James Gladstone

Yeah, that's fair to label it that way.

It's a good feeling.

Beyond that, I think off the heels of an ending that was adverse, right, where you control a football game in Cincinnati, end up losing it in the final minute and being able to turn around, right, respond to that adverse moment in time with –

An appropriate result.

It was also a, let's just call it some version of a challenging game, right?

Obviously, offensively, tough to get into rhythm throughout the course of it, right?

Defense carrying a ton of the load.

but also then seeing when the best was required of guys, it showed.

And not just physically, right?

Mentally, being able to check from one play to the next after identifying offensively that there was something that could be somewhat taken advantage of defensively from the Houston Texans.

and getting trevor being able to deliver one to bt which now you get a chance to try and build off of that momentum and defense playing obviously their tails off for the duration of the game but complementary football right forcing the turnover offense following up with points and then forcing another turnover to close it out so

Being able to respond in a way that obviously led to the result of a W in the column on the left.

It was also the idea that it was off the heels of a really adverse moment in Cincinnati and bouncing back in an appropriate way.

I think we've been talking about response even dating back to preseason, right?

And so this was another example that you hope to be able to leverage and

work off of because obviously got another challenging opponent very similar and very much in the same likeness as the one we just got done with because obviously D'Amico coming from San Francisco trying to apply a lot of those same philosophical approaches.

Preach, because here's the thing.

I think it's so easy in a game like that for anybody observing, sometimes even the ones participating, to say, oh, man, this game's not going to go our way in the end, right?

But now, now you're earning the confidence to say it's not going our way, but it's not anywhere near over, right?

And we still got a real chance to walk away on the correct side of the line in the win-loss column.

And so that's the thing that stands out to me is the idea that even when it's not going smooth, even when it's friction filled, even when the flow hasn't been found, you're not out of the game.

And so that's the exciting thing from my lens, especially off the heels of an adverse outcome in Cincinnati to show that immediately.

Yeah.

You know, I think, gosh, there's a lot of layers to that.

I know this.

just because we've done it to date doesn't mean that it's guaranteed going forward and so to fall into the victim loop or the doom loop of thinking you got it all figured out is a mistake and so just like i talked about a response to an adverse outcome in cincinnati

What is our response to success?

And so that is a version of where the focus falls and making sure that we're continuing to level up, continuing to iterate, continuing to evolve over the course of what is a very long season.

I know.

shoot five weeks into 2024 I didn't feel the pains of the Jaguars right but no different than the Jaguars in 2024 I was on a football team that was one and four with a defense that was struggling and by the time we got to week 18 it had evolved it had morphed into a very

let's call it chaos oriented group that disrupted offenses.

And so as much as that was able to go from bad to good, we can't allow anything other than good to great in our, let's call it next step as a defense.

And so certainly relying on the floor raisers from pro free agency, the intangibly rich elements that really that,

back end group does provide innately and I think if I were to I know a lot of layers so I could go a lot of different ways but the idea of Jordan Lewis

entering this organization right he is truly being nothing more than who he is and it was intentional to bring in someone like him obviously him in the end to be able to provide a very similar level of leadership that this organization saw in calais that i had seen previously and some folks we had brought in in 2017 with the rams

when Sean McVay first entered the equation as a head coach.

So there was definitely, there were examples of what helped trigger turnaround and Jordan being a big part of that in the now.

Yeah, this is a tough outfit, and they can beat their tails off.

And you want to talk about resilience.

They've been through it, and they're going through it, and they still find themselves 3-0 despite a heavy volume of injuries across all position groups.

So it's pretty impressive what they've been able to do, but obviously a mature, let's call it, group in terms of being together for an extended window of time, understanding their systems.

having a strong sense for their systems.

They are who they are, and they stick with it.

Offensively, they're going to allow their running game to find creases, provide as many as possible, and their RBs do a great job.

They're coached extremely well about finding lanes, and

and hitting them hard.

And then outside of that, letting their guys on the outside, on the perimeter, get the ball in their hands quickly and get rolling.

You know, that yak offense, that yak attack is certainly one that they've leveraged over the last handful of years and leveraged well.

So certainly got to be able to, you know, fit properly on the defensive side of the ball, eliminate as many lanes as possible across the front, and then tackle when given cleanups to do so.

And then I think for our offense, it's not going to be all that much different than the structure that we just saw from the Houston Texans.

So that'll be a fun one for us to continue to work through exactly what our mode of attacking should look like, obviously with wrinkles that can exploit some of the

the weaknesses that that structure presents.

So looking forward to getting a chance to step back on the turf there in San Francisco, but obviously not uncharted territory for me.

Yeah, you know, it can become a rowdy bunch, you know.

I think they got a nice little horn that they crank up a little bit.

The fog horn.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, so that thing, you know, it puts fans on notice, you know, when to actually let it rip and when to –

Yeah, when not to.

But, you know, I think anytime you're traveling cross country, you just got to stay rooted in your routine and you got to try and, you know, eliminate the thoughts around it as much as possible, really, so that you can just play freely, play clean.

And, you know, I know this is going to be our first time as a,

uh as a new leadership group our support staff getting used to this cadence for a cross-country trip and uh you know so i think we get two more times after this to go all the way three in total two more times after this no we go denver vegas and uh i was thinking just yeah the west coast like denver's mountain time but yeah i'm with you still saying i mean it's a good it's a good trip you're not walking

I can't wait for us to go on mute.

Yeah, you know, I think it was fair to say there was a lot of attributes, a lot of the skill set that could carry over from the conversation on Trayvon coming out for Williams, right?

That was not a stretch to say that they'd provide similar deployment impact, how you would like to –

Have them influence the game.

So there's a lot to like about him.

And he's just getting an earlier op to get a heavier workload here with some of the injuries across the front.

So certainly somebody you're going to have to account for.

And you're going to have to identify when on the grass.

Because obviously, picked in the first round, he's going to be the talent that is worthy of that.

Now it's as he becomes accustomed to life in the NFL.

What does the nuance look like?

And he's shown very early signs of catching on fast, which will have to be something we account for.

Intangibly rich when it comes to tackling people.

um they list him at five foot nine 181 and uh he got smacked a little bit in this past game on one particular play that i remember but uh poisee aggressive player he's aggressive he's such a fun watch back to the college days that was a that was a good one for them and um you know i know for for upton that was uh the knock on him would have been he didn't get many ops in coverage because he was so close to the los the line of scrimmage and you know fitting on runs and chasing the ball and

He was an enjoyable watch for sure.

Thank you, guys.