 change for them. What's one thing when you play the Colts, you know you're going to get on defense. They're a great defense. It's a place to have a football and get to the ball. Disruptive on a defensive line, fast flow linebackers. No guy to experience back in the secondary. So play these guys a lot. So we're definitely familiar with them and familiar with us. I mean it's in the division. I think in the division game kind of considered that way because you guys, you know, you're racing for the top. So it's kind of that energy, I would say. Some of the talk out of that locker room is they don't have to get themselves hyped up to play you guys. I feel like you guys have to get yourselves hyped up to play them. What do you make of this comment? That's how they feel. I mean, I still got a line to go play. That's how they feel. That's how they feel. I guess we'll see you on Sunday. Do you have a feel for how you do against a specific team? You've had great success against them. Does something like that tend to carry over when you go look at stuff getting ready for them? No. Approach like any other game. Every game is different. Every game is not going to be the same. Every year it's not going to be the same when you play an opponent. So just take a treaty as another game and prepare and get ready for it. Tell us your situation much and I guess if so, despite the fact that he's playing against you guys, are you happy to see that maybe he's going to get back in action? Yeah, I mean it's always good when a guy is able to get back healthy and be able to help his team. We're in the RB and that's having that collective group. Just wish the best for him. Don't wish too much of the best for him on Sunday, but glad to see him back healthy and being able to play. Derek, have you ever been a guy who swaps jerseys with somebody after a game? I'm hearing that apparently the price has gone up quite a bit for players who do swap jerseys after games. Yeah, I might be selective on who I choose from here on out, but I know me and Jonathan swapped last year and she killed Leonard's own. I don't know who else I'm going to trade with, but you've got to be selective here going on out. So make sure I get the good ones if I want to swap. Is it hard to just say no? It is sometimes because you see the look on God's faces, but you know the price of it is pretty high. Like you said, you just got to find the right ones, the jerseys you want to swap with and hope it works out. What is the range of that price? I don't know the exact price, but you don't want to be swapping every game. I don't think that's smart either. Just some of the guys you play that are great players in the league or league players definitely want to get those jerseys and be able to swap with those guys. It seems like a fun thing between guys. Why would the league make it a difficult thing to do? It seems unreasonable. I'm not sure. Maybe they're getting low on jerseys and getting new ones in, but I'm sure guys will do it every now and then and not try to do it so often as they've done in the past. Do you end up getting all of them framed or do you just keep them in a closet somewhere? I keep all of them and then once I get time, I bet you get all of them framed and put them up in a man cave or something. What are your best ones? My favorite right now? I don't know. Peyton Manning sent me one last year, so I thought that was pretty cool. I have Adrian Peterson's own, so that's cool as well. I'm still waiting on the Chris Johnson one. I don't know when I'm going to get that, but Chris Johnson, if you're here, I'm still waiting on that jersey. I got a Christian McCaffrey one. I got some pretty good ones, but definitely some more I want to get in the near future. You've mentioned Peyton Manning several times after some of your touchdown throwers. Did you see him post a video this week saying when he was younger, what do you think about that? That was funny. That was really funny. Very cool for him to participate in that. I got to spend some time with him in a Pro Bowl this past season, so it was cool to get to know him a little bit more. Did he send you in a jersey after you threw the touchdowns last year? Yeah, it was. He put young Peyton Manning on there too, so that was kind of cool. What about the Colts or Broncos? Those Colts. How much fun have you had doing those Heisman House commercials in the past? What's it like getting together with those guys? Yeah, it's cool because you get to spend time with the legends, the greats, and talk to them, get to know them, and see what they're all about. I'm like a kid in the canister, I've been around all the great legends that came before me in the game, and just talking to them and spending time with them. So we came for all of us to get together and get to know each other a little bit more. Are you still friendly with Shaq Leonard and what's maybe that relationship been like as you guys have competed against each other over the years? Yeah, I haven't talked to him in a while, but I mean we're still cool. Glad to see him back healthy. I'm getting Manning out there playing football. I'm doing something that he loves to do, and it's going to be a battle on Sunday. What's it like for you, Tim, as you kind of maybe start to get a little bit healthier up front with Nicholas and Peter back at practice, and then what's the decision like and when to incorporate those guys back in at what you do? I think we just got to keep continuing to see how the week goes in terms of how they prepare and how they practice and where they're feeling. And then, yeah, just like we talked about last week, finding the best five, the best sum of the five, that's going to go out there and give us the best chance to win a game. You're confident there's nothing involved in who's playing left tackle Sunday outside of Boone's block in the best? I'm not sure what you're trying to ask. There's no status contract. Yeah, I think it's pretty clear here that with the way Coach Rable runs things, whoever's going to give us an opportunity to win the game is going to be the guy that's out there playing. Yeah, he's getting back in the swing at things. He hasn't played football for however long it's been, so he's doing everything he can to make sure he's comfortable being ready to go do whatever we ask him to do. When you say put the best five out there, why doesn't that position rotate as much as other position groups do? I think because they work in combination with one another, and again, that's just my own personal opinion. There's so much that goes into the different combinations, the communication, how it physically feels, the different traits that they may have in order, how much I need to help somebody if I'm working in combination with them. So I think there's just way more cohesiveness that goes on with that position as opposed to some of the other positions. I didn't hesitate when I asked if you could be paused or whether to run the jump pass play, the goal line, if they called the timeout. What is kind of going through your mind as you get the play called, they called the timeout? Yeah. I thought we were in an unusual formation. It didn't concern me. When you've got guys that are able to go out there and execute and guys that you trust, it's difficult to stop a unit when they're playing like that. So I felt comfortable and confident that Derek would be able to make a good decision and we like to play. It kind of takes some deep shots on a fairly regular basis. Maybe even if they're not successful, is it important to have that element? Yeah. I think anytime you have the threat of getting behind the defense, I think that changes. If nothing else, it changes the mindset of the corners. So I want to continue to mix those in along with being able to take some shorter to intermediate routes, just to make sure that, again, we want to make the defense defend every blade and grasp. It can only take so much from past games, but Derek, while you've done well in the division the last three years, has run really well in the division, has run really well against the Colts. How much do you look at that as you prepare for this? Yeah. I think when you look at Derek, he's had a lot of success against a lot of teams. Each year is a different year. Each team is a different team. So we're going to do everything we can to make sure that our game plan to sound and is taking advantage of what our guys do well and trying to put them in the best position to be successful. You were using Tajik's fears on that cheap motion and some of the things that you do. Where did you get that and what made you want to use him specifically? Yeah. When he's in the game, I guess his people are probably paying attention to him. When he's touched the ball, good things have happened and just continuing to find different ways to stress the defenses. Different types of motions, different types of formations, whatever it may be, just to change the picture form a little bit and to give our guys any type of advantage that we can find. Chris Moore, not necessarily at Blazer, but done pretty well in the deep catch. Yeah, he's pretty fast. I don't know if he's talking about play speed. He plays whatever his time speed is. He's playing at it. He's done a great job of earning the trust of the quarterback throughout the weeks of practice being out here and making the plays when the ball finds him. That's carried over to Sundays. He plays really fast. He's always running and he has the trust of the quarterback. What do you do in terms of Kyle Phillips back in utilizing him in this offense? Yeah, continuing to find ways to get him to do things that he's going to be successful at. Again, with that wide receiver room right now, it's unique in the fact that they all have a little different skill set and finding the sweet spot and making sure that everyone's getting a little piece of the game plan in terms of putting them in spots where they have an opportunity to go out and win. You talked about changing the picture for Spears a little bit. Did those quicker, shorter pitches to Derrick against the Bengals change the picture a little bit for him? Sure. Again, I think anytime you can make a minor tweak that may not be super expensive for us in terms of us making a wholesale change or us having to completely change the technique and give a different picture to the defense. I think whenever we can do that, we're going to find ways to do that because, again, I think it's advantageous to us. Do you have a guy like Jeff on Sunday that an eligible guy report is eligible or whether it's Jeff or whether it's an extra tackle or something? Is it hard not to kind of telegraph what's coming or do you have to guard against that? I don't think so. I mean, as long as we're doing a good job with our self-scout and understanding that, hey, every time someone sews in the game, we're not doing X, Y, or Z. It's like a baseball picture. You need two good pitches. You need a fast ball to change up. So, doing whatever we can to make sure that we're majoring in what we're best at and then having compliments off those things. We hear a lot about you guys wanting to stay in that third and manageable range, staying ahead of the Stigs. You did that really well last week. Now with a guy like Kyle potentially getting back in the fold, how does his skill set potentially help you do that more frequently? Yeah. It's a good question. He's a guy that gets open quickly for the quarterback. So, whether that's on first down, second down, whatever that may be, anybody that can get open fast is going to help us stand schedule. Tim, obviously Jeff brought me a couple of plays for you last week. Can you anticipate him getting more opportunities as he gets more comfortable in what he's doing in your office? Yeah, I think just like anyone. When our guys do a good job studying, preparing, putting in the time and showing that they're going to be able to go out there and we can trust them to go out there and execute, they're going to earn more opportunities. How much of that period in the second quarter, Sunday, when you score three touchdowns, about six minutes B, something guys can look at as a confidence builder saying this is how good we can be. Yeah. I mean, I think there's examples of that throughout the however many games we've played so far. I just thought that our guys did the best job being more consistent with that throughout the game on Sunday. You look at, God, I don't want to talk about that game anymore, but you look at the two-minute drive at the end of the Cleveland game, like you move the ball, you look at Spurts in the Chargers game, you look at Spurts in the Saints game. There's evidence of us being able to do that. It's just we've got to continue to strive to be as consistent as possible because I think we showed on Sunday that when we do that, we can do some pretty good things. Derek, especially, who sometimes needs a step or two to get that full house team, if he's not getting any good contact behind the line. Yeah, I mean, everybody, I think that's running the ball. If we can get him in the line of scrimmage clean, it's going to be better. Our guys did a really good job of being able to cover them up, get him rolling from everybody, from the five up front, the tight ends, the wide outs in some of those situations where we ask him to come in and do some of the dirty work. Our guys do a great job of taking a lot of pride in that, which is not like that everywhere. So I think that's a testament to our position coaches. I think it's a testament to the type of guys that we have here in the building that take pride and while there may not be a huge stat line for some people, but they know that they went out there and did their job and that helped their, you know, have the day that he had and helped our offense have the day that they had. So, yeah, it's a collective effort there. Thanks a lot. Thank you guys. Thanks, Tim. Are we going to ask about Lipscomb-Enzworth? I'm curious about that. Yeah, what's the lightest one? They won. We did. I'm sorry. Lipscomb won. It was 28 to 12, so sixth grade championship. My son had to come to the walkthrough right afterwards to let everyone know that they won the championship. So it was a good game. Thursday night football tonight. Page High School, Hillsborough should be exciting. Oh, yeah, I think it's pretty even. So we'll see how it plays out tonight. I'll be able to get to about half time of that game. So it should be fun. Kyle, if he's ready to go this week, does he step right back in? Yeah, I think, you know, today will be a big day for him. Also, you know, tomorrow, we'll get him out there and work him out, catching punts more and more and see how he feels and kind of make a decision based on that. But really happy with what Mason did last week and the week beforehand. He really stepped up and did a great job. You know, that was a big return last week that we had for 21 yards. He did a great job, you know, getting upfield, making a guy miss and getting 21 yards. And they also had a penalty on that. So big momentum flip for us. So really happy what Mason did to last week. I guess what you'll see from Kyle, I guess, in practice is just to kind of smooth catching the ball and getting out of the hole. Yeah, you know, we'll obviously go in there and look at him. See how he's going to move lateral, how he has to go back, maybe to catch a bigger punt. But you know, then just going up there and getting upfield, trying to make some guys miss. So we're going to try to do everything to simulate what he would get into a game in order for him to feel comfortable playing this week if he does. Your return team on punk returns has had success, whether it was Kieris, Mason. How much of the returning is the coverage guys in front of them, the blocking that you're getting? Oh, it's big. They're just as big as part of the guys that are back there catching the ball and they take pride in it. And you know, we talk about winning on the outside a lot. Those guys have to do a really, it's a tough job, you know, they might be single press against a gunner. And they got to do a really good job of staying with the guy 30, 40 yards down the field. So it's a big part of what we do and what we teach. And the guys take a lot of pride in it. And so we just tell them it's not always the guy that's back there catching the punts. It's the other guys that are there to help them get 21 yards or get 30 yards. So it's definitely a team effort. And you know, Mason would probably be the first one to tell you too that those guys do a great job blocking for him. Oh, he hasn't done a lot of kicking off the last couple of years. And what he has hasn't been a big touchback guy. But how confident were you when he got here that he could handle that and have you been pleasantly surprised? Yeah, I mean, that was one of the first things we talked to him about, you know, hey, listen, we know you didn't do it as much there in New England. But, you know, we could ask you to do it a little bit for us too. And he didn't have really an issue. And once we saw him do some kickoffs for us in practice, you know, it was pretty easy as far as hey, if we want to touch back or if we don't. So each week again, we'll play it by year and see what we feel comfortable with. But really happy with what he's doing. If we ask him to hit a touchback or if we ask them to kick it short and then to return it, we feel pretty comfortable with him doing that. Okay, Kyle, and what he can bring as a punt returner, how much do you have to weigh that with the injury history and also wanting him to be out there on offense and the value he has there? Yeah. You know, we want to keep him on the field as much as we possibly can because, you know, he's a weapon on offense too. So we're going to do everything that we can if he's back there catching punts for us to protect him. You know, and that starts again, the guys on the outside and then the interior guys. So it's big that we always have that in the back of our mind. But, you know, Kyle's out there for a reason and if we feel comfortable with him being back there and returning punts, we're going to do that. Who's your alternative at this point? Well, you know, you know, Monty Hooker's done it before in the past. So he would be a guy that could be back there at any point in time. So he would be another guy that would be an option back there. Does it protect him? Is it possible that, like, you maybe encourage him to fair catch a couple of balls that another guy would return because you just want to keep him from taking a hit? Or, like, what does that look like? No. You know, he's going to be back there if he's up. He's going to be back there to return punts. But we're going to tell him to be smart. You know, if the ball is hung up in the air for quite some time, we don't need him to be the guy that's going to go in there and try to make four or five guys miss when they're right in front of us. We're going to be smart about it. We always talk about being aggressive but not reckless. So, you know, we'll talk with him about that. And if he does have an opportunity to go back there and return one, he'll do it. Is that a hard thing to get a guy to buy into because most of these guys are hardwired to be as aggressive as possible? Oh, yeah. I mean, it's funny just talking to those guys all the time. Well, Coach, I want to make a play. I want to make a play. And we get that. And we love that about him. But again, it's one of those deals that we have to really sit him down, talk to him, hey, this is why we want to do that. This is why we do want to return it. So that's just the thing that we'll continue to talk to those guys about just being smart football players. Is there some intrigue there with the roof's open, roof's closed? I mean, how much difference does it make there as far as, you know, for kicking or punts, just how much it affects the distance? Yeah, well, that was one of the first things that we brought up to the guys. I showed them a clip and I said, hey, what do you guys see? And they're talking about, well, I see this formation. I see this. I said, no, really look at it because, you know, sometimes they'll have the roof open. Sometimes you'll see a little bit of wind. I know Stonehouse was talking about the banners were moving a little bit at some point in time last year. So, you know, that's something that we talked to those guys about, hey, yeah, it's a dome, but they can open up and, you know, there could be some involved in there. So we'll have them get out there early again, like we always do. If it is open, great, you know, we'll be out there taking a look at the sun. All right. Thank you. What's the biggest key when you're facing a quarterback that you've never seen before? Yeah, I think really with him just understanding his skillset, right? All the things he brings to the table, he's a freak athlete, super talented. The ability to run the ball, the ability to throw the ball is all there. So we just got to understand that every play. He's going to be a factor. We got to be keyed in on him. There's kind of two sets of theories, I guess, when a lot of teams go in and play a rookie quarterback. Some people want to throw the kitchen sink at him and make quick decisions, speed him up. And others want to lay back in coverage and disguise and confuse. What's your, what's the best approach? Yeah, I think everybody's got their own way of doing things. I think ultimately it's a combination of the two. And I mean, we'll kind of see which direction we go here come Sunday. Andre Richardson maybe gives you, God, you've worked against before that maybe helps you in this game. Yeah, I mean, the running's unique. I would say he's got the ability to hurt you like Lamar. Different type of runner. He's probably more of a Josh Allen type of runner. Just explosive speed though can take it the home run, but he's a, he's a powerful, strong dude with the ball in his hands. It's going to be tough to tackle him one-on-one. And then just with the arm strength, I think he can, he can sling it. He's got a cannon. He can launch it. He can throw it wherever he wants. Different angles. Does a good job on the RPO game, getting it out of his hands quick. So I mean, he's a, he's a talented kid who does a good job. All the design runs, it seems like they do that a lot with them. Is that unique to what you've seen before? Yeah, I mean, you see it from different teams. I mean, some teams do it more than others, but we've seen it in the past. Obviously Lamar has done that stuff. They did some of that stuff with Hurts and Philly last year. Even Josh Allen on certain situational things. There's some of those quarterback design runs that show up. So something we got to be prepared for. They're going to mix it in. They're going to have it. I mean, we saw one against the Sean and Cleveland down the red zone. So it's becoming more and more with these quarterbacks, just their ability coming from college. I think it's becoming more of an aspect of the game that we got to be ready for each week with these quarterbacks. There's so much emphasis having that game, wrapping up, finishing the tackles when you've got the quarterback. How much of an emphasis is that and what can be done to kind of improve? Yeah, very similar mindset. He's strong. We got to make sure we stay on our feet. Right. We go in to get a sack. We can't launch. We can't try to take them down and not stay on our feet because he's going to shrug you off. We got to continue to be relentless. The more guys we can get to them, the better off we're going to be. Not relying on one guy to be able to bring them down. But the biggest thing for me is making sure we're staying up and not falling off. And if we stay on our feet, we've got a better shot of not falling off of them. He's a good fit for your scheme. And when a guy takes advantage of small opportunities like that, does he earn more? Yeah, absolutely. He's done a good job since he's been here. Again, you get in here late, miss most of training camp and you're kind of throwing in the fire. There's a lot of catch up that's going on from a terminology standpoint, from a technique standpoint, just how we operate the day to day. And I think he's done a great job since he's been here. Great seeing him last week. Take advantage of his opportunity to make a play. And ultimately, yeah, if you're going to make plays like that, you need to be out there more. Yeah, they're really good. They are really good down there. I think the biggest thing, and we talk about it every week, is number one, don't let them run it in, right? We got to make sure we're not allowed to run the ball in the end zone. There's a lot of things like coming to play, obviously this week with the quarterback run game and everything that is. And then when we're there in coverage, we got to be able to challenge, play aggressive, play square. Nowhere helps that when we have help. To me, red zone always comes down to our execution, right? Our ability to execute versus whatever we see, because there's always going to be scheme plays down there every single week. And we got to make sure we're locked in on making sure we have 11 guys doing our job. When you talk to the DBs against a quarterback like this, what do you tell them? Is this a week where you say you guys may have to cover a little bit longer than normal? Yeah, play extensions there. We got to make sure that we're grabbing on, latching on the guys. We got to be great with our eyes as plays get extended. We just can't lose guys, because that's when those X plays are going to show up. If he's able to extend and we don't grab a guy and a guy breaks loose and gets behind us, that's when some of those plays are going to show up. So we got to make sure we get attached in zone, right? Those are probably the more difficult ones, right? Making sure. Because zone coverage turns into man pretty quickly when that play gets extended. And then in man coverage, we just got to make sure we're doing our job and staying on our man. How much does the RPO gain for you to make sure your guys are disciplined and staying with their assignments and in their lanes? Yeah, there's a lot to it. There is. I came up in the triple option offense, coaching a line when I started coaching. So there's similarities to it, but instead of a pitch man, there's a throw man, right? So it's going to take all 11. We got to be sound. We got to understand our responsibility. We got to take pre-snap information and use it to our advantage. But everybody's got to be locked in and we got to communicate and help the guy next to us understand what's coming. Do you have a CKL on Sunday? Absolutely. I mean, I fully expect it. And if he doesn't, he doesn't. But I'll eat back in this league. If he's available, I imagine he's going to play. How good is Marshman for that team? Good. Really good. I think he's running hard. I think he's been able to show some patience to find some of those holes late. Maybe we played against him, obviously, when he was in Buffalo. So I think he's done a really good job. Can you maybe try to attack Gibbons in a way to attack his weaknesses? I know he's not the most athletic guy on your defense, but he's appeared in the right places consistently and been very good at that. Have they tried maybe to go at him and fail? Yeah, I mean, you saw the one he made the play when they tried to attack him down the middle of the field with Boyd last week. And one thing about Gibby, he's really smart. I think he understands kind of the game, whatever he might lack a step or so. He makes up for it with his intangibles and knowing where to be. And he's not going to be caught behind. Like some of these fast guys at times get caught behind, and they don't look as fast, right? So, I mean, he's been consistent. I think the guys trust him when he's out there. I know I trust him to go out there and do his job every single snap. And really, he's making the plays that he's supposed to make. Over 20, I think 12 in the first three, were you guys doing things differently or just doing better? Yeah, I think we played better as a whole. I think the rush was better. I think the coverage was better. It takes all 11. It's never one guy, I get it. There's going to be some one-on-ones at times down the field that they might win and we might lose. But for the most part, it takes all 11. Everybody executing the coverage properly. Everybody playing with technique and fundamentals and affecting the quarterback is just as much coverage as it is the rush.