All of the changes that Cousins experienced came with the territory — moving on to the next chapter of his career after six years with the Washington Redskins. That didn’t mean the transition would always appear seamless.

Cousins felt the spring offseason was “a bit like drinking through a fire hose,” given the amount of new information he had to process and execute in expedited fashion. At the forefront of learning a scheme designed around his strengths, Cousins’ first few months in the Twin Cities centered on building continuity with his offensive line and skill players.

Cementing that connection is a drawn-out process that takes longer to perfect than several weeks of OTAs and minicamp. Finding a common ground between the way his receivers like to run routes and the way Cousins has executed throws to his offensive weapons in the past was where it all started when the quarterback invited Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs down to Atlanta for an impromptu throwing session in early April. Those conversations continued to evolve during the spring as Cousins was able to expand upon that chemistry in full practices and leave feeling all parties were on the same page.

“It’s a process of saying, ‘Hey, this is the way I’ve done if for six years. You’ve done it a different way for five years. Let’s try to talk about why you’ve had success, why I’ve had success. Let’s find some middle ground, let’s decide whether I’m going to learn your way, you’re going to learn my way,'” Cousins said. “That’s the process I’m talking about. Every route, every concept, really we could talk about each individual one. The best part of the whole thing is you know you have a chance when the communication is as healthy as it is.

“[Thielen is] receptive to listening; I can understand what he’s getting at. It’s the same with Stef. That’s where when I say I’m really excited about the locker room and the players I work with, it’s moments like that, where I feel really good about the communication, that they’re hearing you and you’re hearing them.”

During the six weeks until the Vikings report back for training camp at the end of July, Cousins will work to perfect the balance between relaxing and staying mentally prepared. Though he doesn’t have any concrete plans in place to work with his receivers in the summer, he will dedicate his efforts to the areas of the offense he didn’t grasp the first time around.

“I think the more important level of communication will be between me and the coaches, talking about some philosophy things and how I want plays to be designed,” Cousins said. “I’ll have my iPad with me as I go home, and I’ll spend time every day going back.

“All the stuff I didn’t catch, go back through and see that I had starred this, I had checkmarked this as something to go back to when we had time rather than take time when we were so busy.”

“I’m going to go back, I’ll make a list,” he continued, “probably get on the phone with [offensive coordinator] Coach [John] DeFilippo or [quarterbacks] Coach [Kevin] Stefanski and email and just go through it all to get each question answered over the summer.”

Because he feels like he’s “a little behind the eight ball,” Cousins’ summer plans include ample time in the playbook each day to prevent losing the knowledge and muscle memory he has built up in a short amount of time. But if there’s anything his first six years in the NFL have taught him, it’s the importance of pushing back at this time of year to prevent burnout.

“Last year, we got to like Week 2 and because of how much I was grinding all camp and even in the summer, I felt like we were in Week 12,” Cousins said. “I couldn’t believe that we were only in Week 2 because I had treated July and August like it was game day.”

Roethlisberger does have a few ideas for how the Steelers can spend after 2018, though: on his coveted line, which has helped cut Roethlisberger’s sacks in half from his late-2000s pace. Roethlisberger once took 50 sacks in a season but has 58 over the past three seasons.

Roethlisberger has credited offensive line continuity for what he calls a three-to-five-year outlook on his career.

His message to campers was about valuing everyone in the huddle.

“I want them to know that football is important, but it’s about being a team,” he said.

“They thought I was crazy,” Brown told Sports Illustrated in 2003. “Every day [during his rookie season] they asked me to see a psychiatrist.”

Orlando Brown Jr. was a three-year starter for national power Oklahoma and was a unanimous first-team All-America selection. He was selected in the third round this year, and he prides himself on his football IQ.

His father preached to him to play more like his former teammate, Hall of Fame offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden, instead of himself. As Brown Jr. put it, his father wasn’t the most technically sound blocker. So, Brown Jr. broke down film of Ogden, Tony Boselli, Anthony Muñoz and Jackie Slater.

“My dad forced me to learn it more so from a Jonathan Ogden standpoint than [from] him,” Brown Jr. said. “Mentally, I don’t think there’s anyone out there that understands the game or is more instinctual than me. That was my credit to being able to play at such a high level in college, and I look forward to transitioning out to this [level].”

Like his father, Orlando Brown Jr. has a chance to start in the NFL immediately. The Ravens declined to pick up the option on Austin Howard, who started all 16 games at right tackle last season.

But it’s clear they like having as many of those alpha types in the room as possible. As linebackers coach Mike Nolan put it, they consider it “a good problem to have.”

“You know, when we use the term ‘green dot’ sometimes, people think about the helmet on the field,” Nolan said of the green sticker that identifies which player is wearing the communication device on game days. “But we also talk about it in the way of, ‘This guy is a leader.’ We have a number of guys with leadership skills [and Davis] does have that. That did make his stock and his value greater.

“What’s nice is we have about four or five guys that could wear it. Some teams sit there and they’re fighting over two guys or they’re thinking, ‘We really don’t have a guy that takes charge.’ In our case, I think we’ve got five guys that can wear it, if not six.”

Of course the Saints’ linebackers are all saying the right things about how competition brings out the best in everyone and they’re willing to play wherever the coaches ask — as you would expect from veteran leaders and captains.

But they also readily admit they take a lot of pride in being counted on as that quarterback of the defense who never leaves the field.

“You know, all of us want that headset,” said Te’o, who wore it with the San Diego Chargers before Klein primarily wore it in New Orleans last season when healthy. “I think it’s not just to have that responsibility, but to have that trust [from coaches and teammates].”

“You know, how I’m built, I guess at the core of me I’ve always been ‘the’ guy. But that’s not why I’m here,” said the 29-year-old Davis, who said he was drawn to the Saints because of their history of success and great offensive play after he didn’t get to experience much of either in six years with the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns. “This team has been in a great place for years, and I’m here to win. So wherever the coaches need me, I’m here to serve, I’m down with it, I’m 100 percent cool with it.”

Davis and Klein, however, stressed that it’s very important to them to prove they are an “every-down linebacker” one way or another.

That will come down to proving they can be an asset in coverage, which is more important than ever in the modern NFL.

Davis hasn’t played much Will linebacker in his career. But the Saints think he has the traits to do it, and Davis said he has worked hard in recent years to become a better coverage linebacker.

“That’s what you always want to be. I’ve always taken pride in being a three-down linebacker,” said the 6-foot-2, 248-pound Davis, who admitted he didn’t pay enough attention to detail in coverage early in his career, but now considers it one of his strengths.

“I think I got beat a lot more than I was wanting to, especially my third and fourth year in the league. I was thinking because I’m fast and I can run in space that I can guard these guys. But it’s not [that simple],” Davis continued. “It’s a lot more technique that goes into it. And when I started spending my offseason focusing on detailing my coverage, and adding that to being effective blitzing and effective in the run game, it helped me to have more of an all-around game.

“And I try to pride myself on being one of the most elite cover ‘backers in the league.”

Davis just had the best season of his career with the Jets in 2017, playing all 1,115 snaps with career highs of 135 tackles and five sacks.

Klein and Te’o acknowledged that coverage is an area of their game they’ve tried to constantly develop, since they weren’t asked to do it a lot in college or early in their careers.

“That’s a big thing. It’s important [to be considered an every-down linebacker],” said the 6-1, 240-pound Klein. “Obviously I came here to be playing — to play every down. And I know I can be that type of linebacker.

“We’re versatile, and I know from week to week, game plans change. Last year I got moved around, Craig got moved around, Manti got moved around. That’s just the nature of the game that we’re in. That’s 2018. That’s the NFL nowadays. You have to be versatile.”

Last year in New Orleans, Klein played the strongside (Sam) position on base downs, then moved inside to Mike in nickel packages.

Anzalone was the primary weakside linebacker (Will) in both base and nickel packages before he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 4. Robertson primarily took over that Will role after that. Te’o played Mike in base packages.