Latest / Seahawks Press Pass / Brian Fleury On The Run Game, Jaxon Smith-Njigba's Impact On Offense

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Brian Fleury On The Run Game, Jaxon Smith-Njigba's Impact On Offense · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Do you ever find yourself switching back and forth between
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: offensive and defensive mindset where it's like an endless loop?
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  Speaker 2: It's always an endless loop when you're thinking about attacking defenses,
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  Speaker 2: but you lived on that side of the ball. You
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  Speaker 2: can see some of the techniques and how they're being taught,
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  Speaker 2: and you almost are correcting things in your brain, but
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  Speaker 2: wait a minute, no, I want to take advantage of that.
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  Speaker 2: So it's always an endless loop.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: That was your first full game with Sam Darnold. At
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  Speaker 1: what point did it feel like you guys had settled in,
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  Speaker 1: or was there no drop-off from the.
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  Speaker 2: Few plays you got week one? I would say there
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  Speaker 2: was no drop-off. Even last week in practice, it felt
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  Speaker 2: like pretty smooth. But there is an element of us
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  Speaker 2: still getting to know each other. Like you said, it
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  Speaker 2: was our first full game together. So being able to
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  Speaker 2: be with him and see what his reactions are to
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  Speaker 2: certain plays on the sideline and the conversations we're able
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  Speaker 2: to have, that was our first real experience going through
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  Speaker 2: that process. So I think it went well and will
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  Speaker 2: continue to grow.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously, you guys got a lot of people you could
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  Speaker 1: try to get the ball to receiving-wise. Jackson's obviously having
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: a great season so far. Do you consider it a
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  Speaker 1: challenge trying to get other people involved, or is it
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  Speaker 1: just kind of the ball goes where it goes and
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  Speaker 1: you just kind of go.
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  Speaker 2: With it that way? There's a lot of plays in
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  Speaker 2: the plan that are designed to go to other people.
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  Speaker 2: In certain situations, obviously, we lean towards Jax because of
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  Speaker 2: what he brings to the table, but the defense is
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  Speaker 2: really responsible for where the ball goes, in all honesty.
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  Speaker 2: If they take away the first part of the progression
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  Speaker 2: and then it goes to two or three and we've
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  Speaker 2: got really talented players in all those situations, it just
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  Speaker 2: hasn't found its way all the way back to the
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  Speaker 2: backside of the progression yet very often.
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  Speaker 1: You said looking at the reaction, what things are you
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  Speaker 1: looking for?
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  Speaker 2: Everything, both positive and negative reactions, just how he's seeing
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  Speaker 2: the game and making sure that we're seeing it the
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  Speaker 2: same way, me from my perspective on the sideline and
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  Speaker 2: him from standing in the pocket. Even beyond that, not
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  Speaker 2: only just pass plays, but how he's reading defenses when
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  Speaker 2: we're asking him to change plays at the line of scrimmage,
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  Speaker 2: just being able to feel how well he sees things
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  Speaker 2: and just make sure we're communicating well about that.
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  Speaker 1: One of the best first down teams in the NFL
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  Speaker 1: and you're not as good on second and long. What's
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  Speaker 1: the difference between first and 10 and second and 10
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  Speaker 1: for a play caller?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, obviously you have one less down to
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  Speaker 2: convert before you have to punt. The first down, I
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  Speaker 2: think everything's wide open. Second down, it like dictates the
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  Speaker 2: terms on the side of the defense a little bit more.
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  Speaker 2: You can get more tendencies in terms of what they're playing.
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  Speaker 2: And it's just a mindset of whether you're trying to
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  Speaker 2: get half the yardage back to put yourself in a
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  Speaker 2: manageable third down if you're trying to skip third down altogether,
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  Speaker 2: if you're just trying to do something to keep the
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  Speaker 2: defense off balance. So there's a lot of different ways
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  Speaker 2: to approach it, and it kind of goes game to game.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: When you went back and watched it, what stood out
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  Speaker 1: to you about the run game and sort of the
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  Speaker 1: struggles it.
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  Speaker 2: Gave it going? Yeah, going into it, they're obviously heavily
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  Speaker 2: invested in their front seven. I think they've dedicated the
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: most salary cap space in the league to that area,
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  Speaker 2: and Durante does a phenomenal job with the schematics of
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  Speaker 2: making it really challenging to run the ball, especially early
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  Speaker 2: in the game. So we had a plan to try
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  Speaker 2: and sustain the run. We knew it was going to
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  Speaker 2: be challenging. That's why we kind of went to some
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  Speaker 2: of the passes early on, some of the play actions
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  Speaker 2: and screens, trying to loosen them up. And then the game,
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  Speaker 2: the way it flowed, kind of dictated getting away from
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  Speaker 2: it a little bit later on when you find yourself
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  Speaker 2: down 14 in the middle of the third quarter, knowing
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  Speaker 2: that third down offers different challenges. So trying to avoid
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  Speaker 2: some of that, it just kind of led to us
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  Speaker 2: getting to some plays we felt really good about in
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  Speaker 2: the pass game and moving away from that side of things. No,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, he's not the first rookie to have ball
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  Speaker 2: security issues, right? And so I have a lot of
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  Speaker 2: confidence in Coach Hamm to work him through that and
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  Speaker 2: bring him along in the right way, in a positive way.
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  Speaker 2: I have no doubt at all that he'll overcome that.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: When you have some short yardage challenges, is it tempting
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  Speaker 1: to use the Varner play more often?
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  Speaker 2: We kind of have parameters as to when that's available,
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  Speaker 2: the actual distance, because it's not ever just fourth and one.
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  Speaker 2: It's fourth and half a yard. It's fourth and two-thirds
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  Speaker 2: of a yard. So we talk about where we feel
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  Speaker 2: good about executing that at a high percentage and when
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  Speaker 2: we don't. And then there's a lot of other ways
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  Speaker 2: to gain a yard.
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  Speaker 1: Was it like a long yard near the goal line
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  Speaker 1: where you guys didn't get it?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was not a consideration for that play at all.
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  Speaker 1: With Jax, I mean, we talk about him all the time,
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  Speaker 1: but in the red zone in particular, you think of
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  Speaker 1: red zone guys being the big 6'4, Calvin Johnson types.
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  Speaker 1: What about his game allows him to be so good in.
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  Speaker 2: The red zone when he's not the biggest guy? He's
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  Speaker 2: just got a really diverse route tree and a great
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  Speaker 2: feeling for leverage in space. And leverage meaning he can
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  Speaker 2: feel where a defender is on him and how much
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  Speaker 2: more he might have to lean in one direction before
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  Speaker 2: he counters. And it's something that you can't really teach.
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  Speaker 2: It's just his unique body presence and feel for space
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  Speaker 2: and time. Have you thought the right guard rotation has
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  Speaker 2: kind of worked out these last couple weeks? It's worked
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: out the way we hoped. It's not an indictment on Christian.
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  Speaker 2: Christian could play the whole game and we'd be fine
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  Speaker 2: with it. The thought is that Bo at some point
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  Speaker 2: might have to play in a much larger role, and
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  Speaker 2: we would hate for that to be his first experience.
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  Speaker 2: So the thought is just simply the best possible way
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  Speaker 2: to develop him while putting ourselves in a good position
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  Speaker 2: for now and then equally down the road.
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  Speaker 1: He lost a little something with Robbie when he went
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  Speaker 1: down with injury for the.
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  Speaker 2: First season, but Brady's come in and given you a
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  Speaker 2: little bit of a pass-catching element out of that spot, too.
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  Speaker 2: Have you seen him in the first couple games? He's
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  Speaker 2: had a couple big contributions. No, for sure. He's contributing
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  Speaker 2: more on offense than he ever has, and we're happy
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  Speaker 2: with what he's done so far. We're going to continue
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  Speaker 2: to rotate all those guys. I'm sure you guys have
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: noticed that the tight end, fullback, running back rotation is
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: pretty significant, and that's going to continue to be the case.
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  Speaker 2: We feel good about his role. but we're not going
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  Speaker 2: to maximize it when we've got other players that can
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  Speaker 2: do things. We're just trying to put everybody in a
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  Speaker 2: situation to utilize their strengths.
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  Speaker 1: Did you have familiarity with Torrey Horton before you got here,
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  Speaker 1: and what have you learned about him since you got here?
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  Speaker 2: No, I was aware that he had a number of
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  Speaker 2: touchdowns before he got hurt, but I didn't really see
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  Speaker 2: that until I got here. And then just being able
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  Speaker 2: to really, since training camp, get on the grass with
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  Speaker 2: him and see really what his skill set is has
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  Speaker 2: been exciting. I was thrilled that he was able to
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  Speaker 2: get back out there after such a long break and
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  Speaker 2: make some catches, and I think that's just going to
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  Speaker 2: continue to grow.
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  Speaker 1: Jalen Sandell, I talked to Grace Abel. He's a man
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  Speaker 1: of few words but handles his business.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: What can you say about Jalen's leadership? His leadership is awesome.
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  Speaker 2: He's got a really great mind for the position and
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  Speaker 2: just for football in general. I love the conversations we
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  Speaker 2: have at practice. He's always coming up to me and
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  Speaker 2: asking me questions about certain plays and then also asking
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  Speaker 2: me to call certain plays in certain situations where he
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  Speaker 2: can show off his athleticism and things like that. It's fun.
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  Speaker 2: We have a great dynamic.
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  Speaker 1: Anything else?
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.