: We get through with the discussions, whether it's the draft,
7:26
Speaker 3: free agency, coaches, personnel, staff, support staff, We go through
7:30
Speaker 3: the process and we talk about everything, and at the
7:33
Speaker 3: end of the day, once the decisions made, we make it,
7:35
Speaker 3: we go, we move on. So I'm one hundred percent
7:39
Speaker 3: behind anything coach decides because I've been factored into it.
7:42
Speaker 3: I've been a part of those discussions.
7:44
Speaker 5: Do you, guys, miss I, misidentify what you had on
7:47
Speaker 5: the offensive line or do you look at it as
7:50
Speaker 5: just injuries being there because it wasn't good enough on
7:54
Speaker 5: a weekly basis, didn't seem good enough on a weekly basis.
7:57
Speaker 3: Well, when you can't run the football and later in
8:01
Speaker 3: the year you can't stop the run, that's a problem
8:04
Speaker 3: International Football League. I've always we've always prided ourselves on
8:09
Speaker 3: being able to do that. Run the football, stop the run,
8:13
Speaker 3: and for whatever reason, we weren't able to do that.
8:15
Speaker 3: I think there's a little there's a lot of moving
8:18
Speaker 3: parts to that. I don't think it's just player related.
8:21
Speaker 3: I don't think it's just scheme related. We've got to
8:25
Speaker 3: get bigger, we've got to get stronger, we've got to
8:28
Speaker 3: get more physical in the trenches, and if you want
8:32
Speaker 3: to compete for championships, you have to do that. So
8:35
Speaker 3: I think we've got some good pieces in there. We've
8:38
Speaker 3: got some good young players in there, but we got
8:40
Speaker 3: to get better.
8:43
Speaker 8: To that degree, the defensive interior, in lineback. The investment
8:48
Speaker 8: that you guys have made financially and drop capital wise,
8:52
Speaker 8: have you have you had enough returns for what you've
8:57
Speaker 8: invested in.
8:58
Speaker 3: Well, I think you got to look at it. You know,
9:00
Speaker 3: there's a lot of Again, it's never just one thing. Right.
9:05
Speaker 3: We finished I believe ninth and run defense yielding a
9:09
Speaker 3: little over one hundred and some yards, and a big
9:11
Speaker 3: part of that fell apart. If you look at where
9:14
Speaker 3: we were the first nine to ten games of the
9:17
Speaker 3: year and where we ended up, there was a huge
9:19
Speaker 3: fallof Why. A lot of things factor into that. You know,
9:26
Speaker 3: players got to trust one another when you start to
9:29
Speaker 3: search for plays and you start to search for answers,
9:32
Speaker 3: whether it's coaches searching for answers or players, you know,
9:36
Speaker 3: searching to make plays and not playing within the scheme
9:39
Speaker 3: of the defense. That's all it takes for an explosive play,
9:43
Speaker 3: and we gave up way too many explosive plays as
9:46
Speaker 3: the season went on. We didn't protect the ball, we
9:48
Speaker 3: didn't take the ball away. There's a lot of things
9:51
Speaker 3: that factor into it. We feel like we have some
9:54
Speaker 3: good players, you know, we feel like and we showed
9:57
Speaker 3: that through through the first ten games to stop the
10:00
Speaker 3: run very consistently. We didn't do that at the end.
10:03
Speaker 3: So we got to look at why.
10:05
Speaker 8: The process you took last offseason d plan to be
10:07
Speaker 8: more aggressive the score room.
10:09
Speaker 3: Well, again, last year, we didn't have a ton of
10:12
Speaker 3: cap space to work with, right, you know, we had
10:15
Speaker 3: gone into free agency the first two years. Are we
10:18
Speaker 3: gonna be more aggressive this We feel we've got a
10:21
Speaker 3: good nucleus of players. Right, But this team is gonna
10:25
Speaker 3: look different, you know, when we strap it up in April,
10:28
Speaker 3: you know, when the offseason program gets going, the team's
10:32
Speaker 3: gonna look different. You know, our team's gonna look different.
10:35
Speaker 3: Every team in the National Football's gonna look different. How
10:38
Speaker 3: much different depends on a lot of the discussions we're
10:40
Speaker 3: gonna have over the next couple of weeks.
10:42
Speaker 5: Well, Josh Allen here one way or another.
10:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, Josh will be a Jaguar.
10:46
Speaker 4: Okay, how close are you getting a deal done with him?
10:52
Speaker 3: Very far? Haven't started. Haven't started those negotiations, will start those.
11:00
Speaker 4: A deal like that can happen pretty quick. Obviously, you
11:02
Speaker 4: have some time before the tag deadline. So is there
11:05
Speaker 4: are you still involved in a comfortable timeline for getting you.
11:10
Speaker 3: Know, i'd love to say yes. I know Josh wants
11:13
Speaker 3: to be here. I know we want him here, you know,
11:15
Speaker 3: can we come to a number that works for everybody?
11:18
Speaker 3: That's the that's the key, and I respect that. It's
11:20
Speaker 3: like I said last year with Evans situation, you got
11:24
Speaker 3: to respect these guys that put themselves in this position.
11:28
Speaker 3: They work hard, they deserve to make good money. What
11:31
Speaker 3: that good means to them is could be different than
11:34
Speaker 3: what it means to us. So we just got to
11:36
Speaker 3: come together, sit down at the table and work things out.
11:41
Speaker 7: The plan would be to use the franchise tag on him.
11:45
Speaker 3: I'm not going to commit to anything right now relatives
11:48
Speaker 3: to the franchise tag, but at the same token, you know,
11:52
Speaker 3: Josh Allen is going to be a jabar next year.
11:55
Speaker 7: Calvin. What's the status on where you guys deal with
11:59
Speaker 7: Calvin Ridley?
11:59
Speaker 3: And we felt, you know, Calvin did some awfully good things.
12:04
Speaker 3: I love Calvin Ridley. He's uh, he's all ball, you
12:08
Speaker 3: guys and gals that were able to see at practice.
12:11
Speaker 3: I mean he loves to he loves to practice, he
12:13
Speaker 3: loves to play. He loves the game.
12:16
Speaker 5: Uh.
12:17
Speaker 3: You know, when you bring somebody in that hasn't been
12:19
Speaker 3: a part of football for over a year and a half,
12:22
Speaker 3: you got to knock the rust off. And he did
12:24
Speaker 3: that and at times he showed exactly who he was,
12:27
Speaker 3: who he used, who he was, who he can be,
12:31
Speaker 3: and the sky's the limit. He's only gonna get better
12:34
Speaker 3: because of the way he works. You know, when you
12:36
Speaker 3: love something as much as he loves football, you can't
12:39
Speaker 3: help but get better. So we would love to have
12:42
Speaker 3: have Calvin back. You know, we're gonna work toward that.
12:45
Speaker 3: What that means, I don't know right now.
12:48
Speaker 7: With trying the play changed on Trevor in terms of
12:52
Speaker 7: an extension for him this offseason.
12:54
Speaker 3: No, I think you know again, We're we're gonna sit
12:56
Speaker 3: down with ownership. In the next several days, sit down
13:00
Speaker 3: with the head coach, sit down with the personnel staff,
13:03
Speaker 3: and really review the roster. You know, we've already done it.
13:07
Speaker 3: It's not like we're starting from scratch, but really just
13:10
Speaker 3: have a heart to heart on where we're at with
13:15
Speaker 3: with all the guys that are potentially coming up. There's
13:18
Speaker 3: some good players on this roster that we you know,
13:21
Speaker 3: we'd like to see moving forward.
13:24
Speaker 1: This roster.
13:25
Speaker 6: There's a change it all this year for you with
13:29
Speaker 6: binding starters immediately in the draft, or all the difficult
13:32
Speaker 6: decisions you have to make as far as restructuring or
13:36
Speaker 6: resigning players. Felt like you were building for a couple
13:39
Speaker 6: of years, you feel more pressure, like I got to
13:42
Speaker 6: win this year in order to be able to say my.
13:44
Speaker 3: Job I'm you know, I'm not worried about my job.
13:49
Speaker 3: That's not how I live. I don't live in regrets.
13:51
Speaker 3: I don't live worried about my job. You know, if
13:54
Speaker 3: someone can do it, better step up. You know, there's
13:58
Speaker 3: this is always a challenge keeping a team together, building
14:01
Speaker 3: a team. It's not one person doing it. But you know,
14:06
Speaker 3: we have a lot of confidence again in the process.
14:10
Speaker 3: You know, we had twenty one to twenty two starters
14:12
Speaker 3: coming back last year, sort of go into the draft,
14:16
Speaker 3: especially where we were picking, and think you're gonna get
14:18
Speaker 3: come away with four immediate starters is not realistic. Does
14:23
Speaker 3: it happen on some teams, Yeah, but it usually doesn't
14:25
Speaker 3: happen on a team that made it to the divisional
14:27
Speaker 3: round of the playoffs. So again, I go back to vision.
14:33
Speaker 3: You know, when you when you set forth and you
14:35
Speaker 3: have a vision for how you're going to onboard a
14:37
Speaker 3: player and what that role of that player is going
14:39
Speaker 3: to be, it's important to execute it. And I think
14:43
Speaker 3: if you ask coach, it's certainly I'm in front of
14:45
Speaker 3: you now that that didn't happen the way we need
14:49
Speaker 3: it to happen. As we move forward, we've got to
14:51
Speaker 3: do a better job with the vision, better job with
14:54
Speaker 3: the onboarding process, better job of getting these young players
14:57
Speaker 3: up to speed quicker, and because it's not it is
15:02
Speaker 3: a developmental league and it's got to happen quickly.
15:05
Speaker 6: You're not like you got out.
15:06
Speaker 7: I'm sorry, just you're not ruling out doing an extension
15:09
Speaker 7: with Trevor this offseason.
15:11
Speaker 1: OK. You guys really put a lot.
15:14
Speaker 8: Of emphasis on trying to fix for short yardage going
15:17
Speaker 8: eat into last year, coming out of the previous year,
15:21
Speaker 8: how I guess stunned are you that you weren't able
15:24
Speaker 8: to do it between the first three draft picks when
15:27
Speaker 8: you had on the line and third and one and
15:29
Speaker 8: fourth and one were still so difficult.
15:31
Speaker 3: Again, again more of a coaching question, but I do
15:35
Speaker 3: think again you got to you gotta have an identity,
15:38
Speaker 3: and you got to develop that identy, identity in the
15:40
Speaker 3: offseason and all the way through training camp, the preseason
15:44
Speaker 3: and the end of the season, and you got to
15:45
Speaker 3: stick with it. You know. I think if you ask
15:48
Speaker 3: the coaches, we probably didn't do that to the level
15:50
Speaker 3: we wanted to. But at the same token, as I
15:53
Speaker 3: mentioned earlier, we got to get bigger. We gotta get stronger,
15:56
Speaker 3: all right, We got to get more physical in the trenches,
15:59
Speaker 3: and we got to trust that we can do things
16:02
Speaker 3: that you need to do in this league to win games,
16:05
Speaker 3: and that's run the football. When everybody in the building
16:08
Speaker 3: knows you're going to run it. You got to be
16:09
Speaker 3: able to still run.
16:10
Speaker 1: It, have a frame to be able to get more physical.
16:15
Speaker 8: In your opinion, does he have growth potential there or
16:19
Speaker 8: are you guys going to have to look out towhere
16:20
Speaker 8: in that spot.
16:22
Speaker 3: I truly believe in Luke as a guy that has
16:27
Speaker 3: what it takes to play the position and play it well.
16:29
Speaker 3: He's showing signs of doing that. This was not necessarily
16:34
Speaker 3: one player's issues. This was a systematic issue. So when
16:39
Speaker 3: you look at across the board, the things I talked about,
16:42
Speaker 3: going back to the basics, getting in three point stances,
16:45
Speaker 3: coming off the ball, forming an identity, all of those
16:49
Speaker 3: things we've got to do better, right, But we also
16:54
Speaker 3: got to look to how do we make this a
16:56
Speaker 3: more competitive situation? Put guys. You know, guys get nervous
17:01
Speaker 3: when the guy behind him is pushing them every day
17:03
Speaker 3: for the starting role. All right, iron sharpens iron. So
17:08
Speaker 3: you got to make these rooms as competitive as you can. So,
17:11
Speaker 3: whether it's through the draft or through free agency, we've
17:14
Speaker 3: got to attack that to make these these rooms as
17:17
Speaker 3: competitive as they can be. So the guy that's starting
17:20
Speaker 3: is always feeling the pressure of the guy behind them.
17:23
Speaker 3: Outside of just getting bigger, stronger, and faster, where would
17:25
Speaker 3: you say the biggest needs for this team are this offseason,
17:31
Speaker 3: We've got a lot of need. It's not going to
17:34
Speaker 3: do me any good to sit up here and tell
17:36
Speaker 3: tell the world what we view as our key needs.
17:40
Speaker 3: But at the same time, we know what we need
17:42
Speaker 3: to do. You know, again, you know, this isn't a
17:46
Speaker 3: team that finished you know, two in fifteen. You know,
17:49
Speaker 3: we finished nine and eight, one game out and not
17:52
Speaker 3: good enough. I get that, But it's not a team
17:55
Speaker 3: that needs to be a total overhaul. There's good players
17:59
Speaker 3: in that locker room, there's good coaches in that in
18:02
Speaker 3: this room, in this building, there's good personnel people. We
18:05
Speaker 3: have what we need in this building. We just got
18:07
Speaker 3: to add some more to it.
18:10
Speaker 4: Being on the team next year. And if he isn't,
18:13
Speaker 4: can Anton play left tackle?
18:15
Speaker 3: In your opinion, Yeah, the discussions on who's all gonna
18:19
Speaker 3: be here, who's not gonna be here. I'm not going
18:21
Speaker 3: to commit to anything right now. We got some we
18:23
Speaker 3: got some work to do. Uh, we got some hard
18:26
Speaker 3: discussions to be had. But as far as Anton's ability
18:29
Speaker 3: to play right or left, you know, you look this
18:33
Speaker 3: year what he did as a rookie coming into the
18:36
Speaker 3: National Football League and going up man O manno on
18:39
Speaker 3: some of the best pass rushers, a gauntlet of pass
18:42
Speaker 3: rushers throughout the course of the year and you look
18:45
Speaker 3: at the pressure rate that he gave up and a
18:47
Speaker 3: guy that wasn't giving a lot of help in terms
18:49
Speaker 3: of chips and double teams and protection. Uh, you gotta
18:55
Speaker 3: be nothing but proud of of how he handled himself
18:58
Speaker 3: as a rookie. And he's only to get better because
19:01
Speaker 3: there's another young guy that really loves the game, loves
19:03
Speaker 3: the work, loves to compete. So we expect great things
19:07
Speaker 3: from them. And do we feel he can play left?
19:09
Speaker 3: Absolutely we do.
19:11
Speaker 1: You've mentioned two things in this press conference. You over
19:14
Speaker 1: and over again.
19:15
Speaker 2: You talked about how you didn't the team did not
19:17
Speaker 2: execute the vision, and you've talked about getting stronger physically
19:21
Speaker 2: all that stuff. Does that mean that when this draft
19:26
Speaker 2: comes or free agency, whichever whichever pathway you choose to
19:30
Speaker 2: try to fortify that, that.
19:32
Speaker 1: That is going to be a high priority or.
19:36
Speaker 2: Is it going to be only only if the value
19:39
Speaker 2: is there at the time that you're picking or the
19:42
Speaker 2: price tag if it's free agency.
19:45
Speaker 3: I guess I don't know that understand the question, Jeane,
19:48
Speaker 3: will you place are.
19:50
Speaker 2: By your you saying about the importance of getting stronger,
19:53
Speaker 2: getting that that is going to be a priority with you.
19:57
Speaker 1: In free agency?
19:58
Speaker 2: And the draft and knowing that the circumstances change the
20:03
Speaker 2: change the decision.
20:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you go through the history of the
20:10
Speaker 3: drafts we've had, you know, over time, you know, size matters, right,
20:15
Speaker 3: physicality matters, strength matters. Uh, we're looking at that. We're
20:20
Speaker 3: always trying to add that. You want to be as
20:22
Speaker 3: big and fast and smart and tough as you can
20:26
Speaker 3: be in this game. Those are the intangils we look for.
20:30
Speaker 3: Guys with great instincts, guys with passion to play the game.
20:34
Speaker 3: Those are all things what we consistently look for.
20:37
Speaker 5: This franchise does have a very good track record recently
20:40
Speaker 5: of paying draft picks second contracts. How do you balance
20:46
Speaker 5: changing that narrative maybe versus not paying or wanting to
20:50
Speaker 5: pay guys based on them earning it, you know what
20:53
Speaker 5: I mean?
20:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think again, every every situation is different. When
20:59
Speaker 3: I when I look at a player, does he deserve
21:01
Speaker 3: to be paid or doesn't he Whether he's a draft
21:04
Speaker 3: pick of hours or or a free agent that's come
21:07
Speaker 3: in or a free agent from some other team, do
21:09
Speaker 3: they deserve to get paid? You know, you hope to
21:12
Speaker 3: get a premium on a you know, not pay a
21:15
Speaker 3: premium on a guy that you've you've drafted, uh, simply
21:19
Speaker 3: because you get to do it a year earlier and
21:21
Speaker 3: the market hasn't had a chance to weigh in on it.
21:25
Speaker 3: But you also want to pay guys fairly, right, So
21:28
Speaker 3: I do think there's some really good young players on
21:31
Speaker 3: this roster that we drafted that are going to be
21:34
Speaker 3: second contract guys. And look at the teams that are winning,
21:38
Speaker 3: Look at the teams that are still playing. They're they're not.
21:42
Speaker 3: They're not. They don't have a roster full of first
21:45
Speaker 3: contract players. It's a roster full of second contract players
21:49
Speaker 3: and third contract players. That's how you win. You know,
21:52
Speaker 3: experience does matter, but development matters too. So as you're
21:56
Speaker 3: as you're trying to work your way from a I've
21:59
Speaker 3: said this before. The easiest thing to do in the
22:02
Speaker 3: National Football League is take an average football team, a
22:05
Speaker 3: struggling football team, and make it competitive. The hardest team
22:09
Speaker 3: to do is take a competitive football team and make
22:12
Speaker 3: it a championship football team. That's just the reality of
22:15
Speaker 3: the world we live in. So we're in that phase.
22:18
Speaker 3: We got to take a competitive football team and turn
22:21
Speaker 3: it into a champion's that's not easy, but that's our job.
22:25
Speaker 3: And it takes good football players. It takes good coaching,
22:29
Speaker 3: it takes good management, it takes good it takes great ownership.
22:32
Speaker 3: Everything factors into that making that switch. And we have
22:36
Speaker 3: everything we need here. We just now it's time to
22:38
Speaker 3: go do it.
22:41
Speaker 1: Four or five more minutes. It does sound like you're jumping.
22:43
Speaker 8: To the negotiation table with Trevor, even though a lot
22:46
Speaker 8: of quarterbacks get paid at this point franchise wide.
22:49
Speaker 1: How do you view what he did this year?
22:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think Trevor had, you know, another learning year,
22:55
Speaker 3: right like we all do when we're a third year
22:58
Speaker 3: guy in this in this league. I think he did
23:00
Speaker 3: see there's some areas he made great strides in. You know,
23:04
Speaker 3: you look at it, you look at this season. One
23:06
Speaker 3: thing we got to do is we got to two
23:08
Speaker 3: things and it works both ways. We got to do
23:11
Speaker 3: a better job of keeping him safe and protected, and
23:14
Speaker 3: he's got to do a better job of protecting himself.
23:17
Speaker 3: You know. Unfortunately, he had four key injuries this year.
23:20
Speaker 3: You know, when your quarterback has a throwing shoulder injury,
23:24
Speaker 3: and knee injury, and ankle injury and a concussion all
23:27
Speaker 3: in one year, that's alarming. So you know, we got
23:30
Speaker 3: to work to improve that, and that's not one factor.
23:34
Speaker 3: There's a lot of things that contribute to that. But
23:37
Speaker 3: we we do have to do a better job there.
23:39
Speaker 3: But as far as Trevor and his long term relationship
23:43
Speaker 3: with this team, there's no doubt in that we're going
23:46
Speaker 3: to get something done at the appropriate time.
23:49
Speaker 1: As an organization. Is there some scouting process different after
23:52
Speaker 1: a year like this year compared to the year before.
23:56
Speaker 3: I think it's the same. You know, you try to
23:59
Speaker 3: be as critical as you can be when you're looking
24:03
Speaker 3: at film trying to identify exactly what you have what
24:07
Speaker 3: went wrong. Sometimes it's not just player related, and I'm
24:12
Speaker 3: not saying it's coach related. Sometimes there's things going on
24:15
Speaker 3: outside the building that we don't that nobody is aware
24:18
Speaker 3: of that factors into a player's performance. There's so many
24:22
Speaker 3: things that go into success and failure. It's hard to
24:26
Speaker 3: sit up here and just point the one thing.
24:28
Speaker 8: You guys have a good pulse for why things maybe
24:31
Speaker 8: went wrong down the stretch.
24:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we have a real good pulse. We've
24:34
Speaker 3: had some real good discussions of going back to Jean's
24:36
Speaker 3: first question on the collaboration and the unity we have
24:42
Speaker 3: in this building, you know. And I can't speak for
24:44
Speaker 3: Doug and but I'm sure he'll speak when when he
24:47
Speaker 3: has a chance to speak. The collaboration, the unity that
24:51
Speaker 3: we have together, the respect we have for one another,
24:54
Speaker 3: has never been better. So again I go back to
24:58
Speaker 3: that narrative that Gene mentioned, that's a false narrative, nothing
25:02
Speaker 3: to it.
25:02
Speaker 1: And what made him you know, what have you learned
25:05
Speaker 1: about man? What made him the best cover of the job.
25:07
Speaker 6: And how much does it change what you look for
25:09
Speaker 6: in players when you have such a scheme change of defense.
25:13
Speaker 3: Well, a couple of questions in there. I don't schematically
25:18
Speaker 3: there's going to be a change. It's not going to
25:22
Speaker 3: necessarily affect the type of personnel we look for. The
25:26
Speaker 3: thing that's need is the preparation that Ryan had put
25:30
Speaker 3: into getting ready for the interview and knowing our roster
25:34
Speaker 3: the way he did, and talking through how he sees
25:37
Speaker 3: those pieces being utilized in his offer or his defense.
25:42
Speaker 3: That was impressive, you know, especially for a guy that was,
25:46
Speaker 3: you know, on a vacation down to Disneyland with his
25:49
Speaker 3: family and we yanked him up here from there. So
25:52
Speaker 3: just his presence, his command within the room, the synergy
25:59
Speaker 3: he had with group that was in there, his attention
26:04
Speaker 3: to detail, the relationship building, the two way relationships that
26:08
Speaker 3: he's been able to establish, and really the fact that
26:12
Speaker 3: no matter who you talk to, they had nothing but
26:14
Speaker 3: positive things to say about them, and then you bring
26:17
Speaker 3: them in and everything that you heard comes to life.
26:20
Speaker 3: So really excited about the hire and looking forward to
26:24
Speaker 3: working with him.
26:26
Speaker 5: Schematically, you're talking about man versus zone. You're talking about
26:29
Speaker 5: four to three verses three four.
26:32
Speaker 3: Well, I don't read all the stuff, but this idea
26:37
Speaker 3: that he's a full man coverage guy is fully blown
26:41
Speaker 3: out of proportion. I think I'll let him speak on scheme.
26:45
Speaker 3: It's really a zone based system, right, not a man
26:48
Speaker 3: based system. But sometimes a lot of times when you
26:52
Speaker 3: play zone and you play it well, it turns into
26:54
Speaker 3: man with the match concepts and everything else. But that's
26:58
Speaker 3: as scheme related as I'm going to get. But he is,
27:02
Speaker 3: you know, the four man surface that we talk about,
27:06
Speaker 3: four man versus a thirty. Look, really, in today's game,
27:11
Speaker 3: you're in Nickel, what seventy five even sometimes eighty percent
27:16
Speaker 3: of the time you live in Nickel, So everyone's playing
27:20
Speaker 3: a lot of the same stuff, right, There's not thirty
27:24
Speaker 3: two different offenses and thirty two different You just you
27:28
Speaker 3: have to take the pieces you have, and just like
27:30
Speaker 3: in any chess game, you got to be able to
27:33
Speaker 3: manipulate them the way you want and take advantage of
27:35
Speaker 3: your strengths and hide your weaknesses. And I think he's
27:38
Speaker 3: shown the ability to do that. You know, we played
27:41
Speaker 3: him this year. I think we scored thirteen points offensively
27:44
Speaker 3: against him, and then we scored I think ten of
27:47
Speaker 3: those points game on turnovers, right, a short field goal,
27:51
Speaker 3: short field field goal, and a pick six. You talk
27:55
Speaker 3: to Trevor, you talk to the guys that played against
27:58
Speaker 3: them this year. You know, he's hard to prepare for
28:01
Speaker 3: because everything looks the same with the snap, and then
28:04
Speaker 3: everything starts to move once the once the ball snap.
28:07
Speaker 3: So there's a there's a lot of things. And I'll
28:09
Speaker 3: let you know again, I'm not a scheme guy. I'm
28:11
Speaker 3: a I'm a Jimmy and Joe guy, So I'll stick
28:14
Speaker 3: to my Jimmy and Joe's.
28:16
Speaker 1: How much do Houston's emergence with CJ.
28:19
Speaker 4: Stroud and the Texans having a bunch of cop space,
28:21
Speaker 4: does that factor in it all into how you attack
28:24
Speaker 4: an offseason?
28:26
Speaker 3: Well, hey, hats off. First of all, you want to
28:31
Speaker 3: be against the best. You want to compete in the
28:33
Speaker 3: best division. Because if you're in the best division and
28:35
Speaker 3: you can win that division, you got a great chance
28:39
Speaker 3: to go into the next round of the playoffs and
28:41
Speaker 3: win a lot of football games and be the last
28:43
Speaker 3: one standing. And that's the goal. So you can't ever
28:46
Speaker 3: shy away from uh, you know, competition. Uh, they've done
28:50
Speaker 3: an excellent job there. Indy has done an excellent job.
28:53
Speaker 3: You know, Tennessee is going to be fine. You know,
28:55
Speaker 3: this division is better than people gave it credit for being.
28:58
Speaker 3: And I think you can sense how quickly it turned.
29:02
Speaker 3: A year ago we were in the same position Houston
29:04
Speaker 3: was in this year, right, almost storybook endings for both
29:08
Speaker 3: both organizations. Right, both of them won the last game,
29:12
Speaker 3: you know, back to back years to go not put
29:15
Speaker 3: themselves in the AFC play or in the playoffs, and
29:18
Speaker 3: win the division. So I like the fact that this
29:23
Speaker 3: this division is competitive, right. You don't want it any
29:27
Speaker 3: other way. That's why you're in this business. So let's
29:30
Speaker 3: roll out the ball, let's let's go to work, and
29:32
Speaker 3: let's see where we're at at the end of the
29:34
Speaker 3: end of this next year.
29:36
Speaker 8: The last one physicality today to anticipate some kind of
29:41
Speaker 8: change in the Springking conditioning program here.
29:44
Speaker 3: No, I think we do a good job. I think
29:48
Speaker 3: I think we do an excellent job in the training staff,
29:52
Speaker 3: the Human Performance department as a whole. I think we
29:57
Speaker 3: just we've got to do some things a little bit differently, right,
30:01
Speaker 3: We got we gotta push some narratives a little stronger.
30:04
Speaker 3: We gotta make it. Uh. You know, it's tough to
30:06
Speaker 3: get these guys competing against each other in that weight room.
30:11
Speaker 3: That isn't always but that's where we're going. You know,
30:13
Speaker 3: it's got to be a year long competition. It's got
30:16
Speaker 3: to be a focus of ours to get stronger, to
30:18
Speaker 3: get more physical, Uh, to play the game at the
30:22
Speaker 3: level that you need to play it to win. In
30:23
Speaker 3: January and February.
30:26
Speaker 1: Good Thanks charging