How much more do you get out of past protection when you have Christian?
Mccaffit on how much more pro you got like past protection help or like how good does he do? I think all the guys do a really good job. I'd put him in the category Christians always done a good job with protection, but I think the other guys do a good job as well. So I think there's much
of an uptick. Everything's an uptick with Christian. I'm not going to joke, right, he gets a little bit, Everything gets a little bit better with him, obviously, but I'd say I wouldn't say it's that big a difference.
Is there a player in the league quite like Vida Veya in terms of no side?
No? Now, I'm trying to think of one big guy from Baltimore last year, Pierce, I think his name is. He was a similar player, big guy, beta based, one of the kind I remember last time we played him up here. It was his last year and last year two years AG don't remember which game it was, might
have been two years ago. They said he was sick pre game, like he wasn't going to play, Like we're all hopeful, and I go out there and he's playing what's that game where they kicked the bag around Hackey Sack. I mean, he looks like he looks like a middle school or playing Hackey Sack. He's threting fifty pounds kicking the ball in the air. It's unbelievable how good he is. He's really really talented, very very agile for such a big, gigantic man.
Like when they line him up sometimes like as as an edge rusher, what kind of challenge is that?
And is it?
It's hard? Yeah, you can. You can get some more help. Sometimes you get a little more help to him with a back or a tight end as well. It is scary to think that he has a running head start at the quarterback. But I did say this morning, it's like we don't want him. You know, he's got that direct line of the quarterback right out of the center in the a gap. It makes it difficult. He's a challenge for everybody.
Does he remind you of anyone? Maybe not in the NFL.
But well, the thing is, these guys today have become better pass rushers. I mean, there's some great players in the past. I'm not quite sure there was as big as him, but but I won't go through the list of guys due to time today, but there the guy is an edge you know, he gets he can get on an edge and be a good rusher as well as a power guy, which makes him unique.
Elijah Kntsey, he had a couple of sacks last week. He's not the same build, but he's a really effective player.
Guys are excellent pass rushers on the edge. They they've got good length, they've got good speed. They're great speed to power guys kind of like the guys from the Rams do a good job with that. There up the field to have long arms, they're able to push the pocket and condense the pocket. This team can condense the pocket, make a collapse right. And then Todd Bowles does a great job with his pressure package as well, where guys come free and uh and create some issues as well.
As Feliciano looked in practice and have you been looking at him more as a center this year versus a year ago?
Uh?
Nope, he's same, he's right now, he's competing, he's trying to get well. Uh and see where he is progressions as far as rehabilitation towards being active. We're looking at him right now as a backup center guard, so if we somewhere happen to guard, he could go and some of the center go in. Definitely not looking at him at this point in a starting capacity. He's in a backup capacity at this time for as well as the guys that are playing in the interior three at this point.
But yet we're great, great to have Jocks. We have a true starter in a backup role, Nick Sequel, who's been playing that role as a backup center and then and then Spencer being the backup third guard. I think we feel like we have a guy that's started and played more football at both positions, and it's great to have as a backup.
I know it was a little before you got here in twenty eighteen, Jarck McKinnon signed here and got heard right before the season. Kyle had said at the time, like really kind of blew up all of her plans of what we did the whole season. Has there been a similar thing with Christian this year where it's made it difficult to kind of just readapt your offense because you don't have as many variables with what you can do with him.
I don't think it feels the same way I think that there's other players that have kind of learned from Christian. A year ago. We had you know, Christian was not in and out last year, but the guys had to step in and we had to continue to play with JP or whoever if Christian was in and out of the game and things like that. So I think we felt real confident that without Christian there, we all know that he brings to a whole different dynamic to how we can game plan and how we can do how
defenses approach us. So yeah, the defense may approach us differently, but I don't think it caught us quite as I think at that point, and I wasn't here to remember exactly, but I think it was a little bit more like, gosh, we really counted on him, and without him, there really wasn't somebody else that was going to pick up that slack that we encounted for him to do. I think we have guys now that can kind of do a little bit, albeit not as much.
Is good wise here differently than maybe in other places you've been need the record here with those buys pretty good.
You know what, It's changed because the league kind of said what to do. I remember our first year in Tampa. Going back does is back in the dark ages, but the nineteen nineties, holy cow. Yeah. But we had we actually full practices because we were like, we were one and eight. We didn't play. So Doungee was like, let's go out there. We're starting from square one, and we just did full padded practices all the way till Friday. Right.
How time has changed, right, So now now the league slowly mandates less and less and less time for us to be able to be available, that the players are able to work. So we kind of go off with what the league does and what they say, and we're really hesitant to do much banging around in the bye weeks. And I think it's paid off. Okay, I think it's coming back from the buy that's so critical important as tw you can take care of your players coming back.
How's Christian looking, how's he feeling? And then how's the team responding to him being back?
You know, everybody's always positive to have him back. It's always good to have a great player on the field working with you and he's out there. It's just you know, it's he practices so hard and he and everything's right. I mean, that's the thing you see is that like all of a sudden, he run his own play and as well as Christian and Isaac have done and the
other guys. It's like all of a sudden, it's just bam, bam, and he hits the whole right in time, perfect timing, perfect perfect pacing of the play, catches some balls down the field and sing things like that, and then so it's nice. He's again, he's it's a process getting ready to play, so his coll there will be no decisions made until until you know, later in the week, obviously, but but but having him back out being just being out there and practicing like you've asked, this is really
really cool for the whole team. It energizes everybody at the same sense. You always got a temper that too, because you just don't know as a guy's trying to get his feedback on him, is he gonna be ready to go Bulls.
Like blitz heavy scheme. Is it different than what Minnesota does? Both are kind of blits heavy teams.
Different different they it's it's different. I can't explain it exactly why, but there's some similarities and and I think there's a little bit of give and take like Todd's gravitated a little bit towards some of the things, uh that that he's seen he's seen, uh you know, Flores doing and and vice versa. So there's a that. I mean, Flores has always kind of done what he's done. Uh but similar, similar, but it's not not not like identical for Christian on.
The practice field, help those younger guys in terms of whether it's route running or just a little technique to have hit a hole.
They've all seen it before the first time. For Isaac, get in a full full dose of it. So I think it will help to see him and see how he practices, see how he plays, how he prepares all those things. Yeah, thanks, guys, appreciate it.