 All right, what was your experience like with the COVID situation? I was also curious, I know you were not necessarily a fan of the vaccine. I wonder if that in your mind helped you at all? I guess that's one theory is that it helps in terms of the severity. Right, yeah, I didn't have it too bad. Had some minor symptoms for a couple of days and then was able to bounce back. So thankfully didn't hit too hard, kind of went through my house. My wife got it after I did, she had a little worse than I did. But overall, it was a couple of days and we were able to bounce back. Due to stay sort of engaged and moving forward, even though you couldn't be out here practicing and whatnot. Yeah, so I still had all the Zoom calls, our Zoom meetings, excuse me, the whole time. So just trying to stay engaged in the meetings up to date mentally. And then after a couple of days, once I started feeling better, then I was working out and running and staying in condition and just trying to keep myself ready to go. So tough situation, don't want to be missing time for an illness. But if I had to get it, it wasn't terrible timing, just kind of where it fell. And theoretically should be good to go the rest of the season. How excited are you to get going and if part of you even cures yourself just to see how this offense can be from the get go? Yeah, I'm excited. We have starting to get all of our guys back, which is nice. We've had a really good start to the week on Monday. And look to build on that today. Just keep building momentum as we get closer to the game. So excited about having our guys back and the opportunity we have in front of us. You haven't had as much time on the field with Julio Jones, obviously, when it comes to practice. But I know there was mention of you working so much off the field. What are some of those things that you were able to do to kind of get on the same page for the start of the season? Yeah, like I mentioned, we've constant communication on what I'm expecting, what I'm seeing from in the pocket, how I'm expecting him to come out a certain route or the adjustments to make. And then now that we've been able to get on the field a few times, just getting his body language down and his speed, which has been good. I feel like we had a really good day together on Monday. And like I said, continue to build on that today. I hasn't called live plays with anything close to full offense. You guys do a lot of live periods and stuff. Is there some intrigue, curiosity to how that's going to go? I mean, calling plays is calling plays, right? And you know, you obviously change a little bit depending on what pieces you have and who you have out there. But I think he has a good plan on what we have available to us right now and ways to attack the defense. So excited about, you know, stepping into battle with him on Sunday. So we're here kind of thrown around sometimes as a buzzword. This team has a good culture. You all seem adamant that this is a good culture. What are some of the concrete things you see and experience to make you think about? I think our foundations of our program, you know, our effort and finish, how we believe in each other, how we focus on the details, fundamentals, concepts, you know, taking care of the ball and then, you know, not doing stuff to hurt the team, you know, it's stuff that variable preaches every day and the team has bought in. And when you have guys buying in to what the program believes and then you also believe in each other, have that faith and accountability with each other, definitely helps build momentum and pushes things in the right direction. Creating a team, you know, not just guys working together, but you're creating an actual team. And when you have a team that is a real team and believes in each other and can count on each other, then, you know, special things can happen. You also mentioned with Julio, you spent a lot of time watching film of him, right? So what have you learned about him that you didn't know just from afar? You know, learned about him as a receiver? I think he has a good ability to understand what's going on. Obviously, you don't really know that until you spend time with him, right? Understand concepts that we're trying to do, how defenses have tried to play him in the past and he'll probably see again in the future. But then just as I studied him on tape, you know, he transitions a lot better than I thought a big guy of his stature and speed would transition. You know, some of the routes that he ran down in Atlanta the past few years, the cut up that I watched, it's pretty incredible to see his transition just at his size and speed. So, you know, excited to get to work with him this year. You have a couple of years ago, you talk about finding your voice as a leader when you stepped into the role here now. Curious how that's progressed over the last couple of years and you look at this offseason, the vaccination decision, things like that that are... how much responsibility do you feel as one of the top leaders of this team? It's definitely a responsibility. I know I welcome it. I love being in this position to help draw our guys closer together, to push each and every guy to be the best player and person he can be. It's definitely a challenge, but it's exciting. You know, it's part of why I love playing in this position is the challenge of it and being able to lead guys through adversity and continue to find a way to win. How are so now that it used to be for you as it progressed in the last couple of years? I mean, throughout my career, right, it's grown. The more experience you have, the more games you... you know, football you've played, you know, you learn a whole lot. So that's not only on the field, but that's off the field, you know, leadership role as well. How do you work through that process where you have to know, like, this guy likes this ball here, another guy likes it there. You have to process that quickly. How do you work through that, you know, effectively getting involved in this? Yeah, I think being on the same page is where it all starts, right? You know, whether it's reps that you've had on the field or conversations you've had and walk through in meeting rooms, you know, where we're expecting to throw the ball. And then just growing together, working together, you know, over time, you know, those things become innate and you don't even have to think about it anymore. Something you find a kind of contrast with this core, like one guy wanted, you know, blown away in a situation, another one said hi. I think our guys, you know, are the mindset that they're going to go get it wherever I throw it, all right? And it's on me to put in a good location, protect them with the football, put in a good location where we have fast, big, strong, physical guys that can run after the catch. So if I put the ball in a good spot and where they can catch it smoothly and transition to a runner quickly, you know, we're going to create a lot of big plays. So that's on me. But I think those guys are on the mindset that they're going to go get it wherever it's at. How much you missed playing in front of Pac Stadium last year and looking back, I mean, was it home or on the road and looking back, did you miss that last season playing in the stadium? Yeah, I definitely missed, you know, that's that's one of the best things about playing football is competing in front of a Pac Stadium. You know, when you have the home side behind you and you feel the energy in the stadium, it's special. And then you go on the road and in a rough, tough environment and you're able to quiet the crowd and walk away with the wind. You know, it's a it's a great feeling. So I look forward to playing in front of fans again. So the pretty experienced bunch right on offense. What are some of the advantages of that versus having, you know, a bunch of youngsters? Yeah, I think like I said earlier, you know, the more football you play, the more you learn and you can kind of add into your mental bank and your physical bank and and learn as as you go. So you've already crossed a bunch of those hurdles along the way. You don't have to cross them. You make new mistakes, you know. So that combined with a bunch of familiar faces, you understand the way we like to play and what we want to accomplish. You know, it's definitely a good starting block and it's just a matter of building on top of that. I heard from other quarterbacks around the league expressing any sort of envy maybe at the weapons you have at your disposal this year. No, I haven't. I haven't heard anything from other guys. Do you have any sort of like football fan mindset in terms of just being able to watch those three guys on the field together? Sunday? I know, obviously, you got to do a job out there. But have you thought about that? All just the excitement of seeing it all together in a real game? Yeah, I can't really say I'm a fan of. Of watching while I'm doing it, you know, it's. There's a mission to be accomplished. You got to go out there and take care of my job and, you know, let those guys do their job. So that's pretty much my focus is just going out and doing my job to the best of my ability and leading this team to a win. Please, let's see what you all can do together now that you're finally, you know, it's game week, game one on Sunday. Yeah, I'm excited, you know, it's a big opportunity. Finally, like I said, getting everyone back out there and, you know, a lot of opportunity in front of us is just a matter of making it happen. Well, definitely, the more weapons you have across the field, you know, teams can't zone in on any one person or group, you know. So, you know, you pair AJ with Julio and Firkser and Chet and then you got Derek in the back. They can't kind of lock in on, okay, if we take away this guy, then they're going to struggle, you know. So, definitely make sure your offense is more dynamic if you can stress teams in multiple areas of the field. What I was saying that was even new is that Arizona has a front seven. Here's the Collins, a lot of tape on those guys, but Arizona gets a responsive end game to be alert. How does that work as a quarterback? Yeah, no doubt. We're off to see how they come out and play us. You know, it's a dynamic defense. They have guys all over the place, you know, playmakers all over the place and a coordinator who likes to dial it up. So, we'll have to make adjustments as the game goes on, just like, you know, any game, but kind of unique situation with a bunch of new faces going into game one. So, that'll be a challenge for us early. We have to be clear with our communication and then I'll be on the same page. What are your thoughts on the number changes? Or like this week, you've got a linebacker wearing number nine. You have to identify the mic, et cetera. What are your thoughts on how that kind of changes that identification process? Yeah, it's definitely, you know, time you have to spend, you know, clearly, you know, knowing who's out there, you know, or in the past you kind of know, you always knew who was out there, but, you know, by jersey number, you could generally, you know, know what position a guy was going to play. So, you know, I've played a lot of football with the old rule. So, you know, I kind of liked it the way it was, but at the same time, you know, you have to adjust and just make the changes. So, you know, we know that nine is going to be moving around. They play them at safety some, they play them at linebacker, they put them on the end some. So, really, we know who he is. It doesn't matter if he's in nine or 48 or whatever. You know, it doesn't matter.