The Excitement Level is Very High | Press Conference

The Excitement Level is Very High | Press Conference

Are there a uh maybe one or two things that you can think of, you know, that that you feel like you learned from your first year in this role that that you think are going to help you going forward this season? Yeah, I think we have a better idea who we are, I think, than we did last year. So, I think that’s helped us kind of streamline some game plans, streamline some of those deals, and then I would say the protection plan for us, you know, that process of that really how we want to block some of the issues we’ve had, how we problem solve those. So, just going through kind of this whole process, problem solving it once. Okay, see this is what we’re good at. Hey, we’ve tried some other things that didn’t work. Now, those things have kind of fallen off the table a little bit. So, just kind of feels like we communicate better. the players, coaches, the kind of the expectations of what it’s going to look like and what we want those situations to be kind of how they come up uh have have been cleaner. Obviously got a lot of work to do this week still, but Cam, what would you say Cam’s preparedness, readiness level is for for week one? Yeah, you know, still a lot of work to do. you know, he’s uh always kind of working ahead and he’s watched a lot of tape and we’ve given him a handful of things even before last week just hey, start watching this, familiar yourself with this, but we didn’t want to get too far ahead with him last week of hey, here’s the exact plays, but he kind of got to see some stuff and he’s, you know, been here the whole time kind of really trying to get his um get his head around it and it’s a really good defense. You know, it’s a good defense that does a lot of things. So, it’s a good challenge for him kind of as he continues his growth. So, we feel really good about where he’s at and he’s done a nice job. One thing, you know, that to work on things and get familiar in practice, but some of the things you can’t do until you get game experience, you’ve got a lot of new receivers, a new quarterback. When you’re working on things like scramble drills and who who’s to do what and kind of as they learn each other, how do you feel like he is in that? Because it’s something that you really can’t practice a whole lot and can’t prepare for. Just kind of has to guys just have to learn each other. Yeah. Yeah. There’s parts of that of kind of really in the battle how those things come out. You try to get as close to you can as some of those opportunities and then we try to show them as many tapes or examples of, hey, if this comes up and really have them talk through the situation. You know, Cam can sit there with them. All right, you break the pocket here to the left. You know, maybe is a good example of a quarterback doing that. All right, receiver, you think you’re going to go? I’m going to work back to the sideline. I am going to break deep. I’m going to work up and come back cuz I see another guy. and really have those guys go through the mental process of it is probably the best way to get some of those unscouted, unscripted things repped. But, you know, there is no replacement for doing it either, you know, in the game and we got a young offense in a lot of spots and there’ll be some growing pains and some experiences that are gained each play. Is your game plan wrapped? Is is it in Cam’s hands or are you guys still working? No, we’re still working. So, he’s got a handful of stuff already. So he’s probably got I would say 65 to 70% of it right now and then we’ll just kind of keep putting more in as we go. So he’s probably about a day and a half ahead of where he would where we would be if it was just a played on Sunday and gone through right now. Emphasis on on third downs and red zones obviously with Cam. How do you feel like he progressed in those particular areas? I feel like he got better. you know, that uh third down defense, especially, you know, in the NFL is a kind of a whole different animal with all the protection adjustments that you try to take off his plate, but there’s always still some that are unavoidable. But seeing the different coverages of really everything’s going to look the same out of the shell on third down and how they’re matching, how they’re deploying, what how you can give them an indicator one way or another. So, just trying to give them those little cheats. But there’s uh you know as especially as the preseason went on and the training camp went on going against our defense, he’s got a lot better at those and hope that carries over. Now that you guys are game planning, uh how what what’s the coaching staff’s philosophy on making sure you press easy buttons for a guy in his first couple of NFL starts and and you know, balancing trying to set him up for success versus being willing to hand him the keys and let him do what you drafted him to do. Well, like you said, there’s a balance. I think if there was a ton of easy buttons, you know what I mean? You would just kind of take those the whole game. There’s a handful of things that we think we can get them some free completions and things like that. The Denver defense is interesting because they’re so matchy, you know? It’s it’s whether it’s zone defense. They’re still matching everything. So, there’s not just kind of free runners in the flats and things that where you say, “Hey, look downfield and just throw it in the flat and get yourself three yards.” Those really don’t totally exist against this defense. So you want to handle those things of the easy buttons, but you also we really want to do things that he has a lot of muscle memory on core concepts, things that he’s done throughout his career that regardless of the coverage they get, he can adjust and he knows where he wants to go with the ball. With that matching the way that they do, they the pressure that they allow it allows him to do that. When you look at that team and all the blitzes, like how do you go about attacking that and pulling some of the success that Cam had in Miami to to here? Yeah, you know, the the match coverage all really does play out like men and like you said, the pass rush is really where you’re allowed to play that kind of match coverage. They do such a good job whether it’s bringing four rushers or five rushers with Bonito Cooper on the other side and then Allen inside. They really kind of give you those hard matchups. You know, you can’t max protect everybody and all the time and then still have all these match coverage guys. So, we’re really going to try to push some guys down the field a little bit and see how much we can kind of shake loose on those. I I guess is the best way to answer that. But it does go back and and look at cuz he had success I think it was like second and in and passes uh uh completed touchdowns rushing touchdown. Do you go back and look at some of those and say, “Hey, but then he’s got a bunch of also reps of really stuff we did against Atlanta and the joint practices Tampa when they were trying to play some of their stuff with the pass rush, you know, that they have. So really, we’re trying to take a little bit of everything and try to make sure we give him the best, you know, if we get 14 third downs, give him the best things that he’s got comfort with that he’s got experience with throughout his career. Sell out to stop Calvin. Mhm. What do you envision being among the the counter moves to that? You know, I think, you know, you got to move Calvin around first of all. I think we’ll move him around different formations, which we really got to at different points last year. And then those other guys, you know, they got to make plays versus man and match coverage, right? It’s going to be a, you know, you got to win your one-on-one matchups and it could be all those receivers. I think they’re all be up. The tight ends are going to be up. The backs are going to be up. And, you know, if they’re taking two guys to really take away one guy, you got to the other guys got to win. That’s the numbers are in our favor to win those other matchups if they’re taking two for the other guys. You talk about everybody being on the same page about what the scheme is supposed to look like, what the offense is supposed to look like. Is the vision different this year than it was last year? Is it the same idea just better equipped to execute it or is there different ideas at play? Both. I would say I think it’s a better idea of some of the things we wanted to do last year and then I think we’ve now learned from ourselves watching ourselves scout things like that. Hey, we thought we were going to be good at this and we weren’t. Or we weren’t. Hey, maybe we didn’t think we were great at this. We actually were. So now there’s probably just a clearer idea of who we are and probably just less than it was. You know what? I think there if that answers the question probably like less like less different schemes, less you know uh less gray area of some of hey this play might be good against this. We know kind of now what we like against what what the quarterback sees better what our players execute better. And I think that’s where that comes in. How’ you like how uh maybe Tony handled the handled the ramp up process for the season and will you have to maybe get Julius or some other guys work to kind of keep him from having to do too much right out of the gate? Yeah, you know, I think remember last year where Tony where once Taj got hurt, Tony got that huge, you know, kind of bulk of the carries and I do think he wore down with it. You know, he ended up getting the ankle at the end and he just ended up taking a lot of hits. So, we got to get Julius ready to go, Khalil’s ready to go and get those guys ready to take some of it off him. you know, it’s at altitude and it’s going to be warm, so we really don’t want to, you know, just wear Tony out as, you know, early as you can, but at the same time, you know, he’s going to be ready to go. And I think he’s really handled the ramp up well. You know, he played a little bit early in the preseason, then we took him out for those last two games, but you saw against Atlanta, he took a lion share of the reps and uh in practice, and then he’s kind of really taken the lion share as we’ve gone forward. This is from Teresa. She’s at a dentist appointment. Sorry. uh you guys aren’t really in this situation, but she wants to know what are some of the challenges of trying to develop a number three quarterback. You know, some are on rosters, some are on practice squads. What are the challenges of trying to develop a guy who’s not getting a lot of reps? Yeah. You know, especially when once you’re in the season, the reps are almost minimal, right? You might get a handful, two or three here or there in a week. really that guy has to and end up doing a lot of stuff with the practice squads, things like that, kind of meetings after more of an intentional plan by himself of a development plan that way. So that’s why I think when you get in some of these situations where you’ve got a young number three that needs a lot of work and needs a lot of reps, it’s just not going to happen very much during the season. So that’s really where those challenges come in. So they got to be able to take it from the field and then they really got to be self-starters on their own. you know, maybe grab some other players on their own, go through the scripts on their own and take some of that time with what we’re allowed to do within the time schedule. What do you feel like aside from simple talent that that leads to Denver’s success in that pass rush? Are there schemes particularly good as well or they they know how to get their one-on-one matchups, which is, you know, they’ve got good players and they expect their one-on-one matchups to win. And then they have enough they’ve you know Vance has had a long history as a decoordinator and he’s always kind of gone everywhere and put in a handful of different wrinkles of something. you know, he came from Cincinnati and when he went to Miami, he took some of the stuff that was in Miami and then he goes to Denver and he takes some of the Fangio stuff and they’ve kind of all always kind of taken some of the good stuff that the defense has done before and so they still have exotic enough blitz package where you can’t just hone in on the five big guys in the game or the four down rushers. So, it does challenge you that way of you’re still getting an exotic enough blitz package while still just having if they just want to rush straight four guys, those guys are pretty talented, too. So that’s where the kind of you try to have to master both sides. How important with with the their ability to blitz, how important are the hot reads this week in terms of just having safety blankets and and just a place to go with the ball when you’re under duress? Absolutely. You always want to have, you know, especially on first and second down. You know, those getting the no negative plays on first and second down, right? So if we’re going to drop back and throw, you got to have your answers in to, you know, whether the hot reads are. And then you know on third down if they end up doing those pressures and we don’t have the protection correct and we are hot you know those guys got to probably catch it underneath the sticks and run for the first down. So that’s where it does become a challenge and sometimes with an aggressive quarterback it can you know they want to hold on to it a little longer even though they’re hot you know because they want to throw it past the sticks on the first down. They got to put the ball in play. Sometimes the defense has a good call you know better call than the offense and we got to manage that the best we can. How do protection calls work between Lloyd or Corey and Cam? So, you know, we kind of go go up whatever the protection call is in the huddle, right? We start with that and then either way, whether it’s quarterback to uh center or center to quarterback, somebody sees something, they kind of can override each other, right? Hey, I want to do this. Nope, I want to do this. And then the quarterback always has the final say of how he wants to go. mentioned maybe before the the third preseason game that you weren’t necessarily ready to kind of turn over return duties to to a rookie like like Shimmer. Have things I guess sort of changed in there? Maybe what’s given you guys more confidence that that he is is apparently the the guy for I don’t think anything changed. I think it was just looking for more opportunities to to get him touches. And I always feel I think like I said a couple weeks ago, a rookie needs to overtake somebody, not just be uh the incumbent immediately. So, um, I think, you know, Chim’s our he’ll be our starting punt returner. You’ll see Chim and Bryce Oliver back there on kick return with a two returner look, but I think Chim has, you know, in college, too, he’s shown great decision making. I think he’s got fantastic ball skills, little bit of a baseball background, helps with the tracking part. Um, we all as a staff have total trust in his ball security. And then he’s a talented runner. So, I mean, you could put all that together and he’s a young guy, but he does have a lot of college experience doing both punt return and kick return. So, to be honest with you, all along I felt great about him. I just wanted to make sure that he had to fight to to earn the starting spot, not just be handed it to him because he was a draft pick and there’s other guys in the in the room. So, I think he he did what he was supposed to do. Uh he won the job and I’m really excited about what he’s going to do for us. From the same perspective, they just haven’t seen him do it. Can you kind of talk to how much work he got in practice over the past couple of weeks and and what gives you confidence specifically about seeing him in practice handle that responsibility? Yeah, so in the games it didn’t feel like we had a lot of opportunities. Part of it was because I was trying to give everybody opportunities, so it limited everybody a little bit, but we had a ton in practice. And I think it just it goes back to what we saw in practice is his ability to catch punts, track punts, hold on to the ball when he’s going through traffic. even though returners aren’t live, you can still get a sense for ball security. Um, and his college tape matched with what his pro practice and game tape has been. Just a a real steady, I know he’s only a rookie, but he feels like a little bit of a season professional with all the intricate parts of when I catch a kick return and this is the call, you know, where do I press it, how do I set it, how do I set up my blocks? And so there’s there’s an instinctive part of his game that is hard to describe that I think he has and he’ll continue to develop that gives me a lot of confidence that that he’ll give us, you know, a spark in the return game. I really believe that you’ve played had so many different combinations, played so many different players up to this point on teams. what what’s I guess anxiety level or what goes through a special teams coordinator’s mind leading to week one where you there’s so much unknown I guess out there there and I I I love the unknown to be honest with you. Uh I think there’s a part where you could fear it or you could embrace it and I’ve always embraced the unknown especially going into a season on a new team. I I honestly don’t feel any anxiety. Uh I’m super competitive and excited about the opportunity that a lot of our young guys have. I think we have some core pieces that we’ve challenged with doing certain things maybe differently. Um, and they’ve gotten a lot better at it, but as far as the anxiety level, I’d say it’s it’s very low. Um, the excitement level is very high. I’m an optimist most of the time and I so I’m trying to navigate the differences between the reality and the optimism, but I I I feel good about, you know, the some of the young core pieces we have. Some of our draft picks, some of our, you know, guys that are returning like like a James Williams and Jaylen Harold, Cedric Gray, the secondyear guys feel like they’re almost kind of veteran guys for for our youth. Um, but I’m excited to, you know, throw our guys out there and let them play some ball and, you know, make some plays for the team. With Joey’s leg strength being what it is and then altitude, just kind of how do you go about figuring out what ranges for this week and what is the challenge riskreward of wanting to try that long kick, seeing what he can do versus the field position and all that? Great, great observation. I think the pregame warm-up will give us a good indication of kind of the range. A little bit of a wind is a factor, but you know, in Denver’s always going to give you about five more yards in altitude. So, you know, gosh, if it’s the middle of the second quarter and, you know, we get stuck on fourth down at the 44 yd line, do we go for a 62 y just in the normal course of the game where it’s a no-brainer in the half end of game, but of course the risk on the the miss is the field position. So, that’ll be something we’ll have to figure out in pregame warm-ups and as we go through the week, just kind of get a sense of the riskreward is exactly what it is. end to half end of game range, I think you’re looking at, you know, just get get to the 50 because, you know, 68 yarders probably within most NFL kickers range in Denver if the conditions are equal going both directions. But it’s exciting to have that ability to hit some big balls. In the at the start of camp, we asked you about uh you know, trying to get coach big plays out of special teams on returns and blocks and things like that. You feel like this group has advanced to the point where they’re capable of maybe making some gamechanging plays? I mean, I think so, but we got to do it. And it’s something we’ve talked about a lot, and I think it’s really important, and I’m kind of telling myself, too, as a play caller, is don’t ever manufacture a big play. Players, coaches, don’t ever force a big play. they’ll come if you just stick to the game plan and not try to make anything up on the run. Um, I think we talked about a little bit of the kick return where the schematics you’re going to see us do a little bit of the Barry Sanders, you know, it’s the four-yard run, it’s the six-yard run, it’s the two- yard run, it’s the no yard run, and that’s the 75 yard run. So, we’re kind of, you know, just just keep just keep hitting it. Just keep hitting it and just keep hitting it and don’t force it. and you know, one of the times, two of the times, three times it’s going to pop for us. So, um, you’ll see me not manufacture force calls. You’ll see our players hopefully not manufacture force plays, but over the course of 17 games, you know, they’re going to come, and then we got to take advantage of it when they do, and and we got to negate any opponent opportunities for big plays, too. So, there’s the yin and the yang on the the rush and return side versus the protect and cover side. On the flip side of that, are mistakes more prevalent in week one? And do you have to avoid like last year that fumbled the kickoff that led immediately to a touchdown? Do you have to avoid the catastrophic on special teams in week one with so much Nick? Yeah, it’s a great call. I think you always try to avoid it, but it feels like at the start of the season when in the preseason you don’t get real looks and then in practice you try to give the most real look as possible, but you can never simulate what it’s like in a game. So for every team, whether it’s punt protection, kickoff cover, um you know, blocking on punt return at high speeds and the returners live and there’s a point of attack now involved, there’s the potential for everything dramatic, incredible, catastrophic. And so for sure, we try to avoid the catastrophes and we try to capitalize on the, you know, the the plays that are there. But I think not only special teams, but tackling’s probably poor the first couple weeks. You know, ball security potentially is poor. Um, and you see as the season goes on, players develop and get into game mode and tackling mode and, you know, finish mode when the returners are alive. And, um, I just I feel like we’re going to be good early and we’re going to get better as the season goes. So hopefully whatever our good is in week one, we’ll look back and say that was probably our worst when we’re looking at it from a week 17 perspective. As long as no test happens. Punt punt coverage. I think you said was especially intricate your your style. How how plugged in were these guys to it and now your frontliners? How much Yeah. maybe learning is there through this practice week? Yeah, that’s good stuff. I think the whole the whole way through the biggest thing I can say about our players again is that I’m most proud of is their eagerness to learn and work. And I think that’s probably the staple of what I’ve learned and that we’ve maybe grown as a special teams culture here is just the eagerness and the work. And even though maybe there’s been bits and pieces of, you know, multiple personnel throughout the preseason, we’ve kind of started to get into the positions we play and knowing who my partner is from a punk cover perspective because we said it’s built off of chemistry and it absolutely is built off of chemistry for us covering punts. Um, so further for the last, you know, week or two, we’ve kind of had a good idea who it’s going to be and they’ve kind of started to hone in on that position and, um, the more we do it, the better we’re going to get. But I I’m I’m very confident we’ll be very ready for for a real game, you know, this Sunday. But it’s been really cool to see their progression with a lot of things that we’ve challenged them with, whether it’s, you know, getting our hands on guys and being aggressive in the return game, which has cost us a little bit in the preseason, but I think over the long run, it’s going to pay dividends. Um, and then just the chemistry part of our kickoff cover and especially punt cover, I think is going to continue to get a lot better, but I think it’s still going to be super good enough for for week one. Quick quick follow on that. How dangerous is it? Sorry. How dangerous is it to to be so chemist chemistry reliant when a guy may be called up to to to start and then unavailable to you or a guy may be maybe hurt. We know there’s a lot of fluidity to personnel on the team. Absolutely. I don’t I don’t sense any danger in it. I think it’s what we do is the best way to do it. That’s my opinion. Of course, I’m biased towards it. But when the practice squad is working the opponent punt team, we have them protect and cover like it’s Titans punt. So we don’t have them really do what the other team does. So they’re really stealing reps. And so I feel like we’ve gotten enough reps in the bank that if all of a sudden somebody’s got to come over and play tackle in week three that hasn’t been on our punt team necessarily, they’ll be ready to go. And that’s been my job over the years is puzzle piecing and making sure whenever somebody’s down and somebody’s got to go that they’re ready and there’s no excuses. And um I try to do a good job of kind of forecasting some of that and putting guys in positions where if they’re up, this is where they’ve practiced and where they’ll be. Sorry for the long-winded answer. Uh Bryce Oliver, he said he wants to be one of the best gunners in this league. Now that you’ve worked with him, what are some of the things that you like about him and how it matches some of the things you want to do on Punko? Yeah, I’m glad he said that that’s what he wants because I really feel like he can be for a receiver. He’s a little bit unique because he’s not only got speed, but he’s got like strength and power. Speed, not just a, you know, a light body out there flying. He’s got power. or he’s got strength. Uh he’s got speed. He has the ability to tackle, which maybe sometimes as a receiver, that’s one of the skills that maybe is lacking, his ability to tackle, but um he’s got return ability. So, you’ll see him back there, you know, returning some kicks. Um we’ll move him around on punt return. We’ll move him around kick return. He’s just a fantastic versatile piece, and we feel like we can match him up against bigger bodies, too. You know, safeties, running backs, maybe linebackers, because he’s got that strength. So from a receiver perspective, gosh, it’s an absolute huge bonus to feel like we got him on our team cuz we can do a lot of cool stuff with him and his willingness has been number one. Like he wants it, he’s going to get it. When you look at um Johnny’s numbers from last year, hang time, not necessarily the best, but at the same time, he didn’t get a whole lot of punch returned. What What’s the How did that work? Especially what, you know, what was the relationship there? You would think if the hang time’s lower, there would be more returns. Yeah, you know, it’s a it’s a great point and you’re absolutely right. I didn’t look as as much at his numbers, hang time, distance, direction, all that kind of stuff, because I knew what I wanted to do with him and what he was doing was a little bit different. Not for better or worse, right or wrong. So, I I looked at the potential for him to kind of get back to what I wanted him to do when I was with him for the eight years with the Rams. And I felt like just looking at him, he’s still super as healthy as can be, as fit as can be, probably stronger than he’s ever been, as athletic as he’s ever been. So, I feel like he’s able to get back to doing what I feel like he’s really good at, which I’m being careful what I’m saying because it’s no against anybody else trying anything else. I just feel like what I think he’s best at and what I’d like him to do, he could get back to doing, but he wasn’t necessarily maybe doing that all the time. So, bad answer, long answer, probably not a good answer, but um I’m very confident in what we’ve done in the spring, in the summer to getting him back to doing what he does best. And I would expect him to be really good. Are there one or two things maybe specifically in that regard that that you wanted to see him get back to? Yeah, I think there was a lot of he had a lot of um tools in his bag, which is a good thing potentially, but it also could take away from you majoring in your bread and butter. And so I think, you know, what he’s best at, we’ve majored in big time. And we still have a few things, you know, different type of kicks we could do, but we try to focus mostly on the the nuts and bolts, the bread and butter of his punt, which is one thing. Um, so I think hopefully he’ll be more consistent with with that by just mastering one thing and then having a couple little different things to offshoot off of that. You’ve been you’ve been in the league a long time. You you kind of took a leap to come here and to join Brian. What’s kind of impressed you by him about him in your first year with him and and he prepares for year two? Yeah, great question, Jim. You know, I I I knew of Brian. I got to meet him at the owner’s meetings last year. But being in the building and being in the team meeting rooms, I think he does a fantastic job of commanding the team meeting room, whether it’s video, whether it’s the plan, whether it’s a little bit of a come on man, let’s go, we got to tighten up or you know that’s a great job, keep it going. So there’s there’s a great balance of constructive criticism, encouragement, great teaching video. Um, so it’s been cool for me to see and just sit in the seats and just watch a head coach who has an offensive background be able to talk about ball security and tackling and situational football. Um, and then also the other thing that I think is is really cool, which isn’t a surprise to me. I think he’s got a tremendous amount of poise, you know, when it’s really good or when it’s maybe not so good, whether it’s practice or anything else. Um, and for his ability to address hard things, I think that’s in my opinion, just as a special teams coach, you know, watching head coaches throughout the league, you always have to be able to address hard things. And sometimes maybe people try to avoid it or they do do a good job addressing it. But that’s just been a cool thing for me to answer your question maybe is just to see him um I can’t even say grow cuz I don’t know what it was last year. So just to see how he produces basically around the team. It’s been fun. It’s been good and I’m super proud to be a part of it and I think our whole staff is fantastic too. So it’s it’s a cool vibe assembling and getting acclimated to the defense. How soon can we expect some of these guys to be able to contribute? Uh we’re trying to get them caught up right now. Um it’s bits and pieces that they’re learning. Obviously, two guys that we we acquired came from the Raven system. There’s uh some similar terminology, but we do things different. So, it’s kind of getting them caught up, but the these guys, they are working actually um spending a lot of time with the assistant coaches trying to get caught up on on scheme. So, they’re progressing in the right way. Can you put your finger on explaining what step you saw James Williams take this off season and then what step you’d like to see him take to further progress? Well, you know, this is his second year playing linebacker. So, last year everything was brand new to him. this year, you know, from the from OTAAS to training camp, you saw a guy that just understood a little bit more about linebacker play, how to key read, what’s his triangle, um, understanding zone drops, understanding zone vision drops, and then ultimately being physical within within the, uh, the box area. You’ll like to see him, you know, believe in what he sees more, you know, as he progress, just having the self, just having the confidence to to cut it loose all the time. But he’s trended in the right direction. I think that James has grown tremendously from last year to this point uh this year. Same same. I mean, and he impressed you maybe what he was able to do in his first camp. Yeah, I think both of them, you know, they both have um took the coaching. I think Frank Bush has done an outstanding job developing the linebackers. I think that room is uh very tight-knit. Having Cody in there, you know, helps tremendously with those guys. But Cedric, you know, he didn’t play in the preseason last year, and it was good to just to see him out there in the preseason. The first game, he played well. The second game, he was more comfortable. He was more downhill. He made some plays on the ball. You know, obviously, he had a pick that that should have counted. The league said it should have been a pick. Um, but, you know, I like the trajectory of both of those young men. How do you expect to handle the reps between those two? We’ll see how it how it folds out. I was ask about uh expect kind of fair expectations for two guys uh Sneeed and uh and and Kevin also just because both of them missed you know for different reasons I guess chunks of time right both both of them right now they’re trending in the right direction um you’ll see we’ll see by the end of the week what’s the game plan uh terms of you know how much they play but they’re trending in the right direction and we’ll see them out on Sunday you know when we deploy how aboutre big man missing a lot of camp going to altitude Do you expect a full load for him? Uh, we’ll see. And, you know, I like the depth that we have at the inter the interior D line. So, Tandre is working his tail off right now and he’s actually lost some weight uh since he’s been out and he’s going he’s going full head of steam at practice right now. So, he’s going to be in shape and we have backups to come in and spell them. Do you link up with with somebody like John Shaw much or just reap the benefits of what he’s doing with guys in terms of of speed and maintenance? No, you know, that’s their department. I’m here to coach football scheme and those things, but if we have anything that we want to get implemented, you know, from a uh speed training or just on the field development, especially with guys that’s not practicing, the strength uh staff does outstanding job of communicating. Uh they communicate with everybody in the building. So, that’s their department. You know, I don’t know as much about speed. I wasn’t the fastest player when I played, so I leave that to them. One of the biggest questions entering the offseason was this team’s pass rush. Do you feel like you’ve answered that question and how do the additions of like Draymonds and drafting Femi fit into that? I think we have the right pieces that fit well together and you know we talk about pass rush and you go back to last year and I mean I’ve stated this before. We left 21 sacks on the field because we missed them. You know, we didn’t execute, we didn’t finish. Right now it’s about finishing. Rushing is one. these guys playing off of one another, communicating at the line of scrimmage, understanding where the center turn and things of that nature. So, I expect them to come out and I expect them to affect the quarterback by rushing and playing as one. Jarvis seems to have a lot more swagger and brashness about him in terms of the way he acts on the field this year than last year. Is that just the fact that he’s no longer a rookie? Is that that he’s more confident? What do you see it as? I thought he was brash and had swagger last year if you watched him. The thing about him, he has more confidence in what he’s doing. He believes in the coaching. Tony Odin has done a great job uh teaching him technique fundamentals. His eyes are in the right place. So for me right now, and it’s just Jarvis is out there. He’s executing the defense the way it’s supposed to be executed. That’s where you see the confidence from. What uh what impression about Nicks from last season and where you think he continues to get better going into year two? Yeah, young quarterback. You know, last year that team got better and better. If you watch him from the beginning to the end of the year. Um, you know, he he was a big factor in that. Um, he goes through his progression. He has a strong arm. He has big receivers uh to throw the ball to. And then when he’s in trouble, he’s hard to get down. So, he’s a he’s a guy that you got to account for for scrambling, you know, if if if things are tight in coverage. And uh he’s very strong in the pocket. So when you get your hands on him, you got to be able to wrap him up and get him down. But he’s going he’s a young quarterback. Um, every young quarterback has ups and downs, but I think the guy’s going to be a hell of a player and I think he’s already there right now. You said, if I remember correctly, and correct me, but like that FEMI will show up that that you don’t have doubts about Fei showing up. Could you kind of talk about where you think what he’s done so far will take him in meaningful? You know, for me, Femi is a tone setter, and that’s what I want to see from him. I want to see him come out and play with uh anger. I want to see him set the edge. I want to see him violent. I want to see him finish on tackles. Everything else is is going to come to life in terms of pass rushing and those things. But Fe has had an outstanding camp. you know, he is a rookie, but you don’t see a lot of the rookie lapses when you see him play. He belongs. Um, we’re very confident in him, and I can’t wait to see him play on Sunday. Are there maybe one or two things you you think that you learned last year in your first year in this role that should help you this season, do you think? Yeah, I think I learned a lot. It’s just not one thing. It’s it’s everything. You know, the first time you go through something, you know, you have a vision of what you want to do and then things happen. you you know then when you when you have an offseason you look at yourself you self-reflect you see what you did well at defense you see how you called the game and right now I know where to hang my hat on and and know the vision in which I want to go the biggest thing is all the coaches are on the same page you know first first year first year in the system some of the you know some guys they might not thoroughly understand what you want and right now we’re all on the same page we we’re all aligned Um, we’ve had some some changes in the coaching staff that I think has helped tremendously within uh uh with bringing in Tony Odin and Travis. So, you know, I think that from a big picture standpoint, we have a a good grasp of where we want to go and what we want to do. You say you don’t know what to hang your hat on. What What do you What is Den Wilson hanging his head on? Being aggressive. When you bring up that big picture vision, has that changed from year one to year two for you? Is it the same stuff if you just learned about how to get there or are there different things that you may learn how to set up more things? Um, just calling the game, how to call a game, picking and choosing your spots, what you want to present, things of that nature. So, you know, feel more confident in what we’re doing and how we’re going to do it. A few weeks ago, uh, you did something with Jeff, a a twist or stunt up front and it really confused JC. He said he never saw it before Laam. when you create those types of things, like what’s that process? Do you have something that you know, hey, I’m gonna go back and watch the old Ravens or whatever, like how do you go about developing those? Well, for me, for me and for us right now as a defensive staff, it’s about putting the guys in the in the right spot and how to how to force protections to get your best players one-on- ones. Um, you know, we have a lot of, you know, I’ve been around a lot of people that pressure and do a lot of things. So, I have a a pretty good uh base of things to to pull from. So, for us, it’s just, you know, putting putting those players, putting the players in the right spots, trying to set it up for them to get free, and um, you know, we’ll deploy some pressures and we’ll do some games up front that that match their ability. when you do something like that, like do you just go to the Jeff like, “Hey man, I got something for you. We’re gonna We’ll talk about it a little bit.” You know, sometimes I go in there and you have to sell the game plan as well, right, to the players cuz when the players believe in the game plan and what you’re doing, they execute at a higher clip. So, you know, a lot of times it’s about putting your best players in in in certain spots. So whether it’s Jeff, maybe it’s Ammani Hooker, it’s might it might be Quandre Diggs, it could be um Cody, it’s like you have to put them in the best spots for them to have success because if they have success, the team has success and the defense plays faster. What kind of role do you see Quandre having in this secondary? Quandre will play. He’s a He was a guy that started for us until he got hurt last year. He’s been a Pro Bowl player. Um I think he’s one of the better safeties in the in the league. uh even at 30ome years old um and he understands the defense and he understands what we’re trying to get accomplished. Teams that rotate safeties all that much. When you’ve got four guys who are capable of playing, how do you handle that? You’ll see on Sunday. Jeff said yesterday his biggest goal for himself this season is to just be in the moment. It’s not to be a pro bowler. It’s not to have some number of sacks or something like that. Is that something you talked to him that you just be you play in and play out and good things are going to happen? Yeah, I think we’ve all had that conversation. Um, being where your feet are like with Jeff. Jeff’s a very smart and he doesn’t get a lot of credit for it. He’s a very smart player. Jeff can hear certain calls at the line of scrimmage to know where the ball’s going. He studies a lot. He can understand, you know, he’s he’s very good in knowing run pass keys and things of that nature. But with Jeff is like focusing on the main thing, defeating that first guy in front of you. Don’t worry about uh making everybody else right. Do your job at the best of your ability and everything’s going to come to him. Don’t put all the pressure on the world to to make all the plays uh like he did last year right now cuz we have playmakers that’s on the line uh next to him and we got play playmakers on all levels. So allow your teammates to do their job and you do your job and him being the best version of himself. He’s a great player and and and he’s a force to be reckoned with. No, my job job is to get these guys prepared, ready to play, amped up, ready to play in week one. Do you almost have to, especially the young guys, calm them down a little bit where they’re not too aggressive and too excited? Yeah, we try to keep it simple, you know, and that’s that’s my philosophy. Keep it simple so they play fast. First week of the season, you know, you don’t have a lot of information on the team that you’re playing. So, you got to line up with basic fundamentals and things that you’ve done well in training camp. So just keep them even even kill, you know, stay loose, stay focused, and uh go out and have fun.

Titans OC Nick Holz, ST John Fassel, and DC Dennard Wilson address reporters on Tuesday at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park.

00:00 OC Nick Holz
11:55 ST John Fassel
26:80 DC Dennard Wilson

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