August 20, 2020
Opening statement: “Good morning everybody – we’re just going to jump right into this. A couple roster things here that I want to announce for everybody: Jashon Cornell will be placed in I.R., and we also released Luke Sellers who was a fullback for us. We signed Wes Hills, running back, and Chris Lacy, wide receiver. That’s kind of a little bit of a roster update.
“Big week for us here, getting in to some situational football, some third down which is great, plus on top of that we get to build into practice a little bit more, we get to expand the length that we’re out on the field which is good. We start to increase our stamina as we progress into a little bit more football. Should be good, should be a good week. We’re excited about it and ready to roll. Hopefully you guys are too. What do you got?”
On RB Jonathan Williams and why he’s been able to acclimate so quickly: “He’s done a great job. He came in really unbelievable, professional guy who just dove right into the playbook and really tried to focus into his job. We do have some guys who have played college football with him, so we had a little bit of a background research there as far as the type of guy he is. He’s a great guy, works hard, just wants to go in and do anything he can to help the team. Just kind of was a good fit for us, and we wanted to bring him in and take a look. But certainly from a skill set level, he’s a big back, he can get downhill but also has some good quickness. We just thought it would be a good opportunity for us to take a look at him.”
On what he has seen from P Arryn Siposs and P Jack Fox in the early stages of the punter competition: “Two great guys, really, and good question because today you’re actually going to see some coverage stuff. So as you’re watching that, you’ll see some kickoff coverage. We’re working towards this week also the punt coverage aspect of all that too. That’ll be up this week. We’ll get a little bit more live reps at that – or not live – but as close as we can in pads, which will be nice. As far as the two punters, I think they’ve both done an outstanding job. I think they both have extremely outstanding leg talent. Jack was here with us last year, and we saw his ability, the ball just explodes off his foot just when he drives into it. Certainly with Siposs, a guy that’s a little bit older even though he’s just coming out of college, very calm, another really strong leg, very consistent. I think for both of those guys they’re doing a great job. They’re competing. Certainly as we go through camp we’re going to have to turn up the pressure a little bit just on some of the different looks they’re going to see and get them a feel for what that rush looks like when it’s coming at them and see how they perform under pressure. Certainly try to do it in the safest manner possible – it’s always a little bit interesting when you’re trying to do that with the punt and the punt protection, but we have to see that the best we can without the preseason games to see how that goes. Two guys that are doing a great job of competing back and forth. One of the really awesome parts about all of it is (that) they’re back there helping each other. I think when you have competition on a football team, but the players put aside that competition and just try to help each other out, especially with the guys – the specialists and the kickers – because there’s so many details involved there with the snap and the timing of the footwork, the drop angle and the way the ball comes off the foot. They’re helping each other so that’s pretty cool to see.”
On if he’ll tackle to the ground more now than he has in the past due to no preseason games: “Definitely something we’ve talked about maybe a couple media sessions ago in regard to live tackling and try to fit that in. So we had a couple shots at it the other day on the goal line, tried to do it in a really small-scale. We’ll try to work a couple reps in as we go through the week. At some point we do have to do live tackling. We have to get into that mode just like we would in a preseason game. You can’t wait until that first regular season game before you tackle for real. You have to make sure that the guys can feel it – and certainly the ball carriers too, they have to be able to feel that too and be able to understand sometimes if they can run through it, if they have to go with it, if they move and the pressure on the ball as they get tackled. We’re going to work that in as we go.”
On if DT Jashon Cornell will need surgery: “The injury was pretty significant, so that’s all I’m going to say on that. He’s going to go on I.R., so I’ll let him handle the rest of it.”
On if DT Jashon Cornell’s injury will make him reevaluate the drills he’s conducting in practice: “I always do. One of the things that probably puts me in the worst mood is when someone gets hurt. I think for me as a coach, I’m always trying to make sure that we practice in the safest manner possible. Certainly in that case, you go back and – it’s unfortunate. It’s one of those deals where you had two drills going on at the same time, so I wasn’t there, and I had to go back and look at the tape and just look at it. I’m always trying to figure out, ‘Is there a way that we could’ve been safer?’ I think unfortunately that was just one of those things that happened. In that particular case it looked like he stepped and there was an injury because of that. You certainly wonder if maybe a little bit more offseason, a little bit more training, little bit more – any of those things – you’ll always go through that in your head, and just trying to make sure that the players are as safe as possible. Certainly if there are drills that I see that I don’t think are safe, the drill is going to be stopped as soon as I see it, and it’s going to be corrected.”
On the intensity of coaches meetings as they try to evaluate talent to put together the final roster without preseason games: “Great point. I would say that our coaches meetings are pretty intense in general. I think that evaluating the roster all the way through is critically important. I think one of the things that we always do in training camp is try to determine, ‘What do our players do well?’ That’s the biggest thing for us: What do they do, and then, how can they help the team? I think that we certainly will see talent and their ability and skill set on tape, but what are they doing well for us right now, and how does that fit in to what we need on the team to help us win? Certainly that’s a big part of it right now. We’re having a lot of discussion. The interesting part about it too is that with the 80-man roster, it’s a little bit different. It’s a little bit different trying to juggle that number and maybe the rep count and injuries and also the build-up process that we’re going through, starting at 90 minutes and adding 15 per practice as we go and make sure that we get enough reps. Then also without the offseason, we’re making sure that the guys – we’re doing it in a safe manner the best that we can to acclimate them to that high competition level. It’s a great point to when we get into those meetings. It’s, ‘OK look, we have to evaluate everything these guys do, from individual to the group to the little pod work that we do, to the teamwork.’ It all has to be evaluated all the way across the board, and it can’t just be those team reps that I think everyone looks at that maybe would be like a preseason game. You look at just the reps in the game. It has to be more than that. It’s got to be what they’re doing from the individual all the way through.”
On if the low COVID-19 numbers across the League give him confidence in the season: “I think when you look at the big picture overall, the League is trying to do everything they can to make sure that we’re out there in a safe environment practicing. I’d say for us, I probably have blinders on, probably just head down, worrying about our building and just trying to make sure that we educate our guys continually. Certainly coming off of player day offs and things where they maybe have a little bit more free time, just making sure that we continually educate everybody on what’s important: To be done, to be safe and to keep everybody safe. From that aspect of it, we’re just kind of taking it day-by-day as it goes, and we’ll see how all the testing goes and how it works. For us right now I think the guys feel like we’re doing the right things, we have to continue to do that so that we can get out there and go compete.”
