OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR PRESS TAYLOR
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2023
“…Travis [RB Travis Etienne Jr.] has brought it every single week and continues to be one of our best
playmakers. We’ll continue to do everything we can to give him opportunities.”
(On the offense having a better rhythm last game) “Yeah, we made plays, we had explosives here and
there, so we were able to maintain possession of the ball and just continue to get through certain things.
You have plays that are built off other plays, but if you’re not able to sustain drives and stay on the field
in those situations, whether it be drops, penalties, not converting on third down, that makes it tough. It’s
tough to get yourself in that rhythm to get going, and it starts with first down and bleeds into whatever
the second down situation is. If you’re inefficient on first down and you’re second-and-long, you’re in a
tough spot. Now it kind of feels like you’re sledding up hill a little bit. It felt like the other day we were
able to have success on first down, led into second and manageable, led into converting and playing a lot
on first and second down, normal downs as we call it.”
(On offensive line responsibilities during crucial plays last game) “I believe based on the protection call
we had within the call, I believe he [QB Trevor Lawrence] thought he had inside help and I can’t
remember exactly what happened. I believe Brandon [OL Brandon Scherff] set him on the outside,
thinking he had inside help, and for whatever reason, help wasn’t there necessarily. I think that’s was
caused us to be a little bit leaky in protection there, and Trevor took the hit for it.”
(On difficulty of consistently shuffling around the offensive line) “Honestly, that’s just life in the NFL. To
say you’re going to be healthy throughout the offensive line and throughout a season is rare. It doesn’t
happen often. Again, this is something we always try to prepare for with guys moving in and out. We
knew Cam’s [OL Cam Robinson] situation. We knew all along in Week 5 there’s a possible shuffle within
the line room, so we try to prepare for that as early as we could, but there’s a lot of comfort in knowing
who you’re playing next to and communicating with the guy next to you. For the long haul, you guys are
on the same page and see it the same way, hear the same voice. I think that’s invaluable, but that’s just
not real. That doesn’t happen often enough, so you’re always kind of prepared for that shuffle. Those
guys do a great job, it just starts with the culture they create in their meeting room of just spending time
being all on the same page of what they expect. So, when it is the next man up, everybody has
confidence that guy can go do his job at a high level.”
(On challenge and how to overcome offensive line changes) “Well, that’s always the challenge. You hope
that you’ve put your guys in position to be able to handle those certain things. Whether it be camp or
just practice, we shuffle our guys every single rep in practice, just to get through what you think could
potentially happen. We go through all the injury contingencies throughout the week. This guy goes
down, he goes there. That guy goes down, now we move these two. There’s a constant shuffle and a
constant planning for it. I think calling a game and working through it, you’re always mindful of the
offensive line. I think that is one of the toughest, most underrated matchups in the game, is the offensive
line versus defensive line. You’re doing everything you can to try to minimize mismatches or maximize
mismatches if they’re in our favor throughout the course of the game. I think our guys do a good job of
playing well together, whatever that looks like and whatever the combination is, they’re in sync and in
unison continuing to try and work together.”
(On if there’s a way to fix mishaps on the offensive line in game) “We’re always self-scouting to make
sure that there’s not a certain tendency, I think the one you’re referencing was a third-and-one early in
the game, to making sure it’s not always the same combination to where the defensive line can start to
tee off. That’s the same thing of minimizing or maximizing matchups we have on the offensive line versus
the defensive line. I think that’s what it was, we felt like we were hat-for-hat, we just got beat inside and
we got beat too quick. That makes life tough, especially in short-yardage situations. It’s something we
continue to try to self-scout, make sure we don’t have any sort of tendencies one way or another in
terms of what we try to do in those situations.”
(On importance of staying ahead and trying to get first downs) “I think it’s case-by-case. I saw the same
stat, somebody showed it to me because we were the only team without a rush attempt or something
like that. I think we only have 11 of those said situations, so we have a low number and it’s early in the
season. I think part of it, too, we’ve been pretty good when we have thrown the ball on first down and
putting the ball in play or scrambling for positive gains. We don’t have a lot of those situations. It’s just a
matter of what defenses are we getting, are we getting pressure? What are we getting week-to-week?
We’ll always try to do what we think is best in that situation and that comes from the study we give
throughout the week of how they are going to play second-and-long versus how we want to play second-
and-long. How can we create a matchup in the pass game and when is the time or the look is right of
running the ball? There’s a lot of times where maybe you have a pass-call that’s killed to a run or vice-
versa. It’s a run, kill to a pass versus the right look. A lot of that happens, a lot of times if you get into
disparity of run pass in certain situations, maybe you call the play that was a run and for whatever
reason the ball got thrown. The quarterback checked it, it had a kill with it, some of our runs have throws
on them based on certain defenses.”
(On TE Brenton Strange’s blocking ability) “He’s done a great job of just bringing a level of physicality,
which for a young player and rookie in this league, five games in, it’s been impressive to see. We’ve been
really impressed having him and getting our chance to work with him and see him day-in and day-out of
the physicality he can bring. He’s athletic on the second level, he’s physical on the fist level. He hasn’t
had a lot of opportunities as a ball carrier, but he’s a really good ball carrier when those opportunities
come as the season goes on. We’re excited to see him shine in those chances.”
(On if making explosive plays was an emphasis this week) “Yeah, I think a little bit of it was just
opportunities that presented themselves. I think we ended with 90-something plays or something like
that of plays called or plays started. Anytime you get that, you’re getting more opportunities. Anytime
you’re staying efficient on first and second down, you’re in those normal-down situations where it’s not
an obvious pass situation and then you’re just trying to put the ball in play. You’re keeping the pass rush
at bay. First and second down, we try to utilize the threat of the run, whether that’s play action
movements, running the ball, play action screens, with the ability to present a look to the defense and
not let them tee off and just pass rush. That allows us to maybe create a bigger pocket, get guys down
the field, not necessarily pass block the whole time, but play action protect a little bit. Now you’re
getting guys 20, 30 yards down field being able to be able to push the ball at times. I think that’s all a
byproduct of it. I don’t think it was necessarily we have to do this; it was just how the game played and
presented itself and we were able to stay in those situations where that was a good thing for us.”
(On wishing he could communicate with QB Trevor Lawrence once the play is about to start) “No, we
always talk about it and we do it every single week, we do it through the offseason and training camp.
We have our SOPs, which are our standard operating procedures. You can’t cover every single situation
that comes up in a game that week. We know they had zero blitz in their inventory, we know they
brought it before, and we talked through all of that. We spent time in the meeting room. You only have
so many reps, but a lot of that, you just fall back on what you know and what we’ve trained them to do.
We ran an empty set, we have a tight end in a unique spot, they showed a zero-pressure, Trevor just fell
back on what we’ve trained them to do in that situation. I think a credit to everybody of just him giving a
signal, you’ve got about three seconds once the play is signaled to be able to know what to do, to be
able to execute your job at a high level. He put himself in a situation where he knew he was hot, he took
a hit in the back of the head and made a great throw. Calvin [WR Calvin Ridley] made a great play right
there. It was awesome by those guys to execute in that moment.”
(On QB Trevor Lawrence and WR Calvin Ridley’s trust building more) “I think so. It feels like that
chemistry of knowing when he runs this route, how it’s going to look versus that coverage or type of
leverage. I think you’re seeing that a little bit, and part of that is I don’t necessarily think that was a
conservative effort of we’re going to throw the ball to Calvin all the time. I think it just ended that way
based on the way coverages dictated themselves. I think that’s something you see with Trevor and our
offense as a whole; the ball goes where it needs to go. We’re not trying to force feed anybody in any
certain way. I think we’re at our best when our targets are spread between our playmakers because we
have a lot of good playmakers being the receiver room, tight ends, running backs, all that. That’s just a
good job by Trevor to work those progressions to get the ball where it needs to be.”
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR MIKE CALDWELL
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2023
(On how to evaluate the pass rush in last game with penalties) “Right now, we’re looking at it as we’re
getting pressure, but it’s the same results and finishing. We drew the holding, but there were
opportunities where we didn’t get held. We had a chance to get him on the ground. We just got to
continue to work on finishing. The guys are doing it and hopefully that’ll turn around for us.”
(On if he’s happy about getting holding calls and not sacks) “The sack is the stat you want to get, but at
the end of the day as a coach, you really look at how you affected the quarterback. Was he comfortable
back there or was he moving around and uncomfortable? That’s one of the things and you can tell by
completion percentage sometimes, just the feel of the game and I think we’re making guys
uncomfortable. We just got to do a little extra and get that sack.”
(On what DT DaVon Hamilton can bring to the defense if healthy) “It’s just really good to almost be at full
strength. You’ve got a guy that played great for us last year and unfortunate that he had to miss some
time. To open up his window and get a chance to get him back, just see his face out there. He’s been
sitting in meetings and just being able to get him out on the field, I think it’ll be a big boost for the team.”
(On how it’s been seeing OLB Dawuane Smoot back at practice) “Really, just last week being around
more and being engaged with the guys and talking, his leadership shows up being able to help guys in
the pass rush. Just like DaVon [DT DaVon Hamilton], being able to get him back would be a boost the
team.”
(On if he’s happy about the improvements of tackling) “You always work on the things that were your
weaknesses the last year. We continue to work on tackling, we did our tackle circuit yesterday. You
always want to go back and reinforce the things that are important to you, tackling is. We have to go
back and we’ll continue to work on it. The guys are doing a good job and they’re understanding that it’s
important, we just got to continue to keep it going.”
(On the team playing in their second year together correlates to defensive performance) “I think it goes
hand-in-hand. You’re around guys a bunch, we’re not communicating as well as we should be because of
explosive plays. But, in other areas of the defense and other areas of the game, we are doing a decent
job of doing what we want to do. The communication is the thing right now. We’re around each other,
we talk and joke all of the time, let’s talk and make sure we communicate on the field in the same way.”
(On what to make of a strong run defense despite being without two key players) “I think in training
camp, you find guys that are able to fit your mold. We found a couple of guys and got a few guys off the
street that have come in here and did a really good job. Overall, you have our defensive backs that are
tackling like crazy such as Jenkins [S Rayshawn Jenkins] and Tyson [CB Tyson Campbell]. Tyson had a
tackle for loss as a corner. It’s interesting that guys want to contribute to stopping the run and they’re
doing a good job in stopping the run, they’re doing a good job and they’re focused on it, they’ve got a
big task this week.”
(On impressiveness of CB Darious Willams recording an interception) “It’s always good for a defensive
guy because sometimes at practice, when it’s our period, we get a chance to compete for the ball, but
when it’s the offensive period, we don’t get a chance to compete for the ball. He went up and he
competed for the ball. That’s what you want, you want guys that are able to attack the ball once it’s in
the air and Darious did a great job of going up and high pointing it. He showed us strong hands and he
was able to get the interception.”
(On pressuring Bills QB Josh Allen so his passes are affected) “Well, going into the game, we understood
that the other Josh Allen could throw it as far as he needed to throw it. That’s why we always say rush
and coverage go together, just being able to go around him and not being able to step into it. He has an
arm that’s strong enough to throw it 90 yards. He came up short and Darious [CB Darious Williams] was
in good position and was able to make a play. It goes hand-in-hand. When you have a rush that’s able to
get around guys, that’s what we go back talking about affecting the quarterback when he’s unable to
step into it, that’s not as good as a sack but it affects the quarterback.”
(On DT DaVon Hamilton and OLB Dawuane Smoot have enough to work together before the trade
deadline) “Again, I think you answered your question. That’s not my area. We’ll talk about it as a staff,
but right now, we’re comfortable with the guys we have and we’re getting the guys back that can play a
major role in the growth of this team last year and going forward. We’re excited to get our guys back and
we’ll see how it goes from there.”
(On threat of defense with DT DaVon Hamilton and OLB Dawuane Smoot) “Really, when you look at it,
those are our guys last year that we depended on. This year, going into this season, we depended on and
we were glad to get them back at whatever time. Now, Smoot is ready and D-Ham is ready to go and
that’ll be a jump to the team.”
(On type of quarterback Colts QB Gardner Minshew is) “We say Moxy. He’s a guy that might not have the
name, but the players in that locker room play for him. That’s huge, when you got the other 52 guys
believing in you and they believe in him, they’ll go out and play for him. That says something for the
quarterback. That’s a big thing, run game will pick up, pass game will pick up, offensive line will pick up
because they want to play for him. That’s the kind of quarterback he is, you can see it on film. When he’s
been in the game, they’re undefeated.”
(On if the Colts offense changes much based on which quarterback is in) “I think the run game changes a
little bit, but he has enough Moxy to be able to make the runs. He’s athletic, he’s not as athletic as AR
[Colts QB Anthony Richardson], but he’s an athletic quarterback and he can buy time with his feet, he
can run his own read, he’s able to make plays with his feet. But he also is a veteran quarterback that
knows where to go with the ball. I think the offense stays similar and they’ll lean heavily on the running
backs and let the quarterback do what he does.”
(On how to prepare against Colts RB Jonathan Taylor) “He’s a five-star guy. He’s a guy that you have to
account for whenever he’s on the field. You know that at any time, he can take his distance. Moss [Colts
RB Zack Moss] is the same way, I don’t want to call it a two-headed monster, but they have two guys
back there that can get it done. We’ll have to make sure we’re gap-sound and be in our gaps to try to
slow it down as much as we can.”
(On how much he plans to incorporate S Antonio Johnson into the defense) “I think it was good to get his
first dose of playing and hopefully his role will continue. It’ll be a week-to-week thing, we’ll go in and try
to use our guys. If we need three safeties or four safeties at times, we got Devin [LB Devin Lloyd] coming
back so we’ll have a full plethora of guys to use. Just plug him in and try to get the best out of anybody
that’s out there.”
(On how S Antonio Johnson played in last week’s game) “He played well. He covered well, has good play
speed and he’ll continue to grow into his role.”
(On if OLB Dawuane Smoot is trending to play on Sunday) “I don’t know, his window is still open. We’ll
continue to get him reps and see where he’s at.”
(On how OLB Dawuane Smoot is playing in practice) “Smoot is good, he’s out there and he’s smiling
running around. He’s getting back accustomed to playing football. It’s tough when you’re unable to do
what you love to do and I’m just excited for him as he’s able to be back with us. If he’s able to go this
week, that’s fine, if he’s not, we’ll wait until he’s ready to go and let him go at it.”
(On performance of LB Chad Muma) “I thought Chad did a good job. He played downhill, he made his
plays in the run game, was solid in the pass game. You can always look at Chad, even though he’s a young
player, he’s a guy that understands the game. He goes about understanding and prepares for it. When
he’s out there, he’s going to make his plays and did a good job for us.”
