December 19, 2025 • 13 mins
Interim head coach Mike Kafka speaks to the media Friday from the Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Really the only change the practice.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
They will be NEWBN, He'll be He'll go today, what.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Did Ben this week?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Just when it comes to a kicking.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Game, and yeah, he's done a nice job. You've really
done a nice job.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Obviously kicked inside, but then went outside into the onto
the game field and did some work as well. So
it was good to kind of get him, get him
out there and get him used to the environment a
little bit, change.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
The game at all.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
It is kind of such an unknown position. Obviously hasn't
done it at this level. You've never really seen him
kicking a game.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah, yeah, I know you you certainly think about it.
But we have a plan.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We've been talking about it all week, so have a
plan for how that's gonna you know, what's gonna happen
in the game, whether if that starts to show up,
you know, but it's pretty much a normal routine for us.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And then just letting Ben go out there and rock.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
Out his range, like where where you're gonna feel common
that you have to see him kick in the stadium?
I mean, where do you? Where do you comes a through.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Like him and Gobi they'll talk through it really throughout
the week. Then on game day, depending on the elements
they'll go us and they'll give us a range, a
line you know what that's going to be, whether that's
just a normal situation or like, hey, I gotta have
it line for like end of game type situations. So
they'll give us a little bit of a range, and
obviously throughout the course of the game that could be flexible.
But you know, it's something that we talked through, you know,
(01:17):
throughout the morning, throughout the game, and if anything changes,
you know, based on whether or you know another you know,
another reason that pops.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Up, Mike.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
You guys are so routine based and structure and everything
you do when you when you're on a run like
this where you're just so desperate to get a win.
Is there any part of you that looks in and say,
you know what I'm going to walk in today, I'm
going to shake things up, I'm going to do things different,
Or is it that routine that's just so important?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
When I think about, you know, how you want to
address the team, how you want to talk to players,
how you want to install you think about it and
evaluate it and when you you know, when you talk
about it with the staff and you talk about with
the players. You're trying to always find ways to improve,
So wherever we can find a way, just one little nugget.
But you don't necessarily want to change just to change
just for chain's sake. I think what's important is that
you find an intent and find a reason why you
(02:08):
think things need should be better, and then you go
and attack that right, So you're always just kind of
chasing just one little edge that you can find that
maybe helps that player, helps that group be a little
bit better.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
On Sunday, what do you mean for you and for
this team to end the skid?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, we are all working to win as as a group.
As a team. That's our only focus. So it's not
about individuals or me or anyone like that. It's about
us as a team find a way to win offensively, defensively,
special teams, doing our job pointing it.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
To the best of our ability.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Then when we get into crunch time in the fourth quarter,
because we all know the game is a sixty minute game,
it's not one or loss in the first second or
third quarters, it's one in the fourth quarter. So that's
our been our emphasis. We're talking about it on a
daily basis. Today is no different. You know, we're talking
about some got to have it type calls that we
can go through and rep and walk through setting. We're
(03:03):
talking about red zone, we're talking about goal line, we're
talking about backed up in four minute like critical situations
of a game where like those come up.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
We got to be able to nail those.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And so you know, our level of detail needs to
be at a high level. And you know, I'm excited
to go out there. And you know we were already
presented in the game plan. We walked through these plays.
Now it's how they kind of bring them to life
in a practice setting.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I don't know you've heard any of it.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
It's been a lot of interesting dialogue with coaches and
quarterbacks talking about pure progressions versus coverage reads.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Have you heard that heard? I've heard. I've heard every response,
but I've heard like, what's your take on teach it? Especially?
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Yeah, how do you go about teaching that?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
That's it's it's certainly interesting concept. And I've I've been
in now like this is my eighth or ninth offense.
I've done in all the West Coast number system, Like
I've been.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
In all all of them, And uh, I.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Think it's it's it's really good. It really comes down
to the quarter It really comes down to how you
want to get the quarterback through his progression tied in
with his feet. So, I mean, it's hard to do
this in this set. I wish I had like a chalkboard.
We can just like talk through the plays. But you're
looking at you know, how it all matches up. So
the route depth, the timing of the quarterback's feet, the protection,
(04:17):
all that stuff's tied into it.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Now. It football has evolved over over these lives.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Every three or four years, it kind of like evolves, right,
So when you're looking at the quarterback position, you're looking
at all right, before it was like one high two
high reeds. Then it evolves like these pure progression reads.
Then it's been like cut the field, move the pocket.
Now you're just looking at one high, you know, kind
of just like one side of the field and cutting
the defense completely off. So I don't think there's one
(04:44):
way to like there's the best way to do it.
I certainly think we have both. We have one high
two high ways. We have plays where we pre progress
all way across the field. We have players where it's
just hey, so one on one matchups outside pick your
best matchup. So you know, I I love the conversation.
I wish this isn't like necessarily the venue to get
like deep into it. But that's certainly things that we
(05:07):
talk about as a staff and talk about with the
quarterback room. You think about them first, how they're seeing
this play, and then you try and build it around
that person pre.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Snap, I'm sure you're always looking for clues. Maybe this
is a good opponent to talk about. How often do
you actually know pre snap what a defense is gonna
be in like in the current current day.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
That's a good that's a good one too.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I would say, like it's there are clues, you can
dig for them and find them right and you get
you can anticipate. I don't think you'll ever know one
hundred percent for sure till the snap is made, and
then you can have a high high percentage of like
verifying it and then right at the snap then you know,
right obviously, But teams are doing a great job. Defenses
are doing a great job of disguising one high, two
high shels, present cover zero, popping out, showing coverage, playing
(05:49):
cover zero. Like they're doing a great job of tying
those things in. I think you're seeing that you know
has evolved over the last four or five years, and
that you know it certainly is giving offenses it could
be a challenge, right. So, I think the more you
talk with the quarterbacks, and the more we talk with
the offensive skill group when giving them indicators on leverages
inside leverage, outside leverage, those are clues that you can
(06:09):
kind of pick apart when you're in a meeting. Hey,
if you're seeing inside leverage, it's a high percentage of
this coverage and this coverage outside leverage Eagles this coverage
in this coverage. And then at the snap, now we've
got to verify and make a you know, split second
decision and adjust your route or adjust your read or
just your fundamental.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
To get it to get it accomplished.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
What quarterback do you feel is the best right now
at figuring that out right at the snap And how
much of an advantage does that give a play call
or doesn't give an offense?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah, Connor, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
I mean, I haven't studied a lot of the quarterbacks
across the league just over this time, like in this
this season, but there's a lot I mean you're seeing
a lot of the veteran guys that have been doing
this a long time. You see the veteran guys pick
that up a lot obviously a lot faster because they
see more looks. But there's there's plenty of young players
as you're watching tape, just through crossover tape and stuff,
that are doing a nice job. And you know, I
(06:55):
praise Jackson because he's a high level process or post
snap and he sees a lot of things, like things
that he'll come out the sideline. Maybe my eyes were
on one side of the field. His eyes are like
kind of scanning through it and he sees, you know,
the backside hook defender and he comes out the field
and hey, why.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Did you, like, where'd you get your eyes there?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I saw this guy Bail And it's like he just
has such great space focus and his ability to play.
And so that opens up a lot of things in
terms of an offense when your quarterbacks not just like
kind of seeing it through a straw. He has a
big vision of the field and and that's a good
asset to have in terms of being the playing quarterback.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
There's this like like this fixation on having the success
immediately from a quarterback is get him into the rookie
immediately see it. But we have seen one of the
guys that played last night was an example of it,
a guy who's kind of found the successes later on,
whether it was Baker, Sam Darnold, things like that kind
of what you're talking about. The veterans starting to see
it a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, sometimes sometimes it just clicks at different times for
a quarterback. It's never there's not like one straight line
in a progression.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
For a quarterback. I always see it.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Everyone kind of hits their you know, hits their groove
at a certain different I should say for some quarterbacks
it's early.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
For some quarterbacks it's a little bit later.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
But that's always kind of the interesting part of you know,
how you build, you know, and how you build that
developmental program for the quarterback because you know that not
everyone's gonna be in the same level. I know in
my time in Kansas City with Patrick, you know, we
we were spending a ton of time just like identifying fronts.
He never had to do that in college, identifying coverages.
Like he just kind of went back and dropped back
and was a little bit more of a freelancer. But
(08:26):
when you built that structure, you saw it wasn't year one,
you know, into year two was a little bit better,
in the year three a lot better, and then the
year four and five like now you start seeing that
ownership in terms of him being able to take the
next step. So that was just my experience with Pat,
Like we're every quarterback's on a different on a different
you know plane. So Jackson's you know, we had to
(08:47):
we had to do the same type of program when
he was you know, in training camp and OTAs you
teach them here's what this.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Front looks like. Why do they line up in this front? Well,
it's because they.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Want to have these gaps you know, responsible for so
these coverages. What are the beaters of this coverage? Well,
where are the soft spots? Where are the spots where
they're trying to protect? When you present you this coverage,
what does that mean? Where is where is the coordinator
trying to tell you or he's trying to take the
top off so we don't can't throw deep all right?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
So where are out that's going to be at?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So the more you rep those things, the more you
talk about it, I think that you know that gives
the quarterback an opportunity to be successful. And again as
he hears it, more and more and more and every
day we're hammering these things. Oh now, here's the adjustment
to this coverage. Okay, bank that you see him taking
a note and then you know, you might even not
even hit till you know the next otap here like,
(09:32):
oh man, that note, like you reviewing it and you
see it and he said, oh man, okay, now I
understand why these coverages are building into one another, why
these fronts, why teams play us like this, and so
you know, there's there's never enough time in a day
to really go through that all. But when you're a
young quarterback and you're learning and you're growing, you're absorbing
all that information and it might take one or two
reps to finally hit it. It might take five or
(09:53):
six or seven reps to finally get it. But the
point is that you get it at some point. And
I think for young quarterback it's about going through that process.
It's not about you know, it's you know, one play
and that's the end of the world because you missed
the alert, or you missed the check, or you messed
up on a protection call, it's all right, how do
I grow? How do I eliminate that from happening? And
we've got a great quarterback room. You know, Shae Tierney
(10:14):
does a hell of a job getting our guys prepared.
And the veterans that have a lot of experience, like
they're trying to, like, you know, jam all this information
that they know, and it is great, and Jackson's absorbing
all of it. And you can see the progression. You
can see the communication. You can see at times.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
The light bulb go off and see, oh, I see that.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I understand that. I'm sorry, I'm being long winded with it,
but I think it's important. I think it's cool because
Jackson gets this experience and he gets to learn from
these things and grow, And that's the most.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Important part of playing quarterback.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You grow, you learn from it, and you get better,
and then you tack on a talent like Jackson, and
then you know the dis guy's limit.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
You see in relation to this, how have the conversations
you've had with him changed? Like when you're on the sideline,
I guess the level, the skill level or just the
ability of what he's able to process. Just says when
you start he's made.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I thought it was really important just being in the
quarterback room as a quarterback coach, like that dialogue has
always got to be at a high level. So it
never really changed even when I was a coordinator and
then now in this role as head coach, like you
have to keep that dialogue if you lose it now,
is that what you're asking, Like you lose just.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
The level I guess the level of that he's taking
it in and processing, not the position change that you've made,
just how he's I guess getting smarter.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Oh yeah, yeah, like his Yeah, his recall. His recall
over the course of the season has been phenomenal, and
you know you can see you're see teams that are
pressuring us maybe a certain way, or seeing teams playing
us coverages in a certain different way. So you know,
I think his recall over the course of the season
has been good. We're able to kind of pull back
even in game like, hey, you remember that look from
(11:46):
this game, this look from San Francisco, remember the look
from Chicago, And he's able to recall and say, oh, yeah,
this is why they're trying to get to it. And
then now we can continue to move forward and make
those adjustments, whereas maybe in his first or second start,
you know, you're you're you have a little bit smaller menu,
and you're kind of picking and choosing from that from
things that he really knows really well, and that's probably
pulling from like preseason and training camp and OTAs. Now
(12:09):
we can pull from live game situations and things that
have come up.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
Mike get You've worn a bunch of different hats in
this league, obviously, and now you're in your position. I
know you've always had an appreciation for the entirety of
a coaching staff. I'm just curious from your perspective and
appreciation for what you guys have gone through the last
couple of weeks. Do you see anything differently or have
things been magnified in terms of what you rely on
(12:36):
the coaching staff to do in this position versus what
it was.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, I'm super I'm super proud of our staff and
how they've stepped up. Obviously, when when you lose a
couple of coaches, other guys have to step.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Up into those roles and carry on that work.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And for our guys spend a ton of time not
only just detailing out the installation and what we're trying
to do, but also carrying the message of the team
and about and what we're about, and it's about winning,
and so that's been our focus. Our coaches have kept
the players in that mentality, Our players are keeping the
players in that mentality. And now on Sunday we have
(13:12):
an opportunity to go to go show that
Really the only change the practice.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
They will be NEWBN, He'll be He'll go today, what.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Did Ben this week?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Just when it comes to a kicking.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Game, and yeah, he's done a nice job. You've really
done a nice job.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Obviously kicked inside, but then went outside into the onto
the game field and did some work as well. So
it was good to kind of get him, get him
out there and get him used to the environment a
little bit, change.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
The game at all.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
It is kind of such an unknown position. Obviously hasn't
done it at this level. You've never really seen him
kicking a game.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah, yeah, I know you you certainly think about it.
But we have a plan.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We've been talking about it all week, so have a
plan for how that's gonna you know, what's gonna happen
in the game, whether if that starts to show up,
you know, but it's pretty much a normal routine for us.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And then just letting Ben go out there and rock.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
Out his range, like where where you're gonna feel common
that you have to see him kick in the stadium?
I mean, where do you? Where do you comes a through.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Like him and Gobi they'll talk through it really throughout
the week. Then on game day, depending on the elements
they'll go us and they'll give us a range, a
line you know what that's going to be, whether that's
just a normal situation or like, hey, I gotta have
it line for like end of game type situations. So
they'll give us a little bit of a range, and
obviously throughout the course of the game that could be flexible.
But you know, it's something that we talked through, you know,
(01:17):
throughout the morning, throughout the game, and if anything changes,
you know, based on whether or you know another you know,
another reason that pops.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Up, Mike.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
You guys are so routine based and structure and everything
you do when you when you're on a run like
this where you're just so desperate to get a win.
Is there any part of you that looks in and say,
you know what I'm going to walk in today, I'm
going to shake things up, I'm going to do things different,
Or is it that routine that's just so important?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
When I think about, you know, how you want to
address the team, how you want to talk to players,
how you want to install you think about it and
evaluate it and when you you know, when you talk
about it with the staff and you talk about with
the players. You're trying to always find ways to improve,
So wherever we can find a way, just one little nugget.
But you don't necessarily want to change just to change
just for chain's sake. I think what's important is that
you find an intent and find a reason why you
(02:08):
think things need should be better, and then you go
and attack that right, So you're always just kind of
chasing just one little edge that you can find that
maybe helps that player, helps that group be a little
bit better.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
On Sunday, what do you mean for you and for
this team to end the skid?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, we are all working to win as as a group.
As a team. That's our only focus. So it's not
about individuals or me or anyone like that. It's about
us as a team find a way to win offensively, defensively,
special teams, doing our job pointing it.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
To the best of our ability.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Then when we get into crunch time in the fourth quarter,
because we all know the game is a sixty minute game,
it's not one or loss in the first second or
third quarters, it's one in the fourth quarter. So that's
our been our emphasis. We're talking about it on a
daily basis. Today is no different. You know, we're talking
about some got to have it type calls that we
can go through and rep and walk through setting. We're
(03:03):
talking about red zone, we're talking about goal line, we're
talking about backed up in four minute like critical situations
of a game where like those come up.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
We got to be able to nail those.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And so you know, our level of detail needs to
be at a high level. And you know, I'm excited
to go out there. And you know we were already
presented in the game plan. We walked through these plays.
Now it's how they kind of bring them to life
in a practice setting.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I don't know you've heard any of it.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
It's been a lot of interesting dialogue with coaches and
quarterbacks talking about pure progressions versus coverage reads.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Have you heard that heard? I've heard. I've heard every response,
but I've heard like, what's your take on teach it? Especially?
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Yeah, how do you go about teaching that?
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
That's it's it's certainly interesting concept. And I've I've been
in now like this is my eighth or ninth offense.
I've done in all the West Coast number system, Like
I've been.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
In all all of them, And uh, I.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Think it's it's it's really good. It really comes down
to the quarter It really comes down to how you
want to get the quarterback through his progression tied in
with his feet. So, I mean, it's hard to do
this in this set. I wish I had like a chalkboard.
We can just like talk through the plays. But you're
looking at you know, how it all matches up. So
the route depth, the timing of the quarterback's feet, the protection,
(04:17):
all that stuff's tied into it.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Now. It football has evolved over over these lives.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Every three or four years, it kind of like evolves, right,
So when you're looking at the quarterback position, you're looking
at all right, before it was like one high two
high reeds. Then it evolves like these pure progression reads.
Then it's been like cut the field, move the pocket.
Now you're just looking at one high, you know, kind
of just like one side of the field and cutting
the defense completely off. So I don't think there's one
(04:44):
way to like there's the best way to do it.
I certainly think we have both. We have one high
two high ways. We have plays where we pre progress
all way across the field. We have players where it's
just hey, so one on one matchups outside pick your
best matchup. So you know, I I love the conversation.
I wish this isn't like necessarily the venue to get
like deep into it. But that's certainly things that we
(05:07):
talk about as a staff and talk about with the
quarterback room. You think about them first, how they're seeing
this play, and then you try and build it around
that person pre.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Snap, I'm sure you're always looking for clues. Maybe this
is a good opponent to talk about. How often do
you actually know pre snap what a defense is gonna
be in like in the current current day.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
That's a good that's a good one too.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I would say, like it's there are clues, you can
dig for them and find them right and you get
you can anticipate. I don't think you'll ever know one
hundred percent for sure till the snap is made, and
then you can have a high high percentage of like
verifying it and then right at the snap then you know,
right obviously, But teams are doing a great job. Defenses
are doing a great job of disguising one high, two
high shels, present cover zero, popping out, showing coverage, playing
(05:49):
cover zero. Like they're doing a great job of tying
those things in. I think you're seeing that you know
has evolved over the last four or five years, and
that you know it certainly is giving offenses it could
be a challenge, right. So, I think the more you
talk with the quarterbacks, and the more we talk with
the offensive skill group when giving them indicators on leverages
inside leverage, outside leverage, those are clues that you can
(06:09):
kind of pick apart when you're in a meeting. Hey,
if you're seeing inside leverage, it's a high percentage of
this coverage and this coverage outside leverage Eagles this coverage
in this coverage. And then at the snap, now we've
got to verify and make a you know, split second
decision and adjust your route or adjust your read or
just your fundamental.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
To get it to get it accomplished.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
What quarterback do you feel is the best right now
at figuring that out right at the snap And how
much of an advantage does that give a play call
or doesn't give an offense?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah, Connor, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
I mean, I haven't studied a lot of the quarterbacks
across the league just over this time, like in this
this season, but there's a lot I mean you're seeing
a lot of the veteran guys that have been doing
this a long time. You see the veteran guys pick
that up a lot obviously a lot faster because they
see more looks. But there's there's plenty of young players
as you're watching tape, just through crossover tape and stuff,
that are doing a nice job. And you know, I
(06:55):
praise Jackson because he's a high level process or post
snap and he sees a lot of things, like things
that he'll come out the sideline. Maybe my eyes were
on one side of the field. His eyes are like
kind of scanning through it and he sees, you know,
the backside hook defender and he comes out the field
and hey, why.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Did you, like, where'd you get your eyes there?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I saw this guy Bail And it's like he just
has such great space focus and his ability to play.
And so that opens up a lot of things in
terms of an offense when your quarterbacks not just like
kind of seeing it through a straw. He has a
big vision of the field and and that's a good
asset to have in terms of being the playing quarterback.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
There's this like like this fixation on having the success
immediately from a quarterback is get him into the rookie
immediately see it. But we have seen one of the
guys that played last night was an example of it,
a guy who's kind of found the successes later on,
whether it was Baker, Sam Darnold, things like that kind
of what you're talking about. The veterans starting to see
it a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, sometimes sometimes it just clicks at different times for
a quarterback. It's never there's not like one straight line
in a progression.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
For a quarterback. I always see it.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Everyone kind of hits their you know, hits their groove
at a certain different I should say for some quarterbacks
it's early.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
For some quarterbacks it's a little bit later.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
But that's always kind of the interesting part of you know,
how you build, you know, and how you build that
developmental program for the quarterback because you know that not
everyone's gonna be in the same level. I know in
my time in Kansas City with Patrick, you know, we
we were spending a ton of time just like identifying fronts.
He never had to do that in college, identifying coverages.
Like he just kind of went back and dropped back
and was a little bit more of a freelancer. But
(08:26):
when you built that structure, you saw it wasn't year one,
you know, into year two was a little bit better,
in the year three a lot better, and then the
year four and five like now you start seeing that
ownership in terms of him being able to take the
next step. So that was just my experience with Pat,
Like we're every quarterback's on a different on a different
you know plane. So Jackson's you know, we had to
(08:47):
we had to do the same type of program when
he was you know, in training camp and OTAs you
teach them here's what this.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Front looks like. Why do they line up in this front? Well,
it's because they.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Want to have these gaps you know, responsible for so
these coverages. What are the beaters of this coverage? Well,
where are the soft spots? Where are the spots where
they're trying to protect? When you present you this coverage,
what does that mean? Where is where is the coordinator
trying to tell you or he's trying to take the
top off so we don't can't throw deep all right?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
So where are out that's going to be at?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So the more you rep those things, the more you
talk about it, I think that you know that gives
the quarterback an opportunity to be successful. And again as
he hears it, more and more and more and every
day we're hammering these things. Oh now, here's the adjustment
to this coverage. Okay, bank that you see him taking
a note and then you know, you might even not
even hit till you know the next otap here like,
(09:32):
oh man, that note, like you reviewing it and you
see it and he said, oh man, okay, now I
understand why these coverages are building into one another, why
these fronts, why teams play us like this, and so
you know, there's there's never enough time in a day
to really go through that all. But when you're a
young quarterback and you're learning and you're growing, you're absorbing
all that information and it might take one or two
reps to finally hit it. It might take five or
(09:53):
six or seven reps to finally get it. But the
point is that you get it at some point. And
I think for young quarterback it's about going through that process.
It's not about you know, it's you know, one play
and that's the end of the world because you missed
the alert, or you missed the check, or you messed
up on a protection call, it's all right, how do
I grow? How do I eliminate that from happening? And
we've got a great quarterback room. You know, Shae Tierney
(10:14):
does a hell of a job getting our guys prepared.
And the veterans that have a lot of experience, like
they're trying to, like, you know, jam all this information
that they know, and it is great, and Jackson's absorbing
all of it. And you can see the progression. You
can see the communication. You can see at times.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
The light bulb go off and see, oh, I see that.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I understand that. I'm sorry, I'm being long winded with it,
but I think it's important. I think it's cool because
Jackson gets this experience and he gets to learn from
these things and grow, And that's the most.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Important part of playing quarterback.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You grow, you learn from it, and you get better,
and then you tack on a talent like Jackson, and
then you know the dis guy's limit.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
You see in relation to this, how have the conversations
you've had with him changed? Like when you're on the sideline,
I guess the level, the skill level or just the
ability of what he's able to process. Just says when
you start he's made.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I thought it was really important just being in the
quarterback room as a quarterback coach, like that dialogue has
always got to be at a high level. So it
never really changed even when I was a coordinator and
then now in this role as head coach, like you
have to keep that dialogue if you lose it now,
is that what you're asking, Like you lose just.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
The level I guess the level of that he's taking
it in and processing, not the position change that you've made,
just how he's I guess getting smarter.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Oh yeah, yeah, like his Yeah, his recall. His recall
over the course of the season has been phenomenal, and
you know you can see you're see teams that are
pressuring us maybe a certain way, or seeing teams playing
us coverages in a certain different way. So you know,
I think his recall over the course of the season
has been good. We're able to kind of pull back
even in game like, hey, you remember that look from
(11:46):
this game, this look from San Francisco, remember the look
from Chicago, And he's able to recall and say, oh, yeah,
this is why they're trying to get to it. And
then now we can continue to move forward and make
those adjustments, whereas maybe in his first or second start,
you know, you're you're you have a little bit smaller menu,
and you're kind of picking and choosing from that from
things that he really knows really well, and that's probably
pulling from like preseason and training camp and OTAs. Now
(12:09):
we can pull from live game situations and things that
have come up.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
Mike get You've worn a bunch of different hats in
this league, obviously, and now you're in your position. I
know you've always had an appreciation for the entirety of
a coaching staff. I'm just curious from your perspective and
appreciation for what you guys have gone through the last
couple of weeks. Do you see anything differently or have
things been magnified in terms of what you rely on
(12:36):
the coaching staff to do in this position versus what
it was.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, I'm super I'm super proud of our staff and
how they've stepped up. Obviously, when when you lose a
couple of coaches, other guys have to step.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Up into those roles and carry on that work.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And for our guys spend a ton of time not
only just detailing out the installation and what we're trying
to do, but also carrying the message of the team
and about and what we're about, and it's about winning,
and so that's been our focus. Our coaches have kept
the players in that mentality, Our players are keeping the
players in that mentality. And now on Sunday we have
(13:12):
an opportunity to go to go show that
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