| November 6, 2020 Opening Statement: “Good morning, hope everybody is doing well. Obviously just rolling through the week here, doing the best we can – really I would say, day-by-day here a little bit with the week, but just doing everything we can to make sure we’re continuing to prepare to go play Minnesota and stay safe. Really I think for us right now, with everything that we’ve pushed through with the week, I would say that every situation is different, and I think that we’re doing a great job of just trying to communicate with the League and following all the guidelines, the direction of what they told us to do. Fortunately for us, we’re in a great situation where we can go practice today. That’s what we’re going to do – go out there and practice and get ready to go. I’ll open it up to questions.” On what the week has been like preparing for Minnesota with the recent additions to the Reserve/COVID-19 list: “Really good question as far as how to just manage and balance all that stuff. I think for us it’s really important that we’re trying to do everything we can protocol-wise to stay in front of it and stay safe. We knew that probably getting towards the month of November and December as flu season kicked up – we certainly understood that situations might change, and things might change from that aspect of it. Obviously trying to stay ahead as far as what’s going on out in the communities and knowing that will definitely affect us as we go. Doing the best we can to stay in front of it from that standpoint and trying to always go more extreme than we need to, just to make sure that we’re staying safe, but understand that everything can change, you know, day-by-day. I think for us it’s just to handle that and be in front of it and just continue to prepare as consistent as possible. I think that’s what we’re trying to do.” On the difficulty of game-planning this week: “I think for us, certainly game-planning is something that’s critically important for us during the course of the week to understand what do we need to do against the opponent, and also what pieces do we have on our team. Certainly from that aspect of it, we’re always prepared to go based on – let’s just talk injuries first, from that standpoint, how that effects the team, how’s the development of our younger guys who has to step into those roles, how are those roles backed up? I would say from that standpoint, we spend a lot of time at the beginning of the week really going, ‘OK, maybe this is the gameplan or these are the plays, or these are the roles, these are the positions, how are they backed up? How are they backed up if we have a situation? Who’s next, and then who’s after that? What’s the workload that that person can handle? Do we have to pair it back because of that, or can we push forward, or does it change if that happens?’ So we kind of go through those scenarios at the beginning of the week.” On if he anticipates more players being placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list: “Nothing new. Nope, I don’t anticipate it, but again, we’re day-by-day with all that.” On when he gets notified a player will be placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list: “We can (get notified between the media availability and practice window). It just depends – the communications that we have – obviously there’s an element here that we have to talk to the League and understand what these different situations look like, and certainly the League has a lot of things to do. So as soon as we get the information we go from there.” On how much meetings have been in-person versus virtual this week: “Beginning of the week, we really try to do a heavy virtual from that standpoint. Then try to do a good balance, but also there’s different types of protocols that we can use, and we’re trying to use all those to keep us as safe, and also to be in the building when we can.” On what extra precautions are being taken with team travel this weekend: “Great question. I think at the beginning of the year, we’ve always really talked about the plane travel or the travel in general being one of the more high-risk areas, so I think we tried to do everything in our power right from the get-go to secure all of that and make sure we’re travelling in the safest way as possible. We made some adjustments along the way to that stuff. We’ll continue to adjust based on the advice of the League. For the most part, it’ll stay the same, there’s just extra precautions that we take to keep guys safe in those situations. Nothing major, just some tweaks here and there that we think help.” On how he has seen the players respond to the changes this week: “That’s actually a great point. Our guys (have) done unbelievable. I really think that this team – obviously we have to go out and play football on Sundays, and that’s what we’re trying to do – but I would say the daily stuff that these guys overcome and just deal with and handle and work and just are the same every day, it’s very, very impressive to me how they’ve been able to just stay so consistent and focused. I know that it’s really hard. It’s really hard. There’s a lot going on right now. Certainly people’s families are first and foremost, and we want to keep everybody protected and safe. But they’re great at just being able to come in and turn off the mechanism and just dial-in to what we’re doing at that moment. For some guys it’s a good escape from it, some guys, they just handle it. I really am very impressed with everybody in the building handling it that way. I think it’s been great.” On why missing practices would impact QB Matthew Stafford’s ability to play: “I think in the game of football that’s a tricky question. I think if you called Matt Stafford on an April day and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to go play a 60-minute football game,’ he’d be able to go out there and rip it. He’d be fine. He’d see defenses; he’d see coverage. He’d be doing all the right things. He’s a great vet. He knows how to play the game. I do always think in the game of football that there’s a little continuity that needs to go on, and especially when you have different guys out on the field and maybe different players in different positions week-in, week-out and all that. So I do think that’s why practice is important from that standpoint, but I trust Matt Stafford to always do the right things, be ready to go and that’s where we are right now. I think just in general – I think that the game of 11 guys working together at the same time, that’s why some of that stuff is important. It’s not necessary, but it’s definitely important.” On if he has adjusted the gameplan in the event QB Chase Daniel plays: “I think certainly he knows our division really well which is great. It’s all about knowing the players and schemes and especially at the quarterback position, understanding the defenses and what they can do, and obviously with Coach ‘Zim’ (Mike Zimmer) and how great the scheme is up there, that’s important for us. But I think it’s the same as any position. I think we were answering the question earlier as far as at the beginning of the week, we go through scenarios – we do this every week really regardless, let’s say this week’s situation with COVID-19, but injuries and things like that. But if a player has to play that is in a backup role, he has to prepare and be ready to go play, and from a coaching standpoint you’re always game-planning to the best of your ability, but know that if things have to change, then you have those either in your back pocket or you take things out, and just make sure that you prepare that way through the course of the week or things stay the same. That’s really true for a lot of what we try to do going back to getting into training camp and making sure that our system fits or the guys fit what we’re trying to do on that side of the ball and in that position.” |
