September 7, 2020
Opening Statement: “OK, good afternoon. I hope everybody is doing well – and here we go. The season has started. It’s been a long journey. It’s been an interesting spring, and then a short, but unique, training camp, and we’re here. We’re excited to get going, excited about Week 1, really just focused on trying to do everything we can to get our players and coaches ready to go against the Bears. We know we have a big challenge in front of us, division game, so all of our focus right now is just turning the page into the next portion of what we do and that’s the in-season and that’s games. From that standpoint, just really excited to get an opportunity to go out and play a football game which is great. I think first and foremost, just appreciate everyone’s hard work from the spring through training camp to get this building up and running. Our organization did a great job of making sure that everybody was safe and staying healthy and that we had the opportunity to basically be as normal as possible in unnormal times. I think we tried to maximize everything that we did, getting done, getting ready to go, but now we have to switch gears and get in game-mode. It should be exciting. We’re looking forward to it. We know Sunday is going to come real fast, and we know it’s going to be a big challenge. So here we go – the Bears – what do you got?”
On if he expected Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky to be named the starter and the threat he poses: “We were waiting to see obviously how that competition unfolded. Trubisky has done a great job against us. He’s obviously (a) very athletic, mobile quarterback. He gets the ball out extremely fast. I think he has some great skill players around him. I just think there are so many guys that cause you issues and cause problems for the defense, and certainly (Allen) Robinson and (Tarik) Cohen are great players that he can get the ball to quickly. I just think they’ve done a really good job, (Head) Coach (Matt) Nagy has done a great job of getting his team ready to go in all the situations, both when we played them in Chicago and then certainly on short weeks when we played at Thanksgiving-time too. That’s why we know they’re a tough team. They have a great defense. They’ve got solid guys on special teams that just make plays. They’ve got two of the best returners on special teams in the League. It’ll be a big challenge, and we know how good of a team they are.”
On signing RB Adrian Peterson: “I think (he) was a player that was released from a former team. We always make sure (we) do our due diligence there and took a loot at it, talked about our situation and decided it would be something that we want to pursue. We had good contact, communication, and from there just kind of worked out where (we’re) fortunate to bring him on board. It’s early. I have a lot of respect for Adrian Peterson. I’ve played against him for a long time. He’s just a phenomenal player. (Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell) ‘Bev’ has a connection with him back in the days of Minnesota. We’re just excited about it, but we have a long way to go. He just got here, he has a lot to learn, and I know he’s going to do everything possible to put everything into it. We’ll just take it from there.”
On what he’s hoping to get out RB Adrian Peterson at this stage of his career: “I think it’s nothing more than what we expect out of everybody. Go out there and compete, work hard and try to do everything you can to contribute to the team and help the team win whenever that is ready to take place. From that standpoint, everybody that we put on the field in positions to go give us a chance to win, that’s really what we expect.”
On if he will use RB Adrian Peterson this weekend: “We’ll see. It’s Monday, and he just got here. So we’ll see how everything goes.”
On the precautions he’s taking with the quarterbacks in the event that an emergency quarterback needs to be used: “The biggest thing for us right now, as we start to work through the in-season schedule and figure out what’s the best thing to do, is stick with the protocols that we have right now and hope that we’re doing everything right like we did through the course of training camp to minimize exposure and minimize contact that everybody’s having with each other and keep guys in safe spaces. Certainly from our standpoint, everybody is in the building, and they’re working in that area and trying to go out and practice and get better. I think that’s one thing we have to do. We have to use practice to get better. David (Blough) certainly needs those reps too, and that’s important for us to make sure that we’re improving. David is a young player; he’s a young guy. Chase (Daniel) has some veteran experience which is good. Obviously Matthew (Stafford) and getting ready to go. That’s the way we’re going to approach it for now.”
On what he likes most about the team this year and where they have improved from last season: “I think one of the things about this team that’s been great so far, and obviously we’ll find out as we get into the regular season, I just love the way these guys come to work every day. I love how competitive they are, how much they just want to win, how they push each other and how they care for each other. It’s a great environment to coach in. I think it’s a great environment to be a teammate in – for all us, coming into work every single day trying to win, trying to improve, trying to get better. We know we have a long road in front of us, and we’ll see how everything goes here and certainly try and manage some changes to what everything looks like here in the regular season. But from that standpoint, the guys – they want to do well; they want to try to do everything they can to help the team, and that’s great.”
On if trust off the field can help propel a team forward: “I think there’s always a part of all teams – whether in the season or before the season – that they have those moments they can pull together, they can come together, they can just become – moving in the same direction and that’s important. Now obviously execution and everything that we do on the field is the bottom line, but I think certainly it does help when guys really feel that way about each other. They want to make each other better, and they’re not afraid to go out there and push each other. I think that’s the big part of it. If everyone can just get one percent better every day in this group, then we’ll move light years ahead. Certainly in order to do that, there’s a lot of respect and a lot of trust and a lot of appreciation for each other that has to take place. That’s something that we’ve had so far. We’ll see how it goes in the season – you know things change. From that standpoint, just really pleased with where everyone is at right now with that.”
On the difference between preparing for Week 1 this season compared to a normal season: “It’s a great question because even though in preseason teams tend to go a little bit vanilla or a little bit kind of basic with some of the stuff that they do, there are those pictures those glimpses of what you think they’re going to do, whether it’s preseason game No. 3 or just the personnel in general. A lot of it I think for us is evaluating the players that we can during those preseason games and seeing where their skill sets are and maybe the changes that those guys have made during the offseason. That is something that we do not have. And certainly with the uncertainty that the last offseason was, it’ll be a big challenge for us to walk out there and to be able to see their guys live, in-person for the first time, will be interesting, and certainly scheme-wise if there’s anything that’s changed – not that we might have seen it through a preseason game, but I think sometimes you can get a better feel for the direction that an offense or defense or special teams is headed at least through those games. So it’ll be completely different.”
On what he learns from coaching high-achieving veteran players like RB Adrian Peterson: “Absolutely. I mean, all the great players that I’ve been around make me a better coach. I learn more from them probably than they learn from me. So those are exciting times and exciting situations to be in. As a young linebacker coach, my room was full of great, great, great players. It challenged me to make sure that I really knew my stuff and that I was able to go in there every single day to teach and coach and just, honestly, pick their brains and learn form them and try to understand what they see out on the field, and it’s a tremendous opportunity for a coach to be able to be around someone like that to really expand the way that you see the game through their eyes.”
On if RB Adrian Peterson’s familiarity with Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell and Offensive Line Coach Hank Fraley played a factor into signing him and if that will serve as an advantage when utilizing him: “I think that was a great part of – just a perfect storm of a combination of things to get him here. I think that being so familiar with (Bevell’s) offense and obviously being very productive in that offense, I think he had a game with – what was it? 291? 261 yards? I mean, it was ridiculous, right? So that’s always a good draw when you have that sort of production in a particular offensive scheme, and certainly being familiar with the type of offense that we run – for him to be able to come in without a training camp an d hopefully try to contribute. I think it’s a big factor that gave us a little bit of an advantage.”
On how RB Adrian Peterson’s veteran presence boosts the running back room and locker room: “I think it’s always great especially for young players to see vets that have been in the League for a long time, especially great players who have been in the League for a long time and try to see how they approach game week, how they approach the preparation, how they practice and how they perform. I think that’s certainly a big part of younger players developing and becoming professional at this level, especially right out of college. I think it plays a big part in it and like maybe what I was mentioning before – I went through this with young linebackers back in the day that got a chance to sit next to Tedy Bruschi and Junior Seau and Mike Vrabel and Willie McGinest and Rosevelt Colvin and Adalius Thomas, Chad Brown, Larry Izzo – just being in a room with those guys – you learn a lot. I think it’s great for young guys to sit there and maybe just watch, just observe and see what it looks like to be in the League as long as he’s been in the League, Adrian’s been in the League, with the success that he’s had – that’s a tremendous opportunity for a young player to see.”
On how much did the health of the running back corps play into the signing of RB Adrian Peterson and if he could provide a update on RB Kerryon Johnson and RB D’Andre Swift: “I think with Adrian Peterson it was kind of independent of everything else that was going on. Just having an opportunity, just to talk to him on the phone was great as we pushed and figured out it would be something that we’d want to pursue and there was mutual interest. It’s kind of an independent situation. As far as the injury situation – really probably good right there. I think we will wait until Wednesday and do an injury report right there. If you guys have any info on Chicago though, you want to send my way – If (Head Coach Matt) Nagy is giving anything away, let me know there too. I think I’ll just wait.”
