| Opening Statement: “We just watched Melissa Gonzalez run there. I wish David (Blough) could be out there for her, but she gave them hell, man. She gave them all – she pushed it. I’m proud of her and I know he is and I wish he could be out there for her. A couple of things today. First of all, if your name is Evan, there’s a good chance you could play offensive line for us. We’re pulling Evan Brown off of NFI. So, he’ll be out there today. He’s ready to go. We’ll monitor him today just to make sure he’s good, but he’ll work in a little bit individual. (Offensive Line Coach) Hank (Fraley) will keep an eye on him, but just to get him going. He’s ready to go. Evan Heim is ready to go today, too. He cleared his protocol and physical, all of that. So, we gained two linemen, which is good. So, they’ll be out there. Other than that, pads start tomorrow, not today. The league mandated that you can’t do that. You can’t start pads until two days after the first day off, but this will be good. Today will be very much like last week was, knowing they’re coming off the day off. It’ll be a pretty crisp two-hour practice. And then tomorrow, we’re rolling.” On his early evaluation of CB Amani Oruwariye: “I’ve been pleased. I know (Jeff) Okudah gets a lot of attention for where he was drafted and the talent level and all those things and he is improving. But Amani is just quietly getting better over there and doing his job. I’ve been encouraged with him. He’s great kid, too, man. I should say young man. He eats it up, too. He’s a football junkie. He’s learning, he’s growing. You can see his confidence. He understands his own ability and what he can do, what he’s got to be careful doing, what he can get away with, but he’s growing too. Trust me. I’m excited to see what he looks like now that we’re going into pads, too.” On how much practice changes when players put on pads: “This is where you really find out what’s what, because there are kind of three different cycles to it. It’s what we’re into now and what we have been with acclamation, which you guys heard me call the ‘pajama warriors.’ Then you’ll have pads. It’s like the first day, maybe first two days of pads, there will be some guys that will show up and then once you get into the grind of it, you hit the second week, and you get in about four or five days of pads, now you’ll find out who’s who. So, it takes a little bit. It’s no different than the guys, when you’re running sprints – you guys have all been a part of this at some time in your life – and it’s like, say today, you’re going to run 16 110s and your turnover is 45 seconds, 50 seconds. You run and you’re coming in on your time, and you’re working it. And this guy next to you is just, first one, ‘Man, he’s flying.’ Second one, ‘He’s flying.’ Then he’s just kind of for the next eight, nine, 10 he’s back there. And then all sudden the last one he’s like ‘Woooo.’ He’s like, ‘Great job.’ Well, you’ve been saving the whole thing. While I’ve been over here doing it every time, pushing myself for the 16, you were over there, you got a little tired, you’re preserving your energy for the last one so you look good. That does nothing for anybody. So, there will be some of that. That’s my point behind that story. It’ll take a while to figure those guys out. But ultimately, it does change. This is where you find out who’s who and we get into the physical side of this. This is where you start to condition the body for the season because we’re not going be able to do this during the season. So if you don’t get it in now, if you don’t condition the body for the pounding that it’s getting ready to take over a 17-week period and hopefully more than that, then you’re in trouble.” On how he handles players who maybe preserve energy until late in drills: “Kind of like I always do, I just talk trash. That’s all I do. I’m just like, ‘It must be nice to preserve your energy to the last one.’ I was like, ‘It’s great how you get in the game and you decide you’re going to play in the fourth quarter when we needed you the first three.’ So, I just poke at them. That’s all. I do that until it pisses them off and then they want to prove me wrong or tell me to shut up and then they actually do something better. So, that’s how I think of it anyway.” On his expectations for G Logan Stenberg in training camp: “There again, this week’s going to say a lot. It’s going to tell a lot about Logan. We like what’s in there. We like his ability. He’s somebody that we feel like – Look, he’s a pup. He just is. He’s such a young buck right now. He’s got a lot of room to grow. He’s also got a ways to go, too. That’s the reality of it. I think the question for him is, ‘How quickly can he get better and develop?’ He’s getting better, but it’s like, ‘Man, it’s got to come.’ These pads are where it’s going to start for him. We need to see him be able to drop his weight and get under guys and get movement. This will be a huge week for him.” On what type of specific tasks he has Assistant Head Coach/Running Backs Duce Staley perform: “There were things that, just even in the offseason – I had him dealing with player fines and where some of those things are going to go. I’ve had him coordinating as it pertains to projects. ‘Hey, what are the things that we need to be thinking about on Wednesday and Thursday? Like, I know that you have base, you’ve got third-down, you got red zone on Friday. But if you were doing those things, how are you going to present those things, Duce? Set them up a little for me.’ Then there are going to be days where it’s his day. I see him doing – he’s getting up in front of the team and today is third-down day and he’s talking about third-down and just kind of talking about how we’re going to handle things as a team. I think he’s doing the officials’ report. I think that he’s going to be up there in front of the team sometimes the night before the game and he’s talking about keys, reminders for that game. So I mean, just a number of things in that regard. Duce has been great. I kind of put this – even to this point, which is a little bit what I did in New Orleans, Duce is a guy that carries around his fire extinguisher. That’s what he’s got in his hip pocket. There are things that I won’t even know about and don’t need to know about because that’s what he does. He’s going to put out fires before I have to worry about them or even need to know about them. That is invaluable and that’s a little bit of what he does as well. But my point, I plan on using him. I really do. How far does that go? As far as I can take it. I want these guys to understand who I am, but I don’t want them getting ‘dead head’ from listening to me time after time after time. I think it’s great to have somebody else get up there who’s got presence about him, particularly like Duce. He’s got knowledge, he’s got presence. We’ll be on the same page. We think alike. He’ll know what I want. I think it keeps them engaged, too. It’s just a different way of presenting the same message.” On how he plans to use the preseason games with the new schedule format: “I go back and forth on it. I think a lot of it’s going to depend on where we’re at health-wise when we get there. I can’t give you a definitive answer. I really do kind of feel like, ‘Where are we at as a team? How do we feel about the flow of our team? How’s our offense look? Defense, special teams? How are we physically?’ My gut tells me we need to play the third preseason game – at least some – the starters, but that’s about as good as I can give you right now.” On G Jonah Jackson’s jump from year one to year two: “I can tell you this, Jonah’s one of the handful of guys who’s been here since basically I got this job, been in this building working like every day. I bring that up because I’ve seen him since February, at least seeing him around, know what he’s doing. He’s been down there with (Head Strength & Conditioning) Josh (Schuler) and those guys working out in the in the weight room. I already know what he’s all about and I know the work that he’s put in and I know what his body is able to put out. We’ve had our eyes on him and he’s a workaholic. He’s hungry, he’s smart. I’ll tell you what, this kid’s a leader. Now, it may take a tick to show because he’s kind of – but this kid is going to be – he’s cut from the right cloth. He’s kind of, sometimes, maybe he’s quietly the guy that gets a little bit lost, but we’re looking for a big year out of him. I think the hard thing with Jonah is sometimes even I forget he’s only going into second year. He’s not a pup, but yet he’s young. He’s still growing, too. So, I’ve got to remind myself of that. Like, ‘Alright, easy now. This is not a five-year vet. Don’t lose sight of that.’ We have high expectations for him. We do and I’m glad we got him. I really do.” On if he believes the development if the offensive line position group is ahead of the other groups: “I do. I’ll tell you why, though, is because just knowing you’ve got (Taylor Decker) Deck, you got Frank (Ragnow), Jonah (Jackson), who played a little bit last year. He’s still growing. (Halapoulivaati Vaitai) Big V is an experienced guy, and then certainly (Penei) Sewell would be the young guy out of that whole crew. I think when you have, particularly three guys that have played a lot of football and are pretty good players up front and they’re kind of in their prime, I think that those guys learn how to play with each other. It’s one thing about the individual player they are, but knowing that they’re able to play with one another, and figure things out together, and then kind of cover up for each other if things don’t always go right, I think goes a long way. O-Line’s always one of those – you can cover up a lot if you learn how to play with one another. Even more so than any other position because those five are always in tandem, usually. So, I do think it’s one of the units that that can be stronger for us, or is stronger.” |
