 Yeah, Kyle, how are you doing today? Do your land a let better land a journal constitution? Doing good, man. You're pretty good. Just, you know, downloading from the draft, you know, how do you feel everything went for you all, you know, executing the and moving around the draft board there over the last, you know, three days that weekend? Yeah, I thought it was, you know, we've just like 32 teams, right? All 32 teams feel really good about their draft and but, you know, really happy with all six of our guys, not only the talent that they have, the vision that we have for them, not only this year, but moving forward and the character and football makeup that they have, all of them are outstanding, outstanding workers, teammates, all those things. So really happy with how it went, the work that went into it. I do want to just thank our staff and the college guys, if you guys don't mind, you know, a lot of work goes into this stuff. Actually in two weeks here, as you guys know, I'll be down in Florida to go through the next year's group of guys. So it starts in May every year and those guys are away from their families for, you know, 10 to 12, 14 days at a time. All the create clarity for us on draft day and, you know, pro staff, you know, our tech team, everybody was tremendous coaching staff, so I'm really happy with how it went. And just to follow up, I'm still getting questions on how you all arrived at the decision to take the running back and pass on Jaylen Carter from the University of Georgia. Yeah, so, you know, obviously with, there's a lot of, you talk about, I guess, conventional wisdoms on certain positions that you take and you don't take and how to build a team, you know, how not to build a team. And I think what we've always talked about since we've been here and throughout our careers at other places, you know, there's a million ways to do it, you know, and the thing that we focus on the most is it ain't about what, it's about who. And, you know, when it comes to Bijan, the player, the skill set, the versatility, the impact as a player and, you know, as a person, it was an easy pick, man. It really was. I mean, the amount of work that went into it, the conviction we had from day one to right on the clock, it was an easy pick. Thank you, Jeff Schultz. Yeah, hi. Thanks for doing this, Kyle. Two things. First of all, following up on Bijan, specifically for this offense, how did you sort of project to skill set in terms of what he could bring to the offense? Yeah, I think it's, you know, I think Art and Terry talked about it a little bit, but the first thing that pops, obviously, when you're doing Bijan is his run skills, right? His instincts, his natural division, his cutability, he's got strength, he can do it all. So he's gonna do it all type of back. Then you start, as an evaluator, that's the first thing you're watching, right? The runner, now you start thinking about your team and how he fits into us. And you're thinking about Coach Smith and you're thinking about Dave Ragone and how their minds work in terms of utilizing different weapons and skill sets. And then you start getting excited about the potential of Tyler Elgier and what he showed in CP and Avery, Kyle Pitts, Drake London. So your mind starts going all because of the different things that Bijan can do. He's an outstanding runner. It's every position that you put him in can be an impact. And not just impact from production, but impact on how that other team has to, what goes into their mindset going into that week and how are we going to defend in the different formations and the different personnel packages that we can use with all of these players that we have. So that's really what went into it. And the more you start talking about it and then when we got the coaching staff involved post-season and that vision that you have back in October going to a live game and you're hearing our coaches talk it out, that's when the excitement comes of what this could be. And one more thing, a couple of years ago the franchise decided not to spend a pick in the first round on a quarterback. Eventually, you guys took Desmond Ritter in the third round a year ago. I'm just curious what you saw in Ritter that prompted you to make that pick. Yeah, yeah, with Desmond, really excited about Desmond moving forward and what he did at the end of the year and getting some of that experience at the back half of the year there. But with Des, it was number one, the thing that sticks out is it's the leadership, the wiring, as you guys know at that position there's a lot of different skill sets. There's a lot of different physical attributes that you have to have to play the position. But what separates a lot of players is it's from the neck up. And not just from an intelligence perspective it's from how you face adversity, how you're wired, your toughness, your mindset, all those things and he has all those. You know what I mean? So once you have those at that position now you're interested in the skill set. And when you watch his tape, he's got good arm strength, he's got accuracy, he can get out of the pocket. So he's got all those things, there's things he needs to work on, right? He needs to get better as all of our players. But those were the things that kind of jumped out right away with the intangible pieces along with the physical skills to develop. But if you don't have that neck up, you know, it's really hard. It's really hard in this league and he's got it neck up. Thank you. Backline? You proved a year ago you could find a running back with extreme value late in the draft, right? I mean, I think it was your lead in Russia. He was pretty impressive as a rookie a year ago. And the conventional wisdom I know you hear is can't don't take him too high, don't take him too high. How hard is that to ignore when the entire world is telling you don't do something but you have the conviction to do it? Yeah, it's not hard at all. To be honest with you, because for all conventional wisdoms that you're speaking about, we could give you, because that's what we do, right? I mean, constantly for our whole, could give you 15 examples of to prove one right. That's why it's a conventional wisdom. This is why it's out there is because there's been success with that mindset. But I can talk you out of anything. Do you know what I mean? I can talk you out of the first pick in the draft. Talk you out of picking a guy in the seventh round. And I could also talk you into it, right? So there's a lot of different ways to, like I was saying earlier, a lot of different philosophies, how to build a team. I was always raised inside out through the middle, right? And then nowadays you can hear what's went into passing league, you gotta have skill town on the outside spread everybody out. And, you know, so there's, because people have had success doing it other ways. And that's why I go back to, you know, it ain't about what it's about who. So whatever position it is, you can't take a guard in the top 15. Well, who's the guard? You know what I mean? Oh, you should take a quarterback in the top 10, like we just talked about. You gotta take one in the top five, top 10. If you're ever there, well, who is it? That's the question. And that's what we always go back to. And I think that's with Bijan or any of the players that we take and the who is what we believed in and feel really good about. All right. Talk me out of drafting Bryce Young in number one. No, I'm good. Was there a moment that you remember with Bijan that you were obviously so high and we were like, that's it. I've seen the play. I had a conversation. We know we're then turning the card. Do you remember what that was? I don't know if there, I mean, like I said, it was a pretty easy eval to do. And once you do, you know what I mean? You see the talent and you combine that with them. It's always the makeup part. I think that, like that really you end up being like, we're good here. You know what I mean? And I think the way that that kid is talked about at the school call and then you combine that with the talent, it's really makes it easy. But then I guess that, I don't know if it's the solidifier and you'd have to ask Art and Terry that question too. But we went and worked them out privately and got to spend time with them there. And there's always a couple of movements. There's a couple of instances where you're just like, you know what I mean? You're just shaking your head and you're like, come on man, you know, he's got all those things. So to answer your question, I mean, there was multiple times I could tell you that it's, you know, with any player that you're doing when you reach that point, but it was tape and it was, I did a live exposure with them personally. I think it was Iowa State game. I was at that game and then obviously the private and the combine interview and the combine workout. I mean, you could go down the line. Tori McLean. Yeah, Kyle, just following up on that, were you talking about the private workout? I mean, that was something that Art and Terry were talking about where it did solidify for them, the direction that y'all were potentially gonna go in. I mean, when you think back to kind of, I guess that day that y'all had with him, what stood out in your mind as to maybe why the building felt so strongly about him coming out of that in a similar way that y'all did when you worked out Drake London last year. Yeah, I think, you know, I think from coach's perspective, and again, I don't wanna speak for coach, but you know, I think it was some of those movements within that workout and some of the route craft that we did and some of those things to where you can see Coach Smith working it out. You know what I mean? He's working because he's got vision. You know, as a head coach, as a play caller, you know, you have your visions of how you're gonna utilize things and how you see it playing out and the different calls in his mind and what he's gonna have these players do. So when he sees it right there in person, and when you're live, you feel it. You know what I mean? You feel twitch, you feel speed, you feel power. And I think that part for Coach Smith was probably that, you know, he felt it. It was right there. It's right on you. It's two feet away from you. You know, and then I think it all came together for him that way. But we all felt, you know, good about him throughout the process. And talking about Matthew Bergeron, this is a guy who has taken almost exclusively tackle reps at the college level and I think had one practice at the senior bullet at guard. But y'all have said since the moment that his name was called as he's moving inside. I mean, what did y'all see in his film, I guess, even at the college level that made you feel like this was a move that he could make? Yeah, yeah, it's a good question. You know, and anytime you have a projection and you're moving to guy's positions, there's a lot of things that have to go into it, right? But as a guard, you know, the things that stuck out with Bergeron, initial quickness, lateral quickness, there's twitch in a short area, plays with violence, plays with physicality, plays with the temperament that we want and he's got power in his lower body and anchor strength. So you combine those things, you have to do it in different ways because at the tackle position, it is different. You know what I mean? It's gonna happen faster inside. So there's gonna be some growing and things he's gonna have to work out or anybody that moves into that position will have to work out. But when you combine all those skill sets, again, just like with the Bijan and then you get the makeup and you get the wiring and you start hearing how they describe this kid and this player, his smarts, his intelligence, that's when you know, okay, we feel really good about the move inside, let him go in there. And then we're not saying that he can't play tackle, you know what I'm saying? But obviously we're trying to get the best five guys on the field and that's where we're gonna plug him in. For example? Kyle, it's fair to say that for what you're saying that you knew that Bijan was the guy early on in the process overall. I'm just wondering how much in knowing that allowed you to go through the free agency period geared more towards defensive players and looking at those sorts of players in free agency going back to sort of that dovetail of the conversation about Jalen Carter and other guys who you passed over in the first round. You know, it's a chicken or the egg question kind of deal, but is the comfort of having Bijan knowing that he was that level of player for you, did that allow you to shape free agency accordingly? No, well not really because when I say new Bijan, like new would be in the conversation. You know, once what happens is once you, once we found out what pick you're picking, right? From my perspective, you know, doing the college guy. So now you know where you're picking. There's only a certain amount of guys that you feel like are worthy of that pick, right? Every year we're not gonna have a ton of guys that are graded as high, right? And so as soon as we found out what pick we were at, okay, now five, six, seven names start coming to your head of who would be worthy. And then the slotting happens and the massaging of the stacking happens. But you never know what's gonna happen. So you don't go into free agency thinking, hey, we'll be able to address this in the draft because you just don't, it's too unpredictable. We went into free agency in the same way that we went into the draft. Hey, who are the value, the positions that we value? Who are the players that fit those, that are worthy of those positions and the amount of money that we're gonna spend. And then we try to go after them. But everything we do in free agency is kind of setting us up for the draft to be able to take best player available for us at that position. So Bijan wasn't in our mind at any point during free agency at all. We knew that there would be a cluster of players that we could be potentially picking from and those were the guys that we were digging in on more towards the off season and let it go that way. If that answers your question there. Sure it does. And I just wanna shift to the defensive backfield with the two guys you took in Phillips and Hellman's late. I mean, it's pretty much with the exception of AJ and I think Richie, you know, completely new defensive backfield this year. You know, what sort of traits are we putting together in this defensive backfield that, you know, Nielsen wants to create in this key part of your defense? Yeah, well, we're definitely gonna be an aggressive mindset defense. I'm sure Nielsen has talked to you guys about that, you know, and from the defensive backfield, you've gotta be, you know, you've gotta be multiple, you know, both Jesse and Richie are gonna be doing a lot of the same things. Obviously have particular skill sets between the two of them of the corners. You know, we're gonna be a press team. We're gonna be an aggressive in your face type of team, but we can also also be multiple. You're gonna have to place them off coverage. You're gonna have to play zones. You're gonna have to do those things. So, but that aggressive mindset, the ability to take the ball away, all those things are what led us to say, Clark Phillips, you know, he's an inside out, flex guy. He can play nickel. He can play outside. His dimensions are a little bit different than, you know, a couple of the other guys, obviously AJ and Akuta in those guys, but it's gonna be an aggressive mindset at any position on defense, that's for sure. And we'll take on that mindset of Nielsen. Josh Kendall. Hey, Kyle, thank you for your time. I wonder if when you're evaluating players, whether intentionally or not your mind goes to player comps to help you sort of figure out who they are or who you think they could be. Yes, 100%. And that's, I mean, that's what, that's what you do as a scout, right? And as an evaluator, that's how you get better, right? And it's, you go back to, you know, I go back to my first year on the road, I'm a young scout and I'm putting grades, I'm throwing big grades on everybody, you know? And it's just like, boom, I'm just throwing them out there. And then you get, you know, kicked in the teeth. And you realize, you know, there's not, you know, that's not right. You know what I mean? And why? You know, so now you start figuring out why. And then the next year you're comparing those guys, well, this guy reminds me of him and he didn't work out. Well, why didn't he work out? Is it because they usually goes back to the makeup and the character like we talk about, but was it part of the skill set? Was it stiffness? Was it, you know, lack of speed, lack of twitch, lack of measurables, whatever it is. So you're constantly going through those comparables and your catalog and your archive of players that you've done and comps to try to sort out, you know, and minimize your risk of missing on a player. Cause we're all, we're gonna miss. We're all gonna miss. It happens every year. It's not an exact science. We know that. We believe in creating what's the ceiling of this player? What's the floor? And those guys that have high floors and generally that's because of their makeup, you know, that's where we wanna live. We wanna live with the guys that have the high ceilings and high floors or maybe their ceiling's not that high, right? But their floor is high. So you know exactly what you're getting. But yes, every player, most guys, there's always a guy that kind of pops into your head and you're like, man, he reminds me of him a lot, you know what I mean? For Bijan, who are they? Yeah, you know, with Bijan, there are guys, you know, that I don't wanna give you their names, but with Bijan, you know, the thing about what I'd say about him is we want Bijan to be Bijan. You know, we want every player that we draft to be that, that we drafted Bijan for a reason, Des Ridder. We're not asking Desmond Ridder to be anything that he's not. We drafted Des because we like his skill set. We like his mindset. We want to develop it. So Bijan, everything he's done throughout his career is exactly what we want. And he's a versatile guy that can, you know, I don't wanna throw a name out there because then you know how it goes, man. Well, I was gonna say, is it fair for me to think that your hesitancy to throw a name out there is because the names in your head might create undue pressure on the player? Yeah, well, you know, I think the pressure, there's gonna be pressures regardless because of where we took them, right? But that's the point. It's just like for the kid and what our message to him is, to all of our players, it's we want you to be you, man. Like everything you've done is why we took you. So just be you, everything you've done to this point and then it's our job to continue to be a good teammate and work hard and all those things that develop him from there. So that's what I mean by that. Thank you, Kyle. Eli, any follow-ups? Yeah, Kyle, I got two. One is with regards to Clark Tyrone Poole was talking with him last night. He told me to get off the 40-time but try to find out a short area quickness and his arms, he said he was a shorter guy, but he had arms that were of a six-footer himself, not Clark. And then I got a question about how much does it cost to put together a draft board? The economics of putting together a draft board. So short area quickness on Phillips. Let me sort this out. And economics on a draft board. So Phillips, that is what we liked about Phillips, right? When you're looking at different positions and he's a 5'9 guy. And so every position has certain measurables and criterias. And when you're lacking in one thing, you probably make it up in another area. For Clark Phillips, he is short, but he's got tremendous lateral agility, tremendous short area quickness, and he's an instinctive player with ball skills. So there's the things that he can compensate with. And he's an aggressive kid. He's a tough kid. Now economically, I don't know how much the draft board costs or to put it together. What do you mean by that? Like how much is it? Well, I heard Pat Kerwin say it costs 20. We're doing mock drafts, but we don't have the benefit of a $20 million draft board. So that got me like, I was like, wow, that's a lot for the draft board. Yeah, I don't want one of those. I liked it. We got, as an old school draft board, we've got magnet board and magnets. Put our hands on them. We've got the interns, scouting assistants sticking the magnets and put them up on the board. And it's pretty old school that way. So we don't have, we do have, we got a lot of technology here now. We've got a virtual board that's on the computer that you can drag and do all those things. I don't know how much, I'll talk to Steph Gutierrez and Carl and them, see how much that costs. See if we can't get that to you. But I'm an old school guy that way, like draft boards, I want it to be, I'd rather write it down on the, write them on the board than have all the, you know, the virtual stuff, you know? I don't trust that stuff, man. Thank you. Zach Klein? I'm sure there are many, but who is the one guy that really kicked you in the teeth that kind of brought you back down to the earth when the scouting process started? Oof, throughout my career, I've had a few, man. I've had a few, you know, I hate to say their name, I'll say a position just because I, you know, I don't want to bash guy for not making it, you know what I'm saying? But there was a position of safety. No, I was actually talking about like for you, who kicked you in the teeth for like your evaluation, remember you said you were at the beginning and you're like, I've been giving every guy a 90, a first round grade, first round grade. I kicked myself in the teeth because I missed so bad. You know what I mean? Like I'm hard on my set, like that's, you know, that's what I'm doing. You know, that's the best way to learn, you know, and that's what we do with our guys too when we met, we're all gonna miss, you know, but it's the, I think what happens as an evaluator as you get better, it's, you can't, if you start getting scared, right? You start getting scared to put grades on guys now or you're, so now you're one of those guys that's just putting right that play right down the middle. You know what I mean? But you have to have those humbling experiences and times when, you know, and that was, you know, the positives were as I was bold enough to put the grade on the guy, you know what I mean? But then you got to, you know, you also have to be egoless, right? And take the step, be like, hey man, I was wrong because the scary part in evaluations and this process is when guys don't think they're wrong, you know, and they talk to them like, hey, they're not going to admit that they were wrong around a particular player three years ago and say, well, if they were in this position, that it'd be better off here. You know what I mean? Well, no man, like you missed. We missed, you know what I'm saying? So, but you got to learn from those experiences and, you know, and that's what we always challenge our guys to do. Gotcha, thank you. First, Kendall. Kyle, just from me looking around a little bit, it feels like you guys take fewer or sign fewer UDFAs in general than other folks. And I wonder if you think that's accurate and if there's some sort of philosophical reasoning for that or it's just been happenstance. Yeah, I think it's just, you know, it's, we didn't listen to what we do six. Was it six, I think? Yeah, you know, we didn't go into it saying, hey, we're going to do six and that's it. You know what I mean? Like that's a crazy process, man, that post draft. I mean, it's wild when it ends. So we were in on other guys and might have been in on 10 to 12 and you end up with six and, you know, but I think part of it too is, you know, our pro staff does a tremendous job with all these leagues that are out there, not the XFLs out there and they've got some younger players in there and you're going to see a stable in that a little bit. You know, D Alfred last year was from the CFL that we like, we kind of look at it that way too. Like with D, for example, way before the draft, but we signed him in it because you're thinking about the draft and post draft free agency. In our mind, it's like, there's not a better player post draft than D. Do you know what I mean? So you kind of look at that, you're putting that into the pod of undrafted free, you know what I'm saying? So that's kind of how we look at it. And if I can start on more Bijan question, what was his visit to the building like Friday? You know what, I didn't see him much because I was in like Terry and them saw, they did all that stuff with him. I didn't even see Bijan. I know I heard him walk in. I could tell you that. We heard it too. Yeah, I heard him walk in, but I didn't get a chance to see him again. You know, I was in the draft room. Appreciate your time. Yeah. Yeah, quick thing, when you are kind of getting to this point, you know, Terry always says, this is all 24 seven, 365, but when you get to the point of the draft is done, you have these free agent or these undrafted guys, how much does kind of the free agency market reset in a sense of you guys going back and hitting the streets in terms of building out the rest of this roster, even though you've done so much work already. So how much are you kind of like going back to guys that you maybe looked at before the draft to kind of get them back in here? Yeah, there's a lot of, you know, it's a good question because there's a lot of guys that normally it's veteran guys, you know, that have been a few, you know what I mean? That kind of known names, you know, or name guys we call them, right? That are waiting for, they didn't really want to sign now before the draft. They're waiting to see how the draft plays out so that they can choose where they would prefer to go. Do you know what I'm saying? Because if a team drafts this position, that position, and there was two teams came down to and they drafted this offensive lineman, well, he might choose the other team. You know, a lot of times that's what happens. But we're gonna, we'll be, right now we're doing the rookie mini camp, you know, filling out that deal. And you know, once we get through that and we kind of see where we're at 90, we'll start seeing what's out there still. And you know, you're always trying to do, you're always trying to shake the trees. You're always trying to, Terry talks about all the time, you know, back end of your roster and trying to shake it up. So we're constantly, you know that, Tori, we're constantly doing that stuff. Yeah, and going back to Clark Phillips, there's a clip that's been kind of going around. He made, it was, he was facing off against Drake and he kind of ran him into a ground, into the ground on a tackle. And it was a very aggressive play that, I mean, you like to see from a guy like that who's undersized, but when y'all are kind of watching him, is that aggressive nature of him, something that caught your eye? Yeah, no doubt, you know, like we're talking about with guys that have, you know, some physical, you know, I guess limitations or, you know, they're not, not the ideal measureables. Like there's always something that compensates and he's a, he's a competitive, you know, he's got some feisty competitiveness to him that we like, and you gotta have, you know what I mean? And that's the way it's, Jevon Gwynne is the same with the guard center from South Carolina, measurable wise, he's shorter, you know, shorter iron, that dude is mean and he's nasty and he's coming at you and so you better buck up. And that's how he's wired. That's because that's part of it is that's how that kid's wired and he's gotta make up for some things that people think are limitations and we all knock them for, but that kid, we're excited to see Jevon and coach got a chance to spend a lot of time with him when he was doing a, I think it was a coach convention in South Carolina and I really liked that kid.