Speaker 1: Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. It is Monday,
Speaker 1: September second. The Ravens are repairing for this week's matchup
Speaker 1: against the Kansas City Chiefs, and today we had a
Speaker 1: chance to hear from the coordinators. Let's kick things off
Speaker 1: with Special Teams coordinator Chris Harten.
Speaker 2: Good to see everyone today. I hope you guys are
Speaker 2: all doing well. It was exciting to see us trying
Speaker 2: to audition for our third part returner out there today,
Speaker 2: figure out who that was going to be. I thought
Speaker 2: Andrew or He's did a great job fielding that ball.
Speaker 2: Kudos to him. But you know, as we get ready
Speaker 2: for this game, you know, I just you know, been
Speaker 2: talking to our guys about just going out there, man,
Speaker 2: and just really just focusing on us, because at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, that's really who is truly about.
Speaker 3: They're going to line up eleven guys.
Speaker 2: There's still a lot of unknown who's going to be
Speaker 2: out there for those guys with it being the first week.
Speaker 2: So for us, it's really let's focus on us, let's
Speaker 2: take it, let's take care of our business, and if
Speaker 2: we do that, I think we'll we'll come out of
Speaker 2: that game feeling pretty good about how we play questions.
Speaker 4: They make a somewhat serious observation off the offensive line,
Speaker 4: But it just strikes me that tracking punts seems harder
Speaker 4: than maybe people think.
Speaker 3: It's a lot harder than what people think.
Speaker 2: You know, this is, which is kind of why you know,
Speaker 2: when you evaluate guys, it's always easy to say, oh, well,
Speaker 2: this guy should be able to do it, or this
Speaker 2: guy can do it because maybe he's his skill set
Speaker 2: is a receiver, or he's a dB that has pretty
Speaker 2: good ball skills on the offensive defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 2: But when you go out there, that ball is in
Speaker 2: the air and just kind of reading that nose of
Speaker 2: the football, he's got a little win in his face
Speaker 2: or behind him that.
Speaker 3: Changes the trajectory of the ball. So it is a
Speaker 3: little bit more difficult than what people think.
Speaker 5: How do you balance I want to kickoffs sort of
Speaker 5: trying to pin the guy's back.
Speaker 3: When the terms of putting the ball on the end.
Speaker 2: Zone and playing it safe, I don't I don't think
Speaker 2: when you when you think about playing football, I don't
Speaker 2: think all you're never are you really trying to play
Speaker 2: it safe? I think you always want to be as
Speaker 2: aggressive as you can if it fits what you do.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't know necessarily say playing safe in football is
Speaker 2: a is a good thing to say. But you know,
Speaker 2: for us, it's it's like, what what do we feel
Speaker 2: like we're good at? If we feel like we're gonna
Speaker 2: be good at covering kicks, I think it's an advantage
Speaker 2: for us. If we don't think we're gonna be good
Speaker 2: at that, then I don't think we put ourselves in
Speaker 2: situations that we can't handle.
Speaker 3: But uh, we just kind of go out there and
Speaker 3: we just try to go play football.
Speaker 6: Three weeks into the three games into this, what.
Speaker 7: If you learned about this new kickoff?
Speaker 3: You know, as you as you evaluate all.
Speaker 2: The plays from across the league, you know, we spend
Speaker 2: a lot of time. We watch every play, every kickoff,
Speaker 2: every kickoff return. And I think the thing you saw
Speaker 2: in the in the preseason is guys are really just
Speaker 2: trying to figure out, Okay, who's gonna be good blockers
Speaker 2: because it was a lot of it was a lot
Speaker 2: of just kind of man schemes. You didn't really see
Speaker 2: a lot of different schemes and things like that. I think,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe guys are you know, holding those off
Speaker 2: to the regular season. But for us, it's about, Okay,
Speaker 2: what are we good at? What do we feel like
Speaker 2: we got really good at? And I think that's gonna
Speaker 2: be our approach as we as we move forward throughout
Speaker 2: this uh this first game, in the second game, and
Speaker 2: maybe the third game, until we start to see a
Speaker 2: little bit more of the different schemes.
Speaker 8: You get the sense that they're gonna be guys who
Speaker 8: pop under the new rules who maybe didn't under the
Speaker 8: over hol rules. I mean, is it gonna be a
Speaker 8: different set of standout players dore or.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't necessarily say.
Speaker 2: I don't necessarily think there would be a different set
Speaker 2: of players that will that will stand out. I mean,
Speaker 2: I think the the all these guys are really good
Speaker 2: at what they do, So I mean there's there's good
Speaker 2: football players. I think the play will benefit some guys
Speaker 2: better than others based on the nature of okay, running
Speaker 2: down the field, not having to run down the field,
Speaker 2: the close proximity of the of the player, and how
Speaker 2: quickly that guy is gonna engage blocking you. But I
Speaker 2: don't think it's gonna change. These guys are all good
Speaker 2: football players. They'll make the plays that they're supposed to make.
Speaker 9: I don't know how tight the special teams coaching fraternity is,
Speaker 9: but I know we had the preseason. But this being
Speaker 9: the first game of real stuff, I mean, do you
Speaker 9: feel like everyone in your profession is gonna be kind
Speaker 9: of looking at you the chiefs coordinator, to see how
Speaker 9: you guys do as the kind of guinea pigs for
Speaker 9: this regular season?
Speaker 2: Wise, I think you know, it's always it's all when
Speaker 2: when when you are the first game, everyone's gonna be wondering, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is a new play. You know, what are they
Speaker 2: going to be doing? You know, what are we going
Speaker 2: to see? Are they going to do something different than
Speaker 2: what they've shown? How are they going to handle different
Speaker 2: different types of schemes and things like that. So I
Speaker 2: do think everyone's going to be looking. But I think
Speaker 2: the other the other thirty teams are gonna do what
Speaker 2: they do well. I don't think they're gonna be concerning
Speaker 2: themselves so much about what we do, whether we put
Speaker 2: the ball in play, whether we don't put the ball
Speaker 2: in play.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: I think they gonna They're gonna go into based on
Speaker 2: their own judgments of what they think their team is.
Speaker 1: Next up is defensive coordinator Zach Or who's getting ready
Speaker 1: for his first NFL game as a defensive coordinator. He
Speaker 1: talked about that today.
Speaker 6: Y'all doing y'are doing all right already.
Speaker 8: Against the Homes, And how do you read your offense?
Speaker 10: I mean that, uh, you know, they can score from
Speaker 10: any part of the field, just because obviously, uh you know,
Speaker 10: obviously you know Andy Reid's a great coach, but uh,
Speaker 10: Patrick Mahomes obviously he's a problem.
Speaker 6: I mean he can beat you with his legs, he
Speaker 6: beat you with his arm from.
Speaker 10: Like I said, every part of the field. And you
Speaker 10: know they have great players around him. So that's what
Speaker 10: makes them tough to defend. And and you could defend
Speaker 10: the first play, but you got to defend the second
Speaker 10: play and the third play.
Speaker 6: And that's where they make a lot of the hay at.
Speaker 10: When the first play breaks down, he gets to moving
Speaker 10: around and guys do a great job of uncovering and
Speaker 10: finding seams to create explosive plays.
Speaker 6: So, uh, we definitely have to limit that.
Speaker 7: Obviously, you guys help.
Speaker 4: 'em scoreless in the second half last year. What what do
Speaker 4: you kind of see as the process to you know,
Speaker 4: they're gonna come out like Gangbusters after you guys, But
Speaker 4: it's the process to kind of steepen that curve and
Speaker 4: and get to that responsiveness even faster.
Speaker 10: Or do you think yeah, I think just take a
Speaker 10: deep breath and go out there and focus on us
Speaker 10: executing our job. At the end of the day, I
Speaker 10: think it's about us. If we go out there and
Speaker 10: do our job, do our responsibility that we're capable of
Speaker 10: doing it, I think everything will be fine. But I
Speaker 10: think it just starts with taking a deep breath. You know,
Speaker 10: it's it's uh, the environment, it's gonna be great.
Speaker 6: Embrace that.
Speaker 10: But at the end of the day, understand that the
Speaker 10: football field is gonna be the football field. It's gonna
Speaker 10: be eleven players on defense versus eleven players on offense,
Speaker 10: and the game's not gonna change. So I think the
Speaker 10: big emphasis just focus on us doing what we do
Speaker 10: and everything's gonna be fine.
Speaker 7: That what's a.
Speaker 5: Key for defending the quarterback who improvises like he does
Speaker 5: like he you know, he just he'll chuck the ball
Speaker 5: out field, they'll hell throw on the run.
Speaker 6: What's the key for trying to contain a guy like that?
Speaker 10: I mean, just keep on, keep on coming after him.
Speaker 10: I mean rushers, keep rushing. You gotta be disciplined in
Speaker 10: your rush lanes, make sure you don't give him a
Speaker 10: free lane. And then back in coverage. You like I said,
Speaker 10: you gotta plaster, you gotta cover. You gotta expect to
Speaker 10: not just defend the first play, you gotta defend the
Speaker 10: second play, and then just continue to uh do that
Speaker 10: play after play, play after play, and then when opportunities
Speaker 10: come for you to make a play on the ball,
Speaker 10: we gotta make those plays.
Speaker 7: Through these three preseason games, what if anything have you
Speaker 7: learned about the the process of call he plays.
Speaker 10: Honestly, honestly, everything preseason was pretty smooth. But it it's
Speaker 10: I know, it's gonna be a lot different just because
Speaker 10: it's a lot of different personnel groups. It's more game
Speaker 10: plan pas uh specific Uh. In the preseason, we kind
Speaker 10: of just had our call sheet and we just you know,
Speaker 10: we just ran our plays.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 10: But one thing I'll probably take is just you have
Speaker 10: to be prepared situationally for uh what's happening right now
Speaker 10: and then what's gonna happen. So obviously, as for example,
Speaker 10: you're defending a play in the mid round, midfield, alright,
Speaker 10: they getting the red zone. You have to already be
Speaker 10: thinking about what that team does in that situation and
Speaker 10: and what your call is gonna be and how your
Speaker 10: guys are playing.
Speaker 8: Zach, you pushed a little bit just on the stage
Speaker 8: of this game, but you're you s you yourself as
Speaker 8: a player, You've been in these moments. Does that factor
Speaker 8: in when you're on the field or just kind of
Speaker 8: the different platforms, the prime.
Speaker 6: Time and all eyes, Uh, yeah, definitely. I think that.
Speaker 6: I think that the the experiences.
Speaker 10: Just just just settle in, just be yourself. Like I said,
Speaker 10: the game, it's gonna be a lot of stuff going on,
Speaker 10: which is great.
Speaker 6: You know, it's great. It's great for the game. You
Speaker 6: should and that as a player, coach, or or whatever.
Speaker 10: But at the end of the day, you know, football
Speaker 10: is football, and you know what you know what players
Speaker 10: are gonna be ran, you know where you gotta be,
Speaker 10: and you just gotta focus on doing that.
Speaker 4: Each You have a lot to skip Forard and wants
Speaker 4: to play to me on the task, But do you
Speaker 4: allow yourself any small moment of reflection that this is
Speaker 4: you know, your first game is an NFL defensive play
Speaker 4: caller and or just how far.
Speaker 7: You've coming that time.
Speaker 6: Definitely, I mean I shoot every every night. It's funny.
Speaker 6: Every night my wife we read the.
Speaker 10: Scripture and stuff out of this jar, and every night
Speaker 10: before I go to sleep, I pray and I just
Speaker 10: thank God for uh.
Speaker 6: Bless me for this opportunity and put me in this position.
Speaker 10: So I I think I reflect, you know, every single night,
Speaker 10: because I don't want to take it for granted and
Speaker 10: I want to give thanks where's due.
Speaker 9: So tansifent way you want to start Zach going against
Speaker 9: the two times defending champs.
Speaker 10: In place, Hey, yeah, man, I mean, at the end
Speaker 10: of the day, if the first game is gonna be
Speaker 10: the first game, no matter who you going against. Obviously
Speaker 10: we know we got much respect for who we're going
Speaker 10: against in the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 6: Like you said, two time defending champs.
Speaker 10: But you know, hey, if if we gotta play am
Speaker 10: on the schedule, we got to play them.
Speaker 6: So it just happens to be first meeting.
Speaker 7: Last year in January, it felt like they were beating
Speaker 7: you guys a little bit. You guys took a couple
Speaker 7: of uncharacteristic penalties. Kelsey in particular, has that will that
Speaker 7: be addressed before the game, just a reminder of that
Speaker 7: given the stage and giving the opponent to you know,
Speaker 7: keep keep your cool, little defensive.
Speaker 10: I mean yeah, man, that goes into every week what
Speaker 10: we talk about, and especially when you're going in just
Speaker 10: National Football League. Everybody's a great team in my opinion,
Speaker 10: but you can't beat yourself. It's already tough to beat
Speaker 10: a team in this league, but you can't beat yourself
Speaker 10: by you know, getting penalties and getting uncharacteristic. So that's
Speaker 10: definitely a focus for us this week.
Speaker 4: Sad, you were teammates with a bunch of guys who
Speaker 4: won the last Super Bowl with the Ravens. They had
Speaker 4: to break through the Patriots in their time. Have you
Speaker 4: taken any of their thoughts or their advice on you know,
Speaker 4: how do how does team get a breakthrough against the Chiefs?
Speaker 10: Man, it's it's played play raven football, and we know
Speaker 10: what that looks like. We know that's that's playing an
Speaker 10: all out brand and being together, being physical, giving maximum
Speaker 10: effort and high level execution. So you know, those guys
Speaker 10: come around a lot and they tell us, you know, ay,
Speaker 10: all we gotta do on defense, all got to do
Speaker 10: as an organization is play raven football, like I said,
Speaker 10: which is playing fast, physical, maximum effort and executing at
Speaker 10: a high level.
Speaker 9: Yeah, what makes it difficult to make the confused or
Speaker 9: trick a guy like Patrick Mahomes? Where is it not
Speaker 9: so much about that that it's just about trying to pressure.
Speaker 6: Anythings like that?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean obviously, Uh, he's been around, he's been
Speaker 10: around for a while.
Speaker 6: Uh, he's played a lot of football.
Speaker 10: He's played football in the in the biggest games, and
Speaker 10: you know, to try to stop a guy like that,
Speaker 10: teams throw a lot at him.
Speaker 6: So he seemed pretty much everything. But uh, y, you
Speaker 6: try to.
Speaker 10: You try to, you know, study the film, study study tendencies,
Speaker 10: see what they do, and you try to, you know,
Speaker 10: punch and then get ready for the counter punch. So
Speaker 10: with guys like Patrick Mahomes and coaches like Andy Reid,
Speaker 10: you gotta be ready to, uh for the next thing
Speaker 10: that's coming, cause they're thinking a step ahead.
Speaker 6: So you gotta think that way too, You do you.
Speaker 8: Expect them to maybe go back to ticket more Denfield
Speaker 8: shots this year?
Speaker 9: I mean they had.
Speaker 8: Play this week with the rookie worthy its everywhere.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean shoot from those guys expecting any and everything,
Speaker 10: you know, but definitely expect them.
Speaker 6: They took a lot of shots last year.
Speaker 10: I know they didn't you know, connect as much as
Speaker 10: they wanted to, but they took a lot of shots.
Speaker 10: And we're very aware of the personnel that they brought
Speaker 10: in this year. Obviously, the other guys are fast, and
Speaker 10: you know they want speed.
Speaker 6: They always had speed.
Speaker 10: On their on their offenses and want to stretch the field,
Speaker 10: so we're definitely aware of that.
Speaker 1: Lastly, we heard from offensive coordinator Todd Munkett.
Speaker 9: Preparing for this game, how much do you look at
Speaker 9: the championship game last year versus push that aside and
Speaker 9: start over.
Speaker 5: Oh well, I mean, first of all, it's an obvious question.
Speaker 5: It's them, right, So we're gonna watch that game. We're
Speaker 5: gonna watch the Super Bowl, We're gonna watch you know,
Speaker 5: the game before we played him against the Bills. We're
Speaker 5: gonna watch situational things. So sure that's a part of it.
Speaker 8: Knowing the questions about the offensive line coming into this season,
Speaker 8: just how do you think that group has taken shape
Speaker 8: through training camp, preseason and your comfort level where you
Speaker 8: guys saying have.
Speaker 4: You him in nursing.
Speaker 5: Feel real good about those guys. You know, you know,
Speaker 5: first off, every one of them that you know besides
Speaker 5: Andrew at left guard. You know, those guys have been
Speaker 5: with us. You know, and Andrew was with us last year.
Speaker 5: So they've had a great off season of great camp.
Speaker 5: So we're real comfortable with them playing. Excited to see
Speaker 5: him play. It's time to go play and see this.
Speaker 5: This would be unbelievable that that was it.
Speaker 7: I think one of the.
Speaker 9: First things Lamar told John about at the end of
Speaker 9: season after you guys lost, was he wanted it more empowerment,
Speaker 9: more flexibility before the snap, to get you guys in
Speaker 9: that to play as I guess, what have you seen
Speaker 9: from him the wise from that and how helpful do
Speaker 9: you think back of me against a team like the Chief?
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 5: I mean we're always looking from the day I got
Speaker 5: here to empower the quarterback. I think that's the only
Speaker 5: way you get the most out of a player. It's
Speaker 5: not just a quarterback position, is to empower them in
Speaker 5: terms of when you're game planning, what you do on
Speaker 5: the field, and the tools you give them. Now, we've
Speaker 5: had a great off season to streamline that, to really
Speaker 5: wrap it up, you know, and make it better, you don't.
Speaker 5: We're about to see if all the things that we did
Speaker 5: in the off season, the way we've practiced it come
Speaker 5: to fruition along those lines.
Speaker 4: You know, do you do listen to the insight from
Speaker 4: Derrick Henry and what kind of worked for him in
Speaker 4: Tennessee and has there been any installation based on you know,
Speaker 4: what his strengths are what he tells.
Speaker 5: You well, I mean, I would just say that from
Speaker 5: what we've seen in the past, from what we've seen
Speaker 5: in the off season, what we've seen in training camp,
Speaker 5: we have a pretty good idea of what he brings
Speaker 5: the table. Now we're just ready to go play somebody
Speaker 5: and see that.
Speaker 8: Is there an moment for you? I mean, when you
Speaker 8: read the National previous, one of the big questions that
Speaker 8: you see everywhere is what is Dereck Henry and the
Speaker 8: Ravens offense?
Speaker 9: It's going to look like?
Speaker 8: Are you sort of interested to see it in real
Speaker 8: life too? Or do you feel like you have a
Speaker 8: pretty good sets fisted on.
Speaker 5: I really don't. I don't think of it that way
Speaker 5: like I don't. I mean, football's football teams run duo,
Speaker 5: they run inside zone they run wide zone, they run
Speaker 5: gap schemes, they run chet protections, they run you know.
Speaker 5: I mean that's what he's been doing, you know, now
Speaker 5: what we've done in the past, and how he fits that,
Speaker 5: and then how we build that around him and the
Speaker 5: rest of our skill set. We're excited to see it
Speaker 5: come to fruition again. Like I said, I mean, it's
Speaker 5: really it's been fun having him and now we're excited
Speaker 5: to go play.
Speaker 7: And you been listening for months how you didn't run
Speaker 7: the ball enough against the Chiefs when you guys played
Speaker 7: in January. I would think that, well, they know you've
Speaker 7: been listening to that. How much do you kind of
Speaker 7: have to get in a situation where you don't try
Speaker 7: to overthink yourself and predict what they're going to do
Speaker 7: in reaction to, you know, potentially having a run heavier plan.
Speaker 5: Oh, I'm not overthinking it, you know. I've kind of
Speaker 5: tried to let that go a little bit. You know,
Speaker 5: it's this this year, and and we're gonna run the football.
Speaker 5: We did run the football during the season, so I
Speaker 5: really don't think of it that way. I really don't
Speaker 5: listen to that as much other than we're gonna try
Speaker 5: to do the best week best thing we can do
Speaker 5: for us to move the football and score points.
Speaker 9: TA Obviously you've gotten a lot of questions about two
Speaker 9: tight ends sets this this offseason. Maybe it's a tough
Speaker 9: question to answered. How much more comfortable do you feel about,
Speaker 9: you know, having Mark and Isaiah on the field together
Speaker 9: this year week one compared to maybe where you were last.
Speaker 6: Year, Well feel good, you know.
Speaker 5: You know, Mark was out a little bit of last
Speaker 5: year's training camp and then Zay came in and he
Speaker 5: got dinged up a little bit, you know, in the preseason.
Speaker 5: So it's a little bit hard as we work through it.
Speaker 5: They've been healthy this offseason, have been healthy for the
Speaker 5: most part, you know, through training camps. We're excited to
Speaker 5: get those guys on the field. Same time, anything.
Speaker 8: Surprised you about the results of the pun catching and competition.
Speaker 5: I thought Ben and Uh and Roger were really too casual,
Speaker 5: to be honest. I mean, they looked athletic enough. They
Speaker 5: certainly believed in themselves, but they were certainly too casual.
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