Speaker 1: Welcome to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. It is Thursday,
Speaker 1: January eleventh. The Ravens don't have a game this week,
Speaker 1: as they have the AFC's number one overall seed and
Speaker 1: a first round by, but they are still putting into work.
Speaker 1: They're practicing this week, really focusing on themselves, their own
Speaker 1: skiing and the fundamentals as they get ready to find
Speaker 1: out their opponent this weekend and the eventual division round
Speaker 1: game coming up next week. Today, we had a chance
Speaker 1: to hear from coordinator, so let's kick things off a
Speaker 1: special teams coordinator, Chris Horton.
Speaker 2: What a great week for us to just come out
Speaker 2: here and really just focus on us. That's been the
Speaker 2: message to our group, man, is just let's figure out
Speaker 2: the way this week of how we can help ourselves
Speaker 2: and you know, get better at the things that which
Speaker 2: we're going to need to do in order to make
Speaker 2: some plays this postseason. So our guys are out there
Speaker 2: working all six phases field goal, fild goal, block, pump
Speaker 2: on return, kickoff, kickoff return. You know, we get this opportunity,
Speaker 2: you know, and so again our focus is mainly about
Speaker 2: us right now.
Speaker 3: Questions for so much do you like.
Speaker 4: Having Dubernet back on the practice field, and do you
Speaker 4: feel the way that Thailand.
Speaker 5: And and Justice have stepped up that you you know,
Speaker 5: really have some depth there and some good options going
Speaker 5: into the playoffs.
Speaker 2: It's amazing to see him back out there. I'll tell
Speaker 2: you this. I think you guys know how how I
Speaker 2: feel about him. I know how our team feels about him,
Speaker 2: and I know how the guys in you know, the
Speaker 2: guys outside feel about him. He's a heck of a player.
Speaker 2: And just to have him back out there running, and
Speaker 2: it just goes to show, you know, to what we do.
Speaker 2: I think, just fundamentally across the board, with the depth
Speaker 2: of having Thailand back there, coming out there making that
Speaker 2: play against the Rams and scoring that touchdown, having Justice
Speaker 2: out there versus Miami and he popping that big return.
Speaker 2: I mean, it just goes to show to all eleven
Speaker 2: guys really of our depth of if you put a
Speaker 2: guy back there, if we've blocked to play the right way,
Speaker 2: we can create those big plays. So are we excited
Speaker 2: to have him back?
Speaker 3: Of course.
Speaker 6: We're the trades Like speed is obvious, but other than that,
Speaker 6: where the traits that makes a good.
Speaker 2: I think one speed speed for sure is everything, but
Speaker 2: you gotta have some vision. You got to be able to,
Speaker 2: you know, find the whole one is not there. And
Speaker 2: a guy that can a guy that can break some tackles,
Speaker 2: a guy that will run through some warm tackles, but
Speaker 2: but really just a downhill, vertical guy. And it's got
Speaker 2: to be a guy that's going to make some great
Speaker 2: decisions holding on to the football. You know, we talk
Speaker 2: about that a lot. Is very important for any of
Speaker 2: our returners. That's first and foremost a guy that that
Speaker 2: can protect the ball. So you know, all those good things.
Speaker 5: Chris, I mean you you McDonald's booth, I mean your
Speaker 5: coordinator now, and you both started as coaching interns. What
Speaker 5: do you even remove about kind of those days starting.
Speaker 5: I mean now that your coordinators, you know, you get,
Speaker 5: but what was it like at the beginning with you guys.
Speaker 2: You know, honestly, at the beginning, I think I'm gonna
Speaker 2: speak for myself here, but you know, we didn't we
Speaker 2: didn't know. You know, we were just we were just
Speaker 2: two young guys just trying to figure out our way.
Speaker 2: And we got the opportunity here when the Ravens was
Speaker 2: starting that intern program, you know, and Mike and I
Speaker 2: shared an office, you know, so we got it. We
Speaker 2: gotten to kind of get to know each other a
Speaker 2: little bit, and uh, throughout throughout the course of the year,
Speaker 2: I was still on defense at the time, so I
Speaker 2: had not moved to Special Teams at the time, so
Speaker 2: I was still working on defense, and we just kind
Speaker 2: of got to know each other. We set in that
Speaker 2: office together, uh, broke down plays, drew cards, you know,
Speaker 2: for the scout team. And then as the season went on.
Speaker 2: As a young guy, you know, you don't know what's next.
Speaker 2: You know, we're sitting in the office like, Hey, what's
Speaker 2: gonna happen? Are we even going to be back here?
Speaker 2: Do we need to go find another job? You know,
Speaker 2: and all those things coming, uh they come into question.
Speaker 2: But this placement stability, it lets you be yourself. You know,
Speaker 2: you come out, you do a great job, you stick around,
Speaker 2: and then here it is ten seasons later and I'm
Speaker 2: standing up in front of the podium. You know, it's
Speaker 2: a Special Teams coordinator and uh, I mean it's it's
Speaker 2: been great man, and uh, just just to watch what
Speaker 2: when Mike's done, and we talk about it all the
Speaker 2: time of kind of where we've come from to where
Speaker 2: we are now. It's just it's just been an amazing
Speaker 2: process of you know, just put your head down, go
Speaker 2: to work, and uh, those those things will pay off
Speaker 2: for you. All right, appreciate, Thank you guys.
Speaker 1: That was special teams coordinator Chris Horton. We also heard
Speaker 1: from offensive coordinator Todd Monkey.
Speaker 5: So when you don't have an opponent for the weekend,
Speaker 5: how do you structure practice? I mean it's obviously not
Speaker 5: game planning, but basically, what are you trying to get
Speaker 5: out of practice for this week?
Speaker 7: Improve the Ravens offense. That's what you're trying to do.
Speaker 7: You know, when we had a bye week, the guys
Speaker 7: had the week off, so there's a lot of things
Speaker 7: we were able to improve on from a coaching staff standpoint,
Speaker 7: you know, self, scout, who we want to be moving forward,
Speaker 7: utilization of personnel, all those things. But we did the
Speaker 7: players here, So now you're fast forward six weeks later,
Speaker 7: five or six weeks later, you have a chance to
Speaker 7: kind of work on things that somewhat from a game
Speaker 7: planning standpoint, but more about us. Because the way we protect,
Speaker 7: the way we pass set, the way we run routes,
Speaker 7: how we structure things, how we do it better, that's
Speaker 7: to me. That's what this whole week's about.
Speaker 2: Okay, I've been to practices, but what you're seeing in
Speaker 2: Dobbin Cook.
Speaker 7: Well, we're excited to add a talented player to our roster,
Speaker 7: you know, and I agree with what coach said things
Speaker 7: said yesterday. You know, we look at more as a
Speaker 7: potential weapon and than just someone that we've added to
Speaker 7: the roster. So you know, now catching up, catching him
Speaker 7: up to speed, you know, in terms of terminology and
Speaker 7: you know what we call things.
Speaker 3: But it's not hard.
Speaker 7: Just got to you know, continue to wrap him and
Speaker 7: you know, see where it goes from there.
Speaker 6: To the story yesterday about how you know, back in
Speaker 6: the season, texadent call them. You know, I'm going to
Speaker 6: give you the key to the offense as far as
Speaker 6: making checks the light, that kind of thing. What are
Speaker 6: the having working now whole year? What are the traits
Speaker 6: de Lamore has that has allowed him to thrive succeed
Speaker 6: in doing that part of the game.
Speaker 3: You'll change the way.
Speaker 7: Well, first off, he's highly intelligent, so he understands what
Speaker 7: you're asking to do and what you're allowing him to do.
Speaker 7: And when the situation presents that. That's probably as much
Speaker 7: as anything, and he's embraced wanting to do that. Not
Speaker 7: every quarterback wants that. Not every quarterback wants that on
Speaker 7: their plate and be empowered to change a plate, the
Speaker 7: line of scrimmage or to put themselves out there where. Okay,
Speaker 7: now they made the decision to change something to the
Speaker 7: line or protection, but it starts with him. He's diligent,
Speaker 7: he's intelligent. He's certainly more than capable of, you know,
Speaker 7: seeing things, what the defense is presenting to him and
Speaker 7: how he can get us into a better play, get
Speaker 7: us into a premium play.
Speaker 2: When you when.
Speaker 4: You got here, you didn't know John Harbald really really
Speaker 4: very well. You've certainly worked for a lot of head
Speaker 4: coaches over the years. Now do you've been with him
Speaker 4: for almost a year. What do you think are kind
Speaker 4: of a standout trades.
Speaker 2: About the.
Speaker 7: Consistency, I think if you said his day to day approach,
Speaker 7: his positive energy, his connection with the team. I mean,
Speaker 7: I've never brought on anybody anybody like that in terms
Speaker 7: of whether we've won, whether we've lost, in terms of
Speaker 7: his approach, and I think that that allows you when
Speaker 7: you have a season as long as we do in
Speaker 7: terms of sustaining for the long haul.
Speaker 8: When you draw interest from other teams for their head
Speaker 8: coaching vacancies, how do you balance taken you know that
Speaker 8: that part of you know, the interest that you've been shown,
Speaker 8: and also you know, planning for your current team.
Speaker 7: Well, it's not hard because you know, I'll be able
Speaker 7: to talk about that at a proper time when when
Speaker 7: that comes up. But the bottom line is, we have
Speaker 7: we have a chance to do something special here, you know,
Speaker 7: and our team, our focus is on this week you know,
Speaker 7: and where we're headed and finding out this weekend who
Speaker 7: we're playing and then come up with a great game
Speaker 7: plan and giving us the best chance to be successful
Speaker 7: next week.
Speaker 8: I guess you, Mike Anthony, you know other other coaches
Speaker 8: in this in this organization. What does it say about
Speaker 8: this team this year that there's so much interest in
Speaker 8: the assistance.
Speaker 7: Well, says a lot about the organization, says a lot
Speaker 7: about our players, says a lot about our coaching staff.
Speaker 7: You don't do it alone. I mean, you gotta have
Speaker 7: a great staff, great organization, uh, and a great team
Speaker 7: players that believe in the plan and are able to
Speaker 7: execute at a high level and let's really.
Speaker 3: Sit out to you about Lamar and this.
Speaker 7: Leadership this season. You know, Lamar is another one that
Speaker 7: and what I've seen over the course of the year
Speaker 7: that does a great job in terms of balancing success
Speaker 7: and disappointment and coming back to the office, coming back
Speaker 7: in the building with a great frame of mind. You know,
Speaker 7: you know, he has a great way of compartmentalizing some frustration, competitiveness, success, disappointment,
Speaker 7: all the above that comes from playing in the NFL
Speaker 7: and walk in the building with a smile on his
Speaker 7: face and like, Okay, let's go to work. That's that's
Speaker 7: that's a unique trait because it's hard, I mean for
Speaker 7: what we do in all of us handling success, handling
Speaker 7: disappointment and then walk in the building saying, Okay, what's next.
Speaker 1: That was offensive coordinator Todd Munkey. And know we also
Speaker 1: heard from defensive coordinator Mike McDonald.
Speaker 4: Chris Wharton was talking about kind of what it was
Speaker 4: like to come up from the intern level and really
Speaker 4: grow as a coach.
Speaker 5: In this organization. I mean, when you when you.
Speaker 4: Reflect on all that time that you've spent here, you know,
Speaker 4: under serve of a culture that John created. If you
Speaker 4: do become a head coach one day. What do you
Speaker 4: think you've taken away from from that to sort of get.
Speaker 2: You that thing?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 3: Man, Uh, there's so much.
Speaker 9: There's so it's just we're so fortunate and lucky to
Speaker 9: be around first of all, the organization. But the organizations
Speaker 9: when you think it's just it's made up of people, right,
Speaker 9: and the alignment that comes from the top here. You
Speaker 9: know when I was when I was an intern, Ozzie
Speaker 9: being the general manager, starting with him, starting with Steve,
Speaker 9: now working with Eric and really everybody throughout the building,
Speaker 9: and then ultimately John and and the person that he
Speaker 9: is and the leader that he is. You just have
Speaker 9: you have great role models you look up to, and
Speaker 9: you know that are high integrity, high character individuals and
Speaker 9: just phenomenal leaders.
Speaker 3: So the easy guys to follow.
Speaker 9: And if and when that opportunity presents itself, you know
Speaker 9: obviously you want to you model model that behavior after them.
Speaker 8: Like on that note, you know, how do you balance
Speaker 8: the the the interest that you're drawing from other teams
Speaker 8: with you know, your task in your current role?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean this is this is the first time
Speaker 9: I'm going through it, so you know, not a lot
Speaker 9: of experience to draw off of. But you know, the
Speaker 9: way the schedule sets up, you just have to deal
Speaker 9: with with how it's structured. So right now this week, uh,
Speaker 9: there's a lot of work that we're getting done here
Speaker 9: in the building. Not necessarily for future opponents. I mean
Speaker 9: there's some there's some backward kind of being done behind
Speaker 9: the scenes, But our focus right now with our guys
Speaker 9: is trying to improve and really stay sharp and ramp
Speaker 9: up and make sure we're at our a game you know,
Speaker 9: to come next weekend.
Speaker 3: So when we're here, that's what we're focused on.
Speaker 9: And then fortunate I can trying to compartmentalize it and
Speaker 9: then you know, work on you know, the zooms and
Speaker 9: things that happen at night, and I'm doing those at
Speaker 9: my house.
Speaker 8: And I asked Todd this just as a follow up, like,
Speaker 8: what does it say about the Ravens organization and this
Speaker 8: staff in particular this year that there's so much interest
Speaker 8: from other clubs around the league in these coaches yourself included.
Speaker 3: Well, I got reference early.
Speaker 9: It's it's about we have we have phenomenal people here,
Speaker 9: and the organization and the team has helped us, you know,
Speaker 9: put us in these types of situations all these coaches.
Speaker 9: I think now you understand what type of talented people
Speaker 9: that we have. So I'm excited for you know, the
Speaker 9: coaches that have opportunities, they definitely deserve it. Phenomenal human beings,
Speaker 9: great leaders, great coaches, So you're rooting for them throughout
Speaker 9: the process. And I think also we all understand that,
Speaker 9: you know, you know, there's a mission here involved as well,
Speaker 9: so we're all we're still laser sharp focus on on
Speaker 9: what on the goal at hand, and we all know
Speaker 9: that's you know, obviously that starts with next weekend.
Speaker 3: To clarify, I guess the rules you're not allowed to
Speaker 3: talk in Perth until.
Speaker 5: After July twenty second, correct, right, But you've talked to
Speaker 5: teams at night, like when you're at home.
Speaker 7: On zoom and stuff.
Speaker 3: We've already done that, yes, okay, just.
Speaker 4: Like we know it's one of four different teams. You
Speaker 4: know you could you could play next weekend, but you've
Speaker 4: played all those teams. How does that help in terms
Speaker 4: of preparation knowing that now you can't put together an
Speaker 4: elaborate game plan, but you do have some working knowledge
Speaker 4: of golf.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's it's always it's it's a there's different things
Speaker 9: going on when you play a team twice, you know,
Speaker 9: so you have to have an understanding of what your
Speaker 9: thought the thoughts were going into the game, and a
Speaker 9: lot of times there's path dependance involved in how they've
Speaker 9: operated going into that game too, So variables changed things
Speaker 9: like that. But you know, you try to have a
Speaker 9: great process after you play them to kind of debrief
Speaker 9: and figure out, hey, this is how we played them,
Speaker 9: this is how we probably should have played them next time.
Speaker 9: We got to think about, you know, these things, and
Speaker 9: so we have that information available.
Speaker 3: Our guys are doing a lot of work right.
Speaker 9: Now and behind the scenes, but like I said, a
Speaker 9: lot of the focus right now out it's it's not
Speaker 9: easy to prepare for like four possibilities, you know, so
Speaker 9: as it starts to come into focus, you know over
Speaker 9: the weekend, now we can kind of sit down and
Speaker 9: go full steam ahead, you know, going in the next week.
Speaker 3: Like does rook wanna have a sort of.
Speaker 6: Ability or knack to like make the teammates he's playing
Speaker 6: around better? And it's so sort of how does that
Speaker 6: kind of a man best?
Speaker 9: Absolutely, it's a it's a secret sauce man and there's
Speaker 9: a there's a there's a magnetism to him. That guy's
Speaker 9: gravitating towards Hi nashly. He always has great energy. I
Speaker 9: think I think it just you can't you can't help
Speaker 9: being around a guy like that that plays the way
Speaker 9: he plays the passion that he has and uh, and
Speaker 9: not be attracted to that, you know, and and the
Speaker 9: way he plays it in terms of just getting to
Speaker 9: the football. You know, if you're not if you're not
Speaker 9: playing with him, then it just it pops out on
Speaker 9: tape and the guys realize that obviously, you know, just
Speaker 9: a tremendous leader all around. So you know, the guy's
Speaker 9: respect him for just how he operates.
Speaker 8: Like, how much do you have you conversion John about
Speaker 8: these opportunities the.
Speaker 3: Well, we had an interesting plane flight to and from
Speaker 3: Houston the.
Speaker 9: Other day, so we had some we had a we
Speaker 9: had a time to that. We had a great conversation
Speaker 9: on the plane and just very very very thankful about
Speaker 9: his support that he's he's given to me and probably
Speaker 9: the other the other coaches as well.
Speaker 3: So he's been awesome experience.
Speaker 4: Like on Monday night for you, I mean it was uh,
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously we talked to John about it.
Speaker 3: So it's it's his family, but I mean it's it's.
Speaker 4: Your family in a way together.
Speaker 9: What was that experience like, it was a phenomenal I mean,
Speaker 9: it was just it was a great It was a
Speaker 9: phenomenal experience. Something we laughed about. It's you know, however
Speaker 9: the story was going to play out with the with
Speaker 9: the plan and everything, but uh, it's something that will
Speaker 9: cherish for a long time. You know, there's a lot
Speaker 9: of work that goes in, dedication that goes into getting
Speaker 9: to that point for that team, and you realize when
Speaker 9: you're in the stands that there's that the families are
Speaker 9: involved too, you know, the wives, the children, you know,
Speaker 9: just friends of coaches and things like that, all the fans.
Speaker 9: It's uh, it was it was a pretty it was
Speaker 9: pretty cool to see it kind of come full circle.
Speaker 9: And then obviously we were on the field afterwards and
Speaker 9: just the you know, the joy that everybody had from
Speaker 9: you know, seeing the whole process through.
Speaker 3: Uh, what was a was a special time. For sure.
Speaker 6: You haven't watched a lot of football games as a fan.
Speaker 3: Anymore that feel weird or had that.
Speaker 9: I haven't been in the stands in a long time,
Speaker 9: but it was cool. Yeah, yeah, I had a beer.
Speaker 3: It was good.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. The Ravens
Speaker 1: will not have a game this week. They will continue
Speaker 1: practicing Thursday, Friday, and then on Saturday at M and
Speaker 1: T Bank Stadium. The Ravens will find out their opponent
Speaker 1: by this weekend. Once the games are over this weekend,
Speaker 1: they'll know who they're playing and find out whether they're
Speaker 1: playing on Saturday or Sunday of the Division around next
Speaker 1: week at M T.
Speaker 3: Banks Stadium.
Speaker 1: If you want more of a breakdown of where things
Speaker 1: stand right now, head over to the Lounge podcast feed.
Speaker 1: We sit down with Michael Pierce this week for in
Speaker 1: depth interview about his new contract and what made him
Speaker 1: want to sign here in Baltimore to that contract extension.
Speaker 1: Make sure you leave a rating in a review and
Speaker 1: make sure you hit that subscribe button as well. Thanks,
Speaker 1: we'll be back with you tomorrow