Latest / Seahawks Press Pass / Mike Macdonald: "Charles Cross Is Doing A Tremendous Job"
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: All right, good to see every buddy better than zoom.
- 0:09Speaker 2: Gave me flashbacks. Go ahead, good coach.
- 0:16Speaker 3: Bill's had a lot of success against the Dolphins in
- 0:19Speaker 3: the past, especially limiting Tyreek Hill about half his career
- 0:22Speaker 3: average in yardage. What have you learned by looking at them?
- 0:25Speaker 3: And it's Lesslie Frasier giving you any insights.
- 0:28Speaker 4: Into what they did.
- 0:30Speaker 1: Yeah, the Bills have played them really well. So give
- 0:33Speaker 1: credit to their players, their their coaching staff, their plans.
- 0:39Speaker 1: You know, when it comes down to like game planning
- 0:41Speaker 1: and stuff, it's tough to like copy teams because there's
- 0:46Speaker 1: there's so many little details in how you're coaching stuff.
- 0:49Speaker 1: So you get in to have if you're starting to
- 0:51Speaker 1: copy folks, that's not really not where we want to be.
- 0:55Speaker 1: So we're always looking at it like through the lens
- 0:57Speaker 1: of what we do.
- 0:59Speaker 2: And uh, but.
- 1:00Speaker 1: They do a great job with with They've done a
- 1:02Speaker 1: great job with Tyreek. You know, Leslie's been in the division,
- 1:05Speaker 1: he's seen these guys a good bit.
- 1:07Speaker 2: So we're leaning on him this week. You know for sure.
- 1:11Speaker 5: About what changes without for Miami?
- 1:15Speaker 1: Well, I mean, you know right now, you don't what
- 1:18Speaker 1: information are gonna go off of, you know, you're gonna
- 1:19Speaker 1: go off of preseason.
- 1:21Speaker 2: You're gonna go off of you know, the last game.
- 1:23Speaker 1: Scholars started for those guys, probably the end of the
- 1:27Speaker 1: last game.
- 1:28Speaker 2: So again, you're you're early in the year.
- 1:30Speaker 1: It's it's a it's a it's tough to make assumptions
- 1:32Speaker 1: on what's gonna change, So trying to just go off
- 1:35Speaker 1: of trying to stick to our usual procedure as much
- 1:37Speaker 1: as we can. And then you know what we think
- 1:40Speaker 1: about Tyler and or Skylar excuse me, go from there.
- 1:46Speaker 4: Coach to get sem a couple of times the last
- 1:48Speaker 4: two years. What jumps out about the weapons they have
- 1:51Speaker 4: and how Mike McDaniel schemes it up.
- 1:53Speaker 2: Uh, they do a phenomenal job. The stats back it
- 1:56Speaker 2: up very well.
- 1:59Speaker 1: Coached talk about you know, we talk about like elegant simplicity,
- 2:03Speaker 1: and it's it's it's consistent for the quarterback, the angles
- 2:07Speaker 1: in the run game, the speed on the field, how
- 2:09Speaker 1: they're able to include everybody, all their playmakers and stuff.
- 2:13Speaker 2: They play incredibly fast. They do a great job.
- 2:16Speaker 1: So I'm broken record, but like every every week, it's
- 2:20Speaker 1: kind of you know, we have we have to have
- 2:22Speaker 1: a sound game plan that is complimentary. We got to
- 2:27Speaker 1: really execute it because there's a lot of some of
- 2:29Speaker 1: the things the looks, you know, you are not consistent
- 2:33Speaker 1: from week to week, so you kind of have to
- 2:34Speaker 1: apply rules once the game kind of hits and be
- 2:38Speaker 1: able to adjust on the fly.
- 2:39Speaker 2: So got a challenge ahead of us.
- 2:41Speaker 4: What are the attributes to stand out about Skyline watching?
- 2:46Speaker 1: Well, he's willing to keep the ball a little bit
- 2:48Speaker 1: longer than than to Tosh. He was playing really really
- 2:52Speaker 1: fast and the ball comes out pretty quickly, on time,
- 2:54Speaker 1: on target. He's got the same ability to do those things,
- 2:58Speaker 1: but I'd say the ability also so if you add
- 3:01Speaker 1: the extended play to the to that element, that's something
- 3:05Speaker 1: that you have to take into account, probably more so
- 3:07Speaker 1: than with Tua. Again just not it's a tough because
- 3:10Speaker 1: it's not a huge sample size to see and it's
- 3:14Speaker 1: been a long time and you've got talking about a
- 3:15Speaker 1: couple of years of growth from when he started last
- 3:18Speaker 1: in the in a in a playoff game, being in
- 3:20Speaker 1: the system. So that's where we're at right now.
- 3:25Speaker 5: Miami is known for their explosive plays just in general,
- 3:28Speaker 5: is a defense what needs to happen to limit some
- 3:31Speaker 5: of those yards that they've been affected at.
- 3:36Speaker 1: Yeah, they do a great I mean they do a
- 3:38Speaker 1: great job of attacking on the perimeter with their perimeter
- 3:41Speaker 1: blocking and the angles that they create. And then also,
- 3:44Speaker 1: you know, I don't think they get enough credit for
- 3:46Speaker 1: like inside interior type runs, being able to cut defenses
- 3:50Speaker 1: and yards after contact, things like that. And then if
- 3:54Speaker 1: you're not on your p's and q's and the play
- 3:55Speaker 1: action game and the catch and run game, if you're
- 3:58Speaker 1: not taking great angles, they'll make you pay because they're
- 4:01Speaker 1: just it's a lot of it's a lot of type
- 4:04Speaker 1: of catch and run types ideas and then run past you.
- 4:06Speaker 1: And so your at your your leverage, your leverage and
- 4:10Speaker 1: your angles and your pursuit need to be on point
- 4:12Speaker 1: otherwise they'll run past you.
- 4:15Speaker 2: And we don't want that.
- 4:16Speaker 4: Look at your own.
- 4:17Speaker 6: Run game outside of maybe the second half against Denver,
- 4:20Speaker 6: what have you seen in terms of the areas of concern.
- 4:22Speaker 1: Maybe I think we just gotta we gotta find our
- 4:26Speaker 1: our our calling card. We've got a lot of good
- 4:29Speaker 1: stuff going on, but we're we're trying to find our
- 4:33Speaker 1: our sweet spot right now. So I think that's that's
- 4:38Speaker 1: where we're at. You know, I think we have a
- 4:40Speaker 1: pretty good plan started right now during the week and
- 4:44Speaker 1: excited to see us go do it today in practice.
- 4:46Speaker 3: Is there defense look like a carbon copy of what
- 4:48Speaker 3: you're doing with?
- 4:49Speaker 1: No, it's no, it's not a carbon cop it's uh,
- 4:52Speaker 1: this is this is the Miami Dolphins defense led by
- 4:56Speaker 1: Anthony Weaver. I think they're doing a really really great job. Uh.
- 5:00Speaker 1: A lot of respect for those guys and the coaches
- 5:01Speaker 1: on that staff, and then obviously they got some really
- 5:03Speaker 1: good players too. So there's a lot of concepts that
- 5:06Speaker 1: you see that are similar to what we do and
- 5:09Speaker 1: things that we've installed here, but it's their defense.
- 5:11Speaker 2: Is ken gonna practice this week, we'll see it feels
- 5:16Speaker 2: like the.
- 5:17Speaker 3: To the run defense from the run offense for the
- 5:19Speaker 3: Patriots versus the run offense for the Dolphins feels different
- 5:23Speaker 3: in terms of where they're attacking you and a lot
- 5:24Speaker 3: more in the edges for the Dolphins. How do you
- 5:28Speaker 3: coach differently, how do you defend those types of offenses differently?
- 5:31Speaker 3: And what positions come into more focus to defend them?
- 5:35Speaker 1: Well, I think you kind of answered it based off
- 5:37Speaker 1: your question, but I you know, it's an inside out game,
- 5:41Speaker 1: probably more against the Patriots where you know, if you're
- 5:44Speaker 1: not protected on the edges and in the alley. Even
- 5:46Speaker 1: though they do do a great job talking about Miami
- 5:49Speaker 1: on downhill runs, uh there, you know, there's a lot
- 5:55Speaker 1: of space out there, you know, so you got to
- 5:57Speaker 1: you gotta be on again. Who's force, who's in the end,
- 6:00Speaker 1: who's inside out, how you're playing, how your leverage blocks.
- 6:03Speaker 2: I mean that that's a that's a huge point of emphasis.
- 6:09Speaker 1: I would say New England's probably like, hey, we know
- 6:12Speaker 1: exactly who's probably gonna block us on this snap. You know,
- 6:15Speaker 1: how do you play that block? You know, it's more
- 6:18Speaker 1: of a person on person. Miami does a good job
- 6:20Speaker 1: of bluffing off, like messing with your edges, bluffing off
- 6:24Speaker 1: the you know, bluff kickouts, bluff cracks. So they do
- 6:29Speaker 1: a really good job of putting your edge guys in stress.
- 6:31Speaker 1: So we get you know, we have to do a
- 6:33Speaker 1: great job throughout the week of simulating those looks for
- 6:35Speaker 1: our guys so they can play those blocks the right
- 6:37Speaker 1: way and then we're fitting it right around those guys.
- 6:39Speaker 2: How was doing He's doing what he's progressing well?
- 6:43Speaker 1: Jeral Baker and updates No, no updates.
- 6:51Speaker 5: How was the last couple of games with the number
- 6:55Speaker 5: of plays and the challenges with communication helped when you
- 6:58Speaker 5: face it an offense like this where you're gonna have
- 7:01Speaker 5: to to make those adjustments.
- 7:03Speaker 2: And be communicating.
- 7:04Speaker 1: Yeah, well you're at home, so you can't be you know,
- 7:07Speaker 1: speaking in paragraphs out there.
- 7:08Speaker 2: You got to be quick.
- 7:10Speaker 1: You have to play with anticipation off the movement. Again,
- 7:13Speaker 1: they do a great job, Like you're not going to
- 7:15Speaker 1: see the same pictures from week to week that you
- 7:18Speaker 1: would on a normal offense. So they're gonna dress it up,
- 7:22Speaker 1: they're gonna be and it's all through in the lens
- 7:24Speaker 1: of how do you create the angles, how do you
- 7:26Speaker 1: set up the blocks? Which they do is good a
- 7:30Speaker 1: job as anybody in the league. And so you have
- 7:33Speaker 1: to play with anticipation. Your calls can't be you know,
- 7:36Speaker 1: crazy complicated. So we have to do as coaches. We
- 7:39Speaker 1: have to help our guys out so they can go
- 7:40Speaker 1: play fast.
- 7:42Speaker 4: What have you seen from Charles cross two games? And
- 7:44Speaker 4: I know he's the guy you talked about a lot
- 7:45Speaker 4: during camp how well he was doing.
- 7:47Speaker 1: But now that yeah, it's a continuation of what we've
- 7:50Speaker 1: seen in camp. I thought Charles has played two really
- 7:52Speaker 1: good games. Thought he played really well this past game. Guy,
- 7:57Speaker 1: we're gonna be leaning on moving forward. He's doing a
- 7:59Speaker 1: tremendous job.
- 8:00Speaker 5: When will you start to trust the trends or the
- 8:02Speaker 5: numbers that you're seeing, Like, how many games into the
- 8:04Speaker 5: season do you start putting stock into some of those things?
- 8:07Speaker 2: Yeah, that's uh's a great question. Not sure.
- 8:10Speaker 1: It's kind of like the preponderance of what they're giving
- 8:13Speaker 1: you and then how it feels like kind of matching
- 8:15Speaker 1: the numbers with the eye test. In some situations you
- 8:19Speaker 1: might be more willing to lean in on those things,
- 8:22Speaker 1: whereas some where you say, hey, it's probably not strong
- 8:24Speaker 1: enough yet. Let's you know, let's just kind of operate,
- 8:28Speaker 1: you know, standard procedure right now, and then we'll kind of.
- 8:30Speaker 2: Adjust move forward. But three weeks in it is probably
- 8:34Speaker 2: too early.
- 8:36Speaker 1: You know, you start to get into game four and five,
- 8:38Speaker 1: and now I think those things become a little bit
- 8:39Speaker 1: more pronounced.
- 8:40Speaker 3: Have you seen Connor Williams sort of keep progressing from
- 8:43Speaker 3: week to week because he's gotten this.
- 8:45Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought he played well, you know, for what
- 8:47Speaker 1: we asked him to do, and how fast he ramped up.
- 8:49Speaker 1: I thought, you know, if you ask him he's probably
- 8:51Speaker 1: frustrated a little bit. How he played the first game.
- 8:54Speaker 1: I thought it was pretty dang good, and then I thought,
- 8:57Speaker 1: you just had a big jump in the second game.
- 8:59Speaker 1: So if we can stay on that trend will be
- 9:01Speaker 1: we'll be cooking.
- 9:02Speaker 6: What are you seeing from your front three? And Reed
- 9:05Speaker 6: Hankins and Williams and also I guess for Brian Murphy,
- 9:09Speaker 6: and I just mean the way that they're working as
- 9:11Speaker 6: a team getting so many quarterback hits. What are you
- 9:14Speaker 6: seeing there?
- 9:15Speaker 1: Well, we ask a lot of those guys on early
- 9:17Speaker 1: downs to you know, not a big penetrating front. So
- 9:21Speaker 1: like they have to play blocks, they have to stay square,
- 9:24Speaker 1: they have to set up a second level for first success,
- 9:26Speaker 1: and then when we're able to take double teams off,
- 9:28Speaker 1: that's when they make their hay on early down. So
- 9:30Speaker 1: that's an unselfish job, and those guys do it is
- 9:33Speaker 1: they're doing a great job. I know the run stats
- 9:35Speaker 1: right now don't really set it up, but if you don't,
- 9:37Speaker 1: you can't put it on those guys.
- 9:38Speaker 2: I think they're doing a great job. And in order
- 9:40Speaker 2: for them to.
- 9:40Speaker 1: Do that, that's that creates passing situations. All the things
- 9:44Speaker 1: that you've been asking throughout the off season about how
- 9:46Speaker 1: it gels, understanding how you work together, who you know,
- 9:50Speaker 1: who kind of has the priority rush in certain situations,
- 9:53Speaker 1: who's kind of the two gap guy in the rush.
- 9:56Speaker 1: They've really attacked it mentally so they can go play fast,
- 9:58Speaker 1: and then what happens is you end up playing off
- 10:01Speaker 1: one another. And that's again that takes tech, it takes time,
- 10:04Speaker 1: takes chemistry, takes reps, and they've put in the work.
- 10:07Speaker 1: So I think you're seeing the dividends of that.
- 10:08Speaker 6: They playing as fast as I know you're going to
- 10:11Speaker 6: say that each week they got to get better. But
- 10:14Speaker 6: if I said that, yeah, go ahead if you will,
- 10:18Speaker 6: But how can what would you say about this speech?
- 10:20Speaker 6: Just just how how fast they're playing? Is this what
- 10:23Speaker 6: you would expect them to be as you progress towards the.
- 10:27Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you asked.
- 10:27Speaker 1: I mean, I think if I think, like a fair
- 10:29Speaker 1: assumption on that question is like, okay, well, what would
- 10:32Speaker 1: you What would the guys say if you ask them
- 10:34Speaker 1: that same question, and I would say they would say
- 10:36Speaker 1: they're not there yet. You know, I think there's there's
- 10:39Speaker 1: definitely room for improvement, but we're on the right track.
- 10:42Speaker 1: I mean, the guys are. They're doing a great job.
- 10:46Speaker 1: Each game plan is going to be different, you know,
- 10:48Speaker 1: I don't know. Again, I'm not breaking down the numbers
- 10:50Speaker 1: of what we called and win this past game, but
- 10:54Speaker 1: we're going to try to do structurally on defense whatever
- 10:58Speaker 1: it takes to win the game. It's not trying to
- 11:00Speaker 1: see how sweet you are, just trying to be as
- 11:02Speaker 1: productive as you possibly can. The guys did a great
- 11:04Speaker 1: job last game closing it out.
- 11:07Speaker 6: Just how onput is that when you're building a defense
- 11:10Speaker 6: for to get that unselfish play, Just like you're talking.
- 11:14Speaker 1: It's absolute necessity. I mean, if, if ever, if it's
- 11:20Speaker 1: kind of this all eleven rush mentality that we have
- 11:24Speaker 1: to have. It's not a built around one particular player
- 11:27Speaker 1: kind of everybody eats type of idea. And the guys,
- 11:32Speaker 1: the guys again, the players know, they just know when
- 11:35Speaker 1: it's when it's right and when it's not right. But
- 11:37Speaker 1: if you can, if you can help explain to them
- 11:39Speaker 1: how it all sets up Russian coverage, how we can
- 11:42Speaker 1: deny the ball, you know, in the second level of
- 11:44Speaker 1: the defense, make the quarterback get to a second or
- 11:46Speaker 1: third hitch. Now the rush comes alive. How all eleven
- 11:50Speaker 1: works together, Hey, if they win their rush immediately, that
- 11:52Speaker 1: helps the back end with like the timing of the play.
- 11:56Speaker 1: So there's a lot of things that you would you
- 11:58Speaker 1: wouldn't necessarily think, like a corner a linebacker have to
- 12:01Speaker 1: do with like influencing the pass rush or disguise, but
- 12:05Speaker 1: it does.
- 12:05Speaker 2: It does.
- 12:06Speaker 1: It's all function of time and trying to make the
- 12:08Speaker 1: quarterback play just a hair slower and let the rush
- 12:11Speaker 1: come alive.
- 12:12Speaker 3: What do you wisdom of the crowds? And you've also
- 12:14Speaker 3: talked about process and results, talk about like formative parts
- 12:17Speaker 3: of how you've made your decision making process over the years.
- 12:23Speaker 1: Man, I feel like I would have to like think
- 12:24Speaker 1: about that to give you a great answer. I think,
- 12:29Speaker 1: I mean, I disattribute to the great people that I've
- 12:33Speaker 1: been around.
- 12:34Speaker 2: I mean John Harbaugh's of the world, Jim.
- 12:36Speaker 1: Harbaugh's other great coaches that you think about, I mean,
- 12:43Speaker 1: all the people behind the scenes in Baltimore that I
- 12:45Speaker 1: got to.
- 12:45Speaker 2: Work with, all the people here that we get to
- 12:49Speaker 2: work with.
- 12:49Speaker 1: I mean, like just the mentality, the way that John's
- 12:53Speaker 1: mentality of how you want to approach things, you know,
- 12:55Speaker 1: kind of Jodie setting the whole vision of how we
- 12:57Speaker 1: want to operate as an organization. I think that's what
- 12:59Speaker 1: was really appealing at the initial stages. It's like, hey,
- 13:02Speaker 1: we have alignment on how we want to solve problems
- 13:04Speaker 1: and how we want to operate and try to kind
- 13:07Speaker 1: of be at the forefront of things.
- 13:08Speaker 2: So also you're looking.
- 13:11Speaker 1: At a guy that, like I, you know, I couldn't
- 13:12Speaker 1: do it physically, So it's like, how do you how
- 13:14Speaker 1: do you create processes and strategies that put your team
- 13:19Speaker 1: in the best situation and win? And that's kind of
- 13:21Speaker 1: been my mentality in my whole career.
- 13:23Speaker 3: Like what do you see now of Christian Haynes and
- 13:25Speaker 3: the little bit he's played the first two games? And
- 13:27Speaker 3: where where has he made the biggest stride since when
- 13:29Speaker 3: he first got here?
- 13:29Speaker 1: For you, well, I think he's just steadily improving. The
- 13:35Speaker 1: mentality is right, some of the technique stuff isn't right now, uh,
- 13:39Speaker 1: and then'll get cleaned up. So he's a guy that
- 13:42Speaker 1: we're going to be counting on moving forward and just
- 13:45Speaker 1: keep hammering away. Man, Like the opportunities are going to
- 13:48Speaker 1: be there, take advantage of them when they are. They're
- 13:49Speaker 1: not going to be as many as he probably wants,
- 13:51Speaker 1: But you know, He'll create those by by going out
- 13:54Speaker 1: there and producing.
- 13:55Speaker 4: Two rotating him and Anthony something that you consider to
- 13:58Speaker 4: be sustainable throughout a whole sea.
- 14:01Speaker 1: Probably not, but yeah, I'm just I'm sorry, John, but
- 14:05Speaker 1: like just that's what's gonna take for us to play
- 14:07Speaker 1: the best, and we'll do it. But you want continuity
- 14:10Speaker 1: or a line right now, we're not in the ideal spot,
- 14:13Speaker 1: but we feel like that's the best thing for us.
- 14:15Speaker 2: Sorry.
- 14:16Speaker 4: Two weeks ago, Tyler leads the team in receiving. The
- 14:19Speaker 4: next game, he has two catches and d K Jackson
- 14:21Speaker 4: do their thinking. What does that do for an offense
- 14:23Speaker 4: when you it's not one guy that you're focus on
- 14:25Speaker 4: a bunch.
- 14:26Speaker 1: Of Yeah, you know, it's a I mean, I'm kind
- 14:28Speaker 1: of divert on the answer here, but I thought Tyler
- 14:30Speaker 1: Lockett played a tremendous game. I mean, two weeks in
- 14:33Speaker 1: a row. He's coming alive late in critical situations. He
- 14:35Speaker 1: drew two depi penalties down the field that were huge
- 14:39Speaker 1: for us, getting us in positive territory and overtime, and
- 14:42Speaker 1: the third and five in the red zone that created
- 14:45Speaker 1: essentially as a four point play.
- 14:47Speaker 2: And then there's a lot of just.
- 14:49Speaker 1: Like there's so many nuances to his game that's just
- 14:51Speaker 1: some really really high powered and he's creating a lot
- 14:55Speaker 1: of things for us out there. Even though I didn't
- 14:57Speaker 1: know his catch stat line, but I felt like I
- 14:59Speaker 1: left after watching the tape, I said, man, this guy
- 15:02Speaker 1: really made a difference for us. And then just having
- 15:04Speaker 1: multiple guys that you can go to it just it
- 15:07Speaker 1: just shows you, hey, like Gino can has confidence going
- 15:10Speaker 1: with the ball wherever kind of the coverage dictates and
- 15:12Speaker 1: allows him not have to force it, and there's always
- 15:14Speaker 1: good options out there. About George Fan doing, he's doing well.
- 15:20Speaker 1: I mean I don't I don't know what he's gonna do.
- 15:22Speaker 1: Uh today he did walk through.
- 15:24Speaker 2: We'll see.
- 15:25Speaker 1: I'm not sure how many reps he's gonna get during
- 15:27Speaker 1: practice and how it evolves over the week, but it's
- 15:29Speaker 1: going well.
- 15:34Speaker 2: I think it's actually pretty good.
- 15:35Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Hank's right there right now, but
- 15:38Speaker 1: you got multiple guys on the ross. They can play
- 15:40Speaker 1: the a gap. Jay Rey did it last year. Byron
- 15:43Speaker 1: Murphy's an underrated nose. You know, Cam Young right now
- 15:48Speaker 1: is a guy that's on pupp but you know, as
- 15:53Speaker 1: he becomes healthier, maybe down the line, could could provide
- 15:55Speaker 1: some depth as well.
- 15:58Speaker 2: Thank you, Okay, all right, thank you.