 Well, just to dig, you know, it's a great challenge. A lot of consistency over the years. They've got good, you know, we talked about the veteran players that they have had that have been very productive for them over the years. And so I think just having the same scheme has allowed them to really develop within that and have their own little wrinkles. And whether it's, you know, Davis inside, Cam Jordan, and Lattimore, you know, obviously the secondary and the safeties just allows them to, you know, expand and make things look different, disguise, and how they end up operating. So it's going to be a huge challenge. What do you think about the group? Well, the team voted offensively Ryan, Derek, Aaron Brewer. Defensively, they voted Kevin Byard, Jeffrey Simmons, and Aziz Alshair. And the special teams voted Morgan Cox. So probably a few more than what we've had, but there was a clear line of demarcation there. And so that's why we felt to go in that direction. I know you probably got a lot of the guys who could have been captains, but as far as that leadership group, how do you like that group as a whole? And then what maybe are the responsibilities for those guys as captains? Well, first of all, I would always tell you, and I told the team that I don't want to put, or the team doesn't want to put any restrictions on leadership. By that, I mean, you know, everybody's got the opportunity to lead how they see fit. If there's somebody that does their job and comes in ready to work and, you know, they have an opportunity to lead somebody. That particular group, Kevin's been here a while and has been consistent in our defense and our secondary. Jeffrey, the impact that he makes, and then Aziz, being a guy that's come in in the off season through free agency and has really shown a propensity to be here every day, be locked in, communicate, same thing offensively with Ryan and Derek. And then, you know, Bru, I would put him in kind of the category of Aziz, even though he's been here, but having that opportunity to try to lead that offensive line and help them. All through the free season that gave you the confidence that he could handle the punty return job. I think at some point, time Kiers decided to be coached and to work each day and improve and change some behavior and learn multiple positions and then also be consistent, catching a football and taking advantage of his opportunities. What do you have to say to him? His initial reluctance made me to get him out of that mode. I mean, it's just, it's not negative. I don't want to mean it as negative. It's just that, you know, guys that are conscientious that show up want to always do the right thing and understand that we understand that there's going to be mistakes. And maybe how they coached at Georgia or how he learned it or how he thought it maybe wasn't in line with what we were looking for. So again, it's just about not making excuses and just having accountability and saying, yep, that has to be better, right? I see it or whatever it may be. And he did a nice job. Coach, once the Saints defense brings offensively some new pieces, including their new quarterback, Derek Carr. How would you describe the challenge they present to your defense? Well, I think that, you know, obviously with the Lave, Michael Thomas, two different receivers, one extremely quick, great route runner, Michael Thomas, is a great route runner in his own right, but it's just the physicality, the play strength that he has. Joann Johnson, that's a veteran offensive line with a couple of new pieces there. But for the most part, you know, you look back a couple of years and that's been the same group that it's been. You know, last time we played him a couple of years ago with the addition of penning, you know, they've got some tight ends and how they use Hill, you know, we'll see what Derek Carr and how he operates, but, you know, when this offensive system that they've had in place for a while, when they are at their best, there's an urgency, there's a pace to it, and I don't mean no huddle, but there's an operation that's fast, that gets out of the huddle, that motions, that there's just, you know, when the ball's getting out of the hand of the quarterback and it's getting into the playmakers. And how about a guy like Joann Johnson, maybe incorporating Payson Hill a little bit too, just the way that they've done that in the past with their offense? Well, we'll have to be ready for a lot of different things and have to, you know, get lined up and know who's in the football game and know where they're lined up at. You know, not only us and our communication, but finding out where they're at. You know, so there'll be things that we'll have seen from tape and there'll be things that we haven't seen. We look at him, he's a guy sometimes, so traveling sometimes you play side, whatever, but what is it that you feel makes him such an outstanding player? Well, he's got talent, he's got competitiveness, he's got play strength and he challenges and that's the thing when he gives up a play, he comes right back and he gets lined up again and continues to challenge and come back at you. He can run, he can flip his hips, he can play off, he can play press. So there's a lot of different things that he can do and he's done it for a lot of years. Mike, what have you seen Tajé do to this point to earn the trust of coaches and to make some light? Well, I think there was a time in Minnesota where during practice, Tajé stepped up and met a linebacker right in the hole just from the different looks that they gave us and I pointed it out to the team the defensive guys were like, oh, you kind of hear him talking and that was the reaction I kind of expected when I showed the tape or the play to the team and knowing that the offensive players would have seen it or had seen it but the defensive players did it and I said that's the way that a young running back earns the respect of his teammates is that they are able to protect the guy with the ball and not just do what they do with the ball. We've seen examples of him making plays with the football in his hand but it's how you play without the football that I think really guys appreciate or certainly I appreciate. The offense was first being installed and guys first got here. The word they were quickly using was tempo. They seemed surprised by the tempo or that was the biggest adjustment for them. How much do you think that's kind of something now that's in the back? We've always tried to play with urgency. We've always tried to get to the line of scrimmage. We've always tried to have those things and continue to make an emphasis on it and I think that the more that you learn it, one, it allows you to play quicker and maybe when you know something so well that you kind of take it for granted. So when you have this new learning, new terminology, the things that we've added, you're on high alert, you're on edge and so maybe that's part of it but I hope that we, since we've been here never played lackadaisical but maybe that's kind of what it is. What have you seen from Tim in this role? Hey buddy, I haven't heard from you in a while. Oh really? Yeah, welcome back. Oh really, you sound surprised. Has it been that long? I try to let cars get more questions but yeah, what have you seen from, what have you seen from Tim in this role? Since he's been here or I've been around Tim, there's been a great energy, passion for teaching, passion for explanation, finding new ways to teach and that's been really cool seeing him and Justin and Charles work together, building plays, building terminology, building installation and so hopefully it can all help our players but Tim has a great relationship with the players and he has the ability to push him, to challenge him but also to teach him and explain to him. In your travels around the league, is that arena one of the louder ones that you can remember visiting? Yeah, I mean any dome and certainly opening week in New Orleans and I mean a passionate fan base and anytime you play indoors you have to be conscious of that and certainly on opening week. And as far as that non-verbal contact that you have? Well it will be a large part of what we do. I mean a large part of how we prepare knowing that the road environment is something that we're gonna have to handle early in the game based on the success that we have and third down making sure that we're in and out of the huddle that were quarterbacks and putting the protection where he wants it and then being able to adjust to it and the line and I mean showed the team this morning about Tampa last year, their second week of the season. Guys on the punt team are late reacting to the snap and they get on a guy's edge on the right side there and didn't get blocked but it was a point that we made that even guys on the punt team have to be able to priff the ball and be able to get back and get set and not let those guys get on their edges. They come after punts and they come after field goals. Mike, in your experience as a head coach is there anything about getting your guys ready for week one that's different than getting them ready for any other week? Just an emphasis on fundamentals, emphasis on we can all say they're gonna do this and they're gonna do that and pull stuff out of sky but really we don't know, we have no idea. We have to go down there and play sound, play fundamentally sound, play with great effort. Being able to get back to center, they hit a play knowing whatever we see early, they're probably gonna come back to later on and figure out if there's some wrinkles that we'll have to adjust to and being great recognizing things and not trying to say hey, this is what they're gonna do because we may have an idea even defensively since there's been some consistency over the years but they'll sure they'll have some things that we haven't seen as well. Dr. Lee has set up as a leader early. Is that rare in your experience for somebody to be able to come into a veteran room and kind of establishes a leader early? Well, I wouldn't say that the room that he came into was much, yeah. I mean, I think it just depends on each player and their personality and the impact that they want to make and how they fit into the entire room which has been a great addition. Again, I think that Brew is the one thing that we've all been around, Ben Jones and Ben was here for a lot of years and made an unbelievable impact on our team and organization but Brew had to try to lead differently than Ben. I mean, there are different people, different personalities but have seen an energized and professionalism to him and coming in early, extra meetings. His communication with the quarterback and the rest of the line has been where we wanted it to be. This is a good litmus test for your defense with all the emphasis on preventing X-Plays to go against two very good receivers and a quarterback like Karm's not shy about airing it out and putting balls downfield. You said, is this a good test? Oh, sure. Yeah, I mean, we just have to make sure that we don't get the ball thrown overhead. We also have to make sure that you're tackling it when they catch it. The guys can operate in space after the catch. I mean, a lave if you don't break down or don't tackle them, you know, can turn just like he did last year, you know, against the Panthers took an eight-yard pass and turned over his outside shoulder and it was a 30-yard touchdown. So not only, you know, being great down the field but also being able to come and tackle when those guys have it. I hope so. We've invested a lot of resources there. So we better. Will Arden practice? Yeah, I would anticipate Arden being out there today, some capacity. There's a lot in that question, but you know, everything is, in that situation is a new experience, right? So you're learning a lot along the way, learning a lot of new teammates, could be a new offense, new city, new organization, but I can't speak for that. For me, I came in and just tried to do my job each and every day and prepare myself to go win games. The readiness level is for this offense going into the open. I'm excited. I'm excited about the work we've put in up to this point. Excited about where our guys are out and the confidence we have going into this game. Now it's a matter of making the transition from doing it in practice to go doing it in games at the count. Can you quantify the difference for you in this offense in terms of even calling more protections at the end and having more options available to you pre-snap a different play? Like, how different is that for you in this offense? It's a little bit different than the last offense, obviously. You know, some new concepts, some new protections, new ideas that we haven't had in the past. So that's been a fun process for me of getting on board with those and making those part of what we do and owning them. So happy with how things have gone throughout training camp and excited to transition into the season. Do you personally, as an individual, does anything change as far as your approach or your mindset entering this season before you are in this career? No, I'm excited to go attack this season. We have an opportunity to get this thing going the right way. So that's my mindset right now is do everything I can this week to go in this game and keep doing that as the weeks roll by and we'll be in good shape. Do you take at all like a futures now kind of approach or knowing everything if that's at stake? I mean, obviously it matters, right? It matters no matter where you're at in your career. So you got to take advantage of your opportunities when they come and we know that this is a big opportunity and a big opportunity for myself. A lot of guys on offense talked about the tempo when you first saw the new offense. There was a lot of talk about the tempo. How is that translated through all of this? How do you think it translates into what you guys do going forward? Tempo is a part of what we do. It's something that we can use to try to create an advantage, get the defense on their heels, go in and out of it. We'll see how much we end up using it this week and following weeks, but it's definitely a tool that we like to keep in our back pocket and be able to use. Earlier you mentioned building confidence with new teammates. What do you do to build that? Where does that come from? Through reps. I mean, primarily is through reps, whether I'm in the rep myself or watching it and another QB is in there. Just seeing guys execute a repeated success. You're seeing patterns and guys doing the right thing over and over, making plays over and over again, and that confidence grows. Whether it's tight coverage and the guy's making a contested catch, that gives the confidence to throw in those tight windows and be able to trust your guy to go make a play or a pre-snap read of, hey, this guy's one-on-one backside. He's been winning one-on-one backside, so let's give him a chance. So all those types of things. Is it better than it is with receivers when you have new linemen or is it kind of the same principle? That's the same principle. My eyes aren't necessarily on them during the play, but whenever you have some clean pockets, you start stacking clean pockets and are able to throw and be on your two feet and not getting knocked down or hit and tackle or intact, then that confidence grows in the offensive line that you're going to have time to get the ball off cleanly. Just you guys, like Tajé and Shig, help you be more creative when you're in 21 personnel or 13 personnel that are normally kind of conserved packets. Yeah, they're talented guys. Excited to have both of those guys on our team. When you have those match-up guys and you can put them in and multiple personnel's kind of spread across, whether it's 21 or 12 or whatever the case may be, definitely gives you more avenues of attacking the defense and put pressure on them. Will you talk to Malik and Will about how life changes now in those roles and how few snaps there are available in the scout team role and how making an impression might be a lot harder during these weeks when the team's getting ready for game? Yeah, it wasn't a conversation that I led, but a conversation in the QB room about how we're getting ready to go into preparing to win games and not so much development. So how those roles change and being able to take advantage of the reps that come whenever they do come, it's more challenging this time of year, obviously, but definitely crucial to keep going down that path to develop. What's it like preparing for a week one opponent where you know what they've done in the past, which also know you could see some things you've never seen before? And can you drive yourself crazy kind of preparing too much? A week one's definitely a wild game. Every year it's like this. You have so much time to prepare. You never really know what they're going to throw at you. They've had all offseason to kind of scheme up something and try to hit you with it. So you never really know exactly what you're going to get. Obviously, you have an idea, but there's always some wild cards thrown in. From a noise perspective, that's a pretty loud place. How much does that change what you and the receivers do or tight ends, et cetera, to make sure you're on the same page and able to talk about action talk? Yeah, it's huge. When you go into an environment like this, it's going to be hostile. It's going to be loud. Communication is going to be key, whether it's in the huddle, outside of the huddle, the offensive line, at the line of scrimmage, myself to the offensive line, at the line of scrimmage, myself and the receivers. It's all huge and paramount that we were able to be on the same page no matter what the situation is. So definitely loud environments make that tough. And we have to work that. We started working that in practice. It's tough to simulate that in practice with just how loud it gets in a place like New Orleans. But we're doing the best we can to simulate it and making sure that we can be on the same page and ready to go. Can I see you say a few lines, Ryan, from Peter Strauss? Yeah, Peter Stadietti, man. He comes in. He comes to work at each and every day and does his job. I can think back to spring, just watching some one-on-one reps with him and Jeff, kind of battling it out. And you watch those reps and you kind of get a good feeling in your gut. As you see, training camp going on, he's just steady. He's out here. He's improving. He's working hard each and every day and doing exactly what we asked him to. Ryan, the Saints' defense been pretty good getting that quarterbacks last over the years. What's the biggest concern or two you have facing them and facing their ability to put pressure on you? Yeah, they have a good rush, man. They do a good job, not only with their edge rushers and the talent they have, but then using the games and stunts inside to create pressure on the offensive line. So we have to be on top of that, have to be on the same page offensively. Obviously, Cam Jordan has been around for a long time, doing an extremely high level. Demario Davis in the middle kind of runs a show. He's in the back field. He's making plays down the field. He's all over the place. So I have a ton of respect for those guys and this defense. And it's going to be key that we can give ourselves some time to get the pass off. You've been in a lot of different locker rooms in your career in terms of what you guys did last year, roster turnover, expectations, different things. Where does this locker room kind of fall in line with your career experience of confidence and expectations at the end of the week? Yeah, I'm not going to rank anything here, but excited about where this team's at. Obviously, there's always an excitement going into week one. And now it's a matter of making it happen. Every team in the league has an opportunity to go execute their goals and reach what they want to reach. But only really one team does that. So it's a matter of finding a way, weekend and week out, to stay true to what we believe in, how we do it, preparing ourselves, and coming together as a team. We really see, I like the energy we have, the camaraderie we have, but you really find out what your team's about once you start playing games and go through some adversity. So excited to be able to kick things off this week. How excited are you to finally get the throw to DeAndre and something that means something? I'm excited, man. It's been a lot of fun getting to know him over the course of training camp. A ton of reps out here on the practice field. So he's been working hard. He's been practicing each and every day, which is huge, and just building that trust and that chemistry with me. And I'm loving what I'm seeing so far now. It's just a matter of doing it on Sundays. You guys enjoyed the couple of them? Ryan, last year, in the second half, you were loving this four-point. How much do you know about that? Has that been emphasized throughout the off-season, throughout training camp? Maybe not only getting up to quick starts, but you guys did pretty well with that second half. It's just consistency. I don't think it's something we harped on or anything like that, but we just want to be consistent. We want to go out, be able to start fast, put points up early, and then play consistent throughout games. There's going to be ebbs and flows throughout games over the course of the season, and it's just a matter of being able to get out of those funks whenever they happen. Every offense, every team has them at some point. It's just a matter of acknowledging it and not being satisfied with where it's at, being able to get something going the next drive. Did you like chance, watch the college game that was played at Mason? No, I didn't. Sorry, I missed out on that. Thank you, Rob.