John Harbaugh on the Trade Deadline | Baltimore Ravens

John Harbaugh on the Trade Deadline | Baltimore Ravens

Appreciate everybody being here. Good to see you again after a little break. Uh we’re we’re back at it. Uh coaches were at it at the end of last week as well preparing for the Vikings and u all all all of our efforts are pointed toward that game right now. What questions you have, John? About I think like 26 hours before the trade deadline. Uh do you anticipate Ravens making any moves before that deadline? No way to know. No way to know. We’ll see what happens. T you were focused much on the the rookies because you got three remain on defense and how much time they have and they’re going to hit that proverbial wall in that second half of the season. Yeah. Uh not too worried about it. I think those guys are great shape, very focused, determined guys. Uh bring it every day. I see them continuing to, you know, ascend. All those guys are getting better every day. You can see it in this last game as well, Mike. So, uh I I’m I’m pretty uh pretty confident. And I’m very confident actually that those guys are going to keep improving and and u and just be better players for us as the season goes on. Is there anything that you do you do with them to maybe cut down on repetitions and games or No, no, we just play them. Play them the reps that they’ve earned, you know, and the reps that they can help us win. So, but but you know, to your point, I mean, Malachi is playing a lot. Uh he’s a starter and Mike Green’s kind of taking a full-time role now and I think he’s handling it really well. So, we’ll have to watch it, see how they do, you know, but I haven’t seen any signs yet of those guys, you know, having any issues with that. John, speaking of the trade deadline, you guys traded away Jer Sander, was it just a case of numbers just didn’t couldn’t get on the field here and let’s get something for him. What would you say about his time here? Right. No, I think it’s kind of a trade deadline kind of situation. You got a scenario where the trade deadines’s coming up and there’s opportunities to do different things and try to make your team better and falls in that category. Going back to the rookie Teddy Buchanan. He seemed to just get better and better as the season’s gone on. What have you liked about what you’ve seen from him? Right. Teddy should have mentioned Teddy in the uh group with those guys there. He’s another guy continues to improve. I mean, he had the he had this the three weeks there were when Ro was hurt, you know, and he was playing every snap and he was playing special teams. So, u he’s actually, you know, had a little bit of a break in the last couple games since Ro got back. But, uh, and even with that, I I think I think he made a lot of progress. He had the green dot for a couple games which is a lot of pressure. He probably happy to have that off right now. Uh but I just keep again he’s another guy that learns. He doesn’t make mistakes twice and uh he continues to get better for that reason. So John, it looked like he struggled a little bit in pass coverage in training camp. Have you seen significant progress there? Yeah, for sure. I mean, he did. And uh and and it’s always a challenge, you know, for those linebackers out there because people try to match him up with a good back, receiving back or number two receiver into the boundary. If you keep your nickel to the field, he’ll get matched up in some of those jobs, those coverage jobs, the zone end man that are challenging matchup type jobs. So, I think that’s probably the biggest probably the biggest issue for those the will linebackers, you know, now in the kind of the the nickel world of of defensive football. So, but he’s gotten way better at it. He’s done did a good job last week and man these guys I mean the Dolphins stress you stress that position quite a bit. They throw it right in there behind off the play action right behind that spot quite a bit and thought he did a pretty good job. John, last three games the defense hasn’t allowed more than 17 points per game. Uh what do you think has been the key to turning things around on defense? Well, you know, we’ve got a long way to go. I mean, our guys on defense will be the first to tell you that uh there’s we just got to keep getting better, you know. So, I think the key is that they’ve taken that mindset, you know, the mindset has been let’s get better. I mean, nobody was nobody was down. They weren’t they didn’t they didn’t question the fact that they were good, you know, and and uh and and could play great defense and whatever. And I still think that there’s a lot better defense in us and they’ll tell you that. So, that’s really nothing’s changed. We just got to keep striving to get better at all the little things every single every single play. There’s lots of things in that last game that we can improve on uh that Minnesota’s going to take a look at and they’re going to try to kind of try to take advantage of. So, that’s all we just have to do. We just got to focus on on all the details of what we’re doing and do it in a real uh you know, fundamentally sound, hardworking kind of way every play. John, you mentioned you hinted it on Tuesday. Do you have an update on on Broad’s status? What’s that? Roger Washington’s injury. Say it again, please. Washington’s injury. you mentioned on on Tuesday. Yeah, Broady had had a surgery. Uh he had a surgery u on his had achilles issue that he had surgery. I wasn’t torn, but there was a surgery there. So, I I I have to get the medical details to to to see what I could say further. That’s really all I know. And it was successful. Do you have a Is there a timet available? I don’t really know right now. Not Not imminent. Not imminent, though. John, do you watch the Minnesota game yesterday as a fan? You’re not playing, but you or are you breaking down and what what did you take away from seeing that? Uh, I watched them on tape today quite a bit. Um, I thought they had a heck of a game. I mean, they’re they’re talented going to Detroit, win that game the way they did, uh, division game. Uh, they really, uh, they really showed up, you know, and they played, uh, they played really great on both sides. very disruptive on defense. You know, a lot of a lot of a lot of pressure, a lot of inside pressure, stop the zone run game with bringing linebackers through and things like that. And um I thought I thought they played really well offensively. You know, uh uh you know, young quarterback for Michigan did did pretty okay. You know, JJ made a bunch of throws, scrambled around, thought the run game was impressive. So, um yeah, we’ve got a lot to get ready for. Is it tough to prepare? Does it make it I guess you need to prepare for McCarthy considering he’s in his second year but hasn’t had a lot of playing time to this point for various reasons. Uh you know you just take it as you see it, right? I mean you look at the tape and you see what he’s doing and you try to do your best to to counteract all that stuff and it’s really the system too. It’s the same system they ran with Carson Wentz. It’s their offense. I mean it’s an offense that they’ve uh they’ve kind of been running for quite a while now. It’s a it’s a system offense and and he does a really good job and he moves around, he gets out of the pocket. He’s dangerous running. He’s dangerous throwing on the run for sure. Um he’s he’s a a real aggressive player, high energy type of player type guy. So, uh but it’s not just him. I think the offensive line kind of came together. They’re healthy. They’re a lot healthier now than they were a couple weeks ago. And you you see that as well. John, um speaking of healthy, Travis Jones looks like he’s healthier. Um Jenkins has played, you know, a good bit for you guys in that D line. It’s not it’s not a real deep group. Is that I know you’re not going to get into specifics, but is it but is that an area where if hey, if there’s a move to be made there, that’s something you’d like to add depth if possible. Yeah, I’d like to Yeah, we’ll see. Just speaking of the trade deadline, you you all made a trade already with Alohi Gilman. He’s playing really well. Just what have you seen from Alohi? What has he brought to this defense? Right. Well, yeah, he’s uh he really has helped us. I mean, he’s uh he’s uh kind of a complete player back there. You know, he can he can go in really any any spot. Moves around. We we do a lot. We’re kind of interchangeable in the back end in terms of what we do with our with our guys and especially our safeties. They play a lot of different spots with the disguises and our rotations and things like that. And and also the communication part of it has really been good. I mean, he helps he helps. You know, Malachi does a good job, but he’s still a rookie. You know, Lo’s been in this thing a long time. You know, he’s he’s he he’s seen pretty much everything. So, he sees it pretty much before it happens as opposed to when or after it happens. And I think that’s been a big plus for us, too. I mean, that play he made on the, you know, on the coming out area there inside the 10 yard line on the strip fumble was amazing. That was just such a such a game turning play right there to get get our momentum going. And we’ve been trying to get turnovers. you know, we hadn’t had many and um he comes up with that one right there. That was that was big big in the game. So, just all those things I think kind of go um and that’s not even mentioning the ability what it does for us in terms of moving Kyle down and the different things he’s been able to do. So, it all fits there. It’s it was a good it’s a good trade force in that sense. You know, you hate to you hate to lose a good player. I think I mentioned Adaf was really rushing the passer well and playing really well when we traded him, you guys asked me. and it’s certainly shown up in in LA there for the Chargers. Uh he’s done really well. So I guess both teams are happy about it. You mentioned Kyle and his ability to move everywhere and you guys kind of, you know, are able to move. When you drafted him, was that the initial thought or when did you kind of think, okay, this is a guy we can utilize in different spots? Yeah, I mean I think so. I would say the scouts probably had a good feel for that. Eric and his crew and and and watching him on tape, you know, you saw him do a little bit of that, but I think we probably done a lot more with him than he did in college, you know, in different spots. Uh you just knew he was a good player, you know, and and once once he once he got here and then you kind of got a feel for how smart he was and how versatile he was, uh he started off down there doing a lot of things and then, you know, we ended up moving him back because we needed him back. So he’s he’s pretty much made a couple road he’s been around the block twice now. So uh we like where he’s at right now and he he can go back and play deep too and he will. You’ve had a lot of great defensive players over the years. Have you can you think of one you’ve had though where you can just sort of say okay this is the problem with our defense right now. We can sort of point Kyle at it because he can do so many things. Is he unique that way? I don’t know if there’s anybody like I mean Ed Reed was a kind of a good safety. You think he was pretty versatile player. He did a lot of things. Use him blitzing on the edge. Yo, what the excuse me, Mike. Come on now. I mean, did he He rushed punts. He returned punts. What didn’t he do? John, this is going to be Lamar’s first game against Brian Flores since that 2021 game in Miami. uh just how much more have you guys kind of put on his plate to be a problem solver against the kind of stuff that Florence defenses like to like to run? Yeah, I mean we’ve seen we’ve seen all that stuff. How long ago was that? How long what 2021? So, um I we’ll probably focus more on the last four games than four years ago, I would say, probably. But, um we certainly remember that game. I mean, you know, that was something we even talked about before the game Thursday night a little bit. I think it was a Thursday night game if I remember correctly. And it definitely was a a key game kind of in the uh evolution of the offense for sure. Um and handling zero blitz and uh but um and they still run some of those blitzes, but they’re they’re much more evolved now. They do all kind of different things and they they disguise their blitzes probably more than they used to. And he’s running different variations where he’s running simulated pressures. He’s running, you know, fourman rushes with both inside backers coming and he’s playing man or zone behind it. And um he still does the zero stuff too. So you’ve got to be prepared for everything, you know, and offensively we have all the the tools to do that. And Lamar’s, you know, he’s he’s been doing really well with that really for a long time now. And u but we’re going to have to be on point. I mean, this game is going to be a challenge that way. It’s going to be super loud in there. It’s it’s one of the loudest places you you’d ever play. It’s it’s loud from the first play to the last play and they got horns going off and everything else. So, it’s it’s going to have to be a silent signal communication game on offense for sure. And we’re going to have to handle that pressure because I think they they use that to their advantage, you know, to try to to mess with your communication a little bit. You might be flipping protections or whatever you got to do to get stuff picked up and it’s just hard to get that stuff communicated. We’re going to have to really be really intentional about that all week and do a great job with that. Make sure as much as we can be on the same page because if you’re on the same page and you do things right, you can hurt it, you know, and you can get some big plays. And we’ve certainly got the the weapons to do that. So, but you got to get it done, too. And it’s a challenge. You don’t think it’s going to be like it was in Miami? Was that a question? Oh, I thought it was a statement or something like that. Yeah. You don’t think the Vikings will have to go to a silent account? No, I don’t think they’ll have to go to a silent count. John, what what um have you seen from Trent Simpson in the in the edge packages? at least on and and um and is Carl Lawson a guy who could maybe elevated for this week. Yeah. Um two separate questions for sure, but u so Carl Yeah, he’s probably ready to go, you know, so we’ll have to see where we’re at with that. And then um Trent’s done really well with that. I mean, I just he’s pretty versatile football player. I Trent’s Trent can do a lot of good things and he was doing a lot of things in that game and a lot of the games and different things we run. Uh he can drop for you, of course. Uh I don’t know. It’s been kind of a It’s been a nice uh It’s been a nice ad to our defense to have Trent move up there and become one of the the known rushers. How important um has Jordan Stout’s been, especially in this recent last couple games with his ability to bury teams deep and sort of flip the field position? Oh, Jordan Stout um had a great game, right? It’s been big and uh he had a couple punts. You may have noticed they weren’t the normal style, right? We He’s got he’s he’s added to his uh his his repertoire of punts, the Sam Cook list, you know, he’s got a few of those under his in his uh in his uh toolkit now. So, a few of those balls are on the ground, which is a big help, especially the returner that they had last Thursday night. He was really, really good. Washington is dangerous guy and you saw when he got the ball in his hands. So, Jordan keeping the ball out of his hands was big, I thought. um got the ball down inside the 10 a couple times. So yeah, I’d say the last few games he’s really stepped up. We probably asked you about Tyler Loop every other day during the summer and we’ve hardly asked you about him at all over the last six or eight weeks, which I guess is a good probably a good sign. But like I mean, how have you felt about his development over the course of the season? It’s been good. He kicks it straight so far. Keep kicking it straight. You know, that’s that’s the uh that’s the that’s the motto. uh he’s done well, but uh you’re only as good as your your last kick and and he’s been great. And I just I just like his attitude. He’s got a great mindset. Um I didn’t like his first kickoff very much. So he knows that, too. So, you know, it’s like anything else. You got to keep uh just keep working. Okay. All right. Great. Thanks,

Head Coach John Harbaugh on Tuesday’s trade deadline, the rookie class playing significant snaps and more.

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