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Mike Macdonald: "This Was A Really Important First Step" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, great to see everybody. We had a great camp
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: before you know questions, Just want to give a couple
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: of shout outs.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Our equipment staff, absolute rock stars.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: When we had about seventy something guys out here and
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: they got the Jersey's ready helmets, all the equipment, pretty
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: massive undertaking on their part and you know, pulled it
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: off seamlessly. So we had a good looking crew out
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: there looking like Seahawks and pro football players, which is
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: pretty cool. And then you know, just i'll say, the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the personnel department, the coaches, all the work that goes
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: into finding the right guys to bring out here for
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: this camp. I mean you go all the way down
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the line, draft picks, undrafted free agents, tryout guys. We
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: had a heck of a crew out there, some high
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: powered stuff going on. Coaching wise, just really excited about
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the guys that are gonna be joining our team and
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the alignment we have and all the work that goes
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: into it, because it's a lot of work and just
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: down the line, I mean you go position group by
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: position group.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: But we're really excited about the guys that were here.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: And just want to thank those guys for the work
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: that they've done, and and it's not easy to get
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: on the same page about some of these things. You know,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: we feel strongly about a lot of these players, and
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: you know that's what kind of that's the secret sauce
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: about being able to scrimmage things out and and have
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: alignment when it comes to who's going to join our
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: football team. So I just really appreciate all the work
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: that went into it. So but it was a great camp,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: and I really excited about you know, the draft picks,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: undrafted guys. We've got a lot of work to do,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: but uh, this is this is a really important like
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: first step in uh, these guys understanding how we operate here,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: how we practice you know, the initial schemes that they're
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: going to be learning, and uh, you know, in that manner,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: I think was really successful. So I'm excited to get
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: him back next week.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: You had a chance to watch Jalen at the Senior Bowl,
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: and he's told us how.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: He's been working with his mechanics stuff with his quarterback
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: coach these for first two days here.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: How have you seen any maybe you've seen a progression
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: in what he looks like in that regard compared.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: To what you saw a mobile well, one thing that
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: you just you don't have a feel for Jalen what
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: you know watching tape or even watching him in practice,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: is just like the spirit he has from play to play.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: He's got great energy, great competitive energy about trying to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: get it right. Uh, great command of the huddle, really
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: takes pride in the operation, and then all these all
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: these fundamental things that we're going to be building on
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: from the ground up.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: He's just got a great attitude about it.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: The coaches are doing a great job coaching them every
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: play and it goes for all our guys, but him especially.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: So you know, if you have that attitude, especially at
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the quarterback position, everybody everybody else tends to fall in line.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: And uh, and that in that regard, it was really
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: really fun to be around.
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: What'd you see up front from both seeing coach Pack
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: work with these guys from the first couple of times
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: and if you got three draft picks up there, so
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: seeing them kind of work.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great, great group overall.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I'm really excited about our draft picks. Hard to tell
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I give it a fair evaluation right now, but you
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: can see see the skill set, see the movement, see
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the things we've seen on tape. Uh see the attitude,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: you know, work, the finish and all the stuff. One
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: that becomes time. But really good first step with those guys.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: But it's fun. It's fun to see it come to life.
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: What do you like philosophically about having the proach from
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: full back and kind of having.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: That part of your offense. It's a great question. It's
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: a good softball.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I just think, you know, we want to be a
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: physical unit and there's not a lot of true fullbacks
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: in the league right now, and hopefully they're making a comeback,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: but we've got a couple on our rostery right now
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: that I'm really excited about. And you know, it allows
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: you to get into two back sets and you know,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: you can break the formation, you can try to dictate
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: some terms of you know, to the defense and regulate
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: them certain ways, and some of the schemes that you're
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: able to do with you know, two backs are definitely
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: different than a one back operation. So I think it
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: diversifies you, diversifies you to a certain extent, and also
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: also lets you play like a level of physicality that
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: that we're hunting up.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: Would you talk to the defense a couple of times
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: well done. What did you see from dam.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you know right now we're looking for,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: like the intent, you know, the communication coming out of
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the huddle, putting it all together, all three levels. I mean,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: these guys are coming from almost all different areas, different
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: experienced levels, hear in a different language, so be able
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: to put it together here in day two and play
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: with great technique and great eyes and communication. And we're
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: not we're not exactly splitting atoms with the schematics that
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: we're we're asking them to do right now, but but
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: showed progress and and uh, it was just exciting to
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: see it come together there towards the end.
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: How do you evaluate a position like nose tackle of
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: two days of non kind of practices.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's some in the eleven on eleven stuff, but
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: it's it's tough for the tempos that we're asking the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: guys to operate at. But uh, a lot of it
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: is gonna come from the individual work, seeing them move,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: how they do the drills, taking it to the field,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: like how they you know, we're hand placement, and how
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: they getting out of their stance, how they're playing the blocks. Physicality.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: It's a little tough, right, now. But you know that's
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the stuff that we're looking at.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: Different this year compared to here.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Uh well, you know, we we we tossed around having
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: some different ideas about how to operate camp or you know,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: there's different ways to go about rookie camp. You can
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: slow it down, you can make it more of an
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: individual thing if you're trying to you know, avoid injuries,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: all sorts of different ways to go about it. We
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: just we had a lot of faith in the coaches
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: and what we were trying, how how we're trying to operate.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: And at the end of the day, we felt like,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Trying to get better at football by doing football was
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the way to go. So I thought our rookie camp
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: last year was we did a great job as well.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I thought we got what we needed out of it,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and so we bolt off of That is.
• 5:38
  Speaker 6: A clarify flowed down for you though from last year,
• 5:41
  Speaker 6: I would imagine.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Everything was kind of mooving and you could fill in
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the blank. Everything slows down. Uh again. You know when
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: you look at when you're used to looking at things
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: through a certain lens and all of a sudden, now
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: you're looking at it through a different lens. The picture
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: speeds up a little bit. So now you're staying through
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: the new lens. And I think also through our staff.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: We have you know, we have alignment and what we're
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: looking for, and guys have expectations about what's important to
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: us as a team and what we're trying to get
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to get accomplished. So, uh, and we're not perfect behind it.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's there's notes that we're taking and we're
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: gonna go kind of debrief here and watch the tape
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and learn from it and move on. So we're on
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: our a game when the vet show up on Monday.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: So I mean it's just a constant reevaluation process and
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: trying to get better.
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: You clarify, there's a conversation after the draft about Jalen
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: and comparing him to Taysom Hill, and you said, you know,
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: he's just a quarterback. He's a quarter of your chainment.
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: Does that mean you know you that would preclude you
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: guys from using him in special packages for specific scenarios
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: red zone short yardage.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love to clarify it.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Look, I think what I was trying to say at
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the time was we respect the heck out of Taysom Hill.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: We've gone against him several times, and he's a gigantic
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: pain in the butt and a great player in his
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: own regard. But I think you have to go into
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: these things. These are these are independent players with their
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: own skill sets and own abilities, and we drafted Jalen to.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Play exclusively quarterback.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I think what makes Taysom such a great weapon is
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: that the guy can you have to account for him
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: as a tight end and a full back body when
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: he's not playing quarterback, where we're not going to be
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: using Jalen in that matter. So when he's in there,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: he's gonna be playing quarterback for us. But I think
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the way that we want to operate with Jalen is
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: is if and when he earns opportunities to be on
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: the field, we'll do the things that he does really well,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: same as when Sam's taking snaps for us. We're building
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: around his skill set and the things that he does.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: And if you're not doing that as an organization of
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the football team, I think you're doing it the wrong way.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: So something with Drew, but it's going to start with
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the quarterback and then kind of everything falls in place
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: from there.
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: It just seems like a great athlete to see how
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: the field ones and kind of like seeing him from
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: the person at days in fronty out of here and
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: kind and does to see other person.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he did a great job.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Great to have him in Person's a great attitude, great
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: spirit about them.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Uh, practice is hard.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Uh does a great job of taking what we're seems
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: like we're doing. Does a great job of taking what
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: we're trying to teach him, you know, fundamentally and then
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: taking that to his position.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: So also a great start.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Jalen said that you mentioned that you had interest in
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: doing VR virtual reality training to work up regression and stuff.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: How do you how do you see that helping a
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: young quarterback, especially when the veterans get here, maybe the
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: reps are going to be more limited for him on
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: the practice field.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, sure.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: We Uh we're kind of in the exploratory mode right
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: now on on on that and how that's going to
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: come to life. So we're in the beginning stages of that,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: you know project. But that's the intent right now, is
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: to is to kind of go down that road and
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: see how it can help all of our quarterbacks and
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: even other positions too, I mean running back protections, punp protection,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: maybe kind of kind of the there is no you know,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: end in sight with the possibility.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: So that's exciting.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: But for Jalen and other quarterbacks specifically, you're only you're
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: only gonna get so many full speed reps out there.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: How do you how do you change tempos? How do
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: you do things like that where you can be creative
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: where you can get these really great cheap reps and
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: you can stack those on top of each other, so
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: when he does get his opportunities in practice.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: You can make the most of them.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean that's it's it seems like it's
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: all positive all the way around.
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Nick Eiman, worry just kind of initial impression to
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: handle with us over it.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you see the movement skills, you see
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: all the things you saw on tape. Different language for him,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: but he's got great intent. I think he wants to
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: be great, which is a fun characteristic to work with
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: and great start, great start, But h like it will
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: be the first to tell you, like all of our
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: guys have you see it and you're like, oh, this
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: is awesome, but hey, now.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: We gotta we gotta go, we gotta detail it up,
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: we gotta get our angles, right.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of there's a lot of
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: fundamentals that will be working on when he comes back,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and it's gonna be it.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: It's gonna be fun to work with them. When do
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: you expect to see Tory Horton taking some football and
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: kind of what's the ramp up process for him? Yeah,
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: timetable right now.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I mean I wouldn't say it's anything major, but when
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: he comes back, you know, he should be close to
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: you know, full go. But we'll see how that, you know,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: kind of comes about. But I think we're just being
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: precautious right now.
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: What kind of role do you expect for him? If
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: he's an X flanket, Like where in the receiver room
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: is he going to be?
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Well, he's good, go on it. It is the first part.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: And I'm excited about his punt return ability as well
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: possible gunner and then in the receiver room. I mean,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: the guy's got legitimate speed, so be able to take
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the top off.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: He's able to do that.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: But I think he's a you know, I think in
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: this system, you got to be able to run all
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: the routes too, So I think he has that ability
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: on those some of the intermediate stuff, and I'll be
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: interesting to see who.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Kind of comes out of the pack on the catch
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: and run you.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Know, premter screen game, and uh, you know he's right
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: in the mix on that competition as well.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: Why did you want to see fun Lee and Jamie
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: Sheriff out here this week?
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Well, we had because of the rules, we had an
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: opportunity to get him out and just felt like these
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: were going to be great reps for them to take
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: advantage of. Uh, you know, Jamie, we're looking at moving
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: his position to off the ball backer and Sam just
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: for some more position flexibility. So it's something that he
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: hasn't really had a lot of reps doing, so it
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: felt like it was a great opportunity for him to
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: you know, see those more more live and in color
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: before U before we got to OTAs and and and
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Mason and plumbly excuse me, he uh uh just same same,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: just me more reps at receiver, you know, just kind
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: of be part of it. And and uh, I felt
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: like it was a great.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Opportunity for him.
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: Sounds like you're bringing Hankins back because I've kind of
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: feel pretty big boys play there.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Uh yeah, I mean this guy's he's a heck of
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: a player. We're excited to get him back.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it was a major void because we
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: have guys that can play in the a gap, but
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: uh yeah, I mean I think I think when you
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: watched the tape last year, he played some.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Pretty dang good football for us. So excited to get
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: back him and d Low teaming up again.
• 11:54
  Speaker 6: Sorry, with that makeup of your offensive staff, how beneficial
• 11:57
  Speaker 6: is it to have guys like under plays you know,
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: Rick Dennison and John benn guys that he like you
• 12:03
  Speaker 6: really doesn't really trust the sting.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: To work with.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's really important, especially just in this system.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I've been on teams before that have run a version
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: of this system, specifically Clint's dad with a lot with
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: some of the same guys like Rico is on that staff.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: And the connection and the detail and.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Just like the shared understanding about what's expected with the
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: timing and the angles and all that type of stuff.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: You know, it was able to get get off the ground,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: and so you can feel it out there, you can
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: feel it in the rooms. The guys have an understandable
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: what what's expected on any given play and all the concepts.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: So I'm the one playing catch up right now. Fortunately speaking,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: you talked.
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: About special projects that you know, you and the coaches
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: are taking on this off season. Are those now come
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: to fruition and you you go into this the time
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: with the players talk to you be stiff.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think well, part of its self scout about
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: what you felt like you did well, Uh, giving the
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: guys the feedback now when they're when they're back in,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: But you're also you don't want to take away from Hey,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: we're going to a new chapter.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: We got to rebuild it.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Some of it's in the systems that we're building and
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: how we incorporate rules, things of that nature. And then
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: really just an understanding where the league's going and how
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: you you know, how you tailor, how you build stuff
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: and how you're teaching it. And then when the schedule
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: comes out, you know, we'll look at, you know, looking
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: towards how we want to get ready for the season.
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: Any of the undrafted guys stand out team?
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: A lot of the guys did. I mean, I'll tell
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: you what, it's a great group overall.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: I mean we can go down line on them by
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: lining on them, but I think I think we did
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: a great job this year, identifying skill sets that we
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: wanted and uh, without going you.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Know, person by person, but we're really excited about those
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: guys we.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: Like about what I'll give you one Jackson, what we
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: like it bout him.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna leave that under wraps right now as we go,
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: you know, through the off season, h
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: On that dope anything else,