OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR PRESS TAYLOR
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022
(On what getting a win in the rough conditions on Thursday show him about the offense) “That’s kind of
what we talked about day one when we met. We don’t have a name for the style of offense we are. We
want to be whatever we need to be to win a game. We kind of knew in those conditions we needed to
run the football and do that well, and we needed a short passing game to play in the wind and the
weather and things like that, so we’ve kind of grown to a team, an offense at least, that can play
whatever type of game that is necessary to win. If we need to go out and throw it, we need to be able to
do that. If we need to hammer the ball, run the ball, protect the football in a game like that or a
situation like that, that’s what we want to be able to do. Whether they know it or not as a defense,
that’s how we want to execute. I think it shows growth as an offense from that standpoint, but it’s all
part of a continuing process.”
(On his impressions of OL Walker Little) “I thought he did a really good job. It wasn’t easy. Those are
good pass rushers over there in New York. Carl Lawson (DE) does a good job. John Franklin-Myers (DE).
Those guys are good players. We’re not in a ton of positions where we had to drop back and throw the
ball, so that’s something you still want to continue to see from Walker in the development of it, but in
terms of handling the elements, handling good pass rushers, having to run the ball, dropping back on
third down when we needed to throw it and things like that, I thought he did a good job.”
(On the turning point of WR Christian Kirk being the go-to to adding in TE Evan Engram and WR Zay
Jones) “I don’t really think there was a concerted effort in any way, shape, or form. We felt like we were
always built that way. Christian had had the bigger games early on, but we felt like we had anybody at
any moment that could do it. I think we’re one of two teams, at least we were a couple weeks ago, that
had four different players with over 100 yards receiving. That’s something we feel like we’ve got the
guys to do it. Obviously, Christian, Zay, and Evan have really been the targets and the talk about, but we
feel like Marvin Jones (WR) can go off at any moment, and he’s done that in games. Jamal Agnew (WR),
Dan Arnold (TE), these guys that, given the right opportunity or right situation within a game can have
explosive games for us. I think part of it is just Trevor (QB Trevor Lawrence) operating the offense. The
ball finds who the ball needs to find based on the way the defense plays us for any particular play. As
he’s efficient running the show, that’s what we envision. We envision all five eligible being a target at
any given time and the ball going to the right guy.”
(On if it was the rise of QB Trevor Lawrence or the rise of the receivers and tight ends that brought the
major improvements) “Probably all of it. All of it combined at the right time, I guess, but certainly
Trevor. That’s maybe 1a of it. Trevor’s comfort with the offense, maybe even us as game planners and
play callers having a feel for what everybody’s really good at as we go through this. You have an idea of
what you think you’re going to be going into a season, going into each game, and everything kind of
takes on a life of its own and expresses itself a certain way, so you’ve got to be able to adjust and adapt
to that, and I think we’ve done that. As Trevor gets more and more comfortable, trusts the system,
trusts what he’s seeing, plays with conviction, plays with confidence he’s kind of playing with right now,
then everybody gets involved, and everybody gets a little piece, and that’s what we want to be as an
offense.”
(On what he learned last year about getting a team ready to play against a team that isn’t playing for
anything) “It’s this league. You talk about it’s season to season, week to week, game to game, drive to
drive. It doesn’t matter. If you don’t approach this the right way, you’re going to get humbled quickly.
We know that. That’s happened to us as an offense, as a team this season. Regardless of the outside
noise of what’s on the horizon, what’s next week, what’s this, I think we’ve done a good job of keeping
our guys—part of it is the type of people that we have on our team—staying focused. All we can control
is how we practice on Thursday today. We have no control over what’s going to happen on Sunday or
anything like that at this point in time. Let’s do everything we can to prepare ourselves to have the best
possible Thursday practice, get things cleaned up, ironed out, continue to move forward, and when
tomorrow comes up, we’ll be ready for it. We’ll take care of it.”
(On challenges of bringing in multiple new receivers to the offense) “It really starts, really this whole
group, the core group was here since day one. The day we put in our first pass concept, all these guys
that are really having an impact for us were in the room at the same time. We’ve kind of built this thing,
and it’s morphed and evolved into what we feel like puts everybody into the best possible position. The
biggest part of this thing is the character of those guys. The guys that are involved, the quarterback,
everybody being able to handle a lot of things. We can put a lot on their plate because they’re
professional in their approach, their day-to-day process, the way they play, the way they can adjust
within the game, then they’re also specifically targeted for everything we knew about them. We felt like
coming into this thing, we have a young quarterback that needs a ton of reps. We targeted guys that
from everything we knew were always available, loved to practice, loved the process, time where we
could get time on task on the side, then we kind of knew through our course of time together that those
reps would take over and would start to see itself manifest now where the chemistry seems like it’s
super high. If you’ve got guys that are often injured and can’t practice, missing reps, or taking
themselves out, you’re not going to get that for a young quarterback that needs that. So that was a big
part of it. We’ve had some challenges we’ve had to overcome, we’ve worked through it together, and
everybody’s just kind of hung together, and you’re starting to see that pay off late in the season.”
(On how frustrating the first Texans game was offensively and what can be learned for this week) “The
biggest thing, the first play I think of obviously is the turnover in the red zone. You cannot ever take off
an opportunity to get points on the board. If that drive stalls out, you’re kicking a 32-yard field goal,
getting three points, which in a game like that that was kind of a slug fest there, that’s what you need.
You need every point. So we took points off the board. We took an opportunity to get points off the
board there, so that’s the first thing you think of, but then, you just go through and you watch little
miscues whether is was we barely missed a pass, we dropped a pass, we were wrong on a progression,
we were slow on a progression, whatever that may be, it just feels like that was a long time ago. We’ve
grown a lot since then, but like anything, that Week 5 matchup has nothing to do with this week. We
don’t get to carry that over, the good, the bad. In that situation, it’s a good thing we don’t get to carry
that over because that wasn’t our best foot forward. The same thing, the success we’ve had the last
couple weeks, that doesn’t carry into this. You’ve got to show up, you’ve got to perform. You’ve got
three hours on Sunday to execute your best.”
(On how the Texans defense has changed since Week 5) “Obviously they’re better at what they do. They
haven’t changed schematically a ton, and that’s kind of the same they were last year under Coach Smith.
I think everybody just gets better. You get more time on task. You get more, in their defense, more looks
at repping against the way teams are trying to attack you. You see the same types of pass concepts as
things go. It’s still primarily a zone coverage unit. We obviously got a ton of Tampa Two in that game,
which was even more out of the ordinary than they’d done because we couldn’t ever get them out of it.
We didn’t execute well enough to get them to feel like they needed to play something different. That’s
kind of the chess match going into this thing, how much are we going to get of this, how much of that,
how much are we going to get of the single high zones that we see on tape. You are kind of playing back
and forth, you’ve got to have enough ammo to be able to answer whatever they want to play.”
(On what they have to do to get them out of Tampa 2 coverage) “If you have a two-high shell, you’d love
to say you’re going to run really well. They do a good job moving their front, the backers playing
downhill, the safeties filling from depth and making plays. You want to make them pay in the run game,
obviously, but we need to be better, more efficient in the pass game. There were things we felt like we
had that we missed. There were things that maybe we wish we had a few more answers, a few more
concepts that we could’ve gotten to just because we were missing certain things, let’s go to something
else rather than keep trying to hit this and coming up short. Maybe we go down to something else and
move forward or maybe we just weren’t great on the details of the play or the progression of the play or
whatever it may be of just consistently staying on the field, moving the football, to force them to feel
like they need to do something else.”
(On how encouraging it is to have a top-five success-rate offense with a young quarterback) “Anytime
you have success, it kind of breeds that confidence in the guys to, first of all, trust the process, and we
feel like that’s kind of what we get to do every single week is test our process. From a coaching staff,
from players themselves, to ourselves as a unit. To be able to put that out there, have success, feel like
we had success, it kind of gets a little bit more buy-in from our guys. I couldn’t be happier with the
group of guys we have and the way they’ve bought in to the process and the way they just attack each
week. Obviously it’s fun to have the success, but ultimately, we’re just trying to do whatever it takes to
win the game. If that means we need to go move the ball a couple times and punt to change field
position, if that’s what it takes to win the game that week, we’d love to. I’d love to tell you that every
play is going to score a touchdown. That’s the ultimate success for us. There’s always more to chase out
there, and we certainly want to continue to do that.”
(On how TE Evan Engram has grown and developed into this offense) “Kind of the same thing. I don’t
know that necessarily something changed in terms of it became a priority to target him. We felt like he
was playing really good ball early on and doing whatever was asked of him. There’s always plays in the
plan for him whether they got called, they got executed, whatever that may be, it just didn’t work out.
Then all of the sudden, the first Tennessee game he just kind of became the hot hand, got rolling, the
ball kept finding him based on the way the defense played him, concepts just ended up going to him. He
was producing. I don’t know that there was some concerted effort to get this guy going, but he made
the most of his opportunities. I think the other night he had over 100, I believe, receiving, and I don’t
think we threw him a pass past 7 yards. That’s a lot of him going and creating these plays and Trevor (QB
Trevor Lawrence) being efficient with it and taking what the defense is giving him, then Evan using his
skillset, and the guys around him have given him that opportunity to go do what he does well.”
(On TE Evan Engram’s hard work and character) “Absolutely. He is one of the most locked-in players we
have on our offense in terms of doing extra, being committed to his craft. The other day we were at
Episcopal, yesterday, I was sitting on the bus, and I just remember looking out as guys were finishing up
doing extra, Evan is on one knee catching tennis ball machines, just over emphasizing his technique of
looking it into his hands. It’s the extra that he does. He loves it. I think he’s truly committed to being as
good as he can possibly be. It’s fun to see a guy like that have success. That’s kind of who you root for.”
(On the leadership that TE Evan Engram shows for the rest of the team) “Honestly, I think we have a lot
of guys that are like that, but it is great for the people that are going to be brought into this organization
in the future, the young players that are looking for somebody to follow. It’s not just Evan, it’s across the
board on offense of guys in different rooms I could point out and setting a standard for how we want to
be as an offense and how we want to continue to work.”
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR MIKE CALDWELL
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022
(On replacing DL Dawuane Smoot) “It’s going to be tough. He’s one of the guys that we look to to make
plays and we just have to have the next man up mentality. We’ve got a couple guys that are ready to
step in and get an opportunity to play, but Smoot, he did a great job for us, and we wish him a speedy
recovery and get him back soon.”
(On where he is looking to find someone to fill that defensive spot) “Really, there’s a bunch of guys that
will have an opportunity. Could be Dixon (OLB De’Shaan Dixon), definitely K’Lavon (OLB K’Lavon
Chaisson) will have an opportunity, but whoever we have, like we said, next man up will get the
opportunity.”
(On what he sees out of K’Lavon Chaisson) “Really, what you see, a very intelligent player. He knows the
system, and he’s working on his craft. Daily he goes out there. He had the setback with the injury; now
he’s back healthy, continuing to work. He’s just a guy that, given this opportunity, he has to take
advantage of it. Hopefully, we’re looking forward to him doing it.”
(On if he sees OLB K’Lavon Chaisson as a first-round pick since he was not here when he was drafted) “I
see the talent. You see the speed, you see the size, you see the ability. He can drop into coverage. He
can rush the passer. There’s so much ability there, you can see why he was drafted there, just time for
him to become the player that he was in college, become that player now.”
(On if he has ever coached a highly-rated player who underperformed then transformed into a great
player) “A lot of times you have guys that are drafted at a certain spot then certain things happen,
whether it’s injuries or they come in with a veteran guy in front of them. Just different things. You really
can’t compare guys or put guys in the same position as other guys, but K’Lavon (OLB K’Lavon Chaisson),
what we see from him, we like it. We like the way he comes to practice. We like the way he works, and
we like what he does on the field. Hopefully he can do it more now.”
(On how CB Darious Williams has played and what he means to the defense) “It really goes hand in
hand. D Will, he’s really done a great job the last couple weeks and early on in the season. It’s a pass
rush with a coverage. He has tight coverage and allows the pass rush to get there. When the pass rush
gets there, it helps him out in coverage, so it goes hand in hand, but he’s doing a good job for us, and
we’re happy.”
(On why CB Darious Williams seems to excel more on the outside) “I think really, like we talked about,
it’s a combination of pass rush, speeding up the quarterback, the ball coming out on time, but I think he
feels comfortable in there. He’s able to study one opponent, study him at one position, where inside,
you’re playing left, you’re playing right, you’re playing with stacks, you’ve got guys crossing. Now he is
able to just sit back, study his opponent, understand where he’s going to be, and he does a good job of
taking that away.”
(On if those are the things they saw on tape from CB Darious Williams before they brought him here)
“Really the thing when we saw him, we saw a free agent that had skills to cover, and we just wanted to
get him here. Get him here and let him, whether he plays inside or plays outside depending on how the
rest of the guys are doing, just have somebody that can go out there that we like his skillset and let him
go out and play.”
(On how big of a lift it will be if OLB Travon Walker can play this week) “It’s always big. Just to get him
back in the locker room, get him back on the field instead of on the sideline rehabbing, just get him
back, I think it will be a boost for the guys because it’s just the way he makes plays, the way he plays
physical, it adds a boost of energy to the team, and to get him back would be great. Hopefully he comes
back.”
(On what he has seen from LB Devin Lloyd now that he has been playing more again) “I think Devin, he’s
starting to play like he was earlier in the season. Plays are starting to slow down for him. He’s making
adjustments. He’s making moves. Him and Chad (LB Chad Muma) are really just going in there, they’re
rotating, and both guys are playing well for us, so we’re happy with that position.”
(On how difficult the jump from college to pros is for linebackers) “Really, when I look at it, the college
game is a lateral game. Everybody is four and five receivers, they’re going sideways all the time, zone
read here, zone read there. In the NFL, they do run the ball at you a little bit more, so it’s an adjustment.
You have to read. You have to see pulling guards where in college, you really just see ball, go get ball. It
kind of helps when you’re able to slow it down, understand, read your keys, and learn how to play
linebacker in the NFL. Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes guys grab onto it real quick. Those two
guys are doing a good job of picking up what we need them to do.”
(On how he prepares for an offense that may go with two quarterbacks) “It’s kind of tough because you
have to find out, you really have two game plans when 6 is back there and when 10 is back there, just
understand who’s back there, what they like to do out of certain formations, what they like to do when
one quarterback is in or if the quarterback is split out. Is he a threat or is he not a threat? Just different
ways that they try to affect the defense, but we’ll have a plan for both guys, go out and try to execute
it.”
(On if there is something that has sparked the interior defensive line) “I think when you go back and look
at those guys, those guys worked hard. In practice you see it. They’re on the sideline before practice,
during practice, getting extra work in. I think it’s paid off. Those guys are penetrating their gaps, pushing
the pocket, and handling the run game, which that’s what we stress, and they’re doing a great job of it.”
(On if anything has been changed schematically) “A lot of times people talk about scheme a bunch, but
what we do is what we do, whether you’re doing it from a three technique or you’re doing it from a five
technique or doing it from a shade. That technique is going to be that technique. I think they’re getting
to the point where they’re trusting a technique, and they’re believing in it, they’re putting their abilities
into it, and it’s paying off for them.”
(On how he has seen the growth and confidence from players who came in with less experience) “I
think, first thing, like you said, the confidence. They know that they’re good players, and they’ve been
good players all their lives. Now they believe in it, and the scheme is the scheme. You’re going to go out
there, whether you’re playing the three, or you’re playing a two gap. We don’t ask guys to two gap. We
let them understand that we’re going to allow you to get up field, get off the ball, wreak havoc.
They’re trusting that, and they’re doing it, and it’s paying off for them.”
