November 5, 2020 Opening Statement: “In regards to Matthew Stafford, he was placed on the COVID-19 Reserve list yesterday. Like the previous day with Jarrad Davis, I’m not able to comment on the player’s health status beyond it’s just his roster status, which is on the reserve list. Both ‘JD’ and Stafford are not related situations, and I certainly understand and recognize that there’s a lot of questions about Matthew. Commenting on his availability for the game would fall in the category of commenting on his health status, which just, again, (I’m) trying to respect League rules and also out of respect for the player. I can’t comment on any of those things, other than just, again, what his status is on the roster. So, we understand Minnesota – we’ve got to get ready to go for Minnesota. They’re going to be ready to go, and that’s really our focus here today. No one in the building was impacted by moving Matthew to the COVID-19/IR list, and just in general, obviously just trying to follow the League policies in regards to all that. We’ll kind of open it up to questions, and obviously, like I said, it’s difficult for me to be able to comment on anything other than what I just said and what we released yesterday from a statement standpoint. I’ll dive into the questions here, and obviously getting ready for Minnesota.” On if players on the Reserve/COVID-19 list can take part in virtual meetings: “Yeah, yep, virtual is a part of what we do just in general, especially early in the week. We’ve kind of made that part of our routine, so, yes.” On how much of a player’s preparation and team’s offense is impacted by a quarterback being virtually available and not physically at practice: “Obviously, these situations where we’ve had players that haven’t been at practice that are preparing to get ready to go play in the game, we handle them the same. We’re going to do what we do and obviously push forward to get ready to go from a game-plan standpoint. We’re always ready in all scenarios, that’s the great thing. I think everybody prepares really well, and everyone’s getting ready to go play football. That’s what we do, that doesn’t really change for us.” On the team’s plan to get QB Matthew Stafford to Minnesota if he’s cleared to play: “Again, I’m not going to comment on any of that stuff as far as any individual situations that fall in the category of status.” On the team’s general plans to get players to games if they can’t travel with the team: “Like I said, I’m not going to get into the travel plans as far as all that’s concerned.” On how comfortable he’d feel starting a quarterback on Sunday who didn’t practice during the week: “I mean I think every situation that we have is individually based, based on the player, whether or not there’s a guy that’s able to practice through the course of the week and then play in the game. Certainly, in depends on what those situations are as far as being ready to go. It’s all just individually based.” On if QB Chase Daniel is in line to start if QB Matthew Stafford can’t play: “Yeah. We obviously have Chase and we have David (Blough) on the roster, and those guys prepare every single week like they are getting ready to go play.” On how DE Everson Griffen looked in practice and if the team knows how much he’ll play Sunday: “I thought Everson did a great job yesterday. I thought his communication was really good on the field, and he’s got a high motor. He practices at a high level, so that was really good. It was good for us to be out there in pads and to be able to see some of that and just get him used to some of the communication out on the field. I thought it was a good first step.” On if the team anticipates putting any other players on the COVID-19 list today: “No one in the building was impacted by Matthew Stafford going on the list. So, we’ll just take them case by case.” On how much the offense changes if the team has to start QB Chase Daniel this week: “I think from that standpoint, we always game-plan every single week for those guys to be ready to go. I would say that the offense is really built around all of the quarterbacks that we have, and it really kind of fits what they do.” On what he sees from the Vikings defense and the challenge of having a young defense: “I think the one thing that definitely shows up on tape right away is just how strong they are through the middle of the defense, and I think that’s something we talk about all the time. Certainly, to me, it starts with (Eric) Kendricks in the middle (with) his ability to communicate, especially with the front. I think the front’s improving every single week. Those guys are long, they get off the ball, they knock the line of scrimmage back. So, I think he’s done an outstanding job in the middle (of) kind of settling all that down, and certainly (Eric) Wilson, he’s played a lot of football for them and he’s a good player. I feel that the strength at the linebackers, plus the strength of the safety position – Harrison Smith, obviously, and Anthony Harris – those guys are phenomenal. A lot of what they do out of their pressure packages is because of the disguise that those two can come up with. They’re very in sync with all that, and you see them communicating out to the corners. I feel that their defense is getting better each week. I think that those guys are out there and they’re getting more familiar with each other and the communication looks like it’s getting better. Those guys are playing at a high level. The strength through the middle of the defense, I think, is important. They have that.” On what makes crossing routes difficult to defend against and the adjustments linebackers have to make to guard against them: “Route combinations are pretty common throughout the NFL, and crossing routes and different types of crossing routes and pick pays and run routes, those are pretty standard. Everybody runs them. It really comes down to execution and making sure that we’re doing a good job of coaching how we’re playing them that particular week. Sometimes you play them a little bit different based on the routes that they run. But certainly, we play a variation of man and zone versus those. Sometimes we play it well and sometimes we haven’t, a lot of times we just have to execute better and like I said, make sure we’re coaching the details of it very specific of how we’re playing those particular routes in certain situations because it can change based on down-and-distance or field position, things like that. The offensive guys do a great job in this league of innovating and trying to find new ways to do stuff. That’s been going on for a long time. We just have to go out and coach and play those plays better that we haven’t played well and there’s a handful of them out there that we played really well. We just need to be a little bit more consistent at that.” On if the schedule has to be adjusted with QB Matthew Stafford virtually attending meetings this week: “I would say our schedule is pretty fluid with a lot of things, and certainly I think it allows for really good communication back and forth as far as guys in the building or not in the building. I think we’ve got used to it. I think that is what 2020 is. I think we’ve spent a lot of time in the spring, and certainly when we dove into it to begin with in the spring and we weren’t sure how it was going to really go. Even through the course of this year, we’ve done a lot of stuff virtually, just in general, to try to stay protected as much as we could. It’s kind of just been second nature, I would say, at that point. But certainly one thing about the virtual world is that meetings can be at any time and be longer and everyone is kind of accessible. So from that standpoint, you kind of feel like you’re not missing anything.” On if there’s a difference in fatigue level in a two-minute drive versus a time-consuming drive: “Great question. I think there are certain things that are involved in those types of drives that could change. If it’s more of a ball controlled drive that maybe take seven, eight minutes, you’re going to run the ball and use play action, drop back and change personnels and get personnel groups running on and off the field, and just do certain things that you know is going to wear an opponent out or just in general, tire them out. Those are certainly great when you get those drives. Then obviously in two-minute situations where everything is going fast and quick at the line of scrimmage, a lot of times it’ll be one personnel group out there. You might wear out that particular group from that situation – it could go either way. Certainly with those you see the defense in a better position, the offense is tired or maybe the offense is a better position, the defense is tired. From all of that, I think what happens is we focus on two-minute drives or situations where it’s the end of the game, where maybe those eight-, nine-minute drives earlier in the game impact those two-minute drives at the end of the game. It’s just all a part of just going out and trying to execute at a high level. The game of football is tiring. That’s why we try to make sure we’re in the best condition as possible from that standpoint. You can’t really say that one is maybe more than the other. I think they all play into each other for 60 minutes.” |
