 What did you think? Derek, when you got a chance to look back at the tape from Cincinnati, what were your thoughts? Anything different than you looked out right after the game or that you felt right after the game? No. What I said is pretty much what happened. Did you spend much time looking at the fumble and see what you did wrong there? Or did you kind of know in the moment what happened? No. Fumming the ball. That's a terrible ball. You got 102 yards per game in your career games, December and January. It's the third most of any player ever. What is it about you that makes you stronger as seasons go on late in the year? I don't know. I haven't thought that much about that. Focus on feeling, to be true. If Ben's back now, how much could that help things for you guys? Ben's smart. Knows the ins and outs. And that's the big part of what we do. So I know we're all excited to have him back and miss him when he wasn't out there. Focus being on Philly, what do you make of their front? Jordan Davis, Nobel, Joseph, Sue, Cox, all those guys that they have. Penetrating, disruptive, play hard, run to the ball. And they're as good as advertised. It's Sam that you mentioned. A lot of people make a lot of your success in December, January, and the weather gets colder. Did you like the cold weather growing up in a 40-guide? Did you have to learn to like playing in the cold? I think it just comes with the game. And you've got to go out there and play. And that's all I can do. It's cold, hot. You've got to go play regardless. About a couple weeks ago, the motivation you still carry from the people that doubted you when you were coming out of high school is a running back. Had that path not been open to you and you were forced to go to the defensive side, what kind of defensive end would you have been? Probably Julius Peppers. Disruptive, sacks. I'd have penned out better now I'm playing. But I'm glad it worked out the way it did. I was passionate about playing the position. I feel like it worked out pretty well. AJ, and just your thoughts of him as a teammate here and now what he's doing in Philly? Yeah, AJ, that's my brother, man. My Nike shirt just texted me earlier. But yeah, it was fun playing with him. And going up against him is going to be different. But at the end of the day, it's football. And I will try to win the game. So you met Joey Logano yesterday. You know much about his career and does he seem to know a lot about yours? And you put me on the spot there, Jim. I'm not too educated on NASCAR. I know he won the championship this year. It was really cool to meet him. We got him a jersey. He brought me a helmet and signed it for me. So I thought that was pretty cool. And he was 2-2, so that was cool as well. You know, some guys are wearing their cleats this week. Some next week. What is maybe your cause going to be? You have multiple causes. And what do you hope to do through that campaign? Yeah, mine's always been my foundation to our foundation, which we focus on Levin and playing field for the youth. Purple and gold, my grandmother's favorite two colors represent her and know what she was all about. And it's been a resource for the youth. And whatever, how much I can raise to help push that message and do whatever I can, I'm always for it. Speaking of other sports, there was a baseball bat over there around your locker, and it was, I guess, inscribed to you. What's that about? Ben always does that when we have a good game in a running game. He always makes a baseball. And he's been doing that for a while now. Randy listed it as a full participant yesterday. Wednesday, a busy day for him? Or if not, when is the busiest day for him? Yeah, Wednesday was busy for him yesterday. Today is going to be another busy day for him. We're going to see how he does. Felt really good after yesterday's practice. So we're looking forward to him doing more field goals and kickoffs today and see what's going on. Before I take any more questions, I just want to wish best of luck to Lipscomb. My youngest son goes there. And then also Paige, my oldest is dressed in varsities as a freshman, so I want to wish them the best of luck tomorrow in their state championship game. Lipscomb's down 42 or not. They're winning 42 this time. They're winning 42. That's like most of the season right there, isn't it? What do you need to see from Randy, I guess, when he's working here for practice in order to feel good about and return it? Yeah, obviously, we're going to take a look at the distance, especially on his kickoff. See if his leg is feeling all right. That's going to be one of the biggest things to see how he does today. And then even tomorrow, how he's feeling after the workout, because that's really important for us is how his leg is able to take that type of work, especially when we're going to try to tell him to kick it close to the end zone or even deep for a touchback. We'll see how he feels tomorrow, though. I presume it's not an either or situation where you wouldn't have both he and Shudak with one handling the kickoffs Yeah, that's not ideal for us. And we've done that in the past here. A couple of years ago, we did that. That's not what we're really looking for, because obviously that takes away offensively, defensively. It also takes away from us on special teams with a core player. If we would have to do that, great, we can. But that's just not ideal for us to have two kickers up. So Caleb had to handle things. How did Caleb handle things? Yeah, just going back. Proud of him. The one that he wants back, the short one, that's something that he should be able to make at any point in time, just a low kick and just not what he was looking for. He had a little bit of gust, but 10 times out of 10, he's going to tell you he wants to make that. But as far as kickoffs were concerned, I thought he did a great job. And then the other field goals, we thought he did a pretty good job. It's just the one, unfortunately, it didn't go in. But he had a great week, or so far, yesterday he had a great time kicking, and we thought he did a really good job. Assuming Bullock is fully healthy and kicks off well in practice and so forth, I mean, is he the guy given his experience, or is there any experience? Oh, I mean, we want Randy to come back. Not that we're not happy with Caleb, but Randy has put in the work. He's done a great job. He's the guy for us, and we obviously love to have him back. And if he can't go, then Caleb will step up again and try to do his best. But really looking forward to having Randy back, and if he can, great. How do you do it initially? Was just kind of a fluky deal in warm-up? Yeah, it was interesting, because he got done with his field goal set and did a really good job. And then we kind of go off, and I go with the punter. And then all of a sudden, it was kind of him warming up on his kickoffs. Just felt something a little bit. And when that starts to happen, then all of a sudden, it's a big chain reaction. OK, who are we going to have kickoff? Hey, let's get Stoney ready after he punts to do some kickoff. So it was just one of those freak things that end up happening, and he felt a little tightness. And we had to move on to the next guy. How often do you talk about not hitting the snapper in the head and neck area? And just a couple guys getting a little over, Zellis there? Sure, just unfortunate. Our guys are going to give all-out effort. We got to continue to do a better job of relaying to those guys that don't even make it close. And our guys are going to try to go in there every single time and play with all-out effort to try to block a kick, which is what we want. We just got to make sure we end up coaching it a little bit more and better, where these guys don't make it close. Because we know the officials are going to be looking at certain things. And we just got to do a better job as far as coaches. How many coaches? Mike says there's like one or two things officials are looking for. Yeah. Do you have a coach that more and better before the penalty happens? Have you been negligent there? No, I don't think so. I think what we got to do a little bit better is teaching the technique that we're looking for. Because their guards were really coming down in on that A-gap. So when we would try to go and knock back the guard, they came down hard on us. And then Strong and Tart end up moving down a little bit too much. But we're going to really focus in today and yesterday on really trying to v-technique and get those guards getting knocked back instead of getting closer to the center. That win comes in and it circles around. How do you find out what to gauge for the win? Because I don't like at Nissan Stadium, we use the four flags. But how do you find that? Great job. That was good. So we'll go out there, obviously, early. That's one of our biggest process, whether it's Chase or myself or James will be out there early trying to get the win gauge. And Randy always comes out there early just to get a good feel of where the wind's going. But yeah, it could be swirling. It could be doing a bunch of different things. So we try to get out there. We take an early bus. We try to get out there as early as we possibly can. Now, here's what's sometimes bad about it, is all of a sudden you feel like the wind's going one way and then it shifts. Because even Nissan Stadium does that sometimes too. But that part can change at any point in time. We just got to be alert for it. Talk to Coach Ray Bull, Stonehouse, myself, Randy, Caleb, all those guys just got to communicate and just understand where that wind's going. If you can get Ola back, how much has he helped, maybe? I'm sorry. If you can get Ola back this week or at some point in the near future, how much will that help? Tremendously. I mean, we miss Ola, a guy who's been a really good special teams player for the past couple of years, whether it was Pittsburgh or for us. We miss his energy. We miss his juice. Another physical presence for us to go out there and a guy who takes pride in being a four-core special teams player is going to bring a little bit of the alpha dog mentality that we're looking for. But we're excited. If he can be up and be active, that's going to help us out a lot. The challenge, I guess, Todd, going into Philly a team that's creating a lot of turnovers and been good pretty much across the board. Yeah, obviously a hostile environment. We need to embrace that road environment and that road mentality. We need to be clean operationally. Our substitutions need to be good, so we have time at the line of scrimmage to diagnose the defense. And that's a challenge that we're excited about and something, I think, we've grown on throughout the course of the year. A lot of people want to make the comparison of Traylin to AJ and, obviously, this week with you guys playing the Eagles. What are some of the similarities that they have, but what are also some of the differences in the two? Yeah, I don't think a comparison with those two is fair. Each their own individual player at different points in their career and development and all that. So I'm excited about where Traylin's been training in the last couple of weeks, the way that he's caught the ball well in contested environments. The way he's produced a little bit after the catch, made some contested catches. So excited about the trajectory he's on. And, obviously, we love AJ. AJ's in a different phase right now. So my point in Ryan Tannehill yesterday, we're kind of complimenting how Traylin has grown kind of mentally and attitude-wise as well. Are those some of the things that you have observed, maybe especially in recent weeks? I've just been so pleased with the way he's approached each day. It came out yesterday and it was a little bit of a down-tempo drill. And he's out there. We're having to slow him down. And when you have to slow a guy down as opposed to spur him on, you know it's important to him. And I think Traylin's really come back from his time off with a new sense of urgency and a kind of eagerness to get on the same page with RT. And that's been cool to see. So did that maybe flip a switch at all, coming back from and from layoff when you can't play? And did that serve as an impetus to maybe change some things with him? That's probably a question for him. I can tell you that I've liked what I've seen since he's been back, so. In terms of the snap count with Traylin, is there a reason he don't see him get as many as maybe Woods and Nick or even AJ last year? Is it kind of a progress we're building up to that? I think there's a natural progression into that as you're coming back from some time down. And I think game situations can also have an effect on that. And so we'll see where that goes on a week to week basis, but I think he's getting more and more comfortable, more and more conditioned and all those things. So excited about where he's at. You guys have always been pretty comfortable putting out personnel groups that might say, hey, we're running here and go ahead and try to stop us. With these six man fronts and things that have maybe been a little bit more difficult to run against, is there any inclination to disguise more what you're doing? Or are you still comfortable going out there with some time saying, hey, we're running it, try to stop us even though teams are having more success? Yeah, I think we've expanded some of those personnel packages a little bit as well. You saw us break the formation last week a couple of times out of bigger groupings. And ultimately we need to go execute regardless of what front they put out there. So we'll always keep an eye on those things. We'll always make sure that we're staying on top of our tendencies and self-scouting all those different kind of studies. But bottom line is we didn't execute well enough regardless of what personnel grouping was out there. When you look at the numbers like over the last three weeks, Derek Henry, he's getting hit, not immediately, but very quickly after he gets to football. What can you guys do to stop that from happening? And in fact, what is happening to allow that penetration like that? We definitely subscribe around here to takes all 11 to succeed in the run game. And so there's no one group or one person that we would put that on. All of us, coach and staff included, need to do a great job of making sure that we're getting the run started, getting Derek into his fourth and fifth step. And that's a challenge that we're looking forward to swinging back in our favor. It seems like the tables did a lot of run blitzing with the nickel back and also some of the inside backers. Are you seeing more of that now as teams are trying to figure out ways to keep Derek contained? Yeah, we get a little careful of diagnosing them as necessarily run blitzes. People know we're a run team, so any blitz is going to be to try to gap us out on first and second out. I would say that that's probably their most common pressure out of nickel grouping. So that wasn't anything that was new or specific to us. We just need to execute better with those pressures. How's Nicholas Petit-Fraer come along this season? I guess both run and pass once. Yeah, I think he's mature with every experience that he has. And you see him play with a little bit more confidence weekend and week out. The communications improving. And I think he's another guy that, as he gets more and more reps, more and more comfortable, he's more and more assured of what he sees. He goes and plays faster, and that's always a good thing. Pass pro, the bigger challenge of the two in general, for maybe like a rookie tackle? I think a lot of right tackles in this league see the defense as best. And that's something that maybe shifted from decades ago in the NFL. And Nick's been growing. And I think he's done a nice job with some of the challenges he's had, and like any rookie out there, he's had some welcome to the NFL moments as well. So he's on a steady progression. And we're excited about the future with Nick. How much can Brewer's little run here at the center make him a better guard in the long run because he's getting to make the calls and see more of what's going on. As you guys are getting ready for his snap. Yeah, I think that's a great point. It really expands his scope, his focus. And so when you see how it affects different positions, I think it always helps you to play your position more effectively and as a team, right? Working in those combination blocks, understanding what some of the challenges might be for Ben or for whoever's at center, I think that's always a very beneficial experience. Derek has historically gotten better as seasons have gone on throughout his career. He's third all-time in rushing yards per game in December and January. He says he didn't know, but why do you think he gets better as time goes on? I think it's his dedication to taking care of himself, being conditioned enough to be able to sustain at a high level physically throughout the course of the year. I think it's been a commitment here to how we play football and that he's got guys pushing piles for him and finishing blocks for him in December and January, where maybe some other teams or outfits wouldn't put that kind of emphasis on it. So I think it's a culmination of things. And I'm excited about where Derek is mentally and as we approach December, I believe today is December, right? So we're excited to see December, Derek. His jailing hurts, the triple threat that he brings. What do you make of what you've seen from him and how it could impact the game passing and running? Yeah, I think he's done a really good job. I think they got a good scheme that fits kind of who he is as a quarterback. Again, he can throw the ball, obviously can run it. We're going to have to be on our game in terms of that schematic QB run game. And then obviously the quarterback scrambles that have kind of hurt us in the past. We've got to make sure we're coordinated, understand what's going on, because he can take off at any moment and he's dangerous when he's out there. Is there something unique to him as far as running that read option? I mean, I think he understands it. I think he's able to read those ends and see kind of what they're doing in terms, I mean, it's all option based on what's going on with the end for the most part, or the second level guy. So I think he's got a good comfort level with being able to read it and see it. And then when he's got the ball, he's like a running back, right? Like, I mean, he'll slide a little bit, but you don't see him slide every single time. Like he's taking guys along, so we got to be ready to tackle. Is there anything an end can do there to make it less readable, or is he... I mean, it's hard, we'll see. I mean, we'll see what we have planned as a week goes and as we get to Sunday. But it is, he's probably more athletic than a lot of our ends, you know what I'm saying? So, I mean, we're gonna have to be ready for it and kind of see what we can do to adjust and hopefully play it. How much of a variety do they have at the receiving core? And maybe one of the challenges that each of those guys bring. Yeah, I mean, I think they're all a little bit different. Obviously, AJ is different than Smith, different from Watkins. I mean, you guys know AJ big, strong, really good with the ball in his hands. Probably there's not many better than him with the actual ball in his hands, being able to run, take it strong. So they're doing a good job of getting it to him. And then obviously with Devante, it's more quick speed in and out of breaks. I think he's got pretty good instincts for zone. So we're gonna have, it's unique because they are different, right? And we got to know who we're lined up on each nap in their skill set. But at the same time, like we're gonna have to be able to defend both of them. Does your familiarity with AJ having practiced against him the last three years give you any inside or any edge in terms of how they're containing? I don't know about that. I mean, I think the guys that have been here against them and maybe went against them a little bit might have a little skill set knowledge on them. But we're gonna have a lot of guys who haven't ever practiced against AJ or done anything against AJ. So I mean, we're gonna have to see once we're out there what it is and we're gonna have to adjust in game and figure out how they're using them. What has made Andrew Adams go from a guy you kind of plugged in when Amani was hurt to a guy who stays in even, and has big role even when Amani's back? He's made most of his opportunity. He's going out there, he's done his job, he's executed for us. Again, he's become reliable, you know? And a lot of that just depends on us shoving pieces across the board, what we gotta do to kind of fill all those spots offensively and how we feel like we can get our best five, six guys out there. But he has, he's taken advantage of the opportunity and he's been consistent. Was he a guy you knew before he got here or did you figure out pretty quickly? I mean, I was familiar with the name, but didn't really know a whole lot about him till he got here from Pittsburgh. I mean, we signed him off Pittsburgh's practice squad and he's come in here and played a lot of football for us. You guys haven't had the numbers in terms of pressures and sacks the last couple of weeks you had before. How much do you think that is personnel related? I know you've been down in terms of health and so forth and how much is it not? Yeah, I mean, I think it's a little bit both. I think personnel always comes into play. I think our ability to execute is a big part of that as well. I think we have to execute better. We gotta have a better plan for those guys. And then the quarterbacks we've been playing, you know? Like I know Rogers isn't quite what he used to be in terms of mobility, but he can still get out. Obviously with Burrow, he can get out and he did against us. And then obviously this week against Shailin, like that plays a part in a little bit of your ability to rush and truly pin your ears back because they're not gonna be standing at seven and a half, eight yards every single time where you can all just go to that one spot, you know? Tray Avery kind of struggled against Buffalo when he first put him out there. Then several weeks later, he reemerges and now it seems like he's, you know, gaining a foothold for more playing time. What's kind of been the growth curve for him? Yeah, I think he's done a really good job. I mean, this league's about improvement, right? Improvement, whether you go in there, you get thrown in the fire early on as a rookie and you might struggle how you're able to respond and come back from that and continue to work to improve for when the next opportunity comes so you can take advantage of it. And he's done that. We saw it with Elijah last year a little bit, right? Struggled early, didn't put his head down, just worked his butt off so he'd be ready for the next one, you know? And he has and he's had a really good game last week and hopefully it continues. It comes to the red zone success for them. They've taken over that top spot offensively. Like, how do you stop that? How do you, I guess, what are they doing good down there? Yeah, I think it's an extension of kind of what they are out in the field. I mean, they're really good running the football, right? They had over 360 yards last week and you see the run game show up down there. I think they're really good up front in the run game and then they have the read elements where you're forced to play with all 11, you know, where some of these other teams you're not because the quarterback's not quite a factor. So I think that comes into play and then they got playmakers on the outside, right? So, however you choose to defend some of this stuff using different bodies, you're losing some pieces potentially in the back end to help on some of those guys as well. So, I mean, whenever the quarterback is a run threat, it always adds an element that makes it a little bit difficult defensively just based on pure numbers. Maybe differently on the touchdown past late, if anything, on that touchdown as in and also maybe his progress in general, yeah, just, I mean, know who these guys are, right? Like, no, he's gonna go up there. We gotta be strong. We gotta be physical and we gotta be able to hopefully play through contact and find a way to go play the football, you know? And that was one, I think Higgins, probably out physical a little bit down the field whether he got caught in a bad position at the time where I couldn't get his foot in the ground to go up for the ball. And he's showing improvement. It's just, I think the consistency with him as we've gone, like there's a lot of good things and then he'll have those few plays or like what's going on, you know? So just the consistency playing and play out and understanding, like I think with a lot of these guys it's, I'm up every single play. Like you can never assume that corner that you're not getting the ball. Like I better know that the ball is coming my way every single snap. And if it doesn't, great, but I better be ready for it. I wonder if Miss Tackles kind of gets sensey and how much is just cleaning that part of the game? Yeah, I think we were double digits, which was high. I mean, they were not even, I mean, the Miss Tackles hurt us, it was big. It led to some big, big plays for them. But even some of those softer tackles, right? Where we were kind of fall, we were on the ground and either possibly cutting them down and they were falling forward. There was just a few times where it was a little loose, a little loose in there where we weren't really standing the guy up where technically it wasn't a Miss Tackle, but they're at it four or five yards, you know what I'm saying? So I mean, part of that is in space ability like you got to be able to know your ability, know their ability, and then tackling to me is all about technique, but work eyes, making sure you got a good base, not doing all the things that hurt you, hopping, crossing over, taking a crappy angle, all the above. So we got to do a good job this week, making sure we tackle, because those guys are dangerous in space. Jeffery Stens, he had mentioned communication and being coordinated in the past for us is something that kind of broke down against Borough and the Bengals. What happened there? And then how important is it to have that on point against a quarterback like Hertz? Yeah, I mean, if we're not coordinated this week, he's gonna make us pay like he did Green Bay last week, right? So I think it's vital that you're coordinated. Guys, just understanding what their role is. We do a lot of different things up there. We do. We ask those guys based on whatever the rush plan is, whatever the front is, we have different things that we can show based on the front and then do a couple of different patterns, pick games, whatever that might be, you go straight. And those guys just understanding, making sure they're on the same page, understanding a lot of times it's what's happening away from you, right? Like on that other side of the ball, making sure it gets all the way across because you lose sight of what's happening away from you. And that's when some of those things end up creasing you or getting around the edge on you.