Latest / Press Pass / Press Pass | Press Taylor: "There's a lot of versatility in that room."

Transcript

Press Pass | Press Taylor: "There's a lot of versatility in that room." · Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's the difference Trevor Lawrence this time last year. I
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: think with all our guys, the biggest thing is they're
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: not hearing something for the first time. So now we
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: install something or talk about a concept or get into detail,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the questions they're asking are much further beyond what they're
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: asking last year. It kind of gets into specifics of
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the defenses this. Now we do that, and you have
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a little bit deeper level of conversation from that, especially
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: with the quarterbacks, which is always the goal to be
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: on the same page with those guys. So it's been
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: fun to see all our guys take the next step
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: in the system.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: We're happy with how Trevor approached the off season from
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: your exit meetings and things like that.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah, he was very receptive. And that's the one
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: thing about Trevor. His maturity level is off the charts.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: So you're able to sit down and say, here's what
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: we see, here's what we need to improve on. He
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: generally has the same notes for the most part, here's
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: or you know, we'll ask what are your thoughts and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: he kind of says the same thing. We're tracking. So
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: that's very encouraging for us as a coaching staff to
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: kind of already see the same things, want to improve
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: on the same things, whether that's fundamentals with him or
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: schematics in terms of our whole offense.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Streuss that there's no depth chart in place, but knowing
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: that Cam isn't here, Anton playing right, Walker playing left,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: who else have you seen kind of in the rotation
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: maybe emerge on that offensive line, especially if Ben isn't
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: fully healthy just yet.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, early on, I think the biggest thing is it
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: gives everbody an opportunity to play a lot of different spots.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: So guys like Blake Hants, you know, Shatley continues to move.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Shatley plays guard, plays center. You'll see that a lot.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: You know, as we go basically up until week one,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: we move guys all over the spot, all over the place,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: just because you have to be ready to do that.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: You know, when you get into the six, seven, eight
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: linemen on game day, those guys have to fill multiple
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: spots or you know, maybe a starter moves to a
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: different spot and they fill one of those outside spots.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: So we kind of cross train a lot of different guys.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: So it's been a good experience to see all these
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: guys now is our first time to line up across
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: from a defense and kind of get a chance now
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: to see where we've gone in terms of that development.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: That said about the versatility, Cooper hodgees, what have you
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: seen from.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Him so far? He's really strong and you see that
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: just in the individual periods and the drill work he's
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: done with Coach Rauscher and those guys have done a
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: good job learning and picking it up. You know, our
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: system and the way we speak and the way we communicate,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: and how different it is from what they were doing
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: six months ago in college.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Changed through and you have a lot of guys this
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: year last year end.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, in terms of the way we finished last year,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I do think, you know, adding a guy like Tank
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and then adding Jamichael Hasty gets a chance now to
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: sit in there from day one of install as opposed
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: to he was essentially learning game plans every week last year.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: He never really had a foundation of the offense. And
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: then those guys that have been in there, the Snoop
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: and the TJ and those types of guys adding dearness
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: to the mix. Those guys are now sitting in there
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: with an opportunity to outside of dearness they know what
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: we're talking about. When we say a word, now they
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: have a picture in their mind, and then we get
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: into the details of it and get a chance to
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: clean up some of the things. So there's there's a
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: lot of versatility in that room. There's a lot of
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: guys that compliment each other well, I think. So now
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: we get a chance to see it on the field.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Do you think that.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: A little bit more us?
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's a possibility of, you know, keeping
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: everybody fresh through the long run of the season. There
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: was times obviously where Travis kind of gets the hot hand,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: you want to keep riding that wave. But now I
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: think we we've got a pretty good stable of backs
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: that compliment each other well, and we'll all have a
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: role in some way, shape or form.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Jimbal Couter knows the playbook, the hand signals, the checks,
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: everything to Indianapolis. Indianapolis, how much of what you do
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: has to be changed?
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: We changed everything? He knows nothing. We changed every word,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: every hand. Everything's foreign to everybody. You could you know, yeah,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: we changed certain things, and all it takes is one thing,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: you know, if you if he thinks there's one thing,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: and he were to communicate that to somebody, and all
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, they hear that, see that, and it's
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: not the same thing. Okay, you stopped talking. We're gonna
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: play our defense the same it's the same way, and coaches,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: we love to live in that paranoia of you know,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: the same thing. It's the same situation. Last year I
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: came from Indy, a division rival, played him twice, same
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: type of deal. I knew everything they were doing verbally,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: But it's so tough to spend time in your week
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: trying to do that. Now, obviously week one, he's got
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: time to sit in the off season talk about that.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: But you know, we we already operate with a certain
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: paranoid of protecting our words and codes and signals. So
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: we're aware of those things, and I feel confident that
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: we'll be able to combat that knowledge. I don't know.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: I don't take any that's all our players. So they
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: did a good job. We also we didn't go to it,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: so I wish we did. I would take they want
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: it there. It's a long time ago. I've been really
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: impressed with Calvin. We've watched I've watched every snap Calvin's
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: played in the NFL, just like a lot of our
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: guys have, so we're very confident in the player we're
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: getting and then to be able to meet him in person,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: you know, you kind of We've had a lot of
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: people to batch for him, obviously going back to when
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: we acquired him. But the work he's put in this
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: off seas has been impressive, just in terms of meeting
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the extra work he does, and you can tell he's
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: doing it because he comes in the next day, He's
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: got his list of questions. They're very thought out. You
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: can tell he's peaked ahead of the install or just
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: looking a couple of days ahead as we gone. So
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: he's done a great job just intermixing with the group
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: and kind of making his own role. And then kind
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: of versatility does he add to that room. I think
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: that's the biggest thing, is the versatility. You know, we
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: have guys already that are kind of like that. You know,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Luke Ferrell is that y F type role. He could
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: play on the ball, play off the ball, do different things.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Evan's kind of always been that way. I think Evan
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: really showed a lot of growth as an inline blocker
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: last year, and we used him in different ways to
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: do that, and I think Brenton. That's kind of what
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: he did in college. You know, he played off the ball.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: He was able to insert through the line, he's able
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: block on the edge, he was able to align on
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the perimeter and do a number of different things that
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: we feel like fits what we already do. So it's
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: not taking and you know this square peg fitting in
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: a round hole here. It's somebody that has familiarity and
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the types of things we're gonna ask him to do.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Evan is not here until training camp. Would you be
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: worried at all?
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Not at all. No, Just what Evan showed us last year,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: the type of worker he is. We have. We have
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: zero concerns that Evan's gonna show up. When Evan shows up,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: he's gonna be ready to roll.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: We know that you guys had communication as a coaching
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: staff with him at all.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Just Hi, Hello, how you doing? Checking in on him
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that, you know, keeping it within the
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: guidelines of what we're allowed to do. But you know
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: we've all checked on him and we know he's working,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: he's diligent, He's gonna be ready to roll.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: We need to become evident when you have discussions internally
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: that we get it better in short yardage.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: I mean throughout the year. You know, we always every
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: single week we take a look at the things we've
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: done and just your overall third down percentage and then
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: trying to narrow kind of where that happens. And short
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: yardage was certainly something we were not as effective as
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: we wanted to be in certain whether it's third down
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: or fourth down. We felt like we needed to do
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: a better job of that, and and that kind of
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: haunted us a little bit, especially early on in the
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: year when we kind of had that cold streak as
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: an offense. So that's certainly something we've identified. We kind
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: of had the season ended, probably the next day, we
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: all kind of sat down as offense staff outlined some
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: things we needed to improve on right then while it
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: was fresh, and then we spent our offseason kind of
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: forging ahead with how to solve these issues, how to
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: give these answers to our players. That solution a fullback
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: just again potentially add some versatility, and we have guys, again,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: how are guys listed in the system of being a fullback,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: whatever that may be. We have guys that have lined
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: in a full back type position. They may be a
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: tight end but it's just one more chess piece for us.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Of we send this guy on the field, defense doesn't
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: know does he align wide, is he going to align
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: in a wing set? Is he going to ligne with
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: his hand on the ground? Is he give me a fullback?
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: So it just kind of adds some versatility, and then
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: we kind of go through weekly game planning of where
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: do we get an advantage with this player. Do we
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: just lining up in the fullback spot and creating an
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: extra gap inside give us an advantage in some way?
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Saper form? Is this something were knowledgeable enough to know
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: how they're going to play us when you just sprinkle
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: it here and there. So there's a lot of factors
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: to go into that. But if it's something that gives
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: us an advantage, whether it's weekly or throughout the season,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: something we're going to dig into.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Zion had a really good season last year. What do
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: you think went into having so much successful you, guys.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: I think Zay's a really good player, and I think
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Zay had always been a really good player, certainly had
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: opportunities last year and took advantage of those. And there
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: were you know, games he kind of rode the wave
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and he was he was the hot hand. We kept
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: feeding him and he produced for us. And again, like
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: like we were talking about some other things, Zay's extremely versatile. Uh.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: You know, one of the things we did last season
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: when we went into free agency and acquiring the receiver
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: readjusting our receiver room. I guess you say we wanted
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: to add some speed. And when you looked at all
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the free agents available and you looked at their time speed,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the GPS in game speed, and then the number of
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: times they were to do that, Zay was throughout the
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: course of the last three years, I think was one
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: of the top five guys in the category receivers we
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: were looking at in terms of how fast he played
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: and how consistently he played that fast. So we knew
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Whatay was going to bring to us. Plus he's a
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: smart guy. He's extremely hard worker, He's diligent. So that
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: adds to the room and the versatility that all these
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: guys bring to USA. For well, I think just he's
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: not a rookie anymore, you know. So now when we
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: talk through the exotic fronts that a defense can present
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: to you, or you know, just the out of ordinary
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: things that you may see from time to time, he's
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: got a base, he's got a foundation that we've talked through.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: You know, you see the growth of maturity and with
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: the way he communicates with the rest of the room
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: because he is the guy now Brandon Sheriff, maybe the
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: leader in the room in terms of setting the culture
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: and setting the tone. But everybody's looking to look because
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: everybody goes off Luke's communication a lot of times because
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: we work our way inside out in our progression, our communication.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: So you see that growth from him into year two
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: so far, I believe.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: So.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, I haven't sat there and worked out with him,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: but I'm guessing he's stronger than me. So that's pretty
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: strong factor. Was that for you guys in terms of yeah, certainly,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of centers that are probably
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: outmatched with a lot of these true shades or true
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: nose tackles inside. So that was something that and I
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: think one of the hardest things guys go through is
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: going from their senior year of college straight into their
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: rookie year, just in terms of you haven't had a break,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: you haven't had a chance to physically rest, so you
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: start to see guys get worn down. I think with Luke,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: he didn't necessarily see that like hitting that rookie wall.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: There's certainly we want him to continue to grow physically,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: so his strength is a big part of that. Just
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: as you take on these interior nose tackles that are big,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: strong dudes and weigh a lot. I mean, that's that's
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: certainly an element of his game that continue to add
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: to Thanks guys,