September 9, 2020
Opening Statement: “Good morning. All right, here we go. It’s the regular season. I hope everybody is well, staying safe and staying healthy. We’re ready to go to practice, ready to get going here for the Bears. Two guys here – Hunter Bryant and C.J. Moore will probably not (be) doing much in practice here today. Everybody else will be working through. We’re just excited to go play football. It’ll be great. So what do you got?”
On the challenges presented by Bears LB Khalil Mack and DT Akiem Hicks: “Obviously Akiem Hicks, I’ll start with him in the middle – just so disruptive of a player. The guy can really align anywhere. He’s big; he’s strong; he’s powerful. I know him really well. I coached him. I know how dynamic he can be and how much he can just disrupt everything that you’re trying to do. We’ve certainly seen in the past where he’s lined up over on the tackles and just really try to use his strength, his power, his length to collapse the edge. He’s a guy they can move all over the place, certainly. Khalil Mack is obviously – he’s an outstanding player. This guy – he’s a major problem. He’s got great bursts, speed, quickness; he’s explosive. One of the things he does probably better than anyone is attack the ball, especially on the quarterback. He can really get the ball off him and create huge turnovers, create huge plays in the game. He’s a problem on the edge. Robert Quinn who they added, who’s a tremendous pass rusher. He’s really just a dynamic player. They added Mario Edwards (Jr.) too. So they just keep coming in the front. Plus along with the scheme I think – Chuck (Pagano, Bears Defensive Coordinator) does a great job of bringing the pressure, and kind of mixing in the linebacker pressures, the outside, the inside pressures, along with the safeties, bringing (Eddie) Jackson down in front – just things that they do, they can really stress an offensive line out.”
On the extra challenges the Bears’ tight ends present: “Obviously Jimmy Graham, right? Big, huge target, great catch radius. He’s been doing it a long time in this league, someone that I’ve gone against for a while and have a great amount of respect for. I think he’s a tremendous player. Really comes through on a lot of got-to-have-it situations. He even did that last year at Green Bay in some critical, critical games, caught a couple big passes on third down, got-to-have-it situations, red-(zone) area. I think that’s a whole new element for them that they’ve really tried to get into this offense, for (Head) Coach (Matt) Nagy and relaying some of the things that they do from maybe previous stops that he’s been at where that tight end position is so critical to some of the things they do. (Cole) Kmet, the rookie from Notre Dame, is another really good player. This guy – he can block, so he’s going to be in there and in-line and he’s going to be doing some of the point-of-attack stuff, but he’s also a really good route runner. He’s another big guy, big catch radius – that puts him in some different personnel groups. They can run some two-tight end sets now, and they also have (J.P.) Holtz, who was there last year, who was kind of in the backfield a little bit. So three tight ends that may look like two backs, two-tight end sets with the wide receivers, obviously then they have all the skill guys that they can use to kind of mix those personnels. I certainly think that’s something that Coach Nagy loves to do is mix the personnels, mix the formations, mix the motions to try to keep the defense on its toes.”
On getting ready for Week 1 without having a preseason and not showing schemes on film: “Absolutely, and obviously the added pressure of being in-division right away is another element that I think is always difficult. Certainly, there’s going to be a lot of unknowns in the game, we know that. This is our first time getting out on the field with our team. Certainly gameday, as a coach, you’re always alert for maybe things to go a little bit awry just in getting used to the players themselves on gameday. Some of these guys we haven’t been around, some of the players haven’t been around us as coaches on gameday. So, trying to make sure that you do a good combination of mixing in really good game-plan stuff along with making sure that you do the basics really well, and just being ready to adjust. I think that will be the biggest thing in the game for both teams, being able to adjust what may be new or what may be different.”
On his confidence in the defense being better this year: “Look, these guys are working really hard, and I think they’re improving every day, and they’re trying to get better, and it’s going to be a long season. So, I don’t think we’ll judge anything off of the first game of what it’s going to look like (in) Week 16, but right now, for us, the guys are trying to do everything they can to put themselves in positions to be successful. That’s our goal, to go out and try to do everything that we can to help the team win.”
On why Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky has had so much success against the Lions: “I think just in general, I’m not going to live in the past, but as a team, we haven’t really had the success we’ve wanted against the Bears. Give credit to their players and their coaching staff for getting them ready to go and taking opportunities to out-compete us in those games. We’re certainly just trying to look ahead and looking forward to the matchup here this weekend. I have a lot of respect for Mitch Trubisky. I think he’s a very mobile, very athletic quarterback. I think their skill players are outstanding, and I think that in those games, those guys have made some really big plays. But, that’s in the past and we’re trying to do everything we can to move forward.”
On his reaction to Kyle Brandt from “Good Morning Football” voting him as the head coach he’d most like to see appear in a cameo role in a future Adam Sandler movie: “I mean I think I’d be all for that. I think that would be outstanding. I’m probably perfect for one of those roles. I’m sure probably a non-speaking one would be great. But yeah, I appreciate that question, and I’m all about it. Maybe after the season, we get some wins and then we can get that done. I’d appreciate if you can get that lined up.”
