Latest / Press Pass / Press Pass | Liam Coen on Readiness for Ravens, Roster Depth & "Next Man Up" Mentality

Transcript

Press Pass | Liam Coen on Readiness for Ravens, Roster Depth & "Next Man Up" Mentality · Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Everything gets a little expedited.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Specifically, the previous game review gets a little bit expedited,
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: and that's where I was able to circle back and
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: show some of the stuff from this.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Past weekend's game. in my meeting this morning.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: But a lot of the preparation as soon as Monday
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: starts is all on Baltimore.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: And so these guys have handled it really well.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Everybody is in this game is going to be sore, tired,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: all those things, right? Mentally, physically, everybody feels the same
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: exact way. Everybody's nicked up and have to go play
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: this game.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: That's just the way it is.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: And so a lot of this is going to be
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: about mental and physical toughness.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Do you give the players Friday, Saturday, Sunday off after that? Yeah.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: That's pretty standard. Pretty standard, yeah. We'll come back and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: do a bonus Monday.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Do you expect to be able to practice today?
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: We'll see.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I think he'll do something. Yeah, he'll do something. But
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I would expect– I talked to him today. He said
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: he feels better. I would think it's probably going to
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: go up to game time. When you're going into a
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: game like that, you mentioned sore, tired, a little bit up.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: How dangerous can a guy like Eric Henry be?
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Tackling right like you got to be so on your
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: on your p's and q's in terms of your run
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: fits your angles to the football your swarm has to
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: be elite you know getting off blocks not staying blocked
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: you can't just throw an arm.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: At them and that ain't gonna happen it's not.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Gonna work and so um it's definitely critical showed that
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: to the to the guys this morning uh when we're
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: at our best and we're flying around as a defense
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: um good things usually happen would you describe nate borkature's
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: development and how he's taken to coaching yeah i mean
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: he's uh loves football loves loves to practice loves what
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: goes into it um you know high care factor but
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: like also has that good way about him that doesn't
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: like take everything so seriously and so like tense you
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: can kind of make a mistake or something and learn
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: from it but also like move on fairly quickly which
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: i think is a unique trait um and and you know,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: to make some of the plays last two weeks in
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: the past game has been obviously nice to see the
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: catch in Houston and then to change his body and
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: torque it to make the catch the other day pretty
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: seamlessly was nice to see. And so we got to
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: continue to lean into that and keep working with him.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: But I've been very pleased with him so far. And
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: then Branson Combs, how well has he developed for you guys? Huge.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Obviously competed a ton. in training camp with Ventrell. Ventrell
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: wins the job, clearly, and Ventrell's played at a high
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: level and done some really good things for us. But
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: to have your third linebacker that we know that we
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: had a lot of faith in to come in and
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: make an impact on special teams the way he did
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: with the two big hits on our sideline and to
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: get the interception, we know we've seen that kind of
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: play from him out here in training camp, right, like
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: going up. climbing the ladder and making a great catch
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: on an interception this training camp. So he's got good
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: ball skills, and the more he can do for our team,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the better we'll be. Building off the linebacker conversation but
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: pairing it with the defensive back rotation, knowing that the
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: safety spot with Eric going down for the season, Antonio
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: obviously working his way back, maybe not as deep as
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: it previously was, how do you.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Pull from some of those other rooms to potentially supplant
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: the fact that you may not have your usual.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Full load of safeties. Yeah, Antonio, obviously, Merriweather. you know,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Ray on lane just got named AFC defense, a player
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: of the week. So, you know, I think those three
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: guys specifically will, we'll kind of get the load of
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: it all, um, you know, and then be able to
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: supplement it through, you know, different packages, base, nickel, Aggie things,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: different things that you can play, but, um, have faith in, in, uh,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Kayvon and Ray right now. And then obviously Jalen got some,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: some burn this past week, made it, you know, had
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: a sack. So we just got to keep building off that, uh,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: you know, experience, exposure, and playmaking because they're not going
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: to get better unless they play. They're not going to
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: get better unless they play. So those guys playing is
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: going to help us in the long run.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: You're talking a little bit about that kind of next
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: man up mentality.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: When you lose two defensive leaders kind of in one
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: foul swoop, how do you replace that part of the team?
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: The whole team. The whole team. The whole building.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Everybody needs to, and I don't mean on Thursday night
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: playing in the game. I mean like throughout the week.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: I challenged them, you know, on Monday with everybody just
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: stepping up their week a little bit more, their being
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: a great teammate a little bit more, the energy a
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: little bit more. You know, you draft young players, you know, Regis,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Wesley Williams, a lot of these guys were captains.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: In college, right?
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: A lot of these guys were leaders on good football teams.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: And we need those guys to not only, you know,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: help us potentially in the games, but also their leadership,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: their energy, their being great teammates. Like, we need that
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: to show up this week. And that was what I
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: challenged the team with. And I think they've responded the
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: right way.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Is that an amplified version of who is about us? Yeah. Yeah,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: it definitely is. Like.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: you lose there's there's no doubt you got you know
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: you lose the ham eric uh tootin gets hurt right
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: trevon gets hurt like you got four starters get hurt
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: in one game and so what how do you how
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: do you supplement that well it's through the building it's
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: through the entire group it's not just all right, the
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: defensive captains or the offensive captains that need to feel
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: the weight of that.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: It's the entire building.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: It's the, it's every single one of us, players, coaches,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: and staff included, uh, to help pick that up. On Sunday,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I didn't get a chance to ask you this Monday though.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Ezra obviously practiced the last few days, but what did
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: you see from Wyatt?
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: What are your expectations in terms of who will be available? Yeah,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: I expect Ezra to be available. Um, you know, I
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: thought Wyatt came in and did some good things though. Um,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Pride opened the hole on the short yardage run for
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Chris down the pipe.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Did some really good things on both screens. Was pleased
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: with Wyatt's.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Ability to go in and no flinch, no blink, go
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: and play his tail off.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: So depth is always a good thing.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I know there's a lot of coaches who are influencing
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: you and how you see the game, but when it
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: comes to play calling, setting plays up, sequencing stuff, who's
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: really kind of made that influence on you? Hmm. Um,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: you know, I'd say it goes back to obviously my
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: dad in the wing T with some of that stuff. Um, obviously,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: you know, Phil Estes at Brown, Mark Whipple at UMass. Um,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: and then Sean specifically when I got to the NFL, um,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: in a lot of ways, definitely helped that Sean Payton from,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: you know, I went and studied there. I would think
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: a lot, you know, that crew probably in a lot
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: of ways have impacted and affected the way I, you know,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: call a game, see it, but obviously it's all, you
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: got to make the decision, you know, so it is
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: your vision in your, you know, study habits, the way
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: you look at it, the way you see it, your
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: feel for the game. And like Trevor said it, obviously
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: the other day, I thought like how much work goes
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: into a plan, and how much the offensive staff puts
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: into a plan. It's a lot of details. It's a
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: lot of checks.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: And balances, right?
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Because you could come up with any play, but, well, like,
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: what is your answer versus this? What is your answer
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: to that? And making sure you have the answers, but
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: you haven't overcooked them, right, to where you're, like, poking
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: holes at your own stuff. That is a balance that
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: always goes into game planning and ultimately goes into play
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: calling as well. What's the biggest reason that Trevor's been
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: more accurate this year? I mean, you can measure with
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: completion percentage and stuff like that.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Trust, I would imagine, has a lot to do with it, right?
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Trust in what he's doing, belief in what he's doing,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: understanding the concepts probably more, trust and belief in the
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: guys on the perimeter and the guys that he's throwing to,
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: trust and belief in the guys in front of him
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: that are blocking for him. But I think his feet
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: right now are pretty clean. I think his feet have been–
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: pretty darn clean for the last few weeks, playing on
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: time and in rhythm, but also when he does have
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: to move doing it while being able to still have
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: a platform to throw, I think was nice to continue
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: to see. And he's decisive right now, right? Like he's
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: decisive on his reads where it's like, okay, my primaries,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: but I know where my checkdowns are. I mean, I
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: thought a key play later in the game, I know
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: we were up, But we ran a play action. He
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: dumped it down to Chris Rodriguez in the flats and gained,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: I don't know, like 10 or 12.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Yards or something.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: But it was a two-man route concept that, like, at
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: the top of his drop, he just knew that it
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: wasn't open. So he just quickly, decisively, one hit, kind
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: of slid up in the pocket, dumped it down to Chris,
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: and it's like, That's the same thing as Tootin's touchdown
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: against Houston where it was a quick, decisive check down,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: accurate ball placement. That's playing the position because you have
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: so many.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Hard throws in a game. You have so many third downs, two.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Minutes, red zone, goal to goes, all those settings that
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: amplify and make the position what it is and how
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: difficult it is. It's can you make the easy ones easy, right?
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Like what we determine as easy, easy. And I think
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: that that's kind of something we're seeing right now.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Do you see your offense trending towards being more consistent
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: away from Jacksonville?
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Obviously, they've had a lot of success here at.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Home this year. Yeah.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Obviously, when you go on the road, it's always a
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: challenge no matter what.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Finding the balance of.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: The motion shifts, things like that, to continue to play
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: fast while also having the things that you need in
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: order to operate.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: In a game.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Looking forward to seeing us play, obviously, on the road
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: again on the silent again, going through that operation again,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: and playing cleaner and continuing to play as clean as
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: we were able to this past game, I think. And
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: that's always the challenge when you're playing on the road.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Last one. Liam, going back to that next man up,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I asked the guys about that in the locker room yesterday.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Every one of them mentioned the standard. Why is it
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: that the standard is so effective here? What are your
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: thoughts on hearing that from your players? Yeah, it's pretty cool.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: The consistency and messaging, I think, is always appropriate.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: It always helps when you're on the same page and
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: understand what the standard is.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: And then I think being honest.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: About roles and responsibilities, being honest about the moment, too,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: without it feeling like it's pressure.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Right? And so when you have guys go.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Down, like it's the NFL, nobody cares, you know, like
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: really nobody cares. And so these guys get paid to
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: do the job and they care about the job, right?
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: They love doing it. They wouldn't be doing it if
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: they weren't, you know, otherwise. And so when they understand
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: the expectation, when they have belief in what they're doing
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: and the coaches and players and building are able to
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: continue to pour into them, regardless if you're a starter
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: for every single game or if you're a practice squad
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: elevation guy or if you're on IR, whatever it is
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: that you're feeling like you're in it, you're involved, you're.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: A big part of.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: What we're doing, I think maybe helps guys believe in
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: themselves when they do have to go and step up
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: and give us meaningful reps. Great.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Thanks, guys.