Opening Statement: “I’d like to start by thanking Scott Novak for being out here, white hat referee. He was out here at practice, spoke to the team last night, kind of points of emphasis. Then obviously, the officials have been with him. It’s not his crew, but he had those guys. So, they’ll be out there today. I encouraged our guys to ask questions. That’s what we said, ‘Ask them. They’re the ones who are calling it. They’ll tell you exactly what they’re looking for, why they’re going to call something and what the emphasis is.’ It’s good to have them out here. I thought yesterday was a good first day in pads. I thought they did a hell of a job, came out and competed. At most, it’s a little rusty, but those are things you correct. I did think they came out with good intensity and practiced hard.” On the rookies’ first day in pads yesterday and their intensity: “I mean I was fired up because they’re competing, man. It was good to see both of them (Ifeatu Melifonwu and Amon-Ra St. Brown), two young bucks, after it. We had a pretty good idea of Amon-Ra, ‘The Sun God’, what he’s capable of. Just when he gets pads on, he’s aggressive. It showed up on tape in college, like this guy will mix it up. There are things you see in (Ifeatu Melifonwu) Iffy in school but yet I didn’t quite know, and just to know he’s got a little ‘Hey man, I’m not just going to – I’m not your punching bag,’ that encouraged me, it really did. We got them paired up again and it was a good rep. It was still competitive, but it was a good rep. Nobody backed down from each other and they got better from it, so I was happy.” On what points of emphasis the officials shared with the team: “I would say, for them, penalties were down last year offensively, way down. Just the fact that, that was one of the things that I had kind of wondered about, like, ‘Are those going to stay down? Are we kind of trending that way?’ And I guess, it’s not even so much a point of emphasis as it is what guys, we believe it’s being called the right way. So that would lead you to believe that, OK, offensively there is—I’m not saying anything has changed philosophy-wise—but I would tell you, ‘OK man, offensively it’s not going to be as nit-picky as it’s been.’ It doesn’t mean they’re not going to be looking for things, the obvious and things of those nature. But that, the cut block is a big one.” On if the officials emphasized holding penalties: “Yeah, holding. There were a lot of things too. Back in the day, man, I remember—not back in the day, two years ago—you get a guy here and that ball gets, man it doesn’t matter. ‘Oh, but it’s in the framework,’ man it doesn’t matter. Even if his frame is right here, even half a foot away from where I was, they’re going to call that thing. I remember there were a couple last year, even when I was in New Orleans, where I was like, ‘Oh, I think that’s a hold.’ I’m glad we didn’t get it called, but I feel like they’re not as—man it has to be truly blatant, you see it. That’s where it’s trending. I get it as long as we’re aware of that. That tells me defensively, it’s got to be all out, violent separation, whatever it takes so that the refs see the struggle to get out. I’m outside his framework. Those are things I think of, the other is the cut blocks. You can’t cut outside the tackle box, it’s a big one. It’s a big change. Offensive linemen and the screens, they’re used to cutting. I’m the first one out. I’m throwing it. It’s not even about cutting to get the guy down. It’s about cutting because it forces them to have to avoid you and so that clears a hole for the running back and now he gets downfield—but even DBs, tall as crap. I’m the corner on the edge, here comes 320 pounds, (Penei) Sewell on the edge or (Taylor) Decker, 320 pounds, 330 pounds. Boy, you can’t go low. You have to stay high. So, defend yourself without cutting a tackle. But those are things we have to be ready for. They can only be inside that tackle box, which is two yards outside the tackle itself and then five yards deep, five yards behind the offense. So, it’s a change. It will just be something we have to get used to. It’s not like you do that in practice anyway, but in games you used to be able to do that, now that’s out. That’s kind of a big one.” On how he disciplined CB Ifeatu Melifonwu and WR Amon-Ra St. Brown after their scuffle yesterday: “Look, the emphasis has been on they know what we don’t want. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to have a couple of heated battles in there, but to me you end up having a problem when you start having all-out brawls all practice long. And it’s like, ‘Oh my God, here we go.’ We have a 10-minute period and we have eight minutes of it is fighting amongst the team where it’s kind of counterproductive. At that point you have to do something about it because you’re not getting any work done. But those little things I think, man, I just think they make you practice better. They make you practice harder. You don’t want to lose to that guy. You’re pissed off. It makes you want to. I love it because it puts you to that point where you see red so much that you want to beat this guy, but yet you have to be under control enough to know that you can’t just go out there and throw a haymaker, if you will as it relates to football because that’s what this is about. It’s no different in a game. You get so mad that man, you’re out of control? Well, that’s not good anyway. You can’t win that way. But I do think to be able to get pushed to that point, to that limit where you’re going to do whatever it takes to beat that guy and know that he’s going to try to do the same to you. I really do believe that’s how you get better. I just do. So, it was good. I thought they responded well, both of them.” On changing the attitudes of players who get into fights during practice so they do not fight during games: “You don’t fight in games. It’s a 15-yard penalty. You don’t do it. And we tell them you don’t do it, and I think they know you don’t do it. But this isn’t a game. This is practice right now, getting ready for a game. That’s how I view it.” On the advantages of installing new schemes with pads: “Yeah, I think there’s so much about what you’re going to do as it pertains to run, play-pass, things of that nature. I’m trying to find the best way to answer that question. Let me back up. If you’re not using pads for your run game, particularly gap scheme, because that’s where you get the true doubles and people are on you right now more than even zone. I’ve found that you can practice the zone, just run game, without being in pads and probably keep getting better at it. But, if you’re doing more gap schemes, inside zone, things of that nature, which we’re going to do them all, you have to have pad work and you need it defensively, too. There’s no way around it because if you really want to get good on both sides of the ball, you need those pads on. You need to learn to come off the ball because it takes a physical toll both ways. If you’re not ready for it, you’ll just get trucked. You’ll get pushed off the ball or you won’t be able to move anybody. It’s a joke. So, I think you need it, but also I would tell you this, you need it, too when you get into your pressure game. Our pressure periods, blitz packages, our defense is bringing exotics or they’re doing twist games. You need your pads because you can’t pass all that stuff off in your pajamas. It doesn’t happen. If you’re not snapping it enough, or if you do and somebody gets hurt, you need those pads on to be able to because that’s a physical side of the game people forget, is the pass rush when you start involving blitz in games inside. That’s pretty violent in there, so you need pads to get that type of work.” On WR Tyrell Williams’ hand injury in yesterday’s practice: “Yeah, he’s good. He just got a little pinky there, but just dislocated it. He put it right back in and it was good to go. He’ll be out there today.” On RB Jermar Jefferson’s play during camp: “Yeah, I feel like every day Jefferson’s done a little bit more. He’s making a couple of runs here. He’s got pretty good vision. I think he’s got a feel about him and I feel like he’s growing a little bit every day. He’s smart. He’s one of those guys, I’ve been in (Assistant Head Coach/Running Backs) Duce (Staley)’s meetings where he didn’t say much up there, but when Duce calls on him, he’s got it. I’ll tell you what fired me up out of everything Jermar did yesterday: when we were doing the same drill you guys were talking about with (Amon-Ra St. Brown) Amon and (Ifeatu Melifonwu), Iffy got in there and he got beat. Bad. He was so, you could just see it man, he wanted to be put back in there immediately. He really wanted the rep again, but (Special Teams Coordinator Dave) Fipp had already called somebody up and I could tell it bothered him. And not just bothered him like, ‘Hey, look at me it bothers me, so you see me like I’m getting bothered.’ It legitimately bit at him, and I love that. I love that, I do, because I know today, he’s not going to want to let that happen again. And that’s just special teams, so it’s good. It’s good to see these young guys grow a little bit.” On how LB Anthony Pittman has progressed during camp from last year: “Yeah, he’s grown. It was funny because when we came in, it was like, ‘Who is this guy?’ And we’re trying to figure out what to do with him, what did he play. We’re watching some of the practice from last year and you look at his dimensions and we listened to some of the coaches that were here and (Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn) AG’s like, ‘This guy sounds like he should be inside and not an outside linebacker.’ I know that he had gotten moved there and he’s trying to do some edge stuff. So, we just didn’t know a lot about him, but we brought him in and talked to him. He said ‘Coach, I feel like inside is where I belong.’ So, we moved him inside and he’s just been doing this. He shows up every day. Every day he does something. And he can run, he’s physical, he’s young. He’s a young guy. He’s one of those guys you get really fired up about as a young guy developing and growing. It’s like what can be. What can this guy be? But the potential is there and he’s working extremely hard at it.” |
