OTB Sports: Randall Cobb

esteemed listeners. Yes, I'm talking to most of you. I'm glad you're here with me for another episode of Off the Beat Sports. I am your host, Brian baum Gartner, and today I have a dear friend and an incredible player from well my favorite football team. Randall Cobb of the Green Bay Packers, is in studio today. He is now a professional wide receiver in the National Football League. But he was not a sports prodigy or even a high school superstar, no, ma'am. Shockingly, he was a bench

warmer for a lot longer than you might think. We're gonna get into that some of his favorite plays of all time and some of mine, and we'll even bring up the dark Ages, by which, of course I mean when he moved to Houston for a period of time. I don't like to think about it, but it's important to learn the mistakes of history so we don't repeat them, you know. So here he is my pal, Randall Cobb, bub I love it, Bubble squeak on Bubble and squeaker cook at every month left over from the Natyo well

sing boom Terrerol Randolph, What is happening my man? How are you doing? I'm good. I wore the shirt, the green and gold golf shirt today. I'm so excited to talk to you. How have you been? And I'm great. I'm great. I'm actually up here in Green day eight right now, that's all. So you're there? Now? How long have you been in June? You you get, you get a little more time and then you come back right yeah, yeah, so we uh, I've been up here for about five

weeks now. We got mini camp next week and then another week of Oats Gays and then we'll have a break before its training camp stars to late Tovive. Nice. Are you excited? Oh yeah, oh yeah. Man. One of the years, well believe at the time goes by fast. I actually found a picture of us from at a bar in Green Day Saturday. Yes, I think you were hurt though, Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was out. I was that you were not playing the next day. I was not playing the next day. Let's let's make

sure yes that is and that's accurate. We're not fudging. I remember that night very very well. I'm so happy for you. I'm I want to go back a little bit before we talk about the Packers. I want to talk about your early start in sports back in Tennessee. So you were born in Maryville and then grew up in it's al Coha, right, alcohol, the Aluminium Company of America. Okay, Okay, Now I read you were a letterman in football, basketball, and track, So that means you were an athlete. Just

spoiler alert that that's what that means for you. Was it just about being in sport or did you have a particular interest early on growing up? Uh? Not really. You know, I started playing sports when I was four, and from age five until my senior in high school, I played year round. It was like football season ended played in the basketball, basketball season ended straight into baseball, Baseball season ended straight into football. And it was just

this cycle that just every year. It just never ended, and then like I got to the point where I gave up baseball and then I started running tracks, which track took place of baseball, and that was just me. I just I love being outside. I love anything competitive, like I just I love competing and having fun and you know, living life. Yeah, when did it transition from this is what I do. I love sports, I love competing, to this is what I want to do in my life.

Do you remember was there a moment? I would say that moment for me was probably like my eighth grade year. I remember being in middle school and hearing about a guy that went to Arrival School Maryville, where where I was born, I was born in He was going to Auburn to play football in college. And I was like, oh man, that's cool, Like he used to go to college and he's get to playing in SEC. Like I

grew up ten minute school University of Tennessee. I used to sell hot dogs at the stadium as a kid, you know, Like I used to go on Saturdays and grab my hot dog fill, walk around the stadium, walk up those stairs in Newland Stadium selling hot dogs. And my my dream was always like to play college football. Like that was just like, oh man, this is amazing. But I think whenever I heard like, oh, this guy's going to Auburn, that's an SEC school, like I would

go to school there. So in my mind, I was like, I'm transferring to Maryville. I'm going to Marrable High School. They had won a bunch of state championships. Alpha had had some success here and there, but you know, my my cousin and my brother, they wanted to state championship in two thousands and you know, so it's like O two oh three and I'm like, okay, well I want to do this. So I'm gonna go where I know

a guy has done this. And the high school coach at the time he came to me, it was like, hey, like, I think you got a great opportunity here. If you stay here, I think we can make something happen. And uh so I stayed it out for we had a great high school team. We ended up my four years of high school, we won four state championship and we had my sophomore year like two guys from between that

division one. So it became a reality when I started like seeing it happen right around me, and I was like, wow, like this is this is a real thing like that could really like go to college. Yeah, now I want to talk to you a little bit about this. This guy Gary Ankin, right, this is this is your high school coach. These statistics seem absolutely impossible. I mean, he won he won thirteen state championships in sixteen years at

Alcoha High School. But it wasn't just what was in the water in al CoA, because this dude won four at Riverdale High School prior to that. And then this is not There's got to be something going on here. I mean, does he just does he just transferred to the school, because then I heard he announced his retirement right this year, and then three weeks later announced he was going back to Boyd, Buchanan and Chattanooga. It sounds like he's moving where he knows the athletes are. That's

what I'm saying. I don't know this for a fact. I don't know this for a fact. I'm not gonna say that, but I think he is very elective than you know, the jobs that he takes and the places that he goes. He walked into a situation when he came to alcohol. So he wasn't my coach, My pfession and sophomore year we had a coach, John who who ended up going to Georgia and taking a job in Georgia.

So we had one two state championships already and he comes into the program, you know, back to back state championships. Going to my junior year, we had two receivers that had five plus offers. We had myself at quarterback, who I wasn't being highly recruited. Everybody didn't think I was a quarterback, so I wasn't quite there yet. But we had we had some players. We had a defensive ent that was committed to Tennessee, had thirty plus offers. You know,

we had, we had some talent. So yeah, he I think he knew very selective then where he's coming into. But I mean when you go when you go back to my hometown and you asked people around there, there's a lot of talents, a lot of hidden gens coming out of there, and we put a lot of a lot of guys in college and you know, some have panned out. I'm the only one that's the NFL, but hopefully in the years. Yeah, okay, so you you start thinking about eighth grade, maybe I could do this, maybe

I could play college ball. Was there a person or people that you feel like helped you to get there? For sure, there was a lot of people. I think most importantly was my my dad. He was always there to give me confidence and to instill the love of the game for me. You know, he had coached me from when I was a kid up until middle school, and having him kind of helped me see things from a different lens. I had a cousin, James Rayner. We call the Stink I think. Uh. He ran track in college.

He was like a ten oh six hundred guys, so he had speed and he had won Stage campionship in two thousand. He was a big influence in my time there. And then my coaches. You know, I had some I had some great coaches that helped push me along and gave me those opportunities. But yeah, my pops, I mean I used to my junior year when it's my junior here, I went on all kind of trips, so to these summer camps at different colleges, and I had coaches telling

me that I've never played you one. I had you know, people telling me that I should move the corner or safety like this. Like that. I wanted to I wanted to play offense, so you know, I always saw myself touching the ball. So yeah, so I think I had a lot of people and also my teammates in high school.

You know, they were some crazy athletic guys, and you go back to my hometown and asked them, I probably wouldn't be the one that they would think to be in this position now, because that's how good the guys in front of me were, right, So like they they had situations with grades, not being able to get into college, so being able to learn from other people's mistakes and also having a support system around me. Yeah, I understand

your folks. You give them a tremendous amount of credit really for financially supporting your dream and to get you know, allowing you the opportunity to participate in sports. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, that was huge. I think that's the difference. Yeah. So, but you continue through high school to play the other sports? Now, was that to keep you active or were you still thinking were you good enough in track or in basketball to to make a run there or no, no, I

wasn't good enough in football at that time. You gotta understand like I wasn't I wasn't seeing the field. My freshman and sophomore year, I didn't play until we were up by forty, and I would come in for you know, the last offense, a series of the game or defensive series whatever. Playing my freshman soft you know, I don't think you understand how guilty were. But my junior year, whenever I came into the starting role, that's kind of where I started to flourish and really show what I

could do as a quarterback. And I played a little bit of defense. But no, I mean it was I was a high school kid. It wasn't like the pros were like a real thing, you know what I mean. It was like playing high school ball. Like my senior year might be the last year I have a play sports. So in my mind, it was like, I'm just going to have fun. I love playing basketball, continue playing basketball, ran track. I played. I just didn't put my senior

year high school, I didn't play basketball. And that's because I had already committed to Kentucky and I was planning on training and preparing myself. So whenever summer school started, I could go right up and started summer school at the end of school year. So talk to me a little bit about the decision to go to Kentucky. Is that where you felt they wanted you the most or what was that opportunity for sure? So that was I got offered by Middle Tennessee State University and then I

got offered by Tucky when the same week. Those were my only two offer before my senior year. I committed to Kentucky. Fast forward to December, like two weeks before State Tennessee office, and I grew up there like you know, of course, I can't say that. I never dreamed of playing there. Like like I said, I sold hot dogs, you know. I I thought that, like that's what was going to happen. But again that's when that's when my dad played a role. I went over to UT. I

went to Philip Former's office. He handed me to national championship crystal ball and I'm holding it and he's telling me how great of a quarterback I am. They're gonna change their office for me. Is I'm gonna be the the greatest player that ever come to University of Tennessee. And we leave there and we get back in the car and my dad's like, so, what do you think I'm like, what do you team? What do you mean? Like I'm getting ready to what kind of question is that?

And uh, you know, he goes on He's like, well if you're if you're this great of a player, then you know he has the pastor of house every single night on his way home. I was like, yeah, okay, It's like, well, why didn't you ever stop by? You're just great of a player and he has all these recruits that he goes and business them, and why wouldn't he come to you a little sooner if it's great? You know what I mean? So I was like, okay, I'll see what you're saying, like and that that allowed me.

That was that was the first time that I was like, you don't have to listen to what people say. You have to see their actions and understand that their actions beep louder than their words. Right. So that's why I credit so much to my dad because he was there to help guide me and kind of showed me what was happening. And when when it came to Kentucky, I just had so much faith in the coach of staff.

They have been so honest with me, so forth right, we're gonna give you a chance at quarterback for most like, if you're gonna read moved to receiver? You know, so I just had a respect for a coaching staff and made that decision. That's awesome. Well, I on a personal note, as a fan of the University of Georgia, I'm really glad you didn't join Philip Falmer Tennessee got those guys just always annoyed the hell out of me. I'll be honest with you. You do move to receiver your sophomore

year at Tennessee. Was that tough for you after having your hands on the ball on every play? Uh, to begin a transition to being a receiver? And and did you did you agree with or support that decision? Or was that tough for you? It was tough in the beginning. I think that's where ego plays a role, right, It's like, no, like, this is what I set out to do, this is who I am, this is who I know I am, I know what I can do, this, I'm going to

do it. And then you know, again, that's where you have people in your life that play a role and help me see the bigger picture. And I had a coach, my quarterback coach, Randy Sanders. You know, he said to me one day, he was like, hey, I want you to go look up how many quarterbacks have been drafted that's under six feet? You know. So I went and looked it up, and remember the name. It was like Doug Flooty and a few other guys. I was like,

footy Breeze probably maybe Breeze says he's six ft. I don't know, right, I don't know, but yeah, so I go, I go and look that up and then I come back to him and I tell him what I found, and he says, now, I want you to go look up receivers has been drafted on the six foot. I go and do that and come back and it's like over a hundred guys. And he's like, you could go to the NFL, have a team plus your career if you make this move. If you do it now, you'll be able to learn get crassed for the of what

you're trying to accomplish. You know, what the what the position really means. And I just took that from there and it was like, ask you what you're saying. And you know, the NFL was always a goal, and uh, I think you helped guide me into into making that decision a little bit easier. And that was your quarterback coach. That's my quarterback coach, Kentucky. Yeah, Randy Sanders, And I think that it also was like we had to fourth

star quarterbacks still there. Like I mean, you threw like five you throw five touchdowns as a quarterback, had a few inter steps. It's just like so, but we we still ran like the wildcat offense and uh you know ran the ball at too. So yeah, do you do you like that? I mean there's still some plays in there for you, even even now where you play where you're the wildcat. I did past it was yeah, you know, uh, no one you know, run the front of between tackles,

the kick off. It turns a little different now what it was, you know when I first came to leave. Yeah, you're old. You're not like me. You're aged. I just get younger every year. That's the difference. It's crazy in my mind, I'm but my body says different. Yeah, well that's a crazy thing. I mean, you reference at night and I probably met you right then, right pretty shortly after you got drafted. That doesn't seem like that long

ago to me, even now, nine ten years ago. No, that was just it was a couple of years ago. Well COVID, maybe it's four years You know, that's crazy. Yes, your junior year against the undefeated Auburn Universe City team, you score four touchdowns. Is that the game where the light switch happens? No, you know, honestly I felt it my freshman year playing Georgia. Actually I was Stafford A. J.

Green No Shan Marino. You know, we were we were going we were going back and forth with them, and they ended up going up on us late in the in the fourth quarter. I go into quarterback drive down the field. Well, what would be putting us in position the tide of games? And I had a great game, I think I think I had a couple of touchdowns that game, but I, you know, fourth quarter, two minute drive,

take us all the way down the field. We get into the red zone and run a screen and I can't see over the d live and try to throw a screen to the running back and throw a pick to the D line. Uh. After that game, I was like, yeah, I was distraught because I you know, I lost the game after an interception the end the game to throw us out of possession of winning in my mind after

that game. So I was like, and I just went toe to toe with guys that I know are league, Like, I'm playing against NFL caliber players and like I held my own. So in my mind, I was like, man, this could really be a reality. But any time, you know, and I think that was like my motivation was, you know, after playing in a game like that against SEC talent, you see that talent that you're going to play against and know that they're going to league, and it gives

you confidence. Yeah, and it's it's crazy, he's kind of thinking about you, you know, primarily being a quarterback there in the beginning. It's really two years. I think that's why I was asking about your junior year. You start getting a ton of attention and decide to leave college early to go to the NFL. All talk to me a little bit about that decision. Did you ever consider giving it one more go or once you knew you had the opportunity, was it was it go time? I did?

I did? I love kids like I love my time there. It went by so fast. I thought about going back, but in the end, it was like I gotta make a business decision, right, Like I'm twenty years old and I just touched the ball in a season probably average twenty five touches a game. I was able to stay healthy and I'm playing in the SEC where so I feel like it's one of the more violent leaves. It's really tough on the body. And I was like, man, I don't know if I'm gonna get this opportunity again.

And you know what, what more could I do as a team. We were losing a lot of players. We didn't know who's gonna have moving forward. I had the best season that I could have possibly had. I broke the SEC record for all perfect yards. I have like twenty three hundred yards. That season was like, I really don't know what personally I can put myself in a player position. And that was kind of the advice that I had got from some of the people whenever I started talking to agents, and I was kind of it

for me. It was like, Okay, well, I gotta make this decision and make that joke. Right, do you make the decision? You declare for the draft, and there's a little team in a little town called Green Bay that wins the Super Bowl, right, and you you get drafted in the second round by the Packers coming off their Super Bowl and you know they're gonna be good talk to me about that day and finding out that that's the team that that that drafted you, ah man, it was.

It was a crazy experience because I went to New York with the draft. I was there. I was there for the draft. My agent thought it was a chance I could go in the first round. And honestly, it was a free trip in New York that my family had never been in New York. So I was like gold through George, my mom and mom and dad and Stepplings and we all went to New York for the draft. It was an experience for us as a family. You know, they get to get to see the Big Apple, which

that was everything. It was. It was unbelievable experience. But then like when the draft rose around, you know, as now it's into the second round, and I thought I was going to Baltimore. That was like five picks before green Bay, And then I thought I was going to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh was heavy on me right before the draft when I was going to business, so I thought I would

go to Pittsburgh tick before. And then when green Bay called, I was just like and shocked because I was like, man, like this they just want the super Bowl, like you said, like, I'm going to the defending Super Bowl camps, and I knew that they were gonna have another great team. I was just trying to figure out, Okay, like now what is my role? Like we have some really good receivers of just like a guy who like what am I

supposed to do it? Right? So, but whenever, whenever I got that call, I was it's no feeling like it in the world. Like everything that you've ever worked for in the dreams that bad as a kid are actually becoming a reality. It's really happy, and you're going to one of the most history teams in all the sports. There's nothing like had you been? Yeah, you hadn't been to Green Bay? Right? No, No, I've never been. Had

you been even to that area? No? Never I thought Green Bay was like you know, I thought it was like a New York or a Chicago. It was like a million people there. The first time that I actually found out was when I was landing in Green Bay. Right. So I get drafted and then it's the lockout, so like I don't get to there's no off season. We go straight into training. So I get a call like a Tuesday, like, hey, you gotta be here on Thursday.

So like I get there, like we're landing, and like my first thought was like, how must have got on the wrong plane, Like, I'm not a farce. There's no way that there's a team. Uh you know, lad get off the plane and the rest is history. Yeah, how special is that place? The town of cream Bay. No place like it, No place like it, live free, eat football there. They love their teams, they love supporting their team. It doesn't matter if it's uh charity basketball game, a

charity softball game, you know, it doesn't matter. They're supporting. They're gonna be. There's pack always. You know, if you have a charity event, they're they're coming, they're donating, you know. And not only just city of Green Bay, but the Packer fans in general. Like whenever I travel around the country, always it doesn't matter what country I'm in, it'll be a Packer fan will come up to the like, I mean, Spain, how do you even like, how do you even know?

You know what I mean? It's nothing like, Yeah, you have had so many amazing iconic moments for the franchise, what's your favorite? I got I got to what she was. I want to hear yours. One. I was there. I'm sure we talk. I'm sure I hugged you and an inappropriately a snug embrace. That one was the Hail Mary against the Giants, uh in the in the playoffs, Hail

Mary at the end of the first half. That really, for all intents and purposes, you just sort of felt it in the stadium that just kind of took the air out of them and ended up having a fairly decent win there, that catch, and it was one of those I mean, I'm sure you're better at it than I am, but I've watched a lot of football, and when you're live sometimes you see it happening, you know, when you you you see all of the pieces of the chessboard happening at one second, and I knew knew

where he was going. I saw it all. Whether there was just i mean just the slightest of push offs, I don't know, I don't care. It was so it was that was so great that but by far for me the game I remember so well, which was probably quite frankly, probably a couple of weeks after the night that you referenced you'd been injured, you broke your your leg, and Aaron was out with you're out. We're at a bar before a game in Green Bay because I had

planned to go and that game. Actually, I think I have pictures of you and Aaron and me on the sideline before the game for the only time because neither of you were playing. And the last game of the season, the Packers against the Bears, the winner goes to the playoff and he hits you with about a fifty yard forty eights what it says here, but about a fifty yard just beautiful past run catch right up the seam

to win that game. That one, Yeah, that one, I'll I don't know if I'll ever forget that one because it was just so it was just so sweet, man. That was That was a special one. That's that's one.

That's one B. That one, Okay, that's one B. And the only reason is be is because one A my first game coming out of the the lockout, first game back football Saints, first Packers is the last two champions, Packers one of the year four year before that, and it's my first game in the NFL ever and ever catch a touchdown and then I had kick off return that tied the record at the time, and like it was just so surreal, right, like everything that had happened up

until that point. I thought I was getting cut in training because like I got like a thy contusion because just a few days of practice, and I was like, I'm get really get cut and then I make the team and then that happens, right, So it was just like, yeah, it was just like this coming out party from me and this like moment that it was like you can really do this, like not like you just made it to the NFL, like you can you can be a

difference maker, you know what I mean. So that for me, that was like a personal moment that was just like solidified that I was right where I was supposed to be. Uh. So that that's why it's one eight for me and then one be Like you said the game in Chicago, I was coming off of a broken leg that missed ten weeks that season and before I get hurt, Before I get hurt that season, like I was on page for most fourteen hundred yards until I touchdowns. That's what

I was on paste for before I've heard uh. And that's my third year and then I get hurt and I remember the locker room this time for the game, right, and I don't know. I hope I'm still the same player that I loved before. And then I ended up with a couple of touchdowns in that game and having that play that sent us to the playoffs obviously, and had missed most of that season. I had missed most

of that season. And for us to have that connection, and I think that's a special thing about sports, right, we have these moments in time that we all have a different perspective of how it happened and seeing it from a different land and being able to be a part of that. Emmy Packer fan, that's like one thing that they always read up. Yeah, yeah, that's that's so awesome. You know, it occurs to me. It occurs to me now.

The lockout. I had forgotten about the lockout and the fact that the lockout happened, and the fact that in that first game the only game on no one else is watching anything but that, and that Erin trusted you enough to throw you the ball. I mean that that that you had already. I'm not talking shit about you know the story behind that, right, No, tell me so on the play that he throws it for me. I was I was actually my second catch of the game on that play, my first ever touchdown in the NFL

from Aaron Rodgers. He checks the play, and he checks the play to where I'm supposed to run a flat route to the sideline James Shawn's is supposed to run a slant. It's a simple check. It's a simple concept. But like in my mind, he gave the signal and I thought the signal was like, it's a slant and a flat. So in my mind, I was thinking, oh, he's giving me the slant. He wants me to run a splint right now. So I run the slant under

own route just happened to be open. He sees the open grows, I'll make a guy missed before staving in. So I have absolutely no idea. I'm thinking, oh yeah, like me and him are like this, like I'm here with you. Uh. It wasn't until I got back to the sidelines and I found out all route. Yeah, did you get a pound on the back at least? Or did you just get chewed out for running the wrong route? No, I gotta I gotta pat on the back. I got a pat on the back, and uh he was. He

was like, hey, we got a joke. From from that point on, and it's always like, hey, run the wrong route and get the ball until that pick comes right over the middle and then you're in big drum. Oh yeah, but you know, I gotta bring it up. In twenty nineteen, you leave for the Cowboys. How was that? Were you excited for a new opportunity in a new place or was that was that really difficult for you? Uh? Well, first,

I'm I'm gonna say it, leaving wasn't. My contract was up and it didn't get renewed or I didn't get another offer, so it wasn't. I was like, okay, Well free agency comes around and I don't hear anything from anybody, and I was like, okay, is this is this? How it all? It's for me? And then uh the Cowboys called. I was like, man, okay, let's do this. They just came off a playoff run. They got to mar It's some opportunity for me. Good team, good scene. I was excited.

I think be hindsight, looking back on it, it was the best thing that could happen from my career at that time because I had been in Green Bay so long that I think going somewhere else rejuvenated me and gave me a different challenge, right because when you do something for so long, it becomes kind of mundane, right, Like that's just kind of what it is. And it's like everybody knows who did, who you are, what you what you do. And I had to rebuild all that

I had to. I had to show my teammates like, okay, like who is Randall cop? Who was who is this guy that's coming in? So I had to earn my teammates trust, I had to show the coaches what I could do. Every day. It was like a proved type of day for me. And you know, I think I think that was something that kind of kick started the second part of my career. You know, I loved my time to that. Was had a great time. Uh. Coach Garrett was great. I really enjoyed the time with him.

The Jones family nothing but loved and respect for you know. They they took me in and want to cowboy all the cowboys what they say, and I'm very fortunate for what opportunity they gave me down there. Tell them more excellent play caller. I loved him. I think he's gonna be a great head coach one day. Yeah, so that was that was a fun year. That's awesome. We didn't we didn't win. We didn't win, we didn't make it playoffs.

But it was a fun year. Yeah. I I had not heard that from you before that that you know that that rejuvenated you. And that totally makes sense, right. I mean it's a change of environment, a new system. You have to be adaptable and and changeable, and I can understand how that gives you a renewed energy. You go to Houston and then you get a call from the packers about coming back to join them. Talk to me a little bit about that. And the decision to go, well,

i'll call it home. The decision to go home, yeah, yeah, to come back to come back where it all started again, that wasn't a decision for me. It wasn't It wasn't an option. I got traded and it was the biggest blessing that I could I had the year that I had in used to like all of us during COVID that first year, we were all going to stuff right, and I don't think that was in a great place. It wasn't a It wasn't the environment that I thought

it was going to be. You know, it wasn't. It wasn't what I what I thought that I was walking through too, And uh, it was difficult. I had a lot of tough talks with my wife about it, and I honestly thought about retiring after that season. So I was like, I just don't. I don't love the game anymore. It wasn't fun. It was like nothing about it was fun. Yeah, So that was that was very a very difficult place. But we we actually played the Packers that season when

I was in US. Was actually when I was in Dallas and played Packers and was used to play back up. But I remember before that game it was like right before the trade deadline what we played the pacts, and I remember going out for warm up is just like trying to go with everybody like please come get me, please, somebody I was going to like I would have to, like Mark Murphy like please, like I let's go up

to groop everybody. Uh obviously like we can't. They couldn't do anything about that, but uh yeah, it all ended up working out in and I was able to come back last year. Then I loved enough here. I love planning for this organization and and representing recundation, And like I said, it's a special places, a special bond that you have, and you know, I've been going away for a couple of years. Just made me realize even more

what it meant to be a part of this organisation. Yeah. Yeah, Well, I know a lot of people missed you when you left and are glad that you're back. I am hoping and praying for you and the Packers that that you have just an absolutely awesome year. I Uh. I know last year ended not the way everybody wanted it too. But this year, I'm I'm optimistic and I'm ready. I'm excited. Good you are, You're excited, You're ready. I'm excited for sure. Now it's gonna be It's gonna be a fun year,

you know. I think it's it's gonna be some different challenges for us, but I'm excited about it. I think that it could be for the better. Our defense completely stacked going into this season. You look at every level of our defense and you just got to play makers, you know, from from from Kenny and the rookie we just drafted on the behind and the guys rotating in their custon you know, coming back University of Georgia, Yeah, basically Georgia North. Yeah, so we we got We've got

some guys in our defense. We got Aaron Jones and j Tilling is gonna carry the low for us in the backfield. And any time you got to well, you get the opportunity. And what I've seen from a couple of our rookies and from our receiver business off season, I think we'll be in a good place. I'm confident and in that and I think for our offense, it'll it'll be great because you'll have so many guys that's getting involved. You have see me that's coming in, Kemmy

Watkins and Alan coming back. AMR who's made some strides this off season. I can't wait to see, you know, what what happens with his career as this year goes on, and the opportunity he said he's gonna get, you know, And I'm really just trying to make sure that I

helped those guys understand what's in front of him. After the career that I've had and the ups and downs that I've went through, the valleys that I've I've been in and the mountain peaks that I've touched, being able to pass on the wisdom and learn have helped them learn from the mistakes that I may have made my earlier career and just see the big picture and understand

that we're we're all instead of puzzle. That's the that's the the special thing about football is like, it don't matter how good when person is, like, they can't go by themselves. You know, even as great as Aaron is, Like, you gotta have an offensive line protecting. You gotta have

receivers that catch the ball. That's right. You can't you can't just throw Joe Smoke from Westford University out there inspected that he's gonna make plays against plow corners, against Jalen Ramses, you know, and and all these guys like, we're still guys, we're still pros that you know can get it done. So I look forward to the seeing all those young guys coming to their own and myself included being able to um make some plays and be

a piece at that puzzle and help put it all together. Well, listen, you're truly one of the good guys. Like and I mean that, I mean that sincerely. I respect you as a person. I loved hearing your story today and your transition, your decision to choose longevity and an amazing career. Thank you so much for coming on and uh and talking to me and to us and uh yeah uh go pack go. Thanks Randolph Man. I appreciate all right. I'll say it again. I'll say it a thousand times. Go

Pack go. Thank you Randall for joining me. I'm gonna see you in Green Bay here in just a few months. Have an amazing season. I know you will. As always, listeners, if you like what you've heard, be sure to like and subscribe, leave us comments or reviews, and then, more importantly, come back next week for another exciting, in depth conversation with someone very special. Off the Beat is hosted an executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley.

Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is Sammy Katz. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak performed by my great friend Creed Bretton and the episode was mixed by Seth O'landskip