Agreed.

Uh, but starting every week and being the difference maker, you know, this game is now made of playmakers.

You gotta have playmakers on the offensive side of the ball.

It has to be at every position.

Your quarterback has to be a playmaker, your receivers have to be a playmaker, your tight ends have to be a playmaker, your running back has to be a playmaker, and your offensive line has to just figure it out.

[laughs] And so that's what they're, they're missing.

I mean, you ha- you have Jeremiah Love, right? He's, he's a star in waiting.

Okay.

They are

amazing.

So it's like when I think about all of that, it was just such a sensational way to inundate yourself and ingratiate myself with the local people who are hosting us.

I mean, Ireland was our host for this event, even though there was that connection with the Rooney family.

But then to learn their history and their part.

in ireland and in the republic and how things went like when we spent time in dairy like just learning about the history of the troubles and seeing where then dan rooney of course ambassador rooney you know where he would stay because he wasn't allowed to stay in a hotel like this was crazy things to learn walking along the walls and it was just it was beautiful and then like you said culminates getting back to dublin And then getting ready for a game two days later and Croke Park and just Temple Bar.

I mean, all these great experiences.

Yeah,

Do you think it's warranted?

I think until I see an exterior pass rush that doesn't include the name Trey Hendrickson, I'm going to, I'm going to pause a little bit.

I think Dexter Lawrence brings a new dimension that they haven't had in a number of years when they were a Superbowl contender, when they were that hot team to beat, they had DJ reader, they had big boys in the middle.

So I think bringing an interior defensive lineman to stop the rush, and that's what the AFC North is known for when you think of even the team at the bottom, the Browns, right? Quinshawn Judkins and what he brings to the table.

And then, of course, for us, bringing Rico Dowdle along with Jalen Warren into the league.

And then for the Ravens, it's still King Henry.

He's still King of the North.

How's that going to feel for your side of the fight?

Yeah.

In the ACC side or you're praying that maybe a Boise State makes bigger noise in the future to get that one just so there's legitimacy and then they can eat from the higher rung and they can have more money to be able to stay in that competitive lane.

But it really is going to come to how do you pull those resources and what is.

technically fair in a sport that awards winners and losers so yeah where's the equity in that in the first place when everybody's trying to win and so i think that's what you you will continue to see sec big tip because the money the brands and the coverage area that they cover right the sec now controls the state of texas right because you have texas and texas a m and for the Big Ten, you go coast to coast now.

Atlantic to Pacific, and you have two of the biggest brands on the West Coast in the blue bloods of USC and UCLA, and then you have an Oregon, right, who dominates the Pacific Northwest.

So it's like, it's all of these different things where the ACC can say they're coast to coast, but your Pacific representation is going to be Cal and Stanford, right? Academic, more Olympic-style sports schools.

our country, it's football.

What are you most excited about this year to lay your eyes on and to see or what storyline is really moving you?

Uh, how difficult is a transition after such a long tenure, like when it went from Cowher to a younger Mike Tomlin?

Well, it's-- You know, the biggest difference is, is just people can't get used to the uncomfortability of new, right? You know, it's just like when you go in the house.

Like, you have your favorite spot in the living room on a couch or a La-Z-Boy or some chair where you sit down in it, and you've been sitting in that chair for years.

You know exactly where, where, where the soft spot is, how you like to lean into the chair.

Then all of a sudden, you know, your significant other changes the entire living room set, and everything-- It looks nice, but it's not what you're used to, and I think that's kind of what you gotta figure out what your new favorite spot is, right? You gotta figure out how to, how to continually sit in this spot and work it into fashion, the armrest and the backrest and the seat of it to fit you, and I think that's what the-- it, it's like.

It's like finding a new chair, but yet in your old room, and I think you have to go through that transition.

So a lot of, a lot of fans that I interact with up here at training camp and speak with, they're a little confused, but they're excited all at the same time, right? Because it's something different, and Coach McCarthy sounds like them when you listen to his press conferences.

... that division? That's always been one of the best in the, in the National Football League.

Huh.

I still think Will Howard has an opportunity to show himself.

Because you have to remember a year agoHe was supposed to get all of the preseason snaps.

He was supposed to go into that Panthers and Jaguars game and run the majority of those.

He gets injured right before that.

So not one professional pass has been thrown in a competitive environment for Will Howard, who, if we remember, he was drafted, that was a low quarterback class, kind of like this one i- uh, this past year.

But he had one of the best a- uh, post-seasons opposite Fernando Mendoza, I think, that we saw in the college playoff football era, and he didn't get a chance to really show his wear.

How do you think he's gonna fit with KOC and Minnesota? What kind of year do you think he'll have?

Hey, Max, what about the offense? How different do you think the offense is going to look with the coaching change and Mike deciding to call his own plays?

plays?I think, I think it's gonna be a very physical attacking run game.

I mean, I look at the acquisitions.

When you think about signing Rico Dowdle to replace a Kenneth Gainwell in the off-season, that was a very aggressive pick.

You go and you get a Michael Pittman to go opposite DK Metcalf, and then you go and draft a Jeremy Bernard, you're really fortifying that wide receiver game as well, so you can take those shots and be more aggressive down the field.

A year ago, Aaron's numbers did not look that great.

I think 5.8 was his average, you know, yards from the line of scrimmage, air yards, and they wanna change that number of course, to make that a little bit more aggressive.

Huh.

What is your sense about their, uh, enthusiasm level and their confidence level in those guys, and where they think they might end up in the armature here?

Well, I, I think the biggest thing is you have to give Will Howard an opportunity.

Didn't have a preseason snap last year, got injured before we got to the first preseason game.

And if time and history's anything, Aaron Rodgers didn't really play in the preseason.

That was a prime opportunity for Will Howard to really get some manageable reps and start to see what he can do.

That got derailed.

But there's a lot of potential.

I mean, Baltimore's doing it too as well, not having John Harbaugh, but the sense that Mike McCarthy, who's been around the block, knows how to do this, and really is putting a stamp on it right now.