Good to see you. Thank you guys for traveling. I know it's a long way from DC, although a little hot, but pretty nice out there. Anyway, worse places to be. What can I help with?
What's the latest on the stadium? Is it on track for your timeline?
On track. Totally on track. Hard at work on so many cool things when you start to think about it, but basically we're starting utility construction this month. Next year about this time we'll start construction. We're doing some of the detailed design features and there's so many cool opportunities with the innovation in stadiums. Whether it's the shape of the scoreboard, which we may have some things up our sleeve on, the size of the scoreboard, the sound, the nature of the roof, where the premium seats are, how close many of the seats are relative to other stadiums. There's so many great opportunities, but we're definitely on track and looking forward. This is going to be an amazing project. It's the funnest part of every week for me is spending several hours on the stadium.
And then you guys are introducing new uniforms in April.
That's what I hear. Giving away state secrets. So, what is the process and how much of a priority was that for you when you came in?
Yeah, it's the priority is honoring our past and then looking to the future, right? Updating, but not forgetting about our heritage, who we are, and honoring that. And so, we have a bunch of things up our sleeve. I don't want to ruin the surprise, but we're going to continue to go back and try to embrace our past, but then update it. Stay tuned.
Why was that important to you to undergo that part of it? Why to embrace all that? Why was that important to you?
Well, because I lived through our past. I mean, I'm only 61, so I didn't go back before the '70s, but I was there for the '70s, '80s, and early '90s, right? And so, I lived through how amazing those teams were and what an impact it had on me. And I know that thousands of our fans, or millions maybe, feel the same way. And so, I think it's important to go back to that as much as you can, but at the same time we have a great future ahead. So, even the shape of the stadium and the look of the stadium, right? When you look at it, it looks like RFK. It doesn't, but it's been modernized, right? And so, that's a great example. And so, our uniforms are similar. Some of the Super Bowl era uniforms, there's many ways to honor our past and you're seeing how we treat athletes and bring back some of our past superstars. So, all those things go into it.
And also for you guys coming off the season you had, a lot of aggressive moves, coordinators and all that. What have you thought about the approach to the off season and it just feels like there's a heightened sense of urgency as the fan base grows?
There is. Look, no one was happy with last season. And we wanted to make a lot of progress. And so, we obviously made some changes. And then I think Adam and Dan had a great free agency. We picked up a lot of great players. I think as you all know, we now next up is the draft. And so, pretty much every waking hour we're trying to improve our team. And we want to go back, we had an amazing first year, a tougher second year, but we have a young quarterback that we have a lot of faith in. And time's a wasting and we got to get on it. And that's what we're doing.
Josh, now that he's an NFL owner, quick to make moves when it comes to the coaching staff. Going into year three coming off the year you guys just had, what were your firm beliefs?
Yeah, both that Dan and Adam have my confidence, have our confidence. We're solidly behind them. And we made the changes we thought were appropriate under their leadership. And one of the great things was that the minute, like I said, no one was happy with last season, but we immediately got on it, right? And they got on it. And sometimes there were some injuries, there were some other things that happened, but none of that's an excuse. And so, we knew we had a lot of work to do. And watching them get back at it quickly. Dan ran an incredible process for the coordinators. Met with tons of people. I was very much up to date. And obviously we ended up with two guys that I think are a little younger, but really have massively high ceilings. And I think can hopefully have a big impact on our franchise. And so, then Adam took over, got right into free agency. And you saw the activity. Obviously it took a little time for us to get started, but that's sometimes the way things are, right? And he made a lot of important moves to get the team younger. And to get the team faster and to go back to hopefully players that can deliver more aggressive playing style. And obviously our front seven, our pass rush is going to be much improved. We're way deeper there. Picked up some offensive weapons. And so, looking forward. We resigned LT. Marcus. And so, we made a lot of progress, right? But the good news is we now have the draft and we have a very high draft pick. And we're going to get a great player there.
Josh, considering the importance of Jayden, what did you think of the way he was handled last year?
Yeah, I think that Jayden, we have a lot of confidence in Jayden. I spoke with him yesterday. I keep in touch with him. He's working super hard in the off season. I got to say it was a, when he lined up in flag football, I'm not going to say I wasn't nervous, but glad that we got through that one. And he's our guy. We have a lot of faith in him. And so, he's hard at work learning and implementing what's going to change with David Blough. And so, listen, moving forward I'm excited about next season. And sometimes injuries happen and other things happen. And the good news about Jayden is that he's right back at work and I have a lot of confidence in him.
With the flag football stuff, is that like a league priority? Ask you if your star players can participate.
Yes, so it is a league priority in the sense that flag creates inclusivity in football, right? It's very hard. You need to be, it's harder to play tackle football for girls, for women, for people that might not be big enough or fast enough. And what it does is it expands the sport greatly. I mean, obviously in something like that, right? That was really Jayden's call. The league doesn't really get involved in that. And everyone took their own point of view on that. And my point of view was that Jayden's someone I trust. He's an individual. He's a grown man. He's a grown person. And I left that decision up to him.
I wanted to follow up too because you had the famous line about F off season. You were putting cards around. You guys were placed so high on them. How important is that to you?
Incredibly important. So, it's good to have an A. More work to do. Look, I think for us we went to the players. Our process was to go talk to the players directly, right? To have Adam talk to the players, to have Dan talk to the players, to have myself talk to the players and say like what can we do different? What can we do better? And there's a very, look, players win titles. Players win Super Bowls. And so, getting that, having the patina and also the respect of the players that we care about what they think and we actually act on it. That's really important. So, it's good to see that, but our process was to go direct and we continue to do that.
What is the plan for the health, Tim going back to Australia?
Yes, so I mean, obviously there's nothing more important than the health and the safety of our players. And so, it's a massively strategic area for us. And so, what we're doing is we're right now meeting a lot of people. And Adam is leading a search to hire a new head of player care. And clearly as an NFL team, you're looking for every way to advantage yourself. And one obviously being like a home for amazing players where they feel like you're taking care of them. That's a massive advantage. And so, we're working really hard. It's a really strategic priority for the team, for the club. And you know, you're going to speak to Adam later. And he's front and center on that.
