| July 31, 2020 Opening statement: “It’s obviously great to see everybody. (There’s) a lot going on, a lot since we’ve had the opportunity to speak. Just want to make sure and recognize Jamie Samuelsen and what he’s going through. Obviously thinking of him and his family – just the positivity that he continually comes across and puts out there is so inspirational. We know what a great person Jamie is, so we’re thinking of him and a lot of prayer. I just want to make sure I mention that. “A lot of changes here in the building – certainly there’s a lot of stuff to talk about there. I know Bob (Quinn, Executive Vice President of Football Operations and General Manager) talked about it the other day, so hopefully I can help fill in anything or any questions. Certainly it is a day-by-day thing for us to go through and really try to look at what we’re doing in the building and how we’re doing to keep it as safe as possible for everyone involved: the players, staff, coaches, the people that work in the building. There’s so much to talk about there, and certainly, we’re excited to get back in here and get going. Excited to hopefully get to something a bit normal – even though we’re in unnormal times. The team has been great, been on Zoom calls with them as they’re in the quarantine period here, but we’re getting closer, and we’ll be there soon enough. Really from that aspect – I hope everybody is staying safe and healthy and continually trying to do the right things. We’re really preaching a lot of education here, as far as COVID is concerned, a lot of information to everybody involved: the players, coaches, the families and just making sure that everyone understands how serious we are taking everything and how much – honestly, just want everyone to be safe. We want everybody to be safe and healthy – no different than where we were back in the spring through the summer. Now we’re just back at work but we still need to be safe, understand that we’re trying to protect not only everyone individually, but their families and our teammates and their families. From that standpoint, I hope everyone on the call is doing well. I hope everyone is safe and in a good place. I hope you guys are excited to maybe get back to a little bit of football. It’s exciting when other professional sports are kicking off here, and we’re just as excited to get going. I think after that I’ll open it up. I hope everyone is good but go ahead.” On how he envisions practices occurring and how prepared his team will be for regular season with the shortened schedule: “Great question. Yes, I love to practice; we all know that. I think in the NFL we tell, philosophy-wise, the team in every year that in the NFL we only have 16 (games), we need to practice in order to get better. That’s what’s different than some of the other major league sports. They can play games and get better through the course of games. We only have a limited amount of opportunities, so practice is a major concern. We’re really trying to do everything we can to maximize that opportunity that we have to get out on the field. I think for us, it’s understanding that – call it ‘last Sunday’ or ‘by the time we get in the building’ – we have between seven or six weeks before we get to that first game. There’s going to be a process that’s involved for that. It’s really important for us to maybe backtrack form the first game, from that Chicago game, and say, ‘How do we maximize or put our performance at a peak level by the time we start the season, but also stay healthy in that process and train and get everybody caught back up by the time we missed in the spring?’ From that standpoint, just try to put a plan together so that when we have that opportunity, based on the schedule that everyone agreed upon, when we get on the practice field, get a true training camp sort of practice schedule that we can maximize everything that we’re doing. But certainly, the hard part is getting to this time of year, you smell the fresh-cut grass, and you start to just get around it, see the fields all painted up – the first thing we want to do is get out there and throw the pads on. Let’s go practice. But we just have to be patient all the way through to make sure we’re being safe. So lot of adaptability here.” On the challenges the coaching staff faces with limited padded practices: “I think when I try to look at the big picture schedule, and certainly through training camp, that’s where our focus is right now – the interesting part is, when you take out preseason games, which we did, and you buy back some of the time that we usually spend – whether it’s travelling, the game itself, maybe post-game – you actually pick up a couple extra days. When you look at the training camp portion of the schedule, the ramp-up period and when you get to that training camp practice schedule, we wind up with actually a lot of practice days. There’s a lot of time in there for installations where a lot of years we have a certain amount of installs we put in, certain amount of practices, we actually wind up with a couple more days of practice. Now that’s also because we usually try to practice against another team. We try to do something in a competitive manner that way. We certainly will miss those opportunities. But we’re just going to try to stay positive and maximize that time that we do have when we can put the pads on. I think one of things you just have to be careful of is even though there’s a set amount of days we can be in pads, we’re going to have to really take the flow of the team and evaluate this as we go and see where everybody is at because you don’t want to put your team in a situation where you have the pads on maybe a day where your should have taken them off and given the team a little bit of a break before you get back to a real game. So navigating that will be a little bit different more so because you don’t have those preseason games to judge the markers of that. The team could get sore, get beat up, and you want to do a good job of evaluating that. I think the big thing with me I always talk about with pads is really: Training camp you’re going to get your work in, and that’s the best. But as you go through the season, I think that’s where I really crave more of that ability to put the pads on and just maintain the fundamental work that you built during training camp.” On the steps he’s putting place to get through to Week 1 healthy from a football standpoint: “It’s a great comment, especially the part about being able to bring in new players. I think that’s an outstanding point. There’s now a protocol to even get a guy to get on the field, and there’s an amount of days that need to take place before that player that you’re trying to bring on board can get out there with everybody else. In some accord, the player that might be injured might be back by then. You know, just depending on the injury itself. So we’re going to have to navigate that as it comes, but I think one of the things that will be critical for us is taking the ramp-up period and taking the advice that the League and the (NLF)PA has put in place, and try to understand the guidelines of what it’s going to mean for us to build up to that point to where we can practice, where we can be as healthy as possible. I think also with some of the wearable technology that we have that we are constantly learning about, really making sure that we do a good job with the feedback that we’re getting in regard to what does practice look like, what do the loads look like on the players, are their bodies stressed right now and fatigue levels and try to do a good job of adjusting as we go. It will be a completely different feel and we know that, but that’s OK. We just have to do a good job of always trying to stay in front of it the best we can.” On how practices, meetings, etc., may look different this year: “Certainly, I mean all of it I think is up for discussion and for change. I would say in general, just for COVID, the phrase right now that we’re using is, “More is more.” So, for us, trying to stay safe and protected, more is more. So, as many things as we get when we get on the field, in those settings, things that we have to do to keep everybody as separate as we can, we’re going to try to do. The biggest thing for us honestly, is to get through the first 14 days from when everybody reported and kind of get into the 10-14-day window to guys coming in and reporting, and when the virus can show up from – let’s call it travel, or some of those situations. I think the steps that we’re trying to take initially here to keep the team as separate as possible is going to be the first step. So, in a lot of cases I think maybe you guys had talked to Bob (Quinn) about this before, we have 90 guys on the roster. We’re just going to stay with 90. We had an interesting spring, but we had a great spring from the standpoint I felt the team and the players and the guys that are here, I just want to get them in the building and see what they can do. Even though it may be for a short period, I felt it was our obligation to the players to keep it at 90. So, that being said, I think for us what we’re trying to do is put a buildup phase in before we put everybody together and certainly at some point in camp, we’ll be to 80. But basically, what we’re trying to do is put everybody in small groups for the first week and bring maybe it’s 20-25 guys through the building at a time, understanding that we do have to be patient before we get to that practice standpoint. So that we kind of limit some of the crossover contact that the guys are going to have until we get through the different phases and then build from 25 to 40, and then from 40 try to get to 80. But really take four to five days between the process where we put those groups together and I think that’s where we try to start. Certainly, there’s things we’ve discussed in those small groups of trying to keep it as randomized as possible. You don’t want to bring in like just all the offensive linemen and always have them working together because you know, if someone happens to have a sickness or gets sick then that wipes out the entire group. So, if you can space that out very similar to what you mentioned with the quarterbacks situation and trying to put the quarterbacks into different groups, or anybody else for that manner, where you know positionally you try to spread it out. And then certainly when we get to training camp, there will be things we are going to look at as far as what did we do in the first couple weeks and did it work. Trying to stay with as many virtual meetings as we feel we can, I think is important. Trying to get the players in and out of the building is important for us and get them back into a quarantine setting where they are safe. We limit the contact that they have. Those things are great. Being able not to huddle, we signal, you can signal and put everybody in that manner anyway. Those things are things that you do normally in practice and are easily adaptable. I think it’s the things that are really trying to think outside of the box to the best of our ability. Like, it’s not real comfortable to know in the first phase, at one given time there’s going to be maybe 25 guys in the building at the time. You want to get 90 out there and get going. That’s not normal, but for us it’s more important for everybody to feel safe and for everybody to kind of get through that acclimation period of those first 14 days. We’ve just got to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations.” On how this year the battle of roster attrition and depth may be more important than usual: “I mean, it’s an outstanding point as far as we like obviously the guys on the practice squad are guys that we think we can develop, but also guys that need to be ready to go play in games. I would say more so than ever, the amount of players that can be up and down between the two squads, practice squad and the final roster, I think that will be at a high level. So, making sure that we do a really good job of evaluating the players that are here through training camp, but also coaching and teaching everybody to be ready to go so that we can keep those guys in that practice squad situation, but they’re really an extended part of the team, ready to go. Especially, think about the possibilities when you get to the season – really, not that you want to look that far, but we have testing on a particular day before a game and something happens, everybody has got to be ready to go and that’s the way we have to look at it.” On if the coaching staff has talked about potentially quarantining players at specific positions in order to always have players available: “There’s been a lot of great conversations that I’ve had with a lot of other head coaches and really even in college situations, college coaches. That’s kind of what I would say, the interesting part of maybe through the course of the summer, the amount of communication that I think a lot of coaches have had with each other or organizations have had. ‘Hey, what are you doing here and what are you doing there?’ I’d say it’s all very fluid. I think certainly, you know, on paper it’s great to say, ‘Hey we’d like to quarantine this guy, this guy and this guy.’ Well, what exactly does that mean? Does that mean the guy is not in the building all week? Does that mean he doesn’t practice? Well, we certainly know in our game you’re not going to just be able to show up on Sunday and roll it out there and play. If you’re healthy, and haven’t taken any reps, and the first time you see some sort of different look or different scheme can’t be on Sunday. So, practice is important and making sure you are prepared is important. The question for us is how can we use technology, how can we use different things that have maybe come out to prepare maybe players that we will kind of keep off to the side or away from the group to make sure they are prepared and ready to go. So, that’ll be a great challenge when we get to that phase. Right now, for us, it’s just trying to get everybody in the building through this weekend. That’s really the short-term and stay day by day. What the rest of it looks like, we’ll work through it when we get there. I think those are great conversation pieces that everybody is thinking about.” On if the suspension of S Jayron Kearse is something that he anticipated when the team signed him: “Yes, it was. We were aware of the (arrest) situation in free agency. Obviously, vetted the situation. We talked with Jayron and felt comfortable with him and the situation. Obviously, have gotten to know him a lot more since free agency and just felt comfortable with all of it. So, we knew it was something that was coming and then really right now, like always, it’s a League matter. I’ll just leave it at that, but it was something we were aware of in free agency. On if he feels better physically for camp this year: “OK, so I finally can stand, I finally can walk. I finally can get in the mix, maybe line up and get in a stance and hit somebody, but now I’ve got to keep six-feet distance. I really think that there’s something here that somebody’s got with me right now – they’re trying to keep me away from everybody. A difference of a year, it’s good. I can walk stairs. Not that I do that regularly, but I could. I don’t necessarily have to be on a four-wheeler to get through practice, although it is an option, which is pretty cool. I’m doing alright, I appreciate that. The injury update – I’m still working through rehab. I haven’t been able to rehab, obviously, with COVID. So, I’ve got a lot of work to do there. I appreciate you asking.” On how he deals with the unknowns of the season: “Obviously, 100% accurate in everything that you said. Think about a normal spring where we’re four weeks through an offseason program of practices and things like that, and we’ve probably had, in those four weeks, at least at least a dozen personnel conversations and just evaluated what we’ve seen on the field. We haven’t even been able to do that yet. Those are certainly things that you think about and you start to, as a head coach, worry about, ‘Are we behind? Are we going to be in a good situation?’ And you just remind yourself, look, we control what we can control, and we’ll do our best to evaluate it as we go through. We’re all trying to figure out something different right now and certainly the roster and teaching the players is the most important thing and making sure that we get through this healthy. I would say coming out of the spring, the feeling that I got with everybody, even through virtual meetings and where this team is at and the type of guys that are on this team right now, I really haven’t worried about any of that because I know everybody is working extremely hard right now. I know everybody is ready to go and we have some great guys on this team that will help lead us through the different challenges we’re going to see. I’m excited for that. Actually, as a coach, it makes you feel better. It kind of actually just says, ‘OK, look, they’re going to handle a lot more of the things that they need to handle and I know it’s going to be at a high level and I can just focus on the things that I can control and that I can do to help the team.’ That’s where we start. We’ll take it day-by-day as we go, but I just think, like all of us, we’re just excited to get to that point and get out there and get ready to go.” On how he tries to emphasize to players to stay safe once they leave the building: “I think you’re exactly right. It is hard – you can’t control what people do when they leave the building obviously, but you hope that through education and through the commitment to everybody and just understanding that we have very real conversations about what is COVID and how does it spread and how important it is to be diligent with your protection and with your health. Certainly, we’ve had meetings with our medical staff, with the players, our training staff, our coaches, player conversations where you just keep investing in each other and you keep understanding that bond that we all have and how important it is, more than ever, that we take care of each other because it’s more than just taking care of each other. Now we’re taking care of each other’s families. And that’s a real conversation more so than even football. We all have different situations. We have kids, maybe we have parents that live with us, we have people that are high-risk based on all the different factors. And certainly, for us, the education piece and making sure that our players understand that there is a range of how people feel about this, but we have to hold it in the highest regard of making sure that we’re all protected and that we’re all safe. And really, honestly, we have good guys on this team, they do care. They do care about each other, they do care about people in general, and I think when you put it to them that way, sometimes it makes a lot of them step back and go, ‘You know what? You’re right. Let me make a good decision here and let me make sure I’m thinking about the team and everybody else.’ It’s a continual conversation. I think when we sit on a team call and we listen to our doctors and they’re talking to us about the disease and what they’ve seen with this virus and the situations that they’ve had to put themselves in – which are all very high-risk every single day – and the unknown that’s behind this, you feel that. You feel all of that passion that comes through and says, ‘Hey, there’s a lot at risk here. We probably should be a little bit more careful.’” On his conversations with DL Da’Shawn Hand and how he deals with players engaging with social media that may not be accurate in relation to the virus: “I think it’s a great point. Certainly, in these times, when we are quarantined and we are sitting around, there are a lot of things that I think everybody is trying to take in from videos to articles and reading more and I think that’s only really good when it’s on an educational wave. I think it’s important for everybody to understand – look, however we feel about it, we have to go to the maximum extremes of, ‘More is more,’ and we believe that, and so do our guys. With Hand, he and I had a conversation and quite frankly, Da’Shawn Hand cares about people. I think that he maybe, probably should have saw everything that was involved with that. I think that was not the intention of what he was trying to do. Great learning moment for everybody. Just a great opportunity for us to go back and teach the team and say, ‘Hey, look, let’s just be diligent with everything we’re doing and make sure that we’re kind of understanding how that goes out.’” On DT John Atkins opting out and how that conversation went: “That’s a hard one to answer because sometimes I think those conversations are really private and people are talking about their own personal situations, whether it’s health or family related or other factors that maybe weigh on them. I think, again, it’s another great point of exactly what we’re talking about, about how real this virus is and how important it is for everybody to stay safe and certainly from a standpoint of making sure that we take care of everybody including our family. Certainly, our families are the most important thing, and I know a lot of times in football that gets lost. I think about it every single day, my wife and my kids and a lot of our guys in the same situation or whether it’s their parents or grandparents or whatever it might be. We 100% have to respect everybody’s feelings and opinions on trying to stay as safe as possible. Absolutely.” |
