Grady Jarrett, Dennis Allen on the physicality of training camp | Chicago Bears

Grady Jarrett, Dennis Allen on the physicality of training camp | Chicago Bears

I don’t know what day it is. I don’t know what practice that was. Hey, I think it was probably 12 or 13, something like that. Thursday. Thursday. You’re welcome. Nice. The day after the player day off is what it was for me. So, um, look, guys are out here working. Uh, they continue to get better. Um, I’m pleased with the progress that we’re making. Um, we still have a long way to go. Uh, but guys are buying into to what we’re selling and I think we’re getting better. So, uh, we’re excited about Dolphins coming in here for a joint practice tomorrow. So, it’ll good it’ll be good for us to see something different, some new formations, some new motions, shifts, all those kinds of things. Test out our rules. Um, and so we’re excited about that opportunity to come up here tomorrow. What were the uh the logistics of that last little snap there? Yeah. Um, look, you know, you get into the monotony of training camp a little bit and uh just a little something to have a little bit of fun. So, we switched some offensive players over to play defense, some defensive players over to switch and play offense. Third and five. Um, I think for 10 push-ups. So, the defensive players did a great job of executing, you know, on the out route. We got to be a little tighter in coverage there. We go back to Tuesday. You guys were running a offense is running a four-minute drill trying to kill the game with the with the ball. Um, you guys had one time out after the first play, you got a first down. Was there any communication between you and coach about when or how you guys were going to use that timeout? Um, yeah. Look, I mean, we communicated beforehand. Him and and Harry Freed, you know, are on the on the field together, and Harry’s going to be the guy, um, I think that’s going to help him in terms of some of that game management type stuff. Uh, certainly during a game, we would we would discuss that before we went out for that for that series. But on that on that particular instance, um, you know, really regardless, I think it was 224 left to go. Um, so you’re going to want to bang the time out there regardless of, you know, what they do. So, u, but it, look, I think all these scenarios that we go through, whether it be four-minute, whether it be two-minute, backed up, third down, red zone, all those things, um, you know, are good scenarios for all of us to go through. What’ you see from your guys in terms of being able to get that series over in 40 seconds, even though it was only one timeout in the two-minute? Well, look, anytime we take the field in a form minute, our number one objective is to get the ball back for the offense. That’s what that’s what we have to do. So, um, you know, and you have to have some, you know, feel for the play caller offensively, things that they like to do. U, but ultimately, you know, we got to keep them from, you know, it’s actually a benefit that they got first down on the first play, so now it’s first and 10 again. Um, you know, we got to stop them. We knew we had the two-minute there. So, um, I thought it was a good drill for us to go through both sides of the ball. Nick Robinson, someone who looked good in the offseason practices, obviously. What has been your opinion of him in pads and what do you want to see from him in the game on Sunday? Yeah, look, I think, um, you know, I’ve been impressed with what he’s been able to do. I think still, you know, he’s still learning how to play the defensive end position. Uh, and every day he comes out here, he works extremely hard. He’s smart. Um, and he has he has ability and so if you’re smart and you have ability and you’re willing to work, you’re going to get better. And I think he’s done that. And so I’m anxious to see him play in games um and and see what that looks like. So, what do you what do you hope to accomplish tomorrow very very intentionally with the Yeah, look, I I think guys going out and and competing, you know, um and I know that, you know, there’ll be some mistakes made. Uh but really, you know, at the end of the day, we’re really trying to um we have to play our rules because there’s not a lot of game planning that goes into this. Um, so, um, we have certain rules that we that we that we use, um, whether it be from an alignment standpoint, front mechanics, uh, or coverage, uh, mechanics. And so, we got to be able to use our rules and and play whatever whatever looks we get from the offense. So, I think when you get into training camp and you’ve been going for however many days this has been and you see the same things over and over and over, you can kind of begin to anticipate what you’re going to see. Uh, and now, you know, you’re really just playing your rules and and having to make sure you get your eyes in the right spot and then react accordingly. When you were you became a head coach for the first time, the preseason important for you just to get a sense of, okay, when do I bang a timeout? When do I, you know, how does my operation work with my coordinators upstairs? Yeah, I look, I I think in partic for for us as a new staff, you know, I think this is important. I think it’s important for all of us. Um, it’s important for me as a defensive coordinator, you know, it’s all dress rehearsal for the regular season. So, I think all of us will learn, players, coaches, everybody alike. Um, we’ll have to make sure that we’re we’re good on, you know, our communication from the booth down to the sideline. Uh, whoever that is and and whoever we’re we’re having to communicate with. So, um, we’re excited about, you know, having our first preseason game and, um, we’ll have to sort out some some of the kinks and and, uh, and try to improve for week two. You want to be up or down? Me? Yeah. You personally, I’m going to be down. You’re going to be down. What are you seeing from Jacqulan Brisker? Like, what does he do for the defense? Well, number one, he plays with a lot of energy. He’s a physical player. Plays with a lot of energy. Showed great range today. Uh there’s a lot of there’s a lot of good things uh that that he does. Um one of the things that we talked about in the offseason is just being available. Um and he’s been available throughout training camp. He’s continued to get better. Um and if we can keep him healthy, then you know, I expect him to be a good player for us. Coach, when you play so much man susceptible to some of those drag routes, I’m not saying that the LBs or safeties coming down need to be head hunt or anything like that, but is there a need to send a message to those receivers as they drag across the middle? so frequently to say, “Hey, that’s not going to be free.” Like, you going to pay a toll coming through here. Um, yeah, look, I mean, that that’s that’s defensive football, you know, and uh, we have to control the middle of the field. Um, so inside the numbers, we have to look at it as that’s our territory and u, however that plays out, that’s what we got to be able to do. You talked about players buying in to what’s going on with the new staff. What have you seen specifically that lets you know that process is happening? the physicality and the effort. Um, I think that’s been great. And then you really just look at the professionalism of how these guys prepare each and every day. The attent attentiveness in the meetings. Um, you know, we’ve we’ve had I can’t think of any instances where we’ve had, you know, um, you know, anybody not doing what they’re supposed to do. And that’s all about accountability. Um, and and I think our guys are doing a good job of that right now. Coach Austin Booker is not sure if you want to name anybody individually, but is there anyone maybe a rookie or someone that you really want to see? Really eager to see how they perform against Dolphins. And there’s there’s a lot of them. You know what I mean? There’s a lot of them. This will be our first, you know, real live action together. And so, um, there’s a lot of guys that we need to find out about, um, in in the first preseason game. So, nobody in particular. It’s it’s a it’s a lot of guys. Coach Austin Booker is not the typical defensive end that you have in your system. What have you seen from his game that you feel like fits well in? Yeah, look, I see a lot of flash plays from him. Um I think there’s some things from a fundamental standpoint um and from an assignment standpoint that we still got to get cleaned up with him. But I do see a a really good athlete playing at the end position, a guy that’s got some good rush ability and when he plays his fundamentals and technique right, um he he’s able to set edges. uh which is critical for us in terms of what we do defensively. So, um I think he’s doing some good things. I think the biggest thing is we just still got to work with a little bit more consistency. We talked with you before, you said you value power over pounds. Does he kind of fit into that? Um, you know, he he’s he’s more powerful um than you would expect out of a guy that’s, you know, a little bit undersized in terms of um in terms of weight or girth. Um, but I do think that that’s still an area that we got to continue to improve on. a guy you played against a bunch obviously, but now that you’ve had him in practice, in your building for a while, I guess, what is it like having him in your room compared to to lining up against him for so long? Yeah. Well, I mean, I like him better on our team. Um, look, he’s a great leader. He’s a he’s a an outstanding professional. Uh, he’s a great example for all of the young guys. I don’t care whether you’re on offense, defense, you know, defensive line, DBs, whatever the case may be. You know, there’s a certain way that pros um conduct their business. Um and and he does it as well as anybody. His practice habits are outstanding. His meeting habits are outstanding. Um he’s one of the most attentive in all of the meetings. He’s hanging on every single word. And I think that’s how that’s how you become a guy that can play at a at a very high level for double digit years in our league. And uh so I’m I’m I’m really pleased with where he’s at. I’m glad we have him and um excited for you know what I think he can do for us. All right. Thanks, guys. Grady, what did you what did you learn about uh your teammates on the most physical practice that you had a couple days ago? Yeah, we’re going to be ready. We’re going to be ready to go when it’s time to go. Uh we got some dogs on this team and uh definitely answered the call on um you know the coaches want to see what we about and ratchet it up. So on both sides of the ball um we’re going to get each other ready. Were you wanting that practice? Did you were you almost like thank God we’re doing it to this level just to see where we’re at? Oh heck yeah man. Heck yeah. You know it’s good to see where you at and um and I really like the philosophy of you know Ben Landers early like it’s you know one of two ways we can go about the short yardage is goal line. you know, we can walk through it, you know, fit through it, try to, you know, talk through it, but we can really go through it and, you know, see what we about. And that’s the route we chose. And I think it really, really, um, showed a lot for everybody, you know, to show people what they got and, you know, that they got that dog in them or, you know, how we can execute in high pressure situations and we had some wins going back and forth. So, it’s going to make us better as a team. There’s a there’s lots of talent on on on the defensive interior, but to have somebody like like Andrew Billings who’s just a massive human. Like what does he bring to that group? Yeah, man. You said it, man. Brings size, experience, uh somebody who play with extremely good effort as a big man. He been doing it for a long time in this league. Very physical player and uh you know, I’m honored to be able to play on next next to him and uh you know, get to be able to share the field with him. So, I mean, he’s a he’s a really really big uh part of our defense. um whether it’s a every down or certain packages, uh he’s somebody that’s going to be filled every day. What do you like about joint practices? Uh what I like about joint practices is having the opportunity to compete against somebody else. As you can see, when we get a real chippy practice like we had the other day, we can be tired of seeing each other for a little while, you know, so you get to uh beat up on somebody else and just see where you stand. Um and it’s really not that much game plan that goes into a joint practice. So it’s really um you know really fundamentals on other fundamentals but with people you’re unfamiliar with you know so it gets you going and it also gives players more opportunities to show what they can do you know especially with one less u preseason game you know to help uh younger players be able to show what they can do against other competition and uh you know uh guys like myself always striving to get better you know to see how we stack up against somebody else. So it’s it’s fun. What don’t you like about about joint practices? It’s happening regardless. So, what I don’t like don’t really matter. This uh this defense got a couple new starters from last year. It’s a new scheme. Uh last year the defense ranked near the bottom of the league in run defense. What gives you confidence or do you have confidence at this point that you guys can be um significantly better than most of these players were a year ago? You know, all all I can speak on is my time here. my time here and uh what we’ve been doing and what we’ve been working for every day, you know, with the scheme we run, what the coaches want to see from us and they’ve been really um pressing on the expectations and it’s been clear and we’ve been doing our best, you know, since day one since I got here to be able to improve uh from whatever was last year. Um I I think it’s almost irrelevant to this point because I mean we got uh it’s a new year, new people in the building and um and I think we it’s not even something that we spoke about at all and we really just focus on going forward and uh putting our best foot forward every day and I think we believe highly in what we’ve been doing and I think the results will show for itself. Y’all been showing that 52 I mean five man front a little bit lately. What do you like about it? What are y’all trying to accomplish? You know, we we got many different fronts, man. Um, and I think the flexibility of having different fronts, you know, um, keep offense on their toes and but whatever it’s a, you know, four down, five down, whatever it may be, if we got to go two down with me and Dex on the inside holding it down from tackle to tackle, we’ll make it happen. So um so I mean how how whatever coach call man we going to be able to um to execute at the highest level you know and u but when you about your question I think creating single matchups across the front um gives us the opportunity to just go win mono emano versus you know just letting just lining up and letting the offensive lineman tee off on you u certain double teams you know so so the five down look definitely presents some challenges for um offense as a nice switch up from the things we do on a basic on on the base level and like we talked about Bill earlier, you know, that allows us three on the inside to play together all at one at certain times, you know, me, Dexter, and and Bill and um also, but if we got to bring, you know, somebody like Tez down and play the three or the four sometime, he capable of doing that, too. So, when you have players that’s flexible to play all across the defensive line, uh it allows coach to call many different things. And I think that’s what we um definitely have. Um guys who want love to play ball and going to play hard and wherever he put us at, we’re going to try to do our best. What are your thoughts? What are your thoughts on playing in preseason games? It’s something you need to get ready for the regular season at this point. How do you feel about it? I mean, I’m however got to go, I’m always ready. You know, I’ve been a part of it where I haven’t participated. I’ve been a part of it when I have uh however the coach want to do it, I’m down to do it. You know what I’m saying? And my thoughts is, you know, whenever you get the opportunity to play football, it’s a blessing. you know, so whenever you step on that field, you never know it’s going to be your last. You got to put your best foot forward every day. And um you know, I’m I’m always I’m just the type to go go with it how I go and um I’m going to do my best. You seen either way be better? Um not so not it’s so subjective, you know, for everybody involved, you know, and um but when you got the mindset of just being ready, however go, you you’ll be ready to go in in a in a new place with a new team. What’s what’s giving you the confidence to assert yourself as a guy that can be a tone setter for this whole team? I mean, I just be myself everywhere I go, you know. Um uh so it’s not as as I mean the the whether you know the confidence or um I mean whatever it is, you know, I prepare myself to be in any arena, you know, to do what I need to do. And um you know, so all I can do is control, you know, the effort that I give and um you know, everything else, you know, you just control the controllables and be your best self. And but I’m I’m you know I can plug myself in whatever you know defense whatever um environment and I’m confident to be my best self and you know and it’s been working for me you know so so it makes it easy you know what I’m saying um it’s not easy but it makes it for me you know what I’m saying to put in a lot of work and be able to just be confident where wherever I go wherever I put my feet and um just just thrive there where have you seen the offense grow the most over this training camp I think them guys jelling together pretty well man they they actually do a lot and um is really presenting us a lot of challenges as a defense, but when you got guys that that are, you know, top of the game by yourself, individually, you put them all together. Um it takes it takes a while, you know, to gel it up and put everybody to fill um certain roles to where it could be the most optimal. But man, I mean, I think they’re getting better every practice, man. And I think it’s it’s helping us as a defense and us being, you know, violent and hustling to the ball and trying to, you know, strike the line of scrimmage is helping them as well. So, um I mean I just work together, but I mean just like anything um it’s going to take, you know, work because I mean they ain’t all been perfect with us either. So, uh they they mistakes can be a little more loud when some of the things we may mess up on, you might not see because it’s, you know, from a bigger standpoint of pitcher, you know what I’m saying? So, but I mean trust both sides are working diligently each week, you know what I’m saying, to get better and uh get this thing rolling the right way. In what way, in what ways has uh Joe Tuni helped you? What does he do to kind of get you better? Yeah, man. I mean, I couldn’t um be in a better situation right now, you know, working against a Hall of Fame guard every week, whether it’s in the pass rush, run game. Um Tony is somebody I played against a lot of times. So, I mean, the respect that I have for him as a competitor is through the roof. But, um the best, you know, gift that I can have since probably joining this team is being able to have the opportunity to work against Joe Tuni every day. And um uh it gives me extreme confidence going against both our guards uh to whenever the time go to go against another opponent and be fully ready and um you know I’m not going to see much of a bigger challenge than I got to face every day and um and that’s that’s that’s um definitely a credit to our interior three and they work really really well together and they’re getting better every week. You know what I’m saying? So and also with tuning again putting work every day it shows the younger guys, younger players that you know you never have to figure it out. You know what I’m saying? and him showing up to work every day, bringing it every day, it set the tempo for the not only just the offensive line, but for the whole team. And, uh, that’s something that I pick up off, too. You know what I’m saying? So, uh, him just being here elevates us and, um, every way. So, I I definitely couldn’t be, um, more grateful to have somebody to go against every day. Along those lines, Dennis was just very complimentary to how you’re very attentive in meetings. Are you doing that just because you’re so interested in what’s being said? Is it also part of leadership for you? Oh, no. you know, uh I don’t I don’t this I’m trying to get this point across to you in particular. You know, the questions that you ask me like um I’ve been doing this for a long time and um I haven’t got to where I’m at trying to play a role to coddle to somebody’s um emotions to make somebody think highly of me. I am me. You know what I’m saying? And I’m going to be me wherever I go. And so that I feel like that could answer your question in a way that, you know, I’m I go about my business the right way. I put my best foot forward every day. And uh things that are notice about me, you know, that’s notice about me. But I’m not doing it for a pat on the back. I don’t need it. And um so how I go about my business, how I go about my business. And um if it makes other people around me better, that’s better for the whole group. And if it, you know, if any nobody picks up from it, I’m still going to do I’m still going to do what I do. So uh I’m going to do what I do. Oh. uh looked like you were impressed or early if I recall you were impressed with uh Jervon. Yeah. All of you out for the for the offseason program that you’ve lined up against him a ton uh this summer. Is there anything that impresses you on the field with Javon Dexter? Yeah. Yeah, man. I mean, just the way I mean the guy I mean he’s disruptive in the run game. Um uh he’s something to deal with in the past game. He just continue to get better. You know what I’m saying? And this effort that he playing with lately, I mean, it’s been amazing. you can see him running all the way across the field and I can’t wait to see him cut it loose on game day. So, um it’s just a young player continuing to get better and he at that that year three mark when you can make a real big jump and I’m definitely anticipating it for him and I’m going to do everything I can in my power, you know, to help him continue to be better. But he ain’t going to need much of a push because he he’s somebody who got the highest standard set for himself. You can see it daily with the extra work that he put in on the field in the meeting room and uh you know, I couldn’t have a better running mate on the inside uh right now. So, I’m I’m super excited to be playing with him. Thank you, guys.

Defensive lineman Grady Jarrett and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen meet the media Thursday at Halas Hall.

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