| September 18, 2020 Opening Statement: “Morning everybody. Sorry about that. Obviously there’s quite the bit to cover here with Green Bay, especially on Fridays – they do so many things so well. Really, we’re trying to make sure that we went over the information to the fullest extent here this morning. As far as getting ready for practice here, a couple guys – Joe Dahl’s going to be out, Kenny Golladay – probably limited, probably won’t do too much, and then (Desmond) Trufant in the same category. Everybody else – we’re going to try to get something done here and see how the practice goes with them, including Hunter Bryant, and see what that looks like and go forward from there. Other than that, let’s just jump into questions, and we’ll get rolling.” On what he needs to see from DE Julian Okwara developmental-wise to expand his role in the future: “He played some snaps on special teams too, which are pretty critical for us with a bigger body kind of guy that can run longer, have to deal with in coverage. So that was pretty good, which was positive. I think for all the young guys it’s just the consistency and the level of play and making sure that it’s the same as far as everything that they’re doing and understanding their assignments. I would say in last week’s game, probably the role was pretty defined is when we were trying to get him out on the field and maybe all those situations didn’t come up necessarily in its entirety. He’s working hard, he’s trying to improve, and I think with the shorter camp and the offseason and all that stuff, some of these guys are just trying to bring him along at the right pace to get him out there to help us. Sometimes it’s a little bit of a different timeline than normal right now.” On how the jet sweep stresses the defense: “It’s definitely a copycat league, so once something trends the year before, you’re going to see a lot of teams doing it. Certainly Andy Reid has done a great job of this stuff for a while with misdirection and kind of some of that motion that we saw a little bit from Green Bay last week. A lot of it is what we call ‘eye control’ and making sure that we’re really disciplined of what we’re looking at and some of that has a purpose, some of it is trying to leverage the defense and get outside and take advantage of the space out there, some of it is a little bit of window dressing, as we like to call it, and try to distract you from maybe what you’re looking at and get you out of a gap or get a little bit more space inside as opposed to keeping everybody down in that area down by the box. It’s something that we’re used to, we’ve been seeing, but I think a lot of people tend to do their offseason projects and offseason study, and now we’ll see a lot more of it because it was successful last year – just like everything. It certainly is a problem, especially with young players because it is an eye discipline thing.” On his evaluation of RB Adrian Peterson after a week on the team: “The good part about it is, obviously (Offensive Coordinator Darrell) Bevell was with him before and knew what his skill set is and his strengths and what he does well. I would say none of that has really changed. I think that he (is) a very productive player. It’s amazing to watch him practice, just very impressed with the way approaches every single play. He takes a handoff in practice, and he runs. It’s like it is in the game, and then he’s going to run, he’s going to go until he gets in the endzone. He doesn’t stop. It’s all full speed. I just love it. We had a play the other day I think in practice where he might’ve gotten hit on the side, maybe it was tripped up or something was down, got up and then finished the run – like regardless of what – it’s just that sort of mentality and mindset of how he practices, I think you see that carry over into the game. I think it’s so impressive for the young guys to see that. I think it’s really, pretty amazing.” On if what he sees in him now reinforces what Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell saw before: “Yeah, absolutely. I think there’s definitely the speed, the power and vision and explosiveness through the line of scrimmage, I think you see all that stuff. His physicality and his running style are at a very high level.” On if OL Logan Stenberg ready to play if he’s needed: “Logan, I thought during the course of camp really got better. We had to move him around a little bit. We were trying to take a look at some different positions, so I think he played guard and center – center quite a bit especially early when Beau Benzschawel got a little bit dinged up. We’ve settled him down into one position now I think as the end of camp and the beginning of season has started. Now I’ve really started to see his improvement in that area, just being a little bit calmer with the calls and the techniques, still learning the system obviously and a lot of nuances with the offensive line to really kind of capture on his part. I think it’s been a steady, steady improvement. We still have a long way to go though from that standpoint, but it’s been good to be able to just have him in one spot.” On what is it about CB Jeff Okudah that gives him confidence that playing at Green Bay won’t be too big for him: “I think coming out of the Draft and understanding what type of player he is – he’s played in big games before, certainly, he’s played on some big stages. For us, it’s just getting him to understand it’s the same game. We just have to execute and do everything to that highest level that we can. He’s going to have to go out and play at some point, and whether it’s in Lambeau (Field) or whether it’s here or wherever it is, we just have to go out and do our job to the best of our ability.” On if injured/inactive players watch the game from home due to COVID-19 or team protocols: “Some of that is the protocols we have in place, and certainly COVID-19 obviously has a big role right now in some of the things that we’re doing.” On finding the right balance between savvy coverages and calls against Packers QB Aaron Rodgers: “Great questions, especially early in the year, right? So when you’re still kind of developing and working on different things that you’re doing and maybe some of them aren’t at a mastery level just with the amount of practice time that you’ve had into it – that’s part of the course of the season as you improve, really identify what your team does well and build on those things as the season goes. I’d say we’re still kind of in that mode where we’re trying to figure out what do we do well? What do we do at a high level? How can we add to it? How can we make it look a little bit different? How many calls do we go into a game with understanding (that) we want to play fast and aggressive? We don’t want to make mistakes but also, we have to have enough that’s going to put a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers and just not make it easy for him every single snap either. It’s a great question and really something that we’re looking at as far as what is that balance, and what do we think our guys can handle? It’s one of the reasons why for us, practice is so critical. We’re going to go through the week and we’ll probably be on the edge of what we think is maybe too much and see what we can do there and making sure that also that we’re getting enough practice reps at all the things that we’re doing and then at the end of the week taking a look and say, ‘OK, what do we feel good about after a week of practice, and let’s start with that as we go into the game.’” On Packers QB Aaron Rodgers’ quick release and how that factors into Detroit blitzing: “I mean obviously Aaron Rodgers isn’t going to hold the ball and get hit that much. He’s going to get the ball out. He’s a tremendous athlete in the pocket. It’s really kind of ridiculous, at times, some of the stuff that he’s able to do. You just see his feet; you see his movement. He’s so calm, he’s so unphased by a lot of things. You’ve got a guy, maybe two guys, coming just completely free off the edge, and he just slides away, and he’ll throw one of those sidearm passes that goes about 40 yards downfield, and it’s accurate as anything you’ve ever seen. That is a very difficult problem with him, is that he handles the pressure so well. I think his stats against the blitz are just phenomenal. So, it’s tough. It’s (a) tough duty, that’s why he’s a great player. We’re going to have to do our best to try to defend him.” On Packers RB Aaron Jones: “I mean you’re exactly right. I mean he’s one of the best players on the field, hands down, from his team. I would say someone that’s kind of in the bread and butter of what they are right now offensively. As great as Aaron Rodgers is and (Davante) Adams is, Jones is just absolutely dominating the game with the run game. Give credit to the offensive line. I think the outside zone stretch game that they’ve been able to be so successful with just fits the personality of the run style that he’s great at. He really kind of pushes the reads, he gets out to the edge of the tackle where he’s going to make that cut, and once he makes it, he’s so explosive through the hole. His vision is really outstanding. He just kind of sees where the D-linemen are going, but I think he just looks through them, feels the linebackers, and then before you know it, he’s through the second level and into the third level. I think that’s one of the things that certainly at the end of last year, that they were able to carry themselves through in the playoffs, to be able to run the ball like they did and control the game. From our standpoint, that is a huge challenge for us, especially early in the year, to get our run defense ready to go against such a great player.” On if he feels like he did a good job against Packers RB Aaron Jones last season: “I mean honestly, at the current moment, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just about what happens on Sunday.” On if he has to address the team about Clete Blakeman officiating the game: “We go through the officials report every week just so that we can do a good job of understanding who the official’s going to be, what are their interpretations, what do they put an emphasis on, and things like that. So, it’s really a normal conversation for us. Clete, really, he’s a great official as far as the games that we’ve had, and the guys that made some of those calls from last year aren’t on the crews. The crews are completely different this year with COVID-19 and some of the things that we’re handling, so it’s just not the sane. It’s a completely difference scenario, and like I said, Clete’s done a great job of handling the game, officiating the game and giving us the information that we needed when we needed it. It’s really nothing that factors into this year. All that stuff was last year, and we just move on.” On if he notices the difference in energy without fans at games and how they make up for it: “I think the bottom line is, for us, we’ve got to play the game in an instance of being at home. It is what it is. We’re not playing anything other than the opponent, and we’ve just got to go out and execute and do what we’re supposed to do. I would say that, to be truthful with you, I did notice, obviously, the fans not being there. It was a little bit strange. It was a little bit bizarre. It was a little bit quiet at times. Sometimes you could hear the other sideline, and it was just different. That’s a part of 2020 at this point. Everything’s different, so we’ve just got to get used to it and go forward from there. I’d say the one thing for us – we did a couple things in the stadium before we got to that first game, and maybe the noise level that we had in there was maybe a little bit louder, I thought, so we were kind of used to it being a little bit louder with the artificial noise than what it was from that standpoint. I think (Matt) LaFleur said the same thing about Minnesota and just talking about some of the noise levels that they had in their game last week. I think he made the same statement as far as going into Lambeau. They were going to try to put the noise up probably today and see what it sounded like in there. We’re just going to have to adjust to it, we’ll look into it. In the end, it doesn’t really matter. We’ve just got to play the opponent.” |
