Drake Green Live or since the Super Bowl about his recovery, his progress.
Yeah, I mean I see him every day.
Uh you know that that boot on his foot's getting smaller and smaller. Uh, you know, day by day he's working to getting back to on his two feet, and uh, you know, he's as optimistic as he can be, right. I mean, that's such a devastating injury, especially that time of the of the year, you know, the last game of the season. So you know, I felt for him
obviously in the moment that it happened. I felt for him ever since, you know, just just checking in with him often, and uh, like I said, he's had the best mindset just about it and continue to stay optimistic and knowing that he'll be back stronger than ever.
Working with Nick now on the defense, Just how has that been different so far?
Early?
But just how's that process going? Yeah, it's great. You know, I love Nick.
I love what he brings to the table, and I think he's always been a really smart and uh invaluable asset to what we do on defense ever since he came on to the team. You know, he worked a lot with the linebackers early on and kind of has bounced around with some of the defensive backs, and now he has his opportunity, you know, to lead the defense.
And I have full confidence in him.
I think the way that his mind works and his ability to teach is exactly what you want.
And so I'm really excited to work with him.
Much contact with Brandon Staley, and he's been involving.
Yeah, he's been around. He's been around, uh you know as I've been working out here.
Uh.
We we got a couple opportunities to just sit in chat with one another. And I love, you know, what he's gonna be able to bring to our defense and kind of implementing different things in his mind. The way that he works, you could tell, like you know that he's he's been around for a long time and knows his stuff, and so I'm excited to have him as well.
Cut a little bit of surprise, A big surprise.
Yeah, I mean huge, huge surprise.
You know, for ever since I've been here, that's been you know, we called him the blueprint for how to be a Niner. You know, that was the longest tenor Niner uh that's been here. And the guy, a guy that's done it right, uh, through and through you know, and you know to say, I've been in this thing long enough where at this point nothing surprises me. You know, there's there's there's this, There's decisions that have to be made. You know, this is a business at the end of
the day. And you know, for him, I'm happy for him and the new opportunity that he has in Jacksonville to go and succeed there, h and provide for his family. And we obviously got some big shoots to feel at that position. And it's not up to just one guy to just come in and be the new Eric Armstead. You know, it's gonna take uh, you know, the whole group to elevate their game.
To make up for that, you know. So yeah, I'm sad to see him go for sure.
I mean not you personally or several other guys, but this core group may not have much longer to go, just exactly intact like that.
You know.
That's uh, that's part of the business. You know, I don't know how long this the core group is going to be be around, and uh, you know, you got to treat every year like it's you last, you know, and uh, you don't know how long you're gonna be together. So you got to make sure that you go all out every single season that that you have because, uh, that window for winning super Bowls it's not always open, but as long as I've been here, it's been open, and so we got to make it happen.
This draft is especially big because of that, when we know the window is still open and you guys are obviously very good, and do you want to see guys drafted who can.
Help right away?
I mean I always want to see us draft great players. Uh you know, uh, you don't want to see as draft bad players. So I think, you know, the draft is always really important obviously you see how how important it's been here and guys playing a lot of a lot of snaps you know, as rookies and as young players here in this organization and being stable players for us, And so I am excited about the draft.
You know, every year is important for the draft though.
Nickornson and what you think of him and how you think he's gonna send to that to the DC spot.
Yeah, like I was like I was talking about, you know, I really like Nick. I think, you know, having played the having played the game for a long time, you know, he knows a lot of ball and I think, yeah, I think he did a great job the last couple of years of doing the ball meeting. You know, people talk about, uh, you know, how important the ball is around here, you know, taking the ball away, protecting an offense.
He was the one that ran that mean and did such a great job with it, you know, you know, in part of doing his job on defense, but you know, has that leadership ability to be able to stand in front of a group and command the command the room.
Uh. You know. So I think he's gonna do a great job. I'm really excited about him.
How much is his experience in your system in the past, how much is that going to help the transition this year as opposed to last year was a little challenging.
Yeah, no, it's gonna it's gonna be great. I think it'll be a great transition. That helps, you know, the fact that he knows the system, has been around it, and we just got to get better at the fundamentals and technique of what we do as well as implementing, uh, you know, some some tweaks in there as well, you know, because we've been running the same thing for a long time. You know, teams know we're running. Uh, you know, we're
not afraid of that. You know, they know what we're running, but gonna run it better then, you know than whatever they know that we're how we're running it right, So I think that's the whole key to what we do. But there does have to be kind of some some tweaks in there to make sure that we are switching things up a little bit, and I think Nick's going to do an amazing job.
The role do you expect to have in terms of those tweaks and actually shaping what the scheme looks like?
Oh, my role has always been to just go out there and execute whatever they tell me to do. You know, I'm obviously at a point in my career where I'm extremely confident in my abilities and helping lead the group day in and day out. So I'm gonna continue to do that and find ways to get better to ultimately help the team win games.
Why they brought in Brantage Daily sort of have a new set of eyes because teams do know what you guys are gonna do, and you can sort of help you kind of go in a different direction.
Yeah, I mean, you can never have too many smart guys in the room, you know, I think he knows a lot of football. And having a guy who's been successful in this league, especially on the defensive side of the ball, you know, and playing and or coaching in different schemes, I think for sure is to our advantage and can help us a lot.
Face is added to that linebacker co what's the communication.
Been with them?
It's been great, you know. I love every year, you know, and we add to the group. Uh.
Dev Andre has been obviously awesome as a as a seasoned veteran in this league, and I've watched and mired his game for a long time, being an All Pro and Pro bowler, and adding into the group I think is going to be really big. And Ezekiel being a stud for Arizona for a lot of years. We came out of the same year and I always knew forty seven on Arizona because that was the guy we're always circling and the special teams means as the guy that
we had to stop, you know. And so I think both of them as free agents, and then whoever we add in the draft rookie wise, I think are just gonna make our rown better.
I'm deep in the postseason for the last five years. When you get the band back together, what is the bigger toll that you have to face? Is it the physical part of playing those extra games or the mental part of coming so close again?
It just starting zero and zero all over. Yeah, they're both tough.
It's it's hard to choose one because I mean, the mental part is real, right like you talk about, uh, not only you know, the mental the emotional toll of damn, we were so close, man, and it takes everything out of you. You've got to make sure that you're really intentional about your offseason. You know, however long or short it may be. You got to be intentional about getting out, get away, get your recovery in, and get that reset, because when you come back, you gotta be ready to go.
Nobody cares about what happened last year, you know, teams who either didn't make the playoffs, teams that made the playoffs win the Super Bowl, didn't win the Super Bowl. Everybody starts on the same ground level, you know, and I know I'm excited, I'm rejuvenated, ready to go, and you know everything's ready to go.
Let's go.
Contract extensions with the Niners and ot drama.
No again, yours was kind of the exception.
You signed relatively early in mid July and we didn't hear anything about that.
I mean, was it pretty drama free?
And do you have any device you could send achievings?
Yeah?
Man, I mean it's always uh, you know, a lot of things happen behind the scenes that people don't see, even though people, you know, you say that I didn't I had a drama free experience.
My experience was great.
You know, there was constant communication between my agent and and the you know, the guys who were involved in that deal, and we got something done that was you know, great for both sides. But anytime there's that amount of money on the line, you know, you're talking about you know, tens of millions of dollars that are you're being paid to, you know, to perform at the highest level, it's gonna
take time, you know, and so whatever that takes. And you see that obviously, even the guys that a lot of things happened behind the scenes are out in the media. Behind the scenes whatever, uh, after it's done, you usually don't really hear about it again, you know, and those guys usually perform at a high level and do a lot of good things for us. So yeah, I mean there's you know, whatever it is, what it is, it's part of the business. And yeah, I can only speak on my experience, right, So.
You know, the Dwight Clark Award, and this year it's going to Drake green Law. How proud are you of him and what he's become.
In his NFL career.
Yeah, I'm so. I'm so proud of him.
Uh, you know, And I kind of made my little statement about him winning the Dwight Clark Award and it was a huge honor for me last year winning it, and I kind of spoke a little bit about Dre and the type of teammate he is and what he means to this team. You know, guys are people outside the building they see Dre and they see him on Sundays making the big hits in the in the splash
plays and going crazy. But I mean, we have so much respect for him in this locker room and who he is as a person and a player, the way that he comes to work, the things that he's overcome and his life and in his career, and so I mean, it's no better person to win the award this season or this year than Dre.
We had a couple of months after the Super Bowl, you and both had like life changing events.
You had your first child, brought got married.
When you put everything together on where does that stuff fit in and does take some of the sting away or they just totally separate?
How do you sort of process that?
Yeah, I mean that's that's my number one, you know, having uh well obviously first marrying my wife and then now it's having our our first baby boy together. That's uh, that goes above everything. Family is number one for me, and then the football stuff comes second. And that doesn't mean that football doesn't mean it's not as important. It's not important to me. But yeah, I had to obviously get over that loss pretty quick because I had something
that was really important, uh coming up. And uh, you know, I think that they both play hand in hand as well. You know, I think now I have even more to play for, uh in this game. I already had a lot of motivation, a lot of inner drive, but to to look at my son every day and know that I'm playing for something else as well, Uh, it could get pretty scary. So yeah, so like the pitch, we can go and we can go in detail about the pitch.
But you know, I guess that that's what happens when I guess when you don't warm up, you know, you overshoot it, and then or I guess you don't overshoot, you undershoot, right, So uh yeah, I'll leave that to sleep derivation.
I like that, you know, I would love one. I would love one. I would never turn it down.
I don't care how how bad I dart it. Surprisingly no, yeah, yeah, I guess guys don't care about baseball and the football team so exactly. That was very underprepared for that one. Yeah, I should be way more prepared. I'll get a couple more practice throws next time for the next one.
So all right, guys, Yeah,