Speaker 1: First preseason game on Thursday. What are you most looking
Speaker 1: forward to seeing out of the offensive unit? You know,
Speaker 1: we're looking for just good execution, you know, good football,
Speaker 1: smart discipline, tough football. Really just started out. That's what
Speaker 1: you want to do. Will keep a simple form, let
Speaker 1: him play fast and play discipline and play smart and
Speaker 1: play tough. What's the biggest goal for you coming out
Speaker 1: of the first game, you know, I mean, we always
Speaker 1: want to win the game, even though it's preseason, But
Speaker 1: for us as coaches, there's a lot of evaluation going
Speaker 1: on in a lot of competition at roster spots. So
Speaker 1: there's you know, let's win the game, but in the
Speaker 1: big picture, we're also trying to put together a fifty
Speaker 1: three man roster. How would you evaluate Carson and his
Speaker 1: performance at this point in training camp. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: he's had an excellent camp. His whole off season has
Speaker 1: been excellent, really throwing the deep ball well, seeing things well.
Speaker 1: Very pleased with his progress. Frank, is Jordan Matthews the
Speaker 1: slide receiver going into the season or is that spot
Speaker 1: up for competition or year? Well, every spots up for competition.
Speaker 1: I mean the way we kind of roll things is
Speaker 1: you know, Uh, we're always looking for guys who make plays.
Speaker 1: So um, you know, Nelson's had a real strong spring
Speaker 1: and camp. So uh, the way we do it is,
Speaker 1: it's kind of by play. You know. Sometimes we'll we'll
Speaker 1: switch guys up. You know, we see what a defense
Speaker 1: does from a coverage standpoint, and then we want to
Speaker 1: attack that coverage. And within that coverage, we have matchups.
Speaker 1: And then within those matchups there are are certain routes that
Speaker 1: fit certain guys better than others. So Jordan, we play
Speaker 1: to the player's strengths and and good thing is we
Speaker 1: have some players who have strengths to play to. That
Speaker 1: different from last year where it seemed like Jordan was
Speaker 1: the slack off, you know. I mean I think right
Speaker 1: now that whole, the whole receiver room is more competitive.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, I think it is a little bit
Speaker 1: different than last year. As far as Nelson, Frank, the
Speaker 1: separation seems to be there on a consistent basis. Do
Speaker 1: you think he's gotten over that hump when it comes
Speaker 1: to catching the football as far as consistency, get yeah,
Speaker 1: really good thing Nelson's you know, gotten over the hump
Speaker 1: and have been had a great spring and a great
Speaker 1: training camp. You know, he's just making a ton of
Speaker 1: plays out here. I mean we're always going to have
Speaker 1: a miss or two. Every position does so, um, but
Speaker 1: we're very pleased with how he's playing, making a lot
Speaker 1: of plays. You know, when he's on the field. I
Speaker 1: think the defense knows when he's on the field. I
Speaker 1: mean he's been he's been a threat. What is it
Speaker 1: about make Row that's allowed the receiver group as a
Speaker 1: whole to develop the way it has this offseason. You know,
Speaker 1: Mike's an excellent coach. He's he's really he pushes them hard,
Speaker 1: he coaches him hard, um, and he's done a fantastic
Speaker 1: job with fundamentals and technique. You can't underestimate that. I
Speaker 1: think it's also been aided by you know, we brought
Speaker 1: in some new you know, you bring in Aushine, you
Speaker 1: bring in Tory. Those guys have made the room better. Uh,
Speaker 1: good leaders on and off the field. I think that
Speaker 1: keim with the guys that we had here who are
Speaker 1: already strong in that area. So it's been a good
Speaker 1: dynamic for Jordan. Where can Jordan do well? Jordan can
Speaker 1: play it, you know outside we can we can be
Speaker 1: in four receivers and have two slots. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't want to take our tight ends
Speaker 1: off the field too much. But you know, we have
Speaker 1: a bunch of different personnel packages and we'll just continue
Speaker 1: to mix them up week by week. You want to
Speaker 1: take us, well, you did, you did work a lot
Speaker 1: of three tight end sets that you expected user tight
Speaker 1: as war this year differently, you know, I think last year.
Speaker 1: I think last year we're used them pretty well. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I think Trey had a good year. I mean,
Speaker 1: Brent is always going to play the way he plays
Speaker 1: as a great player, and Arts had a good year
Speaker 1: as well. So we're gonna mix it in those packages again.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a week by week almost a
Speaker 1: serious by serious thing. You know, how we can attack
Speaker 1: what matchups we get. Um, we have we have some
Speaker 1: really good playmaking tight ends, So there's times where that's
Speaker 1: an advantage to us to do um and then there's
Speaker 1: times where we'll want to be in four wide receivers
Speaker 1: or three wids. We're just got to keep mixing it up,
Speaker 1: keep teams off bounced they don't know what's what we're
Speaker 1: going to do, and play to the strengths of our
Speaker 1: players and the plays that we run. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think Frank toy Smith seemed to be like limping back
Speaker 1: to the huddle. Left. What is this? What's going on
Speaker 1: with him? Is he obviously would have come out if
Speaker 1: he were really hurt? Yeah, you know, yeah I would. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so too. Probably, who knows it could be
Speaker 1: I really don't know the answer to it. I mean sometimes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I noticed one time it looked like it was almost
Speaker 1: limping back a little bit. Could be a blister. Who knows,
Speaker 1: a little soreness after a plan. Yeah, I mean, you
Speaker 1: know we're out there just when they're getting the huddle.
Speaker 1: I assume I assumed they're ready to go. Chance Warman
Speaker 1: guys are working with the first team. You have both
Speaker 1: left the right guard. What have you seen from him
Speaker 1: as he's in his first camp here with the team?
Speaker 1: You know, I think Chance has gotten better every week. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, really embraced what we do and how we
Speaker 1: do it. Obviously, being reunited with Stout has been a
Speaker 1: good thing. So a great room, it's a great culture
Speaker 1: in that room. So he's very tough, physical, strong hands, um,
Speaker 1: very good run blockers. So those are the things you
Speaker 1: see in his Frank and Carson's preseason last year, he
Speaker 1: obviously lost it in the first game. What can he
Speaker 1: get out of a full preseason this year? That will
Speaker 1: all have been a conceptember down, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's every game snap you can get as valuable. But
Speaker 1: obviously he's not going to play a ton in the preseason,
Speaker 1: so it's more just about the consistency of practicing every day,
Speaker 1: you know, where last year he missed so much time,
Speaker 1: but you do there's something to build in the chemistry
Speaker 1: with your guys in the huddle and having some success,
Speaker 1: you want to build that confidence. So, um, we certainly
Speaker 1: are expecting that. Last year it seemed like it was
Speaker 1: like a really big effort to get Zach Ertz involved
Speaker 1: in the game. This year, it seems it's coming more naturally.
Speaker 1: Is that an accurate statement? Yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: Carson and Zach just have really built a great chemistry
Speaker 1: last year. Just a lot of confidence there. I think
Speaker 1: they play they're playing at a high level and really
Speaker 1: have a good feel for each other. Well with a
Speaker 1: guy that Canel Comfrey, who was like an every down,
Speaker 1: you know, ball carrier in college. And so what's the
Speaker 1: biggest adjustment as far as catchalls, you know. I mean
Speaker 1: I think just just developing that route tree, you know,
Speaker 1: developing that route tree. Like you said, he was primarily
Speaker 1: in every down back Um. But as we've talked about
Speaker 1: this before, where I think he's adapting well and developing
Speaker 1: well at not only running routes from the backfield, but
Speaker 1: the little bit he gets up in the slot or
Speaker 1: when we put him outside. You know, you start with
Speaker 1: a handful of routes. And I give him credit, he's
Speaker 1: worked hard at it. It's important to him. He knows
Speaker 1: that's a way he can get on the field. He's
Speaker 1: got a he's got a flash. He's got a flash
Speaker 1: to get on the field. We got we got too
Speaker 1: many guys who are playmakers. If he wants to get
Speaker 1: on the field, he's got to show that he can
Speaker 1: do that. Back in your day you had, you had
Speaker 1: Jim Kelly, Keith mckiller um as a quarter back. What
Speaker 1: is it about the tight end that makes that such
Speaker 1: a favorable target for it, especially for a young quarter Well,
Speaker 1: you work the inside of the field, you know, shorter
Speaker 1: throws balls in the air less time. You're working against
Speaker 1: linebackers who aren't as good in coverage or possibly safeties,
Speaker 1: you know, and you have many of these tight ends
Speaker 1: are almost like receivers. M and safeties are you know,
Speaker 1: say there's some good really cover safeties. We have a
Speaker 1: couple of safeties that are fairly good cover guys. But
Speaker 1: it's just gonna we just think that's a real strong
Speaker 1: matchup when you get a guy like Art's or Trey
Speaker 1: and even Seli. Selik is a master route runner, whether
Speaker 1: we're on a linebacker or a safety. We just feel
Speaker 1: like that's going to be a win for us. And
Speaker 1: then on top of it, it's inside okay, so the
Speaker 1: ball's not in the air very long, the defense doesn't
Speaker 1: have as much time to react, and you hurt him
Speaker 1: up the middle. It's it's good for the offense. Jordan,
Speaker 1: he was one of the franchise's most productive wide receivers
Speaker 1: of the first three years of a career. Been down
Speaker 1: in here four. We're talking about him maybe seeing a
Speaker 1: reduced rule. What do you attribute that career, Artie, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if we you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: how it's going to play out about is it going
Speaker 1: to be a reduced role is it not. I think
Speaker 1: that's to be determined and that's going to be determined
Speaker 1: by how things roll out. Half of how he plays
Speaker 1: and how things uh and how things play out. You
Speaker 1: know that in that room competitively, so um what you see,
Speaker 1: whether it's with receivers or back Sometimes somebody gets a
Speaker 1: hot hand and you just build chemistry. Last year, you know,
Speaker 1: last year, Jordan and Carson early in the year, we're
Speaker 1: like almost like Zach and Carson weren't at the end
Speaker 1: of the year. So we know there's something there between
Speaker 1: those two guys. So we look to develop that and
Speaker 1: certainly expect big plays out of Jordan. Thanks you guys.