Speaker 1: Every week when you see from Cam that maybe looks
Speaker 1: different than when you guys saw him last year. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know Cam is really Uh it does jump out
Speaker 1: into the progression he's made over his career and in
Speaker 1: this year he's, uh, he's really running the offense at
Speaker 1: a high in a high rate right now. He's Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you're gonna get your runs from him, which
Speaker 1: is unique to the NFL. You're gonna get about eight
Speaker 1: to ten runs from from him that you have to
Speaker 1: prepare for. But probably more impressively is I was kind
Speaker 1: of settled into the passing game. He's not making the mistakes,
Speaker 1: He's taking what you give them. Uh, and he's moving
Speaker 1: the ball a little bit. And he did a great
Speaker 1: job on a las driver Seattle him. Are most of
Speaker 1: his runs designed the first and second time they are?
Speaker 1: I think he makes more of his scrambles on third time.
Speaker 1: He spied him last year when he was less than
Speaker 1: a hundred percent correct, Yeah, yeah, I think no matter
Speaker 1: what percentage he is, you spied. Yeah, Well, you move
Speaker 1: in and out of it. You can't just sit in
Speaker 1: a three man rush all day inspire him. You want
Speaker 1: to go four and fives and you just have to
Speaker 1: be real disciplined that you're blitzing as a group and
Speaker 1: people are in the spot they're supposed to be in,
Speaker 1: because even the blitzers are designed to have a nice
Speaker 1: little pocket that we keep them in. But he's such
Speaker 1: a playmaker and he had the plan of keeping them
Speaker 1: in there. But the athleticism kicks in and then it's
Speaker 1: about a bunch of effort trying to get them and
Speaker 1: taking good angles and he's going to make his plays.
Speaker 1: Athletes like that make their plays, and we have to
Speaker 1: keep it to a minimum. It's the first quarterback that
Speaker 1: you face this year and obviously got a lot of
Speaker 1: high notary of front, but is it more challenging the
Speaker 1: first time you face one of these guys in the sea. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The bonus that we have is that what we practice
Speaker 1: against all offseason, so the read option, the triple option,
Speaker 1: all the different variations of the run game that they have.
Speaker 1: We at least as a defense work on it and
Speaker 1: have the conversations in the off season. Now we haven't
Speaker 1: had it in six weeks, so we've got to dust
Speaker 1: those conversations off and focus on it. But it helps
Speaker 1: us in that sense that we's not brand new to us,
Speaker 1: like a lot of NFL teams I've been with, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you hit this offense and it's it's
Speaker 1: a brand new conversation that you didn't have in the
Speaker 1: off season. So at least we've had it in the
Speaker 1: off season in that role. Well, we mix it up, Zach.
Speaker 1: We don't try to just let him know what. But
Speaker 1: Connor's a good, big athlete. So one thing about Cam
Speaker 1: is you can spy him and run with him, but
Speaker 1: then you can you tackle him because he's so big.
Speaker 1: So Connor's got a good mix of size and speed
Speaker 1: and athleticism and it's good matchup. So we did spy
Speaker 1: him last year with Connor, and it was because of
Speaker 1: the how big he is. Bill Cam is on bas
Speaker 1: to be sacked the fewest times in his career. I
Speaker 1: think the offensive line has really played every single game together.
Speaker 1: Do you think the continuity of the line is really
Speaker 1: help in the situation. Yeah, they are, and it's a
Speaker 1: little bit different line. There's only two guys from the
Speaker 1: offensive line that we faced last year, so they've got
Speaker 1: some new faces in there. They do a great job
Speaker 1: of protecting him. I think he's got a better feel
Speaker 1: of the protections you know, as you move. I think
Speaker 1: Mike Schuler does a great job and done a great
Speaker 1: job bringing him on. And the old line is again
Speaker 1: we talk about it a lot of weeks, but when
Speaker 1: an old line play together and they kind of plays
Speaker 1: one unit, you kind of count the old line is
Speaker 1: one position, not five individuals. These guys are playing well together,
Speaker 1: and they're very strong in a run game. When you
Speaker 1: get thirty two rushes per game, they're number one in
Speaker 1: the NFL at the attempt. I think they're three or
Speaker 1: four in the rush yards. I think one thirty three.
Speaker 1: But it's because old linemen can move people and it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a big challenge for us. What do you
Speaker 1: design linebackers? Well, we're going to test the waters with
Speaker 1: Michael and Keiko that they're gonna get a little bit uh.
Speaker 1: And that's just kind of saying, okay, where are we H.
Speaker 1: So they'll get out there a little bit uh this week. UH.
Speaker 1: Don't really anticipate them. It'd be a you know, it's
Speaker 1: a day to day thing. So hopefully they surprise me,
Speaker 1: but I don't know if they will. The key thing
Speaker 1: is them getting healthy and getting healthy at the write
Speaker 1: pace and their body allow them to sort of challenge
Speaker 1: present excusing What sort of challenge does Greg Olsen presented? Oh,
Speaker 1: he's a he's a probably one of the best past
Speaker 1: receiving tight ends in the league. And he is a
Speaker 1: big target of theirs. Uh. He runs great routes, he's
Speaker 1: a primary and a lot of their rod patterns UM
Speaker 1: and he's he's playing at high level in Cam's that's
Speaker 1: kind of his comfort zone. Getting it to him and
Speaker 1: finding him and you throw it anywhere near him, he
Speaker 1: catches it, so he's really hitting his stride and is
Speaker 1: one of their top targets. Really, how does Jordan Hicks
Speaker 1: compared to some of the other rookies that you've coached
Speaker 1: as far as been picking things up as quickly as
Speaker 1: he has, He's he's he's up there at the top
Speaker 1: of the list. He really is. He's a he's been
Speaker 1: an I want to say, a surprise, but you never know.
Speaker 1: When you get a rookie, you know you have an
Speaker 1: intelligent and we knew when we drafted him he was
Speaker 1: a highly intelligent, high football IQ, good athlete, solid inside backer.
Speaker 1: What you don't know is how they respond to the
Speaker 1: NFL games. UH. In a lot of times that's where
Speaker 1: they kind of hit a wall. And even though you
Speaker 1: have a smart guy, it takes him a year or
Speaker 1: two to be able to do it on Sundays when
Speaker 1: it's when it's going fast and and Jordan the piece.
Speaker 1: It's kind of very that's not surprising, but it's it's
Speaker 1: exciting that on game day he's as calm as a veterans.
Speaker 1: If you remind you of anyone that you've not not veterans,
Speaker 1: he reminds me of veterans, but not not so much
Speaker 1: a rookie. Most rookies are kind of in that backup role. Uh.
Speaker 1: And don't shine like he's he's done so far well
Speaker 1: that Carol interception? Did he have outside zone there? Did
Speaker 1: he just jump the pick? No? We we we actually
Speaker 1: sat in a two deep zone. We we we hadn't run
Speaker 1: it all year and uh, and we knew because of
Speaker 1: our quick game that we wanted to throw some cover
Speaker 1: two in there, the hard zone cover two. Uh. And
Speaker 1: you know Eliza, right, he saw mostly two man from
Speaker 1: us the whole time. And then right about that that
Speaker 1: time and the game we put the hard two. And
Speaker 1: then the guys been working hard at it all week
Speaker 1: and Corey and the guys did a great job of
Speaker 1: ruling out all the quick game and he threw it
Speaker 1: right into where we were hoping he would. Uh, so
Speaker 1: we stole one there and it was it was fun
Speaker 1: to have the plan worked that way to jump switch
Speaker 1: really fast to get out there too. Yeah, he did
Speaker 1: a great job. I mean, it's the way we read
Speaker 1: it. It It kind of starts as a man, but then
Speaker 1: as as two goes out, Malcolm did a great job
Speaker 1: of hollering out out out because Nolan couldn't visually see it,
Speaker 1: so he's yelling out out out nolandrit knows to drop
Speaker 1: it then and the safety's over the top of the
Speaker 1: number one and Nolan, did you know, just stepped right
Speaker 1: and made a big play for us. It's just I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know you get asked us what, but like, are
Speaker 1: you kind of surprisingly how many of you guys have
Speaker 1: been getting it so far? It is a high number.
Speaker 1: I mean we're in the top I think three in
Speaker 1: the NFL and taking it away. Uh, but it's it's
Speaker 1: something we focus on, and we don't focus on a lot,
Speaker 1: but we really this year we said we're gonna are turnovers.
Speaker 1: We're going for three game and We're gonna work hard
Speaker 1: on tackling and get our tackling better. And I think
Speaker 1: I'm probably more excited about the tackling we've been doing,
Speaker 1: uh you know, with two weeks ago in the Saints,
Speaker 1: those two running backs have been breaking tackles at the
Speaker 1: league record, and they didn't break any on us. So
Speaker 1: we'll continue to focus on tackling. And turnovers are a
Speaker 1: big emphasis. Now. We have a huge challenge in Carolina
Speaker 1: because they're not turning the ball over. I think they're
Speaker 1: under one per game. So that's going to be a
Speaker 1: big part of the equation here is if we can,
Speaker 1: uh you know, tackle well. Because it's a you know,
Speaker 1: it's a big boy game with a running thirty two
Speaker 1: times a game, We're gonna have to tackle well, uh
Speaker 1: and and try to create the turnovers, which is gonna
Speaker 1: be tough. Inner stage is gonna be out there. I
Speaker 1: don't know what Demko's out today. I think we may
Speaker 1: rest him today. He's another day to day gay. But
Speaker 1: knowing Demiko the way he handles injuries, I mean you
Speaker 1: expect him back because he is a warrior in that category.
Speaker 1: And Michael A keyGo as the factor and effect that
Speaker 1: of the bays coming up. Yeah, it's not so much
Speaker 1: to buy because every week we need as many hands
Speaker 1: on deck as we can get. So they can go.
Speaker 1: They will go. But it's just a matter of their
Speaker 1: body and how you know where they are. You know,
Speaker 1: first is them healthy and getting back for the way
Speaker 1: him the rest of the season. But if they can go,
Speaker 1: they'll Goveries, you know, something from tackling and something you
Speaker 1: can sort of design and planning. How much of it
Speaker 1: is just randomly well less we work on it at
Speaker 1: least once a week. We have a big turn and
Speaker 1: we have three pieces of that. We have a how
Speaker 1: to strip up carrier, how to attack the quarterback with
Speaker 1: he has a ball, and then how to recover a
Speaker 1: fumble and we talk about it a lot. They are
Speaker 1: to recovering a fumble and then and the hardest part
Speaker 1: list is when you're on the bottom of the pile
Speaker 1: keeping the ball when the scrum's happening and those guys
Speaker 1: are doing a great job, and it matters how you're laying.
Speaker 1: You're laying on your side or on your back. You know,
Speaker 1: we teach you how to get in the fetal position
Speaker 1: on your side. It helps protect the ball. So there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of little things to go into recovering that
Speaker 1: fumble and holding onto it after the scrum happens. Ship
Speaker 1: was singing biggers as praises yesterday. He said, he allows
Speaker 1: you the opportunity to do some things call wise. Can
Speaker 1: you expand on that. What EJ brings is a great
Speaker 1: quickness and speed and then his intelligence. Again, we're doing
Speaker 1: a great job of bringing guys with high football like
Speaker 1: he's into the building. And what he allows is he
Speaker 1: can play corner, nickel or dime for us at any
Speaker 1: given snap. So in every game plan we can go
Speaker 1: into it with him and Malcolm both can switch. Now
Speaker 1: Malcolm can play anything, but the EJ's got the corner,
Speaker 1: nickel and dime spots down, which is a little bit
Speaker 1: different for an offense in their identification, in their protection.
Speaker 1: So that screws with them a little. And uh, the uh,
Speaker 1: the fact that he can go in and out of
Speaker 1: that helps us schematically and who we want to take away,
Speaker 1: who we give help to. So EJ has been a
Speaker 1: real big addition. Russion last name, what have you seen
Speaker 1: him this year? I know he's kind of moving around
Speaker 1: positions a little bit, but what think, Yeah, we threw
Speaker 1: Vinnie outside wide a little bit with injuries hit us
Speaker 1: and then, but Vinny is always Vinny is always an
Speaker 1: explosive gap penetrating when when when it's a passing situation,
Speaker 1: the Vinny is disruptive every time. Now, he hasn't had
Speaker 1: the sack numbers till this game, but those sack numbers
Speaker 1: are coming for him. Anybody that has that kind of
Speaker 1: disruption in the in the passing game is someone will
Speaker 1: continue to do that. So I was glad to see
Speaker 1: Vinny gets some sack numbers. I don't personally judge anybody
Speaker 1: by their sack numbers. I want to know how many
Speaker 1: times they're they're they're taking a double team, how many
Speaker 1: times they're moving a quarterback off the spot? What is
Speaker 1: the technique in the pass for us? Is he? Is
Speaker 1: he doing what we're what we're trying to do collectively
Speaker 1: as a four man pass rush, And Vinny's always right
Speaker 1: up there with us. He's at a a great season.
Speaker 1: Just the sack numbers and they'll come, they'll come. But
Speaker 1: he's a solid uh you know. I love seeing him
Speaker 1: out there and rushing that passer and disrupting a quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: He makes a difference Marcus Smith twelve Snaps had any
Speaker 1: great album. He was good, He really was. Marcus is
Speaker 1: taking steps in the right direction. Again. That game went
Speaker 1: to all three wide receiver sets, which kind of takes
Speaker 1: us out of two outside backers in the game, which
Speaker 1: limits you know, we we'd like to get him when
Speaker 1: he's active twenty to twenty five. But because I went,
Speaker 1: the game went, but he granted out fine, he saw
Speaker 1: he didn't make any big plays, but he was doing
Speaker 1: what he's supposed to do. The middle of it's in
Speaker 1: the same degree on the on the defensive line. And
Speaker 1: at what point did you realize that conclude that godson,
Speaker 1: you know, early on, but once they learned the two
Speaker 1: gap and how I as teaches it and and really
Speaker 1: the fundamentals, and they rep it every day. You see
Speaker 1: him on the sled and uh then in the game,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, yeah, I always look at the wall.
Speaker 1: We create defense where they're like they're not blockers. They
Speaker 1: get off and make more plays. See, most people think
Speaker 1: two gaps just eat up the block and the backers
Speaker 1: make the play. Our guys not only strike and read
Speaker 1: the run, but they shed as well as anybody. And
Speaker 1: I think that's the component that you see over and
Speaker 1: over again. You'll see all of them in a head
Speaker 1: on this side, and they'll shed and they'll come off
Speaker 1: and make tackles in a course. So not only are
Speaker 1: they building a wall not moving back, but they're able
Speaker 1: to shed, throw and go and make the tackle. And
Speaker 1: probably late in the first season, second half of the
Speaker 1: first season and then all that you knew what you
Speaker 1: had because they're they're strong, and they work hard at it.
Speaker 1: Has these guys more work than most. Absolutely, I've been
Speaker 1: places where sled is in a corner that nobody ever
Speaker 1: uses ever training camp, and he's rusty and got cobwebs
Speaker 1: on it. Ours won't get that way. Ours break every
Speaker 1: other day because how much they use it. But it's
Speaker 1: a it's a great way that doesn't wear the player out,
Speaker 1: you know, and most guys go player to player when
Speaker 1: they work on those things, and you wear the players out.
Speaker 1: So this is a way that we can get better
Speaker 1: what we do and really save the player's hands and
Speaker 1: risk and all that. So it's a great thing. What
Speaker 1: was the miscommunication on the deck of touch shown the
Speaker 1: motion empty and what happened was it originally Demiko had
Speaker 1: help and he was playing outside leverage with inside help
Speaker 1: and then the motion empty happened and Chris left him
Speaker 1: to help over on the empty side, and Demiko, still
Speaker 1: thinking he had help, was playing outside leverage, thinking and
Speaker 1: even from the box, I thought we had it where
Speaker 1: that that that slant was coming out, thought Chris Marrigos
Speaker 1: was going to step into it, but they had changed
Speaker 1: and he was actually helping on their number one with Nolan.
Speaker 1: So it was tough because we would have liked to
Speaker 1: keep that to a field goal. But the communication it
Speaker 1: was in the week fixed it right away and it
Speaker 1: was clear. But those things happened in the game. And
Speaker 1: I love the way our guys respond to be honest
Speaker 1: with you. I've been in a lot of places where
Speaker 1: those miscommunications happened and people turn on each other and
Speaker 1: it's a huge argument. And our guys are really together.
Speaker 1: It's a tight unit because they knew mistakes made and
Speaker 1: there was real mad that the touchdown happened, got to
Speaker 1: the sideline. We figured it out, we solved it, and
Speaker 1: it didn't happen again, and it won't happen again. But
Speaker 1: it's it's really a testament to the really the camaraderie
Speaker 1: we have in the chemistry have on defense right now,
Speaker 1: the whole three, it's the top of the league. We
Speaker 1: really are setting our goals that you know, what's the
Speaker 1: best that can happen in the league. And all our
Speaker 1: goals and the turnovers the three. Most people will be, hey,
Speaker 1: let's get one a game, you know, let's get two.
Speaker 1: Well we go into three and can we get there?
Speaker 1: And the guys have been almost we're almost hitting that mark.
Speaker 1: But we were just saying, where do you think that
Speaker 1: comes from? That? Um? So, you know a lot of
Speaker 1: teams kind of easy, the biddering, you guys throwed our
Speaker 1: arms up and all that stuff. Where does it come from?
Speaker 1: Mental toughness? Mentally tough teams win the most games in
Speaker 1: the NFL in my whole career. You have a group
Speaker 1: a lot of times that's a veteran group because they're
Speaker 1: usually the mentally toughness. They've been through the most. Uh.
Speaker 1: But when your team is mentally tough and can take
Speaker 1: a punch, you know, with that first drive, a lot
Speaker 1: of oh my god, they fall apart. We didn't. We
Speaker 1: had a lot of mistakes in that drive. We fixed
Speaker 1: them all and settled down and our guys are at
Speaker 1: that place now where you know, can you lose a
Speaker 1: game like the Washington game? You know that had hurt
Speaker 1: a lot because we wanted to step up and win
Speaker 1: that game and we didn't. Now, can you take that
Speaker 1: punch and come back to work and still believe in yourselves?
Speaker 1: And the guys did and after that, you know, we
Speaker 1: played a solid Washington game, but not a good last drive.
Speaker 1: So now we've backed it up with two solid games
Speaker 1: and now the challenges can we hold serve? Can we
Speaker 1: keep at this level? You know this week it's all
Speaker 1: about this week and can we sustain it? And the
Speaker 1: mentally tough group can well. Yesterday Chip was talking about
Speaker 1: the continuity of having guys in his defense now for
Speaker 1: a third year, especially up fun and with the way
Speaker 1: the secondary has come together. Is it's the most comfortable,
Speaker 1: maybe the most trust you had with the steam and
Speaker 1: the players orchestrating it. Yeah, when you're in your third year,
Speaker 1: the guys that have been here three years, you really
Speaker 1: can grow it. And the guys own it. They start
Speaker 1: owning it themselves. It's it's their defense, it's they know
Speaker 1: the tools, they know the answer to the problem. You
Speaker 1: know that they're doing this, or hey, hey, coach, we'll
Speaker 1: just go to this front, or we'll go to this stunt,
Speaker 1: or coach, we'll go to this coverage tool. That's when
Speaker 1: ownership happens, is when you really take the step of
Speaker 1: being real strong is a defense and in the secondary.
Speaker 1: Although we have some new pieces, those guys are hard working,
Speaker 1: high football like you, guys that have a great understanding
Speaker 1: of it. And that's why you don't see guys running
Speaker 1: free through the zone. Even when we have a miscommunication.
Speaker 1: You know, you've got guys that are at least covering
Speaker 1: it up and and and understand the scheme. So hopefully
Speaker 1: we're getting better and we've got a lot of growth
Speaker 1: to do in the second half of the season to
Speaker 1: make sure that all those things come together. But you know,
Speaker 1: we're we're excited about what we can Still, we've got
Speaker 1: a long way to go, and we can get a
Speaker 1: lot better with tightening everything down. Bill. You were in
Speaker 1: Carolina a couple stops ago. Yeah, uh, you know the
Speaker 1: team went through that. People said, you know, this is
Speaker 1: a college area football, basketball, everything, and maybe because roots
Speaker 1: of professional football weren't his deed is like a place
Speaker 1: like this did that developer. Returning there, you getting gotten
Speaker 1: a sense that that team was really rooted there. Now
Speaker 1: I was are an expansion here, so we were at
Speaker 1: the beginning. Everybody's a Washington Redskins fan. That's what the
Speaker 1: air it was. So there was a lot of NFL
Speaker 1: football fans, they were just Redskins fans. And then, uh,
Speaker 1: the city has grown. I mean it's a great city,
Speaker 1: great place to live, and it's grown a lot, and
Speaker 1: it's I think a lot of people are coming out
Speaker 1: of college and they're gonna find work. You got you know,
Speaker 1: it's just a beautiful weather. It's a growing city. I
Speaker 1: think banking is a big industry down there. But the
Speaker 1: football team hadn't gone to a super Bowl, and I
Speaker 1: mean they've had some success there. So I think it's
Speaker 1: grown immensely since I was there, and that was wasn't
Speaker 1: ninety five, I think, yeah, all right, gots thanks