| September 17, 2020 Opening Statement: “Good morning, (I) hope everybody’s doing well, and you can hear me OK. Obviously just another day at practice here. We have to go out and do a good job getting ready to go. Guys who are at practice here today – out – would be Hunter Bryant, Kenny Golladay. (Halapoulivaati) Vaitai, out, but still doing some stuff on the side like he was yesterday, that would look good. We’ll see how that goes. Nick Williams, we’ll see where he’s at here today – and then (Desmond) Trufant. A couple guys still trying to work through some stuff here as we progress through the week. Just want to go out and have another good practice. I thought yesterday was a good day, guys were working hard, and obviously we know the task that we have in front of us, so we have to have a really good practice here today. We’ll be in pads today, trying to work on some fundamental stuff and that’s really it. So, what do we got?” On the key to QB Matthew Stafford and TE T.J. Hockenson developing chemistry so quickly: “They’ve done a good job since we’ve gotten back at camp, really just working together. There’s a lot of periods during practice where, maybe specials teams where they’re not involved, and the two of them will take some of that extra time to go work on the nuances of routes or reads, coverage looks and some gameplan stuff that we do in those situations. I think all just those extras that add up through the course of practice and being on the same page help during the game. Certainly in some of the gameplan plays that we had, I thought were well-designed to try to get T.J. the ball, and some of those situations were really good. I think those guys spend a lot of time on them in the meeting room, but on the field during the extra stuff, not just during the team periods.” On what makes Packers WR Davante Adams in the upper echelon of receivers in the NFL: “He’s got a tremendous skill set, and along with just an absolute – 100 percent being on the same page with the quarterback. Pretty sure 2014 was a breakout game against us, when I played him in Green Bay – I think that’s one of the games where he really stepped to the front light and you can just see all the skill set on display. His releases are phenomenal; he has a great skip-step off the line of scrimmage. He can go with speed; he can get vertical. He has a great top of the route movement where he can come back and be able to just get separation from the defensive backs at that point. He’s got enough speed to go vertical, run by guys in a heartbeat, and he has tremendous hands. His ability to track the ball in the air, really is phenomenal – he just never loses sight of it, and he’s able to make some pretty incredible catches as he goes through. He is one of the most dynamic players in the League and certainly one of their go-to guys on their team. Like I said, just being on the same page as the quarterback, you’ll see the extended plays Aaron Rodgers does so well, and it’s like they have them designed. They know exactly where they’re going to be in those situations based on how they break the pocket, and they just complete some incredible, incredible, incredible plays off of those situations.” On what he tells young corners when they’re facing a talented receiver: “I think any young corner, when they’re playing great receivers, first and foremost is making sure you trust your technique and not go outside the things that you’ve been practicing, the things that you know that you do well, and just make sure that you’re fundamentally sound from that standpoint. Make sure that we do a good job with our leverage, and we understand the coverage concepts that we’re playing and where the help is. Certainly with a really good receiver, you’re going to have to use that help to the best of your ability, and just to be consistent with what we do. Don’t try to go outside of that because then it just becomes really hard to fix on gameday.” On if having CB Jeff Okudah and CB Amani Oruwariye on the field change some of what he can do defensively because of Packers QB Aaron Rodgers and Packers WR Davante Adams on the other side of the ball: “I definitely think you take all of that into consideration and certainly by situation on the field too, and how you’re going to be able to handle those knowing you have such a dynamic playmaker outside, or lined up inside, either in the skill position along with a quarterback that can find him in any situation. So you try to be really conscious of that as you put the gameplan together. I think we’ve seen plenty of situations where guys wind up in bad spots and just how dangerous those two can be together. For us, we have to do a good job of making sure we get them off to a good start and let the game progress from there and see how it goes.” On reaching out to Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick regarding the passing of his mother: “I’m absolutely going to leave all of that private. Like I’ve said before, Bill is a tremendously close friend of mine. I’m with him all the way in whatever he needs. I’ll just leave that private.” On Packers QB Aaron Rodgers and what he sees from him: “I mean he’s phenomenal. He’s so hard to play against and so difficult to defend. He’s just so – one of the things I say about Aaron Rodgers all the time – he’s so calm. He’s just so collected the entire time he’s out on the field. Certainly, as a coordinator going against him, trying to frustrate him or trying to stress him, you just can’t affect the guy at all. I think that as I’ve watched him the last several years, twice a year to play the guy, to just see his command and the way that he takes over the offense, and especially now in his second year, watching the Minnesota game, even more so. The patience that he has to go through the play-call, the checks, the adjustments, take a look at the defense, the coverages, the fronts and just move all the pieces into the right spot so they could be successful. Just knowing his personnel, he knows his personnel very well. He knows the guys that are out there with him, he knows how to manipulate the defense and put them into spots to take advantage of all that. It is a major problem, he’s a great player. He’s still, obviously, very athletic. He can run, he can extend plays. His arm strength and accuracy is incredible. He’s just a problem. He’s a problem to defend against. Big challenge for us, especially being in Lambeau. One of the things that you usually don’t see except for in Lambeau is the cadence influence that he can have, and obviously that showed up last week in Minnesota without the fans being in Minnesota for a home game, so that’s something that we have to be aware of too. I mean it’s just such a dangerous situation that he can get you with his cadence, which he gets everybody, and then the receivers go vertical and they capitalize on top of it. All of that put together is very hard.” On if WR Kenny Golladay has shown progress or is resting out of precaution: “No, we’ve seen progress. So, we’ll just take it day-by-day from that standpoint, see how it goes. But just like I said yesterday, you don’t want to push something into a bad spot either.” |
