Tuesday, September 10, 2024
DT Zach Sieler
(What was it like coming in this morning, and how did you guys address everything once the body cam footage came out?) – “I think the team had a really good opening statement, what was it, last night about everything. I completely support it; I think all of us do here. It’s crazy how things shook out. Thankfully everyone got to the game and made it on time. I know all of those guys personally and it kind of shook my wife and I both up watching it. I think we need to move forward and have some open discussions with local enforcement as well as players around here. Hopefully everyone can take some responsibility from this and learn and figure out a way to make this better and make a difference.”
(How do you think the team is handling kind of understanding how important this issue is but realizing Buffalo is here in 48 hours?) – “Honestly with a Thursday night game, things go by fast, so you don’t really have much time to sit and think. But I know we have some time this weekend and hope we can reflect and figure out a way to move forward with everything that happened, but right now the goal is winning Thursday.”
(The first three weeks are tough. For this to be two games in five days against one of your biggest rivals, how difficult is that physically and everything like that?) – “It’s super exciting. It’s difficult – you’re getting used to your pads again and getting a feel for the thing, get your rhythm in check again, but at the same time, it’s Buffalo. It’s a division game, it’s time to take the East. Let’s go for it. I think it’s really exciting to kind of hit the ground running early on in this season and show what we are made of right up front.”
(QB Josh Allen kind of has had your number. I think he’s 11-2 against you guys. What is it about stopping him, how do you go about it?) – “Josh Allen is an amazing player, there’s no two ways about that. But at the end of the day, there are 21 other players out there. I think if we come together as a team in all three phases – we did some great things last Sunday. If we make some corrections and really tighten some things down, we really have a good shot and really take it to them.”
(Do you have a feeling it’s going to be you and Buffalo to the end in December and January just like last year?) – “I love when that happens.”
(So much was made of this offseason about rotating defensive linemen more, but you still play at a very high snap count. Were you surprised by that after it was kind of the idea? Or not really just because you’ve played so much?) – “Obviously (Austin) Clark and I have worked together for four years now. Calais (Campbell) here, (Da’Shawn) Hand, (Brandon) Pili, Benito (Jones), all of those guys that were up, we focus on even practicing like how we’re going to play in the game. We take the reps and we kind of go into each week knowing what we’re thinking and how we expect to play each game. I think it’s just kind of play by play, game by game feel. Some games you might be able to take more, some games, you might be able to take less. I think at the end of the day, it kind of matters how you’re feeling and how your body is feeling. Week 1 it’s obviously pretty exciting to get out there again and run around. It’s just maintaining it all season. It’s a long season – 18 weeks, 17 games plus playoffs, hopefully. So it’s just a matter of staying on top of recovery and staying on top of things week by week to get the dub.”
(Do you feel good about the short week, quick turnaround from one game to the next?) – “I’m super excited. Like how we talked about earlier was two games in five days, that’s actually like – to get there and get the ground running and really kind of show our stuff early on is exciting.”
(Can you give us an idea of how much more daunting it is when you have a guy like QB Josh Allen out there with so many different options? He’s a quick thinker too for you guys out there to sort of just contain him) – “I think it’s what we do – we’ve obviously played him plenty of times. We know his game and he knows our game, so it’s a matter of how can we come into the week preparing the best. Especially on a quick week is getting the right checks, getting the right adjustments made and correcting what we did wrong this last weekend. Obviously, there’s a lot we can correct on and get it right and get ready to make the adjustments and play on Thursday.”
(Quick question on WR Tyreek Hill. You guys have the same agent. I’m just curious what the conversations have been like between the two of you after everything has happened?) – “I think all of us have told Tyreek, just A – sorry and then B – how can we help, how can I be there for you, what can we do to help in the future, make a difference, make an impact. I think some of this stuff is so just gray area sometimes, and I think it’s how can we make it so that everyone is on the same page and make this earth a better place and not just a one-off.”
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
T Terron Armstead
(After seeing the body cam last night on Twitter, your emotions as you watched it, was it anger, sadness? You’re always so thoughtful, how would you describe what your emotions were as you watched it?) – “It was a combination of emotions, for sure – frustration, sad, feeling for ‘Reek’ (Tyreek Hill), and ‘Reek’ just being a representation for a lot of other people that have been through those situations. It was heartfelt for sure.”
(What stuck out for you when you watched the body cam video that really bothered you the most?) – “Just unnecessary to me. To me, it was unnecessary. Nothing I feel like warranted the reaction. Just any time you’re getting physical for a traffic stop, it never ends too well.”
(The idea of DT Calais Campbell being handcuffed seems absurd. What was your take on that aspect?) – “All of it just seemed aggressive, aggressive. What I would say about my teammates, Tyreek (Hill) specifically, the way that he handled everything coming into the locker room, going out performing and then postgame just making sure the story stays positive. Trying to find a solution opposed to being a problem and playing a victim. Calais (Campbell) is the same way. He could’ve got more vocal with what he was feeling, but it’s all about the progression and moving forward collectively with the police department and all of those things. Really hats off to those guys, for real.”
(Do you have any thoughts on how both sides could’ve handled this situation differently from the pull over all the way through everything else?) – “Not really. It’s different when you’re right there in that situation. For Tyreek, he’s Tyreek Hill. So window down, he’s talking to the police, that’s a lot of cameras, so he’s going back up and down. When you first get that initial knock on the window and it feels aggressive to you, you get caught off guard like, ‘Damn, man. Slow down.’ I have personal experience with it too, so it definitely – I know how that goes. Like I said, if we can work together and find solutions so these things won’t happen more, I would be open to listening and moving forward doing the work to do so.”
(Speaking of just moving forward and you being so thoughtful and a leader on this team. How hard is it to separate this and realize you have the Bills in 48 hours?) – “We got to handle the task at hand. It’s the schedule, we’re going to roll. We’ll be ready. Nobody will be tired; we won’t be talking about the last game or anything. We will be ready for the Bills.”
(How hard is it to separate? This is a serious issue going on around the country, but yet regardless, it doesn’t matter. You still have to go out and perform and put this to the side.) – “I think that’s the beauty of the sport. You get a chance to escape real world issues for that time slot. I think there’s no better place in the world that Tyreek could’ve been following that but a locker room and a football game. That’s the beauty of that sport, that you get that time to escape and enter a world that is kind of a fantasy for us.”
(There has been a lot of talk about the response by teammates. TE Jonnu Smith, DT Calais Campbell coming to WR Tyreek Hill defense there. Is this maybe a galvanizing thing for the team to get that much closer together?) – “It’s all about your response to adversity for sure. But do we need it? No, we didn’t need it. I love the group. I love the locker room, everybody. It’s close knit, it’s family for real. So it’s a no brainer, if I would’ve seen him, I would’ve did the same thing. You never know how that situation would’ve happened, and I know countless others in here would’ve pulled over and tried to look after him to make sure he was safe too. It’s just the vibe that we have.”
(This game, is this 1 of 17 or is this game a little more important because it’s Buffalo and a division opponent?) – “It’s the next one. It’s important because it’s the next one. All energy, all thoughts and preparation go into it, for sure. It’s a division opponent so there is some familiarity there. It’s nothing different. It’s nothing different. It’s the 2024 Miami Dolphins, everything that happened in the past is different. We got to go out and execute Thursday night and get a win.”
(Are you aware of the numbers with Buffalo that QB Josh Allen is 11-2 against you and they’ve beaten you 13 of the last 15?) – “No.”
(Does any of that stuff matter?) – “We are 0-0 in 2024. 0-0, so let’s get it done Thursday and see who’s going to win.”
(So there is no bad blood knowing how the regular season ended last year? That doesn’t factor in at all? You don’t remember any of that?) – “It’s a different team. We got a lot of different new people. We’re 0-0 against each other. We’re going to go out and see what’s happening.”
(What was your thoughts on the offensive line’s performance against Jacksonville. It seemed like you and OL Austin Jackson had very good games. What did you think about the offensive line?) – “Solid performance. Knocking some rust off early in the season still, got to get fully in football shape and get going and all that. Jacksonville did a really good job schematically with some of the things they were doing, creating pressure off the edge to the open side, trying to continue to keep eyes on Tyreek (Hill) and (Jaylen) Waddle, for sure. I think as we progress through the season, I think our technique, our intent flying off the ball, you’re going to see more and more of that. We were able to get that going somewhat in the second half, but we want to get that started early Thursday.”
(As a captain, has there been any thought or any type of gesture on Thursday night in response to what happened to WR Tyreek Hill?) – “No. No, we won’t march, kneel – not to my knowledge. No. We are definitely talking about doing some things that will be real life impactful, whether that’s conversations with the police department and other leaders of the communities with myself, Tyreek and a few other leaders on the team. We want to do something that will be really impactful, not just make statements. I’m not a fan of empty statements. Whatever that is, we’re brainstorming. I have some ideas and I’m sure some others do as well.”
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
S Jevón Holland
(What was your reaction to all that body camera video?) – “I mean it was cray, but I’m not surprised. I’m 24, there’s been a bunch of very unsettling and disturbing videos, body cam footage over and over again since Twitter has been a thing, really since Rodney King. I would like to be more shocked and surprised, but I’m not. I just think that’s the society that we live in and the reality of it. So yeah, it’s unfortunate that this type of thing had to happen to Tyreek (Hill) and for it to get this much recognition, but you’ve seen multiple times, over and over again; body cam footage come out, the story was one thing and then you see the vocabulary and the language that’s used and the demeanor and the aggression and then everybody is asking, ‘How do we fix it? How do we fix it?’ And as time goes on, everybody’s memory nowadays is pretty short sided, so it kind of just gets brushed under the rug and then you kind of move on to the next situation until it happens again. It’s unfortunate, it really is. And another thing that’s really unfortunate is that people try to bring up past difficulties, like Tyreek’s past and what not and things that he’s done in his past that are wrong and that he’s fixed and apologized for, and I’d say that the two are exclusively different. Doing something in the past, whether it be wrong or right, does not justify or condemn you to be treated in such a way when the situation has nothing to do with that at all. If you’re an individual that brings up those things to try to justify the wrongdoings or the shortcomings of another person, then I think you’re just moving the goalpost for your own narrative and I think that alone needs to be addressed. You need to look yourself in the mirror and really ask yourself what are you trying to accomplish in bringing those things up. So I think that’s really important and needs to be said because those are the kind of things that go unheard that kind of just get comments on Twitter and things like that, that everybody seems to bring up and wants to say all the time, ‘Oh, he did this in his past so it justifies that he’s treated this way,’ when in reality, that’s not at all what needs to be happening and that’s not how you treat people.”
(How absurd was it to handcuff DT Calais Campbell when he’s clearly trying to deescalate things and help?) – “I mean it was wild, man. You see people trying to help – I mean we’re his teammates, so obviously we love him. We want him to be in good spirits and to be treated with respect, so Calais (Campbell) of all people, I know wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. He was trying to protect Tyreek, and like you said, deescalate the situation. Unfortunately, he was put in handcuffs like I saw, and that’s just kind of the product of the situation and what happens.”
(You talk about change; if we’re here two years from now, five years from now, are we talking about the same thing?) – “I would want to say no, but over and over again things kind of happen over and over again the same way. So it’s unfortunate – you’d think that stuff kind of withers out. I mean I was alive in 2020, George Floyd – and you don’t really want to bring those things up because they were serious, major incidents and lot of people have controversial topics about it and opinions, but it’s unfortunate that we’re still talking about the same thing after so long. I bring up Rodney King because that was kind of the first one caught on tape. I remember my family members just telling me that that was like a thing, it just happened all the time; they just so happened to catch that one on tape. So it’s been a thing for a long time, and unfortunately, it still lingers. But like Tyreek said, there are good police officers out there. I know police officers myself that are good people, but unfortunately, there are some people that just happen to get power drunk or take things to a level that don’t need to be taken there and it’s unfortunate the result. At the end of the day, you just got to treat people with respect – and that goes both ways. And so as long as we’re trying to work together to fix the problem and no one’s just talking about the situation and not doing anything about it to fix it, so as long as we’re taking steps necessary to make change, I think that’s important.”
(Did you guys meet as a team or did Head Coach Mike McDaniel address you guys on all of this today?) – “Yeah, I feel like it’s an elephant in the room if you don’t. At the end of the day, it’s a human interaction. It’s a human situation and I think it needs to be brought up, especially – amongst 90 percent of the league is black. The white people that are in the league all love black people and black people love white people, so I think it’s important that everybody talks about it and Mike (McDaniel) being biracial himself, is definitely caught in the middle of that. So I think it was good that he brought it up and he expressed his views and his emotions behind it, and I think it’s good that everybody has been speaking up about it and been talking about it because it’s important to support your teammates, but also important to support people that were done wrong and change needs to be had.”
(You talk about focus and I’m still trying to process how WR Tyreek Hill was able to do that on Sunday – and now, as a team, you guys are looking at a short week with a very important opponent coming in. In some ways, is it good that Buffalo is your opponent to get your attention that much more?) – “I don’t necessarily think Buffalo themselves; I think it’s really just being a professional. It has nothing to do with who we’re playing next or what players are on the next team. I think it’s specifically just the fact that we’re professionals and we have to handle our job. At the end of the day, this is our career. This is what puts food on our table, so to be able to move on to – crazy situations happen and then you keep on moving with life. They’re on the backburner and once you walk out of the facility you have to deal with them, but at the same time you also have to make sure that you’re continuing to do the things necessary to get the job done and to be successful at your job. So I think it’s just the product of being a professional in the NFL.”
(Is there anything that the team will do on Thursday night to sort of make a statement after what happened?) – “I’m honestly not sure. That’s definitely a question that you kind of want to bring up to higher ups or somebody higher than me, because right now I’m just an employee, I just work here. I’m not necessarily sure, so we’ll see what happens, but yeah, they put out a statement earlier, I think yesterday or something like that. That was really nice to see, so it’s good to know that the team and the organization has your back in a way I’d like to say. I don’t know if ‘has your back,’ is the most correct term, but in a way, they’re backing the team and making sure that the things necessary that need to get done, get done. Apologies need to be had, investigations, whatever it is, but yeah, shoutout to the team for putting that statement out, that was big.”
(How difficult is it to understand that this is a major issue, this happened to your teammate who you’re close with but yet you still have to play football Thursday and nothing else matters?) – “It’s difficult, but honestly, for me, being a black man, it’s just part of the reality. Driving while black is a thing, I’ve been dealing with it my whole life. You get pulled over, my homeboy driving is white, I’m black, they flash the light on me, you know what I mean? So it’s just a thing you kind of live with as a black person, and it’s just a way of life. You’re just always in it. So when it happens, in whatever situation that you’re in, you just kind of maneuver within that situation. But I’m sure there’s thousands of stories of black people all over the country that have gone through the same thing and kind of brush it off as whatever and other ethnicities, nationalities look at it and are taken back by it, but it’s our everyday life kind of thing. And I’m not exclusively saying that just black people go through this type of thing because it is common amongst more than just black people. But yeah, man, it’s just something that you almost have to just roll with the punches – and it’s uncomfortable to say punches because it’s violent, but in reality, that’s really what it is. It’s a difficult conversation and it’s a violent conversation when being spoken to like that and being stereotyped like that. You just kind of got to keep on moving with it and just being positive about it.”
(You saw Tyreek, how was he with you – he seemed upbeat there in the moment, but I don’t know, it’s a tough situation.) – “Yeah, it’s a tough situation. It’s tough situation. You guys kind of keep asking me the same question. You’re trying to get a different perspective but –”
(No, no, no. It’s more of like, I don’t mean to try to look for a certain thing or anything like that, it’s more of a, we’re on this side hoping to hear your voice, like actually seeing Tyreek, understanding what he went through; what is your perspective of all that because we’re just not in your position and I think people are really interested in it.) – “I understand why he’s upbeat about it, because it’s probably something he’s been through. It’s probably something that he’s seen somebody that looks like him, talks like him, he’s probably experienced that or heard stories about that so he understands how he needs to operate. He understands what portion of his mind he needs to push that into so he can handle it on one side but then still come in here, have a positive attitude and still be nice and respectful to the people that he knows and he talks to every day and continue to be a good person that everybody knows and who we know who he is. So yeah, it’s not an easy situation, for sure. There are residuals from that mentally, but you just got to keep on keeping on – L-I-V-I-N, keep on living.”
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(S Jordan Poyer and CB Siran Neal, can they help you at all this week?) – “Yeah, they definitely can. They know in the backend signals with what the Bills do and how they communicate things that they’ve done to stop us previous years. And then just kind of the philosophy of that defense with what they try to accomplish against our offense – uniquely different than a lot of the teams they would play against, so can take a lot of the information that I’ve been given from those guys early in the week and apply it to Thursday.”
(It’s so early in the season but how important does this game feel given the divisional implications and that you don’t want to lose your home game to the Bills?) – “Every game to us is important. Every game is important, but I think guys that are in the locker room, guys are in the right frame of mind. Guys are ready to play this game and there’s just been a lot of guys that have been here for their off days – not just getting work in, but talking to each other, communicating things that we could get better with. And then going into this week, talking personnel, talking ‘Hey, this guy does this really well, maybe this, that or whatever.’ There’s just been a lot of guys up here in the building the past day or so since we’ve played. So I think that’s a good thing for us.”
(How much is it in your mind as a player when you know that another team has beaten you so often and has had so much success? Does that eat away at you? Is that something you think about as you prep for that team knowing the success they’ve had?) – “That’s going to be what’s written out there until we do something about that. That’s going to be the narrative, that we can’t beat the Bills. And until we do beat them, and we beat them consistently, none of that’s going to change. And we have an opportunity to do that this year. We have an opportunity to do that this Thursday.”
(A lot of the conversation after the game on Sunday was about halftime and your speech and the adjustments and how they were effective. I’m curious in your perspective how that experience and your guys’ ability to overcome those adjustments can galvanize this team and make you better for it in the long run?) – “I think halftime speeches are good. I don’t think that that’s necessarily something you need to do all of the time, not just coming from me but coming from any other leader on our team. We have a good enough team to be able to just start fast, start the way we want to. It doesn’t have to get to that point for any of us, and we got to hold each other to the standard that we said we wanted to, that’s all that was.”
(Thursday turnaround is always quick for you guys as players, is it a little easier because it’s only Week 2 and you’ve only had one week worth of hits collectively as a team?) – “Well, speaking for myself, it’s not as bad, but I’m not the one that goes out there and carries the ball and has to hit guys or has go and tackle guys or has to force blocks this way or the other. So for me, my body doesn’t feel as bad in comparison to guys that have to tackle people or guys that have to go and hit guys. So in respect to them, I would say I’d let them answer that question for themselves, not me.”
(Do you have to change a few things up knowing that Mike White is on the other side now?) – “No.”
(You don’t have to? Explain it to me, why don’t you have to?) – “Why would we have to?”
(In terms of the signals and the words?) – “Well, we don’t really signal. The words, he’s not in our huddle with us listening. And with all due respect, they can understand all the concepts we’re running, but are we running that concept on that play with what they’re trying to do? That’s just the whole game. We both got to go out and play, whether we know their signals, whether we know what they got going on and vice versa, at the end of the day, we both got to go out there and we got to go play.”
(We saw the body camera footage from the traffic stop with WR Tyreek Hill. I’m curious, have you seen it and if so, what was going on through your mind watching it, seeing a teammate in that situation?) – “Yeah, I’ve seen it. For me just seeing it the first time, it was a little emotional for me, hearing Tyreek’s voice in the footage, just knowing Tyreek. For me, a lot of the instances that I see are of people that I don’t know and it’s happening to those people, so for it to have happened to somebody that I knew, and then hearing Tyreek’s voice throughout that – and we talked about it, it was a little emotional. I don’t know exactly how I would have dealt with that in that situation, and I can’t speak on something that I’ve never personally gone through myself. I’ve never been through any of that growing up in Hawaii, but he knows that he has my support. I would say just watching the film, in my opinion, I think it could have been deescalated another way. I don’t think it was done the right way. There’s a lot of things that I think could have been done different, but I know Tyreek has gathered a group of us together to do something, to help change some things. He’s come up with a couple ideas and we’ve gathered to talk about what we wanted to do. Obviously, we’re going to worry about this week, but next week we’ll get back together and we’ll talk about how we can do something to change what is going on. I mean, it’s right in our backyard, that’s just what it was. For him to have stayed in that mindset to be able to still have came to the game, still play through all of that and did what he did – just think of that. What – 15-20 minutes before he came to the stadium, he just had gone through all of that. And mentally, physically what that does to you, he didn’t blink. He came to the stadium and got everybody turnt, and you guys see what he did. He did what he did, and that’s just Tyreek. But yeah, I’d definitely seen that, and it struck a lot of conversation for our locker room and a lot of us.”
(What were some of those conversations like that you mentioned?) – “I don’t think I would want to share a lot of the conversations, but I thought there were some good conversations, and they weren’t just conversations of us just siding with Tyreek. It was more so conversations of also understanding like how things could have been different, just all of that. So for a lot of us who haven’t grown up with the police background being good to us growing up, or bad, like we don’t know. So you only know what you know and it was cool. A lot of guys were sharing their upbringings about it and what not, so the more you know.”
(How do you refocus after something like that? I mean, he was on CNN last night. You try not to make it be a distraction, but that’s what we’re asking about 48 hours before a game.) – “Well I think the thing is we don’t avoid the obvious – it’s a thing, yeah. Let it be what it is, let it take its course. I think when we start to brush that away and think that this football thing is the most important thing to us when – this isn’t just something that Tyreek had gone through, this is something that people in general go through. That’s a life thing. Football, we’re blessed to do this. We’re blessed to be able to play this sport. We’re blessed to make all this money to do what we love and it’s for fun, but that’s real life. No games in that, brother.”
(Just going back to WR Tyreek Hill’s mindset on Sunday; it kind of sounds like he didn’t enter the locker room visibly affected by this or were you aware of just how bad his experience was when he got into the locker room on Sunday?) – “So the thing is, I had no idea any of it happened. I was going about my routine, had no idea. And then a group of guys gathered around his locker and I’m just like, ‘Hey, let me go say what’s up to the guys. Let me go see what they’re talking about,’ and still had no idea, didn’t know what they were talking about. It was just like ‘All right,’ let me go about my process. So I go inside one of the rooms and the TV is on and it ends up showing that Tyreek got detained, this, that and the other. So then I go up and ask him what happened, and he didn’t seem fazed in the locker room. I think you guys get to talk to him, you guys ask him the questions, he’ll be able to tell you his honest feelings and his honest truth about it.”
(You had a couple of big-time throws in the last game. You spent some of the time in the offseason talking about wanting to refine your mechanics, the fluidity of your motion, the involvement of your hips. Does that all feel like it’s in a nice place right now?) – “Yeah, I would say it feels really good. Feels really good, just the timing with the guys that are out there on the field and allowing those guys opportunities to have big run catch and what not, but it feels good.”
(Is there still any sour taste in your mouth from last year’s regular season finale?) – “Last year is last year brother. What a political answer. (laughter) Oh my gosh. Last year is last year brother. Worry about this year so we’ll see what we got today, and we’ll work it’s way down to Thursday and see what we can do Thursday.”
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(I didn’t understand something I saw on the internet. There was a kick that looked like it was windy and it landed. What happened there? I thought it landed inside of the 20-yard line?) – “Two of them landed inside the 20 (-yard line), one landed way early. Buffalo got one that landed inside the 20, they had a hard time fielding it, they ended up tackling the guy at the 4-yard line. So you get that, then they give up the big return, so you get both ends of the spectrum. They end up kicking one out of bounds trying to put it in play, so lot of different things as opposed to the same old.”
(Quite the roller coaster Sunday for K Jason Sanders?) – “I don’t know if I’d call it a roller coaster. Obviously anytime we go out there, we’re looking to make every kick. It’s like any highly trained professional, one hiccup you don’t blink. Obviously in the summer you get to watch some golf and you watch guys like Scottie Scheffler who’s going to make three birdies in a row, he gets a double bogie, not even a blip on his radar. Not comparing player to player, athlete to athlete, but you’re going to have some hiccups. You can’t think about it; you go back to your techniques, your fundamentals, get your head space correct and go back to work.”
(What happened on that miss?) – “He missed it. There is a couple of things that go into it. We can’t miss those. 100 percent, we need to have that kick, but you get off a little bit on timing and rhythm and don’t hit the ball properly, that’s what’s going to happen.”
(With K Jason Sanders’ mental toughness as you’ve observed being around him for a few years, do you ever have to lift his spirits and move on to the next one? Or do you assume he does that himself without you offering him any encouragement after a miss?) – “There is usually – maybe it’s just a look or a head nod that I’m not blinking, don’t you blink. We got complete confidence, just go back to work on the next one. As I said, the fact that I see every single kick in practice and warmups. If there is something that I see, it’s a one-word thing, whether it’s tempo, rhythm, whatever it may be. He has a very good ability to self-correct.”
(As it relates to the touchback, are you telling Head Coach Mike McDaniel before every single kickoff, ‘We’re going to do a touchback on this one,’ is it like a conversation every time or no?) – “It’s an ongoing thing. It’s not every time. We’ve sort of gone into the season with some things that we’ve talked about, scenario, times, scores. There’s several things that we’ve already discussed before we get into those situations and into the game, but usually if he’s close or if there’s time, there still will be some communication. We had several incidents on Sunday where there was no TV timeout and it was a quick turnaround, and there wasn’t time for those communications. But he is always aware either right before or even going into the game of what we’re thinking.”
(Do you think you can loll the opponent to sleep by going touchback, touchback, touchback, now we’re going to trick you on this one? Does that happen?) – “That’s going to be an ongoing thing. I think that as the season goes, you’ll see similar looks that end up being different things. You got to change things up. We saw that a little bit from what we saw from Jacksonville and how they did some things with the kicker that going into the game was telling us one thing and it ended up being something different. I think that is going to be an ongoing process.”
(What was working well for P Jake Bailey to punt the way he did?) – “Jake (Bailey) has had a very good camp, first of all. That wasn’t surprising, he’s done a really good job leading into it. He’s had a good preseason. I think especially in what we refer to as gray areas, plus-50 balls, he’s got a lot of confidence in the gunners first and foremost. So that idea of being aggressive, not that they had to make the play because he hit such good balls that they were able to go on their own, but having the confidence in those guys to make the play to be very aggressive.”
(How good is it to have CB Siran Neal on your side for this game? When you and GM Chris Grier talked in February and March, did you guys identify him as one of the better special teams players in the league?) – “Yeah, when he became available, it sort of changed the roster of available players and the rankings of the guys you like, you love and really like to have. When he became available obviously, he went very high on that list.”
(It looked like WR Tyreek Hill was back to return a punt at one point, but it was mostly WR Braxton Berrios. Is there going to be a rotation back there, or is it a specific circumstance that led you to put WR Tyreek Hill back there?) – “It’ll be a constant ongoing, lot of different scenarios. It could be the game, the situation, the scenario, what’s going on offensively, how the game is progressing – there’s a lot of factors that go into it. We feel like we have several guys that are quality return guys. I can’t sit here and tell you exactly what’s going to happen because it’s ever evolving. Anybody that we put back there, just like we talked about with Malik Washington, we talk about Braxton (Berrios), guys that can make good decisions, good ball security, and obviously good players with the ball in their hands.”
(What’s your personal perspective on the WR Tyreek Hill incident that occurred before the game and what you may or may not have seen relative to the video and the police interaction?) – “I haven’t seen the video. No. 1, I’m glad that everybody came out unharmed. Both our players first and foremost, but also law enforcement. They have a hard job to do. I haven’t seen the video. I just know that for the last several years the National Football League, we’re all in this together. Stop hate, all of these things we are putting on the jerseys, the hats, in the end zone – again, I think it’s just another reminder of we still have such a long way to go.”
(I wanted to ask you about the punt return last year against the Bills. Did that eat at you at all in the offseason? Did it kind of motivate you? What did you learn from that experience?) – “It doesn’t eat at me. Any time there is a negative play, it’s always going to stay with you. You’re going to remember the negative ones more than you remember the positive ones. It didn’t fuel anything. We had a situation where their guy made a good play. We had a couple of guys run into one another and sadly, the biggest thing that bothered me is we lost players. We got a guy that’s still unable to play because of an injury that occurred on that particular play. I give them credit. It was a good play by the returner, did something that we hadn’t seen a lot of him returning a ball from that deep. He made a heck of a play, good for them. They get paid too. It’s not a motivating thing, it’s another game. They’re the next game on the schedule, we got to find a way to win the game.”
(WR Deonte Harty is no longer there. What do you think of their new returner. Are there still some systems in place that you have to watch out for on how they return punts?) – “He’s a different guy, but he’s a talented player. He did a good job for the Jets in the preseason. He did a good job in the first game making decisions and good ball security. He’s a talented guy with the ball in his hands. You go back and look at a lot of his college tape. They’re going to play the game – without getting too far deep into the season, they’re going to play the game a certain way. That’s how Buffalo has played the game, it’s been very success for them. They are a well-coached, very talented football team, and we got to be ready in all three phases to battle because they are coming in here with a purpose.”
Thursday, September 10, 2024
Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver
(I wanted to ask you one minor housekeeping thing just because fans ask a lot about this. Was CB Storm Duck active ahead of CB Ethan Bonner because he had a better practice week last week?) – “I think Storm (Duck) has done a lot of things throughout camp that you kind of get excited about. It’s not necessarily anything that Ethan (Bonner) hasn’t done, we have the utmost faith in him to go out there and execute for us at a high level. The Storm kid is – I think he’s played himself into that role, so that was something that was certainly earned.”
(How would you assess how you guys played in the second half on Sunday?) – “I mean, don’t give up any points, you’re usually pretty happy about that. I was excited just to see what we’ve been talking about since Day 1 come to life. We’re constantly preaching play the next play, that plus response equals outcome, control your response. And the guys did just that, we didn’t flinch. Regardless of what happened, I was preaching like, every football game is a boxing match, it’s not a UFC fight. It doesn’t end after one takedown. So we took some punches early, got up off the mat and threw a couple of our own, and fortunately, the game was long enough we were able to come back and win it.”
(I have several questions about LB Jaelan Phillips, but I think I’ll just narrow it down to the end of the game with the sack. Can you just kind of take us through what that meant for him to be out there and make that big play coming off of 10 months off the Achilles injury?) – “How incredible is that. There were times obviously when I was in the league when you think about an Achilles injury like, ‘Oh man, is he going to come back? How long is this going to take?’ For him to come back, look how he did, be as impactful as he was, just so incredibly impressed by him, the man he is. It’s just his sheer fight, I saw it in his rehab and then for him to come back out there and just have the production he did and play the way he did. I call him Mariano Rivera; he is the closer for us and he did that in that game.”
(How did LB Jaelan Phillips and CB Jalen Ramsey come away with their snap count limitations, maybe going a little bit over what maybe the team projected, but now with the quick around also before Thursday?) – “Both of those guys, you can have a plan and set a number, but if we know anything about them, we know the competitive spirit in both of those two players is second to none. So when that game was tight, particularly in the fourth, there was no chance they weren’t going to be in the game. Obviously, we’re a better defense when both of those guys are out there. As they continue to play, to rehab from injury and they start to feel better, obviously those snaps will increase, but just so excited about their role, both as leaders and as players on this defense.”
(Going back to what happened Sunday morning between police officers and WR Tyreek Hill, DT Calais Campbell and TE Jonnu Smith, what did you tell your players? What were those conversations like? And I guess what can you say to them in situations like that?) – “Truthfully, the day of, didn’t quite know the severity of what had happened. I, in particular, was just very much locked in on the plan, kind of got some whisperings through the locker room, but again not really knowing what exactly had happened. So there weren’t really a lot of discussions about it. Having now seen the video, obvious it’s triggering for a number of reasons, but the one thing I do know is I know all parties involved on our end from my football family and just know who they are as men. These – how my judgement and my feelings about them isn’t formed through opinion, it’s formed through experience and daily interactions with them. I have the utmost faith and believe in who they are as people and as men. It’s an unfortunate incident. I know there’s a lot of really good people in law enforcement. One of my best friends, John Graves, works for the Cleveland Police Department – he’s one of them. So I think each of these cases has to be judged on a case-by-case basis, and I’m just going to let the law take care of itself and let it play out.”
(Could you have ever envisioned a scenario in which DT Calais Campbell is in handcuffs?) – “Not the (Walter Payton) Man of the Year. Certainly not the Man of the Year. I’m actually surprised they had cuffs big enough for him. Not in a million years would I have ever expected going into that game that scenario to occur.”
(We heard WR Tyreek Hill mention he heard the words of his uncle when everything was going on to put your hands on the steering wheel, follow their directions, listen to what they say. I’m curious, throughout your life, what conversations have you had with either elders or people in your life about how to interact with police.) – “My upbringing is unique, it’s not something I need to talk a whole lot about. But I’m going to say this; it’s unfortunate in this day and time when I had two boys – my wife is Mexican American – and both the times that they were born and they were light-skinned, there was almost a sense of relief in that they were going to have to avoid some of the let’s say issues that I’ve had to deal with throughout my life. It’s unfortunate in this day and time in the world that that still occurs. It’s out there. I think the majority of people are good people. Shoot, I was raised Christian, man, and I have faith in the story because I know who the author is. I have faith in this world and people in general. I like to give people the benefit of doubt, and ultimately, I think good always prevails.”
(If I could go back to the game, the fourth down stop to start off the fourth quarter, I guess what I want to know is the way you’ve kind of communicated how pleased you were with the defense in the film review? Because getting 11 guys on the wrong side of the numbers to come back to the other side of the field and make that stop, I thought was a pretty cool moment.) – “Man, that play in particular – there’s two plays, obviously, from our side of the ball that stand out to me and just epitomize everything we’ve talked about since Day 1. We walk in Day 1; we talk about uncommon effort. That fourth down stop, you talk about 11 guys, just a band of brothers, coming together and just hunting and doing whatever it was going to bring that ballcarrier down. That was on full display right there. And then Jevón’s play by the goal line – we chart shots on goal. We talk about how important it is to take the ball away. Not offensively them turning it over, taking it away, and he did just that. I am so incredibly proud of the guys. This game has and always will be, in the words of Clarence Brooks, about the players, and they made those words come to life. I’m glad they bought into what they’re preaching, because we have all the talent to get done what we need to get done as long as we just take care of the steps along the journey.”
(Take us back to January, February, whenever it was – how early in your time with Mike McDaniel did you discuss how to stop Josh Allen?) – “Knowing what this game means to the organization, there are some things that really didn’t need to be said. As soon as the schedule came out and you saw this game, particularly a Thursday night game, Game 2, is one you kind of circle. So it’s a short week – Thursday games aren’t easy for anybody, but this one’s going to be a little bit easier for our guys because who our opponent is. It won’t require a lot of motivation from me. These guys will be jacked up to play and show who we are in front of a nationally televised audience.”
(Speaking of motivation and being jacked up, do you still go into player mode when guys come off the sideline? Do you get a little – how long does it take to calm back down?) – “I try very hard to stay even keel. I try to stay calm in the chaos. Now, when we got that fourth down stop, I did not. All right, I was yelling. Now here’s where I made the mistake – my headset was still on. So my coaches that were in the booth, I’m pretty sure I blew their eardrums out with just my exuberance in that play. As an ex-player this is as close as you can ever get to it and people ask, ‘Why does so and so play so long? Why did Brett Favre play forever?’ Because there’s no other avenue in life where you can get that feeling. If you’re a basketball player, I can go play basketball. I can go play tennis as I age, I can play golf forever. I don’t have 21 other friends where we can meet in a park and go play football. That ain’t happening. Particularly with 80,000 people cheering for you. So now I live through these guys. I try to impart whatever wisdom and experience that I have, and when they make plays, it’s almost like watching your children make plays. I get that same feeling and joy out of it. So yeah, that excitement from when I was a player, it definitely comes out in those moments.”
(S Jevón Holland forcing that ball out, that had to be very rewarding as a coach because the way he did that so instinctively – it’s got to go back to something you guys preach and practice.) – “Yes, certainly proud of that, but that kid deserves all the credit. He has been the leader, by far, in our chart of shots on goals. So we had something like 1,266 shots on goal, I believe, in training camp, he may have had like 1,100 of them – some of them while he was hurt on the sideline. Man, I’m so incredibly proud of that kid. He is a stud both on and off the field and was excited to see him shine and be his brightest when the moment was there.”
(What are the shots on goal? What exactly is that?) – “Oh, so we always talk about when our offense or any opponent we played in the preseason or even in spring, as they were running by you, you had to take a shot at the ball. So a strip attempt – early on some of our guys were getting upset because we’re punching them and hitting them in the gut, but once they understood the big picture of why we were doing it, there was no flinching then either.”
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Offensive Coordinator Frank Smith
(We saw that RB Raheem Mostert and RB De’Von Achane are nursing things. Do you expect to have them available Thursday?) – “It’s just a short week, there’s a process for everyone. Everything happens fast, so we’re just working through with all the guys. Each guy is going through a process on the turnaround, so we know it’s going to be a full process for each guy as we get ready for Thursday.”
(How do you approach preparation when their status is in doubt, and you might have to lean more on some of the other backs?) – “I think it kind of goes into the whole offseason program and the way we approach things, so that way we try and be versatile with the all the guys and make sure we can understand where they can fit with the roster, and when we have any issues and guys got to step up in different roles and stuff like that, we have a good feeling of knowing what they can do. And that’s the good thing about this football team; we have a bunch of guys that are very willing to do whatever is necessary and have complete skill sets. Whatever happens when we go to Thursday, we’ll have a plan to be able to get ourselves in the best position for competing on Thursday versus Buffalo.”
(What went into the decision to have RB Jaylen Wright inactive?) – “Whenever you get a healthy inactive, it goes into what are the needs of the roster and where do you need guys. And a lot of the times, it’s special teams needs, defensive needs, what style of offense you’re playing, so there’s multiple variables that go into decisions or who’s inactive. But he’s done a great job, we’re really excited about him. All of our players, we’re really excited about these guys and how we’re going to play, especially this week versus a division rival in Buffalo.”
(I think the stat for RB Jeff Wilson Jr. was no touches before the fourth quarter, then winds up leading the team in rushing. What gave you guys confidence to go to him in such a key spot down the stretch and to pe paid off with the production he gave y’all in the fourth quarter?) – “It’s just the way he – Jeff (Wilson Jr.) is the consummate pro. He’s an energy guy and when his number is called, you know what he’s going to bring – physicality and intensity when he carries the ball. So we have complete confidence in all of our backs and really all of our guys, and the way we were able to rally at the end to accomplish what we needed to get done was really a testament to the guys. It’s been awesome, we’re really excited to continue upon that for this week.”
(Heard from a few players after Sunday that the common problem in the first half was being slow – slow in the huddle, slow out of it and didn’t leave enough time pre-snap to break things down. I’m curious, how much of this offense revolves around what you guys are able to do in those moments in between breaking the huddle and snapping the ball?) – “A lot of it is just communication, because different plays have different variables that you have to consider, whether it’s a movement or a play within a play that you’re trying to get to versus a look. It’s the challenge of when you play a defense that’s a first year of their staff and there’s some variables that we as a staff as coaches, we’re trying to make sure we’re getting beat, trying to not chase uncertainty, find the certainty inside of what they’re trying to do, what their plan is. Some of that was reflected, but ultimately, when you regroup and you get together and you’re going ‘OK, here’s what we need to do,’ we were able to do that and the guys really responded and they did it together. You just can’t talk enough about our guys and how they really bond together as a team and realized what they need to do to perform. And I think that was really exemplified in the first half, ‘Hey, let’s get together. Let’s fix what we need to fix and now let’s go play ball.’”
(We’ve talked a lot, a lot, over the last six months about the offensive line – the moment of truth on Sunday. How were they?) – “Listen, Game 1, there’s always some things that you’d be like, ‘Eh,’ but overall, we were able to do what we wanted to do. We know why certain things didn’t go exactly the way we anticipated, but the guys played hard. At the end, we’re running the football. We’re getting into the rhythm of things because it’s hard – run blocking, there’s a rhythm that comes into it because there’s different kinds of blocks that you have to execute, and then defensive linemen change. It’s a new staff and that really is more than you think because you’re watching an opponent that you’re not going to play. You’re watching Atlanta for a lot of your prep so when you’re getting into playing Jacksonville and you’re locking into how they’re going to play, the alignments you saw on tape, maybe they tweaked their stuff that you didn’t know. Which some of the alignments that we got were a little different than we anticipated, but the guys were able to respond and we were able to get into rhythm. Ultimately at the end, it’s find a way to win, and we were able to do that and that’s a great thing. We played complementary football at the end. We were able to control the ball and score when we needed, and the defense did a heck of a job in the second half.”
(How was the communication between the players and you guys in the coaching staff with those adjustments as you kind of saw something that was maybe different to what you saw on tape against a different opponent with what you got in the game? How was that communication about the adjustments that you guys made eventually in the second half?) – “Excellent. They’re great communicators and they’re able to tell us what they’re seeing, what they’re feeling, why things – ‘Hey, why didn’t you go here?’ ‘Well, it’s cause of this.’ ‘Hey, why’d you do that?’ ‘Well, he moved at the last second.’ The guys have excellent communication skills and that comes into the trust you build with the guys through all their time here. And it has to be an open communication because they’re playing and they have to tell us what they’re seeing, because our vantage point is different and they can’t come off to the sideline until the drive is done so they have to problem solve in the moment. So when they come off and they’re problem solving with us, a lot of the time they kind of already know and they’re making their adjustments. So overall, I think that our guys and their communication was awesome, and that’s something that really will be important as we go through the season.”
(What was your personal perspective on the WR Tyreek Hill situation and what we saw in the video footage from the police?) – “I didn’t find out about it until later and then – it’s a shame. It’s a shame that had to happen that way. As a person, when you spend all your time with these guys, you want to be there for them all the time to help. For me, like many guys, you wish you were there to help as well. How could you get things – But you couldn’t be more proud for us how the guys banded together, guys stopping to be there for each other. (They) had every excuse possible to go into the game and not perform and they were able to compartmentalize and push forward. The positive perspective our locker room has towards life and this opportunity this season presents is just awesome. You go through your career, you’re just fortunate to be a part of when you get such special guys that really care about each other the way that they do.”
(Have you had a chance to talk to WR Tyreek Hill since everything has happened?) – “Just through the phone. Just being there to support and let him know – the great thing about football, I think it’s lost on a lot of people, is that you bond together through your experience and we spend more time with each other than we do our own families. And just to be able to support one another and be there and let each other know we’re always there through thick or thin. Especially, it’s like one thing we pride ourselves on in this organization is the time we spend together, it doesn’t end here. There’s a relationship for life and that’s just something I know that Mike (McDaniel), Chris (Grier) and everyone here that we really – it’s important to us. It’s not just we’re here working, we’re here to be a part of each other’s lives to achieve the goals that we want together and support each other through the good times and the bad.”
(What did you learn about WR Tyreek Hill’s resolve the way he approached the game after experiencing that pregame?) – “You can’t say enough about him. What a stud. Just to be able to, I can’t even – you just can’t even really put yourself there, to go through that. I had teammates in college, a lot of your life you hear stories, but for him to be able to go through that, come out and to be able to perform with his teammates to band together – especially, it’s not like the game was easy as well. So you can’t say enough about Tyreek (Hill), and he’s just a joy and fortunate to have him here.”
(Your assessment of how QB Tua Tagovailoa played on Sunday?) – “It’s awesome. It’s really exciting for the season. He’s in such a good place – his communication, what he’s seeing, why, what he’s doing, it’s awesome. So very pleased with how he played, and seeing the direction, I’m really excited for Thursday to see what we can build upon, especially using the second half as our motivation going into Buffalo.”
