| Opening statement: “A couple of roster things here – last night we released Travis Fulgham from the 53- (man roster). We signed Tom Kennedy up to the 53-(man roster) and signed Frank Herron to the practice squad. That kind of balances out everything as far as that’s concerned from a roster standpoint. With that being said in regard to everyone else, Mike Daniels will not be out there at practice again today. I know Danny (Amendola) has been out the last couple of days, he’s going to go out and is feeling a little better, so we’ll go see what that looks like here today as we go through everything else. Like I said, he’s a pretty tough kid, so he’s going to do everything possible to just get himself ready to go. We’re trying to be smart as far as that’s concerned. Big day for us here today. We’re just getting ready for the Chiefs and trying to obviously do a great job here in the red (zone) area and some of the other situational installs that we have today, as far as that’s concerned. A really difficult team to defend in the red (zone) area. They have a lot of weapons. They have a great package. (Chiefs Head Coach) Andy (Reid) does a good job of scheming that all up and really giving the go-to guys a lot of different plays and putting them in really good positions to score. That’ll be a big challenge for us there. On the other side of the ball, a lot of pressure from the defensive line. Those guys do a great job of getting after the quarterback, stopping the run and are very aggressive down there. They’ll blitz a little bit more, too. We just have to get all those looks here today and try to do the best we can with them and keep improving, and get ready for the game. It’s just part of the process. It’s a good week for us, trying to grind through and get better, and hopefully that all shows up here on Sunday as we get ready to go compete. Just another good work day for us.” On the what he has seen from WR Tom Kennedy on the practice squad to warrant being activated to the 53-man roster: “One of the good things for the guys on the field – and why we do what we do – is when we do our show teams our guys are giving looks on other sides of the ball, and we’ve seen a couple good slot receivers. A couple good receivers just in general here with some of the offenses that we’ve faced. He’s done a really good job of going against our first defense and man coverage work and getting open on the routes and understanding the concepts of what we’re doing, and then being able to mix in with our offense and some of the other competitive periods that we do. We do quite a few competitive periods – offense/defense through the course of practice, just to always gauge where players are at. It may not be exactly what you’re going to do that week as far as the look, but the more competitive the reps – we always feel is valuable from that standpoint. I think he’s done a great job of taking advantage of those competitive reps that we’ve had. I would say the biggest thing too, is just there is special teams value that he adds. As far as being on the roster and being up as far as that’s concerned, he helps us in the return game. He also helps in some of those matchups with the skill players. He can play fast. He obviously has a background in lacrosse, so some of those man-to-man or one-on-one sort of situations that come up in special teams are very similar, as far as that’s concerned, to what he’s done in the past. He continually just tries to improve and that’s been good so far.” On if WR Tom Kennedy is insurance for WR Danny Amendola if he cannot play: “I think he’s really earned the opportunity. I think for us, we’re always just going to try to put everybody out there that we think will help give us an opportunity to win the game. So, certainly all of that ties into it, maybe more than just from an offensive perspective, maybe overall from both phases of the game – having some of the extra bodies and some of the speed with some of the different schemes that they do. It’s a very fast football team. It’s not only fast on offense. It’s very fast on special teams. Those returners hit top speed really fast and they do a great job of setting up the return game for those guys, and we’re just making sure we have those players on the field that can handle that.” On currently being in first place in the NFC North: “None of that really matters. We’re just trying to go play well this weekend – just go play the Chiefs.” On how different it is as a pass-rusher when facing a mobile quarterback in practice: “It’s different every week as far as the quarterbacks are concerned. It depends on the protection systems and how they use their backs and their tight ends. A lot of teams will use extra guys in the protection. It’s not always the same traditional sort of offensive line and half-back, sort of blitz pick-up or protection pick-up. They can mix in different personnel in there, and packages to be able to do that. Certainly, we try to do what’s appropriate for each game to help ourselves in the pass rush, and the quarterbacks a big part of it. Obviously with (Patrick) Mahomes, this guy kind of does everything. He can run. He can scramble. He can extend plays. He has a strong arm. He can obviously throw the ball across the field without looking. I think there is just a lot of things in there from a defensive standpoint where we just have to be disciplined. It’s really kind of a decline thing for us from that standpoint because he does it all well.” On if they have to be more creative to try to mimic Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes: “Yeah, you definitely try to break down some of the different scenarios that are going to come up in the game in to different groups or units or individual periods, and work on each individual aspect of it. We don’t necessarily have one person that can do all of those things really well. We’ll try to break it down – break down the skill set and rep those particular plays in that kind of controlled environment. That’s what we try to do to the best of our abilities. Whether it’s working on when he gets out and runs, when he can extend plays, him being able to push the ball downfield with the vertical pass game – that comes up with it. The quarterback run game he also has in his arsenal and you try to break those all down and emphasize them in a smaller scale, so that when you put it together in those team settings, at least you’ve practiced them in the best-case scenario possible. If you’re worried about his speed then you make sure for that particular look or that particular play, you have someone that has enough speed to kind of really generate that accurate look to the best that you can.” On if he pays attention to New England’s defense in their two wins against Kansas City last season: “You try to look at as much film as you can, as far as teams that do things that are similar. There are probably a lot of other teams out there that I look at that do things that are similar to us, too. It may not always be the complete package. It might be coverage concepts, or it might be front concepts. Either way, I think those games from last year are great to watch, but it’s certainly two different teams in two different points of the season. I think by the time you get to Games 18, 17 in the season – your teams have really changed. Your schemes have really changed. You’re really doing things at a high-level for whatever fits those particular circumstances, and that’s not really where I think either the current Chiefs team or our team is at right now. We’re trying to just do a good job of where we’re both at in September. They’re good games to watch just like all of them are, but you can’t dive too far in to some of that stuff.” On if he thinks this is a big game that will galvanize the fanbase: “I think for us, it’s just our next game. I think that’s where you have to keep it. It’s September. We’re trying to go into this week and play really well. For us, we just appreciate our fans in general. I think for us, we’re trying to play extremely hard for our fans every single game. We’re trying to do everything we can to win. I love our fans. I love the energy. I love the excitement. I know it’s going to be loud. It’s going to be awesome. I can’t wait to be a part of that. For us, like we say all the time, if you love football where would you rather be than one o’clock in our stadium? That’s what is great about it. That’s what is awesome about it, and we appreciate that. It’s just the next game for us. We have to go in, and we have to grind it out, and we have to try to win. When that’s over we’re going to have to try to do the same thing for the next game and that’s really how you have to approach it, so that we can stay consistent. We don’t ride the highs and the lows of the NFL season, just like you can’t ride the highs and the lows of a game, individual of itself because you miss the moment. You have to live within that moment in order to execute in that moment. If you get too far out of that, you’re going to miss it. It’s really just the same approach. Every game is tough. Every team in the NFL is great. If you don’t take that right approach every single week – look, every one of these teams has the ability to win and to make it not look really good. If you don’t just stay consistent with it then things tend to get out of whack as far as that’s concerned. There are going to be good games, there are going to be tough games, and there are going to be not so good games, and we just have to improve as we go through. Other than that, that’s really just our focus – just staying consistent with it.” On if competing with top teams in the League last year gives them confidence going into the game against the Chiefs: “Last year is last year, this year is this year. For us it’s just trying to get better and trying to put a lot of the pieces together to improve on some of the things that we haven’t done so well so far this season. I think there has been some positives obviously, so far what we’ve done, but it’s not – certainly there is a long way to go as far as that’s concerned. Our focus is just trying to improve those areas that we recognize are not up to par, that we know every team out there is taking a look at and they’re going to try to exploit until we get it fixed and make sure that it’s right. Those will be problems for us as the season goes. It’s not about last year, it’s not about anything other than just trying to beat Kansas City this weekend and play better.” On why he thinks the team was able to compete against top teams in the League last year: “I’m not really sure. We’ll dive into that maybe another time and think about last year. Right now, we’re just kind of focused on this week.” On if he will use the game against the Chiefs as an indicator of where they stand in the NFL: “No, we really don’t look at it that way. I don’t know where anybody is going to be right now in September and where they’re going to be in December and where anybody is going to be in January. No one knows that right now. All we know right now is we have a really good football team coming in to our house on Sunday, and we have to play well to go beat them. That’s just our focus. We don’t go to anything bigger or smaller than that.” On if playing against the Chiefs changes their early game strategy, specifically on fourth downs: “I don’t think that it changes the down and distance sort of thought process as far as that’s concerned. You just have to really understand what they do well. Certainly, it’s a very explosive team, so you have to stay consistent and you have to just really – you have to stay aware, you have to stay alert for the entire 60 minutes. Obviously, the job they’ve done in the second quarter I think has been very impressive as far as how they’ve been able to attack teams. For us, it’s just maintaining that constant focus every single snap, so that those plays don’t happen because they are so good at them when those things come up.” On if he plans to be more aggressive against the Chiefs on a fourth-and-short situation: “Hard to say on a Friday, some of that is really in-game feel also – which way things are going and how it looks, how it feels as far as the style and play of the game. Sometimes the game itself has a different feel once you get into it. Certainly, there is going to be nothing more important than points in this game. That will be one of the biggest things that we do offensively is scoring and defensively trying to keep them out.” On if he will consider more two-point conversions against the Chiefs: “The two-point thing is really a good conversation because I think there are a lot of teams that explore different philosophies with that now, especially since they changed the rule and all that. There’s definitely teams out there that will go for it regardless of who they are playing. It’s just kind of their philosophy to go for it and go for it and go for it. I would say, for the most part, we’re just trying to stay routine on the scoring schedule as far as that’s concerned and not try to get into a situation where extra possessions become important. Especially against a team that is so explosive, the possessions of the game are critical as far as that’s concerned. You want to make sure the scoring schedule stays consistent, stays normal.” |
