Q: Having been here for two Super Bowl runs as a player and a coach, do you see things about this team and the beginning to stabilize and trending upward, as you said, that’s familiar to you from the 2003 team, and then what became the 2015 team?
Proehl: “When I got there, I was blessed. When I got here in ’03, two years before they were 1-15. But you start to realize the staff, the organization, and the front office knew where we needed help. Whether it’s defensively, offensively, they did such a great job through the draft and some free agency of building the football team that is conducive to winning, and to also what their needs are offensively and defensively, and plugging people in to where they can be successful.
“I think, playing for 17 years, you realize that players win football games, but it’s the coach’s job to put them in places to have success. And in your system, you have to plug in players that fit your system. And I just see the pieces starting to come together and what they’re doing and how they’re building this football team from the inside out. The line has become so much better, and truth be told, you, you become a championship football team on the offense and defensive lines. It starts there. I mean, you can have all the greatest skill players in the world, but if you can’t block and protect the quarterback, which is what we couldn’t do in the past, and now you’re seeing a run game, now you’re going to see play action pass, so you’re seeing big plays down the field. You’re seeing Bryce have what, 12 come-from-behind wins in the fourth quarter? I mean, it’s crazy. And I think that’s what it takes to win in this league: building confidence, building continuity amongst the football team, and then comes confidence to where they know they can win no matter who they’re playing. And that’s what you’re starting to see bits and pieces of. We were the same way in ’03, you know, I mean, shoot, we were down against Jacksonville and came back, but that kind of catapulted us.