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Jay Harbaugh: "It's Really Exciting" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: I want to know how much fun you are having
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: scheming from the new kickoff.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Les having a blast. We're really excited about it. It's
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: totally new for everybody and just cool to see what
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: different ideas people have and being able to take what
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: we know from the old world of kickoff and kick
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: return and and you know, see what's still true, what's
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: not true. And it's just a fun process as you go,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: just trying different things and then realizing, hey, this this
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: might not be what we thought, and uh, you know,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: it's organized trial and error.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Do you think it's gonna take before everybody kind of
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: figures out what truly.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: Wants and doesn't want relanly, not just with you guys.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Mmmm, it's tough to say. I mean, honestly, it'll probably
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: be in the regular season. You know, people will play
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: your games and then everyone's going to be eagerly turning
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: on film of everybody else to see what are they doing,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: what's you know, what what different ideas if.
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: People had what works, what doesn't work?
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: And so I think you'll see probably for five, six, seven,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: eight weeks, pretty rapid changes and anyone that has an
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: advantage early will probably we'll probably be able to keep
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: that advantage for a little while until people people catch
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: up where if you go.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: On or why you talk to the joints, gather.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: And take it because we have great people in this
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: building and there's other people that we've spoke to, but
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: rather keep that, keep that to ourselves for now. But no,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: there's there's you know, it's it's it's a new setup,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: there's new parameters, the spacing is different, but it's still football.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: And you know, there's a lot of things you can
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: talk about with the play about what's different. And one
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: of the things that we've talked about in this building is,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: you know, instead of focusing on what's different, let's focus
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: on what stayed the same. And you know, the block destruction,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: the awareness of how far am I from the ball?
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: What decision should I make as a coverage guy, The
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: same fundamentals in the return game of great feet, great
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: hand placement, great eyes, leverage, all those things are still true.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: So you know, it's easy to get carried away and
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: what's different, but you can we think that you'll be
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: able to make a lot of hey, just understanding and
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: banking on the things that have stayed the same, like how.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: The kickoff team is going to handle it, or the
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: return team.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I would say there's probably more unknown about the return teams,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: just because there's a little bit of a question of
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: exactly who's going to be able to get to who.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: From a blocking perspective, with the horizontal constraints that you have,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: how far will one individual player be able to get
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: to and execute a block? I think kickoff wise, people
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: have a decent sense of what that is going to
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: look like.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Would that be a lot of like squid type kicks?
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Would you expect to see someone.
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: I think so.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: I think that's the The general consensus is you're really
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: not You're not rewarded for hang time anymore. So any
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: ball that can hit you know, it's kind of creates
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: artificial hang time if it can hit the ground and
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: the action is going to start. So I think that
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the rules are incentivizing that toward type of behavior. So
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: I would imagine that that's what you'll get as a.
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: Special teams coordinator.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Overall, you do like the changes, and then it makes
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: the kickoff more relevant again, and in Elite where for
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: the last few years it's been kind of a non play.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm excited about it. I think it's really cool. Uh,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: we were pumped about it. It's a you know anything
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: that's more football and and uh, we're going to be
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: for it. And there's so many great people, coaches and
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: players that have made a great living on fourth down
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: and in the special teams phase. So for that segment
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: of the game and the people that love that part
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: of the game, it's uh, it's exciting. There's more opportunity to, uh,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: to show what you can do to separate yourself and
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: to make an impact on the on the the outcome
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: of the of the contest.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: So you'll change the skill set of the players that
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: you wanted to hold on each side at all.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: We've thought about that a lot. I mean, there's good
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: conversation about it. I would say that.
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: If if you.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Had to, if you had to maybe make a generalization
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: of what trend will you see? Yeah, the you've taken
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: away the bulk of the running of the play, right,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: So maybe the player that now becomes more available that
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: wasn't would be the guy that just didn't quite have
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: the ideal top end speed before but has the arm
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: length and the physicality and the decision making as a
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: defensive player. I think that guy could become more relevant now,
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe you see more tight ends, more pass rushers,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: bigger bodies. I think you will see some more d
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: linemen on the field in that sense. It's a great
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: thing because you now have more flexibility within the roster
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: for guys to be able to get involved. And then
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: the other aspect, even though it's not necessarily the body type,
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: but you might just end up seeing more players that
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: are starters.
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: Or fringe starters.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: That you know, maybe didn't you know you didn't want
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: to have him out there on the field before and
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: having rep after rep of getting to you know, twenty
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: twenty one, twenty two miles an hour. Well, now it's
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: a little bit different play and it's not probably quite
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: a taxing so I think you you just could see
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: a little bit of shift of who's available for the play, uh,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: in that sense as well.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: From what you understand the roles. Now, how very do
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: you think the approaches can be the teams will try
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: out in the scene in these areas and how wild
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: wildly different from team the team could the way teams
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: approach it there?
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: And are you are you speaking about the coverage sense
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: or the.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: Kickoffs?
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: And the question is how how much variation can there
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: be they.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: Can be within the rules that you're freeing into.
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: That's a good question, I think.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: I think you'll see some people that will push the
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: envelope and get a little crazier than others and see
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: what you can do. I think there'll be other people
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: that start more vanilla and test the waters. As with
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: most things, I think that you'll see uh kind of
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: things even out with something that's you know, in time
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: when we all become more familiar with it, where it's
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: generally somewhat predictable just of what you're going to see,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: similar as offense and defenses not you know, after years
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: of you guys watching football, there's not that many times
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: where you see something and you're like, man, what what
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: in the world is that? You know, every year, every
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: now and then you see a trend. There'll be a
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: pointed time where this play will become like that. I'm
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: not sure exactly when that will be, but I think
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: it's a matter of time.
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: So I said, it.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Puts more pressure on the kicker in a potential tackling role,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: and some have even said talked about replacing their kicker
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: with a you know, a different guy on the field
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: that's more apt to be able.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: To tackle lot of play.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Is that something that you think you might see throout
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: the league and something you guys are considering it all.
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: Yes, certainly considering it.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the numbers would suggest that the kickers will make
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: more tackles just because there's gonna be more returns. And
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: and you know, there's there's some numbers that would say
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: that with this style of play that they're they're more
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: app to be involved in a tackle. As as for
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: the you know, an alternative position player subbing in for them,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: you could see it. It's a little If a guy
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: can do it, then it's gonna it's gonna have a
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: chance to be really good. But you know, you you
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: got to be pretty good to be able to you know,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: kick off a bunch of times and keep the ball
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: in the landing zone every time, because it's a it's
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: a fairly steep price if you miss it, and uh,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: you know, it'll be interesting to see. I think some guys,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: you'll you'll see some people do it, and then I
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: think eventually those guys will mishit the ball because it's
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: not it's not quite as easy as it looks to do.
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: And especially if.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: You're trying to get really really creative and you know,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: barely get into the landings one that kind of thing.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's a very small margin of era, right,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: So there's a those are certainly a risk award with
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: with anything that you do, how much if.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: You've got the UFL as a resource to tick out
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: or strategy.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we looked at it quite a bit, the XFL
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: stuff from from last year, and uh, you know, just
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: because it's the closest thing that we have to to
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: compare to. And you know, when you when you when
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: you do look at it, the spacing of the play
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: is different, which you guys know, it's it's we're five
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: yards further back, and then the restraints of where the
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: return team kind align are different. And the funny thing is,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: because it's such a small space, even just the five yards,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: it's pretty it's it's pretty tough to compare. Like there's
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: certain things where you're like, Okay, I could see this
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: work and I couldn't see this working. But every every
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: clip you watch you end up saying, Okay, well if
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I added five yards here, would this be the same.
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: And so there's an element that's a little bit unknown there,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: and I guess what I'm saying is that, you know,
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: it seems like it's the exact same it's it's pretty different,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: but still valuable to look.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: At the returners themselves and kind of the value of
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: having multiple guys who are gonna be able to do
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: that that that's obviously it's kind of bigger deal, right
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: having several guys who can really take it, take it
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: to the house or whatever every time.
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: Every time would be nice. I would love that.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's there's gonna be more plays, right, So
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: so you know, the just the reps and the wear
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: and tear of it. Yeah, you're gonna want to have
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: more guys available to you that can do it.
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: So yeah, I guess you'd probably need a little bit
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: more depth in the past.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: But I think if you're just talking about that position, yeah,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: you're gonna need You're gonna need a couple guys that can,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: you know, are viable with the ball in their hand,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: just because it's gonna be I think with the style
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: of kicks that you're going to see, it could be
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: fairly difficult for one guy to be able to get to,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: you know, all the kicks in terms of where the
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: kicker is going to be putting the ball and the
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: incentives we talked about earlier for the for the kickoff
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: team to get the ball on the ground. So I
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: think I think maybe you'll see more teams having two
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: guys that are like deemed quality kick returner back there.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: I think that will be maybe a trend that is
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: a little different than the last couple of years where
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: one guys are strictly a blocker's.
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: It's safe to say you're gonna have more multiple combination
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: of blocking schemes for a kicker turn that they've never had.
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: I'm not sure that's a good question.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: I would I would say, if you had to, if
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: I was forced answer, I would say no, just because
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: we've never had I've never dealt with constraints like this personally,
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: and then no one in the league has. The where
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: you can align is pretty uh, you know, there's there's
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: just major restrictions to it. And so what that does
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: to you is it just with with hey, I'm only
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: allowed to align in this area if I'm a you know,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the on the in the setup zone on the thirty
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: five I'm a left tackle as we would call it,
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: and I have to be outside the.
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: Numbers on the thirty five.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Well, there's only so many guys I'm going to be
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: able to get to in that split second once that
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: play starts. And so I think some of that at
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: different positions is going to restrict how creative you can be.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Obviously you could still be creative, but there's just in
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: the in the old world, you would have, you know,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: thirty yards to be able to run and move and
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: be able to get to different people. Well, now I
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: mean the ball is kicked, I'm waiting, we start, and
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: I turn and run and then it's like, I mean,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: it's like a second later and the guy that I'm
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: supposed to be blocking is breathing down my neck, you
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: know what I mean. So I think that part of
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: it will will limit, you know, some of the things
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: that people will try.
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: What kind of vouching did you do for A. J.
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: Barner before the drip?
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Uh just answered questions about him when they when they
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: ask of what kind of guy he is and the
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: worker and the day in and day out mentality that
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: he had. And he's a guy that just from what
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: I've observed around here and what Mike's vision is for
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: the program, and and uh, John, it's he's a guy
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: that is definitely in line with those things.
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: That first preseason game will be who's that one against?
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: Uh No, that's gonna be cool.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: That's a funny funny that that worked out that way,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: and and uh what a neat way to start the season.
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: Be uh be super excited for that one.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: More of the kickstuff, is it going to be more
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: important to kind of do this in the preseason? I mean,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: typically maybe starting guys aren't on specialty a whole lot
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: of the preseason. You don't want to get hurt or whatever.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: But is it going to be more imperative to try
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: to get realtside of a lot of those guys that must.
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: Have to test that off?
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I could definitely see that.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: I'm not quite there yet just planning wise, but you
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: certainly would would would want to make sure that guys
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: have real competitive reps in a in a preseason setting
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: before they get to the regular season. And and the
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: other thing like that is relevant to all these questions
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: about the kickoff kick return is these players are so smart,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: and they're so experienced, and they have such great body awareness,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: and especially some of the older guys that have been
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: around special teams a lot. They're tremendous resources for us.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: So as we as we experiment, try things, implement techniques
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: and plays, and we run them, they're really really great
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: for us as sounding boards. Hey, what do you think
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: about this? Do you think this is possible? Some of
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: the feedback that they've given us is great. That will
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: only increase as we as we get further down the road.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: On the idea of possibly using like a non kicker
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: and a kickoff situation that you have you tried that
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: out yet, like.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: To see who could potentially do it, We've we've talked
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: to some guys. Uh, I don't know that we necessarily
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: have a an obvious candidate there, and we have a
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: couple of pretty talented guys in the specialist room to
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: begin with, so.
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: We'll see again.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Like I said, I think that that doing that is exciting,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: but it's it's to be able to do it over
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: and over and over and and you know, not miss
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: the landing zone is not quite as easy as people
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: would think. So I think that that's a it's a
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: great idea and if you have a guy that can
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: do it, it makes a lot of sense. But there's
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: also then the downside of you know that player now
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: has a very unnatural movement that puts a ton of
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: strain on your body and adding that to his workload
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: on top of being you know, running back or defensive
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: back or whatever it might be. So you know that
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: player has to handle that workload too. So it's interesting.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: It's all fun conversations, and you know, there's a lot
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: of smart people in this league and really talented players,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: and it'll be fun to see how it shakes out.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: As we've talked to the offensive defensive coaches, they've told
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: us they're incrementally installing or they're twenty Where are you
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: with your special teams maybe the kickoff punty side, Where
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: are you installing your.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Special teams team as well?
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: In terms of a percentage or halfway there?
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: Are you going?
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: A long way? You go?
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: You most of I haven't thought about it necessarily on
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: a percentage basis, I would say that we're we've essentially
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: installed just about everything technique wise, and in the spect
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: teams world, that's a little bit probably more. The typical
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: mode you're in in the off season is working fundamentals, techniques,
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: things that can be applied on different phases or you
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: know something that applies for punt and punt return or
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: kickoff and punt, and so we've majored in that type
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: of thing. And it goes back to the kickoff conversation, like, yeah,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of things that are different with this play,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: but there's also, you know, a huge chunk probably more
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: things that are actually the same than are different, in
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: terms of finding the ball, leverage on the ball, my
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: hands as a as a defender, getting hands on blockers,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: knowing when I can win with speed, when I need
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: to go through the blocker and not around it. So
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: we're trying to make sure that we live in that
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: world as much as we can this time of year,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: build a really solid foundation for for the schemes that
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: that will be implemented later in the in the fall.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Anything else, Thank you everything, Thanks, I appreciate you.