 How are you guys doing today? Weller, huh? Incredible. This is not a New England December show. This is a New England summer. Like one day, two hours. Thank you, coach. Just heading into this one. You know, week 12, week 13, game 12, played room week two. What's the progress been like for the unit and your expectations for them going against Tom? Well, the expectations are like they always are. I mean, we expect to win and expect to play well. As far as from day, you know, week two to now, I think our guys have shown very good improvement. And like I said, when you evaluate things, it's the games what you watch the film on Mondays. It's usually never as bad as you think and it's never as good as you think. On days you think you really played well, you find things that maybe the office just didn't exploit. And then there's sometimes in games that you really didn't play very well or at least you didn't think you did and you see some things that are actually good signs. So it's never all one way or the other. I think we're improving. I think we're still working progress, but I think we are making progress. The bottom line is that the way to me I evaluate the whole thing is are the guys trying and doing as much as they can do to try to do what we ask them to do and they are. So to me, I'm pleased because these guys work hard. They study hard. They try to do what we ask them to do when we try to do it. And sometimes we throw stuff out because maybe we're just not ready for it. Sometimes we don't. We try to keep adding a little bit more all the time. Sometimes we look at it and just say, right now it's not the right time. But the bottom line is I'm, you know, I love coaching these guys because they work. And that's what else can you ask of somebody? Do your best. Rick, you know, we want to, you know, microwave them and so forth, but they got to be developed and so forth. And I'm sure y'all are taking time to do that with Darren and Richie. How's their development been going? How have they been, you know, moving along to where they, you know, got a lot of action last week? Like I say, the more they're playing, the more they're developing, it's just we got to be always careful just to not overload them and not do too much and let them play and not have to be thinking all the time. And so all those guys are progressing well. But I mean, guys like Hawkins, too, is only just a second-year guy who, you know, it's the same way. I mean, he's not a rookie, but he's only a second-year guy, but he's in a new system. And then I think sometimes, even when you look at guys like Eric Harris and Doron and those guys, too, I know they're not rookies and they know a lot about playing, but they don't always know a lot about this system. So they've learned it all, too. I mean, everybody's new to it. You know, the only two guys that have ever been in the system are means and Copland, really, with me. So I just think everybody is progressing very well. And like I say, I couldn't be happier with the way their work habits are and the way they study and the way they do things. And as long as you're, I don't know, as a coach to me, that's everything. If you guys are doing what they can do and working hard at it, it's like anything. How can you ask for more? How did Walker do in a tough spot last week? He did really well. I mean, Michael's always been that, though. I've always felt like, you know, we could put him in probably at any time because he's a guy that can answer. You could ask him anything during the week and he can probably answer the questions. He was ready to go all the time. Just, you know, he's playing behind Deion. I'm playing behind Foyer in there and we're trying to find a little bit of a role for him in some things, which he deserves. He's worked hard at it. But he's always been good communicator and I had the utmost confidence in him playing last week just because I knew that he would know what to do. How do you handle these... I think you faced him at different points of view in different positions, but hybrid players like Cordero, how do you approach keeping trying new things? Well, it's really tough because, you know, there's... It's really tough with him and guys like that, particularly... I mean, I can go way back to Metcalf with the Browns. He was a running back who was a really good running back, but a really good running back receiver out of the backfield. There have been guys like that, but they're still there, the running backs, they're just good receivers out of the backfield. The guys like C.P. and I'll tell you, you know, it was another one last week. If he was in the backfield, we were treating him as a back. I mean, he was a wide receiver, number 10, but if he ended up in the backfield, he was a back because he could run the ball back there, too. Those guys are tough because you can put them everywhere. The other thing is what's hard from times on defense is the fact that, okay, you see him go in the game and you see him go in with another running back. So do they have two running backs in the game or is he going to be a running back and a wide receiver or is he going to line up like as... Where is it? What's he going to line up? You know, so you don't know. And then you get a guy like Pitt who's a tight end but kind of as good as a wide receiver. So now you got Pitt, and that guy in there and then you got Michael Davis in there. I mean, that's hard. When we go out here and practice, to me, it's hard sometimes. I don't know what the person is. You got a bunch of dudes in there and you can play at a bunch of different spots. So it's kind of like, okay, better be fairly vanilla. Is San Francisco kind of like that? I mean, I was saying... Who? I know you're not playing for a couple weeks, but San Francisco kind of like that with Debo and then... Yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, they're kind of doing the same thing. I mean, they guys... When he's in the backfield, he's a back. When he's out of the backfield, he's a receiver. So the problem of it is because a lot of times you used to have checks, like if they just threw a receiver in the backfield to just kind of mess with you and they were going to motion him out or they weren't going to really do a whole lot with him. You know, that was just... You just kind of dealt with that. But now if they put a receiver back there that they can actually hand the ball off to, you know, now you got a running back that might be standing out there as a receiver. Well, somebody got covering. So now do you want a defensive back playing like a linebacker and a linebacker out there playing like a DB? How do you want to handle that? So there's a lot of different variations there. It makes it hard. It's kind of the evolution of the offense and of the offensive talent. Now people are using them. Switching things a little bit completely. What? I guess once they were valuable part of FOIA in this defense. To me, he runs the show out there for us up front. He's a very, very intelligent and a very... I'm trying to think of a good word. It means a lot to him. When you have a Mike linebacker, that guy, he doesn't necessarily have to be the captain. He can or cannot be a signal caller. He doesn't have to call the defense. But that guy has got to be a guy that can sort everything out and get everything right. And he's got to be conscientious. And that is one thing about FOIA. He is smart. I think he's a physical football player. I think he's a really, really good Mike linebacker. But he is super conscientious. It's important to him. And that's what you want when that guy there. The defense has only given up two touchdowns in the last two games. Is there anything that you guys are doing well that's made cross on the goal line harder? Not letting them score. That's kind of a simple answer. I think we're playing more sound at times and not giving up big plays and played better in the red area. That's obviously a key when you get down there. Situational football. We didn't play as well last week on third down as we had before, but we played better in the red zone. The whole thing about scoring, that's the bottom line. You can give up just a ton of yardage, but if you can keep them out of the end zone when you get down there in the red zone, that's the key thing. I just think we've been playing sighting better, just playing better overall sound. Do you believe in the concept of a week like this being a measuring stick because Tampa Bay's playing so well offensively, or do you treat every game as an equal value in terms of your evaluation of your unit? Every game is a measuring stick, I think. And every team's got talent. You let your guard down in this league any week. You're done. Just look around the league and look who beats who. I mean, every week it's two or three games that everybody's going. There's no way that team can beat that team, and they beat them. And sometimes bad. You can't. It doesn't matter what anybody's record is. They're talented. Obviously, they're talented. They're world champs. They're back on another run again. But it's not, you know, Bill used to always say, like when we were in New England, that we were kind of everybody's in a way, everybody's measuring stick because, look, you're playing somebody that's been repeating, you know, Super Bowl champions, that you kind of measure your program to theirs. Just like all the big programs like in the SEC or any place, you know, they're always going to measure your program to Alabama's, Georgia's, you're going to see, you know, if you're a Kentucky, you want to say measure your program to those programs. I think everybody does that. Arthur'd have to actually answer that question. But on defensively, we just measure how we play because every offense is a different style. So you can't really say, and some you actually fit up against better than others, just like every team. And then there's some offenses that we don't match up as well as we do others. And all you're trying to do is figure out how to do the best job you can to match up the best that you can. So it's really hard to do a measuring stick because then you've got one quarterback that's going to sit in the pocket all the time. And you've got another quarterback that's going to scramble all over the place. So how do you, what's the measuring stick there? It's just, we've got to keep this guy in the pocket and this guy, we've got to press the pocket. So it's just, every week it's a different week. How has AJ been this year compared to what you thought he might be able to give you? You know, Michael, I don't know that I would, you know, I know I'm going to invade the question because I don't know what I expected from him. I really don't. I just, I told you there were things I saw on film that are good, but it's just really unfair when you're a new staff to come in and measure a guy because you don't know what he was told or what he's playing. I mean, you know, there's just so many times like I've seen in the media. And I think I probably gave you this example one time when I was at New England. The media beat up a corner that we had at New England because of a touchdown pass the Steelers scored on us. He was in cover two. It was a miracle that he was as close to the receiver when he caught it as he was. It was a great play by him. The safety was the guy. So nobody, the safety was supposed to be, the guy's in the back of the end zone and it's a rolled up cover two corner and he almost makes a play on the ball and he gets chastised all week about how he gave up this play. It wasn't even his play. So nobody really knows that. So to ever, and same thing as a coach, I don't know what the previous staff told guys to do. I don't know necessarily what they were supposed to do on a certain coverage. So to ever evaluate, all you can evaluate somebody on is if they got to tackle a guy, did they tackle him? Did they get off a block when they had to get off a block? Those things doesn't really matter what the exes knows are. That's just physical traits and you also can see how a guy reacts like one of the things I did like about AJ is I saw him give up a touchdown pass but I saw him come back to the next series and play well. Well that means he's got a short memory as a corner. That's something I like. But what he played coverage-wise, I don't know, everybody plays bump and run a little different. Everybody plays this coverage a little different. So it's just not fair to ever assess a guy. So I had no expectations other than I knew him coming out and knew he was a good, talented, tall, long corner and he has turned out to be a talented, long corner. That's what he is. Better to raise that down. When, what is, I guess, what is his play, the way he's been playing over the last six, seven weeks, allowed you to maybe do differently or maybe do more of in your defense? Not much. No, because I got another corner on the other side. So it's not like I'm going to, okay, you get to do this and you get, it's, I got to take the hole and I got safeties. I got a linebacker. Everybody, you got to take into account when you play a coverage, not just one guy. If you're man coverage, then you can say, okay, I'm going to lock that guy down on that and everybody else has got a different guy. But we aren't that. We're a multiple coverage thing. So it's really always, it's never really based on AJ. It's not based on anybody. I've already looked in the last couple of games. I saw that they were checking it down and forward that a lot and a little grunkosky a little bit. Heavy last week. Here's the thing about Tom. Tom is going to do whatever you allow him to do. I'm just telling you that with him for six years and I've played him another, I don't know, six or seven times since I left New England. And he is the same way he was at New England. He is going to take, going to do whatever he's going to do. He's going to study better than anybody else. He's going to know everything. You know, I always say he's got the chocolate and that's the way I kind of evaluate him. And if he's going to, you're going to give him a check down, take the other stuff away. He's going to take the check down. If you give him one over the top, you're going to take the one over the top. So he's going to take whatever you give him. And I've seen us go out at New England and run the ball 40 sometimes a game and throw it 20. I've seen us throw it 40. I've seen us go no huddle empty. I've seen us go no huddle three tight ends. I've seen it all from them. And I know that was New England, but he's still the same guy. And when I watched the game, even at Tampa Bay, there's a lot of similarities to what I used to see at New England. And when I played him at New England, too. Yes. Guys, good? And I'll ask one more question. Do you remember if we asked this going into week two, best time for Eastowner? Really, you know what, the best one I can remember kind of, I had just gotten there to New England and we were out at two-a-day practices and I didn't know much about Tom other than from Michigan and the stories that everybody else knew about being dratly, draft-backing and getting to play that one year and then they win the Super Bowl and, you know, when he takes over for boys. But I didn't really know much about him. I mean, to me, he just looked like a nice young man, you know. I didn't know how competitive he was till we got up in practice one day and he took his helmet off and I was swinging it at either Ray Bull or Willie or one of those guys. I mean, he went after him. Like, this is a quarterback. No wonder they love this guy. I mean, it really, he is, he's got this little boyish look about him. Trust me, there's nothing boyish about him. He is a competitor through and through and that's the first thing I just realized and now I know why they win. It is right there. All right, we're good. Thank you guys.