Q. You talk about overcoming the adversity created by the weather, and how practice-time changes help prepare for the flow of a regular season, and how resting veterans is more about giving other guys an opportunity to practice and improve. I get all that. But what about this whole destination training camp thing is FUN for you?
A. I love to work to capture that which we cannot measure but we know is significant – that camaraderie, component of team, the understanding that's required to be great as a collective. I think when you're at a destination camp, it's those informal moments, the evenings on picnic tables and spending time in each other's rooms, getting to know one another. That's the value in the destination camp. The formal work, there is no difference. But there comes a point in time when you're not at a destination camp, where the formal work is done and people get in their cars and they go to their respective homes. And I just think it's a winning edge to be at a destination place, to live and to eat together, to spend informal time together. I just think it's part of team development that is very much a real thing. We can't measure it, but we know when we're good in that space, that cohesion, that camaraderie. It gets you out of a lot of tough circumstances.
Q. There are a lot of new players this summer, and new players who are significant in terms of where they are on the depth chart and what they can mean to this group's success. Do guys have to come to like each other for that to happen?
A. I've had a lot of success where guys didn't necessarily like each other, but you better understand each other and you better respect each other. It's probably words that resonate more with me along those lines and so that's a process. To understand someone, their perspective on things, or the lens through which they see life and or football, or to respect someone for what they're willing to do, not their talents, the things that they're willing to display in terms of their individual and collective get-better on a daily basis. That's a process, and so that's very much a component of this destination camp. And as you mentioned, particularly when many of those guys are going to comprise the leadership of this collective. I've got to help them with their leadership. They gotta understand me. They've got to understand the culture that we build here, the things that we value, and their roles in it. And so, I'm not only training them in terms of being ready for the season, but I'm training them and getting aligned with them in terms of our values, so that they can trumpet those values and lead the collective.
Q. That coming to respect each other, that kind of social interaction, can it happen on the field or does it have to happen after hours?
A. Both. It has to happen through our formal work on the field and in the classroom or in the weight room, but certainly that understanding component can be developed outside those lines in much more informal settings.
Q. You were hired here in 2007, and through the end of 2021 there was consistency at the top of the depth chart at QB. But for the 4 seasons since, there has been a lot of change at that position, and this summer is the second straight one where all the guys are new. How does the head coach have to handle that much change at that spot?
A. I gotta be light on my feet. I view it as a welcome challenge to be quite honest with you. Everybody understands the nature of the roles – that being the head coach and the quarterback and the amount of scrutiny and so forth that goes with those jobs – and so it's important that I spend time with those guys, that we get to know one another, that we're aligned in terms of the things that we need to get done. And so it's been an enjoyable process for me. It has forced me to alter my daily routine some in recent years in an effort to carve out time, but that's the job. My job is to be what this collective needs me to be. And for components of this collective, what components of this collective needs me to be. And so certainly, having a new quarterback room requires my time and attention, and so I'm all for it.
Q. In your camp-opening news conference , you referred to the NFL as a "coverage league." What makes it a coverage league? Personnel? Schemes? Rules?
A. Particularly in today's game, the passing game is such an evolving and major component of play. The weighty moments are often one-dimensional passing downs, so you better be able to cover and cover-extended in today's game. I think quarterback mobility, the number of mobile quarterbacks, and not only from an ability standpoint but from a schematic standpoint, really is challenging from a coverage standpoint. Those who cover or the schematics that you use to cover it's just a lot that's going on in today's game from a personnel and from a strategic standpoint that makes that a true statement from my perspective.
Q, What's the recipe for being a difference-making defense in a coverage league?
A. To disrupt the normal flow of the offense, and whatever is required to make that happen. If you really want to talk about it in in black and white terms – if you're going to be a good defense, the first step to stopping an offense is to disrupt the normal flow of their operation. And that's done in a lot of ways. In zone it's done through re-routing eligibles, and in man-to-man it's done in bump-and-run, for example. And so those are some of the things that I'm highlighting when I'm saying that we have to be elite from a coverage perspective. You have to disrupt the normal flow. You have to be able to cover extended to match athleticism at the quarterback position or to match schematics with extend plays. It's just a component of today's game that I see very vividly.
Q. Maybe make the quarterback hold the ball a little bit longer?
A. No question.
Q. Is there a time attached to that? T.J. Watt said that .1 of a second can make a difference. Is that accurate?
A. Very much. You've got to remember that a lot of passing concepts, particularly drop-back concepts, are very timing oriented. A quarterback goes through a progression where he might read right-to-left, left-to-right, strong-to-weak. The manner in which he goes through that progression is paramount to the success of a play. If he gets to his third read .1 second late, what was open might not be open. And so the ability to disrupt all of that, whether you're getting the quarterback off the spot and making him move, or disrupting the releases of the vertical stems of routes, it's all a component of disrupting the normal flow of rhythmic passing in an effort to destroy the success rate.
Q. Your daily injury update at camp always refers to "bumps and bruises associated with play." Those kinds of things are inevitable in a training camp setting, but is there any conventional wisdom about how to minimize those?
A. Sometimes removing them from short-term participation is a component of that. Some of the people that we give days off and protect in the big scheme of things, if it was the regular season, they would be capable of practicing. But removing them is a strategic approach to not letting a small thing become a big thing. So there are a lot of avenues to keep the individuals and the collective upright. Sometimes I don't get into the details of it, but some of the guys who don't work due to minor bumps and bruises associated with the process, but if it were the regular season, they would be full participants. That's just an example of the mindset.
Q. Is that procedure something you developed, or do you get help from the training staff and the medical people?
A. Certainly the medical experts have a say and a perspective. But I've been sitting in bi-weekly medical meetings for the last 19 years. I kid our guys about how I've gotten a lay-person's medical degree from some of those meetings. It's something that I've definitely become better at balancing through experience, through listening to those guys over the years, to understanding and cataloging what a grade-1 soft tissue injury is and understanding what that looks like, and understanding how to nip it in the bud or minimize it, not allowing it to become a grade-2 or grade-3. Experience, the lens through which I see it, is a component of the process, but certainly first and foremost, technology and medical expertise are key components of the decision-making process.
Q. When you're at practice, how do you pick which group to watch in any specific period? Are you watching 7-on-7 or OL-vs.-DL, TEs-OLBs run-blocking?
A. When we're fully suited and we're in full pads and that component of play is a variable, I almost always go to the big battles. The bigger the men, that's where I'm going to be. If we do a 7-on-7 and O-line vs. D-line in pass protection, I'm going with the bigs. If the wideouts and DBs are working, but the tight ends and outside linebackers are working on run-blocking, I'm going with the bigger people. There's a big-man component of this game and a physicality component of this game that will never be legislated out through trends or rules of play and so forth. And I show consistent respect to that by consciously making that decision. When physicality is a component of the drill, I always go to the bigger men, because I want them to understand my feelings about it. It's a big man's game. It's a physical game. It always will be. And so I'm very conscious about how I travel. When we're working in helmets, I try to balance out my presence by going to little-man competitions. If we're in helmets only, you'll see me with the wideouts and defensive backs, because physicality is less a component of those days than skill is, and so I try to show my respect to that component of play by being in those places on those days. But when the rubber meets the road, it's a big man's game. Physicality often defines who wins and who loses, and so my presence is required around those variables.
Q. Tonight is the preseason opener. Do you want to see different things from the offense and the defense, or is this a game where you want to see basic things from everybody?
A. It's just a game where I want to see basic things from everybody. I want them to make routine plays routinely. Makeable tackles, I want to see them make. Makeable catches, I want to see them make, for example. And so that's what I mean when I say routine things routinely. Things common to their areas of expertise, I expect to see them operate in an efficient way. Certain things that are within our control, like pre-snap penalties, pre-snap cleanliness on offense, shifts and motions, management of play clocks. On defense, if the ball is ready so are we, not being offsides. Pre-snap things, things that are firmly within our control, I expect to see at a high level. I expect to see displays of knowledge relative to situational football and corresponding behavior. I expect to see us move in and out of appropriate personnel groups in those moments. I expect us to be line-to-gain aware, whether it's red zone or possession downs. Things that we've really been focused on this week, and transitioned to it a big way this week leading up to this game, I expect to see those things executed in the stadium. And lastly, how we transition from unit to unit. It's very difficult to simulate that in practice, moving from offense to special teams to defense, from defense to special teams to offense. And so those transitional things, moving groups on and off the field in a coordinated way, while at the same time managing adjustments. Can a receiver who's on the punt team get the corrections necessary without jeopardizing his responsibilities in special teams. Can the defender make adjustments on defense, but at the same time, be ready to run out on the punt team and be locked in, not only with the adjustments being made, but be into what's going on in-game as fourth down approaches and he plays right guard on punt team. So it's just a lot of operational things that really capture your attention. That might not be interesting to the viewer, but when your slip is showing, man, it's very it's very significant.
Q. There have been some NFL coaches who haven't played their starting quarterback at all over the course of the whole preseason. Would you ever consider that?
A. You might be looking at one in 2025. Hey, this guy has been doing this for 21 years. His cumulative snap total and what's required for him to be ready is different than others. And so if I'm not adaptable and open to adjustments relative to the needs of our guys, then I'm not doing my job. And so you might be looking at one of those coaches in 2025.
