July 25, 2023
Opening Statement: “OK, day three. So, we get to wear our spider shells, which is just a little more than jerseys, just kind of the next step. We’re able to go two hours today – today and tomorrow – so it’ll be a little bit more. We start doing some red zone today, little situational work. It’s good, it’s good. We’re in a good place.”
On the status of Lions DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson after getting tests done: “Yeah it appears to be that he’s going to be OK. Doesn’t appear to be anything serious so we’ll see. The images look pretty good. He may be out a day or two but yeah, seems to be OK.”
On his emotions and feelings after seeing Lions DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson injured in day two of training camp: “Yeah, well honestly and I don’t mean this in a bad way – first of all, any player that you see goes down it affects you because you don’t want that for any of your players. I don’t care who it is, and I don’t care if they’re free agents, rookie free agents, high-priced guys, doesn’t matter. You don’t want that for anybody. But honestly, I’ve been around this long enough, everybody reacts different to injuries, every player, and you just don’t know, and so until you get the information, I don’t let my mind go there. My next thought was, ‘OK, (Lions CB) Will (Harris)’s in. Let’s go.’ But obviously to hear the news now you feel a lot better about it.”
On the status of Lions WR Jameson Williams after not finishing practice yesterday: “Yeah, he’s got a little something with his leg, so he probably won’t go for a day or two here either. I don’t think it’s significant, but it’s enough to where he’s not going to practice.”
On bringing in free agent QB Teddy Bridgewater for a visit yesterday: “Yeah, we kind of kept – we’ve kept in touch with Teddy, and we’ve kept (Lions QB) Nate (Sudfeld) abreast about that too. We hadn’t hidden anything and so it went well. Gave us a chance to sit down with him face-to-face, particularly (Lions Offensive Coordinator) Ben (Johnson) and (Lions Quarterbacks Coach Mark Brunell) Bru and (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes). Gets me face-to-face with him again and then just the medical. It was good. It was a good visit. We’ll see where it goes.”
On his interest level in adding another backup quarterback: “Certainly – I don’t think I’ve hidden anything about my feelings for Teddy Bridgewater, so if we can add a guy like Teddy and bring competition to the room, I’m all for it.”
On if the interest in free agent QB Teddy Bridgewater speaks to a franchise goal to have the highest level of insurance for a starter: “I do. I do, because the fact – here we go, man, we’re year three and I think we’re in a much better position and you want to know that you are in the best hands possible. I’ll leave it at that, but that’s also – it’s the competition. It doesn’t mean that (Lions QB) Nate (Sudfeld)’s out of anything if we go this route, if it works out. You’ll feel good about whoever comes out of the fire is going to be the right guy to help you along the way, but yeah, you don’t want the wheels to fall off.”
On which rookies have stood out and shown improvement since the spring: “Yeah, I would say this, really with the rookies – here we go, day three, no pads. You just want to know that when you watch them move and the individual and the details of what they’re asked to do, you see improvement every day. You don’t expect to see this massive jump and I would say, you see (Lions RB Jahmyr) Gibbs, man, he’s doing things that was a little bit better. Something he was doing yesterday that wasn’t good, it was a little bit better today. Same with (Lions TE Sam) LaPorta, same with (Lions DB Brian) Branch, (Lions LB) Jack (Campbell). I would say all of those guys. Man, you see just small improvement every day and that’s all you can ask for. And really once we get pads on, they’re going to go back down to here because they haven’t done it and they haven’t been around the vets and this type of talent and speed and all those things. Then they’ll build their way back up and get a little bit better, they’ll adjust to the speed, adapt to it hopefully, and we’ll be good.”
On how open the right guard position competition is: “Yeah, look, we told those guys, the best man’s going to play. So, we’re keeping our eyes open. Certainly, we like (Lions OL) Graham (Glasgow) because he has flexibility to play center and guard and that was kind of the starting point there, but we’re not going to just say, ‘Well you’re just a backup.’ We’re going to let him duke it out with (Lions G Halapoulivaati) Vaitai here and a lot of it too is alright, does V get his legs back under him? How’s this coming off the injury? How’s he doing? And there again it’s early, but we’re day three and he seems to be doing pretty good here, but I’d say it’s open. I’d say it’s open.”
On if he notices a jump in progress from year one to year two from Lions DL Aidan Hutchinson and Lions S Kerby Joseph: “There’s nothing that has I would say disappointed me to this point. I do know this though just watching – you’re over there, you’re watching the individual, you watch some of the team and Hutch, Hutch looks good, man. Just his mindset. He’s wired the right way. He’s been training. Obviously, putting in the work. He’s pretty smart and conscientious, and he’s a guy I can’t wait to get the pads on because you know he’s really going to show up. His style of play is violent. He’s aggressive. Then Kerby, it’s really the same thing. There’s nothing that I would say that has me concerned. I think those guys are growing at the rate they should and there again, we’ll know a lot more next week.”
On what he is hoping to see from Lions LB James Houston: “Yeah, I think, look we’re doing a lot with him at SAM linebacker when we’re in base defense and then certainly he’ll play some of that sub D-end or get a chance to on third down. So, we know he has some ability and craft, but we’re trying to really expand his horizons if you will. Man, if he can play some of this SAM backer, (Lions DL) Charles (Harris) is really the starter right now. It takes – man, he has to dive into the playbook. He has to know the calls. He has to understand all the adjustments to formations, things of that nature and that’s where once he grows, if he can get to that point, now he – potentially, he didn’t come off the field, but he has a long way to go before that happens. And the other point of that is I’d say this about Charles, man, let’s not forget about Charles. He’s coming off the injury. We lost him last year. I mean this guy’s a man on a mission. He’s another guy I can’t wait as we go through camp because you can tell he’s ready. He’s been going now, so it’s good to have him back too.”
On how having more personnel options changes a defense to make it more versatile: “I think of it as no different than the offense. When you feel like you have – alright man, we have some different receivers that can do different jobs and we have four of them, well let’s go 10-personnel. And now the next time we have three tight ends and feel like we have enough flexibility in their run and pass game, we can go 13 and feel good. Now we have two backs, let’s go pony. Two backs, a tight end and a receiver, two backs, three receivers – so, it just gives you flexibility to really put a lot of pressure, apply pressure on the defense. I think about that the same way defensively on offense because when you can dictate to the offense as opposed to being on the defensive, you now are a little more on the attack defensively because you have alright, we have a SAM, we can play base, we can play wing, we can play seam, we can go nickel, play a five-down front, we can just go nickel four-down, we can go dime. Now, you decide what you’re playing, and they have to adapt to you and have to prepare for a lot of different things and when you have to prepare for a lot of different things offensively, it makes you count your gameplan in half because you don’t know protections, run game, fronts, I mean you can only teach so much. But you’re not just going to just throw stuff out there if you don’t trust the players playing in those positions, so yes it helps.”
On if he thinks they have more versatile personnel in the last two years: “I’d like to believe that. I’d like to believe that.”
On if having more versatile players at running back and tight end is the goal to diversify the offense: “Yes, absolutely. Those were a couple positions where we identified – look, the more that you can get out of those two positions, it does, it gives you versatility and variety in what you can do and we feel pretty good about – we know (Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown) Saint can attack the middle of the defense and we know in 21-12 he can do some things outside, but man, opposite to him to feel like also in that position to attack the other side, the safeties, the LBs, the – build the triangle. Work the triangle for the quarterback. To have (Lions TE Sam) LaPorta and somebody like (Lions RB Jahmyr) Gibbs who hopefully develop – it does, and I think it’s – in some sense, it’s a quarterback’s best friend. When you have a halfback and a tight end that can win for you, I just think that – usually the throws are a little bit easier. They’re bigger targets or there’s a lot of separation depending on athlete versus athlete so yeah, I think that’s a fair assessment and certainly we’re always going to run the ball. I mean, that’s what it starts with, with us. Our foundation is built off of our offensive line. It always will be and then we work from the ground up from there.”
On Lions FB Jason Cabinda saying he is in the healthiest shape that he has ever been in: “I agree with that assessment of him too. Now he had an injury last year he was coming off of, he was a little heavier, but I would say we kind of talked about him already. He’s moving pretty good. He looks pretty good, and he brings an element to the offense and like with any of these guys, what you want to see – Cabinda knows this – we just need to know he can still do it. Do you still have it in your body? Can you still thump? Can you still – and that’s what you’re looking for because he does – there’s very few teams that still run with fullback at times and we’ll still use one as long as we know that player can help us.”
On if the rookie talent show team presentations have started yet: “They have big shoes to fill from last year. No, it has not started yet, but I did tell those guys, I said, ‘Just do something. If you feel like you have a talent, it may not be, but you think it’s a talent, then just do that, and stay up there even if you get booed. Just stay all the way until the very end because you probably won’t get called back up because it’s so brutal it’s like, forget this, but if you start and then you laugh and stink and you get booed, they’re just going to keep bringing you back up.’ But they’ve been given that advice. We’ll see, they have big shoes to fill.” |
