Yeah.

And, and La'el Collins and all those guys, Connor Williams, Connor McGovern.

And so when I got there, um, like when I got drafted, like, Trav reached out and we got to talk a little bit, and did some great foundation work with him and...

But just to get in the community, but also when I got there, like, I was a sponge.

And we didn't have OTAs 'cause of COVID, so, like, it kinda made it even a little bit more pressure 'cause you didn't have the pre-season.

Yes.

I, I feel like that's a, that's a...

If someone said to me like, "What's the biggest thing when you get in the NFL?" It's, like, you mature really fast.

It seemed like they didn't want to let you get out of the building.

Yeah.

No, I mean, yeah, I was a free agent and I came in on my visit and the coaches, man, I was I feel like I struck gold.

Honestly, the coaches I met with Coach Harbaugh right away in the morning had a great conversation with him to start the day.

And and with the coaches like Coach McDaniel and O-line Coach Bushberry and a lot of other coaches, too.

And obviously, you know, I've had a previous relationship with Rashawn and even I've known Justin too over the years and coming out in the same draft class too.

So there's a lot of thought going into the visit at the same time.

Am I right in that? Is that what you guys do or no?

Hmm.

Like, it's just not.

And so it's, it's like reverse engineering of a like I will be this one day.

It's like more so like today I'm gonna be of what I think it is or the standard it should be, and then after that it's like, okay, like where's my limitation now? Like, where's my limitation now? And like, so you're almost like self-diagnosing like what you have and like how can I become better, right? So but af- because I was really close with like the O-line group, like after seeing like Ryan Ramczyk my first year.

Mm-hmm

...

in regards to like mental health side of it.

Um, you know, being maybe not on the major end of it, but like knowing what some may have gone through and seeing how it can, you know, how maybe your brain can steer you in certain different ways where it's like it might not seem to be that easy.

Yeah.

... pro style in Dallas and like- and I'm- you- you have a mixture of everything here, right? So like you- you can do it in regards of not necessarily running power, or like it's just more so about like, you know-...

sticking to the basics, like what, like stacking those great days of like, hey, like how, how detailed can we be and just getting to those like marginal gains of like, hey, like on this play, like, you know, the aiming point of the running back or like, you know, the combination block, getting it, you know, push this outside so like you can have that cutback lane.

It just goes that, back down to basics, I think, and obviously like with football, you're gonna have those injuries where like it's that next man up mentality and, and I think that's the biggest part of preparation is like whether you're, you know, second on the depth chart, starting whatever, like you have to be ready for that opportunity, and I think right now they're kind of facing that adversity where it's that next man up mentality.

I, you know, I've, I've noticed that there's a good amount of guys like on the injury report, but that's that, and it, it's, that's that opportunity for the next upcoming to really, you know, raise the bar and get back to the standard of what Badger football is all about, being gritty and just, fuck, just grinding.

You know?

I'm guessing.

But in the spring though, in the springtime too, though, um, one of my, uh, you know, high school teammates, Garrett Groshek, he played with me at Wisconsin.