Todd Bowles: Leadership, Tom Brady, Baker Mayfield & Building a Winning Culture

0:00 Welcome to On the Line with Jim Pine. I'm Jim Pine. This episode is brought to you by PLS Aviation. Private Aviation perfectly executed. Now let's get on the line. So today on the line, we have a three-time Super Bowl champion. He's 1-1 as a player, as an executive, as an assistant coach. He's been part of five consecutive division titles here in Tampa.

0:21 The current head coach of the Buccaneers, a great guy, Todd Bowles. Coach, welcome to the show.

0:25 Thanks, Jim. How are you doing?

0:29 Doing well, doing well. No, it's good. Good to talk, good to chop it up. I think you know, going back, Todd, you uh grew up in New Jersey. You know, toughness, football, you kind of you grew up in all that. Where did that come from? Who I I know your mom raised you and stuff. What where did the toughness and the you know being a hard-nosed, tough football guy come from?

0:48 My neighborhood. I had two older brothers. I think I always played up in sports, so you had to play up. You didn't really play kids your same age unless you played organized ball. If not, you're playing with guys from two to five, six years older than you. So you kind of had to understand how to play, and or they kind of threw you out and wouldn't let you play.

1:09 So and I had a couple best friends that I grew up around, Rodney and Anthony Rose, and that really taught me how to play and really hung in there with me that taught me the game.

1:21 Yeah, that's great. I had two older brothers too. You're right. People always ask me, I was the youngest to run, and I had two older brothers beat me up all the time and you know, kind of taught me everything they knew, but it wasn't easy. But it that definitely is a great thing too, and the friends they have.

1:34 So, you know, one thing too, you know, talking to many people here just doing this podcast and stuff. I mean, you know, I I love to talk about stuff that, you know, meaningful stuff, and uh, you know, bring up a name, Tony Agnon, right? Tony, we have a common denominator here. Tony was my agent as a player.

1:49 And I know I think 40 years he's been your agent, right? So I mean, tell me about Tony. Tony's a kind of behind the scenes quiet guy.

1:57 Tony came up to Temple. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, Kevin Ross.

2:05 Go ahead.

2:06 Yeah, Kevin Ross at Temple. I met Tony in 1985. And Tony came up to see me, and he had Kevin Ross, and and I think we did everything on a handshake. I don't think I signed a contract with him until around 2015. So it was like about 30 years that passed by that we did everything off of a handshake. And while he's very honest, he's always there, he's always around.

2:33 At his wedding, I saw his kids grow up. I've seen he's seen mine grow up, and I've known him for a long time. And in a business that has a lot of shady people in it, he's probably one of the true guys that are still left standing here.

2:50 Yeah, no question. I always say the same thing with me. He he came to Virginia Tech when I was getting recruited, and a good man, good guy. And you know, he he has it doesn't age either. He looks great, he's doing well, and he's totally exactly the same. I think Tony's one of the few people he's one of the few people in my life that he wants me to win.

3:08 I I know he's that way with you. Do you use Tony as a resource? Like I'm sure he's been great for me through life to talk through anything I'm dealing with, just even football-wise, but outside of football too. So, how how kind of resource is Tony for you?

3:22 I think most of the things we talk about now are outside of football. So we talk we talk Yankee baseball almost every day, but we don't go two days without talking, and we've been doing that for a long time. And no matter how small or how big, or whether it's football or anything else, we talk about a lot of things and a variety of topics.

3:43 Great. No, he's the best. He's the best. So going back to you talk you mentioned Temple. I know you're at Temple. Bruce Ahrens was your coach for the last couple years. Great guy, and I know the obviously the connection maybe a lot of people don't know that you played for Bruce at college. And then obviously years later in Tampa here, you won a Super Bowl with Bruce.

4:00 Tell me about playing for Bruce back then. I mean, obviously, I see the picture. He went to Virginia Tech, he's older than I am, but I remember seeing the old pictures of Bruce at Virginia Tech and Temple. You know, he's a different guy now. But what compare him then till now, kind of how he's evolved and what lessons he taught you as a player versus coaching with him.

4:20 He's very similar personality-wise. Uh a lot more energy back then. It kind of came off the handle. You know, Bruce came in from Alabama and all these guys, we had all these new coaches come in, and back then, I mean, he ran us in the ground. A lot of things we did back then are probably illegal right now.

4:37 We can be in jail, but he had a great personality. He was always energetic and he was always extremely smart. You know, Bruce, the one thing about him, he had his foot on the gas and he was going full speed ahead. Uh probably half a year, maybe to get used to the eastern football. You know, coming from Alabama and everything, they're running the wishbone and that whole thing.

4:58 And we were installing a heavy front. Uh, we had a big defensive front that we were trying to stop the run, and and we were playing against Marino and Flutie and Blackledge and Rich Gannon, and everybody was throwing the football up here in the east, so we we had to make that adjustment, but he made it very well, and he did a heck of a job at them.

5:21 Yeah, he did, he did. He had a great, great, successful guy. He's been a great coach. He's won several Super Bowls himself, too. And uh you know, it's a a great guy, too. Great man, I guess. And then you get drafted. No, you didn't get drafted, you were undrafted free agent, which I love. You came in, you battled into the league, you made the team.

5:36 You played for Joe Gibbs and the Redskins at the time, not a commanders. Won a Super Bowl, too. Martin Mayhew, I think you played with him. I played with Martin, a good great guy, great players. Those defenses were great. Going to Virginia Tech, you know, I was always watching the the Redskins commanders.

5:52 So tell me about Joe Gibbs playing for him in those years in Washington, kind of what he was like and how that helped you as a coach today, kind of you know, playing for Joe Gibbs, a legendary guy.

6:04 Joe was super smart. I mean, I I don't still don't think he gets enough credit on how smart he was, and he always stayed at the office late. A lot of them guys stay real late, but he was a genius on offense. He kind of knew everything that needed to be done about defenses when he had to run plays and tweak those things.

6:22 So he was very smart, and then when it was time for the defense to be up, he stood over there on the defensive side of the ball. He would ask, What coverage was that? What are we doing here? What are we doing there? And he was very smart on the coverage aspect of it just because he stood over there the whole time.

6:37 But, you know, he never did a swear word, he never cussed, he never did all those type of things. He didn't have a lot of bass in his voice or anything like that, but he was very demanding when it came to everybody understanding detail and attention to detail. So he he was an outstanding coach, and I think a lot of that I've learned from him through his coaches as well in the How I Coach today.

7:02 Yeah, no question. Some of the other guys you've been around. I mean, I I did a little research, you know, obviously Bruce Irons, we discussed, Joe Gibbs, Mike Holgram, you're there Super Bowl with Green Bay, working for Ron Wolf, which a legendary GM. I'd like to hear kind of what you might have learned there.

7:16 Then Bill Parcells, right? Bill, legendary guy, too. And then Andy Reid, you coach with Andy too. So I have some very big name legendary guys. I guess what did you give me a little bit of uh something you might have learned from each guy if if if that makes sense.

7:30 Oof. Other than Bruce, I learned a ton from Bill. You know, as as rivalries first with the Giants and Redskin rivalry. I mean, it was it was a lot of competition there. And then he gave me my first pro job as a coach. He was the GM for the Jets back in 2000. And out of the blue, I was down at Gramlin as a defensive coordinator.

7:51 He called me up one day and asked me, did I want to come interview for the DB job? And at that time, I didn't know Bill very well. And I was kind of shocked, you know. I was kind of taken aback, and I went up there and interviewed, and they had me start like two days later. And then that job only lasted a year because Al Grove went to Virginia, and then I went to Cleveland from there with Butch Davis.

8:14 And about four years after Cleveland, I see Bill at the senior bowl. And I had just got finished interviewing with Miami with Saban, and Bill said, Too bad that Cleveland won't let you out. I said, They let me interview with Miami. He said, Don't do anything until you come down to Dallas. And he was the headman in Dallas at that time.

8:32 So I went to visit him, and he sat me in the room with Mike Zimmer and Casey Rogers and all these guys, and that win, and Gary Gibbs, and he asked me, How did I like those guys? And then him and Jerry just tore my contract up and gave me a new one. And I worked for Dallas with Bill for three years. Then he left, became the GM in Miami, and he brought me to Miami as an assistant head coach and DV coach.

8:57 But he was an outstanding motivator. He knew how to work people's minds. He knew how to stand in front of the media. He knew how to control the narrative in practice, in the building, or in the media, or outside the building, but he was always asking questions. He always had a pulse of the team, the locker room, the coaches, everything.

9:20 And he did it with a lot of sarcasm, but with a smile on his face, but with intent. He understood. He didn't treat everybody the same. He treated everybody different. Everybody thinks Bill is just this rough and tough coach. He was an extremely bright coach, which he does not get enough credit for. And we talked till this day.

9:39 I mean, his birthday was just two weeks ago. We texted about that, and we keep in touch till this day, and he's a very close friend.

9:49 Legendary guy, Bill Parcells. I mean, that's uh unbelievable. The run he had, and again, as a coach, I I know he's an intimidating guy. I met him, and it's great to hear those stories and then that he's still attached with you and stuff. And I mean, just again, the those resources, the guys you kind of came up around and played for, played against, like Bill Parcells, an unbelievable resource for you.

10:09 I guess go into talking about Tampa Bay. One thing I want to talk about, I you know, Tom Brady, right? So Tom, you you were the defensive coordinator for the Bucs. And obviously, I'm sure you played against Tom a bunch when he was in New England at different places you were at, right? So but then you play you you worked with him, you're on the same team with the Bucs, you guys won a Super Bowl in the the next year, too.

10:30 Tell me things about Tom, you know, I that people don't know, maybe. I know I know the work ethic, the the he's it he was maniacal with how he prepared and did things. It's all legendary stuff. But what are things you saw from your perspective as a defensive coordinator working against and with Tom?

10:48 Tom was very good, not not just his offensive prowess and everything like that, and he wanted to be perfect there. He would sit there and study defenses. He would really study defenses when he was in or whether he wasn't in. If he had a question, he'd ask, and he'd try to understand where everyone was on the field.

11:05 He was outstanding at reading body language of a certain guy on defense, whether it was the safety, whether his knees were bent when he was blitzing and they weren't when he were in coverage, or vice versa, whether it was a linebacker who had his feet, his foot back a half a step from how he does in his normal stance, he was very meticulous at that.

11:25 And he could find guys and he could study them and he could understand what you're in before you even got the ball off snapped. And I thought I thought that was amazing.

11:37 Yeah, that that does sound amazing. So would he visit with you as the defense according to kind of get in your head kind of, hey, Coach Todd, what what do you do? How do you do what do you try and do on this defense so we could further understand just defense and what people do? Because I I imagine he was always seeking knowledge.

11:52 I think the great ones do that. They always want to get better and trying to look for an angle. Did you see that with Tom?

11:58 We did yeah, but we didn't visit, it was more or less walking off the field, and he'd just have a question. Hey, when you guys do this, what what did you see right here? What did you see right there? How did that work or how did that work? But he would always try to learn if he did try and fool them, which I don't think anybody did more often than not.

12:15 But he always tried to learn to have a question or two, and he'd come up and ask, How would you play this or how would you shape that? Or if I was doing this, what would you look at? And he would go there, and then he'd just give you a hmm, okay, you know, like got it. And then he would in his head you can see the wheel spinning, and he would internally work on how to dissect that and how to beat it.

12:36 Sure, sure. No, and one thing we took I talk about on a show because you've got executives and leaders listening to, right? We all deal with adversity in life, right? You you've had to deal with it, I've had to deal with it. We all it's it's coming down the road whether we want it or not. But you know, I know Tom had some adversity in his personal life too.

12:51 Maybe what did you see there, him, because I know it was well documented. He did, you know, his personal life had some stuff. But did you see him, you know, any issues there with the playing those years there? Was he always just locked in, laser focused, or just kind of the human side. I don't know if you saw something there or not, but how he handled adversity, was he did he have something to do with him?

13:11 And then how do you deal with it, Todd? Like what what are things that you do? How do you train yourself when things are coming good times bad? How do you how do you handle adversity?

13:20 He didn't show much, you know, he didn't show much, and everybody deals with it on a daily basis. He was very professional, he was always locked in. And if he did have adversity, you know, it would never show on his face. It would never show on his face of what he was doing. And I'm sure he had confidence that he confided in and all those type of things, but for me it's the same way.

13:39 It's you have I still have my two childhood friends, my three childhood friends that I I've known since I was two years old that I kind of talk to. I I have my family that I talk to if I have any adversity like that, and you kind of deal with it, and as you get older, you know these things are gonna pass and they're gonna come around, and you try to shake them off, and I'll put my head on a pillow and wake up the next day until I come up with an idea or something passes, and you kind of move on.

14:08 Sure, sure, sure.

14:10 And I and I know you gotta be proud. You got a son, uh, is it Troy Troy playing the up at Michigan linebacker, right? They had a big win last night. Gotta be proud of your son. He played a Jesuit here in Tampa, right? I mean, talk to me about him and do you get do you talk to him on a daily basis? I'm sure you have another son that works with you, right, at the Bucks.

14:27 So that's gotta be a lot to you. I know your kids and stuff, what what they're doing, and still being involved in their livelihood. What does all that mean to you, coach?

14:35 Well, my oldest works with me, and you know, it's been great to have him around because when you, you know, when they go to college, you miss about four or five years of their lives and you barely see him, especially with football going year-round. So I didn't get to see him as much, even though we talk quite a bit.

14:50 So to see him every day now in the office, even though we don't I don't get to see him much because he's always ripping and running. He's trying to make a name for himself without carrying my name, but he does a heck of a job. He's highly intelligent and he's gonna be great. And I was up in Ann Arbor uh last night to watch the ball game and hadn't seen anything like that in a long time, just watching from the sideline with the Hail Mary at the end of the ball game.

15:13 But Troy, you know, he's finally healthy this year. He's playing full time. He had he had a big game, he had 12 tackles, he had two TFLs, and you know, it was just proud to see him as a father, just very happy to see him. I thought it was great, and then they pulled it out at the end.

15:31 Yeah, that's great. No, that's fun stuff. Your kids, your family, it's everything. I guess going back to the Super Bowl, too, here in Tampa most recent, you know, a big game, and I was at that game, it was a great game. Kind of strange with COVID and all that stuff how it was, but I love being in the stands because there was nobody around me because there was limited people there.

15:47 So it was a great game to attend. And as a Buccaneer fan, and I had my kids there, the great win you guys had, and uh you know, you got beaten Patrick Mahomes. I don't think he scored a touchdown, Andy Reid, you know, they they've had a lot of success offensively. But you, coach, you were able to shut him down and had a great game, and Thomas on offense.

16:04 But what was the key to that game? What did you do? Because a lot of people weren't able to do what you guys did to that team. I guess what was the key to that, you know, in your opinion?

16:14 Well, we learned a lot after we played them early in the year and they kicked our butts pretty good at our place. Uh we understand, understood what we were going to do coverage-wise, just to keep a guy over the top of Tyreek Hill and make sure of that, and then we had to make sure we had to get the running game under wraps.

16:31 And we had to rush the passer, but we had to understand how to rush the passer. And I think between JPP and Shaq and all the guys in the interior, they did a good job of flushing him the way we wanted to flush him and get him out of the pocket. And, you know, we blitzed a couple times early, but then them guys pinned their ears back and allowed us to keep extra guys on coverage, so we kept some guys in coverage and they really got after it.

16:54 And you know, you to to stop a guy like that and a team like they had with the coaches they had, it took a lot. It took everybody, and everybody did a heck of a job, and extremely proud of those guys. And you know, they did something that hadn't been done in a long time.

17:11 Yeah, no question.

17:12 And the success you you guys had and have continued, uh you know, you last year just missed the playoffs by by your hair, right? Came down to a tiebreaker. But I mean, the dominance you've had the last five, six years in the NFC in your conference and stuff. I mean, that that's hard to do. A lot of people don't realize to win year in and out, to win your division, when you're you know, that's a big deal.

17:33 You know, I guess keeping the people together, keeping you there obviously has been a key thing. And you know, the continuity. Then again, hey, Baker Mayfield's come in. He's been a great quarterback, done a great job for you guys. I like his game, I like the way he plays, the intensity he plays the position with.

17:48 And I just think uh big great things are ahead. You got a big year this year, and I think uh You know, Baker, it was interesting, came in, had to on a one-year deal, performed, has done well, right? I mean, what is he like to coach, coach, from your perspective? He's a key position for you, right? You're quarterback, you've got to have a good quarterback to have a chance in this league.

18:05 What what do you see from Baker? What do you like from Baker?

18:08 Baker's a guy's guy. You know, the guys love being around him. He loves being around the guys. He is motivated each and every day. He loves to play the game. He he has a linebacker mentality in the quarterback's body, but he's extremely bright, he's extremely accurate, and he can throw the ball. He understands the game, loves playing it, and he always competes.

18:31 I don't care if it's two people out there, he's gonna try and win. If you're just trying to throw it and hit the goalposts, he's gonna try and win, and he's gonna put everything into it, and he really spends time with the guys. He's a great leader on the field and off the field. He eats lunch with the D-line, the O-line, the tight ends, the kicker, the DBs.

18:51 He works with everybody in his own way, and you can see his leadership skills show throughout. He's an extremely bright player. Even when guys have bad plays, you can see him go talk to him, and it's not even on the offensive side of the ball all the time. So you admire that about him, you love that about him, and that's very rare to come by, so you gotta enjoy it while you got it.

19:13 Yeah, no question. As as a former player, again, seeing a guy at that position is specifically, you know, sometimes a quarterback's not that type of guy. He's more they gotta be great to be great, right? And he has he has a unique skill set that he's done in. But the the you know, the the the swagger he brings to the position, too.

19:30 I love watching as as a lineman, too. I gotta believe the offensive linemen love playing for protecting a guy like that and having that guy behind him because of the way he is and the way he plays, like you said, like playing a linebacker. Not a lot of those guys are always like that, more you know, different type of guys.

19:46 But that that's I guess what does he do extra, Coach, that you see that you say, hey, that's why it makes him great. What do you see behind the scenes? Some little things that he might do that other guys haven't done in in your long history in football.

19:58 Well, he's the first one in the building. You know, I get in at 3.15, he gets in around 4-40. He's the very first one in the building, and and that that says a lot about him. He's always trying to study and figure things out, even before the coaches get in the building. So he does his own studying, which a lot of people study, just hasn't seen anybody in that early all the time to take care of the things he needs to take care of.

20:20 He really takes care of his body, understanding the game. He'll watch film until he's blue in the face, trying to figure it out. You know, he competes. He competes his tail off like a backer. He talks like a linebacker, but he he plays the position very well. He's always trying to be right and make the right play.

20:37 And when things break down, you know, that type of guy, he'll take it into his own hands and figure he can get it done. And 99% of the time he gets it done.

20:48 Yeah, he does. I was at I was at one of the games, I think, a year or two ago against the Saints. I remember he's running with the ball, did a spin move. I mean, I was like, wow, that's it's a special guy out there at quarterback, and I think you know, uh being a Bucks fan, it's great to see. I guess, Coach, I guess talk to me about some of the best advice you've ever gotten.

21:05 I always ask people this because they I love to hear it. Could be pieces of advice, could be one piece of advice. I think there's some nuggets there that you know it can help people that are listening. Hey, that's a good piece of advice. What's some of the best advice you've ever gotten, Coach?

21:19 The best advice I've ever gotten when I finished playing for the Redskins, Emmett Thomas was my DB coach. And he said I was gonna make a really good coach, and everybody thought I'd make a really good coach. But he said if you really want to be a good coach, you need to get away from this game at least two years.

21:34 Because if you don't, you'll be coaching the same the players like I was playing, and I would be very disappointed because they weren't as smart as I was, or they wouldn't be doing the things that I would be asking them to do, and I'll be looking at it through the lens of a player, and that'll be a big detriment to me.

21:51 So if I detach myself from the game and came back, I would see it more as a coach and I would understand what to do and how to do it, and I follow. That advice. I got out of the game for two years. I got out of the game for two years. Uh I had a minority owned construction company. I owned a gym in Rockville, Maryland.

22:10 And then I got a call to go on a scouting. I didn't know if I wanted to be a coach or a scout, so I scouted for a year in Green Bay, and then I got into coaching right after that, and I never looked back. But that was the best advice someone's ever given.

22:25 That's great. That's great advice.

22:27 Didn't know that. That's uh that's a great nugget. I guess, Coach, too, when you sit there, when you look back, you got your kids, you get this, that, you know, twenty, thirty years from now down the road, when someone brings up your name, Todd Bowles. What what what do you hope they say? What do you hope what people say about you?

22:41 You guys that play it for you, your kids and all that stuff when they bring your name up.

22:46 Hopefully I taught them the game the right way, and uh, you know, that I love to listen to music every time they walk in my office.

22:53 That's good stuff, good stuff. I guess I guess when you when you play too, you you you Ron Wolf, I know his documented, you worked around him in scouting. He's a legendary guy. You know, you guys won a Super Bowl when you're in Green Bay. What did you see there? Brett Favre, Reggie White. What did you see?

23:09 What was the key to that team being in that that period of time in your life and watching that all and being part of that?

23:16 They had a lot of talent, you know, they had a lot of talent, even more so. The scouts I worked with were unbelievable, and I think mostly all of them became GMs. I think I'm the only one that was not bright enough to get in the personnel side and become a coach. I mean, there was John Dorsey, there was John Schneider, there was Scott McLuhan, it was Reggie McKenzie.

23:37 Um I know I'm missing a guy or two here and there. There was Ted Thompson, there was a bunch of guys that we scouted with that, you know, we'd be on the side of the road, going to the back of the gas station, getting Twinkies and all that, scouting. And it was a great group of guys that really taught me how to see the game.

23:54 So I can see it from a scouting perspective and a coaching perspective, uh, because of Ron. So I that helps me in the offseason when looking at college players because I was taught the right way, so I have a good understanding of both sides.

24:11 Sure.

24:11 And from the game back from when you played in the 80s, 90s or to to where it is now, what are some of the biggest changes you see from a player coaching and football perspective that's as the game has evolved to where it is today?

24:25 Well, they're definitely bigger, faster, and stronger today, for sure. I mean, they you got linemen running like DVs, so you know, linebackers running like D Vs and tight ends running like wide receivers, so the game has evolved in a speed way in which it should. It really should. I mean, it was a lot more grueling back when I played with camp.

24:46 Being five or six weeks of tour days, and you kind of just knocking heads every day, but it got too used to your pads back then. I think it's trying to be a safer game today. A lot of the guys that's in the Hall of Fame probably wouldn't be in there today with the rules that they have today. You know, the uh Dick Buckuses and Mike Singletaries and all them people of the world, they used to take people's heads off and the Ronnie Lotts that were great players back then in their own right.

25:13 But I I think it's a cleaner game. It's a it's a faster game today. And you see all the speed and everything else, it's it's probably a younger game because guys back then, you know, you had to go to college for four years and everything else. Now they're coming out after one or two. So it's a different game.

25:30 It it it's faster and it's better in a lot of ways, but in some ways, you know, the old school is still comes down to blocking and tackling, and you have to keep that in mind as a coach and make sure your players understand that.

25:45 Yeah, that that's gotta be a challenge too. Uh you know, back in the day, I can remember you made me tingle there with the two-a-days, right? Two a day, sometimes three a days, right? If you have a badge of honor, we had five weeks of two-a-days and all that, and you know, they they beat into you that hey, it's this is how we gotta be able to run the football, tackle the ball, all that stuff.

26:01 If we don't have all this work, we can't get better and fundamentally and all this stuff if we're not doing it. How do you how have you adjust? I know you got OTAs and workouts, but you're very limited in what you can and can't do in pads anymore, which is a good thing health-wise for guys for long term.

26:15 For us older guys, you know, I guess we could say, hey, we played back when it was different, right? But well, how does that, as a coach, how do you how do you make sure you guys are good run blockers, good tacklers, and all that stuff? Is it just you gotta do certain type of drills without pads, or how do you do that in from the way they used to do it years ago?

26:34 It helps mentally for me anyway, but you know, you gotta add a lot of new school stuff and you gotta keep some of your old school principles. You can do both, but you have to understand when to do, you know, that the tackling is the same. You just have to find different ways, an individual, to try and tackle without pads, and you have more bags available and different equipment available these days than they have back then.

26:57 Not much, but a few things that are different. But the allowance of not being in pads every day, you have to figure things out and kind of form tackle and just hope you haven't motivated enough that they'll tackle once you get in the ballgame because you don't get to do it that much. So you try a bunch of different things and drills, and you watch a bunch of seven-on-seven tournaments in college and high school, and you try to put some of those things into today's game because they're coming out of college younger.

27:24 You have to more or less adapt to some of the college rules, at least individually from a fundamental standpoint, and they come up with new things in college all the time. So you're constantly looking for bigger and better things that you can do better that makes the game safe, but at the same time, you're getting your point across to the players.

27:41 But it's always gonna change, and if you don't change with it, you're gonna get left behind.

27:48 Sure, sure. You you guys have been a great rookie draft this year, the the defensive end from Miami. You know, um young guys like that coming in, you know, you know, you know, expecting big things for those young guys at the receiver last year coming in with a success. One of the biggest adjustments a player has coming to the NFL is you know now the college game's changing too, but the length of the season typically 10, 12 games in college to come to the NFL now you got 18 games or 17 games and then plus playoffs is the length of the season.

28:14 How do you how do you tell a coach a young guy just to be ready for that? Because that kind of hits a guy about midseason, you're used to the season being over, but we still got half a season left to go. How how do you kind of teach those young guys about that adjustment?

28:28 Well, we got to be smart as coaches. We talk about it and they see how the other guys train, but at some point from a mental standpoint, you're gonna hit that rookie wall just because you've been playing football year-round and you go into the league that way, and it's up to the coaches to understand that and pull them back when it's time to pull back and really help them from a physical standpoint so they stay strong mentally, that they can stay healthy throughout the season.

28:51 And it's gonna come whether it's a day, whether it's two days, whether it's a week, whether it's two weeks, whether it's three weeks, everybody's gonna hit that little slump that you got to make sure you're on top of when it happens or it doesn't happen. And if it's physically, they got to take care of their bodies and you got to pull back the reps on them or not have them run as far and as long and practice so they're ready for the game.

29:11 And then if it's mentally, you got to keep grinding it out and make sure they understand and go back to basics and do the things they can do well until they get more experience to learn everything else. So it's it's a constant reminder and it's a constant grind, but you better be on top of it as a coach.

29:29 Sure, sure.

29:30 Yeah, a big season ahead, big things. We're hoping for a big year this year, and uh the team looks great. I think uh big steps ahead. Really appreciate your time, coach. Thank you for joining and have you on again sometime. But you're a great guy, and I'm proud of everything you're doing, and you know, Tony Agnon's the best, as we said, and uh look forward to it, and uh we'll talk soon.

29:48 I appreciate it, coach.

29:49 You got it, yeah. Thanks for having me.

29:53 Thank you. Take care, we'll see you, Todd.

29:55 All right.