WEBVTT - Press Pass: Frank Reich 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:02.040 A little too much made of having you know, all 0:00:02.080 --> 0:00:04.320 the secrets the ingredients because it was at the Redskins 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:06.040 last year, and how much will you dive into that 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:07.920 with him to get kind of an idea of what 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:10.000 they like to do beyond you know, all the study 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:12.879 that you guys have done. You know, I think there's 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.000 been around in a part of this kind of dynamic 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.520 many times over the years. There's usually a general debriefing 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:25.040 my experiences, it's usually a little bit overrated. Um, so 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.400 you still debrief, that's the thing to do, but you 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:31.760 you still focus on on your plan and what you know. 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.080 You only got in the end zone against the Redskins 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.360 once in the two games. Um, what was it about 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.720 their defense that where you weren't able to score more? 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.319 They played well? They put pressure on us. Uh, they 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:49.240 put pressure on the quarterback. We were in a lot 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:53.239 of long yardage situations, you know, didn't We weren't in 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:55.920 sync really in any of our faces. So, um, we 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:57.880 have to be better in all areas against this team. 0:00:57.880 --> 0:00:59.880 I mean there they can be a good defense. They 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:02.600 have good players that they had a good plan against 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:04.880 us last year. Um, we just need to be better 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:12.000 this year. Providing that you know. I think for every quarterback, 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:14.679 there's a great feeling that you have as a quarterback 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:17.800 when you're either in the shotgun or under center and 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.720 you kind of look out there and you see your guy, 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:23.880 and you look across and you see who's covering them. 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.240 And when you have a feeling as a quarterback like 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:30.440 he's always open, he can always win, it gives a 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:35.800 quarterback a lot of confidence. And that's you can't can't 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.319 underestimate how important that is. And I think that's a 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:40.600 primary thing that now Sean brings to the table as 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:42.319 a quarterback. When you have a guy like that, does 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:45.040 it take a little while to understand that in game 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:47.840 situations that even if he's not open, he's open. I 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:50.200 do think it's I do think it's always developing and 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:53.320 where you can throw it and where those windows are. 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.880 And certainly you know he's got big catch radius and 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:02.040 excellent ball skills u and versus different corners on certain 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:05.520 different routes, on contested catches, on a slant route, it 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:07.200 looks different than on the go route and where you 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:09.280 place that ball. So some of that you do grow 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:13.120 and developing and reading his body language and finding just 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:14.960 how far you can stretch him because he does have 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.920 a big catch radius. Lane's first game of his suspension 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.800 was the at Washington game last year. What have you 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:24.600 noticed from him as he's gearing up for, you know, 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:26.600 a season where it looks like he's he's up for 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:30.800 a little bit of redemption. I mean, I think Lane 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.520 has you know, Lane just looked great. I mean, he's 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:38.079 had a great offseason, great camp. Lane is in a 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.160 he's a leader in a lot of ways. He's not 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:44.639 the most vocal leader, but love the way he practices. 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.639 Love is intensity. You know, he's a very intense individual, 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:51.360 and I think you can see that when he's in 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:53.639 the meeting room, when he's on the practice field, and 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.119 we're looking forward to a great game and a great 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.280 season from him, for sure. Visit a more balanced game plan, 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.000 I suppose the last year bought to this year with 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:06.079 the Dolphins line plans, we envisiting play yeah, I mean, 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.200 I think you know, we go in every week wanting 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:13.120 to be balanced, you know, and there's always a ten 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:16.200 percent margin either way on that is what balanced is. 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:20.280 Let's just say for example, and you just don't want 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.240 to go to the extremes very often, you know, it's 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.320 going to happen. In the course of sixteen games. You 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.320 know there's going to be games where you're a little 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:29.160 run heavy, and there's going to be some games where 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:33.200 you end up being pass heavy. It usually usually always happens, 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.240 but in the perfect world, you know, we can keep 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.560 them off balance. As an offense, every offense wants to 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.040 do the same thing. You want to dictate the tempo 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:43.640 and you want todt and you want to impose your 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.960 will on the defense. And what that means is that 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:48.920 you want to be able to run the ball when 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:50.320 you want to run it, and throw it when you 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:52.640 want to throw it, and do the different kind of 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:54.720 things that you know, the drop back stuff, the empties, 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.760 the movements, play pass, you know all those things. You 0:03:57.800 --> 0:03:59.360 want to mix those and you have a plan on 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.280 how you're gonna tack. You have every phase of this. 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.000 You emphasize certain things certain certain weeks based on the 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.560 opponent you're planning and who you have, and then as 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:10.840 the course of the game goes, you adjust and you 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:13.200 get a feel as a play caller, and which I 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.080 think coach does a great job of where where we're 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.080 excelling at and so yeah, I think we want to 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.560 we want to be balanced, like going into this week 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:23.760 knowing you have your quarterback in place. He has a 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.640 full year of experience under the belt as opposed to 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:28.760 last year, when you know the trader was just made 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.280 and here they talked, well, Carson su quarterback, you got 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:32.640 to get him ready. I mean, how much of a 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:36.239 difference is that. There's a huge difference in every way. 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:40.719 It's not that he's you know, I mean, he's Carson. 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:47.279 He's prepared, he's emotionally and physically and in every way 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:49.800 he's a better player. And you still got to go 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.160 improve that and it starts this week. But he's proving 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.560 it in every phase of the off season. We've been 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:58.760 able to see it. Everyone can see it. I mean 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.680 everyone can see um the improvements that are made, his 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:07.360 complete command of the offense, his leadership on the team. 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:12.479 I think those are of all been expected strides. But 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:16.360 I would say he's exceeded he you know, at some 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.640 incremental level, he's exceeded the strides that you want. You know, 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.680 you can't go from here to here. You can't jump 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:24.880 to three steps in a year. No, no player just 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:27.400 doesn't happen. You'd like to think that, but you can 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.640 go in small increments and and uh and I think 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.200 that he has done that and really exceeded where I 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:37.560 think you would expect him to be. Like last year 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:41.040 at this time, you know, put together a game plan 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.840 for the opener, and like with a quarterback who barely 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.600 played like during the preseason and wondering if he can 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:49.960 handle all this stuff and everything. Yeah, I mean, obviously 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:53.599 there was a real big focus on keeping it extremely simple. 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:57.839 You always want to be able to play fast, but 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.280 certainly when you have a rookie quarterback like we did 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.920 last year who really didn't play much in the preseason. 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:07.120 But a credit to Carson was he was prepared. He 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:09.400 was mentally prepared. I mean, he's off the charts smart. 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.680 I mean that's been well documented and discussed. But even 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.880 though he wasn't getting physical reps, even while he was 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:21.880 hurt in preseason, he was a real pro and extremely 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.760 gifted and talented in that area to have a pretty 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:29.920 good embrace on the offense. Had players that talent was 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.880 the ideal number of targets that they want to get 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:38.560 to this repea you know, I think if you're looking 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.719 at an ideal number of targets again, the flow of 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:44.800 the game is going to dictate that, but I can 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:46.800 Here's here's what I would say, is that we go 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:50.000 through the game plan and you guys have heard us 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.840 say this before. Is you know, we have our seventeen plays. 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.159 You know, here's the plays that are designed to go 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.440 to seventeen. And sometimes in the course of a play calling, 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:01.600 you can't you know, like we might have X number 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:04.479 of plays that are that are where he's the primary guy, 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.720 and you envision getting ten or twelve of those two 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.720 him and the flow of the game goes a little 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:12.920 different than you anticipated. So it's hard to put a 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.000 direct number on it. But certainly he he is a 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.240 primary playmaker for us who we're going to make a 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:23.720 conscious effort to get the football. A good sense Brancat, 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:26.040 how you're going to deploy this this running back group. 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:28.920 You have a guy to sort of hang your hat on. 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:31.040 And when you I think it's I think I think 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:33.560 it's exciting to think about how to deploy this running 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.920 back group. Um, you know the by by committee thing 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.800 and as coaches alluded to the hot hand thing. Um, 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.760 again that saw for the flow of the game. But again, 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:46.240 when you're when you're putting together that plan, and you're 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:50.320 and you're looking through and we literally at every skilled position, 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.880 go through every play and say who do we win 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.480 in on this play? Who who is utilized best on 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.280 this play? And sometimes the answers, well, hey, we can 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.000 have Lea Garrett m Wendo. You know, they both would 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.120 be suitable for this play. So sometimes there's more than 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.160 one guy and we kind of keep that in mind 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:10.080 and one time we'll run the play with one the 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:11.800 next time we might run it with the other guy. 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.480 If the one guy hits it hard and good the 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:16.160 first time, we might just let him roll with it 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.880 again the second time. And then there's things where obviously 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:23.680 we're using Darren and mixing things up like that. So 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.280 it's exciting to do to look through. It's not hard 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.480 to do, it's it's very tedious. It's the kind of 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:35.080 detail that you have to do in game planning to 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.960 go through every play, every position. Are we best utilizing 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:42.640 our players? Because ultimately it's about players making plays, and 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:44.160 we got it. It's our job to put him in 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:48.160 position to do that. Carson's ability to expand plays, Frank, 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.040 how much more time did you spend this summer on 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:53.760 scrambled drills and things like that with him and the 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.880 receivers than maybe you did last year with Sam. And 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:58.599 where are they right now as far as being in 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:02.760 sync on that? You know, I think we've spent an 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:07.360 appropriate amount of time drilling it in the off season. 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.920 In seven on seven drills, we mix in scrambles, so 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:13.240 we're obviously you know you're in the seven seven drill, 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:16.160 there's no rush, but you know you you fake scrambles 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.400 to get guys and try to get it SYNCD up, 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:21.720 something that's hard to do without really being live. Preseason 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.120 games are the best for that. But and in practice 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:28.760 when we have manufactured scrambler drills, you've seen some improvement 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.760 we can coach off the tape on those things. So 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.280 I think we've made progress there, But obviously be put 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.160 to the test coming up here and be Parson down 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.400 in his development as a player. Are you guys going 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:41.000 to do more? Are you're going to go to the 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.559 line and run the play or there will be time 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.120 to run pass checks or or does he ad ability 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:48.200 to change a play if he sees something. Is he 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.960 that far in his development? Yeah, he's absolutely that. He 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.040 was doing a lot of that last year just because 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:56.800 of you know, he has he has I think special 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:59.640 ability in that area. But some of us not just 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.079 a mat smart. Some of it's a matter of feel 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:05.720 and reading body language and you know, hearing what the 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:09.160 defense is saying and just feeling certain things that the 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:11.920 great quarterbacks feel. You know, when they're showing you one 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:15.160 look and you know you're laughing inside saying they're not 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.640 doing that. I know what they're doing, and but that's 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.800 what great players do. And there was a lot of 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:24.200 evidence that Carson has those instincts and abilities, not only 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:27.000 the intellectual abilities, but the instinctive things that you need 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.640 as a quarterback. So that comes very that comes in 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:31.839 very handy. You know, teams fake a big and all 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.439 outblits and then they're going into coverage or they look 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:36.880 like coverage and they're going all outblits, and as a quarterback, 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.800 you know, we don't you don't want to put too 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.240 much on them, but you have to be able to 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.320 do enough to get you in and out of certain plays. 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:49.480 You don't want to have to do that thirty forty 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:51.640 times a game, but there might be five or ten 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:54.800 times that are absolutely critical and essential that you get 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:56.720 You get us out of this play and get us 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.880 to something that's going to work and then the runch 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.640 X In the past, you know, we check run to run, 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:05.280 run to pass, pass to run. We always mix that 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:08.120 up so defense can't narrow in on us on what 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.439 we're doing with our checks because they're all keeping all 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.160 those stats of when you're checking plays are you're always 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.920 checking the run or you're always checking the pass. We 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.040 track that pretty good ourselves, and we always make sure 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.839 that they can't get too much on us in that area. 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:28.840 There's a sprules that night's ferry leisure obviously, is that 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:30.959 where you want to use them or to focus for 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:34.680 our terms of space? Yeah, I think you know, obviously 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:36.480 Darren is a great space. You know, get him out 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:38.800 of space. We can great route run or great hands 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:45.000 do that as much as we can, but he can 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.080 run the football and so and obviously you know we 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.440 want to hand, we want to get to me and 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:52.480 to us as a staff. He's one of our playmate, 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.320 he's one of our primary he's another one of our 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.000 primary playmakers. And we got to get in the ball 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.080 and uh in the run game in the past game 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.120 and they're certainly more certain runs that are a little 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:04.760 bit more suited to him. But Darren's so strong. I mean, 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:07.520 everybody knows. Everybody knows that the legendary, right, this guy 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:09.640 is one of the strongest guy's pound for pound probably 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:11.599 in the league. So um, yeah, you don't want to 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.120 run him up inside a zillion times. But he's not 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:16.760 a slight guy. This guy's a powerful a powerful man, 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:20.560 and so we have no problem mixing up the kind 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:23.600 of runs we use. Certainly some more conducive for him 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:25.520 than others, but at the end of the day, we 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:29.840 want to get him as touches. We've seen Nelson have 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:33.560 a really strong spring and kind of summer, and he 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:35.040 could be the first to tell you that it doesn't 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.480 really matter until the games start coming. Is there still 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:41.520 a level of skepticism that he's gotten over that hump 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:44.679 heading into this season. I don't think there's any skepticism 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:49.560 in here. I mean, you have seen him day after 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:54.800 day after day after day put together solid practices that 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:57.199 he's looked great, So I have no reason to believe 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:58.800 that that's not what's going to be what we see 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.959 this season. There's always sort of unknown going until week 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:03.760 one off off the off season, where are you most 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.480 curious to see how it translates from from the off 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:11.800 season preseason until we've won fast start and just score 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:13.720 more points early. You know, I just think we need 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.200 to be more productive. We want to be more productive 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:20.280 early in games. You know, obviously everybody wants to get 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.080 ahead early and you want to score a lot of points. 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.840 But um, you know, we we did some good things 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:30.120 last year. We just need we need better production and 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.719 situational football and at the end of the day, that 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.840 needs to result in just more points scored. And certainly 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:38.720 we want to get off to a fast start. And 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.200 because it needless to say, that just puts our whole 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:42.199 team in a good position.