Zac Taylor Press Conference – October 1

Zac Taylor Press Conference – October 1

Zack, uh, any injury updates coming out of one day? Um, I I think overall we came out pretty clean and so we’ll just we’ll manage it dayto-day, but um I didn’t come away thinking we’re going to be losing anybody after last game, so feel good about it. Was K or Brent limited in his availability on No, I mean, he he dealt with a hamstring early last week. Um, but thought he fell through everything. Okay, we got some corners we can rely on, so we’re not afraid to rotate those guys through. Was that was that just performancing then that you just be in the field more consistent? We’re just always trying to find find the guys that are performing the best in the moment and felt like we had some good options there. Do you think Schmar has a chance this week? We’ll see. We’ll manage through the week, but he’s progressing along. Um we’ll see if he can go this week. Uh I I couldn’t give you a great answer on that one right now. What about Joiner? Uh no, he won’t practice today. Joiner. Who’s that? Charlie Joiner. Jones, I’m sorry. He he won’t practice today. We we’ll get him through the week and see where he’s at. Zack, what can you do as a coaching staff to help Jake and maybe what can Jake do to to better help himself? Yeah, I think first and foremost it’s my job to help Jake um and find ways to give our give our guys the best chance um to help Jake as well. So, I know that’s a that’s a very broad answer, but um each defense is a little bit unique. I think it’s going to be nice playing at home, being able to use our verbal cadence, allow us to do some things that that maybe is a little more difficult to utilize on the road. Um, knowing you’re going to be late with the play call and all that kind of stuff, getting to the line of scrimmage. So, um, I’m optimistic right now that we put together a really good plan. I’m excited to get to work practice today. Um, we’re all accountable that three points isn’t good enough, 10 points isn’t good enough. Our expectation is that we have to score a lot to take pressure off our defense, put pressure on the opponent. We have not done that the last two weeks in particular. and and it really starts with me on offense, getting those guys um in a rhythm, create some momentum again, so so our defense isn’t isn’t out there all day. Zach, after watching the film Monday night, what is the best starting point for getting to the root cause of all the penalties? Well, you got to look at each one of them individually. One of them was a fourth and two that called on Ted um for his head bob. Um that only comes up on the road. Um, sometimes that will be called, sometimes it won’t. One of them was an illegal formation with the tackle being back. That’s something that they’re they’re on every every single rep, every single tackle. Uh, we have to do a better job playing within the lines there. Two were false starts by a rookie guard. That that we got to clean that up. That’s something we can’t allow us to set ourselves back. Um, and then one of them was a procedural third and long. We got we got stuck in the wrong formation on third. So we took the delay game instead of trying to make it right on a third and 15 or calling a timeout. Uh we we we took a change whether whether it was the the call came in the huddle call whatever it was when we lined up we could see we weren’t right. And so instead of banging a tight tight end on third and 15 timeout on third and 15 we took the delay. So those were to my recollection all of them. Um the false starts we can’t have. We have to line up appropriately with our tackles. Again, something something every team’s warned about every game. It’s a big point of emphasis for the league right now. So those are things that are nothing to do with Denver, nothing to do with Detroit. All things we have to do better at. We’ve prided ourselves on being a disciplined team. There’s been exceptions in the past where we haven’t been, but um I would say through and through we’ve been a very disciplined team and and too many penalties on unforced stuff the other night. Coach, those are two tough losses in a row. You’re a dad. What do you do? What do you say to these guys to keep them up and ready to go? Well, I mean, this is part of playing in the NFL is dealing with adversity. Um, every team at some point is going to face some adversity. We’re facing it early in the season. We’ve done this before. And so, that’s part of our job is to is to come to work ready to roll, given our best, have a sense of urgency, um, not hang our heads because we’ve lost two games. That’s unacceptable to me. Um, urgency is is the word I would say. Has our standard been acceptable on every single play in the last two games? I would say it hasn’t been. Um, so you got to look within yourself. Is is my standard acceptable? What I Hey, it wasn’t that bad. Well, that bad’s not good enough. Um, it’s got to be great. And this week on a short week, I expect our guys to hold themselves that standard. I’ll hold them to that standard. Hold myself to that standard. And we have to be great. We can’t we can’t anything less than that is unacceptable right now where we’re at. Um we just got to find a way to get our third win and get it quickly and and build on that momentum from that. How would you evaluate Jake Browning so far? I I think it’s it’s it’s not evaluation Jake Browning. It’s evaluation of all of us on offense. We all have to do our part to put ourselves in the best position possible to go score points. And that’s that’s me giving Jake everything he needs, giving the lineman everything they need. Um I I really first and foremost as the head coach, it’s not a reflection on one player. It’s it’s on me and and so I’ve got to get ourselves um in a better position to be able to go. But how do you feel like he’s How’s he I I don’t I’m not giving a grade on a single player. I’m just saying I think we can all support our quarterback a little bit better. To that end, Zach, there was a lot of talk about improving the running game going into Denver uh and and wanting to have more balance and whatnot. Um, based on what you have seen, what is this? What did what did you see from the running game? I I thought our guys came off the ball. I thought they gave us some opportunity. There weren’t explosives that we gained there. Um, I felt better about it coming out of that game than I had the previous game. And so, again, we just got to continue to make improvement each week. Each team’s going to present some different structures we got to deal with, different personnel we got to deal with. Um, so the scheme can evolve a little bit each week. But um I felt like there was improvement there. I don’t again kind of talking about the standard where where we should be in order to to do all the things that we set out to do before the year. We’re not there yet. And and I’m not going to say that there’s time to do that, but we do need to continue to improve every single week so that as this thing gets going, we’re rolling. Feel really good about that. Do you do you feel like you need to add competition at quarterback for Jake at this point? I I don’t I I think with every position, we’re always assessing. That’s Duke’s job. That’s the personnel department. They do a great job of that, presenting us options when Joe went down of other guys we can bring in the room as well. Um, so we thoroughly exhaust that. I’ve got a ton of confidence in Jake. I’m unwavering in that. Um, I’ve seen the best of Jake. I know that we can we can do a great job supporting him to where he can go win games for us. So, I I feel extremely confident in Jake Browning. How did you think Jaylen played one day and le start again this week? Yes, he will. Uh, I I felt like he he did some good things for us u against a really really difficult front. I mean, he’s got some allp pro players up there that he had to do battle with. And and again, I’m not gonna um say that anybody played at a Pro Bowl for us, but to say in his first start on the road in Denver against that front um I was pleased with what Jaylen did and I think he continued to build off of that and I was I really liked his demeanor um throughout the game. You know, I spent time over there with those linemen and uh was really pleased with the demeanor that he had and we just got to continue to build off of that. They said when when you guys drafted him, he was here the first couple weeks, people said he acted like a 10-year vet. And I wonder there’s a maturity to him. Certainly when you meet him, when you just watch him go about his business, um obviously it’s the first year in the league, but there there’s certainly a maturity to to Jaylen that you appreciate that you feel like when you give him a coaching point or instruction, he’s okay, I got it. And not something you’re going to have to remind him about. ability to self-correct when something doesn’t go right. I think instead of giving him and hey, this is what it should have been differently, he can he can speak it very quickly on what he can do to better himself. And so, um, he’s a guy that’s that’s o over this time here already has played a lot of different spots for us. We’re trying to let him settle in at at guard and, um, I’m pleased with the progress that he’s making and the the direction that he’s in right now. How was he pregame on the field? You know, I don’t I the my number one most hated thing on planet Earth is pregame on the field. So you uh that’s if you ever watch me, it’s I let the players do their things. I don’t ever read into a guy had a great pre. It’s like when I was in eighth grade shooting threes before a game, like I might be red hot and stink in the game and might miss a hundred in and pregame and be awesome once I get to the game. And so I I’ve always since since 8th grade at a tournament, I can remember specifically what I’m talking about. I’ve stopped reading into warm-ups, how guys do or don’t do. Um I paid very little attention to it. somebody has an injury issue, it’s brought to my attention. But if you ever watch me in pregame, I’m I’m doing everything I can to just think about the game ahead and let the players do their own thing. And I don’t pay much attention to it. Schedule schedule. You just you got me on a rant there because pregame’s like my arch nemesis. Sorry about that. No, you’re good. Schedule, Zach, and you knew that Detroit would be on a short week. Pittsburgh couple weeks will be on a short week. But when you’re preparing for an offense like Detroit, the explosiveness they’re capable of on a short week, biggest challenges you need to address? Well, the the physical part is difficult this week because we got to be mindful getting back at 5 in the morning and um making sure these guys are rested and we get the above the neck work we get today. So that that’s what you’ll see today more on the field. Um there’s a lot on the players there. You know, it is a tough task. I’ve got a lot of respect for the job Dan and his staff do on offense. Jared, coach Jared for two years. Got a ton of respect for him. And so it’s it’s a tough task. There’s going to be some above the neck stuff early in the week. Our guys have to have to own it. Um so we’re going to make the physical reps tomorrow and Friday. Uh we make the most of them because it’ll be less this week than normal. I trust our guys will be able to do that. We just got to be able they got to do it on Sunday. So I’m excited to watch how they handle the week. And um I think in past years they’ve handled this week very well. And so we just we had to do more of the same. As the after the last couple weeks, how does your process look this week in terms of you know acting as a play caller and how you want the offense to look? What do you have the last couple weeks that you did? What does that look like as you get ready for for Sunday? Well, I think it’s a unique week again because we’re we’re short a day. So, um you’re really you got a lot of work to do and not as many hours and our guys have done a great job over the weekend trying to prepare for this. Um I get up to speed more yesterday um not so much before the Denver game. So again, we haven’t changed a lot to our process. Um it’s a process I believe in. Whether people want to hear that or not served us well over the years and just because we face some adversity and and haven’t done our best the last two weeks doesn’t mean we’re going to scrap everything and do a whole new operation. We do have to find the things that we can hang our hat on to do well that give us confidence. Um how to feature our best players. And so again, that’s no different than than what we’ve tried to do these last couple weeks. We just haven’t been as successful. Uh but again, I’ve got a lot of faith in our staff and our players that we’ll come together and um create some momentum for ourselves. How how much fun has this match up for you just personally go knowing Dan as long as you have um kind of you know going back to Miami like how have you ever looked back and reflect on how there’s a lot going on? Yeah. No, no, I mean those are uh I have I have tremendous memories with Dan. I mean Dan and I go back further than anybody would ever realize, but um got a lot of respect for him. He’s done an unbelievable job. I I do reflect back on in 2021 when we went up there his first year. I don’t think they’d won a game yet. I could be wrong. Maybe they’d won one. I don’t think they’d won any. Um but knowing what they were building, you could tell they played with a lot of undrafted free agents on defense and you could just tell they had the identity of their coaching staff, their head coach, the way that they played and and they might not have had all the talent in the world then and we got the best of them that day, but you could see something that was building in the future. whether whether people believed it at the time or not, it was it was very clear. And so now you’re here in 2025 and they’ve had the success they’ve had over the years. They have the success they’ve had this year winning three in a row. Um it’s a really good football team. Um I I love personally playing playing these types of games. These are my favorite games to play. This is why we do it. Um again, our our backs up against the wall a little bit going in this game off of two losses. That’s perfect. You know, I like to see how everybody responds, who lives in fear, who thrives in the adversity. It’s it’s a great opportunity for a coach to really assess what guys are made of. Um myself included and and so again it’s a tremendous opportunity that we are we are not running from. We are running directly into when the offense is just struggling the way you guys are right now. How much of that bleeds into the defensive game plan where maybe a little more conservative? Yeah. No, it doesn’t it doesn’t need to bleed into the game plan. I I’ll be foolish if I don’t think at some point in the second half of a game when when the offense isn’t doing it and you’re having to go out there on the field again and again at some point it wears you out, you know, and so um I thought particularly start of second half Denver got the ball, our guys got them to punt several times in a row and then finally that last drive uh we got worn down a little bit and have a mental error there at the very end and um they score seven points. But when you talk about playing complimentary team football, that’s what I’m talking about. like we we’ve even if we’re not scoring touchdowns necessarily, we’re kicking a field goal, we’re possessing the ball and driving and giving those guys a break so they can come out with some confidence and um energy and and so again, I I um I know that offensively we’ve put the defense in a in a tough spot, you know, particularly these last two weeks with the turnovers and giving them short fields and um not giving them something to okay, offense went down, scored a touchdown, now let’s go do our job and get this stop. So, we’ll come together. Uh it’s still early in the season and and again there’s the nice thing about a locker room is there’s no fingerpointing. Everybody takes accountability. Um what can I do better and and we’ll find our rhythm and and be in good shape. Okay. Thank you.

Zac Taylor speaks to the media going into Week 5 against the Detroit Lions.

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