 Good afternoon, Todd. When Derek was hurt and went on IR, you talked about sticking to this offensive to identity and the numbers certainly seem to have proven that you all have been able to do that. What allowed you all to be able to stick to that and continue running even, you know, even with having the changing personnel back there? You know, we say it takes all 11 around here and I think that this has been a season that has helped drive that point home. You know, these guys have worked really hard to maintain that identity. And you know, it's not jerk the wheel and get too far away from who we were with Derek back there and it's a testament to the players and how hard they've worked to remain consistent and also the coaches and how hard they've worked to prepare the guys that have had to fill some shoes. You know, probably these guys, but we're just getting started. John Garner. Hey, Todd. Yeah, I guess maybe first just what were your thoughts and getting that first look at Derek on the practice field yesterday and then maybe checking with him again today. How, how is he feeling after the first day back? It was just great to see him out there. You know, I'll leave any sort of other evaluations for people hiring me on the food chain, but it's always great to have him out there. He brings great energy and he's a tireless worker. So it was fun to be around him. And I guess what's the process like for your concern, Todd, as far as ramping him up, whether it's for this weekend, whether it's for down the road, just how do you approach maybe trying to incorporate him but also trying to get other guys work. Yeah, you know, that that's something that comes as a directive as part of his return to play and so whatever we're told he can handle workload wise or they want to see workload wise we'll work him in there. The guys have always worked really hard at paying attention to their position regardless of who's in there getting the rep so you know we have some practice at balance and that that dynamic and you know, again just excited to have him back around out there brings great energy and whether he's taking a rep or you know, you know, he certainly makes an impact. To Roth. It was okay. In regards to who your Jones you know and getting him more involved. Obviously, you know him coming in it was really supposed to bring a lot of balance to the passing attack. What are some things that you could do to get him more involved and get him more touches and those type of things to provide that balance. Yeah, you know we first we just need to chase consistency there. You know there's, there's been a lot of kind of ups and downs throughout that journey and we've had some opportunities to get him the ball and, you know, for a variety of reasons we've, you know, not connected on a couple of things. And so we just need a little bit more consistency out of that area I can certainly be better at, you know, trying to, you know, get him involved at different points in the game and you know just working through that process and trying to find the right balance. Do you have a good amount of plays that you're calling where he is one of the early reads and intent of his progression. Yeah, you know I think we try to stay pretty balanced in that stuff you don't want to make, you know, you don't want to force feed anything. And you certainly don't want to make assumptions about someone being open and in certain concepts so we're always aware of trying to make sure that we've got a variety of guys, you know, early in the progressions and that you have answers for whatever coverage is they might throw at you. Todd, much like getting AJ back kind of helped open things up in the passing game and allows you to get other guys involved, how much just getting Derek back also open up the full, I guess the, you know, the full playbook for the offense in terms of you cut off there at the end a little bit but you know just to answer the part of the question that I heard, you know, we haven't seen drastically different defenses, you know without Derek there, you know we've seen very similar structures throughout so obviously you put a guy of his caliber in the game and people are going to be paying attention to him but people know what type of personality we have on offense and what our foundation is so I would answer it simply by saying that as many of our playmakers as we have available, the better we are as a whole and and I'm excited about when I'm told that we have that opportunity. Hey Todd, Mike talked a lot earlier this week about guys understanding their roles, downshifting when need be if it's somebody else's turn, maybe hard to root for that guy but doing so in the best interest of the team and all that but when Deontay's time comes to step back for Derek there, is there a conversation to be had and what do you expect that dynamic to be like. He's such a great teammate, he really is, you know just seeing him walk around and have a smile on his face regardless of you know how many touches he got or what his role is I think he's just really appreciative, you know the opportunity to be here and be part of this journey and he certainly has been a huge part of this journey. You know, I would anticipate that it would be, you know, another growing experience for him and another part of his journey, but he has certainly established himself as a guy that, you know is our type of guy and very selfless. Some of his comments that that I heard, you know about his time here and his appreciation for the opportunities you've had just speaks volumes to who he is and you know we've got a lot of guys like that around here that just want to see this team succeed, you know and put themselves second, which is a pretty cool thing to be a part of. Luke. There's last couple games it took the often a few drives to start sustaining and getting first downs consistently what needs to happen, moving forward to get that to happen quicker and not sort of have to know feel out the game like they have in the last couple of games. We haven't been efficient enough early in games throughout the course of the year you know we've had some some games where we've come out and we've kind of, you know, fired off the ball early and gotten into some drives and then we've had far too many early drives that just haven't resulted in the way that we expect around here and so we need to, we need to be more consistent early in games and to be honest with you, they're mainly self inflicted wounds. They're little stubs of the toe here and there that are cost us maybe putting us behind the sticks, you know whether it be a penalty or a missed assignment so we certainly need to be more intentional coming out of the gates. Tom. Last several games you know the passing game is probably, I guess, been described maybe as efficient. Not not the huge numbers in large part because you didn't always need the big numbers. What I guess what though makes you confident that if if call upon and kind of a shootout game that you know the passing attack could step up and in terms of production. I'll take efficient no win over, you know flashy and and a grab bag any day that we can you know I look at that. Last couple games and where we've gotten to from a game management standpoint and just what it takes to win I think we're so fortunate to have a head coach here that can paint a picture of what's going to take to win a football game. We went out against Miami and got a lead and we were efficient in the run game and that allowed us in bad weather and all sorts of different factors to close that game out, mainly on the ground, you know and not turn the football over and you know stay efficient and play football when we needed to and hit a couple of big plays when we need to. I would say, again, I think that, you know confidence in our passing game needs to be built over repeated success and some of that is, you know stuff that is on TV and on the games, you know repeated successes and practice and things that nature. And I think that at times that we've had to pass the ball we have gone out and pass the ball, you know there've been certain games out the course of the year where we've had to march down the field with the past game late in the game and we've done that so as we get more playmakers back and as we're able to find ourselves in different game situations I believe that you'll see we can be efficient in all aspects of our offense. I'm going to try to squeeze out two more in here. Ben. How much has has been Jones kind of been an anchor a pillar for you guys is kind of you've had guys in and out on kind of both sides of the line and and just with with the offense in general how is he kind of maybe set the tone. In addition to Ryan just making sure you guys stay on track this season. I don't have enough words to describe what Ben Jones means to this team in this offense he is an incredible, tough, extremely smart, great teammate who just brings it every single week. And, you know we're so fortunate to have him as a part of this offense and anchors a great word Ben because he is, he's a guy that you know holds us in place and reminds us, you know where we need to be so you know he is a great asset in so many ways and a wonderful person to have around to boot. Them last last one quickie. Hey Todd and I just want to get your thoughts to have how tough it was to see Michael go down and then if you can kind of give us your early thoughts of Ronnie is the one the guys bringing in to help help with the numbers that tied in. Yeah, you know being around and coaching Michael for last couple years and seeing how much this team means to him and his teammates mean to him was really difficult to. I don't want to touch him go down, but he is going to be and and has been a huge part of our success here. You know and and a guy that you know hopefully we can have around as soon as he's physically able to be around and spend time around his teammates because he matters a lot to us matters a lot to me personally. In terms of Ryan you know he's been in a crash course, you know with coach Steckel and been working really hard, like the limited stuff that I've seen from him I think he's got a good demeanor and good approach. He's made the right type of stuff so hopefully we can get him up to speed quickly.