Latest / Seahawks Press Pass / Mike Macdonald: "Riq Woolen Is Playing At A High Level"
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: All right, good to see everybody back at it here.
- 0:09Speaker 1: What we got, Mike?
- 0:11Speaker 2: What have you seen from the Lions on tape so far?
- 0:17Speaker 3: They're a really good football team, hard playing, well coached,
- 0:20Speaker 3: a lot of scheme diversity, but also hang their hat
- 0:24Speaker 3: on on their calling cards, so to speak, on special teams,
- 0:30Speaker 3: A hard playing group. Again, it's this theme theme throughout
- 0:33Speaker 3: all three phases. Obviously, they're really aggressive in certain situations
- 0:37Speaker 3: and willing to take willing to take calculated risks, so
- 0:41Speaker 3: we'll be need to be ready for for those. And
- 0:44Speaker 3: on offense, uh, I like that the gap scheme married
- 0:49Speaker 3: with the wide zone play action passes, drop back game
- 0:53Speaker 3: on time golf's playing fast, making fast decisions, getting the
- 0:57Speaker 3: ball out of his hands to his playmakers. Both runners
- 1:00Speaker 3: are really uh, really dangerous in their own way. Offensive
- 1:04Speaker 3: line is probably one of the best in the league, if.
- 1:07Speaker 1: Not the best, So got to work that out for us.
- 1:10Speaker 3: But you know, we get an extra day to get
- 1:13Speaker 3: ready to go defensively, very aggressive. Seems like they made
- 1:17Speaker 3: a little bit more of a shift from last year.
- 1:22Speaker 3: I'd say there's a there's a there's a tough simplicity
- 1:26Speaker 3: with compliments on how they operate defensively and obviously Aiden
- 1:29Speaker 3: is a is a really good player that we're gonna
- 1:31Speaker 3: have to account for.
- 1:34Speaker 1: But they're Yeah, they're a really good team.
- 1:36Speaker 3: Our guys are excited and looking forward to getting to
- 1:39Speaker 3: work with. We's had a great walkthrough, So getting ready
- 1:41Speaker 3: to go to work here in about an hour or so.
- 1:44Speaker 3: What about the challenge you've yet to see in your
- 1:46Speaker 3: first three games that Detroit presents something maybe different. I
- 1:52Speaker 3: haven't really thought about it, and that lenses each week
- 1:54Speaker 3: is is is a new challenge. Everyone's got really great,
- 1:58Speaker 3: great players that you have to mitigate. They have strengths
- 2:02Speaker 3: and weaknesses, just like anybody else that as a as
- 2:07Speaker 3: a coaching staff that we're trying to put our guys
- 2:10Speaker 3: in a position to make plays. I don't know if
- 2:13Speaker 3: it's say anything like me. It's just unique to the
- 2:15Speaker 3: Lions on how they operate, So will operate accordingly or
- 2:23Speaker 3: would you look at their offense?
- 2:25Speaker 4: Is it the pass game that drives the offense? Is
- 2:27Speaker 4: it a run game? Does it depend game to game?
- 2:30Speaker 4: How do you evaluate and see that?
- 2:31Speaker 3: Well? I don't think they're they're very They're like stubborn
- 2:35Speaker 3: to the point where they're just going to do one
- 2:36Speaker 3: thing to bang their head against the wall. Both both
- 2:39Speaker 3: run and pass, they're very efficient. But I would say
- 2:44Speaker 3: it starts with the run game. With this team set
- 2:46Speaker 3: up play action pass. The drop back game is consistent
- 2:52Speaker 3: for the quarterback, it's clean and they build it different ways.
- 2:56Speaker 3: They do a good job of hiding the looks and
- 2:57Speaker 3: keeping it consistent at the same time.
- 2:59Speaker 1: So I would say when it started with the run game,
- 3:02Speaker 1: you uh.
- 3:03Speaker 5: Saw execute a hooking ladder in this last game. Can
- 3:05Speaker 5: talk about three weeks in importance of creating tendencies and
- 3:09Speaker 5: breaking those tendencies.
- 3:10Speaker 3: Well, they do a great job of of having some
- 3:13Speaker 3: some curve balls in some critical situations on fourth downs
- 3:17Speaker 3: and and high leverage spots throughout throughout the game.
- 3:21Speaker 1: So credit to them.
- 3:22Speaker 3: In order to do those things, you needed one company
- 3:24Speaker 3: ideas you needed to You need to practice it at
- 3:26Speaker 3: a high level, see of confidence in calling it, and
- 3:28Speaker 3: it seems like they have a uh their opportunity and
- 3:31Speaker 3: when when they call it and get those things done.
- 3:33Speaker 3: So I thought that was pretty sweet play.
- 3:36Speaker 4: You mentioned their run to set up the play action.
- 3:38Speaker 4: As a defensive coordinator, there's sort of this debate in
- 3:41Speaker 4: the analytics community, like how much it really matters how
- 3:44Speaker 4: much you run.
- 3:45Speaker 1: Once I said that, I knew that was coming.
- 3:47Speaker 3: Was curious.
- 3:48Speaker 4: In general, maybe the general topic that's okay, but yeah,
- 3:52Speaker 4: I mean as a defensive coordinator, is there I mean,
- 3:53Speaker 4: do you do you sense that like they're running the ball, well,
- 3:56Speaker 4: that's going to make their play action better or our
- 3:57Speaker 4: teams just like good at executing play accent.
- 4:04Speaker 1: I don't know what the right answer is.
- 4:06Speaker 3: Frankly, you do have to be able to move people
- 4:10Speaker 3: and run the game and run the ball to kind
- 4:13Speaker 3: of assert your physicality in a football game. This game
- 4:16Speaker 3: is still about the line of scrimmage to a very
- 4:19Speaker 3: high extent, but you also need to move down the
- 4:22Speaker 3: ball down the field in order to have success and
- 4:24Speaker 3: put points on the board.
- 4:28Speaker 1: So both can be true, I think.
- 4:30Speaker 3: And then based off of how teams operate, some teams
- 4:32Speaker 3: are hunting single high to make the play action pass
- 4:36Speaker 3: come alive a little better. Some people have certain routes
- 4:39Speaker 3: against split you know, certain looks, but safety man, there's
- 4:42Speaker 3: different indicators that teams utilize, you know, if they want
- 4:44Speaker 3: to go that route.
- 4:46Speaker 1: So I think it's just I think it's a little
- 4:47Speaker 1: bit more. I think both are true.
- 4:49Speaker 3: And then It depends on how you want to operate
- 4:51Speaker 3: as an offense and get really good at those types
- 4:54Speaker 3: of things, and then it's really a function of how
- 4:56Speaker 3: well you can cann extcute those things. But play action,
- 4:58Speaker 3: I mean, the numbers, don't you know them? Numbers are
- 5:00Speaker 3: there for a reason. It's an effective way to get
- 5:03Speaker 3: the ball down the field, both for play action, passer
- 5:05Speaker 3: from excuse me, for protection purposes, you know, and just
- 5:10Speaker 3: like don't link the target, things like that.
- 5:11Speaker 1: Separating the defense, you.
- 5:13Speaker 2: Played Detroit last year with Baltimore, what what did you
- 5:17Speaker 2: feel like you guys did exceptionally well that day on
- 5:20Speaker 2: the defensive side.
- 5:23Speaker 1: Yeah, you know.
- 5:26Speaker 3: The history here going and going to Detroit, and then
- 5:28Speaker 3: it's it's you don't want to get in this game
- 5:30Speaker 3: of play though, well what used to be because the
- 5:35Speaker 3: games are so unique, the people involved are completely different,
- 5:40Speaker 3: the systems are are similar, you know, but at the
- 5:43Speaker 3: end of the day, there's certain plays you need to make.
- 5:45Speaker 3: You know, there's there's some critical early down stops that
- 5:50Speaker 3: that we had when we were in Baltimore, and then
- 5:52Speaker 3: we're able to get out the field on third down
- 5:53Speaker 3: early in the game and then offensively, which is a
- 5:57Speaker 3: completely different system. You know, they were having success in
- 6:00Speaker 3: the game and the game kind of get out of
- 6:01Speaker 3: hand early and so that you know, the game kind
- 6:04Speaker 3: of declared itself and then you know, here we go.
- 6:06Speaker 3: Now we got to kind of play the games as
- 6:08Speaker 3: we find it in the second and third quarter. So
- 6:10Speaker 3: we're definitely not anticipating anything along those lines. Our guys
- 6:14Speaker 3: know that we're in for a sixteen minute battle, just
- 6:17Speaker 3: like maybe even longer.
- 6:19Speaker 5: Assuming you want to get better across the board, but
- 6:21Speaker 5: are there specific areas that you really want to focus
- 6:24Speaker 5: on in terms of improvement when you look at the
- 6:26Speaker 5: stats over the first three weeks.
- 6:28Speaker 3: You know, we talked about as a team this morning
- 6:30Speaker 3: about emphasis of the week and really not to move
- 6:33Speaker 3: and ask everybody, but the consistent feedback is are consistent
- 6:38Speaker 3: focus on the on the fundamentals and our execution on
- 6:41Speaker 3: the details. Now that goes across all three phases. I
- 6:45Speaker 3: think it's mentality that you have to have throughout the
- 6:47Speaker 3: week to put the work in execute those things. It's
- 6:50Speaker 3: it's how we prepare as coaches and the situations that
- 6:53Speaker 3: we put our players in so we can if we
- 6:56Speaker 3: anticipate those situations correctly, we can give the guys the
- 6:59Speaker 3: correct So now you might have some some redundancy in
- 7:04Speaker 3: that when the game hits. So we take a lot
- 7:06Speaker 3: of pride in trying to create those situations for our guys,
- 7:08Speaker 3: and then it's our guys responsibility. You know, we go
- 7:11Speaker 3: out to the practice field just finishing walk through, having
- 7:13Speaker 3: the mentality, Okay, I'm recognized as a situation. Now I
- 7:16Speaker 3: can apply my rule. Now I can play faster.
- 7:18Speaker 2: You mentioned you can't you know, look too much at
- 7:20Speaker 2: past games because everything changes. But can players who have
- 7:23Speaker 2: had success in a hostile environment with like whether it's
- 7:25Speaker 2: Geno going to Detroit or Stone last year having to
- 7:28Speaker 2: play against AID and can those individual things help a
- 7:30Speaker 2: guy going to Yeah.
- 7:31Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's again it's a mentality that you have to
- 7:34Speaker 3: have going in, understanding the environment that you're going into,
- 7:37Speaker 3: how we practice it in the practice and you know,
- 7:39Speaker 3: throughout the week.
- 7:40Speaker 1: But absolutely you can drow.
- 7:41Speaker 3: Up on that that experience, and we expect those guys
- 7:43Speaker 3: to do so and kind of send the message forth
- 7:46Speaker 3: to everybody else.
- 7:47Speaker 1: What do you anticipate Zach's success, particularly in the fourth quarter,
- 7:52Speaker 1: would help him going forward in.
- 7:53Speaker 3: The right it's about Zach Sharbonay, I just think it's
- 7:57Speaker 3: it's his style of you know, you don't You don't
- 7:59Speaker 3: judge run game by the first five runs of the game.
- 8:01Speaker 3: Everyone everyone goes back and say, well how many you
- 8:04Speaker 3: know it's the.
- 8:04Speaker 1: Yards per carre.
- 8:05Speaker 3: They look at the stats and we're focusing on finishing
- 8:08Speaker 3: games and closing them out, and Zach does a great
- 8:11Speaker 3: job of doing that. Based off his physicality. I think
- 8:14Speaker 3: it speaks to the shape that he's in and his
- 8:17Speaker 3: mental toughness that he has as well. So, uh, he
- 8:21Speaker 3: should be an asset for us later later in games.
- 8:24Speaker 5: Minds like to run a lot of man coverage man
- 8:28Speaker 5: covers down across the league. Any thoughts about why that's
- 8:31Speaker 5: the case.
- 8:35Speaker 3: I don't want to like speculate into their into their brains,
- 8:38Speaker 3: you know.
- 8:39Speaker 5: Uh.
- 8:42Speaker 3: I think it's a little more situational than people might
- 8:44Speaker 3: think on why they're getting in demand in certain situations
- 8:49Speaker 3: based off of prior plays and uh, how they match
- 8:53Speaker 3: with their personnel groups. But yeah, I don't know if
- 8:55Speaker 3: I can speculate on why they decide to do that.
- 8:58Speaker 5: You run defense, what's the key to getting consistent second
- 9:02Speaker 5: level support?
- 9:04Speaker 3: Having the right eyes, You gotta look at the right stuff.
- 9:07Speaker 3: If your guy's running a pass, you can't be in
- 9:09Speaker 3: the second level support.
- 9:10Speaker 1: If your guy's blocking, you can go.
- 9:13Speaker 4: And that's just something you.
- 9:15Speaker 1: Yeah, look at. Yeah, you gotta look at the right stuff.
- 9:17Speaker 3: You gotta know what you're looking at and why, and
- 9:19Speaker 3: then that'll play faster.
- 9:21Speaker 5: Tyas Bowser got a dozen snaps for you last week
- 9:24Speaker 5: getting back into things from his injuries and such.
- 9:26Speaker 4: What did you kind of see from him as he's
- 9:28Speaker 4: kind of got back into the mix with you guys.
- 9:29Speaker 1: Yeah, shoud be proud of himself.
- 9:30Speaker 3: It's been along, been a long journey coming back getting
- 9:33Speaker 3: his body ready to play. He's worked tremendously hard. He's
- 9:36Speaker 3: in great shape. Say, it's a solid first start. I
- 9:40Speaker 3: know there's things that he said, you know, he's gonna
- 9:42Speaker 3: want to improve on and we expect him to do so.
- 9:43Speaker 1: And he'll get.
- 9:44Speaker 3: Plenty of opportunities this week to do it in practice
- 9:47Speaker 3: and then we'll see later on in the week and
- 9:49Speaker 3: if he uh, you know what happens later on in
- 9:51Speaker 3: the week.
- 9:53Speaker 2: Fortunate having viron Murphy and Leonard on the practice of
- 9:56Speaker 2: the safe.
- 9:57Speaker 3: Uh, I'm gonna wait on the injury stuff until we
- 10:03Speaker 3: are forced to tell you. I mean, I think we
- 10:06Speaker 3: got to let you know tomorrow. And the reason is,
- 10:09Speaker 3: Mike is just because I don't want to speculate right now,
- 10:12Speaker 3: and we'll know more. It'll be it'll be clear tomorrow.
- 10:14Speaker 3: And if it's clear tomorrow, then I'll let you know.
- 10:18Speaker 4: So I'll just all injuries right now. I'd be just
- 10:21Speaker 4: so we don't ask about canon or whatever.
- 10:25Speaker 3: Yeah, let's just leave it like that has to play.
- 10:30Speaker 4: Can you talk a little bit that.
- 10:31Speaker 1: What he brings to the table.
- 10:34Speaker 3: Yeah, Miles has been working really, I mean it's been
- 10:36Speaker 3: a little bit of a number thing on why he
- 10:38Speaker 3: hasn't been up. It's nothing that he hasn't been doing
- 10:40Speaker 3: in practice or anything like that. He's coming off an
- 10:41Speaker 3: injury late in camp. So Uh, but he's a guy
- 10:44Speaker 3: that's set a tremendous offseason and if his numbers is
- 10:47Speaker 3: called to be ready to go, I gues he gives
- 10:50Speaker 3: you some some different position flexibility inside. I think he
- 10:53Speaker 3: played like B gapping out, which will help us with
- 10:55Speaker 3: where we're at.
- 10:57Speaker 1: And uh, looking forward to see him practice today.
- 11:00Speaker 3: It's been it's been a it's been a really today
- 11:03Speaker 3: and tomorrow'll see and see how he does.
- 11:05Speaker 2: The ability for a cornerback to kind of show up
- 11:07Speaker 2: in a game A lot of times has to do
- 11:08Speaker 2: with just if he's getting targeted. But when you go
- 11:10Speaker 2: look at the tape of Rico in the last couple
- 11:12Speaker 2: of games, even if the ball's not coming over, what
- 11:14Speaker 2: do you see in rep after.
- 11:15Speaker 1: Rep A consistency.
- 11:17Speaker 3: It speaks to we were talking about earlier, the mental
- 11:20Speaker 3: focus that you need to have on per play basis,
- 11:22Speaker 3: especially at corner.
- 11:23Speaker 1: But I think he's playing patient, he's playing square.
- 11:26Speaker 3: He understands his leverage and that that speaks his preparation
- 11:30Speaker 3: and he deserves a lot of credit for that. Nobody
- 11:32Speaker 3: else is responsible for that but him and uh and
- 11:36Speaker 3: he's doing a great job. And again we're week three
- 11:38Speaker 3: weeks in and and I know Reek understands the challenge
- 11:41Speaker 3: moving forward, but he's he's he's playing at a high
- 11:43Speaker 3: level right now.
- 11:44Speaker 4: How does some how is stone Foresight's handled by tackle?
- 11:49Speaker 3: Well, I think this, I think the I think the
- 11:52Speaker 3: film kind of speaks for itself. You know, we talked
- 11:55Speaker 3: about how it started out in Denver and and then
- 11:58Speaker 3: I think since then you've just seen the steady improvement
- 12:01Speaker 3: and if we can get that from our whole football team,
- 12:04Speaker 3: you know, we're cooking, So he's he's right there, He's
- 12:06Speaker 3: he's worked tremendously hard. H But I think he's I
- 12:11Speaker 3: think he's improved tremendously and we got a lot of
- 12:13Speaker 3: confidence in him.
- 12:15Speaker 2: The competition between Anthony Bradford and Christian Hayes, what does
- 12:18Speaker 2: one of them needs to do to separate.
- 12:20Speaker 3: Themselves at that well, I think it's just going to
- 12:23Speaker 3: be consistency and performance right now.
- 12:25Speaker 1: It's what we're our criteria is practice, and.
- 12:28Speaker 3: Then once we get into the game, we'll we'll kind
- 12:30Speaker 3: of judge it accordingly how the games are going again,
- 12:33Speaker 3: you know, I mean, you guys have asked this in
- 12:34Speaker 3: the past. It's you know, it's not ideal to be
- 12:36Speaker 3: juggling a position, and how we understand that. But right now,
- 12:40Speaker 3: it's probably best for those guys to to compete throughout
- 12:44Speaker 3: the week and into games.
- 12:46Speaker 4: You mentioned Kobe Bryant has sort of earned playing time.
- 12:48Speaker 4: I guess what specifically had he done to kind of
- 12:50Speaker 4: show you that, to kind of get his way.
- 12:51Speaker 1: Back on the well, doing the right things over and
- 12:53Speaker 1: over again.
- 12:53Speaker 3: It's kind of like being I tell the guys, it's
- 12:55Speaker 3: like it's like being when you played baseball. Like I
- 12:59Speaker 3: I was a good fielder, sometimes I couldn't hit, and
- 13:01Speaker 3: so I wasn't in the lineup. It's like, you want
- 13:03Speaker 3: to play Mike, you better better hit the ball, you know,
- 13:07Speaker 3: So go out there and make plays and do it consistently,
- 13:10Speaker 3: and then they can't leave you out of the lineup.
- 13:11Speaker 1: So that's that's just how it works.
- 13:14Speaker 3: And you stack enough of those in a row, then
- 13:16Speaker 3: obviously it becomes undeniable and then we gotta we gotta
- 13:20Speaker 3: make room.
- 13:21Speaker 2: You were asked the other day about challenges of being
- 13:23Speaker 2: a head coach. Is that one of them?
- 13:25Speaker 1: Just?
- 13:25Speaker 2: I mean, there's only so many plays, you can only
- 13:27Speaker 2: have so many guys active on game days. Just finding
- 13:29Speaker 2: ways to reward the guys who maybe deserve their playing time.
- 13:33Speaker 1: I like doing that. I like rewarding guys that are
- 13:35Speaker 1: doing a great job enough of those opportunities.
- 13:38Speaker 3: I guess I haven't thought of it as a challenge.
- 13:42Speaker 1: It's uh. I think if you shoot the.
- 13:44Speaker 3: Guys straight on where they're at and and why their
- 13:48Speaker 3: role is the way it is, they appreciate that. And
- 13:51Speaker 3: then as there it's fun to like give guys more opportunity.
- 13:55Speaker 3: You know, we want to create enough depth where if
- 13:59Speaker 3: we are stressed at a certain position, like you can't
- 14:01Speaker 3: wait for the next guy to get like, I can't
- 14:03Speaker 3: wait to see you play it after you. Like, That's
- 14:05Speaker 3: that's the feeling we want to generate around here. It's
- 14:07Speaker 3: not like, oh, shoot, so and Tail's got to play.
- 14:09Speaker 3: You know, I couldn't wait for Kobe to go out
- 14:11Speaker 3: there and dime and see what he did. Like that
- 14:13Speaker 3: was that was cool?
- 14:15Speaker 5: You guys brought mac Gotee back on the practice squad.
- 14:17Speaker 5: Can you talk about the opportunity in front of him?
- 14:20Speaker 1: Yeah, he looks good. He looks good.
- 14:22Speaker 3: It gives us some depth a d line and uh,
- 14:26Speaker 3: haven't seen him practice in a minute, so we'll see
- 14:28Speaker 3: how he looks in practice day. Looking forward to see
- 14:29Speaker 3: him out going out there. Here's a guy looking forward
- 14:32Speaker 3: to seeing Matt play. There.
- 14:33Speaker 5: You go in your defense, in addition to consistency, what
- 14:37Speaker 5: qualities do you need from your strong safety?
- 14:42Speaker 3: Well, we don't really, I mean, I guess it's sometimes
- 14:44Speaker 3: it ends up with the guys are doing that. We
- 14:46Speaker 3: don't classify him in the two different like they just
- 14:49Speaker 3: play safety. Yeah, so versatility for sure. You know, you
- 14:54Speaker 3: get pigeonholed doing some stuff and then offenses will pick
- 14:57Speaker 3: up on that and they should take advantage every week.
- 15:00Speaker 3: Bro right here, it didn't finished enough to meet you
- 15:02Speaker 3: right in the corner.
- 15:04Speaker 1: Talking to DK.
- 15:06Speaker 3: Yeah, but uh yeah, versatility communication is at a premium.
- 15:11Speaker 3: There's a lot of things that move in front of them,
- 15:13Speaker 3: so they're gonna have to anticipate those things, make sure
- 15:16Speaker 3: all on the same page. So uh, seeing the game
- 15:18Speaker 3: clearly with anticipation, confidence, knowing the calls.
- 15:22Speaker 1: I think that's that's really important.
- 15:24Speaker 4: And you guys Jason Peterson for a visit, Is there
- 15:26Speaker 4: anything that.
- 15:27Speaker 3: Might happen with that or yeah, well it would have
- 15:30Speaker 3: been on it would be on practice. Squad had a
- 15:32Speaker 3: great experience with them last year from everyone that was here,
- 15:35Speaker 3: So uh, we'll see what happens next week or so.
- 15:39Speaker 4: You become a better hitter.
- 15:42Speaker 3: At one point, I was a pretty good hitter, and
- 15:44Speaker 3: then I wasn't. Now I'm here coaching, all right, Thanks guys,