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Press Pass | Liam Coen on Final Preparations for Bengals, Practicing the Right Way · Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: William, how do you feel about this week's prep just
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: coming off that win?
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like I did a nice job of
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: attacking the week the right way. You know, it was
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: pretty hot actually all week at practice. I'm like, jeez,
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: can't get it. But they worked. I mean, yesterday was physical.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: It wasn't all perfect, but like started with special teams.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I thought our special teams period yesterday was– arguably one
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: of the better ones we've had since we've been here
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: together as a group, started practice the right way, you know,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: and hopefully today go out and have a good fast
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Friday and feel good going into tomorrow's prep to last
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: day of prep.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Thomas Jr., the receiver, down to 23 snaps at one target.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: How has he responded this week?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I thought he had a great week. I thought he
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: had a great week. He had a really good day yesterday. Trevin,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: he connected on a number of passes yesterday. Thought he's
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: responded in a great way and continues to do so.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to need him. Like I've said, we're
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: going to need all these guys to obviously continue to
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: make plays for us out on the perimeter. Need him
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: to continue to do that.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: What do you like about Johnny Jones' game right now?
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the diversity, the multiplicity throughout, to be able to
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: go hop inside, outside. He plays with a lot of confidence.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: I love his play energy. You know, he's tackled at
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: a pretty high level as well when he's been given
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: some of the opportunities to do so. Need him to
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: continue on that ascension and, you know, been very confident
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: with Jarrion, though, recently.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Going into the season, Colby Atlanta was coming off the injury.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Have you been pleased with kind of how he's been
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: able to progress over the last couple of weeks?
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, any time you haven't played football in
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: quite some time, it always takes a little bit to
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: get back into the swing of things. There's some things
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: that he's been looking at personally. Hey, I want to
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: improve in some of these areas. He's been, I think,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: extremely intentional each week that he's been able to go
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: and practice, like looking at himself, being honest. All right,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: where are some of the areas in which I can
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: attack and try to continue to improve so that he
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: gets to a place where he's feeling confident every single
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: play with everything that he does. It's coming along, and
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: I think it's only going to get better.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Defensive Brian Thomas Jr. done to really earn everybody's trust?
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Man, I think, I mean, production obviously breeds, breeds, you know,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: a little bit more trust and respect, and I think that,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: you know, when given the ops, especially, I just, you know,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: finished making my tape up for tomorrow's meeting, and some
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: of the rushes, obviously, that he was, you know, he
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: had in limited rush ops against the Patriots, he did
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: some good things, and The get-off is real. He can
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: get off the football and have really appreciated, though, the
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: way he's tried to attack play in the run when
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: given the option when he's in there. So, yeah, usually
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: when you make plays, you earn a little bit more
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: trust and respect early.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, Liam, going back a year and a half to two,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: do you remember how he came on your radar and
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: how quickly you said, hey, he's going to.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Fit what I like to call him? Yeah, James brought
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: him up very early in the scouting process, like really
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: very early as somebody that we should potentially target. And
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: he never wavered throughout the whole process. I typically poke holes.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: you know, and a lot of things, and guys, and it's,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: you know, he never once wavered at all in terms
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: of his belief in two, and then obviously the rest
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: of the guys, and then as you watch more and more,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: you know, it just kind of became apparent that something
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: that the yards that he got on his own in
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: a lot of ways and what he was able to
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: do when maybe it wasn't blocked perfectly was to get
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: positive yards and to stay on track and on schedule.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: And then, look, we've got to continue to look at
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: ways of getting him more ops and cleaner through the
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: first and second level so that he can take advantage
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: of some of the speed that he has and the
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: long speed that we've all seen, just haven't been able
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: to see it yet in a game. And so I
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: know he's eager to be able to do that, but
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I've been very pleased with Toot's like discipline in the down-in,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: down-out runs where he's not taking negatives. Yes, we have
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: not seen a ton of 40, 50, 60-yarders yet, but
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: the efficiency, the yards after contact, and what he's doing
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: when it's maybe not perfect, that's what I really appreciate.
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: About needing you know every guy at some point in
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: the season a lot of guys were a lot of
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: hats what does that say about just the team's overall
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: maturity guys people willing to step.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Really any role yeah i think it's cool it's it's
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: cool to know i think if you practice the right
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: way you prepare the right way you stay the course
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: that you're going to get an opportunity potentially that every
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: guy that's out there at practice today like at some
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: point this season, we may count on, we may call
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: on them. And I was actually having that conversation with, uh,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: BJ Ojalary yesterday was, I have appreciated what he's been
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: able to bring in such a short period of time. Um,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: and why not him, right? Like, why not? You've done it,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: you've done it at this level. Um, and so why
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: can't that be him at some point? And so, having
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: those conversations I think helps too, right? Like where they
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: see the examples of some of the guys that have
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: done it and then following up with them and checking
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: in with those guys throughout the course of the weeks.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: So they, you know, they don't just walk out there
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: and like, I'm a practice player only, this doesn't matter,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: but whatever. I mean, any natural that can go through
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: your brain that can happen. And so just checking in
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: with those guys as well. And also like we hold
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: them to a standard. We, Their coaches watch their show
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: team reps with them. And it's not like it just
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: doesn't get watched or doesn't get coached. They get that
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: stuff coached. It gets watched. It gets critiqued. And hopefully
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: those guys can continue to have that mindset for us.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Anywhere anytime anyplace and we all know what you've got
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: coming ahead of you starting this week yeah cincinnati what's
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: the most critical thing that has to happen outside of
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: football stuff for you guys to really kind of.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Survive that um i think the the self-inflicted like i
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: think you know the communication of it is a lot
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: of the operation stuff right when you're on the road
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: It's just that it's more challenging. It is like you
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: don't have all of the tools in communication pre-snap. Like
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: you have to limit some of those things. Right. Whereas
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: when you're at home, you can use all the clock.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: You can use last second communication. You can maybe have
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: a little bit more of a toolbox in terms of
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: inventory to get to at the line of scrimmage with
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: no huddle. with some of those things. So I think
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: it's so much about us as coaches and as a
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: staff identifying and knowing what's too much, what's not enough,
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: not putting too much on these guys' plates, especially, you know,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: with the road atmospheres that we're going to have for
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: the remainder of this season in a large part. So
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: like this atmosphere last year, if you guys remember, was
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: pretty gnarly. I mean, they had a great turnout for
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: this game last year. Made it challenging in some ways
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: in terms of communication. And so it's just it limits.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: And then your timing of all of your motions. We
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: shift in motion quite a bit, right? And so all
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: of that stuff that you're doing, like, has to be
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: that much better. It has to be that much more detailed.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: It has to be that much more synced up because
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: there's no room for error. When you're on, you know,
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: the center's got his head between his legs and And
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: you've got timely motions happening and fast motions. And if
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: you mess one of those up, you know, the ball's
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: hitting the motion guy or something happens. I mean, those
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: are things you just don't really deal with at home.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: And so it is a lot about the balance of
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: coaches not putting too much on these guys, especially going
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: on the road, but also feeling like you have enough
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: ammunition going into the work week.
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: Talk a lot about attacking the edge and just kind
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: of always having one. When did you know that was
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: important for your team to have and how do you
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: always find one?
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Um, that's a good question. I think, you know, just
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: having a pulse for the, the, the staff having a
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: pulse for the players, the, the strengths, the weaknesses, the
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: areas in which we can improve, um, using anything on
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: the outside, obviously, as ammunition and as an edge, potentially,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: to just knowing the place, right? Like, knowing that this
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: place has never really gotten a ton of, you know, just, hey, man,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: the Jags are going to walk in and beat everybody. Like,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: it's just not the case. And so knowing that about
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: this and understanding the culture and understanding the type of
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: players that we have, I think our coaching staff as
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: well and in the building, not just coaches, like medical, sports, science, strength,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: they all try to find edges throughout. And knowing that, like,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: you know, it's a long year, man. It's hard to
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: get up for every single day. It's hard to get,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: you know, enthused and jacked up. Like, that's the hard
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: part about the NFL is that, like, at some point, like,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: you get tired. Like, it gets monotony at times. And so, like,
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: I think that that's part of it. is trying to
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: help motivate and help get everybody in the building, you know,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: up a little bit because it can get a little
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: bit monotony at times, especially when it's the same schedule.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Same routine, and that's what we love. We love being
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: in a schedule and a routine, but also you can
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: fall victim to that at times and not get up
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: for a day or a week or a practice or
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: a walkthrough. And so I think that that's our job
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: in this building as coaches, staff, leadership, is to create
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: and find edges to help motivate our players on a
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: daily basis.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: You have a situation like New England where they play
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: a ton more zone than you expect. What are the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: conversations like on the headset in terms of switching up
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: your plan or switching your priority list?
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it definitely just shuffles some of your specifically situational
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: calls is what kind of happened on Sunday was you
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: go into the game with an order of third down calls.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: On third and two to three, we're thinking this first,
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: this second, this third. And that's all talked about with
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: us as a staff and with Trevor and the players. Well,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: that changes, right? And also having, you know, What plays
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: are call it and run it all purpose? What plays
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: are man zone cans and looks? And maybe limiting some
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: of those are like taking the man off because if
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: you're not getting any, but you also don't want to
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: miss your op. And so it really comes down to
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: identification early. I think Grant and the offensive staff, I
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: do a really nice job of getting the communication from
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: our what are we seeing? What are we getting? Getting
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: it organized on a sheet of paper on the iPad
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: and being able to. All right. Hey, in these first,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: you know, all these known passing like we're not sniffing, man,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: we're not getting it. So, hey, all right. Let's maybe
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: this becomes less of a priority now. This becomes more
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: of a priority, and it has to happen fairly quickly
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: while the defense is on the field. And so that
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: is coaching on Sundays in the NFL. Things happen fast.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: You've got to be able to get information top down
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: and on the sidelines, and everybody's got to be on
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: the same page because that's when critical mistakes can happen.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: How often have you called a play since you got
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: here that you didn't practice during the week?
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: I'd say maybe a handful, not a ton. I'd say
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: between like five and ten since I've been here, you know,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: and how X amount of games. And usually it's something
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: that is a core concept that maybe just wasn't like
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: a priority in the plan or wasn't like a huddle
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: call or a wristband call in the game plan. I mean,
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: I'd say that actually can happen. maybe more than 10
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: times over the course of the year where it's like,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: all right, something that's a core principle concept that maybe
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: is like in our two minute menu, but wasn't a
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: wristbanded call sheet play. So yeah, I think it probably has,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: we go into it with probably, you know, plenty of inventory.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: And so you're kind of like, if you can't find
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: something within the plan now, that's the beauty of coaching though.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Like that's the art of it. That's the flow. Like
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: that's the creativity. and adjustments on Sunday that you actually
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: really enjoy is having enough inventory that we have that
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: you can always look. And what's cool I think we
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: do is, like, on our call sheet, we have coverage boxes.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: And so maybe not in this game, like, we're expecting
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: a ton of two-man or something. Well, on the call sheet,
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: there is always an inventory box of a number of
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: plays that our players know that we like to run
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: versus two-man. Might not be in the plans. But they
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: know it. We've repped it. We can get to it.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Same thing that goes with six, eight, three, four, zero blitz,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: cover one. Like, what are true core principle concepts that
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: we can get to if and when we start to
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: see something different, something that Cincinnati absolutely does and needs
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: to have because they see such a Rolodex of coverages.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: You know, just listening to Jamar and Baro speak this week,
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: they're like– We see everything under the sun. We've seen
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: every double-double. We've seen every bracket. We've seen every zone.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: We've seen every man. So it's like as a play
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: caller there, you have to have a ton of different
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: answers to coverages, and I think that's what makes coaching
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: really fun on Sundays.
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: How much of a challenge is Chase Brown with his
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: versatile skill set when they do have Burrow and Chase
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: and Higgins?
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: He's a challenge, man. Out of the backfield, receiving... his
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: wiggle and physicality and ability to break tackles in the
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: run game. He hits it. He's defined. He can get
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: behind his pads. I have a lot of respect for him.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: I think he's an extremely underrated player in this league
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: that it's like you say, a lot of teams will
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: just say, all right, we'll make them run it, right?
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, it's fine. But he gets going and
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: he breaks tackles and there's a lot of space because you're,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: playing light boxes. I mean, that can be a challenge
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: as well. And I think that's what is challenging about
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: this offense, that Zach's done a nice job over the
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: course of the years of continuing to evolve and say,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: all right, yes, we know our prime playmakers and big
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: time potential Hall of Famers. are with the quarterback and
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: the receiving group, but also having the back that he
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: can have that's like maybe not always going to have
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: to grind out hard yard, but it's like you go
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: light boxes, he's going to hit it down the pipe
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: or create a transportation scheme that he can get it
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: on the perimeter on. So that's what makes them challenging.
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: Since he was the place where Travis got the controversial
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: pass interference call, but even after the game, he owned it.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: And then even yesterday when asked about it, he said
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: he put himself in that position to get called. Has
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: his maturity, I don't want to say surprised you, but
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: impressed you? Like his personality is a goofball or, you know.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. His accountability I think is, is, you know, real
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: in a lot of ways and, when you have confidence
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: as a player I think it's easier to own up
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: to and it can be a challenge it's it's not
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: always the easiest thing to maybe admit when you put
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: yourself or the team in a tough spot right and
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: yeah as controversial as that was like in same thing
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: me getting a penalty in Denver like You know, he's like, dude,
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: that's on me. Like, I can't grab the guy, you know,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: whatever it is. I can't put us in that position.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: And so, yeah, I think it's cool to especially, you know,
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: he played so little last year and then he has
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: to watch. But he got to watch a group of guys.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: come together, a group of guys be extremely accountable, loyal
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: to each other, and I think that can continue to
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: rub off, especially when he's a good dude, right? Like
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: he cares. He cares about winning. That's what he cares about.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: And all the other stuff, the reps, where we picked them,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: does that value? Like I don't give two Fs about value,
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: and neither does he. We care about winning, and that's it.