 Hey, just to know as your first introduction here to the media and the fans of Atlanta, just kind of walk us through your journey to here through the CFL and playing Division II with Pennsylvania and trying to make it here in the league with the Saints and Raiders and then now coming to Atlanta. Yeah, I was about to say how much time do you have for me to get through that. So no, so I went to D2. I would prefer a walk on. I actually had more scholarship offers for track than I did football. But my journey took me to D2. I didn't register it. I led the team and tackled on special teams. I earned a starting safety job that springtime. Earned $1,500 of scholarship. And then, you know, I played my four years there, had my pro day, put up some solid numbers at my pro day, but I was kind of a tweener between a linebacker safety. I was about 226 at the time. No workouts, no invites or anything. So I went back home, work at our potato chip factory, us potato chips, and kind of where all the summer jobs, all the college kids go back, you know, working $9 an hour, just making some money. So then I had to go back to school to finish up my degree. So I went back to school with no scholarship, had to get a job and work at UPS. So I started loading the trucks, but then I wanted, I wanted to make some more money. So I became a manager to manage all the belts for the boxes to go out and stuff like that. Paid $80 for and come like about April. Paid $80 and drove five hours to Buffalo, New York to work out for the Hamilton Tiger cast of the CFL. They called me Monday, offered me a three year deal. And I signed that deal. And then my first stint in the NFL came in 2016. That year I made the 53. I played four games, came back from the bi-week after moving my family in. So this is, I am kind of superstitious about moving myself now. I packed the U-Haul myself, moved the kids. So I pulled our one car down, followed my grandfather and our other car. I had a doll or two cats in the car with us. And I drove all the way to Louisiana on my bi-week. And like three days later I tore my ACL on both my meniscus. I'm like, I will not move myself again. Like superstitious about it. So I tore my ACL. I rehab back, got released by New Orleans in 2017. And that's when I started with the Raiders. And yeah, I played four seasons there. And now I'm in Atlanta. Well, all right. Thanks a lot. I won't, we got other people I'll follow up later. I just want to know when you first met the GM, Terry Fontenot, when you 2016, I'm a workout on February. They flew out February 1st. I worked out February 2nd and signed February 2nd. Thank you. Yeah. Great. Tori McElhaney from the Athletic. Hi, Eric. It's very nice to meet you. Welcome to Atlanta. I guess I just want to hop off of D-Leds question. How did you kind of get on the NFL radar, on the Saints radar when you were playing in the CFL? I'm just curious kind of how that worked out for you. Because I know some people have different stories in terms of how they get on the radar of certain teams. So what's your story in terms of that time period of your life? Yeah. So at the time I was in the CFL, I had one of my best friends, Delvin Bro, who has a tremendous story as well, as far as just overcoming adversity. And I was on a three-year deal. He was on a two-year deal. He finishes two years. He came down. He had a bunch of NFL workouts. He signed with the Saints, had a tremendous first year with them. And we talked about this over and over again. Hey, I'm going to go down there. Are you going to come down there and meet me and this and that? So he just kept putting a word in for me and pretty much bugging them. Hey, work my guy out. He can do it all. So finally, they gave in after listening to him for a whole year. They worked me out. And that was all she wrote. And it's just been blessings ever since. Nice. And making the jump from CFL linebacker to NFL DV, what was that process like? What were some of those things that you remember kind of making that initial jump and maybe some of the challenges or honestly, the successes that you felt during that time? Yeah, I think one of the positives I took from the CFL was a lot of things happened pre-snap before, like all the motions and the running and stuff like that. So you're kind of checking into different coverages and just communicating with multiple people. So everything was happening a lot faster. And then just the conditioning of the CFL, I felt like there was more running involved, the three down. So there's more turnover in between series and stuff like that. Shorter play time, play clock. But I guess when I came down to the NFL, one of the struggles will not struggle with things I had to adapt with is just a speed in between the whistles. Post-snap, the NFL is a lot faster because feels shorter, things happen faster, windows close faster. The running the ball, obviously in the CFL they run the ball, but not as often as they do it here. I'm like, oh shoot. So in the CFL as well, there's 12 guys. So you see five wide outs and you think there's not a running back in the backfield, but there still is. So when down here, when you see five wide outs, it's empty. There's no running back. So just a little bit of difference. But really, and just getting used to tight ends, they don't really use tight ends in the CFL. So just adjusting where resetting their fronts and stuff like that in the NFL was a little different in how to get used to it. Not only do they use one tight end here, they use two, three at a time. Awesome. Thank you. Michael Rothstein from ESPN. Hey, Eric. How's it going? I'm curious more now, based in Atlanta, like have you been given an indication by Arthur what your role is actually going to be and where they're planning on using you, how they're planning on using you? Really having gone into detail about that. I'm just really excited to join something, something special that they're building in that building. And Arthur, met Arthur, Terry, got to talk to a couple other guys and stuff like that. And I'm just excited to be a part of something that's bigger than me. Obviously, they have the pieces. We have the pieces here in Atlanta, and I'm just looking forward to bringing my leadership and what I can control and just helping the younger guys around me to be better players, helping them to take the thinking away from some guys and just allow them to be the athletes they are. And really, it comes down to just my leadership. And I want to go back to your story about D2 Walk on a little bit. When you're working in the UTS factory, when you're driving for UPS, do you ever think you get here like five, six years in the league? Is that even in your head at that point? That's even possible? I mean, yes and no. So not knowing where my future was going, but at the same time, I felt in my heart that there was a place for me in the NFL. I didn't know what the journey would take me. So like I said, when I signed with the CFI, I signed a three-year deal for $45,000 Canadian dollars. So after the exchange rate and all that stuff, it's probably $25,000 in taxes and stuff like US. And so I took a chance. It was an opportunity for me to continue to play ball. Just looking at my situation, didn't go to a big school, went to a really talented D2 school, but never was really the man at D2 at my school. We had a lot of D1 transfers that kind of got overlooked by. But this is not like a marketing thing, but all the part of like my brand that I'm creating is having faith and having faith is just having faith in yourself, having faith in the confidence, having faith in your surroundings, and what your goals are. And so I'm a huge believer in that. So the journey has been amazing and I have a lot of people to thank for that. Cool. Paul Newberry, AP. Hi, Eric. Welcome to Atlanta. You mentioned that you're excited about what they're building in Atlanta, but also I guess you're realistic about that it's a bit of a rebuilding job that's going on here. They had to deal with some salary cap issues and obviously coming off three straight losing seasons. And even Arthur and Terry have sort of talked about kind of couch expectations a little bit. Was that at all a concern coming here if a team that appears to be in kind of a rebuilding mode? I think people use the word rebuilding and they take it in a negative sense. I hear rebuilding, I hear opportunity. I'm a father for kids, so every day I have opportunities to teach my kids something about life, not always in the right state of mind am I, and have the patience to actually take the time, but it's an opportunity to help out. It's an opportunity to be a part of something bigger than myself. So I think I really thrive in areas like that. My goal is to go in there and to serve the Falcons community, the organization, and just to be the best version I can be of myself. One thing too, you talked about was it UPS and the potato chip factory job, what was that like? It was the worst job in the whole plant. I worked above 600 degrees ovens and it was about 110 degrees in there every day. I had to wear pants, so I would take 50 pound cornflower bags and dump it into a dry hopper, send it up into a mixer, mix it up, pour it down to the fries underneath of me, so did that for 11 hours for a whole summer. Very humbling, very humbling, so I do not miss that job, but I am thankful for that job. Jason Butt, AJC. Hey, Eric, welcome to Atlanta. Your story, being a walk-on, not getting those workouts pre-draft, why do you think for you it took so much time to get noticed and does it make you wonder how many other guys this league might miss on with similar backgrounds who can otherwise play in the NFL? Yeah, I get a lot of direct messages from guys in my position as far as the long journey, kind of no-name type of guys. I just encourage all those guys that continue to chase their dreams, understand that it is a timing thing when it comes to the NFL, but just continue to work and grind. It's a tough process. Like I said, it's all about having faith and being confident in your work and just that something will work out. And I just feel like my situation, it was what, two years ago when Thursday night football against the Chargers when I kind of had that breakout game to where those people maybe struggling to, I'm not good enough or I'm not going to make it, it was some encouragement to hear my story and to continue to push along. So I feel like I went through my journey for that reason. When you say keep the faith, is it difficult to do such a thing when you are at the potato chip factory and working for UPS, but also where does that come from for you to know that you'll be there at the end of the journey? Yeah, I mean it's not easy. It's not easy at all. And having faith is something that you have to practice daily. It's just a part of walking in life. And I think life is all about perspective and how you perceive each situation. So it's easier said than done to take the positive out of every situation, but that's what I've always tried to do. And like I said, my wife is my high school sweetheart. She's been there all along to help push me and just help me through everything. My mom, I credit my mom, single mother, six kids, had a grandfather, had a lot of father figure coaches. So there's there's just been a really unique group of people that has always surrounded me and always has taken me in as far as looking at me as a son, my friends, parents and stuff like that. And just really supporting me and just being open-minded to the fact that there's something bigger out there than just everybody's situation. Kelsey Conway, Atlanta Falcons. Hey Eric, you've talked a lot about your journey to getting where you are, but now that you, you know, achieved your dream of getting to be in the NFL, what would you feel like you still have left to accomplish? I feel like I still have a lot to give back to the game. Football IQ, you know, continue to build on something here in the Atlanta organization. Like I said, they have the pieces. I was on the other end of it last year, you know, they have the pieces. So be great teams, lose to not so not so good teams. I think, you know, it comes down to culture and just holding each other accountable in the locker room and playing for each other, you know, it's easy to get caught up in accolades in this game and contracts and money in this game. But when you play for the guy next to you, you can get through those hard times. You can get through those tough fourth quarters because you can look at the next guy beside you and say, hey, I got your back, you know, and it actually means something. Do you have a favorite UTS chip? Walking on my lunch break, I would always, uh, salt and vinegar. I'm a sucker for salt and vinegar. Zach Klein with WSB. I agree, man. I can pound like five bags of those. Oh, right. Hey, what were you on in 2016? Refresh my memory. Did you ever take the field against Julio? Were you ever on the field against the Falcons? Um, I actually did. That was my first NFL action on defense. Um, it was, it was either Sunday night or Monday night football. It was crime time. Jerry's bird. He got the wind knocked at him. So I went in there for two plays. That's when Sonu was still there. Julio, a few other receivers. So yeah, I got two reps, but then I went back to my special teams role. You didn't have time to talk trash to Julio or anything like that. No, I wouldn't do that. I was still trying to get my legs were shaking. I was trying to get my feet under me. And then what was the welcome to the NFL moment where you're like, realize all right, this is not the CFL anymore. Um, I mean, I think it's just the overall experience. You know, I walked into the weight room and they had like snacks and all types of stuff sitting out and it looked like a presentation. I'm like, are we allowed to take that kind of stuff or they're like, no, that's for you. So I'm like, Oh, okay. So just like the amount of things that are available to you in the NFL is just kind of ridiculous. And I mean, you got to take advantage of it. First change, man. Welcome. Thank you. We got time for one more question. Dila, do you have your follow up now? Yeah, just how, you know, how do you see yourself fitting into the scheme? We know you play free safety. They're said they're going to be multiple. You know, just how do you see yourself fitting in since they haven't talked to you and lived about it yet, I guess. Yeah. I think the beauty of Coach P's defense is that it is multiple and you never know where the pressure is coming. You never know, you know, I could be down. I could be back, but I think the place I'll fit in the most is just, you know, a lot of people to get helping people to get lined up and play fast. So free safety, obviously strong safety. But I mean, you really got to be able to do everything in his system.