 With that, you're going to have some changes to make on your staff. How do you go about replacing the first person you thought of to join you here? Yeah, there's change every year. It's going to be the players, there's going to be turnover in the roster. There's going to be turnover like there is every year in the coaching staff. I have to take some time and be able to do what's best for the team, to be able to identify who's the best person and what's the best situation for our players. Do you want to build, do you try to keep the offense in the same line with Arthur? Do you want to try to do that or think about doing that on defects? Well, you always want to try to do that. You always want to do what's best for the players and the team and hopefully, there'll be continuity and again, that's a process that we've begun and will continue to do. Presumed Columbus was still appealing to Kerry, even given name and some potential here? You know, I never want to be the coach that keeps people from doing things that they want to do. I've had that happen to me, so happy for Kerry and again, he's on his way to Columbus. Are there a lot of guys in the league who have coached under Dean and know his defense? I mean, will it be hard to find somebody who's well-versed in his system? Or at least familiar with it? You know, there's a lot of options as far as being able to bring guys in to interview. And again, I want to take my time. I want to make sure that you've heard me talk about things with the staff. I mean, it's important that I'm comfortable with the person that's going to be in that role. So again, this is not something that's going to be done overnight. And then we'll make sure that we do what's best for the team. What was today like as you say goodbye to your second team here? Well, man, I didn't prepare to speech in the locker room after the game. I would rather have stood in front of them and talked to them about keys to winning the Super Bowl. That didn't happen. I thanked them. I'm thankful for their effort. I'm proud to say that I coach them, talk to them about what they represent away from here, their family, this organization, their careers. Just reminders to always put the team first to celebrate this season. That this isn't as disappointed as we are. This isn't a funeral. This should be a celebration of a team that battled, that competed. And we have a long way to go. We have to host some of those games. We have to get to the point where we host them. But I think that we improved. I think we're a better team now than we were at any point in the season. I think we're better than we were last year. Those are the things that I talked to them. I asked them to thank everybody in the building that helped them do their job. That's important to me. The culture that's in the locker room and the brotherhood that you guys have sort of, I guess jumpstart the team when things didn't start as well at the beginning of the season. I think when things get hard, I mean those are the only things that you can grasp onto. The harder it gets, you have to make sure that your circles as tight as it can be. And that the players were the ones that ultimately got us out of that. I think the leadership from those players did that. There's going to be ups and downs through the course of every season. And hopefully our staff and myself and everybody involved can be able to get it corrected as quickly as possible. But the credit all goes to the players. Every time we win and every time that we do things well in the field, the credit goes to the players. Have you and John seen enough that you want and or expect Ryan Tannehill to be your quarterback next year? Well, I think Ryan did a fantastic job. I'm happy and proud for him that he was able to come in in the seventh game and lead us to the FC Championship game. He also was today selected into the Pro Bowl, which is a huge honor for someone that came into the seventh week. Now John and I will meet and we'll talk about the roster, about the free agents, about contracts. Our focus has always been about beating the Chiefs. That didn't happen. So now our focus is on the offseason. In the Dennis Kelly hold, there was a flag that was immediately thrown and there was holding called on Kelly on the play. Was there also a formation issue that maybe just wasn't spelled out by the official? Yes. The rookie class this year, what you guys got out of them and their production for you? Yeah, I thought there was good production. I think that, you know, Jeffrey, you know, worked his way back. He worked hard to get his get himself back. Told him, you know, it would have been easy for him to not do that to kind of tap out and just kind of punt this year. He didn't do that. He battled through and battled through a lot of soreness like a lot of players. You know, he cares and I'm excited to continue to work with him. You know, AJ, you know, blossom, love his attitude. It's fun to coach. Just this is the worst day of coaching, you know, now until the players come back because there's no players. You don't coach. I never got into coaching to evaluate players or to watch tape. I got into coaching because I wanted to make players better, just like the coaches that made me better. And so this is the worst time of really my year. And for them, that's probably their best time of the year. They're getting the hell out of here, you know. And so again, I can't wait for these guys to get back already to try to help them, you know. You know, Monty Hooker played a lot for us, special teams, safety, did a lot of different roles. Learned a lot of different schemes and positions for a rookie. You know, David Long really showed the ability to find a football, an instinctive player, you know. So again, we'll have to keep developing them. The ones that didn't help us as much as others or maybe that were injured and not available. And, you know, those guys needed to take a big jump from their first year to their second year. How much do you now measure yourself against the Chiefs? Like, do you view them as a team that you need to be able to match up with and get past? Or do you just measure yourself, I don't know, against what you see on the film and know your own shortcomings are? You know, I think the only way to measure yourself is, you know, did you win or did you lose? And so, you know, we lost yesterday. We didn't take advantage enough for the opportunity to go play for a Super Bowl. You know, we understand that we, what the expectations are. And that's the only way that I can try to measure our progress is by success. In terms of roster. You know, John and I are going to put together the most competitive 90-man roster that we possibly can. We talk about it. And then at that point in time, then we move the roster around and get it down to 53 and get 10 guys on a practice squad that we feel like, you know, we want to continue to work with. That's how the roster goes. Again, I love coaching our football team. These guys played, they embraced the effort and finish. And, you know, we'll get better like we have to each and every year. It's like we need to be faster on the back end to keep up with the receivers. We need to be able to hit somebody like Mahomes more. Do you make comparisons like that? You know, that's all part of the evaluation process is trying to find the best players at each position. And if they're fast and they can do their job, great. If they're, you know, whatever their skill set may be. But, you know, we just didn't play well enough yesterday and, you know, to win. Did you discuss building the roster moving forward? A bunch of the players, some with uncertain futures all said, essentially, we love this place and kind of hinted that they'd like to be back. You just talked about loving a lot of these guys. As you discuss it, what's the challenge of having a run like this and being as tight as this team is? But making, I guess, the smart business decision of we really need this guy or we maybe need to, you know, go in a different direction. Well, Matt, I think it's always a two-way street, right? You have to want, you know, the player has to want to be here. And the team has to try to do its job to make sure that that fits with its plans, with the plans that John and I have. I would love to be able to give you answers to those questions. But, you know, for us, the free agent process is just starting, you know, for us to be able to evaluate and to see where, you know, we may go. And that's something that John and I will do. I just can't give you any answers on that right now. Do you have to take the emotions out of it, though? Well, I mean, I think you have to always try to take emotion out of, you know, critical decisions. You know, you have to say, you know, what is this player? What will this player be? What is the vision for the player? What's the player's future? You know, and again, it is a two-way street, you know. We're trying to talk about his foot injury yesterday, maybe getting an MRI on that. I'm wondering if any idea for Sean or anybody will have off-season procedures. No, I mean, you should ask them. They're pretty much willing to give you the information. So, all right. Try to ask them. How confident are you that with all that Derek accomplished this year, that you'll be able to retain him and he'll be a part of this team going forward? You know, again, the thing that I'm probably most proud of Derek is his leadership ability improved. I think he went from a good running back to a very, you know, very good running back. That all, you know, will work itself out. But he became a leader. I think he led, helped lead this football team. He helped carry my message and our staff's message into the locker room. I think his durability, his effort, his toughness allowed him to be a leader. I think that when he was excited and he talked to guys on the field or in the locker room, they listened and I just wanted to make him aware of that, that, you know, he was starting to become that and he needs to understand what his potential is in that regard. What jump started his leadership process? You know, a lot of guys, it's just comfort. It's the comfort around the coaches or the players or the scheme or what they're doing to allow him then to extend out. You know, you want to make sure that obviously everything that you need to be taken care of is taken care of. Like, you know your job, you know what you're supposed to do, you have a routine. And at that point in time, then you can, you know, start to help other players and try to hold other players accountable and lead other people. That would be a difficult thing to replace, yes? You know, I'm not really sure. You know, we always have to have plans in place for every position. And to say that leadership or production is hard to replace, that's our job. You know, our job is to find out who's available, who we have, what we can use, and you know, we're going to do the best and I know that John and I will do the best and he'll do the best job that he can to bring guys back that we have a vision for. You've had two years of coaching, Marcus Morioto. What's your impression of how he's handled the several highs and lows that his career has had over the last two years? You know, talked to Marcus this morning, told him how proud I was of him, how he handled the situation. I think he improved. I think he embraced the opportunity to improve each and every day on the show team to lead and to develop his skill set, to get stronger in his leadership ability. I think a lot of our players looked to Marcus to see how he would handle that situation and by how he handled it I think that also positively affected our team to have a player, a star player, be able to handle that role. Would you see change in the offensive line from the early struggles, maybe the beginning of the year, to Taddeck finish? I think everybody just got continued to improve. You know, as the quarterback play and Marcus's play or Ryan's play, as one unit gets better, the other one starts to get better. I think everybody feeds off each other. As we run the ball better, you know, the blocking gets better. As we get open quicker, the blocking gets better. As we block better, you know, the quarterback completes more passes. I mean, that's how it's going to go. You know, Nate improved. We played with a rookie, you know, and he got better, you know, and Jack got better. You know, we got Taylor back from, you know, his time away. And, you know, Ben was a mainstay. You know, Roger continued to improve, but it all goes hand in hand. It's not just some magic potion that they started to improve. I think it gradually increased and as one unit started to play better, you know, the other one started to obviously improve and they feed off each other. Does it end up coming back? Is he the kind of back that you can envision again, you know, 400 carries that would come to that? Or, you know, in a perfect world, do you get a lesson that? Yeah, I don't know. We'll see how it goes when he's back. You know, to envision that, I know he's durable. Again, it's just about where he's at physically and where he's, you know, that's kind of how it went this year. Mike, you mentioned that they're trying to play home playoff games. Is that maybe the next step, getting to be able to, you know, division title, get some of these games here in Nashville? Yeah, it'd be great. It'd be great for our fans, the way they supported us, you know, all year. Very appreciative of it, the excitement. We wish we would have come home winners last night and find ways to get all those people to the Super Bowl. It's unfortunate that that didn't happen, so we can continue to try to build the momentum from the season and get back to that in the offseason, and hopefully we can carry the confidence over from this year to next year.