ASSISTANT HEAD COACH/SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR DAVE TOUB
Q: Does it feel good having a lot of guys coming back on special teams from last year?
TOUB: “Yeah, oh yeah. I’ve got a lot of guys back – we got several guys back like Leo Chenal and Jack Cochrane and all those guys are all second-year guys now. (They are) experienced. We still have some more rookies that are going to end up playing in this game so– I mean that’s life as a special teams coordinator, it’s ongoing and it’s game-to-game but I am happy with this group that we have.”
Q: Do you think Justyn Ross will factor into special teams?
TOUB: “Yeah he should – I mean if he’s up, active – we’ve got to decide who’s going to be up and who’s going to be down, that’s always a factor. Anybody who is up will be somebody who helps us, they won’t be up for no reason.”
Q: You can scout kickers and punters to know what they do and what type of hang time they get, but how hard is it in the moment for returners to know when to return and when to fair-catch?
TOUB: “It’s hard, that’s why you have to trust them to make thedecision. They have the keys to the car, it’s like a quarterback, they have to make good decisions. You can’t – I can sit there on the sideline and say ‘Oh return this one’ and it’s close and he doesn’t and you just have to go with it. You have to trust your players thatare on the field to make a big play and whatever it is we’re going to block it up. That’s what I told our guys: ‘Block it up and make them (the returner) right.’ No matter what he (the returner) does, we’re blocking like he's coming out every time.”
Q: Do you anticipate seeing more squib kicks on kick-offs?
TOUB: “If a team wants to force you to return it (and) they kick a squib kick (then) you’ve got to return it – unless it goes for a touchback or goes out of bounds – you’ve got to do something with that, it’s a live football and you can’t fair catch it, so you’ve got to return it. We’ve practiced that a bunch, and if a team wants to force you – wants you to return it, they’re going to have to do that.”
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR STEVE SPAGNUOLO
Opening Statement: “Listen great to be standing here, regular season game getting ready for an opponent knowing we’re going to play our guys because I’ve been up here a little bit ‘Who’s going to play, who’s not going to play.’ The best guy is going to go out and play – it’s a great opponent we are playing. The more film you watch of Detroit and what they did and who they have – I mean I had respect for them before, but wow, talk about an elite group. And we hear all the things being said about them. They’ve got newweapons and good coaching and all that so great challenge for us. With that I’ll open it up.”
Q: What stands out to you on tape about the Detroit Lions?
SPAGNUOLO: “I think their system that they’ve put together – we call it eye candy and the movement and all the things that go on before the ball is even snapped I think they do an outstanding job of. The quarterback (Lions Quarterback Jared Goff) obviously is gathering all kinds of information and he’s really good at taking that information and putting them in a really good play. That on top of the skill they have, we all know about the running back they added (Lions Running Back Jahmyr Gibbs) and the receivers they have out there et cetera, et cetera. That all packaged together I think is a really tough challenge for us.”
Q: How do you prepare for a rookie like Lions Running Back Jahmyr Gibbs who has the potential to be a big factor but does not have a lot of tape?
SPAGNUOLO: “Yeah and he didn’t play a lot in the preseason, there were a couple snaps there. But we have looked at (University of) Alabama film. They found ways to get him the ball on the perimeter, we expect this team (the Lions) to do the same thing. He is really good with the ball in his hands. It’s all eyeballs on number 26 (Lions Running Back Jahmyr Gibbs) when he goes in the game.That’s one of the things we’ve been talking about, know where he isand if he’s in the game because we certainly think with a guy that’s that explosive they’re going to try to find way to get him the ball.”
Q: What kind of player do you think you’re getting with Neil Farrell?
SPAGNUOLO: “A little bit of an unknown. Big, you know big strong football player. We’ll see, we really haven’t had him for that long. (Defensive Line Coach) Joe (Cullen) has had him in the meeting room, seems like he picks things up pretty well. It’s an unknown right now, we’ll see where we can get him to by the time Thursday rolls around, and we’ll have a better idea.”
Q: We know you like to blitz, how do you prepare for that with a group of guys at the beginning of the season you have not seen play together?
SPAGNUOLO: “Interesting question. I’m as curious as you guys to see what we have and what we can do with the players we have. We’ve talked about this before in this room that sometimes it takes a quarter of the season to figure out how it’s going to piece together, what you have. We think we have things in to take advantage of what our guys do, but we’ll see. We didn’t get a lot of snaps in the preseason, and we certainly obviously didn’t do a lot of things preseason wise. We’re going off of practice and hopefully we’ve prepared well and can get some of those things going.”
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR MATT NAGY
Q: Travis Kelce was just talking about the excitement for week one, how excited are you for week one against the Lions?
NAGY: “It’s exciting, you go through the tempo and monotony of the training camp, it’s a long training camp, but at the same time we know it’s needed. Then we’re all so many of us as players and coaches are creatures of habit. It’s nice to get to a schedule that you know how the day is going and yesterday being our in-season Wednesday practice for us even though it was a different day. Our first day of the week of true practice you could feel the juice and the energy and the vibe of the guys out there and he’s certainly one of them (Travis Kelce). The guys look to him to lead, and he’s been that way ever since I’ve been here. I think they – these guys really lock in right now, and today they’re not so much worried what happened in training camp or really what’s happening in the future, it’s about right now.”
Q: You guys are carrying seven receivers; do you see a path where they can all get some work?
NAGY: “Yeah, we do and it’s not new to us, we’ve been working with them since OTA’s. You just want to see now when you have these guys, what are their strengths. You don’t know until you draft Rashee (Rice) what his strengths – you think you know in college but how do you transfer it to what we do offensively. Then how do we do what he does well and place that too. Now that we’ve got a better picture of what everybody does, whatever (Head) Coach (Andy Reid) and (General Manager Brett) Veach decide to do every week with the active wide receivers, we got to make sure we have a plan like we talked about before, contingency plan on how to use them. We think we know; they think we know, but we won’t know-know until we start playing these games, especially for some of these young guys.”
Q: On Patrick Mahomes week one dominance.
NAGY: "That was brought to my attention just as we we’re talking about week one opponents, week one for us and just our players in general. He plays pretty well week one, he plays pretty well like every week (laughter). Week one in general when you look at some of the numbers he’s had and winning games and scoring points, you want him on your side. Again, with Pat (Patrick Mahomes) you look at somebody in training camp, OTA’s he’s always locked in but then you always feel – and I felt it last year and I felt it again yesterday – there’s just that little tick more of knowing that you’re now in quote-on-quote game week and it becomes like – using quotes ‘A little more real’ for all of us now, it’s here. Now you feel it in the week of practice, and I was fortunate enough to feel last year on game day how that is too before the game for him. Players like that go to different places and it’s fun to have on your side.”
Q: When you try to explain to somebody what sets Patrick Mahomes apart in general, what couple things does it simmer down to?
NAGY: "Well number one is competitiveness. There’s no one around that’s as competitive as him, nobody. It’s just as simple as that. I’ve been around a lot of people, and no one is as competitive as him, so he’s one and there’s no one-A. Number two is just his focus. Then number three is he doesn’t miss anything, he sees everything. Whatever that is, if it’s in a conversation, if it’s watching video or tape. I always joke about it like we could be in the middle of the game on the sideline, I witnessed it last year, you know we’re going through the tablet and going through plays and what the defense just did and all of a sudden out of nowhere he looks up and sees the score of another game or something. It’s like ‘how do you do that?’ (laughter) It’s rare. It’s different (and) then he goes right back to what the blitz that they’re doing, and you’re just like this is cool (laughter).”