Thursday, October 3, 2024
WR Odell Beckham Jr.
(General Manager Chris Grier had told us in late August that you wanted to start the season on the active roster. Was there a benefit in waiting? Does the knee feel better?) – “I think a lot of people don’t know exactly what I was going through. Just like everybody in here, we’re all humans. We all go through life. And ending the season, there was a lot going on in my life, personal life, businesses, all of that, that just kind of had me in a place where football wasn’t exactly the priority. I have a son, he’s two years old and I didn’t get much time to spend with him. I feel like he’s growing up fast and I’m not having that much time, so football exactly wasn’t the first and foremost thing on my mind. Then I had to have a small cleanup of the knee and just kind of going through that free agency process – my agent and I went back and forth whether we do it right after the season or we wait until free agency happens and I just feel like I waited too late, didn’t know what was going on. Deep down inside my plan along time ago the way that the free agency went, I was probably going to join a team during the season. So I had more time, there wasn’t going to be the pressure to be back for training camp and all that. So just talking with Mike (McDaniel), just figuring out where I wanted to go and the conversations I had with him along with some other brothers that I have down here, he was one of the main reasons I came here. We kind of had an understanding of probably not going to be ready. He ensured me that that was fine, just try and get back as fast as you can. And a lot of people don’t know what the PUP list is or what it actually entails. You see a lot of people, ‘Oh, are you even going to play football?’ This is just me from the bottom – I could be anywhere in the world right now. I chose to be here, to play football in the NFL. I could be overseas anywhere. I could be doing whatever I want, I’ve done enough in my life to where I’ve warranted that for myself. So I chose to be here. I hate the feeling of walking around this building, and you’re hurt, and PUP list means I can’t practice with the team. So I can’t practice with the team, be on the field, I can’t play the first four games – it’s a rule, it’s very simple. So it’s just something that I kind of had to follow. Not what I wanted to do, but for me it was a selfless act because if I’m not on the PUP list, I’m taking up a roster spot, which means I’m taking someone else’s job and I’m not doing anything. It’s not really a good feeling to have, so it was what’s best for this team and organization and that’s something that – it was an easy decision for us.”
(Were you itching to get back all this time?) – “Yeah, I’ll be honest – like I said, I don’t want to be walking around this building, waking up 7:00, 6:45 a.m. to just come in here from 7:00 to 5:00 o’clock. Like I said, there’s a lot of things I could be doing with my life. So football is still something that I love to do, it just was an unfortunate situation that I was in. I was kind of behind the eight ball, not really knowing if this was what I wanted to do or anything like that, but being able to be back in the building, to be back on the field, it was a lot of hard work. People don’t know what I’ve gone through with this knee because I don’t come out and make excuses for myself. I just put my cleats on, continue to work. I think at the end of the day, when my career is all said and done, I wanted to be the best receiver and all these things, but I think my story is going to be more about resiliency and just showing kids if it’s something you want, you always got to fight for it. You always can find your way back, so that’s really just kind of what it’s been for me.”
(How is it being back out there with your teammates, full pads and everything? How exciting was it to kind of be in that groove of things and just, that’s it?) – “I mean it was very exciting for me. It was very – I don’t know the right word, but just humbling or whatever it was to be back out there. I felt very grateful because I remember what it was like when I felt like I couldn’t walk during the offseason – I sure couldn’t run, couldn’t work out. Just being able to be back out there, be back out there with these guys who put in so much work, it’s what I’ve been waiting on. I didn’t sign over here to walk – cafeteria has great food and all that, but I didn’t sign over here to come walk around in this building. (laughter) I wanted to be a part of something special. Duke Riley and Jalen Ramsey are brothers of mine and they told me how special this place was and to come over here and see that, that’s what I came here for. I came here to play football, so for all the people who are listening and don’t understand that, that’s what I came here to do.”
(How explosive did you feel in today’s practice?) – “I felt pretty good. The old guy can still run a little bit, so I felt good. I think I feel obviously a bit out of football shape in a sense, but just like everything else, it comes with repetition and just being able to get out there and run around. I don’t think the people understand how much joy that is, to be able to not even stretch and I can go out there and just take off running. It’s been a long journey with me and things I’ve had to encounter in my career, so just being able to get out there felt great.”
(How challenging is it to just watch the last four weeks through the struggles the offense has had? And how much of a difference do you think you can make?) – “I’m a part of this, so it doesn’t feel good. To me, it feels even worse – I would have rather us been 4-0 right now, and then I’d feel like ‘Oh, I can’t wait to get in,’ instead of where we’re at and feeling like I should have been out there battling with them win, lose or draw. That’s the hardest part of sitting out and not being able to help. So like I said, I’m just excited to get back out there. Whenever that is, just coming up with a game plan, ease me back into it and then it’s just play ball. It’s a long season, no need to get down. If you’ve played as long as I’ve played, you know how these seasons can go however which way you want.”
(General Manager Chris Grier said he had to fight you to put you on PUP to start this season. Did you feel ready to go from Week 1?) – “I don’t know if you can just say ready, but I was ready to have my training camp at that time. Like it’s harder to then be on PUP meaning I can’t practice with the team. I’m having to do work here and then leave and go do work with trainers and Gold Feet and all that. I would have rather been able to compete and battle and all of those things. I miss that part of earning your brothers’, your teammates’ respect – that’s what I came here to do. That’s one of the major things that I can see myself wanting to prove.”
(Are you expecting to play Sunday?) – “I don’t know, you got to ask Coach (Mike McDaniel).”
(Just on the timing of it, just to make sure we have it accurate, was the surgery March, April? What month was it?) – “It was sometime in the offseason.”
(Given the situation where the team is record wise and you’re saying, ‘Oh, you wish we could have been 4-0,’ do you think there is added pressure with you coming back? Do you think it’s something that for yourself?) – “I think at this point in my life, pressure is why I got into this game. It was never for the attention, because something about knowing that it’s time to perform and then showing up and performing, truly. It wasn’t for cameras and Instagram followers and endorsements, like all that is something I didn’t really know about, you know what I mean? It was for the pressure. So for me, I’ll take on the pressure, but I don’t feel there’s a need – I don’t feel there’s extra pressure on me. I feel it’s the same for everybody in this building like we got to get going. We got to start making plays. Defense has been playing great, offense it’s our time. Like we got to take over. There’s a reason I came to this offense. It’s because I’ve seen what they did all last year. Two games away from being the one seed. I was over there in Baltimore when we, not we, lost to Tennessee last year. I remember what it was like. So it’s a bunch of great things. It’s no time to panic, but it’s definitely time to have a sense of urgency.”
(Are you able to ignore the people who said “Oh, he’s just here for a paycheck,” or did that bother you personally?) – “Respectfully, it sounds messed up so it’s going to be a bad quote, but I’m not getting paid a crazy amount of dollars. I could be making money if I had more time elsewhere outside of this building. A lot of my contract is incentives-based so that means I have to reach certain numbers to be able to get that money. So for me, respectfully, I don’t really care for opinion. I care for my son. I care for my close family. I’ve grown so far past that because at the end of the day, you could be the most perfect person in the world, say the most perfect quotes and all that, there’s still somebody out there who’s going to hate on you. So it’s not point in getting yourself caught up over that. I’ve said the quote – Purell hand sanitizer cleans 99.9 percent of germs. There’s always still going to be that little something, you know what I mean? (laughter) So there’s just no point in worrying about someone’s opinion and all that, like I’ll never see some of y’all in my life again. You have an account with zero posts and 89 followers and whatever. Congrats, enjoy your life, I’m going to enjoy mine. I’m so far past someone’s opinion of me; I know who I am. I always say, I know where I live so I never need to address anything.”
(How did it feel with QB Tyler Huntley out there, the connection?) – “That’s my dude. We were in Baltimore all year actually. It’s funny because he threw me my first touchdown over in Baltimore. So we were always in meetings, whenever Chef would be in town I would bring him lunch – him and Lamar (Jackson) lunch. Like this is somebody I went through a whole year with and training camp and all that, we’re very close. So just to see him get his opportunity – it’s always unfortunate the way the opportunities happen like that, but just to see him have an opportunity and to be more comfortable. This is not – I don’t think people understand, if there’s any position someone can sign to and come to a team and play and ball out, quarterback is by far the hardest. And this one of the most complex offenses that is in the league so I think he did a very good job. I think that everyone around him has to help him out, and like I said, there’s just got to be a sense of urgency. It doesn’t need to be time to panic or anything, but definitely a sense of urgency.”
(How much interaction have you had with QB Tua Tagovailoa? It’s kind of been like you on PUP and now he’s out so?) – “We’ve been kicking it every day. We go over there and go over the plays and just got an opportunity to even just sit down and just talk life, things outside of football. This is a part of our life, and yeah, we put everything into it, but there’s a lot of life. He’s got kids, he’s got family. Everyone’s got family for the most part, so just being able to talk life with him, talk ball, it’s been great. He’s a great human and you don’t get to say that about just everybody, so he’s a great human. I enjoyed that time that I had to kick it with him and we’re all wanting him to get back and healthy.”
(Obviously, we hear how much you hang out with QB Tua Tagovailoa off the field, but what is that chemistry building process been like as you try to balance with acclimating to the offense while also just rehabbing and getting healthy?) – “It’s hard. Again like I said, I’m not one to complain or put my business out there because I just think people are not going to care, but I’ve been through a lot in my career. Started when my ankle shattered in 2017 and my doc was like, ‘You know, a lot of people don’t ever come back from this,’ to sports hernia surgery to tearing my ACL to not playing with an ACL the whole year, tearing it in the Super Bowl – I’ve been through a lot. So it was hard to balance, OK I need to do this work, take care of the knee, not overdrive it but then also need to get in this. So it’s just been a balancing act. Like everything else it’s a process, but I’ve been enjoying it, the ups and the downs, the hard part of life and I’m still here.”
(Just bonding with WR Tyreek Hill and WR Jaylen Waddle, kind of building that camaraderie, too, how important has that been? How great has that been for you just kind of getting out there with them?) – “Yeah, for sure. I mean, we’ve been able to kick it. It’s not like because I’m on PUP I can’t see them, but our time zones, we’re on different time zones – I’m overseas and they’re in America. They’re going out to practice, I’m doing all of my work. So we’re just – the crossing each other was really mainly in early on settings because I can’t go out onto the field. This is my two-and-a-half hours to get everything in, so I’m a very time-efficient person and made sure I wanted to use up all that time. But being able to be with those guys, I just have never seen anything like ‘10’ (Tyreek Hill) and (Jaylen) Waddle is obviously special, but these two guys are tremendous. I think they were top five in the league last year or whatever it is. It’s just a special talent so just being able to – Coach (McDaniel) and I talked – like I came here to be able to help them out, take some of the load off of them and then just being able to let them do their thing at the same time. So like I said, it’s not about panicking; it’s about a sense of urgency and it’s time for us to come out and get a win.”
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver
(One random question that I get several times from readers asking about could LB Channing Tindall play the edge, obviously with LB Jaelan Phillips going down. Is there something about his skill set – knowing that he’s behind four veteran inside linebackers, is there something about his skillset that you and Linebackers/Run Game Coordinator Joe Barry have determined would not make him the ideal fit outside even though there is a need there, even though he had pass rush success at Georgia?) – “Particularly with how we view the outside backer position, it’s more just a physical attribute matchup which is why that wouldn’t work. He’s like 230 pounds, he’s relying on speed. We need guys that can set the edge and obviously have some coverage flexibility, but first and foremost their primary job is to set the edge in the run game, and that would be asking a lot of that kid.”
(You losing like a guy like LB Jaelan Phillips, so much stuff that’s happening – what week are we win? It’s been a lot, so how are you guys adjusting again to another, not necessarily setback because everyone is going to have to step up as usual, but how do you deal with that?) – “Well first off, heart goes off to Jaelan (Phillips). Just know the work he’s put in, the mindset he has, how important he is to our unit – you hate to see anything like that happen to any player, particularly one of that magnitude. For us as a defense, shoot, this is the National Football League. Last time that I checked, I don’t think I’m going to be getting any sympathy cards from anybody on the Patriots. It’s our job to collectively as a group, both coaches and players, to step up our game to fill that void with him not out there, and I think we got the guys that can go out there and do that.”
(I want to ask you individually about the guys that will be asked to step up – LB Quinton Bell, LB Mohamed Kamara, LB Chop Robinson. I don’t want to ask you to name a starter right now, but what exactly do you like form each one of them? What do they give you?) – “They all have their special skills and attributes that are each are kind of unique to them. I think Quinton (Bell) is very versatile in the fact that he can drop into coverage, you can rush him from multiple spots, he is a firm edge setter. I think he’s still trying to refine and figure out who he is as a pass rusher, but he does a lot of things well. The two rookies, they’re still trying to feel their way and trying to understand the league a little bit. Chop (Robinson) has obviously had more at bats at that, and you see his confidence growing with what we’re asking him to do weekly. Are there ups and downs like the stock market a little bit? Sure – it’s like that with every rookie. But where we need him – obviously when you lose a Jaelan Phillips where he needs to be most impactful, which is the primary reason we drafted him, is to affect the passer. Sometimes you don’t necessarily see that in sack production, but he needs to be there and that guy needs to feel him. Then Mohamed (Kamara), I see Mohamed like you want him to be an enforcer. He’s a guy that’s rugged, tough. You talk about he should be a firm edge setter, be able to reduce him to a three technique and rush him there if need be, but he needs to be like your topflight security of the world. (laughter) He needs to be the protector and be the enforcer on the field, and I’ve kind of tasked him with that since he’s been here.”
(A philosophy question regarding the play before the half with WR Tyler Boyd. You guys were kind of in an umbrella coverage type. What’s your thought on that specific play and general philosophy – is it better to rush the quarterback or sit back?) – “Situationally right there, obviously they had no timeouts. So you’d like to tackle them inbounds and ideally keep them out of field goal range. So what we did was we rushed three and we played a coverage with outside leverage where everybody was man with outside leverage, and you had two safeties sitting in that dig, dagger window which is where most offenses try to attack you. Our mistake, and this is coming from a coaching standpoint, instead of letting those guys play deep and then work up, we moved them up. Then what happens offensively they do some smart stuff. They dangle a little cheese in front of you which makes you move up a little more and then they hit the window behind you. So we’ve got to do a better job obviously in those special situations of winning there, both from a coaching and player mindset and going out there and executing. It’s certainly a situation we worked. Just in that particular situation, we didn’t execute the way we needed to.”
(Not to throw anybody under the bus, did S Jordan Poyer make the wrong decision there?) – “To me that is completely on us. We should’ve kept those safeties back deep and let them move forward as they saw it. We decided to move them up, which I think hurt us.”
(You mentioned the importance of setting the edge. Where is LB Chop Robinson in that regard and what are some of the teaching points?) – “I think Chop (Robinson) for the most part has done a good job when he’s been asked to set the edge. Where he can continue to improve is really in his hand usage, getting extension and then violently shedding blocks, and that’s normal for young college players. A lot of these guys – I think in some of the teaching is three points of contact, they’re loading up, they’re getting their head in there. Well in this league, when you’re getting your head in there and you’re like this, these 340-pound linemen, they’re going to grab you and they’re going to throw you all over the place. They’re not going to call holding and that is what it is. So you’ve got to play with extension so you can get them locked out, locate the ball and then shed these offensive linemen. I think if there was an area he needed to improve at in setting the edge, it’s now once you’ve got that point of contact, getting locked out, getting extension so you have time and distance now to find the ball and get rid of that offensive player.”
(How would you access how CB Jalen Ramsey has played this year?) – “I think Jalen Ramsey is playing like Jalen Ramsey. There was a couple times where there was some coverage breakdown where he was – I don’t want to say he was vulnerable, but he was put in advantageous situation where he was expecting help and it wasn’t there and that reflected negatively on him. I don’t think those were his faults. But we’ve put him against their best guys the last two weeks, and when he was on them, shoot, he’s been who we expect him to be. We’ve got to continue to find ways to move him, tried to do that a week ago. I thought he affected the game, had some TFLs, blitzing from the corner position, blitzing at nickel. We’re just going to keep trying to find ways to move him around so he can affect the game.”
(Coming in with similar records with the Patriots, what are some things you’ve seen from them, but also knowing that a win on Sunday can be the difference maker, especially in a divisional game?) – “You hear the head coach and I think probably just culturally things are different within the building, but their play style is still very much like New England. They want to be big and physical and tough. They want to impose their will on you with the run game and then take their shots with some of the guys they have on the edge. We know what to expect; we know it’s going to be a knockdown, drag out fight. We like to think we’re built for that a little bit. We know we’re going to have to stop the run. We know from a numbers standpoint, yeah you can say it’s been our Achilles heel a little bit, but 141 (yards) last week and they had 40 attempts, 3.6 yards per attempt – that leaves you pretty good at the end of the year. We’ll take that. So while our numbers from a rushing total standpoint may not look good, when you’re talking about yards per carry, I think we’re trending in the right direction. We’ll just continue to improve in that area, and then see if we can affect this quarterback when we get them in predictable pass situations.”
(I was going to ask you about the run defense. We’ve talked about the one big run before. I think you guys played more eight-man fronts than you’ve played all year? Is that true and was the eight-man front affective?) – “I think the last team we played, they got into a lot of XL groupings, which kind of forced you to play some bigger fronts. So if we have, it’s more a product of what the offense presented to us rather than what we’ve wanted to do.”
(Was it affective?) – “Oh yeah. I think when they were in their big groupings, we had success. The one long run they had, I think they were in 11 personnel and it kind of squeaked through the B gap there and the guy was on his way. But shoot – you give me 40 cracks at it, I’m bound to break one too, like God bless them, good job. If that means that you’re a successful offensive coordinator where you run it 40 times and you have like one plus-10 gain, good job, hats off. We’ve got to stop them every time.”
(Other than his ability to catch the ball with his legs, what have you lied about LB Emmanuel Ogbah so far?) – “Oh man, how sweet was that? The thing I love about ‘Og’ is just one, his approach to work, he’s the same guy every day, and he’s essentially what you hope Mohamed (Kamara) grows into. Right now for us, he is that – he is an enforcer and you saw it multiple times in that game. He sets a firm edge. He can intimidate you with just his sheer size and will and his ability to stick his face in the fan. And then as a rusher, he’s not just a power guy, there’s a little finesse aspect and great hand usage to it, too. To me, he’s the perfect guy for Mohamed to watch and kind of see what he can take from him and then add to his game.”
(You just mentioned LB Mohamed Kamara, you didn’t mention LB Chop Robinson. Is it because of different skillsets?) – “Yes, just different skillsets. That’s all.”
(What are the reasons that the team is first in the NFL on third down defense?) – “I think it always starts with the players; it always starts with them. I think we’ve got a lot of guys that can do multiple jobs and that enables us to be multiple from a coverage standpoint. I think when you look at us defensively, it’d be hard for an offense to pinpoint by down and distance this is who they are. When you allow offenses to do that, shoot, these guys are smart. They’re going to out scheme you and they’re going to put you in situations you don’t want to be in. I think when you just look at us, if you tried to break us down, it would be hard to say we were one particular thing. Which I think then makes offenses more vanilla which allows you to attack that.”
(This team has had success over the years with undrafted corners with CB Nik Needham, and CB Kader Kohou. Was there a moment in the last few months where you and the other coaches, or Head Coach Mike McDaniel and General Manager Chris Grier said, “I think we have something with Storm Duck,” and how did he play on Monday?) – “I don’t know how fast we realized that; there was certainly some growing pains early but man, I’m so proud of that kid and just the strides he’s made since he’s been here. The one thing that I think works best in his favor is that he is completely unflappable. It doesn’t matter if something bad happens to him, next play he is the same guy. You never see him overreacting to anything. He just like, ‘All right, that happened. I’m going to win the next play.’ I think particularly at that position, that’s a mindset you have to have. The other thing you love about him is shoot, I think he’s physical out there for a corner. You saw it in the TFL he had where they tried to throw the ball in the flat, where he ran by the wide receiver and made the tackle. When you have those two combinations with thing – you have this athletic skillset obviously and you have a short memory at that position that give you a chance to be successful.”
(I was going to ask about CB Storm Duck, he’s this interesting mix to me. You talk about the physicality and going after it with the shoulder injury the other game. He kind of jump out to you on film as aggressive, but he also told me that he reads books, so he’s kind of cerebral. Tell me about his personality.) – “Guys – his name is Storm Duck, that shouldn’t surprise you. I’m sure he’s an interesting person. (laughter) He is a quiet kid. He’s a quiet kid, but you can see he’s very cerebral, he’s taking it all in. While that may not manifest itself like a Duke Riley per se, you realize that he gets it and it’s important to him. I love the kid and just look forward to seeing the trajectory of his career moving forward.”
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Offensive Coordinator Frank Smith
(What would you say would be a thorough explanation for why we’ve seen a drop in RB De’Von Achane’s per carry average from 7.8 to 3.1?) – “Last year obviously his numbers were outstanding and naturally there’s – you could expect some to come back but ultimately right now, there’s a lot of areas that we need to improve on to get where we need to go. But for us to get to back to efficiently running the football and improving, I think it’s areas that overall we’ll work together as an offense. It isn’t just one thing or just him and his carries as it pertains to it.”
(Can you detail some of the intricacies in this offense that could help a new quarterback make a big leap from one game with the offense to the second game orchestrating it?) – “I think the big thing is trying to – we have carryover through stuff we do, so just making sure we have concepts that are overriding principles. Ultimately what it comes into is the timing as you get into it because when you come from a place that’s offensively different in the way that they throw the football, the more time you get on task with the guys and getting used to how the guys run routes so when you have the consistency of concepts or consistency of how we do things, that naturally improves the more time you get on it.”
(A question about the fourth-and-1 play to WR Tyreek Hill and whether you question a call or the outcome of the play. It looked like Tyreek could have made it but two guys missed blocks, and I’m wondering do you say it was a good call but the outcome was bad or do you say we’re asking these guys to make blocks they aren’t capable of making so it wasn’t a good call? Does that make sense?) – “Yeah, it’s kind of a collection of it where it’s like is that the optimum look to have that play called, and then you say, ‘No, it’s not the optimum look.’ Could we have had a chance to execute and get it? Yeah, but it’s like all plays where the margin of error is so small sometimes that if it’s not premium looks, OK, guys have got to try to overcompensate for maybe not a premium look. But whether it’s that play or other plays, it’s always just if everyone isn’t just synced up together, that’s where all of a sudden where it’s a good play where if everyone was connected and he was able to make a play in space, could have gone for a decent gain. But then if it’s not and you don’t get a premium look, it could be a negative play. So it’s just the big thing is just the margin of error is small and when you’re trying to get back on track, get healthy offensively, that’s what you’re trying to do, is try to make sure you’re mitigating the risk so we can put plays in as best looks as you can.”
(What’s your assessment of T Patrick Paul’s first start?) – “I think for him there’s a lot of stuff that obviously he’s learned from and operating and knowing that with the techniques and fundamentals that we’re going to ask him to do, there’s always a lot of growth. So there’s some things that we thought that he’s going to get some really good learned lessons from, growing from good things he did blocking-wise. It’s just ultimately when you start off the season and it’s not going too well overall for the offense, it’s all of us together getting better. And I know he’s going to approach it and he’s been really diligent with the guys and working hard, and I think overall all of us will continue to grow from this point in the season.”
(It’s been pretty well documented that you guys haven’t had a ton of production beyond WR Tyreek Hill and WR Jaylen Waddle from the wide receiver position. How much can – if he’s able to play this week – WR Odell Beckham Jr. change that dynamic?) – “I think with the way obviously his career has gone and what he brings, he’ll be another piece that we could really use. Obviously, he’s working through his process to return to play so I’m sure when he is ready to go, we’ll be able to use him in a way that will obviously use his skill sets which is catch radius, ball skills, separation – everything he’s had in his past and he’s a fun guy to be around. So whenever he’s ready to go, we’ll be excited to have him and I think that he’ll be a piece that we’ll be able to utilize in the passing game.”
(What was going through your mind when the team had the three illegal shift penalties in a small sequence of plays like that game?) – “Just kind of like, OK, we’ve got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot in those moments and it doesn’t get any worse than that. So as we assess it and figure out how we’re going to get better, that’s a big area that we think that we can get better with just limiting those instances of where all of a sudden, we’re moving backwards. If we can get that solved and that is our sole focus this week, is just making sure that we’re executing what is necessary as opposed to ourselves. We get that solved, we’ll keep the ball moving where we need to go and that’s towards the end zone, towards theirs.”
(Was the walkthrough helpful? Was that a point of emphasis – is there an advantage to doing a walkthrough as opposed to a regular practice for that stuff?) – “I think ultimately when you have a walkthrough versus a practice, it’s the intentionality to which you about things. So when you study for an exam, are you better at the library or in your room? It’s like where is your focus at, what are you putting your attention to when you’re doing it. I think ultimately for us, everything we need to do is make sure intentionality is there because everything matters as we’re trying to just make sure that we’re doing the right things, asking guys to do the right things at the right time and make sure we’re maximizing our opportunities.”
(Where are you in terms of getting TE Jonnu Smith more involvement in the offense? In the preseason we saw him doing a variety of things and he talked about, “Hey, I’m in a place where they can really use all of my skills,” and yet he only has nine catches, doesn’t have any rushing attempts. What has not happened so far and what would you like to see happen for him to contribute more?) – “I just think – we have plays obviously to utilize his skill set, it’s just making sure we give him the opportunities to get the attempts at the ball. So great thing about him is each week he is working to be ready to go and improve and I think ultimately, it’s just on us collectively to just keep improving to make sure we get better and utilizing our guys. So that’s where the excitement for this week is, to make sure that we’re ready to go with all of our guys and knowing that we’re going to use all of our personnel to help us win this Sunday.”
(Have you been satisfied with the level of effort that you’ve seen? Some of these games have gotten a little sideways but then continue to fight through it. Is that something that’s been a concern of yours?) – “No, it hasn’t been a concern. The intent and the effort is there; it’s just execution. So that’s our sole focus this week is collectively getting better, coaches and players, of our execution, what we’re doing, our communication of it.”
(Going back to the illegal shifts, who’s specifically at fault for that? Is it like the quarterback in terms of the timing with not necessarily realizing that people aren’t set? Is it the receivers? Who I guess would you – I don’t want to say “blame” – but who is, when you came to correcting it, who were you specifically focusing on?) – “Unless it’s just something egregious, you say, ‘Hey, it’s this one thing.’ When you look at something like that, it’s all of us. It’s like, ‘Hey, making sure that I’m lined up and I’m set. OK, making sure that they are set.’ It’s like, how can we help each other as opposed to saying, ‘Well, he moved before I was ready,’ or ‘He wasn’t set,’ or something like that. It’s all of us really understanding, it’s like – what gave us success last year was in our ability to line up and move, and this year, it’s just making sure that we understand to get what we’ve had, we have to make sure that we’re collectively understanding if we’ve got to get set and move. And as you change quarterbacks, it’s like knowing the pace at which we operate. So I don’t think it’s just to say it’s one person. I think it’s collectively, and ultimately it starts with us as coaches, making sure that we’re teaching like ‘Hey, there’s one movement here to that; we’ve got to make sure we’re set.’ So I don’t think it’s one person you say to blame; I think it’s ultimately our goal this week is collectively get better all together.”
(Is there a way to simplify the offense? I know that with all the shifts and motions and very long play calls for the quarterbacks – can this offense do simple?) – “I think that for us, we’re looking at making sure that we’re asking our guys to do things that we can execute well, and then the things that we’re struggling at, making sure that we’re – why are we struggling at it and how can we improve it, or do we just have to evolve? So I think when you’re saying of simplifying things, it’s not as much simplifying it as opposed to what are we doing well and how can we maximize it, what are we doing poorly and how do we eliminate it. And that’s the goal because we’re at a point in the season where it’s like if we can get these things solved and corrected, we got a lot of football ahead of us. I think that’s where everyone’s intent has been. That’s why yesterday was great because the intentionality of everyone was there and that’s why now we build on today.”
(How would you assess where RB Jaylen Wright is in terms of his understanding of the offense four games in?) – “You see his ability with the ball when he’s running, he’s obviously taking in all of the different personnel packages where we can use him. I know he’s been meeting with (Associate Head Coach and Running Backs) Eric (Studesville) a bunch, so his intentionality to learning what he needs to do has been awesome. It’s just like everything, your hardest year in the NFL is your rookie year, so he’s been working hard to understand how he fits, where he complements and really excited for the next – for this one especially, to see his growth from week to week.”
(Admittingly, I don’t know what I’m watching when I watch a lot of this film. It looked like there was a couple of times where QB Tyler Huntley could have delivered the ball to WR Tyreek Hill or WR Jaylen Waddle that QB Tua Tagovailoa would have delivered right there at the time and the spot but it’s hard for others to do that in their first game. Am I assessing that correctly? Is that right?) – “It’s not as simple as, but it’s getting used to when you have different receivers and you’re getting into full speed reps, you’re learning through it. You always want the learning and growth to come through success, but sometimes the greatest learning lessons come through the failures or adversity. So that’s right now, is that we know that we’re learning a lot and we have to take what we’ve learned and improve. So I think that’s where we’re at right now. It’s not as, ‘Hey, he could have done this.’ It’s more of, ‘OK, now what have we learned to apply this week?’ And that’s the challenge with going up to New England.”
(Certainly, the quarterback position is a big factor in this, but are you surprised by the lack of big plays by the offense this year?) – “Obviously, it’s been discouraging, but at the same time, each game presents a new challenge and you have to evolve to attack the defense for what they’re giving you. So I think – obviously last year, that was something we did very well and people are trying to minimize those opps. But the big thing is when we’ve had them, we just haven’t been able to connect on all of them. That’s just the big thing is just make sure we’re improving, when we get the opportunities, maximize them and just make sure we don’t let something bad continue on. So I think for us, that’s been the focus. It started yesterday and it will continue today.”
(With all the seven-man fronts you guys have seen, can you have 40 carries like Tennessee had against you? Is that a solution? Is that an answer?) – “Well, you get those opportunities a lot of times like when you get into the end of the third or fourth quarter and you got the lead. That’s where a lot of the rushing opps come from where you can really build upon it. When you’re playing from behind, you’re having to balance offense and what you’re trying to do versus the ticking clock that’s running down. So when you look at a lot of heavy rushing attempt games, you’re saying that probably at the end of the third or the fourth, you got the lead – that’s where you get a lot of those extra rushing opportunities. So for us to stay on schedule and get to where we need to go, that’s where those situations come from and if we can get back in those situations, that would probably help our rushing average.”
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(I wanted to ask about the onside kick. I think all of us were very confused on what happened and all that stuff. Could you break that down?) – “Which is part of why we did it. With the new rule, there’s a 25-yard landmark. Ball has got to go 10 (yards) to be live and then it’s dead after another 15. So after having just kicked the onside kick, trying to use those new rules as a possible see if we could get them to make some kind of misstep and we hit the ball two yards too long. So if that ball is two yards shorter, now they’re making decisions on who’s catching it, who’s not catching it. You see the two guys trying to communicate and it’s a live ball and we got an opportunity to make a play. If they do fair catch it, we’re not putting the defense in a bad spot with the ball on the 44-, 45-yard line. However, like anytime you make a call, there’s goods and there’s bads. It doesn’t work and they get the ball at the 10-yard line. But for the situation after having just gone must onside to come back to try and play the new rule and some of the possible lack of communication awareness, that’s what we tried to play to and it didn’t work out.”
(How many options do you have there? We’ve seen the drop kick; you guys did the punt – can you explain?) – “There’s lots of options, and with the new rule change, there’s even more options because in the past you weren’t allowed to use a tee, now the tee is an option. But once you declare an onside kick, and obviously you’re doing that with the alignment of the kickoff personnel, then you bring in those new rules of the window of 10 yards, 15 yards, 25 yards. You could choose to not go onside or kicking the football, now we’re kicking it from the 20, but the coverage guys are still going to be up on the 40-yard line and you’re bringing that aspect into it. But to us that’s not an option because that’s not going to give you an opportunity to make a play and possibly get a possession to win the game.”
(Is it incredibly penal to have first-and-goal at the 10-yard line after a kickoff where no one touches the ball?) – “But that’s the rule. The other option – we’re willing to take that opportunity to try and get the football by using some confusion or lack of understanding, communication, however you want to talk about it with the opposition to our advantage. Yeah, it’s a big-time disadvantage, but if you get it, you got an opportunity. If you don’t get it, you’re not going to win the game either way.”
(Now you said they can fair catch it?) – “Yeah. As long as the ball does not hit the ground, the return team does have the option of being able to fair catch it. But you’re trying to get who’s in the game, who’s in certain spots. You’re trying to get maybe a guy who shouldn’t be on there to catch a high moonshot moving football. You’re trying to get that guy to have to make a decision or catch the football.”
(The LB Duke Riley play, was that just a mental lapse on his part?) – “Well, he thought that their long snapper had touched the football. So anytime obviously the ball crosses the line of scrimmage, the punt team is allowed to be the first team to touch the ball or it’s an unpenalized play, illegal first touch. Which then as a return team, you are free to do whatever you want. You’re not going to lose possession of the ball. So he thought as the long snapper came down the field and elevated to try and down the football that he touched it, so he was trying to make a play to go advance it. We can be more aware in that situation in those tight quarters. Even if you get on it, you really don’t have an opportunity to go anywhere, so it’s the right idea. If you’re in space and it’s clear, go try and make a play. We refer to it when it’s cloudy, you’re really not in any type of advantage to try and advance it. The negative of that is we get a really good play and a great effort from Calais (Campbell), and people forget about the good part and it’s like, well what about that? But excellent job by Calais, we just got to be more aware – and if you’re not sure, get away from the ball.”
(It wasn’t related to him thinking that DT Calais Campbell touched it…?) – “It had nothing to do – he thought that the long snapper on the punt team touched it, which made it an illegal first touch. Now it’s our ball no matter what happens. Duke (Riley) picks it up, runs for ten yards and fumbles it, it’s still going to be our ball, but it will be back at the spot where the long snapper, the illegal first touch actually occurred. So you there’s no negative in trying advance the football, we just got to be maybe a little bit more aware of the exact situation on that particular play.”
(How close was DT Calais Campbell?) – “Well, he got a piece of it. So maybe a little bit more elongated instead of vertical and now it’s behind the line of scrimmage and you’re into those scenarios. So yeah, he got a piece of it, but again, that close to really being a transition play.”
(How many times has he played in that position this season? I don’t recall…) – “A couple. It’s in one of our packages so we’ve carried it over the years, and he’s really done a good job in what we’ve asked him to do. He’s a special human being and a special football player.”
(CB Ethan Bonner got a lot of special teams reps, how did he look out there?) – “He did well. We talked about Ethan (Bonner) a couple weeks ago. We feel good about when his opportunity comes, just like last season when he was brought up from the practice squad and played well. So whenever he has a uniform and he’s able to be out on the field, we feel good about Ethan and his contributions in the kicking game.”
(And RB Jeff Wilson Jr., I think his special teams snaps went down. I know he had some knee issues – related?) – “Yes, a combination. Number one, the situation of how the plan was going into the game, and then you couple that with the fact of as the game started, he was completely unavailable until we got the injury taken care of a little bit. So he went from a little bit of reduction in the plan to a zero plan because of what happened before the game.”
(How different is it to face the Patriots without Matthew Slater?) – ”Well, I’ll tell you what; it’s been a long, long time. Different, still I find myself looking for No. 18. What a special, special player and a guy that I have the utmost respect for. But they haven’t missed a beat in what they’re trying to do. They’re featuring different players and it’s a good group. They have an outstanding punt returner, good guys in the core game, the kick returners are guys that I’ve – especially (Antonio) Gibson with some history. So it’s a good group.”
(How much of a disadvantage does it put you in when you have to announce that you’re going to onside kick versus in the pass when there was a little surprise?) – “Yeah, it depends on what you’re trying to do. Obviously, in the must – at around the 2:30 mark when we went with the traditional must onside kick, it puts those certain rules into effect. It’s not a big deal, but it’s hard because the practice – you don’t have enough practice time to work everything. Now obviously, the kickers are working their kicks and we’re always repping that, but you don’t get enough opportunities to do a lot of those things because they come up so infrequently. But that was again part of what we were trying to use with – now you’re backed up from the 20 which changes landmarks. You’re putting a different specialist in there, so we’re trying to create some unknown to make a play, but the fact that you have to do it – yeah, it’s hard.”
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(I’m sure we’ll get to the depressing news that LB Jaelan Phillips announced shortly, but just a quick thing with regard to WR Odell Beckham Jr. It was nice he was a full participant if you had practiced fully according to the injury report. Does that suggest that he will be ready to play Sunday for you if he has no setback the next couple of days?) – “It’s one day that we saw him in a walkthrough setting. Tomorrow will be his first full-speed action and we’ll assess from there. Want to make sure people are ready when they go out on the football field, but he’s been working very hard not just to practice, so we’ll see what tomorrow has in store.”
(And on LB Jaelan Phillips just how crushing is this and for a young man obviously like him to have to go through this two years in a row, it’s pretty depressing, no?) – “It’s not exciting at all. Especially when you watch someone work so hard to earn every rep. It’s tough and I think Jaelan (Phillips), as he has continually impressed me since I’ve gotten to know him, he recognizes that this is – in a contact sport, this is a contact injury and he doesn’t know the whys necessarily currently, but he knows that he is not going to be worse but going to be better for all those things. So I was very impressed with – you don’t try to forecast how anyone’s going to react to that, understanding that there has to be a multitude of emotions. He’s very positive and already working the process, and as football goes, you have to prepare numerous people to fill a role like that and I know the guys have a lot of motivation to accept that challenge because it’s a great one.”
(You guys have had it seems like a year’s worth of adversity in a month. How do you not let this snowball, be able to get back to what this team was supposed to be?) – “It’s a lot of people that have the appropriate intent, a lot of relationships that you have to – you really get to see if things are what you think they are and it’s the ultimate test of a lot of things that you say that you believe. It does one of two things; it splinters people or it brings them together. Fortunately or unfortunately, this is not the first time, anybody that’s been in the NFL long enough, that you don’t start the way that you want to. And then you have things that you can’t control that there’s distractions aplenty in this league and all sorts of different things that can get you worried about the wrong stuff and you don’t have anywhere to hide when you’re losing. So that’s the tonality of it. I don’t hear much of, I don’t know, calculations of the bad things that have happened. I think guys are very, very intentionally trying to fix things that aren’t up to our standard. So you don’t have time – in this league, everybody has their own stuff going on. Nobody cares about the trials and tribulations or the things that you have to overcome. The whole crux of it is whether it’s early in the season or it’s late in the season, you will have adversity and sometimes it comes in bunches; sometimes it doesn’t. But you get to find out, guys get to see truly what I believe in; I get to see how they respond to it. And ultimately you hope and you believe that you’ve invested in the right people. I think the only way to prove that is daily attack of things that are uncomfortable and whatever we weather, whatever comes in our crosshairs, you just have to problem-solve because everybody’s got their own problems and we’re focused on trying to solve the New England Patriots problem that we’re trying to win a football game.”
(Speaking of LB Jaelan Phillips, what was the specifics of that injury? We just know from what he posted that it requires surgery and he’s out for the year.) – “I guess it’s what you could categorize as, it was a contact injury, something that happened in the game. He went back in based upon the fact that he could do no further damage. They braced it up and adrenaline of the game, he was all right. You worry about injuries just in general, but particularly in guys that are coming back. But contact injuries are unfortunately kind of the roll of the dice that kind of live outside any – it’s really a shame because you spend so much time getting yourself in a position to practice, and then that practice time is so minimized due to the fact that when you’re healthy enough to practice – he’s started in this league for a while – but you’re getting going. He’s a phenomenal player so he’s still able to impact the game in a great way, but I just know he was starting to get in a rhythm. But there’s contact injuries that it was a freak one at that because it was probably the first time that I’ve had friendly fire as they say. (Jordan) Poyer and him having – I can’t remember what quarter it was – but they both got injured on the play aggressively trying to take down the ball carrier. It was a partial that the medical experts needed to go fix and beyond that I’ll leave to Jaelan (Phillips) to speak on more, but proud of him and how he’s handling it and how he’s focused on the right things because circumstance could trick you into being in a pretty dark spot, but he’s focused and hoping that – I just know that he’s of the right mindset to come back with this and use it to his full advantage as rough as it is right now.”
(Just if I could follow up real quick – I’m not a doctor, I have no idea if this correlates – but it looks like it was the same leg as his Achilles tear. It sounds like this was though just a result of contact not necessarily a byproduct of that leg?) – “No, for sure. The medical experts wouldn’t have cleared him if it wasn’t, but specifically a contact injury that the only way you could avoid a contact injury – so like that to me… when our doctors clear people to play, they don’t take that lightly, so I’m always very confident. I think that any time that you have a contact injury that those are kind of unrelated more often than not.”
(Is it possible that by returning to play that he may have compounded the injury without even – obviously he never intended to do so – but is that possible?) – “Again it’s the contact part, like I guess because he came back he did have contact, but you’re always – just understanding, rudimentary understanding of the body – that’s why you have to be so deliberate and intentional with not talking timelines and things like that because all of those things are built because that’s non-negotiable to bring somebody back and cause… I think I’ve trusted early with just the way they handle all the players and continually earn my trust so I don’t think that was a factor at all. If it turned to flag football, that’s the only way to avoid it; it was a contact injury.”
(You mentioned needing contributions from several players. Can you speak to your faith in the rest of the edge rusher group including a couple rookies in LB Chop Robinson and LB Mohamed Kamara?) – “They get to collectively put forth a lot of work that they’re absolutely positively prepared for. The situation as it presented itself, there was a tremendous amount of gained reps to learn from and grow through in training camp, and the key thing is that you’re not trying to be Jaelan Phillips and just one person be that. I think as we understand each other as a defense and how we utilize personnel, you adapt and it’s strength in numbers. It’s a collective step up and it’s kind of directly in relation to what the whole team is trying to do right now with just in the nature of what the team is working through right now. It’s not one person necessarily, but I am confident in the collective because they’ve given me reason to be confident by their daily output.”
(Question about repercussions around here – WR Tyreek Hill had the ball that was a lateral, he didn’t go after that aggressively. TE Julian Hill has had a lot of penalties, LB Anthony Walker Jr. has had a few on special teams. Without going into stuff that should stay within closed doors, do you guys talk to these players? I don’t think they run sprints or anything, but do you show them video? What is the corrective action there?) – “The corrective action, when you’re negatively affecting the team, my recourse – I think it’s my duty as the head coach for every player and coach involved in the thing to literally hit it straight between the eyes, talk about it in a team meeting. Most teams, guys, they want to be a part of the solution and not the problem. But at the same time, we’re all accountable, and first and foremost myself, for yeah – that’s not good football. You can’t go backwards before a play starts. You can’t turn the ball over. We have an entire team meeting devoted to turnovers on a weekly basis and the ownership of the ball and taking the ball away. So these are things that in a competitive situation, you can have scars or you can have lessons and I think the accountability that Tyreek Hill is exhibiting to his team, he didn’t try to shy away from that, and I think the whole team learned something that I thought – or you think you know until it happens and you’re like, ‘OK, so if it’s going to happen once, let’s use that as he can be the teacher and let’s not have anybody else not learn from that mistake.’ You’re trying to grow your team, sometimes there’s – when the football isn’t up to standard, you don’t make it rosy; you just tell it exactly like it is. That’s what’s owed to the whole team and when you’re doing things that hurt the team, they should be held accountable.”
(Regarding the offense, I know you guys see a lot of seven-man fronts, a lot of two deep safeties. Is it as simple as just running the ball and getting them to bring a safety down? I know that they do things to discourage the run up front, but is it that simple?) – “You’re trying to crack codes every week that the opponents get paid, too. And they’ve collectively, with their coach and their executions of their game plans, they’ve done a better job than we have. There’s always adjustments, that is football. I’d like them to happen immediately, and I am not used to having the lack of offensive production that the players on the team, the fans, just everybody is not used to. So you try to problem solve and that is a steadily evolving process – that’s not just schematics and it’s not just players. You find success when everyone is connected and the right solutions are being presented and the right things are being executed. There’s nowhere to hide and it’s not fun when you’re not achieving, so the great news is you have opportunities to come together as a football team and focus on absolutely, positively the only things that matter. In situations like these, if you want anything to change, that’s the only thing you can do. You want to see people go above and beyond in what their job responsibilities are and not be complacent because the second you’re complacent with whoever you are – if it’s not me, it’s you. That’s the way we’ve kind of approached it so day by day, rep by rep, there’s no path of least resistance if you want to change the result.”
(What are the main one or two teaching points you need to emphasize to QB Tyler Huntley in order for him to run this offense as effectively as he needs to in the second week of starting?) – “I would hate to think that the best execution of the offense in its entirety would be your first week running the offense. I think that it’s having a standard and not getting defeated as you continue to learn and get the finer details. I think he’s a professional and there was a lot of things that were very impressive when you put into context the timeline, the language and how he’s able to do things that our guys are used to, and then there’s a lot of room for growth, as well as getting to learn him, not just from soundless tape. Getting to coach him on something and see how that hits his ear and see what he does with that coaching, patternizing some of the stuff that he’s comfortable with, all of those things that you do, but there’s no substitute for time in this business when you’re working at the position. So absolutely, positively, did he learn a ton and was this walkthrough today or was the team orchestrated stuff today absolutely better than last week? Yes, it was. I think he’s sinking his teeth in to trying to not just do but have ownership, and I think all of the guys feel like they have to do a better job around him and he feels like he needs to do a better job. I feel like I need to do a better job, and I don’t see another formula for a better product than everyone trying to do their jobs better.”
(Just your biggest concern playing a team like the New England Patriots on the road?) – “Absolutely, positively it’s a team that you’re going to have to earn the victory, and they play a really cool style of ball that is physical and something that I think to go on the road and earn the win, you’re going to have to earn the win. Right now, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I think it’s a division opponent that we know each other well. I see the on-tape growth in the game and the players on offense and I see the fundamentals and technique consistently across the board that have made them a very good defense for a long time and there’s guys playing hard, very physical across the board. They will compete and you will get their best, so I think it’s a good opportunity for us because there’s going to be no gifts. The only gift in my household is for my daughter who’s four-years old today, by the way – shoutout Ayla.”
(Happy birthday Ayla!) – “Thank you – for her. (laughter) But she’s excited about it as well. She wants to see dad’s team compete and earn a win, so we have a lot of work to do in the meantime, but it’s definitely going to be a challenge. It will be fun.”
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
QB Tyler Huntley
(Each week you look a lot smoother just getting in the huddle, calling the plays and everything. Where are you at on that?) – “Yeah, definitely. You feel more confident in more reps and doing things multiple times so definitely. Got a little bit more reps under my belt and getting ready for the week.”
(When you saw that deep one to WR Tyreek Hill, how close were you guys? How quickly did you want that one back?) – “Man, we were close. If I had gotten one before then, I know I would have landed it. But you know it was close, and in the game it’s tougher because bullets flying, but next time, definitely going to connect.”
(Do you think this week it’ll be more just you knowing the playbook more? Or will it be a less complex offense that you guys are trying to delve into?) – “No, I’ll be able to know the playbook better because Coach is putting things in things. I’ll it’ll be better.”
(Was it so much the playbook or the timing on a lot of that motion stuff? How tough was that to get down and how far along are you on it?) – “It’s pretty complex, but just knowing exactly what your snap point is and actually repping them, you’ll feel way more comfortable. Definitely.”
(Was that the issue with all the procedure penalties on that one drive? I mean it looked ridiculous.) – “We just had to be set in certain areas while sending the motion, and we just had a couple people moving at the same time. We’ll get that cleaned up.”
(You talked about last week how starting for the Dolphins would be a dream come true. What was it like when you were actually out there, in the moment, going out there wearing all the colors? What was that like for you?) – “Yeah, it was bittersweet. Just being out there in the stadium. Pulling up to the stadium for the first time, my first time pulling in the way that I did – yeah, it’s bittersweet.”
(How different is it going to look this week? A lot of fans are disappointed in obviously the points scored, but how different can it look from just you being here this extra week?) – “We just got to come out and execute. We convert on those late downs that we missed last week – we convert on those and it’s a whole different ball game. A couple passes away from really breaking through on the game and I just hope that we come out this week and just execute how we’re supposed to.”
(What was the energy like at practice today? Everyone seems pretty positive like this is going to turn around.) – “We got urgency. We got to get it going. Division game on the road, we got to be ready to go play.”
(Would a game plan that allows you to use your legs more benefit you and the team?) – “That’s hard to say, you know what I mean? I don’t know how to answer that because it could go either way. I want to get the ball in those playmakers’ hands. I don’t want to be running all that, that’s why we got running backs. (laughter) So definitely, I just want to continue to get the ball into our playmakers’ hands.”
(WR Tyreek Hill’s reaction towards the end of the game, he said people don’t know how to read lips, that he’s just trying to get his guys going. What was your reaction on that?) – “Definitely. He’s just trying to fire everybody up. We were still in the game late. If we would have gotten the two-point conversion, we would have been only eight points down. It’s still a one touchdown game, so he was just trying to make sure everyone was still in it. That’s all that was.”
(How much do you think a second week as a starter, that week of practice can really help you on game day?) – “Just like I was saying, the more reps, the better you feel. We’re just going to keep building off of that. I’ve actually got a game under my belt with these guys, and we know what to expect out of each other. We’re going to go out and play.”
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
WR Tyreek Hill
(We saw you toward the end of the Monday night game, it seemed like you were shouting at someone. Can you explain just what was going on in that situation?) – “I’m at a good spot in my life, man. I wouldn’t refer to it as shouting, that’s just me just motivating my teammates. I was simply telling 25 (Jaylen Wright) that we need more of that, because he had a great run there toward the end of the game. I was like, ‘I need more of that. I need more of that 25. No. 9, I need more of that. I need more of that 18.’ That’s just me motivating my team. There’s no ill will. Me personally, my teammates know me, I never break down and I never call nobody out in that moment. If I’ve got a problem with somebody, I’ll pull them to the side and tell you what’s going on. That’s the man that parents raised. But I was simply just saying, ’25, I need more of that,’ because dude was balling and he was the spark for the offense.”
(Was that as frustrated as you’ve been on a football field in quite some time?) – “No, it wasn’t frustration. That was just me just motivating my teammates and saying I need more of that.”
(I thought that was a bad camera angle – good meme, bad camera angle?) – “You know what man? We need some professional lip readers in this world because you know what’s crazy is my mom sent me that same video. She was like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ I’m like, ‘Um, nothing? You know how I get during football,’ it’s me motivating my teammates, me just showing my passion and me just being a leader because we want to win. If 25 is rolling or whoever is rolling, I’m going to say, ‘Keep that train rolling. Keep that train rolling. Keep feeding him Coach. Let’s go, let’s go.’ See, if you read my lips right there, you’d probably think I said something crazy. Put that on mute. (laughter)”
(Have you talked to Head Coach Mike McDaniel about getting you the ball? In a nice way, I’m not saying yelling, because it seemed like without QB Tua Tagovailoa, the team would rely on you more and that hasn’t happened. So have you talked to Head Coach Mike McDaniel about different ways to get you?) – “No, no, no, not at all. As a leader man, my job is to do whatever is called, whatever play is called. If it’s meant for me to block, I’m going to be a good teammate and block. If it’s meant for me to be a decoy, I’m going to be a decoy. And if it’s meant for me to get the ball, then I’m going to do my job. I feel like if you pressure the head coach and say, ‘Hey man, give me the ball. Give me the ball,’ he’s got 100 plays on the call sheet. They’re going to be thinking about getting you the ball and also situational, it’s like ain’t got time for all that, bro. Coach McDaniel, he’s already great at what he does, ain’t no use in me putting another bug in his saying to get me the ball; he knows who his playmakers are, he knows who he’d want to get the ball to and who he trusts in situation, so that’s how I see it.”
(When you redid your contract most recently, you made the contract you told General Manager Chris Grier “Don’t get me traded.” I don’t know if you’ve been on social media much in the past few days, but there’s speculation that a certain team you used to play for is short on wide receivers and might be in the market for a wide receiver. Putting two and two together, what would you say about any speculation that maybe is interested in you?) – “I’m just focused on right here and right now. We’ve got a beautiful team here and I want to be a part of it. We’ve got a great situation here, my family loves it, I enjoy it, the weather is great, the fans are great. So we’ve got a beautiful situation here. Obviously, my parents always taught me control the controllables, and I only can control so much. So with that being said, we all know the NFL is a business. Whatever happens, happens. Moving forward, I would love to be here. I love being here. I love the guys. I love my locker mate, Jevón Holland, he’s a maniac. He’s the guy. He brings me nice snacks sometimes.”
(What did you see from QB Tyler Huntley on Monday that gives you confidence that for the next two games you’ll be all right?) – “’Snoop’ (Tyler Huntley) is awesome. For him to be here for three weeks and for him to be prepared the way he was prepared for that Monday night game, in my book that’s trending upwards. Because our offense is so complicated and there’s so many motions and words in the play call, and for him to get all that down in a week or so, it’s tremendous. I can tell already by him stepping into the huddle, he’s already confident. He’s reading the play call, not even looking at it, so he’s ready to roll, man.”
(You’re saying there could be a huge difference between Monday night and what we see this coming week?) – “I mean, for sure. It’s like when Denver played that one guy at quarterback during the COVID year – he just came in out of nowhere. But now ‘Snoop’ (Tyler Huntley) has a chance to understand the system, understand how guys play now. He’s now had a chance to see how me and (Jaylen) Waddle move, had a chance to see how (De’Von) Achane move, understand his offensive line, what’s going on up there, you know what I’m saying? It all ties in together, man. Once he had his chance to figure all that out, it’s going to be smooth back there.”
(How close were you guys on that long one?) – “Oh, it was real close, real close. We’re going to do a good job of working on that all week, even if the legs are tired. I know – my parents always taught me, also Mike (McDaniel) preaches this, make it suck during the week. If that means running five deep balls trying to catch them from ‘Snoop’ (Tyler Huntley), I’ll do it. All for the betterment of this team, so that way when it comes Sunday, we can enjoy the touchdowns.”
(Let me ask you a question about Georgia. What’s going on there? Have you had a chance to talk to family or anything like that?) – “Yeah, so recently there was a hurricane in my hometown – power wiped, everything down for two weeks. Hurricane Helene, she doing her thing down there. Unfortunately, there was a moment last week where I didn’t even talk to my grandparents for three days, I was worried. But everything is fine now, the community is doing a great job of leaning on one another, working together, getting generators and water and stuff like that. My only concern right now is what do we do next. Right now me and the Dolphins are in efforts of trying to help the community out, sending all kinds of resources down there, seeing if we can help both communities out. This is Pearson, Georgia, and Douglas, Georgia. Two great mayors, those guys are doing a great job of getting the power back, getting the water back on. I’m just thankful everybody was safe; nobody was really hurt that was recorded – that’s a big positive thing.”
(Did you family have any property damage, any homes lost or anything like that?) – “There were a lot of homes that had trees that fell into them, a lot of homes that got affected by the rain and the wind. My grandad, he actually had two trees fall into his home, so he’s having to deal with that. The crazy part about it is we’re from a small town, and he’s still living in it, even with the tree inside of it. I’m like ‘Bro, what are you doing?’ The beauty about all of it is – I always look at the pros of every situation. This is a chance for our community to lean on one another, work with one another and rebuild the community together. It’s going to suck, but my parents always taught me to never make excuses man. Just rebuild, get back on track. Obviously, I’m going to do my thing to help the community, me and the Dolphins.”
(Sorry if it’s too personal, but how does your family usually feel about asking you for help? Like you said he’s still living in the house even with two trees in it.) – “Depending on what family it is. If it’s like a second cousin, they’re going to ask you regardless of how they feel. Obviously if it’s mom, dad, or grandparents they ain’t going to ask you. As far as sisters and second cousins, they are going to ask you. They are going to text you. You could be in the middle of a game having the worst game of your life, they’re going to text and say, ‘Hey, remember you said you’re going to loan me $500?’ Can you at least say have a great game? (laughter) I do a good job of that. My wife and my mom, they do a good job of telling people no for me. I’m in a great situation. Obviously, a lot of people know my situation. If you’re not in my circle, I’m not going to help you out. I’m not going to cripple you and make it even worse. That’s not teaching people if you’re just giving handouts, because I was never given a handout. I had to work my way up in this league, fifth-round draft pick – a lot of people wrote me off and said I was this, said I was too small, my hands are too small, I couldn’t play the position, but look at me now.”
(So grandpa is too tough to get out of the house, is that what you’re saying?) – “Grandpa ain’t moving. He ain’t moving, he ain’t going nowhere.”
(We heard WR Jaylen Waddle say after the game that playmakers got to do more. Head Coach Mike McDaniel said yesterday that if you’re operating at 90% efficiency when everybody is healthy, when you’ve got a backup in that’s got to go to 95%, 98%. From your perspective, wat does that actually look like for you guys?) – “I think one of our captains said it best, whenever it’s time to make a play, just make a play within a play – don’t go outside the techniques and fundamentals that you’ve already been taught. So that’s what he means by 95%. It doesn’t mean go outside of what you’re doing or run the wrong route, because that throws off a lot of quarterback timing. If you run a slant route, catch the slant route and do a little bit extra, get jiggy with it and take it to the house. That means you got to give a little bit more effort to get open, not just get the catch and just get a first down. How about let’s extend that, take it 70 yards, or take it 50 yards. That’s 95% to me.”
(How hard is it to keep that effort up when you’re having problems consistently keeping first downs?) – ‘It’s hard. It’s definitely hard. We just got to do what we do. We got to continue to play ball no matter what, no matter who is at quarterback.”
(You’ve obviously experienced ups and downs – more ups and downs in your career. Is there a time you can compare this to where you’ve had talent around you and still struggled on offense the way this team is?) – “There was one year when I was with KC, we had a bad year. We were struggling offensively and then we turned it around. I can’t remember what year – I was going to tell the guys about this story later in the week. It’s good that you asked me that because that kind of reminded me to go back and look back at the years. There was one year we had a terrible year – we’ll we didn’t have a terrible year, we had like a terrible stretch of games. We turned it all around whenever guys started to trust the process, trusting what Coach was calling, going the extra mile after practice, getting the extra reps in with the quarterback and stuff like that. A lot of people think it’s the end of the world; it’s really not. It’s still early on in the season, and it’s all about what we do toward the end of the season. It’s either we be a part of the (solution) or we continue to build on the problem. We’ve got a lot of guys on this team that want to be a part of the solution part.”
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(Is the LB Jaelan Phillips knee injury season-ending or will it keep him out long-term?) – “We’re still acquiring information on that, working through it. He was in good spirits last night. He was in good spirits today so we should have more concrete information moving forward here soon. I don’t think that – I’m pretty comfortable saying that he won’t be available this week on a short week, but the information that’s presented to us will be able to provide clarity on is that a multiple week thing or whatnot.”
(You had a situation where he got injured early in the game. We saw him on the sidelines. I know you probably didn’t pay attention to this, but he was very adamant with the trainers that he could go back in, not an issue. Is that one of the cautionary tales that you worry about where players try to push through pain and things get worse?) – “Absolutely. I think it’s one of the reasons it’s so important for the training staff and the players to have a good relationship. You’re going through the various testing to make sure that there are not the worst-case scenarios involved and then you’re listening to the players and I know with our training staff, they don’t minimize that each and every player, this is their dream. You try not to take football opportunities away from them, but there’s a balance in that and they do a very good job at being able to read between the lines and I think there’s – Jaelan Phillips has been through a lot of watching football and the testing that’s in place is absolutely as good as I’ve been around so you’re making gut decisions based upon how the body is feeling. You’re going through your various tests with the muscles and the joints and then you have to allow guys the opportunity to be honest with you. so his response through adrenaline was what a competitor would be and there thankfully wasn’t enough issues at hand to be able to hold him out with integrity, but that is something that you’re – it’s one of the reasons why we focus on building those relationships so that each party can trust one another.”
(You’ve now played four games which means you have a number of players we haven’t seen up to this point who are now potentially eligible to start practicing. Which of them if any will be practicing this week?) – “So planning on opening the window tomorrow officially for Odell (Beckham Jr.) so that will be a new practice player and we’ll see how that plays out as well as Cam Smith.”
(Has there been any update on guys like WR River Cracraft and LB Bradley Chubb?) – “Only that it has been a positive. There hasn’t been setbacks or really unexpected presentations throughout their rehabilitation. I think Bradley (Chubb) had a pretty severe injury that he’s doing very, very well in his progression and then I think River is right on schedule so no setbacks to really articulate.”
(You’ve talked a lot about the responsibility you feel as head coach of this team, certainly the fan base. There were some boos last night. What do you tell fans that are I guess jumping off the bandwagon and wondering what’s next for this team?) – “I guess it didn’t hit me with surprise. I think people invest and have to go and believe in a team that has bottom-line, the droughts that this organization has incurred. I don’t take that lightly. So I would be dishonest if I told you that I didn’t expect that. The worst part about all of that is you have people that I can relate where weeks are ruined with losses and the worst part about it is you don’t have any control. So that’s not a fun place to be in. I know sporting events where I’m rooting for a team and I’m not coaching in it, I get much more angry when there’s failure than when I’m coaching and I can actually problem solve something. It’s to be expected. This is the big leagues. To feel entitled to blind support; that’s not my cup to tea. I think you have to go to work, problem solve and try to fix things as best you can and I don’t think we’re necessarily owed anything I think people believe when you give them reason to believe and if people jump off the bandwagon – I’m not really villainizing the people who are jumping off the bandwagon; it’s more we gave them reason to. So that’s to be expected. I don’t think people pay what they pay to go to Hard Rock Stadium to watch us lose, so whatever results incurred by our game day failure, we deserve.”
(Now you’ve had a night to sleep on it, if you did sleep at all, and morning to review the tape. What are your big takeaways as to what needs to be corrected in this offense in the immediate future while QB Tua Tagovailoa is out?) – “I think the answers aren’t somewhere in a different orbit. The answers are in-house in terms of there’s some very concrete direct conversations that need to be had and I think it’s fair for me to want to keep those in-house considering just the way I don’t believe the press conferences and the media is where to air out your dirty laundry; however there is across the board from coaching to execution of plays, the bottom line is to play winning football, you have to have 11 people executing their jobs in a tied-together fashion and it’s not happening. So you don’t absolve yourself of responsibility in the least. You really force yourself to have a hard look at everything you’re doing and then once you assess that – and the team wants to know while they’re playing, they just know the results aren’t there. They’re responsible for their jobs, but the team wants to know where are failures are coming from so you have to get ready for the conversations that may be hard in the moment, but you owe it to the football team and to everyone involved to be very, very direct because the bottom line is we have things that we are preparing and have reasons by way of what’s in front of us by the practice tape, we feel certain ways going into a game and then we’re not getting those results through execution so I think it’s not as easy as ‘do something different,’ but you do have to do some things different because clearly there’s a gap in preparation and game day execution. So no shorthand way to do that. You have to diligently look at each and every responsibility and what you’re doing well, what you’re not doing well and hit it right between the eyes.”
(I want to talk about the onside punt. I don’t really know how else to describe it. Do you feel like the team and players were prepared to execute that last night?) – “So that was our first live-action of it. It’s a new rule this year. You have a landing zone and generally just like all punts, all field goals; you’re trying to be accurate when you’re kicking a football from your foot and the target zone is small. It’s a difficult kick to hit, but it’s also very difficult. It’s a higher percentage theoretically to get the ball back on what is – onsides are typically like at 4 percent conversion rate anyway – so it’s not something that guys were just out there seeing what would happen; this is something that is coordinated and something that we’ve worked on, but unfortunately with the lights on, we didn’t execute. You’re never shying away from trying to do whatever you have to do to win the game. We thought that gave us the best chance and clearly on that rep we were mistaken. You try to avoid onside situations for the reason of it being low percentage, but then you’re trying to give yourself the best chance to win and we felt good about that going into the game and we’re going to have to clean that up as well.”
(Are QB Tua Tagovailoa, T Terron Armstead and CB Kendall Fuller – are any of them out of protocol or are all of them still in protocol?) – “I think (Kendall) Fuller and (Terron) Armstead are doing better. I’m anticipating tomorrow to get an uptick in participation and hopes of getting cleared this week. And quite honestly where Tua is at in his protocol, I think it’s important for me that we did right by him from a health perspective and for the organization from a health perspective. So before the bye week I hadn’t planned on checking on that process at all considering he’s on IR, but he’s doing well and very active. So we’ll know more after the bye week.”
(Given that QB Skylar Thompson was at least dressed last night. Are you hoping that you might have him for the New England game? Are you going QB Tyler Huntley for sure or where do you stand on that?) – “As it stands right now, the injury that he sustained, it’s been kind of (laborious) getting back so we’re planning on going with Tyler (Huntley) and I think after reviewing the tape, there’s reasons for guys to be excited about that because while the output wasn’t nearly what we wanted offensively, there were some things to build upon that we’ll keep working through and excited to do that tomorrow.”
(I wanted to get an update on OL Isaiah Wynn and then also S Jordan Poyer left the game with I believe it was a shin injury and where is his status in terms of this week’s preparation?) – “Same story. Nothing to report on Isaiah Wynn besides the fact that he’s diligently working and (Jordan) Poyer, we’ll find out more in the next coming days. I wouldn’t rule him out or in for this game. He’s a warrior that I know will play through anything that he’s able to play through so we’ll give his body a little time and he’ll be diligently in the training room trying to be a part of this New England game.”
(Another weird special teams play after the blocked punt or deflected punt that LB Duke Riley nearly touched before a Titans player did. What was the conversation on the sideline with him after that? Did he think he had to go grab it because of a deflection?) – “I think you don’t need to go any further than live speed. You could see his teammates were eagerly trying to figure out what was going on. It’s a bang-bang play and we have verbal communication for guys to stay away from the football in that situation if it goes past the line of scrimmage on a partial block. It’s no different than a shanked punt. I think that was something that was uncharacteristic, but things like that happen in football games. The bottom line is the No. 1 thing relative to winning and losing is preventing or creating turnovers, takeaways, those types of things and that was a misstep for Duke (Riley) that’s generally very, very, very reliable in those phases. So it was unfortunate that we even made it close and another opportunity to re-emphasize all those things to kicking, defense, offense. You just need to be aware of possession and how important it is.”
(At any point over the past couple weeks, has it felt like this offense is being run by players it wasn’t built for? It seems like it’s tailored around QB Tua Tagovailoa’s specific skillset. Has it ever felt like maybe QB Skylar Thompson and QB Tyler Huntley I guess need a little bit of adjustment to it?) – “It just feels like an offense that’s not good enough generally and whether that’s coaching or playing, we’re all in it together. It’s a bottom-line business. I think there’s strengths and weaknesses that everybody provides, but realistically from my history within the offense my entire coaching career; there’s tools and mechanisms that allow it to adjust. Really half the time you could say the plays don’t matter – what I call – until we have 11 people executing something in one direction. I think there’s perfectly capable players to do the things that we’re asking them to do going into the game. We all feel good about it. We’re not getting that on game day so I wouldn’t say that it’s not tailored to; when you have injuries, when you have adjustments in the lineup, people have to step up and if they’re executing their jobs at 90 percent generally, it needs to be 95 to 98 and we’re not getting that right now so bottom line is that it’s definitely not one person and there’s a lot of things that are going on in the pass game that have to do with line of scrimmage. A lot of things on the line of scrimmage that have to do with the receivers and the eligibles getting open in the timing of the play so collectively we just need to do a much better job.”
(I ask this question knowing that if the alternative happens, a player got hurt in the preseason or training camp, it would have been how and why did you put him at risk; but do you feel like this team could have benefitted more from practice, more time together in preseason games?) – “Yeah, I mean everything that wasn’t the case – you’re factoring those things in. I think that you do the best that you can with the hand dealt and if you are unable to participate in a group activity for whatever reason, there needs to be an uptick in urgency in every single rep that you do thereafter. So I know there’s a lot of teams that are going through things that are similar to us and there’s a lot of teams that are able to execute and a higher degree so I don’t spend much time in hindsight. That is very calculated. Everything that we tried to do, adjusting to whatever scenario that’s presented to us and we’re professional football players and coaches and so it’s our job to put forth a better product and if you’re grasping at straws to figure out why it’s okay; that’s not the answer. The answer is to diligently really maximize accountability across the board and collectively come up with a solution.”
