How different has this offseason been from last year?
(Chuckling) I’ve been looking forward to this offseason, just from the standpoint of stability and just continuing to build. Last year, we had a lot going on in a very short time frame. I appreciate the way (Executive Vice President/General Manager) Mickey (Loomis) and everyone kind of helped navigate that as we went through that process, just with hiring a staff, going through free agency, the draft and having a tight window for that. This year has been a great process, for us just to go back through, really review last year in so many ways and really dig into that — the things we did well, the things we want to improve on and then the normal offseason process that you get to go through.
Do you feel like you’ve exhaled? Do you have a chance to exhale?
There’s always something going on. I think more than anything, it allows us to dig a little deeper into the previous season and also this upcoming season. What that time allows us to do is going to be very beneficial.
Did you learn much about yourself that you might not have known? Loomis said he was impressed by the way you handled changes, adversity.
I think that’s part of it. I think obviously every role is going to be different. In this role, there’s always going to be things coming up on a daily basis and you’ve got to have the ability to adjust based off the circumstances… whether it be roster discussions, team discussions, the day-to-day from a player perspective. We have a really good group, though.
Players said they were impressed by the way the locker room held together, and part of that was your knowledge of personal accomplishments. Is that something you’re conscious of, that you seek out to acknowledge?
These guys work really, really hard. They put a lot into it. To play in the NFL, that’s essentially everyone’s dream, so it’s a really special opportunity. With that comes a lot of challenges and adversities as you go through this. We’re going to play the best of the best every single week — that’s what the NFL is — and so I think it’s important to acknowledge when things are going well, to highlight those things. We’ll certainly attack the things that we need to improve on all the time, that’s more of a natural approach for everyone, focusing on what we did wrong or what we need to improve on. But also, I think it’s important to acknowledge the progress that these guys are making.
Having been an NFL player, how much did that help from a standpoint of knowing how you liked to be treated, and wanting to treat players that way?
I think more than anything, just being around a lot of different players, a lot of different coaches… there’s a lot of different approaches that you can take. I think it’s important to recognize that every player is at a different stage in their career, they have different temperaments and emotions and they’re going through different challenges in life. There’s a sympathy element of that, recognizing that you’ve got to find where the player is and hopefully help them become the best version of themselves.