Q. In the first quarter of the preseason opener in Jacksonville, after Darnell Washington came to the sideline after catching a 19-yard touchdown pass and then got flagged for dunking the football over the crossbar in celebration, the TV cameras caught you talking to him on the sideline. What was the tone of your message?
A. I'll keep that between Darnell and me, but you can imagine what the tone was. He's a talented young guy and it was a heckuva play, but that (penalty) doesn't help us secure victory. That's not what we're about. And so it's important that he received that message, and the quicker, the better. No time like immediate feedback on lessons like that. But I'm sure I probably was the third or fourth person who got to him. I think his position coach (Alfredo Roberts) almost met him on the field of play. And so hopefully that was not only a lesson for him, but a lesson for others as well.
Q. At any point did you privately think how great it was to have a 6-7, 300-pound tight end with the athletic ability to dunk a football over the crossbar in full pads, and what he could do for your offense?
A. I don't know that ever crossed my mind. I appreciate the measurables and attributes that you mentioned, but not in reference to dunking on the crossbar, because that is a definitive penalty in our game, and penalties don't help us win football games. This is the ultimate parity league. The difference in most of these games can be just a few points, and when you're kicking 48-yard extra points, that doesn't help you secure victory.
Q. You often say it's your job to give players what it is they need when they need it. What did Broderick Jones need during the time the team spent at Saint Vincent College?
A. He needed good-on-good work, and that aids growth and development. He got it. Obviously, we've got some quality edge people, particularly in our first group defensively, guys like T.J., Alex Highsmith, and Nick Herbig. Part of our approach to getting better is Steelers vs. Steelers, meaning we go good-on-good in team development. We just believe in that. Some organizations will go 2s vs. 1s, and 1s vs. 2s in an effort to aid development that way. I'm not judging that course of action, but we're a 1s vs. 1s, 2s vs. 2s type of a group. I just think that approach to business really aids his growth and development, because he gets to see some top flight edge rushers each and every day. He did, and he performed very well against them.
Q. Did Troy Fautanu, another developing young OT, need the same things?
A. Absolutely. They certainly have enough talent. That's why they were selected where they were selected and rated where they were rated, globally. Then their quality of play would be largely determined by their development, and that development requires reps and particularly reps vs. good people.
Q. Does a player – either a young one like most of your offensive linemen, or a 21-year veteran like Aaron Rodgers – have any input in what they need? Or do you make a unilateral decision?
A. The older player has more input than the younger player. Some conversations are one-way; some conversations are interactive. The older the player, particularly the more experience that I have with an older player, there's certainly more communication, because I value their in-helmet perspective, their experience, what they have experienced. And so why wouldn't I utilize that in the formulation of decision-making? Some young guys, I don't trust their experience or lack thereof, and so I make those decisions with their benefit in mind.
Q. How do you balance installing and developing a unit on your team with not revealing too much too soon to your future opponents? For example, what you're going to do on defense with so many new components at your disposal?
A. Some things, we're just going to do what we do. People know it, and so why hide some of your core things. We are a dog-rush team. We've been a dog rush team for a long time in Pittsburgh. I mean, dating back to Greg Lloyd and Kevin Greene, the Pittsburgh Steelers were known as a dog-rush team. And so those are old school values that I happen to really appreciate and wanted to continue during my tenure here, and it's really kind of aligned philosophically with the things I believe in. And so, I don't care that people know Blitzburgh is what we do. But certain wrinkles that we are developing, schematically, or personnel combinations, anything involving specialization, we certainly may hold some of those things until regular season football. And it might not be Week 1. It might not be until it's relevant in terms of a matchup or a component of play that gives us an advantage to win. And so we choose to hold bullets that are specialized and new, that are big strategic things, particularly in situational moments, or things done to minimize special players. And then there's the bucket of things that we do that people know that we do, and we don't care that they know.
Q. During an appearance on the DVE Morning Show at the end of camp in Latrobe, you said about your defense: "We feel really good about the prospects of this group. We gotta write that story, but we've got enough talent, we've got enough schematics to do big, big things. And when I say big things, I'm talking about historic things." What are "historic things" in your mind?
A. I say that based on my experience. I've been around some really elite defenses, and I believe we have the makeup to be that. But elite defenses deliver world championships. Elite defenses are on the cover of Sports Illustrated. You know when you're in those neighborhoods knocking on those doors. I simply was saying I think we've got enough of the ingredients that we need to make that a goal of ours and not a dream Meaning that it's something we're capable of, something that we're going to work toward daily. I feel that good about the collection of men that we have, and the development of schematics that we have. And so, we can't run away from expectations; we've got to run to it. And I thoughtfully put that out there, because that's how I feel about it.
Q. The addition of Aaron Rodgers so far has been something that is working out very well on a number of levels. Did you need to find a level of comfort with him before deciding you wanted to add him to this group?
A. Certainly on a personal level but not from a football talent or resume perspective, I think relationships require certain fits. And so it requires some discussion, not only us to get to know him, but him to get to know us. I'm sure he was evaluating me and us as much as I was evaluating him to make sure that our agenda was aligned. Obviously, a quarterback is a significant position. It's a unique role, and it certainly helps the process when his vision and personal aspirations are aligned with those of the team and organization. And they were.
Q. How did you reach that level of comfort?
A. It certainly was a series of conversations. And really it was more about what he was looking for at this stage of his career. It was about his relationship with the game, his love affair with the game, his leadership style, his desire to lead. Those were kind of the talking points, and all of those things were really aligned with our needs.
Q, You are going into your 19th season as the Steelers coach, and the business aspect of the NFL has undergone a lot of changes during that time. How do you balance working with players as their coach and having no control over the business aspect of the sport.
A. It's easy. When I deal with guys, whether it's the collective or whether it's individuals, I don't see dollar signs. We understand what business we're in, but we also understand the game that we all love. And I've always been able to compartmentalize that personally. We've all had coach-player relationships all our lives at various levels, and so we understand what that is, and the dollar signs can't get in the way of that. They've never really kind of gotten in the way of that. Day-to-day when you're doing the mundane things that are required or even unique things that are required, you deal with men, you deal with men as a collective, you deal with men on an individual basis. I don't subscribe to treating everybody the same, but I subscribe to treating everybody fairly. And oftentimes in my interactions with them, dollar signs are a distant component of interactions.
Q. On Thursday, you had a joint practice with the Buccaneers at Acrisure Stadium. How does something like that come about?
A. Generally, that organization has to be an appropriate dance partner, and it's a couple of things that are significant there. First of all, I have a lot of respect for Coach Todd Bowles and his staff. And philosophically, in terms of how we work the things that we value, through my relationship with him over the years, I knew that we were aligned and we'd have the potential for a good, productive day. But also it has to be appropriate logistically. And so, we're playing them in a preseason game here, and they were willing to come up and find appropriate housing and a place to work over at CMU. And so things fell into place logistically, and they're a good, philosophical dance partner. And that's usually the things that allow those things to happen.
Q. Tonight vs. Tampa Bay will be your second preseason game, and during one of your last media sessions in Latrobe, you said it was reasonable to expect the team to take a significant step forward from preseason game 1 to preseason game 2. What qualifies in your mind as a "significant step?"
A. It's reasonable to expect us to play cleaner, to function more fluidly, and those things are not often revealed in statistics or in film. How we communicate, how we exchange personnel groups, given the fact that we'll probably use more personnel groups this time around and carry a larger menu. It's just things that are pushing toward game readiness. There'll be some more game planning specific to competing against the Buccaneers, because we practiced against them. And so there's an awareness there that we didn't have a week ago against Jacksonville. So there's a lot of things that the guys have to manage that are probably a little bit more complex, a little bit more in-depth than a week ago. But that's just a natural progression in this process. Aside from what they have to manage, I also expect better quality play from (the Buccaneers). We've been in a stadium before. Particularly the guys that are new to us and new to the National Football League, there is less speculation about what comes next. They should be more comfortable. They should burn less fuel in prep and in play, their conditioning should show better the second time around. There also are a lot of tangible things that do show up in stats and on film, and I'm excited about those as well.
Q. For the preseason opener, you made some decisions about which guys would not play. When making such decisions for tonight's game, are your reasons the same, or different?
A. Very similar, to be quite honest with you. It's just coupled with an additional week of work and exposure. As I mentioned a week ago, some guys' resumes and experience dictate that they need less prep, and some guys lack of resume and lack of experience dictate they need more prep. It's my job to give the collective what it is they need. And so it's the same reasons, but couple that with another week's work, and oftentimes the quality of work of the veteran player dictates whether or not I utilize them in games like this. So we're taking a very similar approach this week as we took last week. The guys I held out of last week's performance largely had a good, productive growth week of prep this week. I like the trajectory of those guys, and as long as I like the trajectory of those guys, I'll continue to preserve them and provide more opportunity for others.
