How would you describe this offseason? Obviously at a huge life event he came off of in Super Bowl, let your contract, got rework, got married. I mean, how how do you put all it the perspective?
Yeah, I mean, there's definitely a lot happened. One of the busier off seasons I had, just you know, still got to keep the main thing the main thing and stay focused on you know, even though there's a lot of good things, you know, stay training, getting ready to go, and.
You know, well, it might look like a lot happened, and it did.
I tried to keep it as consistent as possible as to the last off seasons that I've had.
I know you'd expressed interest in playing with Luke, and I know it didn't happen. But how cool was Draft Day for you and your family to see.
Him go through that? It was awesome? Man.
Yeah, we were so fired up for him. You know, he's He's inspired me in a lot of ways. So to see that kind of dream of his come true in person was awesome.
He said, you're gonna Kyle said, you're gonna be see when some other veterans will be on a schedule, and you weren't in the team stuff yesterday, but you were up there a bloody today. Did you feel like he hit the ground running today?
Yeah, definitely. It was good to be back. You know.
I think it's probably smart just to ease into things a little bit these first few days and then next week kind of get going. But it's important to get you know, get my eyes right, get the timing right, just get more comfortable.
You know, you have to you have to get these reps. So it's important.
I know it's just, you know, just the first your first day out there, but did you feel the offense looked pretty sharp?
Yeah?
I haven't seen the full tape yet, you know, we just obviously there's good and bad every single day during training camp, and I think the most important thing is just capitalize on the good things and fix the bad things.
I think it was an Ota Kyle was talking about just how many touches you had last year and particularly you know, run between the tackles, things like that. Maybe they could do a better job of limiting that. I mean, what's your perspective on that, potentially having a fewer touches in those areas.
For me, it's you know, put my body, mind and soul in the best position to play every snap and then you know, coaches got to be coaches whatever they think is best. But I know, for me, I prepare to play every snap so that I'm ready to go.
You got an extension during the off season. How important was it for you to get that worked out before coming into training camp?
Really important? You know.
I think anytime you can get that done before camp, it's great. But that's the business side of things, you know, it's the bittersweet part of this league. And so for me, you know, like I said, just taking it one day at a time, making sure that you know, you continue to train, continue to put your body in the best shape possible so that when all that stuff is out of the way, you can hit the ground running.
Jack also went through kind of a renegotiate of his but he wanted to make sure that he was the top paid fullback. How does it make you feel to be the top paid running back in the league.
It means a lot. Yeah, No, it definitely means a lot. I think, you know, the running back position has obviously been talked about a lot in the last few years about you know, kind of guys being unfairly paid, and I think, you know, just to continue to up the number I think is important. And you know it's a huge.
Honor John and Kyle didn't care of Trent Wires.
Yeah, I mean, look, I you know, the business side of things. As I said before, is it's the tough part about playing in the NFL. For me, I stay out of everything really, just kind of stay in my lane, focus on me and doing whatever I can to get back. But obviously no one's a bigger fan of strength than me.
How self critically are you after a season when you evaluate what you've done? I mean, obviously Offensive Player of the Year had a real strong season. But when you look at it, what do you see that you want to get better at? Or how do you evaluate it?
Man, there's and there's there's a lot to get better at every year. I think there's a you know, really it's it's not even a year or week thing. It's just a day by day thing. And you know, I think getting getting reps is so important because that's when
you can really try to perfect your game. When you're out of it for a long time, you can miss those and and like I said, I think just training your eyes, getting the timing right, sequencing down is something that you got to do every day, so it's it's it's more just every day approaching it is a constant evaluation. Obviously you're gonna correct the mistakes from the year, but you know, when you're training, you're correcting little things always here and there.
Jordan Mason has looked pretty decent out there in terms of catching the ball and stuff. We haven't seen him do a lot of that stuffs that jumped out to you at all.
Absolutely, he's improved so much in the first time I've met him. Just the way he is in the meetings, the way he is out of practice is I think our whole running back room has such a good, uh.
Good energy to it right now.
You know, we're all pushing each other, making each other better, but also being there for each other. And it's a really fun room to be a part of because you know, you want to talk about guys forcing you to be at your best. Every single one of those guys right now is are doing just that and makes it makes it fun to be a part of. Mariano Rivera has he becoming more complete running back now?
Marian Oh, that's right, that's right. Yeah, I was like Daan, When did I say that?
Yeah, man, I think he he looks way more complete than than he has been. He's always been able to do it. It's just being consistent with it. And I think you see now he's making things happen in the past game and the run game that are just consistent with it.
So I think he can pitch every inning now.
Some things, you know, pump motion and stuff like that. Especially you, how much do you look at that stuff and maybe talk to Kyle about things you see over the off season and how to improve on that or how to expand it.
You know.
For me, it's just being able to do it, you know, and I think continuing to rep it no matter what position he's putting you in. He has reasons for every play he calls, and he's much better at it than I am. So I kind of just let him do that and wherever he puts me, I just got to be able to run every route.
How much more benefit can you get from finally having a first full offseason with Rock Party back there?
Huge benefit, huge benefit, I think, you know, I think obviously the reps are important. I think it's been so impressive to see what he can do without those reps. But he looks great, he feels great, he's talking great. Just happy he's our quarterback. Appreciate you guys,