Latest / Seahawks Press Pass / Mike Macdonald: "We Had A Lot Of Great Spirit & Competition"
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: All right, just before Greg asked this question, just want
- 0:02Speaker 1: to say that was a great practice, a lot of
- 0:04Speaker 1: great spirit, a lot of great competition. Just it's the
- 0:07Speaker 1: right mix of like, hey, we're getting after it, but
- 0:09Speaker 1: we're taking care of one another, sharpening each other, talking
- 0:11Speaker 1: some smack, all three phases, doing a lot of great stuff.
- 0:15Speaker 1: And but there is obviously there's plenty of you know,
- 0:17Speaker 1: we're not we're not even close to being where we
- 0:19Speaker 1: need to be. We know that, but you know, for
- 0:22Speaker 1: day three, just excited about the effort, uh, the intent
- 0:26Speaker 1: and just the kind of overall competition. So just that
- 0:29Speaker 1: was a great day. I was gonna ask, Yeah, yeah,
- 0:35Speaker 1: there's some things you can tell that that's boiling that
- 0:37Speaker 1: will be uh, it'll be fun to watch throughout the
- 0:40Speaker 1: rest of the camp.
- 0:40Speaker 2: So a little earlier this year than normal, but that's good.
- 0:47Speaker 1: Pads are on on Monday and that's the last day
- 0:49Speaker 1: of the ramp period, so it's a little bit shorter practice.
- 0:53Speaker 2: Is that about as intense as a practice could be
- 0:54Speaker 2: without being Yeah, that's it is the right mix for
- 0:57Speaker 2: right now.
- 0:58Speaker 1: You know a couple guys you know falling or tripping
- 1:01Speaker 1: or whatever, but it's not because like we're you know,
- 1:03Speaker 1: pushing guys to the ground. It's just try to be
- 1:06Speaker 1: a better athlete next time type of stuff.
- 1:08Speaker 2: But uh yeah, right right where we want it to be.
- 1:11Speaker 2: You over there with the offensive line, can.
- 1:13Speaker 1: Read anything through that or that's just how you rotate
- 1:16Speaker 1: watching all the different Yeah, just just how I'm kind
- 1:19Speaker 1: of settling into a little rotation there and catching some
- 1:23Speaker 1: of the coaching points that we're talking about and see
- 1:24Speaker 1: the guys do it.
- 1:25Speaker 2: So anything you can tell us that you saw what
- 1:28Speaker 2: you over there.
- 1:28Speaker 1: I just like, you know, we talked earlier in the
- 1:31Speaker 1: off season, but like what makes a great drill? And
- 1:34Speaker 1: you know, if you guys stand over there, it's very
- 1:36Speaker 1: apparent after you know, standing there for fifteen twenty seconds,
- 1:40Speaker 1: what the expectation is what makes a great rep? And
- 1:42Speaker 1: it's you know, immediate feedback, really simple, clear that's what's
- 1:46Speaker 1: going on. So it's it's fun to be over there.
- 1:48Speaker 1: You guys returned the top of the league and explosive
- 1:50Speaker 1: receptions last year.
- 1:51Speaker 2: Over half of those are not guys about it to
- 1:54Speaker 2: ninety four.
- 1:54Speaker 1: You know, what are you looking to to be part
- 1:56Speaker 1: of an explosive passing attack? All the people that are
- 2:00Speaker 1: gonna catch passes. I mean not to be a smart alect,
- 2:03Speaker 1: but like ken Walker could be a guy like that.
- 2:07Speaker 1: You know, our our tight end room, you know, based
- 2:10Speaker 1: on our system right now, I think you can feel
- 2:12Speaker 1: them come alive. And it's a lot of the movement
- 2:14Speaker 1: game and you know, the action game and some of
- 2:17Speaker 1: and some of the drop back stuff. So and then
- 2:19Speaker 1: we had a lot of great competition with the young
- 2:20Speaker 1: guys too. So, uh, it's an exciting room. I know
- 2:24Speaker 1: there's not a lot of guys that were here last year,
- 2:26Speaker 1: which is cool, So it's a lot of opportunity and
- 2:28Speaker 1: you can see some guys making plays out there, and
- 2:30Speaker 1: you know, it's exciting. Yeah, he's one of the guys
- 2:35Speaker 1: I'm referring to just Uh, he's healthy, he's feeling good.
- 2:39Speaker 1: I think he's moving really well, playing decisively out there.
- 2:43Speaker 1: You know, we we almost connected right there in the
- 2:45Speaker 1: red zone, which would have been would have been great
- 2:46Speaker 1: to connect on that throw. But he's in the right
- 2:48Speaker 1: spots and really sharp. So he's off to a good start.
- 2:52Speaker 1: So I hope you guys need to know there's an
- 2:54Speaker 1: opportunity there for somebody to step up.
- 2:56Speaker 2: What do you look for from AJ to maybe got
- 3:00Speaker 2: first last year, but maybe jump up in an old
- 3:01Speaker 2: way you see how to camp go Well, I mean,
- 3:07Speaker 2: obviously we love Aj.
- 3:09Speaker 1: The first thing that comes to mind is his mentality
- 3:11Speaker 1: and his approach every day.
- 3:13Speaker 2: That's you know, not just.
- 3:15Speaker 1: The tight end position, but offensively and as a team.
- 3:18Speaker 1: You know, he's very it's a great representative of what
- 3:20Speaker 1: we're trying to create and how to play, how to
- 3:22Speaker 1: approach every day. Uh so that that really excites us.
- 3:26Speaker 1: But you know, we believe in in. AJ's goal is
- 3:28Speaker 1: to be a top you know, overall tight end in
- 3:31Speaker 1: the league and be able to do all the things
- 3:33Speaker 1: that we're gonna ask him to do where you know,
- 3:35Speaker 1: you don't have to handicap how you game plan him
- 3:37Speaker 1: and things like that. So that's his goal and he's
- 3:40Speaker 1: working his tail off out there.
- 3:41Speaker 2: The defense does soem to be played with a lot
- 3:43Speaker 2: of confidence, though it seems like right now, do you
- 3:45Speaker 2: do you get that sense that does that make sense?
- 3:47Speaker 2: Kind of given that you know, year two for a
- 3:48Speaker 2: lot of guys, and yeah, there's a lot of confidence.
- 3:51Speaker 1: I mean, we didn't start great today and so they
- 3:54Speaker 1: had to hear about it from the coaches and the
- 3:57Speaker 1: vests did a good job of kind of kicking him
- 3:58Speaker 1: back into gear. And those are the things that we're
- 4:00Speaker 1: trying to take it to the next level. Let's do
- 4:03Speaker 1: it every rep all the time. When we catch, when
- 4:05Speaker 1: we're catching, we're off base. Hey, let's recalibrate and uh,
- 4:09Speaker 1: you know, get the standard back to where we need
- 4:11Speaker 1: it to be. So again, great day, But there's you know,
- 4:14Speaker 1: there's stuff that that's sticking in the back of your
- 4:16Speaker 1: mind of Okay, you know this is some some areas
- 4:18Speaker 1: where we need to look at days a camp. Oh man,
- 4:23Speaker 1: I think I think it's kind of the same thing
- 4:26Speaker 1: we talked about the whole team. A lot of great stuff. Uh,
- 4:30Speaker 1: the command of the system is really impressive. How we're
- 4:33Speaker 1: getting in and out of the huddle, you know, getting
- 4:35Speaker 1: in and out of plays. Sam's moving ability accuracies is
- 4:39Speaker 1: definitely on display. Guys are playing decisive. Drew can throw
- 4:43Speaker 1: the heck out of the ball, you know, and then
- 4:47Speaker 1: and then Jamil, you know, I think I think he's
- 4:49Speaker 1: taking a step from where he was in the spring.
- 4:51Speaker 1: You know, you can tell all three guys worked really
- 4:53Speaker 1: hard in the off season, both you know, fundamentally and systematically,
- 4:57Speaker 1: and you know, it's exciting. So I think all three
- 5:00Speaker 1: playing well. Why would you say Jenna to take it a step?
- 5:03Speaker 2: Uh?
- 5:04Speaker 1: Well, confidence, You see the decisiveness in his game, eyes
- 5:08Speaker 1: are in the right spot more consistently. He could probably
- 5:11Speaker 1: go into detail. It just seems to me like it's
- 5:13Speaker 1: just a it's a quicker delivery. The footwork is starting to,
- 5:16Speaker 1: you know, kind of match the routes and the concepts. Still,
- 5:19Speaker 1: you know, still, you know, it's got a whole career
- 5:21Speaker 1: ahead of them to improve. But excited to see him
- 5:24Speaker 1: right now. He's doing he's doing a good job.
- 5:25Speaker 2: You got a chance to see biernurse who up to
- 5:27Speaker 2: grays Abel one one leasure. Yeah, I didn't see that.
- 5:32Speaker 1: I was with was at Skelly at the time, but
- 5:34Speaker 1: I'll be watching it soon. What happened?
- 5:36Speaker 2: It's goods, good rubs.
- 5:38Speaker 1: They're the harder all.
- 5:39Speaker 2: Right, good, not too hard, not too long.
- 5:42Speaker 1: What might be might be? Tim Donald said yesterday that
- 5:45Speaker 1: from the beach, changing.
- 5:47Speaker 2: Other coverages and trips, average, the staffage, things you do,
- 5:50Speaker 2: she's really gonna pay off for him in the offense
- 5:52Speaker 2: later in the season. They're seeing him now and.
- 5:54Speaker 1: Struggle with it. Are you doing that more early in
- 5:57Speaker 1: this camp because one you're not going to be under
- 5:59Speaker 1: defense as they know you, but.
- 6:01Speaker 2: Also to accelerate this offense and progress and admit.
- 6:06Speaker 1: I might push back a little bit on the on
- 6:07Speaker 1: the struggling I think, uh, I think Sam's playing really
- 6:11Speaker 1: decisive right now.
- 6:11Speaker 2: It's getting rid of the ball on time and when
- 6:13Speaker 2: not when he's not.
- 6:14Speaker 1: I mean a big part of football is being able
- 6:16Speaker 1: to extend plays and make you know, make some throws.
- 6:18Speaker 1: And again we want to We've we've thrown a couple
- 6:21Speaker 1: of interceptions over the course of camp so far, you know, offensively, Uh,
- 6:27Speaker 1: some you chalk up to, hey, we could.
- 6:28Speaker 2: Have made a better decision in the moment. We got
- 6:30Speaker 2: to learn from it.
- 6:31Speaker 1: So might not be a great ball or a tip
- 6:33Speaker 1: or something like that, but those are the things that say, hey,
- 6:35Speaker 1: look let's let it rip now, let's make sure we
- 6:37Speaker 1: learn from it.
- 6:38Speaker 2: But in terms of what we're doing.
- 6:40Speaker 1: On defense, I mean, we're you know, we have a
- 6:42Speaker 1: cadence of how we want to install and we kind
- 6:43Speaker 1: of stick to that. We'll change some things up over time,
- 6:46Speaker 1: but we're not doing anything like special with that in mind.
- 6:49Speaker 1: We're just we're trying to we're trying to get our
- 6:50Speaker 1: defense into so we're about halfway through.
- 6:52Speaker 2: Our install last year.
- 6:54Speaker 1: Then you didn't change that. We just took a little
- 6:57Speaker 1: bit different philosophy this year on both sides the ball.
- 7:00Speaker 1: How we structured training camp, A lot of that has
- 7:03Speaker 1: to do with just how it's set up with like
- 7:05Speaker 1: when we were playing our games and just kind of
- 7:07Speaker 1: looking at it from the holistically. So but it wasn't
- 7:10Speaker 1: about like how we're gonna do like how each phase
- 7:13Speaker 1: is gonna affect the other phase. Made to play every
- 7:16Speaker 1: day and the special teams, mans o persation, What do
- 7:18Speaker 1: you see the matter so far? Yeah, just I mean,
- 7:21Speaker 1: I think the stuff that d Bell does really, really well,
- 7:25Speaker 1: I think is going to show up next week. You know,
- 7:27Speaker 1: when pads are on and when you're gonna fiel him
- 7:30Speaker 1: and special teams, things like that, doing a great job
- 7:32Speaker 1: grassing the scheme. Fun guy to be around, he's on point,
- 7:36Speaker 1: just operates like we want to operate around the building.
- 7:38Speaker 1: He's he's loose, he's focused, he's on point. A great
- 7:42Speaker 1: relationship with the guys, and I think that I think
- 7:44Speaker 1: the rest of the guys are enjoining having him in
- 7:46Speaker 1: the room.
- 7:46Speaker 2: We didn't see Shaquille Griffin out there today.
- 7:49Speaker 1: Yeah, Shack's he's going through a personal matter right now,
- 7:52Speaker 1: so we respect that and trying to do the best
- 7:55Speaker 1: to help him out as best we can. But he'll
- 7:57Speaker 1: be back soon. What do you say from priors nights
- 7:59Speaker 1: he's going to just any I think it's I think
- 8:03Speaker 1: it's you know, you're trying to you know, you start
- 8:06Speaker 1: connecting dots. But it's similar to like what we're talking
- 8:09Speaker 1: about with Jalen from the spring to the fall.
- 8:11Speaker 2: That's kind of him from year one to year or two.
- 8:14Speaker 1: Ended the season with a lot of confidence knowing that
- 8:16Speaker 1: he can play at a high level in this league.
- 8:18Speaker 2: And I think I think he has a vision.
- 8:20Speaker 1: For himself and what type of player he expects himself
- 8:22Speaker 1: to be, and he's doing all those things to take
- 8:24Speaker 1: himself to that level, you know, changing his body, having
- 8:27Speaker 1: a great offseason mentally, being sharp. But I mean, you
- 8:33Speaker 1: know that room the rest of our defense, Yeah, good start,
- 8:36Speaker 1: done a lot of great things. Let's step on the
- 8:38Speaker 1: gas man like we got to take it to the
- 8:40Speaker 1: next level every day.
- 8:41Speaker 2: Teen night will be a big part of that. We've
- 8:43Speaker 2: seen some things in the line for the first couple
- 8:46Speaker 2: of days and says, how long do you think you.
- 8:48Speaker 1: Can kind of do the that makes the negress different
- 8:50Speaker 1: guys that we kind of need to find your fiving
- 8:53Speaker 1: and he too, Uh, I think you got to dis
- 8:57Speaker 1: trust the process. I think if you start putting a
- 8:59Speaker 1: timeline on it, you know, you might be forced to
- 9:02Speaker 1: make a decision that's probably maybe immature, or maybe we're
- 9:05Speaker 1: waiting too long.
- 9:06Speaker 2: Maybe maybe declares itself you know before. You just don't
- 9:09Speaker 2: know those things.
- 9:10Speaker 1: So we got a lot of experience coaching those guys.
- 9:14Speaker 1: It's interesting from my perspective to watch it as well
- 9:16Speaker 1: and kind of as we bounce ideas off one another
- 9:18Speaker 1: as this thing starts to declar itself. But I mean,
- 9:20Speaker 1: you definitely have to get in next week, might have
- 9:23Speaker 1: to get into preseason games, you know, see it live
- 9:25Speaker 1: and in color, so we'll see.
- 9:27Speaker 2: What do you like about a Jamie Sheriff playing off
- 9:29Speaker 2: the ball.
- 9:33Speaker 1: It's trying not to make it like a big deal
- 9:34Speaker 1: that Jamie's off the ball now, but I mean he
- 9:36Speaker 1: can play, he can play off off the ball. End
- 9:40Speaker 1: on you look for some flexibility there with some of
- 9:42Speaker 1: the fronts that we're trying to create. Jamie's just a
- 9:46Speaker 1: sponge man, just a great attitude, changing his body because
- 9:48Speaker 1: of the position. We wanted to do just all in
- 9:51Speaker 1: on the things we're asking. Obviously, with his rush background,
- 9:54Speaker 1: he has flits ability from off the ball and you're
- 9:56Speaker 1: able to create some matchups that way. So yeah, I mean,
- 10:01Speaker 1: I think it's a little different dynamic than we we've had.
- 10:03Speaker 1: You know, he's probably our best off the ball blitzer
- 10:05Speaker 1: right now, So that's exciting you feel about deciding on
- 10:08Speaker 1: any give him to play out there when the offense.
- 10:10Speaker 2: Did something well and defense does something well, you do
- 10:12Speaker 2: credit to play depends on who needs what. Maybe I
- 10:17Speaker 2: think that's the best answer.
- 10:19Speaker 1: Uh, there's certain things in each play I think you're
- 10:22Speaker 1: trying to be able to execute.
- 10:23Speaker 2: So if you like to hit those marks that you know,
- 10:25Speaker 2: it gets you fired up.
- 10:27Speaker 1: If a guy makes a great play that you like,
- 10:30Speaker 1: understand of what he's asked to do and that shines,
- 10:32Speaker 1: try to, you know, give that guy some some uh
- 10:36Speaker 1: some kudos. So I think it just changes based on
- 10:39Speaker 1: you know, what the team needs and what each guy
- 10:40Speaker 1: needs some play to play.
- 10:45Speaker 2: Let's say, so, yeah, he's in the mix.
- 10:47Speaker 1: Money gets Yeah. I think we started getting some snaps
- 10:52Speaker 1: towards the end of spring and so yeah, keep the
- 10:57Speaker 1: competition open and see what happens. But well, i'd say
- 11:01Speaker 1: right now those two guys are are ahead of Christian.
- 11:05Speaker 2: About story corner, Obviously we've got to step battle.
- 11:08Speaker 1: What do you think that means for a guy like
- 11:10Speaker 1: Jake Levio and how's he equipment? I mean, Jake's been
- 11:15Speaker 1: an integral part of our football team. I mean talk
- 11:17Speaker 1: about identity, how he plays on special teams, just clutching
- 11:21Speaker 1: his catching the ball. I mean, the guy's got incredible hands.
- 11:24Speaker 1: And then now with our you know how we're gonna
- 11:26Speaker 1: be blocking on the perimeter. I mean we're gonna want
- 11:29Speaker 1: nineteen out there, you know, push, cracking safeties and doing
- 11:33Speaker 1: all those things too. So I mean he brings a
- 11:35Speaker 1: lot to the table. We've talked a lot just about
- 11:38Speaker 1: no offense stepping out and then agent Larren coming in.
- 11:41Speaker 2: What the opportunities.
- 11:45Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess we just don't see it as just
- 11:47Speaker 1: like in and out, like Okay, now it's this guy,
- 11:51Speaker 1: it's or it was this guy and now it's it's
- 11:53Speaker 1: just we had a we had a great group, but
- 11:55Speaker 1: at tight end.
- 11:56Speaker 2: Noh was part of that group.
- 11:58Speaker 1: You know, we still have a group of tight ends
- 12:00Speaker 1: and Noah's moving on. It's like, it's great. You know,
- 12:04Speaker 1: we we drafted Elijah because we thought he was gonna
- 12:07Speaker 1: be a great football player and a great tight end
- 12:09Speaker 1: and didn't really have an impact of like what the
- 12:12Speaker 1: team needed at that point. This guy is just a
- 12:13Speaker 1: heck of a player. So I think when you talk
- 12:15Speaker 1: about Elijah's skill set, you know, we talked about this
- 12:18Speaker 1: when we drafted him, but his routree being able to
- 12:20Speaker 1: split out also play in line, which he's working on.
- 12:25Speaker 1: He's got he's got a lot of room to grow,
- 12:26Speaker 1: and uh, we're gonna put a lot of pressure on him.
- 12:29Speaker 1: We expect a lot out of him. So he's got
- 12:32Speaker 1: a great opportunity in front of him. So well, he's
- 12:38Speaker 1: got a great reputation somewhere.
- 12:39Speaker 2: Coaches had a.
- 12:39Speaker 1: Prior relationship with him, obviously knows the system well, but
- 12:44Speaker 1: just really impressed with like his veteran leadership. Again, just
- 12:47Speaker 1: how you operate in the building and you know, being
- 12:49Speaker 1: a part of the team building that we're trying to create.
- 12:51Speaker 1: He's right in the thick of it. It's not like
- 12:52Speaker 1: he doesn't feel like a guy that just you just
- 12:54Speaker 1: picked up for a year or whatever. He feels like
- 12:56Speaker 1: it feels like he's a true Seahawks, So that's exciting.
- 12:59Speaker 2: Like poor well, you know we talked today.
- 13:06Speaker 1: I mean, he's just present mindset, just like the rest
- 13:09Speaker 1: of the team. Train camp stuff, because there's a lot
- 13:12Speaker 1: of noise out there is a distracts its. Hey, we're
- 13:15Speaker 1: in't camp. Take it one day at a time. Let's
- 13:19Speaker 1: call us up. Let's become the best team we can
- 13:20Speaker 1: possibly be. And let's get the buy in to do
- 13:22Speaker 1: that too. And it takes everybody to have everybody's got
- 13:24Speaker 1: stuff going on, and obviously no Reek's got stuff going
- 13:27Speaker 1: on with you know, contract stuff. Possibly you know, it's
- 13:30Speaker 1: not a secret. But he's bought in. He's bought in.
- 13:34Speaker 1: He's he's all in. He practices his tail off. There's
- 13:37Speaker 1: things he wants to work on, there's things I'm thinking
- 13:39Speaker 1: of that he needs to improve, but doing a lot
- 13:41Speaker 1: of great things as well.
- 13:42Speaker 2: You see, you guys talk to people.
- 13:45Speaker 1: Just not just as daily mentality. Has nothing to do
- 13:47Speaker 1: with money or anything like that.
- 13:48Speaker 2: Granton Peeley, what do you kind of what do you
- 13:50Speaker 2: guys like about him?
- 13:52Speaker 1: Uh? Man, He's just he's a front flexibility. Can't have
- 13:58Speaker 1: enough big athletic guys. In the middle your defense. Great
- 14:01Speaker 1: competition there right now, especially with an opportunity with Hank
- 14:04Speaker 1: being out, so he's getting a great, great opportunity with
- 14:07Speaker 1: the ones to show what he can do. Speaking now,
- 14:13Speaker 1: h right now, we don't have a timetable.
- 14:14Speaker 2: Obviously, it's all business. It's hard work putting every beginning.
- 14:17Speaker 2: But for the coaching for perfecond, how much you love
- 14:19Speaker 2: to him?
- 14:19Speaker 1: How fun is just getting soundation in the r I
- 14:22Speaker 1: hope you start to feel the energy here. But I mean,
- 14:24Speaker 1: this doesn't get any better this. You got a team
- 14:26Speaker 1: that you love. Uh, you get to come to work
- 14:29Speaker 1: every day, a great building, great organization.
- 14:31Speaker 2: You got the twelves here.
- 14:31Speaker 1: I mean the sun came out. I mean, it's just
- 14:34Speaker 1: doesn't get any better than this. And but you're what
- 14:37Speaker 1: you're chasing is worth it. You know, all the work
- 14:39Speaker 1: is worth it when when you h if you come
- 14:41Speaker 1: out the other side. So it's been a lot of fun.
- 14:43Speaker 1: How fun of it? If I said yes, does that
- 14:48Speaker 1: mean like I'm not a good.
- 14:49Speaker 2: Dad or something like?
- 14:51Speaker 1: Now, I mean Steph's done a great We're you know,
- 14:53Speaker 1: sleep sleep training them.
- 14:54Speaker 2: So now you know Jack's sleeping to the night thankfully.
- 14:56Speaker 2: So good for both of
- 14:57Speaker 1: Us, all right E