November 28, 2025 • 8 mins
Special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial speaks to the media Friday from the Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Your kicker, but just as a special scenes nextpert, how
the hell does Baits make his kick do that? I've
never seen that indoors.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah, that that may not be intentional.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
He's just trying to hit a ball flush, and when
you're at more distance, you're trying to bring more speed
into it.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So sometimes when you.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hit it with more violence, that ends up happing it
basically like wraps in. It could go in now, it
could go out in depending on what part of the
seam you hit. So tho those long distance kicks, he
just he swung hard at it and you know, obviously
as the lake to do that.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So he did a good job making that kick.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It looked like the players thought it was obviously going wide, right,
and you go on the sideline, could you did you
think it was going wide?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I mean it's hard to see from the sideline.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
And there's been times, you know, throughout my career where
I thought the ball has been going in or ball
that was going out, and then it's been.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
The other way around.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
So I kind of wait until I see those rests
put up either no good signal or a good signal.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Where's where's Jamie att? Confidence wise? In your mind?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I mean, I know the numbers weren't terribly the other day,
but he still didn't didn't to make he was hitting
the ball super flushed consistently. Yeah, I think confidence wise,
he's I truly believe he is. He feels like he's
a great punter, which we have tremendous faith and belief
in him as well. That's part of the experience that
he's had. You know, not every specialist is going to
(01:22):
consistently sustain success every week. It's the ability to bounce
back to recorrect after one rep, and that's something that
I truly believe he knows how to do, and he's
done before in his in his career, so to me,
for him, he understands this and we've talked about it.
It's about being process oriented. So you know, sometimes if
you mis hit a ball, it's you know, going back
(01:43):
to the fundamentals of the drop, the catch, the steps,
the line, all those things, which obviously he understands all
the fundamentals that takes to hit the big ball, which
he's ready to attack success and fix those things.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And do you see anything fundamentally that you know you're
kind of focusing on at this point.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, So I think every uh yeah, yeah, yeah, So
every rep is is is really singular, so every rep
could have a like one issue, it could have another issue.
But at the end of the day, Like that's what
I'm saying, be process oriented. There hasn't been necessarily a
recurring theme of what it's been a lot of times
(02:20):
that drop does reflect ball contact because that is the uh,
the most important part for a punter being able to
execute and hit it hit a good ball because there's
so many things that could happen with it, right The
nose could go down to your foots trying to save it.
The drop could be inside, and your leg is reflecting
the kick direction on that. So you know, that is
an important part of correcting a punter's fundamentals. But like
(02:44):
I said, the every rep is so singular that you're
you're really focused on just what is your routine? What
is your steps to even warm up? Like those things
you know correlate to sustained success.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Does the DC change have any impact on you?
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Like, obviously you have to be in touch with the
other coordinators about who's gonna be up, who's going to
be available on special teams, So, like, what's it been
like working with Charlie.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah. Great.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Charlie is a great football coach, a great person, and
everybody on your staff is really easy, easy to talk to.
You know, when it comes to the game day rosters,
we all have discussions, you know, with the head coach,
and whatever gives our team the best opportunity to win
that football game, We're all gonna come together. There's no
egos in our building. You know, we all want the
same thing. We all want to win, and sometimes you
(03:31):
know you're gonna you're you're gonna really have discussions on
what helps each side of the ball, and ultimately when
you leave those meetings, everybody's on the same page because
we truly all want the same thing.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
You want to touch back on the kickoff at the
end of the first half there they got.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
The long return.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I think there was enough time on the clock to
where you'd want to, you know, kick to cover. So
it's not necessarily that we wanted to touch back. There
are times that you would want to touch back, but
you know, the the nature of it is, we got
to cover better on that specific rep. And you know,
the kickoff comes down to getting off blocks, to constricting
the returner in terms of field dimensions and ultimately that
(04:11):
will allow you to have success on every rep. So
we just got to do a better job getting off blocks.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
What have you seen from Dalen? I know he was
up for the second week in route. Yeah, what has
he done to earn that opportunity? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I think he took advantage of his first opportunity. Number one,
it wasn't too big for him. You know, he he
studies his tail off and like I said, he has
tremendous flex for a football team. So he's a guy
that could operate with no reps. So Number one, you
trust him as a football coach. Number Two, when he
takes those opportunities and it comes to game time, when
(04:44):
he's able to get off blocks, when he's able to
penetrate the disrupt, when he's able to understand his assignments
on punt return, he has a lot of value. I mean,
so he did his job number one. And you know
the thing I echoed to and really I echoed to
the all players that get their first opportunity the regular
season is you don't need a press for a play
to be considered to be up the next game. The
(05:05):
only thing that matters is this game and doing your job.
When you do your job, those plays that you're supposed
to make are supposed to come to you. And that
was something that I echoed to him, and he took
that to heart, and he just happened to do a
really good job of doing his job and the plays
came to him that.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
He's supposed to make and he did so.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
So really happy where he's at, and if he gets
opportunity to be up again, you know, I'm sure he'll
take advantage of it.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
With KUP now it seems like he's kind of settled
in with you guys. You guys know what you're getting.
How how challenging of it was a process for you
guys to kind of get all the specialists on the
same page. You talked about it on how different guys
like different things and that kind of thing. But now
it seems like week three for him, nobody's really even
(05:52):
talking about anymore. It's almost like, Okay, who's here and
let's go.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah. To me, it's a time on task.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
So you know, obviously, the more time you have working
those operations, the more comfortable those guys get. Sometimes you're
not afforded the same amount of time, and you know,
the expectation in this league as you perform, you know,
and it's cool to have a guy like who who
has the veteran experience that you know, would relish any
opportunity and he has, so you know, the time it
(06:20):
took for him to get ready, you know, I think
was sufficient, and he showed that he showed comfort with operation,
and he's been you know, just looking ahead for the
next opportunity. So, but every week is a new week,
so he understands that last week's success or the week
priors don't necessarily correlate to having success the next day.
(06:40):
So his focus is on what could he do to
improve this week and taking advantage come Monday night. Technique,
we would rather not have him active in tackling, you know,
Like I said, we got to do a better job
covering the kick in terms of the ten other guys
on the football field. But it shows you that he
(07:02):
has no fear in his heart, in his mind, which
is why the game isn't too big for him.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Why do you like Ray as a kick return I'm sorry,
why do you like Eric Ray as a kick returner?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
You know, he's had a ton of experience doing it.
He's a he's a running back that's used to carrying
the ball. He understands the vision, how to set up blocks.
You know, although that was his first game, you know,
he obviously wants that one return back. And I know,
you know, after that mistake was made, he came up
to me apologize, Like, you don't got to apologize, He's
(07:33):
just got to make it right. And part of making
it right is, you know, his intent and his deliberation
and practice. So if you saw him the other day,
it was him on the jugs getting a ton of catches,
you know, to make sure he's catching that ball forward boss,
security drills, all those things.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
So the one thing I'll say about.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Our group and its entirety is they want to do
everything right to put us in position to win football
games and continue to be an explosive unit, which I
have belief in from our guys and obviously they've showcased
it this season.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
So, uh, it's cool
Speaker 3 (08:07):
To have guys that you know, come back to the
drawing board want to want to fix things, and ultimately,
you know, we'll we'll keep looking ahead and keep trying
to improve and keep trying to put our team in
position win
Your kicker, but just as a special scenes nextpert, how
the hell does Baits make his kick do that? I've
never seen that indoors.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah, that that may not be intentional.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
He's just trying to hit a ball flush, and when
you're at more distance, you're trying to bring more speed
into it.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So sometimes when you.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hit it with more violence, that ends up happing it
basically like wraps in. It could go in now, it
could go out in depending on what part of the
seam you hit. So tho those long distance kicks, he
just he swung hard at it and you know, obviously
as the lake to do that.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So he did a good job making that kick.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It looked like the players thought it was obviously going wide, right,
and you go on the sideline, could you did you
think it was going wide?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I mean it's hard to see from the sideline.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
And there's been times, you know, throughout my career where
I thought the ball has been going in or ball
that was going out, and then it's been.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
The other way around.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
So I kind of wait until I see those rests
put up either no good signal or a good signal.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Where's where's Jamie att? Confidence wise? In your mind?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I mean, I know the numbers weren't terribly the other day,
but he still didn't didn't to make he was hitting
the ball super flushed consistently. Yeah, I think confidence wise,
he's I truly believe he is. He feels like he's
a great punter, which we have tremendous faith and belief
in him as well. That's part of the experience that
he's had. You know, not every specialist is going to
(01:22):
consistently sustain success every week. It's the ability to bounce
back to recorrect after one rep, and that's something that
I truly believe he knows how to do, and he's
done before in his in his career, so to me,
for him, he understands this and we've talked about it.
It's about being process oriented. So you know, sometimes if
you mis hit a ball, it's you know, going back
(01:43):
to the fundamentals of the drop, the catch, the steps,
the line, all those things, which obviously he understands all
the fundamentals that takes to hit the big ball, which
he's ready to attack success and fix those things.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And do you see anything fundamentally that you know you're
kind of focusing on at this point.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, So I think every uh yeah, yeah, yeah, So
every rep is is is really singular, so every rep
could have a like one issue, it could have another issue.
But at the end of the day, Like that's what
I'm saying, be process oriented. There hasn't been necessarily a
recurring theme of what it's been a lot of times
(02:20):
that drop does reflect ball contact because that is the uh,
the most important part for a punter being able to
execute and hit it hit a good ball because there's
so many things that could happen with it, right The
nose could go down to your foots trying to save it.
The drop could be inside, and your leg is reflecting
the kick direction on that. So you know, that is
an important part of correcting a punter's fundamentals. But like
(02:44):
I said, the every rep is so singular that you're
you're really focused on just what is your routine? What
is your steps to even warm up? Like those things
you know correlate to sustained success.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Does the DC change have any impact on you?
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Like, obviously you have to be in touch with the
other coordinators about who's gonna be up, who's going to
be available on special teams, So, like, what's it been
like working with Charlie.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah. Great.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Charlie is a great football coach, a great person, and
everybody on your staff is really easy, easy to talk to.
You know, when it comes to the game day rosters,
we all have discussions, you know, with the head coach,
and whatever gives our team the best opportunity to win
that football game, We're all gonna come together. There's no
egos in our building. You know, we all want the
same thing. We all want to win, and sometimes you
(03:31):
know you're gonna you're you're gonna really have discussions on
what helps each side of the ball, and ultimately when
you leave those meetings, everybody's on the same page because
we truly all want the same thing.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
You want to touch back on the kickoff at the
end of the first half there they got.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
The long return.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I think there was enough time on the clock to
where you'd want to, you know, kick to cover. So
it's not necessarily that we wanted to touch back. There
are times that you would want to touch back, but
you know, the the nature of it is, we got
to cover better on that specific rep. And you know,
the kickoff comes down to getting off blocks, to constricting
the returner in terms of field dimensions and ultimately that
(04:11):
will allow you to have success on every rep. So
we just got to do a better job getting off blocks.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
What have you seen from Dalen? I know he was
up for the second week in route. Yeah, what has
he done to earn that opportunity? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I think he took advantage of his first opportunity. Number one,
it wasn't too big for him. You know, he he
studies his tail off and like I said, he has
tremendous flex for a football team. So he's a guy
that could operate with no reps. So Number one, you
trust him as a football coach. Number Two, when he
takes those opportunities and it comes to game time, when
(04:44):
he's able to get off blocks, when he's able to
penetrate the disrupt, when he's able to understand his assignments
on punt return, he has a lot of value. I mean,
so he did his job number one. And you know
the thing I echoed to and really I echoed to
the all players that get their first opportunity the regular
season is you don't need a press for a play
to be considered to be up the next game. The
(05:05):
only thing that matters is this game and doing your job.
When you do your job, those plays that you're supposed
to make are supposed to come to you. And that
was something that I echoed to him, and he took
that to heart, and he just happened to do a
really good job of doing his job and the plays
came to him that.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
He's supposed to make and he did so.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
So really happy where he's at, and if he gets
opportunity to be up again, you know, I'm sure he'll
take advantage of it.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
With KUP now it seems like he's kind of settled
in with you guys. You guys know what you're getting.
How how challenging of it was a process for you
guys to kind of get all the specialists on the
same page. You talked about it on how different guys
like different things and that kind of thing. But now
it seems like week three for him, nobody's really even
(05:52):
talking about anymore. It's almost like, Okay, who's here and
let's go.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah. To me, it's a time on task.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
So you know, obviously, the more time you have working
those operations, the more comfortable those guys get. Sometimes you're
not afforded the same amount of time, and you know,
the expectation in this league as you perform, you know,
and it's cool to have a guy like who who
has the veteran experience that you know, would relish any
opportunity and he has, so you know, the time it
(06:20):
took for him to get ready, you know, I think
was sufficient, and he showed that he showed comfort with operation,
and he's been you know, just looking ahead for the
next opportunity. So, but every week is a new week,
so he understands that last week's success or the week
priors don't necessarily correlate to having success the next day.
(06:40):
So his focus is on what could he do to
improve this week and taking advantage come Monday night. Technique,
we would rather not have him active in tackling, you know,
Like I said, we got to do a better job
covering the kick in terms of the ten other guys
on the football field. But it shows you that he
(07:02):
has no fear in his heart, in his mind, which
is why the game isn't too big for him.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Why do you like Ray as a kick return I'm sorry,
why do you like Eric Ray as a kick returner?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
You know, he's had a ton of experience doing it.
He's a he's a running back that's used to carrying
the ball. He understands the vision, how to set up blocks.
You know, although that was his first game, you know,
he obviously wants that one return back. And I know,
you know, after that mistake was made, he came up
to me apologize, Like, you don't got to apologize, He's
(07:33):
just got to make it right. And part of making
it right is, you know, his intent and his deliberation
and practice. So if you saw him the other day,
it was him on the jugs getting a ton of catches,
you know, to make sure he's catching that ball forward boss,
security drills, all those things.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
So the one thing I'll say about.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Our group and its entirety is they want to do
everything right to put us in position to win football
games and continue to be an explosive unit, which I
have belief in from our guys and obviously they've showcased
it this season.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
So, uh, it's cool
Speaker 3 (08:07):
To have guys that you know, come back to the
drawing board want to want to fix things, and ultimately,
you know, we'll we'll keep looking ahead and keep trying
to improve and keep trying to put our team in
position win
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