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Mike Macdonald: "We're Really Excited About This Group" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: All right, man, so much has changed since yesterday.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Go ahead, can.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: You talk a little bit about Williams just what he
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: means to his team defensively as a player.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: It's just a personality for this team.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Man, he's one of our driving forces. He you know,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: you gotta give him a lot of credit on his
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: approach since you know, we met him a year ago.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: We knew he was an awesome guy.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: We knew he was a great football player, but what
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: we needed from him was more in terms of a
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: leadership role and asserting himself.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: And he does it his style.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: But you know, at this point in your career to
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: you know, to challenge yourself to take it to another level.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I think that speaks volumes for who he is. And
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and our coaches, you know, they deserve a shout out too,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: because they saw it in him and work with them,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: you know consistently. You know, Leslie does a great job
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: with that ad. But obviously we love him and but
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: but there's high expectations too. I mean, he's he's gotta win.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: He's gotta win rushes. He's got to be asruptive in
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the run game. He's got to set up set other
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: guys up when you know, they're giving him attention and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: in the blockings are in their protection scheme. So but
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: that's that's what you want as a premier player. You
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: know you want you want that added attention.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: How do you feel because I guess kind of wrap
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: it up the that's kind of where you guys are that.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: You guys, Yeah, you try to put in perspective, uh,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the feeling you want coming out, Like going into the
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: whole off season program, we wanted to be tough and connected. Uh.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: I think we're on our way to being tough.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: You know, we haven't had to prove it yet with
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: pads on, but definitely feel like we're a connected group.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I think we're We've been a lot of strides confidence
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: wise in the schemes that were running and understand what's
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: expected and how just how we roll here in general. So, uh,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: really excited about this group. There are a lot of
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: fun to coach. I think speak for the whole coaching
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: staff when I say that, and uh, yeah, we're just it's.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Good that Hey, we're going into a break here.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: So we can kind of regather and take a breath
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: and then and kind of recalibrate going into the int
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: the camp.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: But I'll tell you what, Like I think speak for
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: the whole team. We're really excited to get get this
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: thing going starting a training camp. Like what your assessing
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: where the offense is going in the right right where
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: they need to be.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: It's tough to assess right now, it really is. It's
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: going to come to life when you can separate the defense.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: You know, we're falling forward on some of these runs
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: and all of a sudden it's second and four rather
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: than hey, we're just kind of oh, that.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Looks like a soft spot right there, or we broke
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: a tackle.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: That's where it really comes to life when you're wearing
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: defenses down and then you know, here comes the actions
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: and the movements that you have to honor the run game.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: So I think we'll have a better feel a couple weeks.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Into into training camp, and you know at that point
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: you're going to start making decisions on narrowing down schematically
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of where we want to kind of center our focus
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: both personnel wise, and you know you can't be doing
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: everything all the time, so you're gonna have to make
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: some decisions as as camp starts unfold. Okay, the guys
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: are about that one when did you learn that not
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: simplifying but focus on fewer things in.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: The great effect? Who taught you that?
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Or where did that kind of really good? It's a
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: really interesting question. Earlier in my career, like when I
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: was a GA, that was we didn't execute very well
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and uh, we didn't we didn't play very confidently, so
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: that that was kind of a bummer. And then you know,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: going to Baltimore, there's such like elegant simplicity behind some
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: of the calls we had and you're like, man, we
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: could just say two words and all this comes to
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: life and the guys know it, and uh, that was
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: really cool. So there's some magic going on there. And
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: then you go to Michigan and you've got to make
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: some decisions on what you're going to do, you know,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: so I think I think we've kind of settled on Hey,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: there's a complimentary set of things that we want to
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: be able to get really really good at and uh,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: and then let's mix and math based on who we
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: got and have a clear vision about were you're trying
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: to create too. You know, you you got to know
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: where you're going so you can make decisions.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: This isn't the best.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Setting obviously to evaluate offensive linement, but just basically you
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: have to be able to see what presable, what you thought of.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: What.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Really excited about Gray, uh is what we thought he
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: was up to this point.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: I mean he's going to be that.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Again hard to go, but like just certain intentionality going
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: through the drills, hitting his spots, communicating, being decisive. With
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Charles on the left side, I think those guys are
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: working really well together. So yeah, really fired up to
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: see him in the fall. You know, with the great competition,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: the one on ones, getting the pads on, it's gonna
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: be a lot of fun to compete with the with
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the D line, the.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Offensive line in general, between the printing time season slowboards.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Well, I can tell you what, like right now, what
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: are you looking for? You want you want grow every day.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: You want the guys having the right mindset. Uh, finishing
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: plays the right way. You know, you can't do it physically,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: but you can chase the ball, you can run out
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  Speaker 1: of the stack, you can take the line of scrimmage.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: So the operation right now is.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Good.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I think it's something that we're still chasing.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I mean i'd say very good. Uh, but we'll see,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: and there's a lot of competition, like we haven't we
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: haven't settled some of the spots, and that's good. That's
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: that means we have a lot of guys that are options,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: so that's exciting.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: But you get rotated along offensive point end of the
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: season last year. Do you have an idea of like
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: when you're hoping to.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: See some of that settle and eating. Yeah, I think
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: we'd like to make some decisions sooner than later. Uh,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: but we're gonna let the place speak for itself. You know,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: we're not going to force decisions, but uh, we're gonna
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: be intentional on what happens, probably within the first two weeks.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Bras question of the grade, just the rookies in general,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: how have you seen that class? Just with the marketing
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: r and start.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: You know, they allow to have a lot of time
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: with these guys and they don't really have a place
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: to go after so they they're here a lot. But
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: what are you gonna do with that time? Are you
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: gonna make the most of it? Are you gonna take
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: advantage of it? Are you gonna spend time with one another?
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: You know you can eat meals together. Are you gonna
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: watch extra tape? These are the things that these guys
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: are doing. And you know, we kind of hinted it
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: at them, but you can you know, you can lead
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: a horse to water, we can't make them drink. They're
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: they're making those decisions on their own, which is really exciting.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: So it tells me they're a tight unit and they
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: really care about what shows up on tape and and
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: really their careers and they're taking ownership for what what
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: shows up AB out there. So uh again, early we'll
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: see when we're playing real football.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: But I you know, I'm optimistic. AB's done a great
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: job this spring.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: His body comp is is really improved, which speaks to
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: his work ethic.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: I think he's made strides. Now we got to let's go.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: You know, it's it's time to go prove it consistently.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: He knows that, and but he's right in the thick
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: of it with the battle at right guard thoughts on the.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Through help of receiver battle right now, I get a
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: lot of guys returning to Brothers froster like Ja Cob and.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Coach White who was used to make plays on theirs. Yeah,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: all handedituations, But.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts about that competition where it takes
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: there well, it's exciting and it's gonna come down to
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: a large part to how they play on special teams.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: You know, can you move people, can you block people?
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Can you get people on the ground. Who's gonna play
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: gunner for us, who's gonna be our personal protector, who's
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: gonna be our punt returner? I mean, all those things
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: are haven't been settled yet. So and then and go
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: make plays on offense. You know, can you dig out
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: of safety and be a force out there and also
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: come alive and in the past game as well? And
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: how does that how does that compliment the skill sets
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: you know of of Coop and and Jackson and UH
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and Quez. So but yeah, really excited about those guys.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: But it'll it'll come to life, you know, throughout the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: preseason both jerk.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Jobs and you'll have somebody in this year the last year.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: And how do you feel like who groups are the
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: competition partner? Uh, We're just we're wrapping a bunch of
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: guys right now and we'll see you know.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: That's why that's why we signed Sims and UH for
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: in a large part. But we got some got some
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: competition there and kick return battle too. So it's good.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Ryan a second.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Man, Uh, how can I how can I compliment Kobe
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: the best?
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: And we ain't talked about this to the team, to
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the team and uh and Ko did a great presentation
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: for Kobe in front of the guys the other day.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: And what stuck out to me was just like his intentionality.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: And he cared about the minor details all the time,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: even though his role wasn't a starter as a get go.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: So he has that chip on his shoulder naturally because
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: he's just a great editor.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: But uh, those are the type of.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Guys we want that they're not going to be deterred
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: by things that are outside of their control. And when
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: he finally got his opportunity, you know, he knocked it
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: out of the park. He's earn himself a great, great
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: role on our football team. And so you just you
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: take all that effort that he's done and move that forward.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: And it's just been expedited and he's in a great position.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I know, he's playing really confident right now and you
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: feel him out there, so we're excited for Cope.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: How do you feel about your quarterback?
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Yet? Together? Before I know you're asking that, great, Yeah,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: we got you know again, these are great battles going
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: into into the offseason. Now, I mean are we are
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: we not going to look to always improve our team
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: in any aspect now, We're always going to be out
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: there and try to be in everything just and chasing
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: edges on making us better. But the guys that are
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: with us right now kind of in that three four
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: live spot is uh is exciting me. The guys are
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: doing a great job. But go nail it this summer
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: and come back and go compete your butt.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Off right guard line.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: It seems like that you've been mostly Christian and at
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Bradford for googles, if you anticipate that still getting the
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: two hand rice in campers or more often more Yeah, well,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: we'll see when the pads come on, because you've got
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: to work out the center position.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Uh taois part of that equation.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: The rookies really haven't seen live and in color, so
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it's a two man race right now.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: It's more open. You've been having Nick all over the places,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: were a linebacker, safety for or kind of what have
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: you learned about his to go set on? You're on
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: the field with you guys, and what do you think
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: he can do. He can do with you compared to
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: what you found in the draft. Yes, it's cool.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of things we're gonna ask of him,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: and you're kind of in this phase now where you're
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: expose him to a lot of things.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Just see what hits what doesn't.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Uh, so you have a better feel for what you're
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: gonna ask him to do when we start getting close
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: to game time. So his spirit about it and attitude,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: you know, Okay, I'm gonna go do this drill today. Great,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go do this drill.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: You know, just keep building those skills and you know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: keep training yourself to be the best player you can.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: And and it's up to us as a coaching staff
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: to keep putting in positions where you can do stuff
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: that he does well. So, like I said, we've talked
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: about this at length, but just with a guy like
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: with that attitude that he's had every day is it's
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: just really.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Fun to work with. I was excited about the.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Ah man, I haven't really thought of it through that
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: lens wide out, tight end offensive line. Uh, what four
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: guys are gonna pass rush?
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Like? What four guys work the best? The back end
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: of our dB room. Who can play gunner for us,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: who's gonna play punt returner for us? What else?
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Who's gonna play full back for us? Backup linebacker, they're
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: fourth safety spot. It's not trying to be a smart alec,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: but like it really is all those things. If you
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: look at the off season, one guy or one group
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: really stick out. At your surprise sprime.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: You know, we're a young team and these guys have
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: a like a gravity about them. They just.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Just really have a great spirit about them. And so
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: there we're young, but I feel like we're mature. And
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: then we do have like a great couple of guys
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: like Vets that you know, they don't they don't have
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: to be here, and they could say, hey, look I'm
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: a Vet, I got my money, I know what's expected
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: to me. I can show up and everything's great.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: You can do that.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: And there's guys that do that and they have they
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: do a great you know, it is what it is.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: But our guys really decided to be invested in these
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: young guys and they care about where this team goes.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: And man that like fires you up.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Like these players saying that the seven sound does to
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: make mine easier.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: As protection.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Man, I think it allows the quarterback to play decisive.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: It puts pressure on the defense, you know, it does.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: It does. You can't get fancy because you'll get gashed.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: So you have to play sound football at all times.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: It's going to separate the levels of the defense. So
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: it's putting like your second level players in conflict consistently.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: As a play caller, you know you're taking you're taking
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: risks consistently, you know, if you really want to put
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: pressure on the offense. So, and it's all systematic, so
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: it's not like, hey, do this this one day and
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: then do this this the other day. It's just now
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: we just we kind of live in this lane and
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: then we you know, scramble it up and make it
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: look different and.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Take advantage of matchups that way.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: So I don't know if that makes any sense, but
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: I thought they are a good answer an injury. I mean,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: I don't talk about injuries, but Uchenna and USODI sectink
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: not for camp or yeah, well again, yeah, we'll see
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: with channel all the timetable stuff is a little.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Funky, right now.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Where have you seen him grow the most?
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Man? A lot of growth the whole team's growing.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I'll shoot, I'm growing, uh do you just like do
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: you see the poise, like the fundamental stuff what we're
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: asking with footwork and timing and reads. I'd actually just
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: set him today on like Ralese houn Erro. I was like, man,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: how much different does it feel right now compared to
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: two months ago? And gave me a big smile, just like, man,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I just feel great, you know, just so, But you don't.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: You don't just do that just by showing up every day.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: You got to be really intentional. And you know, we're
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: on record with his work ethic and stuff and that
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: that's that's really impressive. So he's earned kind of that
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: feeling of confidence right now.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: He's earned that.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Feeling going into the summer factory. I'm not here at
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: four thirty, so I can't I can't tell you that specifically.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: All right, thank you? All right, guys,