Latest / Seahawks Press Pass / Head Coach Mike Macdonald Previews Week 3 vs. Commanders

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Head Coach Mike Macdonald Previews Week 3 vs. Commanders · Seahawks Press Pass

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  Speaker 1: All right, great to see everybody. Looking forward to today's Wednesday.
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  Speaker 1: This is our first kind of normal seven-day week of
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  Speaker 1: the season. I think one thing that the way our
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  Speaker 1: schedule's laid out this year is really home and away,
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  Speaker 1: but just having kind of the varied process weeks of
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  Speaker 1: what type of games we're playing and when. So this
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  Speaker 1: is our first 10 a.m. on the East Coast. So
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  Speaker 1: message today is let's Let's be decisive in our process.
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  Speaker 1: Let's nail today, and then let's have a great strategy
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  Speaker 1: going into the weekend. So looking forward to today's practice.
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  Speaker 2: It is still a fairly small sample size.
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  Speaker 3: With just two weeks, you've got a couple of new
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  Speaker 3: coordinators over there. How have you evaluated your ability to
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  Speaker 3: kind of guess those tendencies.
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  Speaker 4: In the.
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  Speaker 1: Last couple of weeks? I think what we expected to
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  Speaker 1: be true is kind of unfolding. Like there's, you know,
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  Speaker 1: teams are– Teams can run anything they want. And you're
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  Speaker 1: not going to get to all those plays in the
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  Speaker 1: first few weeks. But I think it is a similar story,
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  Speaker 1: similar messaging for the first, for this game at least.
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  Speaker 1: I think you've got to get out of the first
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  Speaker 1: quarter to the third of the season to really declare
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  Speaker 1: what you are schematically. So unfortunately, it's the same story
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  Speaker 1: as I've said the last couple of weeks.
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  Speaker 5: What's your process for determining what a player is capable of?
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  Speaker 5: Do you give them a bunch at the start? Do
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  Speaker 5: you give them a little bit at a time?
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  Speaker 1: How do you determine their ceiling and their capabilities? I
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  Speaker 1: think you find that out different ways. There's examples that
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  Speaker 1: come to the top of my mind of maybe it's
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  Speaker 1: a pass rusher that might not have won the rep,
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  Speaker 1: but you can see the lower body flex, you can
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  Speaker 1: see the twitch, and then, oh man, that'd be really
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  Speaker 1: cool that we could work on him like this and
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  Speaker 1: you can kind of see what can be Same thing, like,
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  Speaker 1: coverage ability, the movement ability. You know, Jadarian Price, like,
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  Speaker 1: catching the ball out of the backfield is a great example.
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  Speaker 1: And then, you know, ultimately, like, we do ask, I
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  Speaker 1: think we have, like, an installation philosophy throughout camp and
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  Speaker 1: throughout the spring where it's a lot of stuff that
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  Speaker 1: we don't necessarily call throughout the season, but you are, like,
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  Speaker 1: trying to hit all the things, the skills, the movements
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  Speaker 1: to see what guys are able to do, you know,
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  Speaker 1: and then it kind of, I think it kind of
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  Speaker 1: like naturally, you know, it kind of whittles down or
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  Speaker 1: narrows down as training camps starts to unfold, and especially
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  Speaker 1: this time of year.
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  Speaker 5: All up to that, you have some guys with pretty
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  Speaker 5: unique abilities. When you have guys with unique abilities, does
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  Speaker 5: it kind of challenge coaches' imaginations of what to.
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  Speaker 6: Do with them?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I think, like Nick's situation is a
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  Speaker 1: great example. He's on his way back, so. I think
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  Speaker 1: it's even more of an emphasis right now. Let's make
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  Speaker 1: sure it's a tight plan on what we're asking him
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  Speaker 1: to do because you do get excited about some of
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  Speaker 1: the things he's able to do. And there's only so
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  Speaker 1: many reps in a week. So we have to be really,
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  Speaker 1: we have to kind of protect ourselves on that to
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  Speaker 1: make sure that we get the best version of Nick
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  Speaker 1: when he's out there.
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  Speaker 4: Is he ready to handle like a normal workload or
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  Speaker 4: is he still ramping back up?
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  Speaker 1: It's significantly higher. I think.
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  Speaker 1: I'd say it's significantly higher. See how the game unfolds,
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  Speaker 1: see how he feels, but he'll be out there a
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  Speaker 1: good bit.
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  Speaker 2: And then Sam, what's the plan in terms of how
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  Speaker 2: much he's going to do today, assuming he's still practicing?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he'll practice today. He's not going to take every
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  Speaker 1: rep today, and then we'll kind of ramp it up
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  Speaker 1: as the week goes.
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  Speaker 6: I mean, does he have to be fully healthy to start,
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  Speaker 6: or kind of, I guess, what's the decision there with
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  Speaker 6: him and Drew?
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  Speaker 1: Fully healthy.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what fully healthy necessarily means. I'd say, like,
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  Speaker 1: I think we'll make a decision at some point before Friday,
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  Speaker 1: before Friday's over, you know. Like, I don't think we'd
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  Speaker 1: go into the weekend not knowing if he's going to play.
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  Speaker 1: But it's on a good track right now, assuming today
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  Speaker 1: goes well.
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  Speaker 4: Does how Drew's played and how your defense played change
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  Speaker 4: at all your calculus on maybe being more conservative with
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  Speaker 4: Sam because things are going okay right now?
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  Speaker 1: I don't think so. Well, if it was something where
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  Speaker 1: he was at risk of getting worse, over the normal
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  Speaker 1: risk you take by taking a field, that might be
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  Speaker 1: part of the conversation. But really, it's a function at
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  Speaker 1: this point of does he feel good enough to play.
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  Speaker 6: Building off of Brian's question, what have you learned about
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  Speaker 6: Rodney Thomas' capabilities in the first two weeks?
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  Speaker 1: He's... Shout-out to Dennis Green. He's the guy we thought
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  Speaker 1: he was. Yeah, I mean, the things we saw on tape,
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  Speaker 1: shout-out to our personnel staff for identifying the type of
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  Speaker 1: player and person that would thrive here, and Rodney's done
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  Speaker 1: a great job coming in and working his tail off
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  Speaker 1: to play at a high level. So shout-out to Rodney. Mike,
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  Speaker 1: what was your reaction to the stuff that came out yesterday.
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  Speaker 5: The video being released?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's– It's something that I didn't intend
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  Speaker 1: for public use. But, you know, it just probably was
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  Speaker 1: the most appropriate thing to reach out to Sean and
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  Speaker 1: really just apologize to him for having that end up
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  Speaker 1: be public where it wasn't meant to. And, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you're kind of something that they have to deal with
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  Speaker 1: in real time that wasn't really, you know, on their end.
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  Speaker 1: So that's really where you're like, crap. But it's a
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  Speaker 1: lesson learned. You know, honestly, I've got to be better
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  Speaker 1: in that moment for understanding, like, look, I'm responsible for
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  Speaker 1: what I say, really, no matter the circumstance, whether you're
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  Speaker 1: mic'd up, whether you're not, whether you have a certain
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  Speaker 1: type of understanding. So, you know, I fell short in
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  Speaker 1: that moment. So it stings for me, frankly, but it's
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  Speaker 1: something that I'm definitely going to learn from. And it's
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  Speaker 1: just a good example. We just, you know, got to
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  Speaker 1: take responsibility for the things that we say, so.
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  Speaker 6: Can you tell us what was Sean's reaction?
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  Speaker 1: Sean was great. Sean was great. I'll say I respect
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  Speaker 1: the heck out of him and his program. Always have.
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  Speaker 1: He's a phenomenal football coach. It's been great to get
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  Speaker 1: to know him at the owners meetings the last couple years.
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  Speaker 1: And he was awesome. So I know we're both looking
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  Speaker 1: forward to moving forward from it, but I really appreciate
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  Speaker 1: how he handled it.
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  Speaker 5: Can you help us understand the circumstances?
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  Speaker 2: Were you just kind of shooting the breeze with Graham
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  Speaker 2: before you thought everything was rolling?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Is it okay if this is all on the record?
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  Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say if I'm talking, I'm
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  Speaker 1: responsible for what I'm saying.
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  Speaker 2: Did you hear from anybody from the show about how
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  Speaker 2: it got out or anything like that?
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  Speaker 1: It's not important on all those details, but it got out.
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  Speaker 3: When it comes to explosive plays, last week A.B. was
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  Speaker 3: saying defensively they tend to come down to a broken tackle,
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  Speaker 3: which is why the focus is on tackling. On the
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  Speaker 3: offensive side, the way that you guys have been able
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  Speaker 3: to create the explosives, are you trying to do that
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  Speaker 3: more schematically or taking advantage of maybe fundamentals that would
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  Speaker 3: slip on defense?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure. I think it's important to quote-unquote hunt defensively
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  Speaker 1: explosive plays. Every play is in for a reason. I
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  Speaker 1: think you do have to look at it. When you're
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  Speaker 1: watching tape, you have to look at it through that lens.
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  Speaker 1: There's a lot of manpower. There's a lot of resources
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  Speaker 1: being invested into what plays are being run and when.
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  Speaker 1: If you assume that's true, you have to have an understanding.
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  Speaker 1: You try to connect the dots on why you're trying
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  Speaker 1: to run certain things. We run things for a reason.
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  Speaker 1: Let me put it that way. However, you have to
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  Speaker 1: abide by your rules so we can execute the right
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  Speaker 1: way so you're not forcing the ball. But when things
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  Speaker 1: are there, you want to feel like guys have the
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  Speaker 1: liberty to go rip it, and we'll go from there.
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  Speaker 1: But if you just look at where explosive plays come from,
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  Speaker 1: to your point, a lot of them are missed tackles.
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  Speaker 1: And to me, that's a function of applying pressure on
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  Speaker 1: the other team. If we can populate the ball on
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  Speaker 1: defense and take great angles, well, it's going to be
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  Speaker 1: hard to create explosive plays. If we can eliminate great
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  Speaker 1: angles on their defense with all our ball carriers and
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  Speaker 1: keep pushing piles and keep the ball moving forward, well,
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  Speaker 1: that's going to apply pressure on the defense. And eventually,
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  Speaker 1: the ball will pop. So that's how we see it.
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  Speaker 5: There's obviously a lot of focus on pass rush and
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  Speaker 5: how you dissect pass protection and create pressure. What about
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  Speaker 5: run blocking? How much time, how much different is it
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  Speaker 5: working on dissecting run blocking and attacking those plays?
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  Speaker 1: It's important. I've learned, I've actually, like from our coaching staff,
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  Speaker 1: I've learned a lot in the last probably year or
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  Speaker 1: two about how teams block things certain way in the
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  Speaker 1: run game. And it's really interesting to hear about how
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  Speaker 1: our coaches coach how we play certain blocks versus certain fronts,
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  Speaker 1: certain looks. Definitely more than I had an awareness of
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  Speaker 1: early in my career. So I think that's kind of
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  Speaker 1: an edge that we're chasing right now over the last
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  Speaker 1: 24 months or so where I feel like it's really
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  Speaker 1: helped our run defense, where guys can play more decisively
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  Speaker 1: and play blocks, things like that. But having an understanding
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  Speaker 1: about who's going to block who and things like that
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  Speaker 1: is important when you're designing pressures.
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  Speaker 4: Things like that.
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  Speaker 5: So are you talking about offensive coaches and getting more
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  Speaker 5: exposed to the offensive ideas that's helped.
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  Speaker 1: You, or defensive? No, our our defensive coaches.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 6: What is, uh, did Darian or Darian price any, any like,
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  Speaker 6: will he practice this week or today?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he'll, uh, he'll, he'll practice this week today. We'll
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  Speaker 1: see what, what capacity it is, but it'll be out there.
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  Speaker 6: Mike, what have you sort of.
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  Speaker 1: Taken away from Dante Fowler so far? I know it's
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  Speaker 1: been limited snaps, but, when he's been out there? What's
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  Speaker 1: kind of stuff? He's been, he's been great. He's, he's
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  Speaker 1: got like a great spirit about him. He's got a
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  Speaker 1: unique personality. Another example of like, you can kind of
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  Speaker 1: just be your own guy and be a great Seahawk
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  Speaker 1: at the same time, you know, just comes in all
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  Speaker 1: different backgrounds and personality types. But he's a great example
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  Speaker 1: of like things that you see he's able to do
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  Speaker 1: with his, with his body when he's like pass rushing
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  Speaker 1: and his movement ability is really remarkable. So then that's
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  Speaker 1: when you start to come up with ideas of how
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  Speaker 1: you could use them and where, you know, how he
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  Speaker 1: set up certain pass rushes, who he's playing off of,
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  Speaker 1: things like that. I think he's off to a strong start,
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  Speaker 1: but I think he's playing really good football right now,
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  Speaker 1: so I'm excited about him.
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  Speaker 3: Is that.
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  Speaker 1: Bendability or whatever, is that kind of maybe the trait
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  Speaker 1: that stands out the most compared to the other guys
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  Speaker 1: you have up on the front? I wouldn't say compared
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  Speaker 1: to other guys. I would just say that's one of
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  Speaker 1: his best skill sets, yeah, for sure.
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  Speaker 6: Mike, with Anthony going on IR, just What you saw
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  Speaker 6: from Christian and Bo, how much confidence do you have
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  Speaker 6: in those guys.
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  Speaker 4: To film it?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's unfortunate with AB. I think it's another example
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  Speaker 1: of a guy, unfortunately, isn't going to be available. Luckily,
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  Speaker 1: I think AB is going to be able to make
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  Speaker 1: a full recovery and come back. Best version of himself yet, hopefully.
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  Speaker 1: But with the way those guys played, I think we
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  Speaker 1: got great competition right there. And I'm excited to see
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  Speaker 1: him practice. I think it was cool to talk to
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  Speaker 1: him after the game and You know, Christian hasn't played
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  Speaker 1: a full game in a while, so to see him
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  Speaker 1: have some confidence about him, Bo playing his first NFL game,
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  Speaker 1: I thought that was really cool.
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  Speaker 5: Do you expect Anthony back this season?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Is it one of those.
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  Speaker 4: Four-week minimum deals or a longer term than that?
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  Speaker 1: I think you're looking at the shorter side of whatever
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  Speaker 1: that means, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: With Bo specifically, you've seen him enough now and seen
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  Speaker 2: him in some game action now. What stands out about
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  Speaker 2: his game, like getting into the weeds with it?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's got really good power, plays with power, and
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  Speaker 1: then I've been really impressed on how he finishes plays,
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  Speaker 1: just chasing the pile, chasing the ball in passing plays.
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  Speaker 1: Game's not too big for him. There's poise, there's strength,
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  Speaker 1: so a lot of good stuff.
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  Speaker 5: Do you expect to open Zach Charbonnet's practice window this week?
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  Speaker 1: Not this week.
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  Speaker 2: Mike, when you look at your offense now through two weeks,
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  Speaker 2: kind of a big picture, what do you kind of
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  Speaker 2: make out of it and what do you like about it? Obviously,
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  Speaker 2: it's been very Jax heavy, but it's worked out well
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  Speaker 2: for you and kind of how the process is going
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  Speaker 2: with Brian.
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  Speaker 1: It's a big question. There's a lot to unpack there.
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  Speaker 1: I think we're off to a strong start. I love, like,
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  Speaker 1: the spirit about how we're doing business right now. I
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  Speaker 1: think there's a lot of growth between our staff and
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  Speaker 1: Brian and our players, like, We talk about that connective
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  Speaker 1: tissue all the time, about how to nail in the
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  Speaker 1: process and iron things out. I think considering the dynamic
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  Speaker 1: of the group, I'm really impressed about how they've been operating.
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  Speaker 1: And I think we're establishing an identity too, which is exciting.
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  Speaker 1: But again, we're still early in the season. And so
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  Speaker 1: to feel the sense of urgency about growth and opportunity
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  Speaker 1: we have to take our game to another level, really
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  Speaker 1: in different phases of our offense, is exciting. It's great
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  Speaker 1: when you come in as like, from my perspective, and
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  Speaker 1: there's things as, hey, this is awesome, this is awesome,
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  Speaker 1: but don't you think we could be better here, here,
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  Speaker 1: and here? And they're like, on it already. There's already
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  Speaker 1: a plan in place. And so that's really reassuring to
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  Speaker 1: know that we're kind of all in this thing together,
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  Speaker 1: and we're solving problems together, and we're seeing it through
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  Speaker 1: the same lens.
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  Speaker 6: They obviously have a court. They're not going to have
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  Speaker 6: Jaden Daniels and Mariota. Has that changed much at all
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  Speaker 6: with what you guys are doing? Or I guess you
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  Speaker 6: kind of played against Mariota last year or something.
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  Speaker 4: Not really.
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  Speaker 1: Not really. I mean, Jaden Daniels is a phenomenal player.
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  Speaker 1: But Marcus Marotta is a really good player, too. And
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  Speaker 1: when he played for him last year, they were really
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  Speaker 1: effective on offense. And every time he's played, they've been efficient.
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  Speaker 1: They've put up points. So we got a lot of
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  Speaker 1: respect for him.
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  Speaker 4: What do you notice differently with David Blau as the
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  Speaker 4: offensive coordinator? Anything different in how you played them in
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  Speaker 4: November to now?
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  Speaker 1: And how do you play? Just it's his offense now.
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  Speaker 1: So there's It's early, but you can see the influences
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  Speaker 1: from who he's been around. It's not a full departure
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  Speaker 1: from what they were doing last year. So it's a
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  Speaker 1: compliment to them on being able to kind of put
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  Speaker 1: things together and being able to run the ball effectively. Again,
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  Speaker 1: they've scored points, and they've moved the ball. And they've
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  Speaker 1: taken care of the ball, and they've taken care of
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  Speaker 1: the quarterback. So there's a lot of good things on
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  Speaker 1: tape that we respect that we have to go get
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  Speaker 1: ready for.
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  Speaker 4: Anything else?
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Thanks, Coach.