That you just finished your your second season in the NFL. There there's a theory out there that tight ends take a little bit longer to become what they they are eventually going to be there, you know, reached their peak years. Do you feel like you've you still got a lot to learn in this game? Yeah? Absolutely. You know, I'm happy with the success I had so far, but you know, obviously I have to continue to take steps forward. There's a lot of room for improvement. I'm not naive enough
to think that there's not. You know, I just gotta come in every some day in the offseason and attack my my program and uh, you know, continued to put a good step forward. I mentioned just two yesterday. There's only two tight ends in NFL history who have sixty catches or more in their first two seasons, and you're one of them. That kind of availability, consistency, how do you continue to build on that? Yeah, I'm just you know,
continue to go through my process. I think that I've had a good process my two years here, and I think that availability is huge here in the NFL. And you know, if you can't go on the parkic field every single week and you can't play in games and it was gonna be hard for you to be successful. So, um, just continue to be healthy and follow my program. You go from working with a veteran quarterback in your rookie year and Ben, to working with the rookie quarterback and
Kenny Pickett for the most part this year. How did that transition go for you? Do you feel like you and Kenny could really build on what you guys did
this year? Yeah, for sure, Um, I think you know, me and Kenny had a great relationships in our beginning stages of our careers here and obviously room for improvement because obviously is gonna be big for you know, Kenny and the whole offensive scope position groups I'm getting together and Kenny has to continue to find his little nuances in the offense to uh, you know, different signals and all that kind of stuff like that like Ben had.
I think that was the different The biggest difference was, you know, Ben's been around for eighteen years, so we've seen everything, so you know, he could check a play at the line and and and go from there, and obviously Kenny's little hesitant to do that now. But you know, Kenny's a hell of a quarterback. And you know, he's the future of this organization and I'm excited for him
to be my quarterback and be our leader. You guys really went run heavy in the second half of the season, and that meant some games where you didn't get quite as many passes. But coming into the season, you talked about how you wanted to improve you're blocking. Do you feel like you did that in some instances? Yes, I
feel like I did. Um. You know, I think that there are some games where obviously, you know, going up against you know, top tier talent in the NFL that you know, obviously I struggled with that most guys struggle with. But you know, there are some games that I feel like I took steps, and there's some games that I felt like I didn't take steps. And I mean that's all part of the growth. I'm not now even think that I grew as much as I wanted to in
the blocking game. But you know that for me as an individual and as a player, that's always going to be an evolution my game. See you at practice constantly, Alfredo Roberts is in your ear. What's that relationship and like with him, Yeah, yeah, it's been great. You know, He's always in my ear about, you know, doing the extra things because he's played in the NFL and knows what takes to be successful. And it's awesome to have a coach that cares much about as your success as
I care about my success. And uh, he's a great coach and a great friend. What do you got to concentrate on in this offseason? Truthfully? Everything? Um, just have the same you know model that I did last year and in my off season prepp and obviously just get healthy and uh, you know, focus on you know, my
upper body strength. And I'm just understanding the game more as a player who's played two years, Understanding defenses throughout the player what they're trying to do, and probably just improving that is that maybe the toughest thing for young tight ends. I mean you have to read the defense kind of on the fly as opposed to being on the outside as a receiver where I'm okay, I'm running the post, but what you're doing is depends on where the linebackers are at, where the safeties are at, those
kind of things. That's everything, and it goes beyond you know, the past game obviously goes with fronts and all that kind of stuff and front movement and labbacker movement and different variations of blitzes and stuff, and it's challenging, but I think, like you said, it's definitely the most challenge of parts being tight end is do you have to see the whole defense move and all that. And I think the more and more you see that, I mean,
our defense is unbelievable doing it. So see and camper every single you're obviously helps