| August 22, 2020 Opening statement: “Good morning everybody. Hopefully everybody is doing OK, and (I’m) excited for another great day. Really don’t have a lot to report, just going to get out on the field here and try to get going. Taking the pads off here today, try to get a little bit more up-tempo practice, little bit shorter, little bit more transitions, working on some situational stuff here, just trying to be smart all the way through. That’s what it’ll look like. As far as injuries, just to be real basic with all of it: Bo Scarbrough and (D’Andre) Swift will not be out at practice again. (I) just feel that it’s not ready for the tempo of what we’re doing here today. Working with those guys, nothing really specific to report on the injury itself or any of that, just kind of the rest as far as what we’re doing. Just wanted to give you a heads up on those two.” On why rookies are more susceptible to injuries during this stage of the preseason: “2011 was obviously an interesting year coming out of the lockout, and I think if you look at that year, one of the things I thought that at least the players had access to workout, they had access to gyms, they had access to facilities. Certainly coming out of the pandemic I think we have to really take a good look at what did people actually have to use to workout, whether it was gyms or fields or anything along those lines. So everyone was coming in different shape. Certainly in general, high-injury-rate players in the NFL are rookies and younger players in general, plus older-injured vets those are kind of the two groups that we always keep track of as far as injury histories and things like that. Sometimes we’re a little bit cautious with those guys. I think one of the things that certainly that I’ve seen, that I’m trying to do a good job of is – we talk a lot about soft-tissue injuries, which is important, and we have to do a good job of that. But certainly also some of just the body mechanics of getting in football stances. We went all spring without really putting guys in a football stance or maybe some of those three-bend positions: the knees, the ankles and the hips. A lot of that right now I would say we’re seeing it was a long time with guys getting actually in football position.” On what he will do next week to simulate a third preseason game: “That definitely was one of the target points for us when we put the calendar together – through the course of training camp was to get ready for, let’s call it next weekend, to be able to a very intense, high-tempo practice, game-like simulation. So we took it from there, and we did a lot of the install based on making sure that we would have enough of the installation, the situational football in by then, so we could actually go out and play next weekend in an as-real to a third preseason-type of mode as we could. Certainly trying to keep everybody safe and healthy and controlled as much as possible. But from an overall standing of competition, that’ll be a focal point for us next week.” On how much of his coaching time has to be spent on making sure a rookie, like DE Julian Okwara, does not become too predictable: “There’s just so much you have to learn as a rookie coming in to the NFL, and I think the quality of players that you’re going to go against are much more experienced. They’re a lot better. I think you see all the talent; you see all the stuff that he did in college, which is great, but the transition into our game is a lot. Certainly the first and foremost part of it is the mental side. There’s a lot more that goes into everything that we do, and it’s certainly the different packages on defense that we have and early downs versus third downs. So as we transition to a little bit more situational football, which we started here in the last couple days, fitting into some of his skill sets may be a little bit better, just really try to get him back to using what we saw on tape, and kind of working on some of those fundamentals, and then really understanding that when you’re lined up across ‘Big V’ (Halapoulivaati Vaitai), it’s going to be a little bit different then maybe some of those other guys that you’re going against with the power and the strength. Some of those things just technically have to be improved from a technique-standpoint because these guys are going to be a little bit better. It is an overall, I would say, mental learning process. That is the biggest thing. We certainly know the athleticism that’s there, but if it’s too much thinking then it slows that down and doesn’t work at all either.” On how he will utilize DE Julian Okwara on defense: “Definitely feeling it out. Obviously with the tape, we saw what we liked, but there was an injury there too in college that limited some of that stuff. I’ll say this: Just having him and being around him and some of the things we saw on tape, I think there’s a lot more there than maybe just initially what you saw as far as besides the pass rush. He’s a pretty heavy-handed kid. I think there’s some things on there that we can build on.” On his plans to practice on turf and how much they will need to practice on turf in training camp: “At some point here – obviously still grinding through some of this. We have to go down to the stadium, got to get in there, got to go through our surroundings there, get on the turf and feel that out. Certainly that’s going to be part of the plan here as we push forward and make sure that our guys are ready to go when we get down there. I think the biggest thing right now is working with the 80-man roster and a little bit more heat this week and longer practices as we build through the course of this acclimation period, adding in the extra minutes on the practice, for us right now, staying on the grass is a little bit safer overall from that standpoint, and pulling off the wear and tear. It’s kind of almost the same thing I said before, these guys getting into their stances and those ankles and the knees and the hip joints – I’m seeing a little bit more of that than anything right now. As we build the strength up in the legs, the hamstrings, the soft-tissue injuries – once we feel like we’re through that part of it in the training then (when we get) on the turf, we can just deal with the joints as opposed to soft tissue and joints.” On if WR Marvin Hall will practice today: “Yes, I expect Marvin to be out there, maybe see how everything goes, but nothing to report there.” On the balance between enhancing TE Hunter Bryant’s skill set and developing his developing blocking ability: “It’s a great point. I think there’s a great deal that he does well in the passing game, and we’ve been able to see a little bit of that. I think he’s done an outstanding job first and foremost of just taking advantage of his opportunity with maybe some of the other things that’s going on. He’s gotten out there with some of those groups and has really just done a great job. Certainly with tight ends, and the tight end role in the NFL right now, you need to make sure that those guys are multiple because if you make them one-dimensional then on the flip side of that defensively, you can just look at them as a certain type of player and the matchups become different. I think we like some of the pass-game stuff that we see with him and certain matchups, but maybe not in other matchups. So being able to have more of a balanced skill set is important. So we need to spend time on that. So obviously working on the things he does well, continuing to build on top of that, but really taking a look at the things that he needs to improve on to make sure that those are up to par also.” On the difficulty of gauging the team’s progress without preseason games: “It is kind of interesting to think about where we’d be right now in a normal schedule. We’d have probably two practices against an opponent in by now maybe, a couple joint practices, getting ready for the third preseason game. We’d probably have a lot of reps, a lot of volume and a lot of great evaluation tape. The part of it for us is that we’re in unnormal times. So we’re just trying to do the best we can to push forward, to get that evaluation in. Certainly from that standpoint, making sure that we build the players up in a safe manner before we get to that high-intensity competition. I think the biggest thing for us this year will be – there’s not as many shots at it for everybody involved to get it right, to really evaluate the guys and get it right. So all of the reps that we have are certainly critical. Every rep is going to be important for your evaluation, and that’s going to be really hard on everybody in the League to evaluate their players. One of the things we’re trying to do right now is trying to break down some of the drills into smaller group-type stuff so we can get good evaluations. We actually did a couple really good drills yesterday, and we got to see some guys’ skill sets that were isolated as opposed to doing it with all 22 on the field, where maybe there’s more legs, more bodies, more chance for injury, and just really trying to take a look at those individual skills sets and those individual matchups because sometimes on the roster you take a look at guys and say, ‘OK, these guys are in competition right now, how do we match them up against each other as much as possible to get an evaluation?’ So putting the guys in those scenarios is one of the ways we’re trying to get that done before we build up and get some pretty heavy competition.” On taking what he’s done in the past and applying it to this year: “The biggest part of it really is making sure that things that we’ve done against other opponents, maybe in the practice stuff and trying to figure out how do we get that into our own drills against each other safely, in a timeline we think is appropriate. Certainly we’re getting to that point, probably more next week where we’re kind of in that third preseason-game-mode, but it’s also far enough out before the first game. So there’s a little bit of a safety factor there for us too where we can go hard, kind of cut it loose and then move forward after that. Putting those drills in are really important and making sure that. Again, the biggest part of it for me that’s probably the biggest concern is special teams. That speed – the simulation of that speed, as much as we push it in practice, that straight out space and speed play with another color jersey and competition. It really goes to the next level. Another thing that we’re doing too, maybe this will help answer the question a little bit better, is we have a lot of tracking and smart data that is available to us. Some of these is called high-effort speeds and high-effort yardage percentages, and we’re looking at those to get a gauge of how well or how quickly our players are moving and how much that’s simulating game speed, the new take that into those drills and say, ‘OK this is a pretty accurate look to what it’ll be like in a game,’ or, ‘This drill is really not accurate enough as far as what it looks like in the game,’ then, ‘What’s the evaluation of that drill?’ Does that make sense?” |
