00:00it's of course scott abraham sports director for abc7 what's up scott good morning boys boys how
00:07are you first of all congratulations on 30 years first time i've ever been able to talk to you
00:11since the anniversary so uh job well done and obviously uh you guys have uh laid quite the
00:16foundation and following so you should be proud of yourselves thank you man how many years have
00:21you been at it now uh i mean i mean i've been in the market here 10 uh so this
00:26is my 10th year in
00:27dc total in tvs 20 that's a long time too my friend yep you're on the grinds um yep all
00:34right so what
00:35uh what jumped out at you yesterday is there anything in particular soon as you get out there
00:39i assume everybody's eyes are on jayden first and foremost that's what i would guess but i don't
00:45know what jumped out at you the most yeah i mean it was it was great to see how up
00:51tempo this ota
00:54session was you know usually you go to these ota's and it's like uh you know glorified walkthrough
01:00they're going through the motions easing the players in and i i was very impressed with just
01:05the pacing of the drills and the pacing of everything it seemed like everybody was really
01:10engaged and there's a more of an urgency to the kind of knowing what lies ahead guys like they got
01:16to start fast with the schedule and i think there's an extra emphasis of kind of setting that standard of
01:21hey tunsell's here everybody's in the building everybody's on the field and like uh it's all
01:26business and it did not seem like an ota to me so uh from a broad aspect that kind of
01:31stood out to me
01:32and then uh just seeing you know sunny styles integrate with the linebackers and seeing leo
01:38chanel and the speed the speed in that linebacking group really kind of jumped out at me where
01:43you don't have bobby wagner in line obviously a great veteran uh he did his thing there but just the
01:49speed and the youthfulness in that linebacker room now i think it's going to be very um jarring to
01:56fans in a good way where it's going to pop off the screen like yeah we're much younger we're much
02:00faster uh on that side of the ball scott your interview with javon kinlaw definitely went viral
02:06i think he set a world record for cursing in i don't know 20 second response uh talk about kinlaw
02:12how he looked uh linnell willingham works here for the fans that he kind of jumped out at him as
02:18far as
02:18the way his body looked as compared to last year you know what i love about jk guys is he's
02:24just
02:24unapologetically him i mean that's that's that's javon kinlaw and uh we always appreciate his candor
02:30and his honesty he's going to give it to you straight so that's what you saw from that clip
02:34and in terms of uh for this year i think there's a little bit of a disappointment from the fan
02:39base of
02:40the impact he had last year um he found that big contract it was the big free agent splash for
02:45adam
02:46peters but i think adding these pieces on the edge uh oh way and and chase on it you go
02:53down the list
02:54they upgraded that d line i think that's going to be uh freeing up for like a javon kinlaw or
03:00deron
03:00pain to maybe make more of an impact up the middle there so i think adding these pieces along the
03:06d line
03:06of the edge position i think that in turn that's going to help kinlaw and he's just a massive human
03:12i don't
03:12know if you've ever seen him up close but that that is a dude you do not want to meet
03:16in a back
03:16alley because he's just a massive massive dude uh so i have a high expectations for a bounce back
03:22year for kinlaw and uh that's who he is that's somebody you heard heard from yesterday scott i feel
03:29like it's a big year for johnny newton too i feel like he's yeah underperformed like he's a guy that
03:34needs to really take a step forward i believe this is year three for him um what are the what
03:40are the
03:40defensive uh leaders of the team expecting from him yeah and and i think the problem with johnny is
03:46he maybe doesn't see the field enough or get many reps or opportunities because i feel like when he
03:52does get out there there's some splash plays and there's some you know a fumble recovery or or a
03:58sack so i think it's a situation where you have pain you have kinlaw uh you have a deep d
04:04tackle room
04:05um can you get on the field enough can they get him enough snaps to make that impact because i
04:09think
04:09the talent is there i think he definitely can and can make a can make a run here and then
04:15obviously
04:15you have that situation with deron pain contract year so this is a situation where if they see
04:20enough from a johnny newton maybe you don't sign pain in the offseason or maybe you um consider
04:28moving deron pain if things go south in the middle of the year because you have a johnny newton
04:33uh that's flourishing um so that that's something to monitor as the season and training camp progresses
04:39in terms of how many snaps rotational pieces uh does johnny newton get in that d tackle room
04:45scotty are you concerned at all just as someone that follows the team every day very closely
04:50of two young well not necessarily young but inexperienced first year coordinators
04:58i think there's gonna be some growing pains i don't think you can expect where they're going
05:03to be you know to a t dot the i's cross the t's like perfect right out of the gate
05:08i think it's
05:09going to be imperative that this training camp and these preseason games they're treated with some
05:15urgency because they everybody's got to get on the same page everybody's got to be pulling on the
05:19same rope in the same direction bury your head in that playbook it's all about repetition guys and
05:24anything you do any business any profession repetition repetition and there's going to be
05:29a lot of times where they may have to do some side work away from the practice field where they're
05:34they're in that meeting room or they're studying that playbook because it's an adjustment for
05:38everybody uh they're all professionals this is their job they they live and breathe football 24 7
05:43and there's a bunch of pros about a bunch of veterans on this team i think in the long run
05:48it's going to be just fine and i think it's going to be beneficial this offense specifically
05:52for jayden to evolve and grow as a true nfl quarterback not just a guy that can play
05:58shotgun did you keep an eye on antonio williams at all yeah i mean i i i peeked at him
06:05especially
06:06during rookie uh rookie camp um a couple weeks ago and then i saw him a little bit um yesterday
06:12what i like about him eb is just his his route running you can tell he's going to be a
06:18separator
06:19so if you need a third and four third and five look for antonio williams because he can get that
06:24separation his routes are just so fluid and um i don't know if it was my guy jp finley or
06:30or somebody
06:31else but somebody asked uh marcus mariotta after practice yesterday uh about what he thought of
06:37antonio williams and he had high praise like he does not look he marcus basically paraphrasing says he
06:42does not look like a rookie out there um he has a great foundation already where he he's hitting
06:47the ground running per se and he's a sponge he wants to learn he's picking the brain
06:51of the quarterbacks what do you see here what should i do in this situation so i think this is
06:56a guy you're going to see on the field quite a bit this year scott you tweeted this 20 hours
07:00ago
07:00at scott7news say hello to chig okonkwo i'm excited about this dude yeah we were talking about
07:07him earlier well what excites you about chig i'm big on chig jp thinks that he's not going to live
07:13up to zach urts is you know pretty good numbers that he put up here uh while he was uh
07:17signed
07:18late in his career that the they're that you're mischaracterizing they're comparable players yeah
07:23i don't totally different players they're comparing their production i think they're totally
07:30different players where uh versatility skill set wise i mean chig to me looks like a wide receiver
07:37guys i mean he he does not look like that physical blocking type of tight end and he's not
07:42good and you watch him run those routes and you watch him come off the ball he looks like a
07:48wide
07:48receiver uh and just the way he moves his body he's not going to be your blocker that that's a
07:54john
07:55base this is a guy that you're going to be able to go in line and you're also going to
07:59be able to
07:59move him outside at times put him in motion and he's going to get those yak yards after the catch
08:05because when he catches the football you can see the power uh as he goes through tackles so i'm really
08:11excited about chig not just as a tight end i think he's going to be almost like a hybrid wide
08:15receiver tight end type of dude um so i'm excited about the versatility and the athleticism listen
08:20that gertz he was old reliable always there when he needed him but in terms of athleticism and
08:27versatility chigakonkwo is a huge upgrade in my opinion all right defensive side real quick nick cross
08:33former demath the stag former turk that's your boy um we're hearing a lot of good things about
08:38him uh not just from people who are following the team closely locally but nationally a lot of people
08:44think that was a great signing talk about what you're seeing what you expect from nick cross at
08:48strong safety yeah i felt like there's a little bit of a void last year when they lost jeremy chin
08:53um and nick cross comes in paired with a will harris obviously have quan martin still
08:58i think nick cross is going to be one of those dudes on the defense where you're going to be
09:03hearing his name a lot on the broadcast uh he's a guy that's going to be everywhere in the football
09:07field he's a football player guys he's very smart very intelligent i think he's going to be one of
09:14those guys that durante jones really trusts and puts in situations high pressure situations and he's
09:20going to deliver so uh the local guy that's a great story of coming home uh you know he rooted
09:25for
09:25this team grew up for this you know grew up in the backyard of uh fedex field uh northwest stadium
09:31so i think nick cross is going to be a home run splash here in this defense scott thanks for
09:36the
09:36time we know you're busy with otas i'm sure you'll be out at ashburn all day again today thanks for
09:40the time man we'll talk to you again soon yeah boys good talking to you i'll see you all right
09:44that's scott abraham sports director for abc7 coming up next we'll be joined by barrys
09:50verluga from the athletic
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