Welcome to the From the Podium podcast, where we feature all of our daily press conferences rolled into one podcast to help you get ready for the 2025 regular season.

I'm Brock Dannehy, and on today's episode, you'll hear from quarterback Kenny Pickett,

defensive tackle Shelby Harris, tight end Harold Fanon Jr, and head coach Kevin Stefansky. First up,

quarterback Kenny Pickett discusses his return to practice from injury and ramping up for the preseason.

It's coming along?

Just trying to take it a day at a time.

You know, frustrated not being able to, you know, be out there competing.

But I'm trying to do my best to listen to what the doctors and trainers are saying

and trust everything in the process.

You might be tempted to push it.

How do you not do that? Yeah, they tell ahead? Yeah, they tell me no. You know, I would be out there trying to push through it. You know, more like staying in the pocket and stuff. I try to plead my case, but, you know, everyone has a job to do. They're looking out for me. And I appreciate that. But you're also fighting the battle to get out there. So it's tough. Can you have a touchdown on the last play? Did it happen before that or on that? Yeah, it happened a couple plays for that. On a run or? Run. The bronze really like your mobility and that's part of your game. So do you feel like when you come back, you're going to be that same guy? You're going to have to manage it.

No, I'll have to manage it whenever I'm back, probably a few weeks after, based on the injury and where I'm at. But I think it gives me a great opportunity just to work from the pocket, you know, find checkdowns. It really improved my game from the pocket. So I think if I look at it with that lens, you know, it could be real positive. Is it your target to be ready for the Carolina track?

I can't say if that's the target or not. I want to be out there. I think there's ways that I could be able to get out there. Really just taking a day at a time. Ironic that here you are out with Hampshire and then Shador was out today with some arm storness and Joe and Dylan take all the team reps that seemed like you know kind of an odd practice to have to see it like that?

I don't think so. I think it's, you know, next man up and when you're not in a competition,

I think you're losing ground. I think that's just the nature of the business, the nature of the game.

So it's great for those two guys to get extra reps and you know me and sure you got to get back out there

Kenny when you are not able to be out there what person do you do to stay

involved in the team meeting room in those meetings to really just kind of

like stay yeah I just go about as if I'm practicing you know studying the the script for the day the you know and like Tommy says we just kind of stay in the... Yeah, I just go about it as if I'm practicing, you know, studying the script for the day. You know, and like Tommy says, we're kind of treating each practice like a game plan, you know, getting it the night before, being able to study to go out there and prepare. And then every rep they get, I just get a mental rep behind them. So there's ways to steal it, you know, with some film reps too. I got to do some one-on-ones at the end of the day, which was great, you know, and it felt great doing stuff in the pocket. So a lot of positive, just trying to keep my mind frame there. How crucial are those other reps, especially in this scene? Yeah, they're everything for me right now. That's all I'm able to get. trying to learn from what they do, what went well, what didn't go well.

So when I get back out there, that's all I'm able to get. So, you know, trying to learn from, you know, what they do,

what went well, what didn't go well. So when I get back out there, you know, I don't make the same mistakes, you know, and I can do the same positive that those guys are doing it. Has your determination to win the starting job, is it exactly the same as it was before this injury? It is.

What's your mindset?

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