 OK, good evening, everybody. Wrapped up today. Feel really good about the guys that we brought in. We know we took Josh Wiley in the fifth round. Josh is a guy we think can come in and compete for a spot. You know, versatile guy. You've heard us talk about that a lot lately. In terms of guys with versatility, we think he can play wide. We think he can play F. So got him as a contributor. Then Jalen Duncan, tackle, just played some left tackle, played a little bit of right tackle. This year, he's a guy that we envision having a ton of upside. Really, really athletic. Has some high-end traits that we love to work with and develop and look forward to working with him. And then to close things out, our man CD, UT Martin, kid that's put it all on tape. We had a chance to visit with him here during local day. And he was really impressive. So I was really glad to get him. I think he has a ton of upside as well. You guys have met with me and Vraves. These last couple of nights, you guys obviously know Vraves very well. This time, we have our assistant GM, Chad Brinker, here, who'll be in front of you guys for the first time. So I want to welcome Chad. And also just want to say thank you, again, to our staff downstairs, Ryan, John Salgi, our coaches. We talked about it this morning. The way our coaches and our scouts have worked together these last couple of weeks is amazing. I've been a part of some really good processes. And this was a really good process. And one of the best I've been around in terms of those guys working together, creating the list and the way we had it tiered, and then their ability to actually go out, execute, and get some of these kids. And then the guy on my right, I was just telling him when I came up here, had he recruited me coming out, he might not have wanted to come down to Key West to come get me. But I definitely would have came and played for him. I've never been around a guy that takes so much passion in talking to these kids and getting to know these kids and recruiting these kids in college free agency. So thanks to you two, coach. Guys? Brand, all six on the offensive side of the ball. Was that the plan, trying to focus on offense, or did it just play out that way? It honestly just dawned on me about 30 minutes ago that it was all offense. We were just playing the board. And every time you came up at a pick, I guess the way it was stacked and it was ranked, your eyes went to the left in the way how a board is constructed. And healthy conversation on every pick. And everyone that we took off the board at wherever we took and we felt convicted, it just so happened to be offense. But it wasn't a design plan or anything. It seemed like every pick that you guys made, like very highly athletic guys, how much did that athleticism play into, you know, your evaluation process? I think you're always looking for guys that are athletic and have athletic skills and traits to develop that gives you guys that still have growth in their bodies. And as you guys know with this league, I mean, it's growing rapidly. These positions are getting more and more athletic, bigger, stronger, faster, longer. So we want to be able to bring those players in here to compete. Your position players from below the division one level, how much does productivity play into it? Because Dowl certainly seems to have a lot of good numbers that he's put up. Well, I mean, when he had to play, you know, power five competition, he played well, improved well. And then when we brought him in for local day and he was amongst the other power five, you know, guys that we brought in here locally, he stood out and looked like a power five guy to us. It just so happened he was at UT Martin. Luke, I mean, how much did I help you with familiarity when it came to Josh, who said he'd met with you, I guess a couple of times over the past year? Yeah, I mean, we've been to Cincinnati. We've been there for pro-days in the past. And you know, he's a local kid and somebody that you know, you just get to know, haven't been there, kind of followed his career, I think just the last couple of years, being a local kid growing up in Cincinnati and deciding to stay there. So, you know, he's been consistent and the versatility as Rand mentioned is something that, you know, I think we're excited to work with. So I pulled down, you said he had run a 4-4-0 and a 4-4-1-40, I wonder if that's, those are times that you guys had him at? I don't know off the top of my head. I know he did run well and we felt and saw his speed when we saw him live. And it's that same speed showed up on tape, but I don't know off the top of my head if it was 4-4-1, 4-4-0, 4-4-3, I don't know that. Rand, how much, I know Jaylin came in on a 30 visit, how much did that help kind of getting to know him through the process and how you feel like you have added to the competition? You said Jaylin? Yeah, with Jaylin, yeah, and him pairing him with Scorazzi coming in, how you think that helps the competition up front? Yeah, Jaylin was the guy that we brought in on a visit. We've had some productive visits with him throughout the process, you know, met with him at the Senior Bowl, you know, originally, and that was our first exposure to him in person. And then we brought him in here on a top 30, it was just a truly awesome visit. Really, really got to know him. You know, it was a great day. We had a great day with him. And then Coach Raves and I both have a relationship with Coach Loxley down at University of Maryland. We were able to, you know, get on the phone with him and ask any other further questions that we may have had. So it was good getting to know Jaylin throughout the process. Chad, I know part of what you brought here is an analytical eye. Could you talk maybe to the role analytics played in sorting through the board as you said it and maybe narrowing the focus on some of these guys? Yeah, analytics is part of the process. It doesn't drive the decision-making, it augments the decision-making. So it just helps us, you know, make better decisions. You know, we're still building a lot of this stuff out here. There's a whole thing from data management to predictive analytics to the information system and how that gets translated to the staff and to us and helping us in our decision-making process. So, you know, we use it, it's part of the process. Ryan, is there maybe an example of an analytics element that pulled you towards any of these guys? Not an exact example. Like Chad said, it's a part of it, right? So we trust our scouts and our coaches' evaluations and then we use the different, you know, cognitive testing that we talked about. And like Chad said, some of this stuff we're still building out and we have things to, you know, still work through. But again, any analytic component that we have that comes from, you know, from Adam or Matt, you know, we consider those things, you know, in terms of, you know, researching guys' backgrounds, in terms of injury history and how those predictors set up, you know, as well as how their, you know, numbers may stack, you know, at positions at certain times. You know, there's just different ways to run the data. So we take all that into consideration when we're choosing these guys. I'll look up on that, Chad. So your model, the injuries is also part of that, is that correct and can you explain how that works? Yeah, that's correct. You know, there's a couple of things we're going to use it for and we have been, it has to do with the salary cap as well as the injury model that we built. And those things are in process. So we're a little bit ahead on the salary cap side. We're gonna continue to build out the injury prediction model. So we're in the middle of doing that now. Mike, how much does this class help towards your goal of getting faster as an offense? Well, I think there are some guys that really, that do that. And again, these were really easy choices. As we looked at it and looked at the board, I'm excited to work with this group. I think they all bring a little bit something different, you know, whether it's some versatility or just looking at Colton at the end is big, fast. For you volunteer fans, played pretty well against them. And Jalen, just extremely athletic as Tehran put it. And then we talked about some of the players that we drafted last night. And then even in this post draft process, I think there's a large group of players we're excited to work with, whether that's skill players or defensive linemen. And we do think that there are some players that can run. And ultimately, you know, the play speed is what's critical. But it was a great process. I feel like you guys will have to be in the undrafted market, especially on the defensive side of the ball and maybe at receiver, where you only drafted one guy with only six pigs. Yep, that's all happening. It's finishing up right now. We think we're pretty close, but we won't probably be at 90 or 91 tomorrow. You don't have to be. I don't think there's any reason to just, we all agree, sign just to sign. But a lot of these guys were targeted and really feel good about that post draft process that we've done well at. The coaches, the scouts working together, communicating with players, communicating with us and communicating with the agent. What is first for these guys, as far as scheduling goes, when's the rookie camp? I think the first time they can be in here is next Thursday, into our building. I know the players will communicate with them and get them in here and have some of the post draft guys go through physical at much greater length than what we've done. But we've had the ones at a combine and had the ones on local day. But they'll go through physical, they'll meet and then we'll practice here for a couple of days and then they'll start to incorporate themselves into what the veterans are doing for that last week of phase two. You said the fun started today in terms of the scouts having maybe more say or flexing their muscle, if you will. But can you tell us a little bit about the role they play in these picks? Yeah, so each one of these guys, and it's really been like this throughout the whole entire process, is when we're sitting there and we're looking at the board and as the board started to take shape, you tend to look at your scouts and, hey man, talk to me about this guy. Give me, and you listen to what they say, right? The report is there, you could read the report, but you listen for them to see if they have conviction on these guys. We do the same thing with the coaches. Spent time with the coaches this morning going through some guys that were sitting there in different clumps and we watched a couple guys together just to see how the coaches felt about bringing guys along. And then like I say, you really get to this, you know, this undrafted process and that's when it gets really fun, you know. It's sometimes you walk out of that undrafted process, you lose a guy late or you don't get a guy that you're targeting and it almost feels like the whole day is blown, you know, no matter who you're drafted because it's so much passion and you know, you feel the urgency of guys, you know, and the collaboration, you know, you wanna bring it home and if a guy slips through it almost feels, you feel defeated, you know, sometimes, but like Mike said, all in all, it was a great process. We feel really good about some of the guys we got, some of the guys we targeted, but it's a, you know, a huge shout out to, you know, our coaches and our scouts for that. In regards to the receiver position, like it seemed like you guys were really patient and then able to come up with someone that you were really happy with, like what was, had to do with that? Like, was it the depth of the class or what allowed you to be so patient at that position? I think always you have to be patient, right? You know, we talked about it, not just, you know, taking a guy to fill a need, you know, we wanna get the right people and the right players in here that have helped this program, but also, you know, understanding the board and value and if there's a valuable player that can help us and contribute and we have a clear vision for it and it's standing out, then we're gonna take that guy as well. And again, like coach said, we don't have to be at 90 tomorrow. There's still a million more ways we can go about acquiring guys to help us. So we just gotta let this full process, you know, take shape. We don't have to have the roster at 53 until September. So we gotta continue to let this process go. We have free agency first. We started there, non-straft season and still, there are still players that are gonna come available to us and it's just all a part of the process. You guys have acquired skills a little bit and maybe how it differs from Chig, are they different enough that they could both be used together? Yeah, we think that Josh, you know, has the ability to maybe put on some weight. He's done that, played at the line of scrimmage. And I think going through some of the training has probably gone down a little bit, but I know that he feels comfortable in his frame to add and to lose, to figure out what the best playing weight is for him. And I think he's shown to be physical. I think he's shown to, you know, be able to make plays in the intermediate part of the field. And so I think that there is a level of versatility and we talked about that. And so we'll kind of see where he best fits, but absolutely, you know, him and Chig could play on the field at the same time together. Mike, I understand not for Russian to get the very last player on the 91. The last couple of years that you guys have been filling out the roster, you know, all the way through September and into the season. Well, yeah, I mean, we'll do that. Yeah. Injuries and stuff. Yeah, we'll do that. And we're going to get to 91. I mean, it's just, we're talking about a couple of spots here that instead of just grab, I mean, you get to a point down there, let's like the Wild West down there after the draft ends. And so when you have, when you look up and you're like, okay, we need 20 spots, you know, you're not going to take the 97th corner just to get to 91 or whatever it may be. I mean, we've targeted guys, our coaches and scouts have watched a lot of film. We've had communications. And so you miss out on some of those, you know what I mean? You think you're going to get some of the players and you don't and it's competitive and it's unfortunate, but you can't just go down to the bottom of the list and take somebody that you've never heard of and, you know, bring in here, but we've, you know, we've got extensive lists. And so maybe we're going to be a few short of 91. I was just saying that you don't have to fill up every spot. We feel good about these players that we were able to sign on the post-draft process, same way as we felt good about the ones that we drafted. You and Brandon have both referred to picks in the moment as like easy, like easy choice for you guys. Is that typical of like drafts you've been a part of in the past and what made it that way for you? There were some players that kind of stood out on lines that separated themselves, you know, could have come off that and probably dropped down a rung and got into that other pond. But, you know, the players that we took at certain levels were kind of sticking out by themselves. And like Ryan mentioned, you kind of looked at the left and, you know, there was a player that was still there. Felt really good about them and spent time with them and we're able to make the pick. In terms of analytics again, how much, how has analytics changed the way you evaluate a quarterback and what part of analytics stood out with the pick of will? I guess I'll say this. You know, Ryan brought me in here because of my background of having the college experience, the pro experience and salary cap experience and analytics experience and also playing the game. Now, I think that there's, when you look at this, this decision making tree, like I think of the experiential intuition that's traditional scouting. You can't take the collective wisdom of the scouts and the coaches in the room and just throw it out. That's a major, major part of the decision making, the process. But I do think you look at the exploratory analytics or descriptive analytics and then there's a predictive component of it as well. So, I mean, all those things, if that's getting to the question you're asking, yeah, all that's being brought into the decision making as we look at these players. And we have this communication, we talk about it. But at the end of the day, it's about that tape. Can the guy play? Sorry, I understand why you like Colton and know you brought in one free agent. But for the things you've talked about, about the wide receiving core, is that enough turnover to get out of that group, what you've talked about? Going into Monday, it will be, yeah. And we're gonna continue to explore and find ways to improve our roster and make it as competitive as possible. So, on Monday, it will be. We felt good if, for us to add a receiver, we would've come far off our board at those certain levels. And that's what I'm happy about. You guys are gonna trust us. We're gonna put players in here that are gonna help us win. That last part kind of goes back to the previous question. You can find ways to improve your roster. Free agencies over and the drafts over aren't those the places to improve your roster? They're gonna let us sign free agents Monday. They will. Chad will, Rand will. They'll let us sign free agents on Monday. Free agency's gonna go all the way up until the season starts. There'll be players that are on the teams that will become available Monday. Take a look, it'll be real large waiver wire. We'll scour that. We'll continue to look for trade possibilities and opportunities. Chad and Vin will help us with the salary cap. Find ways to open up salaries so that we can potentially sign other players. Now there's been a pretty good process here. I'm excited about it. In the current receiver room, Mike, a couple guys coming back. Kyle Phillips, recent McMath, what do you think you can get from them this coming season? Oh, well, I mean, I think that'll be determined by their, the efforts they put in and Kyle's ability to come back and maintain some consistency that he had early on and through training camp. Raisi knows that this is a critical point in his career and he's gotta continue to play and improve and be big and fast and help us and adjust to the football down the field and do some of the things that he did in training camp last year before, unfortunately, he got hurt. So those are two guys that we're excited to work with. One is really quick in the slot and the other one is a big outside receiver that starting to improve and it knows that he needs to continue to take steps. You mentioned the analytical model and how that regarding injuries, how does that impact like the way you look at a guy like Tajik Spears, you know, with the history of injuries, how does it impact you guys all being comfortable making a selection like that? Well, I think first and foremost, you know, you go to your medical team. I mean, that's where it starts and you got to trust your medical team and their evaluation and obviously we selected that guy because he's a great player and we felt really comfortable about where he was medically. And then of course, yeah, you look at all the other factors, you know, how many games they miss, you know, how often were they injured? Just there's a very variance of things that we look at throughout the process. We felt really good about that running back. Scott here, you kind of told us about the Eureka moment with Elijah Mitchell and his tape. Did you have anything similar in this pre-draft process with any of you guys, you guys picked to just kind of fall in love with them? I mean, yeah, I don't know if it was, and I, you know, again, for me, I can't take credit for, you know, the Elijah Mitchell thing. You know, it was, again, it was the work of our coach and, you know, coach on the defensive side and our analytics guy. But coming in and, you know, looking at all these guys, man, it's something to love about each and every one of them. And again, you know, we talked about getting the right people in here, but I think if you go through this list, you know, all six guys, like there are traits in each one of these guys that they can contribute to our team. You know, like Mike tells everybody, it doesn't matter how you got here, you know, it's what you do out here on the grass. So we see these traits and hopefully these guys, you know, continue to grow and develop out here on the grass is when they get here and they'll create their own way. Thank you. Talked a little bit about Duncan, but get the sense there's a lot of upside there. What's he kind of got to do to reach that level? Is he kind of got to refine? He has to show up and be the person that we saw and everybody in this building saw on that 30 visit. And that was, it was a special player that showed up there that day. That was one that was engaged, that had gained significant weight and looked really good and put weight on and put strength on. That's what he has to do. And everything else, we'll take care of everything else. We'll push him, we'll teach him, we'll coach him. But if he shows up, that person shows up every day and we'll be excited to work with him. Brandon, obviously this year wasn't the way it will be in future years for you, given that you came in kind of late, I guess, in the process. How much different do you think it's gonna be for you moving forward, having gone through this now and now you'll have a full year before the next one of these? You know, Jay Rob and I as our backgrounds are similar in terms of the systems that we were taught under. So, you know, some of the things conceptually are kind of similar. But more than anything, you know, the process here is really good. You know, and it's not about me and the process and systems that I think work because it's our scouts that do a lot of the work and a lot of the core things that we wanna do. So it's about Chad and I collaborating, you know, with our current scouts about what works for them. You know, what makes for the best and most efficient process for them to continue to getting us the best information to help us make the most informed decisions. So, you know, once we get through this next week or so, we'll sit down, you know, as a group and we'll kind of start iron out how we're gonna do things moving forward. But again, it's about creating the best environment for those guys, you know, downstairs right now to make us better. How would you describe me with the activities like as far as trades, teams trying to engage with you, you're trying to make moves and how you think all that, you're handed it all as a first-time GM? I told you guys last night, I'm lucky, you know, to have an experienced guy like Mike. There were several moments, you know, where I'm thinking something, you know, I look at Mike, I look at Chad and it's, you know, we're like, hey, like, what do you think? You know, asking them for their, you know, genuine advice and their thoughts. And both guys were, you know, very, very helpful. There was no decision that was made, you know, throughout this whole weekend that was singular. It was just us working together. You know, some of these picks, we had people on the phone wanting to come to our spot. You know, it were thoughts of maybe us going back, trying to play the board and see if guys would be there. But at each turn that we had to pick, we were convicted about someone. You know, it was, I won't get too, you know, particular or specific, but there were at least two picks that we made this weekend where we had a team on the phone waiting on us to say yay or nay, but we look up there on the board and we felt convicted about a guy. So it was one guy telling, you know, said team no while the other guy was calling the player. Back to when you were younger, you know, TV on the dresser, you always wanted to do something like this. Haven't gone through it. Is there anything that, you know, kind of surprised you or what do you think of the overall experience? Definitely a cool experience. I won't say anything surprised me. I've been fortunate to be, you know, under some really good GMs. They all did it different ways and always watched and paid attention in those moments. You know, I said it last night, I just wanted to act like I've been here before, you know, and not try to get too high and not try to get too low, but just stay in the middle and, you know, try to be consistent, you know, throughout it all. There are a couple of spots where, you know, in my mind, there's a player there that you love to get, you know, and that player comes off the board and it's, you know, you hit that damn and it hits you in your chest, you know, a little bit, but, you know, you got to keep rocking. You got to keep pushing forward and we did that. And at each turn, you know, there may be a player there that you like or that you were hoping to be there, but there's also a player there that you're like, hey, I like this guy just as much and it just, everything just fell, you know, accordingly. Maybe a one-off this year, you know, next year, future years could be crazy. But again, I'm thankful and grateful to have the experience, you know, and these two guys that are flanking me to Lino. I enjoyed the kind of storyline. I know you picked him for a, because he's a football player with a storyline. We got like Dowell, small school like that, managed to work out, making impressions for you guys. You like seeing that kind of thing happen for guys from smaller schools? Yeah, I mean, again, we're in a player acquisition business. You know, however that comes, you know, there was that turn back in the day, a diamond in the rough, you know, that doesn't exist anymore. You know, the way these scouts work, if there's a good player out there, we're gonna find him. And, you know, with a guy like him, it was a cool phone call. You know, he's right here locally, you know, right down the road. And, you know, to hear a player say, this was the phone call I was hoping I was gonna get, not just the phone call of being drafted, but wanting to play for your team and feeling good about his one visit here, coming away from here, really wanting to be here, says a lot about, you know, what coach has built in terms of the culture and it says a lot about the people we have here. Rennan, what would you say to your new fan base about the collective guys that you've got in this class? I think we have great people, first and foremost. I think we have really good football players that will all work. They're all gonna put in the work. They're all gonna, you know, come here and hope to live out their dreams of playing, you know, in Nissan Stadium on Sundays. And we're excited to have them. Thank you guys. Thank you.