Zac Taylor Press Conference – October 13

Zac Taylor Press Conference – October 13

fire away. The injuries, right? We’ll see. You know, early in the week, Monday, we’ll have to give it kind of a day-to-day listing here and see where they’re at. A lot of guys that are sore. Um so, we’ll just have to play by ear. Uh he’ll be out for this game for sure. Get more information now. He’s got a pec. Um it’s it’s going to be a while. We’ll just see what that means. Marius left. Mario should be good to go. Shamar. Um, Shamar’s progressing back, so we’ll get a chance to We don’t do a lot of full speed work this week, but I’m optimistic about him. And then you got Lucas in some practices last week. He’s all good. We’ll just continue to make decisions on that, but um, from a physical standpoint, he’s all good. Tanner is concussion protocol. Yes. You know, tight end obviously gets thin. Yeah. Quickly there. What’s kind of your idea of the approach to take as that room gets a little thinner? Well, if Tanner can’t go, you still got three other ones, you know, three that that play for us. So, Came Granny’s been up and down over the course of the season, last season. So, still have three guys there. As you look back on it, how do you feel about the operation with Flaco, quarterback, first game, all that kind? Good. I thought he settled in. Uh, you know, especially being on the road and just having to hear from me in the huddle, it’s hard to hear sometimes with the non-verbal stuff at the line of scrimmage. Um, I thought he operated really well. you know, I mean, it’s uh surprising how quickly he was able to do that, but gave us a lot of confidence and seeing how he did it. So, now we get a chance to carry it over to home and use the verbal cadence and all that kind of stuff, but um really really pleased with how he operated and and gave us a chance the second half without Trey. I mean, how how differently did you feel like are there ways to scheme around not having him out there? I mean, we’re we’re yeah, trying our best to to find ways to manufacture pre pressure and get after the quarterback and um I know Al’s, you know, trying to do everything he can to make sure we can affect the other team’s quarterback. Think Bar said after the game he couldn’t judge what Barrett did. What did you think after seeing? Yeah, I I it’s again I think he’s going to get better with every rep he gets and um you know, he and Demetrius out there play with a lot of energy. Logan was out there and and so again, it’s a room that’s going to continue to improve and they’re just going to need the experience. Like we’ve got a lot of rookies out there playing right now, you know, and they’re going to get better with every single game that they have and all the experience they can gather and um I think it’s worthwhile for them to gain that experience. Did you did you feel like it was a risk going into that game to put him out there in that capacity with just two rookies in in that environment where or whereas you could have had maybe Logan play a little bit more? Yeah, I trusted him. You know, that’s that’s why we made the decision because he’s shown operationally he can handle it. I think anytime you put a rookie out there, there’s there’s an element of risk to it and just when are you going to expose yourself to that risk? Are you going to do it sooner rather than later? And I just felt he’s shown enough to let’s just continue to work through it. We’re going to see constant improvement every single game and and so again, a lot of confidence in him and and we’ll continue with that moving forward. Have you Charlie, you’re up. Um, have you announced kind of made a conscious decision that you’re just going to you’re you’re willing to play young guys maybe even more than you have in the past on you? Yeah, I mean that’s both sides of the ball. You know, our two starting guards have been rookies. Um, so again, we’re we’re not going to be hesitate to play guys that we think have a lot of potential for us and there’s going to be some growing pains there, but um, all the guys that we have are are they’re intelligent guys. It’s important to them. They’re mature and so we’re going to get them out there and and they’ve earned it. It’s not like we’re just saying, “Hey, we’re going to play young guys that haven’t earned the opportunity.” These guys have all earned the opportunity and shown us that there’s a lot of potential there and that they’re capable of doing it and helping us win. And so that’s why we have them out there. After watching the film, how would you assess the tackling yesterday? Uh, not good enough. You know, too too many opportunities there where they got extra yardage and um, first chance we get, we got to get them on the ground and and too many examples of that not happening. Flat has played a million games, but can you still put into context the the challenge that it was for him to parachute in four days before a game, whatever it was, and and start and play a pretty good game in an NFL game on the road? Yeah. I mean, first of all, probably doesn’t know many of the names of the guys on the team. You know, there there’s young players that are out there that he probably doesn’t know what their skill set is or or how they work. And um so just trusting the information he’s got, going out there and making plays and making some adjustments and signaling a couple routes. You know, I can think of one he he wasn’t quite sure what was going on, so he signaled Jamar route and gave him an opportunity. And um I I just can’t say enough. It was incredibly impressive to go in there and do what he did on such short notice. He didn’t get here on Sunday night or Monday morning. He got here Tuesday after the game plan was in, you know, and and one o’clock really our first second down plan is in and so he has to drive in that night and practice the next day and uh gave us confidence just the way he he uh handled himself and just carried himself through the week and through practice. Um I think he gave gave everybody a lot of confidence that he was going to be out there and execute and and he certainly did that for us and and you know gave us all the juice there. And now unfortunately you don’t have too much time here. You can’t really How much more can you put on his plate before a Thursday night game? Um you’d be surprised. You know, it’s it’s we’re capable of putting now that we know what he understands and how quickly hits his brain, it makes sense to him. And now that we’ve seen him operate in our offense with our players and how he takes to that, I think he really enjoys throwing to these guys. And so again, we we’ll continue to press the envelope. We don’t want to overwhelm. We don’t want to um get to a point of diminishing returns where now we got too much and we’re forgetting what this means and that means but I think he’s shown that he’s capable of of taking on a little bit more. You go through uh he’s played Pittsburgh more than anybody and it’s been the same head coach. Does that matter the familiarity? I think it matters. Yeah, absolutely. He knows their style of play. He knows their level of aggression on defense and and played against most of their guys over there. He was an indie last year played against them. So, um, yeah, he’s been in. So, of course, he’s, like you said, played him as much as anybody has. Obviously, he’s probably played him more than anybody has in this league that’s currently playing. So, I I think he’s got a great sense of what it takes to win. Going every year, you guys have a short week going into a Thursday night game, but the fact that it’s a divisional opponent, new quarterback, what different challenges does the short week provide for you guys? Well, the same as them. You know, it’s they’re in a short week as well. uh they’re just coming off a divisional game. So, it’s it there’s no different challenges for us or them. Um again, our guys just got to get in the get in the training room, get their bodies back right. Most of it’s above the neck work when we’re out there working over the next couple days. Just understanding what we’re trying to get done in the game plan. But, um again, it’s it is what it is. It’s same for both teams. Mike Tomlin spoke today about being surprised that the Browns would trade Joe Flacco to you. said, he said, “You know, it doesn’t make sense to me to trade a quarterback that you think enough of to make your opening day starter to a division opponent that’s hurting in that area. Were you surprised that a team in division was willing to help you, so to speak?” I was happy. That’s that’s my only comment. with Thursday. Where where’s the balance of saying it’s a big game, division game obviously, but one of 17 versus where you are in the standings, where they are in the standings and and putting a little added emphasis on this game. I I think there’s a lot of emphasis on this game. This is we’re coming off the stretch we’ve come off of. We we we want to win. We’re hungry for it. Our guys have worked for it. Um we got to do a better job from start to finish getting that done. But but there’s a lot here. You got a home divisional game. um the division is where it is right now. You know, we’re the as it stands, the top two teams at the top and you get a chance to knock them down a peg and and put yourself up one. So, um our guys understand what’s at stake and it’s it’s big for us and we’ll treat it as such and guys got to get to work and you got to have a great performance by everybody. It’s been noted around here the how challenging being the road team on these short week in the in the north. You guys have been on the wrong side of having to go do that a lot having one here. Why is that so challenging for the road team? Why do you think that has been the case? I mean I mean the travel always factors into it when you’re when you’re just potentially traveling from a game the week before and you’re back what every time you’re back and then you’re in your building you just get limited time on the practice field and then you’re back on an airplane again. Um you know I know the statistics I I it’s hard to win on the road in this division period. So that factors into it as much as anything. I know statistically it’s probably you’re you’re less likely to win when it’s a Thursday night game, but still even still we know how hard it is just to win in the division period on the road. So, um you combine it all and and I’m I’m planning on having a great atmosphere to help our guys and give us an edge and go out there and win the game. Mike Tomlin’s been there a long time. Brilliant defensive mind. Um what what’s what are the difficulties in playing like Tomlin uh coached defense or football team in general particularly on a short week? Well, they got a bunch of potential Hall of Famers out there. You know, that’s that’s one thing you notice. Um some guys that have been doing at a high level for a really long time, showing really no signs of slowing down despite me waiting year in and year out for that to happen. Um and then they got a lot of young guys that add juice to them. So, they’ve got guys that they’ve done a great job developing. They come in there and um play the scheme the way they want it played. And it’s always a tough battle anytime we play these guys. It’s always a a major challenge facing that defense. Our guys always get up for the challenge and it’s going to take everybody on every single rep. You can’t let your guard down for one play. Um kind of last year when we were here, that’s kind of what happened. You know, we had um just just two plays there where the turnovers got us and and things broke down a little bit and it changes the game. So, um, we got to be on top of everything and have a great performance from all of our guys. Even considering just how the last few weeks have played out, what gives you confidence that this group can bounce back on Thursday night? I just know what we have in the locker room and how they’ve responded to every bit of adversity we’ve had so far. What impact has DK had for them? He’s a big physical receiver, big play threat. Um, he’s got really strong hands as well. So, again, he’s he’s been a challenge every time we’ve ever played him. with um Flaco and Rogers. Is 40 the new 30 in the NFL? Anybody else in that in that grouping? I think it’s those guys. Um really high-end processors number one. Um physically very talented. I mean, both both you you’d put their arm talent up there with with anybody I’ve ever seen play. And so those are two things. So, they’ve obviously taken care of themselves the right way. Um, yeah, it’s I mean, they’re both my age. I think Aaron might be right there and Joe’s two years younger. I can’t fathom that knowing how I feel right now. So, um, credits to those guys for for being able to do it at such a high level and take care of themselves and, u make the impact on their teams that they’ve they’ve both made. Aside from playing here in 21, have you crossed over with Rogers much? No, I really I mean I we played him a couple times. Um don’t think I’ve ever spoken to him. Ton of respect. He’s done a great job for a really long time. Been a guy you’ve studied as a young quarterback coach. Um he was somebody I always studied because he always the nuances. He was always high-end at it. Talking about cadence, you’re talking about subtle hand signals, body language, all those things that as a quarterback coach, you have so much extra meeting time in the offseason. You were always kind of coming through his tape and showing examples of him. And um you always got a lot of great ideas from his tape. Um you know, I studied it more so in Green Bay when he was there, but um so you can I can and Joe Filman, I worked for Joe Filman. He’d come from Green Bay, so you always watching a ton of Green Bay tape and having a better understanding of how they did it. So um just always a guy I’ve really respected and and love the way he plays and still doing at a very high level. Got two quarterbacks that uh 80 years between the two of them. I mean, that’s amazing. the starting quarterbacks. I mean, they’ve still got on talent like you like you described. What else do they have that allows them to play at that age? Well, I think just the intangible part of it, the the leadership part, the um you always talk about quarterbacks got to be able to elevate all those around them. And I think those are these are two examples. You know, Joe and Aaron, two examples of guys that um elevate everybody around them. They always have a sense that that we’re still in it when they’re at the helm. And so, I think that that’s what they bring to the table. Yoshi had some drops yesterday. What’s where are you at with him? Are you still comfortable with him in that role? Yeah, really confident Yoshi. Um, look at that being an outlier and and ton of confidence. Keep coming back to him. Going back to Pittsburgh, you know, Rogers, he had the struggles last year in New York. A lot of people were saying, you know, should he retire or not? What have you seen about how he’s kind of operated things in Pittsburgh so far? And how do you prepare for for that offense? I mean, I watched the tape late in the year last year, I remember, and I I didn’t see the struggles, you know, I thought that that was a narrative that just got thrown out there and people ran with it for a while, but I still saw a very similar player, especially as it went into free agency this offseason who could acquire him and um you could see that there’s there’s still a really good player there and and this year you’re seeing him play to high level as well and done a great job managing that team and um finding a way to win four games for him so far in five and he’s been a big part of that. you made the move to get younger at linebacker obviously with Barry to with Cam struggles. Is there consideration of seeing more F? I know he’s Fig’s not a rookie, but he’s still young guy second year. I I think we got to evaluate everybody. Whatever we can do to help our team be in the best spot to win, we’ve we’ve got to be open to that. What are your thoughts on having division games on short rest? You got two of them this year. It’s the same for both teams. So, um, there’s not much to complain about for me there. It’s they got to do the same thing as us. A lot goes into the way you guys turn things around after the the first four drives and then the way it played out after that. Yeah, it seemed like the toss sweep to Chase really kind of got things going that and then you seem to lean into that even more after that. Did you just not have time to get to that early? Was that part of the game plan or is that something where you react like, “Hey, it’s working. Let’s keep going back to No, there there’s times you’re you’re trying to get it set up and show them something then come back to it another time. And part of it was I you wanted to get that earlier. We just couldn’t. We were in a second 10, you know, and and so there’s some times you’re going to get different front structures where it doesn’t always work the way you want it done. So, um we didn’t get enough normal down plays on those first couple drives to allow oursel to hit all the things we wanted to do early. Um, you always assume you’re going to have a good drive right out the gate and have an opportunity to to let everything flow and complement each other. Um, you’re right in saying that did kind of kickstart us there in the run game. We did come back to, you know, two other toss plays after that that were efficient plays for us and, you know, we just got to look at continuing to complement our run game and and trying to marry that up with the passes as best we can. So, what did you think of the protection, Zack? The numbers look like you did a confident job. What was your thoughts going to take? Yeah, I mean it it gave us a chance to win the game and if you’d watch this tape, you know, all the third downs before our game, it was just a a disaster tape. You know, it was they’re hitting quarterbacks on on seemingly every play and and the conversions had all been on underneath throws where guys just catch and ran for the first downs. And so, um, we factored that into our plan, you know, a little bit and there got to a point where we just had to drop back and throw the ball down the field. And I thought our guys held up really well and Joe did a great job hanging in there as long as he could and giving guys a chance and and those guys at the receiver position came out big for him. Okay, thank you.

Zac Taylor speaks to the media.

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