July 22, 2025 • 19 mins
Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel addresses the media on Tuesday, July 22, 2025.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Still haven't found a seat for him. Huh. I know,
(00:05):
I'm gonna figure it out. I know, good luck, that
was a good one. Uh. Welcome, Welcome to training camp
twenty twenty five. I know Stacey kind of talked to you.
We're gonna trim through these just guidelines and figure out,
you know, so that we can all you know, you
guys can get what you want from practice, and we'll
(00:27):
try to give you what you can and we'll try
to communicate that daily and so hopefully there's not a
million rules, but a few guidelines that you could follow,
and you know, we can all work together. I understand
you guys got a job to do. We appreciate the
job that you do, uh, and the job that we have.
So got everybody in here. We had an early group
started a couple of days ago, which was the rookie
(00:50):
class quarterbacks and then some players that may have been
not full or one hundred percent in the off season.
Was the first group, just to kind of get them
in there, get them acclimated. The rest of the group
reported this morning, went through physicals, had a great run test,
just finished that and then we'll start here with meetings
(01:14):
here after lunch. So a couple of players that probably
are on a few lists. There's two lists that we're
working with now as it relates to the roster. The
PUP list, which would be Hooper, Hollins, Verdarian Lowe, and
to Vuy. I would expect to Viuy back out there tomorrow.
(01:35):
Those other three probably will be, you know, sometime after that.
The NFI list, which would be Davis, Lincoln's and Web.
I would expect Davis and Web back out there with
us tomorrow, and then Lincoln's maybe a few more days.
So those are just some housekeeping items and just some
(01:58):
list that we used to start camp. So with that,
what he got Karen.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
With the news that step up Bags has been cleared
from practice presumably half physical.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
What does it mean to you that he's ready to
start a camp just eight months after ECL surgery. Well,
I know that everybody heals differently, and especially from that
type of injury, but I would say that I think
it's just a testament to how hard he worked. You know,
Mark Zeps also went through that that surgery and worked
(02:35):
extremely hard, and he's he's been out there the last
couple of days with us as well. So appreciate their
efforts to get back out there and get ready, and
then we'll continue to monitor as we work through training camp.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Do you still have him on any sort of like
pitch count or.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Anything or is he full well the I mean, I
would say, I'm going to try to just explain it
when he practices. When he when he took the rep,
it was full go. Everybody every day is going to
have a different plan. There'll be some players that aren't
out there for individual There'll be players that are just
out there for team. There'll be players that are just
(03:12):
taking some specific reps, and my job is to manage
that each and every day, but to ensure the football
team that everybody's working, whether that's with with Frank or
the or Jim's staff or with the coaching staff on
the field. So I don't see any limitations right now.
(03:32):
Is he going to take every single rep of every
single period. No, and I don't think any player will.
But you know, I think we're off to a good
start and encouraged by by what we saw here in
the last couple of days. Yeah, Big T is here
ready to go. He's been out on the field with
(03:52):
us the last couple of days. Players were excited to
see him. I was excited to see him, and we'll
move forward a big stuff. Did he pass his physical? Yeah,
you can't practice if you don't pass your physical. That's
what these lists are for. I apologize. So you know
(04:13):
that's some of the housekeeping that you go through when
when you're not fully cleared to start camp. Is that's
where you introduce some of these pup and the n FI.
So uh, yeah, you can't practice without passing your physical.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Critical This buff was when they're off in their own
kind of don't remember correctly, Mike said, between the most
important jumps through the year, what's your love with satisfaction
with these guys?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Well, I think just based on the conditioning test, based
on everybody at their weights where where we asked them
to be in the conversation, thought we met expectations in
that regard. But ultimately it's it's about the you know,
the football conditioning right the the in line combat with
another player and then being able to go and chase
(04:56):
the football and do it repeatedly, and a receiver to
to run around downfield and not get the football, but
still come back to the huddle and play the next snap,
and to be able to have that competitive stamina as
it works through practice, and then you'll see us try
to build those reps through practice to get close to
where we need to be for the game. So, you know,
(05:17):
the inline conditioning test is one thing we'll have to
continue to to practice the way that we want to play,
which is critical, uh, to to be able to create
our identity. Was I was.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Probably I just helped you in the past.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, And it is the only D line coach that
I've had, you know, just a great reach to every
player on football team. And I saw him reach young
offensive linemen that were across the ball. But you know,
he worked with extensively in different drills or pass rush drills.
(05:54):
You know, he's got a great perspective. I think it's
just helped me per to kind of, you know, reach
guys that maybe I haven't been able to reach. He's
been a great mentor for young coaches as well, and
I think our players have always responded very well and
his units have always been prepared and productive no matter
(06:14):
who uh he was coaching. YEA, does he like both
go to theself like God, no, no, but no coach
should be full go this one. I haven't seen any restrictions.
He's not on PUP and he's not on n FIU.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You know, first meeting set the tone, the expectations type,
or do you kind of relay that message that you
go where.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
You started to know. I mean, I think every message meeting,
we try to have a message and we try to
not waste their time. I found that consistency usually is
the best, and sometimes that gets redundant for some guys.
But you know, the things you emphasize are usually the
things that you get the things that you make important.
(07:00):
So try not to give them a ton of stuff,
but certainly things that I think that that are going
to be important. For example, training camp. I think our
objectives that we're going to talk to them about and
have talked to them about, is it's time to build
a team. You know, we have to start coming together
as a football team. And the groups that we're going
to use in the special Teams unit and the different
(07:21):
personnel grouping on offense and on defense, and that all
has to come together and that has to happen. The
other thing is they have to earn a role, and
that's a great time for them to personally earn a
role through training camp, is what they can do for
the team, how they can help us, how they can
help themselves. And there's a lot of different levels to
what those roles are, and in my fourteen year career
(07:45):
have had plenty of them, from special teams, multiple position
backup to starter, you know, a starter that was expected
to be productive to a veteran leader. So there's multiple
levels of what that role will be and it's up
to them to earn it. And then obviously we have
(08:06):
to prepare to win, and that will be you know,
my job as we work through training camp to make
sure that we're we're doing all those things, all those
three things, Like with.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
The practice restrictions that the league puts onto every team
for the first few days, how do you handle the
first few days as a teaching competition, Like, is it
similar to there?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
We'll try to get as much done as we can
in ninety minutes, We'll try to get as much done
as we can in an hour and five minutes, try
to get as much done as we can in an
hour and twenty minutes. And we're always trying to do
those things. When we there'll be days where we just
walk through and you'll say, that's probably unique or new,
(08:46):
but we still have to stay with our installation schedule.
We're not necessarily giving them a day off. We're coming in,
we're meeting, but when we go on the field, you know,
maybe it's every fourth day. We're trying to stay on
our installation. Shouldn't do third down, do red zone, but
maybe in a walk through pace, but we're still trying.
And then but that gives us an opportunity to break
(09:08):
up into two spots to where you've got an off too,
you know, an offense and defense going against each other,
an offense and defense going. So everybody's working, so nobody's
standing around, they're actually in there. They can take a rep,
they can take a walk through rep, they can see
themselves on film. You know, we just try to whatever
the rules are, we try to try to follow them
(09:30):
and make sure that we're we're coaching and teaching, being
creative and then also obviously competing when we're out there.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
In the spring, you made rape talked about in these
levels of expectations on him when we need a new season.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
I'm curious, if you flip around the other side the walls,
can you be impreciated.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
In polite in that season. I mean, I hope I
would hopefully view everybody in that lens. I mean, expectations
in the National Football League are high. Uh, they should be.
That's what our job is. So everybody's got a different situation,
you know, things that they're trying to get done, things
(10:10):
that they want to accomplish. You know, my job, and
my biggest job, and one of my most important jobs
is is try to get the get the individual to
be able to maximize their earning potential within what we're
trying to do as a football team. Right, those two
(10:30):
things can coincide and we all understand, like we're in
this business, we're professional sports. Outside of winning to provide
for our family, That's that's what this is. It's professional sports.
And so with that is you have this individual element
and you have this team and they have to coexist
and you have to allow players to understand that. Show
(10:53):
them where they're doing things to help themselves but maybe
not the team, and then show them examples where they're
helping themselves as well as the team and understanding how
you know that piece is those pieces can fit together.
Like in the answering the Ben's question says, coaches, you
guys try to.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Be creative, curious, you know, how how do you try
to challenge how do you make it hard for them
during camp about physically driving it into the ground.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Well, we're always you know, in the meeting room, it's
you're trying to stimulate them. We're trying to ask a
lot of questions and make sure that you know they
know what they're doing, that the guy next to them
knows that that he knows what to do. On the
practice field, you try to create individual one on one competitions,
whether that be an open field tackling drill, one on
one pass rush. We'll do different drills. We'll do fit
(11:44):
drills with the O line and D line where they're
fit into a position. We're trying to take helmet contacts
off of them but still work the the inline hand replaced,
sinking their hips, working their shoulders square, you know, running
their feet, all these things that would you know, go
into a block but not lining on it up across
(12:04):
and taking a helmet contact away. So you'll see some
of that that may or may not have happened here before.
That'll be new. So if you're wondering what that looks
like tomorrow, that'll be that drill. But you know, I
just you know, we try to practice with the with
an energy. There's there's an urgency to the way that
we practice. You know. We don't sit there and spend
(12:24):
a whole lot of time. You know, we're back in
the huddle. That's how a game goes. We don't really
have time to sit there and waste on on what happened.
We'll get it fixed eventually, you know, in the meeting room.
But we have to be able to process information and
move on quickly and get back to center and run
the next play and realize what the next situation is.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Well, what's different about the way you designed or prioritize
things in camp this year for maybe your first couple
of years as.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
A hit coach. I mean, you just try to tinker
a little bit with the schedule and try to, you know,
figure out when they the walkthroughs are going to be,
the morning meetings, what time do you want to make practice,
you know, providing enough time for them to lift and
build a routine within that schedule, and then also trying
(13:13):
to be efficient with the coaches time, you know, so
they can script it that night and be ready to
go to next morning and still come in here with
some energy and have some excitement for when the players
come in here ready to teach them.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Has in contact when it comes to player health and
safety and getting them ready for the season, And how
do you strike that balance between ramping up the intensity
and not doing.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
So much that it's detrimenting well, I mean, anything that
we do on the football field has an element of
you know, risk. It's a violent sport. It's played at
a high rate of speed, and you can't sit there
and walk through. But you can't sit there and go
live to the ground every play and every day. So
there's just a balance that we strike and we have
(13:55):
to Again, part of that is preparing to win, being
able to have the full complement of the playbook and
being able to run the football, being able to throw,
you know, play passes and run actions and get down
to the red zone. You're gonna have short yardage. A
lot of games are determined, you know, at low red
zone and short yardage, and those are things that you
(14:17):
have to be able to do. Sometimes you have to
pull the you know, pull the reps back, and again
that gets evaluated every single day based on the health
of the team and where we're at and what I
think we need. We have an idea of what practice
is going to look like, but sometimes that gets adjusted
based on where we're at.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Like you said in January, do you guys just want
to be good enough to start to.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Take advantage of bad? And you weren't sure if you
went there?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Do you have any more clarity whether you're close?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
But more closer than where we were in March when
April when we got here, I think we are. I
think the players start to understand. You know, we talk
about the good, the bad, and the ship to get
your beat, and I think that they can they can
tell the difference between those three now, and you know,
my job is to try to get them to We
(15:09):
have to eliminate the stuff that get your beat, and
we just have to correct the bad, and we have
to continue and enhance the good stuff that we do.
So those are the three buckets of film, you know
that we show them. And I can't just always just
sit there and show them the stuff that gets your beat,
because that gets old. As a player, You're like, I
can't just see this all the time, and I can't
just show them all the good stuff because so I
(15:32):
just try to every time there's film, I try to
show them those three buckets.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Moments of eye opening where they say, yeah, I didn't
know that.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Was a bad thing to do. No, I don't think
we've gotten there yet. I mean, just from the way
that the practices I guess have been structured in the spring.
Right now, it's just being able to have an urgency
in which we do in operation, communication, all those little
(16:00):
things of ball security, which I think is probably the
most critical tailor when you talk about just you know,
having a ball on your body and pads and contact
and you know that's the biggest thing, is just our
ability to be able to take care the football and
being able to create those types of plays defensively that
that would lead to turnovers. So those those are that's
(16:23):
one of the biggest reasons just to have pads on.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Like you called the five weeks over this summer, I think,
you know, one of the most.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Important parts in most support parts of the off season.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Just now the guys are back at O there's ninety
of them, but generally speaking ninety one the international pathway,
what how they do you know, how do you feel
about how to fasting back?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I mean, whether you were in a coma when I
answered Thom's question or typing on your phone or tweeting.
I don't know, but I spent five minutes answering that question,
and I can go back through it, but i'd rather not.
We won't know. We did pretty good on the linear
run test, which they practiced. They know what it was
(17:06):
going to be. The big thing will come when they're
in line contact. I mean, and you're sitting there and
you're wrestling with a guy and then the D lineman's rushing.
He almost gets to the quarterback, or we're telling him
to plant and run and go sprint to the football
and then go do it again. Or we're asking Kyle
Williams to go run a post and he didn't get
the ball, but he wanted to get the ball, but
(17:27):
he didn't. Can he run back, get set, know what
to do the next play. That's really where we'll see.
So I'll be able to answer that question again, hopefully
only once in a few days. I thought you were
punking me. I'm like, Mike, how much.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Is a competition play into this phase now?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
From when you were a player?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Just what you going about on a daily basis seeing
guys rise in competition.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
What are some of the things you.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Look forward to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I look forward to the first day of pads where
there's somebody that we really never saw, we never really
talked about that. Once the pads go on and they
start to play football, they just have a contact balance,
They have a will understanding of where the football is.
They tackle well, or they break tackles, or they play
better in pads. That's that happens every year in training camp.
(18:19):
So that's probably usually, you know, my most exciting day
is who's it going to be? I don't know, It's
a different guy every year. Hopefully there's a lot of them.
But yeah, there's competition amongst you know. I mean we're
competing against each other. Positionally, we're competing against the other
side of the football, you know, and then our job
is to compete against the other thirty one teams that
(18:40):
have the same amount of time as us every day.
I mean, it is what it is. You have eleven hours,
you got to have this many days, you got to
have a day off every seven days. We got three
preseason games, so it's can we maximize our time versus
what everybody else is doing.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
There's a lot of optimism because you're here as a coach.
You've been on both sides of it as a player
and a coach. As a coach, how much can you
impact winning versus the.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Players, Well, again, I have to continue to teach, develop
and make connections with our guys and through that, you know,
preparing them to win and the situations and getting them
to understand that there's different ways to win a football game.
There's a lot of ways to lose them. But we
want to focus on the ways that we're going to
(19:26):
win and sometimes that's going to be different each and
every week with whatever that plan to win is each
and every week, and I have to try to do that.
I have to get our coaches to do that and
get our players understand that. Thanks guys, thank you.
Still haven't found a seat for him. Huh. I know,
(00:05):
I'm gonna figure it out. I know, good luck, that
was a good one. Uh. Welcome, Welcome to training camp
twenty twenty five. I know Stacey kind of talked to you.
We're gonna trim through these just guidelines and figure out,
you know, so that we can all you know, you
guys can get what you want from practice, and we'll
(00:27):
try to give you what you can and we'll try
to communicate that daily and so hopefully there's not a
million rules, but a few guidelines that you could follow,
and you know, we can all work together. I understand
you guys got a job to do. We appreciate the
job that you do, uh, and the job that we have.
So got everybody in here. We had an early group
started a couple of days ago, which was the rookie
(00:50):
class quarterbacks and then some players that may have been
not full or one hundred percent in the off season.
Was the first group, just to kind of get them
in there, get them acclimated. The rest of the group
reported this morning, went through physicals, had a great run test,
just finished that and then we'll start here with meetings
(01:14):
here after lunch. So a couple of players that probably
are on a few lists. There's two lists that we're
working with now as it relates to the roster. The
PUP list, which would be Hooper, Hollins, Verdarian Lowe, and
to Vuy. I would expect to Viuy back out there tomorrow.
(01:35):
Those other three probably will be, you know, sometime after that.
The NFI list, which would be Davis, Lincoln's and Web.
I would expect Davis and Web back out there with
us tomorrow, and then Lincoln's maybe a few more days.
So those are just some housekeeping items and just some
(01:58):
list that we used to start camp. So with that,
what he got Karen.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
With the news that step up Bags has been cleared
from practice presumably half physical.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
What does it mean to you that he's ready to
start a camp just eight months after ECL surgery. Well,
I know that everybody heals differently, and especially from that
type of injury, but I would say that I think
it's just a testament to how hard he worked. You know,
Mark Zeps also went through that that surgery and worked
(02:35):
extremely hard, and he's he's been out there the last
couple of days with us as well. So appreciate their
efforts to get back out there and get ready, and
then we'll continue to monitor as we work through training camp.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Do you still have him on any sort of like
pitch count or.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Anything or is he full well the I mean, I
would say, I'm going to try to just explain it
when he practices. When he when he took the rep,
it was full go. Everybody every day is going to
have a different plan. There'll be some players that aren't
out there for individual There'll be players that are just
out there for team. There'll be players that are just
(03:12):
taking some specific reps, and my job is to manage
that each and every day, but to ensure the football
team that everybody's working, whether that's with with Frank or
the or Jim's staff or with the coaching staff on
the field. So I don't see any limitations right now.
(03:32):
Is he going to take every single rep of every
single period. No, and I don't think any player will.
But you know, I think we're off to a good
start and encouraged by by what we saw here in
the last couple of days. Yeah, Big T is here
ready to go. He's been out on the field with
(03:52):
us the last couple of days. Players were excited to
see him. I was excited to see him, and we'll
move forward a big stuff. Did he pass his physical? Yeah,
you can't practice if you don't pass your physical. That's
what these lists are for. I apologize. So you know
(04:13):
that's some of the housekeeping that you go through when
when you're not fully cleared to start camp. Is that's
where you introduce some of these pup and the n FI.
So uh, yeah, you can't practice without passing your physical.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Critical This buff was when they're off in their own
kind of don't remember correctly, Mike said, between the most
important jumps through the year, what's your love with satisfaction
with these guys?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Well, I think just based on the conditioning test, based
on everybody at their weights where where we asked them
to be in the conversation, thought we met expectations in
that regard. But ultimately it's it's about the you know,
the football conditioning right the the in line combat with
another player and then being able to go and chase
(04:56):
the football and do it repeatedly, and a receiver to
to run around downfield and not get the football, but
still come back to the huddle and play the next snap,
and to be able to have that competitive stamina as
it works through practice, and then you'll see us try
to build those reps through practice to get close to
where we need to be for the game. So, you know,
(05:17):
the inline conditioning test is one thing we'll have to
continue to to practice the way that we want to play,
which is critical, uh, to to be able to create
our identity. Was I was.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Probably I just helped you in the past.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, And it is the only D line coach that
I've had, you know, just a great reach to every
player on football team. And I saw him reach young
offensive linemen that were across the ball. But you know,
he worked with extensively in different drills or pass rush drills.
(05:54):
You know, he's got a great perspective. I think it's
just helped me per to kind of, you know, reach
guys that maybe I haven't been able to reach. He's
been a great mentor for young coaches as well, and
I think our players have always responded very well and
his units have always been prepared and productive no matter
(06:14):
who uh he was coaching. YEA, does he like both
go to theself like God, no, no, but no coach
should be full go this one. I haven't seen any restrictions.
He's not on PUP and he's not on n FIU.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You know, first meeting set the tone, the expectations type,
or do you kind of relay that message that you
go where.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
You started to know. I mean, I think every message meeting,
we try to have a message and we try to
not waste their time. I found that consistency usually is
the best, and sometimes that gets redundant for some guys.
But you know, the things you emphasize are usually the
things that you get the things that you make important.
(07:00):
So try not to give them a ton of stuff,
but certainly things that I think that that are going
to be important. For example, training camp. I think our
objectives that we're going to talk to them about and
have talked to them about, is it's time to build
a team. You know, we have to start coming together
as a football team. And the groups that we're going
to use in the special Teams unit and the different
(07:21):
personnel grouping on offense and on defense, and that all
has to come together and that has to happen. The
other thing is they have to earn a role, and
that's a great time for them to personally earn a
role through training camp, is what they can do for
the team, how they can help us, how they can
help themselves. And there's a lot of different levels to
what those roles are, and in my fourteen year career
(07:45):
have had plenty of them, from special teams, multiple position
backup to starter, you know, a starter that was expected
to be productive to a veteran leader. So there's multiple
levels of what that role will be and it's up
to them to earn it. And then obviously we have
(08:06):
to prepare to win, and that will be you know,
my job as we work through training camp to make
sure that we're we're doing all those things, all those
three things, Like with.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
The practice restrictions that the league puts onto every team
for the first few days, how do you handle the
first few days as a teaching competition, Like, is it
similar to there?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
We'll try to get as much done as we can
in ninety minutes, We'll try to get as much done
as we can in an hour and five minutes, try
to get as much done as we can in an
hour and twenty minutes. And we're always trying to do
those things. When we there'll be days where we just
walk through and you'll say, that's probably unique or new,
(08:46):
but we still have to stay with our installation schedule.
We're not necessarily giving them a day off. We're coming in,
we're meeting, but when we go on the field, you know,
maybe it's every fourth day. We're trying to stay on
our installation. Shouldn't do third down, do red zone, but
maybe in a walk through pace, but we're still trying.
And then but that gives us an opportunity to break
(09:08):
up into two spots to where you've got an off too,
you know, an offense and defense going against each other,
an offense and defense going. So everybody's working, so nobody's
standing around, they're actually in there. They can take a rep,
they can take a walk through rep, they can see
themselves on film. You know, we just try to whatever
the rules are, we try to try to follow them
(09:30):
and make sure that we're we're coaching and teaching, being
creative and then also obviously competing when we're out there.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
In the spring, you made rape talked about in these
levels of expectations on him when we need a new season.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
I'm curious, if you flip around the other side the walls,
can you be impreciated.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
In polite in that season. I mean, I hope I
would hopefully view everybody in that lens. I mean, expectations
in the National Football League are high. Uh, they should be.
That's what our job is. So everybody's got a different situation,
you know, things that they're trying to get done, things
(10:10):
that they want to accomplish. You know, my job, and
my biggest job, and one of my most important jobs
is is try to get the get the individual to
be able to maximize their earning potential within what we're
trying to do as a football team. Right, those two
(10:30):
things can coincide and we all understand, like we're in
this business, we're professional sports. Outside of winning to provide
for our family, That's that's what this is. It's professional sports.
And so with that is you have this individual element
and you have this team and they have to coexist
and you have to allow players to understand that. Show
(10:53):
them where they're doing things to help themselves but maybe
not the team, and then show them examples where they're
helping themselves as well as the team and understanding how
you know that piece is those pieces can fit together.
Like in the answering the Ben's question says, coaches, you
guys try to.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Be creative, curious, you know, how how do you try
to challenge how do you make it hard for them
during camp about physically driving it into the ground.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Well, we're always you know, in the meeting room, it's
you're trying to stimulate them. We're trying to ask a
lot of questions and make sure that you know they
know what they're doing, that the guy next to them
knows that that he knows what to do. On the
practice field, you try to create individual one on one competitions,
whether that be an open field tackling drill, one on
one pass rush. We'll do different drills. We'll do fit
(11:44):
drills with the O line and D line where they're
fit into a position. We're trying to take helmet contacts
off of them but still work the the inline hand replaced,
sinking their hips, working their shoulders square, you know, running
their feet, all these things that would you know, go
into a block but not lining on it up across
(12:04):
and taking a helmet contact away. So you'll see some
of that that may or may not have happened here before.
That'll be new. So if you're wondering what that looks
like tomorrow, that'll be that drill. But you know, I
just you know, we try to practice with the with
an energy. There's there's an urgency to the way that
we practice. You know. We don't sit there and spend
(12:24):
a whole lot of time. You know, we're back in
the huddle. That's how a game goes. We don't really
have time to sit there and waste on on what happened.
We'll get it fixed eventually, you know, in the meeting room.
But we have to be able to process information and
move on quickly and get back to center and run
the next play and realize what the next situation is.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Well, what's different about the way you designed or prioritize
things in camp this year for maybe your first couple
of years as.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
A hit coach. I mean, you just try to tinker
a little bit with the schedule and try to, you know,
figure out when they the walkthroughs are going to be,
the morning meetings, what time do you want to make practice,
you know, providing enough time for them to lift and
build a routine within that schedule, and then also trying
(13:13):
to be efficient with the coaches time, you know, so
they can script it that night and be ready to
go to next morning and still come in here with
some energy and have some excitement for when the players
come in here ready to teach them.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Has in contact when it comes to player health and
safety and getting them ready for the season, And how
do you strike that balance between ramping up the intensity
and not doing.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
So much that it's detrimenting well, I mean, anything that
we do on the football field has an element of
you know, risk. It's a violent sport. It's played at
a high rate of speed, and you can't sit there
and walk through. But you can't sit there and go
live to the ground every play and every day. So
there's just a balance that we strike and we have
(13:55):
to Again, part of that is preparing to win, being
able to have the full complement of the playbook and
being able to run the football, being able to throw,
you know, play passes and run actions and get down
to the red zone. You're gonna have short yardage. A
lot of games are determined, you know, at low red
zone and short yardage, and those are things that you
(14:17):
have to be able to do. Sometimes you have to
pull the you know, pull the reps back, and again
that gets evaluated every single day based on the health
of the team and where we're at and what I
think we need. We have an idea of what practice
is going to look like, but sometimes that gets adjusted
based on where we're at.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Like you said in January, do you guys just want
to be good enough to start to.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Take advantage of bad? And you weren't sure if you
went there?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Do you have any more clarity whether you're close?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
But more closer than where we were in March when
April when we got here, I think we are. I
think the players start to understand. You know, we talk
about the good, the bad, and the ship to get
your beat, and I think that they can they can
tell the difference between those three now, and you know,
my job is to try to get them to We
(15:09):
have to eliminate the stuff that get your beat, and
we just have to correct the bad, and we have
to continue and enhance the good stuff that we do.
So those are the three buckets of film, you know
that we show them. And I can't just always just
sit there and show them the stuff that gets your beat,
because that gets old. As a player, You're like, I
can't just see this all the time, and I can't
just show them all the good stuff because so I
(15:32):
just try to every time there's film, I try to
show them those three buckets.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Moments of eye opening where they say, yeah, I didn't
know that.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Was a bad thing to do. No, I don't think
we've gotten there yet. I mean, just from the way
that the practices I guess have been structured in the spring.
Right now, it's just being able to have an urgency
in which we do in operation, communication, all those little
(16:00):
things of ball security, which I think is probably the
most critical tailor when you talk about just you know,
having a ball on your body and pads and contact
and you know that's the biggest thing, is just our
ability to be able to take care the football and
being able to create those types of plays defensively that
that would lead to turnovers. So those those are that's
(16:23):
one of the biggest reasons just to have pads on.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Like you called the five weeks over this summer, I think,
you know, one of the most.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Important parts in most support parts of the off season.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Just now the guys are back at O there's ninety
of them, but generally speaking ninety one the international pathway,
what how they do you know, how do you feel
about how to fasting back?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I mean, whether you were in a coma when I
answered Thom's question or typing on your phone or tweeting.
I don't know, but I spent five minutes answering that question,
and I can go back through it, but i'd rather not.
We won't know. We did pretty good on the linear
run test, which they practiced. They know what it was
(17:06):
going to be. The big thing will come when they're
in line contact. I mean, and you're sitting there and
you're wrestling with a guy and then the D lineman's rushing.
He almost gets to the quarterback, or we're telling him
to plant and run and go sprint to the football
and then go do it again. Or we're asking Kyle
Williams to go run a post and he didn't get
the ball, but he wanted to get the ball, but
(17:27):
he didn't. Can he run back, get set, know what
to do the next play. That's really where we'll see.
So I'll be able to answer that question again, hopefully
only once in a few days. I thought you were
punking me. I'm like, Mike, how much.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Is a competition play into this phase now?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
From when you were a player?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Just what you going about on a daily basis seeing
guys rise in competition.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
What are some of the things you.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Look forward to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I look forward to the first day of pads where
there's somebody that we really never saw, we never really
talked about that. Once the pads go on and they
start to play football, they just have a contact balance,
They have a will understanding of where the football is.
They tackle well, or they break tackles, or they play
better in pads. That's that happens every year in training camp.
(18:19):
So that's probably usually, you know, my most exciting day
is who's it going to be? I don't know, It's
a different guy every year. Hopefully there's a lot of them.
But yeah, there's competition amongst you know. I mean we're
competing against each other. Positionally, we're competing against the other
side of the football, you know, and then our job
is to compete against the other thirty one teams that
(18:40):
have the same amount of time as us every day.
I mean, it is what it is. You have eleven hours,
you got to have this many days, you got to
have a day off every seven days. We got three
preseason games, so it's can we maximize our time versus
what everybody else is doing.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
There's a lot of optimism because you're here as a coach.
You've been on both sides of it as a player
and a coach. As a coach, how much can you
impact winning versus the.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Players, Well, again, I have to continue to teach, develop
and make connections with our guys and through that, you know,
preparing them to win and the situations and getting them
to understand that there's different ways to win a football game.
There's a lot of ways to lose them. But we
want to focus on the ways that we're going to
(19:26):
win and sometimes that's going to be different each and
every week with whatever that plan to win is each
and every week, and I have to try to do that.
I have to get our coaches to do that and
get our players understand that. Thanks guys, thank you.
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