 On Monday, did you get a chance to talk to him, lobby him a little bit? Yeah, we were able to connect, spend a little time together. Had some great conversations, and we'll see what happens here as we move forward. Your relationship with him before Ryan, or was that kind of one of the first times you got to talk to him on an extended basis? Yeah, I hadn't been able to meet him before. So I really enjoyed meeting him and his girlfriend and spent a little time together. And like I said, it was nice meeting him and I think he'd be a good fit here. But we'll see what happens moving forward. How would you say the team, everybody has improved from the start of the office as a program, is where you guys are now? I've seen a lot of improvement. Just coming out, like I said, last time I was up here, just new offense, working through a new terminology, new concepts. And everyone is getting on the same page with that. I've just seen a lot of growth. We were able to work through some of those early mistakes, early miscommunications, and just being on the same page. And you've just seen those mistakes decrease, decrease, decrease as time has gone on here. So I'm really, really happy with the way our guys have worked, seen a lot of progress out of our younger guys and some of the veteran guys as well. So really proud of the way we came out. Worked with the purpose throughout this spring and feel like we got a lot better. What do you do now specifically? And then what's important maybe for all the guys to do to make sure you're ready for camp? A lot goes into it. I think you got to get yourself mentally, physically, emotionally ready to go for, I don't even know how many weeks it is now from training camp through the Super Bowl. So a lot goes into that physically, being at your strongest, your most well conditioned, being position specific, heading into training camp that way. You're not playing catch up in the early part of training camp. Mentally, being on top of this new offense and new terms and the calls and everything that goes along with that. And then you also have to take a little time to make sure you're emotionally ready to handle the length of the season. So taking some time away, recharging your batteries and coming in with a focus and an energy and ready to attack the season. How much have you enjoyed just being here every day through all of this and how important was that only for yourself but for everybody else as well? That was great. Like I said, we did a lot of good things throughout this spring and especially with this new offense, being able to just stack those reps up with each individual player. We had great attendance throughout this spring from every position. So stacking that rep count up and up as the spring went on, being able to see multiple looks against these plays. Everyone talked through it afterwards, watched the tape together, see where we can grow and get better. And just to see the progression from day one in late May until now, a month later, has been a lot of fun. And we have to build on it as we move forward. You know it's different guy to guy. Can you remember what it was like for you when you were starting out in the league in terms of developing your touch and getting to a point where you felt like you knew how to fit balls in and match kind of the arc and the pace with the route and all of that? Yeah, it just kind of comes with time. You develop different aspects of your game and being able to make different throws, different windows call for different throws, different plays, different concepts call for different throws. And you know for me it was just going through that process and learning that not every throw has to be a ripped ball. You know sometimes it's best to put a little touch on it like your receiver run through it, make a soft catch and accelerate through it and go. So it's definitely a learning process and you know everyone goes about that a little bit differently. You guys today on just those throws against air to the receivers and one day last week seemed to have some trouble, especially early on, kind of timing them up. Is that harder than it looks? And what are you working on there exactly collectively? Yeah, I think just getting on the same page. You know, it's something that we don't do a lot of, you know, especially first balls to a moving, you know, receiver, you know running a go ball who doesn't really always come out perfectly, you know. But you know we had some read route, a version of a read route where the angle is going to be dependent on the coverage. One of them might into a good job of explaining the full look to Chris and just being on the same page there. But we're growing through that. You know, I think those got better as we got a little settled in there after the first couple on the go balls and you know we're seeing some good balls and some good catches. Ryan, let's turn over on the offensive line. How important has it been to have the continuity that you guys had all through OTAs? Oh, it's huge. You know, like I said several times, just being able to all get on the same page, all be confident in the terminology that we're using and not be thinking, you know, decoding at the line of scrimmage, right? When they hear the play in the huddle, we need to break the huddle and go to the line confidently all knowing exactly, you know, what's expected of us and we're not trying to figure out what's going on as we take the line of scrimmage. Is that group a little more settled than you expected it to be through OTAs? The lack of movement? I don't know if I expected anything. I expected our guys to come out and work and, you know, we'll see as we go into training camp. There's going to be competition across the board and we'll come out here, we'll compete each and every day and at the end of it all, you know, hopefully we gel together as a unit and that group's playing, you know, as one. On that note, you said he spent some time, obviously, with you guys in the film room too. Like, how do you feel like he's come about and just that leadership role too that he's taking on? Yeah, Aaron's done a great job. You mentioned, you know, coming into the QB meetings at seven early in the morning, getting that extra time, making sure we're on the same page with the run game, with the mic points, with the pass game and the checks and being able to then take that message into the O line room and be the leader, the voice of that room. So really thankful for his work and proud of his work throughout this spring, the time he put in, obviously, he's a talented guy, he moves really well but to see him wanting to take the next step and then doing it on a daily basis has been a lot of fun for me. How has your experience been working with Charles London and what are some of the ways you feel like he may have challenged you guys as a QB woman? Yeah, Charles has been great. You know, I think he does a good job of letting us know what's expected of us each and every day, you know, prepping us for the practice, for what's going in, you know, getting everything consolidated to where we're on the same page and we know, you know, what's expected of us as we go out here and then just holding us to that standard each and every day, you know, some good drills he puts us through is able to see things the same way as TEMC at, which I think is huge, you know, when you have continuity in the way things are seen across the offense from coach to coach, coach to player, it makes things a lot more clear and lets the standard be clear for everybody, players and coaches included. Ryan, sometimes you see an offense or a team installing new offense in an offseason and then you get to this season, there's kind of like some growing pains, a learning curve as guys are getting more used to that and things are coming together. Are you guys cognizant of that? Is there anything you guys are in particular doing besides just really hitting it aggressively, trying to get it down now to combat coming in a little bit slow with the new offense? Yeah, we're trying to attack each and every day. You know, I think I mentioned it last time I was up here is yeah, it's a learning process of all getting on the same page, terminology wise, concept wise, especially when you have choice routes and everything like that as a part of the offense. So being able to take advantage of these reps throughout the spring. Now when we get into training camp, take advantage of those reps during training camp and that way we can hit the ground running once we're playing for real. What are you talking about with Colton Dahl, Ryan? Sorry, who are you talking about with Colton Dahl out there? What have you seen from him and is there anything like specifically did you see him progress in from day one up until now? Yeah, Colton's done some good things, seen him grow as a lot of the rookies have coming in learning new offense, trying to figure everything out, not just the new offense, but the NFL in general and rookies have the worst schedule by far of anyone in the building besides the coaching staff. They're here early, they stay late. They're here for another two weeks right after this. So your rookie year is a long year, you're taking in a lot of information on the field stuff, off the field stuff and everything in between navigating, setting boundaries. Like there's a lot that goes into it, right? So being able to navigate all those things but as a rookie classie and the guys that we have drafted guys and undrafted guys come in, they're working hard. We're all getting on the same page seeing the extra time that they're putting in in the afternoons, come and pay off on the practice field. There's been a lot of fun and Colton's included in that. Can you explain what the offseason has been like and what changes or progress have you seen in his game this offseason from last year? Yeah, Malik's grown a lot. He put a lot of work in throughout the offseason. Was able to throw with him a few times in the offseason before we started out here and saw his growth, saw him pushing himself. And he's only continued that as we got out here and played full football and OTA. So proud of him and the work he's put in and it's fun to see a guy grow and his hard work pay off. He's over two ways. And then when you talk about growing any one or two ways, did you can kind of? I was playing quarterback. I think you're seeing everything that you want to see when you're looking at a quarterback, a guy in command of the offense. He's throwing the ball accurately. He's playing fast. When you do those things, you give yourself a chance and it ultimately play good football. Maybe how did all that come about? Malik? Yeah. We threw here. I stayed here this offseason. So I was able to connect with him and throw a little bit here locally. Nationally, a lot of guys have written this team off already. In your mind, does this AFC South still run through this building? Every year is different, right? Every year is different. Also, we have a lot of confidence in ourselves and our ability to go out and compete and ultimately win games. That's why we're out here every day. That's why we are here voluntarily throughout the spring. We're going to push ourselves throughout this summer and come out and expect to win games on Sundays. That's the only reason we're here. Only reason we put everything we put into it, mentally, physically, emotionally, is to go out and win games on Sunday. So there's a lot of confidence in that locker room and we have to keep pushing that throughout the fall and the training camp. There was a photo of you on social media with a pilot training certificate or something. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, I was able to get my pilot's license. Something that I worked, spent a lot of time and a lot of effort to do. It's a lot of fun. It's a little escape for me. Something I have to be totally focused on and in the moment, be present in the moment, but at the same time, it's an escape for me. So yeah, a lot of hard work went into it, but thankful I was able to get that and excited to be a pilot now. Are you flying on that for this? I will not be flying myself home. I'll be flying Southwest, so hopefully I can get a free flight or something for saying that. Have you had any teammates that have volunteered to be a passenger with me in the pilot or has that kind of gone so far? Yeah, there's a lot of guys that are curious. We'll see if they actually, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but we'll see when it comes time to take them up if they're actually going to go do what? Maybe Traylin, since he's had his own experience. Yeah, I asked Traylin and I said, hey, you've been on a small plane, are you ready to go again? He's like, ah, I think it was a one-time thing for me, so I don't know if it's gonna be Traylin or not. So it's allowed under your contract though, it's not an issue? Yeah, I haven't had any issue. Rable's been supportive of it and been communication with him about it, so he was trying to get me to go even a step up, so I say that's a little bit out of my league right now. I'll stick to where I'm at. Is your wife supportive of that, too? Yeah, my wife's supportive. She was really excited to go. I was able to take my family up the day after I passed my exam, so I was a lot of fun. Kids were really excited and I was a little nervous for taking my family up for the first time. It's like there's this growing process throughout the flight training where at first you're nervous, right? You're coming in and you're trying to do everything perfectly and as you get more comfortable, then those nerves go away a little bit, right? You're still making sure on top of everything, but you're not quite as on edge coming in to land and had the family in there for the first time and I felt like I reverted back and got a little nervous with my whole family on board, but I was able to execute the landing and everything and the next morning my daughter and son were like, Daddy, can we go back on the plane again? So they loved it and glad to be able to share those experiences and really create family memories together through that. Thank you guys. I got cars bigger than that. I got trucks bigger than that thing. Did he what? I was gonna say, did he break the news tea that he was giving his pilot's license that you're having to find out? Just casual conversation. Learn how to fly. Go ahead, Trisa. Mike, this the last week of OTAs, did some of the veterans maybe, I'm thinking Derek and maybe Traylin, were they, did they? Did they what, Trisa? I have no idea where they're at. No, they chose not to come to the voluntary. There you go. You wanna try again, Trisa? Sure. You're in mid-season form. Hey, what can I say? It's Wednesday. Deandre Hopkins, how did that visit go? And are you at the point? Do you stay in touch or you just let the ran in the front office guys handle that? Well, we'll continue to kind of look through where we're at as we add free agents and everything else we follow up. And, you know, I don't think there's anything that's gonna happen here today, I would imagine. But there's follow up every time we come and have conversations and we'll see where it goes. Last day on the field with the team. This is, yeah, this is the last day and the rookies will continue their program, we'll meet with them. It's good that we'll have a chance to meet with the rookies tomorrow. There's some just really cool situations that came up today as just the point of just going through the process, of not having a script and changing situations and things that come up, penalties that may come up, defensive linemen jumping off sides on one side, wide receiver on the other side moving, explaining to them that, you know, only the receivers on that side are protected or reaching the ball at the goal line. Free play on third and two and somebody, you know, just cool situations that come up that we can teach from. So it'll be a good, I'm excited for that meeting tomorrow morning with the rookies. Let us have a period where you had a couple balls batted and picked and things like that. Can that sometimes be a better learning tool in a practice session maybe than when things do go right? I mean, I just think that what it shows you is that it's gonna take all 11 in order to be able to protect and sometimes when you're trying to throw those timing routes on third and seven that, you know, gotta be in the right spot. Again, ball can't get tipped or protection's gotta be there. And, you know, when you throw the ball down the field like we've got to make sure that as a receiver like it's us or nobody. And so that's another situation that's gonna get shown tomorrow morning with those rookies, like it's your responsibility to make sure that that ball is not intercepted when we take a shot down the field. What players do now until you start? Probably the most critical five weeks of the season. Just in my experience as a player and a coach like what you do away from here, when things aren't planned or structured, you know, are you able to get into a routine? So what I want them to do is is go prepare for a long season, a long grueling season of professional football. That's what I want them to do. And so we try to give them drills. We extended individual time today so that the coaches could review those drills that they can do with their trainer or on their own or whatever they're doing. Giving them some ideas and then obviously I'm sure they're, whoever they're working out with will have some ideas and then the player will have some ideas. So that's what I want them to do but it's the most critical five weeks of the season. What do you say are some of the ways you guys have gotten better, especially like with this being the last day, you go back to the first day, you forward it to here. How do you do that? I think that's just the culmination of the spring, right, you install and for a second, then you go to third and then you work the red zone, different parts of the red zone. So it was good to be able to see those situations change and the players and coaches coming in from the sideline, communicating, substitution, I thought the operation was good. We got a lot of great work in, we were able to throw the football, have the quarterbacks work through a pocket and real application as opposed to just a bunch of seven on seven. So I think our conditioning improved. I think our football conditioning improved. Strong six or seven plays together out there today. So I thought it was a good way to end. There's a time away maybe isn't where Christian Fulton has done some of his best work. He talked to us today about kind of revising his off-season program and everything and understanding what you were saying about repeat offending. How do you feel like he's done in terms of his commitment to changing? Well, first of all, I wouldn't say that that's, you stated when you started that the five weeks away was time that he hadn't done his best work. I didn't say that. Nobody else has said that. That's a personal opinion that I probably don't agree with. But it's, I mean, we ask every player that you train the way that you're gonna play. And when you play a skill position, you have to run. You have to go and open up and you have to change direction. And it's not five yards. It's whenever you have to cut. So there's reactionary movements, deliming. Like there's certain things that are gonna be in the job description. And we ask every player, that's why we do the drills that we do. And that's why we practice the way that we practice because we wanna practice the same way that we're gonna play. And to finish and to try to go get an extra block and protect the guy with the ball and all those things that we think help us win. So that's the most important thing is that you're thinking in a manner that you're gonna train the way you're gonna play. What makes you, do you feel good about where Christian is in kind of his adjusted approach? I mean, I think that'll all be determined by how training camp goes and how he performs on the field. You lack of movement on the offensive line as far as his body's a good indication that they're progressing the way you would have hoped that you're able to stick with that group. I mean, I thought that group continued to improve throughout from the beginning of OTAs in phase two. And some much better performances today out on the practice field than there were last week. And that's all you ask for is that guys continue to improve, work on the techniques and then translate it to the field. Well, he said he's improved at letting it rip and kind of getting his body in time with his brain, something you said a lot, talked a lot about this time last year. How have you seen him grow in that area? I thought he continued to get better. I thought just his attitude, his demeanor, making little coaching points with them and seeing that immediately translate, him understand, the reason for saying that, today was something cool that came up. I moved the ball to the 35-yard line and said it was third and seventh. And it was Malik and we converted, but following back up on him, I was like, hey, what was the situation? And it didn't dawn on him that we were kind of right on that fringe field goal, third and seventh, not trying to lose any yards could potentially go forward on fourth down based on the wind and whether we feel like we can kick and make a field goal from that distance. And long story short, we converted, but eventually it's gonna have to be, all those things are gonna have to trigger in a quarterback's mind, pretty quickly as the ball's being set and guys are getting into the huddle and the call's coming in, they have to, the quarterback has to think like I would and saying even if I take care of the football and I gain a couple yards and don't lose any, we're gonna kick a field goal or put coach in position to potentially go for it. So those are great learning opportunities and he very receptive to all those. What comes to these free agents that you did bring in, like Aziz and Sean Murphy Bunton and Arden Key, like to be possibly starters, how do you feel like they've gelled with this group? Cause from an outsider's perspective, it seems like they'll fit. They are great, you know, and that's what you try to target in free agency. Kelly, you just, it's tough to not know some of these guys and have some personal knowledge and experiences and a relationship with them. Felt great about everybody that's come in and worked and been a part of the team and just let their personality shine and Aziz leading and Arden with his energy and all those things that guys coming in and that's how you form a team. But you gotta be careful when you do that and you bring a bunch of guys in, they gotta be the right guys. Mike, you talked before about how much you enjoy being hands-on with guys and teaching fundamentals and things like that. When you played, you only played a handful of positions but it seems like you're really into the fundamentals at 22 or 53 spots, how do you want to phrase it? Where did your love of learning that and working in that way with guys start? I think it's just for me, it was a, I need a way to reach a point. You know what I mean, that is a connection, right? So for me, you try to make a connection off the field about their family or what they're interested in or their charitable endeavors. But on the field, for me to get around and have a connection with a guy, I've got to know and have knowledge, right? So maybe it was when Tyler when my son started playing O-line in the 10th grade is okay, figuring out what that's supposed to look like. But I've always felt like as a player, if you know what the guy across from me is doing and what his job is, maybe you can be better at your job. If I know how tight end's supposed to block or what they're teaching him to do on blocking, then as an outside linebacker, I should be able to know that and understand that and try to use that to my advantage. If I know how they're trying to set routes up and stem and attack leverage and then beat me across whatever it may be, then I can try to use that to help me do my job. And that was always, you know, they're all mirrored positions, right? You know, I mean, there's a running back that's across from a linebacker. So I thought that was always something I try to do as a player and I just carried it over to this. Tom, I saw the courier since you got here last week. We've talked about it yesterday as a staff and had a really nice play Monday, you know, in the red zone using his length. He's physically gotten stronger, moving better, understands the game better. I mean, just a fantastic addition to our team is just unbelievable teammate. Love having around, love having him in the building. So it's been really cool to see him improve, you know, and see where he can try to find a role in our football team, but certainly one of the more improved players, Jimmy, on our football team. A couple of turnovers today, but how would you gauge his growth and development during OTAs and what do you want him to focus on in the next couple of weeks? Well, I mean, he's improved, he's gotten better. I mean, there's a lot of good things. You know, understanding when the journey's over, making sure that we're, you know, moving out of the pocket and trying to keep plays alive. But also making sure that it, you know, that the result isn't a negative one. It's one thing when defenses make plays, it's another when, you know, we're reckless with the football and so there's sometimes a difference. But I feel like just him in and out of the huddle or the things that we made adjustments on in the red zone, I saw that get cleaned up here today. So I think it's just a daily improvement, a daily approach, especially with the young quarterbacks. We're talking about how much study that he does and how he approaches that. Have you seen a difference in him from the beginning until now? Colton's gotten better. And I think once you, once you learn, and there's a comfort level, we've talked about this that, you know, like a guy like KB, there's a lot of comfort level. And so he doesn't use a whole lot of energy or anxiety before the ball snap. It's just kind of calm demeanor. And so then whatever energy he wants to exert, he can do it once the ball snap. Sometimes when you're straining to know where to line up or what the play is or what your job, what your responsibility is, that's taken half your energy away before you even go and play. So trying to get him comfortable, trying to have him learn multiple positions on the receiving end, whether it's outside, inside, F, C. So, and that's gotten better. Does that say for Skorotsky and the other guy that's been moving around in different positions? Yeah, and you know, I think Peter's probably just, I would say further along in his football development, just having played in the Big 10, played offensive line play. You know, I think Colton is still, you know, smaller school. And I think that there's, you know, he's going to continue to develop. And I think that he'll get, he'll do that. You know, I think Peter's, you know, and probably a little different for O'Lyman, probably just kind of banging around in there. I think the coverage has kind of changed a little bit for some of these younger receivers and the looks and, you know, some of the detailed coaching points. You have this finalist field being ready. Hmm? Is the 25th the report date or practice date? Or is that not the right date? 25th is the report date. Finalize anything with the Patriots. It still looks like that's going to happen or still... That is going to happen. Yeah, that'll happen on our bye week. During practices during your... Oh, I'm sorry. I was thinking about the other. Right before the third pre-season game. So Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday, because it's a Friday game. Tuesday, Wednesday. So we leave Minnesota, come back here. We'll have a day, get him some rest. Patriots will come in two days of work and then day before and then we'll play the game. I think Friday at seven o'clock.