Speaker 1: Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. It is Saturday,
Speaker 1: July twenty seventh. The Ravens wrapped up their sixth practice
Speaker 1: of training camp as Lamar Jackson returned from illness and
Speaker 1: was on the field for the first time since Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Jackson's presidence brought an extra jolde of energy to today,
Speaker 1: and fans cheered lally when he jibed onto the field.
Speaker 1: After practice, head coach John Harball talked about Lamar coming
Speaker 1: back and said that the practice was dedicated to former
Speaker 1: Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones.
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, great to see you here. Appreciate you being here.
Speaker 2: Big day, second day in pads, and also a celebration
Speaker 2: of Jacoby Jones. We dedicated the practice today to Jacoby
Speaker 2: Jones because we got a chance to come out here
Speaker 2: and do what he'd loved to do so much. And
Speaker 2: it really couldn't have been any more fitting than They
Speaker 2: have almost fifty teams here, youth football teams including girls
Speaker 2: flag teams here yelling all practice and you heard him right,
Speaker 2: I mean it was it was pretty loud out there.
Speaker 2: I had a little substitution issues, I think because of
Speaker 2: the crowd noise, so that was fun. But in honor
Speaker 2: of Jacoby and his uh, his amazing energy and smile
Speaker 2: and love for the game and love for life, I
Speaker 2: will dedicate that effort to him. All right, what questions
Speaker 2: you have, John.
Speaker 3: Lamar was out there today? From from your viewpoint, how
Speaker 3: did he make it out of out of practice today?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I thought he did really well. I mean you
Speaker 2: especially considering the fact that he's had to come back
Speaker 2: from being sick. You know, I thought he looked good.
Speaker 2: He had a lot of energy. I know, he worked
Speaker 2: really hard to get out here and worked really hard
Speaker 2: to make sure he was ready to be to put
Speaker 2: his best foot forward as best as he could. I
Speaker 2: thought he did, and even as a practice went on,
Speaker 2: you could see him kind of finding himself even more
Speaker 2: and more. So. I was really happy about it.
Speaker 4: What difference did that make when he's out there? I said,
Speaker 4: the obvious it's Lamar Well.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's a good point, Brian, and
Speaker 2: it probably is the obvious. I mean, I don't know
Speaker 2: if I could say anything other than the fact that
Speaker 2: at your starting quarterback, uh, you know, he's the best
Speaker 2: quarterback in football. We believe and we're determined to prove
Speaker 2: it and uh, he's out there today working with the guys.
Speaker 2: That makes a big difference.
Speaker 5: Look on one of the drills, Uh, be able to
Speaker 5: drive the length of the field, score the touchdown with
Speaker 5: like on the scoreboard you guys with simulating down by
Speaker 5: a certain points drills in tugrabe. That kind of performance
Speaker 5: in general just speaks too many to the back out
Speaker 5: of your day.
Speaker 6: Want to do something now.
Speaker 2: It does say a lot. I mean to come out
Speaker 2: with like that two minute drill into the game, minute
Speaker 2: twenty left, one time out and needed a touchdown down
Speaker 2: by five and uh and and look fantastic. You know
Speaker 2: it's always been a strength of Lamars. Two minutes. I
Speaker 2: thought the whole offense executed well. Defense executed well too.
Speaker 2: The offense just made the plays.
Speaker 6: Tray BoNT Home have an injury and to the share.
Speaker 2: On his status, Yeah, he fell on it his shoulder,
Speaker 2: So we'll have to see where we're at when we
Speaker 2: get back in there.
Speaker 6: When I was out there is I think all right
Speaker 6: with them.
Speaker 2: They had a personal thing that I excuse him for. Yes,
Speaker 2: the family celebrations, it was actually a wedding that was
Speaker 2: really important to him.
Speaker 7: John. When you get into these paddent practice, and you
Speaker 7: can't do them all the time.
Speaker 8: But what are you most looking for because you're still
Speaker 8: not being completely physical.
Speaker 2: Right, I saw real pumps and like back off hitting
Speaker 2: a couple of guys. What are you looking for when
Speaker 2: they get the pads? Well, you play. The thing is,
Speaker 2: I think when you to protect each other, no situations
Speaker 2: where like that where you might put the other player
Speaker 2: in danger. We really try to do a good job
Speaker 2: with our guys, and I think our guys do a
Speaker 2: great job of respecting one another no situations. Yet when
Speaker 2: both players have a chance to protect themselves, you're going.
Speaker 2: You know, you have to be going. You're trying to
Speaker 2: win the battle. And now you have a physical contest.
Speaker 2: Remember we said before there were no physical contests to win.
Speaker 2: Now there are physical contests to win, and the guys
Speaker 2: want to win them.
Speaker 9: John, You see if you have a lot better task
Speaker 9: walking out there today, a lot more.
Speaker 3: Time to pocket for all the four that stick together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought the old line did a good job
Speaker 2: yesterday and today with that. And whether it's the pads
Speaker 2: coming out or not, but they just were really physical
Speaker 2: in terms of moving their feet laterally and stopping some
Speaker 2: of the intration, especially in some of the games and twists,
Speaker 2: so it was a it was an improvement for sure.
Speaker 4: Looked like Gum at one point, View and Zach and
Speaker 4: even heard in their labor we're having a you know,
Speaker 4: conversations and you kind of ships light on just content you.
Speaker 2: Guys like like he did, you know, it gives people
Speaker 2: and then and then you'll get ESPN with Jamison's group
Speaker 2: over here. Hey, Jamison, what about that? I don't write
Speaker 2: the headlines. I mean the articles didn't say anything what
Speaker 2: the headline just said. And he just always hides behind
Speaker 2: he hides behind the uh the headline writer, which I
Speaker 2: respect and I'm sure it's true. So spirited we're talking.
Speaker 2: We what we try to do is this organization.
Speaker 3: That does some things and people think it's about it's
Speaker 3: your fault, and you're like, no, it's that other guy.
Speaker 2: I can't deny that. I can't deny that. You're right,
Speaker 2: get focus focus. Well, we the point is we try
Speaker 2: to be like we try to be. We try to
Speaker 2: be we say, obnoxious in our communication, uh, over zealous
Speaker 2: in our communications. We're talking about a leverage there in
Speaker 2: the goal line. Whether we want we we want the
Speaker 2: defender to be inside or outside in his coverage. How
Speaker 2: much help does he really have in that coverage? And
Speaker 2: that's what we were talking about. You know, where do
Speaker 2: we want to put him? And we want to have
Speaker 2: those conversations all the way through camp about all of
Speaker 2: our football all the time. We want to be quality,
Speaker 2: controlling ourselves all the time. What's the best way to
Speaker 2: do it? Oh, there's a line not drawn right in
Speaker 2: that drawing up there. Whatever it might be. We want
Speaker 2: to chase perfection and our shared understanding and our vision
Speaker 2: of how we're going to play the game. That's the
Speaker 2: most important thing we do. We're here football, that's what
Speaker 2: we do. We've got to be on the same page
Speaker 2: on everything we do. So that's part of that. And
Speaker 2: we have those conversations all the time. And I love it.
Speaker 2: I mean I just love it to me. It's what
Speaker 2: makes it fun to me. You know that we're willing
Speaker 2: to do that and able to do that with our guys.
Speaker 2: Coaches and players are on a partnership, man, I mean
Speaker 2: we are partners in this thing. We work together in
Speaker 2: this thing. We're trying to be the best we can
Speaker 2: be together as a football team.
Speaker 8: More all than mentioned as as a boss a little way,
Speaker 8: you know, to it seems like you know, shut up.
Speaker 8: So you weren't worried about him coming in and we
Speaker 8: just talk about how you score five days and you
Speaker 8: never stated.
Speaker 2: His games moving soon, good, moving super good. Looks great
Speaker 2: to me. We had we had a we had another
Speaker 2: conversation that was a spirited conversation Marlon and I about
Speaker 2: and he asked me about the first step in press coverage,
Speaker 2: you know what I thought, And we talked about that,
Speaker 2: and that's what we should be talking about all the time.
Speaker 3: John, we haven't asked you about it.
Speaker 4: Being that's the end of the first week.
Speaker 7: The three of the rookies that we haven't seen out
Speaker 7: he or Isaac, Tampa and Rigbe those any of those
Speaker 7: guys do you close and we don't like what's Rigby's story?
Speaker 2: Yeah, those guys are soft tissue, you know, lower leg.
Speaker 2: They use the typical things that happened to rookies sometimes
Speaker 2: coming off the combine and all that.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 2: Diese has been struggling with that since before the combine,
Speaker 2: Rigby since right around getting here the combine whatever. Uh,
Speaker 2: and then Tampa had the sportsternity surgery. So those are
Speaker 2: all not unusual, certainly frustrating for those guys. They want
Speaker 2: to be out here, but you can't bring them out
Speaker 2: too soon or they do it again, then you got
Speaker 2: another five or six weeks. So we're trying to do
Speaker 2: right by those guys and and honestly hold them back
Speaker 2: just a little bit so when they come back they're
Speaker 2: ready to go. That's exactly right. I mean that, that
Speaker 2: to me is the that's the craft, that's the art
Speaker 2: of it all. And we try to say, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: the the right to to to hit somebody all right,
Speaker 2: stops for the other players in jeopardy, you know, so
Speaker 2: you can guys generally know when it's a compromising situation
Speaker 2: for the player and you try to pull up in
Speaker 2: that type of situation.
Speaker 1: Tight Ends Code George Gatzi talked about the versatile capabilities
Speaker 1: of the tight ends in the room, led by Mark
Speaker 1: Andrews and Isaiah Likely.
Speaker 2: When Okay, you know Mark Andrews for he's done great
Speaker 2: constant production. You since you've been a round him, what
Speaker 2: do you think makes Mark?
Speaker 7: And yeah, I mean he gets it, and he works
Speaker 7: hard and he's capable of a lot of things. You know,
Speaker 7: he's really a positionless player. And that's what we talk
Speaker 7: about the room really, because we play outside, we play
Speaker 7: inside in the slot, we play attached. We've got a
Speaker 7: lot of different roles, so all those guys are capable.
Speaker 7: And Mark leads a group, him and Pat.
Speaker 10: You know, here's my out lighting up at the tight ends,
Speaker 10: working out with the tight ends.
Speaker 2: He made a couple of plays in practice today.
Speaker 10: What's kind of the vision for him positionally.
Speaker 7: Yeah, the same type of deal. You know, he's a
Speaker 7: he's a big body. He can run, he can catch,
Speaker 7: he's learned the position, he's flexible, he's played quarterback. You know,
Speaker 7: he's kind of what the quarterback's looking at. So he's young,
Speaker 7: he's learning, he's eager. You know, he's got a big
Speaker 7: capacity to learn too. So excited about him.
Speaker 6: Georgian soon sometimes kind of intensive battles between someone like
Speaker 6: Charlie Koehler and like a Brent Urban's obviously very very
Speaker 6: tough at his lodge when he's in like tight end.
Speaker 6: I guess what he's kind of a learning curve for
Speaker 6: for Kolar as he transitions to more of an inline
Speaker 6: role and potentially a bigger row in this offense.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, I think you're gonna say a big
Speaker 7: jump from him. He's made a huge strides from not
Speaker 7: only just year one to two, but now you know
Speaker 7: two to three. I think you're gonna see a big jump.
Speaker 7: He's working extra again. He's another guy that's capable of
Speaker 7: taking in a lot of information both in the run
Speaker 7: game in the past game. But you know he's gonna
Speaker 7: make his mark physically at the line of scrimage, controlling
Speaker 7: the defender. So I'm excited about what he's doing.
Speaker 10: He saw, particularly when Mark Anders went out, Isaiah went
Speaker 10: from a stretch where you know, he broke out in
Speaker 10: terms of pumpers.
Speaker 7: Have you seen him build off that just carry that
Speaker 7: kind of momentum into the off season and early Isaiah
Speaker 7: yeahah yeah.
Speaker 2: I Mean he's a guy that goes out there.
Speaker 7: He challenges safeties, he challenges corners, he's inside obviously working
Speaker 7: against our backers.
Speaker 2: You know, we got a good group.
Speaker 7: Defensively, we're going against every day, so we're getting challenged.
Speaker 7: But isaiahs so f uh, you saw it last year
Speaker 7: and that's going to continue to improve. I mean, our
Speaker 7: group that we have, it's so versatile and you know,
Speaker 7: really really excited about the group. Really from top down.
Speaker 4: The biggest visit music, play recognition, is it going on?
Speaker 4: Where's the biggest strategy you've seen in many.
Speaker 7: Well, it's it's it's the chemistry with him and Lamar.
Speaker 7: And you know, again, he's a guy that we're moving
Speaker 7: all over the place. So he gets one or two
Speaker 7: reps at something and then later on and uh in
Speaker 7: the week, he's got to execute it again. So he's
Speaker 7: getting the extra work and he's asking the good questions.
Speaker 7: The chemistry is there, I mean, the communication, it's been
Speaker 7: wonderful listening to him and Lamar work together.
Speaker 11: So I love it.
Speaker 2: Essentially starting however, tight end, what have those conversations been
Speaker 2: like workshopping how you want to.
Speaker 7: Do the game plan? And it's been very fun. I mean,
Speaker 7: we've got four guys that we think we can put
Speaker 7: out there at any point, at any position, and you know,
Speaker 7: including Pat, So it's a versatile group. It's exciting. We're physical,
Speaker 7: we catch the ball, we run, you know, so we're
Speaker 7: gonna be moved around in the offense and that's the
Speaker 7: role that we want, you know, we want to be
Speaker 7: put in a position to succeed. And uh so whoever's
Speaker 7: out there, we feel like we'll do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned you've had four guys in accruping.
Speaker 3: Pat think it's a great point and there's a limited
Speaker 3: number of tight.
Speaker 9: Anti fullbacks and that they four guys, I mean, how
Speaker 9: do you console them about cannot pay none of them
Speaker 9: getting into the stack camp with people do.
Speaker 7: Into Yeah, I mean we're trying to get as many
Speaker 7: reps as we can and opportunities that present itself, same
Speaker 7: thing the receivers are doing. So you know the point
Speaker 7: that we made about being positionless, so you know, we
Speaker 7: may be in the tight end room, but we're out
Speaker 7: there extended doing the same things that maybe receivers doing
Speaker 7: and then vice versa. You know, the blocking is one
Speaker 7: thing for us in line and you know, we feel
Speaker 7: like we can take as many roles as possible. We
Speaker 7: saw that unfold last year and we've seen that unfold.
Speaker 7: You know that we're gonna need everybody, you know to succeed.
Speaker 5: So were the addition Derrick Henry run blocking became more
Speaker 5: important entered this season just to see what have you
Speaker 5: seen w likely and for there and there being able
Speaker 5: to be handline blockers.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean the good thing about Derek he can
Speaker 7: run with a lot of bodies in there or run
Speaker 7: with not a lot of bodies in space. So we'll
Speaker 7: do both of it, you know, and everybody's gonna have
Speaker 7: their role, and uh, you know, we're gonna block for
Speaker 7: him and he's gonna block for us in the passing game.
Speaker 7: So it's gonna be a good, good, good cohesive unit
Speaker 7: to work together to get yards.
Speaker 8: Georgia.
Speaker 9: Do you think that's like kind of the defensive trend
Speaker 9: guys getting smaller faster has maybe made it easier for
Speaker 9: you know, tight ends not necessarily have to be a
Speaker 9: smash mouse style to be you know, physically to have
Speaker 9: that physical advantage. You know, all linebackers weighing like two
Speaker 9: and three four downs, edgeshutters maybe being you know, later
Speaker 9: than they were back in the day. Is that easier
Speaker 9: to maybe have an advantagement you have.
Speaker 7: I mean, there's there's so many different variations that we
Speaker 7: go against, you know, summer lighter, summer bigger, and I
Speaker 7: think when we present what our challenges are off offensively
Speaker 7: for someone to defend, I think it creates a lot
Speaker 7: of problems. And that's what we're after. You know, we
Speaker 7: got big guys, we got physical guys, we got inline guys.
Speaker 7: We've got guys we can extend, you know, and and
Speaker 7: really that's what we're trying to do, is create as
Speaker 7: many mismatches as possible.
Speaker 1: You know, Isaiah likely talked about building on the already
Speaker 1: strong chemistry has with quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 7: Is that what stand out for you the most first
Speaker 7: week off Fame?
Speaker 11: Can I say?
Speaker 5: Really?
Speaker 11: Competition? I mean everybody getting back into you know, the
Speaker 11: football mentality. Everybody's you know, attacking their one on ones,
Speaker 11: making sure you know the offense, defenses, iron shopping and
Speaker 11: iron making sure everybody's in tune with what they got
Speaker 11: going on.
Speaker 1: As deductive as.
Speaker 9: You were to end last season.
Speaker 8: How has that affected your mentality this offseason?
Speaker 11: Coming in their camp is there?
Speaker 10: How does that affect your drive?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 11: Just you know, wiping the slate clean. I mean, knowing
Speaker 11: obviously the pros and cons of what I did to
Speaker 11: end off the year, but understanding that obviously what I
Speaker 11: it wasn't enough to get the ultimate goal. So coming
Speaker 11: back with the mentality of you know, job not finished,
Speaker 11: and attacking everything I did from the little details so
Speaker 11: obviously the things I do well even harder than before,
Speaker 11: and trying to know be that that piece, that leader
Speaker 11: on the offense to get everybody going.
Speaker 8: You talk about chemistry all the time.
Speaker 1: The more great chemistry than the last year he was there,
Speaker 1: another the help we can get to and it so.
Speaker 11: I to feel back to the oh for sure. I
Speaker 11: mean I feel like there's still plays on the field
Speaker 11: that me and Lamar you know, just might have just missed,
Speaker 11: or you know I was off and he expected me somewhere,
Speaker 11: or I split it a certain way. So you know,
Speaker 11: just harping on those things and practice hearing it from
Speaker 11: his perspective, whether he's taking the rep with me or
Speaker 11: just watching from the sideline. He's always in tune to
Speaker 11: you know, watching either when you're on or when you're off,
Speaker 11: and always you know, going to the ipadle and you know,
Speaker 11: like hey, if you look here, I'm gonna hit you,
Speaker 11: or or if you do this this way, like expect
Speaker 11: it right now, and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: How have you guys up that chemistry like deserve an
Speaker 4: example of it?
Speaker 11: Lamar, there's nuts, I say, really, just you know, harping
Speaker 11: on little things in practice. I mean everybody brings up
Speaker 11: the I guess like the Texans game when I told
Speaker 11: him to throw it up I mean that was just
Speaker 11: you know what we do in practice. Like I'll be
Speaker 11: in practice and say, man, Lamar puts some more air,
Speaker 11: and I promise you I won't make you wrong. So
Speaker 11: like having those you know, situations in practice where he
Speaker 11: trusts me, where he does that in practice, so you
Speaker 11: know in game it's not the first time. So in
Speaker 11: game when I say, Lamar, throw it up, throw it
Speaker 11: up like I got you, I promise you, and he
Speaker 11: nods his head, lets me know like I got you.
Speaker 11: Next time I got it. And you know, when it's complete,
Speaker 11: it's always a good thing.
Speaker 2: Does it lift everybody when he is out there?
Speaker 11: I mean for sure? I mean you guys see I
Speaker 11: mean not only from like you guys point of view
Speaker 11: from seeing him like wow, like quarterback one's back out here,
Speaker 11: but you know the kids energy and that you finally
Speaker 11: get to see him. Lamar brings that that you know,
Speaker 11: obviously that leader role, but obviously that smile. I mean
Speaker 11: it's infectious, not only the offense, but for the team
Speaker 11: knowing that your leaders here, knowing that he's gonna give
Speaker 11: every play he got the.
Speaker 2: Say he had a clearly capitals are ample today.
Speaker 8: What if these politicians been like and how setting is.
Speaker 11: Against I say, it's you know, it's fantas. I've been
Speaker 11: going up against Kyle since rookie year. I mean, you
Speaker 11: guys been here all the time. Me and Kyle went
Speaker 11: from rookie year again, like seven straight one on ones
Speaker 11: every day to now where it's like when we see
Speaker 11: each other, we know like, Okay, this might be the
Speaker 11: only one I get, so I can't have him talking
Speaker 11: in the locker room about it or when it we
Speaker 11: get on the sideline, so you know, whether I win one,
Speaker 11: whether he wins one. We always want to talk and
Speaker 11: say like, hey, why'd you do that that certain way?
Speaker 11: Or why'd you do that certain way? And like even today,
Speaker 11: like me and Kyle got a little bit after practice
Speaker 11: so we could work on some technique stuff with me
Speaker 11: and him and like going from there. But I say,
Speaker 11: like Kyle always gets me better, like win, lose or
Speaker 11: draw my rep Like I feel like I always got better.
Speaker 7: Is that part of what.
Speaker 10: Gets you through some of the drudgery of training camp,
Speaker 10: those little those little one on one moments.
Speaker 11: Yeah, for sure. I mean obviously, like if you could
Speaker 11: spot your one on one before the play happens, like
Speaker 11: you're already like, okay, it's me versus you, But like
Speaker 11: most of the time, my defense is a great job
Speaker 11: disguising who has who or what what does what? So
Speaker 11: you know when you when you find tune your rep
Speaker 11: and knowing who you got and being able to attack
Speaker 11: it competitively, that's all always, you know, A blessing the day, Isaiah.
Speaker 10: There's been a lot of talk about a very versatile
Speaker 10: role for your ass off.
Speaker 6: That's the coaches have mentagen multiple times.
Speaker 3: How excited are you for that role?
Speaker 10: And then how much extra work have you put it?
Speaker 12: What kind of actual work we need?
Speaker 7: Different thing in the nature you know.
Speaker 12: All of your assignments.
Speaker 11: I say, I'm very excited. I mean I finally like
Speaker 11: I feel like I finally get to show everybody in
Speaker 11: my football knowledge. I mean understanding, you know, being that
Speaker 11: chess piece, as I say it, from in line to
Speaker 11: off the ball, to in the slot to out wide
Speaker 11: to in the backfield, showing coach that as long as
Speaker 11: I know where I am for that specific play and
Speaker 11: that specific design attaching that matchup, I mean I could
Speaker 11: be the nightmare that everybody wants me to be. And
Speaker 11: showing that you know, I can study the playbook. I
Speaker 11: know the playbook in and out to be able to
Speaker 11: tell not only the receivers where to go, where the
Speaker 11: running back has to go, and we can play as
Speaker 11: fastball as possible, being.
Speaker 5: Tight and meane as well receiving, but also blocking the
Speaker 5: additional pen rain line loss.
Speaker 4: Just how much of an importance is that a part
Speaker 4: of your off season building blocks?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 11: For sure. I mean I felt like, you know, obviously
Speaker 11: like we want to get better in line blocking. That's
Speaker 11: definitely gonna keep me on the field a lot more.
Speaker 11: But really just working on you know, that first step,
Speaker 11: that hand placement, and really just you know, strain. That's
Speaker 11: the one thing I felt like as a blocker, it's
Speaker 11: more like your willingness. I mean, how how much do
Speaker 11: you want it more for your person not to make
Speaker 11: the tackle for him rather than him make the play.
Speaker 11: So I feel like that's more of you know, your
Speaker 11: wanting your drive at the end of the day in
Speaker 11: the play and I feel like that that's something I'm
Speaker 11: gonna show a lot more this year.
Speaker 2: More less difference in terms of first snap with her
Speaker 2: target productivity to play asis, twelve plusdowns.
Speaker 4: And an interceptions to play us.
Speaker 9: They've got a lot of interceptions to play it into
Speaker 9: these years, will you kind of diagnose some of the difference.
Speaker 2: Whether that's the mall or mocking as to the screen last.
Speaker 10: Year, to you guys, what is the it's responsible for
Speaker 10: that difference?
Speaker 11: I say it really comes to how bad do you
Speaker 11: want the ball again? And from a quarterbacks perspective, like
Speaker 11: if they throw an interception and it goes to you,
Speaker 11: more than likely if they have the same opportunity again,
Speaker 11: they're probably not gonna throw the ball again. And that's
Speaker 11: how I think, at least, you know, obviously it is
Speaker 11: that next play mentality. You know, things happen obviously, But
Speaker 11: my mind is my ball and nobody's I tried to
Speaker 11: make into one hundred versus TV nothing. And that's the
Speaker 11: way I tacked the ball, whether it's a good ball,
Speaker 11: bad ball, anything everything. If I feel like I can
Speaker 11: put my hand on the ball, I could catch anything.
Speaker 11: So just going up to the mentality of the ball
Speaker 11: of its mind and nobody's and I feel like if
Speaker 11: I have that mentality, then I can get my quarterback
Speaker 11: any type of window to throw the ball and always
Speaker 11: make them run.
Speaker 1: Michael Pierce believes fellow defensive tackle Travis Jones could have
Speaker 1: a breakout season much like Justin Matdoweke had in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three.
Speaker 4: First, uh, you know, I have remember eighty backcap player
Speaker 4: to go against.
Speaker 3: What's that?
Speaker 12: From a defensive perspective, it's been a lot more challenging.
Speaker 12: Josh and them have done a great job. But anytime
Speaker 12: you can bring you two time MVP back, things especially
Speaker 12: get a little a little more hectic. So it's been great.
Speaker 12: It gives everybody and energy. Glad to see he's healthy,
Speaker 12: doing well, and said it makes our jobs as a
Speaker 12: defense a lot more harder, but we enjoy it. You're
Speaker 12: notoriously close in front urban.
Speaker 10: How happy are you to see him come back to
Speaker 10: your guys have always have a little bromance.
Speaker 12: Awesome? No, he he texted me before he had to
Speaker 12: make his make his decision. Excuse me now, coach, we
Speaker 12: enabled us the fun bunch. That's like a brother to me,
Speaker 12: one of my best friends in the league. So super
Speaker 12: super excited, and I'm glad he did shoot me a
Speaker 12: text and let me know we've and coach Mike was
Speaker 12: trying to poach him, So glad to have him back.
Speaker 12: For sure.
Speaker 5: They want to value and bringing back all kind of
Speaker 5: from last season. Is that something that's a positive as you.
Speaker 12: See, I would believe so anytime you have continuity, more
Speaker 12: so bringing back guys who actually impact winning, so, you know,
Speaker 12: but we bring back Beats, one of the best dtackles
Speaker 12: in the league, obviously top one hundred kind of guy
Speaker 12: myself I played well. Obviously Brody will be here again,
Speaker 12: Travis here again. They've taken tremendous steps bringing back herb
Speaker 12: solid five. They don't have a lot of those around
Speaker 12: the league, so we glad to have him back. And
Speaker 12: just having a lot of guys like uh, Sana and
Speaker 12: Josh and all those guys. So anytime you want to,
Speaker 12: you know, have a great defense, you bring back guys
Speaker 12: throughout the second day and the front Obviously I just
Speaker 12: spoke on, but having continuity, having guys who contribute to
Speaker 12: when they understand how things go and how things fit
Speaker 12: together is important.
Speaker 10: You've certainly spoken with great enthusiasm about Travis's potential and
Speaker 10: meat to just feel to you like the year for
Speaker 10: him to make the leap and for everybody to sort
Speaker 10: of say, yeah.
Speaker 12: I don't think you'd be asking me if you ain't
Speaker 12: feel the same way. But no, he's taken. He's made
Speaker 12: a tremendous amount of strides. I'm just kind of trying
Speaker 12: to be what Brandon was for me, a big brother
Speaker 12: to him. But Brandon gave me a lot of room
Speaker 12: to grow and figure things out and play next to him,
Speaker 12: play with him. That's something that I've seen a lot
Speaker 12: of growth in Traftuh. He's been making a lot a
Speaker 12: lot of plays. And I don't mind splitting reps with
Speaker 12: him as like you know there obviously, but to see
Speaker 12: him grow, to see him make those strides, and to
Speaker 12: see I believe he's gonna have an amazing year this
Speaker 12: year for sure.
Speaker 1: So you guys an option TV and if you guys
Speaker 1: off about or Jinger bound.
Speaker 4: Me about being the best.
Speaker 12: Yeah, that's what we trained for every year we come
Speaker 12: out and uh, you know, we got bigger guys. We
Speaker 12: don't always have. We have just a better and bk now,
Speaker 12: but we don't have those flashy names, if you will.
Speaker 12: So we end up probably in tenh or so. We
Speaker 12: played good defense here, but we don't have those star
Speaker 12: quality names on the inside. But each and every year
Speaker 12: we tend to, you know, rise throughout the year. So
Speaker 12: that's something we trained for. That's something that we expect
Speaker 12: just being the dominant D line. Like I said, we
Speaker 12: all don't have the goutdy numbers that some teams have,
Speaker 12: But like I said, I think we measured by the
Speaker 12: collective group and how everything goes. So when Rod has success,
Speaker 12: when PQ had success, Trenton will have success. Obviously, Beaks
Speaker 12: and everything will come along. So we all have a
Speaker 12: part in this thing. And like I said, at some point,
Speaker 12: we'll we'll we'll get there.
Speaker 2: Guys on the line with some of the starters, And
Speaker 2: what has it been like for you going out against
Speaker 2: centered watching them?
Speaker 12: Yeah, D's house today, it's it's been a joy.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 12: Vorhees is gonna be really good. He's just learning and
Speaker 12: getting back. So Ben's been here uh solid as well,
Speaker 12: So I think, uh, you know, the first few days
Speaker 12: of camp, but filling that role, you know, it takes
Speaker 12: a while. But also when you go against guys like
Speaker 12: myself and Trav and brought in get those different looks
Speaker 12: and get those opportunities that they never had before, I
Speaker 12: think they'll grow a lot. So now we're all enthusiastic
Speaker 12: and like I said, we just kind of got to
Speaker 12: see how it all feels out, but now they're they're
Speaker 12: hungry to make a name for themselves, So that's the
Speaker 12: most important thing.
Speaker 4: Michael.
Speaker 3: Obviously Zach Ord's didn't hear a number of years as
Speaker 3: an assistant, but you played with him certainly, certain what
Speaker 3: do you remember about him as a player that maybe
Speaker 3: signal this could be his pulling at one point, So
Speaker 3: just what's it like having him as your defensive coordinator?
Speaker 12: So I would say the thing that always stuck out
Speaker 12: about Zach is just how team oriented he was, selfless
Speaker 12: he was, and then when he got his out tunity
Speaker 12: he became all pro. So not many people can have
Speaker 12: had that trajectory, especially being an undrafted guy. So just
Speaker 12: see how he worked and how he was so diligent
Speaker 12: and wade his way patiently, kind of like his coaching career.
Speaker 12: I know his career was cut short due to something
Speaker 12: he couldn't control, but to see him rise through the ranks,
Speaker 12: like I said, he was a brother of mine on
Speaker 12: the field what eight years ago, So to see how
Speaker 12: he's roising is awesome and that makes me want to
Speaker 12: play for him just that much harder, Just play much
Speaker 12: harder for him. But now I definitely enjoyed to see him,
Speaker 12: see him rising. I think he's doing a great job
Speaker 12: and I think he'll will will play really hard for him.
Speaker 2: Like two things about last year he just wasn't really special.
Speaker 9: One is that five guys played every single stamp thereer
Speaker 9: and any other experience clots.
Speaker 10: In forty four percent of the stamps on average.
Speaker 3: The other feeling was if you guys were a.
Speaker 12: Whole lot more like the pass rupt stamps.
Speaker 2: In the previous season, you had a lot of outside impact,
Speaker 2: just kicked me inside.
Speaker 3: If you talked about those two things over it couldn't
Speaker 3: resent a conditional good person between twenty two and twenty three.
Speaker 12: Mmm, I wouldn't say so. Scott has always done a
Speaker 12: great job, even though we had Steve Pryor. It's just
Speaker 12: more so, you know, Coach Weave and now Coach Dennis
Speaker 12: is trusting our inside guys to make a lot more
Speaker 12: effect on the passer expecting it. So, I mean, guys
Speaker 12: trained for it throughout the off season. But you know,
Speaker 12: traditionally we've had bigger both here guys like ourselves who
Speaker 12: just blast through a gaps and that's kind of was it.
Speaker 12: But as our defense has evolved, as they started expecting
Speaker 12: different things, and obviously we're in the passing league now
Speaker 12: those things have passed. Rush and effecting the passer have
Speaker 12: been what's for crying now, So now I'm grateful that
Speaker 12: coach Weave has allowed us to grow into that role.
Speaker 12: But like we see, we got myself, we got Traff Brody,
Speaker 12: all of us can you know, not only stop the
Speaker 12: run but make a great effect on the passer. May
Speaker 12: not be sacks, but pressures and all those kind of things.
Speaker 12: So now it's good when you got big bodies and
Speaker 12: mixing those guys like bring down like Herb or bring
Speaker 12: down a dopphin playing at three technique and get some
Speaker 12: one on ones and those type of things. But now
Speaker 12: it's definitely something that's expected now, so I think it's
Speaker 12: something we trained for.
Speaker 6: Like what's it like to be in the Hey gap
Speaker 6: when Jerry Henry's in there for the.
Speaker 2: Goal line car It's not fun.
Speaker 12: Normally I get a double team and then by the
Speaker 12: time the double team comes off as a guy who's
Speaker 12: taller than me running through the whole really really fast.
Speaker 12: So no, it's good to have him on my side.
Speaker 12: As of right now, it's not fun for camp, but
Speaker 12: I've been on the other side of playing against him
Speaker 12: a few times. One went terribly wrong, so I know
Speaker 12: he's capable of but nah, it's not fun. But also
Speaker 12: I'm glad he'll be doing that for us instead of
Speaker 12: against us now. Rest in peace to Koba Jones.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Raven's Press Past podcast. Today
Speaker 1: completed Week one of training camp twenty twenty four. See
Speaker 1: you again on Monday.