December 2, 2020
Opening Statement: “Good morning everyone. Thanks for being here. I just want to start off by really thanking a lot of people basically around our building. These last few days have been kind of a whirlwind, and everyone in the building has stepped up. Just wanted to mention (Director of Video Operations) Erik Kunttu. We had to work out of the building the last couple of days, so the video department has been on it. They hooked all of us up and gave us great opportunities to get our work done on the Bears. (Character Coach/Team Development) Dylan Thompson and (Chief of Staff – Head Coach Administration) Kevin Anderson have really helped me in this transition, and there’s so many more people. I don’t know about Eamonn (Reynolds, director of football communications), because he just informed me that I’ve got to do this every day now. So, I don’t know if he’s on the good list or not.
“I just want to start off giving you guys some information here for practice today. Austin Bryant, Kenny Golladay and Jeff Okudah won’t be practicing today. So, just as you’re making your list, you can kind of focus on that. With that, I’ll open it up to questions.”
On how WR Kenny Golladay is progressing and how RB D’Andre Swift is looking this week: “So, Kenny specifically – Kenny’s working. He’s trying to get himself back, and he continues to go each and every day. There’s been that progress there. Same thing with D’Andre. We’re hoping to get him back. We’re going to kind of start working him back into practice again, and we’ll just see how it goes at the end of the week. Basically, if I didn’t mention him – that’s kind of the progress, is trying to get him back. Taking it all the way up to game time and seeing how they progress.”
On how close RB D’Andre Swift was to playing last game: “I think he’s close. It’s really hard to say. I think it (has) kind of been a little bit up-and-down for him. So, each day’s a little bit different as we come in. What we do is we take him through – it’s progressing so far, take him through it, then see the next day how he reacts to it. Some days there’s a step forward, some days you have to (say), ‘OK, I’ve got to stay here at this level,’ and we’ll continue to work from there.”
On how the team meeting went with players this morning: “I appreciate you asking that, because this meeting today, I felt like, was one of the most important ones that I was going to do. I enjoyed it. I thought the guys reacted well. I was happy to see them face-to-face. I could feel energy. There was excitement in the room. Hopefully I did a good job speaking to them, but really my message to them was about perspective and changing our perspective and turning that thing forward. There’s no rearview mirror. We’re looking forward, moving ahead, and we’re straight dialed in on Chicago. So, that was my message.”
On if this is the first time of his career that he’s been in defensive meetings: “Well the only thing is when I went down to – so, two years ago when I was out, and I went down to Atlanta with Dan Quinn down there, I did ask him to spend some time on the defensive side. So, I did go in those meetings, but that’s been the extent of it. So, I was there for two weeks, and spent most of my time in the defensive meetings. So, kind of a different breed on that side of the ball. It was fun to be in there. It at least gave me an inside to what that would look like. I did start in the defensive meetings today when we broke. Just wanted to make sure I addressed those guys in that room, and it was good. Then I went back to our side.”
On if he’s going to be overseeing the defensive gameplan or let Defensive Coordinator Cory Undlin still run it: “It’s fun to be in those meetings. Like I said, they’re different guys over there. The mindset of defensive players and offensive players are different. So, it’s fun to be in there. Like I said early, I have a lot of respect for Cory. From the day that he walked in here, I felt like we almost had an immediate kinship anyway, so our conversations have been great, they’ve been easy, they’ve been free flowing. So, we were just down there before I came up here talking about the gameplan and what he’s talking about doing. I would definitely be informed, but like I said, I want him to feel free to do what he thinks is best for our players to put them in the best situations to be successful because he knows those guys inside and out right now.”
On if WR Kenny Golladay has been experiencing setbacks with his recovery: “I appreciate the question. I’m not going to really get into exactly what he was doing, but we’re pushing him. I think he’s pushing himself. Like I said, it’s a day-in, day-out thing where we monitor it. We push him to a certain level, next day, see how that level – (how) the body reacts to it, and then we come back the next day and go from that plan, that day forward. There’s always – I don’t know if you want to say ‘setbacks,’ I wouldn’t use that word. I would just say that you have to see how the body reacts the next day.”
On how RB D’Andre Swift got concussed: “I really can’t, to be honest with you. I can’t shed any more light on that. It’s just something we’re continuing to work through. He’s doing everything that he can here in the building. I know the game’s important to him; I know he wants to be out there with his teammates, and he’s working hard at it.”
On how to manage the cornerback depth: “We’re continuing to work with the roster each and every day, communicating with (Vice President of Football Administration) Mike Disner and Kyle (O’Brien, vice president of player personnel) and Rob (Lohman, director of pro scouting) and Lance (Newmark, director of player personnel), and making sure we do a good job of staying on top of that. We do have other guys that will continue to work with the roster, and by the end of the week, we’ll feel comfortable with who we have out there.”
On if the players had questions for him: “I had meetings with our leadership group. So there was some free-flowing, give-and-take in that. Today, in my meeting, was not. I just wanted to make sure that they understood my message, exactly what I’m looking for, what I expect out of them, and how I see this thing – then we kind of went from there.”
On how many messages he received in the past several days: “It’s been amazing. If you ask my wife, I’m not a guy who spends any time on the phone. I called one of my daughters late at night, and I just start scrolling through my calls, and I think she was the 76th call that day. I’m not sure if you looked at my whole history, I had 76 calls ever, on the history of the phone. So it was quite a lot, but again, I appreciate it. There are obviously some great people that I’ve been around, and I respect their opinions. I reached out to some of those as well. So the feedback, the people that have called me have been outstanding.”
On the mood of the team meeting today: “The mood of the room – I thought there was a buzz in it because there was some difference in the room as well. The room was set up a little bit different, then how I started the meeting was a little bit different. I don’t want to get into everything because I do feel like there’s some sanctity of just some of those team meetings, but the message was our perspective. I wanted their perspective to change. I wanted them to understand what my perspective was and what our perspective would be going forward. So that was the main word of the day. I was quick. I think it was about eight minutes, that I went in there. I enjoyed it. I think they did as well, but you’ll probably have to ask them for their reaction on it.”
