Speaker 1: Welcome into the Ravens Presspass podcast. It is Tuesday, July thirtieth.
Speaker 1: The Raves continued training camp today and after practice we
Speaker 1: had a chance to hear from quarterbacks coach T Martin.
Speaker 2: To see Lamar back and healthy.
Speaker 3: I was good just having his presence in the meetings,
Speaker 3: in the meeting room and on the field. You know,
Speaker 3: he brings a certain energy, competitiveness and overall talent and
Speaker 3: the things that we've been doing. You know, it was
Speaker 3: good just get him back out. See the retention because
Speaker 3: I knew once he came back we could start getting
Speaker 3: some consistency in terms of his growth and reps and
Speaker 3: things of that nature that we need in training camp.
Speaker 3: But it's been great.
Speaker 4: See there's been obviously a lot of offseason talk about
Speaker 4: all the priest snap adjustments and more of that going
Speaker 4: on Lamar's place this year.
Speaker 5: How have you seen him improve?
Speaker 4: What have you seen on the field in that regard?
Speaker 3: Well, it's just what we do at this point. You know.
Speaker 3: Last year it was the conversation about it in terms
Speaker 3: of it being new, new system, new responsibility, these things
Speaker 3: of that nature. It's just how we play the game. Now.
Speaker 3: It's kind of just a part of who he is
Speaker 3: and how he talks and how he sees the game
Speaker 3: from that perspective. And so, uh, second year in the system,
Speaker 3: we've added some things and we've trimmed the fat a
Speaker 3: little bit and some things that we tried tinkered with
Speaker 3: but then major in and so we're streamlinings for for
Speaker 3: him and and for our offense in general. And so
Speaker 3: second year in it, he's doing a heck of a
Speaker 3: job of it. Picked off, picked up where he left off,
Speaker 3: and it's been looking good.
Speaker 6: He talked yesterday about how he likes the fact that
Speaker 6: the defense is in there getting a little bit and
Speaker 6: talking trash all over. And you you played the position,
Speaker 6: I mean, did you like that in the summer, that's
Speaker 6: having that sense of competitiveness in the building, And do
Speaker 6: you like seeing it now?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I was a little bit like Lamar. I like to
Speaker 3: talk a little trash, you know, because you had a
Speaker 3: ball in your hand and you can do something about it, right,
Speaker 3: And so he's like that, he's got he's been here,
Speaker 3: it's seven year seven and a lot of teammates he's
Speaker 3: played with for a while. You know, sometimes you don't
Speaker 3: know if they're serious or not, but they are all
Speaker 3: teammates and they love each other at the end. So
Speaker 3: I like that kind of get the juices flowing a
Speaker 3: little bit doing practice.
Speaker 8: See as good as lamar as I know, he strives
Speaker 8: to be even better. Is there something with his game
Speaker 8: individually that you guys are focusing on in terms.
Speaker 3: Something in the Yeah, we like to address everything. You know,
Speaker 3: it's not it's not a rep that goes by that
Speaker 3: there aren't teachable moments, and there aren't questions to be
Speaker 3: asked and answers to to find and and and answer
Speaker 3: the questions. And and that's how he sees the game,
Speaker 3: whether it's the run game, whether it's the passing game.
Speaker 3: We watch individual drills, we watch pretty much everything that
Speaker 3: we put on tape. We watch it and we learn
Speaker 3: from it. And Uh, that's just the humbleness in him
Speaker 3: and him understanding that, Uh he's trying to get somewhere
Speaker 3: as a talent. You know, you're trying to get somewhere
Speaker 3: as a teammate. You're trying to get somewhere as a quarterback.
Speaker 3: And so I respect that. And every day we go
Speaker 3: to work team.
Speaker 9: The Todds and say and talked about, you know, trying
Speaker 9: to get more explosures plays and all from a quarterback perspectives,
Speaker 9: like what can you do with jamar?
Speaker 3: The kind of that part, Yeah, a lot of that
Speaker 3: is uh by game planning and play design. You know,
Speaker 3: where you're trying to create and manufacture uh exposed to plays.
Speaker 3: The other parts of it in terms of a Lamar
Speaker 3: extending plays or UH receivers making plays on the ball
Speaker 3: when his man the man getting open him making accurate throws.
Speaker 3: All that stuff is comes together in terms of the
Speaker 3: end result in terms of making exposed to plays. But
Speaker 3: you don't, you don't. It's it's like a hitter in baseball.
Speaker 3: You don't step into the plate and step into the
Speaker 3: box saying I'm gonna hit the horme run every time.
Speaker 3: You know, you just wanna put the battle on the ball,
Speaker 3: and sometimes it is a home run. And so uh
Speaker 3: we we we get the ball in our hands and
Speaker 3: we're gonna play the system. We're gonna play the play
Speaker 3: out and if the end result isn't exposed to play,
Speaker 3: that's what we're gonna achieve. And then there are times
Speaker 3: two minute clock running, you're down by seven, blah blah blah,
Speaker 3: where you may be a little bit more aggressive in
Speaker 3: your approach. But uh, that's kind of how we see it. Uh,
Speaker 3: for all you baseball fans here see.
Speaker 4: Often oftentimes can have seen deep shots taken. It seems
Speaker 4: like when they miss, it's often too deep. You know
Speaker 4: that Lamar over there's a little bit as a coach,
Speaker 4: how do you coach him on that? Is that him
Speaker 4: trying to be a little too perfect and put it
Speaker 4: in a bucket?
Speaker 5: Or what do you say to him move.
Speaker 3: Regards that, I don't say anything. You got you gotta
Speaker 3: let it rip. I mean, you can't get into the
Speaker 3: head of the thrower. You just can't. You know, it's
Speaker 3: you know, you just can't. You know, you just keep
Speaker 3: getting reps with those people. And so many things are
Speaker 3: variables there. Did he get moved off his spot in
Speaker 3: the pocket?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 3: Was it a clean release?
Speaker 10: Uh?
Speaker 3: The position of the dB, so on and so forth.
Speaker 3: So you don't make any excuses. You just go at
Speaker 3: it again. Just keep trying until you get perfection. And
Speaker 3: that's what we're all trying to reach his perfection here
Speaker 3: and that's what we're doing. That's what training camps is about,
Speaker 3: That's what the whole season. You never you never peak,
Speaker 3: you know, until your last rep of that season. So
Speaker 3: but we're always chasing that.
Speaker 2: Specifically, like with regard to Batement on some of those
Speaker 2: long throws, because if he.
Speaker 11: Was overthrown in at certain times, whereas if compared them
Speaker 11: to say Obj, you seem like Lamar almost had a
Speaker 11: respect for Obj and expectation that OBJ.
Speaker 5: Would go up and get them all. And that's the situation.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like that's anything you can have a
Speaker 2: discussion abound or that that Lamartine.
Speaker 6: Fent through if it's a trust.
Speaker 3: But we looked at all of them. We looked at
Speaker 3: how were we missing until your point in terms of
Speaker 3: missing long what was it? You know, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of different things that caused that. So we addressed that,
Speaker 3: We worked on it doing off season, Gonna continue to
Speaker 3: work on the here, uh, but not in specific to
Speaker 3: the person, you know, because it's just it doesn't always
Speaker 3: in our minds come down to you're missing a certain guy.
Speaker 3: You know, you're just trying to address to throw itself.
Speaker 3: You know, everybody's different. You know, every receiver gets a
Speaker 3: certain amount of separation different They all have different skill
Speaker 3: sets in terms of making players on the ball, jumping ability,
Speaker 3: hand streight, so on and so forth, and you gotta
Speaker 3: know who you're throwing to and who can make certain
Speaker 3: type players on the ball, and that affects how you
Speaker 3: throw the ball, how you place the ball, how much
Speaker 3: air you put on the ball, so on and so forth.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot involved in that. But no, we
Speaker 3: don't just say, hey, when you throw to this guy
Speaker 3: is different than that guy. You don't have time to
Speaker 3: do that, you know, when you're getting rush by d
Speaker 3: line and it's trying to get the ball out those lines,
Speaker 3: you know, yep.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry along those lines with the deep shots, I
Speaker 5: don't know, just to think of a quarterback like Russell Wilson.
Speaker 5: You know, do you think of Russell Wilson deep shot?
Speaker 5: It's it's kind of a moon ball, thinks. How much
Speaker 5: does trajectory matter of whom when you're talking about like
Speaker 5: those thirty forty fifty yards passes through the air, And
Speaker 5: then it's what is the kind of conversation with them?
Speaker 5: More about maybe how you tinker your actual emotion trajectory
Speaker 5: to be accurate and also not compromise who you are
Speaker 5: as a pastor.
Speaker 3: It's all based on separation and safety location. You know,
Speaker 3: you have a safety that's very close to playing, making
Speaker 3: them player on the past, you don't have much air
Speaker 3: on it, you know, if it's if it's a clean release,
Speaker 3: safety is on the other half, so he's not on
Speaker 3: that side of the field. You may have more time
Speaker 3: to put more air on the ball. But at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, it's just about ball placement, timing,
Speaker 3: separation from the receiver. It's a lot combined in that,
Speaker 3: and that's just always chasing. It's it's no one thing
Speaker 3: that you can say. It's no one way to throw
Speaker 3: a deep ball.
Speaker 12: You know.
Speaker 3: I through a lot of them myself, and all of
Speaker 3: them were different. All of them, you know, are based
Speaker 3: on the things I just mentioned, and you just want
Speaker 3: to keep working to where you can get as many
Speaker 3: of those variables out of the way as you can
Speaker 3: to where you can diagnose it, all right, And that's
Speaker 3: what training camp in the preseason is all about.
Speaker 4: Talked about how the vision for the best quarterback effort.
Speaker 4: I know that's not something you probably talk about every game,
Speaker 4: but okay, all right, okay, what are what are the
Speaker 4: conversations like in the in the quarterback groove into that regard.
Speaker 3: Man from day one? Since I ever saw him play
Speaker 3: on TV and college. You know, I thought that about
Speaker 3: him and have an opportunity to coach him, you know,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm a father. And it's like, when you
Speaker 3: see something there young people, you tell them and when
Speaker 3: you see greatness, you tell them you own it. You
Speaker 3: want them to believe in themselves. You believe in them.
Speaker 3: You want them to know that you believe in them.
Speaker 3: And and that's that's what we're working for. And so no,
Speaker 3: we don't shy away from from that statement. We don't
Speaker 3: shy away from those type of expectations because if you're
Speaker 3: not trying to be the best, and what are you
Speaker 3: trying to be?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 3: And so last year about once a week we talk
Speaker 3: about championship quarterbacks. It's the thing that we kind of
Speaker 3: do once a week, and we talked about the characteristics
Speaker 3: of 'em and we talk about what is important that
Speaker 3: week going into that game. And every week there's an
Speaker 3: element of it about him being the greatest and about
Speaker 3: him showing up and showing out like we like to
Speaker 3: say in the quarterback room. And so but no, I
Speaker 3: see that in him. I believe that truly as his
Speaker 3: coach and before I was his coach as a fan
Speaker 3: of his and after I'm not his coach again, back
Speaker 3: of fan again. So uh, that's how I think about Lamar.
Speaker 7: We Els.
Speaker 1: Heard from offensive coordinator Todd Munkett year, have from.
Speaker 12: Them, and are you comfortable this year?
Speaker 7: Sure? I mean it's.
Speaker 13: Every year, everybody, every year that we're together as a
Speaker 13: staff and the players, you're going to be more comfortable.
Speaker 7: You just are.
Speaker 13: The terminology is the same, systems, the same improved like
Speaker 13: every year, you're going to work on it. So there
Speaker 13: ought to be a comfort level of that.
Speaker 7: And we're not.
Speaker 13: I don't want to say this, you're not building a
Speaker 13: house like we built it last year. Now, it's like
Speaker 13: you've moved in and you're just fixing a few rooms,
Speaker 13: if that makes sense. Like it's a lot easier when
Speaker 13: you're fixing a few rooms and you're building the whole house.
Speaker 13: Easy to build on that way.
Speaker 2: Your best tight ends.
Speaker 13: Andrew's likely how peys are trying to do their work
Speaker 13: of guys we feel at the same time, so would
Speaker 13: love to. I mean, obviously trying to get your best
Speaker 13: playmakers on the field. And there are two of them.
Speaker 13: You know, those two guys are unique weapons. So we
Speaker 13: got to do a great job being creative getting them
Speaker 13: on the field and finding a way to utilize because
Speaker 13: their skill sets are similar, but they're different. You know,
Speaker 13: they're still built a little bit different. But we love
Speaker 13: both of them and that showed last year, you know,
Speaker 13: when Mark went down, they came on, and having them
Speaker 13: both together will be great aggressively.
Speaker 7: The defense is played during the camp.
Speaker 6: Do you find it useful for you guys to get
Speaker 6: reps against style?
Speaker 13: Oh yeah, sure, No, it's it was great last year
Speaker 13: and it is this year. One, we do a great
Speaker 13: job defensively schematically. Two is they do a great job
Speaker 13: of challenging all of your rules and then they do
Speaker 13: it with tremendous personnel. That makes it very very difficult,
Speaker 13: but good for us in terms of development, right especially
Speaker 13: upfront where you're trying to see, you know, who's going
Speaker 13: to merge in certain spots for us. So it's been great,
Speaker 13: you know, at times it's been difficult, been frustrating, but
Speaker 13: it's great. I mean, it's it's something you want to
Speaker 13: be able to go against of every day.
Speaker 10: Last year, one.
Speaker 2: Hundred and ten organs as I can win up for
Speaker 2: the tight ends one ninety.
Speaker 5: Five year or why you weren't here for that.
Speaker 14: But can you convince this titan who easily the less
Speaker 14: is more?
Speaker 2: And how do you account for the enormous uptake and
Speaker 2: per target productive or in any.
Speaker 13: That some of that is because of the uptick we
Speaker 13: had at receiver. I think that's going to be a
Speaker 13: part of it. When you're better at receiver, right, the
Speaker 13: targets go somewhere. That's one part of it. The other
Speaker 13: part is late in games, when you're winning, you're running
Speaker 13: the football right and you're not throwing it nearly as much,
Speaker 13: so some of those come into play. But I and
Speaker 13: at times I really don't control where the ball goes.
Speaker 13: Times I do, but a lot of times the defense
Speaker 13: controls that. Are personnel control it and who we're playing.
Speaker 13: But to say that I'm throwing the tight ends, that's
Speaker 13: not what you're insinuating. We're gonna want to throw it
Speaker 13: to them. But there's reasons why that occurs. The other
Speaker 13: was there was a certain time of the year where
Speaker 13: we didn't have both right where now you're only there's
Speaker 13: one of them. So that's a part of it. We
Speaker 13: love those guys, want them every opportunity. You know, Mark,
Speaker 13: last year probably didn't have as many targets as he wanted,
Speaker 13: but he had touchdowns.
Speaker 7: Right, we got them the ball in the red zone,
Speaker 7: which help.
Speaker 13: So obviously finding the way to get him the ball
Speaker 13: and Zay the ball more is a huge part of
Speaker 13: what we'll obviously that we need to moving forward.
Speaker 8: Ah John talked about this offense is involved in the
Speaker 8: year two here with you. Is there an element of
Speaker 8: this offense that you are you know, emphasizing more this
Speaker 8: year or that you'd like to see them really build
Speaker 8: upon from last year.
Speaker 13: Well, there's a lot to build on and there's a
Speaker 13: lot to get better at a lot of things that
Speaker 13: we worked on the off season, Like any off season
Speaker 13: is like how do we stream like the streamline this,
Speaker 13: how do we make this to where we feel like
Speaker 13: we have the answers you know, moving forward collectively and
Speaker 13: that the players know that. That's probably as much as
Speaker 13: anything is. All right, you're in a meeting, Okay, we're
Speaker 13: doing X y Z Y, and that they can say
Speaker 13: it back right, say that's exactly why we're doing X
Speaker 13: Y Z. That's critically important to anticipate calls, anticipate what
Speaker 13: we're gonna do against a certain defense in those things.
Speaker 7: But it's been great.
Speaker 13: The off season was great, and our guys being here
Speaker 13: in this offseason, it's been a great start.
Speaker 5: Maybe specifically, you know, you guys dominant personal grouping last
Speaker 5: year was eleven. It wasn't as efficient as you guys
Speaker 5: were on the group reach. Maybe what did you kind
Speaker 5: of learn from how you guys did with eleven last year?
Speaker 5: And you know, maybe what are kind of something to takeaways.
Speaker 7: For this year?
Speaker 13: Yeah, it's you look back and you see, okay, in
Speaker 13: our bigger personnel groups, what what does that allow us
Speaker 13: to do? Sometimes run the ball more efficiently, not always,
Speaker 13: but also lends itself to explosive plays. You're gonna get
Speaker 13: some of that, especially if you put pad them field
Speaker 13: or if you get bigger that way. And we've got
Speaker 13: tremendous receiving targets at tight end, which does add to
Speaker 13: that group.
Speaker 7: But we certainly do have to.
Speaker 13: Become more proficient throwing the football out of zebra or
Speaker 13: eleven personnel.
Speaker 7: Gotcha?
Speaker 13: This is that competition for their starting jobs and offensive
Speaker 13: line because anybody starts separating themselves.
Speaker 7: I wouldn't say yet.
Speaker 13: I think some guys have stepped forward still too early
Speaker 13: in camp to say that, but I like our group.
Speaker 7: That's why you draft.
Speaker 13: I said that, that's why you draft, and that's why
Speaker 13: you develop, you know, I mean there is a salary cap,
Speaker 13: there is issues you're going to have in terms of
Speaker 13: your players. So it's like, that's why you do a
Speaker 13: great job as an organization does of drafting players and
Speaker 13: developing them. So when this time comes when you have
Speaker 13: to make tough decisions, you've got guys ready to go
Speaker 13: and able to.
Speaker 7: Compete for those spots, which we do.
Speaker 13: We've got a good number of guys excited about it.
Speaker 6: Kind Of along those lines, We've talked to John of
Speaker 6: Goot kind of when is the ideal time to have
Speaker 6: your offensive line you're starting that's set. Do you feel
Speaker 6: like you need a certain number of weeks to have
Speaker 6: that sort of chemistry building between those five.
Speaker 7: Guys or is it?
Speaker 12: Is it fluid?
Speaker 7: How do you okay? First off, would you prefer to
Speaker 7: already have it set? Of course?
Speaker 13: Would you prefer to have every position set? Yes, there
Speaker 13: is no no assigned data when we have to have it,
Speaker 13: If that makes sense, I mean, we prefer that it's
Speaker 13: the same eleven every position we're going to play. These
Speaker 13: guys right, that way we build that connuity. But it's
Speaker 13: our job as coaches to utilize the personnel were we
Speaker 13: have and keep finding who that may who may emerge,
Speaker 13: and when that happens, then we will end up in
Speaker 13: a position to where we can say, all right, here's
Speaker 13: our left guard. Okay, here's our right guard, here's our
Speaker 13: right tackle.
Speaker 7: All of that Derick.
Speaker 15: Henry in your offense?
Speaker 14: How much does that give you the creative time of
Speaker 14: the whiteboard to think, Okay, what can we do now
Speaker 14: that we haven't that we didn't maybe do it the past.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Well, first of all, we're excited to's hack to
Speaker 7: have Derek.
Speaker 13: Okay, there are things that he does and his skill
Speaker 13: set that allows you to not maybe from a creative standpoint,
Speaker 13: but maybe a little bit differently maybe certain ways that
Speaker 13: you want to run the football, utilize his skill set,
Speaker 13: utilize his speed and maybe getting him on the perimeter,
Speaker 13: you know, where he can really get that speed and
Speaker 13: get running downhill.
Speaker 7: So that's exciting, that really is so those lines.
Speaker 16: Derrick Henry, He's primarily used as a running back that
Speaker 16: runs out of under center formations. You use a versatility
Speaker 16: of multiple options in shotgun. How much have you discovered
Speaker 16: from his abilities to be able to run out of
Speaker 16: that formation and what's kind of been the creative ideas there,
Speaker 16: how's that flowing?
Speaker 7: Well?
Speaker 13: Early on, we've been doing we have been doing what
Speaker 13: we do in installing and rotating the running backs so
Speaker 13: we can see it.
Speaker 7: What we saw on tape, what he's.
Speaker 13: Done in the past is a reflection of what we anticipate,
Speaker 13: but we'd like to see it right. Let's see it
Speaker 13: play out from a receiving end, from a running end
Speaker 13: type of run schemes. So we're just in the process
Speaker 13: of seeing it all develop and talking to him what
Speaker 13: he likes, you know, and where we go as an offense.
Speaker 2: A sense yet with Derek how good he is in
Speaker 2: the mesh, I know probably did not run nearly as
Speaker 2: much as you would here in Tennessee. But for late
Speaker 2: polls from Lamar that've been very efective obviously or his
Speaker 2: career have gad a sense for.
Speaker 13: That yet do not have not seen that enough? It
Speaker 13: hasn't hasn't come up nearly enough. I don't anticipate it
Speaker 13: being a problem with reps usually isn't a problem as
Speaker 13: long as you have put in the time to make
Speaker 13: sure that it can still be a weapon for you. Obviously,
Speaker 13: Lamar is always a weapon for us.
Speaker 5: With the speed that you guys have an offense, do
Speaker 5: you have an expectations yet for maybe how your depassing
Speaker 5: game could look and also how defensive will kind of
Speaker 5: defense you guys?
Speaker 13: Well, you're right, I mean we could certainly. We were
Speaker 13: certainly efficient in a lot of ways last year. Certainly
Speaker 13: we can be more explosive twenty yard plays down the field.
Speaker 13: Some of that is we were winning games at the end,
Speaker 13: but another is how do we get the ball pushed
Speaker 13: down the field. Some of that's catch and run. I mean,
Speaker 13: Jay is one of those guys, our tight ends of
Speaker 13: those guys. We've got to get Bait more involved. We
Speaker 13: got to be able to get the ball down the
Speaker 13: field more to him and Zay all good points. We
Speaker 13: do have to be able to be more explosive, and
Speaker 13: we do have plenty of speed.
Speaker 7: Now, we just got to be able to utilize it.
Speaker 7: Scheme it so that we know.
Speaker 8: It's been a big emphasis getting Rashan baby more involved
Speaker 8: this year. Lamarms time and to start a camp. Baban
Speaker 8: wasn't able to be there today. Is it tough to
Speaker 8: kind of get that chemistry going. When it seems like
Speaker 8: there aren't together a lot.
Speaker 13: Well again, I'll revert back to the same in terms
Speaker 13: of would you love them to be out there every
Speaker 13: day of course, right and developing that, But I don't
Speaker 13: know when that starter then to end is. But every
Speaker 13: day they're they're together, we're going to get better, right,
Speaker 13: They're going to continue to grow as a dual, right,
Speaker 13: and you could see that when Rashad was out there
Speaker 13: and Lamar's out there. I anticipate that to come pretty easily,
Speaker 13: you know, pretty fluidly because they've been here together now
Speaker 13: three years. You know now some things that Rashad couldn't
Speaker 13: couldn't control, right, So we'll continue to build that and
Speaker 13: grow with it. And I think up until last couple
Speaker 13: of days, you know, Shad's had a really good camp,
Speaker 13: really good offseason.
Speaker 1: Next up is defensive coordinator Zach Orr.
Speaker 10: Excitement about your promotion within the building and just immediate
Speaker 10: coverage Joe as always be the first time play caller
Speaker 10: and doing it up here in training came off season programs.
Speaker 16: Just what's your comfortability level and things growing.
Speaker 11: I'm getting comfortable every single day, like I said, Man
Speaker 11: coach Harbord does a great job of putting us in
Speaker 11: like real life game situations, So you have to think
Speaker 11: on the fly, you have to be prepared, have to
Speaker 11: have your call sheet ready, you have to think a
Speaker 11: step ahead, and you know, combination of that and then
Speaker 11: going against our offense, going against Monk and Lamar mark
Speaker 11: Ze both Zays. I mean, I could name a lot
Speaker 11: of people with our offense. Going against those guys make
Speaker 11: it even that much more challenging. But it's preparing me
Speaker 11: for the moment and I feel more comfortable every single
Speaker 11: day with that. Another thing is like the coaching staff
Speaker 11: that we have helps prepare me on defense. Man, Like
Speaker 11: those guys are great coaches, great human So it's not
Speaker 11: just me by myself. I'm leaning on those guys, and
Speaker 11: those guys helped me out along the way.
Speaker 7: Seventeen interception slash kids are in the players to high
Speaker 7: level so quickly in best can.
Speaker 11: I think it's just man the players taking ownership. Man,
Speaker 11: I mean they they came in, locked in, ready to roll,
Speaker 11: man to say God here for camp. And one of
Speaker 11: the main things we talk about on defens is trying
Speaker 11: to eliminate explosiveness. Explosive players from the offense and taking
Speaker 11: the ball away. The ball is the most important thing
Speaker 11: in the game of football. On our job as the
Speaker 11: defense is to take it away and guys to take
Speaker 11: your ownership of that, and they've really been focusing on
Speaker 11: doing that. So it's been a pleasure seeing those guys
Speaker 11: attack the ball and catch the football and come away
Speaker 11: with some interceptions.
Speaker 6: Zach Lamarin talked yesterday about how he feels like this
Speaker 6: could be a vintage Raven's defense. I mean that, you know,
Speaker 6: the talking, the hitting even in practice.
Speaker 7: I mean, have you.
Speaker 6: Liked that tone that's been set so far in Do
Speaker 6: you ever have to ask individual guys to even develop
Speaker 6: back a little bit in camp?
Speaker 11: I mean, man, we got a lot of competitive guys
Speaker 11: on both sides of the football. I mean, obviously I'm
Speaker 11: with the defensive guys a lot more. Those guys are
Speaker 11: real competitive. I mean, and it starts with our leaders
Speaker 11: on defense. You know, we have a lot of those guys.
Speaker 11: But nah, I don't. I mean, I do kind of
Speaker 11: have to tell my tone down a little bit, But
Speaker 11: I mean I like those guys being real competitive, but
Speaker 11: we're taking care of each other, and Lamar and the offense,
Speaker 11: they get those guys going, you know, by competing at
Speaker 11: a high level and talking trash. So it's good man,
Speaker 11: it's iron sharp and iron. We talked about the aut
Speaker 11: of time and our offense is one of the best
Speaker 11: offices in the league. We got the ran of MVP
Speaker 11: at quarterbacks. So it's good work and it's a challenge
Speaker 11: every single day, and I think both sides of the
Speaker 11: ball look forward to the challenge that practice of competing against.
Speaker 9: Each others has a speed and of talent to take
Speaker 9: chances to make plays.
Speaker 7: Uh what do you say them?
Speaker 4: I guess being a good.
Speaker 9: Balance between taking chances and not needing yourself on.
Speaker 11: Oh man, Yeah, Nate, he's a heck of football player's
Speaker 11: instinctive players, so you don't wanna take that away from him,
Speaker 11: but you just continue, just try to tell him to
Speaker 11: play within the system, which he does. Have great eyes,
Speaker 11: play with great technique, which he's coming out here working
Speaker 11: at every single day, and the players will come to
Speaker 11: you like that. He has natural ability, so he's gonna
Speaker 11: make his fair share of plays by just doing his job,
Speaker 11: which which he's done out here so far. At camp.
Speaker 12: It looks like Trent since to just enjoyed putting on
Speaker 12: the pads. What have you seen out of the the
Speaker 12: intensity of his play with ads coming on.
Speaker 11: Man, Trent to intense guy, which we love.
Speaker 7: We love it.
Speaker 11: I mean, I think Isaiah likely told me the other
Speaker 11: day he was like, Man, tell Trent to smile out
Speaker 11: there on the field. I was like, hey, man, that's
Speaker 11: how you roll. That's how he roll. But Trent, that's
Speaker 11: why we loved him when he came out out of Clemson.
Speaker 11: I mean, he's a he's a real physical player, and
Speaker 11: it's great to see that. We knew that last year
Speaker 11: he came in as a rookie being real physical, and
Speaker 11: he's continued that and up that he's gotten bigger, stronger,
Speaker 11: more explosive, which he's displaying, which we're happy with.
Speaker 6: In what specific ways do you think, Travis Jones, what'll
Speaker 6: take significant sums forward this year?
Speaker 7: Man?
Speaker 11: I think in all of his game, man, I mean,
Speaker 11: him just having more football awareness, just becoming a better
Speaker 11: student of the game, understanding. You know, when you when
Speaker 11: you were first second year a player, you know a
Speaker 11: lot of stuff is still new to you. But now
Speaker 11: him going into his third year, he's seen most of
Speaker 11: the runs game, most of the past protections and I
Speaker 11: mean he's in here every single day working his butt
Speaker 11: off in the classroom and in the weight room, and
Speaker 11: I think you're gonna see a big jump in his
Speaker 11: game in a run game and in the past game.
Speaker 10: Rookie players all the speed shift from training camp to
Speaker 10: preach season and that helps you get rid of your
Speaker 10: first regular season.
Speaker 5: Are you anticipating the same thing as a coordinator in
Speaker 5: your first year, using preseason to really.
Speaker 12: Hit your feet under you.
Speaker 11: Oh, definitely, that's what That's what I think the preseason's for.
Speaker 11: It's not just for you know, as a player, obviously
Speaker 11: I focused on you know, it helped me out as
Speaker 11: a player, but as a coach, even when I was
Speaker 11: a position coach, it just kind of gave you a
Speaker 11: practice run of how it's gonna really work on game day.
Speaker 11: So it's gonna be good work. We're excited for it
Speaker 11: and I'm excited for the challenge.
Speaker 8: Michael here's just talking a.
Speaker 7: Little bit about playing with you.
Speaker 15: What is it like to now coach him and is
Speaker 15: his story at all something that he used.
Speaker 4: To is the rest of him? Oh?
Speaker 11: Definitely, Man, I love coaching Mike P because Mike P.
Speaker 11: I mean, he comes to work every day. He's very
Speaker 11: very wide shares his wisdom with the young guys. When
Speaker 11: Mike speaks, everybody listens. And he's still playing at a
Speaker 11: very high level. So I'm glad he's here with us.
Speaker 11: I'm glad he's on our team and on defense, and
Speaker 11: definitely you can use his story to show guys like
Speaker 11: it doesn't matter where you start, doesn't matter what you
Speaker 11: do when you get here, and it matters if you
Speaker 11: show up every single day and do your job and
Speaker 11: continue to get better. And Mike p I remember when
Speaker 11: he first came in and I was like, Man, where's
Speaker 11: this guy from. He's from Sandford, and he just took
Speaker 11: it to a whole another level. I still remember that
Speaker 11: New Orleans Saints preseason game where he went just crazy
Speaker 11: and he made the team. And then the first week
Speaker 11: of the season he was lined up in front of
Speaker 11: me and he's been rolling ever since. So I'm real
Speaker 11: happy that Mike's back a Raven and he's doing a
Speaker 11: heck of a job out here.
Speaker 15: The Ravens announcement he came went to I R just
Speaker 15: as we're about the practice field, we haven't seen ads
Speaker 15: Isaac out here is outside linebacker depth becoming a little
Speaker 15: thin for you guys, is that.
Speaker 7: A concern for you?
Speaker 11: I think, you know, I think obviously you losing Ham
Speaker 11: was tough man. Our prayers are with him, so you know,
Speaker 11: we're still excited about it, Lisa. You know, hopefully we
Speaker 11: get him back soon. But I think we got guys
Speaker 11: that that can help carry the load until til Desa
Speaker 11: gets back. I mean, you got Malik Harrison who've been
Speaker 11: training there. He's doing a heck of a job at
Speaker 11: the outside line recomposition along with you know, Dafe, Kyle
Speaker 11: Van Noyd, a, Jabo t Rob So definitely, you know,
Speaker 11: you'd like to have another guy since since Ham went down,
Speaker 11: But those guys are competing and doing a good job.
Speaker 4: Talk about Trenton Simpson not smiling on the field, yeah,
Speaker 4: look at him and off the field he's like misplayed
Speaker 4: nicest guy. Rokwan very similar, super intense. I mean, the
Speaker 4: inside line to you, yourself and your career, what is
Speaker 4: it is that abnormal for an inside linebacker be able
Speaker 4: to flip the switch and be some of the nicest
Speaker 4: guys on the team.
Speaker 11: I think you just understand at that position really as
Speaker 11: as a football player. But I think specifically at that position,
Speaker 11: you know, you have to have a different type of
Speaker 11: mindset when you step on that field. You have to
Speaker 11: be you have to be mean, you have to be tough,
Speaker 11: you have to be physical. So if you're gonna play
Speaker 11: middle linebacker, you know, when you step between those white lines,
Speaker 11: it gets real, real fast, so you gotta be ready.
Speaker 11: So I think that's where the intensity comes from at
Speaker 11: that position, especially with Rokwan and Trent.
Speaker 6: How much do you rely on Roquan to kind of
Speaker 6: be your eyes and yours and voice at the center
Speaker 6: of everything on the field.
Speaker 11: I rely on them a lot because obviously he's a
Speaker 11: heck of a player, heck of a guy. He's a
Speaker 11: heck of a student of the game. He knows ball,
Speaker 11: and he's seen and played a lot of ball. So
Speaker 11: as a coach, you always like to see how the
Speaker 11: player sees it from the field view, because you know,
Speaker 11: as a coach, easy when you're in the classroom or
Speaker 11: on the on the whiteboard and you're like, let's do
Speaker 11: it this way, or they're doing this, they're doing that,
Speaker 11: but the players might see it differently when they're on
Speaker 11: the field. So I definitely rely on on guys like
Speaker 11: ro kwand to beat my eyes on the field and
Speaker 11: let me know what he's seeing and you know, come
Speaker 11: to a solution, the best uh to do the best
Speaker 11: job we can do, exactly.
Speaker 3: Your own.
Speaker 11: I'll be on the field, yes, sir, Yeah, that's my preference.
Speaker 16: What do you see or feel better on the field
Speaker 16: than you wouldn't.
Speaker 11: Do just to get just to eliminate the lag time
Speaker 11: of you know, getting on the phone, getting that instant
Speaker 11: communication and just getting a chance to see how the
Speaker 11: guys are really feeling, you know, emotionally and you know,
Speaker 11: just get that that that real time reaction with them.
Speaker 5: Exact Uh think you've played in college for uh the
Speaker 5: NCATE football video games B going away. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 5: the kind of a strange question, what is your relationship
Speaker 5: with that game and what's it been like seeing it
Speaker 5: come back and you see guys kind of embrasive way.
Speaker 3: That they have.
Speaker 11: Man, that was my favorite video game growing up, and
Speaker 11: I tell people all the time, I was the last
Speaker 11: one that was I was part of the last video
Speaker 11: game before it came out on NCAA fourteen, and I
Speaker 11: was an impact player and I was the highest rated
Speaker 11: player at my school. So I let them so I
Speaker 11: let those guys know that for sure. But I'm glad
Speaker 11: that the game is back. Man, it's a fun video game.
Speaker 11: I have a six year old son now who enjoys
Speaker 11: it and he plays. He likes the mascots and the
Speaker 11: band playing in the background. So I'm excited that the
Speaker 11: game is is back. Haven't had a chance to play
Speaker 11: it as much as I, you know, probably would like to.
Speaker 11: But I'm glad it's back. Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3: Definitely.
Speaker 11: That's the only school right there. Oh no, I don't
Speaker 11: think I was that good.
Speaker 7: I don't think I was that good.
Speaker 1: And lastly, today we heard from a special teams coordinator,
Speaker 1: Chris Horton.
Speaker 9: Good to see everyone today. I hope you guys are
Speaker 9: doing well. What questions you got from me?
Speaker 8: So?
Speaker 12: Because again the kickoff and then kickoff, the actually not
Speaker 12: starting until the to re turn catching off the I mean,
Speaker 12: how difficult that being should also kind of look at
Speaker 12: knowing what you're going ahead and stricker a tip.
Speaker 3: Guys that know you.
Speaker 7: But also that's maybe a difficulty consist to differ, you
Speaker 7: know what.
Speaker 9: I what I think from the kickoff standpoint of just
Speaker 9: giving those guys an opportunity, it's kind of why we
Speaker 9: kind of why we shoot the ball uh in a sense,
Speaker 9: and then wait for that ball to be caught and
Speaker 9: we just try to time that thing up and just
Speaker 9: and as we as the refs start to join the practice,
Speaker 9: we start to see, okay, how much leeway we are.
Speaker 9: Are we truly gonna get uh kind of timing that
Speaker 9: ball up? But I don't think it's gonna be It's
Speaker 9: gonna be difficult. And once that ball is caught, we
Speaker 9: are going and we get down the field, we cover
Speaker 9: the kick. I think the thing that's gonna be different
Speaker 9: will be the angles of how we get to that
Speaker 9: ball because we're so spread out and we're in a
Speaker 9: short area amount of field, you know, normal when we
Speaker 9: run down the field, we reduce the spacing and we
Speaker 9: close off the lanes. But that's gonna change a little
Speaker 9: bit for us right now. So we're just trying to
Speaker 9: figure that stuff out. I think the guys are having
Speaker 9: fun doing it, and as we go, I think we'll
Speaker 9: continue to get better.
Speaker 5: It seems like the return team maybe has some signaling
Speaker 5: issues because their back is to the hatch.
Speaker 2: That's me is there is there anybody will be responsible
Speaker 2: for signaling to investigate up the team that they that
Speaker 2: with the line at the lion, that they have the
Speaker 2: hole that the balls call on here where the ball
Speaker 2: is going.
Speaker 9: Oh, I think that's gonna be That's gonna be done
Speaker 9: two different ways. In my opinion, I'm leaving it up
Speaker 9: to the player, like, let's figure out what works best
Speaker 9: for the player.
Speaker 7: We have time.
Speaker 9: We have time to get a feel for Okay, where's
Speaker 9: the returner standing, where's he going? If we want to
Speaker 9: get a true jump, probably it might be better to
Speaker 9: be staring at the returner. But if guys can't do
Speaker 9: that and they want to see the cover guy, then
Speaker 9: just go off the cover guy's movement. If he's late,
Speaker 9: then I'm gonna be late and the guy that I'm
Speaker 9: blocking it won't really matter.
Speaker 15: You guys gonna have actual NFL officiating through out here
Speaker 15: at some point this summer said help you and let
Speaker 15: you know how certain things are gonna be.
Speaker 9: Called correct Jeff, I think they'll be at some point. Well,
Speaker 9: we'll have NFL officials out here. And once we get
Speaker 9: those guys out here, you know, we're gonna just keep
Speaker 9: trying things, putting things out there just so we can
Speaker 9: get a good understanding of the play and how they
Speaker 9: are gonna officiate it.
Speaker 6: Do you feel like players are gonna be still getting
Speaker 6: a feel for throughout hero Pot regular season or do
Speaker 6: you feel like training camp in the three verse such games?
Speaker 7: Is it enough to get some.
Speaker 16: Comfort level later?
Speaker 9: I think as we move forward, you know, I don't
Speaker 9: know how comfortable we're gonna be, but I think we're
Speaker 9: gonna have a pretty good idea of what we want
Speaker 9: to do and kind of really lay a foundation. Now,
Speaker 9: those things could change as the season goes on, but
Speaker 9: I think early on we'll have a pretty good idea
Speaker 9: of who we want to be, who we are as
Speaker 9: a cover unit, what we do as a return unit.
Speaker 7: Will probably feel pretty good about it.
Speaker 9: But again, that's those things are gonna continue to tweak
Speaker 9: as we as we move forward, change how much.
Speaker 14: You campaign for the officer structor levels up there.
Speaker 10: What will Wolves be with this new formation?
Speaker 7: What do you want to cover?
Speaker 9: You know, I think you're gonna I don't really know.
Speaker 9: I don't really know yet because we haven't played a game, right,
Speaker 9: so until we play a game, until we see what's happening.
Speaker 9: But just like I've said this before, the roster is
Speaker 9: gonna be structured the way the rosters. The roster is
Speaker 9: gonna be structured, right, however that shakes out, We're gonna
Speaker 9: put the best, the best eleven guys out there. That's
Speaker 9: gonna help us because there is other phases that have
Speaker 9: to be played outside of the kickoff kickoff return play.
Speaker 9: We're still gonna have to cover punts and we're still
Speaker 9: gonna need to be good on punt return and that
Speaker 9: that might take a different body type player. So we're
Speaker 9: gonna have to maybe give and take a little bit
Speaker 9: of where we truly want to take from.
Speaker 3: The league.
Speaker 9: You know, you kind of you kind of talk to
Speaker 9: guys here and there, but during during this time, at
Speaker 9: this point, it's like, all right, let's figure this thing out.
Speaker 9: And then as the film starts to come in from
Speaker 9: across the league with the preseason games, you'll kind of
Speaker 9: have an idea of what some other people are doing.
Speaker 9: I honestly, I'm not I'm not sure yet. I think
Speaker 9: every I think everyone's gonna have a base way that
Speaker 9: they operate, and then as they see kind of how
Speaker 9: these things shake out in the preseason games, I think
Speaker 9: they'll they'll start to adjust a little bit. So I
Speaker 9: think I think you'll see some different things.
Speaker 1: From week to week.
Speaker 15: Were you surprised too.
Speaker 9: I don't know necessarily know if I was surprised by that,
Speaker 9: because I still think that, like and I said this before,
Speaker 9: if kickoff and kickoff return plays, you gotta find you
Speaker 9: gotta figure out, okay, what works best, what's the right schemes,
Speaker 9: And then if the kickoff team has a breakdown, there's
Speaker 9: still ways that you can cover kicks in this system
Speaker 9: and be effective. There's still ways that you can get
Speaker 9: returns and be effective. But I'm not sure you know
Speaker 9: how you're gonna score here or there. It'll just I
Speaker 9: think it will naturally happen as as the play develops.
Speaker 7: Another the first game.
Speaker 6: Is that getting kind of.
Speaker 9: You know, I think most special teams coaches are gonna
Speaker 9: be glued to the glue into that game. It's kind
Speaker 9: of see, okay, what's what's happening on either side? You know,
Speaker 9: how are they playing? And you just you just hope
Speaker 9: going into you know, the teams put the ball in play,
Speaker 9: they play the play, so you could actually get a
Speaker 9: good feel for, you know, what's gonna happen. So we
Speaker 9: do have some more film to study in our league
Speaker 9: with our players.
Speaker 14: How much work goes into letting the players know the
Speaker 14: new rules, the touch backs, so that they make the
Speaker 14: right to seasons as opposed to the seasons they probably
Speaker 14: had their whole career.
Speaker 9: We talk about that every every time we have a kickoff,
Speaker 9: kickoff return practice, we talk about the rules, how how
Speaker 9: is it how they change fielding the ball? Right, every
Speaker 9: ball is a live ball now, so you have to
Speaker 9: down those those balls and that that's gonna be that's
Speaker 9: gonna be new to a lot of college returners who
Speaker 9: their last four or five years, how many every years
Speaker 9: they spent in college.
Speaker 7: That ball hits the ground, rolls into the end zone untouched.
Speaker 9: That's a touchback. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 9: some young guy just just tries to walk away from
Speaker 9: the ball. But that shouldn't happen here, because that's one thing.
Speaker 9: That's one thing we talk about a lot, and you know,
Speaker 9: just kind of ingraining those guys. That's why we shoot
Speaker 9: the ball every practice. I used to blow a whistle
Speaker 9: a lot when I wanted guys to go. Now it's like,
Speaker 9: hey man, we go on the ball. Because everything is
Speaker 9: gonna be based on balling the landing zone, ball being caught.
Speaker 7: That's your that's your key.
Speaker 9: Now it's not, it's not my whistle in practice anymore.
Speaker 9: I mean, he's he's exactly who I thought he was.
Speaker 9: I mean, this guy just watching him on tape, seeing
Speaker 9: him across the league. He's a phenomenal return and I can't,
Speaker 9: you know, wait to get let's get him going.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. Also head
Speaker 1: of to the Lounge podcast feed we sit down with
Speaker 1: Raven's linebacker ro Quand Smith. That episode is dropping Wednesday morning,
Speaker 1: so make sure you stay tuned for that. Hit that
Speaker 1: subscribe button here on the press Pass feed and on
Speaker 1: the Lounge feed as well. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1: We'll be back with you tomorrow.