August 29, 2020 Opening statement: “Good morning, (I) hope everybody is well, hope everybody is safe and staying healthy. Great day in front of us here as far as practice is concerned, and we’re excited to get out there on the field. Obviously a little bit more of – we’re trying to schedule a little bit more of an intense scrimmage-like practice or a controlled team period-type of practice. Trying to work on some transitions today in and out of special teams on and off the field, kind of using the different parts of the field, between the red-area and the midfield and kind of normal field position play, and just go out and compete at a high level. It should be a good practice here this morning. We’re excited to get going. I think the guys are excited to go out and compete. They know it’s a big compete day for all of us, and we’re excited to try to get some sort of simulation going – similar, we’re going to work on some communication pieces with the coaches, which is going to be important too, so we’re going to try to get that done and just go and have a heck of a day. A couple of players just a real quick mention – Nick Bawden will not be at practice; Hunter Bryant will not be at practice, Da’Shawn Hand, Bo Scarbrough and (D’Andre) Swift won’t be out there. Mike Ford rolled his ankle a little bit yesterday, he’s just tender today, so I’m just going to hold him out and get him back here for the start of next week. That’s where we’re at right now, and we’ll go to questions.” On what he has seen from the new additions in the secondary: “Honestly in the secondary, it’s been a lot of fun. Those guys – they’re great to coach, the safeties and the corners. I think we’re dividing out the corners here just from a conversation piece. (Desmond) Trufant has been amazing. He comes to work every day. He’s extremely detailed with his technique and trying to go out and just do everything right, his approach, he’s a savvy vet. His competition level going against ‘Marv’ (Marvin Jones Jr.) and Kenny (Golladay) is really high. We have two pretty good receivers out there for those guys to practice against, so that’s really been fun. That’s been a lot of fun to watch him go out there and compete at a high level. I think Amani (Oruwariye) has done a really good job of just trying to improve this year, stepping in against Kenny and ‘Marv’ – two really good wide receivers on the perimeter – and do a really good job of competing out there. Certainly Jeff (Okudah), he’s out there competing with those guys and rolling through. I think he’s doing a good job. He’s still got a lot to learn. We’re still working on a couple plays where I think he’s on the ground too much, and he’s got to stay up and a little bit more body control and really just the game has got to slow down a little bit. He and I talked about that, and just trying to get him to be in those positions which he’s really improved and done a great job of understanding that. Darryl Roberts is another one that we were fortunate about to pick up, and he can play inside and outside. He’s really gotten a lot better too – very competitive, very tough, very gritty player that you like. Obviously Justin Coleman, who’s playing inside for us, can go outside but mostly plays inside – how competitive he is and really working with Danny Amendola and (Jamal) Agnew, those guys in the slot, just pretty fun to watch that competition there too. Tony McRae – it’s a competitive, tough group which is good. We’ll see what gameday looks like. We haven’t unfortunately had any live shots at it, but as far as the competition in practice, I think those, the wide receivers and the corners, have been going at it every day.” On who creates the practice playlist: “It’s a good question. In years past, we’ve actually done offseason award-winners. So we’ve had different things in the offseason program where guys have been able to get playlists out there, and certainly we didn’t have the offseason program, so we missed there. For the most part, I think it’s some of our guys, some of our operations guys that are out there working on the playlist. They’re probably getting yelled at by me or by the players, so they’re in a really, really tough spot there. If you have any suggestions for us, I can try to get that played for you today. Those guys – you would think the music would be a non-stressful job; it’s actually a really stressful job. Yeah for the most part, I’m not 100 percent sure. I’m sure there’s a couple players that are like, ‘Hey we need to hear a couple songs here.’ I’m sure that’s going on, absolutely.” On if he feels like the team is ready to be at the level they need to be for Game 1 or if that’s still an unknown: “I think it’s all unknown. Really, I think it’s completely unusual, it’s unnormal. We’re trying to do the best we can to be prepared and make sure that we cover – football has a lot of complexities to it, that go into the game, that sometimes you get through in preseason and understand that there might be things you can adjust before you get to the regular season. I think there’s going to be things that come up during the regular season that we’re going to have to fix in-season to make sure that they’re right the next time we get to those situations or communication or whatever we might see on the field. We’re pushing hard to be ready to go. We want to be ready to go. We want to compete. We want to be at a high level. But part of it, as you start to stress about it and make sure that you’re doing enough, you do understand that everybody in the League is in the same boat. Everyone is dealing with the same time and the same amount of what we’ve been able to do. I think really what would be interesting is to see what happens after September. I was actually just going through some of this stuff last night about our bye week and what we need to get done as we get through those first four games and get to the bye week and re-evaluate or re-adjust as we make a push there for the rest of the season. That’ll be the most critical thing is what happens after the first four weeks.” On the balance between getting starters prepared and evaluating players on the bubble: “The competition is the most important thing right now and getting everybody a chance to compete, get better, improve and get ready to play – even the guys who have been proven players for us. They haven’t played football in a really long time, so there’s a lot of parts of a real game that we need to try to get in, even though in a safe environment, but we still need to do it. Football is football. It’s not going to change from that aspect of it. So making sure that we get those guys those reps I would say is important, and then after we get through with it and taking evaluations, seeing what kind of position matchups or certain areas that we need to get a better look at and then make sure we get those done here next week.” On how he would feel about not having preseason games going forward: “Great question. I think some of the stuff right now that I feel the – let’s call it the ‘crunch’ before the season gets here – would be more of a gameday operation stuff, being able to get into a home game and an away game and go through that routine. We were actually talking to our players this morning about, ‘Start to think about your in-season, regular season, gameday routine.’ There is a process that the players go through to make sure that their bodies and their minds are ready to go, and just all of that, little details that you want to be as familiar as possible when you get to that first regular-season game and having a couple shots at that is good. I think there’s, certainly on the coaching-side of it, a lot that we need from those games, and to be able to work on our communication and really adjust. A lot of times we’ll put a plan together for coaching communication that has to do with the booth and guys down the field, and then we’ll take a look at it one way during one preseason game and then switch it for the next preseason game and see how that communication worked and the adjustments and things like that. I’m missing that in-game kind of stuff right now. Certainly from the player perspective, I think the competition against other players, other teams, is fun. It’s a good way for them to improve. I think that when you practice against the same guy for four-straight weeks, you understand that his head fake is going to go, where? You understand the movement, how he’s going to release off the line of scrimmage. You understand some of the details of that guy because you are studying him for four weeks in a row – that’s not really the game of football. You’re going to be able to study it on tape, and you have to go get it live and in-action one time. So being able to have that opportunity in preseason is also, I think, a good thing for everybody along with the tackling and the full speed of special teams. That’s probably the biggest area of concern.” On how to recreate the speed of special teams in a scrimmage and what he’s looking for when that occurs: “Really good question because today, well last night, we were going through our practice plan here for today and how to simulate the best we can for special teams. I think that is going to be a little bit manufactured for us today to see certain matchups and certain looks and to make sure that we’re getting what we need out of it, as opposed to just being able to go out and scrimmage it and whatever happens, happens because we need to have really specific looks that we cover, and then also do it at a really high-tempo, and that it’s safe. We had one day in practice a couple days ago where we were really trying to rush and get after the punter a little bit and put some pressure on the protection, and the first rep sure enough, we go flying through there and you’re holding your breath the whole way through it until everyone settles down and says, ‘OK hey, how do we – we have to anchor a little bit more.’ Or sometimes the rush guys, they can pull off, and they know they’re at that moment where they’re going to break through and not get anybody hurt. So just balancing that tempo, but also making sure that we’re getting enough quality work. That has been the biggest challenge for us certainly. The punters and those kickers, a lot of time – and the snappers too – those guys are in very vulnerable positions and you don’t want them to get hit, similar to a quarterback. But on the flip side of that, the other 10 guys on that side of the ball need to get a really good look at what they’re doing. We’re going to try to set it up as much as we can today, so the transition will be good from the team periods and playing first, second, third down and transitioning to special teams. But we will pause, set up exactly what we’re trying to get accomplished for that play, and then make sure we get the most quality rep we can get.” On where he feels the most behind right now versus a traditional preseason: “I would say probably just the overall competitive reps. I would say we’re on average, but we’re missing those gameday reps, those gameday competitive reps which is important. Then I would say the operation of gameday, that’s where I’m really starting to feel the ‘how do we simulate certain things to make sure that we’re communicating well and on the same page all the way across the board.’ Even just, you think about getting the (Microsoft) Surface on the sideline and go through the pictures and seeing pictures of something you don’t know is going to come up and being able to test all that stuff. We’re going to get there, but by this point in August, you feel pretty good about where you’re at before that first (regular) season (game). I know it’s a little bit of a process, and we’ll be patient, we’ll take it as it comes because we still have some time here and another week of work. But certainly you’re starting to get that itch of feeling like, ‘Ah, we’re behind on this.’” On scrimmages being critical in getting prepared for those elements: “Yeah, and certainly the Ford Field day will be great. It’s just, again, a Wednesday. So you’re not that far out from your home opener, and usually by now this would’ve been done three weeks ago. So that’s where you start to get a little bit nervous.” |
