Two seconds, two seconds ahead of When I was in Detroit, guys used to have like a bunch of tweets anticipating something I would say, and then as soon as they said, they would go through as fast as they could and try to and try to tap it in so that they were first. They would like put their hands up in like victory. He was like, man, all right, I know probably the least your thoughts right now, But talk
about defense. I want to ask about the well you have guys like Helodi and Michael coming in on the D line. Obviously they're talented guys. How's the whole process gone to them? Kind of just building up that chemistry with the other guys and working together. Yeah, chemistry, that's an important word with our D line because you know, everybody is a part of that. Um, it's it's the production of a group that means the most. Those guys are all unselfish players. Um, they'll all be used in
in their own sort of special way. But the whole key to what we do up front is keeping troops fresh and rotating guys through. Um. Helodi did a little bit in Detroit. Um, you know Michael, I don't know he's ever really done that in his career. But those guys have bought in well, and I think, um, I think we'll get well that's that should be a strength of our team. And we need to have good production, not just from those guys, but from all our guys.
It's also you know, getting those guys back. It's also nice getting a guy like Brandon Graham Brack back too, got him back on the practice field. Linacker. Plan is going to be Um. I mean that's that's certainly not as a top secret as as other things. But um, but here's the when we'll miss Nigel for this game. UM, he's not going to be replaced by one person. I'll just say that, Well, we'll try to compartmental compartmentalize some guys. Our numbers are down just a little bit. We got
a new guy coming in. Um, so we'll have guys covering up a lot of different roles up there. And and UM, whole goal was not to have any drop off in production. We have confidence and those guys there were there were games last year that we had to do that also. Um, you know, Jordan missed most of the well just about all of the Washington game on Sunday night, Monday night, whatever night game that was, UM Carolina.
We lost some guys, and guys stepped in and and got wins for us, and we expect the same in this game. Basic against the Tuckers, I think more than anybody else after Hicks went down last season. What is it that they do to keep you guys? Well, they're one of a few teams that actually employs a fullback. UM. You know, so they do run some two back sets UM. So you know you'll see you'll see probably probably six different personnel groups UM with us matching what they do offensively.
They use two tight end packages, they use two backpackages. They have two backs where it's two halfbacks, not a fullback. They have four wide packages, UM, you know, the traditional three wide UM, extra offensive linemen, UM, substitutions. Personnel matching was a big part of the game we played the last two years against them. I would expect the same thing to to be in this game. Last year struggle
little bit. Visit the new system, the new coordinator, UM, but he's back and they've added a couple more weapons. Do you expect much difference in terms of scheme or do you think that like just one off season under the belt will make them better. Well, I think that there is something too UM an off season and a full season UM, even though the system was the same with with a change in dynamic, and they had a
little bit change in dynamic. I mean they swapped one one number eighteen for another of a change on their offensive line, a change at the second tight end position. But the point is like that you made is the returning group is pretty much the same. UM. I do think that every team is going to UM is going to make adjust it's in the off season additions, things like that, you know, particularly things that maybe they don't
want to show in the preseason. So we have to be prepared for you know, we've we've made some adjustments in the off season. I'm sure they have. It's not just going to be you know, we did. We didn't wake up, you know, yesterday morning and dust off the exact same game plan for the playoff game. And I'm sure they haven't done I'm sure they've they haven't done that either. I don't know the best way to put it, but you were very prepared for that last playoff game.
For example, I think it was Rodney and Malcolm both knew what play was coming on that last play of the game. How much more difficult is it for game planning purposes when you have a full year of tape as opposed to seeing them week one? Yeah, I mean I think lots made it. What they did is they've recognized a formation and how offenses sort of employee that formation. It wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like we got a telegram that said that they were running that play.
And I mean, but but they made they made an educated, um, an educated guest so to speak, based on the information that they were that they were given. Um, what was the second part to that? So, how much more difficult is it to, you know, have a full year of game team as opposed to preparing for a team we want? Yeah, you know, I do think it is. It's it's a little different. I mean, as the season goes on, your
personality is there. And even though we play preseason games, Um, you know, there's a lot of things that we worked on back in April and May through OTA's and minicamp that you know we haven't we haven't put on tape in a preseason game. Um. I'm sure they're the same way. So it does add a little bit of a different dynamic adjustments will be important in the game. Jim, how kind of mentioned that Stephen Means was the fifty fourth guy. You've often talked about his energy and work ethic and
how it pushed everybody else. How difficult is it to replace something like that that a lot of people all think about. Yeah, I mean, we're fortunate that we're so deep at that position that, um you know that, you know that we had a hard time finding a spot for him, and you guys have alluded to it. Um, you know since really since training camp, maybe even back in mini camp talking about our depth at that position.
Everybody thinks the world of Stephen. You know, I don't know what you guys feel, but in our locker room, in our building, he is as respected as any player that I've I've been around. And um, he'll have great success. He'll land on his feet and um and uh success. I just hope it's not against us. Is a difficult position to learn if you've never played it before. How have you been pretty happy with Sydney's development and learning
playing inside? Um? Yeah, over the course of over the course of going back to the off season program, I think all our guys that have played in that position have all adjusted well to what they've been asked to do. UM. You know, I think that we the way we play some of our techniques. UM. It's similar to corner which has helped UM, which has helped a lot of our
guys out. It's not it's not always like a little miniature linebacker, which is part of the job, but it's not one hundred percent part of the job, which is a completely different learning curve from your one of your two. We saw your team has a big jump. What do you expect a year three but improves would like to see and the biggest thing is just continue to win games. UM. That's all we judge ourselves on UM. If UM, if we win games, we're happy. If we don't, we're we're
not UM. Our job is to UM keep score down. So points allout are always going to be part of that job that help us win games. And then the things that affects you know, points allout, third down stops, takeaways, red zone UM. You know those those all contribute to getting off the field and keeping the score down. And then the other part of it that we did last year, and again, you can't count on things carrying over, we
had a big play component to us. We were able to score the football or put the offense in really good field positions so that they could score. That was a consistent theme. You know, those are all fundamental things that we do and or that we ask the defense to do. And if we're playing good defense, then we'll hit all those targets. Are you concerned? It all about how how your side would react to winning a Super Bowl heading into twenty and eighteen and then what have
you seen? It's either kind of calm those fears or not. Um, you know, I think that's always a consideration. I think the biggest thing that comes if you haven't experienced it before, and in my career it'd only been to the Super Bowl one other time, is how short the off season is. It comes up on you pretty quickly, and you got to get guys transit to a to a different mindset
right away. I like our group that way. Our group, as m has stayed hungry, they stayed focused, and you know, it's a difficult thing to do with all the attention not just from you know, from fans around, but media attention and everything else. And you know, I'm sure you guys have seen the t shirts of embracing the target. You know, last year we were the underdogs. We were the people that people didn't think could make their way
through with the injuries we had and other things. Um, this year, we're not going to We're gonna have to target on us. That that takes a little bit of different mindset. Also getting back to the year the Nickel spot, having Sydney play there, will that help him later on in his career if he does move back outside, having the extra skill set that it takes the play and set. Um, I think anytime that you have a better understanding of the defense as a whole, you know, I think that
it's a good thing. Um. You know, but we'll have I mean a little bit like linebacker, Um, we'll have we'll have that job covered by multiple players. UM, it's not going to be just one person goes in and and and puts a slot hat on and he's out there all the time. UM. We expect contributions from a lot of different guys across the board UM to be
able to cover that. But um, you know, you look at some players like Malcolm Jenkins, Corey Graham, Um, you know are both both are linebackers, Jordan Hicks, Nigel Bradham. They can all play multiple positions within the scheme. There's techniques involved to that, but I think the understanding of knowing not just their job, but how the entire defense works,
that's what is beneficial from that. So I think that I think that if you know, anytime you're in the slot, you understand a little bit better to how to play corner and you say, contributions from a lot of different places with that Nickel is Sydney main guy, and then you'll rotate off matchups. Yeah, well a lot of different guys. I'm again, just like the linebackers, I don't want to I don't want to announce anybody that's you know, that's going out. I think that game plans and personnel things
are things that are better left you know. On said, particularly at this time of the year, you know, it leads a little bit of uncertainty, but we do have multiple ways that we're going to cover it. Okrects