| August 23, 2020 Opening statement: “We’ll get rolling here this morning, but (it’s) just on my mind – I want to send out heartfelt condolences and just thoughts and prayers to the family of Ben Jones, who was the head coach at Cranbrook Kingswood High School, their head coach of the football program. I know that the community is hurting and obviously thinking of him and his family and everybody in that football organization. “A couple things here just on the roster: We released Caleb Benenoch this morning, and we signed Will Clarke, defensive lineman. For practice today right now, Hunter Bryant will be out and Bo Scarbrough. Everybody else we’re still kind of working through the morning, checking where everybody’s at. I think that’s it, kind of jump right in to questions here.” On why DB Tracy Walker has been working with the second team: “Again, I wouldn’t get caught up on first team, second team, all that stuff right now. We’re trying to practice and do rotations especially with a very deep safety group: Tracy, Will Harris, obviously Duron (Harmon), (Jayron) Kearse, C.J. Moore. A lot of times we like to spin the different matchups and the different groups, certainly the packages based on the situations that we’re in. So maybe we’re running some couple different packages from that aspect of it, but everybody’s in competition, everybody is pushing through and certainly at the safety position, there’s a lot of communication that takes place there in that group. Sometimes we like to change up who’s practicing together on different days to work on different communication levels. So from that aspect of it, it’s a really great group, great room. I think those guys are working really hard. I’m excited for the competition every day with all defense.” On why CB Desmond Trufant hasn’t been participating in team drills the last two days: “Probably not a lot of chill periods for me at practice. There is a little bit of maintenance that I think we’re always conscious of with all of our players, and a again, I think especially knowing what training camp looks like this year and the length and the timelines of things that we’re working on, we are very conscious of different types of tight, stiff, sore – a lot of it having to do with not being able to play football or being in football-type drills, things like that. So just trying to make sure that we do our due diligence on our side to protect the players when we know it’s going to be either a high-tempo, maybe a little bit more longer-type running than shorter-type running drills, we work a lot of deep balls, things like that, or we’re worried about guys opening it up as opposed to maybe some short-area work, things like that. So if we can get the individual work in, certainly we’re going to do all that stuff and then gauge the team-periods as we go, what’s necessary from an overall health and safety standpoint.” On if he thinks the team is close to being able to finish games in the fourth quarter or if more changes need to be made: “It’s a great questions and a lot of great conversation I would say inside of our building too. I would say a bunch of different thoughts there. No. 1: Certainly the situations we were in last year, I think we can all look at those and say collectively, ‘How could we have closed those out better? How could we have done something different or handled situations different for me to be on the plus side of the win column in those situations?’ We also know on the flip side of that, that last year is last year. This year’s team is different, and we’ll be different on the field and the opponents that we play will be different. That’s the NFL, it changes every year. But I think from a mindset, that’s a good standpoint for us to try to say, ‘OK, when we get in these situations, how do we really do certain things to allow us to be in a position to win more of those games and capitalize on those scenarios.’ Certainly in the fourth quarter, there’s different things that come up in situational football to time-of-possession to the opponent’s trick playing, so we look at all those. But just overall right now, we just want to play better all the way through the game for 60 minutes. Hopefully in the end of those, we’ll close them out. Certainly a great learning lesson for us last year or trying to get over that hump to close those out in the fourth quarter compared to where we want to be this year. There’s also a lot of it that always says, ‘The last inch of it is always the hardest.’ We know that it becomes very difficult when you’re trying to break through those scenarios and a lot of it is mindset, and that’s what we’re trying to do right now.” On the defense contributing to winning in the fourth quarter: “Yeah, it depends on the game. It can be all three phases, right? Special teams, certainly a great punt, great field position – that’ll be a big part of it too, being able to control field position in that phase. It’s really all three phases working together. That’s how it is, and I think that’s one of the biggest things in the game of football that as a team, when you really get to that concept of all three phases, it’s not one thing, it’s not offense or the defense, it’s not or special teams. All three phases effect the game and it effects how one of the other phases has to respond to those situations. Certainly there’s games where one or two phases are going to step up and have better days than maybe another phase and that’s how it goes in those aspects. We’ve seen that in the past. For the most part, you have to really win two of the three phases to try to be in a successful position at the end of the game. It’s really the totality of the game.” On WR Quintez Cephus: “Cephus, he’s really just caught on to everything we’re doing. I think that he has some extremely natural skill sets at the wide receiver position. I think some of the movement that he has – he’s a big guy. He’s got a lot of suddenness and quickness at the top of routes, I think. Maybe you think he’s not going to have that type of quickness because of his size, but he does. I think the guys on defense are studying him a little bit harder right now and trying to get a good grip on what exactly he is, so they can go out and compete. But I think he’s doing an excellent job of learning the offense, but really learning the individual technique, and he has a little bit of that football savvy, maybe if you want to call it, about him that is allowing him to handle the mental part of it, but also show off the skill set individually that he has.” On if practicing in humidity benefits the team in preparing for the season: “I think we probably know that I revel in all weather. Whenever we can take the opportunity to practice in all different types (of weather) just to be ready to go, so whether it’s extremely hot, extremely cold, snow, rain, sleet, sunshine, clouds, I don’t really care. We’re going to go outside and play. I do think it’s good during training camp, and obviously we’re in a little bit of a different training camp, but to get some heat, get some humidity going from that standpoint and see our conditioning levels as we go through camp – but certainly we have to be safe in that accord too. I would say we’re not into training camp for Aug. 23 as far as we would be, so if we travelling to like a Houston or a hot weather place to go play a game, we’d have a lot more under our belt here (from) a conditioning standpoint, practice standpoint. I do want to be conscious of that as we’re going through. But we’ll take the heat. That’ll be great.” On the importance of chemistry at the safety position: “It’s critical. The safety position is one of the major communicators on the defense along with the linebackers. Certainly trying to get communication from a safety position. The way the defense looks, if you draw a line down the middle, the safeties are the one that tie it to the linebackers to the front and then basically outside to the perimeters of their side. Knowing what you’re communicating to your side and then being able to relay that back to your other safety partner is really important from the overall concept of the defense. Those guys working together and being comfortable with all of them – Will Harris, (Jayron) Kearse, all those guys, C.J. Moore when he’s in there – that becomes really important for us, the communication piece. A lot of times on the football field – we talk about this all the time on the offensive line and really in the secondary quite a bit because there’s a lot of post-snap communication that takes place, whether you’re trying to recognize routes or give in-cut alerts or underneath routes or whatever the communication might be, a lot of times you just lock in to the voice. You’re not going to see the guy, you’re not necessarily going to see the person, but even through the crowd noise you’d be amazed at the more familiar you get with your teammates and the more you have that kind of bond of playing experience with each other – it can be really, really loud in there and you can still hear that in-cut call. You just kind of home in to those types of communication. It’s a big part of it, especially at the secondary level absolutely.” On the NFL statement about irregular COVID-19 tests and if the Lions were affected: “No, we’re good. Nothing to report there. We’re going to go out to practice. I haven’t heard that.” On the likeliness of teams keeping specialists on practice squads this year and if the team’s punters can also kick: “100 percent. It’s a huge part of the conversation. It’s probably different for every team though depending on what their situation is with the specialists. I certainly think that – one of the things we always try to do with our practice squad is we’re always trying to keep guys on the practice squad that we think at some point can help us or play in a game or develop into those scenarios. So that is something we always look for whether it’s offense, defense or special teams, that’s all going to be a part of it. For our case with the specialists and the competition that we have there, when we get down to it, we’ll see where that goes. The kicking side of it is a big part of it, you know making sure that guys cross-train there – from the kickoffs, to the punts, to field goals – all of those are up for play in those scenarios. I definitely been in games too before where your backup field goal kicker was a wide receiver. Actually played against one, Wes Welker, all of a sudden (he) walked out there and kicking field goals and kicking off, and I was just trying to cover him in the slot at the time. You never know when that backup position is going to come from. I think I was also on the field one time, Doug Flutie hit a drop kick. We look at all avenues there, but the specialists I think, are totally in play for that conversation, sure.” On the ways he thinks he’s a better coach now that when he began in 2018: “Really deep, good question. I don’t really know if I have for you 18 minutes before we walk out on the practice field. Certainly (had) a lot of time to reflect on that stuff in the offseason. One of the things that you try to get into when you’re a head coach or a new head coach is getting into a rhythm. What fits best for you, the team, the direction that you’re pushing and getting to know the organization and all that stuff. I would say that hopefully I’ve improved in some of those areas. I try to get better every day. Certainly I’m looking at all those different avenues, but just getting the team in rhythm and getting it going in the direction that we need to go in is huge for me and the organization. I think that maybe frees you up to do some other things or handle other situations a little bit better than in the past where’ you’re just bogged down with other things that are coming at you in different directions.” On if he has an example: “I don’t, I don’t. If I think of one I’ll let you know.” |
