Q. In assessing last Sunday's game vs. Seattle, you said on Tuesday, "We took a hard-core look at the video and acknowledged some areas that needed to be addressed in terms of improvement." What areas were you referring to?
A. Cohesion and communication in particular. We've got a lot of new guys on our football team, and we've experienced some early season attrition due to injury. And I think that those two things together are a recipe for disaster, and certainly it wasn't a good thing for us a week ago. And so with a new 7-day cycle to prepare, I feel really good about our ability to address that, to bring the menu to those who are available. But also just every day that we're here, they gain more experience in terms of being Pittsburgh Steelers. Some of these guys are not new to the NFL but are new to us, and it still requires an adjustment. And so it's been a really good week with some of those things, but part of fixing it is acknowledging where we are and then making the appropriate adjustments, both them and us. They have to be extremely urgent in terms of their communication and take nothing for granted, because we don't have a lot of collective history. We as coaches have to be really cognizant of that, in terms of our decision making, the complexities of our calls strategically, the size of our menu, etc.
Q. When things are addressed in that Monday setting, what is your tone?
A. My tone is generally the same, win or lose. I'm not going to pretend to be more urgent based on the outcome of a football game. I'm urgent all the time. That's this business. And so if I'm going to train them properly, I have to display that. It doesn't matter whether you won a game or lost a game because the next week is coming. This is a very fragile ecosystem we're in. Those of us who have been in it a long time understand it. And so for me it is, how do I display that? It's being urgent and being on all the time. From an outsider's perspective, if you view my Monday meetings, you might think I lost every week. The messaging has to be really consistent. My delivery has to be really consistent, because this is a very fragile and volatile business, and I have to be steady as a leader if I want their actions to match my actions and words.
Q. At that stage of the process – a day-after-the-game meeting with the team – how many times have you watched the video?
A. Personally? Oh my gosh, at least three times. Generally, at least three times for me. But again, the video is our guide in terms of everything that we do. I tell the guys all the time, forget what your mouth says. You want to know what type of player you are? You want to know what type of coach you are? You want to know what type of team we are? Turn the tape on. You want to make plans for the upcoming week, schedules, things that you need to work on, drill work, play selection? Turn the tape on. The tape is our guide for a lot of things in this business. And so with that understanding, you better delve into the tape and absorb the tape, and I certainly do.
Q. When you were asked about Broderick Jones' performance vs. the Seahawks as compared to how he played vs. the Jets, you characterized it as "significantly better." In what ways was it significantly better?
A. In all areas. In detail, in finish, in physicality, and that's why I said "significant." I was thoughtful with my words. He was better in all areas. But that's a reasonable expectation for a young player and for a collective to display growth with experience, with reps from game 1 to game 2, from year 1 to year 2. However you want to frame it, I think there's an opportunity for advancement for all of us with experience.
Q. One of the things I noticed in both your remarks after the Seattle game and then again during your news conference on Tuesday, was that you never used Kaleb Johnson's name when asked about his brain cramp on that kickoff, instead referring to him as a "young player." Was that done thoughtfully on your part?
A. Absolutely it was, because we as a sports society, we like to brand people, like to put them in a box. That play can't define his season, that play can't define his career. And so I thoughtfully chose not to mention his name. It's something that he's going to have to move on from. That's something that I have a desire for him to move on from. And, you know, bringing it up repeatedly and mentioning his name is not a component of moving on from it.
Q. When referring to issues that cropped up in both the Jets game and the Seahawks game, you used the phrase "two is a pattern." How would you respond to three?
A. I don't, because there's urgency there. Two is a pattern, so you know what three is. I use that phrase to display urgency with our guys, to understand that there's an expiration date on adapting. There's an expiration date on adjustments. We can't wait too long. We've got to recognize issues. We've got to see around corners. We gotta eliminate problems before they happen. Not just us. Anybody in this business. I'm talking about rules of football. You gotta eliminate problems before they happen. And when they do happen, you better eliminate them quickly. And so a component of that mindset, a component of that mantra is the phrase "two is a pattern," because three is too much.
Q, Today's opponent is the New England Patriots, who are coached by Mike Vrabel, a 14-year veteran player with 3 Super Bowl rings. Do coaches who were players in the league tend to look to stock their roster with players who are the same kind of players that they were?
A. I don't necessarily have the answer to that. I'll just tell you this: the guys who are head football coaches who played in this league, they're all very similar in that they were smart players. They were team players. They had natural leadership skills, and that was on display when they played. And I don't care if you're talking about Mike, I don't care if you're talking about DeMeco Ryans in Houston, the interesting component of the discussion is that the players who ascend to the head coaching ranks – Aaron Glenn with the Jets – they were smart players. They were team players. They had natural leadership skills that were displayed while they played. Whether or not they try to assemble teams that reflect that, I think we're all trying to assemble teams that reflect positive values. But the interesting component of the discussion for me is there's not a former player who's a head coach that I've been around who wasn't a really smart player, who wasn't globally aware as a player, who wasn't sensitive to the team component of play, and who didn't uplift their teammates and display natural, charismatic leadership while playing.
Q. What are some characteristics of a Mike Vrabel-coached team?
A. They're strong up front. There's a kick-ass persona, if you will, because that's how Mike played the game. He values the bigs, offensive and defensive line, the game within the game from that perspective. He's a fundamentalist over scheme. What do I mean? He's not going to compromise guys playing hard, playing with emotion and communicating for the sake of schematics. And so he's probably more small-menu than big-menu. That's been my experience in competing against him, and certainly I've competed against him a bunch over the years from his time in Tennessee.
Q. Josh McDaniels is the Patriots offensive coordinator and play-caller. What are some of the things he does regularly to attack a defense, or to set up a defense to be attacked?
A. There are several things, and I'm not talking about a 1 or 2-year body of work. I'm talking about a 15-year body of work across multiple cities – New England, Denver, Las Vegas. It's on all those videos. Pace is a weapon for him. He's not afraid to utilize pace in an effort to control circumstances or situations. The matchup component, the use of personnel has been historically a component of him. He's always got a secondary runner who is very dangerous out of the backfield. This young runner that they got from Ohio State (TreVeyon Henderson), for example, is very good in the perimeter running game and very good out of the backfield – rail routes, screens and so forth. But I can give you a rundown of guys who occupied that role over the years. Kevin Faulk is probably the original in terms of his coordinator experience. Shane Vereen is one. James White is one. And so you're able to see that there's a division of labor or mode of operation within his system of offense that highlights perimeter runners or passing game runners, for example. And so those are some of the things that kind of highlight Josh. He has a mode of operation, but that's why he's been doing it so long. He's been successful. And there certainly are things that you can identify, for those of us who are experienced in terms of competing against him, that he might do.
Q. On a play like Jaylen Warren's 65-yard catch-and-run, where he was breaking tackles and pinballing his way through the defense and down the field, can that energize the team's sideline?
A. No question, but plays like that don't happen without extraordinary effort from a lot of people involved. If you go back and re-watch that play, look at the eligibles. Look at the other Pittsburgh Steelers who are down the field. They're finishing with the same urgency and energy that he is. Those plays are not mystical. Those plays are constructed with how we work with the finisher's mentality and the finisher's culture. And so that's an extraordinary effort and really special play by Jaylen. But when you watch the others, you see that it's coordinated, that it's thoughtful, that it's a lifestyle. And so I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the efforts of the other people down the field on that play as well.
Q. In terms of this season's version of the dynamic kickoff, what in your mind qualifies as good coverage? Is there a yardage component to the opponent's return, or are you looking strictly at where the offense ends up starting its drive?
A. I think there are multiple ways you can view it. Certainly you can look at it from a black-and-white perspective, the start line of the offense and have that be a hard component of what's successful and what's not. And to be honest, largely to answer your question from a global perspective, we're all still discovering what the standards are in terms of this new play. What's acceptable, what's unacceptable, what's good, what's satisfactory, what's below the line. I think the larger the body of work that we have to look at, the more those things are going to become more definitive. There's a black-and-white component to the start line. There's another component where the ball hits, the type of kick. In a very short time, it has become obvious that balls that hit the ground are the new flight time. When the ball is on the ground and the kickoff coverage team gets a chance to take off, those are the ones where returners get dropped inside the 20-yard line. Any ball that's caught in the air, there's very little likelihood that those balls are going to be stopped inside the 20, or even the 25 for that matter. And so I think for kickers in particular, it is trying to get the ball on the ground in the landing zone. For returners or the return team, it's about fielding the ball in the air. I think those are the critical variables in terms of determining what's a good return, or what's good coverage.
Q. When it comes to kickoff returns, what skill-set are you looking for from the return guys?
A. The courage to hit things at full speed. You know, there are windows, and those windows close particularly fast in the National Football League. They close at all levels of football, but those windows remain open a little bit longer the lower the level of football. And so the ability to make good decisions, the ability to stem – and by stem, I mean the initial steps the returner takes once he gets the ball. If you're good at stemming, then you can lead people to believe that you're running a kind of return that you're not really running. The legendary returners, Devin Hester and so forth, they'll start right at you and then they'll bounce the ball to the perimeter, for example. And so the stem is important. But more than anything, it's about getting the speed, having the courage to get to speed and running into oncoming traffic, because those windows are going to close. And on the NFL level, those windows are going to close very quickly.
Q. What kind of quarterback is Drake Maye, and who's he looking for when he's in a tight spot?
A. He's got great quarterback mobility. He's a good athlete. I think it's an asset to him in all circumstances, not only by ad lib, but also potentially by design. We were talking about Josh McDaniels earlier. I've been looking at some of his Cam Newton years for example, when Cam was playing for him, because he's really the only guy he's had who had unique mobility. Drake Maye has that type of mobility. And so there's an ad lib component to that discussion, and then there's the play-design component to that discussion. And so we've been looking at both. He's a talented young guy. Certainly he's gaining experience. He utilizes, he weaponizes his mobility, and when he's in a bind, most certainly, the two guys that he's gone to at the wide receiver position have been Kayshon Boutte, the young receiver out of LSU, and certainly Hunter Henry, the veteran tight end. Those are two guys when in a bind he turns to.
