TE Mike Gesicki
(With QB Tua Tagovailoa back, was that the kind of game that you guys needed to see that he was ready to go and you guys move forward?) – “I don’t think we needed to see that from him. I think we know what we get from Tua. We saw it all week in practice. I’ve seen it for several years now with him being our guy. I think it’s just another step in the right direction.”
(The confidence level has always been there, is that what you’re saying? Before his injury?) – “Yeah. We’re not worried about anything. I mean, we know what we have in Tua.”
(Head coach Mike McDaniel said today that this is a team that can score. It’s also a team that’s begging you guys to overlook them. When you face an opponent like this, who has had their issues, what is the mindset going into this?) – “I mean, every single week – this is the National Football League, so everybody is extremely talented. Everybody’s coached well. It’s another week to try to improve in our stuff, and then go out there and attack a very good challenge for us in going against a good football team.”
(You mentioned a good challenge. Have you seen some things on film already, that this team is just one play away from really winning?) – “I think they’ve been one play away in a couple games. You don’t want to just focus on records and all that kind of stuff because it’s come down to the wire for them in several games. I think they play extremely hard. They’re well coached. They play physical. They’re tough. So there’s a lot of good things that they’re doing week in and week out.”
S Jevon Holland
(I guess we’ll see how deep this defense goes with you guys having unfortunate injuries every week. You guys have seemed to step it up so far.) – “Yeah, man. It’s tough. It’s the next-man-up mentality, but it’s tough to lose Brandon (Jones). But you’ve got to move on.”
(It’s clear how much you guys care for S Brandon Jones and everything he’s going through right now. Head Coach Mike McDaniel was telling us during the film, you guys would just every play you’d see from him, you’d look around and just feel really bad for the guy.) – “Yeah, he was in the meeting with us and it’s tough seeing them go out there fly around, and then unfortunately he’s sitting next to me hurt. But he’s come to terms with it. He’s ready to attack it just like Nik (Needham) is and just like Trill (Williams) did. It’s nice to see that he has a positive mindset and is attacking it forward. But it’s tough, for sure.”
(What do you see in the 1-5 Detroit Lions?) – “I see a good team. They’re a hard-working team. They fly to the ball. You can’t sleep on them at all. I’m excited to play them. I got teammates on there – Penei (Sewell) on that team, DeShon (Elliott) on that team – so I’m excited to see them and go out there and ball. I’ve never been to Detroit by the way, either.”
(Is there kind of like some consistency here? Like it’s kind of a relief that the first time in four weeks that the same quarterback is slated to start for you guys as the week before? Does that just sort of feel like the season’s a little bit back on track that way?) – “Honestly, for me, I’m like super tunnel vision, so I wasn’t even focused on that. I mean, my job as a defender is to get the ball back to the offense regardless of who’s back there commanding the helm. So whether it was Skylar (Thompson), Teddy (Bridgewater) or Tua (Tagovailoa), regardless I’m just going to try my best still. But having Tua back felt great, though. He was really slinging that thing out there. It was dope … it was awesome.”
LB Jaelan Phillips
(ESPN has you fifth among run-stop win rate among all edge defenders. How much do you feel you’ve grown in the area of edge-setting and run stopping?) – “Yeah, that definitely makes me happy because that’s really the main thing in the offseason that I was talking about and really trying to work on, and so I think I can continue to work on it. But I’m definitely proud of myself and happy that I’ve made some strides in the run game.”
(What was different about the defense this past week? Obviously you guys got those splash plays that we haven’t seen.) – “I don’t think there’s necessarily anything different. I just think it’s we capitalized on momentum. Obviously we came out there and did what we had to do, but the offense scored points. I think like I said, just capitalizing on the momentum and just playing hard, playing for each other.”
(I thought about something that Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer said a lot last year, which is that a TFL of minus-one has a similar value to the team as a sack for minus-one.) – “Yeah, because at the end of the day, it’s just getting negative plays. Anything where you can stunt their progress, that’s really just trying to make plays.”
(So my question is, does a tackle for loss – they’re probably similar in frequency to a sack, right?) – “Maybe a little more. Maybe a little more, I think.”
(Are they as exciting for you?) – “I mean, you saw I was juiced up after that, so yeah, I would say so. (laughter)”
(So DE Emmanuel Ogbah didn’t play last week. I don’t know if that impacted your total snaps. I know Head Coach Mike McDaniel referenced that you played a lot of snaps in particular in the fourth quarter. Hopefully Emmanuel comes back, but whenever one of the team’s edge rushers is unavailable, is that something that you’ve thought about? “Hey, I might have to give even a little more today?”) – “Well, I think the great thing is we have a lot of depth, and so even though Ogbah is down, we have guys who can come in and basically take that spot right away. So having ‘Gink’ (Andrew Van Ginkel) having more of a third-down, more of a pass-rushing opportunity, Melvin (Ingram), myself. I think that’s kind of the great thing about our defense, is pretty much everybody has the next-man-up mentality and everybody is ready to play whenever their number is called.”
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(Now that you’ve seen the film and had a few minutes to think it over a little more, I wanted to ask you again about how you judge when to lower your shoulder versus when to slide? How much is a risk-reward kind of thing coming into play as those plays are developing?) – “I looked at it. Obviously, I had my coaches telling me, ‘We don’t ever want you to do this.’ Obviously, I get that, coming off of the injury and what had happened prior with the concussion. But to me, it’s football. You go out there and for me, I can see the first down in instances, and want to do all that I can to go and get it. I don’t know. It’s football. I want to be able to continue making plays that I feel can contribute to moving the chains and helping our team. So whatever it takes for me, but then again, I’m going to tell you I’ve got to slide, I’ve got to do all of that. But instinctively, it’s just – I don’t know, it’s weird. It’s like a weird competitive thing.”
(How much can a second game back make a difference as someone who missed time, just having a home game under your belt and going back out a second time?) – “I think you start to get into a rhythm again. You start to get back into how your routine was coming off of the first week to the second week and then staying in that rhythm of doing things. So I think it’ll help a lot.”
(There was a moment in a pregame NBC interview that you did where you were talking about when you were first kind of being exposed to criticism at Alabama after the National Championship loss to Clemson, you said that you had spoken to like a mind coach or somebody. I was curious if you still speak to somebody to kind of work on that? And if not, what have you taken from that moment, that time, that you still keep to yourself now?) – “Of course, I definitely have someone that I speak to, and we have a routine of the times I talk to him, the days that I talk to him and things like that. But a lot of that has helped going through this entire process for myself, and it’s kind of helped, because a lot of the things that me and the person that I kind of have in my corner talk about is a lot of the things that (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) sort of reiterates, and Mike doesn’t even know who the guy is that I talk to. So I think that’s cool, and it helps me work on things that I need to work on in that sense.”
(When you look at the first drive on Sunday, how do you recreate that magic throughout the game this week?) – “Well, every game is different. We like to – our saying is, ‘Every play stands on its own merit.’ We like to think the same for every game. We understand that they’re a really good team. Obviously, their record doesn’t show but they play extremely hard, defensively, offensively and in the kicking game. They’re a really well-coached team. I’m speaking defensively, they play really hard. They’re well-coached. They run a variety of things that can confuse quarterbacks. So we’ll have to be prepared going up against these guys.”
(What have you seen from the Lions defense from a couple of days of film study?) – “Obviously, they’ve got their first-round draft pick (Aidan Hutchinson) who’s really looking comfortable, kind of fitting into their defensive scheme. We’ve seen some things that they do really well and we’re trying to nitpick on things that they don’t to try to give us in an advantage in this game. But they really – Jeff Okudah, a really good corner. He does a lot of good things, and you can see a lot of the traits that he has, you see them in really good corners. He’s really good getting his hands on receivers. He’s really good with sort of keeping track with fast guys or lanky guys once he gets his hands on them. So we’ll have to work our matchups, and then also, they’re a really good disguise team.”
(You mentioned they’re better than their record indicates. Do you have to remind guys to look at a team’s record when it’s a losing record?) – “I would say it’s not something that is necessarily spoken out in a locker room where guys are like, ‘Oh, this is going to be an easy win.’ But it’s never bad to remind the guys that this isn’t just like a college team we’re playing. These guys get paid too on the other side of the ball, whether you’re playing offense, defense or special teams. So I mean they’ve got some really good players. I know they’re still trying to figure out how to put everything together, but that doesn’t discredit a lot of the good things that they do.”
(I know you’re not in the receiver room per se, but we heard Wide Receivers Coach Wes Welker last week say WR Tyreek Hill tends to turn a lot of things into a competition – recognizing coverages, first to sit down, something like that. I was wondering if that’s something that you’ve noticed or participated in?) – “Well, yeah, he’s a very competitive person. I’ve known that since the day he came in, and whatever it is, ping pong – although the ping pong table is still not back. I don’t know, you guys have to ask Tyreek (Hill) about that. (laughter) In everything, the dude loves to play Fortnight – he’s very competitive in Fortnight, too. He loves to stream. (laughter) He wants to be the best streamer. I’m at least thinking he does, too. (laughter) But yeah, since I’ve met him, he’s been a very competitive person, always.”
(You guys are doing really well when you look at numbers like yards per play, yards per game, but the points per game aren’t matching up with the other two stats I cited. Where is the disconnect? What do you guys have to do better to get the points per game where you want it to be?) – “I think we’ve got to finish drives. At the end of the day, we’ve got to finish drives. I mean, we can march down the field to the 10-yard line and kick field goals every time, or we can march to the 30 (-yard line) and kick field goals every time, but I mean, that doesn’t matter if we’re not able to finish and put the ball in the end zone. So that’s something that we definitely got to hone-in on and we’ve got to get better with as far as communicating, executing and things like that.”
(We learned today about S Brandon Jones’ injury. When you were out, your teammates rallied behind you and wanted to win for you. Is this a similar scenario? Is this another motivation and added motivation to the team?) – “Yeah, I mean, Brandon (Jones) has – I don’t know how many of you guys talk to him, but Brandon has a pretty big impact on that defense. Outside of his impact on the defense, dudes love being around this guy. Whether it’s been on the ping pong table or just having a chat with this guy, guys rally around him. He’s a really good guy. He will definitely be missed. But I mean, for me, that’s my boy. His locker is next to mine, so that’s my guy. It sucks to see him go through that and his family have to go through that with him as well. But my thoughts and prayers are always with him, and (I’m) hoping that he can recover fast from this and come back stronger next year.”
(Your line kept you clean on Sunday night. What did you like about the protection?) – “Oh, I loved it. It was great. I think (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) schemed it up really well, too, only because we were getting the ball out quick. It was kind of hard, I think, for their d-line to get a feel with their rush patterns and then also get a feel of where the spot was for the quarterback. We were moving spots in the back there and not just catching the ball and dropping back. So I thought they did really well.”
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(Any updates on CB Kader Kohou or DB Keion Crossen? Are you optimistic about them practicing and playing this week?) – “I’m optimistic with those human beings, just knowing that we just have a good collection of players on this team that I can trust how bad they want to play. It killed them not to play in this last one, so I feel good about it in that if it’s feasible, they’ll make the outing. They’ve done a good job progressing. We’ll see.”
(I was curious with the trade deadline coming up next week. Can you kind of take us in a little bit into the dynamic between you and General Manager Chris Grier in terms of communicating potential moves or are you suggesting stuff to him? Is he kind of briefing you daily? How has that back and forth been going?) – “Absolutely not. (laughter) No, just a little insight. So I just kick the door in and say, ‘we need X, Y or Z.’ (laughter) No, it’s one of the best things about working in this role, in this organization, is my relationship with Chris (Grier). We’re both always just trying to do the best thing for the team. That is the flat line. We take that responsibility seriously, so he’s always looking into everything because it’s one of those type jobs where you spend time on the things that actually get done, probably one percent of what you’re actually working on, so he’s going through all that stuff constantly and then keeping me abreast when things are real enough or when he knows that it could potentially get real so we need to start talking about a decision. So those things are typically – every day of the week he’s talking about just something that’s going on or something that he’s heard from other teams or whatever unless it’s Tuesday. He always makes sure that he nor anybody else is bothering me on Tuesday. I haven’t heard from him yet today, but yesterday was Tuesday, so.”
(Not going with S Eric Rowe for S Brandon Jones on Sunday, was it about game day packages? With a week of prep, do you anticipate using those same packages that we saw against Pittsburgh or possibly moving Rowe into that spot?) – “Well, let me just tell you what we’re doing defensively this week. (laughter) No, it’s one of my favorite parts of the system, which I think it’s to the credit of all the defensive coaches starting with Josh (Boyer), with how they take people’s strengths and utilize them in a multitude of ways. From an offensive perspective, it makes it very difficult because you’ll see people move around and those packages are ever-changing week by week. Again, I’ll double down on it as a matter of fact. Eric (Rowe) had two of his best days of practice specifically at the end of last week and he’s doing some real good stuff. But it has to do with all the tools that you have in your toolbox and what you’re playing and why you’re playing it and what role they have to fit within that given set of circumstances. So I know he’ll be involved and that’s – if you want to just get the whole defensive game plan, we can just head down the hallway after this and knock that out. (laughter)”
(I know you want to look into and I know you were thinking about why the yards per play on offense are quite high and yards per game on offense are quite high, but points per game are not quite as high as those other categories. What are some things that you’ve come to realize and things that you think can change that moving forward?) – “I think – right before our very eyes – I feel it every game. You guys feel it and you don’t even know it that we’re doing a good job taking advantage of some explosive opportunities, which every team, every offense tries to do and that’s usually the hardest thing to get accomplished. But I think that’s the name of the game for good teams in this league; it’s the simplest formula, but it happens every single year and it seems like people miss it, which there’s so many distractions that occur. Just think about it from an individual standpoint. ‘Am I playing enough? How did I play this last game? Do I got extra family in town?’ All this stuff. The teams that are good get better during the season and it’s hard to because there’s so many other things that can take your mind and you’re tired. Six days a week for players, seven days a week. So all those things – when we’re better at our fundamentals within – and I’m talking about every position involved in the run game – when we’re collectively better at that, when we’re better at executing our fundamentals, I think you’ll start to feel – because there’s sometimes that we’ll go down and we won’t punt for three or four series consecutively and then you start punting for three possessions in a row. It’s because the fundamentals are a little off so when our game gets better – because I think most of those yards are a factor of our ability to get those chunk plays. We need to sustain drives more, be better in the red zone, better at all of it, which just comes down to being better. And you’re not given that. You earn it.”
(Just an update on S Brandon Jones placed on IR yesterday. Is this something do you expect to keep him out for the rest of the season?) – “Yeah, it was his ACL and yeah, I’m not planning for him to return this season, which you really – in situations like this – I feel terrible. (I feel) absolutely terrible for a guy that was playing at a very, very high level. The good news about him in particular is when things like this happen to people like him, they tend to come out finding a way to be better somehow someway. Today, this morning, watching it with the team, watching some of our game and putting it to bed, you could hear like the hurt with the team when his highlights would come on because there were a ton of them. I do know that people like him end up finding a way to be even better than they were before, but it’s a shame because I don’t think he’ll – it’s hard to give the credit to what he was doing or that it deserves, to what he was doing on the field, for our group. The whole team definitely felt that.”
(I wanted to ask you about WR Cedrick Wilson Jr. He’s been on the field for I think about a fifth of your offensive snaps. Is it just a matter of you guys have a ton of weapons? Is there something he could be doing better?) – “No, he’s progressing in the offense. There was also a portion of the season that he got a little dinged up with his ribs that he was playing through and we were kind of limited in his usage there. But given circumstances with – it’s less about what he hasn’t done. He’s getting better and better every week, and he’ll continue to become more and more featured within our offense. But it’s not about what he hasn’t done and more about what a guy like Trent Sherfield has done. Those are things that you don’t go into a season – that’s why I don’t magnetize and stare at depth charts, because that’s a very fluid thing. When you’re asking players to sacrifice all that they sacrifice and when they’re putting themselves on the line, they have to know that it’s not only appreciated, but the bottom line will be whatever is on the tape that given week will get more opportunities to be on tape because those guys are going to get the most opportunities. So he’ll continue to progress his role. I’m comfortable with where he’s at in working on his game and should expect to see more from him. I’m expecting that and I think he’s expecting that as the season progresses.”
(It’s been pretty eye opening to see the numbers WR Tyreek Hill and WR Jaylen Waddle have put up. I know you had a high expectation for them coming in, but has anything they’ve done as a duo surprised you or stood out at this point in the season?) – “I think their acceptance of the burden that is high expectations. A lot of people feel as though it’s a gift, or it’s so cool. What if you wanted to be a star player? Well, star players have to really put the most on their shoulders with their given preparation each week. They can’t afford to have to just take a game off. And then when pressure situations happen, they have to perform. I think their commitment and yearning for wanting to be in conversations for duos and stuff and all of those things, that has been the most surprising on the field. And with that, they’ve also been extremely coachable. I don’t think we’ve seen nearly the best from them in terms of, I don’t know about numbers, but you talk about them being able to make plays that other people can’t and I don’t think we’ve totally seen all that even yet. I think they would agree with that and that’s been surprising, because you just don’t know until you know. They are great athletes, but more than that, they’re committed teammates and they have a lot of commitment from a ton of people in that locker room that are doing all of the right things so that they can have that production. So it’s cool for the whole team.”
(You mentioned coachable for those guys. WR Tyreek Hill kind of raved about the scheme, helping them, and him in particular, have a lot of success. I’m curious what it’s been like for you as a play-caller?) – “He just does that just so you can get more targets – smart business play. (laughter) I think it’s adapting to really the circumstances. You’re trying to solve a puzzle, and that’s ever evolving. And that’s different defensive presentations and what the guys are good at. But also, I think it’s always funny when players talk about scheme. They are part of the scheme. The only reason the scheme is existing is because they’re executing it, and somebody has to learn it. And we – if you guys haven’t noticed, we motion a ton. We have a ton of different formations that can give defenses – the intent is, they’d have to speak on if they actually do, but the intent is to give trouble to the defense. Well, that can be trouble for an offense if you let it. I think they’re coming into their own, really, as professionals too, understanding how you have to approach that, how they have to commit for the scheme to look anything like it like it does and then just how to go about their business and the impact they have on their other teammates and how they prepare. But they are as part of the scheme as anybody.”
(What’s your message to the team this week just about the Lions, make sure this isn’t overlooked? Obviously, it’s a team that’s struggled so far this season.) – “It goes to one of the lessons that is almost weekly that is really close to all of my fundamental pillars of belief of the game of football is, whatever people want to say, we’re defined by our tape and the stuff that we do on Sundays. That is the record that will leave how we do things and what we do on tape. So when I look at the Detroit Lions tape, all I see is a team that makes a lot of plays on offense that fortunately for the opponents, they have made some mistakes along the way. But they are one game away from being as good on offense production-wise as anybody in the league. And then defensively, I was actually surprised. I try not to look at any statistical stuff until I’ve at least taken a couple of games, and I was surprised at the numbers, because the tape is a competitive, fully committed unit that you see strain and activity and disruption the entire game. So it’s pretty easy for me with the team, because they’ve gotten used to me by now where I’m just going to bombard them with tape and let that set the story for what we’re playing. Maybe a lot of people don’t really realize it, but you cut the tape on, you see some things that are as good as anybody that we’ve played in certain areas, and that they’re hoping – they’re begging for us to take them lightly. A team like that with tape will take like that, I don’t think anybody has any plans to take this team lightly whatsoever.”
(DE Emmanuel Ogbah, how’s he doing?) – “He’s doing better. He really – we knew the game before that he was going to have to have a big game from how we were going to operate as a defense. He rose to the challenge and got nicked in the process but hoping that we’re going to get him back on the field here soon. (I’m) optimistic about Sunday, just because I know where his game was at. He was in a really good place, and he wants to get back there as soon as possible. So I know he’ll do whatever it takes.”
